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“Magic’s too strong for me alone. There’s gotta be someone lonely enough to consider me. Won’t make it a week without a mate,” I rambled, my words growing softer as I started drifting off to sleep.
“Bullshit,” Teris snapped.
“Yeah. Might die alone.” I sighed against Teris’s chest. He felt so damn good—and smelled even better.
That thought slipped out, and I murmured, “You smell good.”
With that, sleep took me.
Four
Teris
I heldNaomi until she was snoring loudly enough that I knew she was most definitely asleep, and then I carefully set her down on the ground. It was uncomfortable, but it would have to do, because the woman couldn’t have stayed awake if she tried.
My fists clenched as I stepped away from her, my body trembling as I started pacing the cave.
I hadn’t planned on letting her know I was following her. Hell, I hadn’t even planned onfollowingher. The temporary bond with Dakota had still been driving me mad with possessiveness, and I’d caught a whiff of Nai’s scent moving away from the Stronghold, and I’d just… followed it.
And followed it.
And followed it.
When the bond had finally broken, I’d scrubbed Dakota’s damn scent off my skin until I was nearly bleeding. I understood why she’d needed the connection—and I would’ve done the same in her situation too.
But it still just feltwrong.
The possessiveness and need for someone you didn’t know or love?
It fucked with you.
I could’ve turned back, after the bond broke. I no longer felt like crawling out of my skin, which was a definite benefit. But Naomi had still been in the sky, and despite the shit in our past, I couldn’t leave her alone even when my head was clear. How she’d slipped past that hellhound guard dog of hers was beside me, but I hadn’t dared get close enough to her to ask.
My feet moved harshly over the smooth stone floor of the cave. I wasn’t good with sitting still; I’d never been great with that.
And having the woman I still fucking loved, who’d chosen another man, in the room with me?
That sure as hell didn’t help me calm down.
Especially now that I knew she had lied to me about her reasons for coming to the cave.
And that she was planning on begging some fucking bastard to be her mate.
The memory of her snuggled up against my chest, telling me I smelled good, only made all that shit worse, too.
I muttered a curse when I realized I was still hard just from holding her in my arms and hearing her voice. What the hell was wrong with me? She had made it astoundingly clear that she wanted Aev, even if everything had gone to hell for them eventually.
I’d been careful to avoid hearing anything about the two of them for most of the time we’d been apart, but I’d been told a few things by the king himself when Dakota was asking me to create a bond between us. He’d made it sound like their connection had been hell for both of them.
And that had made me itch like hell to confront her. To ask her why she had chosen a stranger over me. Why she’d never used my name to call me to her, if her mating was hell. Why she’d looked so damnhappywhen the fated mate bond fell into place between them.
Of course, I hadn’t done that.
I’d watched her from the trees, like the fucking stalker she had accused me of being.
Because even two decades later, a second rejection from the woman I’d fallen head over ass in love with would still be the most painful moment of my life.
But now, we were together.
