Page 170 of Devoted

I tapped my fingers together. “It’s the twins. They’re the ones playing the game.”

“I know. They wanted to apologise to you face-to-face, but I told them you weren’t ready for that yet.”

“I’m not.”

Zeke spun my chair so I was facing him and crouched until he was eye level with me. “What they did was despicable. You deserved to learn the truth in a safe and controlled way. They fucked up, Sam, but they’re good guys.”

I wanted to believe him, I did. “It’s hard when I can’t stop picturing it.”

I didn’t need to tell him what ‘it’ was. He knew. “Would it help if you saw me do the same thing to Nate? He’d definitely let me.”

Despite myself, I laughed. “What kind of fucked up logic is that? You think me seeing a different version of the same thing would somehow make me less traumatised?”

Zeke shrugged. “Maybe? I mean, you’ve said yourself that your version of logic is different to that of most people. Perhaps seeing me do the same to Nate and then him immediately recovering might put it to bed.”

“I get where you’re coming from, but I’m good.” I patted his cheek. “Words instead of violence, remember?”

“Fine, but I guarantee there will come a day when your brain tells you to stab one of them.”

“I have OCD, Zeke, that’s just a regular Tuesday for me.”

Zeke smiled. “But, as I’ve said before, you don’t need to worry about that now. Stabbing is part of life here, and everyone heals from it. And, no matter what you do, no one willeverlay a finger on you. Ever.”

I was silent while Zeke continued. “I mean it, Sam. You’re my mate. More than that, you’re the first human mate of the Seraphim. Very few people are as protected as you are now. Not just by me, but by the entire unit—the twins included. Every last one of them would give up their immortality to protect you.”

“I don’t deserve that.”

“You do,” Zeke said. “Not just because you’re my mate, but because ofyou.You’ve only been here a couple of days and everyone is already obsessed with making you happy.”

My OCD geared up to launch itself, but Zeke barrelled on, not giving my brain time. “The twins are horrified about what happened. The idea that you’re scared and angry has mortified them. They want to do whatever they can to make it up to you.”

My cheeks were burning. “They don’t need to make it up to me.”

“Yes, they do. They need to grovel, and grovel hard.” Zeke kissed me lightly. “They won’t feel better until they do, and neither will I. And, as you’re not ready to see them in person, I thought this would be a good start.”

I glanced back at the game. “This was your idea?”

“Sort of. I came up with the idea, but it was Nate who made this happen. Now, you don’t have to give them a chance, I’m not going to force you to do anything you’re not comfortable with. All I will say is that they’re very sorry.”

I took a deep breath. “I need to give them a chance. If I’m going to be living here permanently, I don’t want anyone tiptoeing around me.”

Zeke’s smile lit up the room. “You’re going to move in? Like, properly move in?”

‘There you go, just inviting yourself to stay. He’s only going to let you stay out of pity.’

Before I could take it back, Zeke wrapped me in a crushing hug. “I’m so fucking happy, Sam. I really didn’t want to lock you in my room and pretend to lose the key.”

My mind went quiet as I snorted. “Please tell me you weren’t going to resort to imprisonment to get your way.”

He gave me a smacking kiss on my cheek before standing back, eyes shining. “Now we’ll never know.”

Chuckling, I turned back to face the screen. There were two messages waiting for me in the chat box.

TwatTwin1

Hey, it’s Nate. I’m sorry about what happened. We’re going to try to be less twatty.

TwatTwin2

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