“I don’t justsuddenlywant her,” he muttered, taking her hands and holding them to his chest. “I’ve always wanted her from the get-go, even when she was trying to get rid of me.”I waited a lifetime for you, caeli mea.
It took a minute before her brain started tracking, and she froze. “Did you just speak in my mind?”
CHAPTER42
Leya shook her head,so sure she’d heard wrong. With everything that had just happened, well, her mind was in chaos. But meeting Aerén’s tender gaze, her heart lodged in her throat.
Aye.
The word drifted through her mind. “I don’t understand.”
He grasped her hands. “What I’m trying to tell you is that it happened! The resonance happened…” He shook his head and laughed. “Now that I no longer care, it happened.”
Sure her lungs would collapse from lack of oxygen, she whispered, “Wh-what?”
“You are finally mine in the way it should be. You are—no, you’vealwaysbeen—my destined one, my soul’s other half. And being soul-joined, it opened our mental pathways, and that’s why we can now speak telepathically.” He caressed her face. “Try it,me’morae. Find the light.”Find me.
Her entire being the consistency of Jell-O, Leya shut her eyes and searched for the place within her that was all light…allhim, she realized. With a tentative touch, she reached for the invisible chord between them, one she’d always felt deep in her soul.Like this?
Her eyelids snapped open.
His silver eyes, glowing brighter than the moon, misted with emotions.Aye. Exactly like that.Exhaling, he rested his brow against hers.Now, no matter where we are, we’ll always have this connection and the ability to speak with each other.
Her own sight blurring, she slipped her arms around his neck. He picked her up. She wrapped her legs around his hips and pressed her mouth to his.God, I’m so happy. In the early days when you were gone, I wanted to reach out to you so much… No, it’s better I didn’t have it then.
He nipped her lip.Why?
Because you were a right pain in my butt.
Soft laughter rumbled in his throat. He braced her up against a wall, his thumbs caressing the undersides of her breasts, causing her blood to heat.Is that any way to speak to your mate?
She snorted, legs tightening around his hips, her gaze connecting with his.Yes, especially when he’s acting like a caveman.Then she burst out laughing. “I can’t believe we’re having this argument telepathically.”
A smile tugged his sensual mouth, then he quieted, his gaze dark with remorse. “I’m sorry, Leya.”
She rested her hands on his shoulders. “For what?
“For not realizing the truth sooner. It should have happened the first time we made love, but…” He exhaled deeply. “It was me who didn’t let it happen.”
“I don’t understand.” If anything, Aerén had been on a warpath to get her to give him a chance.
“I hadn’t believed the destined mating of the old ways existed any longer. Except for what the Stone of Creation gifted those who mated a Chosen. I thought it was all a myth. It’s why I didn’t look for it or know the signs, until Allatus pointed it out to me after he met you earlier. He’s as old as this universe,” he said dryly. “He would know things. You are my soul’s mate, Leya.”
She didn’t blink, feeling as if she were trapped in a surreal reality. “So, if the magic remained in me, I could have mated another?”
“No.”
“Just you, then?”
“Yes.”
She snorted. The response was so like him. “Then I’m glad I gave Hana the blood, and the magic went to her. Except she’s not interested in anyone.”
He shrugged. “Can’t force her. But once a Chosen and her mate’s paths cross, it’s hard for them to keep away from each other. After all, this is the magic from the Stone of Creation.”
“Don’t tell Hana that, or she’ll run screaming from the castle.”
He laughed. “There is one more thing. As an immortal, you’ll live a long life, but because we share a soul now, if by some bad luck, I die, then you will follow, and vice versa. There is a codicil, however. The person who dies first can snap the mating bond before passing on, so the other is free. But I never want a life without you in it,caeli mea.”
