Author: Megan Derr
Date: 2015-06-15 21:38:34+00:00
Keywords: M M Romance; General; Romance; Shapeshifters; Shifters; Paranormal Romance; M M Paranormal; Fantasy; Paranormal; Lgbt; Fiction; Menage; Gay; M M M
Description: Sidney has quietly loved twin brothers Brook and Colby for years, watching and pining as they came to his house for the summer every year. Painfully aware that they have each other, have no reason to notice the unremarkable duck they grew up babysitting. Then the twins and their mother are attacked days before an important meeting that will change the shifter world forever. When the twins come to stay with Sidney's family until the attackers are caught, Sidney learns that all things have their season, and even violent protests will not keep two rabbits from the man for whom they've been patien
Publisher: Less Than Three Press, LLC

Table of Contents

Title Page

Book Details

Dedication

Rabbit Season

About the Author

Rabbit Season

Megan Derr

Sidney has quietly loved twin brothers Brook and Colby for years, watching and pining as they came to his house for the summer every year. Painfully aware that they have each other, have no reason to notice the unremarkable duck they grew up babysitting.

Then the twins and their mother are attacked days before an important meeting that will change the shifter world forever. When the twins come to stay with Sidney's family until the attackers are caught, Sidney learns that all things have their season, and even violent protests will not keep two rabbits from the man for whom they've been patiently waiting...

Book Details

Rabbit Season

Lost Shifters 2

By Megan Derr

Published by Less Than Three Press LLC

All rights reserved.  No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner without written permission of the publisher, except for the purpose of reviews.

Edited by Samantha M. Derr

Cover designed by London Burden

This book is a work of fiction and all names, characters, places, and incidents are fictional or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual people, places, or events is coincidental.

First Edition February 2015

Copyright © 2015 by Megan Derr

Printed in the United States of America

Digital ISBN 9781620044346

For Alex

Rabbit Season

Sidney groaned as his alarm went off. Stupid mornings. He killed the alarm, then dragged himself up and stretched, joints cracking and popping. He yawned as he climbed out of bed and stretched some more, scratching sleepily at his stomach as he reluctantly left the warmth of his bedroom and trudged downstairs, turning left at the bottom to go straight into the kitchen.

Coffee. He wanted. Needed.

Laughter made him stop. It was familiar, but he had to be wrong…

He squeaked in dismay when he saw he was not wrong, not even a little. The Hot Twins were sitting at the breakfast nook with his dad. Oh, god, what the hell were they doing there? At nine in the morning? While his hair was standing on end and he was wearing Spiderman pajama pants?

Coffee. Focus on the coffee, and then he could go throw himself into traffic or off a cliff, whichever one Google said was closest. Scurrying to the coffee pot, Sidney pulled out a mug, filled it, and then fled the kitchen to hide in the sunroom at the back of the house.

He settled into his favorite seat, a wicker chaise covered with the world's softest cushions—although the sunflower and bees pattern was the ugliest thing in the existence.

What were Brook and Colby doing at his house? Why hadn't someone warned him they were coming? He was going to kill his dads. Last he'd heard anything about the twins, they were busy working for their local branch of the Lost Shifters Foundation. They'd been so busy with it Sidney hadn't seen them for like two years. Were they visiting to see if any of the duck families in Sidney's flock would be willing to take in an orphan?

Birds were some of the hardest shifters to place, after some of the more dangerous ones like snakes, alligators, all the bitey and venomous shifters. Birds were difficult because they were elitist snobs, traditionally. Sidney's flock was a rare exception, mostly thanks to his dads and the friends who had stood by them, but even they still had some disgruntled families who didn't like the upset to years of history, of tried and true blah blah blah.

They still weren't recovered from the scandal of his dad marrying Troy, a non-shifter. Even after two and a half decades of his dad and pop being together, people still weren't entirely certain what to do with a regular old human. On top of that, his fathers' best friend was a rabbit, and her sons came to stay at Sidney's house all the time. He'd been awed by Brook and Colby as a little boy, two beautiful, bold rabbits who didn't seem afraid of anyone or anything.

Awe and wonder had turned into a quiet protectiveness when he was about twelve and had caught them hiding in the boathouse, Brook crying and nursing a black and split lip, Colby tending him and muttering angrily about plucking stupid ducks and setting them on fire.

It hadn't been hard for Sidney to figure out who was responsible for hurting them. He wasn't the type to pick a fight in the schoolyard, as much as he daydreamed about being the big, brave hero sometimes… but he was perfectly capable of tattling because sometimes the most direct route was the best, and nobody was going to fuck with the only son of James Robinson, the flock leader. Of course, that often meant nobody invited him out to have any fun, either, but Sidney preferred to stay at home with his books and games anyway.

Unfortunately, the whole tattling thing hadn't endeared him to the twins, either, but it wasn't like they ever noticed him anyway. They were six years older than him, why would they? But he wished they hadn't pulled away and stopped being friendly after he ratted out George and his crew for hurting them.

On the other hand, awe had turned to protectiveness had turned into an incredibly awkward crush because apparently he wanted to go all the way past hopeless and straight on to completely-removed-from-reality.

That was their fault, though, one hundred percent. After the second time he'd caught them in the boathouse, he'd sworn off ever again going near the damn thing. Bad enough they'd stolen his hideout for peace and quiet, but that they'd also stolen it to… well, fuck like bunnies? Jackasses. Until he'd seen that, his crush had been vague and largely aesthetic. After the boathouse, it had been very specific and highly graphic. He'd never been more grateful, or more annoyed by, the flexible personal boundaries that rabbits lived by.

It was a contentious issue, the 'depravity' and 'loose morals' of rabbits. If and when shifters made themselves known to ordinary humans, there were a whole bunch of shifters that the rest of the community was going to try and shove in a dark hole so they wouldn't ruin it for everyone else. Rabbits would be one of the first shoved down it, and most ducks would be more than happy to start the shoving.

Sidney finished his coffee and left the mug on the table in the middle of the room and used the back stairs to sneak up to his room. Stripping off his stupid pajamas, he darted into his shower and washed up quickly, though he was tempted to stay there all day, work or no work.

Back in his room, he pulled on jeans and a green t-shirt with Robinson Landscaping written across it in white with a little yellow flower and duck logo in the bottom right corner. Monday, Wednesday, and Friday he worked at the landscaping place. Tuesday and Thursday he worked the bakery. Saturday and Sunday he slept or otherwise avoided his dads because damn it, heir to the kingdom or not, he needed some downtime.

Ready as he was ever going to be, he grabbed his ball cap and wallet then headed down the front stairs to put on his boots. He was just sneaking out the front door when he heard his dad call from the kitchen. "Get in here, Sid."

"Damn." Closing the door again, Sidney slunk into the kitchen, looked warily around—and nearly sighed in relief when he saw it was just his dad. "What's up?"

James gave him an amused look. "Aren't you going to say hello to Brook and Colby?"

"I'm going to be late for work?" Sidney tried.

"Yeah, pity your boss is such a stickler about that," James replied dryly.

Sidney rolled his eyes. "Dude, I doubt they care. Why are they here anyway?"

James's levity faded off to a look of worry and anger. "You know their mother is pretty big in the whole shifters coming out thing, right?"

"Yeah."

"Well, a group of protestors attacked their house last night. Vandalized it, broke all the windows, busted in the doors, even got in briefly and trashed a lot of the inside. They fled when the cops showed up. Thankfully, Nancy and her sons weren't hurt. There was a note left, though, warning her that if she showed up at that conference in California happening this week a whole hell of a lot worse would happen. I told them the twins could stay here while she went to California."

Sidney frowned. "Will she be okay?"

James smiled faintly. "Yeah, Nancy will be okay. That woman has a lot of enemies, but she's also got a lot of friends—including some high-placed wolves. Nobody will get to her unless they go through a lot of other people, and Brook and Colby should be safe laying low here for a couple of weeks. You should go say hello, though. They've been kind of down and shaky since it happened, and you're good at cheering them up."

"Me? Since when? Have you been drinking pond water again, Dad? I'll tell Pop."

"Shut up," James replied, still smiling. Pushing away from the counter he'd been leaning against, he ruffled Sidney's hair and shoved him back toward the open doorway leading into the hall. "There's not much going on at work today, just lawns to mow and a rose garden to touch up. Take the day off, go spend it with Brook and Colby. If you think you don't cheer them up, then you're the one drinking pond water. Get, or I'll start in with threats."

"I'm going, I'm going. Go to work or something, ugh." He paused to grab a pack of pop-tarts from the pantry, snitched a soda from the fridge, and then headed through the house to where he was pretty sure Brook and Colby would be hanging out: the patio.

His dads' house was a large, sprawling, three story monstrosity of styles. Sidney hadn't existed when it was built, but he'd be willing to bet his inheritance that they had made the architect cry. It was, in theory, a farmhouse style, but it had a whole bunch of other stuff piled on and around it. The wraparound porch, for instance, was huge, all columns and fancy tile , large enough on the south side of the house that there was an enormous veranda that looked like it had fallen out of some trendy magazine special on backyard garden parties with a manly touch. Or something. And it had been built so it could support a huge balcony thing on the second floor with more couches and chairs and a bar and TV. Granted, the house was perpetually filled with ducks getting together for Excuse to Drink Number Five Thousand and Twelve, but still.

Everyone called it the patio, and it had always been catnip for a certain pair of rabbits. When they weren't going to bed or forced to be somewhere else in the house, the patio was their spot. Sidney was pretty certain on the nice nights they slept out there. Possibly did other things he tried not to think about. Usually he failed hard. So to speak.

Dragging himself out there, he hovered just past the open French doors, pop-tarts and soda dangling forgotten in his fingers.

Stupid twins. Stupid, hot, awesome twins who were completely ruining his life. Two years they'd been vanished, off doing important grown up things. Sidney had finished school, started working hard to learn the ropes of his fathers' evil empire, and had been sort-of-maybe (half-heartedly) flirting with a guy at the restaurant next to the bakery. He had totally convinced himself he was over Brook and Colby.

Lies. All terrible, tragic, going-to-hell lies.

Brook sat on the stone railing that wrapped around the whole patio, staring out over the yard and the scrubby woods beyond. Just past those trees was the duck pond (the ordinary human realtor, apparently, had been so proud that the property included a quaint duck pond, and she had promised the ducks were no bother at all. His dads were jerks).

On the east end of the house, way at the edge of the property behind lots more trees, where non-shifters were probably never going to go, was the much larger artificial lake his dads' had had put in—at great expense, several spats with the local government that had turned relations between them and his dads into a Shakespeare-type drama, and a few threats of divorce—for when the flock gathered together for big events, which were every other week because apparently living together in the same city limits was not good enough for their busybody issues.

Anyway, Brook liked to flirt with death by sitting on the railing with his legs on the 'this might hurt if you fall' side. Colby, the quieter and slightly saner twin, was at the glass table nearby, rapidly typing away on the laptop that still was apparently never far from his fingers.

They both had the white-blond hair typical to cottontails, and gray-brown eyes. Colby's were, as usual, framed by reading glasses. Brook's hair fell to around his ears, probably still got in his eyes all the time, and looked like he was always running his hands through it, which was true. He was the loud, outgoing, friendly one. If Sidney recalled correctly, he was the one who met with families and the rescued shifters and matched them up.

Colby was the quiet one, plenty friendly in his own way, but next to Brook he often could seem cold. If anyone came down on them, however, it was Colby who started swinging, and nobody could stop him except Brook. Both had ridiculous, enthralling amounts of freckles and they hated them.

Sidney stepped further out onto the patio, and both twins froze. Colby did the nose-wrinkling thing Sidney loved, like he thought he was in rabbit form. Brook turned on the railing and grinned. "Hey, stranger."

"Hey, losers," Sidney replied, relaxing slightly. They might have been more distant since that night he'd ratted out George and the Assholes, but they weren't mean. "Finally came back, huh? Decided we were good enough for you again?"

Colby rolled his eyes. Brook just grinned. "Now, now, duckling. You know we would have returned for you sooner if we could have. Life gets in the way and all that."

"Ha ha," Sidney said faintly, hoping his face wasn't as red as it felt because what what what. Brook had just—that was definitely flirty. Since when? The last time he'd seen them, he'd just turned eighteen and they'd stopped off for a couple of days that had turned into a week. They'd said maybe ten words to him the entire time. He knew because he'd kept waiting for two of them to be Happy Birthday and they never said it. Nothing. It was like they'd had no clue, even though they'd always remembered it the other times they'd been around.

Whatever.

Padding across the patio, he sat opposite Colby at the table. "I'm glad you guys are okay."

The twins grimaced in unison, then Colby said, "I'll be happier when the assholes responsible are locked up. Or dead. Preferably dead."

"Mm," Brook agreed and turned around again.

Colby shot Brook a look that was gone in a moment, then buried himself in his computer again.

Ah, yes, there was the familiar pretend Sidney didn't exist status. Though, no, that wasn't really fair. They must be worried sick about their mom, never mind their house. Anything could happen to it while they were gone.

He ate half a chocolate pop-tart and chased it with rootbeer. "I'll have you losers know I am giving up an entire day of mowing lawns to hang out with you, so you should probably show a little gratitude or something."

They turned to look at him again, Colby's mouth tipped up at one corner in that partial smile that said he refused to be amused. Brook just went for full on grin, nose doing the wrinkling thing. "Gratitude, huh? Is that what the kids are calling it these days?"

