(The Marriage Groups)Elian (5 page)

“Are you feeling unwell?” Nevin asked from beside him, and Elian jumped at being addressed. Jerking his eyes away from the passing forests outside, Elian looked over at his new husband. Nevin’s black hair had been slicked back away from his face, making his hazel-brown eyes stand out prominently in his face. Elian felt himself falling as he stared into Nevin’s eyes, watching as the hazel-brown turned golden. Elian gasped as Nevin’s eye color changed and without thinking, he leaned forward and pressed his lips against the older man’s.

Nevin’s quick intake of breath almost had him pulling away, but the steel bands of the older man’s arms keeping him in place prevented Elian’s escape. Allowing his eyes to close, Elian draped his arms up and over Nevin’s shoulders, not protesting as Nevin pulled him up across his lap. Elian ran his fingers through Nevin’s hair, the black strands wrapping around his digits like silk even as he pressed his ass down on top of Nevin’s erection. Elian shivered as Nevin jerked his hips upward, groaning as his erection pressed against his ass. Gods, Elian wanted Nevin so badly it hurt.

Drifting his hands down over Nevin’s face and neck, Elian began unbuttoning his shirt when two pairs of hands drifted down over his shoulders, back, torso, and hips. How could he have forgotten that he had two other husbands? That was just bad miscalculation on his part. Pulling his lips away from Nevin’s and groaning as he kissed his way down Elian's neck, he let his head fall back and pursed his lips for either Corbin or Gaige to take in their own. He shivered in delight as Corbin’s lips slammed down over his own as Gaige’s lips wrapped around his left hand. The hand he didn’t even remember the other man picking up.

Elian’s eyes flew open when the carriage came to an abrupt halt and the sound of shouting was heard from outside. Without any words being exchanged, Elian found himself pressed down onto the floor of the vehicle even as his three husbands, one by one, slowly crept out of the door. Each of them ordering him to stay inside and stay pressed down on the floor until they told him it was okay to move. His body trembled as he listened to the sound of shouting and fighting outside. Worry knotted in his gut, bile rose in his throat, and Elian pressed his eyes closed tightly while he tried not to cry out in fear and horror.

When the door to the carriage flew open, Elian screamed loudly in terror as he stared into the black eyes of the intruder.

“You’re Zevinxian,” he breathed out seconds before the man was run through with the end of Corbin’s saber.

Elian pressed his hand to his mouth to hold back the vomit that threatened to rise and his limbs shook as fear twisted and twirled around the muscles and bones in his body. The burning fires of a nightmare raced up from his toes while the icy tendrils of soul crushing fear flowed from the top of his head down. The two opposing sides curled together in his stomach and unable to help himself, Elian leaned forward out of the carriage and lost the small amount of food he’d consumed.

Right on top of the dead assailant.

When he’d expelled everything from his belly, Elian wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and glanced up ashamedly at Corbin, who stood looking at him with an interesting mixture of concern and amusement glinting in his eyes.

“Sorry,” Elian apologized sheepishly as he looked at Corbin, who merely shook his head.

“No need to be. He no doubt deserved it,” Corbin reassured him before climbing into the carriage with Elian and lifting him into his arms. Elian sighed as he pressed his body closer to the safety of Corbin’s wide, hard frame. Suddenly very conscious of the fact that he’d just finished throwing up, Elian pressed his hand against his mouth and looked around frantically for either a flask of wine or a small canister of mint he could chew on. He jumped slightly when Corbin pressed a small, silver tin into his hand. Opening it and finding mint leaves inside, Elian pulled out a pinch and stuck it in his mouth as he began to chew. Lifting his eyes, he offered Corbin a small smile.

“Thank you,” he said softly after a moment, swallowing the chewed leaves and smacking his lips delicately at the now clean and fresh feeling of his mouth.

“It’s no problem, Cora,” Corbin stated with a small smile towards Elian. Elian felt his heart pound in his chest at the light gleaming in Corbin’s eyes as he looked at him. There was something about Corbin, Nevin, and Gaige that when they looked at him, he felt like the sexiest man in the entire galaxy. Not just in the immediate galaxy either, but in the one inhabited by the humans and the one inhabited by Sapphrico, their sister planet.

