A Bevin Hero [The O'Hagan Way 5] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour ManLove) (5 page)

“That doesn’t make any sense!” Rylan bellowed. “Your fangs were in his fucking neck!” I went to open me mouth and he held up his hand for silence so I immediately shut it. He pinched the bridge of his nose and turned to Ma. “Mrs. O’Hagan, I like you, you know I do. Queen Magdalena said there is something I need to know about your sons and that they’re twins. What is it? Will this all make more sense to me if I know whatever makes them different?”

“Aye, I believe it will, your majesty,” Ma said as she stepped forward. “Each set not only shares their gifts but their emotions. What one feels, needs, wants, or experiences, the other feels as if it was their own.” I saw the eyes of Rylan’s mate, the vampire, go wide.

“So? I’m missing what that means here.”

“My love, if I may?” Ferris asked as he stepped forward. “I think I might know what she’s getting at but I need to ask a few questions.”

“If you can make sense of this, go right ahead. You’re a vampire after all. I’ve never wanted blood,” Rylan drawled.

He nodded to the King and moved down the couple of steps towards Ma. “So you’re saying that Rian could feel Ronan’s thirst and need as if it was his own? On top of what he already felt?”

“Yes. He would have felt Ronan’s need to claim his mate, especially if people were seeing him naked in public and there were signs of their mate’s distress,” Ma answered carefully.

“But then they bit him and tasted his blood so same with the thirst and desire for more?”

“Aye, but it compounds.”

“What does that mean?” Rylan asked.

“If I may, your highness?” Brio offered as he took a step forward. Rylan waved him forward, giving him permission to address him. “When Fergus was hurt, Finn was devastated, obviously, but it was more than that. It was worse than if Finn had lost his own arm and then some. Brian and Banning came into the clinic and said that Finn had to break the loop or it would drag them both under. Finn was too far gone to care, ready to give up, but I snapped him out of it, and Fergus felt that even unconscious.”

“Brian, Banning, I know these are your brothers, but we are friends too,” Rylan hedged as he looked at our eldest brothers. “Would you lie to me to help them?”

“I don’t know,” Brian answered honestly, shaking his head as he stepped forward with Banning. “The stakes are very high, King Rylan. I know ya to be fair, but it’s Bevin and that’s like someone hurting Banning almost. I don’t know if I could see straight much less be fair. I can tell ya the truth on the loop Brio speaks of. There’s no need to lie about that though.”

Rylan frowned again. “Explain.”

He glanced at Banning who bit his lower lip and then nodded. Brian waved him to go ahead.

“Think of it like a tornado. At the bottom there’s one little dot. Say that’s me really strong emotion. At the time we had our first crazy loop it was despair. Brian was feeling the same so I felt it as if it were me own so add his despair onto mine. So the tornado opens up a bit. But then Brian felt my two times the normal or starting despair, and it adds to his original despair.

“The tornado gets bigger still. Then I feel what’s now three times the original despair from him, which gets added to me two times I was feeling. So now the tornado’s at five times and I’m drowning in it. Add that five to Brian’s three and he’s got eight. Then his eight to me five and so on, and so on, and so on until it almost killed us both.”

“Can that be possible?” Rylan whispered with wide eyes.

“I’ve seen it, King Rylan,” Brio answered firmly.

“As have I,” Doc Riley agreed.

“Okay, who here that’s not an O’Hagan has seen it? Mated to one can count,” Rylan asked, glancing around. Caleb, Ma, Dillon, Zane, Brio, Riley, and several of Caleb’s guards’ hands all went up.

“Holy shit,” Ferris whispered as he glanced at us. “You didn’t even know it was Bevin anymore, did you?”

“No,” we admitted as we hung our heads.

“Okay, I can get the emotion tornado or maybe snowball effect would be better, wave, ripple, whatever,” Rylan said as he jumped to his feet and moved to his mate’s side. He waved to us and then looked at Ferris again. “I don’t get that point though. How could they forget that it was Bevin they were drinking?”

