The O’Hagen Way 4

A Brio Grinder

Brio has no idea that when Queen Mag-
dalena tells him he’s going

through the portal to Ireland his life will be
changed forever. The

chaos and obvious aftermath of a battle don’t
throw him but what

does is the two gorgeous men, one of whom
is badly injured. Brio

jumps in to help, as kindness is a part of his
nature, only to find

out both men are his mates.

Finn went from a normal day on the family
farm to racing into his

worst nightmare. A bright light and help
comes in the form of the

3/412

fae Queen… And his mate. But he doesn’t
even have time to be

excited because his twin, Fergus, sacrificed
himself to try and save

his ma.

Without a thought in his head, Fergus ran in-
to danger. He

wouldn’t do a damn thing different even now
knowing the

consequences. But will his mate still want
him?

Note: This book is written in first-person
point of view.

Note: There is no sexual relationship or
touching for titillation

between or among siblings.

4/412

Genre: Alternative (M/M or F/F), Ménage a
Trois/Quatre,

Vampires/Werewolves

Length: 35,771 words

A BRIO GRINDER

The O’Hagan Way 4

Joyee Flynn

MENAGE AMOUR

MANLOVE

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5/412

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A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK

IMPRINT: Ménage Amour ManLove

A BRIO GRINDER

E-book ISBN: 978-1-62242-467-2

First E-book Publication: February 2013

Cover design by Sloan Winters

All cover art and logo copyright © 2013 by
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ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: This literary
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whole or in part, without

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All characters and events in this book are fic-
titious. Any resemblance

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PUBLISHER

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www.SirenPublishing.com

Letter to Readers

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If you have purchased this copy of A Brio
Grinder by Joyee Flynn

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A BRIO GRINDER

The O’Hagan Way 4

JOYEE FLYNN

12/412

Chapter 1

Fergus

Looking back, I couldn’t say what it was that
told me something

was wrong. I thought about it too. There was
no noise that gave me

the aha moment or anything I could pin-
point. Maybe it was the lack

of noise? I don’t know and I might not ever
know. Something was

just off and I knew there was trouble.

We were heading back to the house after a
cold day’s work and

with the sun going down earlier we had less
time to do what we

needed to. But none of that mattered right
then because I knew Ma

needed us.

“Get everyone home now,” I ordered me
twin, Finn. I took off

without waiting for him to agree or have a
chance to ask me

questions. He could feel what I did, so he
knew I was scared and

freaked. He was a good man and wouldn’t
hesitate. Sure enough, I

heard him yelling for our das just as I got
past the barn.

That’s when I heard lots of noise. There was
shattering of glass

14/412

and a loud crash before I heard me ma shout,
“Get out of me house,

ya filthy demons!”

Joyee Flynn

“No!” I gasped in horror and pulled out my
phone. I pushed the

one button to connect to Dillon as I ran
faster than I ever thought

possible. “Demons are in the house with Ma.
Hurry!”

“On our way. Don’t go in there, Fergus. I’m
coming.”

“That’s me ma in there,” I growled, knowing
a team of warriors

15/412

couldn’t have kept me out of that house right
then. I slipped the phone

back in me pocket and picked up a shovel as
I raced up the back

porch. I heard Finn and our das right behind
me as I barreled through

the kitchen door.

“Fergus, run!” Ma bellowed as she slammed
a pan against one

demon’s head. I caught that she was bleeding
badly and that was

before the demon she hit turned and clawed
up her face and chest. I

leapt in front of her a second too late to take
the blow. As I landed, I

16/412

brought the shovel down with me onto the
demon’s neck. I wasn’t

strong enough to sever his head but I got it
about halfway so he

wasn’t really able to fight me right then.

But when he darted away from me the shovel
was stuck in his

flesh and he took my only weapon with him.
I grabbed the pan me ma

had been using to fend off another one trying
to get at her just as me

das and Finn crashed through the back door.
There was a sharp, sharp

pain in my left arm but I didn’t even pay it
any attention while I was

trying to keep me ma alive.

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“Sword’s over the mantel,” me da Michan
shouted. It took me a

moment to realize that Rian and Ronan were
coming in through the

front door at the same time. Thank god be-
cause they were the biggest

brothers we had, well, size wise. Finn and I
were the twerpiest.

I watched as our other da, Manus, dis-
patched a demon with a

hatchet like he be cutting some bread. It was
amazing. I heard Dillon

shouting something to his mates, my broth-
ers, as he came through the

back door moments later. He caught the
sword Rian tossed to him and

18/412

they killed the rest of the demons in
moments.

“Just find Brian and Banning, Isaac,” Shane
yelled into the phone.

“Ma might not make it and Fergus is in bad
shape too. We need help

A Brio Grinder

and it’s bad, okay? Get them on one of those
planes ya have and get

them home. Call Caleb too.”

“I’ll call Liam and Lorcan,” Sean said calmly
as he patted his

twin’s shoulder. “Isaac, please just find our
brothers and get them

19/412

home.”

“All over it. Be safe and give Brighid my
love,” Isaac replied

before hanging up. Something hit me then
like a ton of bricks. Why

did Shane say I was in bad shape?

It was then I realized Finn and Dillon were
yelling at me, trying to

get my attention. I blinked at them as Finn
helped me sit in a chair

while Dillon was busy with a towel.

“I’m fine,” I growled. “Help Ma!”

“Ya not be fine,” Finn whispered, tears run-
ning down his cheeks.

“Is this normal shock?”

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“No,” Dillon mumbled, biting his lower lip as
he did something

else next to me. “You know you were hurt,
right, Fergus?”

“I felt a pain in me arm but I was a little busy
to deal with it—” I

started to answer as I looked at what he was
doing. Then I couldn’t

seem to get enough air into my lungs.

“Put the arm on ice and maybe Riley can
reattach it,” Ronan said

quietly but loud enough that I heard him. My
gaze snapped to him as

black dots filled my vision.

“Where’s me arm? Where the fuck be me
arm?” I bellowed as

21/412

what happened finally sank in. Dillon wasn’t
wrapping my arm up, he

was wrapping up the wound from where my
left arm used to be.

“The demon sliced it off, Fergus,” Finn
whispered, horrified. “We

saw it as we came in through the back. Ya
fought bravely, me twin.

Five five or not, no demon will want to mess
with Fergus O’Hagan

again.”

“He took me arm,” I whimpered and then
glanced over at Ma,

who was barely breathing. “I’m fine. Help
Ma.”

22/412

Joyee Flynn

“I’m not sure there’s anything we can do for
her, Fergus,” Dillon

said quietly, tears in his eyes as he tightened
the bandage he was

wrapping around my wound. “I think we
were too late.”

Finn bit his lip to keep in a wail as he
wrapped his arms around

me. We watched as our das did everything
they could to keep Ma

alive, yelling at her to fight all the while. It
was a train wreck or a

nightmare we couldn’t get out of. And noth-
ing would ever be the

23/412

same if Ma died. None of us would ever be
the same.

* * * *

Brio

“Brio, you’re coming with us,” Queen Mag-
dalena announced as

she opened the portal to Ireland.

“Of course, your highness,” I replied as I
moved up closer to the

group. I figured I was still on Caven’s protec-
tion detail and he was

going so I was as well, but something in the
Queen’s tone made me

wonder what was going on. I didn’t get a
chance to ask as several

24/412

warriors moved her back and went through
the portal first. Always we

had to argue about that with her. It was part
of her charm and one of

the more trying aspects of being her warrior.

The moment I was through the portal with
her, she leapt across the

room to help a vampire woman who honestly
looked beyond saving.

But I knew better than to doubt my Queen.
She could pull miracles

out of her ass before most people were awake
in the morning.

“Get Riley through the portal. All the demons
are dead,” Queen

25/412

Magdalena bellowed. Elan nodded and
headed back into the light to

find the doc. No one blamed Riley’s mate for
being so protective. The

man wasn’t a warrior and he didn’t have ma-
gic like the Queen that

made her virtually indestructible.

I heard a man whimper in pain and glanced
over, noticing the

similar appearance between him and the wo-
man dying. Right, the

A Brio Grinder

Queen had said this was an ally family. They
were all related. And

26/412

some were twins like Brian and Banning
O’Hagan, who I had met in

passing.

“Let me help you,” I said as I knelt down by
the injured man and

his twin. Even hurt and upset, they were the
two most attractive men

I’d ever seen in my life. And I’d lived a long,
long time.

“Help me ma,” he begged me.

“Queen Magdalena has powers unlike any-
thing you’ve ever seen

before, young one,” I said gently, pushing his
red hair off his

forehead. “I promise if there’s anyone who
can help your mother, it’s

27/412

my Queen. I would only get in the way.”

“Thank ya,” the other twin said as his eyes
went wide. “Our

mate.”

“Yeah?” the first one asked as he glanced at
his twin before me. “I

can’t smell anything besides me own blood.
Think he’ll want a one-

armed man?” I flinched at the harshness of
his words and then saw his

injury. It took me a moment to process all
they were saying so quickly

and in their own code.

“I have two to hold you with, if you’ll let me,”
I whispered, not

28/412

really sure what to say as I moved a little
closer. “Let’s get you to the

hospital the vampires have and I’m sure
someone can help you.”

“And if they can’t?” he asked quietly as he
stared up at me.

“Then you have a mate and a twin who will
help you any way

they can,” I answered with a shrug. It wasn’t
like I was going to say

fuck it and walk away from my mates be-
cause one lost an arm from

an attack. I’d love them no matter what and I
was grateful for the gift

fate gave me.

29/412

“Thank ya, warrior.” He nodded and held out
his right arm as if to

wrap it around my neck when I picked him
up. I took the gesture and

lifted his slight frame into my arms. He
couldn’t have been more than

five five and a buck thirty dripping wet. His
twin too. And I thought

they were both sexy as hell. Deep red hair,
bright silver eyes that I’m

sure saw everything, and I was hooked.

Joyee Flynn

“Brio,” I told him as I kissed his forehead.
“My name is Brio.”

30/412

“Fergus O’Hagan, and that be me twin,
Finn.”

“Hi,” Finn squeaked nervously as he stared
at the portal after we

got to our feet. “Is that thing safe?”

“Yes,” I assured him. “You’ll feel some pres-
sure on your body in

a weird way and maybe the urge to vomit but
I swear nothing more

than that. I’ve traveled by portal many, many
times. I would never

risk my mates. We should get you to safety in
case more demons are

coming.”

“What about Ma?” Fergus whimpered as he
looked over to where

31/412

his mother lay, surrounded by people so we
couldn’t even see her.

“Trust my Queen,” I answered, trying to
comfort him. I’m sure it

didn’t work even though he nodded. He
didn’t know Queen

Magdalena and while I was his mate, he
didn’t know me either and

what my assurances were worth. Just then
Riley and Micah came

through the portal and the doc raced over to
the Queen.

“I’m holding her life force in her body and
keeping her alive, but I

can’t do that and heal her,” the Queen
growled in frustration. “I need

32/412

help.”

“Don’t we all, your highness,” Riley said
gently and bumped her

shoulder. “Hey, Brighid. It’s not your time,
okay? You hang on and

we’ll get you fixed up.”

“Save Fergus’s arm. I be okay,” she
mumbled.

“Be quiet, woman, and fight,” one of the men
who was clearly her

mate said firmly before kissing my mate’s
mother on the head. “Ya

can’t be leaving us, lass. This family would
fall apart without ya.”

“We’d never be able to survive without ya,”
the other man added.

33/412

“So shut ya trap and take the help. We’ll fig-
ure out how to help

Fergus next.”

“I be fine, Ma!” my mate called out, lying
through his teeth.

“Don’t ever fib to me like that or I’ll spank
you for a week and not

in the good way,” I whispered in his ear be-
fore stepping through the

portal. I knew he’d want to stay with his fam-
ily longer but he only

A Brio Grinder

had a field dressing on his wound and it had
to be painful beyond

34/412

words. The moment we were through I spot-
ted my friend Loch and

called out his name.

“What have you got?” he asked as he jogged
over.

“He’s my mate and he lost his arm while
fighting demons, that’s

all I know, Loch,” I answered, sharing a look
with my friend that said

it all. I was desperate and I was placing my
life in his hands by asking

him to help heal my mate. An ordeal as trau-
matic as losing an arm

wasn’t something most people could over-
come. Personally, I didn’t

35/412

care if Fergus only had one arm, but I
couldn’t imagine losing one

myself and I’d do whatever it took to help
him.

“Okay, I need more information than that,”
Loch said as I carried

Fergus after him, glancing around for Finn.

“I be here and I saw everything,” my other
little mate told my

healer friend. “Fergus was defending our ma
with a pan and when he

drew it back the demon’s claws went right
through his arm. The

bastard sliced it right off me twin but he kept
fighting to keep them

off Ma.”

36/412

“Quite a warrior you’ve found for your mate,”
Loch said with an

approving smile as he watched Fergus care-
fully. “I’m worried about

blood loss.”

“As am I,” Cyrus said as he joined us. I knew
he was mated to one

of the Marius brothers but honestly, I
couldn’t keep everyone straight

in a coven this large. “Let’s get him in the
SUV and over to the

warrior compound’s hospital. I’m sure that’s
where they’re going to

bring Brighid and the Queen and Riley will
help Fergus more there.”

37/412

“I don’t feel so good,” Fergus slurred as his
eyes rolled up into his

head.

“Shit, he’s going into shock from the blood
loss and the toxins

from the demon’s claw,” Loch growled as he
took my mate from my

arms as we got into the SUV. Finn and I got
into the backseat as

Cyrus jumped behind the wheel. I wrapped
my arms around Finn as

Joyee Flynn

the vehicle raced over to the warrior com-
pound and I was forever

38/412

grateful that it wasn’t far away.

The moment we pulled up to the hospital
and someone came

outside with a gurney, my mind took a little
break or something. It

was like I got things in flashes almost or we
were moving in slow

motion. I wasn’t the injured one but it was
my mate… And this had to

be the worst day of his life. His mother could
be dead already, he’d

lost his arm, and then I show up. What he
must be going through.

“Do we have the arm?” Cyrus asked as we
ran after them into a

39/412

large, sterile room like I’d never seen besides
on TV.

“Me brother was going to put it on ice but
they still be in Ireland I

think,” Finn answered, glancing at me. I
pulled out my phone and

called Elan, asking him to bring the arm and
telling him where we

were so Finn and Fergus’s family would
know.

“Arm’s coming in about five minutes,” I told
Cyrus after I got off

the phone before turning to my mate. “Did
you hear what Elan was

telling me?”

40/412

“No, I wasn’t focused,” he admitted as he
glanced at his twin

again. “I can feel what he feels, Brio. He’s so
scared.”

“I know but they’ll help him.” I gave him a
quick kiss on the

cheek and the best smile I could muster.
“Elan said your mother is

doing better and that the Queen and Riley
are working hard but

already they have most of the life-threaten-
ing wounds healed. They

think she’s going to make it.”

“That’s fantastic news,” Finn gushed as he
hugged me tightly as

41/412

his little body shook. “Oh thank god and
whoever else is listening.

We couldn’t have survived losing Ma. She’s
what makes our family

our family.”

“It’s going to be okay, baby,” I assured him,
hoping I was right.

“We have bad news but it’s not the worst
possible news,” Loch

hedged as he walked over towards us about
ten minutes later, looking

wiped. He never was all that great at his bed-
side manner besides that

he truly cared about his patients.

A Brio Grinder

42/412

“What it be?” Finn asked as he worried his
hands nervously.

“The poison from the demon’s claws ate at
his skin and nerves

where they severed the arm right below the
shoulder blade,” Cyrus

answered sadly as he joined the conversa-
tion. “We can’t reattach the

arm. The amount of tissue we had to cut off
that was damaged makes

it impossible. We were worried about it
spreading since it got in his

blood.”

“How much did you have to cut off?” Finn
whispered, swallowing

43/412

loudly as he looked like he was going to be
sick.

“Enough that his arm would be a few inches
shorter even if we

thought we could reattach it. But with the ex-
tent of the damage the

poison did we’d have to do the same on the
arm as well and it would

be worse,” Loch said with a wince.

Finn glanced between the fae healer and the
vampire medic. “How

is this not the worst possible news?”

“The poison didn’t kill him,” Loch answered
with a shrug. I

wanted to groan at my friend. Finn, on the
other hand, stared at him as

44/412

if Loch was off his rocker. The fae did tend to
have a dry sense of

humor and bluntness. Or maybe that was
just my friends.

“And while we’re great at what we do, Riley
and Queen

Magdalena have gifts we don’t,” Cyrus ad-
ded, rolling his eyes at

Loch. “I’m sure there’s something they can
do for Fergus. For now,

we’re replenishing his blood supply and gave
him something for the

pain while they’re helping your mother. We’ll
know more after they

get a chance to look at him.”

45/412

“Aye, thanks,” Finn mumbled as he moved
past them and walked

towards his twin. I obviously didn’t know my
mates very well, just

having met them, but I could already tell
Finn wore his heart on his

sleeve. I could almost reach out and touch
his despair as if it was a

living thing as he leaned his head against his
twin and started sobbing.

“Ya should have waited for me and not raced
to help Ma on your

own.”

Joyee Flynn

46/412

“Finn!” Brian or Banning called out as they
both raced into the

hospital corridor. I knew the wolves could
tell them apart and of

course their mate could but to the rest of us
we had a fifty-fifty shot of

ever getting them right. “Tell us everything.”

I moved over by them and hugged Finn from
behind supportively

as he told his brothers all that happened.

“And ya met your mate,” one of the twins
said as he gave me a

nod. “He been working on Caven’s security
detail and we heard he

can’t keep it in his pants, chasing after mated
men.”

47/412

“That’s not what happened,” I growled as I
moved Finn away

from his brothers. “And even if it was do you
really think now is the

time to bring that up? Your brother has
enough on his plate.”

“Aye, and he not need to let an immoral man
in his life,” the other

twin shot right back.

“Don’t believe every rumor you hear,” Cyrus
said quietly as he

stepped up next to my side. “I heard the
story firsthand from Caven

and Gabriel. Brio didn’t do anything wrong
and backed off when

48/412

Caven said he was taken. Let it go, Banning
and Brian. I know you’re

worried about your mom and what’s going
on but Brio’s a good guy

and has been great to your brothers from
what I’ve seen.”

“Fine, but we be talking more about this
later,” one agreed after a

moment.

“No we not be,” Finn growled and stepped in
front of me. “Ya

charged our mate with something and
someone you obviously trust

defended him against it. We have bigger fish
to fry and we can talk

49/412

about it with our mate if we decide to later. It
not be for ya both to

stick ya noses in.”

“It not be him we’re angry with,” the other
said gently as he

patted his twin’s shoulder.

“Glad to hear it because I can never tell the
two of you apart and

arguing about something like this when I
don’t know who’s who is

ridiculous,” I grumbled.

A Brio Grinder

“Yeah, it’s normally only our mates that can
tell us apart,” Finn

50/412

agreed and then his eyes filled up with tears.
“Of course it’s easy

given what Fergus went through.”

“Hey, we’ll figure this out,” I whispered
gently as I hugged him

tightly. “We’ll get through this and be just
fine.”

“Ya can’t promise that,” he blubbered as he
fought against me.

“I can promise that,” I swore. We would sur-
vive Fergus losing his

arm. Maybe not with the outcome they
would want but we would

figure it all out.

51/412

Joyee Flynn

52/412

Chapter 2

Finn

I let Brio comfort me. Oddly enough it
worked and I started to

feel better even though he was a perfect
stranger really. I didn’t know

anything about him really but just being near
him made everything

seem not so horrid.

It was about another twenty minutes before
another gurney was

pushed into the trauma room by Riley…
With our ma on it.

“Is she—?” I asked, not able to even say it out
loud.

“She’s going to be fine,” Riley told me,
sounding exhausted. “We

put her out so her body can keep healing but
she’s going to make it.

She won’t heal as quickly as normal and will
need constant care for a

week or so as we keep working with her but
Brighid’s going to be

fine.”

“Oh thank heaven,” Brian said as I sagged
against Brio.

“Tell me about Fergus,” Queen Magdalena
ordered Loch as she

joined us. He took her and Riley off to the
side with Cyrus and put

54/412

their heads together. I’d learned everyone’s
names along the way so at

least I didn’t feel so in the dark about that. I
glanced between Fergus

and Ma as I bit my lower lip.

Brio must have seen my indecision because
the next thing I knew

he was leading me over to Ma. I knew Fergus
wouldn’t have minded

if I checked on Ma but even being a short
distance away from him

when he was hurting like that and passed out
was hard.

A Brio Grinder

55/412

“Manus O’Hagan,” me da introduced himself
as he extended his

hand to Brio. “This be me twin, Michan, and
our mate, Brighid. Finn

and Fergus be our lads.”

“Brio,” my mate said as he shook hands with
him. “I’m glad she’s

going to be okay. If anyone can help Fergus
also it’s my Queen.”

“Ya have a lot of faith in the lass,” Michan
said hesitantly as he

shook hands with my mate as well. I
wondered the same thing but I’d

been slightly distracted so I hadn’t asked
Brio why he was so sure

about the Queen.

56/412

“I have served Queen Magdalena for almost
a thousand years and

she is a woman who refuses to accept the
word no when it’s important

to her. And with the power she possesses as
Queen of the fae and her

bloodline, there isn’t much she can’t do. It’s
faith well placed,” he

assured them. That was good for me.

“Aye, we thought our lass was gone for sure,”
Da sighed as he

held our ma’s hand. “We be indebted to ya
Queen forever.”

“When Ma’s better she’ll make the Queen
one of her famous

57/412

meals and the Queen will love Ma like every-
one does,” I said with a

smile. Me ma could win anyone over. There
wasn’t a person that met

her that didn’t adore her.

“Aye and knowing ya ma, she’ll go all out as a
thank-you,”

Michan chuckled, shaking his head.

“Your mom’s a good cook?” Brio asked curi-
ously, probably

seeing that it was a good topic right then
while the others discussed

what could be done to help Fergus.

“She’s the best,” I answered. “When she’s
better she’ll make so

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much home-cooked food to thank every-
one—” I froze and glanced at

my das.

“What’s wrong, Finn?” Manus asked me with
a worried look.

“We not be in Ireland,” I answered as that
fact sunk in now that I

had a moment to breathe. “We not be going
back to Ireland again, are

we? Ma won’t cook in her kitchen again. We
won’t live in our house.

