“I wouldn’t test my patience if you want to walk out of this house in one piece. Shifter, I take it?” Still, no response. “Are you seriously going to stand there while a stranger breaks into your mate’s house? Does her life mean nothing to you?” I hiss, ice creeping up the walls the more my control slips.
That’s it. Screw the house, I’m bringing Kiara back to the guild hall. At least there I don’t have to worry about anyone breaking in to hurt her; my men would slaughter the intruder on principle alone. Once I fill them in on her being my mate? She’ll be far safer there than anywhere else on earth. The only reason I sent her to Mercy Ridge was so she wouldn’t be trapped inside for months on end. Kiara deserves to do whatever she damn well pleases, not be forced to live in a cage because of my enemies.
But now, only one remains. And not for long.
“Vic? What are you doing here?” I turn at the sound of her sweet, sleep-laden voice, watching her shuffle into the living room while rubbing at bleary eyes.
“Proving that your new guard dog is useless and needs to be replaced.”
This time, I know the second the words are out of my mouth that I fucked up. All drowsiness leaves her in an instant, and she opens her mouth to tear me a new one, but he interjects with a rough croak. “Zayd. And no. You wear my mate’s mark, so your fate is hers to decide.”
Kiara’s head whips to face him, stunned silent. Teary eyed, she slowly approaches him, making sure she's in his line of sight and takes his hand. When he intertwines their fingers, she positivelybeams,like he just gave her some great gift.
Is that how low the bar is? And Istilldidn’t manage to reach it? Fuck.
“Itwasa Z! Hot damn, we're getting this communication thingdown. Welcome back to the land of the living, Zayd, I’m so freaking happy to officially meet you. How’re you feeling?” she rapid fires.
My jaw aches from how tightly I’m clenching it. “Hold on, let me get this straight. You let him live here, and you didn't even know hisname?”
She flips me off without bothering to so much as turn her attention away from her pet project for a single second. “I didn't know anything about you besides your name and was ready to move in withyouthe day we met,so I’m not sure why you're surprised. Fated mates have already been stamped for approval, so it's safe to speed run the dating process. Well, usually.” She finally deigns to look at me, only to shoot me a withering glare. “Looks like mistakes slip through the cracks occasionally. Just goes to show you that nobody's perfect, even the Fates.”
I narrow my eyes. “Our mate marks aren’t amistake.”
It makes sense now. This guy's been stealing my letters before she sees them.
The shifter’s chest rumbles in agitation, and Kiara takes it upon herself to pivot in his arms without letting go of his hand. It leaves her facing me, but with their hands clasped over her stomach, making my own churn. Zayd’s growl dies off as he tugs her firmly against his chest, resting his chin on the top of her head and sucking down ragged breaths.
“Says the man that didn’t speak to me for six months,” she scoffs. But I can hear the underlying current of hurt in her voice that she’s trying to hide under anger now that I’m looking for it.
My chest tightens with regret. “Ineverabandoned you, Kiara, I swear it. Why do you think I sent Rome to be your bodyguard the first few weeks while you were settling in?He ensured everyone knew that you were under the Shadow Knight’s protection, and touching you would sign their death warrants, without it tracing back to our connection and putting a target on your back.”
“Yeah, and thanks to that, nobody would hire me. I had to make a deal with the gargoyles that run the city to open up the vet clinic so I could make enough money to get by, and even then, it’s not like business was booming. Do you have any idea how hard these last six months have been for me? I’ve had to play catch up oneverythingnormal people grew up with. Phones, computers, grocery stores, how to pay bills; even fucking street light signals. I’ve been scrambling for six months trying to figure out how to survive in the real world.”
“I…” my voice trails off, horrified. I did my research. Arson and Ever found Kiara in a hidden mimic village and brought her back with them, so I knew there’d be some culture shock, but I spoke with one of the gargoyles myself. He assured me they had people assigned to give the mimics that followed Ever out here a crash course on modern life and how to survive as a mystic in a human-dominated world. That the wards were the best of any safe haven city thanks to Arson’s little brother, a tech mage prodigy. That the entire city was built around the idea of helping people start over and she was in good hands.
But I had Roman scare off anyone from approaching her. Including the mentor she was supposed to have, apparently. Fuck.
“I’ve been dropping off money every month. And letters.” My defense sounds weak even to my ears, and all of my confidence that I was doing the right thing by keeping my distance has gone up in smoke. And if the vitriol in my mate’s gaze is anything to go off of? I’m watching Kiara slip away from me right before my eyes.
“Then where are they, Havoc? Because I sure as hell never saw them.” I start to accuse the bastard at her back, but she cuts me off. “Even if youdid, that doesn’t erase the fact that you refused to look at me when you told Arson to bring me here.” Every word out of her mouth drives the point home just how misguided my efforts to protect her were. “Even if therewasa justifiable reason you had to stay away physically, there’s nogoddamnreason you couldn’t have taken two minutes to call me in the last six months. You didn’t think to send a single text in all that time to check in when you hadn’t heard back from me?”
“I left my number in every letter, asking for you to send me yours as soon as you got a phone, but you never did. I thought you were upset and was trying to respect your desire for space. Either that it was taking me so long to eliminate the threats keeping us apart, or because of it being, well… me.”
She cocks her head, face scrunched in confusion, and I run a hand through my silver hair with a grunt, exhaling heavily. “Finding out your fated mate was a murderer for hire? Not most people’s first choice. Throw in the fact I’m a good sixteen years older than you with a child damn near your own age, and let’s just say I wasn’t surprised you didn’t call me.”
With a rough swallow, now that I know she hasn’t been receiving my letters, I explain, “I’m an assassin, Kiara. I’ve made an ungodly amount of enemies over the years that wouldn’t hesitate to use you against me in retaliation.That’swhy I had to keep my distance and send you here to wait for me to tie up loose ends. My men and I have spent the last six months hunting down every single person that carried a grudge against me so you wouldn’t be in danger. From the very first day I found out you were my mate, I’ve done everything in my power to make it safe enough to bring you home.”
Mouth parted, she stares at me in stunned silence. After a few moments to process, she slowly nods. “Okay. Then whydidn’t you tell me that before you sent me away? That you were only doing ittemporarilyto keep me from being murdered while you handled shit?”
What the hell?“I did, remember? I told you you couldn’t stay at the guild hall, not to be so loud when announcing you were my mate in case anyone overheard before I could ensure there weren’t any prying eyes or ears, since potential clients come to post job requests occasionally. You said you understood, and I promised to take care of everything. What else was there to clarify?”
The muscle beneath her left eye twitches. “No, you didn’t explainanyof that. I thought you were trying to keep me a secret from whoever you lived with and already had a mate! How the fuck would I knowwhyyou wanted to keep me a secret or why I couldn’t stay with you?”
Shock renders me mute for an embarrassingly long time. “Ever never explained?”
She glares daggers into my soul. “Of courseshedid.Afteryou fucking ghosted me. She and Arson had nothing but great things to say about you, you jackass. But when you never came back for me, what the hell was I supposed to think?”
“I explained everything in my letters. I saw the videosshowingthem being delivered, so I know they arrived,” I defend, at a loss and so frustrated I could tear my hair out.
