Yeah. That combination was never going to end well.
He thought if he buried himself on top of someone else, the obsession would fade. That he could force himself through the motions, and eventually Olivia would stop living under his skin.
Judging by the way he’d fled the kitchen afterward? That plan crashed and burned right in front of his face quite spectacularly.
I reached over and shut off the water. Silence rushed into the room immediately, thick and ringing in my ears.
Grabbing a towel, I dragged it low around my waist before wiping a streak through the fogged mirror. My reflection stared back at me.
Water slowly rolled down my chest and disappeared beneath the towel while my thoughts drifted back to Olivia crying against me upstairs. A pang in my chest echoed her pain at just the thought of her tears, yet I couldn't help but smirk.
She wanted both of us.
I’d known from the beginning that her pull toward Calix wasn’t shallow. That was why I stepped back and let things happen as intended instead of forcing her hand.
What I really needed to know was if it was temporary. Once the frenzy settled, would she still be looking for him?
The answer had been painfully obvious. Still… I never reacted the way other mates described.
Other supes talked about murderous rage. About how even seeing another man touch their mate caused them to want to rip him apart with their bare hands.
I’d felt flashes of it.
The valet at the department store when he smiled at her for too long. That clerk in the shoe store whose eyes kept drifting down her body. Those moments scraped something territorial and raw inside me.
But Calix?
Every time I saw him look at her, all I could think was that she smiled differently around him, and somehow, her happiness mattered more than my pride.
I flicked my fingers lazily.
The toothbrush lifted from the counter with a stream of air magic and shoved itself into my hand. Toothpaste squeezed onto the bristles before I even looked at it.
Mechanical. Automatic. My mind wasn’t really there.
I brushed my teeth while replaying what happened in the kitchen again. Olivia’s angry laugh. Calix’s guilty stare. The way neither of them realized I was watching from the shadows.
I had spat into the sink and turned, about to leave the bathroom, when my eyes snagged on something. I completely froze.
Something dark sat between my shoulder blades. Slowly, I turned more, gazing at it over my shoulder, and my breath caught. It felt like my lungs were threatening to collapse.
Right between my shoulders was a rose-shaped birth mark, no bigger than a coin.
A vampire mate mark.Olivia’smate mark.
Every thought in my head vanished, and I just stared at it.
My pulse stumbled unevenly while something warm and almost blinding spread through my chest.
Mate marks between species weren’t guaranteed, especially with mages. Sometimes the transition failed to anchor correctly since it was done with magic and a mage's Flame was found without magic.
That’s why I convinced myself it hadn’t happened, that while she was my Flame, I wasn't her mate. A piece of me crumbled at the thought, but now…
Memories collided into one another as I connected them one by one.
The first time Olivia drank from me had actually been in the car, because during her transition, Calix had been feeding her my blood secondhand. That probably interfered with the bond forming visibly.
My gaze narrowed on the mark, my thoughts jumping to Calix’s tattoo. The mate-blocker on his neck.