She almost died. Fergus lost his arm and is
so scared. We’re in

Joyee Flynn

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America. Can they deport us since we didn’t
get permission to be

here? We came by portal and all. I didn’t
even know portals were

real.”

“Something’s wrong,” I heard Brio say dis-
tantly. “Finn’s freaking

out.”

“Shit, he’s going into shock,” Riley said as he
was suddenly in

front of me. “Finn, just breathe, man. I know
this is a lot but you’re

going to be okay.”

“Fergus is so damn scared. Whatever ya done
to him, he be

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shitting bricks while passed out,” I mumbled,
hating to admit that in

front of everyone. But then again, who
wouldn’t be scared after losing

an arm?

“Okay, then we’re just going to go tell him
that Brighid is going

to be fine,” Riley said as he led me over to
Fergus. “Your twin would

want to know and hear it from you.”

“Right, yeah, I should tell him,” I mumbled.
Next thing I knew

someone got me sitting on a stool next to my
twin’s gurney. I leaned

me head on his good shoulder and told him
everything they’d told me

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about our ma. “Please be okay, twin. I can’t
lose you or watch you

suffer. They’ll get ya arm back.”

Everyone was all talking together, discussing
options for Ma and

Fergus I was sure. I probably should have
been paying attention but I

just couldn’t right then. Me heart, me head,
and me very soul hurt.

When I ran into the back of the house, Ma on
the floor bleeding

out, already looking as if she be gone, and
then watched in horror as

the demon sliced off me twin’s arm with just
his claws, something

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broke inside of me. Two of the people I loved
most in the world and I

almost lost them both in a matter of
moments.

“Ya have to separate out your feelings from
his, Finn, or Fergus is

going to pull ya under,” Brian said gently as
he hugged me from

behind. “I know he’s scared and in pain but
ya be feeling that and

then he be feeling that from ya too. If ya
don’t pull out, ya both going

to drown in it.”

A Brio Grinder

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“What? How can ya know that?”

“We’ve gotten in the same loop before,” he
answered with a

shrug. “Ya have to figure out a way to break
it.”

“Just leave us alone,” I grumbled as I waved
him away. Maybe

somewhere in me brain I registered what he
was saying as making

sense but it was too hard. I was exhausted,
scared, in pain, and all

around dealing with too much for them to
add anything to our plate.

“You’re not giving up,” Brio growled as he
yanked me off the

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stool I was sitting on to be by Fergus and
wrapped me in his arms. I

opened me mouth to ask what he was talking
about but instead his lips

mashed down to mine.

Me body flooded with a tingling I hadn’t felt
in a very, very long

time and realized how much I’d missed that
feeling. I melted against

me massive mate, moaning when he took my
stunned acceptance as

submission and plundered my mouth as his
hands roamed over my

body. Dear god, how I had missed feeling
alive like me mate was

making me feel.

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“Wow,” I panted as we parted, touching my
lips gently.

“Yeah, wow,” Brio echoed. “Not exactly
where and why I

imagined kissing my mate for the first time
but it was better than the

fantasy.”

“I want,” Fergus moaned from behind me
and I turned so fast to

see him that I almost fell if not for Brio’s
strong arms tightening

around me.

“Let’s see how you’re doing before we get
your heart racing,”

Brio chuckled as he hugged me as he smiled
at me twin. “Because

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I’m sure you felt that through Finn and that
might not be good for you

right now either.”

“But it was fun,” Fergus replied with a wink.
“So Ma’s okay?”

“Ya heard me?” I asked in shock.

“Maybe?” He bit his lip, looking confused. “I
just knew she was

going to be okay. Did ya tell me that while I
was out?”

“Aye, I was telling ya everything.”

Joyee Flynn

“Well sorry if you have to repeat some of it.”
Fergus shot a glance

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over to the group whispering in the corner
still. “Is that about me?”

“Probably. I heard Riley say that he and the
Queen needed to

recharge their batteries a bit before helping
your mother some more,”

Brio told us gently. “She’s going to be fine
but after surviving what

she did it’s going to take her longer than it
normally would to heal

and they want to check certain nerves are
working properly before

they maybe heal badly. I can’t say I keep up
with medical speak well

even though Loch is my friend.”

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“Us neither but that was good to know,” I
said appreciatively as I

patted his hand. Just then a man I’d never
seen before slid up to

Fergus’s gurney and gave us a tight smile.

“I’d guess you’re the guy who possibly needs
the bionic option,

huh?” he asked as he gestured to Fergus’s
wrapping. “May I?”

“Um, are ya a doc?” Fergus asked as he
glanced to me. Fuck if I

knew.

“Nope. I’m a machine guy. Riley asked me to
come look at you

for ideas in case they can’t get your arm
back. We have all kinds of

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cool toys in this coven.”

I shrugged as I looked between me twin and
then at the man as I

flipped on our gift. “He’s smart, his brain
function is off the chart,

Fergus,” I mumbled as I read over the man
like a bio. “Margay

shifter. Young, but seen a lot. He’s
their—fuck, he’s the King. I’m

sorry, your highness.”

“I didn’t introduce myself as the King be-
cause I think there’s

enough going on without worry about form-
alities,” the man said

gently. “Just call me Rylan or Ry. Impressive
gift. What is it

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specifically?”

“We read people like a biography printout or
resume highlights

without specifics. I can tell you’re smart be-
cause of your brain and

how it responds to your body, but where you
went to school or your

IQ I don’t have a clue. There’s lots of joy in
you and your receptors

A Brio Grinder

but there’s also a darkness as if you’ve exper-
ienced great tragedy and

recently.”

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“My parents were killed by demons a few
months ago.” Ry

answered the unspoken question and cleared
his throat. “The day I

met my mates so happy and sad, yep.”

“I’m sorry. We thought we were going to lose
our ma and it

practically killed me,” I said sympathetically.

“It almost did kill me trying to keep her
alive,” Fergus joked. I felt

my jaw fall open as I stared at him as if he’d
fallen off his rocker.

“What? Too soon to crack jokes about it? Ya
said she’s going to be

fine.”

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“It’s not funny. None of this is funny,” I
growled as my eyes filled

with tears. “Don’t joke.”

“Sorry,” he mumbled as he reached for my
hand with his good

one. “Everything be swirling around in me
and I don’t know—I can’t

process it all. It hurts, Finn.”

“I know, me twin,” I whispered as I rubbed
his hand against my

cheek. “We’ll figure it out. Brio has a lot of
faith in his Queen. Maybe

she’s got a book of magic that can do
something.”

“Actually you’re not far off,” the woman said
as everyone joined

73/412

us. “Loch and I remember seeing a healer re-
grow a leg once a long

time ago. We’re going to start a team search-
ing through the archives

we brought over from our plane and see if we
can’t come up with

more options.”

“But for right now, we can’t reattach your
arm. I’m so sorry,”

Riley said as he patted Fergus’s leg. “There
was too much damage

done from the poison on the demon’s claws.
I had a project I had been

working on before I met Micah and I was
able to successfully clone

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organs for warriors who lost theirs in battle.
I’m going to work on that

avenue to see if we can’t get you an arm.
Queen Magdalena and Loch

are going to take the fae archives road.”

“And I’m going to take some measurements
and get my people to

start coming up with wicked prosthetics op-
tions that might be better

Joyee Flynn

than the real thing,” Rylan said with a wink.
“So don’t worry. If we

can’t get you a flesh-and-bone arm back I
promise we’ll get you a

75/412

laser at least in our design.”

“A laser would be cool,” Fergus agreed with a
fake smile. To

everyone else it would seem he was doing
okay but I knew that look

well and shivered. It meant he was about to
lose it. Shit.

“I think after King Rylan does that and you
guys are looking into

all these options, which we truly appreciate,
maybe there’s

somewhere we can go just to let things settle
in our minds,” I said

carefully, not wanting to offend anyone. Or
demand too much of them

but we just needed a moment to breathe.

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“Queen Magdalena, might we borrow Bas’s
gardener’s cabin?

Caven is no longer there and I think the quiet
is just what my mates

need. Maybe their other displaced family
could stay there for now as

well?” Brio suggested and I wanted to kiss
him again to thank him…

Okay, so I just wanted to kiss him, but I was
grateful too.

“Actually Isaac and Rory are already getting
rooms set up for us,”

Dillon said as he held Shane and Sean
tightly. “You’re more than

welcome to stay the Dragos estate I’m sure,
or whatever you guys

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need. No pressure.”

“Cabin,” Fergus mumbled and I nodded that
I heard him.

“I have a vehicle so we can go visit but I
think some alone time to

get to know each other and talk options
without pressure would be

best,” Brio answered him with a smile. He
must have heard Fergus

too.

“Okay, well your arm has healed enough that
I’m not worried

about bleeding out. When we do come up
with a solution we’ll just

have to reopen the…” Riley explained but
then trailed off when he

78/412

saw Fergus go pale. “Just take it easy and be
patient with yourself.

We’ll get you options as soon as we can.”

“Just want to nap and eat after giving Ma a
kiss,” he said as he sat

up. “Shower, get some clean clothes on
maybe. That’s about my high

points I’ve got planned for today.”

A Brio Grinder

Riley nodded and helped Fergus off the
gurney before our das led

him over to our ma. I saw Riley giving me a
look so I held back with

Brio.

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“Is he always this sarcastic?” the doc asked
quietly when no one

was paying us any attention.

“Yes, but it’s not normally this bitter. He’s
trying to hide how he’s

feeling in front of our family. I’m not sure
why but he doesn’t want

them to see it. I’ll get him to come clean
when I get him somewhere

alone, safe, and without all the eyes and
ears,” I assured Riley. I’d met

the man many times before and really looked
up to him. I wouldn’t

hide things from the doc.

Riley made sure that Brio had his number
since my phone was

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destroyed in the fighting before we went to
say good-bye to our

family. Brio was great the entire time, strong,
supportive, there for

whatever we needed. Fergus felt it too be-
cause he had no problem

cuddling up to the man and being carried out
of the hospital to Brio’s

car that someone had gone and gotten for
him. We really lucked out

on the mate fate chose for us and finding
him when we needed him

most.

* * * *

Brio

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I was freaking out! As I drove to Barnabas’s
property so we could

stay at his gardener’s cabin the Mariuses had
fixed up, I was doing

everything I could not to hyperventilate. I
think that was the word for

it. Yes, that was the word. And then I real-
ized I was rambling in my

head and wanted to bang it on the steering
wheel.

I was so out of my league. I had no clue what
I was doing. My

mates were hot, sure, I wanted them, and
kissing Finn had been one of

the best moments of my life and I wanted
that with Fergus too. But

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other than that, I was lost.

Joyee Flynn

The O’Hagans were like their own little vil-
lage. And being related

to the Dragoses, who were mated to a Marius
family member if I

remembered correctly… I’d basically just
mated twins and my in-

laws were going to be an entire coven. I
didn’t even have siblings

growing up and now I had a town for a fam-
ily. My father had died

before I was born and my mother had left for
this world when I was

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old enough and training to be a warrior to try
and find her other mate.

I’d been on my own with no one but a hand-
ful of friends for

almost a thousand years and now I was
mated into a village of family.

Maybe that’s where I’d heard the name Vil-
lage People before? No

matter. That wasn’t important right then.

“Ya know where ya going, right?” Finn asked
me as he glanced

around.

“Oh shit,” I growled as I realized I passed
Barnabas’s estate.

“Sorry. Got distracted. I’m still learning the
layout of the coven.” I

84/412

turned on my signal and carefully made a U-
turn so I didn’t jar Fergus

in the back. “Sorry.”

“You okay?”

I shrugged, not wanting to lie to my mates
but it wasn’t like they

didn’t have enough going on. “Lot to take in.”

“Figuring out how fast ya can ditch the de-
fective and broken mate

fate gave ya?” Fergus asked darkly. My gaze
shot to his in the

rearview mirror and it threw me so bad the
car swerved.

“No! Never!” I exclaimed as I righted the car.
“You’re not

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defective! You’re gorgeous and you’ve been
hurt. I’m freaking out

about your family.”

“Huh?” they both grunted at me and I
sighed.

“I was an only child. My father died before I
was born. The

moment I was old enough for warrior train-
ing my mother left me in

the service of the Queen, who really was
more of a mother to me than

my real one ever was. I grew up alone. I’ve
been alone for a thousand

years basically. And I knew fae get two
mates, but I always thought

A Brio Grinder

86/412

the three of us would meet each other and all
fall in love. But you’re

twins.

“You’ve known each other all your lives and
while I hope you

don’t love, love each other that way, it just
changes everything for me.

I’m not sure how I feel about two mates who
want just me. That’s a

lot of responsibility. And you have a village
of a family and in-laws.

That’s a lot of people. And you’re hurt, Fer-
gus, and I should be

focused on helping you, but I can’t stop my
brain from going on and

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on and on with worry and then I feel guilty.

“And kissing Finn was magical and I just
want to do more of that

and not worry. I want to kiss you both all
over but then that seems

crass when your mother almost died and you
lost an arm and oh my

fate why can’t I shut up?” I bit my lip so hard
I tasted blood just to

make the rambling stop.

“I think the rambling’s sexy,” Fergus
chuckled. I glanced at him

in the mirror again but kept the car on the
road this time. He gave me

a wink and I sighed in relief, taking a slow,
deep breath as I pulled

88/412

into Barnabas’s estate with the keycard I
had.

“You needed some quiet time too,” Finn said
gently as his hand

moved over my thigh. “It’s okay, Brio. It is a
lot to take in. We know

that. We’re all just going to be honest and
deal with it together.

Nothing can go wrong then.”

“I just feel like such a bastard to voice any of
this with everything

else going on. We have bigger priorities.”

“We’re on hold about my arm anyways,” Fer-
gus replied. “Let’s

get some of the littler things handled, calmly,
while getting to know

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each other, so when it comes time for the big
stuff, it won’t be so

scary. Well, in my mind a least. I’m still
freaking out that we’re not in

Ireland. That portal thing is a trip.”

I snickered at the pun, feeling much better
now. I had valid

concerns and they didn’t just go away be-
cause we had bigger issues at

hand. It was nice that my mates understood
that. I started to relax as

Joyee Flynn

we pulled up to the cabin. Finn helped Fer-
gus out as I grabbed the

90/412

cooler of blood Fergus was to drink to re-
plenish his system.

Moments after we got inside, a car pulled up
and I saw my friend

Makari get out with a massive tray of food. I
opened the door for him

with a smile and let him inside. “What’s
this?”

“The Queen called Bas to tell him you were
going to be using the

cabin and you’d found your mates so of
course she asked his cook

make you a bunch of food. I offered to bring
it. I wanted to meet the

men worthy of my friend.”

91/412

“You’re going to be sorely disappointed
about one of us,” Fergus

drawled from the kitchen. I winced as I
glanced at my friend.

“Why did you wince?” Finn asked me curi-
ously as he eyed us

over as from the doorway. I turned around
and saw both my mates in

the living room now watching me.

“Because I hate that Fergus feels that way,” I
answered honestly.

“Makari is my friend and a good man. He’s a
warrior too. He’d never

look down at someone or think they weren’t
worthy of his friend

because they were injured in battle.”

92/412

“He’s good,” Finn mumbled to Fergus. “I
think we should keep

him. Thoughts?”

“I’m

not

tossing

him

back,”

Fergus

snickered. “He’s gorgeous. I

look at him and can’t help but think dirty
things and I’m in mother

fucking pain of epic proportions. Yeah, we’re
keeping him.”

“I thought they gave you something for the
pain?” I asked as I

moved over to Fergus, forgetting completely
about Makari. I froze as

I went to touch Fergus, not sure what to do.
“Where does it hurt?

93/412

Should I pick you up? I don’t want to make it
worse. Are you feeling

dizzy?”

“Aye, we’re keeping him,” Finn chuckled. I
shook my head at his

antics as I stared at Fergus.

“What can I do?”

“Ya can always carry me away when ya feel
the need,” he said

with an impish smile. “The meds wore off.
Riley gave me pills but I

A Brio Grinder

have to eat with them so we haven’t gotten
that far. Good thing for

94/412

your friend then. Invite him in and let’s eat
so I can stop hurting.”

“As you wish, my mate,” I agreed as I
swooped him up into my

arms. “Come on, Makari. My mate is hungry
and I have two to feed. I

hope that’s cooked already.”

“Yeah, I got a couple more smaller trays of
food that just needs to

be put in the oven later when you want it,” he
said as he followed us

into the kitchen. I sat Fergus in one of the
kitchen chairs as the rest of

us grabbed drinks, plates, and everything we
needed to eat.

95/412

I froze when I heard sniffling and the chair
scraping the floor.

Turning just in time to see Fergus getting up
to leave, I set everything

on the table and blocked his way.

“I need a minute,” he muttered, trying to
push past me with his

right arm.

“No,” I whispered as I cupped his cheek and
stared down at him.

“Don’t push us away. We said we were going
to be honest. There’s no

shame in what you’re going through,
Fergus.”

“Yes there is!” he bellowed, shocking me giv-
en how calm but

96/412

sarcastic he’d been about the whole thing so
far. “Ma could have died

and I’m crying over an arm. Fuck the arm!
I’d have given both to

keep her alive! I shouldn’t be this upset be-
cause I can’t help ya set the

fucking table.”

Joyee Flynn

97/412

Chapter 3

Fergus

My chest was heaving and I was fully aware
of all eyes on me

after my outburst. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t be
yelling at ya. I’m sorry.

I’m grateful for ya. You’ve helped Finn when
I was unconscious,

came to rescue us in Ireland, even when ya
didn’t know we were your

mates, and helped us get some quiet when
we needed it. Ya don’t

need me yelling at ya.”

“You weren’t yelling at me really,” he said
gently as he rubbed

his fingers over my cheek. “Really just in my
direction.” I shivered

when his thumb traced my lips. “This is go-
ing to seem so callous after

what you just said and I understand you’re
hurting but I just have to.”

I wasn’t sure what he meant but I was clued
in when he kissed me

softly.

“Wow,” I breathed against his lips when he
pulled back. They

were so soft and supple, not what I’d have
expected from a seven-

foot-tall fae warrior… But then again, what
did I know about Brio to

expect anything yet? “Just wow.”

99/412

“Yeah, two wows in one day for me too,” he
groaned as he leaned

in and nuzzled my neck. “You have every
right to be upset and

feeling what you are, baby. You’ve been
through hell. Let’s get you

fed so you can take your pills and then I’m
going to give you a

relaxing bath and we’re just going to chill to-
night. We’re going to be

grateful your mother’s going to be okay and
things weren’t worse

than they were.”

A Brio Grinder

100/412

“How can you stay so positive?” I asked as I
stared up at him in

awe. I mean, I knew he wasn’t the one who
lost his arm but I would

be an asshole to not acknowledge that this
affected him too.

“Because I know my Queen. She is one of the
most kindhearted

people ever to have lived, Fergus. She will
never stop looking for how

to save your arm or give you another one.
King Rylan told you that

his parents were killed. Do you know what
happened that night?”

“Brian told me the Queen opened a portal
and they were able to

101/412

save half but not the King’s parents,” I
answered after a moment of

thought. It seemed like a lifetime ago that I’d
had that conversation

with Brian now.

“I was on duty watching over the Queen that
night when it was all

over. She thinks we don’t know or can’t hear
her in the suite she lives

in at her grandson’s house, but we can. She
cried herself to sleep that

night for the souls we couldn’t save, for
Rylan’s loss, and because she

likes Rylan and he lost his parents. She’s
warm and she cares, Fergus.

102/412

She’ll find a way. Until then, we’re just
rolling with things and

spending some time together.”

“Okay, I can do that,” I sighed as I gave him
a half hug. I might

not know the Queen, but Brio was my mate
and he had the utmost

faith in the woman. I wouldn’t just ignore
that. But I also wouldn’t try

and get my hopes up.

Finn gave me a smile as I sat back down and
reached for me hand

under the table. I knew what my twin was
trying to do… Ease me

guilt. If it wasn’t for me then they would
already be in the bedroom

103/412

claiming each other, but with me losing me
arm—

“Stop it,” Finn chastised as he let go of me
hand and interrupted

me thoughts. “Just stop it. We’re going to eat
and shut off that brain.”

“Right. Aye,” I mumbled. I watched as they
finished getting lunch

ready and scooped piles of wonderful-
smelling pasta baked cheesy

goodness on my plate. I ate because it was
really good and for the

pills I needed to take. I wasn’t exactly
hungry, hungry. More like my

stomach was empty and I knew I needed to
eat.

104/412

Joyee Flynn

Makari was nice from what I heard of the
conversation. I was lost

in me own thoughts mostly, but I nodded
along here and there,

probably looking like I wasn’t paying atten-
tion. I couldn’t help it. Me

mind was a swirl of shit.

“What are you thinking about, Fergus?” Brio
asked me quietly

when I was almost done eating. I glanced
around as if waking up from

a dream and realized they were all staring at
me.

105/412

“What to do with my arm,” I admitted before
I could stop myself.

Apparently good food loosened my tongue
up and made me a moron.

“Come again?” Makari asked with wide eyes.

“They can’t put it back on but it’s not like
they’re just going to

throw it out,” I whispered as I gave a one-
shoulder shrug. “It was a

part of me. It was a good arm to me. It seems
callous not to worry

about what’s going to happen to it. Even if
Riley does his clone thing,

I don’t want my old arm just thrown out in
the trash.”

106/412

I glanced up and they were all staring at me
with open mouths. I

felt my eyes start burning and shook my
head.

“Don’t look at me like that. If you just lost a
limb you’d wonder

what to do with it too. It’s not my arm’s fault
that the demon sliced it

off. It shouldn’t be disrespected.”

“Of course not,” Brio agreed as he moved his
hand onto my leg.

“There’s nothing wrong with you wondering
about that. It just threw

me for a loop because to be honest I have no
idea what I’d do. Maybe

cremate it and keep the ashes somewhere?”

107/412

“I’d turn mine into a broadsword and kill
demons with it,” Makari

offered. Now I was looking at him like he lost
it. “What? Bone’s

strong. Turn it into a weapon and use it to
get revenge on the ones like

that bastard that did it to you.”

“You’re special, my friend,” Brio chuckled
and shook his head.

“Very, very special.”

