Chapter Ten
ZEPH
I cleared my throat,attempting to dispel some of the tension in the air caused by Aflora’s abrupt entrance and subsequent exit.
“She’s still pissed,” Kols noted, vying for the role of Captain Obvious.
“She needs to get over it,” I replied. “We gave her three days to cool off. Now she’s just acting like a brat.”
Kols gave me a look. “We destroyed her trust.”
“By protecting her,” I pointed out.
“But she doesn’t get that.”
“Because she’s being a brat and choosing not to talk to us. Instead, she’s stomping around and throwing a fit.” As if she overheard me, a door slammed from her room, causing me to roll my eyes. “It’s as though she wants me to spank her.”
Kols grunted. “Yeah, good luck with that.”
“She’d be wet for me in a second and you know it.”
“And she’d hate you every step of the way.” Kols shook his head. “Seriously, we fucked up. It’s going to take time to fix that.”
“Something we don’t have on our side.”
“Well, tell her that,” Kols said, gesturing to the hallway. “Let me know how it goes.”
I huffed out a breath. It would go well until she came all over my cock. Then she’d go right back to hating me. While the former would be enjoyable, the latter wouldn’t help us move forward.
My elbows fell to my thighs as I leaned forward. “This is ridiculous. All we’ve done is to help her.”
“She doesn’t see it that way.”
“Clearly.” And while I could admit to some fault in the matter of the approach, she wasn’t exactly giving us a chance to explain.
Or maybe I hadn’t tried hard enough to be heard.
Or really at all,I thought to myself.
But that wasn’t the point. “Tell me what Sol said.” Kols had been in the middle of detailing his meeting with the Elemental Fae when Aflora stomped into the room. I’d been about to suggest she join us for the discussion, but her little temper tantrum reaction to seeing us in the living area had me biting my tongue.
Kols cleared his throat. “Right. Well, first, he threatened to kill me.”
“You told him about the mating?”
“No. He sensed it. Not sure he approves.”
I smirked. “I bet not. But he can’t do anything about it.”
“That’s exactly what I said. Then I asked him to help me help her.”
“And?”
“He told me to fuck off.” Kols picked up his beer and took a long swig. “So Cyrus stepped in and reminded Sol how I helped them with their Chancellor problem by providing dark-magic texts. And Exos commented on how working together would only help Aflora, not hurt her. As her Earth mate, I’m duty-bound to protect her and yada yada, so eventually Sol caved.”
He stood up to retrieve his suit jacket and pulled something from the pocket. “These are Aflora’s parents.” He handed me an old-fashioned-painting-styled photograph, one depicting a couple staring down at the baby in the female’s arms.
“Is that baby Aflora?”
