Page 21 of Make Me

Cody must have read the confusion on her face. “I knew the moment I scented you on my eighteenth birthday in our clearing, but my father gave me an Alpha Command to not say anything to you or anyone else. I don’t know how I can even talk about it now. It’s always been too painful to attempt.”

“Old magic here.” Mylo waved his hand at the forest around them. “Mutes outside magic.”

“That and you’re stronger than your father,” Zack said quietly, his face unreadable. “I noticed it yesterday at the party. His command is wearing off.”

“What’s your excuse?” Cody asked her, equal parts hurt and anger warring on his face.

“What did you mean, Zack’s his mate, too?”

“Actually, you’re both my mates,” Zack interjected, and Bethany spun to face him. He shrugged, “You’re both my soul flames.”

“But what… how…” She looked from Mylo to Zack. Did that mean Mylo was Zack’s soul flame, too?

Zack tracked her gaze. “I don’t feel the same pull to him. More like he’s family,” he said quietly. “But you’re changing the subject. How long have you known Cody was your mate?”

Bethany hesitated. She could feel Cody’s stare burning into the side of her head, but she kept her eyes on Zack. “Since I was eighteen,” she confessed softly.

Cody cursed colorfully next to her.

“I told my mom, and she said it wasn’t possible. And when Cody didn’t respond like I was his mate, and with intermixed matings still being illegal after the Great War…” She stopped.

They were hers. She could barely wrap her mind around it. It felt like she was simultaneously soaring through the sky and had also been taken out at the knees.

Mylo interrupted her. “Is that still happening?” He frowned darkly.

Zack let out a bitter laugh. “Unfortunately, yes. Why?” Zack’s eyes widened. “Your parents?”

Mylo nodded. “My mother was a panther shifter, and my father was an Elf. They were thrown out of the Thorncrest pride during the Great War. My mother came from a family of Delta warriors. When the war started, the pride demanded that he leave as they were worried he knew too much about their battle strategies. My mother went with him, and they found peace with the Elves.”

The Thorncrest pride was her pride. Shit, Bethany looked away from him. Her grandparents were likely the ones who threw his parents out. Mylo looked older than them but seemed younger in his mannerisms. She wondered how long he had been in the Forest alone. She remembered Claire mentioning something about Elves who communed deeply with the Forest and didn’t live at the Capitol. Mylo must have been one of those. Zack looked at her, and Bethany realized he must have put together the name as well. Mylo looked between them curiously.

“My grandparents led the Thorncrest pride during that time,” she confessed.

Instead of getting angry, Mylo’s gaze softened at her. “Do you share the same beliefs as them?”

Bethany shook her head. “I don’t, but the Realm does. My mom…” She bit her lip. “The pride would have…” She trailed off. She didn’t want to imagine what the pride or her mother would have done if she mated them. Hell, that could still happen. “When Cody didn’t seem to recognize me as his mate, and with my mom and the pride… It just seemed safer to not say anything, especially with the Realm the way it is.”

“Hellcat.” Cody’s broken whisper had her looking his way. “We didn’t need your protection. We just needed you.”

Bethany wanted to answer him but found she didn’t have the words. These last few minutes had been a mindfuck.

Mylo seemed to sense she was struggling. “You came into the forest for a reason, yes?”

She must not have been the only one who’s head was spinning as Zack jumped into answer. He quickly explained the last few months’ events leading up to them tracking the prisoners through the forest.

Mylo nodded. “I will help. Come, this way.”

They traveled in silence, and Bethany was sure Cody’s and Zack’s minds were spinning as much as hers was. They were mates. Cody knew she was his mate, but Alpha Bryson had forbidden him from telling her or anyone. Why? Was it for the same reasons her mom had given her? And she was Zack’s soul flame? Both Cody and she were? Why hadn’t Zack said something? Was he protecting them too? Was this whole mess just from them trying to protect each other? And where was Mylo going to fit in? He was half cat, so her mom might accept him. But she wouldn’t accept the others? But how could they stay away? Fated mates were supposed to be sacred, and intermixed matings were supposed to be rare. But were they really rare, or were they just illegal because they threatened the corrupt Council’s view of the Realm?

Bethany felt like her entire world had been turned upside down, and her head hurt from trying to process it all. The group was silent as they wove through the forest following Mylo’s lead. Mylo moved through the forest like he was a part of it. His footsteps were so quiet that Bethany had to keep checking he was actually there and not a figment of her imagination. His muscles rippled as he climbed over roots and wove around trunks. His dark hair was cropped short around his ears like the coat of his panther. Bethany wondered if it was as soft as it looked.

When the light faded from above them, Mylo stopped next to the base of a large tree. The closer they got to the Elven Forest, the larger the trees had become. The trunk of the one Mylo stopped next was twice as wide as Cody was tall. Cody and Bethany set up camp silently while Mylo showed Zack which plants were safe to eat.

She took a seat on her bedroll a few paces from the fire and watched Mylo teach Zack how to prepare the plants they’d found. He seemed to fit into the group effortlessly, and Bethany’s lioness was more settled than she’d ever felt. Cody settled in next to her, and her lioness woke up and stretched toward him.

“You’re really mine?” Cody’s whisper cut through the air, hope woven in his soft words.

Bethany hesitated. She was, but would the Realm let them be together? Would their parents? Was Claire right and the Realm could change? Holly’s words cut through the fog. Enjoy the present. She didn’t have any more answers than she had this morning, but she could enjoy the present.

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