Page 25 of Mate Me

“Sin, don’t,” I rasped, my voice sounding as weak as one would expect after everything that happened.

“No,” she said, her power projecting from a single word. The chill of death touched our tiny living room, creating a frost around the windows and ceiling that hadn’t been there before. “He doesn’t get to just barge in here and claim he’s your mate.”

“Step aside,” he said coolly.

“I will not.” She narrowed her eyes in disgust. “We know what you are.”

“Then you know what I’m capable of.” He didn’t look at her as he spoke. I tilted my head to see around her legs and my heart skipped in erratic beats the moment our eyes locked.

“Try me—” Sin started. I touched her leg to try to stop her, but I was too late. He didn’t have to even lift a hand. My sister went flying sideways before she could even finish speaking. Her body hit the other couch and she bounced once while the woman he’d brought with him snorted.

“Stop!” I lifted both hands toward him, glancing at his two guards. “You’ve made your point. Just stop. Please.”

Shadows danced along his forearm, over his veins, to his fingertips. It caught me off guard, and I stared for a moment, unable to speak. What little magic I possessed could do the same thing. Granted, it was more for show, and I couldn’t throw someone across a room with it, but the similarities were striking.

“Tell them to leave,” he said, speaking quietly. Instantly, everyone in the room began to yell and pushback against the notion.

“Let me at him! Let me at—” Clara slapped a hand over Nog’s mouth to keep him from ending up on the wrong end of his magic.

Terror filled me at the idea of being alone with him and I lost my ability to speak.

The Soulless One.

My literal nightmare had been brought to life. He was the very being I was raised to prevent from escaping, and he stood in my living room.

“I’m only going to ask one more time, love. The yelling is grating on me, and I don’t want to hurt them. Tell them to leave.” I flinched at the supposed term of endearment, even if my core heated at the way he spoke to me. The sensation was most unwelcome.

Did I want them to go? Never. What I wanted in this case didn’t matter. The need to protect my family outweighed any self-preservation.

“Go,” I told them, speaking up so my voice sounded stronger than I felt.

“What? No way!” Sin demanded, trying, and failing to get off the couch. Invisible hands held her in place, not giving an inch.

“I’m with Sin. No way I’m leaving you with this—” Clara shoved a hand over her brother’s mouth again.

My dad let out a roar that made my tía howl in response, and Jo winced, covering his ears.

I looked at Clara for help, trying to convey my desperation. “Are you sure about this, Rea?” she asked quietly.

I swallowed hard, trying to clear the lump in my throat with no real success, so I nodded. “You guys need to go,” I croaked. “Even if it’s just outside. You know how strong Sin is, and he just threw her aside without breaking a sweat. You’re out of your depth.” Then I looked at each of them. “All of you are. Nowgobefore one of you does something stupid and dies for it.”

“I’ll have them removed if they don’t listen, but I wouldn’t kill your family,” he said. I didn’t believe him. Not for a second. He’d already suggested what he was capable of. I wouldn’t listen to false words meant to placate me.

Nog started to struggle with Clara again. She pursed her lips in frustration. Opalescent magic gathered at her fingertips then dispersed as whatever spell she’d conjured took form. Nog stopped fighting, his body going still. She let go of him, and he walked right out the front door, forced by a will that wasn’t his own.

“You,” she turned to Sin. “Let’s go.”

Sin reared back like she’d been slapped. “Try that on me and watch what happens?—”

Clara sighed and repeated it with every family member and by the end, sweat dotted her brow. That was a lot of magic use for her.

“I can’t keep them contained forever,” she said, glancing to the man on the floor across from me. “And when they break through, they are going to bepissed.”

He inclined his chin. “That won’t be a problem. Styx. Oberon. Guard the house. No killing. I need to have a conversation with my mate.”

Oberon, presumably, gestured for Clara to exit in front of him. The woman I assumed to be Styx hesitated. “Caius,” she began, caution filling her tone. The familiarity with which she’d said his name sent a spark of jealousy through me, but the feeling wasn’t my own.

It belonged to Eres.

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