"Shut up." Sidney rolled his eyes and tried to ignore the way his face was heating again, the way they both laughed a little bit. "So how goes the Lost Shifter business? Anything exciting?"

The way they both started glowing almost made him drop his pop-tart. Colby typed something on his laptop then turned it around, displaying some ridiculously adorable dude holding a couple of babies. They looked like something that should be on a Christmas card. The headline below the picture was: Cottonmouth Adopts Wolves, DPRS Furious.

"I don't think you're supposed to be happy about sentences that include the word furious. But wow, who let a cottonmouth adopts wolves? He must have some hella connections."

"It's a long story," Brook said. "Like something on TV, let me tell you. But this is good news because it means there's precedence for this kind of adoption. Until now, the most adventurous adoption the DPRS would permit is like, ducks adopting a pigeon or something. But a snake adopting wolves is a game changer. Lost Shifters has always said it's bunk that you have to match exactly, or even closely. A happy home is far preferable to a nicely matched set and all that."

Sidney nodded. His pop had donated to the Lost Shifters for as long as he'd known about it. He pulled the laptop closer and skimmed the article. "Oh, my god, the snake was feral?"

"Was," Brook and Colby snapped in chorus.

"Hey, not judging." Sidney held up his hands. "Surprised. This must be a crazy special snake."

"He's exactly as cute and sweet as he looks," Brook said. "I met him like two months ago, when they were finalizing the adoption and doing a bunch of interviews and stuff. He's dating a wolf from the Tethers pack; they're a stupid cute couple. The DPRS is frothing at the mouth, they're so pissed."

Sidney rolled his eyes. "The DPRS isn't happy unless they're frothing."  The Department for the Protection and Regulation of Shifters was exactly like any other government agency: decades behind the times, clogged with red tape, and vehemently opposed to change, especially when change meant progress. They were the mortal enemy of the Lost Shifters, whose primary function was to rescue feral shifters and find homes for them, but they were also a major player in breaking down a lot of the harmful barriers shifters had kept erected for years:  like to like, long-standing feuding between species, lots of other old-world crap.

"This is part of the reason people are getting more hostile," Brook said as Colby took his laptop back and resumed typing. "Our mom pushes hard for this stuff and for more shifter-human relations like your dads. The more of those we have to start with, the easier it'll go someday when shifters are allowed to go public. Mom is slowly chipping away at resistance, one shifter at a time. The old-schoolers are starting to freak."

"Good," Sidney said and finished off his pop-tarts in a few quick bites. "Seriously, I have the whole day off. That never happens. You're not going to make me sit here all day having grown-up discussions. I spent all of last week learning how to budget. You have to save me."

They both grinned at him that time, so infuriatingly cute and sexy he wanted to break their noses. He drank his rootbeer instead. "Poor baby," Brook said. "Tough life, being trained to take over the kingdom."

"Shut it, cottontail." Sidney finished his rootbeer. "If you're not going to make yourselves useful, I'm going to rot my brain playing video games." He was probably actually going to go to the pond; he never got to play in the water anymore.

Gathering up his trash, he stood and left. Once clear of the patio, he slumped. He'd been sure they'd call him back. That was the most they'd talked to him in years, literally. Brook had even flirted a couple of times. Clearly they'd just been putting up with him.

They were stressed and had more important things to worry about. He was being the asshole. Shake it off.

He threw his trash away in the kitchen, then darted upstairs and swapped out his work shirt for a brown tanktop, ditched his boots in favor of sandals, grabbed his sunglasses, and headed out the back door, across the south yard to the duck pond. Stripping off his clothes, because he could shift with them but it was easier to just take them off, he closed his eyes and focused on the shift, felt it unfurl from his center and rush over him.

He stretched his wings, shook himself, then waddled up to the pond and slid into the water. A few regular ducks were about, feeding around the edges of the pond, though a few were in the middle to seek out more ambitious snacks. They ignored him after ensuring he was not an interloper.

Sun, water, wind. Perfect. No work, no one to bug him. Better than perfect. Sidney settled in and just let himself drift, soak up the rare day off and pretend nothing was bothering him.

By the look of the sun, he'd been zoned out for about an hour when the ducks around him stirred in annoyance at a disruption. Sidney turned around and saw two chubby little cottontails running off with his clothes. For a moment, he was frozen. They wouldn't.

Then he lifted himself out of the water and into the air, chasing after them, the stupid jerks.

But he'd taken a beat too long, and they vanished into the woods where he had no hope of going after them. He could go in there and try to find them, but they were rabbits; they could hide in there all day, dragging his clothes across the ground and ruining them.

Why would they do something so fucking mean?

He almost shifted back to human and started yelling at them, but that would draw parental attention that he really didn't want. Grunting in annoyance, Sidney abandoned the trees and headed back to the house, alighting on the patio and then waddling through the house to his room, where he immediately shifted, slammed the door, and locked it. Stomping over to his dresser, he yanked out fresh clothes, pausing as he dressed to scrub angrily at his eyes.

He really hadn't expected Brook and Colby to do the same dumb shit that George's crew did. They were twenty-six for crying out loud. Why were they pulling high school pranks?

A knock at the door made him jump. "Fuck off, assholes!"

There was a beat of silence and then a voice replied wryly, "I'm just going to assume that wasn't meant for me and let it slide."

Sidney groaned and smashed his face into his hands. He stood up and pulled his t-shirt on, then sulked over to the door and opened it. "Sorry, Pop."

"No worries." Troy reached out and lightly ruffled his hair. "Why are you slamming doors and cussing at people? For that matter, why aren't you at work?"

"Dad gave me the day off, said I should spend it with Colby and Brook, but they can go fu—I'd rather go mow lawns."

Troy's brows rose. Sidney really hated parental knowing looks. "Well, there's plenty of lawn around here if you're jonesing. Why do you look like you'd rather run Brook and Colby over with the lawnmower?" When Sidney hesitated, he said, "Out with it, or I'll go ask them."

"They stole my clothes!" Sidney burst out, almost but not quite stamping his foot. "I was chilling in the pond, and they came up and ran off with my clothes." He scowled in absolute hatred when Troy's mouth twitched. "I'm going to run all of you over with the lawnmower."

"Your dad wouldn't be very amused to come home and find me dead." Troy grinned. "Then he'd have to do all the accounting, and that would get you extra-dead."

Sidney sighed.

"Come on, you're twenty, not fourteen. Stop slamming doors and sulking. I'm sure they thought they were being funny. Somehow, when all three of you are in the same room, you all regress to acting like children." His mouth curved into that parental smirky-smirk again. "I wonder why. Stop hiding. I can and will lock you out of this room."

Grumbling, Sidney stepped out of his room. He only gave a token protest when Troy lightly gripped his shoulder and dragged him down the hall to the main office at the back of the house. 'Office' kind of underestimated the place, which was more like 'office plus boardroom plus small library'. Like every other part of the house, it was built with the idea that lots of people would be using it with fair frequency. Troy had a smaller office for when the main one was in use, but he preferred the big room as often as he could get it. "Sit somewhere."

Heaving another sigh, Sidney flopped into one of the big chairs around the ginormous table where the monthly and biweekly flock meetings were held. He'd been attending them since he was fifteen, and near as he could tell, they did not get less boring the older he got. He was not looking forward to the day he had to lead one, which his fathers assured him was closer than he liked. "Are you going to make me help you?" he asked. "'Cause then I really would rather go mow the lawn."

"It's cute you think you won't have to do both."

"I'm twenty years old; you can't boss me around anymore?" Sidney tried.

Troy laughed but didn't bother to glance away from the window he was staring out—a window that looked out over the backyard, and the woods that hid to the artificial lake. Where the assholes had fled with his clothes.  "Try again, doofus."

"It's not nice to call your only son a doofus."

"It's not nice to call your father a fucking asshole."

"Point," Sidney conceded. "In my defense, I thought you were someone else. Two someone elses."

Troy looked at him briefly, smirk-smirking away. "I gathered. They're slinking back to the house, so I think they know they're in the doghouse. Stay there or else. I mean it."

Knowing a legitimate threat when he heard one, Sidney stayed put. Except to go snitch a soda out of Troy's fridge beneath the bar. And some pretzels because Troy always hoarded the good ones.

Almost half an hour later, the door finally opened and two chastised looking cottontail jerks slunk in. "Hey, Sidney."

Sidney looked at them but did not say anything. He was an adult, he could act childish if he wanted to.

"We're sorry," Brook said, always the faster to speak. "We were trying to play, not be mean. We were going to give them back at the lake, swear it. We went straight there and waited for you."

Ugh, sincerity. "It's fine," Sidney said and shoved the remaining two pretzels in his mouth. He didn't have the energy to be mad at them all day.

"Come on," Colby said. "We're going out."

"Out." He waited, but they didn't say anything more, just started to smile. "Fine." He threw the trash out and followed them from the office. "Where'd Pop go?"

"Said he had to go talk to some people about numbers that weren't adding up," Brook replied. "That he probably wouldn't be back any time soon since he was gonna meet Uncle James for a late lunch." When Sidney drew close, he threw an arm around his shoulders and dragged him along out of the room. He let go again when they reached the stairs. "Hopefully they don't decide to eat at the same place we're going 'cause that would be awkward."

That didn't make any sense, but Sidney didn't ask what they meant, just shoved his feet into his flip flops and followed them out of the house, down the walk to the driveway where… "You guys got a new car." He hadn't thought they'd ever be able to part with their old one; Brook had called it 'baby' and everything.

Brook grinned at him the way car people always did, like they had a new kid or puppy or something to show off. It was equal parts exasperating and adorable. Did he do that with anything? Not cars, for sure. His car was blue, and the heat was crappy. That was all he knew. "Yeah," Brook said. "Isn't it sweet?"

Sidney tried to make a suitably enthralled/impressed face as Brook babbled about it while they drove. From the sympathetic smirk Colby gave him in the rearview mirror, he wasn't fooling anyone. Sidney grinned briefly, then returned to staring out the window as they headed into town.

Half an hour later, they pulled into the enormous field that served as a parking lot for everyone wandering Main Street who did not work there and have private parking. Across the street was one of the most popular places in town: a 'shack' that sold all the summer food a person could dream up. There were four windows, and all of them had lines. Seating was a bunch of concrete tables and benches scattered about an enormous gravel lot, each table sporting an obnoxiously bright umbrella.

His cousins operated it, having taken over from their aunt, whose back was in too bad a shape to keep on her feet all day. That didn't stop her from showing up at random points to make certain they weren't 'messing around,' much to their displeasure. Sidney sympathized.

The shack was his absolute favorite place to eat, but Brook and Colby didn't like it as much. They didn't hate meat, per se, but they definitely had a strong preference for foods that were not meat. Sidney had figured they'd be going to the diner two blocks down, where they could eat their weight in salad and strawberry-rhubarb pie like usual while he had a cheeseburger. Not that he was complaining. Hell to the no.

"Man, this place never changes," Brook said, stopping on the edge of the gravel. "The world will end, but this place will last. Mm, I want french fries. Be back." He didn't want for their reply, just strode off across the crowded lot to the window with the shortest line.

Colby snorted softly, shared a smile with Sidney, and then gave him a minor heart attack by taking his hand as they walked off. Not a 'come on, let's get through this crowd' hold, but a fingers tangled together, walking close together type hand holding.

Colby finally stopped at a table all the way at the edge of the lot where the gravel ran into a grassy, dandelion-riddled field that at some point in the summer would be taken over by a traveling carnival. Colby slowly let go of his hand and then sat down. Sidney took the seat opposite him, partly because he was freaking out, but mostly because he was not gonna miss a chance to surreptitiously ogle Colby and Brook sitting next to each other.

"You two are acting funny."

"Funny how?" Colby asked.

Sidney eyed him, but sunglasses made Colby even harder to read than usual. "Brook flirted with me back at the house. Twice. You guys ran off with my clothes. You're taking me out to lunch, and you held my hand. I'm not stupid, I know when I'm being messed with."

Colby's mouth quirked. "I remember when you were too shy to string five words together without mumbling or tripping over them. Assuming you talked to us at all."

"Being worked to death in half a dozen permutations of customer service hell beats the tripping and mumbling out of you. Also, my dads are stubborn. Shyness is no excuse for blah, blah, blah, and blah. I've never actually heard the whole lecture. I zone out the minute it starts."

Colby laughed, for a moment seeming more like Brook than himself. "Sounds like Uncle Jamie, alright. He used to lecture me like that. One summer he got so fed up with my 'hermit tendencies' he got me this awful call center job. My mom sided with him like a vile betrayer, and for two years I dealt with that shit. But it paid off, I guess. I can only imagine how much worse it is being the precious only child and heir to the glorious empire."

Sidney made a face, pleased when that elicited another laugh. Before he could muster the courage to ask what they were up to again, Brook returned carrying two trays of food. "Corn dogs, tater tots, and fried pickles for the duckling. French fries and normal pickle for me, and deep fried vegetables and tater tots for you. Sodas and condiments all around. Somebody else is buying ice cream."

"Thanks," Sidney said and dove into the corn dogs, smothering them in mustard, making short work of all three before he dove into his pickles and tots.

He paused halfway through when he caught the twins watching him. Cheeks heating, he dropped the fried pickle he was holding and wiped his fingers on a napkin, then his mouth in case there was mustard or something everywhere. "What?"

