Page 28 of Honey, I'm Home

She seems to remember that we were all knocked out and immediately begins spinning us around and checking for damage. She narrows her eyes at the broken bits of wood at the door and curses under her breath.

“Look, we probably don’t have very much time before they get to us again, so I’m going to need you guys to trust me on something. Follow me?”

She walks, none of us follow.

She sighs heavily and turns back to us. “I’ll explain everything in a few minutes, I promise. The thing is, I’m not what you think I am. I mean, I am, but like, you know what? Walk!”

We jump at her sudden raised voice and follow her out of the house, over the hedge, and behind the massive oak that’s been in her parents’ backyard since before any of us were born.

She knocks in a few different places on the tree and then presses her thumb to it, scraping her skin until a drop of blood wells and sinks into the bark, and then a fucking hidden door opens up.

She walks down the stairs that just appeared, out of sight, and screams at us to “Hurry the fuck up!”

We slide down after her and straight into a lounge area. There’re massive beanbag chairs everywhere and one wall is covered in lit up monitors showing nearly every angle of Trash Haven as it flicks through different cameras I didn’t even know the town had.

I look at my girl, mystified. “Who the hell are you?”

She shoots me a shy smile and clears her throat. “Before I can tell you anything, we need to complete the mate bond.”

“Hang on, I’m coming,” I wheeze out as I bend over.

Chapter 12

Aster

Well, this is certainly not how I wanted all of this to go down, but those hideously dressed bee people sort of forced my hand.

Now I’m standing here, ready to be mated, on an oh-so-glamorous dirt floor, so I can spill all of my family’s secrets.

I see something on the screen I don’t like so I dash over to the massive keyboard on the work surface and make sure that those idiots that touched my men won’t be able to enter town again. Not until I say so.

I get my hands on my hips and stare my soon-to-be-bondeds down. Damnit, Hawthorne seriously just came in his pants. Something’s wrong with that one.

“Okay, before we get into everything, can we please just admit that I was right, and that you all should have responded in some form or other when you got the official mail and the summons?”

Arbor is drooling slightly, Dev has a huge hard on, and Hawthorne is lying in a pool of his own mess and panting.

“Look, I’m sorry for the secrets, I really am, but I am physically unable to tell you anything unless I’m mated to you. So, if you want to know…”

Dev is the first to snap out of his trance. “We don’t have any of the proper supplies. We don’t have any witnesses or paperwork, and the veil I handmade for you last year is still sitting in its protective packaging up in our attic. We can’t…”

He looks distraught.

I walk up to him and grab his hands, one hand going to his cheek to soothe him. “We’ll have a proper ceremony with witnesses still, I promise. This is just a simple soul gluing, that’s all.”

“Awhat?”Arbor screeches.

“Circle time. I need all three of you to surround me and get both your hands on my skin somewhere. Chop, chop!”

They leap into action, and I allow myself a brief respite in their arms because after the hellish afternoon I had, it really does feel nice to be able to sink into them. Just a few breaths, centering myself and focusing on their touch, and I’m much more grounded.

“I need you to repeat after me.I hereby relinquish a part of my heart to Aster, choosing to maintain the parts that keep me alive and well, so that we may be bound together from now until eternity. I hereby give up my identity as a single person and choose from here on out to become a bonded soul. I will support and cherish my mate every single day, and Iacknowledge that you are the only bond I will ever be able to forge in such a way.”

The emotion is thick and heady as they recite the words flawlessly, voices heavy with profound devotion. When I open my eyes again, I only have to wait a brief second before the rainbow lights that denote a soul bond cascade over us, releasing me from the geas that was protecting me.

I can’t just dive right into my history though; we just got mated. Surely, it’s okay to make out for a minute first.

Dev is the easiest to reach, and the most fitting since it’s his fault this whole thing between us started when it did. If he hadn’t trespassed into my bedroom while I was sleeping, who knows where we’d be right now?