Page 4 of Lazily Ever After

The spot where Silas had his fangs in my neck throbbed in the best way possible. My whole body felt as if every cell was alive and screaming to claim my mates.

My mates.

I couldn’t believe it. For as long as I could remember, I had hoped and dreamed that Silas could be my mate. Fated pairs of three were extremely rare among vampires, but not impossible. I never dared hope we had a secret third out there, waiting for us to find him. Well, I guess in this case he found us. . . twice, it would seem. Wait, if he said he’d found us before, how did we not sense him?

“You said you saw us before. How long ago was that?”

The silver fox looked worn down and exhausted, but there was now a sparkle in his eyes that made my tummy feel funny. “Almost forty years exactly. I was sixteen and wandering around late at night. I heard Silas asking to drink your blood. I thought for sure I had started hallucinating because I read way too many vampire novels. Then I saw his fangs and him drinking your blood.” He laughed nervously, and his hand came up to rub the back of his neck.

Oh wow. It now made perfect sense why our existence didn’t rattle this human. He’s had forty years to get used to the idea of the paranormal. I let out a sigh of relief. I always dreaded the possibility of my mate being human. I didn’t have anything against them, but the idea of having to take it slow and introduce them to a part of the world they’ve been told their whole lives is fake or, even worse, evil. Yeah, no, thank you, I’ll pass.

“Well, that makes sense. Yes, fated mates are real. The bond isn’t detectable until all mates are of age. If you were sixteen, it makes sense why we ran from you. I’m sorry.”

The man’s eyes softened, and he stepped forward and held out a hand toward me. Excitement coursed through me as I placed my hand in his. I nearly melted when he looked over at Silas and did the same. When both of our hands were in his, he regarded us both with a soft smile. “Please don’t be sorry. I’m just so glad I’ve finally found you both. While I may have known vampires were real for the past forty years, I also have zero information to go on besides what I’ve read in books, and I can guarantee most of that information is wrong. Would you boys be willing to go somewhere a little more comfortable?”

Silas groaned and stomped his foot on the ground. “Griffie, can we please go home with our mate and forget all about the stupid sandwich? I wanna go back to bed and cuddle with our mate.”

“Silas, even if we don’t finish the errand, we need to talk to um-” I looked over at the man still holding my hand and cocked my head curiously.

He let out a soft chuckle as his thumb started rubbing softly on the back of my hand, instantly putting me at ease. “My name is Warren. You’re Griffin, correct?” I nodded, and he turned his attention to Silas. “You must be Silas.” It was on the tip of my tongue to ask him how he knew my name, but if that were the second time he’d run into us, there was no doubt in my mind that he had overheard Silas whining my name as he begged to drink from me, even though I repeatedly told him to get bagged blood. As if he could read my mind, he let out a soft chuckle and kissed the back of my hand, making my knees weak. “I overheard you talking both times. I could never forget the names of the vampires who’ve haunted my thoughts all these years.” My cheeks warmed at his words.

I didn’t have anything against Silas feeding from me. In fact, it was the exact opposite. Every time Silas’s fangs slid into my flesh, it took everything in me not to hump against his leg and come in my pants. Silas had been begging to drink my blood for years, but despite the pull I’d always felt toward him, I rejected him again and again. I found it slightly humorous that the first night I let Silas drink from me was also the night our mate stumbled upon our existence. I faintly remembered that we stopped because we heard something that spooked us. I didn’t have much time to think about what we could’ve heard because Silas had pulled me into another alleyway a few blocks down and had quickly sunk his fangs back into my neck.

Silas let out a whine, and I knew it meant he wanted my attention, but I didn’t want to take my eyes off our mate. “I don’t want to go either, Silas, but we have to.”

Warren’s beautiful blue eyes were damn near sparkling in the dark alleyway as he watched Silas and me. “Griffie, please, this is torture. We just met our mate for fate’s sake. Our mate, who is human and has the most delicious-looking veins I’ve ever seen.” Fear gripped me as Silas spoke. Warren seemed well-adjusted to our existence, but I was worried Silas’ bold confession about wanting to suck his blood would scare him away. I should have known better because the second the words left his mouth, Warren’s whole body shuddered, and he looked seconds away from coming in his pants. Heat sparked low in my belly, and my cock was hard and throbbing. I had a feeling our human mate would love our bites. “Can’t someone who isn’t rock hard from meeting their mate go?” Silas whined, completely unaware of the sexual tension he just created.

