Virgil [Marius Brothers 8] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour ManLove) (7 page)

* * * *

Mareo

I woke when my phone started ringing. I quickly dove for my pants on the floor, answering just in time to catch the Queen. “Good morning, your highness.”

“Good morning, Mareo. I apologize for not getting back to you sooner. What is it you needed to speak to me about?”

“It’s something of a personal nature but circumstances have changed and it has become very complicated on top of which I need you in person to despell my mate’s blood,” I answered in a nervous ramble.

“Don’t bother. I won’t consent to that,” Virgil grunted from the bed. I felt my heart break a little more at his words as I swallowed the need to let out a sob.

“Are you okay, Mareo?” Magdalena asked carefully. “Is there something you cannot say to me over the phone?”

“I screwed up with my mate and I might lose him,” I admitted, letting Virgil hear my remorse in my voice. “It’s very complicated. Michan and Manus O’Hagan are gone, and it involves Desmond Marius, and please, my Queen. I, just,
please
. My friend needs help and that’s why I called and now things have gotten out of hand and I need your guidance and wisdom.”

There was a pause. “Is it his son you’ve mated?”

“Don’t you dare tell her that,” Virgil hissed, rolling over and giving me a death look. But of course, opening his mouth had the opposite effect because the Queen could hear everything probably.

“I’ll find Desmond and Elena and we’ll be there shortly,” Queen Magdalena told me. “We’ll fix this, Mareo. Whatever you have done cannot be so bad that he can’t forgive you. We will fix this.”

“Thank you, my Queen.” She disconnected the call and I turned to face a pissed-off Virgil and a freaked-out Foma. “I wasn’t going to tell her. I just brought up the despelling of blood because she would
have
to be here for that and it was the best reason to get her here so they could hear everything you came up with on what’s been going on.”

He narrowed his eyes at me. “Like I could believe a word you said after you drugged your own
mate
.” Foma gasped as Virgil leapt out of bed and headed to the bathroom. “Get out of my room and get ready for the company we have coming. I don’t ever want to speak to either of you again.”

“Virgil, please,” I begged as I scrambled to my feet and hugged him from behind. “I’m sorry. It was my idea and it was just supposed to be a little bit to get you to open up. You were so scared around us and we were sure you were our mate and we panicked when we heard you were leaving in a few days and yet you couldn’t even be around us. We didn’t know about your addiction and we never meant to have those effects.”

He shoved me off of him and stared at me in horror. “I don’t remember telling you that I thought I was addicted. Now you’re going to tell everyone that. You’re obviously not trustworthy.”

“No, we wouldn’t ever tell a soul or betray our mate like that,” Foma assured him, moving next to me.

“No, you’d just loosen him up with some werewolf blood so I’d be horny and needy but not a big enough bastard to seek out help from others than my mates when they were here,” he snapped. I winced as he got it exactly right. He stormed into the bathroom, slamming the door behind him.

“He’ll calm down,” I whispered as I moved to pick up my clothes. We needed to get out of there before he came back. Upsetting him any more right then would be the worst thing possible. “He’s under a lot of pressure and with whatever is going on with his family he feels alone and now like we betrayed him. We couldn’t have known that. He’ll see that we’re on his side and want him for who he is. He’ll come around.”

“Except he’s not staying here but a few days,” Foma reminded me as we quickly dressed before leaving.

“Then we’ll have to follow him. Even if that means leaving our jobs and lives here and taking up service to the Queen, we have to show Virgil he’s worth whatever sacrifice to us.” I paused after we were in our room and pulled Foma into my arms. “I’m sorry, my love. I thought I knew what I was doing. I thought this would work. I thought this would give us our mate.”

“I thought so too,” he sighed. “It was risky but we couldn’t have known all this extra stuff or that we would give him too much. We know the truth about him being our mate and have claimed him. We’ll just have to do whatever we need to to show him we’re worthy of him now. We can do this.”

“We can.” I gave him a soft kiss, loving how Foma melted against me when I was tender with him like this… Even after all our years together. “We need to get ready for the Queen and pack a few bags in case we need to leave in haste.”

“You shower first then because we never behave when we shower together,” he joked, giving me his best attempt at a smile.

“Luckily we heal so fast or I’d still be sore from the fucking our mate gave me,” I chuckled.

“He’s an animal, that’s for sure. Perfect for us in every way. Now we just have to make him see that.”

I nodded as I headed to the bathroom. I really hoped we could.

* * * *

Virgil

“Is it true you’ve mated?” Mother asked the moment she stepped through the portal. It had been five in the morning in Virginia when the Queen had called so we had slept in to past noon which wasn’t all that surprising given how late we’d been up the night before.

“That’s not why we really called you here,” I answered instead of lying to her. Stefan and Caleb stared at me with wide eyes, not knowing what Mareo had said on the phone, just that they were coming and soon.

At least I got breakfast since Caleb had ordered a morning spread for his newly arrived guests because of the time zone difference… Even though it should have been a lunch one with what the clock said in Greece.

“So you lied to me?” Queen Magdalena asked Mareo darkly, power crackling all around her. The man dropped to one knee, whimpering for whatever he expected to come. He shot me a glance that said it all. He would take her wrath to keep the secret that we were mates if I wanted.

And for a second I didn’t hate him.

“You, Foma? Are you going to tell me if this man is your mate or not?” the Queen asked. I blinked in shock as my other mate had the same reaction. Showing the respect to his Queen but not willing to betray me. “They’re mates.”

“We’re mates,” I said at the same time, not wanting them to get hurt. Then I blinked at the Queen. “Wait—What?”

