“To be honest, it’s often quick when mates find each other. You’ve found your person, so why wait?”
“I guess I can kinda see that, but my brain is still trying to logic its way out of this, telling me it’s too soon to feel like I belong to someone I barely know.”
“I expected that from the way you grew up in your world. But here, it’s normal. The way you reacted when you saw me, that’s the normal thing. Kissing on sight and then mating a few hours later.”
He squirmed in his seat. “Mating?
I hummed in agreement, “Sex, a joining of our magic.”
“Oh,” he whispered. “Have you mated with Derek?”
“I have.”
“And you and I needto mate, too?”
“Once we’re awake, yes. But you’d need to touch the ground first and unlock your magic. We’ll see what happens when this dream phase is over with, but I want you to be healed first. I’m not risking you.”
“Things are bad, aren’t they?” he whispered.
I tugged him closer to my side before kissing his temple. The night around us filled with the quiet rustling of leaves and darkness.
“Nothing we can’t handle.”
“The sun is out today,” Derek said, sitting next to me beside the small lake.
“It was about time it showed up,” I agreed, smiling at my beautiful mate. It was funny how I knew which of my mates it was just from his voice alone.
“Maybe it’s a sign that things are going well?”
“We can only hope.”
I grabbed Derek and placed him in my lap, needing to feel him as close to me as possible. It felt like too long had passed without him near me.
He snuggled into me, his back to my chest as we stared out over the lake. “Do you think Aiden is doing okay?”
“Yeah,” I replied easily, because I truly believed he was.
“I still haven’t seen him.” He soundeddisappointed by that.
“You will,” I stated, hoping my words were true.
“I miss him,” he whispered, and I held him tighter against me.
“He misses you, too.”
And he did. It was what I’d talked to Aiden about the last time we shared a dream. He remembered everything about their childhood, but not seeing Derek alive and smiling was hard on him. He needed the reassurance that Derek was okay, that their past was just that, a past.
A few moments of silence passed before Derek whispered, “What if he can’t heal from this?”
My body stiffened, because I’d thought the same thing, feared the same would happen.
“Sorry!” he hurried to say, turning around in my lap so we faced each other. “I shouldn’t have said that.”
I cupped his cheek. “My Darling, if not me, then who could you talk to about this?”
His shoulder slumped, but his cheek rubbed against my hand affectionately. “It just isn’t fair to you. I know losing him would kill you.”
“It would kill us both,” I replied, knowing it wouldn’t literally, but we’d both live without a vital part of our souls if Aiden left us.