As Elian watched Corbin watching him, his mind wandered to a conversation he’d had with one of his teachers while he was still in the Academy.

****

E
LIAN
sat in his chair waiting for the rest of his classmates to leave before he stepped up to his teacher’s chair shyly. Today was the day their teachers had set aside to really explain the duties of a Marriage Group to them. Elian was excited about all of the things he’d learned. At least he had been until they’d begun to explain what each of the birthmarks had meant. Hearing that there were so many who had a heart in addition to something else had made Elian feel like there was something wrong with him. He only had a heart birthmark on his body. Did that mean he was only good for breeding?

“Aaahh, Elian Glinkobia. How may I help you?” Professor Matley asked him, and Elian slowly nodded his head.

“Professor... um, if someone is born and the only birthmark they have is a heart, what does that mean?” Elian questioned hesitantly.

“It would never happen, Elian,” Professor Matley answered with a dismissive tone.

Elian swallowed thickly and looked around the room before turning his back to his teacher, unbuttoning the front of his breeches, and beginning to pull them down.

“Elian! What are you doing?” Professor Matley sounded frantic.

“I’m going to show you my birthmark. I am not the only one in my family who only has a heart birthmark and nothing else. I had an uncle that had the same thing. I also know that it’s happened once or twice in history before.” Elian took a steadying breath before continuing. “We hear about it all the time, are taught that such a thing can happen, but we are never told what it means. Does this mean that the only thing I’m good for is breeding?”

Elian refastened his clothes and having asked his question, the one that had plagued him all his life, turned back to Professor Matley, who stared at him in shock and awe. Wait... awe? Why would Professor Matley be looking at him in awe?

“Elian, were you a single birth or a multiple one?” he asked.

“Um... single. My fathers had to prove that I was theirs because the hospital thought I was royalty,” Elian explained.

Professor Matley’s eyes slid closed and he prayed silently underneath his breath. “Thank you, God Andalusia, for I feel extremely blessed and fortunate to be standing here at this moment.”

Elian watched Professor Matley carefully as his eyes opened and he pinned Elian in place with a look. “Elian, you are very special. Special to our people, to our world, to history in general. Your birth was foretold hundreds of years ago to a Zevinxian shaman.”

Elian’s eyebrows rose. “A Zevinxian shaman? How’s that possible? I thought Zevinxians were savages and did not have shamans or even teachers.” He hoped his tone didn’t sound too ignorant, though at the time he completely felt that way.

“Now, Zevinxians are seen that way because of the tragic incident that happened over a century before, but there was a time when they were revered for being the race of Kardalusians who were closest to the God Andalusia. It was during this time that the prophecy was given,” Professor Matley stated.

Elian gaped at him. Why were they never told this? His parents, teachers, even the religious leaders, made sure that everyone knew how savage and ignorant the Zevinxians were. Feeling as if there was another story there, Elian filed away the information for another time.

“But why me?” Elian asked.

Professor Matley shook his head, “Who are we to tell Andalusia whom he should and should not choose for his purposes? We do not question. We accept, we are grateful, and we obey. That is what you should do now.”

Elian nodded. He still didn’t understand it, probably never would, but he liked Professor Matley, and if the older man told him not to question it, he wouldn’t question it.

At least not where anyone could hear him.

“When you are chosen by a Marriage Group, things will change for you and in you. When that happens, then—and only then—will all things be revealed. Or so says the prophecy,” Professor Matley said, a thread of excitement weaving its way into his words.

Elian nodded and with a thank you, turned and left the room. He had to get home, but he would stay after class the next day to ask his Professor more about his words. It seemed as if he were the only one who would answer Elian’s many questions about himself.

When he arrived in class the next day, Elian was broken-hearted, as were many, to hear that his beloved professor had been murdered the night before... shortly after Elian had left his classroom.

****

E
LIAN
shook off his melancholy musings, wondering why he’d remembered Professor Matley’s death of all things, rather than the multitude of pleasant interactions the two of them had shared. Professor Matley’s death had always confused him and wracked him with grief. Why he didn’t quite know, but he he'd always felt responsible for the man’s passing. He remembered the older man telling him about the laws of their planet, the number of Coraçãos who had been forced into prostitution or spinsterhood and he remembered being so afraid that would be his fate.

