Page 53 of Siren’s Secret

That pulled Jarred’s brows together into a frown. “Speaking of Hell,” he started and placed his hand on Wave’s thigh and squeezed her reassuringly. “You need to tell her.”

Risha’s shoulders slumped, and he gnashed his teeth before groaning. “I know.”

“Tell me what?”

“Him and Hellion,” Jarred said.

“You going to tell it for me?” Risha harrumphed. Really, none of them seemed to be able to talk without snapping and growling tonight at all.

Wave stuffed her face with Jarred’s burger. She had a feeling she would need the energy soon.

“Just thought to lay it out there, to make it simpler,” Jarred said easily.

Risha started grating one of his fancy cheeses into the pot and Wave wondered how much of it she could still fit in before exploding. Probably not much, but damn, the male could cook. Then her brain finally kicked in and she set the burger down.

“Prince Marchellion Burningstar,” she murmured and looked at Risha, “and Prince Irishen Sleethill.” When Risha didn’t say anything and Jarred studiously avoided her gaze, she sighed. “You were together. That makes so much sense now.” So, she had guessed it already, but having it confirmed without a doubt was still a little bit of a shock.

“What does?” Risha snapped.

“Why Hellion got jealous.” Wave shrugged. “It didn’t make sense, but he wasn’t jealous of me. He was jealous about you and that… yeah, okay.”

“Precious,” Jarred said, now turning toward her again, but Wave shook her head.

“No, it’s okay.” She turned to Risha and forced a smile on her lips, despite the pain trying the tear at her. “We can ignore the mate connection. With time, it’ll fade, or you can just outright reject it.”

“What?” Irishen paled.

“Love, I don’t think that’s—”

“I’m not pushing in between them.” She looked pleadingly at Jarred then. “We could just…go.”

Plates clattered and Irishen spun her chair around, eye fuming when they clashed with hers.

“You’re rejecting the mate bond because of who I used to be with?”

Wave shook her head again. She doubted she would be able to reject the bond outright with him and make the magic believe she really meant it. “I’m not going to be the punching bag or buffer between you and Hellion. There are clearly some unresolved feelings between you two.”

“Wayla, we broke up almost a decade ago.” Now he looked tired and Wave couldn’t help but reach out and take his hand in hers.

“And he still has feelings for you. From the looks of it, you have feelings for him. A decade is not really that long in the grand scheme of things.”

“He doesn’t,” Risha argued.

Wave snorted. “He threw me into a fucking wall when he thought we were fucking and that wasn’t on my account.”

“He what?!” The cold rage that blasted out of Irishen coated most of the apartment in a layer of frost. Hadn’t he known already? Wave could have sworn it had come up before.

“It’s fine,” Wave tried to say, but Irishen shook his head.

“I’m going to kill him.”

“Of course you’re not.” Now Wave was starting to get pissed off. “I’m fine. It was fine.”

“It wasn’t fine, love,” Jarred said quietly. “Neither of them knew at the time that you could take a hit like that without injury.”

“Who else?” Irishen demanded.

“Marc,” Jarred replied before Wave could cut in. “I’m honestly quite surprised that he lost it like that. It’s not Marc’s style.”