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"What is this all about? Just tell me I can handle it. I won't freak out on you." Cooper pressed for answers. Edward unclipped his cape and took it off, throwing it onto the bed. He was trying to decide what to tell him and what he would be prepared to understand at this stage of their relationship.
"Are you familiar with the term beloved?" Edward walked over to the chair beside the bed and sat down. Cooper took a seat across from him on the edge of the bed.
"Vampires have beloveds. They are their Fated bonds, and shifters and mages have mates, who are also considered Fated bonds. They are predestined and inescapable according to legend." Again, Cooper surprised him with a perfect understanding.
“How does a mage recognize their mate?”
"I was told my mate would smell like my favorite thing, something I would recognize and seek out. I would also be drawn to this person, and trust would come easy because of the Fated connection we would share." Cooper was saying it but was not drawing the connections.
“What is your favorite thing?”
"Cotton candy. I just love the smell and taste of cotton candy." Awareness started to dawn in those startled green eyes.
Cooper just sat and stared at the man for a few seconds as his words and situation started to come together and make sense. He smelled like cotton candy even before he knew the man, he experienced the aroma, and it called to him. Edward was his mate. He couldn't even imagine that being true. This man was so far out of his league that it was ridiculous. Edward was regal, an ancient vampire with power and station, and he was absolutely gorgeous.
Cooper had tried to run from him out in the woods because he'd felt completely overwhelmed by his presence. He wasn't afraid he just didn't understand what was happening and needed to get away and get his balance, but Edward followed and, with great ease, continued to work his way closer without pressure or force.
He looked into Edwards's dark eyes and saw that his assumptions were true. They have a connection, and Cooper could see so many things in that hard yet sorrowful gaze. But still, Cooper could not put his theory into words. He couldn't make that statement for fear he was dead wrong.
"You can say it," Edward told him with the same calm and ease he'd displayed since they first met. Cooper continued to stare as he tried to build his courage to state what it was that he was feeling. The man was so overpowering in every way. Just a look sent Cooper into nervous jitters. He knotted his fingers together in his lap, willing his response to calm.
"Are you my mate?" Cooper said it and then froze, waiting for an answer, and it came immediately with calm and acceptance.
"Yes, and you are my beloved." Edward leaned forward in his chair, which put them close enough for him to reach out and take Cooper's hands in his urging him to look up and see him once again. Cooper had no words as the shock of this discovery coursed through him and filled his mind with so many conflicting thoughts and images.
"Talk to me, Cooper. Tell me your thoughts." Damn, the man was so compelling, and Cooper wanted to give him whatever he asked. Was this real? Was it a glamour? It didn't feel like glamour. Cooper had endured such things before, and glamours were not sweet and gentle. They were brutal and uncomfortable for creatures like him. Using magic on magical beings was always uncomfortable for the receiver. He did not feel uncomfortable. There was no magic being used. This was real, or he was still lying out in the woods with a concussion, and this all was just a dream.
"I'm thinking that you could do better, and you know it. I'm thinking that there is no way that a man of your standing will be satisfied with a lowly water mage of zero standing." He was just speaking the truth, but the look Edward gave him looked startled, as if he was not expecting such a declaration.
"You do not know me. You do not know who I am or what I value. You do not know how long I have walked this earth alone and never dreamed that Fate would ever grant me such a gift. I did not earn this. There is no charity or goodness in me, and as far as standing, I lost that many centuries ago." He held Cooper's hands and continued to blast the supposition that Cooper was not good enough.
"I betrayed and disappointed my father and lost my birthright due to anger, hatred, vengeance, and blood-red blindness that would not release me. I turned my back on him and denied his grief while satisfying and fulfilling my own need for retribution, and nothing was ever enough. It's a need that once fed is never sated." He dropped his head and placed a light kiss on the top of Cooper's hand, and the contact was pleasing. His touch was soothing and reassuring even as his words were harsh.
"You're the prize, my love, a sweet, innocent beauty so much more than I deserve." Edward finished. Cooper had to be honest with him.
"I am neither sweet nor innocent. As I told you, I'm hiding out here because I was running a con in Florida, claiming to be able to predict wins at the track. I've been at it for a while, and my odds are a lot less than 50/50, but I keep getting takers, so who am I to turn down easy money." Cooper glanced to the side, wondering if he needed to confess everything or just keep it short and tight. Then he felt that same push to be honest, something he didn't do all that often, but lying or even omitting with this man seemed wrong.
"I was left at a fire station when I was a baby; I don't know my parents or any of my family, and no one I talked to over the years could give me any information. I wasn't adopted, so I grew up in care. I ran away at fourteen and have been surviving on my own since." Cooper took a deep breath, and with the help of Edwards's strong hands still holding him, he continued.
"Did you run away because your magic was presenting?"
“Yes, and the situation was not ideal.”
“Abuse?”
"I was in three different homes over my course of foster care, and they were all cold and distant. It wasn't so much abuse as uncaring, and I thought I'd be happier on my own, and I was right." Cooper forced a fragile smile.
"I met up with a mage who was working the desk at a shelter, and he told me what I was and gave me some information, but he couldn't tell me where I came from. After a few years, I didn't care anymore. I was a water mage with limited skill, and that was fine. It helped me survive and to thrive." Cooper smiled again but with more authenticity.
“How old are you now?” Edward was calm and measured with his questions, but his interest was clear.
"Nineteen last April," Cooper responded.
"You handle yourself well and have a very mature way of thinking which is a valuable asset. Whatever you had to do to survive and thrive was a necessity, and no one will hold that against you." Edward stood and pulled Cooper to his feet. The act felt intimate, and Cooper swooned slightly when Edward brought him close. He wasn't sure what was happening, but whatever it was, he didn't want to miss it.
Edward was dressed in a charcoal grey shirt, perfectly pressed and probably expensive as hell, as were his black perfectly tailored pants. His boots, also black, were shiny black leather, and the cape he tossed on the bed was killer and looked so damn good. He never thought a cape could work on anyone, but it was made for this man. What a persona he presented lethal, killer, and yet sexy as hell.
He was in over his head, and yet he could not deny this man, and he didn't want to. He wanted whatever Edward had to offer. He was his mate, and whether that meant forever or for right now, he didn't care.