There was a brief moment of silence before Warren spoke. “I’ve been waiting for forty years; what’s another twenty minutes?”

Silas kept his hand in Warren’s as their gazes locked. “But I don’t wanna. We’ve been waiting almost three hundred years for you. I don’t want to. Nothing has ever felt as important as this.” The conviction in Silas’s voice made me pause. It was perfectly normal for Si to want to avoid doing anything he didn’t want to do, but his usual flippant attitude was missing. In the three hundred years I’ve known him, I’ve never heard him speak with such passion and conviction.

I let go of Warren’s hand and grabbed Silas’s cheeks, forcing his gaze to mine. His eyes were red and pulsing; he looked seconds away from devouring us both. “Si, what’s wrong? Are you okay?”

Silas’s eyes filled with tears, instantly tugging at my heartstrings. “It’s too much feeling. I’ve never felt this before, Griffie. Everything but you has always felt fuzzy and out of focus, and now it’s like I’m seeing and feeling everything in high definition.” By the time he finished speaking, his words were fast and panicked.

Anxiety gripped me. I was so used to dealing with carefree Silas. This felt completely different, and I wasn’t sure how to handle it. As always, when Silas was being a bit difficult, I found myself wishing we had a Daddy to help.

Just when I needed it most, Warren’s low, soothing voice filled my ears. “Silas, honey, I’m not sure what’s going on, but I think you might be right.” Warren turned toward me, his eyes full of worry. “Listen, I’m not usually one to back out of a responsibility, but Silas does not seem like he’s doing very well. This has been very overwhelming for all of us, even you, sweetheart. Is there anyone who can take over and get what you need?” As Warren spoke, a calmness washed over me. It was no longer just Silas and me. After three whole centuries, we’ve finally found our mate. My whole body relaxed, and I released Silas’s face, and Warren’s hand was immediately there to place his hand in mine. I loved how tactile he already was. He was going to make a fantastic cuddly Daddy.

Warren was right; we were in no state to go to the deli. Something was going on with Silas. Something more than us meeting our mate. He’s spent his whole life cursed with the sin of sloth. I couldn’t even imagine how overwhelming all these new emotions must be. I was curious whether our mate bond would continue to interfere with the curse. So far, none of the cursed members of our coven had found their mate. It had been getting to the point where we were wondering if the curse even allowed them to have a mate at all. Thankfully, that didn’t seem to be the case any longer. I hated that we couldn’t complete the errand, but it was more than necessary.

“I’ll call Charles. He asked us to pick up dinner for another member of the coven. It sucks that she’ll have to wait, but I have no doubt Charles will understand. I just hate to let him down.” I also felt bad that the pregnant vampire wouldn’t be receiving the food she wanted. Thankfully, it wasn’t as if she would go hungry. As vampires, we sustained our life force with blood, but we could still eat and even crave human food; however, it wasn’t necessary for our survival.

Warren squeezed my hand and smiled softly. “Oh, sweetheart, you’re not letting anyone down. You can’t complete the task anymore, and that’s okay. Call Charles, and then we can all go somewhere comfy and get to know each other.”

“That sounds wonderful, Warren.”

Pulling my phone out of my pocket, I dialed Charles number. I waited patiently as it rang, my eyes never leaving Silas or Warren.

“Griffin, what’s wrong?” Charles’ voice was tight and rushed.

“I’m sorry, Charles, but we can’t finish the errand. We met our mate.”

“You what? Wait. Did you say we?”

My lips stretched into a soft smile. “I did. Silas and I found our human mate. All three of us are fated to one another.” Pride and happiness filled me. It felt wonderful to claim Silas and Warren as mine.

There was a shocked gasp on the other end of the phone. “Oh wow. I’m so happy for you guys. That must have been quite the shock. I’ll see if someone else can swing by the deli. Enjoy spending time with your mates.”