We all had a good laugh at that. After lunch
Makari brought in the

other meals for us, Finn said he’d take care
of the mess, and Brio

carried me off to get cleaned up. I was very
grateful for that. I

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A Brio Grinder

smelled, felt nasty, and just wanted to get
clean. Now that I had my

pills, the pain wasn’t so bad and taking a
shower wouldn’t hurt as

much.

That didn’t mean I should be taking one
alone, drugged up, and

down an arm.

And I wasn’t stupid enough to turn down a
hot man offering his

help.

“I’m sorry I’m ogling you,” Brio apologized
as he helped me off

109/412

with what was left of my pants. “You’re beau-
tiful, Fergus.”

“I’m little and now missing an arm,” I
whispered as my eyes filled

with tears. “What is wrong with me? Why
can’t I shut off the

waterworks?”

“Babe, it just happened. Cut yourself some
slack,” he said gently

as he leaned over and started the water. I
nodded and wiped my eyes

as the warm water washed away the dried
blood.

I was a total voyeur watching Brio undress.
When I saw how

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gorgeous he was I wanted to cry for a whole
other reason.

“No, I’m okay to do this alone,” I mumbled,
suddenly not wanting

him to see me. I quickly closed the curtain
and turned my left side

away from him.

“Don’t do that,” he growled and slid in with
me.

“Just go!” I screamed as I shoved him with
my good arm.

“There’s an exact duplicate of me in the kit-
chen and he’s not a

cripple!”

“Oh, Fergus,” he whispered as he wrapped
his arms around me.

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“Stop. Just stop. You know attraction isn’t
just about looks and loving

someone isn’t that shallow. You’re both my
mates and I will love you

both equally. I can already see differences
between the two of you and

I barely know you. Don’t write me off as
some asshole who would

prefer Finn over you after what’s happened.”

“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry,” I sobbed as I
clutched onto him with the

only hand I had. “I just don’t see how ya can
want me! I can’t even

look at it.”

112/412

Joyee Flynn

“It’s hard to because I know it’s painful for
you,” Brio said gently

as he moved me under the water again. Then
he lifted my head so the

dried blood and gunk in my hair started
coming out. Brio gave me a

quick kiss when I opened my mouth to say
something else and went

to work on washing my hair. “You’re more
than your left arm. You’re

a hero. You saved your mother’s life. Hell,
from the way your twin

tells it you kept fighting after losing your
arm.”

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“I didn’t realize it,” I admitted and then
moaned at how good it

felt to have clean hair. “I think I was in shock
because I remember the

pain but I had no clue me arm was gone until
Finn said something

about me losing it.” I looked into Brio’s
bright blue eyes then and

decided to be honest. “I don’t know what’s
real. I feel like this is just

a dream I can’t get out of. Is that the drugs or
shock?”

“Both probably.” He cupped my cheek and
gave me a soft kiss.

“This is real. We’re real. And we’re going to
be okay.”

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“Promise?” I couldn’t even try to hide desire
to trust him from my

expression and wanting what he said.

“Yeah, I promise. I have two sexy mates with
hot brogues and

they like me for some odd reason. We’ve got
some stuff to iron out

but all mates do and we’re going to do it to-
gether so we’re already

ahead of some of the mated couples I know
were when they met.”

“You always so glass half full?” I teased as his
hands started

washing the rest of my body. I cleared my
throat as I got hard as nails

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and my cock practically pointed at what we
wanted.

“I tend to be,” he chuckled as he gestured to
his own dick. “They

want to say hi apparently.”

“I’m just glad you can get hard from seeing
me naked,” I blurted

out and then my head fell back to the tiles.
“Smooth. Really smooth.”

I tried to move past him but my mate was
too quick. He lifted me up,

wrapping my legs around his hips, as he
pushed me back against the

tiles and growled.

“I get that the drugs are mushing your brain
so I’ll let that slide.

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But know that I think you and your twin are
equally the hottest men

A Brio Grinder

I’ve ever seen in the thousand years I’ve been
alive. And you’re the

one I’ve seen naked so right now you espe-
cially win in my book.” I

gasped as he moved his cock between the
cheeks of me ass. “We fit.

Don’t trivialize it. When you’re as old as I am
and you’ve waited

what feels like forever for your mate you
don’t let stupid shit cloud

your judgment.”

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“Losing me arm is stupid shit to ya?” I asked,
my eyes wide and

burning again.

“No!” he exclaimed and then growled in frus-
tration. “I’m saying

that in the grand scheme of life it’s not stu-
pid, but it’s not something

that would make me love you or want you
any less. You sacrificed

yourself to save your mother. That makes
you worlds ahead of most

two-armed men and I don’t want any of
them besides Finn anyway.

Fuck! I’m saying this all wrong!”

“No, I get it now,” I said gently as I moved
my hand over his

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mouth. “You’re saying me losing me arm is a
stupid reason to be

unattractive to you, that it isn’t a flaw to you
especially since it

happened helping me mom.”

“Yes,” he sighed as he leaned his forehead to
mine. “Yes, exactly.

Thank you for speaking on my behalf be-
cause apparently I can’t stop

rambling or put things the right way since
I’ve met you. Well, okay, I

always get tongue-tied around hot men, but
extra specially with you

two apparently.”

“I like it,” I giggled as I kissed his lips lightly.
“Makes me feel as

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if I’m not the only struggling with what to
say and do. Not that I want

either of us to struggle—”

“You’re just glad that you’re not the only
one,” he finished for

me. I smiled and nodded. Glad we were on
the same page.

We finished our shower and headed back out
to the living room.

Time for the next part of the evening… Figur-
ing shit out about what

came next. Too bad I couldn’t drink on the
pain pills.

* * * *

120/412

Joyee Flynn

Brio

When we were done cleaning up, we walked
back into the living

room to find Finn staring out the window
with tears running down his

cheeks. In a flash I was over by him, hugging
him tightly.

“What happened? Did something change
with your mother?” I

asked gently as Fergus joined us.

“No, no, nothing like that,” he answered
quickly, shaking his

head. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare ya.”

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“Then what’s wrong, sweetness?” I kissed the
top of his head and

moved my hands to his hips. “Would dancing
make you smile? Your

mate’s got moves.”

“Do ya now?” Finn giggled, glancing up at
me. That’s exactly

what I’d been going for.

“I do but I just wanted to make you smile.”
He nodded and went

to pull away but I didn’t let go. “We’re being
honest so tell me what’s

wrong.”

“He doesn’t want to leave Ireland,” Fergus
answered for his twin

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when Finn shrugged.

“Not the way we are or why we have to,” Finn
clarified as we all

moved towards the couches and they sat
down. I sat in the chair

across from them because if we talked about
the stuff we needed to

tonight, my neck would kill me tomorrow
from looking between the

two of them. “I’m okay with leaving if it was
what we wanted. But to

have to leave our family’s land like this? It’s
horrible. O’Hagans have

had that land before Ireland was officially
Ireland.”

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“Yeah, I know the feeling. It was really hard
to leave the plane of

the fae and come over here,” I agreed. “I
don’t have any family but I

have friends that I consider my family really
so I don’t understand the

whole thing about your lands being O’Hagan
family lands, but I get

having to leave home.”

“Are ya glad ya ended up coming here?” Fer-
gus asked curiously.

A Brio Grinder

“Duh, I met you guys,” I snickered, giving
them each a wink.

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“Seriously though, yeah, I am. It sucks, but
the fae were so cut off on

that plane in our own little bubble. Nice at
times, yes, but we miss out

on so much. I love my car. Coming over here
was worth just getting

that car.”

“Glass half full, I swear,” Fergus teased me. I
shrugged. It was

true most of the time.

“We don’t have to stay here actually,” Finn
hedged as he glanced

between his twin and me. “We could go live
in Greece with Liam and

Lorcan and be Lords or whatever. We liked
Greece.”

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“Oh, well, um, I bought land here,” I
mumbled, my heart sinking.

“We could just keep it for a backup house
when we visit if you

wanted.”

“But that’s obviously not what ya want,”
Finn chuckled.

“Whatever you guys want I’m fine with. I just
want to make you

happy.”

“True, but not really,” Fergus drawled. “Be
honest, Brio. You’re

making us be so ya have to too. Ya won’t hurt
our feelings by saying

ya want to stay here.”

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“I want to stay here,” I admitted with a sigh.
“I always lived in a

room at the palace or had a room in a condo
on this plane since I

became a warrior. I had a chance for more
here with people I really

like and love like family. I bought five plots
and Tyler’s crew made

them all into one pin for the land or
something and I have the deed.

It’s all mine and I want that.” I stared in
their hesitant eyes and then

rolled mine. “Well, it’s yours now too. I’m
not saying all mine as in

you can’t live there.

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“I just mean it’s ours. I’m not a guest with
anyone. We can do

what we want. It’s almost done being built
but we can make some

changes I’m sure. We’ll have more than
enough room because I went

a little over the top, Tyler said. I just wanted
a lot of space because

you never know what’s around the corner
and look, now I have mates

and we might want kids one day and we’ll
need room for them and—”

Joyee Flynn

“We get it,” Finn giggled. “Breathe, Brio.”

128/412

“Good thing you like my rambling,” I
drawled with a groan. Then

I had a thought while they were chuckling at
my antics. “But the

house won’t work, will it? You guys are farm-
ers. You could commute

to your brothers’ vineyard or we could ask if
we could build on their

land, I guess?” I wasn’t a fan of the idea. I
wanted our home on our

little piece of land, all ours.

Silly but I’d always wanted it. And now after
being alive a

thousand years I was just about to have it but
maybe not really.

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“If we tell ya something, ya have to promise
to keep it a secret

always,” Fergus said cautiously as he
glanced at Finn.

“I swear on my honor,” I replied firmly, not
sure what was going

on.

“We hate farming,” Finn blurted out. “We
fucking hate it. We just

do it because our family does and they need
the help and we love

them.”

“Aye, but it’s a shit job that we hate with a
passion,” Fergus

added. I just stared at them a few moments,
blinking in shock.

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“You must really love your family to do a job
you hate so much to

be with them and help them.”

“Aye,” they said together but Finn went on.
“It’s dirty and ya

always smell like shit no matter how many
times ya wash. And ya

always so concerned on the weather. Then
the shit be ready and ya

racing around to get it all in and keep it dry
and then make sure the

soil is good for more next year or planting
more right away, and on,

and on. Fuck it.”

“So what is it you guys want to do then?” I
asked curiously, not

131/412

having been ready for this conversation to
have headed this way.

“Making furniture,” Fergus answered in a
heartbreaking voice as

he stared at where his left arm should have
been. “We like making

furniture in the barn and then selling it.” It
broke my heart to see him

so sad and I made a mental note to get King
Rylan a message that this

A Brio Grinder

was what my mate loved to do. He needed to
take that into

consideration when he was coming up with
bionic arm ideas.

132/412

“But you’re the designer really so ya can still
do that,” Finn said

like the kind man he was. “I can’t draw worth
shit and we both know

ya do a much better job and map it out well.”

“Thanks, but if you’re the only one making
them, we’ll have a

stack of designs and only something to sell
here and there,” Fergus

replied. “How will we ever make any money?
Ya know we’re broke.

Dillon put all that money into the farm but
since then Ma and Das

were working us all double-time. The last
thing we sold we used the

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money to get Brian and Banning’s mating
gift.”

“Well, then we figure out a way. We always
figure out a way,

Fergus.”

“What? By leaching off our warrior mate? He
just bought a big

house that’s being built on his land. That had
to cost him an arm—”

Fergus let out a strangled noise as he real-
ized what he’d just said.

“Hey, guys, just hold up, okay?” I said gently
as I practically dove

by Fergus’s feet. I rubbed my hands up his
pajama-pants-covered

134/412

knees and thighs. “I have money.” They both
stared down at me with

wide eyes. “I know warriors don’t really get
paid that great, but better

than the human military, from what they’ve
told me. But most

warriors come from High Council families so
that gives them

money.”

“We come from a High Council family and I
promise ya that

doesn’t

mean

money

always,”

Finn

snickered.

“Okay, either way, I have money. The Queen
pays us very well

135/412

from what I’ve been told. I have a chest of
gold bars from all my

years of service. We can do whatever we
want. We found each other

and I’ve been looking for you guys for what
feels like forever, so I

won’t let something trivial like money lead to
heartache.”

“It be trivial when ya have some. Money not
be a trivial thing

when ya be broke,” Fergus drawled, raising
an eyebrow at me as if

waiting for me to dispute it.

Joyee Flynn

136/412

“Fine, agreed. And making sure we have
what we need like food

and a roof over our heads isn’t trivial. That
might not have been the

best word. I just meant it’s a stupid thing to
fight over when we’ve got

bigger fish to fry. And that phrase always
makes me think I need to

try a fried fish. Are they any good?”

“Ya never had fish-and-chips?” Finn asked,
smiling at my change

of topic with an evil grin. I shook my head.
“We be Irish but we’ve

been to England enough times where we
know what makes good fish-

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and-chips. Ya get me a fryer and some fresh
fish, a few other

ingredients, and we’ll make ya some fish-
and-chips ya not ever

forget.”

“Deal. I love a man that can cook,” I purred
as I leaned down and

kissed his knee. I glanced back up at Fergus
to see he was frowning.

“I said something wrong again, didn’t I?”

“No, just can’t cook. I’m more the one that
grills. But if I had

help, I could do that one-handed, I think.
Sorry. I didn’t mean to seem

upset. I was just thinking about what I can
still do really. We do like

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cooking. Ma’s the best cook ever, but we
liked helping her or giving

her a night off here and there.”

“Well I can’t cook or grill. I touch a stove or
grill and everything

burns. So I’ve learned how to clean up really
well so people will still

feed me,” I said with the best grin I could
give them. “And I will

clean really well and always show my appre-
ciation if you promise to

feed me throughout our mating so I won’t
starve.”

“He did solve the where are we going to live
problem like a good

139/412

mate,” Finn said to Fergus as if they were de-
liberating on the idea.

“He’s been really sweet to me and helping
me not sulk,” Fergus

added before glancing at me. “If ya promise
to wear nothing but an

apron and help me when I need it because of
me arm issue, then I’ll

feed ya all the meat ya can eat.”

“Yes, that sounds so wonderfully dirty and
full of innuendos that I

accept. I’m not sure if I’m more turned on or
hungry right now

either.”

A Brio Grinder

140/412

“We like to keep ya guessing,” he chuckled.
“Okay, so we talked

where to live, what to do for work, though I
might not be much help

until we hear about me arm options. We’ll
have to figure out how to

get everything from Ireland and discuss with
Ma and Das about if

they’re selling the land or what. What else?”

“I think we covered all the big stuff that
won’t leave anyone

worrying about what comes next. We can
hammer out other details

tomorrow. We don’t have to do everything
tonight,” I said gently.

141/412

“Besides, it’s pretty late your time, isn’t it?
Should we get Fergus into

bed?”

“I could lie down,” he admitted. “But we can
keep talking, right? I

know we want to know more about ya.”

“Then let’s get comfortable in bed,” I said as
I jumped to my feet,

wiggling my eyebrows at them. Before they
could even stand, I

picked Fergus up gently so he was in my
arms.

“I lost me arm, not me leg. I can walk just
fine, ya goof,” he

snickered.

142/412

“Drugs could make you loopy and I won’t
risk you falling all

over.”

“Nice save,” Finn mumbled from behind me.
“Our mate’s a real

gentleman, Fergus.”

“Wow, I didn’t hear like any accent then. I
swear, the longer you

guys are out of Ireland the less I hear the
brogue. Brian and Banning’s

is thick and your fathers’ were so thick I had
trouble understanding

them almost. But you guys are losing yours
kind of.”

They shared a look and burst out laughing as
if I’d said something

143/412

really entertaining. Uh-oh, this should be
good.

Joyee Flynn

144/412

Chapter 4

Finn

“We traveled a lot when we were younger,” I
admitted when we

stopped laughing. “For about twelve years,
all over Europe so it was

easier to lose the accent over time than it is
for our das who rarely

have been outside Ireland. The only thing we
never dropped was

saying aye instead of yes.”

“I like aye better,” Brio said with a shrug as
he helped Fergus into

bed. He climbed in next and I quickly joined
them. I had cleaned up

in the other half bathroom while they had
showered so I was only in

borrowed pajama pants like them. Thank
god for Makari bringing us

some supplies.

“We went to Russia a few times too, don’t
forget,” Fergus

reminded me with a smile. “I liked Russia
back then. So full of

character and robust men.”

“Hey, lying right here with you,” Brio play-
fully bitched.

“Well, we went traveling with a human lover
so if you’re going to

get jealous we can’t tell ya the story,” I teased
him. He stuck out his

146/412

lower lip and I leaned over and kissed him.
“Ya know we like ya

best.”

“Okay, I’ll be good then,” he snickered. “I’ve
not met any humans

really. What are they like?”

“Mean,” I whispered as I thought back to our
time with Nigel.

“Some are so damn mean that it makes ya
want to cry that their hearts

can be so black.”

A Brio Grinder

“Ya might want to start at the beginning, me
twin. Brio’s going to

147/412

think we hate humans,” Fergus snickered.

I glanced over at him and rolled my eyes. He
knew what I was

referring to and felt the same, but he was
right, Brio didn’t know the

story.

“Once upon a time, a long, long time ago, in
a kingdom far, far

away,” I started the story, chuckling.

“Can I interrupt?” Brio asked quietly as we
both snuggled against

his broad chest. I nodded and looked up at
him. “What’s a long, long

time ago for you guys? I don’t even know
how old you are.”

148/412

“We just turned five hundred and seventy-
six,” I told him.

“Seventy-seven, ya twit,” Fergus snickered. I
thought about that

and sighed. As usual, he was right.

“Aye, five hundred and seventy-seven,” I
chuckled.

“Okay, good. I’m glad I didn’t get stuck with
a couple of baby

mates who are too young to know their asses
from a hole in the

ground,” Brio said happily as he moved his
arm around me as I saw

he did the same to Fergus. “I’m good now. I
want to hear the story.” I

149/412

leaned up and gave him a kiss. “What was
that for?”

“For being ya,” I answered. “You’re a good
man and your glass-

half-full, always-smiling charm is infectious.
I like that about ya.”

“I like that you guys like it.” He smiled at his
cheeky reply like he

was proving our point and his. Goofball.

“Anyways,” I snickered, shaking me head at
his antics. “A long,

long time ago, young vampire twins got a
holiday to England for their

eighteenth birthday. All excited, they packed
their bags and went to

150/412

see everything they could in a short time and
with limited money. The

year was 1453 and Henry VI or some other
tight-arse Brit was in

charge.”

“Nicely put,” Fergus chuckled.

“Thank ya, me twin.” I gave him a wink. “So
two young lads go

to England, looking to lose their virginity
now that their parents not

be around. But it was a different time then.
Being into men could get

Joyee Flynn

151/412

ya killed so they decided they’d at least try
being with some bonnie

lasses before resigning themselves to the fact
that they be gay.”

“How did that go?” Brio chuckled.

“Not bad for me,” Fergus admitted as he gave
me an evil look.

“Finn almost got smashed by some lass’s tits
and stopped trying. He

really only likes men. If a gal be pretty
enough, I can swing her way,

but I prefer men.”

“Are you sad your mate isn’t a woman?” Brio
asked him

hesitantly.

152/412

“Not in the slightest.” The moment Fergus
said that, Brio’s bright

smile was back.

“So there the lad who almost died from the
lass trying to smother

him with her massive tits sat in a pub, trying
to drink himself silly

because he felt incompetent. And this hand-
some human man a little

older than the lad sits down at his table. He
looks the lad over and

offers him a gold piece to warm the man’s
bed.”

“What did you say?” Brio asked, his eyes
practically popping out

of his head.

153/412

“I told him I wasn’t a man of the night, thank
you very much, and

he shouldn’t assume things of people.” I
laughed at the memory.

“Nigel just eyed me over a moment and
laughed. He said he’d learned

a long time ago that most people just had a
price and they’d do

whatever he wanted but there were very few
people who had morals

and pride where they’d never do something
they thought as wrong.

“I politely told Nigel that I didn’t see any-
thing wrong with

bedding a man but my body wasn’t for sale.
Just then, Fergus came

154/412

and sat down, introducing himself, and I
thought Nigel was going to

swallow his tongue. He understood money
wouldn’t persuade us, but

he told us a tale of having a short life because
he had an illness of the

lungs and we would make his life worth liv-
ing if he could experience

twins.”

A Brio Grinder

“We couldn’t deny him his heart’s wish,” Fer-
gus drawled, giving

a snort. “So we gave in. We warned him we
had no idea what we

155/412

were doing and he swore he’d show us
everything. And did he ever.”

“Was he telling the truth about his illness?”
Brio asked after a

moment of us lost in the memories.

“Aye, he didn’t live long past thirty,” I
answered sadly. “So here

we are eighteen, just spent the weekend be-
ing taught the ways of

making love and hot sex with a man who
knows what he’s doing, and

we were hooked. Nigel obviously had money,
but what we didn’t

know was he was royalty. Seventh in line or
something and all they

156/412

did was look down at him. Being sick, which
wasn’t his fault of

course, made him weak and flawed in the
royal family’s eyes.

“Add to that his devious predilection of bed-
ding men and they

basically gave him gobs of money to stay out
of court and pretend he

was just a wealthy landowner or something.
He tells us all of this and

asks us to travel with him. He’ll show us the
world if we make his

years filled with fun and not let him die
alone when the time comes.”

“You said yes?” Brio asked in a shocked tone.
“After only a

157/412

weekend?”

“Not at first,” Fergus answered for us. “We
said we needed time

to make that kind of commitment because
we didn’t know how long

he had. Honestly it was more we didn’t know
if it was going to be a

decade and then he’d see we didn’t age or
who knew. But I wanted to

say yes right away. There was just something
about Nigel, Brio. We

weren’t ever in love with him, but we loved
him right from the start.

“There was something so wounded and vul-
nerable about him that

158/412

ya just wanted to protect. But at the same
time he was a lot like you.

Nigel was very glass half full, there was al-
ways something to be

grateful for, and the like. It was infectious
really.”

“So we wrote home and told them we were
extending our trip a

couple of months and would write soon. We
told Nigel we’d give him

that time to see if this could work or if we
were even compatible as

traveling partners,” I said, picking up the
story. “We were young. It

Joyee Flynn

159/412

never even registered to us really that we’d
be leaving our family high

and dry since they’d be two men down on the
farm now.”

