All hell broke loose after Rhys Pendragon’s announcement, with all of the brothers trying to speak at once.
Maddox chose to ignore them. Carys was his priority and always would be.
He sat on the side of the bed and took a bewildered-looking Carys’s hand in his. “I’m really sorry about this. All I can say is that I honestly think your employers are insane.” He scowled across the room to where the seven brothers now seemed to be forming some sort of consensus as to whether or not Maddox was their dead brother Gideon.
Which, if the brothers knew his true history, they would know was so far from the truth as to be ridiculous.
Not that Maddox intended sharing that information with them.
He had lived his life to this point without allowing any close emotional attachments with people who would eventually expect answers from him, predominantly in regard to his life before he met them. Answers he couldn’t and wouldn’t give them.
That would have to change now that he had Carys in his life, but his need to explain did not include the Pendragon brothers.
“Anyone in here interested in knowing the results of the blood and saliva tests Holly and I have on Carys?”
The brothers stopped arguing, and all eyes turned to Dylan as he stood in the doorway.
Maddox gave her a puzzled glance. “Tests you did on Carys…?”
“I totally forgot to mention it earlier.” She gave him a rueful smile. “Holly seemed to think these tests might be helpful to them.”
Maddox turned back to the brothers. “Did you find out that Carys is somehow related to all of you too?” There was no missing the skepticism in his voice.
Dylan remained unamused. “No. But you most definitely are.”
His brows rose. “You could tell that from Carys’s blood?”
Dylan nodded. “I believe you sucked her finger to remove a splinter yesterday. Trace elements of your saliva went into her blood system and also mixed with hers after you kissed her.”
Maddox stood, feeling too impatient and restless—murderous—to sit any longer. He wanted these men out of the room so that he could be alone with Carys, inside Carys, claiming her as his own. Nothing else mattered but that. “And none of you could wait until later to discuss any of this? Because I doubt it escaped your notice, but Carys and I were rather…preoccupied when you burst into the room.”
“We noticed.” The blond newcomer nodded. “With her consent, I hope.”
Maddox saw red at the other man’s implication “Who the hell are you?”
“Deryk.”
“Then I advise you, Deryk, to tread very carefully in the future in what you say to me about Carys.”
Carys reached out to give Maddox’s forearm a reassuring squeeze before answering the other man. “I’m fine, Deryk,” she promised. “It’s all consensual, I assure you.” As far as she was concerned, it was the Pendragon brothers’ behavior that was questionable, not hers and Maddox’s.
This whole past night and now the day were turning out to be weird in the extreme. That bone-deep craving she felt for Maddox and he felt for her. The feeling of completion she had experienced once Maddox’s cock was seated deep inside her. The way in which the brothers had just burst unannounced into the bedroom, with none of them seeming in the least concerned that Carys and Maddox were in the middle—the start?—of making love together.
Rhys’s claim that Maddox was their dead brother Gideon seemed to be just another part of the weirdness that had existed in the castle since Maddox arrived here yesterday.
Grigor narrowed dark eyes on Maddox. “How long have you been alive?”
Carys frowned at the strange way the eldest brother had voiced that question. Not how old are you but how long have you been alive was an odd way to ask for a person’s age.
Maddox’s expression became guarded. “I’m thirty-five.”
“That isn’t what I asked,” Grigor bit out.
Maddox’s mouth thinned. “It’s the only answer you’re going to get.”
“I’m all for going up on the roof and showing our guest our other selves,” Garrett put in with what sounded like eager anticipation.
Carys frowned. Their “other selves”?
This was just getting weirder and weirder.
Her mother had never mentioned any of the Pendragon family being in the least strange or eccentric, but this conversation certainly wasn’t normal. None of the last twenty-four hours had been normal.
Since Maddox arrived…
“So Dylan’s tests have confirmed that somewhere in our distant past, we had a mutual ancestor,” Maddox dismissed. “I’m not interested in pursuing it. So could you all get the fuck out of this bedroom and leave me alone with my—with Carys,” he quickly amended the possessive word he had wanted to use. Mate.
Rhys.
Maddox stilled as the voice in his head murmured that name with affection.
Brother Rhys, it purred.
“Did you all feel that?” a shocked Rhys demanded.
Maddox had done more than that. He had heard it, loud and clear inside his head. It was the reason he was having trouble breathing, and his chest had become so tight there was no way he could verbally answer the other man.
But that didn’t mean he wasn’t inwardly questioning the statement of his inner voice.
Brother Rhys?
That wasn’t possible. Maddox had no family. He never had and he never would. But the only way to convince the Pendragon brothers of that was by telling them the truth about him, and Maddox wasn’t about to do that—
Brother.
Maddox stilled, feeling all the blood drain from his face, as another, different voice resounded inside his head. His eyes were wide as he looked at each of the brothers in turn before settling on Rhys. The other man’s gaze was openly challenging.
Maddox swallowed. “Did you— Was that you—”
“Projecting my emotions?” the other man taunted. “What emotion did you feel?”
He frowned. “That of a brother.”
