Agg stared down at the face that had been in his dreams every night for so long he’d stopped keeping up with just how long that was, and a fierce triumph gripped him.
Finally, it was time. His Rafe was coming back to him and he could hardly contain his excitement.
He stood beside the specially constructed table where Ilson and the others had placed his lovely Rafe, a myriad of cables and sensors attached to him to monitor and support his bodily functions throughout his long sleep.
Ilson had seemed to enjoy the time he spent over Rafe, performing his studies of the living human form with a captive subject.
Agg had found that difficult to accept, until he’d realized just how important Ilson’s research was.
Ve Meclesh watched from the shadows of the narrow cave where Agg’s nest had been hidden from the world. The shadows weren’t a problem for Yeeru eyesight, and the caves offered easy access to Ilson’s laboratory, through a series of tunnels that led under the city and directly to the building Ilson had claimed as his territory when he’d left his own nest.
The caves also protected Rafe from prying eyes and kept away questions no one wanted to answer about the man who slept so long and deep.
“Your Rafe is a lovely human,” Mother said, her voice carrying an accent from an age when humans spoke with a good deal more formality than they used now, many hundreds of years since Ve Meclesh had taken her first—and only—human form.
Of course, Agg was guessing about Mother’s age. But she was an elder, and she’d fought in the Canton Wars, and her accent was more pronounced than even the oldest of the Yeeru Agg had met at her behest.
“Such a wonderful pair you’ll make,” she continued, crossing the room. The air swirled around her, touching off a series of sensations on Agg’s human skin that he still hadn’t adjusted to. She’d guided him in the creation of his new form, and the first change she’d suggested he make to the basic human form was an increased sensitivity to his skin. He could pick up even the slightest temperature change on the air around him.
The drifting air near her was noticeably warmer than the air her movement sent swirling around him. She stopped behind him, putting her hand on his shoulder. The touch soothed his anxiety. Ve had never been stingy with affection, and Agg had a lot to be grateful for.
Ve wasn’t Agg’s Mother by nest, but she was the only Mother he’d ever known. The human who’d completed the chain that had created him had shown up at the Repub admin building where Dominay Ve Meclesh worked, begging for help in getting a Yeeru nest out of him. Agg’s adopted family had never liked Harold Frankle, but Dominay hadn’t sent the man away. He’d turned to his nestling Ilson, who had a reputation for dealing with difficult situations for the Yeeru Conclave. Ilson had taken the situation to Mother. Mother had approved the nest’s removal, and then, unexpectedly, she had personally adopted Agg’s nest, taking control of Agg and his three nestlings.
No one had expected Ve Meclesh to adopt the nest; she already had four nests of her own blood. But Mother had a vast territory in the fourteenth canton, and she had no need to explain her actions to anyone.
The Yeeru Conclave had rules about planting a nest inside an unwilling human. It wasn’t allowed. Agg’s first Mother had done it anyway.
The Conclave had investigated and concluded that some unknown faction of Yeeru had taken offense at Frankle’s promotion to adjunct minister and decided to put an end to him in a very messy, very painful manner.
Meaning Agg and his nestlings existed only because someone had wanted to use them to murder Harold Frankle.
Agg tried not to let the old thoughts unsettle him as he watched Ilson press a medgun to Rafe’s thigh, giving him a second dose of the drugs meant to wake him from his long sleep.
Marvace and Dominay stood a few feet away, watching silently, along with Thrace and Gregory.
“When he wakes up, he’s going to be pissed,” Marvace said, standing with his legs a bit apart and his arms crossed.
Agg studied Marvace for a moment. “I tried to construct my third form as quickly as possible. He’ll come to understand.”
“Does anyone here not want to be the one to tell him he should put some clothes on before we do this?” Gregory was looking right at Agg when he spoke but he turned his gaze to Marvace, then Dominay, then Thrace, and finally ended with raised eyebrows on Mother’s ageless face.
Dominay spoke up. “I mentioned it. He said he didn’t want Rafe to feel out of place since he’s going to wake up naked.”
Gregory pressed his lips together and stared at Agg.
Thrace put his hand on Gregory’s shoulder, flashing a smile at Dominay. “I can see the appeal.”
Gregory pushed Thrace’s hand off him. “Stop staring at your little brother’s dick.”
Thrace turned wide eyes on Gregory. “Adopted nestling,” he said, with a great deal of innocence and a marked emphasis on adopted.
Agg glanced down. He hadn’t thought his nudity would make anyone uncomfortable. His cock ached just a bit, hard and full, but that couldn’t be helped, because every time he got near Rafe, asleep or not, his cock never failed to take notice.
“See, there he goes again,” came Marvace’s voice.
Agg looked up. He shrugged. “Sorry. I’m still getting used to it.”
Gregory spoke up again. “Let’s just get this over with.”
Agg turned his attention to the only human in the cave. “Do you think he’ll like it?”
Gregory scrubbed his hands through his hair, a strangled laugh escaping his throat. “Considering you tried to live up to your namesake, I… have no idea.”
Agg looked down again. “Do you think I made it too big?”
“Thrace—” Gregory said.
Thrace interrupted, giving Agg a very direct look. “Your dick is perfect just the way it is.” His gaze flickered away from Agg toward Mother, and Agg followed the look.
“We’ve already discussed this, Agg. You have a delightfully proportioned penis. Your Rafe is going to love it.” She smiled, and Agg felt his anxiety slip away.
He turned his head and caught Dominay staring. “Mother doesn’t lie. Rafe will wake up and see all this beautiful flesh and he’ll be delighted when he realizes it all belongs to him.”
Dominay winced.
Obviously he was jealous.
“Well,” Ilson said. “It looks like he’s finally coming out of it. He’ll probably feel better if there’s not a crowd here when he wakes up.”
Mother gave Agg one last comforting touch and started toward the tunnel at the back of the cavern. Her powerful presence tended to intimidate humans and Yeeru alike, as if her vast age could be felt in their bones. Dominay followed, after a long, slow glance at Rafe’s still form, then Marvace said, “Good luck,” and left behind them, all headed back into the city through the tunnels.
Gregory had already told Agg he would be staying, because he felt responsible for what they’d done to Rafe, and Thrace stayed because his mate stayed.
And of course, Ilson stayed because without him, none of this would have been possible at all.
Gregory moved closer to the table that held Rafe and put his hand on the sleek raised edge. “I sincerely hope someday he’s able to forgive us for what we’ve done to him. Because if he doesn’t, this mating could go really bad, really fast.”
“Pfft,” Agg said, looking into the slowly blinking eyes of the man he’d loved for half his life. “Everything’s going to work out just the way it’s meant to. My Rafe will love me just as much as I love him when he realizes who I am.”
The look Gregory sent his way didn’t hold a lot of confidence.
Agg refused to let doubt wedge its way into his soul.