Colby shook his head, but Brook said, "Your mouth."

"What." Sidney's face went from hot to volcano. "What's wrong with my mouth? Why are you being so weird?"

Brook grunted when Colby elbowed him but said, "Your mouth should be illegal."

"Go to hell." He didn't know what their stupid game was, but he was done playing it. He should have just gone to work, screw them. When had they turned into jerks? Why couldn't they just ignore his stupid crush instead of making fun of him for it?

Standing up, he wove and pushed through the crowd, then stormed off down the street, dead set on finding his dads and catching a ride home. Someone grabbed his wrist; Sidney snarled and jerked free, whipped around and glared. "Why are you doing this? I've never done anything. You don't have to make fun of me."

"We're not," Colby said, voice so calm that it soothed Sidney despite himself. "We're—your six years younger than us, Sidney."

Before Sidney could ask where that had come from, because yeah, he was frigging aware, Brook added, "Yeah, do you have any idea how it felt to realize the kid we grew up with was, in fact, growing up hot and looked pretty good at sixteen? We wanted to die. It didn't help we knew—well, you're not subtle. So we stayed away, tried to stop being creepy jerks, thought it would fade off. It definitely hadn't the last time we saw you, and it hasn't now. The only difference is that now you're twenty, definitely not a kid anymore even if you're still really young. And it's amazing what you're willing to try for when you come really close to being beaten to death and your body set on fire."

Jesus. He hadn't realized the attack on their house had been that bad. They looked scared to death just recalling it. He wanted to hug them.

Then the rest of what they'd said registered. "Wait. You—you can't mean—you're actually flirting with me?"

Colby huffed. "Yes, duck."

"You suck at it."

Brook grinned in a way Sidney had never seen, sharp and hungry and nothing held back. He moved into Sidney's space so abruptly that Sidney squeaked. "We're rabbits. We're not used to tip-toeing around things like this."

Sidney swallowed, acutely, painfully aware of Brook: the clean, soapy smell of him, lightly touched by sunshine and sweat. The soft gray-brown of his eyes framed by dark lashes, the barest hint of stubble to his face, all the stupid, distracting freckles. The way his t-shirt just barely clung to his chest. "I thought you two—well, that it was you two. Fullstop."

It was Colby who softly replied, "There was always room for one more, Sid. One long-reserved spot, even if we tried to deny it for years."

"Oh. Um." Sidney swallowed again, wishing he could get the fucking lump out of his throat. "This—this is not how I thought this would go. You haven't even liked me since I ratted out the goon squad after they beat you up."

They stared at him like he'd lost his mind. "We've always liked you," Brook said. "We were trying to keep you from getting hurt because you got mixed up in our drama."

Sidney wanted to smash something heavy across their heads. "You're so stupid." He lightly shoved Brook away—and squeaked again when Brook grabbed him and reeled him in, not quite certain how the tables had turned. He oofed as he collided with Brook's chest. "What's with the grabby?"

That time the squeak stuck in his throat as Brook leaned up and brushed the barest of kisses across his mouth. Sidney could feel it all the way down to his toes. He stared wide-eyed at Brook. "My dads are going to kill me." Troy's smirk abruptly came back to mind. "Oh, my fucking god they already know. I'm going to kill all of you. Starting with you idiot rabbi—mmf—"

The second kiss was definitely not soft and involved a little bit of tongue. Possibly a lot bit of tongue. Oh, god, he was going to die. His dads would lecture him to death about appropriate times and places for PDAs until he died of mortification or boredom. Jerking back, he hissed, "Behave! Do you know how many phone calls my dads are getting right now? Emails? Texts? Your son is having sex with those rabbits on Main Street, I never. That's what everyone who can see us is telling my dads right this very second."

Brook laughed so hard he had to cling to Sidney for balance, burying his face against Sidney's chest. That was not helping matters. Sidney glared at Colby, who looked as though all he needed was popcorn. "Do something about this."

"Why?" Sidney glared harder, and Colby rolled his eyes but reached out and tugged his brother back. "I think it's time for ice cream." He slipped around Brook and took Sidney's hand as he had before, offering a hesitant smile just as fascinating as Brook's earlier grin.

"You guys move fast."

"Rabbits," they chorused, Brook moving to his other side as they headed down the street to the ice cream stand. It was about half the size of the food shack, but at least as busy.

Sidney rolled his eyes.

Unfortunately, the reminder that rabbits generally were neither shy nor hesitant reminded him that rabbits also were not much for long-term type relationships. The twins weren't even sure of their father's identity simply because it didn't matter to them. Rabbits tended to stay close to the parent who raised them, but the older they got, the more it became a friendship and less a parent-child relationship.

Ignore, ignore, ignore. Go along with it, see how it went. Something was better than nothing. Take the win and all that.

The ice cream parlor was, as predicted, plagued with long lines. Thankfully said lines did not seem to be full of people he knew, though he recognized a few faces here and there. Pointedly ignoring the mix of curious and disapproving looks he was getting, he focused instead on how dead he was going to be when he got home. Also on how much the threat of pending death was not making him let go of Colby's hand at all.

Unfortunately, Tina was working the window when it was finally their turn. She opened and closed her mouth several times, peering curiously between the three of them, but in the end only asked what they wanted. Chocolate for Brook, vanilla for him and Colby. Three soft serve cones had never taken so long to make, and when they finally got them, Sidney threw the money on the counter and skedaddled faster than he'd ever skedaddled in his life, dragging Colby along with him and ignoring Brook's snickering as he followed along behind.

As they left Main Street behind, Colby took the lead, taking them to the park at the edge of town, a sprawling, half-wild stretch of green that wrapped around a small lake.

Sidney grimaced when he saw a trio of too-familiar faces walking toward them. The goons hadn't noticed them yet, but that would change any second. "Ugh, break left, break left."

The twins didn't reply, just obeyed, turning a sharp left down a little walking path that led to a relatively quiet part of the park because it headed away from the lake. Sidney was startled, but not exactly surprised, when Brook draped an arm across his shoulders, putting Sidney right in the middle of a twin sandwich as they kept walking and eating ice cream. There were worse places to be.

They finally stopped beside a mossy little pond dappled with shade and sunshine, insects buzzing, the grass half-covered with little white and yellow flowers. Sidney sat down and stretched his legs out, finishing the last bit of his ice cream and crunching down the cone, licking melted ice cream from his sticky fingers.

He swallowed when Colby turned his head but didn't even ponder resisting the mouth that fell over his, sticky-sweet and cool but warming quickly. Colby kissed like he had a job to do and was going to see it was done right, where Brook kissed like they were playing a game and nobody could lose.

Sidney moaned as he realized he knew the differences in how they kissed. After that it seemed easy as breathing to bury his fingers in Colby's hair, other hand still splayed in the grass. He gasped, shivered, as hands that couldn't belong to Colby slipped under his t-shirt from behind, calloused fingers running teasingly over his skin. Sidney oofed when Colby shifted, pushed him back against Brook, and straddled him. Colby's fingers sank into his hair, and he drew back just enough to draw breath. Sidney got a glimpse of blown pupils and wet lips, and then he was being kissed in a way that could only be described as tongue fucking.

It was always the quiet ones. Sidney groaned, clinging tightly to Colby's t-shirt, painfully aware of the man in his lap and the one behind him, the heavy thighs bracketing him, and the hard, obvious proof that both twins were very happy to see him. He broke the kiss, tried to remember how to breathe and how to think.

His efforts were in vain as Colby drew back enough to strip off their t-shirts before diving right back in to being evil, putting that mouth to work on Sidney's throat and chest while Brook continued to caress and tease. Sidney damn near lost his mind when he got double action, Colby sucking and nibbling one side of his throat while Brook molested the other. Oh, god, fantasy had fuck nothing on reality. His imagination had not been anywhere near vivid enough. "Nng—you guys go from zero to sixty." He was going to crash and burn and probably wouldn't feel very sorry about it.

They didn't bother to reply save to redouble their efforts to break his brain permanently. Brook's hand skated along his chest, fingers teasing over his nipples before they were replaced by Colby's mouth. It became some sort of evil game with them, Brook's hands followed by Colby's mouth.

Sidney was pretty sure he stopped breathing entirely when Colby got his pants open and Brook helped himself, fisting Sidney's cock and working it with quick, firm strokes. He almost fucking died when Colby stripped him entirely and got his own hands on Sidney's balls, gently fondling them, other hand wrapped around his own cock, hastily pulled from his shorts. He leaned in and kissed Sidney, wet and filthy, and the only thing better was when he broke away and leaned past Sidney to treat Brook to the same. Sidney whined, high and thin and needy. "I want to see."

Chuckling, the twins drew apart, then pulled away entirely, leaving Sidney to swear in protest—but he forgot to complain when they moved in front of him and finished stripping, then pressed together and gave Sidney a show that put those few stolen moments he'd witnessed to shame. As in everything else, Brook was the louder, flashier one, but Colby was the one in charge. Brook's arms looped around Colby's shoulders as Colby ate at his mouth, Colby's hands gripping Brook's ass, guiding the way they rutted against each other. The little clearing was filled with the sound of skin smacking skin, the pants and moans, the breathy way Brook said Colby's name as he came, shuddering and shaking in Colby's arms.

Looking entirely too pleased with himself, Colby pushed Brook down on the grass, then crooked a finger at Sidney. Happy to obey, Sidney went, trembling with a need to come already when Colby grabbed him and turned him so he knelt between Brook's spread thighs.

Rubbing up against him, cock hot and leaving sticky trails along Sidney's ass and lower back, Colby reached around and stroked Sidney off fast, teeth nipping lightly at the underside of his jaw. He held Sidney tight as his climax took him, murmuring soft words that Sidney didn't quite catch, though the approving tone was clear enough.

Sidney was just starting to calm when he felt Colby come, making a total mess of Sidney's back. He probably should care about that because they still had to walk back to the car and then drive home, but right then he was all about avoiding his problems.

Brook and Colby tugged and shifted him until he lay sprawled on the grass with a twin on either side of him, their heads on his shoulders, legs splayed over his. They were heavy and hot, and his back was itchy as hell, but he had no desire to move. "Zero to sixty," he repeated around a yawn.

"We're not used to having to wait years," Brook said.

"Spoiled brats."

Colby snorted. "Says Little Lord Duckling."

"Shut up."

They snickered and fell silent, settling more heavily against him as they fell into a light doze that Sidney was happy to join them in. He probably should be concerned that they were lying naked in the park and it was really obvious what they'd been doing, but it was sunny and warm, and he'd just had sex with the two men he'd always wanted but had thought were totally unattainable. He was gonna die when he got home, but it was so very worth it.

A cool breeze drew him back to the waking world some time later. Sidney whined, sore and stiff and starting to reach unbearable levels of itchy. He whined again and tried to squirm free, but the useless lumps on either side of him wouldn't budge. "Move, jerks."

Soft laughter brushed warmly over his skin, followed by lips and tongue that already felt bone-deep familiar. Then Sidney was turned, pushed on his side, and pressed up against Brook, who kissed like it was his birthday and Sidney was the cake and ice cream. Colby pressed in close behind, and holy god it was good to be the filling in the sandwich, feeling Colby's dick rutting in the crack of his ass while his cock rubbed against Brook's, and they were going to be so ridiculously messy by the time they were done, and he still didn't care. He clung tightly to Brook, lost in his kisses, whimpering and possibly begging as they moved together, sweaty and overheated, too eager for grace or coordination but somehow managing anyway.

Colby came first that time, biting Sidney's shoulder, spilling all over him again and god, Sidney wanted to know how it felt to be fucked by them, wondered if he could last through both. He could picture it, spread out on his bed, Brook fucking him with abandon, grinning and provoking as he drove into Sidney again and again, bruising his lips with a kiss as he came, making Sidney whimper when he pulled out, leaving him trembling but aching for more. Colby would immediately replace him, fuck him slower, strokes steady and deep, refuse to come until tears of frustration pricked at Sidney's eyes and he had no choice but to come himself, and only then would Colby finally let go, teeth leaving marks on Sidney's shoulders as he sank in deep one last time and came.

Sidney let out a ragged cry as he came, adding to the mess already on him and Brook—and it just worsened when Brook kissed him again and came.

When they finally calmed down and pulled apart, Sidney examined the messes they'd made of each other, reached out to pick a leaf out of Brook's hair. Colby fetched the napkins he'd grabbed at the ice cream stand and really, Sidney should have noticed he'd grabbed a suspicious number of them. He dipped a few in the pond and cleaned Sidney up, handing a few more to Brook.

They still looked like they'd been fucking after they were sort-of clean and dressed again, but Sidney supposed it could be worse. Maybe he was just paranoid and they would only look like they'd been horsing around or something. Doubtful when his face still felt hot and wasn't likely to stop because he could still feel them everywhere, wanted to strip and go again even though he was pretty sure his cock was done for a bit. "I am never going to be able to brain again."

The twins laughed, and Brook threw an arm across his shoulders as they headed back out of the park. "So what are we doing now?" Sidney asked. "Heading home?"

"Yeah," Brook said, his good mood fading a bit. "Mom should be out of the first round of preliminary meetings by now. Need to call and make sure she's okay."

"I'm sorry about all that's happened," Sidney said. "I wish you'd come to visit for happy reasons, not because you're in danger."

Colby shrugged. "We knew what we were in for when we decided to help pick this fight. We won't let the assholes beat us, even if they do burn our house down."

