“It hurts so badly, I can’t breathe…” She sobbed, sinking to the deck, arms wrapped around her body as she rocked herself, so sure her heart would explode. “I think I’m dying?—”
“What?” Echo rasped, crouching next to her.
“It’s the mate bond,” Michael said.
His words punctured through the excruciating pain. Nia lifted her drenched eyes to him. “What?”
“What?” Echo and Ely asked simultaneously.
“What mate bond?” Nate snapped, frost literally crystallizing in his gaze. “Who the fuck would dare to mate my sister and then callously break it without any warning?”
“I doubt he knew.” Michael’s gaze skimmed her face. “Since she’s still breathing, Lore must have figured it out just in time before…” He clamped his mouth shut.
Nia struggled to her feet, emptiness thrumming where her heart once beat, the void aching in its intensity. “Just before what, Michael?”
Chapter
Twenty-Nine
“What mate bond?”Nia demanded, her gaze darting between Michael and Nate, so sure she was in an alternative universe or dreaming. “I’m not mated to anyone.”
“I think you are,” Michael said. “And Lore is an angel, one not used to emotions or aware of the finer details of being soul-bonded. Besides, he would have had his shields locked down. All angels do.”
“No.” Nia shook her head, a hard knot forming in her belly. “Wouldn’t I have felt something?”
“Right…” Michael scrubbed his shadowed jaw, side-eyeing Aethan. “You want to field this one?”
“Why me?” He raised an eyebrow, his stare droll.
Echo groaned. “Ely and I will do it. Why don’t you guys go make that cocoa? We’re gonna need it.”
Nate stood there, looking like he wanted to hunt down and eviscerate Lore, but Aethan grasped his arm and pulled him indoors.
“Look, I know what a mate bond is,” Nia breathed. “My best friend’s mated to a demon. Well, not quite a demon, but she told me.”
“Okay, that’s good then.” Echo nodded. “So, you know it happens during lovemaking, right? At the point when…” Red stained her cheeks.
Ely laughed. “It happens as you climax. There’s a light that blazes between you both during intimacy as two souls join and become one. The male—otherworldly males, that is—usually carry the bonding gene, and it recognizes its soul mate.”
Nia swallowed hard. “And I thought it was because of his powers.”
“Yeah, those can seep through, too. But it won’t harm a soul mate,” Echo said, then she smiled. “My hardass tutor is now my brother-in-law?—”
“No, he’s not.” A fresh stab of pain bled through Nia. “He told me goodbye, and now he’s broken our mate bond without even warning me.” She sniffled and swiped her eyes with her sleeve.
“To be fair…” Echo sent her a concerned look. “As Michael explained, Lore wouldn’t have known. And I’m dead sure he didn’t know just how bad it would hurt you when he broke it, either.”
Faced with two sympathetic expressions, Nia straightened her spine. “Bottom line is he’s not running back here to me to explain anything, is he? Look, he doesn’t want me, not for the long term. And this…” She rubbed her hurting chest. “Made it quite clear. I’m sure your guys fought for you both.”
Echo bit her lower lip, and Ely twisted the end of her braid.
Silence fell.
Nia didn’t need further clarification.
“Now what?” she asked. “Am I supposed to stay here? I have a life in New Orleans…” She stopped. Back there, all she had were her friends and an internship.
But here, she had family.
