Page 4 of Sweetheart

Levi hadn’t done anything bad. He’d just wanted to be surrounded by his mate’s scent. Instead of it making Levi feel better, Levi had been devastated. That was when he’d decided to visit his friends in the Hell realm.

He’d only returned home when he’d thought he could make better choices. Like not watching his mate take a different man to bed every week. Not that Levi watched the actual act, but he knew what it meant when two men couldn’t keep their hands off each other and stumbled into a room tugging at clothes while kissing. He did live in a house full of mated couples.

It was very different when one of those men was meant to be with Levi.

Levi had ruined things with his mate before they’d even spoken one word out loud to each other. He’d been so scared that he’d thought it would be a good idea to try chatting with his mate through an app he’d spotted on Mason’s phone.

Lawson had helped Levi set up an account, posted a picture of Levi’s chest without his shirt, and even matched him with his mate.

The chatting seemed to have been going well. His mate had asked for more pictures even! They chatted on the app for hours at a time. He knew so many things about his mate that Levi had already fallen in love.

Sitting on his favorite perch on the roof, Levi could watch his mate while they exchanged messages. Levi had felt like they’d started to build something. Then out of nowhere Mason had told Levi to stop messaging him.

Levi had sat and stared at those words for an hour while his heart broke before he did the responsible thing. He’d deleted his profile and the app from his phone.

He’d broken the only real connection that he had with his mate.

It had been harder to stop watching his mate.

Levi wasn’t a stalker. No matter what Lawson and Adam said. He hadn’t been stalking his mate! He’d been looking out for him. But as more men filled Mason’s life, Levi had been going slowly insane and made the decision that it would be better for both of them if he went away.

Being in the Hell realm allowed Levi to forget that his mate was probably out with another man. He could pretend that he was fine. He could fight and train with the demon warriors until he was exhausted and fall asleep without dreaming about being with his mate.

Maybe he should just stay in the Hell realm?

He jumped at the knock on his bedroom door.

“Levi? Are you here?” Mal called out.

“I’m here,” Levi said quietly. He didn’t need to raise his voice. Mal would hear him.

“Axel called. May I come in?” Mal asked.

Levi wiped at the tears on his cheeks. “Yeah.”

The door opened and Mal peeked around. The tall demon’s blood-red eyes melted when they saw him. “Levi.”

“I’m fine.” His voice broke.

Mal wrapped his strong arms around him, and Levi was pulled into that massive chest. There were few men taller and wider than Levi, but the Master of Hell was a giant of a demon. Levi allowed himself a few moments of just leaning on the bigger man.

“I got you,” Mal murmured. He held Levi tight.

“I’m fine,” Levi repeated even as more tears fell. He caught a sob in the back of his throat.

“You don’t have to be,” Mal said gently. “It’s okay to be hurt.”

Those words had the dam breaking. Levi had been bottling everything up so his friends wouldn’t see him as a burden. He wanted to be a strong, valuable member of the family, but he was so tired. Too tired to care anymore.

He allowed himself to cry for the loss of a mate that Levi had spent his entire life dreaming about. Levi had left his clutch—his birth family—to chase the chance of maybe one day meeting his special person. Everything that he sacrificed was for nothing. His parents had marked him a traitor for leaving his clutch, but Levi had still believed that when he found his mate everything he went through would be worth it.

Levi wailed into Mal’s neck as the realization of his failures overwhelmed him. He would be utterly alone for the rest of his existence. Being immortal no longer held any appeal for him. Not if he would spend all those years without the love that had been promised to him.

His legs became weak, but Mal was there to lift Levi and carry him to bed. Levi clung harder to the demon even as he felt a part of his soul died within. Mal sat with Levi cuddled up against him. A second later another set of arms embraced him from behind. Levi sighed as Adam’s weight was added against him.

“It’s going to be okay,” Adam whispered. “I swear we’ll figure all this out. You’re not alone.”

He wasn’t alone. Levi had people that loved him. That he loved in return. But was life worth living if the one person meant for him was no longer an option?

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