"Anyway, there's perks," Brook said. "Come on."

They'd just left the park when Sidney's pocket buzzed. Groaning, he pulled his phone out—and promptly wanted to die when he read the text from his dad.

Tell those idiots that we're going to have a long talk about the words 'discreet' and 'slow'. You are going to pay severely for the trauma induced by the calls and emails I've been getting. Does anybody in this town actually work?

"Somebody kill me," Sidney said with another groan. "I'm going to throw myself into traffic. It's the only solution."

Brook took his phone and read the text, snickering as he handed it off to Colby, who only sighed. "We did promise to be discreet and keep this on the down low."

"It was never going to stay that way," Brook replied. "You can't involve the Robinson heir in an incesty threesome and not expect fireworks." He made a face. "Might be easier in the long run if you tell us to fuck off, Sid."

Sidney scowled and shook his head vehemently. "No. People will have to deal. We aren't breaking a law, even with—with the incest. Shifter laws are different. You're not the only type that does stuff like that. Rabbit shifters would suffer if they had to give up some of their behaviors, that's been proven." After approximately two hundred rabbits died or suffered severe trauma after being torn apart and subjected to the same sort of 'treatment' inflicted on humans who didn't fall in line. "I don't care anyway. It's our business. People should mind their own."

"Spoken like a true Little Lord Duckling," Colby said and briefly squeezed his hand. "Only ones I'm scared of are your dads. Uncle Jamie will murder us slowly, and Uncle Troy will give us disappointed looks until we ask Uncle Jamie to kill us."

Laughing because it was so true it hurt, Sidney said, "I'm not opposed to heading to Canada right now. We'll worry about the details on the road."

"Tempting. We'll pack some bags and hide them, so we have an emergency plan."

The drive home was unbearable, Sidney strung taut between anticipating the dreaded talk he was going to be forced to endure from his dads and daydreaming about what would happen the next time he, Brook, and Colby managed to get some alone time.

He expected his dads to be waiting in the kitchen. That was how it always went when there was something serious to discuss, be it a flock thing, a family thing, or a he was grounded for life thing. They waited for him in the kitchen and everybody sat down and talked at the breakfast nook.

Troy was waiting when they entered through the kitchen door, but he was sitting at the island with a glass of lemonade. By the look on his face, he wished it was a beer. "What's wrong, Pop?" Sidney asked, immediately crossing the kitchen.

"Nothing terrible, just irritating," Troy replied and hugged him briefly before getting up to fetch glasses and the pitcher of lemonade, pouring drinks all around as he gestured for them to sit around the island with him. "They parked on the flattop out back, so you probably didn't notice their cars, but like a third of the council is here screaming and shouting about the spectacle you made and what's that boy of yours doing with those damned rabbits of that woman blah blah blah." He stared at his glass, rubbing his thumb through the condensation. "Nevermind that in the same breath they once again threw me out because some discussions just shouldn't involve a human, even if—" Troy broke off with a sigh. "But we all know that tirade." His smile was sour. "So tell me what really happened, kiddo."

Ugh. Twenty. Not a kiddo. Sidney let it slide. "I would literally rather die."

"Well, I guess that explains everything, probably more clearly than you actually meant," Troy replied.

"I'm going to go drown myself in the toilet." Sidney fled to the bathroom before anyone could grab him. He pissed, washed his hands, then splashed cold water on his heated face.

He jumped when someone knocked on the door. "If you are actually trying to drown yourself, I will take pictures and post them everywhere before I call 911."

"Hahaha, my fathers continue to be hilarious," Sidney replied as he yanked the door open. "Go away."

Troy grabbed the front of his shirt and dragged him out of the bathroom, then upstairs to the smaller office where he worked when the big one was overtaken by the flock. He pushed Sidney into the chair in the corner, then closed the door. "Your boyfriends spilled the details."

"They better not have spilled all the details," Sidney muttered and flipped Troy off when he grinned. "You're my father, stop being a perverted jerk."

Snorting, sliding into his desk chair, Troy stretched his long legs out and crossed them at the ankle, folding his arms across his chest. "Your dad didn't marry me for my clean mind and good behavior. Now stop trying to wander away from the point, which is this: we aren't blind. We've seen this coming for a long time. We were hoping it might take a few more years, but it's not our business anymore. The problem is that the flock as per usual does not agree and is treating it like community business." He sighed, lifted his eyes to the ceiling. "This is our relationship all over again, except you've upped the ante." He looked at Sidney. "The first thing they're going to jump all over is whether or not you're fit to lead the flock, what with your deviant behavior and all. That's why we were hoping this relationship wouldn't happen quite yet—buy more time to give you stable footing. But concerned parents are only allowed to butt in so far. Your dad is fighting with them now, but I don't need to tell you it's only the first of approximately five thousand."

"I know. I'm sorry."

Troy shook his head. "You don't have any reason to be sorry. Only thing you'll need to be sure about someday is whether this is worth the fight. Be prepared for how ugly it's going to get—with the flock and with the three of you. And know that it will probably never really stop. I don't need to reiterate to you all the times your dad and I nearly called it quits because shit got so ridiculous. You don't need to say anything right now. Just think. I know we've taught you how to do that. Think about whether this is going to be worth a lifelong fight, that's all I'm asking. Now, onto the second matter…"

"Aunt Nancy."

"Yes," Troy said, one hand dropping to the armrest, the other coming up to rest against his mouth for a moment. "The Shifter Protection Alliance is going to be thrilled to have this kind of ammo to use against her and all the others in favor of coming out. The 'anti-secrecy' crowd as they're starting to be called, unfortunately." He sat up, drew his legs in, tangled his hands together and rested his elbows on his knees. "I'm thinking the three of you need to lay low here for a couple of weeks. At the very least until Nancy's conference is over and the threats against her and her sons dies down."

"Ugh, I hate house arrest," Sidney said. "Even if it means I don't have to deal with Ms. Keller's stupid garden."

Troy made a face. "Yeah, if I get dragged out of my office to help with that I will have my revenge. Come on, let's get you out of sight and mind before the shouting match ends."

Sidney flinched. His dad hated getting mad at the flock, for any reason. And Troy was right—he didn't need to reiterate the stories. Sidney remembered every single one, from the nasty things some of the kids used to tell him at school, to the true versions his dad later told him when he came home crying. All because so much of the flock was a bunch of old school jerkoffs who insisted that traditions shouldn't change except in ways convenient to them.

He followed Troy out of the office and broke into a shy smile when he saw Brook and Colby waiting for him. It was so weird seeing them look uncertain when they always seemed so sure about everything. "Next time we tell you discreet, rabbits, you had better listen or rabbit season will be on. Do you understand me?"

"Yes, Uncle Troy," they chorused as though they were still twelve and not twenty-six.

"Upstairs, troublemakers."

Sidney fled, racing down the hall and up the stairs to his bedroom—and squawked when he was grabbed and dragged away, further down the hall to the bedroom the twins always used. "Dude, I want to get a frigging shower. I smell like I've been messing around in a park."

"You were messing around in the park," Brook said with grin.

"Shut—" the rest of his words were lost as the twins got handsy and removed his clothes. "Oh, my god, I can remove my own clothes. No, you stay out here and suffer and get me clean clothes. That shower is too small for shenanigans." He fled to the bathroom before their woeful eyes could work on him, closing the door firmly behind him.

As it was technically a guest room, the shower was larger than his. Definitely big enough for two, but not big enough for three. He was plenty happy to think about what two could do, even if his dick couldn't offer more than a twitch in response.

Sidney washed quickly, wrinkling his nose at the weird, flowery smelling bodywash the twins had. Rabbits. Whatever, clean was clean. If he could survive smelling like raspberry bubblegum he could survive flowers.

When he came out of the bathroom, his clothes were piled on the corner of the bed, and the twins were sprawled across it. Sidney pulled on boxers and a t-shirt before he got too caught up staring. Ugh, they were so stare-at-able, the stupid jerks.

Colby lay on the bed, face up, and Brook was half-draped over him, head resting on Colby's chest. Their eyes were closed, and Brook looked more like a cat than a rabbit, smiling as Colby idly stroked his hair. The soft, intimate moment punched Sidney in the gut in a scary but good way. Think about whether this is going to be worth a lifelong fight, Troy had said. Sidney was pretty damn sure he'd already made that decision.

There were approximately five thousand details that would have to be worked out, but baby steps, baby steps. The twins had way more important shit to worry about for the present.

Colby opened his eyes, smiled at Sidney, and crooked a finger at him. Happiness and a sudden, sharp wave of shyness washed over Sidney, but he moved to the far side of the bed and stretched out on Colby's other side. Brook cracked one eye open and smiled at him, reaching out to take Sidney's hand before letting his eye close again.

Lying in bed with them, doing nothing at all, was even better than dozing by the pond.

"Sorry for causing drama," Brook eventually muttered.

"Shut up," Sidney replied, smiling. "I'm a duck. All we do is drama. We need it like water. Just last week everyone was in a tizzy because Rosy Jefferson got caught making out with a grizzly bear. Her momma almost killed her. Rosy is still muttering about running away. Even worse, Mr. Lester repainted his house, turned it from a nice, respectable maroon to lime green. People have been harassing my dad, the city, they're thinking about going to talk to him all 'stage an intervention' style. And wait until you hear the scandal about the new restaurant opening up on Lily Pad Street."

Colby snorted. "Let me guess. It's not owned by ducks?"

"Frogs actually, but that's not the scandal. The restaurant is vegan." The twins gasped. Sidney giggled, head pressed into Colby's arm. "It opens next month. Want to go?" Panic hit him as he realized his assumption. "I mean, um, if you're still here. Which you probably won't be. 'Cause I mean you have shit to do and all of that. Uh—" He stopped as they drew away and sat up.

They shifted to sit facing him, and Sidney slowly sat up as well, heart thudding, pounding, as they reached out and took his hands. "We'll be here," Colby said. "Not our style to seduce the town prince and then run off. Mom will cut off our feet and sell them as keychains."

"That's terrible," Sidney replied. "You shouldn't joke about that."

"Who the heck said it was a joke?" Brook muttered, then grinned and leaned in to drop a quick, firm kiss on Sidney's mouth. He ran a thumb along Sidney's cheek right below his eye. "You smell like lavender."

Sidney wrinkled his nose. "Ugh, flowers."

The twins laughed. Colby pulled Sidney in close, kissed him slow and sweet. Sidney was pretty sure he could spend the rest of his life just trading kisses with them, though he would settle for kissing every single freckle on their bodies.

He drew back, licked his lips, happily watched as Colby twined his fingers into Brook's hair and tugged him into a kiss. Sidney might have whimpered, and he definitely reached out to touch, caressing and petting them, loving the way they still smelled like grass and sunshine. They made it so easy to do whatever he wanted when normally he was so impeded by his shyness that he could barely get two words out. He'd had a grand total of three relationships, and that was being overgenerous. He'd sort of quit dating indefinitely after his first (and probably last) girlfriend hadn't been able to stop talking about his dads being 'totally bangable'. So many levels of please dear god stop. And he'd always kind of known that his half-hearted attempts with the waiter were never going to go anywhere.

The twins stared at each other a moment, then turned to share a smile with Sidney. He cupped the sides of their faces, leaning in to give them each a brief kiss. "Go get clean before we're summoned to the principal's office."

Making faces, they nevertheless obeyed after kissing his cheeks. Once they were in the bathroom and he could hear the shower running, Sidney rubbed his flushed face then grabbed his jeans and pulled them on. Flopping back on the bed, he stared up at the ceiling. How was his dad doing? Probably not well, especially since the others had made Troy leave. His dads always did better when they could do stuff together.

Someday it would be Sidney at the head of the table, telling people to sit their asses down, stop yelling, watch their language, and demanding to know if they had gone insane. If there was one thing he had learned about heading the flock, it was that the job was really fucking hard. Sometimes he still wished he had a sibling to con into doing it instead. Or that he could feasibly hide under his bed for the rest of his life.

But… it got a little less scary when he pictured Colby and Brook with him. Wasn't their job to lead the flock, but they could help him, have his back. Brook would be right there with him keeping the discussions going, charming and soothing but not afraid to go all the way to the ground if an argument was necessary. Colby was more likely to hang back, observe from the desk across the room, keeping notes on his laptop, occasionally offering up a single, sharp comment that got everyone's attention.

The daydream fractured, interrupted by a sudden burst of obnoxious dance music. Ugh, that had Brook written all over it. Sidney looked around the room for the source and finally saw the phone on top of the dresser. Snatching it up, he read ICE Nancy (Mom).

Hitting accept, he said, "Hi, Aunt Nancy."

"Sid," she said, barely getting the name out she was sobbing so hard. "I need my sons now."

"Getting them." Sidney turned and threw open the bathroom door. "Your mom is crying."

The twins didn't even bother to shut the shower off, just burst out of it soapy and wet and frantic. Colby snatched the phone from Sidney's hand. "Mom, are you—mom! We're fine. It's okay, it's okay." He pushed Brook and Sidney out of the steamy bathroom. "Mom, I'll put you on speaker so you can hear both of us." He pulled the phone away from his ear and hit the button for speaker.

"Mom, we're here, we're fine," Brook said, sharing a wide-eyed look with his brother, reaching out to take his free hand, his other reaching out to hold painfully tight to Sidney's hand, and Sidney rested his remaining hand on the small of Colby's back. "What's wrong, mom? Are you hurt?"