He sighed as he inhaled the musky scent of Corbin, pulling the slight woodsy, full-bodied scent deeply into his lungs. He had been saved from being a prostitute, saved from being a spinster, by three men he didn’t know, had never met before… three kings. He kept waiting to wake up from this… fantastical daydream, but it didn’t seem to be stopping.

He turned his head quickly when the door to the carriage slammed open and Gaige stomped up into the carriage, Nevin on his heels.

“What happened?” Elian asked quietly, still feeling somewhat nervous around his husbands when they were all with him in the same place at the same time. That was something he’d have to deal with and soon, like before tonight.

“We were set upon by bandits, apparently,” Nevin stated with a hard edge to his voice. Unsure of what he’d done to deserve such a reaction in the other man, Elian shrank back from him and pressed his body closer to Corbin’s chest.

Nevin exhaled in a disgusted manner and Elian blinked back the tears that threatened as he turned to look out of the window. After a few short moments of silence, he heard Nevin sigh again before he began speaking.

“I am not angry or annoyed with you, my coração,” Nevin explained. “I am merely upset over the events that just transpired. I am upset that this happened while we were bringing you home.”

Gaige grunted and Elian looked at him with raised eyebrows. The other man merely rolled his eyes in Nevin’s direction and Elian coughed to cover his chuckle. He knew in that moment that the rumors he’d been told about Gaige being a monster who never smiled were untrue and had no basis in reality. Gaige had smiled, laughed, and was even now teasing and joking with Elian. Perhaps the people who had the negative stories about Elian’s new husband had merely caught him on a bad day?

It was possible.

“Just tell him, Nev,” Gaige commanded, his tone frustrated, and Elian sat up fully in Corbin’s lap, aware of the way the older man’s arms stiffened slightly around him.

“Tell me what?” he asked.

Nevin sighed and looked beseechingly, first Gaige and then at Corbin, as if pleading with both men to let him off the hook from having to speak about what he knew. Elian glanced at Gaige’s stoic expression and then up at the implacable mask on Corbin’s face and knew that whatever it was, it was bad. Taking a deep breath, Elian turned back to face Nevin, hoping that his fear and nervousness were not as noticeable to Nevin as they were to him.

“Tell. Me. What. Nevin?” he asked firmly.

Nevin sighed resignedly and Elian steeled himself for the news. “Before one of the bandits died, he confessed that they were Zevinxians who had been paid to kidnap you and bring you to someone who had plans to…” Nevin swallowed thickly and Elian felt cold heat flash down his spine. “Dispose of you.”

Elian’s mouth dropped open and he stared at Nevin in shock, his mind stuttering for a moment before he was able to squeak out a response. “They were coming after me? To take me to someone who wanted to kill me?” he asked.

Nevin merely nodded and Elian sat back with a huff, fear and disbelief at war within him. On the one hand, the thought of anyone wanting to—much less trying to—kill him was so absurd that he was half-tempted to collapse onto the ground in a fit of giggles. On the other hand, he was so afraid of the possibility that he was torn between wanting to hide with his husbands or demanding that they return him to his parents, where he was sometimes overlooked, mocked mercilessly, and used, but was still safe.

Squaring his shoulders, Elian stared intently into Nevin’s eyes. “Well I guess you better make sure that I at least get to the palace in one piece if you don’t plan to have sex with me in the carriage, because I absolutely refuse to die a virgin,” he said matter-of-factly, ignoring the looks of astonishment on his husbands' faces. He merely folded his arms and sat back into Corbin’s lap.

Chapter Six

Corbin

C
ORBIN
held Elian in his arms and tried not to gawk at the back of the younger man’s head. Elian was no timid and shy coração. He was a spitfire and had a mind of his own that he didn’t seem to be afraid to use. He’d been afraid, Corbin had seen the fear on Elian almost tangibly, but here he was now, going toe-to-toe with Nevin Cannington as if it were something he did every day.