I jump at his voice again. I don’t know how I’ll ever get used to it being inside my head.
You can stay, but I will punch you again if you don’t stop listening to my thoughts. I don’t want to hear yours either!
“Yes, ma’am,” he says out loud, his face lighting up with that charming smile I’m used to seeing.
My stomach flips because this handsome gargoyle ismine?
Mymate.
I have a ton of questions about how this will work if I’m human. I’ll grow old and die while he’ll live on as a modelesque monster.
Before Locheran can jump in to answer, because I know he’s still listening despite saying he won’t, there’s a knock at the door.
Xander crosses my small dining and kitchen area to let in Evangeline’s mother, Mira. She’s a woman of few words,and I’m pretty sure she hates me. She barely said two words to me at Evangeline’s wedding and gave me the side eye a few times. Like she was trying to figure me out.
Now my face heats because she’s here to figure out the accidental mating bond, which means she’ll know what Locheran and I did. She’ll know that we bit each other during… sex. I’m already embarrassed.
But the embarrassment helps lower the adrenaline coursing through my body… only to be replaced by aches—between my legs, my thighs, my neck.
My hand rises to where Locheran bit me. It’s covered with a bandage and doesn’t hurt as bad as I expected. When my fingers press down on the mark, mild pleasure shoots through me. I take my bottom lip between my teeth to stop my moan.
What the fuck? That was weird.
Xander and Evangeline are busy greeting her mother and didn’t notice, but Locheran did. He stares at me, eyes hooded.
Did he feel that too?
Yes.
I’m about to tell him to stop looking at me like he’s seconds from devouring me—because I might just let him—but Evangeline leads her mom into the living room.
Mira stops in front of me with a frown.
“You’ve been freed.”
My lips part in surprise, my eyes darting between Evangeline who stands to her right and Xander who’s on her left before returning to the older woman.
“There’s still a great deal of magic surrounding you.”
“Me?”
My heart thuds frantically. Does she know?
Know what?
Once again, I nearly jump out of my skin at Locheran’s voice in my head.
None of your business.
You’re my mate! I deserve to know.
Mate by accident!
The words are harsh, but maybe if I can get Locheran to hate me, he won’t want to be tethered to me. It’s not like it’s forever. Just until I grow old and die. He won’t want to be with me when my skin starts sagging and my hair turns gray.
As my mate, my immortality has been shared with you.
What?