“We just wanted to go,” Fergus admitted
with a half shrug. “How

many eighteen-year-olds get the chance to
travel with a wealthy,

handsome man that they’re smitten with?
And Nigel was only twenty

so it wasn’t like a creepy arrangement. He
liked us and we liked him.”

“And you just did that for twelve years?” Brio
asked with wide

eyes.

160/412

“At first it was just fun. We’d go see places,
have sex, hang out,

absorb the culture,” I explained with a sad
smile. “But getting blood

was difficult. Normally one of us would cover
with Nigel and the

other would sneak off and eat. He figured it
out and asked us to

change him.”

“Oh boy, that must have been a rough
conversation.”

“Aye it was,” I whispered, my heart still hurt-
ing when I thought

about it. “I never felt like such a bastard.
Sure, Nigel built it all up in

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his head that we could save him and such, we
never led him to believe

that, but then we had to tell him that’s not
how things worked and

crush his spirits. He took it well but I could
see that lingering doubt

for a while that he thought we just didn’t
want to turn him.”

“That went away after we met another vam-
pire in Italy and he told

Nigel what we had,” Fergus said, chipping in
on the tale. “And then

he’d help us feed because I think it just
turned him on. He asked us to

take from him but he was sick so it would
have tasted funny and the

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last thing his body needed was stress from
replenishing blood.”

“After a couple months traveling with him,
we really liked him,” I

explained, getting back to the original ques-
tion. “He was like our best

friend and lover all in one. And he had no
one, Brio. You have to

understand that. He didn’t have a single
family member who cared or

friend. People back then saw a man sick and
they stayed away, not

knowing it was Cystic Fibrosis like we do
now, but that he was ill and

they might get it.

A Brio Grinder

163/412

“And humans saw sick and thought weak. So
you wouldn’t

believe the shit they’d pull on Nigel. People
he hired to drive the

carriage beat him up once and took all his
money while we were

checking out of an inn.”

“God, was it hard not to kill those fuckers,”
Fergus growled. “I

don’t think it’s fair that we can’t kill when it’s
deserved and not turn

demon. We saw what those men had done.
They deserved to die.”

“Aye, they were as evil as demons,” I agreed.

164/412

“What did you guys do to them?” Brio asked
curiously.

“Drank from them and drove them mad,” I
chuckled. “We might

have been a little theatrical and then
dropped them off at the local

loony bin for their padded rooms. I thought
it was fitting just for all

the shit we saw that they did on their bios
when we used our gifts.”

“How bad was Nigel hurt?”

I smiled. Of course Brio would ask that. He
knew Nigel was long

gone but still he was concerned that the man
didn’t get hurt too badly

165/412

back then. “We ended up staying another few
nights at that inn while

he healed. After that, we knew we wouldn’t
leave him.”

“We knew someone would end up leaving
him dead in a ditch

somewhere after doing god knew what to our
friend,” Fergus

mumbled tiredly. “We couldn’t just leave
him. He was given such a

shitty hand in life, no family worth acknow-
ledging, no love, no

friends, nothing to hold on to. We let him
hold on to us. I just wished

we could have loved him like he always
wanted. We just couldn’t fall

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for him.”

I bit my lip to keep from laughing when my
twin started snoring

softly. “Guess he’s tired.”

“He’s been through hell today, you both
have,” Brio said gently.

Amen to that.

“To clarify, Nigel said he loved us all the time
but he wasn’t in

love with us either. Fergus just always
wanted such a good man to

experience true, deep love. That’s the one
thing we regret not being

able to give him before he died.”

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Joyee Flynn

“It had to be hard enough for you to lose a
lover and a friend like

that,” Brio said after a moment. “I’m sorry
for Nigel but I’m glad you

weren’t in love with him. It would have hurt
you both too badly to

lose a human you were in love with. I
wouldn’t have wanted that for

you.”

“It was hundreds of years ago, Brio,” I
chuckled.

“We both know that time really doesn’t heal
all wounds, it just

makes them easier to carry. Being in love
with a human you couldn’t

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save and had to watch die would have
wounded you for all your

years, Finn.”

I thought about that a moment and nodded.
“Aye, ya be right on

that. It took us almost a century to smile
when thinking about Nigel

instead of crying after we lost him. He was
like a triplet, but not really

since he was our lover and all. It’s just we fit
but not in a mates way.”

“What did your parents say when you de-
cided to stay?” Brio

asked after I went quiet a few minutes.

“He wanted to meet them. We’d been with
him almost a year

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when we’d officially decided to stay with
him, and we felt we owed

our parents and brothers an explanation. So
we made travel plans and

took Nigel home. Ma loved him instantly.
When we told her

everything, she said it be our duty to the man
after sharing his bed and

weaseling our red heads into his heart. So we
stayed a month to help

with the busy season on the farm and went
off again.

“Every year, Nigel would say we needed to go
back to Ireland to

help with the harvest. Honestly, he wanted to
go for him. He loved

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our family and they welcomed him. Sure he
wanted us to be able to

help our family but he never had what we did
growing up and he

soaked it up. I was glad he had that. About
three years in was the first

time we saw him get really sick, not just
coughs here and there like he

normally had. He collapsed in Paris cough-
ing up blood.

“It was one of the scariest moments of my
life until today. Fergus

was feeding and I was all alone with Nigel. I
had no clue what to do. I

just picked him up and started screaming in
French for a doctor. I got

171/412

A Brio Grinder

him there and told him what I knew about
his condition. It took Nigel

a few months to get better but he never got
to the same point he was

before. That was the horrible thing about his
sickness.”

“That it was scary?”

“No, not that,” I answered honestly. “Every
time it flared up on

Nigel, it changed him. He’d look older and
not be able to travel as

long, and his stamina would never recover
fully. It was just always

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there that he wouldn’t have a normal life or
live that much longer. It

was like death followed him around. And
here we were immortal and

unable to get sick. It just wasn’t fair and I
think it taught Fergus and I

to be grateful every damn day that we would
never have to suffer like

that.

“Nigel showed us so much of life and love
and how to appreciate

what ya have. When he was sick we’d read
together and he taught us

languages and all about history. We weren’t
ignorant farm boys or

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anything, but we didn’t have tutors or go to
University. Nigel was our

tutor really. So smart he was.

“As the years went on there was less and less
moving around and

making-love marathons. By the time he
turned twenty-seven his heart

couldn’t take the stress of sex. It broke me
heart when the doctor told

him that.”

“I can’t even imagine what that would be
like. God, the horrible

things humans can have to suffer.”

“Aye, but it didn’t keep Nigel down. He said
he’d be dirty through

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us. He’d watch us seduce some guy and take
him to bed, cheering and

directing like a voyeur. He’d say, the doctor
said I couldn’t fuck, not

have fun watching you fuck and touch
myself.”

“Sounds like my kinda guy. I would have
liked to have been his

friend and found you guys back then so I
could have met him too,”

Brio said with a chuckle. I smiled and gave
him another kiss for

saying that. Some mates would have been
jealous hearing all this but

not our Brio. He knew the past was, and
while it shaped the people we

175/412

Joyee Flynn

were it didn’t mean we’d prefer to be back
there centuries ago than

where we were with him now.

“In the end he asked us to kill him,” I admit-
ted, telling Brio the

one secret Fergus and I never told another
living soul. “I almost did

he was suffering so badly. I thought god
would forgive me for taking

away his pain and not make me a demon.
Fergus wouldn’t let me. He

was always stronger like that. We found an-
other way. We got a bottle

176/412

of what they used for pain back then and we
were going to let Nigel

make his own choice.

“He thanked us and said he wanted just one
last time with us first.

We couldn’t do the full deed but we could
play. His heart didn’t hold

out so we didn’t even need the drugs. He
died in our arms where he

wanted to be most.”

“Oh god, I knew he wasn’t still alive but
hearing that still breaks

my heart,” Brio whispered sadly and sniffled.
“You know you gave

him the best way to go, being loved by the
two of you. If I have to die

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that’s my vote on how to go out.”

“He always said that too,” I chuckled quietly.
“We called the

doctor to confirm it and then we packed
everything and traveled with

Nigel’s body back to England so his family
would know. It was his

one wish after he died. He might not have
been treated like a royal or

worth anything in his life, but he knew his
family’s honor and they

would bury him right. He wanted that.

“His mother made sure of it. I actually liked
the woman. Her

husband was a bastard and back then a wo-
man couldn’t stand up to a

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man as me ma did always, but Nigel’s moth-
er truly loved him. She

blamed herself that he was sick as if she’d
done something wrong

during his pregnancy. People didn’t know
back then what we do now.

So that was what they thought. A child was
sickly and it was the

mother’s fault somehow.”

“Was she glad you brought him home?”

“Yeah, she asked if we made his last years
good ones and we

swore we did everything we could for him.
She tried to give us money

A Brio Grinder

179/412

and jewels as a thank-you but we said no. We
didn’t want payment

for what we did. We did it for Nigel. He did
give us each a jeweled

bracelet once during the good years before
he really started to get

sick. We both still have them. It’s our re-
membrance of our friend and

loved one.”

“You miss him,” Brio said, knowing it wasn’t
a question.

“I miss my friend who could make me laugh
no matter what,” I

explained. “If he were here he’d look at Fer-
gus and say, that be a

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right bad twist of luck, Fergus. You have too
nice a cock to only have

one hand to show it love to. Let me lend you
one so it doesn’t get

lonely. ”

“So something totally inappropriate that he
somehow got away

with,” Brio chuckled.

“Basically,” I agreed. “He just always knew
what to say to lighten

the mood and I think that’s why we were
telling you all this tonight.

I’m just at a loss of what to say, Brio. He’s me
twin and I don’t know

how to help him or what to tell him to ease
this for him. We could

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have lost our ma but he saved her. Do I think
that’s worth him losing

an arm? Aye, but that’s not what I should say
to him.”

“What do you want to say to him?” he asked
me gently.

I thought about that a moment. “That I be
proud of him. He saved

our ma. He be the bravest son of a bitch I
know. He sent me to get

help and went running right into danger.
Most men wouldn’t do that

and I’m in awe of him.”

“I think you know just what to say to your
twin, Finn. That would

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make anyone feel less depressed about losing
their arm. You have a

good heart. Just be honest with Fergus. He’s
got to know you well

enough to understand what you always
mean.”

“Aye, ya be right about that,” I agreed with a
yawn. “Fergus is a

sarcastic bastard but he never jumps the
gun. He always listens and

makes sure he understands what someone
saying before responding.

He’s a good man like that.”

Joyee Flynn

183/412

“So are you,” Brio whispered as he kissed the
top of my head. “I

was twice blessed by fate when she said she’d
give me you guys as

my mates.”

“As were we, Brio. As were we,” I mumbled
as sleep pulled me

under. We were the lucky ones, that was for
sure.

A Brio Grinder

184/412

Chapter 5

Micah

“Got your formulas set and your old project
notes dusted off?” I

asked Riley as we ate breakfast. He’d spent
most of the night at

Isaac’s checking Brighid O’Hagan’s vitals in
between cat naps just in

case he was needed. He got a pass for never
crawling into bed with

me last night because it was Brighid.

“No, not even close,” Riley answered sadly.
“I’ve got boxes and

boxes of notes and files and tests from my
old lab and studies. I have

no idea how I’m going to get through it all.”

“Who’s the best mate ever?” I batted my eye-
lashes for him just

for effect.

“You are of course but what did you do?” He
raised a sexy,

curious eyebrow at me that set my heart
beating a little faster.

“Well,

every

medical

genius

needs

minions—”

“That’s evil genius, my love,” Riley snickered.

“No, no, that’s just not accurate. Nice geni-
uses have minions too.

They’re called interns.” I wiggled my eye-
brows at him. “They want to

186/412

be like the genius one day and they chomp at
the bit to train or even

be around said genius. I’ve watched House. I
know how this works in

the human world. There’s no reason we can’t
have that too.”

“I won’t take an apprentice. I’ve told the
High Council that.

Teaching someone what I know is a full-time
job when there are

Universities built just for that reason,” Riley
argued.

Joyee Flynn

“Agreed. That’s not what I’m talking about.
When you were done

187/412

with school you studied at a human hospital
and learned what doctors

on the job for years could teach you.”

“Yes, when I was an intern—oh!”

“Ding, ding, ding, ding,” I teased when I
practically saw the light

bulb go off over his head.

“What my son is saying in his charming, sar-
castic way,” Father

chuckled, shaking his head at my antics.
“When you refused the High

Council’s request to take an apprentice years
ago, apparently you

started quite the trend in the non-warrior
communities.”

188/412

“I’m a lot of things, Desmond, but trend set-
ter is not one of them,”

Riley said apprehensively. “What are you
guys talking about?”

“Some vampires who went through their ap-
prenticeship or who

wanted one with you, but you said no, went
to human medical

school,” I answered with a big smile. “I
talked to my father after

Christmas about getting you more medical
help. He put out feelers if

we had any trained professionals who’d want
to work with you.”

“You guys did that for me?” Riley asked with
wide eyes.

189/412

“I’d do anything for you, my love,” I
answered honestly. “And it’s

for everyone too. Look how much you’ve
done by yourself. Now you

have the margays helping on the technical
side and every coven

around the world will have the ultraviolet
ammunition soon. Then

they’re going to get to work on security sys-
tems. But they’re tech

guys, not science. What if you had a whole
team of brains just

working to solve shit and make life safer?”

“We’d rule the world,” Riley said so firmly
and seriously that I

190/412

did a double take. He threw back his head
and gave a really, really

convincing and somewhat creepy evil laugh.

“Please don’t do that again.” Father shivered
as I nodded in

agreement.

“But I’m getting good at it,” Riley chuckled.
“This is awesome

news. So you’ve got a few minions for me to
help go through my

research?”

A Brio Grinder

I glanced at my father. Now came the hard
part. “Well, we have

191/412

more than a few who turned out for the
interview.”

“Really?” Riley asked excitedly. “How many
could we have that

are qualified?”

“Thirty-three,” I answered with a shrug. “I
don’t know about

qualifications but Father told the covens
what we were looking for

and I’m sure there are varying degrees.”

“There is one I would like to ask special con-
sideration for,” Father

said carefully. “Or not that you give him a job
when he’s not

qualified, but maybe we just find something
for him even if it’s

192/412

gopher work.”

“Who?” I asked, seeing my father was un-
comfortable with

bringing it up. “You wouldn’t ask this if it
wasn’t important, Father.”

“Adley Milton. Elena and I were friends with
his parents. They

died last year, and while Adley’s of age, we
offered him the chance to

stay here. He said he had too much to tend to
on the West Coast to

move but I think he was scared. We’ve
checked in on him with his

coven leader and Adley’s been withdrawn,
not doing much else but

studying from what he could tell.

193/412

“But with the attacks and mandates for
everyone to come back to

the safety of the covens, Adley barely was
able to finish his degree

before Christmas. He was applying to medic-
al schools so I was

thrilled when I saw his application in the
pile.”

“Let me see it,” Riley said as he held out his
hand. “We can find

something for him, for sure, Desmond. But
depending on his grades

and his course load, I might really be in need
of his credentials for this

project.”

194/412

I watched as Father flipped through the stack
of files and picked

one out before handing it to Riley. Then I
tried not to hover over

Riley’s shoulder while he read what was in
the file, but when my

mate burst out laughing I couldn’t take it
anymore.

“What? Is that a good or bad laugh?” Father
asked, beating me to

it.

Joyee Flynn

“Desmond, Adley has two degrees, one in
biology and one in

195/412

chemical engineering from Caltech!”

“That’s good? I don’t know human colleges,”
I hedged, glancing

at Father. I saw he had no clue either.

“Yeah, it’s one of the best colleges in the
country and probably

the world for engineering. He could probably
dance circles around my

notes and read them backwards. I want to
meet him right away,” my

mate said in his excited voice.

“They’re in the sitting room,” I chuckled.
“Pick a few out to start

with and show me where the boxes are in
storage downstairs and

196/412

we’ll get them set up in the library or
something. As sorry as I am for

Fergus O’Hagan, the timing of them all being
set to arrive to

interview with you this week is amazing. I so
get brownie points for

this idea.”

“Yes, yes, you do, my mate,” Riley agreed,
giving me a heated

leer. Oh good, those kind of points. Yeah me!

I jogged after my excited mate as he raced
out of the kitchen

seconds later. When he got to the sitting
room and saw thirty plus

vampires waiting to meet him, he smiled
widely.

197/412

“I’m thrilled to have you all here and I’m
sorry I’m not prepared

for the interviews,” he said as he glanced at
me. “My mate tends to

surprise me with wonderful ideas and solu-
tions. However, that means

since I just found out you were all here, I
haven’t looked at your files

yet. So please be patient with me. There are
going to be lots of

projects and research depending on how
qualified you all are and

what you can bring to the table.

“With the budget I’ve recently been granted
by the High Council

198/412

to do research I could hire you all and add a
wing onto the hospital

just for research. I do want to do some ex-
panding so we’re fully

equipped in case of another attack like in
Florida. We need to start

training doctors who can go out in the field
now that we have Queen

Magdalena on our side and she can open a
portal to anywhere.”

A Brio Grinder

“I’ve been training with the warriors in Eng-
land for a field rating

and I have my medical license. I was trained
at Oxford,” one woman

199/412

said in a thick British accent.

“Wonderful. I’m a Harvard man,” Riley
chuckled. “Okay, then

you get the second interview, but I do want
to speak with an Adley

Milton with the impressive Caltech resume.”
He waited until a young

man stepped forward and nodded. “Good.
Something has come up

and before we work on much else, I need to
revisit my old cloning

project.

“If anyone has specialized knowledge in ge-
netics, biology, or any

field that would be helpful for that, please let
Micah know right away.

200/412

I’m sorry to prioritize you guys like this when
you’ve come all this

way to interview for research positions, but
this is an emergency

situation and things change.”

“All the time, actually, so be flexible and
ready for anything or

you won’t fit here,” I added, needing to make
sure they understood

this is how life was around here and would
be working with Riley.

Otherwise they’d be more of a headache to
my mate than help.

“Ain’t that the damn truth,” Riley drawled as
he waved Adley

201/412

forward. I gave him a wink as he started to
leave the room with his

candidate, but then he stopped and tossed
me a notebook. “Get names

of those who can help Fergus with any spe-
cialty. I’ll interview them

first and we’ll get boxes out of storage next. I
love you.”

“Love you too. I’ll get refreshments for your
potential minions.”

“Don’t call them that,” Riley growled quietly.
“That lady from

Oxford might be as qualified as I am, Micah.
I don’t know their

levels.”

202/412

“That’s alright. I very much like the idea of
being a minion,” the

woman joked from the other room. “It makes
me feel like we’re going

to take over the world from the demons and I
need to practice my evil

laugh.”

Joyee Flynn

“Yeah, she’ll fit right in here,” Father
drawled as he walked by on

the way to his study. “And your mother will
be thrilled to have more

estrogen in the house besides her and Mari-
an. Good call on this, son.”

203/412

“Thanks, Father. Thanks for making it
happen.”

“Hey, I’m all about the idea of getting a
think-tank full of Riley-

type minds together for research and plot-
ting. Not sure they can top

the motorcycles we got for Christmas, but I
do love toys.”

Riley and I both burst out laughing as my
father sauntered off to

his study. That was true for sure. We were a
family who loved their

toys.

* * * *

Brio

204/412

The next morning Finn was already awake
and out of bed when I

got up. Fergus was still out and I was glad for
that. He needed to rest

to heal from what happened and build up his
strength for whatever

would be the outcome of his arm.

I thought about what they had told me the
night before about

Nigel and their time with him. Most partners
wouldn’t want to hear

specifics or know all about their time with
someone else… But to me

it was about Finn and Fergus and I learned a
lot about them from

205/412

listening to them. I smiled as I brushed my
teeth.

They both had such big hearts. I could tell
they loved fiercely,

with their very souls, and that was what I
had always hoped for in my

mates. And I was excited to hear about how
they loved to travel. I

wanted that too. When things settled down
and all the covens were

secured again after adjusting to their chan-
ging numbers and additions,

I wanted to travel. There was no reason we
couldn’t travel as guests

from coven to coven around the world and
stay safe.

206/412

I wanted to see it all and experience it all
with my mates. I didn’t

know if you could fall in love with someone
after just a night but I

A Brio Grinder

knew in my heart I was falling for my hot
twins. I already adored

them and to me that was a big part of loving
someone.

When I was done in the bathroom, I headed
towards the smell of

coffee. “Good morning,” I purred as I
wrapped my arms around Finn

from behind after joining him in the kitchen.
“How is my wonderful

207/412

mate this morning?”

“Worried, happy, sad, excited all in one big
ball of nerves,” he

admitted with a sigh as he leaned back
against me. “Ma woke up early

this morning. Ya had a message on your
phone. I hoped it was still

okay for me to check it like ya said
yesterday.”

“Of course. I have no secrets from you guys.
There might be

goofy messages from friends figuring out
how to use the technology,

but nothing I wouldn’t want you guys to see.”
I shrugged and kissed

his cheek.

208/412

“That might be why ya got a picture of
someone’s toes,” Finn

chuckled, shaking his head. “Elan sent it say-
ing he was trying to

figure out how to send pictures from his
phone but he didn’t know

what to take a picture of. So he went with his
pedicure that he swears

he’s never getting again no matter what the
Queen says it’s good for.”

“Painted toes?” I asked, trying to keep my
composure.

“No, but they were pretty,” Finn snickered,
shaking his head. “I’m

glad he’s having fun learning about our
world.”

209/412

“Yeah, it’s been a trip to watch most of my
friends learn how

things are here,” I agreed as I poured myself
some coffee. I took a sip

and moaned. “You like it strong too. Good.
Cream and sugar?”

“Nah, just a little bit of sugar but we both like
it black.”

“Me too,” I chuckled. Score one for another
way that we fit

together.

“I meant to ask ya yesterday,” Finn hedged
as he turned and

divided up the scrambled eggs he’d made
onto three plates. “I don’t

210/412

mean to insult ya or anything, but ya don’t
seem to have acclimating

issues to this world like ya friends are. Grow-
ing pains if ya will.”

Joyee Flynn

“I’ve been here many times over the centur-
ies,” I explained as I

helped set the table quickly. “My job as a
warrior is basically being a

spy.”

“I’m sorry. Come again?” he asked with wide
eyes.

