Page 7 of The Prince's Mate

“I’m okay now,” I said, and debated over whether or not I should say it before blurting it out. He’d said I could talk to him, hadn’t he? “And someone woke me up last night, so I wasn’t stuck in that hell all night, at least.”

“Oh, yeah? Who was it?”

“Walker,” I said, watching him closely. His brows shot up, and he looked stunned.

“Really?”

“Yeah, I was surprised too. He said my shouting was keeping him up so he came to shut me up,” I said, and Damien rolled his eyes.

“The bedrooms are soundproof,” he said, and I allowed myself a small grin.

“I know.” Last night, I hadn’t realized that Walker’s excuse made no sense. Even if he hadn’t been in his bedroom, I was in mine, so there was no way my voice had gone out of my room. The only way he could’ve known was if Ro had been spying on me. Or if Walker had snuck into my room for some other reason. Either option made me really curious about what he was up to.

“So, it looks like things are heading somewhere,” he said after a few moments.

“I guess, yeah,” I mumbled, scratching at my arm.

Damien’s gaze followed the movement, and he patted my shoulder before stepping back.

“Okay, I’m going to let you get ready for the day, but why don’t you join us for breakfast in a bit?”

I raised a brow at him. “I don’t eat, remember?” Only Damien, his mates, and Walker ate because of their human sides, while the rest of us soul collectors didn’t need food to keep going, and couldn’t digest it even if we ate.

“Yeah, but you can still hang out with us. Please?” he asked, batting his golden eyes at me, his tail brushing my side.

“Fine. I’ll be there in forty.”

“Great!” Damien said with a grin, and then he was gone, using his magic instead of the front door this time.

I headed toward the bathroom. Apparently, I was having breakfast with my friends, who were also my mate’s dads. This should be fun.

Ro’Shassz

Step two had gone a lot better than step one. It had definitely put some giant cracks in Walker’s walls. I’d watched him build that wall over the years in Caelan’s absence, and while I hadn’t been able to stop him from building them, I was going to do all I can to break them.

And I wasn’t doing it for Caelan. He was still the annoying cat guy who’d played a million pranks on me, but he was also the only person who’d make my not-so-tiny human truly happy, and I couldn’t watch Walker keep pushing him away.

Step Three: Get them away from all the memories.

Four

Walker

I had a secret. I’d kept it hidden so well that sometimes I even managed to keep it from myself. But lately, I’d started to lose my grip on it.

Late at night, or when past memories haunted me, the words I’d kept hidden sprang up in my mind, demanding to be heard, to be realized.

I don’t hate Caelan.

I shivered as the words popped up in my head again and tried my best to ignore them. After last night though, they were more insistent than ever.

The trust Caelan had earned when I was a kid wasn’t so easy to forget, even after everything that had happened.

After Caelan had left the first time, I’d been heartbroken. But when he’d come back, I’d been overjoyed. Until he left again.When I’d realized this would keep happening, I’d decided I couldn’t deal with it. So I’d told him I never wanted to see him again, and though he’d visited a few times after that, I’d kept my promise and refused to see him.

Somewhere along the way, I’d convinced myself I hated him, and with the way he’d acted once he was back for good, it’d been easy to keep up the ruse. But things were changing now. And especially after last night, I found it harder to bring myself to act like I hated him. Last night, I’d been so fucking tempted to just climb into the bed with him and hold him, to protect him from the nightmares haunting him, which was all kinds of stupid and crazy. I needed to get a grip.

“You know what we need?” Ro’Shassz quipped.

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