"Just scared for you," she said, sobs calming down to sniffles. "I'm tired of people fucking with us. I knew it was just a fucking prank, but I had to make sure. I'm headed there now; my flight leaves in an hour. I've got a couple of friends coming with me." She gave a shaky laugh. "They refused to let me travel alone. We'll be there later tonight. I'll text the details."

The twins replied, "We'll come—"

"NO!" She shouted. "You stay in that house and do not leave it. Not for any reason unless it's on fire or something. You understand me? Troy or James can pick me up, or I'll just rent a car."

"Yeah, mom," Colby said quietly, then grinned a little. "We were gonna be staying in anyway. Caused a bit of drama, so now we have to super extra behave ourselves."

There was a pause, and then Nancy gave a small laugh. "Does this have anything to do with Sidney answering Brook's phone?"

"Maybe a little bit," Brook replied.

"A little bit?" she asked.

Brook made a face. "Okay, okay. Yes."

"Troy and James are going to kill me," she replied. "But if house arrest for inappropriate behavior is the worst that's going to happen to you, I'll take it. I'll call you when I land, okay?"

"Travel safe, mom. We love you."

"Love you both. Be careful. Bye."

They stood there, phone still held up in Colby's hand, their faces pale, drawn tight, trembling faintly. Sidney took the phone and tossed it on the bed, then tugged them in close. It seemed all the permission they needed to wrap around him like a couple of octopuses. Sidney held on tight until trembling eased and they drew slightly back again.

"I wish they'd fucking stop," Brook said, voice rough, shaky. He pulled back enough to swipe angrily at his wet eyes

Colby's eyes were clear and cold. He didn't reply except to wrap a hand around the back of Brook's neck and pull him in to gently kiss his temple. "Come on, let's finish showering and then we'll go find Uncle Troy." Brook nodded and they slipped back into the bathroom.

Sidney looked at his damp clothes, shrugged, and left them.

The twins reemerged just a couple of minutes later and quickly dressed, shoving their phones into their pockets, hair still dripping water as they hustled out of the bedroom. Brook grabbed Sidney's hand, holding on tight, and Sidney squeezed reassuringly as they headed to Troy's office.

When they got there, however, the door was wide open and the office empty.  The smell of garlic and onions, however, made it obvious where he'd gone. Still holding Brook's hand, he led the way downstairs to the kitchen.

"Uncle Troy is cooking, oh man, life just improved," Brook said. "I want six helpings of everything."

"Trust me," Troy said as they entered the kitchen, looking up from a massive pot he was slowly stirring. "That's been accounted for." His smile faded as he took in their faces. "What's wrong?"

"Mom called," Colby said. "She was threatened, didn't say how, and scared out of her mind that we'd been hurt. Called us crying. She's catching a flight, should be here tonight. She said two friends are coming with her but didn't specify who."

Troy's face turned into what Sidney had always privately referred to as Final Boss Mode. He turned off the stove and crossed the kitchen, sweeping each of the twins up in a tight hug. "Nothing is going to happen to you or your mom. Come on, let's go interrupt the meeting. Their stupid, pissy behavior could use the interruption anyway."

They followed him back upstairs and down the hall to the main office slash meeting room. Sidney could just barely hear shouting as they reached it. Jackson, by the sound of it. He always thought he was more impressive when he was loud. Troy rolled his eyes, grabbed the door handle, and threw the door open.

The room fell silent, and seven people turned to look at them, five with annoyance, two with concern. It was Jackson who spoke first. "What do you think—"

"Shut up," James cut in, voice quiet but hard. Jackson shut up.

James crossed the room to them, reaching out to wrap his fingers around Troy's elbow as he looked at them all. "What's wrong?"

"Nancy's shaken pretty bad," Troy said. "She apparently got a threat bad enough she called Brook and Colby in tears to make sure they were okay. She's flying here with a couple of friends."

Colby added, "She said you guys could pick her up, or she could rent a car. Got really upset at the idea of us leaving the house."

"Yeah, neither of you is so much as going near a window if I can help it," James replied. "I'll pick her up, take suitable protection with me. What exactly happened?"

"Don't know," Brook said. "Didn't want to upset her more by asking."

Troy nodded. "I'll look into it." He squeezed James's arm then pulled away and dug out his phone, slipping down the hallway as he started talking to whomever he'd called.

James beckoned them into the room as he returned to the table. "I'm tabling this discussion until further notice."

Bristling, Jackson planted his hands on the table and leaned in. Sidney barely kept from his rolling his eyes. "James, you cannot table a discussion about the future of the flock."

"This past hour you haven't mentioned the future of the flock once," James replied coldly, folding his arms across his chest. "You've just been discussing my son's sex life. And as I have told you, over and over for the entire hour, it's none of your business. Who he sleeps with has no bearing on how he will lead this flock."

"That isn't true," said a tall, thin, imperious woman with gray hair and bright green eyes. "We've had trouble before when the chief entered into an unwise relationship."

James sighed. "Yes, because the chief was a seventeen year old boy dating someone twice his age while the rest of the flock clutched their pearls and shrieked but didn't do anything to fix the problem. As I recall, Marlowe, all your family did was leave the flock. Do you still want to use that as your argument?

Marlowe pinched her lips and conceded the point with a bow of her head.

"I don't think—"

"Enough, Jackson," James cut in, voice gone creepy-quiet again. "I told you this discussion was tabled. Right now I have more important matters to address. If you dare try to tell me that who my son sleeps with is more important than the fact lives are being threatened, I will see to it you are removed from this flock as a danger."

Jackson said nothing.

"Who is threatening what?" asked another woman, only a couple of years older than Sidney. Wendy had looked out for him when he'd been in school, the cool, pretty senior girl who didn't take any shit from George and his crew, who laughed in their stupid faces when they called her the Beached Whale. George had shut up fast when his older brother had come home after ten years in the Marines and not nine months later he and Wendy were married and a few months after that expecting twins. She liked to call them her mini-whales whenever George was around. She was still Sidney's favorite person in the world. If she was there, it was because she knew James would need the support. "What's wrong, Chief?"

James dropped his folded arms. "Nancy Ackerman and her sons are being threatened. They were attacked in their home a few days ago, and today she received additional threats that have forced her to abandon the conference and come here. I want the whole flock on high alert. Report anything even remotely suspicious to me or Troy at once. Wendy, I'll probably be pulling your husband and his crew for security for the next few days, possibly a couple of weeks."

"I'll call him," Wendy said.

"Thank you. This meeting is adjourned, but it's possible I'll be pulling in the entire group later depending on how this matter plays out. Everyone should stay close to home."

"Yes, Chief," everyone at the table chorused, then they all stood and slowly left, a few touching the twins' shoulders or arms or otherwise offering them comfort. Only Jackson and his obnoxious buddy Dumass pointedly ignored them.

When they'd gone, James sat down in his chair and heaved a long, loud sigh. "Sid, I don't suppose you'd get me a beer?"

"Sure thing."

"Bring everyone a beer, actually. We could all use one."

"Yep." Sidney headed back downstairs to the kitchen, went over to the smaller fridge that held all the canned and bottled beverages. He pulled out five Coronas, shoved a church key in his pocket, and carried them upstairs.

When he got there, Troy had joined them. Sidney opened and passed out the beers, then settled in the seat between Colby and Brook. Troy took a long swallow of his beer, then said, "Okay, I called up friends who were there. Apparently right in the middle of a supper some of them were having at the hotel, a waiter delivered a message. All it said was Your sons are dead.

"Jesus fucking Christ, what in the goddamn hell is wrong with people," Brook demanded. "What sort of sick fuck—"

"We'll figure it out," James interjected, voice calm, soothing, though Sidney recognized the look in his eyes that said he was feeling not even close to calm. "You're okay, your mom is okay, and she's traveling with people she trusts. We'll pick her up, bring her here, and everyone will be fine until we figure out who is behind the threats. That's the important part." He looked at Tracy. "Who is she with?"

"Brady Collins from the Tethers Pack, and… I think the guy is his boyfriend? Nancy wasn't clear, but his name is Skylar. Sounds familiar, but I can't remember why."

Brook and Cody lit up, all but vibrating in their seats. "Skylar Trapp. He's the cottonmouth who recently adopted two werewolves. Their mother tried to frame him for kidnapping them. It was a huge mess. Brady helped him out, and he's part of the reason the adoption went through. It's really fucking awesome 'cause it opens the door for more cross-species adoptions. People are going nuts about it, mostly in a good way."

"I remember that now," Troy said. "Should be interesting. Wish the circumstances were better, we could have had a party."

"What the hell is wrong with the shifter community?" James scrubbed a hand over his face and took a pull of his beer. "Kidnapping, death threats, vandalism, arson… I thought we'd managed to become more civilized than this."

Troy snorted. "You're still part human, sweetheart. Only so civilized you can get."

James shot him a grin and a look that Sidney really did not want to see, TMI alert, release the brain bleach. "Ugh, stop it, there's been enough sexual oversharing today."

"And whose fault is that?" James asked, quirking a brow at him.

Sidney pointed his thumbs at the twins. "Theirs. They're older so it's their fault."

"Jerk."

"Vile betrayer."

Sidney grinned and drank his beer.

"I just hope nothing happens to Mom before she gets here," Brook said.

"Nothing will happen, if only because she's either in the air or in an airport, and nobody is going to risk doing something in either of those places. Once she lands, she'll be safely with us. Hopefully we can get the DPRS involved."

"Already on it," Troy said. "They should be calling me back soon. I'm sorry you guys are stuck in the house."

Colby shrugged. "Better than being dead. Most of our work can be done anywhere, and the stuff that can't, our coworkers won't mind covering us for a little while. I'm sorry this has all been dumped on your doorstep."

"You're family," James said. "Nothing to be sorry about except possibly forcing me to listen to people scream about my son's sex life." He rubbed at his temples. "Which reminds me: I need to find replacements while Sidney and I are unable to work."

Sidney sighed. "I wish that meant I was going to be getting extended paid time off."

"Ha!" Troy and James chorused.

Sidney flipped them off.

"I have plenty of work for you to do right here in the house," Troy said. "You can start tomorrow."

"That sounds suspiciously like spreadsheets are going to be involved," Sidney groused. "Anything but spreadsheets, please." He sulked over his beer when they all just laughed.

Standing, Troy said, "I'm going to go finish up dinner and make some more calls. You three make sure a couple of guest rooms are ready. Your mom gets her usual, of course; put Skylar and Brady next to her."

Brook saluted. "Sir, yes, sir."

"I should probably get groceries delivered, too, now I'm thinking about it," Troy added. "All right, I'm off." He leaned down and gave James a quick kiss, then pulled out his phone as he left, talking a mile a minute as he faded off.

James stood and drained his beer. "Got my own calls to make so you three get to work on those guest rooms."

They nodded and left, Sidney gathering up the empty bottles and stopping in Troy's office to throw them away before he led the way down the hall to the guest rooms.

He stopped at the larger of the two hall closets to get out sheets and blankets, piling it all in the twins' arms before continuing on. The second floor was more or less a gigantic, squared off ring with the staircase in the middle and the rooms all around it along a wide hallway. The office was at the back, Troy's office a short ways down the hall from it, and two of the guest rooms were right next to it. Sidney's room was right across the way, tucked in the corner, and two other guest bedrooms took up the rest of that wall. The master bedroom took up the wall opposite the office.

The third floor had even more rooms, smaller than those on the second floor. They weren't used much except during the holidays.

The twins' room was right next to Troy's office. The one Nancy favored was two down from Sidney's room. It was one of the prettiest rooms in the house, with a huge window seat that overlooked the south yard, a wardrobe that had to be a couple of centuries old, and a huge, old poster bed that matched it. The bed was so heavy Sidney was pretty sure a tsunami couldn't budge it. On the rare occasion his mother visited from her flock, she stayed in this room.

Someone had stripped the bed at some point but hadn't bothered to make it. That meant James had been the last to clean up in there; he always forgot to remake the bed. Well, worked in his favor since he'd been planning to remake it anyway. Taking a set of sheets from Brook, Sidney set to work. Colby helped him while Brook found a broom and rag and got to dusting and sweeping.

When Nancy's room was ready, they moved next door to the room right next to Sidney's, the one they called the green room because there wasn't a single thing in the room that wasn't some shade of green except for the bedframe and the hardwood floor.

He was in the middle of dusting the enormous old dresser in one corner, debating whether or not he could skip vacuuming the rug, when he realized the twins' chatter had died off. Turning, he saw them at the bed. Brook was sitting on the edge of it, Colby standing between his legs hugging him tightly, Brooks arms around his waist.

Should he… yeah, he should probably leave them alone. They'd been together in pretty much every way for their entire lives. Sidney was barely out of being a dumb kid and one afternoon of fooling around did not mean he'd earned a place…

Bah. Fuck it. He couldn't bear to see them hurt like that while he just stood around gawking. They hadn't seemed offended by his presence earlier. Dropping the dust rag he still held, Sidney crossed the room and reached out to touch them, hugging them the way he had back when their mom had first called. Same as before, they seemed to take it as indication to hold him tighter.

How they all wound up on the bed, Sidney wasn't sure, but he was more than happy to be squished between them if it made them feel better. He was more than happy to be squished for any reason—or no reason at all.