“I didn’t steal information, or do anything il-
legal like in bad spy

211/412

movies,” I chuckled, shaking my head. “Let
me get Fergus up so he

can eat and hear this all at once instead of
me repeating it again.”

“Fair enough,” Finn agreed, eyeing me over
suspiciously. It was

hard not to laugh. There was nothing unto-
ward I’d done or anything

he might be thinking.

I jogged back into the main bedroom and
slid my arms under the

covers to get Fergus. Then I picked him up
and started kissing along

his neck as I carried him back to the kitchen.

“Best dream ever,” he groaned as he ran his
fangs over my neck.

212/412

“So fucking hot and I smell coffee.”

“You can’t drink from me,” I blurted out as I
pulled his face away

from my neck. “Queen Magdalena has to
take the spell off my blood

or it will drive you crazy.”

“Huh?” the twins both asked as they looked
at me as if I’d eaten

the non-salad kind of mushrooms. I
chuckled as I sat Fergus into a

chair and filled them in as we started eating.

“Can we go see her after we visit Ma?” Finn
asked hopefully. “I

want to go see her now that she’s awake but
yeah, I’d like to drink

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from my mate one day.” His eyes went wide
and he shot a glance to

Fergus. “If you’re okay with that and all of
course.”

“Yeah, I’d love for you guys to drink from
me. Asterio says it’s

quite pleasurable,” I assured them. “I’ll call
the Queen after breakfast

and see if she can fit us in her schedule. I’m
sure she’d like to discuss

what she’s found about Fergus’s arm as
well.”

“Okay, so we have a plan for today. Now tell
us about being a

spy,” Finn said hesitantly, sharing another
one of those looks with his

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twin that I couldn’t interpret yet.

A Brio Grinder

“Really? A spy were ya?” I could hear the
surprise and confusion

in Fergus’s tone.

“Not like secret-agent spy,” I chuckled, shak-
ing my head in

between taking bites of Finn’s delicious
breakfast. “More like a

what’s new in the parallel world and how
can it maybe help the fae

kind of spy.” They both blinked at me as if to
say that made no sense

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to them so I tried again. “Okay, so the world
of fae was on a different

plane. You get that right, with portals to
come here but it was like in a

folded fabric of what was real and hidden.”

“Aye, we get that in theory but we weren’t
ever there so we

understand what you’re telling us but only to
a certain point,” Finn

told me cautiously.

“Okay, I can work with that.” I thought about
where to start and

then just figured the beginning was best and
work from there. “So the

world was sustained by fae elder magic and
was like a copy of one of

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the tropical islands in your Caribbean from
what I’m told. But we

didn’t have everything you have here in this
huge world. Like the

Queen can make gold but not iron and we
didn’t have any over there.”

“Ya said that before, that the Queen can
make gold. Does she spin

like in the fairy tale?” Fergus asked and then
frowned. “I didn’t mean

that as an insult if it came out that way. We
just don’t know much

about the fae. I saw a glimpse of your wings
in the shower but ya

covered them back up before bed.”

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“I’ve not seen them at all,” Finn said with a
pout.

“I didn’t want to make you guys uncomfort-
able. We learn early to

tuck our wings back and away because they
can get in the way and

now that we’re on this plane we don’t want to
draw attention to

ourselves.” I smiled when they both stuck
out their lower lips at me.

“I’ll show you after breakfast and you can
look your fill.”

“Nice,” Fergus chuckled as Finn smiled
widely. “The pout works

with our mate. Nice.”

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Joyee Flynn

“Brats,” I grumbled playfully. “So anyways I
can’t tell you how

the Queen makes gold. She doesn’t talk
about it. She just has an

endless supply really.”

“She’d tell Ma,” Finn said firmly. “Ma can get
anyone to tell her

anything. It’s her gift and even when she
doesn’t mean to use it, it still

happens like plant life responding to Brian
and Banning. Ya just

always want to tell the truth around Ma.”

I shrugged. I couldn’t say either way. “So we
didn’t have things

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like they did in this world and the plane was
created thousands and

thousands of years ago with maybe twenty
thousand fae at the time or

however many there were. But then we were
closed off and secluded.

The way this plane was with technology was
like a hundred years ago.

We had electricity, but we couldn’t build a
car factory there and the

plane had been shrinking so there wasn’t
much land to drive anyways.

“We still used horses and candles most
times, and lived simply.

But there were several of us who had the
duty of checking out this

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world for advances we could use. For in-
stance, medicines. The fae

don’t get sick but we can get injured as you
guys can and there’s stuff

that can speed up the process.”

“So ya didn’t spy really as just procure
things,” Finn offered and I

thought about that for a moment.

“Yeah, that explanation would work. I’d
come over once a year

just for books. I’d see what was new and
mind enriching, purchase

several large trunks’ worth for the library,
and send them through the

portal when it was opened. Elan and I
worked side by side for many

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years. His job was sales. He’d sell crafts that
our people made after

we brought it all over to this world. I’d buy
stuff and then we’d head

back.”

“And ya did this once a year?” Fergus asked
curiously with a look

that clearly said that’s an easy job.

“No,” I chuckled, shaking my head. “We did
it many times a year.

Elan hasn’t been for about a decade because
he got tired of it and we

A Brio Grinder

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rotate out when it gets to be constant travel-
ing, but I liked it. Makari

has been on the detail with me and we’ve be-
come great friends.”

“So ya like traveling,” Finn said with a smile.

“I do. I was thinking earlier that when things
calm down we can

travel from coven to coven. We’d be protec-
ted within their walls and

still see sights. I’d like to take a trip a year. I
know the Queen wants

to and I can get on her security detail so we
can go with.”

“That would be great,” Fergus replied with a
tight smile.

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“You don’t want to?” I asked gently as I took
his hand in mine.

“Or you’re having trouble making plans past
what’s going on with

your arm right now.”

“It’s hard to focus on much else right now,”
he admitted with a

wince. “Sorry.”

“No, you have nothing to be sorry for. We’re
just talking and we

understand completely.” I saw Finn nod in
agreement and I was

grateful he and I were thinking the same
thing.

“So what else would you acquire besides
books?” Fergus asked

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when the silence dragged on. We went back
to eating and if talking

about my previous job for my Queen would
take his mind off his arm,

I was more than willing to ramble as long as
he needed.

“Well I should start by telling you that for the
past few years

Makari and I lived on this plane. We got a
condo and that way the

portal was just always opened there. And
someone doesn’t always

have to come through the portal, but like a
trunk can just be shoved

through. I can’t tell you how many times I’d
stumble to the kitchen

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for coffee and trip over a trunk of gold and
lists of what people

wanted.

“But the portal worked both ways. We had an
activating stone that

basically turned the portal on. Makari and I
came up with a genius

way to handle our jobs, if I do say so myself.
He started selling stuff

online and set up a deal to sell the passion
berry scones our people

make with Starbucks.”

Joyee Flynn

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“Oh, I love those,” Finn purred. “You guys
make those for all the

Starbucks?”

“Not all of them, but like we’d ship a large
order to the major

cities and let them divvy them up however.
Brian and Banning are

going to start growing them here and keep
the deal we had with

Starbucks. That will make the bakers who
stayed here very happy.

But selling was Makari’s job and then we’d
have the money in the

accounts we set up and the Queen would give
the people their money

in gold on the other side.

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“Then we’d use that money, instead of her
sending more gold, and

buy things we were to acquire. It used to be
that I had to turn the gold

into the local currency and then buy
whatever. So this way made

things easier. Also, I love Amazon. I really
love Amazon. They were

out of paprika on the other plane, okay, or-
der a case of it from

Amazon and everything else I could on the
list.

“Once I got the boxes opened, sorted, and in
the trunk that could

go through the portal, I activated it and slid
it on through. Sure, I bet

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someone could have mixed it together them-
selves but the plane was

shrinking and that meant less room to grow
foods. It was just easier.

And if I wasn’t buying stuff on a list, I was
helping Makari or vice

versa. We were a good team and had a great
system going.”

“But you’re okay now that everyone came
over here, right? I

mean, there’s still a job for you?” Finn asked
me hesitantly as if

worrying he might be offending me.

“Yes. I have to train like your warriors and
I’ve been on

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assignment protecting Caven Magee, but the
Queen will probably

change that now that I found my mates.
She’s very fair and a good

person. She does come to me personally
about acquiring things still

because it’s not something she has much
time for. We’re very close.”

“Ya said she was like a ma to ya,” Fergus
said, pushing me a little

to elaborate.

“She is, or maybe a close aunt really. She’s
always been there for

me when I needed advice or guidance.”

A Brio Grinder

230/412

“Well we can’t wait to get to know her better
then. I was

unconscious most of the time,” Fergus
chuckled. “Call her and see if

she has time for us while we get ready to go
see Ma. I want to see her

up with me own eyes.”

“Aye, me too,” Finn agreed as they both
jumped to their feet. I

watched as they went to do Rock, Paper,
Scissors for who was going

to clean up, I assumed, but then they both
realized Fergus didn’t have

a hand to smack his fist into for the game
they both froze.

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“You cooked, I said I’d always clean up. I like
doing the dishes

and showing my appreciation,” I reminded
them, acting as if I didn’t

see what just happened. “Besides, I already
washed up. I just need to

change and call the Queen.”

“Alright, but we need to find a way for me to
help because I won’t

always be the one who takes and never gives
back,” Fergus said

firmly before storming towards the bedroom.
Finn sighed and

followed after his twin. Yeah, it was a tough
situation but I couldn’t

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think of how I should have handled that any
better.

I grabbed my phone from off the counter be-
fore starting to clear

the table from breakfast. I replied to Elan’s
text that his toes were

lovely before calling the Queen.

“Good morning, Brio. How are your mates?”
she asked, concern

in her voice.

“As best as one could hope under the circum-
stances. They are

very strong, your highness, and wonderful
men. I look forward to

spending countless centuries with them.”

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“Good, good. I’m sorry to say I don’t have an-
swers yet on an

option for Fergus. We’re combing through
some of the archives but

we don’t want to miss anything. Apologize to
him that I haven’t been

more diligent. I just can’t seem to get more
than an hour here and

there without someone needing me.”

“He understands, Queen Magdalena,” I
chuckled, shaking my

head at how I could just picture her yelling at
people to stop bothering

her so she could help Fergus. The woman
needed to delegate better at

234/412

Joyee Flynn

times, that was for sure. “I was actually call-
ing to see if there was any

way we could fit into your schedule today so
you could despell my

blood. I want to be able to provide what they
both need.”

“Of course you do. Let me pull up my calen-
dar on this infernal

phone,” she grumbled. While the Queen was
smart, beautiful, caring,

and wonderful… Patient she was not. Well, at
least when it came to

technology or her own limitations on being
able to use something.

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“I’m having lunch at Isaac’s house because I
wanted to see how the

O’Hagan woman was doing. Dammit! I know
her name. I’ve talked to

her before. Why can I not think of it now?”

“Brighid, your highness,” I said, knowing full
well the answer.

“And probably because you only slept a few
hours last night.”

“How did you know that, Brio?” she asked
suspiciously.

“Centuries of knowing you, my Queen,” I
answered, letting her

hear the fondness in my voice. “You never
stop, you never rest when

236/412

there’s someone who needs help. It’s one of
your greatest charms.”

“Thank you, my dear Brio.” I heard the same
love in her tone but

then she sighed. “If I didn’t just find my oth-
er mate I swear I’d be

worried about getting fat. That chocolate you
found me is divine. Is

there a chance of having more delivered? I
promise I’ll stop bothering

you about all these things one day—”

“It’s not a bother,” I growled, only cutting
her off because no one

was around and it was a personal call. “I love
you as family,

237/412

Magdalena. I was just telling my mates that
you’re like an aunt I’m

ever so close with. Don’t you dare say you are
ever bothering me. I

will make sure there is more of the Godiva
milk chocolate with

caramel inside sent right away.”

“And maybe some of the chocolate with pep-
permint that was in

the holiday basket too?” she chuckled. “My
mate was quite fond of

that as well and when that man is happy, I’m
happy.”

“I have the feeling I’m going to know what
that’s like real soon,”

238/412

I agreed. “I will have more sent. We are go-
ing to visit Brighid now

that she’s awake as soon as we finish getting
ready. Might we crash

A Brio Grinder

your lunch and handle the despelling there?”
I smiled because I had to

run back to my room at the Mariuses real
quick on the way after

hearing her request.

“That would be wonderful. I look forward to
getting to spend

some time with your mates and seeing you as
well. I’ve not had much

239/412

of a chance with you on Caven’s detail. We
need to figure out another

job for you as well now, Brio. You can’t be
someone’s constant guard

when mated.”

“Actually, Makari has been asking for my
help in acquiring things

for our people as we used to. They have so
much they’re acclimating

to in this world that I’ve been doing my best
to help them. It’s just

both jobs have been, um, taxing.”

“Meaning you’re doing two full-time jobs,”
she sighed. “Why did

you not tell me?”

240/412

“I’ve been okay with the distraction and extra
work because I’ve

been lonely,” I admitted. “But I’m mated
now. I won’t be lonely ever

again. And I like helping. Makari’s been
working with several others

on getting people’s gold into bank accounts
and documentation so

everyone’s legal here. I was thinking maybe
starting to give driving

lessons and helping with cell phones so we
can make sure everyone

blends in as best as possible.”

“Good, see it done. If you need someone else
to assist you, tell me

241/412

and I’ll have people to help you. I think that
is a wonderful idea and

one I wouldn’t want. But I do want to learn
to drive as I know many

do. Dawson is going to be teaching me
though, luckily for you.”

“Your hand-eye coordination is wonderful,
your highness.”

“Go ahead and say it. My patience levels are
not though,” she

teased. I couldn’t help it, I burst out laugh-
ing. No, no, they weren’t.

Joyee Flynn

242/412

Chapter 6

Fergus

By the time Brio pulled up to the Dragos es-
tate, I was hopping in

my seat, but not to see me ma and family. I
wanted to go back to the

secluded little cabin. Aye, I wanted to see me
ma with me own eyes

and know she was okay. I just didn’t want to
see the looks I knew

they would all give me. Pity.

I hadn’t realized it or prepared myself when I
had agreed we

should come see her. I didn’t know if I could
handle me family

looking at me like that. But it was a little too
late now.

“We don’t have to go inside,” Brio said gently
when after he

stopped the car and Finn practically leapt
out while I hadn’t moved. “I

can ask the Queen to come out here and pre-
form the spell so you guys

can drink from me. Or I can go in and check
on your mother for you

and give you a full report.”

“Ya would really do that for me, wouldn’t
ya?” I whispered in

awe. “Ya would go in there, brave me family,
telling them to leave

244/412

me be, and find out what I need to know just
so I didn’t have to sit

there while they look at me with pity.”

“Wouldn’t you do the same for me if the situ-
ation was reversed?”

he asked with that lopsided, sexy-as-hell grin
I already loved.

“Aye, but that doesn’t mean you’re not still
wonderful for being

willing to do it for me too,” I said as I leaned
closer to him. He smiled

and gave me the softest of kisses that left me
sighing against his lips.

“Just don’t be surprised if I hide behind you,
me mate.”

A Brio Grinder

245/412

“Hide away. I make a great door,” he
chuckled, as we got out of

his car. It was a nice ride and my mate had
taste. I had to give him

that.

“Oh my god, how are you?” Rory asked me as
I walked through

the door. He practically jumped me and was
concerned and all

worked up. “I can’t believe you’re up and
moving around today after

what happened! I’d be in the corner crying
my eyes out. I just don’t

know what I’d do—” Isaac cleared his throat
and Rory closed his

246/412

mouth and then took a deep breath. “I
ramble and say too much when

I’m nervous. I’m sorry. What I’m trying to
say is that you’re so

strong, Fergus.”

“I don’t know about that,” I chuckled
nervously and somewhat

bitterly. “Less weight to carry around now so
I’ll lose muscle besides

what I lost in me arm.” Wow. That sounded
horrible.

“Not funny,” Finn hissed at me.

“He gets a pass though,” Brio said firmly as
he wrapped his arm

around my shoulders gently. “This is hard so
he gets a pass for not

247/412

knowing what to say. So how’s Brighid? My
mates are excited to see

their mother awake.”

Everyone took his hint and Rory led the way
to our ma. I waited

until Brio and I were the last two not on the
stairs going up to her

room. Leaning into him, I kissed his chest
and stared up at him.

“Thank ya. Ya be the best mate ever and
we’ve not even had naked

sandwiches yet.”

“Sandwiches?” he asked as we trailed after
everyone else. I

explained the joke between me brothers
about one on each end for

248/412

their mates. Brio threw back his head and
laughed. “That’s awesome.

Yeah, I’m totally down. I have to warn you
that I’ve got Caleb beat

though. I am seven feet two inches after all.”

“Ya more than a foot long?” I gasped, eyeing
me mate over

appreciatively. “We need to be getting lots of
slick for ya then, me

mate.”

Joyee Flynn

“Aye,” he purred, nuzzling me neck. “How
about grinder? We

249/412

need to make some Brio grinders when we
get back to the cabin.”

“Oh yeah, that be hot,” I moaned as he
rubbed his hand down me

back and over me ass. “Grinder it is. I’ll tell
Finn that’s our new code

word.”

“Code word for what?” Rian asked from the
doorway of the room

everyone had gone into.

“Something private between mates,” Brio
chuckled as I stood

there shocked into silence. Then he extended
his hand to my brother.

“I’m Brio, Finn and Fergus’s mate.”

250/412

“Brio what?” Rian raised an eyebrow as he
shook me mate’s

hand. “Ya not be from a family with a last
name?”

“Rian,” I hissed, annoyed with me rude
brother. “The fae don’t do

things like that.”

“We go by the old ways. I’m Brio, son of
Balu. But that’s

outdated so I just say Brio. My father passed
anyways, but yeah, I’m a

thousand years old so that’s how the fae do
things and well it’s not

modern—”

“I think it’s romantic and special,” I said,
helping my rambling

251/412

mate out. “Like you’re too cool for a last
name. Ya be hot like Usher

and one of a kind like Madonna. Nothing
wrong with that.”

“Let’s see this man who’s hot like Usher
that’s mated to me sons,”

Ma called out from the room.

Thank you, Brio mouthed to me as we
walked into the room. I

gave him a wink. I’d have his back just as he
had mine. He didn’t ever

have to worry about that.

“There’s me boy,” Ma whispered when she
saw me. “How bad?”

“Lost the arm,” I answered quietly as all eyes
looked to me. “It

252/412

was worth it, Ma. Don’t worry. The fae
Queen, doc Riley, and the

King of the margays are coming up with op-
tions. The King said if I

go the bionic route he’s going to design for
me, I get a laser. It’s

going to be cool.”

A Brio Grinder

“I told ya to run, ya stupid, stupid boy,” she
sobbed as she took

my good hand and pulled me down to the
bed with her. “Why didn’t

ya run?”

253/412

“Would ya have?” I whispered as I ran my
fingers through her

hair and hugged her as best I could. “I would
have given both arms to

save ya, Ma. I be okay, really. We met our
mate and he’s wonderful.

It’s going to be okay and ya made it.”

“Because ya saved me. A ma is supposed to
save her cubs, not the

other way around.”

“We’re almost six hundred years old, Ma,”
Finn chuckled. “These

cubs have bite. Fergus be brave enough to
dive in to help. Don’t yell

at him for it. Ya raised us to fight and he
did.”

254/412

“Don’t be getting all logical on your ma when
she’s weepy,” she

bitched at Finn and then kissed me cheek. “I
love ya, yeah?”

“Love ya too, Ma. You’re going to like our
mate.”

“Of course I am. Fate picked him for ya,
didn’t she?” Ma teased,

wiping the tears in her eyes as I sat up. “I
wouldn’t be here if not for

ya, Fergus. Ya know that, right?”

“The Queen and doc Riley saved ya. I just
jumped in the fight.” I

gave her a wink when she shot me her disap-
proving look, letting me

255/412

know full well she wasn’t buying it. I stood
back up next to me mate

and gave her my best smile. “Fine, ya got
your onetime save from me

then.”

“Onetime save?” Finn asked, raising an eye-
brow at me.

“Aye, that’s why mas have children. Each
time they birth a brat,

they get a free lifesaving coupon. She used
hers from me now. Save

her life because she gave me life,” I ex-
plained, blinking innocently at

the room.

“That be why I birthed so many of ya, huh? I
get lots of

256/412

lifesavings that way?” Ma asked, waiting un-
til I nodded before

bursting out laughing. “Fergus, ya have the
smartest ass.”

“And one of the firmest I’ve ever seen,” Brio
breathed in me ear

so no one else would hear him. I got so
turned on I knew Finn would

Joyee Flynn

feel it and sure enough, his head snapped to-
wards us with a

questioning look. “Interesting. I can turn you
both on and get you

wound up with a comment to one. I forgot
you guys could feel each

257/412

other’s emotions.”

“How did ya know that?” I asked, confused
because I didn’t

remember us saying anything about it to him
yet.

“Oh, well, um,” he stuttered as his face went
pale.

“Brio, how did ya know we could feel what
the other does?” I

asked again when he wouldn’t answer, wor-
ried that something was

off and maybe he really was a spy.

“He doesn’t want to bring up when you were
hurt,” Finn

explained gently. “I felt what ya were and
told Brio about it. Nothing

258/412

crazy or some masterminded plan, Fergus.
Ya were just out.”

“Now why do you assume I went straight to
masterminded plan,”

I drawled, rolling my eyes at him.

“Really? I knew ya went there too,” Ma
snickered. “Ya always

think

something

evil

plot

conspiracy.”

“Hey, there are lots of evil plots and conspir-
acies in the world. I

just don’t get them all right. I’ve called more
than my fair share

though.”

“Aye, ya have at that,” Finn agreed with a
snort. “Be ready, me

259/412

mate. Fergus likes to read every conspiracy
book that comes out and

has gobs of notes on them all. I swear the
man knows where Jimmy

Hoffa be buried.”

“I will not confirm nor deny that I have sus-
picions and possible

locations mapped out.” I stuck me tongue
out at me twin to let him

know there weren’t any hard feelings. “I
wasn’t going to tell our mate

just yet that he got stuck with a couple of cra-
zies. I thought that was at

least third-day kind of information.”

“Wait a second, me twin,” Finn gasped as he
stared at me with

260/412

wide eyes. “How am I in the crazy category
now?”

A Brio Grinder

“Really? Ya think I’m there alone?” I
snickered, shaking me head.

