Chapter 90 - WORKING OUT THE DETAILS

"He is my mate. We have already completed the mating process, I have marked him as mine." Bastian was pulling on EZ's arm as the two men fought over EZ like he was a doll.

"I saw him first. I met him at the club a couple weeks ago. You hadn't marked him then." Laremy pulled on EZ's arm, bringing him closer as if he were in a tug of war contest.

"If you met him before I did then why didn't you mate with him then, huh? That proves that he is not your mate. Now let go of my boyfriend."

This was getting way out of hand. I needed to put a stop to this as soon as I could. If I didn't, then the two supernaturally strong men would literally be ripping EZ in half like he was the baby in the story of King Solomon.

"STOP IT!" I yelled at them, putting as much force into the words as I could. "Stop it, both of you. If you keep this up then none of you will be able to have EZ."

My outburst seemed to have worked. The two men let go of EZ and stepped away from him. They were still growling and glaring at each other but they were keeping their hands to themselves. Now, perhaps I could get to the bottom of all of this.

"EZ, which man do you feel the pull of the mate bond with?" I asked him the simplest of questions believing it would lead us to the rightful mate for my best friend.

"Both of them." He answered immediately. "I didn't think that someone could have two mates but I feel it for both of them. It's stronger for Bastian, perhaps because he was the first one, but I feel it for both of them now." That was enough to give me a headache already.

"OK, so you mated with Bastian when you first met him, we know that, but why didn't you mate with Laremy when you met him at the club?" I had to know. "Did you feel the attraction to him that night?"

"No, I never felt anything like this until I met Bastian and then again today. I almost forgot that he was the man trying to dance with me at the club." EZ looked as if he was trying to remember that night more clearly.

"Could it be he was meant to have both mates but he couldn't mate with Laremy until after he mated with Bastian?" Kyle wondered as he looked at the three men standing in front of us. "It's possible that this had to be the way things progressed."

"Why would it be like that though? If he was meant to mate with Laremy why would he have to mate with Bastian first?"

This was all so confusing to me. Why couldn't life be simple again? Why couldn't I go back to my peaceful life with EZ before I met Kyle? Would that have been too much to ask for?

Ever since that night when I met Kyle my life has been very busy and very dangerous. I don't know if I will be able to keep up with all of this. Ugh. I was going to be tired when this day was done, I just knew it.

"OK, here is my theory." I started, there was a thread in my mind that I hoped would lead us to the truth. "Perhaps that Bastian is the primary mate for now since he is mortal, but Laremy is meant to be EZ's mate after Bastian's life has run its course. That's morbid I know but Laremy can make EZ immortal like himself and that way EZ will be with both men in time. Bastian, though, will be the primary mate since he and EZ bonded first." Laremy started to interrupt but I silenced him with my next words. Bastian is the primary no matter who saw EZ first."

"That actually sounds like it could be a plausible cause for all of this." Kyle agreed with me. "It's possible that EZ was fated to become a vampire and therefore will be mated with both Bastian and Laremy."

"So how do we go about figuring all of this out?" Bastian wondered. "I don't want Laremy to invade my time with EZ. If I am the primary mate then I should be the one with him. That's what it means right?"

"But I don't want to be away from my mate for an entire shifter's lifetime." Laremy looked hurt and ready to cry when he thought that he was going to have to leave EZ behind for years. "I want to be with the man that my heart is singing for."

"We need to figure all of this out." I sighed.

"Come on, let's go back to our place and we will talk it all out. We will work out a solution that works for all of you." Kyle's suggestion seemed to be just what we all needed. I for one would like to get home and relax right now.

Twenty minutes later we were at home and EZ was sitting on my couch sandwiched between Bastian and Laremy. He looked like he was still riding on cloud nine, the other two not so much since they kept glaring at each other.

Kyle and I decided to escape to the kitchen and make a quick early dinner for all of us. It was simple and didn't take nearly long enough. I would have liked to have been out of the living room for a little bit longer. All too soon we were sitting at the large dining table and eating together. All five of us.

We decided it would be best to talk while we ate. It would keep everyone's hands occupied so they couldn't start grabbing at EZ again. I had also put EZ at the end of the table so he wasn't directly next to anyone, however his two mates sat at the end of either side so they were as close to him as they could get.

"Alright, let's figure all of this out." Kyle started the discussion. "We know that EZ is mated to both of you fine men. We know that even though EZ met Laremy first he mated with Bastian first. That tells us that had he never mated with Bastian he would have never mated with Laremy."

"Exactly." I agreed with him. "Now, as we were saying earlier, that should make Bastian the primary mate but as we can all agree most people wouldn't want to leave their mate and not see them for an entire lifetime."

"Did you say most people because you were willing to never see your mate again?" EZ called me out right then and there and made me blush.

"That's besides the point. We're talking about you right now."

"Uh huh." The amount of sass in those two syllables was amazing, and annoying.

"Anyway, so that things are fair I say you should all cohabitate together. Obviously not in the same bedroom as I am certain that Bastian and Laremy have no interest in each other whatsoever."

"Definitely not." Laremy agreed.

"Absolutely fucking not!" Bastian nearly bellowed his response.

"So then, you need to figure out a living arrangement that will work best for all of you." Kyle explained. "I think you can both agree that EZ's happiness is what matters here, right?"

"Yeah."

"You're right." The two of them answered at almost the same time as they looked at EZ.

"So, EZ, who do you want to live with? Just one or both?" I left the discussion to him now.

"I want to live with both. I think we can make it work. It might be tough in the beginning, but aren't mates supposed to work things out?"

"Do you expect them to share a room?" Kyle asked him.

"No, we will get a new place. A bigger place. I will have my own room and so will they. I can visit their rooms or they could visit mine. Neither of them would ever have to share a bed at the same time. The only common areas will be the rest of the house where we eat or watch TV, or whatever else."

"That sounds like a well thought out plan." Kyle complimented him. "Would the two of you be able to make that work?"

I watched as Bastian and Laremy looked at EZ then at each other and back to EZ again. Finally it looked like they had made up their minds.

"Yeah, I can make that work." Laremy agreed.

"I will do it for my mate." Bastian nodded.

"And I am also willing to admit that Bastian is EZ's primary mate, I will have him to myself eventually."

"Good, I am glad that we could come to an understanding." Kyle seemed like he was happy, perhaps it was because we had managed to avoid a big blow out. Things weren't as hectic as I thought they would be, based on how they were fighting earlier.

After we finished our dinner EZ and his pair of mates left. I almost wanted to ask who was going where but that was a giant can of worms that I didn't want to open up. I just let them go. It was better not knowing. I would probably be having plenty of headaches caused by this situation as time went on.. No need to make it worse right now when it was just starting out.