"This is not how we wanted to finally do this," Colby said. "It's crap to make a move when there's so much damn drama and danger involved."

"Dude, my dads met because they'd both been arrested for a stupid bar fight. Dad's parents dated after my grandpa was an ass and my grandma told him off and broke his nose. Don't even get me started on my pop's side of the family. We are positively tame by comparison."

"I wouldn't put arrest records out of play quite yet," Brook muttered. "If I find the sons of bitches who keep trying to hurt us they'll set my bail at two million dollars, bare minimum."

Sidney smiled. "I would really prefer handcuffs remain in the realm of things I'll never discuss with my dads." He laughed when both twins choked. "But do what ya gotta do."

"Handcuffs, huh?" Colby's teeth scraped along the back of Sidney's neck, eliciting a shiver. "Naughty little duckling."

"Says the twins," Sidney retorted.

Brook grinned, kissed him. "At least we're honest narcissists." His hand loosened where it had been clinging to Sidney's hip, pushed up under his t-shirt to slide along his skin.

Colby pushed a leg between Sidney's thighs, skated his fingers along Sidney's leg while he continued to lick and suck and kiss the back of his neck. There was a ragged edge to their movements, and it wasn't hard to read that they were using him as a distraction more than anything. If that was what they needed, Sidney could provide. "If you mess this bed up you have to change the sheets."

"Ugh, god," Brook said, going still. "I'm not having sex where Skylar and Brady will know."

Colby lifted his head enough to give his brother a look, but then slowly pulled away and sat up. "You are squeamish in the dumbest ways."

"Do you really want to fuck and then look at Skylar in the morning and know that he knows?"

"I don't care," Colby replied. "Or are you forgetting that time I sucked you off in the boss's office?"

Brook groaned and hid his flushed face in his hands. His voice was muffled when he replied, "No. I keep trying but there is no forgetting that."

Colby's mouth curved in a hot, wicked little grin that got an A++ and extra credit from Sidney's cock. "That sounds even better than the time I caught you in the boathouse." That made the grin even hotter; Sidney might have whimpered.

He definitely whimpered when Colby kissed him, wet and filthy, not stopping until Sidney's mouth felt bruised. Colby then climbed out of the bed and pushed Brook so he was half-sitting on it. Opening his jeans, Colby pulled Brook's cock out and sank to his knees before swallowing Brook's cock with a familiarity that was almost as hot as the action itself.

Sidney crawled over to them, torn between staring at the way Colby worked Brook's cock, mouth stretched, face flushed, eyes staring at Brook all the while, fingers flexing where they rested heavy on Brook's thighs… or staring at Brook's flushed face, the way he kept licking his lips, the hitching breaths and stuttered groans that occasionally sounded like Colby's name.

He leaned in and kissed Brook, holding his head steady with one hand, the other dropping to tangle with Brook's in Colby's hair. Pulling back, licking the taste of Brook from his lips, Sidney said, "Oh, my god, you guys are too hot, I'm going to die."

Brook laughed against his mouth, then kissed him again, over eager and sloppy, not stopping until his climax shuddered through him, shout muffled by Sidney's mouth. Sidney stroked and petted him until he calmed—then yelped as he was abruptly shoved onto his back in the middle of the bed, jeans and boxers hastily pulled and shoved out of the way before Brook's mouth dropped over his cock.

Oh, god. He really wasn't ever going to to be able to think again. "E-evil—" His head slammed against the bedding, hips moving, pushing his cock deeper into Brook's wet, hot, extremely talented mouth.

It got even better when Colby kissed him, fingers pushing up under his t-shirt to take nails across his stomach, tease his nipples. "D-does this mean I d-do you next?" Sidney managed. The noise that earned him combined with Brook's talented tongue was all he needed to come.

When his limbs could function again he rolled to his knees and took his turn. Blowjobs weren't something he'd done a whole lot of, but the way Colby thrust carefully into his mouth, the way those sharp eyes went hot and hazy as he watched Sidney work his cock, he was probably doing an okay job.

Knowing how the twins looked as they came was definitely one of his new favorite pieces of knowledge—his new favorite secret, maybe, 'cause he had no plans to share the knowledge. Colby's hands tightened not-quite painfully in his hair as he spilled down Sidney's throat, letting out a soft, quiet noise that had all the impact of a shout.

"Let's get out of here before we do something worse," Brook said.

Colby rolled his eyes as he tucked himself away, then reached out to help Sidney straighten his clothes. "You two are so easily flustered."

"Yeah, yeah," Brook said. "We can't all be the silent, evil type unaffected by the ways of mere mortals." He helped them both off the bed, dropping brief kisses on their mouths.

Sidney went back to dusting and sweeping while the twins remade the bed. Once they were done and everything was put away, he led the way downstairs, following the smell of dinner.

His dads were standing by the sink, talking quietly, touching each other in small, reassuring ways. James noticed them first, smiling as he dropped his hand slowly from Troy's hip. "There you are. Was beginning to think we'd have to come find you, and I was not looking forward to that."

"Your comedic abilities continue to be a miserable failure," Sidney replied. He went to the stove and grabbed one of the pasta bowls set next to it, loading it with spaghetti and plenty of sauce, dropped three pieces of garlic bread on top, and went over to the breakfast nook. "When do you leave?"

James leaned against the counter and folded his arms across his chest. He was dressed in dark jeans, heavy boots, a dark blue t-shirt, and his favorite beat-up leather jacket that had been a gift from Troy way back when they'd first started dating. He also had a gun in a shoulder holster, but they were all pretending otherwise. It had been a long time since his dads had dragged out the weapons. Sidney fucking hated it.

The twins joined Sidney at the table, each with enough food to feed six, as threatened. Troy nibbled on a piece of garlic bread, alternating it with sips of beer, as he stood next to James at the sink.

"Do you think anything will happen?" Sidney finally asked.

James shook his head. "No. If they don't realize they're already pushing their luck, they're idiots. Rabbits are extremely close knit shifters." He looked at the twins, mouth quirking briefly. "They're also friends with us and a wolf pack, which are also extremely close shifters. No way are the attackers going to risk all of that coming after them. They had one shot and they failed. Now it's just a matter of time before we find them."

"Hopefully," Troy added and took a bite of bread.

"Optimism, sweetheart," James drawled.

Troy snorted. "That's your job. I live with a bunch of people who can turn into ducks and rabbits and wolves and shit." He smiled, and god, they were doing the romance novel eyes at each other. "My job is to believe shit will get crazier."

Laughing softly, James chucked his chin and dropped a brief kiss on his mouth. "Well, you've never been wrong." He crossed the room and ruffled Sidney's hair, nodded to the twins, then left with a promise to be back in six hours, give or take.

The door closed behind him, and Troy sighed, then finished his bread and beer. "Clean up the kitchen when you're done massacring the spaghetti, troublemakers. I'll be in my office if you need me. Do not leave the house, even to go on the balcony, etcetera etcetera."

"Sure thing, Pop." Sidney smiled as Troy combed through the hair that James had ruffled, rolling his eyes once he was out of sight. "I think I'll always be stuck at twelve." He took a bite of spaghetti. "Not that I'll be much better someday." The twins grinned at him. Sidney narrowed his eyes. "What?"

"Just trying to picture Daddy Sidney," Brook replied. "It's very very cute. You'd probably be a soft touch. Colby would have to do all the disciplining."

"Probably," Sidney managed, face going hot, lungs refusing to work suddenly because that image was permanently stuck in his brain now; there was no shaking it loose. "We're gonna run out of ways to say dad. Some of my teachers who weren't part of the flock were so confused at first—before there was a conference, and they realized I was talking about two different people."

Colby just smiled, soft and sweet. "We'll figure something out. Eventually."

Sidney nodded, not quite able to make any more words work. He wolfed down the last few bites of his dinner, then carried the dishes to the sink and started cleaning up. "I can do this if you losers want to go play video games or something."

"I'm not going to refuse that offer," Brook said. "We'll make the rec room all cozy. Prepare to get your ass kicked."

"Whatever. I've got some blue shells with your name on them."

Brook grinned, crowded him up against the sink, and made Sidney forget what they were talking about. When Colby replaced him, Sidney decided brains were overrated and shoved his hands into Colby's back pockets.

He whined when Colby drew away and they both stayed away. "Why are we stopping?"

"I'm pretty sure you'll kill me if Uncle Troy comes back in here—"

"Oh, god, go away," Sidney said and turned around to start washing dishes.

The twins laughed and slipped away, and Sidney was able to get his brain back online and hurry through getting the kitchen back in order. Grabbing a soda when he was finished, he headed downstairs to the basement that had been turned into a ginormous den.

He stopped short at the bottom of the stairs, glad they were carpeted and so had muffled his stomping. In the middle of a pile of blankets, pillows, and beanie chairs, the twins had passed out cold. Sidney padded across the room and retrieved his ereader from where he'd left it a couple of days ago. He sat down on the couch… then glanced again at the twins and changed his mind. They were so cute cuddled together, how could he not sit closer? Moving to the blanket pile, he grabbed a few pillows and arranged them suitably, then settled down next to Brook.

Pulling a blanket up to ward off the perpetual chill of the room, he turned on the reader and picked up with the fantasy book he was in the middle of. He had a sneaking suspicion the author was a shifter from some of the details included, but he hadn't bothered to find out for sure yet.

He jerked awake later to someone calling his name and gently kicking his feet, sat up and sent his ereader tumbling into the blankets he'd shoved off at some point … because he'd acquired a twin blanket. How had he wound up in the middle? When had he fallen asleep?

"Are you awake?" Troy asked.

"Mrgh." Sidney rubbed his eyes, yawned. "Maybe. What time is it? What's going on?"

"Nancy and the others are here. Wake up your octopus-rabbits and come on."

Sidney nodded and started shaking the twins as Troy left. "Wake up, miscreants."

Colby woke up first, immediately sharp and alert. "What time is it?"

"Your mom is here," Sidney replied. "No idea of the time."

"Mom!" Brook jerked up and stumbled to his feet, more asleep than awake as he headed for the stairs. Sidney huffed a soft laugh and stood, helped Colby to his feet, and together they followed after Brook.

Upstairs, Sidney could hear voices coming from the kitchen. The twins bolted to her, crying, "Mom!" again before they threw themselves at her and all three held on tight.

Sidney turned his attention to the other two people in the room, standing by the breakfast nook with James. One was a little on the big side, handsome in a rough-edged kind of way, like he had no time for a city polish. The man beside him was about the same size, but thinner, quiet and super-still. He had dirty blond hair and pale blue eyes behind glasses with dark blue frames. Sidney vaguely remembered him from the picture in the article. "Hi. How was the flight?"

"Not bad," the wolf said with a shrug. Brady, that was his name. "I'm sick of airplanes, but it wasn't bad so far as that goes." He held out a hand. "Brady Collins. You must be Sidney."

"Guilty as charged," Sidney replied, shaking his hand and then Skylar's. "I remember the article about you and your puppies."

Skylar's face lit up in a way that screamed proud parent. "Yes, Hansel and Gretel are officially my children. It will be extremely difficult for anyone to take them away from me now."

Brady took hold of Skylar's hand, squeezed it, and gave him a look that reminded Sidney of his dads. "As if they could have anyway. I will be happy when the fuss dies down, but it's worth it just for the difference it will make to the whole shifter community."

"Especially the Lost Shifters," Sidney replied. "That's what Brook and Colby were super-excited about."

Skylar nodded. "They're very good at their job."

Unable not to look at them after saying their names, Sidney half-turned and glanced at the twins where they were only just pulling back and calming down. There was no mistaking Nancy was their mother. They'd gotten their hair, eyes, freckles, and nose all from her. Not her height, though; she towered over them by a good three inches. Sidney crossed the room, stopping a couple of steps away. "I'm glad you're okay, Aunt Nancy."

She smiled, beckoned him close, and gave him just as tight a hug as she'd given Brook and Colby. "Hey, sweetie. I'm glad all of you are safe, too. Thanks for keeping their chins up today." Her mouth twitched.

"Don't make the joke," Brook said. "You're our mother, you can't make jokes like that."

"I don't think you two get to decide what jokes I make," Nancy replied with a grin. "Sidney, did you meet Skylar and Brady?" He nodded. "Good, good. I do not know how I would have avoided going mad on the trip here without them. Now, who do I have to flirt with to get a beer around here?"

Troy lifted his hand—then oofed when James elbowed him in the gut. "Ugh, fine. I'll get the beer without the flirting, spoilsport." Shooting James a look when the words got him a light smack on the ass, he went to the beverage fridge to get the promised beer, pulling out a couple for himself and James as well. "So how long do you think it will take for them to sort this mess out?"

"Too long," Nancy muttered. "They promised they'd crack down and work fast, but if it were that easy to catch the culprits, I would still be at that meeting. Which was postponed, by the way. They put it on hold when I got the threat and insisted on leaving, but I assumed it would go on without me. When I landed I got an email saying they're suspending it until further notice due to gross misconduct."

Troy sneered. "That's one way to put it."

Nancy rolled her eyes in agreement. "At least everyone who'd heard about the way we were attacked at the house seemed genuinely concerned. I had mostly expected them to pretend it hadn't happened."

"Shifters stick with shifters," Brook said. "So far that tendency has been working against us since the drive was always protect, protect, protect. If people are going to start turning violent, however, support may tip to us. I would vastly prefer not to use violence as a path to victory."

"Our house nearly burned down, may as well use that in our favor," Colby said.

