Lilly's Torment(26)

"I'm not going anywhere, Lilly," he said softly. Wrapping her tight in  his arms, Ax kissed her cheek gently. "Drink your water, sweetheart.  We'll just sit here for a moment, and then we'll go find the mated  group. Do you have all your questions ready?"

"I have no idea," she said honestly. "I really have no idea what to ask  them. I know that I want to find out about what to expect and how it  will work when we all come together. I'm not all that, well … experienced,  I guess you can say? Meaning, I've never had two people at once. Ever."

"Well, I'm slightly ashamed to admit this, but I'm glad you haven't.  Your first time should be with your mates. And then only with your mates  after that, for the rest of our lives." He leaned back into the sofa,  one hand rubbing over her thigh. "Well, hopefully they'll answer any  questions you may think up as we go."

"I certainly hope so, because, while I don't mind going in blind, I  would rather us have as much information as possible for your sake. I  know that it is something that is weighing heavily on you, and I really  don't want that, love. I need to ensure that you are comfortable with  this."

"I know, and I appreciate that, little mate." He brushed back her hair  gently, his other hand still moving rhythmically up and down her thigh.  "It will be fine. Most of it's instinct, from what I understand. My  biggest worry is that because I'm a Vhampire, I'll hurt you during the  process. I have to take your blood to complete the bond, and you need to  take a small amount of mine. But I don't know how much is enough,  what's too little, and Gods help me if it's too much."                       
       
           



       

"I trust you," Lilly said without hesitation. "And you would never hurt  me. I might be a little weak after our bonding, but I am totally fine  with that, because it would mean that we were all bonded and you would  take care of me, after. I know without a shadow of a doubt you would  always take care of me."

Nodding, he pressed another kiss to her cheek. "If you're ready, we  should go. I want to get the information, and then I think we should  head home. I'll give the recording and image to Ansell. He can get them  to the captain and hopefully we can tear that image and the body apart  to figure out what about the tattoo is turning you into someone else."

"I think that is a good idea. Hopefully between the magic that you guys  can work and the wolf scenting or whatever it is that he would do, it  will be able to shed some light on this because I really, really hate  going off and not understanding just what it is that I'm doing or saying  or anything," Lilly rambled. "So whatever we have to do, we will do it,  right?"

"Shh," he whispered. Wrapping her up in his arms, he gave a squeeze.  "Let's go talk to the Luhpynes, little one." He helped her up to her  feet and then stood. Grabbing their jackets, he collected the recording  disc and files. They were back downstairs and in Zhubin, Ansell, and  Lacey's office with them in under ten minutes.

"Hi, Lilly, I'm Zhubin," the large man with short, black hair said,  holding out his hand. "Pleasure to finally meet you." He smiled, his  silver eyes flashing with mischief. "This here is Ansell." He indicated  the other male, slightly shorter, with red-gold hair and serious,  dark-blue eyes with a hint of yellow. "And this here"-his smile softened  even more-"this is Lacey, our mate." He put a hand on the woman's back  as she stepped forward to shake hands.

Lilly said her hellos and couldn't help but grin at the woman who was  obviously the center of the two men's universe. "Nice to meet you, all  three of you."

Lacey nodded. "It's very nice to meet you as well, Lilly. First of all,  don't let them scare you. Mates are the most important thing in the  world to them." She gave her men a look and winked. "Aren't we, boys?"  She moved to Ansell's side and hugged his arm tightly. "I'm sure that  you have questions, and we are willing to answer just about anything you  have to ask."

"I have no idea what to ask," Lilly admitted softly.

"Well, let's sit down first," Ansell said, hugging Lacey to him. He  moved toward the sofa and sat down. Grabbing the back of Lacey's pants,  he tugged her onto his lap.

Chuckling softly at Lacey's shocked yelp, Artaxias waved Lilly toward a  chair. Sitting down in an armchair he looked at her. "Sit, little mate,"  he said quietly. "You'll likely need to for whatever we're going to  find out."

Lilly settled into Artaxias's lap and grinned. "Hey, you said ‘have a  seat' so I'm sitting where I am most comfortable. So leave it." She  patted his chest and lay her head on his shoulder. "Now then, what in  the world do we do next? What happens with the bonding? How does it work  with three?"

"She's found her tongue," Zhubin teased with a grin. He dropped onto the  sofa next to Ansell and shrugged. "Well, it's different for every  couple or group. The more there are, the more complicated it becomes,  obviously. But the main rules to remember are these. To mate your men,  you and they all need to join together. They need to do whatever their  race pushes them to do during the mating and you need to accept it and  them. For us, we had to mark Lacey, a bite on her sweet spot, where  shoulder meets neck. For the races it's a neon sign, for humans they see  nothing but smooth skin. It will be the same for Artaxias when he bites  you. As a Vhampire, he'll take your blood. The spot doesn't matter, but  the more visible, the better for the races. So the neck is a good spot,  just so you know."

Artaxias nodded slowly. "And because it's done during the mating, when  magic is high, it will heal over to leave the neon sign for the races."

"Right," Ansell said. "Lilly will be able to see it as well, in a  mirror. Lacey can see her marks and best we can figure is, it's because  she was a part of that magic at that time. It allows her to see the  mating marks we gave her."

"I enjoy looking at it, too," Lacey piped up happily. "I love knowing  that my guys love me that much, that I'm theirs and they are mine.  Archaic, I know, but you will feel it, too. Trust me."

"Now," Zhubin picked up again. "I have no idea what the mating rituals  for the Spirytes are, at all. I know Luhpyne, obviously, and Vhampire  only because of one of my mother's mates. He's a Vhampire as well, and  he just had to ensure I get therapy for the rest of my life by over  sharing."

"He did go into horrific detail didn't he?" Ansell asked.

"He did. I don't think I'll ever be able to look at my mother again," Zhubin shuddered.                       
       
           



       

"So basically, Ax will have to bite me and we will all three have to be,  well, connected?" Lilly asked with wide eyes. "And what if the middle  part of the sandwich has never done that before?" Her face was flame  red. "Been the meat between two slices of bread, or however you want to  describe it?"

"The burger to their buns," Ansell said with a straight face.

"The cream to their Oreo cookie," Zhubin added, his lips twitched.

"The filling to their éclair." Ansell was starting to grin.

"Damn, now I'm hungry," Zhubin said with a groan. "There are plenty of  ways to get you ready for the double penetration. There are sex toys  that will help to ease the strain. Getting various sizes or one with a  pump to expand it, for example, a butt plug, would be useful. Either  that or they can manually stretch you. But that might be pushing their  restraint a bit far."

This couldn't get any more embarrassing if she had tried. "Oh lord, I'm  never going to live this down, am I?" she asked softly. "And no talking  about this outside of us," Lilly demanded. "I mean it. If someone talks  about it, I will … I will … " She looked confused.

"I will make my guys sleep on the couch." Lacey said, smiling and  nodding at the woman. "Don't worry. What we say here is completely and  fully between us. No one else."

"Actually, she won't," Zhubin said. "She tried it once, but then she  came down to cuddle and we all ended up falling off. Too many bruises,  and she was quite upset that it wasn't big enough for us all. She says  she will, but she won't."

"I told you the couch was too small. Why do you think I wanted to order the custom-made one?" Lacey told Zhubin.

"Not that we'd discuss any of this outside these four walls," Ansell  said, putting in his two cents. "What goes on behind closed doors is no  one's business but those involved. We just know that you need  information, and we're trying to give it to you as bluntly as possible.  We won't lie to you, even to soften the words. It's not who we are.  Besides, it's sex, perfectly natural and a part of life for all mammals  and other creatures."