The afterlife had rulers? Made sense. Every place needed somehow to hold the order.
“Do my dads know? About me being dead and all?”
Nolen’s face turned panicked. “You aren’t dead, Aiden. And yes, I talked to both of your dads when they called your phone. I told them you’d been in an accident and would call them when you woke up.”
“So, we were in an accident? And I’m not dead?”
“Not dead, but also not an accident.”
I sighed, closing my eyes. I felt drained, and Nolen didn’t make much sense. But at least my dads knew I was alive and not dead, which I apparently wasn’t.
“Tell me please,” I begged, keeping my eyes closed so I could focus on what he told me and not how pretty his lips looked in the dim lighting.
“You want the whole thing? Because to be honest, I need to tell you a lot, and I don’t know how tired you are.”
“Everything,” I begged.
“Okay…” He took in a deep breath and began. “Your biological father is from another world, the world we’re currently in.Myworld.” Okay, schooling my reaction for now and filing that for later when I can have a good cry in private. “And because half of your DNA is from here, where magic is common, your father tried to force your magic to appear, which it did in the end. You ended up in a coma from what I’m told and was adopted soon after.”
Everything he said sounded so farfetched, but I had been in a coma and been adopted. How he knew about it was a mystery, and it seemedhe wasn’t just some stranger I kissed, but someone who knew much more about me than I did of him.
“Your father abandoned you after the accident, thinking you were too broken.”
I could only scoff at that, because if this was all true, then my bio dad really had known me. Iwasbroken. And maybe that could never change. Even if I somehow found myself, I would still be a broken vase mended together with my cracks showing for all eternity. I could never be flawless like those perfect crackless vases. I would forever be broken, even if I somehow managed to pull the fallen pieces back.
“This world we’re in, is different,” Nolen continued. “We each have a mate, our one person we find attractive, and until we meet them, we don’t find anyone else attractive, and never will. Only our mates are attractive to us. It’s normal here to find your mate and fully mate with them soon after, because they’re yours. I know your world is far from that, and that attractiveness can be found in many people. But you, because you aren’t really from there, you haven’t experienced attractiveness until you saw me.”
I gasped. “Pretty conceited thinking so highly of yourself,” I snapped, and maybe I was overreacting, but I felt really called out. I had kissed him, but how dare he think so highly of himself? We’d only met, and yes, he was kind and what he said was definitely true, but I felt called out and I didn’t care for it.
He frowned. “I know it’s true because you’re my mate, Aiden.” The way he said it, like it was a matter-of-fact, took the fight right out of me.
“So, you find me attractive, too?” I dared ask, knowing I was ridiculous for asking about something so silly and petty, but I wanted to be certain I hadn’t made a fool of myself.
He nodded.
“And only me?” I added, because I wanted to know he felt the same as me.
But instead of nodding, he shook his head. “I have another mate, too.”
I scoffed. Because of course, he did. I would be the broken mate, the one he was stuck with. I bet his other mate was perfect with no traumatic childhood. A perfect vase. And when did I start to believe all of this shit? Because being dead was way more realistic than other worlds with magic and mates.
“Want to see him?” Nolen asked, surprising me enough that I opened my eyes.
Nolen sat up and there, sleeping peacefully behind him, was…
I gasped. “Is that me?!”
Nolen’s smile was sympathetic. “No, that’s Derek, your twin brother.”
My gaze landed back on Derek, and then I passed the fuck out.
Chapter Thirty
Nolen
My first conversation with Aiden went… Okayish?
Their half brothers and sisters had all taken the news of mates and another world fairly well, like their instincts told them the truth of it all. Derek had easily trusted my words, too. But it seemed Aiden had a harder time coming to terms with everything, and yes, seeing a brother he likely knew nothing about, a twin for that matter, could be enough to force him back into a coma.