“I was testing them,” she chuckled, gesturing for them to stand. “If you weren’t mates then it was a ruse to get us here for reasons that couldn’t be stated on the phone and we’d understand that. But they were distressed so I wanted to know what’s going on without having to read their minds and see what is private. But they wouldn’t deny you and they wouldn’t admit to it when you obviously didn’t want it known. So they said nothing and were willing to take the punishment.”

“I saw that,” I agreed, not looking at them. “Look, I don’t know what Mareo originally called you for, your highness, but our being mates is not why we wanted you here now.”

“It is for us,” Foma said gently as he stepped closer to me and my mother who was watching this all like a tennis match. “We very much want Queen Magdalena to despell our blood so you can claim us and take sustenance from us.”

“That’s
never
going to fucking happen,” I snarled at him.

“Virgil!” my parents gasped together but it was my father who went on. “I’m disappointed in you, son. I never thought you would deny your mates.”

“Of course it’s my fault,” I chuckled bitterly. “Unliked, off in his own world, Virgil has to have screwed this up somehow, right?” I saw that both of them pretty much had assumed that. I threw back my head and laughed before focusing on Stefan. “And yet you had
so
much faith that they would see the truth and the real me. Still think they’re going to listen for more than two seconds to everything I told you and showed you last night?”

“Virgil, you have to tell them,” Stefan implored me. “I don’t know what else is going on here but just tell Mother and Father whatever it is so they know the truth. We need to get King Rylan here and start handling everything you discovered. Michan and Manus could be in grave danger. I’m not saying what happened with your mates or finding them isn’t important but isn’t it something that can be put off until later?”

“I was
trying
to do that,” I reminded him.

“Just tell us why you’d deny your mates, son,” Father said gently, glancing between us. Then I saw the pitied look he shot my way as if expecting I had a mess of my making to clean up.

“Because they
drugged
me!” I bellowed. “I didn’t tell them immediately they were my mates, thrown off by the fact that there were
two
of them and, I don’t know,
male
. So at dinner, just hours after meeting me, having guessed that we were mates, they dosed me with werewolf blood.”

“You took him against his will?” Queen Magdalena snarled as power crackled around her again.

“Oh no, I was
very
willing,” I snickered, pissed off but not wanting to make this any worse than it was. “I was just so out of my mind with lust I forgot that the fae didn’t need to bite to claim, that you do it during sex. Of course, they didn’t know for sure because I didn’t tell them so they didn’t claim me against my will. But they gave me just a bit more than the amount of blood to loosen me up that they were shooting for and didn’t know that I’ve been worried I’m addicted to it.” I shot them both a dirty look. “Did I miss anything or is that fairly accurate?”

“We just thought—” Foma started to explain sadly but I was too into my rant.

I spun on my parents next. “Thanks for the support and the assumptions your awkward son was to blame for all of this. Now do you want to listen to my answers as to what has been going on or should we just assume I’m dense too and all end up dead? I mean, I could always shut my mouth, keep quiet of my stupid ramblings, and go to my room before I embarrass you any further.”

I watched as Father’s face paled as the words sunk home.

“Virgil, that was once when you were a boy,” he said gently as he stepped closer to me. I shook my head and moved away. “You were telling the head of the East Coast High Council that his horse was lame and he should take better care of his animals and pay attention. I was angry and embarrassed.”

“Yeah, you made that
perfectly
clear, Father. Didn’t matter that I was right, did it? Wasn’t something to be proud of that your
seven-year-old
son figured out a horse was lame but it was embarrassing.”

“Yes, you were right, but you still insulted the man by saying he should pay attention,” he hedged. “That’s why I was embarrassed.”

“Well, he should have. A child is blunt and any adult should understand that. He asked me what I thought of the horse. I was honest and you were pissed and embarrassed. But don’t worry, you weren’t the only one to ever have that reaction. I can name many times when every member of our family has pulled the exact same thing on me.”

“That’s why you’re so quiet and don’t tell them how smart you are,” Patrick whispered as if figuring out the last piece of the puzzle.

“And why you were so scared to tell us what you’d found last night,” Stefan added. “Then quick to say someone else could fill in everyone else.”

“Because every time you’ve opened your mouth to tell them what you know or give them the answers they seek, you end up wounded,” Mareo surmised. I met his eyes and did a double take at his reaction. It wasn’t pity or disbelief and didn’t hold any signs that maybe I was overreacting or being a baby… He looked sympathetic like he’d been in my shoes and knew exactly how I felt.

“Why is this all coming up now though, Virgil?” Queen Magdalena asked me. I shook my head and she sighed. “Please don’t make me read your mind for the answer. I don’t like doing that but something more is going on here than a family issue and I’m worried.”

“It might be easier if you just see it,” I answered as I held out my hand. “And then we should get everyone back home, invite the others over, and get this done in one shot.”

“You don’t think we should do this here?” Caleb asked quietly.

I shook my head. “I realized while we were waiting that would be a bad idea. You have too many people in the palace who you haven’t checked where they originally come from given this new information. We know our house is clean of bugs and listening devices and potentially disloyal ears.”

“This is big,” Father said curiously, glancing between us.

“Virgil figured it all out and will probably save us all,” Caleb admitted. I wouldn’t have gone that far or anything, but it was nice that someone did.

“Honeymoon over apparently,” Patrick chuckled sadly.

“Sorry, my love. It’s just not safe after what Virgil told us,” Stefan said quietly as I felt the Queen focus on me. I took a deep breath and didn’t hide what had been going on with the wolves I’d slept with, the blood, Riley, and my blowup over it… And that was before Mareo and Foma pulled their shit.

“That was—” She bit her lip and shook her head. “I need a drink for you, my dear. And for the record I’ve witnessed Riley doing many of the same things he’s charged you with so I’d be more than happy to remind him of that.”