Page 6 of Binding His Fated Mates

This was my nightly torture, and I deserved every second of it.

Hunter turned to look at me. His green eyes were sharp and wary, the way they always were when he was near me—even here, in the soft-edged reality of the dream. He crossed his arms over his broad chest.

“You again,” he said flatly.

Lee, who stood beside him, watched me in silence. His expression gave nothing away. I almost would’ve preferred the open dislike.

“Yeah,” I said softly. “Me again.”

Hunter’s jaw tightened. He looked away, shaking his head slightly and scowling. “Lovely.”

The stab in my chest was so familiar I barely even noticed it anymore. This was how the dreams always went. The three of us, drawn to the same place by a bond none of us had ever asked for, and the twins wanting nothing to do with me.

Nightly rejection.

It had gotten slightly less hostile since I’d pulled Hunter out of the way of the Algea. But it didn’t mean they liked me. Or that they wanted me here.

“Don’t be a dick, Hunter,” Lee said softly. “You know he didn’t ask for this.”

Lee’s gaze settled on me with an intensity that made me feel like my insides were on the outside, plainly visible for the world to see.

Hunter scowled, shooting him a betrayed look. “There’s probably something better to do than stand around with you two. Have at it.” His lips curled with disdain. “Let me know when the wedding is.”

With that, he stormed off into the trees.

Have at what? Wedding? What the hell did that mean?

Lee watched his brother go, a troubled expression on his face. “Don’t worry about him,” he said softly. “It’s a strange situation, is all. It’s not like any of us have an instruction manual.”

“Right,” I said dully.

It wasn’t adequate, but nothing I did where they were concerned ever was. And honestly, I was caught off guard that Lee was even talking to me in the dream at all. He usually didn’t. Neither of them did. Even Hunter acknowledging me—filled as it was with hostility and pain—was a change for the better.

I didn’t do what I wanted to, which was to cross the clearing and close the distance between us. To tell him that I was sorry—that I’d spend the rest of my life being sorry—and that I was going to fix it.

Instead, I settled down to the ground, bringing my knees to my chest and wrapping both arms around them, the way I usually did when I’d decided to wait the dream out.

Here, in this place that wasn’t really a place, I didn’t have the heart to feed myself the mealy-mouthed lie that things were looking up, after all. That everything would be A-okay, that I’d make it all into sugar, spice, and rainbows and somehow wipe away all the damage I’d caused to the only person I’d ever loved.

Lee sat down cross-legged a few feet from me but didn’t speak. I could feel his eyes on me for a long time, but I didn’t have the courage to look up and meet his gaze.

Then, without warning, the dream broke all at once and I was wide awake in my cabin again, the sheets tangled around my legs. The silence pressed in from all sides and I was utterly alone.

Which was exactly what I deserved.

CHAPTER TWO || HUNTER

Iwoke up hard, furious, and aching, which was becoming a real fucking pattern lately. The dream refused to be banished immediately. It was that same damn clearing, with Daniel standing at the edge of the trees, ridiculously enticing with the silver light of the perpetually full moon painting his face into an alluring mix of light and shadow. It made his elven features, slightly too pretty for a man, both haunting and mysterious, rather than the face I’d fallen in love with when I was a teenager and first discovering I liked boys. He’d worn the same awful expression as always. Brittle, like he was afraid to breathe in too deep. It made me want to simultaneously run over and shake him and also hold him until it went away.

I’d been a total asshole to him in the dream—Lee would probably call it a defense mechanism, or whatever. You again, I’d spat, as if he was an inconvenience rather than the person my entire body was screaming to get closer to. And then I’d walked away from him. I’d been a dick to Lee, too.

But doing anything else would’ve been a mistake, especially the Daniel part. Because looking at Daniel Henbane for too long made me remember way too many things I was trying very hard to forget. Like the sensation of his legs wrapped around my waist, his hot breath on my neck, the way his breathing sounded when I was buried deep inside his—

Dammit! Nothing good was going to come from continuing that train of thought.

I lay in bed, staring up at the ceiling of the cabin I shared with Lee, and waited for my body to get the memo that the dream was over and it was okay to not be rock hard and desperate for friction. The arousal would fade away if I ignored it. It always did.

But the ache underneath—the bone-deep longing that had nothing to do with sex and everything to do with the warlock himself—that part took longer. Hell, it had been two years and I was still waiting.