Chapter Ten
Ze
“Dude, you fucked that up so bad, even I can’t find words to describe how fucked you are.”
I gave Geordie a death glare and ground my teeth with my frustration that all of this shit was even necessary. Fuck, he was right. I was seriously fucking up this mate thing, but I had been under specific and direct orders to keep all non-team personnel in the dark, he’d have to understand that right? I had looked to Luke for some support and got fuck all from that front, too.
“Geordie is right, Boss, you fucked up. We kept telling you how bad he was and how sick the separation was making him. You should have let us tell him you were okay. We wouldn’t have had to give any other details. Shit man, he woke himself up screaming almost every single night, wouldn’t eat except when Geordie would bully him into it.”
Jarvis pushed his way past Luke and got into my face. He looked me square in the eyes and challenged me to look away first. No way I would let him win a challenge normally, but in this situation, I knew whatever chastisement he was about to give me would be deserved. I lowered my gaze and prepared to be hit below the belt.
“Look, de Koening, if anyone understands orders, it’s me. You know my record by now, so I won’t bore you. But if I had a mate who thought I was dead, I sure as fuck wouldn’t let him suffer for three fucking weeks just because I thought it would be against protocol to tell him I was alive before the case was closed out. For fuck’s sake man, he suffered like no creature I have ever seen before. Again, I’ll reference my record, so you know I’ve seen and caused a fuck ton of suffering for the Allusian Government. I have never witnessed such bone-deep sorrow from anyone, shifter, human or Other.”
There was no way I could stomach all of this right now. I knew they were right. I knew I had fucked up, but I couldn’t keep hearing how horrible Nial had hurt because of me. They didn’t understand how much I had hurt all those weeks being separated from my mate. I hadn’t slept, hardly ate. They weren’t there and didn’t see what I’d gone through, so there was no way for them to know how much I’d wanted to be with Nial the second Sallyann had healed me.
I tried to turn and walk away, but Kane blocked my path of escape. Now I was surrounded on all sides. Even Eugene had stepped up to join in my punishment.
The courtroom had emptied by now, and all the doors were closed, leaving me alone with four pissed off shifters and one mildly irritated vampire. It was honestly hard to tell the emotions of a vampire, but Eugene really did look ticked off. It wasn’t the worst odds I had faced, but I had no fight against their arguments. I deserved everything they said.
“You fucked up with the cubbie, cat, so what the fuck you gonna do to make it right?”
Kane was never the most verbal in this new group, but he did always get straight to the point. He had a very valid question. And I had not one answer to give him.
“Look, guys, I get it. I know I fucked up. I hurt the one creature in the world I’m never supposed to hurt, but I had orders. I had to stay and supervise the closing of Starke, the transfer of the real criminals and decide which ones would get a fair trial like Nial. No one who didn’t have clearance could know what was going on, even mates. Believe me. I asked over and over again, and I fucking hurt every second, too. Trust me. I could have shown you enough hurt and suffering on my part to make you happy if you’d been there.”
Geordie rolled his eyes and Eugene tilted his head to the side in reaction.
“I know, I know, it’s a shit excuse. But I’ve followed orders all my life. The A.I.D. has been my life for as long as I can remember. I never expected to find my fated mate, let alone find him during a top-secret undercover mission in a fucking prison! So, even though I know I should have done things differently, can you give me just a tiny bit of slack?”
Eugene stepped up between Geordie and Jarvis. He dropped his glamour, then looked directly at me with his bottomless midnight eyes. I fell into them for a moment, until all I wanted was to give him everything he wanted or needed from me. He owned my mind and my will in those minutes he held me captive.
“You admit you made a mistake with young Nial, correct, Lion?”
I nodded, but never lost contact with those bottomless pools of darkness.
“You will have to apologize, beg and grovel to get your mate to listen to you. You will have to give him what he most craves before he will agree to listen. You must be prepared for his anger and his hurt. You will have to feel his pain before you can heal it. But all this you will have to do on the run because the Syndicate is coming and they have Nial in their sights.”
I was abruptly released from Eugene’s thrall and had to shake my head to get my sight to return to normal. Then I realized what he’d just said and panicked. I grabbed him by the shoulders and shook one of my oldest friends so hard his head snapped side to side twice before he stopped me with a thought. Damn, I hated when he did that.
“Eugene, is that what you’ve seen? You saw the Syndicate coming for Nial?”
He nodded but said no more on the subject. That was the way he worked. He would see what he saw, then tell us the details he was sure of. He would never speculate or give any more details that weren’t concrete. He would tell us more when he knew more. I had him to thank for sending me back to the cell that night Nial almost froze. He had told me it would be cold that night. Geordie had let me out of my cell with his tablet, and halfway through the meeting with Eugene, he’d stopped mid-sentence and told me to run and bring Nial to Sallyann.
Jarvis stepped over to Eugene’s side and, surprisingly, Eugene moved closer to the older shifter, leaning his head on Jarvis’s shoulder for a moment. Jarvis raised an arm as if he wanted to embrace Eugene closer, but Eugene suddenly came back to himself, straightened and walked away. He dropped his glamour in place just before he walked out the door. I had no idea what the fuck had just happened, but I needed to learn much more about Kane and Jarvis since they were going to be members of my new team.
For now, though, I needed to focus on Nial. I never, ever, questioned Eugene when he told me to do something. And I wouldn’t stop now. I would go get Nial. I would grovel and beg him to forgive me, but I wouldn’t give him a choice whether to come with me. His safety was at stake, and even though he might question my motives and my past decisions, he’d have to realize I would never leave him unprotected from the Syndicate.
* * *
Followed by my new team, I walked up to Nial’s father’s house. No, it wasn’t a house, it was a fucking mansion, white columns, huge driveway, and gated fence included. Walking to the door, I kept wondering how the fuck I had been mated by the fates to a smart, talented, and rich man like Nial. I had been poor and a nobody until I’d been recruited by the A.I.D. right out of high school. I had shown talent, was all they would say, and I never questioned my recruiter on the subject.
I had been given a scholarship to study Criminal Justice, went right into the A.I.D. training program when I graduated and had since moved up the ranks in the department. I had no family anymore since my mother had passed years before. Without any ties, my assignments became more and more dangerous over time, culminating in the Starke Project.
Now, over two years after the beginning of that Investigation, here I was not only with a mate to think about but with a whole new fucking job and assignment. Life was so strange.
Luke rang the doorbell, and the door was opened by a fucking butler.
“May I help you, sirs?”
