Page 167 of Devoted

“We can make it up to him,” Nate said quickly, shame warring with regret in his eyes. “We’ll apologise. Right now.”

“No.” I held up a hand to stop them standing. “You won’t approach Sam, he will approach you.”

“But…how will he know we’re sorry if we can’t tell him?”

I glared at Nate coolly. “I guess you’ll have to come up with other ways to make it up to him.”

He rolled his eyes. “Or we could just speak to him. That’d be easier.”

“He’s scared of you,” I said bluntly, taking no joy in how my words made Nate recoil. “He hasn’t admitted as much, but I know. Especially now we’re bonded. Logically, Sam knows you can’t hurt me. I don’t think he believes you’d hurt him either. But logic doesn’t take precedence in Sam’s brain. Emotion does, especially fear. And, thanks to what happened, you’ve given his OCD enough fuel for a lifetime.”

“Bollocks,” Theo said, dropping his head into his hands. “We really fucked up.”

“We did,” Nate said heavily, reaching out and squeezing his twin’s shoulder. “I’m sorry, brother.”

“Me too. Ez, I’m sorry about what happened with Sam. We’ll make it up to him.”

“We will.” Nate’s lips thinned as he shook his head. “The fact he’s scared of us makes me feel sick. I can’t stand it.”

It was good, but it wasn’t enough. Not when the risk of this happening again was so high. “That’s great, but you need to tell us why it happened.”

“Ez is right,” Micah said. “What happened was inexcusable, but I trust you both to make it right with Sam. You’ve stepped over the line, and we want to know why.”

They exchanged a long look, and I knew one of their silent conversations was taking place. Eventually, Nate turned back to us with a sigh. “It’s stupid, really. Petty jealousy on my part.”

“It’s not stupid,” Theo said hotly, reaching over to grab his brother’s forearm. “If this was the other way around, I’d feel the same. I’ve been tactless.”

Micah looked as confused as I was feeling. “Jealousy about what?”

Theo glanced at Nate, who nodded encouragingly. “I can feel my mate. I don’t know where he is, and he doesn’t appear to be in danger, but yeah.”

My jaw popped open. What was the likelihood of yet another mate coming out of the woodwork so soon? Millennia had passed with only Grace and Breann being fortunate enough to find one another. Now, Micah, myself, and apparently Theo were on our way to eternal happiness.

“Are you sure it’s your mate?” Micah asked.

Theo shrugged. “Fairly sure. It’s a tug, like my instincts telling me to go and find him. It’s not insistent, but it’s there. Has been for a few weeks now.”

“I don’t understand,” I said. “If you can feel your mate, why aren’t you searching for him?”

Theo’s gaze slid to his brother, whose eyes were fixed on the table. Suddenly, the pieces clicked into place. From the pity in Micah’s gaze, he understood too.

“You should,” Nate muttered, like he could feel all our eyes on him. “You don’t need to worry about me.”

“But I do,” Theo said. “We always thought we’d either share a mate, or find them at the same time. It’s not right that?—”

“It doesn’t matter,” Nate cut him off. “The fact is that you can feel your mate, and I can’t. It doesn’t matter what we’d planned, fate has other ideas.”

Theo frowned stubbornly. “I don’t give a shit. We’ve done every milestone together, and we’re going to fall in love at the same time too. Fate might be ready for me to meet my mate, but until yours is ready too, they’ll just have to wait.”

“I can’t ask you to do that.”

Theo lifted his chin. “You didn’t ask me, but I’m doing it anyway.”

Aw, fuck.As much as I understood where Theo was coming from, fate would only wait so long. If the pull became too great for him to ignore, Theo might not have a choice. The twins had been through everything together. It seemed almost cruel that fate was now forcing them down separate paths.

This was going to end in disaster, and there was nothing we could do about it. Just be there to pick up the pieces when it finally happened.

From the set of Micah’s jaw, he knew this too.

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