A Mate Beyond Their Reach by Scarlet Hyacinth Read Free Book Online Page B

share a perfect triple connection which, to Drew’s knowledge, didn’t appear in the wild.
    As if in echo of Drew’s dilemma, Valerius added, “But it is unusual for spirit wolves to have more than one mate. And for the second one to be a human is even more striking.”
    “How so?” Drew asked. He couldn’t help but bristle at the latter part of Valerius’s phrase. “How are human mates any different?”
    “You’ve seen the reason yourself, Doctor,” Valerius answered, “in that microscope. If a spirit wolf bites a human, the human unerringly turns into a feral. The virus is less virulent than if the bite comes from another feral, but the end result is the same. Therefore, a human must never be a spirit wolf’s mate.”
    “But Drew is right there,” Trent shot back. “How do you explain him?”
    All of a sudden, Trent froze and his eyes widened as if he’d just understood something. Drew grasped the undertone of Valerius’s words as well. Must not, not can’t . “Wait,” Trent said. “You knew about this. You knew humans could be our mates.”
    Valerius nodded, his eyes veiled by a distant sorrow. “What happened?” Drew asked. Clearly, herein lay the pain Drew had sensed inside Valerius.
    For a few seconds, Drew thought the other man wouldn’t reply, but then Valerius started to speak. “It was two hundred years ago. My brother found a mate, a young man living next to our domain. I still remember the day I met him. He was so full of life and caring. He accepted our way of life with no fear—quite a feat, especially in those days. It surprised me, and I agreed to their relationship, even if I knew the possible consequences.” Valerius paused, as if the story became too hard for him to tell. “It turned out to be a serious mistake. The two of them were so happy and fit together so well that at one point Caesar became convinced nothing could go wrong. Following his instincts, he bit his mate. Predictably, Linden turned feral. We tried everything, the best medicine available to us at that time, the best doctors. But in the end, none of our efforts made any difference. With each passing day, Linden lost himself more and more to the feral insanity. Finally, two painful years after the bite, my brother saw Linden was losing the last threads of his humanity and feared for his very soul. We had no choice. We…He asked me to lock them both up into their home and burn it down. They died there, together, in the flames.”
    Drew’s heart filled with pain for Valerius. No wonder the other man was so adamantly against human matings. How difficult must it have been for Valerius to agree to his brother’s demand?
    No words could provide comfort in such moments. Drew found himself getting up and heading toward Valerius. He went around the desk, hugged Valerius’s neck, and pressed himself to the other man.
    One second later, he felt Trent do the same.
    At first, Valerius seemed tense, but then, he relaxed under their touch. “We shouldn’t do this,” he whispered, but his tone lacked conviction. “It can’t end up well.”
    “It’s all right,” Drew replied. He wanted to cast aside the terror in Valerius, replace it with the knowledge that he could love and be loved without fear. “Everything’s going to be all right.”
    Drew shared a look with Trent, and the other man smiled. Perhaps Drew didn’t fully understand this, but for the moment, his heart demanded that he bond with these men. For the first time in so many years, he felt something special for someone other than his son.
    All lingering doubts vanished when Trent pressed his lips to Valerius’s. Drew had never been particularly voyeuristic or kinky, but the sight of the two men together made him so hot he couldn’t believe it. He wanted to touch them both, to feel their warmth against his body. God, this was madness, but such beautiful, perfect madness.
    On impulse, Drew pulled Valerius’s chair back and knelt at the other man’s feet.