“A foundation for what?” Diego asks.
“A mate bond, obviously,” Soren answers.
The room goes silent, and they all look like they forgot how to breathe. “Hold on,” Vaughn chokes out. “You’re saying we are all mated to Talia?”
“No,” Dad says, and everyone relaxes, but he ruins it in the next breath. “Not yet.”
“What?!” Caine asks.
“It’s not a matter ofifyou will mark her,” Dad says, looking between the men. “It’s when.”
“Shit,” Vaughn sighs.
“You all saved her life. The bond remembers that. That’s what it’s built on. Loyalty, protection, and the instinct to keep her safe.”
“Why are you smiling?” Vaughn snaps at Soren for looking absolutely giddy.
“Oh, it just explains a lot,” Soren muses.
“Like what?” Laurent asks.
“The way you all look at her,” Soren says.
“How do you know so much about all of this?” I ask Dad.
“After I killed your mother, or thought I did, I spent a long time researching,” he says.
“If you could do it over again,” I say. “Would you have done everything the same?”
“Yes,” he says. “I don’t know if that was the answer you wanted to hear, but you can be mad and alive. I can live with that.”
“That’s a shitty answer,” I say with a frown.
“Yeah,” Dad says with a shrug.
“I hate that I understand it.”
“That part never gets easier,” Dad says honestly.
Chapter Thirty Three
Talia
After breakfast, Dad wenthome, and the guys escaped. They said it was to run some errands, but they are avoiding me. I won’t lie, that kind of hurts, but we knew they would push back.
We’ve spent the day truly relaxing. We’ve watched movies for most of the day, but now I am reading. I have my legs draped over Soren’s lap as he also reads. He is mindlessly rubbing my foot as he taps the screen of his e-reader with his other. He tosses it down with a heavy sigh and lays his head back. I peek around my e-reader and watch him.
“Everything okay over there?” I ask.
“No,” he says with a deep frown, now rubbing my feet with both hands like he is self-soothing.
“Bad ending?” I laugh.
“Non happily ever afters should come with a large warning label,” he huffs. “After that whole goddamn book, the bitch didn’t even stay with him.”
“Soren,” I ask, and he opens his eyes. “Were you reading romance?”
“Maybe,” he says with a smirk. “I’ve gotta make sure my girl is properly swooning.”
