AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“You were right, you’re my mate.”
Chapter Sixteen
Wiping my mouth with my hand, I hum with contentment, my stomach full. A gentle squeeze on my other hand has me glancing across at Zane. I smile at my mate. He smiles back, but it’s quickly replaced with a frown. He does that a lot recently, and I miss my smirking vampire.
He pulls me to a stop and scans my face, taking in the pinkening of my cheeks and the colour returning to my skin. I just fed—one of two scheduled feeds I now get per week thanks to Jack putting in a complaint. I still feel the ache of hunger occasionally, but it’s far better now. It also means I get to see Zane more often, as he attends to make sure my feeds go according to plan.
Tugging me closer, he touches my chin, lifting my head until our eyes meet. “Are you sure you’re going to be okay?”
He doesn’t care who might see us or walk in on our little moment together, and honestly, there isn’t much they could do to stop us anyway. We’re mates, and as I’m learning, that provides us some protection.
“I’ll be fine, mate.” Smiling up at him, I fist his shirt and hope my voice is steady as I speak again. “I’m spending the rest of the afternoon with Tracey.”
Even if it was obvious and I wasn’t okay, there’s nothing he can do about it. He’s been struggling, probably just as much as I have, with our separation, and he needs me to be strong right now. It’s been a week since Jack and I became mates, and things have improved, such as my new feeding schedule and visits with the two of them. Zane took the news of me having another mate surprisingly well, and he confirmed that he had his suspicions. Sharing isn’t in his nature, but he understands that both he and Jack provide different things that I need to thrive.
Being kept away from two mates, however, is more difficult than I anticipated. I hoped that it would ease the ache of being separated, but if anything, it’s just two times as bad. I find myself constantly pining for them, my concentration shot and my temper faster to flare up. Every time one of them leaves, part of me leaves with them, and my body becomes an empty vessel going through the motions.
I’ve not told either of my mates, but I keep finding myself outside of the unit where Gabriel is housed, staring at the doors and fighting with myself about tracking him down. My longing for him has turned into a need, one that I keep denying, but I fear I’m losing the strength to hold myself back.
“How is the ogre? Has she eaten any more of your flowers?” he asks with humour in his voice, sounding more like his old self. While he was just as surprised and amused that I adopted an ogre for a friend, he’s happy with my choice of companion. Tracey isn’t going to let anything happen to me, and she’s one of the only creatures that seems to scare the crap out of everyone, keeping them away from me.
She also has an unfortunate habit of eating my flowers when we go back to my room on the unit—something that Zane finds hilarious.
“I’ve started hiding them when I know she’s coming to my room.” My smile is sly, the bond warming in my chest now that Zane seems brighter.
I have to get out of here soon. Being separated like this is affecting all of us.
We don’t have long together, our visits are timed, yet they always seem to fly by, the two hours we’re allotted vanishing. I’m also not allowed to take visitors back to my room anymore. After Jack and I fucked and formed our bond, creating a whole load of trouble for the halfway house, they don’t want me sleeping with anyone else and making more messes for them to clean up—not that this stops Zane and me. We’ve fucked in cupboards before, and if I’m in here much longer, I’m sure we will again. It’s just another reason for the timed visits.
He spends the rest of the visit telling me about what he and Jack have been doing on the outside to try and get me released. It turns out that the day Jack and I became mates, he was on his way to a meeting with a judge to get my sentence reviewed. They both believe that I’m being unfairly treated due to bias towards me. I struggle to keep up with it all, but just knowing that they are out there doing something to help takes a weight off my shoulders.
As usual, his visit comes to an end far too quickly, and he leaves with the promise that he and Jack will find a way to get me out soon. As soon as he’s gone, I feel myself deflate, becoming a ghost of myself. It’s becoming harder and harder to keep myself upbeat, my heart withering with each day we’re kept apart.
I wander mindlessly through the building. Tracey will be waiting for me, but the ache of my bond is numbing me to everything else around me. Thankfully I don’t have any classes today, as I’m sure I’d end up missing them with the state my mind is in right now. It’s more than just the bond causing me to want my mates though. I’m genuinely sad that I’m apart from them. We’ve created this amazing connection between us, something that was predestined, and I’m locked away. This is a time when we should be getting to know each other and enjoying the rush of new love. Frustration and anger make me want to lash out at the assessors, at Gabriel, at anyone who dares to get in the way of my mates and me.
That is exactly what stops me. I’ve never acted like that before, and the behaviour is something so unlike me that it shocks me into reality. While I’ve been told that born vampires have what most see as a superiority complex, I was raised differently. I float through life without much direction, trying to leave happiness wherever I go. Lashing out and hurting others goes against everything I am and believe in. I’m not going to let this turn me into someone else.
On autopilot, I move through the rooms of the building until finally I hear my name being called out. Blinking and bringing myself back to the present, I look around and find myself in the common room, with Tracey taking up most of the space on the large sofa.
Forcing a smile onto my face, I amble over and take residence in the armchair beside her, not trusting the sofa to take both of our weight. It already groans each time my ogre friend moves, and I don’t fancy trying to explain to the guards why we broke another sofa.
She looks over at me with a critical eye and grunts, raising her chin in a way that I’ve learned means she’s asking a question. Interpreting the noise as her asking how my feeding went, I lean back in the armchair and pull my legs up under me.
“It went fine, no issues,” I reply with a light shrug. “I’m getting better at controlling how much blood I take now.”
I’m actually getting quite good at it. In fact, Zane was telling me that I have the best control he’s ever seen for a new vampire. He’s been wondering if it has something to do with my upbringing. I was around humans all the time, so I might not view them as food like most born vampires. Personally, I think I just have the willpower to make myself stop, not having been constantly told that I will struggle to stop.
Tracey continues to stare at me, waiting for me to confess all of my deep dark secrets. It makes me uncomfortable. I don’t know how to tell her that I feel like I’m slowly dying without my mates. She has very strong opinions on males, and I don’t want to seem like I’m whining or that I have to have a male to save me, so I do the only thing I can in this situation—I change the subject.
“How’s the game?” I ask, gesturing towards the TV. “Are the Smashers winning?”
It turns out that even supernaturals like sports and have their own games. Smash ball is the most watched sport, and from what I can tell, it’s a cross between rugby, American football, and dodgeball. The rules seem bizarre, and I can’t keep up, but Tracey loves it. Her team, the Smashers, are currently playing. This is usually a sure-fire way of trying to distract her.
“Don’t change the subject,” she demands, narrowing her eyes on me. Grumbling, she sighs and places a large hand on my shoulder, the action knocking me forward slightly. “This is killing you, friend.”
She’s watching me with an expression that I think is one of concern, but it’s difficult to tell with her limited facial movements. Sighing, I drop my head, cradling my knees to my chest. Thankfully no one else is in the room to witness my moment of weakness, but I don’t know what to say to her. I can’t lie and say everything is fine, yet I also don’t have the vocabulary to explain how I feel.
“Things are a little tough,” I admit, raising my eyes to meet hers. “I just need to get through this.” It might have worked and convinced her to drop the subject if I didn’t sound like I was trying to convince myself at the same time.
