Page 75 of Kingdom of Betrayal and Unknown

My mouth hangs open as I look at him. What in the world?

“How do I know if you are telling the truth about it only being between mates?” I ask, finally voicing my concern. “You could just be making something up about mates only being able to do it.”

“Then let Elias lick your finger,” Kieran suggests, his voice grumpy. “I don’t like it. I don’t want another male touching you, but if it will help you believe, then I will suffer through it.”

Suffer through it? I want to laugh, but the seriousness on his face tells me he isn’t joking.

“Elias isn’t here,” I point out.

I don’t want to reinjure myself, but I want to show that he is lying. Then maybe it will be easier to hate him like I should. It definitely would and now I just need to prove that he is lying to me. A huge part of me believes him, but there is still a small part of me that doubts everything he has said.

“He is here. Elias,” Kieran calls out.

Walking from the tree line, Elias is confident as he makes his way toward us. Had he been there the whole time? Elias made it to us quickly and knelt in front of me.

“I am going to prove that you are mates with Kieran.” Elias holds his hand out. “You’ll need to cut another finger.”

I look over at Kieran. Do they really want me to do this? Am I really going to hurt my finger again for Elias to lick it and it heal, proving them both wrong? But they both are confident about this.

“It is one of the ways I can prove that we are connected. Then you will finally believe me,” Kieran gently explains. “I know it is going to cause you a little pain, but when you see that Elias’ saliva won’t heal you, I will fix your finger so you aren’t in any pain.”

I look down at my finger before my eyes find Kieran again. I take a deep breath when he nods at me. Right. This is one of the ways to see if he is telling the truth or not. What if he is? What am I going to do then? Will it change anything?

“I can’t believe I’m doing this,” I mumble as I place my finger on a piece of metal sticking out from the bucket.

It’s been something I’ve needed to fix for a while, but every single time I think about it, I always am busy doing something else and forget. But now I’m grateful I haven’t sorted it yet.

Without thinking, I slide my finger across it, whimpering as the pain courses through my finger. When I hold it up, blood coats the top and flows down. Thankfully, I’m not queasy at the sight of blood or else I wouldn’t have done this.

I’m crazy for doing this.

What if they have some type of ulterior motive? I guess I’m in it for the ride to see whether he is telling the truth or not.

“I do not want to do this, but I will so you can see that you are mates. This is normally just between mates, sacred. But times are a little different now.” Elias seems uncomfortable. “But I would rather it be me, someone Kieran trusts.”

Sacred between mates? How is that possible?

“More intimate.” Kieran supplies another word. “Now, hurry up and lick her finger so I can get to healing her. I don’t like seeing her in pain.”

Elias gently takes my hand and brings my finger closer to his mouth, licking the blood and cut before letting my hand go. I look at the cut, waiting for it to start closing up, but it doesn’t. Blood pools again, dripping down my finger and onto my hand.

My mouth falls open as I look at my hand and then Kieran. He was telling the truth? There is no way he was actually telling the truth.

“I’m going to clean it with water and then I’ll lick the wound so it closes,” Kieran tells me. “I wasn’t lying to you before. We are mates, and you matter to me. I want nothing more than to make sure everything is okay with you and that no harm comes to you. I want you to believe that you are my mate.”

Kieran gently runs water over my cut before bringing it up to his mouth and licking the small incision. And just like before, it starts to heal within seconds.

“I hope I was able to help you realize,” Elias offers, bowing his head slightly before standing up and walking away.

Blinking several times, I look back down at my now-healed finger once again, staring at it in awe. Are we really mates? Has Kieran been telling the truth the whole time?

“Why does he bow to me and you?” I ask, trying to change the subject to keep my mind off everything.

Maybe if I don’t think about it a lot, then it won’t be true. Maybe this is all some type of long dream and I haven’t woken up from it yet.

“I will answer that at a later time. Right now, I need to talk to you about us being mates and show you that we are so you believe me one hundred percent. If I tell you now, you won’t believe me,” Kieran says.

Sighing, I shake my head. “No, I want to know now. I don’t want to have to wait. What if I never fully believe that you are my mate?”