Page 81 of Binding His Fated Mates

Rowan’s expression crumpled, just for a moment, her dark eyes sweeping across her brother’s face. Then she sucked in a breath, as if to compose herself, and followed her family out into the early morning light.

The door closed behind them and the cabin went silent.

For a long time, Daniel didn’t move. He seemed to be staring without seeing anything at all.

Then he blinked and his gaze moved to the scattered papers on the floor around his desk. His brother had been here, rifling through Daniel’s notes, while we’d all been out protecting the town from monsters.

Hunter moved first. He put both hands on Daniel’s shoulders and ducked his head to meet Daniel’s lowered gaze. “Hey. Look at me.”

Our mate didn’t respond.

“Daniel.” Hunter’s voice was gentle. “They’re gone. It’s just us. You’re safe.”

Our mate raised his head. His dark eyes were glassy and distant, as if he’d retreated to some interior place where we couldn’t follow.

“I always told myself they wouldn’t bother coming. That I wasn’t worth the trouble.” His expression twisted into something that was probably trying to be a smile but looked way too ghastly for that. “I guess I was wrong about that.”

“They don’t get to take you anywhere you don’t want to go.” Hunter’s hands tightened on Daniel’s shoulders, the look in his eyes fierce. “Do you hear me? You’re not going back with them. They can’t make you do anything you don’t want to do!”

“You don’t understand.” Our warlock’s voice was toneless. “The Henbanes decide what they want and then they do it. This is how they’ve always operated.” He paused, shaking his head and dropping his gaze from Hunter’s. “They’re more powerful than I am. More powerful than the pack, too. If they want me to go with them, I’ll go. I won’t have a choice.”

“Like hell you will,” Hunter said.

I put my hand on Daniel’s back, between his shoulder blades. I could feel the tremors running through his body.

“You’re not alone,” I told him. “You have us. And you have the pack.”

Daniel nodded, but he didn’t look at either of us.

Hunter and I glanced at each other. My twin looked almost frightened by the change in our mate. His expression matched exactly how I felt.

With a hand on his back, I guided Daniel to the couch. We sat on either side of him. Hunter put an arm around his shoulders. I held his hand.

“They went through my things,” Daniel said at last, almost as if speaking to himself. His gaze moved to the open desk drawer, the scattered papers. “The desk. My notes. My research.”

The way his breath caught when he said the word research snagged my attention and I felt my brows draw together. But Daniel didn’t elaborate and it wasn’t the time to ask him. Not when he was this fragile.

Though the Henbanes had just said that Hunter and I were leading half a life, it didn’t feel that way. Not in this moment. Not when my mate and my other half both needed me.

I had never felt more real. More myself. Daniel and Hunter didn’t just make me real. They made me want to choose to be here, to be embodied in myself. To act.

Maybe I’d been asking myself the wrong question, all along. The self-serving one.

This wasn’t a philosophical question, or even an existential one. I existed. I was here.

Would I choose to be present, to do whatever it took, to bring everything I had, for the people I loved?

And that question had a far easier answer.

Yes. Yes, I would. Of course I would.

Hunter met my eyes over Daniel’s bowed head. The fury was still in his eyes. It was banked and controlled at the moment. Temporarily at bay because our mate needed us. But it was still there, smoldering under the surface.

The question in my twin’s eyes was easy to read: what do we do?

But I didn’t have an answer. Not a tactical one, anyway. Not yet.

What I did have was a profound certainty. The Henbanes wouldn’t take Daniel from us. They wouldn’t make him do anything he didn’t want to do. I didn’t care what it cost. I didn’t care what I had to do. Hunter and I wouldn’t allow anyone to take our mate from us.