“Because we didn’t have a typical claiming, my love,” Ferris explained gently as he cupped Rylan’s cheek. “You were grief stricken and I’m sure you didn’t see my desperation at the time.”

“No,” Rylan hedged, his cheeks heating up slightly. “I remember you feeling needy almost. On edge, but I figured that was everything going on.”

“No,” he chuckled. “That was a vampire desperate to own his mate in every way after claiming him. It’s raw, and carnal, and primitive. We’re predators. And in that moment, when that bond slips into place, we’re cavemen who want to brand our mate with our name.”

“Got it, but what does that have to do with them not knowing it was Bevin they were draining?”

“We’re predators, your majesty,” Isaac Dragos said as he stepped forward. Oh good, someone who knew about shifter blood. “Darcy took too much from Ayden when he just bit him. I did the same with Rory because it flabbergasted me. He was mine. His blood was mine, and in that primitive state of mind, blood good. Sex good. Mate ours. Grunt, grunt, beat chest, and all that shit.” He glanced at Ferris. “Did you know what margay blood would do to you when you claimed King Rylan?”

“Yeah, but it still knocked me on my ass,” Ferris chuckled. “I only took a sip because that was the night of the tragedy.”

“Understandable.” Isaac nodded.

“I was worried I was going to drain Caven, and I knew about werewolf blood, King Rylan. You know this,” Gabriel Marius announced. “I’m not sure I can put it into words since you’re not a blood drinker but your guys’ blood is like raw power. It’s adrenaline and bench-pressing the weight of a car and fighting demons rush with hours of great sex all wrapped into one crazy drink.”

“Interesting analogy,” Rylan drawled. Then his eyes got huge. “So you’re saying that one of them felt all that and then the other felt what the first felt and we had the snowball effect from that?”

“That’s my understanding of it,” Ferris answered as he looked at us. “Is that what happened?”

“Aye,” I whispered in shame. “I’d heard werewolf blood be extra tasty and made ya horny, but this was like drinking jet fuel, a million Red Bulls, and need like I’ve never felt before. Neither of us have ever felt
anything
like that in our three hundred and thirty-three years. We’ve never once lost control with a human before we were drinking blood out of bags. We didn’t mean to hurt him.”

“I know we’re explaining what happened so ya don’t execute us,” Rian hedged as he stared at Rylan. “But I beg ya. Please tell us if he be okay. Is our mate going to live? I know the doc said he would, but that was hours ago. Things change all the time.”

Ain’t that the truth of it? And the bitch of it all was normally the biggest, most catastrophic changes happened the quickest.

* * * *

Bevin

I woke feeling like a truck was sitting on my head and fat for the first time at my life. What was up with that? After blinking awake, I glanced down at my body and it looked the same. Why did I feel so heavy?

“Hey, you’re awake,” Zion said gently as he sat on the bed. “How are you holding up?”

“Why do I feel fat?” I croaked out, my throat killing me. He got the idea and handed me a sports drink. I nodded my thanks and took several slow sips while he answered.

“It’s not that you’ve gained weight. Your body was pretty much drained of blood and that hurts your muscles. So even though we pumped a bunch more into you, it’s going to take some time for the effects to pass. You won’t heal like normal for a few days. Just take it easy.”

“What happened to those men?” I asked. Damn, it was weird that I didn’t even know their names.

“Rylan locked them up,” Zion answered. “Don’t worry about that right now. You just need to rest, sweetie.” He leaned in to take the drink, and then I realized that wasn’t the only reason he was moving in. His hand moved up my thigh as he scooted closer, and his lips were coming for mine.

“Zion, I’m mated,” I whispered as I turned my head away. “They’ve claimed me and I would never dishonor that bond.”

“Even after what they did to you? How can you be loyal to them after that?” he asked quietly, his hand stopping its progression upward but massaging my leg.

“Because they were so sweet when I met them. I highly doubt they tracked me down just to kill me. I don’t know. I just know that they’re my mates, and they deserve a chance to explain themselves, not have me cheat on them.”

