Sage shook his head. “I won’t ever get better. I’ll always have issues.” Sage stood, separating himself from Lucas. He started pacing, unable to keep still. “I really want to see him. My heart physically aches even being this far away. And at the same time, I’m terrified of him touching me.”
“Okay, first of all, will you please stand still? You’re making me dizzy.”
“Sorry.” Sage stopped moving. He wrung his hands instead, needing to move some part of his body.
He wanted to go to Garridan so much. His instincts were warring with his fear and he wasn’t sure which was winning.
“Secondly, the bond will make it necessary for you to be near Garridan. You really won’t have much of a choice. Just follow your instincts, not your fear,” Lucas said and stood.
“Lucas,” Sage waited for Lucas to meet his gaze. “Thanks.”
“I can see your thoughts, remember.” Lucas smiled before he turned to leave the room.
Sage took a step closer to the door. Someone in the house laughed loudly and Sage practically ran back to the table. His heart beat out of his chest and he had to take several calming breaths before stepping toward the room again. He put his hand on the knob and turned it. The instant he had the door open a crack he smelled Garridan’s delicious scent. He let go of the handle when he entered. Garridan lay unmoving in the center of the bed. He had a blanket pulled halfway up his body, exposing his wide chest.
He was so much bigger than Sage. Garridan took up most of the bed. His feet reached the end of the mattress. Sage did the math and came up with the conclusion that his mate was frickin’ huge, and this was the version of Garridan that was malnourished and starving.
Sage took a step closer, wanting to touch him, to feel his skin, all that smooth, creamy, rich brown skin. Sage’s pale complexion was in complete contrast.
Sage’s legs were against the side of the mattress. He reached out and ran a finger across Garridan’s shoulder, poking him, trying to make sure he wouldn’t wake. Sage could handle a sleeping Garridan. It was an awake one who wanted to bond and fuck who frightened him.
Sage felt panic rise in his throat just thinking about someone touching him the way those vampires had. He couldn’t go through that again. He wouldn’t be sane at the end of it.
How was he supposed to live with himself, the way he was, and have a mate?
Even as that question rolled around in his mind, he couldn’t help but sit on the side of the bed. It was instinct that drove him.
He ran two fingers down Garridan’s arm and over a tattoo of a tree. The tree was one of those with low-hanging branches and represented family. The trunk had a name interwoven in the bark, but, the way the lettering scrolled around on Garridan’s arm, Sage had a difficulttime reading it. He took Garridan’s hand and lifted the arm, tracing the letters with the tip of his finger.
Sage laced his fingers with Garridan’s, holding on to him for long minutes.
He heard someone enter the room a few minutes later and turned to see Bennett leaning against the doorframe, Lucas at his side.
“He has your name tattooed on his arm.” Sage smiled.
“Yeah, I saw that when I carried him in. I didn’t realize he did that. Never saw it before now. He must have gotten it done right before he went missing.”
“He loved you.”
“Yes. He was my father’s best friend. Wolf shifters attacked our town when I was a small boy and my parents died. He saved my life that day, took me in and treated me like his son.”
“How did you get separated?”
“He left me with a neighbor and never came back. He could have been getting the tattoo done that day for all I know. I always thought that maybe I was too much for him to handle. I mean this single shifter gets saddled with a kid and becomes a parent overnight. Who wouldn’t find that overwhelming? If I had known he was held prisoner all this time, I would have fought for him.” Bennett hit the wall with his fist, making Sage jump. He moved closer to Garridan instinctively, clutching his hand tighter. Sage’s shoulders came up to his ears and tried to make himself smaller than he already was. Bennett didn’t seem to notice Sage’s duress. “I fucking left him to die in a cage for years. How could I do that to him?”
“How could you have helped him, Benny? You were a young child. And even when you got older you had no clue where he was,” Lucas said. They had the rest of the conversation through their mate bond, so Sage wasn’t privy to it.
Sage stared at Garridan’s chest rising and falling. He seemed healthy. Just asleep. But how fractured was his brain? How broken? He couldn’t possibly be as broken as Sage, could he? If he was, they were in for a bumpy mating.
Chapter Two
Sage felt Garridan squeeze his hand and his heart jumped. Garridan opened his eyes, blinking a few times, getting used to the light that shone down on them from the ceiling. Their eyes met and some of the fear left his body. He relaxed just a little. They weren’t his dragon’s eyes so that helped ease some of the fear. It told Sage that Garridan wasn’t thinking about mating.
Garridan’s eyes were a piercing green so mesmerizing that Sage couldn’t avert his gaze.
“Mate,” Garridan whispered. His voice was deep and had just enough gravel in it to indicate just how unused it had been in recent years.
“Are you thirsty? Hungry? Can I get you anything?” Sage stood.
