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The same way I’d always wanted him.
A damn misunderstanding was the only thing that had kept us apart for two decades.
So much lost time.
And yet I wasn’t ready to climb into his arms and declare myself his. If we were going to be together, we’d have to get to know each other all over again and see if we could move on from the past. These new versions of us might not even be compatible… but the prospect of finding out made me really damn hopeful.
The cave Teriscarried me through was absolutely stunning. It was dark, with dozens and dozens of thick stone pillars running vertically throughout the massive space. There were glowing flowers wrapped around the pillars growing wildly, and shimmering bugs of some sort flying lazily around the cavern.
“Don’t touch anything,” Teris warned me, as I reached a hand out toward one of the flowers we were about to pass. “It could be poisonous.”
I snatched my hand back quickly. “Really?”
“Yes. I’ve never seen these particular flowers, but the glowing ones we have on our side of the world can make you vomit for days.”
Damn.
I tucked my hands up close to Teris’s back, and tried not to let myself focus on the feel of his muscles moving against my hands.
“Tell me more about you and Aev,” he said, as we walked.
I grimaced. “I’d really rather not.”
He growled at me. “Not your call, Nai.”
I scoffed. “It’sentirelymy call. Vevol showed me every single interaction Aeven and I had when I was changing my name, and it made me feel like the shittiest person on the planet. I fuckingruinedhim.”
“The bond did that,” Teris growled back. “I know unsealed mate bonds, Nai. Trust me, the damn thing didn’t need any help from you.
That was… not what I was expecting him to say.
“According to Vevol, we could’ve made things work. I just wasn’t willing to give him a chance,” I argued.
“You didn’t owe him a chance. And if you couldn’t get away from him, you sure as hell should’ve trusted me enough to use my name. You should’ve known I would’ve gotten you out of there, even if you didn’t want to be with me.”
“I was stubborn, okay? You know that. I thought you weren’t interested in me, so I wasn’t going to ask you for help. I dealt with Aev. It wasn’t even difficult. When I told him I didn’t want to talk, he didn’t ask me to talk. We literally only saw each other in person six times in two decades—and one of those was the worst night of my life,” I snapped back.
“The night you mated with him?”
I squeezed my eyes shut, and didn’t answer that.
“You’ll tell me at some point,” he growled.
“I’m sure you enjoyed being with Sunny more than I did Aeven,” I finally said, changing the subject.
He scoffed. “I know what it feels like to be loved by a woman who means everything to me, and what Summer and I had was nowhere near that. Even with the bond between us driving me insane and her throwing herself at me, we only kissed three times, and none of them meant anything.”
I grimaced.
I guess if anyone could understand being the bad guy in a mate bond, it was Teris. He was known for rejecting Sunny—Summer—but everything had worked out for her when she fell in love with the basilisk general, Vuvim, so most people had forgotten about that whole thing.
But their bond had been short—and mine with Aev was so damn long. My forgiveness wouldn’t come anywhere near as fast as Teris’s had.
“I never kissed Aev,” I told him, quietly. “So you’re more experienced than me. When we had sex, it was so fast and horrible that I don’t think it even counts.”
I hadn’t even realized Teris was holding the backs of my thighs, but his grip on them tightened enough that I definitely couldn’t ignore it any longer. “Tell me.” The words were gritted out, and a little angry.
“No.”