“Oh good,” he sighed. I snapped my head in his direction, blinking at him in shock when he sat up and acted like he hadn’t just been putting the moves on me. “Then there’s something I need to tell you. Rylan ordered for us to keep you in bed resting, but the shit is hitting the fan, Bev. You need to get to the throne room if you can. Rylan’s sentencing your mates and he might execute them.”

“No!” I gasped and then whimpered, immediately scooting to the edge of the bed. “I have to talk to him. He needs to know what I found out about the traitor. I don’t remember how much I told him. He can’t kill my mates! I’m fine!”

“Just breathe, Bev.”

Zion wrapped an arm around me and helped me out of bed. I realized then I was only in a hospital gown and my ass was hanging out. I glanced up at him with confusion. He had just been hitting on me. He must have understood because he turned me so he could cup my cheek with his hand.

“You are a gorgeous,
gorgeous
little thing that I would have been honored to have as my mate,” he said fondly. “But you also tend to overthink everything. I wanted your instinctual reaction as to your mates after what happened before deciding if I should break the King’s orders or not.”

“Sneaky bastard,” I bitched as I pulled away and put on a pair of sweatpants real quick. Then I slid on flip-flops and took two steps before I felt like my legs were going to melt. “Fine, you’re forgiven if you help me get to the throne room. There’s no way I’m walking all the way there. Well, anytime today.”

“I love when you get all bossy,” he chuckled. Zion easily swooped me up in his arms. “Are you sure you don’t want to change? Maybe put on something nicer or shower?”

“Dude, saving my mates’ lives. Not going on a date.” He raised an eyebrow at me, and I growled. “Let’s go. Giddy up, fae!”

“Yeah, gonna let that one, and only that one, slide.”

“Yeah, well, I’m annoyed with you and not just for that stunt when I woke up,” I told him honestly as he walked quickly towards the throne room, more guards flanking us.

“Why?”

“Because you didn’t tell me you liked me. We could have been having months of hot fae/margay sex before I met my mates. Now I’ll never get to know what it’s like to be with a man over seven feet.”

Zion just blinked at me in surprise at my outburst while a few of the guards chuckled. Then he did a great impression of a fish the rest of the way to the throne room. Good. Nice to know I could throw someone off their game as well. When we got there, we snuck in the back and I was shocked how packed the room was. The guards took up positions all around me, but with my shortness I could barely see Rylan on the throne.

I tapped Zion’s arm, and he got the idea and lowered me so I was standing on one of the chairs in the back row. Geez. Talk about feeling like I was a twerpy kid. I got the impression things had really just started because Rylan was still keeping it formal. It normally took him about five minutes before that went out the window and he was cussing or just being himself instead of a King who bowed to ceremony.

“We didn’t come here with the intention of killing him, your majesty. Quite the opposite. We came to claim him as ours and mate. He is our mate. It was an accident. We’re not denying there was a crime committed, but murder implies we came here with the intention of hurting or killing him,” one of my mates said earnestly. They were kneeling at a slight angle, so I could see the one closest to me, and he looked destroyed.

I knew there had to be something more to what happened. Fate wouldn’t send me assassin mates!

I listened to everything everyone said, taking it all in. I didn’t know everyone as well as Rylan did, working more behind the scenes, but I knew that the Queen would never ask Rylan to do this if she didn’t believe them. And there was no difference in what everyone was saying. It was scary in a way that they could feel that much and be overwhelmed by everything. But who could really make that up if they tried?

“I know we’re explaining what happened so ya don’t execute us,” one mate hedged as he stared at Rylan. “But I beg ya. Please tell us if he be okay. Is our mate going to live? I know the doc said he would but that was hours ago. Things change all the time.”

“I’m okay,” I called out from the back. Every head in the throne room turned towards me and I felt my cheeks heat up. I hadn’t meant to blurt that out.

“You’re supposed to be resting, Bev,” Rylan growled.

“With all due respect, your majesty, but the injured party is normally present when the accused is brought before you and this sacred court.” I gave him a look I knew he could read. I wasn’t happy. This shouldn’t have been going on when I was un-fucking-conscious.