Brook gave a small, cold smile. "If that's not a kick in the metaphorical nuts, nothing is. I hope they're choking on their own rage that their attacks are helping us."

Sidney scowled and went to the fridge, rummaging around for his chocolate milk until his hands stopped shaking. All the flippancy wasn't fucking funny. He was going to kick them in the actual nuts.

Yawning, Nancy gestured to her sons. "I'm wiped. Colby, Brook, come help me with my things."

That was the too-casual Serious Talk voice. Thank god he wasn't them.

Finally finding where his chocolate milk had wound up behind a stack of Tupperware full of ominously-colored substances, he turned—and groaned when Troy and James folded their arms practically as one and just looked at him. When had Skylar and Brady left? "What? No. There has been enough capital letter talking today, may I please be excused?"

"Ha, no," James replied.

Sidney groaned again and took a seat at the island. "Fair warning, I am going to do my level best to tune you out."

"It's not very nice tuning out fatherly concern."

"Guilt-trip immunity," Sidney replied. "Anyway, I'm fine. I'm not the one people are trying to kill. Though apparently they're not actually all that bothered by it either since it's so useful to their stupid cause." He glared at his milk, then drained half of it.

Troy shook his head. "You know they're all bluster."

"Whatever," Sidney muttered. "They can bluster to themselves. I'm not going to stand around and be happy while people cheer about almost getting dead."

"Which was the next point on my agenda," James said. "I want you sleeping in your own bed tonight. For safety, but I also think you three need the space. It's been a busy day. Breathing room won't hurt."

Sidney opened his mouth to protest, then snapped it shut. He was tired, the twins would obviously be with Nancy the rest of the night. He wouldn't die, he'd be too busy sleeping. "Okay, but the safety bit is really thin."

James rolled his eyes. "Go away before I find a way to knock that smartass out of you."

"You've only yourself to blame." Sidney finished his milk and threw the bottle out, then hugged his dads and headed upstairs.

Grabbing the post-its on his desk, he jotted a quick note then went down the hall and stuck it to the twins' door. Come tell me goodnight before you crash xxx.

Returning to his room, he stripped off his clothes, pulled on his Batman pajama pants, and faceplanted on the bed. A few minutes later he rolled over and stared at the ceiling. Damn it, he'd left his ereader downstairs. How lazy was he?

Meh. He had paperbacks and a laptop. Settling on a paperback, he sprawled in bed again and began to read, not at all watching the clock on his desk. It was almost midnight, they'd probably show before too much longer.

On about two am, however, they still hadn't shown. He hadn't even heard anyone out in the hallway. Dropping his book on the bed, Sidney padded to the door and pulled it open. Across the way, the twins' door was closed, no light coming from the space between door and floor. The note he'd left was gone.

They hadn't come to say goodnight. Jeez, it wasn't like he'd planned to get mad at them or molest them or anything. Okay, he'd kind of hoped for a goodnight kiss, but that was it. He'd really just wanted to see them, say sweet dreams, how about we con Tory into making french toast in the morning?

But they'd just gone to bed. Not even a fucking text. Okay then. Why? Too tired? Forgot? Didn't want to? Maybe… maybe with Nancy there, and the twins therefore less stressed and upset, they realized they'd been rash or whatever. Were having second thoughts about shacking up with him and the trouble that was always going to come with dating him rather than keeping quietly to themselves.

Awesome. Not even a whole day and they were reconsidering. That was what he got for starting a relationship under duress. He was the one night stand they wanted to pretend had never happened. Fine. Whatever. He could pretend stuff never happened, too. He was an adult.

Maybe he was a teensy bit paranoid. But once the thoughts got their hooks in, he couldn't pry the fuckers out. They'd gone to bed without coming to see him. That didn't fit unless they didn't want to. Ugh. Sleep was definitely not going to be happening, and he was sick of his stupid space marines book. Time to go to the basement.

The house was creepy quiet as he walked carefully through it, the silence only occasionally broken by the wind outside, the odd creak, and his own sock-muffled footsteps.

His ereader was right where he'd left it, lying in the abandoned pile of blankets and pillows where he and the twins had dozed off. Grabbing it up, he turned on his heel and headed back up the basement stairs, switching off the light on his way.

Back on the main floor, he hesitated. He wasn't exactly in a rush to go back to his room, even though he was supposed to be there for 'safety' reasons. Which was fair enough. If something went wrong, best to know exactly where everyone was or should be. But a snack sounded like a really good idea, and it would only take a couple of minutes. Then he could go back to his room and be all safe while he buried his paranoia and misery with books and food.

Sidney headed for the kitchen. What to have for a snack… leftover dinner? Nah. Chocolate? Popcorn? No and no. Oh, they still had some of that coffee cake from the bakery. Coffee cake and warm milk, hell to the yes.

The kitchen was lit only by the soft yellow light over the stove and slivers of moonlight through the window over the sink. The tile floor was cold even through his socks, but the usual breeze was absent because the windows were closed and locked for once. Sidney made a face. Hopefully the assholes trying to hurt everyone would be caught soon.

Leaving his ereader on the island, he went to the fridge and rifled through it for the gallon of milk that had been pushed all the way to the back, sandwiched between the orange juice and a stack of Tupperware. He grabbed it, shifted a few items so it would fit better when he put it back, then closed the door and turned toward the stove—

And froze, staring wide-eyed at the man staring back at him. Older. Handsome but kind of mean looking. Behind him, the back door gaped open a few inches.

They moved at the same time. Sidney started to scream even as he turned, but the man lunged forward and slammed a fist into his face. The blow sent Sidney stumbling back, the milk slipping from his fingers to burst open and spill all over the fucking floor. Blood filled his mouth, and he could feel his lip stinging and throbbing.

Before he could catch a breath and react, the man slammed another fist into his stomach. Sidney doubled over, struggled to breathe, tears streaming down his face. The man shoved him up against the fridge, wrapped fingers tightly around his throat. Sidney fumbled at his hands, tried to stomp, kick, twist—anything. But all he got was his head slammed into the fridge, those fingers biting even harder into his throat.

Finally, the man gave a low, mean little laugh and threw him to the floor so Sidney sprawled in cold milk, gasping and shaking. Turning neatly on the heel of his heavy boot, the man walked off across the kitchen.

Sidney rolled to his stomach, got his hands under him and pushed to his knees, then reached up and grabbed the lip of the island countertop. Hauling himself to his feet, he snatched up the first thing he saw—his ereader—and lobbed it at the bastards head.

The man whipped around, but Sidney didn't give him a chance to retaliate. He grabbed the pots and pans hanging from the rack over the island started throwing: sauce pans, frying pans, a small cast iron, the stockpot. All of it. Didn't matter where they landed, so long as they made a racket.

But he wasn't too terribly upset when the last, tiny saucepan hit the stupid bastard dead in the face.

Sidney took a punch to the eye when the jerk reached him, but it was worth it because he could hear footsteps pounding upstairs, coming down the stairs like a herd of elephants. He heard James bellow in a way that would have been scary if it wasn't for his sake.

He scrambled out of the way as James came at the guy, huddled by the fridge as the bastard took a cabinet to the face, then a countertop, and finally the floor.

"Sidney." Troy reached him, hugged him tightly, and Sidney couldn't understand a word of what he was saying but didn't really care, the soothing sound of Troy's voice was enough. He clung tightly. "Are you okay? More or less?"

Giving a hoarse, shaky laugh, Sidney replied, "More or less, Pop."

More noise came from the doorway, and Sidney looked up to see the twins, the others behind them. They looked at him and then immediately bolted for him. "Sidney! Are you okay?" Brook demanded.

"Just a little banged up," Sidney replied. "I'll be f-fine." But he didn't mind at all when Troy let him go and Brook hugged him tightly. "I'm just glad he didn't get any further." He looked at Colby, but Colby, despite the hand splayed gently across the small of Sidney's back, was looking at the man James and Brady had secured on the far side of the kitchen. Sidney reached out, tugged at his sleeve, and Colby finally turned to look at him. He reached up and kissed Sidney softly.

Nancy set her phone on the counter. "Police should be here soon. What does the piece of shit have to say?"

"Do you know him?" Troy asked.

It was Skylar who replied, "He's a raccoon shifter from New York. I recognize him from one of the adoption hearings. He was really set against it."

"A fucking snake shouldn't be taking care of wolves," the man snarled.

"Shut up or your face will look twice as bad as my son's," James replied.

"Three times," Troy said. He went to the fridge and opened the freezer, returning with an icepack that he pressed gently to Sidney's swollen eye.

Only then did Sidney really notice how much it fucking hurt. Ugh, everything hurt and he was starting to feel a little fuzzy around the edges.

Troy pressed another one to his swollen lip.  "Go sit down, keep the ice on those wounds."

Brook and Colby hauled him away before Sidney could reply, but he wasn't terribly inclined to complain when he wound up on Brook's lap with Colby right next to them.

The man glared at them. "Perverted fuck—" He doubled over, struggling to breathe, from the fist that James had slammed into his gut. When he could finally speak again, he said, "This is assault."

"You beat up my son, and the deputy likely headed here now? His sister is Sidney's mother. So congrats, the cops are going to take this very personally. Nevermind I'm chief of this flock and therefore in charge of most of the town. You're officially fucked, so you might want to start thinking hard about what you can offer in exchange for being a little less fucked."

The man just sneered. "Yeah, whatever. I may be fucked here, but at the end of the day, who's going to care about a perverted duck fucking a couple of nasty rabbits with no concept of decency."

"I'm pretty sure decency is not hurting people just because you don't agree with their lifestyle," Colby said quietly.

Nancy looked up sharply, eyes locked on Colby as he stood and slowly crossed the room. "Col …"

If Colby heard her, he gave no indication of it as he headed toward the intruder, pausing only to pull a long carving knife from the block by the stove. Brady stepped out of the way as Colby reached them, but James remained where he was and kept firm hold. "Decency is realizing the world isn't always going to agree with you, asshole. Decency is leaving people the fuck alone unless their behavior is bringing harm to others. We don't hurt anyone; we've spent our entire. Fucking. Lives. Helping people. All we want is to be able to live openly with the ordinary humans, so no one has to be afraid all the time. So maybe more lost shifters have a better chance at a home. And you think wanting to be safe and happy means we deserve to die? Fuck you."

He stepped in close, pressed the edge of the knife to the man's throat just hard enough to draw a thin line of blood. "If you ever come near any of us again, for any reason at all, I'll slit your fucking throat. I'm a nasty, incestuous rabbit. You should better appreciate that means most rules mean jack shit to me. Got it?"

The man didn't reply, but the sweat beading his brow and the visible trembling were answer enough. Colby threw the knife in the sink and fled the kitchen, the back door slamming shut behind him.

Nancy blew out a breath. "Poor kid."

"He cut my fucking throat!"

"I'll cut your fucking throat," Troy snapped. "You're the home invader, dipshit. I'd shut your fucking mouth before we shut you up permanently. Believe me, nobody will investigate very hard, especially after I slap your entire goddamn pack with a lawsuit."

Sidney almost laughed because dude should be scared if Troy was threatening lawsuits. He'd quit being a lawyer forever ago, but he was still really fucking good at it when he wanted to be.

Nancy shoved her phone in her pocket. "I need to go speak with Colby."

"I'll go, Mom," Brook interrupted. "You know how he gets." He urged Sidney to his feet and slid form the chair.

Sidney shook his head and stepped away when Brook tried to make him sit back down. "I'll come, too, unless you don't want…"

Brook broke into a shy, happy smile. "No, you should def come."

"Be careful," James said. "I think this asshole is the only one, but we could be wrong. The cops will be here soon, too. They'll want to speak with you, Sidney."

Sidney nodded. "Yeah, Dad. Just holler when they get here." Brook took his hand and led the way out of the kitchen, across the back yard, and through the dense trees, moving with apparent ease through the dark.

Wasn't quite as easy for Sidney to navigate, especially when every single fucking thing hurting, but he just held tightly to Brook's hand and followed in his steps.

He wasn't the least bit surprised when they wound up at the boathouse. It rested at the edge of the enormous lake like a sentinel. Too bad it wasn't actually.

Inside, it smelled like lake and dust. Colby was sitting in the middle, feet dangling over the edge, not quite touching the water below. Sidney sat down next to him, slid an arm across his back, and oofed slightly when Colby immediately shifted to curl against him and rest his head on Sidney's shoulder. Brook sat on Sidney's other side, reaching out to hold his brother's hands, resting them clasped on Sidney's legs.

"I'm sorry you were hurt because of us," Colby said quietly.

"Dude, my dad spent all afternoon yelling at the flock not to be a bunch of judgmental prudes. I think it's safe to say that for as long as we breathe we're going to be putting up with stupid shit. I mean hell, my dads still deal with shit just because Pop is human. People can fuck off.  If they keep messing with us, I will definitely hold while you stab."

Colby let out a sharp bark of laughter. "I didn't mean to go all weird."

"Nah, it was badass," Sidney replied. "I might be banged up, but I think I come out best in the end. That dude is going away forever, if he doesn't mysteriously disappear first, and wait until his stupid clan gets hit with a lawsuit. Pop loves mowing people down with legalese. He'll make them wish you had just stabbed the guy."

Brook and Colby both laughed. "Yeah, I remember from the way he's helped us over the years with lost shifters cases. Even just advising and consulting, he's dangerous. I know people have offered him seriously nice jobs before, but he never wants to leave you and Uncle Jamie and the flock."

