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“Not so hard?”
“No.” I spun around, seeing the brilliant crystalline quality of the air. “Do ya reckon I could do this with all of the guys?”
“You’ll need to. We all will. According to Sylvan, improving the connections between us is the key to success.”
“And we all do the bidding of seers…” I said, half to myself, but my eyes jerked right when I was answered by silence. Fuck.
“I’m sorry—”
“Don’t be,” he said. Brandon had an expression I’d rarely seen on anyone else—the ability to face down something that hurt him, the pain plain, but with no hunching avoidance or angry response. He just stepped up and took the hit and kept on going. “Jules, this will take a while. You’re all going to be touchy and weird about the seer thing, maybe forever. I’d rather you just bloody said what’s on your mind, rather than pulling away.”
“That goes for all of us, doesn’t it?” I asked. He nodded, and it was then I saw the breach of his composure. I pulled him into a hug.
“What are you guys doing, just sitting here?”
Reality came flooding back again at the sound of an outside voice. Aaron was standing beside us, looking faintly irritated. He’d asked us to try and work out how to enter other peoples’ minds, so no time like the present. I grabbed his hand, feeling the weight of it, the rough calluses across his palm.
“Reach for him,” Brandon said, which must have been confusing for Aaron as I already had, but that was nothing compared to what happened next.
“What the fuck?” he said, the view around us having transformed into Brandon’s cave again. “What did you just do?”
“Looks like that was a success,” Brandon said. “Aaron, it's OK. You asked us to practise entering each other’s psychic space, and we have. I pulled Jules into mine, she pulled you into hers.”
“So, none of this is real?” Aaron squinted as he inspected the cave.
“Nope,” he replied, and made the plants and rocks fly through the air as he had with me. “Change it. This is a shared space now.”
“How the hell do I do that?”
“Think about the pack and your bond with Jules. Where would you want her to be? If you could create anything you wanted, what would it be?”
“Anything?” There was something fragile about the way Aaron spoke the words as he watched the plants swirl around him. “OK, then this.”
The cave expanded so rapidly, it was kinda dizzying to watch, then it transformed into stone blocks rather than a natural formation. Spires and turrets grew, with armoured men filing in to take up position on the ramparts. Red carpet spread across the floor, and a golden throne appeared down the end of it. Aaron blinked when he saw it all appear, as if unable to believe his vision was taking form in front of him.
“You want to be the king of the castle?” I said with a smirk, but Brandon shook his head. Aaron’s eyes jerked over to me and then slid down my body. I looked down, confused, and saw instead of my beloved jeans and a t-shirt, I wore a gown stiff with gems and lace.
“OK, this isn’t real, right? I’m not going to be wearing this when we come back to reality?” I plucked at the fabric and imagined trying to run away from alien creatures dressed in a bloody ball gown.
“Calm down,” Brandon said, rubbing my back, though I barely felt that through the layers of fabric. “Just respect the fact he sees you as his queen.”
I glanced over at Aaron, and struggled to meet his gaze, for good reason. That bloody expression they all took on in moments like this, it was hard to look upon. I’m not sure why, though perhaps it was because we are so unused to seeing men be truly vulnerable, we’re not as comfortable with it. Whatever the reason, I ached to see his face look so completely naked, so I dove towards him, rustling monolith of fabric that I was, and wrapped my arms around him as I buried my head in his chest.
This was better, safer, as I felt his arms do the same. The hum of our bond was stronger here for some reason, perhaps because it wasn’t diluted by the outside noise. I screwed my eyes up tight, feeling the waves of affection coming off him and sending across my own.
I knew when Brandon came closer by the curious, wary but kinda turned on note in the bond. Aaron’s arms tightened around me, as if he was scared somehow Brandon would take me from him. We had talked several times about moving beyond this, but now, some action was needed. I turned in Aaron’s arms, placing a hand on one arm as it snicked around my waist, but I held the other out and Brandon took it, his face carefully schooled to blankness.
We were hurting him, over and over. I didn’t like what he’d hidden from us, but it was time to either let him go or start moving down that road of acceptance.
“He can feel it, all of it,” I said. “Down the bond, through our expressions and actions. We’re joined now, as a pack. There is no private place to have your doubts or nurse suspicions. As difficult as it is to deal with, having a huge impact on each other is our default setting. We can’t keep hurting Brandon like this.”
Anger, frustration, and shame immediately roared through my link to the men, on both sides. Something larger and smothering tried to shunt that to one side, but that wasn’t going to work, not this time. I was as much a fan of pretending serious emotional disturbances weren’t happening as anyone else, but we were going to have to face this head on.
“Tell him what you thought about him being a seer,” I said to Aaron.
That was interesting. I saw his eyes narrow slightly, his jaw flexing as he considered my words. The knights he had imagined up on the turrets, protecting this castle he’d created, all turned towards us, drawing their longbows.
“Aaron,” I said with a warning growl.
