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No, this was…healing. Like Matty was filling my veins and patching up holes I hadn’t even realised were there. And when I retracted my fangs and lapped over the bite, he remained there.
“I can feel you,” Matty said, sounding dazed.
“You okay?” I asked anxiously, cupping his face and scrutinising him closely. The mating shouldn’t have any adverse effects, but the faraway look on Matty’s face had me worried. There was such a rush of new emotions coming from his end of the bond, I couldn’t make sense of them. I was certain a lot of them were feelings I hadn’t experienced in a very long time.
A tear fell. “You love me.”
Relief washed over me. “Yes, sunshine, I think we’ve established that. Hence the mating and proposal.”
Tears were streaming from Matty’s eyes now. “No, I mean, I can feel it. How much you love me. It’s… Oh my gosh, Seb.”
He was positively howling now, his hands over his face and his shoulders heaving.
This…was not the reaction I’d been expecting.
Sighing, I pulled him against my chest and rubbed his back. “This is a good thing though, right?”
“Yesss,” he howled between sobs. “I just never thought anyone would want me this much. I knew you loved me, but…”
“There’s a difference between hearing it and feeling it,” I concluded, kissing his curls. “I get that, sunshine. Now you’ll never have to worry again. You’ll be able to feel how much I love you every minute of every day.”
As Matty’s sobs calmed, I began to read his emotions through the bond more clearly.
Certainty. Excitement. Sadness over what he’d learned about my family.
But most of all, there was happiness. So much joy it almost drowned out everything else.
With a hiccup, Matty gently pushed away from my chest to face the vault once more. When he spoke, I knew I wasn’t the one he was addressing. “I meant what I said earlier. I’ll look after Sebastian. I’m going to make sure he never feels alone again. That he wakes up every day and knows he’s loved. You don’t have to worry about him anymore, I promise.”
The warmth on my shoulders appeared again, intensifying for a second, and then it was gone.
Goodbye, I whispered in my mind. I love you all, so much.
I pulled Matty into my arms once more. “I love you, sunshine. Thank you for showing me the way home.”
“I’ll always help you out of the darkness. It’s what we do for those we love.”
Then my mate, my future husband, smiled up at me, his contentment blooming in the bond.
After almost six hundred years of torment, I’d finally found my peace.
Chapter 36
Matty
It was another long twelve hours before I finally got Sebastian alone.
It was my fault. I’d made a casual remark as we got back to the car about how my parents only lived ninety minutes away.
Before I could say anything else, Sebastian was asking for their address and tapping it into the satnav.
Seeing Mum’s face as she opened the door was something that would stick with me forever. She’d yelled for Dad before hugging me tight and sobbing all over my shoulder.
Needless to say, she was the one I’d inherited my tendency to cry at the drop of a hat from.
Dad had been more stoic, just quietly grinning as he pulled me from Mum’s embrace and into his own. It’d been months since we’d seen each other, and for several minutes, we just stood holding each other.
Eventually, I’d remembered to introduce Sebastian. Not that I’d forgotten him for a second. How could I? His joy at seeing my happiness was gently thrumming in my chest.