“How many times have ya read those same
romance books ya have

under your bed?”

“Ya swore never to tell anyone about those,”
he growled at me.

“We all know about that too,” Ma chuckled.
“Ya can’t live in a

house the size of ours and not know just
about everything about each

261/412

other.” She frowned and I winced, knowing
she was going through

the same thing we had yesterday. “We can’t
go back to the farm. We

have to give up the land.” She looked at me
das then with tears in her

eyes. “What will we do?”

“We’ll be just fine, me sweet lass,” me da
Michan told her. “Ya

are going to relax, rest, and get your strength
back up. We can go stay

with Liam and Lorcan and help them out
with everything they’ve got

going on. Or we can stay with Brian and
Banning—”

262/412

“No, they have their own vineyard now. They
don’t need their

parents coming to live with them and start
telling them how things

are. That’s their show and they are in charge.
Could ya take orders on

what to do for the harvest from your lads?” I
saw both my fathers

wince and shake their heads. Good call.

“You’re more than welcome to live here,”
Isaac said from the

corner where he and Rory were smiling.
“You guys are family.

Dillon’s going to take over one of the master
suites in the other wing

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of the house for him, Shane, and Sean.
There’s one on every level in

each wing.”

“We’re staying here too,” I informed our par-
ents. “Brio just

bought a house on a five-acre plot of land.
He says it’s nice and

almost done being built.”

“What about farming?” our da Manus asked.
“All our lads love to

farm. It’s in their blood.”

“We talked to Brian and Banning,” Shane
said with a shrug. “We

start there when we’re ready. We’re used to
taking orders from them

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with them being the oldest. Dillon was wel-
comed back by his High

Council with open arms so we can live here
and be happy.”

Joyee Flynn

“And ya two?” Da asked Finn and I.

“They have other talents they love just as
much,” Ma said quickly,

putting on her fake smile. “I think they
should make their furniture

full-time. They’re very gifted designers.” Of
course Ma knew the

truth about how we didn’t like farming. That
woman knew

265/412

everything.

“Well, Finn can make it,” I grumbled. “I can
still draw it with me

right hand but I can’t help him.”

“Not until ya get your bionic arm and then ya
could probably

move faster than me,” Finn said with a smile.
“No worries. We still

have to move into Brio’s, see if there’s a place
we can work, and so

on. We’ve got to pack everything up in
Ireland.”

“Ireland,” I whispered, thinking back to the
attack and something

finally clicking in me head that had been
bugging me subconscious.

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“How were the demons out during the day?
It was dusk when they

attacked, not dark.”

“Apparently they can handle some sunlight if
they have certain

shifter blood,” Dillon explained, wiping his
hands over his face in

agitation. “We weren’t told because there
haven’t been any demons in

Ireland in a long, long time. That’s why the
High Council didn’t

require Western Europe to move into covens.
It’s a long, complicated,

stupid explanation. They screwed up. We
should have known more

about what was going on.”

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“Sorry I didn’t tell you. I swear I thought our
Council updated the

other Councils and the information was be-
ing passed on,” Isaac said

quietly, looking grief stricken.

“We did update the other High Councils,” a
gorgeous woman said

as she gracefully entered the room. “We can’t
force them to take what

we say seriously though. We can’t make
them do what we feel is the

safest avenue for our people.”

“Amen to that,” Michan drawled. “We’re on
the High Council

though and we didn’t know. Someone must
have told the head of the

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High Council and he didn’t tell the rest of us
peons.”

A Brio Grinder

“I really hate that man,” Manus grumbled.
Our das had hated the

head of the Western Europe High Council for
as long as I had been

alive… Probably longer. “And we’re not let-
ting his negligence go. I’d

bet me favorite horse that he didn’t think it
was worth dealing with

because it involved the fae or the margays.
Fucking bigot.”

“Your highness,” Brio said as he dropped to
one knee in front of

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her.

“Do we kneel? Or is it a bow since we’re not
under her rule?” I

asked me twin in a mumble.

“Fuck if I know. I was going to shake her
hand and say thanks for

saving Ma. The only royalty we’ve been
around was Nigel and he

hated that crap and his family were dicks
that I wouldn’t help much

less bow to.” Finn winced when he realized
everyone was listening to

him. “Our bad.”

“Not at all,” the Queen chuckled as she let
Brio kiss her hand. “I

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think the bonds you have between your twins
fascinating. I’ve seen

your brothers Brian and Banning have whole
conversations with just a

look. And you’re right, I’m not your Queen,
and while I’m not big on

formalities a slight bow or head dip is a typ-
ical gesture if you don’t

full out kneel like Brio. But greet me however
you wish. I won’t zap

you like I do my warriors when they step out
of line.”

I went with my gut, and the moment she
took her hand back from

Brio I walked right over to her and hugged
her. “Thank ya for saving

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our ma and thank ya for always being good
to our mate. He said

you’re family to him. And thank ya for look-
ing into giving me back

me arm.”

“I get hugs so rarely,” she whispered in my
ear as she returned the

gesture. “So thank you for making sure I
knew you truly cared.”

“Me pleasure,” I chuckled, holding her as
best as I could.

“Now, let’s get this spell off Brio so you can
get your sustenance

from your mate.”

272/412

Joyee Flynn

I caught Brio’s heated look and had to
repress shivering from the

lust in it. Then I felt a thrill go through Finn
and knew he was feeling

the same thing. Nice.

We ended up moving to the room next door
to Ma’s for some

privacy. It was a little weird for both of us to
straddle Brio’s lap, sink

our fangs into him, but not drink all while
the Queen was watching.

Then she said some words in a language I
didn’t recognize.

“It’s done. His blood is safe for you to drink.
I’ll give you some

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privacy but I would like to come for dinner
tonight and discuss

options with Fergus more.”

“You’re always welcome wherever we are, my
Queen,” Brio said

affectionately and since my fangs were in his
neck, I just gave her a

thumbs-up.

“A thousand blessings on your mating and
may you have many

more than that in years,” she whispered and
then I heard her kiss

Brio’s head. “You deserve all the love they
can give you and more,

Brio, my heart. Always be open to it.”

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“I will do my best, Magdalena. Thank you for
always showing me

what it meant to have someone love me for
all the right reasons.”

“It’s a Queen’s job,” she chuckled, shrugging
off the compliment.

Yeah right, that lady was a big fat fibber like
our ma when it came

to certain things. Queen’s job me arse. She
loved Brio like family.

The moment we heard the door click shut,
signaling the Queen

left and we were alone with our mate, I
drank deeply from Brio. All

three of us moaned together, but I’m sure for
different reasons. It had

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been so long since I’d had blood from the
source, and now to taste my

mate? I was in heaven. He tasted like a sweet
red wine and chocolate

marshmallow candy.

When it was time to stop, I retracted my
fangs, and licked the bite

closed. “Ya taste amazing.”

“Aye, ya really do,” Finn agreed as we both
snuggled up against

our massive mate.

A Brio Grinder

“Glad to be of service,” Brio chuckled in his
deep timbre. I felt the

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vibrations in his chest move out into mine. It
was a comforting

feeling, like listening to a lover’s heartbeat. It
was something special.

“Something’s wrong,” I gasped as intense
pain radiated out of my

healed-over stump. My pulse raced and
when I lifted my head, my

world was spinning on an axis. I felt the
wound reopen and blood

gushed onto Brio and me. “What did you do
to me?”

That’s all I got out before I threw up all over
and felt as if I was

going to die.

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Joyee Flynn

278/412

Chapter 7

Brio

I did the only thing I could think of. I
screamed for help.

“Magdalena, help!” I ripped off my shirt and
wrapped it around

Fergus’s gushing, partial arm as his eyes
rolled up into his head.

“What the fuck is going on?” Finn asked hys-
terically as we turned

Fergus on his side when he started con-
vulsing. He’d been vomiting

when he’d passed out so I didn’t know what
to do.

“Magdalena!” I screamed again and seconds
later the door

opened. I was never so glad to see her face.
“He drank from me,

everything was fine for a few moments, then
his heart rate picked up

like he was in pain, the wound reopened, he’s
bleeding everywhere,

and he vomited before passing out. He asked
me what I did to him.

What is going on?”

“I don’t know,” she said as she turned to
Isaac. “Find out where

Dr. Johnson is right now. I need to know
where I’m bringing his

patient.”

280/412

I heard Isaac on the phone but I couldn’t re-
gister what he was

saying. All I could do was focus on the blood.
“He won’t survive

losing this much blood. What have I done?”

“You didn’t do this, Brio. It’s a reaction from
the demon toxins

that were still in him or something,” the
Queen said gently. “And he

can survive this. We’ll heal him.”

“He’s at the hospital, your highness. He said
he’ll have a

transfusion of human blood ready,” Isaac in-
formed us. I lifted Fergus

into my arms while the Queen opened the
portal, careful to keep

281/412

A Brio Grinder

pressure on his wound. I didn’t even hesit-
ate, walking right through

the blinding light, knowing the Queen would
get us to where we

needed to be.

I saw Riley and went right towards him.
“What happened?” Riley

asked me as I carried my mate over to the
gurney he had ready. I

quickly filled him in as Riley checked Fer-
gus’s vitals and started

poking him with needles, one of which was
hooked up to a bag of

282/412

blood to replenish my mate.

I was able to keep quiet about five minutes
before I felt the need

to explode. “Why is this happening?”

“I don’t know,” Riley snapped at me.

“Could it be the demon’s toxin still in his sys-
tem?” Queen

Magdalena asked. I realized then that Finn
was standing away from

me instead of by me.

“I don’t know,” Riley parroted.

“Are you afraid of me?” I whispered to Finn
in horror. He didn’t

seem to hear me or was just ignoring me.
“Did I do this to Fergus?”

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“I don’t know,” Riley shouted. “I have no
fucking clue what’s

going on. Now please, everyone shut the fuck
up unless you have

ideas to help because I can’t hold your hands
right now.”

“I’m toxic to my mate,” I practically sobbed
as I sank down to the

floor with a plop.

“He’s not saying that,” the Queen said gently
as she knelt next to

me.

“Finn’s afraid of me now and I could have
killed Fergus. Did the

spell not work right?”

284/412

“Even if it hadn’t, this isn’t the effect our
blood has on vampires.

This is something else entirely.”

“Cyrus, get them out of here. They can’t
watch me take samples,”

Riley barked out. I heard Finn gasp and then
growl.

“Ya not be sticking that big thing into me
twin, doc. I like ya.

Don’t make me bite ya,” Finn snarled. I leapt
to my feet to try and

understand what was going on. I caught
what Finn was staring at and

Joyee Flynn

285/412

I kind of wished I hadn’t. It was a needle big-
ger than I had ever seen

and I didn’t have issues with needles, but
that one made me feel

woozy.

“Look, I’ve got the bleeding under control,
but he’s not healing.

Do you want me to find answers so I can save
him or bitch about how

I’m going to do it? He won’t feel it and he’s
unconscious. Don’t

fucking backseat drive when you don’t know
what you’re doing,”

Riley bitched as Cyrus moved and blocked
our view.

286/412

“Come on, guys. You know Riley wouldn’t
ever hurt Fergus.

Let’s step out into the hall and let him work.
Okay? I’ll keep you

updated but you don’t need to see this. Why
don’t you go get cleaned

up now that Fergus is stable.”

“Yeah, I could do with getting this off,” I ad-
mitted as I stared

down at my blood-and-vomit-coated clothes.

“Aye,” Finn sighed. “Sorry, Riley.” He turned
and walked out of

the trauma room with his head hung down.
Cyrus quickly told me

where the showers were and Queen Mag-
dalena said she’d stay and

287/412

make sure everything was okay and come get
us if we were needed. I

nodded and followed my other mate out into
the hall.

“Are you scared of me?” I asked again, now
that Finn seemed to

be paying attention.

“No, I’m just scared,” he admitted quietly. “I
just can’t take any

more heartache, Brio. I can’t. And I can’t lose
me twin.” I nodded as I

led him to the showers in the locker room
and turned them on. Finn

turned away from me to undress, and my
heart broke when I saw his

shoulders shaking from silent sobs.

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“Talk to me, Finn,” I whispered as I got
stripped. As badly as I

needed to hug him, hold him, and comfort
him, I couldn’t do that with

gross all over me.

“When is it ever enough?” Finn whispered as
he moved under the

water, now gloriously naked. He leaned his
hands against the tiles as

the water cascaded over his red hair and
down his skin. “The past few

years have been a crazy tornado. We almost
lost the farm and fought

A Brio Grinder

289/412

with blood, sweat, and tears to keep it after
the drought. Then there

was too much rain.

“Humans find out about us in Ireland, and
start kidnapping our

kind while Shane and Sean find their mate,
whose father is insane.

Then Liam and Lorcan find their mate, who’s
a lost royal, and they

move to Greece. I have yet to meet my neph-
ew besides video

conference because we were down people on
the farm with Brian and

Banning moving away.

“They meet their mate and it’s all kinds of
drama because they’re

290/412

idiots, but dealing with them pissed off for
months and months was

hell that they wouldn’t let us help them with.
So good, they fix things

with Zane and move here. Then it’s them
telling us constantly about

attacks here and all the new people. Fae hav-
ing to leave their plane

because the magic is shrinking, and margays
getting slaughtered, all

while demons are trying to take out council
members and Kappa

wolves.

“Now there be a whole wolf pack here and
there’s talk through

291/412

other High Councils that makes them
nervous that there’s an army

being gathered and not to fight demons be-
cause nowhere else has

been reporting attacks like ya have been
here. So we can’t even get

our shit together as a people and decide
which way we’re fighting.

And because of that and the leadership in
place, Ma could have died,

Fergus lost his arm, and we’re here, leaving
our home and everything

behind.

“But that’s not enough apparently. Oh no,
Fergus has to almost

292/412

die again, from some fucking mysterious
shit that Riley doesn’t know

what it is and who knows if it will happen
again. And that’s not even

taking into consideration that he still doesn’t
have an arm and

probably is freaking out about the options,
because, yeah, that would

be something a person could be patient with.
But what does it matter

right now anyways because he’s unconscious
again!”

“Feel better?” I whispered as I moved behind
him and hugged him

tightly. His chest was heaving because by the
end of that rant he had

293/412

Joyee Flynn

been yelling. Finn pushed me away and I felt
something snap inside

of me. He wasn’t the only one losing it.
“Please, please, don’t, Finn.”

“Don’t what? I just needed air.”

“No, no, no,” I whimpered, not really hearing
him as I turned him

around and pushed his smaller frame against
the wall. “I’m not toxic.

I can’t be toxic to my mates. You can’t be
scared of me now. I’ve

searched century after century on this plane
for my mates, taking the

294/412

job in this world just to have a better chance
to find them. I won’t lose

you now because something weird happened
with Fergus and my

blood. I’m not toxic! I’m worth loving!”

“Of course ya are, Brio,” Finn cooed as he
stared at me with wide

eyes. “This has taken a big toll on ya too. I’m
sorry I’ve not

acknowledged that.”

“You have to be mine,” I mumbled manically,
searching around

for something that could be used for lube. I
sighed in relief when I

saw

there

were

bodywash

dispensers

hanging on the tile. “You were

295/412

given to me by fate.”

“Brio? Are you okay?”

“No! You can’t be scared of me,” I
whimpered again as I pushed

the trigger and got a handful of what I
needed. Then I coated my cock

as I lifted Finn and wrapped him around me.
“You have to be mine.” I

moved my slicked-up hand between his
cheeks and pushed a finger

inside his hole. “I can’t lose you too.”

“I’m right here, me mate,” he moaned as he
rubbed my back and

hooked his feet behind my back. “Not going
anywhere. Take what

296/412

you need from me.”

“Say yes so I don’t hate myself later for prac-
tically forcing you.” I

swallowed loudly, nervously as I tried to hold
on to what was left of

my sanity.

Finn growled and took my head in his hands
so I had to look at

him. “Me answer is always yes.”

“Thank you.” I mashed my mouth down to
his and did my best to

quickly stretch him out. “Can you handle
this? How long has it been

A Brio Grinder

297/412

for you?” As much as I didn’t want to know
specifics of my mate’s

recent bed play, I also would never risk hurt-
ing him.

“A long while, but I can take ya if we go
slow,” he replied and let

out a nervous giggle. “Ya said ya were a big
boy. Never been with

anyone as big as ya.” I winced and un-
wrapped him from around me.

He needed to see himself. Finn’s eyes prac-
tically bugged out of his

head now that he saw me fully erect and
wanting. I moaned when the

little imp licked his lips with desire. “Let’s
find something more than

298/412

bodywash. That might not be enough to take
ya.”

“Fine, but keep stretching,” I purred as I
leaned in and surrounded

his body and pressed my lips to his ear. “No
more waiting. I need my

mate.”

“And I’d deny you nothing,” he admitted
with a shiver. The

second I moved away he was getting more
bodywash and shoving his

fingers in his ass. I raced to the front of the
locker room where I

remembered seeing a small supply shelf.
Quickly reading labels, I just

299/412

about did a cartwheel when I found the med-
ical lube. I grabbed my

prize and almost tripped when I returned to
the showers and saw my

gorgeous mate fucking himself with his fin-
gers, getting ready for me.

Finn gasped at how fast I moved. Seconds
later I was slicked up

generously, his fingers were out of his ass,
and we were back in our

original position with his back against the
wall as I pushed my cock

into his firm little butt.

“Mine, all mine,” I chanted over and over
again as I worked my

300/412

dick into my mate. When I was fully seated, I
sighed in relief that we

fit and Finn cried out. “Did I hurt you?”

“No, never been so full. Feels so good, like ya
might split me in

half in the best kind of way,” he panted with
a smile. And then his

fangs came out and I shivered. “Me mate like
to be bitten?”

“Yes, do it. Make me yours,” I whimpered as
I started moving my

hips. Finn teased me, licking and scraping
his fangs over my neck.

Two could play at that game. Now that his
hole had opened up for me

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slightly, I felt I could take my mate to new
heights. I picked up the

Joyee Flynn

pace and thrust harder. Finn went wild, cry-
ing out my name and

begging for more… Which I gladly gave him.

“I can’t wait anymore,” he informed me be-
fore sinking his fangs

in my neck. I held him tighter, wrapping
every inch of us around each

other as I could as he drank from me. Finn
grunted as he found his

release and the pleasurable torture of his ass
muscles massaging my

302/412

cock sent me right over the edge with him.

I slammed my hand against the wall as I
came, not paying

attention to the force of what I was doing but
the tidal-wave climax

swarming over me. Still thrusting into my
mate, I made sure every

drop of my seed coated his insides, marking
him as mine. Just as Finn

pulled out his fangs and licked the bite once,
I was spent.

“Wow,” I gasped, my chest heaving as I
blinked at Finn, trying to

get his face into focus. “I mean like holy shit,
wow with chocolate

303/412

whip cream, caramel, cherries, and some
more whip cream for good

measure.”

“Aye, the prettiest things ya say, me mate,”
he giggled and then

turned his head slightly. “Glad ya enjoyed it.”
I followed where he

was looking and winced when I saw the tiles
under my hand

destroyed.

“Whoops. I wasn’t really paying attention.”

“Apparently,” he drawled, giving me a wink.
“We can fix that

later. Let’s get cleaned up and go see how
Fergus is.”

304/412

“Can I please just have a moment to appreci-
ate this?” I asked

quietly. Finn’s face was one of understanding
as he wrapped his arms

back around my neck.

“Of course ya can. I just figured we’d spend
all night like this

once we got Fergus back. But we can take a
moment now.”

“Thank you. I’ve waited for this moment for
a thousand years. I

just want to soak it in a little more,” I
whispered as buried my face in

his neck. I took a couple of deep breaths,
kissed gently under his ear a

305/412

few times, and by then my heart had slowed
back down to normal

speed and it was time to get back to the real
world.

A Brio Grinder

“I love ya, Brio,” Finn whispered so quietly I
wasn’t sure he’d

meant to say it or just did it at that volume so
he could deny it later if

need be.

“I love you too, Finn,” I said with a bright
smile as I leaned back

to see his face. “I love you both so much.”

306/412

“It’s not in love yet,” he hedged, eyeing me
over carefully for my

reaction.

“Right, but it will be soon. Doesn’t mean I
don’t love you both

already though. We can keep falling for years
to come.” I gave him a

wink and I saw the relief in his expression
that the conversation had

gone well to him.

We quickly washed up and dried off before
finding scrubs on the

supply shelf that we could fit into. Finn’s
were a deep red that set off

his hair and looked sexy as hell on him,
molding to his firm ass and

307/412

flat stomach.

“We need to get you more of those,” I said,
clearing my throat as I

tried not to jump him again. “It’s a good look
on you. They’d be

comfortable for sleeping in.”

Finn gave me an evil smile as he went to
open the door. “Why

waste clothes for sleeping? I prefer naked
and wrapped around me

mate.”

“Oh fate,” I groaned as I quickly pulled on
my blue scrubs top and

jogged after him.

308/412

“Fergus is awake and asking for you both,”
Cyrus said as he

walked past us in the hall. He gave me a
quick look and chuckled.

“Sorry, man. I figured the scrubs in my size
would fit you. We’ll have

start

carrying

even

bigger

sizes

apparently.”

“Nah, the Hulk look is in now,” I drawled as I
glanced down. One

false move and I’d be popping seams on the
damn things all over the

place. They weren’t exactly stretchy material
so I was shocked I got

them on at all.

309/412

Finn grabbed my hand and we hurried to go
see Fergus… Who

looked horrible.

Joyee Flynn

“You’re awake,” I sighed in relief. I went over
to the bed and

cupped his cheek. Then I glanced over at Ri-
ley. “What happened? Is

he going to be okay?”

“I’m not sure yet but my preliminary find-
ings is that fae blood and

demon toxin have a volatile reaction. Like
your blood might be

310/412

deadly to demons. I’m guessing that the re-
sidual toxin in Fergus’s

system while he was still healing, mixed with
your blood, reopened

the wound where the leftover traces of toxin
were. Again, I’m

guessing. I need to run more tests but he’s
out of the woods. Let’s just

stick with human blood for now until I know
more.”

“Thanks, Riley,” I said with a sad smile. I
knew it was hard for

him, everyone always wanting answers, and
demanding them from

him. He couldn’t always have them though. I
appreciated the guess

311/412

and theory because not knowing anything
would have killed us all

right then.

