“Why not? It’s not like anything he said wasn’t true.”
He tightens his hold, stroking a hand along my spine in a slow, steady rhythm. “I’ll talk to Seraphina and her mates, they’ll handle it.”
I hum a noncommittal sound of agreement, because what else can I do? That guy was the most vocal, but the angry crowd made it pretty damn clear he isn’t the only one that feels like I don’t belong here. That wants me to leave.
And… he’s right. Idoput the people around me in danger simply by existing. And now I’m becoming exactly the kind of monster mysts have always feared.
A mimic that can take someone’s abilities away forever.
Chapter 24
Ledger
Arson was so busy hunting down and torturing the siren that started this whole shitstorm, I didn’t have the backup necessary to catch all of the bastards that attacked our mate.
But I’m wise enough to take a page out of the psycho’s book on the ringleader that Ididmanage to refrain from killing at the scene.
“I have to admit Cyrus, I knew you were a solid firefighter. Never imagined you did it because you were a suicidal idiot with a hero complex, though. Attacking a shifter’s mate? A female center no less? What the actual fuck iswrongwith you?”
Hanging from the rafters, he spits blood onto the ground of the shed on the outskirts of my property. Just far enough that Ever won’t stumble across us or hear, but close enough that I can be there within two minutes if she shouts.
“I’m not going to defend myself to you.” His lip curls in disgust. “What the fuck were you thinking, Ledger? Mating amimic?”He spits the word like a curse, and I throw a punch into his ribs so hard, they release a sickening crack as he cries out in pain.
“I didn’t mate ‘a mimic,’ I matedEver.An amazing woman that knows her worth, that appreciates the supernatural like no one I’ve ever encountered, and knows damn well that she doesn’t need me. Shechoosesme. Every day when she wakes up, she chooses to do the hard thing and love four stubborn, overbearing men that don’t deserve her, but desperately try to. She could have any myst she wants, yet she comes home tomeevery night. Whywouldn’tI fight for her?”
Cyrus chuffs, glaring at the wall. “Mimics are monsters. They use people and cast them aside like yesterday’s trash.”
Something in his tone gives me pause. “You’ve met one before, I take it?”
Baring his teeth, he jerks his bound wrists, fighting his chains to no avail. “Yeah, I’vemeta leech before.”
When I hold his steady gaze for several weighted minutes, his angry mask finally cracks. “It’s his fault she’s gone,” he whispers.
He takes a few moments to collect himself before continuing. “We worked in the same building, but in different departments. Once my mark appeared, I started bringing her coffee every morning. I was trying to lay the groundwork to ask her out on a date without springing it on her as soon as my mark showed up, you know? No pressure or expectations because she already had a chosen mate, and wasn’t sure how he’d react when he found out she met her fated.”
His expression shutters. “The fire alarms still haunt my dreams. Once they went off, I rushed down to her floor, and it was already encased in flames. I tried to use my powers to control them, but,” he trails off with a shudder, sucking down a shaky breath.
“I couldn’t. All my life I was more at home playing with fire than toys, and in one soul-wrenching second, that ability was suddenly gone. I lost her in the blaze, and without my abilities, the smoke was too much and I passed out while searching.”
Cyrus meets my eye, blazing with fury now that he’s pulled himself from his nightmare. “Later discovered that there was a mimic working with her on that floor that stole my power to save himself from the fire. When I came to in the hospital, my mate was missing. Not dead.Missing. Someone took her, and I couldn’t save her because ofhim.”
My stomach churns, imagining it. Ever, kidnapped. But then weeks and months going by without a trace. Stuck in a never-ending Hell of not knowing where my mate was or what someone was doing to her, and helpless to do anything to stop it. To save her.
Pretty sure I just threw up in my mouth a little.
“Do you hate shifters?”
Cyrus’s face twists in incredulous confusion and shoots me a pointed look. “One of themis definitely on my shitlist.”
Not backing down, I raise an eyebrow. “Your brother is one though, right?”
He grunts.
“Do you hate him now because of what I did to you?”
Face scrunched, he says, “What? No, of course not. What does Langston have to do with anything?”
“And what does my mate have to do with the mimic that fucked you over?”
