Twizzlers (MxMxM)

Chapter 18 - Mama

"Where are you, my darlings?"

Erin giggled softly and I quickly covered his mouth. He always made us lose because he couldn't stop laughing! Well, not today. He glared at me and licked my hand. I stuck my tongue out in disgust but kept my hand over his mouth. I could handle him being gross if it meant winning.

"I know you're around here somewhere. I'm going to find you," she sang.

She stopped right in front of our hiding spot and I paused, remaining very still. I thought we were in the clear, but her hands suddenly reached through and grabbed us both. We squealed when she pulled us out of the cabinet and into her arms. She pretended to eat us by kissing our faces and arms.

"Mama, Mama, stop," I yelled while laughing.

She laughed along with us, coming to a stop. She had us seated in her lap on the kitchen floor, a beautiful smile on her face. "Ah, that was fun, boys. Now, who wants to help me make some cookies?"

"I do, I do," Erin shouted, scrambling out of Mama's lap and running to get the pan.

Before we got up, I leaned in and smacked a kiss on her cheek with a smile. She laughed gently, doing the same on my cheek. "I love you, my sweet Aaron."

"I love you, too, Mama."

"Aaron."

I turned to look at my mother, but she was fading away. No, please don't go yet. Don't go-

"Aaron."

My eyes popped open and I looked around in confusion. I looked up only to find Evander's face staring down at me. He had a worried frown on his face. Aubrey's face popped into view a moment later. He looked just as worried. "What's going on?" I asked.

"You fell asleep, so I let you rest your head in my lap. You were crying in your sleep just now...are you alright?" Evander explained.

My face heated up as I realized my mates saw me crying like a baby in my sleep. But, I still felt like crying. Goddess, I haven't dreamt about her in so long. Yuki had caught me off-guard and now the walls I'd worked so hard to build in my mind were crumbling. And my mates were witness to it.

"Woah."

I quickly sat up to look at everyone else. They were all looking at our surroundings wearily. I followed suit and internally groaned. The once-blue sky was slowly bleeding into dark red as we flew. Below us, the ground became barren and scarred with tons of large rock structures. Some of them looked like the one Rin was attached to, but others looked like naturally occurring cliffs, canyons, and mountains. The sound of distant roars and ominous screeches sent shivers down my spine. Cursed Plain huh...aptly named. We began our descent and I became increasingly nervous. What would we face? Goddess, I wasn't even sure if I preferred this to be too easy or incredibly hard. If it was too easy, was it a trap? What if we just couldn't get to them?

As soon as Minori touched the ground, we all hurried off. We'd stopped in front of a cave. Minori shifted back and walked into the cave. "This will be our shelter when night falls," they announced.

Erin handed them a blanket and Minori took it with a raised eyebrow. "I forget how bashful people from the human realm are," they commented.

"Sorry, I just wasn't sure if you needed it or not," Erin said awkwardly.

The dragon waved him off and began carrying our supplies into the cave. "It's best not to travel in large groups. We can leave some people to hide here and protect the supplies while the rest of us search for Rin," Minori told us.