"Yeah, he didn't want to be a busy suit anymore." Sidney squeezed them both, smiling when they kissed his cheeks. "Better to be with family, no matter what."

They didn't reply save to kiss him again, soft and easy, but it burned all the way to his bones in the best way. Sidney's mouth quirked. "If you losers had just come to kiss me goodnight, we could have been safely in my room making out."

"We were about to," Colby said with a sigh. "We saw your note, but then mom called us back because she got a call. They figured out who attacked us at our house—a raccoon and a wolf. We were just about to go tell you, ask if we should wake your dads up, when we heard the ruckus downstairs.  Stupid raccoons. They haven't been in this mess at all! They've been nothing but quiet and uncaring like always."

"Guess they were given incentive," Brook said. "We'll sort it out. Right now, I just want to go back to bed."

"We'll talk to the cops when they get here, then go back down to the basement and sleep forever. Or until I can no longer avoid mowing lawns."

Colby mustered a smile for that. "I do wish all this hadn't happened right in the middle of a mess. A little bit of normal would be nice. We could go on dates instead of being on lockdown in our own damned house."

Sidney smiled at hearing them call his house home, but didn't call attention to it. Where everyone was going to live, and a thousand other details of their relationship, could be sorted out later. For the present, they just cuddled together in the boathouse until Troy came to tell them the cops had arrived.

Six Months Later

Sidney dragged himself out of the elevator as the doors dinged open and trudged down the long, pseudo-fancy hallway toward Room 539. The carpet was mostly blue, but with like ten other colors in a nauseating pattern that made his eyes hurt.

Reaching Room 539, he combed through his hair, smoothed and straightened his clothes, then finally knocked on the door. It cracked open a moment later, and the way Brook's face turned from confusion to absolute joy obliterated the lingering tension from weeks of meetings and hours of traveling.

The door closed again, and he heard the rattle of a chain before Brook yanked it open and reeled him inside. Sidney dropped his bag and returned the tight embrace in which Brook engulfed him. Drawing back after a minute, Brook cupped the back of his head and drew him down into a long, deep kiss that tasted like coffee and blueberries, and turned Sidney's thoughts to dust and scattered them to the wind.

Arms wrapped around him from behind. Sidney slowly pulled away from Brook to twist around and kiss Colby, as in love and enthralled as ever at the differences between them. One playful, one intent, both so fucking addictive.

When all the kissing paused several minutes later, Colby asked, "What are you doing here, duckling? Shouldn’t you be back home still?"

"Raccoons decided to cooperate. We'll contend with the wolves next month. Thought it'd be more fun if I told you in person."

"Definitely," Colby replied, hands running absently over Sidney's body, stroking and petting as though he could not help but touch. Needed to touch. "You should do it naked."

Sidney laughed. "What if I'm hungry and tired?"

"We'll feed you later," Brook said. "We haven't seen you in a month, and somebody is still too shy for phone sex."

Sidney stuck his tongue out. "It's weird."

"You're weird."

"You're both dorks," Colby cut in, then cut off Sidney's reply by pulling his shirt up over his head. Throwing it aside, he hooked his fingers in the belt loops of Sidney's jeans and pulled him in close. Sidney bent and kissed him, curling his fingers around the back of Colby's head to hold him still while he relearned every curve and hollow of Colby's mouth.

Colby fed him a soft moan, fingers fluttering against Sidney's ribcage before sliding around him, nails skating along his skin. Sidney drew back, licked Colby's lips, and then pulled away entirely. Brook pressed up against their sides, leaning up to kiss Sidney before breaking away to kiss Colby with the same thorough enthusiasm. Sidney shivered at the sight, pretty sure he would stop enjoying it only when he was dead. Possibly not even then. He looped his arms loosely around them, rubbing a little bit, eager and impatient.

But when they drew apart, he tamped down on the need to push them over to and down on the beds and asked, "So how's life been for you two? How is the placement going for the little crocodile girl?"

"Still working on her, unfortunately," Brook replied. "The interviews here didn't pan out. Even the bravest, most accepting souls get a bit intimidated by a croc, especially when her birth parents were behemoths even by crocodile standards. Shifted, the mother was fourteen feet. The father closer to twenty. Pretty comparable in human form, and Lucy shows every indication of being the same. World's most adorable two-year old heavy weight." He grinned. "We'll find her a good home if I have to wreak havoc."

Colby snorted. "Pretty sure we already are. We have a few more interviews lined up for next week in South Carolina." He splayed a hand on Sidney's chest. "You should come with us if you can. We'll do the interviews, set up a meeting if one pans out, then the three of us can do the touristy, dorky stuff. Romantic getaway like."

Capturing his hand, lifting it to kiss the palm, Sidney replied, "Sounds fun. Dad and Pop said I should take a couple of weeks off, anyway. They're going to do the same thing, going to some fancy resort in California to behave irresponsibly on the beach. So they claim, anyway. I'm pretty sure they're going to stay in their room the whole time and marathon cooking and home repair shows."

"And have lots of sex," Brook added.

"People who mention by dads having sex do not get blowjobs."

Brook pouted. Colby said, "I would like it stated for the record that I didn't say a word."

Sidney grinned. "How lucky for you."

"Jerks," Brook muttered and pinched Colby's ass.

Colby smacked his stomach and then pulled away, dragging Sidney with him. Sidney pushed him down on the bed, then knelt in front of him, spreading Colby's legs wide to settle between them. He worked Colby's pants open, pulled out his cock, and only spent a few seconds on teasing strokes and touches before obeying the order in Colby's growl.

A month apart was entirely too long. He'd missed their smiles, their scent, how very tactile they were. The way Colby's fingers fluttered and combed through his hair, the way his breath hitched and his his jerked just a little bit as Sidney sucked him.

The way he could feel Brook's eyes like the filthiest touch.

The twins groaned in unison. Colby's fingers tightened in Sidney's hair. "Fuck I've missed you and that evil mouth."

"That is definitely a sight for sore eyes." Brook approached the bed, slid one knee on it, and gently grabbed a fistful of Colby's hair. Tugging his head up, Brook bent and took his mouth a sharp, biting, artless but eager kiss.

Sidney pulled off Colby's cock to watch them—vibrant, loud, always-moving Brook, who might have initiated the kiss, might be the one with a handful of hair, holding Colby in place, but was definitely the one bending to Colby's quiet, fierce control.

If there was a prettier sight than the two of them kissing as hard as they would eventually fuck, Sidney didn't want to know it. He went back to sucking cock, hands splayed on Colby's legs to keep them apart. Sidney took him deep, working his throat, his tongue, pulling back only when it seemed like Colby was about to let go.

"Stop—" Colby gulped. "Stop teasing."

Before Sidney could reply, Brook grabbed hold of Colby and pulled him further up the bed, spread him out and tugged off their clothes. Sidney rose to his feet and got rid of the rest of his, then crawled onto the bed and resumed his task.

He paused a moment later to moan as Brook's fingers began to tease at his hole. Holy everything, he had missed this. Missed them.

Resuming his work, patience gone, Sidney worked Colby's cock until he groaned Sidney's name in warning a moment before he spilled, warm and salty-sweet, down Sidney's throat. Sidney gently sucked and licked him a moment more, then let Colby's softening cock slip free. Soft fingers brushed over his lips, and Sidney flushed warm at the fond, happy look on Colby's face.

Then Brook's fingers pushed in deep and twisted. Sidney moaned, head dropping to not quite touch the sheets, pushing his ass back slightly to take more, deeper. Colby chuckled, and Sidney dragged his eyes up to see him settling back against the pillows, legs sprawled, hands resting lightly on his thighs, as he watched them avidly. "Better than TV."

"Please," Brook replied, pushing two fingers deeper, free hand petting, teasing. "That is the exact expression on your face whenever a hockey game is on."

Colby rolled his eyes. "As much as I love hockey, it pales next to watching you fuck Sidney until he screams."

"I almost believe you—that nearly sounded sincere. Have you been practicing?"

Flipping him off, Colby replied, "Less talking, more fucking."

"As you command," Brook drawled. He worked a third finger into Sidney.

Sidney moaned, moved into them, wanting more, damn it. He whined, high and sharp, when the fingers pulled out, ready to start issuing threats. They were immediately forgotten when Brook lined up his cock and began to carefully push into him.

Better bracing himself on the bed, he shuddered at the push of Brook's cock and the way he could feel Colby's gaze sizzle along his sweaty, overheated skin. When he looked up, Colby's eyes were as hot as glowing coals, expression sharp, lips slightly parted. If a six-headed dragon busted into the room right then, Sidney was pretty sure none of them would notice. "Come on, Brook," Colby said, dragging his eyes away from Sidney to look at Brook. "I know damn good and well you want to grab those hips and fuck him so hard he feels it for a week. Do it."

Brook's cracked groan filled the room, mingling with Sidney's whimpers. He pushed all the way inside Sidney, smoothed his hands up and down his back, bent to drop a kiss on his spine. Drawing back, he curled his hands around Sidney's hips and did it exactly as ordered, fucking into Sidney deep and hard and fast, filling the room with the sound of skin slapping on skin, needy pleas and ragged groans. Colby threaded the noises with the odd command or compliment, fisting his own cock, already hard again, and languidly stroking it while he watched. "This is just the beginning," Colby said. "It's my turn when we get back from dinner. By the time we get to South Carolina, you'll be ready to take us both at the same time."

Sidney made a high, keening noise, entire body shuddering as that lovely image and Brook's pounding combined to overwhelm him.

"Make him scream," Colby said, the words spoken quietly but not even remotely lacking in force.

Brook drove into Colby one last time, then plastered himself to Sidney's back, drew him so they were both on their knees. Nibbling and sucking at Sidney's damp throat, he got a hand around Sidney's cock, stroked him off hard and fast, cock moving in small, shallow thrusts all the while.

It was impossible not to fall apart, and Sidney did so with the demanded scream. He was still shivering in the aftermath when Brook pushed him back down, reclaimed the grip on his hips, and rutted into him a few more times before holding on tight and groaning loudly as he came.

Sidney slumped down onto the bed, whimpering as Brook's cock slipped from his body, leaving a wet, sticky mess to drip and cling to his thighs. Colby gently tugged him further up the bed, wrapped loosely around him with Brook settling on his other side.

"So what's for dinner?" Sidney asked with a yawn.

"There's an awesome gourmet burger place not far from here. We ate there a couple of days ago and were sad you weren't around to enjoy it," Brook replied, face lighting up.

"You guys hate ninety-five percent of burger places."

Colby smiled against his skin. "Yeah, well, there's still the five percent, and this is one of them. They've got a Portobello burger to die for, at least to judge by the obscene noises Brook made while eating it. Salads are really good, too."

"I'll stick with cow," Sidney replied.

Brook poked him. "Weirdo."

"Says the man who fucks his brother."

Brook and Colby scoffed. "Speaking of incest and weirdos," Brook said. "What made the raccoons fold? They seemed pretty damned determined to keep a hate on for us. Was pretty sure we'd be going to court soon."

"I think they finally realized just how many groups they'd pissed off, and how much that was going to affect them. At the end of the day, shifters stand together. That's why everyone is so volatile over this revealing our existence thing. They pissed off at least two wolf packs, probably more since a lot of packs will fall in with those two. Pissed off not just my flock, but the half-dozen flocks we're closest to, a whole fuckton of rabbits, and to finish off, damn near every snake in existence since they adore Skylar and all the inroads he's made for them. Bad mix to piss off, to say the least. So they folded, probably hoping to make friends again. When I left they were spilling their guts to the DPRS. Pop was cackling and talking about buying a good bottle of wine." Sidney grinned. "Since that's wrapped up until the meeting with the wolves, I decided to come here, see you guys early."

"Best surprise ever," Brook declared, and Colby smiled softly in agreement.

"Aunt Nancy told me before we split off that the conference was back on. Didn't get any details, though."

Colby shifted, pushed a leg between Sidney's, nuzzling against his back. "It's not until next year, which is later than she wanted, but pick your battles, etc etc."

Sidney yawned. "Glad it's happening, at least. Sky and Brady will be happy." He yawned again. "So dinner, sex, then tomorrow we head for South Carolina? I hope we're driving. I'm sick of planes."

"Yeah, driving," Brook said. "Then homeward bound in a couple of weeks. I'm going to sleep on the patio for a month straight and no one can stop me."

Sidney went still at that, dragging open his heavy eyes to look at Brook. "You mean my house? That's home?" They'd all three been so busy with work and meetings, that they spent more time in hotel rooms than anywhere else. He hadn't known where they were all going to settle when they got to that point. Hadn't wanted to broach the topic.

"Duh," Colby said and dropped a warm, heavy kiss on his shoulder. "Come on, let's shower. Last one in has to pay for dinner."

He sat up, and Sidney immediately snatched up the pillow, clobbered him with it, then used Colby's surprise to shove him into Brook before he leapt out of bed and bolted for the bathroom.

They got their revenge in the shower, but it didn't leave Sidney feeling very sorry for his actions.

Fin
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About the Author

Megan is a long time resident of LGBTQ fiction, and keeps herself busy reading, writing, and publishing it. She is often accused of fluff and nonsense. When she's not involved in writing, she likes to cook, harass her cats, or watch movies. She loves to hear from readers, and can be found all over the internet.

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