Fergus’s eyes went wide as his nostrils flared.
“Ya mated while I

be fighting for me life? I’m bleeding all over
the place so ya two think

that’s the time to go fuck?”

“No, well, yes, but that’s not how it—” I star-
ted to explain,

realizing how bad it would seem to him out
of context.

“Get out. Both of ya get the fuck out of me
room and leave me

alone!” Fergus bellowed, tears swimming in
his eyes.

312/412

“No, baby, look, it was my fault,” I begged
him, taking his hand

in mine. I didn’t let go when he tried to pull
away but I was careful

with it. “Please. I was freaking out. I thought
I was toxic and

something snapped inside of me. I needed to
know I still had one

mate who wouldn’t be scared of me and my
blood. I was manic. Finn

didn’t deny me because he saw how crazed
and upset I was. Don’t

blame him.”

“I want to talk to me twin,” he said after a
moment, snatching his

313/412

hand back when I sighed. Finn shouldn’t be
blamed for my mistake.

“But I don’t want to see you. Glad that you
only really need the one

twin to be happy and can forget the other
one.”

A Brio Grinder

“That’s not what I meant,” I whispered in
horror as my eyes

started to burn. “I love you both.”

“Get out and save the ramblings. I was dying
and ya be shagging

me twin in the hospital instead of checking
on me. Save your bullshit

314/412

reasons and get the fuck out of me room,”
Fergus said quietly,

dangerously, in a dark voice that scared me
almost. I nodded as I

backed away, not wanting to upset him any-
more. He was right. He

had almost died and he didn’t need the stress
of yelling at me.

I just wished he would have let me finish ex-
plaining. I had been

frantic and spinning out of control, needing
something to ground me

and keep me sane. Finn let me focus on
claiming him and it was

magical. Yeah, it wasn’t the best timing but it
wasn’t as Fergus made

315/412

it sound, like we didn’t care if he lived or
died and just went off to

fuck like bunnies.

Tears burning in my eyes, I wasn’t really pay-
ing attention until a

familiar scent surrounded me as the Queen
walked into my arms.

“What happened?”

“I was panicked I was going to lose them
both so when we went

to clean up, I claimed Finn. Fergus just woke
up and found out that’s

what we were doing and he doesn’t want to
see me again,” I admitted

in horror. “It was horrible timing but I was
scared. It wasn’t that I

316/412

didn’t care that Fergus was hurt. I cared so
much I thought my mind

was going to unravel and I needed Finn right
then to keep my mind

together.”

“Not the best timing but understandable giv-
en what you’ve been

through,” she said gently as she led me out of
the hospital. “Fergus is

a good man. He’ll calm down and come
around to see that.”

“What do I do until then? I’d do anything for
him, Magdalena. I’d

give my arm for him so he didn’t have to be
without one.”

317/412

“Give my arm for his,” the Queen parroted as
she blinked rapidly

as if the phrase triggered something in her
memory. “I need to go look

at something but I suggest groveling. Elena
Marius gave me a number

and a website for a vampire courier service
the coven has. They can

Joyee Flynn

get anything and everything delivered right
away like you do with

Amazon. And I demand more chocolate for
my help, by the way.”

“I already ordered more than you could eat
in the rest of this

318/412

year,” I said with a smirk.

“Don’t be so sure of that. Much more stress
and I might just live

off it,” she snickered. Then she glanced
around to make sure no one

was too close before opening the portal. We
stepped through and were

in Barnabas’s house. “I had one of my secur-
ity bring your car back to

the cabin. I suggest you go get it, get your
mates some flowers, maybe

treats, and grovel. Now I have something I
have to look up and

handle. Let me get you that number and
website.”

319/412

“What aren’t you telling me?” I asked hesit-
antly as I followed her

quick steps up the stairs. “You should never
play poker, Magdalena.”

She sighed and pinched the bridge of her
nose as she turned on the

stairs to face me. “I didn’t want to get your
hopes up but I think I

remember where the spell is to regrow an ap-
pendage. I think I know

how to help Fergus.”

“Thank you,” I whispered, touched that
amongst all that she had

going on her focus was still and so firmly on
my mate.

320/412

“Yes, well, go figure a way to make up with
your mate and have

him forgive you or it won’t work anyways,”
she grumbled and went

back to making her way up the stairs. “If I re-
member how the spell

goes correctly, there can’t be any bad blood
between you.”

Oh shit. Yeah, I might need magic and a spell
to make Fergus

speak to me again… Ever. Now getting him
an arm depended on if

we were on good terms? We might both be
screwed.

A Brio Grinder

321/412

Chapter 8

Finn

Me heart broke as I watched our mate leave
the room with tears in

his eyes. We had been so happy just mo-
ments ago and now his whole

world was crashing down on him. I wanted
to go after him and tell

him things were going to be okay, to comfort
him, but I needed to

make things right with me twin first.

“Ya were a little harsh. Have ya known Brio
to be anything less

than wonderful? Ya could have let him finish
explaining,” I said

gently as I pulled up a stool next to Fergus’s
bed and sat down.

“Of course you’d side with him,” Fergus
practically spat at me.

“Go after him then and live your lives. He
said not to blame ya but ya

seem just as culpable from where I be
sitting.”

“Your Irish is showing,” I joked, ignoring his
anger. “Ya get

pissed and your accent gets that much
thicker.”

“Aye, but so do ya.” His lips tugged as if he
was trying to keep the

smirk off his face. I nudged his good side and
we shared a quick

323/412

chuckle.

“I was having a breakdown when they
shoved us out of the room

to leave Riley to work and get cleaned up,” I
explained quietly as I

started fidgeting with the end of the blanket
covering Fergus. “I was

shaking and lost like I’m not sure I’ve ever
been, Fergus. We’ve had

so much coming at us the past couple of
years. When is it going to be

enough crap? When will we get a break?

“We were having fun. Ma’s going to be fine,
we’ll figure out your

arm, but after all we went through and losing
home, we finally had a

324/412

Joyee Flynn

moment. We got to taste our mate, but no, it
was taken away with you

almost dying again, and I lost it.”

“So you got upset and fell on his cock?” he
asked with a raised

brow.

“Shut it, Fergus,” I snapped. He had a right
to be hurt and

confused by what happened, but he was be-
ing a bastard. “Just shut it

and listen. Ya hurt Brio and he be my mate
too. So shut your

sarcastic, bitter trap and listen.”

325/412

“I have a right to be upset,” he shot right
back.

“Aye, but ya be losing it real fast with ya tem-
per. We’d never

betray ya or hurt ya intentionally so let me
explain without your quips

and anger.”

“Fine,” he grumbled and went to cross his
arms over his chest in

his typical defensive pose but then burst out
sobbing when he

couldn’t. “He’s going to love ya better be-
cause ya not broken. I’m

hurt and he goes and claims ya because he
could spend time with ya

without his defective mate around.”

326/412

“Ya know that not be true. That’s the evil
voice in the back of ya

head pushing lies on ya when you’re fragile.
Shoot that voice,” I said

gently as I climbed into the bed next to him
and wrapped me arms

around him. “The only reason I snapped out
of my nervous

breakdown was because Brio was spiraling,
Fergus. His blood did this

to you. Do ya understand what that did to
our mate?”

“It wasn’t his fault,” Fergus gasped as he
stared up at me. “We

couldn’t have known there were still traces of
demon toxin in me

327/412

muscles and taking fae blood would react
like that.”

“Aye, I know, but he wasn’t thinking logic-
ally. He kept asking if I

was scared of him now. He thought we both
were going to reject him

because he was toxic to us. He just kept re-
peating it over and over

again. I thought his brain snapped. He kept
saying I had to be his, that

I couldn’t leave him. That we couldn’t both
run from him because we

were scared. And we were naked from get-
ting cleaned up of vomit

and blood.”

A Brio Grinder

328/412

“And ya comforted him and it ended up be-
ing shower sex and ya

bit him,” he finished for me as he put the
pieces together.

“We didn’t plan it and we damn well didn’t
mean to hurt ya, me

twin. We were scared and upset. We needed
comfort and we grabbed

each other. I won’t apologize for what we did
because I don’t regret

it. It was one of the best moments of me life
when I needed something

good most. But I am sorry it hurt ya. I’d nev-
er do anything to

intentionally hurt ya.”

329/412

“I know. Ya just have to understand how it
seemed to me. I was

fighting for me life and ya both walk into me
room after I wake up, all

smiles, and he smells like ya. It was upset-
ting that ya could push me

off to the side like that.”

“Not how it went down but yeah, I can see
how it would seem.” I

leaned over and kissed his hair. “Can I go get
our mate now so ya can

make up? He loves ya, Fergus.”

“I have one question first.” I smiled, knowing
what was coming.

“Was it good?”

330/412

“We have the world’s most talented mate, me
twin,” I giggled.

“He broke the tile smacking the wall when he
came. He’s so

passionate and full of moves I want to exper-
ience for the rest of me

days. I’ve never experienced anything that is
like Brio. He takes sex

to another level and me arse still be smarting
from it while I’m

smiling.”

“Then go get the man,” Fergus exclaimed as
he pushed me out of

the bed. “I want some of that the moment
the doc clears me! I need

loving too.”

331/412

“I’ll see what I can do, but ya can’t claim him
until we know the

toxins are out of ya,” I warned him.

“Fine, I’ll bite him another time. I just want
to be fucked,” he

growled as he shooed me away.

I laughed and jogged out into the hall, glan-
cing around for Brio.

When I didn’t find him, I kept moving to the
front of the hospital

Joyee Flynn

thinking he was in the waiting area. But he
wasn’t. I started to worry

332/412

and began searching for him, sighing in relief
when I saw Riley.

“Have ya seen Brio? We need to talk to him.”

“He left with Queen Magdalena and he was
very upset,” Riley

answered carefully. “I don’t want to pry but I
like all you guys. Did

you dump him or something? That man
looked crushed.”

“No, he claimed me in the shower and Fer-
gus was hurt and lashed

out. I explained things and now I just need
Brio to fix it all,” I said

with a frustrated sigh. “Do ya know where
they went? I still don’t

have a cell phone.”

333/412

“No, but you can use mine,” he replied as he
pulled it out of his

pocket. “I have pretty much every number in
the coven in there. I find

it best not to go searching or calling around
for numbers in case

there’s an emergency.”

“Thanks, doc. I’ll get it right back to ya.” I
flipped through the

smartphone and pulled up our mate’s num-
ber as I walked back to

Fergus’s room.

“Where is he?”

“He left with Queen Magdalena, upset and
devastated,” I said

334/412

evenly. I didn’t want to rub it in Fergus’s face
but I wasn’t happy

about the whole thing either. I wanted me
mate. I growled and hit the

button to end the call and redial. “I’m getting
his voice mail. We need

new fucking phones and a car. I won’t be
stranded like this.”

“And to learn how to drive in this country,”
Fergus chuckled.

“Everything in this coven is a straight shot
down one quiet road.

We’ll be fine to drive while we get all our pa-
perwork done and get

visas,” I grumbled. When I got his voice mail
again I let out a string

335/412

of cuss words.

“Impressive,” Riley snickered from the door-
way. “Not getting

him?”

“It’s ringing funny like he already be on the
phone. I’m sure he’ll

just be a minute and call us back,” I
answered, not sounding very sure

at all. “He’ll come back, right? He won’t just
leave us here.”

A Brio Grinder

“I did say I never wanted to see him again,”
Fergus whispered in a

pained voice. “Shit. We need to find him.”

336/412

“I’ll ask Elena to track him down,” Riley said
gently as he took

his phone back. “That woman knows
everything or can find it out

quicker than anyone I’ve ever seen. She’ll
find him and bring him to

you. We’re family after all.”

I nodded. We were through Dillon and Noah.
I just hoped that

helped us right now because I couldn’t lose
our mate. We couldn’t

lose our mate with everything else we’d lost.

* * * *

Brio

337/412

“And that would be big enough for a nice
workshop for them to

make furniture?” I asked Tyler again as I bal-
anced the phone. I didn’t

know how much room someone would need
for that sort of thing and

I didn’t want to be skimpy on my mates.
They needed space to do

what they loved… Assuming I could talk
them into taking me back.

Or Fergus. I was pretty sure Finn and I were
okay.

“Brighid said they did just fine with a back
corner of a barn, Brio.

We’re going to give them a four-car-garage-
size workshop. They’ll be

338/412

fine. And if it ends up they need more stor-
age space we can add on a

second floor or more room. I just think we
should get something up as

fast as we can with the weather and you can
adjust the inside on the

shittier days. That’s what we’ve been doing.
The weather here can be

harsh and Darcy can’t keep changing the
weather for us just so we can

work.”

“I can’t even imagine how much energy that
must cost him. Talk

to Onah. He’s got great protection magic. I
bet there’s a way he can

339/412

put a protection bubble around whatever
house you’re working on.”

“That’s a great idea. Thanks, man. I hate to
ask him but since

we’re working on your house right now any-
ways,” Tyler hedged.

Joyee Flynn

“I’ll call him and see he comes to help,” I fin-
ished for him. “He’s

my friend after all. I’m sure he owes me a fa-
vor or six actually.”

I’d never have told Tyler this, but Onah had a
pop addiction. He

brought some back from a mission once and
ever since then I’d gotten

340/412

special orders for more and in every flavor
since that day. Makari and

I had always had fun stocking our friends up
with the bubbly burpies

as they kept calling it. Apparently naming it
themselves instead of

calling it pop or soda was too amusing.

“Good. We’re trying to finish the roof while
some are doing the

inside but the weather’s not cooperating. If
we could get even half a

good work day then you’d be ready to move
in.”

“Fantastic. Thank you, Tyler. I’ll get Onah
right over there.” We

341/412

hung up and I did just that. I swear my
phone was attached to my ear

for an hour. I had people calling on the other
line but I had to get my

apology gift to my mates in motion before I
handled anything else.

I realized my mistake when I saw that it had
been Riley calling. I

quickly called the number back just as there
was a knock at the door.

“Coming,” I called out as I jogged to the front
of the cabin and

yanked open the door.

“Brio?” Finn asked in way of greeting me
when he answered the

phone.

342/412

“You were calling me from Riley’s number?
Is everything okay? I

wasn’t paying attention.”

“We know,” Elena Marius chuckled from the
front porch. “That’s

why your frantic mates called for help track-
ing you down and

retrieving you. Fergus can leave the hospital
and doesn’t know if he’s

welcome by you.”

“Of course he is!” I exclaimed, knowing Finn
could hear me as

well. “I love him. I was—” I cut myself off
and shook my head when

Elena raised an eyebrow at me. “Handling
something with the new

343/412

house.” Then I focused on the call with Finn.
“Baby, I’ll get you a

ride here, okay? I don’t want Fergus in my
car when he should

A Brio Grinder

probably be lying down. Can Riley send the
ambulance so he’s

transported the right way?”

“I’m

fine,”

Fergus

growled

the

background.

“We’ll be there as soon as we can,” Finn
chuckled. “We just

didn’t know with you leaving and whatnot
what we should do. Love

344/412

ya, yeah?”

“Absolutely. I wanted to help the Queen with
something while I

licked my wounds. I should have told you.
I’m so sorry I worried you.

I’ll see you soon.”

“Okay, bye,” Finn whispered before hanging
up. He knew there

was more going on than I was saying. But I
couldn’t surprise them if I

told them the whole story.

“Alright, fess up. I have the afternoon free so
I can schedule in

time to help scheme and you have that look
on your face,” Elena

345/412

drawled with a smirk on her face.

“Okay, so here’s the deal,” I started with and
went into my plans

and what the Queen had learned.

“Oh yeah, I’m in,” she chuckled when I was
done explaining.

Good. I could use the help.

* * * *

Fergus

“I’m fine,” I growled for the tenth time as I
was loaded into the

back of the ambulance on the gurney. “I feel
just fine.”

Riley just rolled his eyes. “Just take it easy
for one day. Flush

346/412

your system with as much human blood as
you can drink and I’ll

come check on you tomorrow.”

“I’m having sex with me mate,” I shot right
back.

“If you’re not breaking shit all over the house
from acrobatics

then fine, one round of gentle sex I can
okay,” Riley bitched. “I swear

Joyee Flynn

to god, why do people fucking come to me if
they’re not going to

listen to what I say anyways?”

“Hey, doc?”

347/412

“What?” he snarled as he paused in closing
the door to the

ambulance.

“I’m gonna listen and ya know you’re the
best doc ever,” I said

tenderly. We were family by mating after all.
“We all love ya, Riley,

just not always what ya have to tell us. Thank
ya for saving me life,

again. And for the record, I did listen to ya
last time. I was good.”

“I know, I’m sorry,” he groaned as he leaned
his forehead against

the door so it thunked. “I hate not knowing
what’s going on. Too

348/412

many questions and not enough answers
lately. And I feel like I failed

you, Fergus. The cloning I’ve done and where
we’re at with it,

dusting off the project won’t be anywhere
near getting you a new arm

anytime soon. Maybe skin for over what
Rylan comes up with for a

bionic arm, but I should have been able to do
better by you.”

“Bullshit’s coming out your arse, doc,” I
chuckled. “This isn’t on

ya. The only thing ya should feel is pride that
ya tried so hard. And

maybe your research won’t help me but I’m
damn sure I won’t be the

349/412

last injured man coming to ya. Save it for
them. Personally I like the

idea of a bionic arm that has the lasers King
Rylan promised me. So

don’t ya be worrying over me. Ya figure out
what happened with

drinking Brio’s blood and when it’s safe to do
it again, and I’ll love

ya fierce, brother.”

“Thanks, Fergus. You always know what to
say to make someone

feel better even if you’re being a smart-ass.”
He patted my leg and

smiled before closing up the back of the am-
bulance. Cyrus was the

350/412

one driving up front but I was glad he
couldn’t hear what my twin

asked next.

“Ya don’t want the bionic option, do ya?” he
whispered gently.

“No,” I admitted, being honest for the first
time. “I want a real

arm to hold me mate with. Not some infernal
contraption that could

malfunction or I have to learn about. I just
want me arm back. I’ve

A Brio Grinder

had it for almost six hundred years. I liked it.
It worked well for me

351/412

all those years. I don’t need some bionic up-
grade. I just want me

arm.”

“Queen Magdalena still be looking,” Finn
said gently as he moved

onto the gurney with me. I hadn’t realized I’d
been crying until he

hugged me.

“Aye. Don’t tell anyone, okay? I don’t want
Ma to feel guilty or

for Brio to throw a fit if all I can have is the
bionic arm. I’ll be

grateful for any arm instead of the stump.”

“You just want your arm back,” he finished
for me. I nodded and

352/412

leaned into me twin. We were quiet for the
rest of the ride and when

the ambulance stopped, Finn got up first and
helped me to me feet. It

was stupid that we took a ride in it. I was
fine. I walked right out to it,

let them strap me on the gurney, and now I
was getting right back out.

So the question was why Brio wanted us to
come back to the

cabin this way?

Finn and I thanked Cyrus, who gave a wave
and left. Odd. If they

were really concerned about my condition
then he would have made

353/412

sure I got inside okay and lay down or
whatever.

“I’m sorry,” Brio said the moment we walked
through the front

door.

“I’m sorry too,” I replied as I stared at my
suddenly fascinating

feet. “I should have given ya a chance to ex-
plain. I know ya would

never hurt me intentionally.”

“Glad we cleared that up,” Finn chuckled as
he headed to the

kitchen. He paused and glanced over his
shoulder. “And just for the

record, me mate. Fergus told ya to go and I
get that ya were hurt, but

354/412

if you ever leave me like that again, no mat-
ter what he says, we’re

going to have words ya won’t like.”

“I’m sorry for that too.” Brio swallowed
loudly as he stared,

looking lost, at Finn.

Joyee Flynn

My twin eyed him over a moment and nod-
ded. “Good. Now that

we got that settled, Fergus can have one
round of gentle sex so go

claim each other while I eat. I’m starving.”

“Best twin ever,” I chuckled as Brio gave me
a heated look.

355/412

“Ya did almost die today,” he mumbled be-
fore leaving the room.

“Claim me?” I asked when Brio and I just
stared at each other a

few moments. “Or are ya still mad at me?”

“I was never mad. Hurt, upset with myself,
never mad. Scared of

losing you mostly.” He crossed the room
with a few of his long

strides and I was up in his arms. I moaned as
he kissed me

passionately and carried me to the bedroom
we’d been using. I could

get used to this kind of treatment. “I love
you, Fergus.”

356/412

“Aye, the feeling is mutual,” I whispered as
he got me naked

lightning quick. The man knew what he
wanted, that was for sure.

And since it was me, we were on the same
page. He lifted and tossed

me onto the bed. It threw me for a loop and
with an arm missing I

couldn’t brace myself in time before rolling
right off the bed.

“I’m so sorry. I wasn’t thinking,” Brio
rambled as he caught me

right before I went face-first onto the floor.

“It’s fine,” I mumbled and pulled away the
second I was on me

357/412

feet again. “This was stupid. Ya don’t deserve
this. Go be with Finn.

He’s whole and ya don’t have to make special
considerations for

him.”

“Bullshit,” Brio snarled as he lifted me
around the waist and laid

me on the bed, gloriously naked as he pinned
me down. “You always

have to make special considerations for your
partner, or friends, or

family. Always. There’s always something
that hurts their feelings or

they’re sensitive to or they need extra atten-
tion and kindness because

358/412

they’ve been through something. So don’t try
to sell me a line that I

wouldn’t have to do that with Finn but I will
with you.”

“Aye, ya be right,” I sighed, still not able to
look at him I was so

embarrassed.

A Brio Grinder

“Look, Fergus, love isn’t about if someone’s
missing an

appendage or not. I love the person you are.
The smart, witty,

sarcastically amusing, kind, sexy man I was
blessed by fate to get for

359/412

my very own. Finn is a totally different per-
son, though you guys kind

of share a brain at times. I want you both for
many different reasons.

“Do I want you to have your arm back? Yes,
of course, because I

don’t want you to hurt or be upset ever. Do I
want you any less

because you don’t have your arm? No, baby.
I don’t want you any

less. I just don’t know what to do or how to
act differently. I’m

mortified I wasn’t thinking and tossed you
on the bed like that. I

should have been more considerate. I’m so
sorry.”

360/412

“I’m embarrassed I fell. It’s not your fault.
I’m just not able to

adjust to having lost the arm yet.”

“You’re even sadder about your arm now
than you were earlier.

