Slate thought he had said it under his breath, but his brothers were half bats. They had all heard him.
Dante shook his head. "You did not just say what I thought I heard you say."
Slate threw back his head and stared straight at Dante.
"You heard me."
An overwhelming jealous rage began to roll over Dante as he struggled to overcome his desire to rush back and beat Slate to a pulp.
His hands shook as he fought to remain calm. He could not break down in front of his brothers like this.
As Dante fought down the rage, the rest of the men were no less disturbed. They instantly turned to Slate with accusing eyes.
"We leave to go take care of business and you're at home sleeping with our wife?" Byron narrowed his eyes.
"You're not the only one with an Avgo shard." Slate threw back.
Jared turned to Byron. "To be fair, we all have an Avgo shard. You're no more her husband than any of us."
Jason leaned forward, rubbing his eyes.
"I have to agree with that. Legalities aside, there is a higher truth. It's called the Avgo truth. We can't just toss that away as if it doesn't exist."
"And what, exactly, is that Avgo truth?" Lucas asked. He was also a bit miffed that Slate had gotten to her first.
"The Avgo chose all of us as its father. That is the truth. I am simply doing my fatherly duty." Slate responded evenly. He would be damned if he apologized for something he did that he held to be supremely sacred.
"Your fatherly duty?" Leonardo grimaced. "That's gotta be the first time I've ever heard of it in that way."
"Isn't that what purposefully fathering a child means?" Slate raised an eyebrow.
"Fatherly duties mean taking care of the child after it's born, not before it's born." Leonardo rolled his eyes. "At this moment, you are not yet a father."
Slate raised a finger. "Normally, I would agree with you, but have you forgotten that this is the Avgo we're talking about? Where do you think we got our Avgo shards from?"
"We got it from its mother." Jason replied.
Lucas nodded. "I have to agree with Slate here. We have to return the Avgo sliver with our genetic material back to Candace so she can create a child. That is absolutely Avgo fatherly duties."
"So what happened to your Avgo sliver, Slate?" Byron asked without looking at him.
Slate blink. What he shared with Candace was not just private and precious, it was also divine. He did not want to tell his brothers, but they were all staring at him with expectant eyes.
"I don't have it any more."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean it's gone. At least I think it's gone." Slate rubbed his head. "I could feel it leaving me and going back to her."
"Can you go and check to see if the Avgo is back with her?" Leonardo asked. "Check to see if she's ovulating too."
Slate pressed his lips together and then nodded.
"I'll be right back."
As he moved away from the screen, the brothers all looked at each other.
"I can't believe she lost her virginity to him." Jared shook his head.
"She didn't." Dante reminded them sadly. "I was her first."
Byron nodded, remembering the wine incident.
"We all may have to reconcile the fact that she cannot be exclusively any of ours."
"I am beginning to see that too." Leonardo sighed. "Had we met her under normal circumstances, she would have been a perfect wife for one of us.
Byron nodded. "And I would have fought tooth-and-claw for her hand."
The brothers nodded in agreement.
"But because she is a very special Primary Avgo Female, Candace is destined to be with not just one of us, but all of us because her Avgo chose us." Byron sighed.
"And how did you come to that conclusion?" Dante challenged.
Leonardo gave him a disgusted look.
"Have you forgotten that Candace asked the Avgo what the next step was?"
Lucas nodded. "That's right Brother. She asked Avgo to show us its purpose."
Leonardo gave a grateful smile.
"It answered by splitting and embedding itself into each of us, but we were too daft to understand the exact significance of it at that moment because we were all in shock."
Lucas nodded. He may not be as smart as Leo, but he understood this very well.
"The Avgo has spoken. It wants all of us as its father. We just need to listen and understand."
"No. She is my wife. She accepted me alone." Dante insisted.
He had moved heaven and earth to be with her. How dare they take her away from him!
"But the Avgo chose all of us, Dante." Jason and Jared both said together.
"This is not happening." Dante held out his hand. "I'm not sharing my wife with any of you lug nuts."
"I don't think you have a choice, Dante." Jason waggled a finger at him. "She's never going to be exclusively yours."
"If she's not mine alone, then I don't want her at all." Dante turned away.
The other brothers looked at each other. It was not unexpected that Dante would be upset.
It didn't take long before Slate came back.
"Guys," he shook his head. "She's not ovulating, and the shard I returned to her is back, but it seems to be dormant."
Leonardo pulled off his gloves and took off his white lab coat.
"That's it. I'm going back and giving her a thorough exam. I'll be home in about half an hour." He reached out with a gesture and his screen darkened.
"Are you really giving her up?" Byron looked at Dante.
"Yeah. I don't want her any more."
"I thought you loved her." Jared grimaced. "She gave you more time of day than any of the rest of us. You really gonna walk away from her?"
Dante narrowed his eyes. With a disgusted wave of his hand, his screen went dark.
With Leonardo and Dante gone from the visual call, the rest of them signed off. They would be coming back to have dinner with Candace later that night anyway.
Byron and Lucas looked at Dante. His scowl was thunderous and he looked pissed as hell.
Worse off, he was holding onto his home-made war mace, looking as if he wanted to find something or someone to pound into the ground.
They were still in the Legislative Hall together. The old turkeys had left the building some time ago so at least no innocent bystander would get hurt.
Byron sighed. He had to try and reach Dante before he exploded and demolished the Legislative Hall.
"Man. You shouldn't be saying something like that. You can't just walk away from your wife."
"She's not my wife yet."
"You obviously need to pay more attention." Byron threw a hand out. A visual screen popped open showing the marriage decree that had been signed by the Emperor that day.
It was the original marriage decree that had been automatically triggered within twenty-four hours of her winning the Avgo Events.
Clearly documented on the line that said 'wife' was Candace Farrah. On the line that said 'husband' were three names: Dante, Byron, and Lucas, the Emperor's first three sons.
Dante looked at it in disbelief.
"Didn't he just announce this just now? How did this get drawn up so quickly?"
Lucas sniffed in disdain. "While you were playing around with his scepter, he was getting the documents together to create a new triumvirate Crown Prince position for the three of us."
Byron nodded. "And while the General Assembly was signing the documents, Father slipped this one in also to be signed, after adding our names to the marriage document. It's a done deal."
Dante shook his head. "I can't believe she's really my wife. I thought I'd lost her forever after I lost my Crown Prince title."
"And now that she's yours, you're going to throw her away?" Lucas shook his head.
"I never pegged you for being stupid, Dante, but this takes the cake."
Lucas sneered at his oldest brother.
"You're an official idiot."