“I know this one.” Mom spoke up. “His full name is Sly… Hayes… Hawthorne.” She kissed his lips between each name.
“As usual, my Nexus is correct. I started going by Hayes because I felt like Sly had died after my bond was forcefully broken.” He stared into my mom’s eyes, “I couldn’t stand to have anyone call me Sly, except Adelaide and my true Faction.”
“Makes perfect sense. Nathan, do you still want to start?” Pop had a soft smile on his face as he looked at Mom and Dad with affection.
Nathan nodded. “Soon after Emberhold sent me to initiation, I realized I was in Aurathia.” He glanced at Dad, “I ran into the big guy almost immediately, and after I rescued him….”
“Boy, I’ll kick your ass. You didn’t rescue shit.” Dad growled, narrowing his eyes at Nathan.
Mom reached up and kissed his cheek. He immediately redirected his attention back to her, raising her hand to his lips and kissing her knuckles.
“We know Nathan can exaggerate things just a bit,” Mom said without taking her eyes off my dad.
Nathan grinned back. “Okay, maybe I didn’t rescue you right away, but I did get captured on purpose by those girls so that you weren’t in that cage alone.”
“But was it on purpose?” Dad raised one eyebrow towards Nathan, shifting forward ever so slightly until Pop dropped his hands from his shoulders.
“Girls?” Pop grinned as he walked around to sit at Mom’s feet. “Did you get captured by a bunch of girls, Sly?”
“Fuck no! I got captured by the Pulchra.” He frowned at Nathan.
Nathan just grinned completely unapologetically.
Grumpy grimaced, “Those women are formidable. Didn’t you go up against them during your initiation?” he asked Pop.
“Hell, yes, I did. Unlike Sly, I defeated them with no problem. It’s understandable why he couldn’t. I was able to distract them with my handsome face.” Pop ran a hand down his cheek and struck a pose. “He obviously doesn’t have that weapon at his disposal.”
“I think his face is beautiful.” Mom sighed, still unable to take her gaze off him. Dad smiled and gently kissed her lips.
“He told me you liked it.” Damien smiled at Mom.
“He’s right. But he may have downplayed how I feel about it. Like isn’t a strong enough word.” She framed his face in her hands and brought her lips to meet his in a gentle kiss that brought tears to my eyes.
Jet spoke up, obviously at the end of his patience, “Can we get on with the story? After what was done here, I’d like to decide our next plan of action.”
“I’m not sure why you think you’ll decide anything.” Grumpy frowned at him.
“You’re just a friend, so why does any of this matter to you anyway?” Dad growled at Jet.
“I don’t think they believe you’re just a friend, Jolly,” Nathan spoke out of the side of his mouth like he was trying to keep his comment confidential but not lowering his voice at all.
Jet scowled at him, but then directed his attention back to Grumpy.
“I misspoke. I meant to sayweneed to decide.” He gestured around the circle. “It matters to me because my friend’s parents were attacked, and the academy sent my roommate to Aurathia. Nathan bringing back a member of the most powerful Faction ever known seems significant.”
“Second most powerful…eventually.” Nathan couldn’t help himself. I pinched his nipple.
Nathan squealed and jerked back, almost causing me to fall out of his lap. Then he raised his hand like he would pinch mine in retaliation.
Zane had turned when Nathan squealed, seeing him going in to grab my boob, he thumped him in the nuts. Nathan bent at the waist, dislodging me from his lap this time. I landed on my feet, backing up in one quick motion. Nathan rose from his seat and had a knife at Zane’s neck.
Zane, in turn, had jumped to his feet and had his knife pointed at Nathan’s nuts. The two stared at each other with identical expressions of menace.
I was holding my breath, trying to decide the best way to intervene, when they suddenly started laughing hysterically. They put their knives away and patted each other on the back. Then they started fighting and roughhousing like two little boys.
Oren rolled his eyes and walked over, pulling me away from the two psychos and into his protective embrace. It was astonishing how natural it felt after everything he’d done. We’d only been bonded for a few hours, but through our connection, it felt as if I’d known him my entire life.
At some point, he would have to be punished for what he’d done. I hadn’t decided what that punishment would be, but it needed to be memorable.
