Page 23 of Into the Dawn
Once she had calmed down a bit, she realized what a blessing she had been given. She hadn’t quite figured out how she felt about having magic or shifting into a fire-breathing dragon one day, but there would be time for her to get used to all of that. They still had to complete the bond between them before any of that happened. She wasn’t quite sure what that entailed yet, but she figured it couldn’t be worse than the pain she experienced drinking the magical tonic.
She thought she would feel a little more anxious about living on another planet, but she was actually pretty excited about going to Arcadia. Ronan and Dominic’s descriptions of their home world had highlighted just how beautiful it was, and she couldn’t wait to see everything with her own eyes.
Leaving Earth and everyone she knew behind would be difficult, but she understood why it was necessary. It hadn’t even taken Ronan and Dominic’s explanations to see the need for it. The situation might be different if she hadn’t already been dying, but either way, she accepted that she had to leave.
Otherwise, there would be too many questions.
Perhaps if she were a normal person, it might have been manageable. However, as a highly recognizable celebrity whose diagnosis had already been made public, she couldn’t miraculously recover or she would end up being front page headlines. Or worse, she could end up being locked away in some hospital as a test subject.
A second chance at life was rare, and she wasn’t about to waste it.
Listening in on what Ronan and Dominic were thinking felt like a violation of their privacy, but it wasn’t like she had planned to do it. She wasn’t even sure how it was happening. If there was a way to control it, she hadn’t quite figured that out yet. She just drifted in and out of their minds randomly like some sort of mystical eavesdropper.
While they were sleeping, she discovered they did a fascinating collective sharing of their memories. She couldn’t see it, but understood it was like a high-speed download of everything that had happened since they had last slept. That automatic merging helped her appreciate why Arcadian brothers always mated the same female. All of their thoughts and memories were shared, so it would have been impossible to separate their feelings and emotions.
She knew that Ronan and Dominic were worried she would have a difficult time accepting them both, but having two mates wasn’t a hardship for her. Actually, she considered it a bonus of epic proportions. It was hard enough to find one truly devoted lover, but she was lucky enough to have two. And from whatthey’d said, the mating bond they shared would only grow stronger with time.
When she discovered that Ronan and Dominic had lost a brother, she was sad that she would never have a chance to meet Eron. But her sadness was only a shadow compared to the pain of Ronan and Dominic’s loss. Since she’d experienced that same kind of grief when her family died, she empathized with them.
The three brothers had always been close. That was apparent enough from the way they spoke about each other. Although they looked identical, they had distinctive personalities that set them apart. Even if Eron was no longer with them, she still wanted to get to know him. To do that, she made a mental note to ask her mates to share more stories about him once she was awake.
She didn’t want them to be afraid of sharing any facet of their past with her. Ronan and Dominic were worried about how she would react once she found out they had been mated before, but there wasn’t a need for that. Although they both felt guilty that they hadn’t waited for her, she understood just how unreasonable that was. She wasn’t upset, and they couldn’t be blamed for something that happened before they even knew she existed.
The truth was she felt no ill will toward Imra. She understood they had been childhood friends with a bond that was different than what would develop and grow between Kylie and her mates. It could have been easy to get caught up in jealousy and comparisons, but she considered that a waste of time.
They couldn’t erase their past, the same way she couldn’t erase hers.
Life, in all its intricacies, needed to keep moving forward, but that didn’t mean they had to forget the past. The past was what made them who they were in the present, and the helped prevent them from making the same mistakes in the future.
Kylie chuckled to herself as Dominic told her a particularly amusing story about the three brothers tricking their guards back when they were young boys. Discovering they were princes back on their home world had been another shocker for her. It sounded like their family were active leaders of their community rather than simply figureheads. She wasn’t quite sure how she would fit in once they returned, but they both sounded confident that she would be welcomed by their people.
She wanted to protest when he paused the story to feed her a little more of the magical tonic. Wanting to finish it as soon as possible, she tried to do her best to take a big swig of the healing liquid. He pulled the flask away before she could finish the tonic, but she was pretty sure she had managed to swallow more of it than she had before. Knowing she wouldn’t have long, she just hoped she could hear the end of the story before she passed out again.
When she heard the sound of Layla’s voice outside, she panicked a little. She’d completely forgotten her best friend would be stopping by as soon as she got back from her latest trip to New York where she’d been a guest judge on a popular cooking show.
Taking an entirely different route from the rest of her family, Layla had decided to become a chef instead of dedicating her life to music. She had gotten into a special program at a renowned culinary school instead of attending normal high school and had become one of the youngest award-winning chefs in the world.
Layla had spent several years working her ass off to build up the reputation of the restaurant she owned and operated with her boyfriend. She had reigned over the kitchen, while he had run the front of the house. Unfortunately, her boyfriend had also liked to run through the pretty waitresses in his free time. Instead of running him over with her car like she wanted to, Layla had dumped him and let the business fail without her.
After dedicating so much of her time working in one place, Layla had spent the last year doing whatever odd jobs sparked her interest. She claimed she didn’t want to be tied down to a single location for a while since she was still hurting from her boyfriend’s betrayal, but Kylie knew Layla really wanted to be available whenever she needed her.
Layla had gone with her to all her doctor’s appointments and had made it her personal mission to stock her kitchen with delicious food. While Kylie didn’t have much of an appetite these days, she always made an effort to try whatever her friend made for her. Layla had even offered to move in with her, but Kylie hadn’t wanted that for her. It was bad enough watching a friend die, but to be constantly surrounded by the sorrow 24/7 would be too much to bear.
Unable to control her strange telepathic bond with the brothers, she drifted into Ronan’s head. She wanted to laugh at his complete and utter bafflement while he spoke to her best friend. She had to give Layla credit for handling the situation better than expected, especially since Kylie knew she was totally freaking out by the way she couldn’t stop from rambling.
Since Layla had been the one to introduce Kylie to reverse harem books, that aspect of the situation wouldn’t weird her out. In fact, she would probably be pretty envious of her. If she guessed right, it would be the whole alien thing that really caused her to meltdown. Somehow a supernatural creature from Earth seemed easier to accept than an alien from another planet.
When Dominic led Layla into the room to check on her, Kylie tried to move, but her limbs still refused to cooperate. She couldn’t even open her eyes to assure her friend that her new alien shifter mates hadn’t been lying about healing her.
Then again, she could probably see that for herself.
Frustration ate at her as she sank back into the black void of sleep listening to the sound of her best friend crying. She knewLayla would be safe with Ronan and Dominic, but she kind of felt bad for them considering the barrage of questions her friend would unleash at them once she finally regained her composure.
The pain that slowly swept through her body wasn’t as bad as the last time. Or so she told herself. Still, every second of discomfort was worth it since it meant she was getting better.
She wasn’t sure how long she slept, but the next time she surfaced, she found herself in the shower with Ronan. He was seated on the built-in spa bench with her perched on his lap, her head resting against his shoulder, and her legs draped over his. She wanted to moan from the wondrous feeling of his hands gently massaging her scalp and tried to fight off the fatigue that tried to drag her back under.
It wasn’t the first time they had cleaned her, but there was still a lingering hint of embarrassment that she blamed on her own sense of modesty. They were always respectful about the way they touched her, but that didn’t stop her body from responding to them. Although he was wearing a pair of shorts, she could feel his hard shaft against her ass through the thin material. That signaled he wasn’t immune to her either.
