I shouldn’t care about her terror. The students at Shadowbone Academy are often afraid. Pain, even of the mental kind, is to be expected in a place like this, but something darkens inside me at the thought of her suffering.
Fuck.I hate my hesitation. It’s been a long time since I’ve even contemplated meddling with another’s dreams with the intention to help them. Not sinceher.The mate we lost. All because of me.
My mood darkens more as the memories of my lost mate rise to the surface, but I’m quick to push them back, burying them deep. If I don’t, they’ll consume me again until I’m lost to the agony, and I’m not going back to that place. A cold numbness flows over me, and I focus on the little human’s face instead. The woman who my brother and friends think is our new mate.
A cold, brittle laugh slips from between my lips. They think she’s a fucking gift sent by Lady Fate herself. That we’ve been given another chance. At what, I’m not even sure, and I’m not naïve enough to believe it to be true. This human’s not a gift, or the chance for a do-over. She’s a curse, sent to remind me of all I’ve lost, and how horribly I had failed the one and only woman I have ever truly loved.
I turn, determined to walk away, but a small, terrified whimper slips from between the human’s lips. It’s so quiet that it’s barely audible, but the sound grates on me. Unable to stop myself, with the wave of my hand, my power washes over her, and whatever nightmare she’d been having is swept away along with any lingering memory of it. She immediately stops trembling, and her breathing becomes rhythmic as she falls into the darkness of a peaceful, dreamless sleep. Galen lays on her other side, his hand resting on her thigh protectively as he sleeps, and she nuzzles into him.
As her features soften, her muscles relaxing, a thread of satisfaction goes through me. The moment I realize I’m smiling, I snarl, replacing it with a scowl. I fucking hate how this woman makes me feel. I tell myself my actions mean nothing. That I simply couldn’t stand the stench of her fear. Banishing her nightmare feels like a betrayal to my lost mate.
Still scowling, I finally turn away, only to find Thane standing in the doorway. He strides toward me, his hair still dripping wet from his shower. Despite the fact he has bathed, I can still scent the little human on him.
Thane’s gaze slides from the figures sleeping on his bed, before he drags his eyes up to meet mine. “You can’t keep avoiding this forever, Knox,” he tells me, his rough voice filling the otherwise silent room. I know he really meansher.That I can’t keep avoidingherforever.
“Only until the rest of you see reason,” I counter, my voice cold.
He sighs heavily, his features tightening the way they always do before he’s about to lecture a student, but he knows better than to try that with me. “You’re the one who needs to see reason,” he growls instead. “I don’t understand why you’re still fighting this.”
Not wanting to argue with him, I stalk from the room, but he follows after me, closing his bedroom door behind us.
Moving across the sitting room, I make my way to the high table near the window, and I pour myself a drink. Lifting the glass to my lips, I swallow the drink in one go, glad for the way the alcohol burns as it goes down. Thane says nothing as he watches me, and I place the empty glass back on the table before moving to stand in front of the window.
Sliding my hands into the pockets of my coat, I stare out at the span of ghostly forest that stretches across the academy grounds. Storm clouds fill the gray sky above, and red eyes blink back from the darkness of the academy pine trees.
The sense of foreboding that has haunted me since the attack during the hunt, still hasn’t left me. It doesn’t matter how many times I check the magical barrier that lines the academy walls, it still feels like something isn’t right. Like I’m missing something.And I’m not sure why, but I can’t shake the feeling that it has to do with the woman in the next room.
Moving silently, Thane pours himself a glass as well, but he takes his time with his drink and comes to stand beside me.
“Whether you like it or not, she’s ours,” Thane says, mimicking me and staring out of the window. “You can either continue to torture yourself for what happened in the past, or you can get on board like the rest of us. No one is saying you have to bond with her. We all know how badly that would end. But don’t punish her because of what happened.”
“Punish her?” My dark gaze slides to him.
“Yes,” Thane replies, his hard look unwavering. “For whatever reason, fate has decided this woman is our mate, and we all feel the loss of your presence when you’re not with us. Especially her.”
I turn away, unable to look at him. “She doesn’t need me,” I snarl under my breath.
He takes another sip, and there’s silence for a long moment before he speaks again. “You know, when you’d first told me you’d found our mate all those years ago, I was the one who was reluctant to believe it. But I couldn’t deny how her presence had changed you. You were happy, for the first time in a long while, and that’s how I knew she was real.”
“I was a fool,” I bite back.
“No,” he counters. “You were simply a mate, who had finally tasted the one who was destined to be his.” He takes a long weary breath. “To beours,” he corrects. “She helped you find your humanity again, and when you slipped into her dreams every night, my only regret was that I couldn’t follow you. I wanted to taste the woman who could capture my friend’s heart in a way no one else could. Not even me.”
“And what? Now, you’re telling me that our roles are reversed? That I should be the one to believe you when you tell me we have another mate?”
“No.” Thane shakes his head, downing the remainder of his drink and setting the glass on the windowsill. “I think deep down you already know it. Just as I did the moment I set eyes on Shade.”
“It’s not her,” I emphasize the words as anger makes my black heart crack.
“I never met our first mate, so I can’t determine that,” Thane replies.
“And what? You think I should just embrace this like the rest of you? To what end? You’ll all have your fun, and like last time it will end with spilled blood and broken nightmares. We can’t bond with her anyway or we risk losing the war and damning the realms. The prophecy is clear.Beware the bond of your fated mate.You’ve all lost sight of what’s at stake. We should have returned her to the human realm when we had the chance.”
Thane’s expression hardens. “You know we’re not letting her go,” he growls low.
I stare at my friend. At the damp curls around his face, and his hard-set brown eyes.
“We’re not going to make the same mistakes this time,” he says. “We’ll be careful not to let anyone find out about Shade’s connection to us. And we won’t bond with her.”
