Blayde snarled at him. “Don’t call him that. ”
Nikolai laughed, holding up his hands in surrender. “Sorry. I was only teasing, but I should have known better. One of my best friends, Tobias, took a mate last cycle and damn near took my head off my shoulders when I patted his ass and said he had a cute,fat bottom. ”
“Yeah, well, if I see you anywhere near Ryan’s cute, fat bottom I’ll do worse than that. ”
Still laughing, Nikolai went for the coffee and Blayde stared after him with a murderous expression. Kyle came over to Blayde and clapped him on the shoulder. “Don’t let him tease you. He’s never been in love and doesn’t think it can happen to him. When he does fall, he’ll fall hard, and then we’ll see who has the last laugh. ”
“Fall in love?” Nikolai scoffed, looking over his shoulder. “Never! If I ever do find my mate, I’ll run the other way. I’ve seen too many of this family fall crazy in love and do everything in their power to make their mates happy, even giving up their lifestyle and the things they love. Not me. Especially considering the curse Ivan put on all of us. ”
“You don’t believe that, do you, Nik? He was just a crazy old man at the end. ”
“A damn scary old man is what he was, and yeah, I believe it. Especially in light of…” He glanced over at Blayde and raised his eyebrows expressively with a grin.
Blayde threw the log book at him. “Fuck you! Like you wouldn’t make love to him if you had the chance. ”
“Well, that’s probably true, but you can’t go by me. I love adorable little humans! Hell, I’ll never settle for just one, though. ”
“Yeah,” Blayde said sadly. “Seems like I remember saying those same words not so very long ago, and look at me now. I can’t stand to be away from him for even a few hours. I’ve actually got a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach from spendingthe night away from him. ”
Nikolai handed Blayde and Kyle a cup of coffee. “That’s what I’m talking about. No way I’m letting myself in for that. ”
Blayde and Kyle gave each other a skeptical look. Kyle toasted Nikolai with his cup. “Here’s to you, brother, but when it happens, and it will happen, I’m going to be the first to say I told you so. ”
Blayde stood up and stretched, trying to act nonchalant when every nerve in his body was screaming at him to rush below decks to see Ryan. “Guess we should take the food packets down to the prisoners. Make sure they’re okay. C’mon, Kyle. ”
“Let me go with you,” Nikolai begged. “I want to see Rand-uh-Ryan up close. I’ve seen his movies, but they say holo-film never does you justice. If that’s the case, he must be hot stuff. ”
“He’s my hot stuff, so back off. Cousin or no cousin, I’ll gut you like a fish if you mess with him. ”
“Aw, Blayde, I’ll just play a little with your pretty toy. I promise I won’t break him. ” He laughed and dodged as the coffee cup went sailing by his head, but followed Blayde off the command deck and down to the galley. They loaded up on food packets for the prisoners, and went down the four levels to the below-decks area of the cells. They passed out the packets to the prisoners in the cells and then Nikolai stepped around Blayde and quickly punched in the code to open the seclusion cell Ryan was in. Looking back over his shoulder at him, Nikolai gave him an innocent little smile. “I’m going to take my turn with him first, Blayde. You’re going to have to settle for seconds today. ”
Blithely ignoring Blayde’s furious glare, he slipped inside and closed the door in Blayde’s face. Blayde heard a snicker behind him and whirled around with mayhem on his face to find all the inhabitants of the cells strangely quiet with carefully neutral expressions on their faces.
Blayde leaned against the wall outside Ryan’s cell, waiting impatiently for his turn with his mate and planning how he would kill Nikolai slowly, and with great pleasure.
* * * * Ryan heard the door open and sat up eagerly, hoping to see Blayde walk inside. Instead a tall, handsome man with red hair hanging to his shoulders, and eyes the color of rubies walked in and stopped short as he saw Ryan gazing at him with sleepy eyes.
“Well, damn. Blayde sure wasn’t exaggerating, you are even betterlooking in person. ” He smiled at Ryan’s puzzled scowl and stepped forward with his hand out. “I’m Nikolai, Blayde’s cousin. ”
Ryan held up his cuffed hands with a wry smile. “Nice to meet you, Nikolai. I’m Ryan, but I guess you already know that. ” He gestured down at his cuffs. “I would shake hands but I’m kind of tied up right now…”
Nikolai grinned, dug in his pocket for the keys and quickly unlocked the cuffs from his wrists and ankles, helping him out of them.
“Where’s Blayde?”
“Oh, he’s outside. I’m teasing him a little because I know how anxious he is to get in here. I’ve never seen him like this about anybody before, so I’ve been giving him a hard time. ”
Ryan blushed. “Really?”
“Oh yeah. We’ve both seen all your movies, really good ones, by the way. I mean, for porn they were very well done. Um, that’s not exactly what I meant to say…”
Ryan laughed. “I know what you mean, and thanks, I think. So you’re Blayde’s cousin? How many cousins does he have?”
“Well, first cousins, he has four of us. There’s six in all, Blayde and his brother Lucas, Larssen and his twin, Konnor, and then me and my brother Kyle. ”
“Are you all close?”
“Oh yes. And all alpha males. It’s part of the curse, according to family legend. ”