Rhys nodded. “Because that’s who you are. I have no idea where you’ve been all these years or why you’ve been hiding from us, but you’re our brother, Gideon.” His expression was pained.
Maddox gave a shake of his head. “No. That isn’t possible.”
“I’m still advocating the roof,” Garrett put in cheerfully.
“So you can throw me off it?” Maddox guessed.
“It’s an option,” Garrett acknowledged with a grin. “That way, you might be forced into revealing yourself to us. But for some reason, you’re in denial, so throwing you off the roof is just as likely to result in you crashing to the ground and possibly breaking every bone in your body.” He shrugged.
“Then I’m definitely vetoing the roof,” Maddox snapped.
Rhys’s eyes darkened. “I suggest one of us goes to get Rhiannon. She can easily confirm who he is.”
“Rhiannon?” Carys questioned with a sharp glance at Maddox.
He reached out to give her hand a reassuring squeeze. “I don’t know anyone named Rhiannon.” He turned to look at Rhys from between narrowed lids. “And I don’t appreciate you trying to cause trouble between Carys and me by implying I have another woman in my life.”
“Rhiannon is your mother,” Nathaniel put in softly.
Maddox stilled, his heart thudding loudly. “My…mother?”
The other man nodded. “The Welsh goddess Rhiannon.”
The air whooshing back into Maddox’s lungs was the first indication he had that he had been holding his breath.
Along with the realization he was officially in fucking la-la land, and the sooner he got Carys away from the Pendragon family and this castle, the better. God knows it had taken him years to come to terms with his life, but Nathaniel’s claim that Maddox’s mother was a Welsh goddess named Rhiannon was fucking insane.
“All of you just get out,” he instructed, weary of a conversation he knew—he knew—was only going to cause him more pain. He had no mother, no family, no matter what the Pendragon brothers wanted him to believe to the contrary. “Carys and I will be leaving as soon as we’re dressed.”
“I don’t think so.” A brother with amethyst-colored eyes stepped forward. Aeran, Maddox guessed by process of elimination. He had already spoken to Deryk and Rhys.
What the hell was it with these guys’ different colored eyes? They were brothers and yet not a single one of them had the same eye color.
“Come up on the roof and we’ll show you exactly why that is,” Garrett taunted.
Had Maddox asked his question out loud?
No, he was pretty sure he hadn’t. Which meant Garrett had to have read his mind.
“Not quite,” Aeran dismissed lightly. “But, now that we’re in the same room with you, we’re all becoming attuned to your emotions again. Right now, you are seriously pissed with all of us and getting ready to physically try to throw us out of the room so that you can finish dressing and take Carys away from here. Best not try,” he advised. “Because I guarantee you won’t succeed.”
Maddox’s eyes narrowed in warning. “I think you might be surprised at what I can and can’t do.”
Aeran chuckled. “I don’t think we will. Goddess, Gideon,” he added emotionally. “I never thought I would see you again!”
Maddox was too surprised to protest when the other man drew him into a hug that lasted for several seconds.
He had long ago eschewed all physical contact. Consequently, he was unaccustomed to being touched or held. Carys was different—he couldn’t get close enough to her—but he usually avoided being touched by anyone else. Aeran ignored the stiffness of Maddox’s body and just continued to hug him.
Maddox’s brow was creased into a frown when Aeran finally released him. “I’m sorry, but I’m really not your brother Gideon,” he insisted weakly.
Sorry because a part of him was questioning what it would be like to be accepted as a member of the Pendragon family? Yes, the brothers were all arrogant assholes, but their wives were warm, strong, and independent women, and their children were adorable. They were also a close-knit and loving family. Something Maddox had never had.
And he couldn’t have it now either. The eight brothers had no idea who or what he really was—
“At the risk of sounding repetitious,” Garrett spoke softly. “If you come up onto the roof, we can show you who and what we really are.”
Maddox eyed him warily. “Why do we need to go up onto the roof for that?”
“Because there isn’t enough room for us to shift in here,” Garrett dismissed.
Shift?
What the fuck did that mean?
Shift into what—
No, Maddox couldn’t allow himself to get embroiled in whatever fantasy the Pendragon family lived in. This was all some horrendous misunderstanding in which they believed he was somehow their dead brother—
“Oh, to hell with this,” Rhys growled before stepping into the center of the bedroom.
Maddox watched wide-eyed as the other man’s features and body began to shimmer and change.
Rhys grew in height, iridescent aquamarine scales appearing on his arms, neck, and face. His features became sharper, his jaw lengthening, nostrils flaring. His eyes glittered that luminescent aquamarine. His hands were no longer hands but claws tipped with long black talons. His back legs were pure muscle and also tipped with those lethal claws.
All evidence of clothing disappeared, and within seconds, the presence of a twenty-foot-tall aquamarine dragon dominated the center of the bedroom.
Maddox was so shocked, he couldn’t move.
A dragon?
A fucking dragon, right here in the bedroom with them.
Kin, the voice purred inside Maddox’s head.
“Well?” The dragon spoke in a deep and compelling voice that still, unmistakably, belonged to Rhys Pendragon.
As Maddox stared at the apparition, he couldn’t help wondering if he was the one who had gone insane.