“And how long do you think that will take?” she asked, loving the way it felt to be in his arms, whole.

“For the rest of my life, mo shonuachar.”

Epilogue

“Stop f**king judging me!”

“It’s a stupid show!”

“It’s misunderstood!”

“It was supposed to be a three hour tour. Why the hell did they need all that f**king luggage?”

Shayne glared at Finn as he pointed towards his open bedroom door. “I told ye never to bring that up again!”

“It’s a stupid show,” Finn muttered with a shrug before he disappeared.

“Yer dead to me, ye bastard!” Shayne yelled after the confused bastard.

It was a great show, damn it!

“How are they supposed to make banana cream pies on a deserted island without milk, flour, or butter?” Declean demanded from the comfort of Shayne’s bed.

Shayne didn’t bother answering him as he flipped Declean off and stormed out of his bedroom. As he walked down the hall towards Tristan’s bedroom he cursed Declean and his precious Food Channel to hell and back. Thanks to that betraying bastard he now had a craving for banana cream pie and no way to get his hands on one.

“Sorry, lad,” Quinn said with a shrug as he appeared in front of Tristan’s door.

“Still?” Shayne asked, not quite believing what he was hearing.

“Aye,” Quinn said, chuckling. “Seems the lad really missed her.”

“Oh, come on! It’s been two days!”

Quinn simply shrugged as he gestured for Shayne to turn around and leave. Snorting in disgust, Shayne moved to pound on Tristan’s door. Two days with Marty was more than enough, especially since he was bored and wanted to get out of here for a while.

“Think again, lad,” Quinn said, grabbing him.

One second he was raising his hand to pound on Tristan’s door and remind the bastard that he’d promised to give him a ride into town and the next he was standing in the middle of the foyer. It took him a minute before he realized what his brother had done to him.

“No f**king way……”

“I’m embarrassed for ye, lad,” Aidan said in a mock whisper as he appeared to Shayne’s right.

“Aye, he just manhandled ye like ye were his bitch or something,” Finn said, shaking his head in disgust. “Are ye really gonna take that, lad?”

This couldn’t be said enough, being human f**king sucked.

He went from being able to go and do whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted to being completely dependent on his brothers for everything. It grated in the worst possible way. He couldn’t remember a time when he hadn’t pulled his own weight. Even in his cursed form he’d taken care of himself, protected himself and Tristan. He’d had a use, but now….

Now he was completely useless.

His brothers protected him from spirits and f**ked him over for their own entertainment. The little brother that he’d been sworn to protect and care for now took care of him. Tristan gave him shelter, food, clothes and spending money like he was some f**king child instead of a full-grown man.

He hated it.

He hated this whole f**ked up situation. He’d been raised that taking charity was wrong. Unless a man was dead or dying, he should be taking care of himself and his family. If he’d been back in his own time, he would have simply picked up a sword and sold his services to the highest bidder and provided for himself. Beyond playing video games and surfing the internet, he had no modern day skills that he could use.

Hell, he couldn’t even drive a car. He didn’t have an education, could barely read English and at least once a day he forgot that he couldn’t simply walk through doors and walls and gave his jackass brothers something to laugh their asses off about.

If his brothers didn’t need him to help with the curse, he would have walked head on into traffic and gladly welcomed the curse back. As much as they pissed him off, he loved them. They were his family and the best friends that he’d ever had. For them he’d put up with the annoying soul mate that he’d rather throttle than fu-

“Looks like the funs about to start,” Finn suddenly announced with an eager smile that actually made Shayne a little nervous.

“Aye,” Quinn said, chuckling, “someone better go get Tadgh and Liam.”

“I’m on it!” he heard Aidan shout from the upstairs hallway.

Before he could ask what was going on, the doorbell was ringing and the bastards that loved to torment him were trying to yank his shirt off. After a short struggle, the bastards had his shirt off and were shoving him towards the front door.

“What the f**k are ye doing?” he shouted, wondering when the bullshit would end.

“Make sure to smile, lad,” Quinn said, giving him another push towards the door.

“Aye, it would probably be for the best if ye stopped grinding yer teeth,” Finn pointed out with a shooing gesture towards the door.

“And ye should probably stop clenching yer fists like that,” Aidan said as he popped back into the room.

His stomach dropped as realization hit and when it did, all he wanted to do was to make a run for it. When he may have taken a step back to do just that, he found his only exit blocked by Liam and Tristan.

“Just flex a little muscle and you’re in, big guy,” Tristan said with a wink and a chuckle that had him narrowing his eyes on the traitorous bastard as he was once again dragged back towards the door.

As he was shoved out the door, Shayne decided that there was perhaps a slight chance that he’d gone a tad overboard with screwing Tristan over for his own entertainment over the years. When he was thrown into the woman that fate and the damn curse had trapped him with, he decided that payback truly was a bitch.

To be continued……