Why?” Brio asked me gently. He really was
the master of

observation. There was nothing we were ever
going to get by him.

I sighed, not sure if I should tell him, but
then I thought how I’d

feel if he’d kept something like this from me
and knew what I had to

do. “Doc Riley says the cloning project can’t
help me or at least not

361/412

anytime in the near future. Maybe clone
some skin to put over the

bionic arm but he can’t give me a real arm.”

“And that’s what you want,” he said with a
nod, not asking the

question. I raised an eyebrow at him. “I pay
attention and you’re my

mate, Fergus. I can read you and what you
like or don’t like. You

were smiling and nodding politely about the
bionic arm but it’s not

what you want. We’ll figure out another way.
I won’t ever stop until

you get what you want.”

“Best mate ever,” I purred and pulled his
head down to mine. I

362/412

kissed him passionately and my very talen-
ted mate found the lube that

was on the nightstand because the next thing
I knew there were

slicked-up fingers pushing into me hole. I
stared up into Brio’s eyes

and did the one thing I hadn’t ever done with
a lover since Nigel took

my virginity… I submitted, completely and
totally to Brio.

100

Joyee Flynn

Minutes later me heart soared as me mate
pushed into my willing

body. I gasped in pleasure as I stared into his
eyes.

363/412

“Huge, me mate has a third leg,” I moaned.
He’d taken the time to

stretch me properly but I’d never been with a
man as big as him.

“Too fast?” he asked, his voice showing re-
straint. Brio wasn’t

even halfway into me yet and I bet he wanted
nothing more than to

thrust home.

“No, it’s perfect. Take me, me massively sexy
and strong mate.”

His nostrils flared with desire as his grip on
me hips tightened. “I take

it ya like compliments. I have to warn ya, I
talk dirty too.”

364/412

“Oh fate,” he moaned in a deep, guttural
tone. “I want to be strong

for you. I love that you’re both smaller than
me and I can bounce you

all around. I want to be your protector and
keep you safe. It’s always

been my job. I need to do it for my mates.”

The more he rambled and told me his desires
the faster he moved.

Apparently he felt very strongly about it. I
loved that about him, his

passion and ability to vocalize what he
needed. “Ya do protect us. Ya

came to save us even when ya didn’t know
us.”

365/412

“If I had been two minutes earlier you
wouldn’t have lost your

arm,” he growled as he started pounding into
me.

“Hey, none of that and our first time
shouldn’t be angry sex,” I

gasped as I cupped his cheek. “From what I
heard Dillon didn’t make

the call until after they were all dead and that
means I’d already lost

me arm. No regrets, okay? I lost it saving Ma
and it inadvertently led

us to you.”

“Right, right, sorry,” he whispered as he
slowed back down and

366/412

leaned his forehead to my shoulder. “I can’t
help that I feel regret that

I should have been there. I should have pro-
tected you even if we

hadn’t met yet. I was in this world. I could
have met you both if I’d

left the condo more instead of becoming sad
and depressed that I

hadn’t found my mates yet and giving up. If I
hadn’t given up—”

“Stop,” I chastised gently. “Just stop, Brio.
You’ve been searching

for a thousand years. It’s understandable ya
got sad and tired of

A Brio Grinder

101

367/412

searching. Ya found us and that’s all that
matters. We be together now

and nothing will change that. No more guilt.
Only love and planning

our future together.”

“You always know what to say.” Brio gave me
a loving smile

before kissing me deeply. We made love and
while I couldn’t drink

from him, sex was all the fae needed to claim
their mates, so I was

officially his.

I couldn’t have been happier about it.

102

Joyee Flynn

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Chapter 9

Brio

The next few days were crazy, like crazy on a
stick and set on fire

kind of nuts. Fergus got the all clear that the
demon toxins were

flushed out of his system so he claimed me
officially. I got Onah to

help with the house so it was finished and
now we were working on

furnishing it.

My mates were hysterical when it came to
decorating and money.

I’d see them looking and find something they
liked, but they’d shoot

each other a glance that was almost a whole
conversation in that twin

way they had, and they wouldn’t tell me they
wanted it. It was about

how much money we were spending and I
got that but I wanted them

happy and I liked what they picked out
normally.

Except for the couch. I hated to say no to
them but that was the

ugliest fucking couch I’d ever seen. It was
one of those contemporary

stylish ones that was so uncomfortable
everyone’s ass hurt after

sitting in them. And we argued over it even
before we moved into the

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house.

“No, sorry. I want a couch we can all sprawl
over and watch

movies or cuddle in front of the fireplace on.
I want soft and big so

we can make love and never worry about our
backs or sore muscles

the next day,” I had told them.

“When he puts it like that…” Fergus trailed
off and cleared his

throat. Next thing I knew we were in our new
bedroom fucking like

rabbits on our new mattress. It was a
custom-ordered job that I had

put in for months ago when Tyler had given
me a tentative date as to

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A Brio Grinder

103

when the house would be done. I was over
seven feet after all. A

normal bed didn’t quite cut it.

But today it wasn’t about opening boxes of
stuff we ordered or

putting together the bookshelf I wanted from
Amazon. It was much

more exciting than that.

“I’ll get it!” I hollered when the doorbell
rang. I’d been trying to

keep busy all day and away from my mates
so they wouldn’t figure

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out I was plotting… Well plotting again. I
was kind of already in

trouble for the workshop Tyler and his crew
were outside building

right then.

Not really, but my mates didn’t want me
spending any extra

money on them. Silly men. What was the
point of having money if I

didn’t use it to do nice things for the men I
loved?

“Are they here?” Queen Magdalena asked
quietly as she hurried

through the front door.

“They’re outside supervising their new work-
shop,” I answered as

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I waved in Makari and Elan as well. “Wel-
come to our home. Sorry

it’s not finished being unpacked.”

“At least we were able to bring their belong-
ings from Ireland

yesterday so they feel more at home,” Elan
said with a shrug. “It’s

very nice though, Brio. Very warm and invit-
ing. Your mates are a

good influence on you.”

“Because fate knows you had horrible decor-
ating taste,” Makari

chuckled as he lugged in a bag of supplies.

“No I didn’t. I just didn’t decorate,” I argued
as I gave him a

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funny look. We didn’t have much in the form
of flair to our old

condo. Mostly shelves for orders and storage
and my massive book

collection.

“Exactly,” he drawled. I got it then. The fact I
didn’t feel the need

to decorate spoke volumes about my taste.
Funny, funny man. Well,

at least my mates had taste.

“Are you sure about this? I really think you
should talk to your

mates and tell them what’s going on before
we do this,” Queen

104

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Joyee Flynn

Magdalena told me again. “They might not
be willing to let you

sacrifice a part of you for the spell.”

“I’ll tell them now while you get set up. I
didn’t want them

nervous and freaking out all night while we
tracked down the rest of

the ingredients.” She nodded and started
barking out orders as they set

up on our temporary fold-out kitchen table.

I headed out the back door and jogged over
to their almost-

finished workshop. Elan, Makari, and a few
of my other friends

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helped me bring over all my mates’ belong-
ings and furniture projects

over to our new house yesterday after the
Queen opened a portal. We

knew it would keep them busy.

“Can I talk to you guys in the house for a mo-
ment?” I asked my

mates when they were done adjusting some
of the interior plans to the

workshop. They both nodded and followed
me out of the construction

mess, shooting each other hesitant looks.

“What this be about?” Finn said nervously as
we walked through

the back door.

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“Queen Magdalena found the spell to regrow
Fergus’s arm a few

days ago,” I answered as I stepped aside and
let them see what my

friends were doing in the kitchen.

“And you’re just telling us this now why?”
Fergus asked

hesitantly as he stared at me with hope.
“What aren’t we going to like

about it?”

“Magic is all about balance and sacrifice,”
Queen Magdalena

explained for me. “We use our gifts and we
get tired or there are side

effects. We use magic to make a potion and
there’s always a price to

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pay. Nothing about magic is ever free.”

“So what is the price to be paid?” Finn asked,
always sharp and on

the ball.

“For a body part to be regrown, a mate must
sacrifice another part

on—”

“No, absolutely not,” Fergus growled. “Ya
think I’d let ya cut

something off to give me an arm? Have ya
lost your mind?”

A Brio Grinder

105

“A toe,” I explained as I cupped his cheek. “I
can give you one toe

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in the middle of my foot that I’ll never need
even for balance. One

little toe and you can get your whole arm
back. Please, Fergus. Let

me do this for you, for us. You know it’s the
right thing and you’d do

it for me. You don’t want the bionic arm
Rylan drew up for you. Let

me give you a real arm.”

Fergus glanced at Finn as if asking what to
do.

“I’d give ya me toe if it would work,” Finn
said with a smile.

“Our mate have nice feet but I won’t love him
any less if he be

missing a toe. He’s got nine others.”

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“Thank ya,” Fergus whispered, his eyes
filling with tears. I

hugged him tightly to me and brought Finn
in for the group hug. “I

accept. Thank ya.”

“Why didn’t ya tell us sooner about all of this
instead of last

minute when your friends already be here?”
Finn asked when we

broke apart.

“Some of the ingredients were incredibly
hard to track down,”

Makari explained. “We had to travel to dif-
ferent parts of your world

and spend a few gold bricks to get it all.”

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“That’s a lot of money to get me an arm,”
Fergus whispered in

horror. “Ya said ya weren’t going to spend
any more money on us.

We’re going to drain you dry at this rate,
Brio.”

“No you won’t,” the Queen chuckled, shaking
her head. “There’s

always more gold and I actually was glad to
pay for the ingredients.

Call it your mating present from me.”

“Brio said ya were able to make gold,” Fergus
hedged as he gave

the Queen a concerned look. “But ya said
magic has a price. What be

the price for making gold on ya?”

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“You are the first person to ever have asked
me that,” she said

with a shocked tone. “The gold is the price
for the magic, believe it or

not.” She glanced around the room. “There
are only a few who know

this secret so I want you all to swear on your
honor you will never

divulge it.”

106

Joyee Flynn

We all did and the Queen unbound her long
dark hair.

“It’s really grown out,” Brio said in a con-
fused voice. “I just saw

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it down last week and it wasn’t nearly that
long.”

“It grows like this daily,” she chuckled as she
picked up the ends

of her floor-length hair. “It’s the price of the
magic I use. My hair

grows taller than I am in a day depending
how much of my power I

wield. But being Queen and my lineage, I’m
my own power generator

really.”

“And what does that have to do with the
gold?” Elan asked

curiously. I watched as the Queen smiled and
picked up scissors from

384/412

the table and started cutting a few feet off
her hair. I gasped when it

changed color to gold and fell to the floor.
“That can’t be.”

“That’s how I get all the gold. It’s my hair
after it’s cut. Asterio

has been melting it down for me into bars
and gold pieces for a long,

long time. He and my mate are the only ones
who know the secret.

My daughter did as well but I’ve not even
told Barnabas yet. Though

I’m sure he’s been wondering what Asterio
helps me with in his

basement.”

385/412

“So every day ya cut your hair off, at least
four feet of it?” Fergus

asked as he knelt down and picked up the
golden strands. “This is

heavier than hair now. It’s the consistency of
gold. Ya must get a few

bars from doing this each day.”

“Normally one to two, but sometimes three
or more if I’ve been

doing a lot of magic.” The Queen shrugged
regally as if not sure what

else to say.

“How is this the price ya pay for your magic?
This is a blessing,”

Finn asked as he glanced around the room.
“Isn’t price a negative?”

386/412

“I understand why you’d ask that but it is
really,” Queen

Magdalena answered with a sigh as she sat
down on one of our

folding chairs. “How many people would
want this power for their

own uses? You have no idea how hard it is to
keep this a secret

always for century after century, millennium
after millennium.

A Brio Grinder

107

“And cutting my hair every night? I always
have to wear it up

because otherwise people would see what
was happening. And it’s

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heavy. I use magic and my head feels like it’s
gained ten pounds.

Sometimes I have to excuse myself to my
room with a headache just

to cut some of it off.”

“Aye, that doesn’t sound like fun,” Fergus
agreed. “But there

could be worse prices to pay than limitless
gold.”

“I won’t argue with you there,” the Queen
chuckled. “Now are we

ready to get your arm back?”

“Is it going to hurt?” Finn asked quietly be-
fore Fergus could even

answer. “Is this going to hurt either of
them?”

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I winced, knowing my portion was but more
than willing to do it.

“I’m fine with what I have to do, Finn. Don’t
worry about me.”

“And Fergus we’re going to put to sleep so he
won’t have to be in

pain through it,” the Queen added.

“Okay, let’s call the family and—” Finn star-
ted to say as he pulled

out his phone.

“No, no circus or two dozen people running
around,” Fergus

interrupted, shaking his head. “I just want
me mate and me twin. We

can go surprise them tonight if it works.”

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“I’d be offended if I knew you only doubted
me because you

haven’t been around magic all that much,”
the Queen said with a

raised eyebrow.

“Would you believe you fully if the situation
was reversed?” I

teased Magdalena. She chuckled and shook
her head.

She explained what was going to happen.
Basically, Fergus had to

hold my hand while they cut off my toe. My
mate nodded but went a

little pale at the idea of it. Then they would
mix the toe into the

390/412

already-assembled ingredients. After which
we’d lay Fergus down,

spread the mixture over his stump, and then
the Queen would knock

him out so he didn’t have to feel the pain of
regrowing his arm.

108

Joyee Flynn

But I had to stay by him the entire time for
the magic to work and

transfer the essence of my body part to make
his grow. Fuck if I

understood that part but I’d just do what I
was told.

Fergus and I got into position after Finn laid
down about a dozen

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old towels because he didn’t want any mess
in our new house. It was

sweet really. I knew it wasn’t about the mess
my toe being cut off

would make. My mate was scared for me. In
the end, Fergus and I sat

next to each other, holding hands, while Finn
came and hugged us

both from behind.

“Ya be hard-core, me mate,” Fergus said in
awe when I barely

flinched when my toe was clipped off. “I’d be
bawling in the corner.”

The truth was I was screaming on the inside
from the pain but I

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wouldn’t ever let him see that it hurt me to
help him. “It’s nothing

compared to what I’d be willing to do to get
your arm back,” I told

him honestly. “I thought I was going to have
to give my nuts or

something. I can live just fine without a toe.”

“You’d have given your nuts for him?” Elan
asked with wide

eyes. “Damn, brother. You must really love
him.”

“You’ll get it when you find your mates,” I
chuckled, leaning over

to kiss Fergus’s cheek. “It’s a love like you
can’t put into words. I’ve

393/412

heard that the way to know you’re in love is
that all the love songs

make sense. But falling in love with your
mate, the other part of your

soul? Not only has the songs making sense
but it’s like your heart

sings its own song all the time for your
mates.”

“That’s the sweetest and sappiest thing I’ve
ever heard all rolled

into one,” Makari chuckled, lightening the
mood.

“Time for you to go to sleep,” I said to Fergus
when Makari

finished healing over my wound now that my
toe was gone. I couldn’t

394/412

look at it yet, but I knew it was worth it to get
his arm.

“Love you,” he whispered in a nervous voice.
Then he glanced at

Finn who had just finished putting protective
sheets on the couch.

“And I love ya too, ya twit.”

A Brio Grinder

109

“The feeling’s mutual,” Finn agreed, clearing
his throat. “Just

don’t die or get worse, okay? Heal pretty and
then we’re going to

make our Brio grinder to celebrate.”

395/412

“Something to look forward to,” I groaned,
instantly getting hard.

We went over to the couch and Fergus lay
down on my lap as I held

his good hand, leaving his stump partially
hanging off the couch so

the Queen could work. She spread the goop
out onto his flesh and

then muttered something under her breath
so Fergus was out.

“It’s done. Now we wait,” she said tiredly as
she sat back on her

feet.

“Did the book say how long we have to wait?”
Finn asked as he

396/412

sat down next to her and gave her a one-
armed hug.

“No, but most magic is almost instantan-
eous. I’ve never seen a

spell that—” She gasped suddenly and I
glanced down. I felt my eyes

practically pop out of my head as Fergus’s
arm started extending.

Holy fucking shit!

“Holy fucking shit!” Finn exclaimed as he
shook, looking a little

afraid.

“My sentiments exactly,” I mumbled as I
watched with a mix of

gross horror and awe. When it was done I
glanced at the clock and

397/412

saw it took maybe five minutes total. Wow.

Magdalena muttered another chant and Fer-
gus blinked up at me.

“How long was I out?”

“A few minutes only,” I answered honestly. I
smiled and nodded

to his new arm. “Try it out.” Fergus flinched
and while he didn’t look

at it right away, I saw him moving it.

“It works!” He sat up quickly and checked it
all out now. “It really

works. I have me arm back!” He let out a
gleeful squeal and then

laughed as he practically launched himself at
the Queen. “Thank ya,

398/412

thank ya, thank ya! Ya be the best woman
ever next to me ma.”

“That’s high praise since I’ve met your moth-
er,” she chuckled,

hugging him back. “I’m glad it worked and I
thank you for making

110

Joyee Flynn

Brio so happy. Be good to him always and
that’s all the thanks I

need.”

I met her gaze and smiled at her, both of our
eyes tearing up. I

loved her too and she was such a good per-
son. She didn’t even see it

399/412

half the time and the way her people loved
her.

Once Fergus was healed and Queen Mag-
dalena checked that

everything was in working order, they
quickly cleaned up everything

and made themselves scarce. Wow, if that
wasn’t subtle or anything.

“I texted Ma that we have a surprise for them
tonight and if

everyone could come over for dinner to help
us unpack,” Finn said

after we were all alone and everything put
away that he had brought

out. “They accepted and will be bringing
some food and most of the

400/412

in-laws it seems. So we don’t even have to do
anything and we have

five hours to kill. What could we do until
then?”

Both sets of Irish eyes focused on me as if I
was their last meal.

“Why do I think you guys already know what
that answer’s going to

be?”

“Oh yeah we do,” Fergus growled. “Run, our
mate.” I raised an

eyebrow at them, teasing them that they wer-
en’t scary, but then did it

anyways. Yeah, my five-five mates weren’t
frightening to me. But it

401/412

was still fun to be chased because I was so
desired by them.

Ten minutes and lots of foreplay later, I was
on my hands and

knees in the middle of our mattress begging
for more of their loving. I

loved when they ganged up on me and put
me in the middle. Nothing

ever made me feel so special as when my
mates were focused on

nothing but me.

“Please? I’ve been good. I did everything you
wanted,” I

whimpered as they teased me.

“He did give up a toe and hasn’t even
brought it up as to why we

402/412

should give him what he wants,” Fergus
chuckled as he kept

stretching out my hole. “I think it’s enough
torture.”

A Brio Grinder

111

“I didn’t do it to get favors later,” I said
firmly, looking him

square in the eyes over my shoulder. “That’s
not what that was about.

I wanted to help and would do anything to
make you happy.”

“I know, I was just teasing ya,” he whispered
as he leaned over

and kissed the left cheek of my ass. “I joke
too soon when I’m

403/412

nervous or confused about something. Ya
sacrificed for me and I love

ya for it. It was so selfless and kind I don’t
know if I can ever thank

ya enough or show ya what it meant to me.”

“You don’t have to, Fergus. Just love me.
That’s all I want. The

three of us to love each other and be happy.
That’s thanks enough for

me and my idea of heaven.”

“Wow. The mouth on ya,” Finn whispered.
“Every time ya open

it, ya just about make us swoon. Sexy, sweet,
and smart. We got it all

in our mate.”

404/412

“Glad we agree on that,” I replied, blinking
up at him. It took him

a second to get what I meant but then he
gave me a wink and fed me

his cock. At the same time Fergus pushed his
in my ass and I moaned

like a slut begging.

I was, after all.

Both had big cocks for men their size which
was a pleasant and

appreciated surprise for me. I’d never been
one for giving blow jobs

but with my twins, oh it was fun. They got so
into that I swear I

thought I was going to finish when they did.

405/412

They started moving in rhythm, making it so
I was just hanging on

for the ride. It was heaven, pure and simple.
The way Fergus’s fingers

dug into my hips as his body slammed into
mine. Finn’s cock leaking

so I got a tempting taste of what was to
come. I wanted it to go on for

days because while my body was giving them
pleasure, I was getting

double it back.

Fergus grunted dirty things to me while Finn
thanked me and

praised my talented mouth. I’d never felt so
desired and wanted in my

406/412

life. And they were my mates. I was a lucky
fucker, that was for sure.

112

Joyee Flynn

And when it was time, Fergus leaned over
and bit me while fisting

my cock, sending me over the edge first. The
twins cried out together

and filled me on each end with so much cum
it was so hot my dick

didn’t even deflate. When we were spent we
were lying on the bed,

one mate wrapped around each side of me.

“Perfect. This was perfect,” I whispered as I
felt my eyes droop. “I

407/412

have everything I ever wanted right here.”

“Such a sweet mate,” Fergus purred. “Take a
nap. All your

scheming to give us everything we’ve ever
wanted must have tired

our mate out.”

“You have no idea. I suck at keeping secrets
or putting together

surprises.” I gasped when he fisted my cock
and gave me a heated

look.

“Ya be hard. We need to take care of that,”
Fergus growled.

“Ya be too hard on yourself, our mate,” Finn
said, clucking his

408/412

tongue. “Ya give from the heart and that
means ya always give

perfectly. We love ya and hope we give just
as much back.”

“So much more,” I replied honestly. “You
guys give me all my

dreams and heaven every day. I’m the lucki-
est man in the world.” I

saw them both giving me disbelieving looks
and it warmed my heart.

It meant they thought they were the luckiest
men in the world.

I was okay with that too.

THE END

WWW.JOYEEFLYNN.COM

409/412

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Joyee dreams of one day living on enough
land to have a few

horses, and find a couple of cowboys or pool
boys of her own. A

lover of men, Joyee is all about them in any
form in her books;

vampire, werewolf, shape-shifter, military . .
. It’s all good! She loves

to get lost in fantasy that only books can
bring. Her wide interest in

reading is reflected in her writings, whether
short stories, romance, or

mystical. Currently Joyee lives with her dog,
Marius, named after a

410/412

vampire from Anne Rice’s Interview with the
Vampire series.

For all titles by Joyee Flynn, please
visit

www.bookstrand.com/joyee-flynn

Siren Publishing, Inc.

www.SirenPublishing.com

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Document Outline

Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9

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