Page 23 of Prey

“Did I though? He still hates me. It doesn’t matter what we do to help him. I feel like it’s never going to change.” She shudders, and I know she is thinking of what may happen if we can’t sort this out.

“I’m going to talk to him, or kick his ass, whichever. Winnie said he has to come back and get you. I’ll be following close by if you need me. It’s all I can do to keep my shit together right now. If he wasn’t your mate and my best friend, he’d be dead already.”

She sighs. “This is all so messed up. Last night I was so happy and today has been the shittiest day ever.”

“Stay here and rest for a little while. I’ll send him back in a couple hours, okay?” I kiss her soundly, until I hear a small whimper from her, before pushing myself away and following the guys out the door.

They’re already in the SUV, so I climb in the back. Kicking the seat in front of me I say, “You’re going to go take a shower and put on some decent clothes and then you’re coming back to pick Shasta up. You’re going to tell her what happened with your parents, and you’re going to listen to whatever she has to say about it. You’re going to kill us all with this bullshit. You may be the President of the Club and my best friend, but right now you are someone who is hurting my mate and I won’t allow another second of it. Do you fucking hear me?”

He snorts in the front and says, “Do you really think a talk is going to fix almost thirty years of pain and hatred? Get real, Kadi.”

I immediately get out of the vehicle and pull open Ethan’s door. Gripping him by his shirt, I pull him out, ramming my fist into his face at the same time. He goes flying and falls onto his back. I don’t even give him a chance to recover before I’m on him. Over and over, I punch him in the face.

“Kadi,” Joaquin says. “You’re getting too out of control. C’mon man, let him up.”

“No” I seethe and continue pummeling Ethan. “Fight me back, you fucking dick.”

“No.” Ethan just lets me keep hitting him, not even trying to avoid me.

Gods dammit. I can’t sit here and keep hitting him if he isn't going to fight me back. “What the fuck, Ethan?”

He sits there, wiping blood from his mouth and just stares at me.

“So, you’d rather all three of you die, than to try to talk to her or even try to come to terms with who your mate is?” Joaquin shakes his head. “You are pathetic. This isn’t the Ethan we know and love. This isn’t the Ethan that we all follow and devote our very lives to. Kadi is right. You’re going to kill the three of you, and for what?”

“Fuck both of you!” Ethan snarls, standing. “You don’t know what it was like to watch them die, to watch them burn to death while I could do nothing. It makes me sick to think I might have feelings for one ofthem. Like I’m betraying my family.”

Joaquin laughs mirthlessly. “I’m six-thousand years old. You think during that time I haven’t lost hundreds of people I cared about? Watching as someone wastes away from old age that you loved with all your heart. I don’t wish that on anyone. But you aren’t the only one in this world that has lost people, Ethan. You’re just one of the only ones hanging onto it to punish yourself for something you had no control over. You were eight years old for fuck’s sake. You couldn’t even shift yet. What wereyou supposed to do against the Society? You did what your parents wanted you to do. They died knowing that you were safe and had a place to go where people would take care of you and love you. How do you think they would feel to know that all you’ve done all these years is hate a group of people for something they didn’t even have anything to do with?” Joaquin growls and darts away using his vampire speed.

I fold my arms over my chest and look at Ethan. He hangs his head. “You’re right. I know you both are. I just don’t know how to let it go.” He raises his head to look at me, sorrow and apology in his gaze.

I hold out my hand to him and say, “Like this. You reach out and ask for help. You reach out and try to understand her. You reach out and trust her with your story and then you see what happens. Shasta is amazing. But you’re too damn stubborn to see it through the pain.”

Reaching up, he wraps his hand around my wrist, and I pull him to his feet. He wraps his arms around me and hugs me tight. “Thank you for talking sense into me when I can’t do it for myself.”

Shaking my head at him, I smile a little and head to the driver's side. Ethan climbs in beside me and I reach into the console for a napkin, handing it over to him so he can wipe some of the blood off.

“Shower first, then we can see if your bike is fixed yet, if not, you can just use mine. Then you can pick Shasta up and go from there.”

He nods. It isn’t exactly what I want, but it’s enough of an agreement that I’ll take it.

For now.

Chapter twelve

You Can’t Do That On A Motorcycle

SHASTA

Well, that was yet another disaster. I don’t know if Ethan and I are ever going to be able to be in the same room together the way things are going. My chest aches. It feels like acid is eating away at the tenuous bond I share with Ethan. The longer this goes on the worse it gets.

Wiping away tears, I continue gazing out into the night from the swing on Grams’ porch. I came out here after the guys left, just needing a minute to myself. All Grams and my mom could do was look at me sadly and I didn’t want to sit in there under the weight of their stares.

I get it. They’re worried, but so am I. It’s not like I want to die. Nothing about me and Ethan has been right from the start. It’s almost unheard of for a mate bond to be resisted like this. There are so few times it’s happened in the past because it literally kills you and whoever else you might be bonded to.

I don’t know what Ethan’s story is, but it sounds like it's an issue against witches. No matter what it is, it can’t be bad enough for him to be okay with all three of us dying over it, and it’s pretty damn selfish of him to just do this knowing what the consequences will be.

I saw Kadi beat the shit out of him in the yard. I thought about stopping it, but the pain and despair I felt through the bond stopped me. He needed that release and honestly, Ethan needed his ass kicked. Joaquin is one of the most calm people I know and even he got pissed enough to just take off.

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