“I was attempting to be a gentleman,” I smirked.
“I think that illusion failed you as soon as you declared me your hostage,” he shrugged. “Besides, I want you close. If we’re going to risk everything just to be in the same room, I might as well make the most of it. I might as well enjoy the build up to the downfall.”
“And why do you think I will be your downfall?” I asked him, fighting off the urge to bury my face in the warm crook of his neck.
“I will be yours,” he whispered. “It’s the way it goes in my family. Our mates always end badly.”
“Always?” I arched a brow. “I’m sorry to inform you that your father is married to two men who have yet to meet their downfall.”
“They are chosen mates,” Crilus informed me.
“I’m aware but they are mates nonetheless,” I said, leaning in close enough that his breath danced on my lips. “I don’t believe in all that stuff. Ghosts? Sure. Hexes? Yeah. But our lives are going to be bad because your relatives had bad luck or were assholes?”
“My dad isn’t an asshole!” he snapped.
“I didn’t mean him. I meant the woman in the photograph and the man who chose violence over your sire. How messed up in the soul does one have to be to choose violence over love?”
“What would you have done? He was mated off – by the law of his pack before he met my father.”
“If I couldn’t make it work with both men – if I couldn’t overthrow the pack or change the laws – I’d have run. If that would’ve put the other omega in danger? I’d have taken him too. Running is always an option.”
Crilus swallowed hard and I searched his eyes, trying to figure out just how much I offended him.
“Surviving means adapting and belonging means nothing if the group isn’t looking out for everyone’s best interests,” I continued.
“Mori’s sire ran,” Crilus whispered to me. “He took his nephew - the baby of my dad’s true-mate with the other omega and ran.”
“Was that a pop quiz?” I arched a brow, but Crilus shook his head.
“They always talk about it like Uriel had no choice,” Crilus whispered.
“He had choices. Maybe he didn’t like them, but he had them. Sometimes the choice is to lose. Maybe they ran and the pack killed them all – that would’ve been horrible for us – we wouldn’t be here right now, but he took the coward’s way out and, sweetheart, I may be a lot of things, but I am not a coward.”
Crilus nodded, his eyes misting up. It’s easy to forget how easy it is for those who come before us to haunt our lives. Good choices weren’t always the easy route, but the choice was simple. I couldn’t go back to the past and stop everything that made Crilus feel as if his family was cursed but I could show him that they weren’t.
“I’m tired,” Crilus said, ending the conversation and untwining his legs from around me.
I rose up off him and he rolled to his side. I started to stand back up, but he grabbed my arm and wrapped it around his middle.
“If you’re going to hold me hostage, at least do it properly,” he huffed, and I spooned in behind him.
“As you wish, mate,” I whispered but he didn’t answer.
I lay still as stone as he drifted off to sleep, fearing that if I moved a single muscle that he’d change his mind and flee from the bedroom. I’d try to keep him, try to hold him here, but at the end of the day, I wouldn’t hurt him and he’d get away if he really wanted to.
Chapter Nine
Mori
By the time the side effects of Dern’s lip-sealing tea wore off, almost everyone else was asleep. Preston had passed out on the sofa and the lovebirds had disappeared into Teal’s bedroom. I only knew it was Teal’s bedroom because that’s what Creon had called it. Speaking of which, he was the only other person left awake in the house.
“Are you coherent now?” Creon asked, holding out a glass of chocolate milk for me. It was my third of the night but it was the only thing that made me feel a bit less empty.
“More or less,” I shrugged. “Thank you for helping me out this evening. Preston does his best, but I don’t think he fully grasps how it feels or how long it can take to return to my normal state of mind.”
“I need to ask you, have you seen something about my son?” Creon asked, not bothering to join me at the table.
“I have not had a vision of your son,” I said, relieved that the magic allowed me to say that much.
