I keep my voice gentle as I explain. “Not to freak you out or anything, babe, but it would seem that you’re all of our mate. All three of us.”
“Mate.”
“Yeah, you know, the fated kind, where the stars must align just right and then if you have a handful of luck and fairy dust sprinkled just right, you might have the chance of meeting.”
“Oh. Oh wow. Three mates, huh? I didn’t even know weavers got mates. Seems like something that would be frowned upon, conflict of interest or something, considering that we could just snag all the best ones for ourselves or whatever.”
I snort. “That doesn’t seem to be the case here.”
Poor woman’s stuck with two jackasses that can barely string a sentence together.
“Mates,” she repeats, looking more than a little dazed and confused. I don’t really know what to say or do, so I look to Soren but he’s on his phone—the asshole—and Finn is still gazing down at Echo with that look of mixed adoration and devotion. Like he’d do just about anything for her although he didn’t know she existed ten minutes ago. The guy is fucking intense and if anyone’s going to scare her off, it’ll be him. Or maybe Soren’s mouth might, since he can be a testy little biatch a lot of the time.
“Madame’s just messaged. She has someone we can speak to that apparently knew Wren pretty well. A fellow weaver,” Soren says, like the past few minutes haven’t happened. “She’s at the academy now.”
“Would you be willing to visit my gate, Echo?” Finn purrs, also not reading the room in the slightest. I stifle a frustrated sigh.
“Your gate? I’m guessing that’s not a euphemism.”
Finn chuckles and tugs at her hair again, this time tracing a finger over her neck and collarbone, causing Echo to shiver slightly. “No, little treasure. I am the guardian of the gate here. I have guarded it for many decades.”
“Oh right, I saw the entrance to your den earlier, but didn’t want to intrude.”
“Might want to clean the cum off your gate before she sees it,” Soren mutters.
Finn looks suddenly furious, spinning around to Soren with his fists clenched like he might just punch him. “Of course, it needs cleaning before your visit. The soul-eaters left my home in a bit of a state. I wouldn’t want you to see it until it’s in its usual gleaming condition.”
I can tell that he’s stressing about the thought of the mess—although I’d imagine he’s far more worried about the gate than the actual chaos of the rest of his home. You could say the guy has a pretty one-track mind.
Clearly he’s expanded his interest in the past five minutes since meeting Echo. He’ll now have two things to obsess over. Joy.
Soren’s right though, if Echo sees Finn's place in its current state, she’ll run. And none of us want that.
“Soren will help you clean it up,” I say, suddenly aware that if Soren comes with us to the academy, he’s bound to say some prickish remark and things are too tentative between the four of us right now to risk that. Plus, these two need to sort their shit out.
“It’s probably not a good idea to leave this place without both of you here, considering that was the most soul-eaters we’ve had breach the garden in a long while.”
Soren looks like he wants to argue. And Finn steps closer to Echo like he wants to swoop in and throw her over his shoulder, drag her back to his lair, caveman style. Or like he’s a dragon, and she’s the princess he wants to devour.
Nope, not happening. I will not have our mate having to settle for Stockholm syndrome as her form of bonding with any of us.
So I put my foot down. I might be an easy-going guy most of the time, but I’m also a big motherfucker and I can throw around dominant vibes with the best of them.
“Echo’s coming with me. Soren, you’ll help Finn tidy his place up and you’ll both monitor things here. Now, what’s the name of the person we’re going to see?” My voice is lower than normal, barely more than a growl.
“Fine,” Soren says. “You’ll be meeting someone called Olive at the refectory.”
I nod and give them a stern look, grabbing their arms and tugging them away from Echo, then lowering my voice so that just the two chucklenuts can hear me. “You’d both better sort your shit. We don’t need conflict around here or there’s every chance Echo will do a runner and not come back.”
I then spin around and drop my arm onto Echo’s shoulders. “Let’s go. Or do you want to get changed first, babe?”
“Get changed?”
“Yeah. I mean, if you want us to do a bit of naughty schoolgirl fantasy role play while we’re there, I won’t say no.”
She shoves me, shaking her head at my ridiculousness, but at least she’s smiling. Echo then grabs my hand and I gird my insides for the feeling of world-hopping again. At least this way I’ll get some quality one-on-one time with my girl. I just hope it’ll be enough to convince her to give us a chance.
???
