Page 12 of Sinful Mates

Zethan preferred to suffer in silence, mourning over his dead son. The darkness holding him captive dropped away around Mia, like the tiny human gave him hope and promise again.

Castor seemed content with books to keep him company, but there was something there, a longing he kept hidden on his bond. He didn’t talk about it, but something killed that dream. Broken heart, maybe. Messy breakup.

Me, I wasn’t against having kids, I just didn’t want to bring them into the world with my drinking and demons. Circumstances that changed with Aaliyah’s arrival and working her magick on me. Now the choice was thrust upon me, and I had to accept it or lose my mate.

“Not you?” Her azure gaze caught me off guard, drilling deep, determined to find out whether I would care for Mia the way I did for her. The surprise package thrown into the mix.

“You’re both my little birds.” The urge to touch her overwhelmed me and my muscles twitched. Instead, I rubbed my palms on my thighs, my end of the bond shrinking back. “I’ll guard and protect you both.”

Her indifferent mask fell back into place and the steel cage fell over her bond, cutting me off from her. “I don’t want your guilty offerings, Alaric. You fucked up your last chance.” She moved for the kitchen door to go and slump on the sofa again.

I stifled my frustration and disappointment. These past two days tested everyone’s loyalties. With Danny dead, we had one less test. Tell that to the fear sawing at my stomach at facing our next challenge. My instincts warned that the mysterious avatar meddling with us was far worse, his influence far more vicious, with the power to tear us apart. I worried that the mate bond and our connection wouldn’t be enough to bind us together.

“Angel, listen.” I cornered her by the doorway, but she pushed me away. My mate was tired, cranky, and not thinking straight. I bided my time to try and have this conversation with her another time.

The past drifted away as I came back to the present.

Regret burned our link and my soul as I stood guard, watching them, protecting my little birds while they slept in the single bed in Slade’s spare room. The least I could do. My bond tightened like a noose around my throat. If she didn’t want my love, my companionship, then I would be her shadow, her soldier, protector, and defender. The calling from my god.

She moaned in her sleep. Sweat dripped down her forehead. Her blunt, painted fingers fisted the sheets and her legs kicked. Dreaming of what she did to her brother, most likely. Demons that haunted her dreams as my trauma harrowed me. If she kept thrashing like that, she would wake Mia.

I flew to her side and crouched beside her, shaking her shoulder. “Angel, wake up. It’s just a dream.” I refused to let her suffer in dark memories as I had. My love would serve to banish her darkness.

Her eyes fluttered open wide, and my heartbeat slowed. “Alaric, is everything okay?” Even after everything, she still looked out for me.

She sat up, propping herself on her elbow, spooked turquoise eyes trained on me, raven hair falling in waves. Her scent of vanilla and cherries brought on a longing so intense I almost crushed her into my arms to chirp at her.

“I’m fine, angel.” The glow of my golden eye lit the dimness as I stroked the sheet as if it were her I comforted. “You were having a nightmare and I didn’t want you to wake Mia.”

Prompted by longing, my traitorous fingers stroked the arch of where her neck joined her shoulder.

She rolled her arm as if her skin burned. I didn’t want this to be the end for us. Not after we flew back to each other. After we just started. I had to keep faith we would work through it.

“Thank you.” She ran a hand through her sweaty, messy hair and glanced down at Mia, who was dead to the world. “What time is it?”

“2:30AM.” With the Sky god’s powers, I always knew the time by the angle of the moon or sun or their shadows. “Dreaming of him?”

Aaliyah glanced back at Mia and nodded. “I’ll be fine. Go to sleep.”

“I can’t sleep. Not without you. I need to know you’re safe.” My eyes dropped to Mia. “Need to know she’s safe. My little birds.”

“It’s hard to stay mad at you when you’re this sweet.” Aaliyah’s finger dragged along the sheet, inching closer to mine but then retreated at the last moment.

I had to explain why I left her before this gap between us got any wider.

The storm in my bond reached its peak. “Angel, I know I hurt you. Betrayed you in the worst way for not going with you to rescue your daughter.”

“I told you that was your last chance.” Each word hit like a hammer to my soul, echoing down the bond with pain.

A selfish ache cracked down my chest like an earthquake split me in two that I prioritized the women over my mate. “I don’t want this to come between us, angel. I had no choice in the matter.”

“What about me? Your mate?” She tried her best to keep her voice down to not wake Mia, but it rose in pitch with every word.

Pining for her touch and breaking my rule, I brushed a silky lock from her face. “Let’s talk outside, angel.”

My sleepy mate tugged her toned legs free of the quilt and swung them over the bed. She padded out behind me into the kitchen. Heat from her resentful gaze swept over my back.

I leaned on the counter, clutching the edge with my fingers.

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