Wild Magic Three: The Shade of the Earth- a M/M fantasy shifter romance

14- Different

NIBLEY—

I'd known Robert over twenty years. He'd always heavily, and loudly, touted his complete attraction to women. Had almost seemed to fight against any small insinuation he may be like me and Dasan. Despite this, I could count on one hand the women I'd actually seen him with.

He'd slept with a few of the women who hung around the war camps— not paid whores, but women who enjoyed the company of soldiers. Those women weren't ones he loved, or even liked, but they scratched the physical itch of a man constantly at war. They were a release after a battle, a thirst he slacked because it was why they were there.

Rachel was the only one he ever seemed to genuinely enjoy spending time with. Nearly five years his senior, Rachel had wrapped Robert around her little finger when he was barely into his twenties. He'd been infatuated, maybe, but not in love. But he'd thought he was, at the time, and the way he held her and kissed her sweetly and was gentle with her, it was a pure kind of affection on his part.

When Rachel was seen leaving our captain's tent after only a few weeks of their whirlwind romance, Robert had shrugged and laughed off Dasan's and my concern. We'd let him push us away, because we'd agreed she was a young love he'd get over quickly.

After her, he took a few more women to bed. But never again did he show them affection outside of whatever they did in his tent. And I wasn't completely sure if that was because she'd hurt him more than we'd attributed to her, or if he just never found another he genuinely liked as he had Rachel— never felt that connection again. One way or another, he was all but celibate, and seemed content to stay that way.

Now he was being courted by a man nearly half his age, and though he adamantly pushed Sami away at nearly every turn, it was almost amusing to watch the way he reacted to, and acted around, the smaller man.

He wouldn't let us think he and Sami were together, but the way he looked at him was fond, affectionate, gentle. He wouldn't let Sami sit on his lap at dinner, like he tried to every night, without fail, but he fed him little bits of the meat off his own plate the entire time, since Sami ate all of his like a rabid animal and begged pathetically for more.

Sami leapt into his arms, soaking wet and naked, and Robert didn't hesitate to grip the man's bare thighs and ass to hold him up against his body, to not let him fall. He didn't even complain about the fact Sami had gotten his clothes soaked with the move. He barely seemed to notice.

Robert laughed more when he was with Sami than I think I'd ever seen. He ruffled his hair when the shifter showed him rocks he'd found in the lake. He took Sami's little presents seriously, somberly thanking the young man, even when it was a blood-drenched carcass and Robert was obviously disgusted. He teased Sami, tickling him mercilessly on multiple occasions, after, he'd said, he found out Sami was nearly violently ticklish.

And he didn't even see it. He didn't realize that he treated Sami differently than he'd even treated Rachel, all those years ago. He didn't realize it, because he had an idea in his mind of what his partner should be, and it wasn't Sami. And that was alright. I could no more hate Robert for his predilections towards women that I expected him to towards me for my love of Dasan. But if he was denying himself a true happiness it seemed as if Sami offered him, because he was afraid? Because he didn't want to be ridiculed and mistreated the way he'd seen Dasan and I endure? Because he'd been taught from a young age that it was wrong to be different?

If he truly didn't want Sami, fine. But I didn't believe he didn't. Because the way he looked at the younger man? Gods, it reminded me of the way Dasan used to watch me when we were teenagers.

Afraid, hesitant, and filled with a spark of something from deep within his soul.

Dasan had almost left me for his fear. I was afraid of watching Robert do the same, because I wasn't sure Sami would be able to talk him down the way I had with Dasan.