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“Where did Love go?” I suddenly noticed the Elemental’s absence.
“She left after the babies were born.” Drew took Taylee from Jazz as the small woman fell asleep. “I think she went to help our mother keep the Mindolin at bay.”
“If she left,” Carmon said, “it must be bad. She wouldn’t leave Jeff open to an attack if it weren’t.”
The mood in the room dropped, but Sophie stood and quietly asked, “Who wants cake for breakfast?”
Jefferson was on his feet in a second. Everyone laughed quietly and left the room. The races were downstairs waiting, and we filled them in on everything while people began to clean up.
My guy had a huge piece of cake in front of him with a tall glass of milk when I left the bathroom with wet hair. Grace had a pan of eggs scrambling, and I opted for that route when Jefferson offered me cake. He could have his sugar. He was well muscled and had the metabolism a girl would dream of to keep her figure and eat what she wanted. I, however, was already fluffy. The sugar would only add to my hips. The other women around me, even the Neutral, were much more fit than I.
I waited at the island for my breakfast, leaning my forearms against it, studying my fork. Exhaustion was written over all the faces around me, but I got really down and emotional when I became this tired. I’d be lucky to make it another hour without having a breakdown.
Arms wrapped around me from behind, and Jeff’s bristly chin pushed my head aside. Soft, warm lips grazed my neck, and my knees weakened. More of my weight went against the island as my Consort worked his way down my neck with his lips. A shiver racked my body as he took a nibble and I lost my footing beneath me, all of my weight being held up by his arms.
“Oh Jeff, leave the poor girl alone to eat her breakfast.”
Heat blistered my cheeks as I looked up to see Grace grinning at me. She pushed a plate of eggs across to me as her own mate came up behind her.
“I don’t know, Gracie babe. Looks like a pretty good idea to me.” He placed his hands low on her hips and had his lips almost to her neck when she stabbed him with a fork. Like stabbed him! Pretty sure I was going to mark that fork and never eat off it again. Okay, it wasn’t that bad, but she drew blood on his arm. “Grace Lanshay, that was not cool.”
She shrugged. “Oh, I thought it was fine.”
Dalton’s eyes rolled back when Grace lifted his arm and bit down over the bite. It didn’t last long, but Dalton’s smile promised retribution, the kind Grace would probably like.
I wanted that with Jeff. The thought brought my memory back to why I’d been moping over here earlier.
“What’s wrong, Noodles?” Jeff asked. “You’re sad.”
I looked up at Grace and Dalton, mostly Dalton. Grace was a woman; she’d understand my insecurities. Admitting them in front of her mate, that was a different item altogether.
“Go away, Dalt. She doesn’t want to talk with you here.” Grace made shooing motions at him, and he crossed his arms at her.
Rubbing at my face, I sighed. “No, it’s fine. I just get emotional, in a sad way, and insecure when I’m tired. You should all probably know that. I don’t handle exhaustion well.” I scoffed at myself. “And I even had more sleep than the rest of you.”
“Hey, don’t do that.” Jeff turned me around to face him, my lower back pressing against the island. “We’re trained warriors whose bodies are used to functioning on lack of sleep. Don’t beat yourself up for it.”
Tears blurred my vision. Oh no, this was it. No, no, no.
“They’re here.” Carmon spoke loud enough for all to hear.
“Dang it.” Jeff slammed his hand onto the island. “How can I…”
“Come on.” Dalton walked around the island and physically pulled Jeff from me and pushed him toward the gym.
Grace and Sophie came over to me as I watched him go. “When I volunteered to do this, I didn’t know it would be this hard. The Consort bond, his element and my magic, they insist we be close. New bonds are like that, but I never imagined how hard it would be to be close to him in proximity but not be able to touch.”
Sylee caught the end of my admission and came close. “Hopefully this is over soon. It will be okay. You and Jeff will have your Elemental bond soon, which will hopefully help. You’ll talk, and that will be nicer than not knowing what’s going on.”
“Actually, we can feel each other’s emotions, so it’s not like I’m completely at a loss.”
“You can?” Sophie looked shocked. “Chris started to feel my emotions almost a day after we bonded. You haven’t even created the Elemental bond yet.”
“It’s his Love element. When we tied the Consort bond, it gave him my emotions. He took down his wall for me, the one blocking his brothers. They can’t feel him, but I can.”
“Can’t you learn to block your emotions from him?” Grace asked.
My brow furrowed. “I don’t know. We haven’t tried, but if I had to guess, I would say no. Which is okay. Jeff and I had a very rough start with a huge lack of trust. Being open with each other one hundred percent, especially since he can’t lie, has been really nice. When I needed him yesterday, I had no voice to tell him, but he felt my fear and came to me.”
