I don’t know how to answer that without looking pitiful. It’s rare to lose your mate before you’ve even had the chance to meet them. Usually, Fates are not this cruel, but I’m the exception to their generosity.
I wish I got the chance to meet him even for a second because then I wouldn’t be sitting here mourning someone I never knew. After finding your mate, the two souls intertwine for life, so if one dies, the other follows not long after by sheer heartbreak.
I hate that I didn’t even get the honor to know him, much less take my last breath by his side.
“He uh… he died.”
I expected them to be shocked, but I didn’t think it would bethissurprising. Grace looks as if she’s trying to count how manybrain cells I have left. Seiji and Hazel share a puzzled look before staring at Angel like he is a ghost.
Angel shoots up and starts pacing before me.
“No, he didn’t.”
“But he did.”
“Woman…Iwould know if he did.”
He knows my mate? Now, I will at least know his name. Maybe Anxo can tell me more about him and what he looked like. I don’t want the only thing I know about him to be how he died trying to find me.
“You knew him? Will you tell me something about him?” I desperately want to know more about my mate, but Angel’s only response is his pained eyes, as if he wants to take back what he said.
Fuck, what if he feels bad because he didn’t know my mate enough to tell me any details. My heart feels like someone stomped on it. And here I was, hoping to find things about my mate to last me a lifetime with just his memories.
I would’ve made do with just his name or favorite color, something to ease this tight grip on my throat.
Angel looks heavenward and sighs long enough to find the right words. He comes to sit on the floor before me, and he takes my hands in his.
“Oh, sweetheart.I am your mate. Just like you are mine.”
His words feel like a cruel joke. I’m cursed, always have been. I can’t be lucky enough to have this, have him in my life, asmy mate. This has to be a joke.
‘Lies! You saw how his arm was torn out of the socket. He’s dead. They’re all dead!’
Her voice echoes in my head, but it gets weaker the longer Angel rubs his thumb over my knuckles. He waits patiently as I absorb this. I try to pick apart her truths from actual truths.
I think back to the day Visha threw that severed arm into my cell and told me the gory details of how she took another part of my future in her hands and crushed it. There was no scent on that torn limb. That should’ve made me question her, but the weight of my mate’s death, the guilt and agony left no energy for me to question her.
She lied. Again.
Gazing into the pair of hypnotizing emerald eyes that have spellbound me since I first laid eyes on them, I say, “She told me you were dead.”
My eyes pinch shut briefly, and I bite my bottom lip when it quivers. His warm hands squeeze mine and repeat the motion, watching his glassy eyes reflect both our pain.
Lowering his head, Anxo places quick kisses on my knuckles, and the rush of electricity that follows makes my eyes flutter shut. Running my hands over his arms and shoulder, I blink rapidly to keep the tears at bay.
His large palm covers most of my face when he cups my cheeks to bring our heads together. With a wobbly chuckle, Anxo croaks, “Not dead, sweetheart. I’m here. I’m right here, and I’m never leaving you.”
The spark from his touch runs down my spine, and I wrap my hands around his wrist to hold them there. I’m soaking in our proximity and how my soul hums in content that I forget about others watching me with my mate.My mate.
‘How pathetic of you to believe everything you hear. So weak.’
The longer Anxo holds my face in his hands, the farther her voice gets until it’s a whisper I can ignore.
I want her out of my head for good. I can’t have her ruining another thing about my life. If Angel’s touch helps me get rid of her, then I have one more reason to be grateful other than him saving my life.Saving my sanity.
“Need more proof, sweetheart?”
The teasing glint in his eyes makes my eyes nearly pop out, and I shake my head rapidly. Every cell in my body longs for his touch because suddenly, I can’t breathe right without him.
