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Oh, fuck. Of course they were talking about me!I smack myself in the forehead, then lean back against the cave wall, trying to catch my breath.Their mate!
FOUR
Phantom
She emergesfrom the cave like a vision of beauty, and my heart is taken by the prospect of touching her. Of throwing her over my shoulder and bringing her to safety. Ann is without a doubt a vision with her long blonde hair tied in a braid that moves down her back, and the leather clothes that hug her every curve. She is not at all who I thought our mate would be. I never even imagined we’d find a mate after all we’ve lost.
But as much as she complicates this, as much as I fear for her, the mate pull can’t be ignored. The instant I smelled her, I knew she was ours and ours alone. The only thing we could do was take her, for her own sake, and for our own sanity.
Still, we need to tread lightly with her. In our time as prisoners with the light fae, we saw a dark and terrible side to who they are and what they can do. They claimed the dark fae were the evil ones, but we could see the truth. Good people don’t trap and enslave others. They don’t put collars on them and force them to kill.
The thought of the many innocents we were forced to kill because of those collars that gave us no choice makes my blood boil with rage. There are many things I’ve done in my life that I regret, but the helplessness I felt as a prisoner, the disgust I felt with myself when I killed like a dog with a master, it was not something I’d soon ignore.
And with Ann, we had to have her. There was no choice. But wedidhave a choice in how we approached her. Our mate would not be treated like a prisoner, any more than we could help it. We would always treat her with kindness and respect, even if we don’t know yet who she is as a person, nor what to expect from her.
Dusk looks at me then her, while Onyx focuses on nothing but the woman, and I can’t blame them. There’s something about her, a glow, an aura that shines like a beacon. If she were one of our women, we would have already bedded her. She would be in our arms night and day.
But no matter how she calls to us, we have to accept she is not of our kind, and that her mate rituals might be different.
“What is the Void?” Her voice is like a melody, a song that hits my guts and makes me want, makes me long to crush her against me.
Yet I can see it in her face. She is frightened of me. Of all of us.
So, we would start slower.
“Something bad.” I smile like by that motion alone I can dispel her fears, or at least make them subside, but it's a fool’s notion. Her fear is as visible as it is potent and I want to touch her, but Dusk is there with one hand on her shoulder. He’s gentler, less fierce, smaller in stature, and less threatening. It’s better to let him comfort her.
But it isn’t him she to looks for answers. It’s to me. “And I’m in danger?”
Fuck.That’s not what I want her to know. Not yet. Our tiny mate is already afraid of us. I don’t need her to fear the Void yet, or the monsters that lurk within it.
“We will protect you.” I leave no question in my tone, no reason for her to doubt, but her gaze falters and her eyes darken. Her fear is real.
“Why?”
The question takes me off guard. “Why are you in danger or why would we protect you?” One of those answers is infinitely easier to explain than the other.
“Yes.” She nods and half-smiles, hiding her fear behind curiosity. But I can still feel it vibrating inside her.
“We have much to discuss.” I sound like one of the elders, and Dusk chuckles beside me. He knows we can’t tell her everything. He also knows I’m fluttering, rippling, and the woman’s is not the only body vibrating. We’re tuned in that way.
“Yes.” I draw her to the fire outside and we all sit. I’m beside her, Dusk on the other side, and Onyx across from her. Dusk signs to him, telling Onyx to offer her food and drink.
“Are you deaf?” She’s looking at Onyx. It’s one of the easy questions for everyone but me. For me, it’s a bad memory laced with so many bad memories that just thinking about any of it makes me want to punch myself in the face, or race through the woods, destroying everything in my path.
Onyx stares at her, unwilling to show himself as he is. He’s an enigma. A man of few words even before he lost his hearing. Once he told me that losing his hearing wasn’t as bad as I imagined. That at least it gave him an excuse not to talk to the others. I’m truly not sure if he said that to make me feel better, or because he wanted to ease my guilt.
Probably the latter.
Dusk answers for him, something he often does, even from the time we were boys. “He is.”
She watches us, fear still glowing. Eyes still bright.
“You’re our mate.” I’ve seen what happens when this information isn’t communicated with strength of tone, with decisive command. It isn’t pretty. Compliance is requisite in this situation.
But she scoffs. “I’ve had a mate and lost him.”
That does surprise me. She’s young to have lost her first mate. “Perhaps, but it doesn’t change that we’re your mates. The mate bond is too powerful to be anything else.”
