Page 46 of Heart of the High King
Aleksander, I’m sorry I haven’t responded to your messages. I’ve just needed to step away and think. I hope you can respect my need for space right now.
“He’s called you ‘Aleksander,’ ” Worth immediately pointed out. “He always refers to you as ‘Sander,’ Does he usually use that in texts too?”
“Yeah.”
“So, doesn’t it seem odd that he’s suddenly calling you Aleksander?”
“Not if he’s trying to put distance between us.”
“Or if he wasn’t the one who wrote it.”
Frustrated, disappointed, and heartbroken, Aleksander tossed his phone onto the desk. “It’s not a mystery, Worth. He’s struggled since the beginning with not only how he feels about me, but with his sexuality as well. Rafe’s never gone into great detail on it either, other than admitting his family is intolerant. There’s definitely more to it than that.”
“He was glued to your side the entire time he was here.”
“That was a month ago, and he already confessed that he stopped asking to visit again. His father keeps refusing, and he doesn’t want to upset him.”
“You’ve been best friends for months, and suddenly he doesn’t even want to talk to you? I’m not buying it.”
Aleksander frowned. “The reality is, we’re both going to have to get used to it.”
“Don’t go writing him off. Even if there isn’t anything fishy going on, and he’s truly stopping to think, that doesn’t mean you won’t hear from him again. You’re his mate, for Fate’s sake.”
Rubbing his hands over his face, Aleksander wanted to ignore the ache in his chest because of Rafferty’s rejection, but it was impossible. “This hurts.”
“Come on. Stand up and give me a hug,” Worth demanded as he got to his feet and cajoled Aleksander into doing the same. “I won’t tell you it’s going to be okay, because I don’t know that, but I’m here for you no matter what.”
“I really thought things were going great until he just stopped talking to me,” Aleksander mumbled against Worth’s shoulder.
“Keep faith, okay? His feelings for you were impossible to miss when he was here. He can’t brush aside your matebond either.”
Pulling away, Aleksander managed a half smile. “How do these other jerks make this matebond stuff look so easy?”
“They had to go through plenty of shit to get there.”
Aleksander had no choice but to accept that Worth was right, but it didn’t make him feel any better. Although he wanted to vent his feelings to Rafferty, he had to respect his desire for space. It was devastating to be told by the person who you’d grown closest to that they preferred silence to furthering the bond they’d built, and Aleksander hated it. However, he wasn’t going to allow himself to grow too angry with Rafferty. The man had a great deal to reconcile, and he was free to figure out things in his own way. Aleksander hoped that when everything was said and done, Rafferty would still choose to pursue their relationship, because he just didn’t know how the fuck he’d handle losing him.
∞∞∞
When Rafferty woke, his mouth was gritty, and his head was throbbing. But as consciousness slowly dawned, he was freed for the first time in centuries from the beast that had plagued so much of his existence. With his eyes still shut, he probed deep and could not connect with his dragon. Rafferty had no idea what it meant—was this heartbreak?
There was no pervasive sadness or tug toward the veil, but perhaps there was no room for that while he was trapped in a body so full of pain. It was supposed to be an inescapable darkness that slowly dragged you under, but all Rafferty felt was liberty from the entity that he’d only found any kind of balance with when he was with Aleksander. Missing his mate terribly and not being able to even contact Aleksander might simply have been too much for his instinct-driven dragon to handle.
A stark contrast from his beast’s odd silence was the inescapable agony that started at the bottom of his feet and went up to the top of his skull. Forcing his lashes upward, he could not keep from worrying and wondering. Although he was chained to a wall in a barren mine dimly lit by a single lantern, Rafferty vowed that he would not allow his beast to end him. There was no way he would leave Aleksander. Rafferty just had to somehow find a way to survive his family’s plans and put together his own rescue.
His limbs wouldn’t cooperate when he tried to move; there were simply too many open injuries. Rafferty didn’t even realize he was weeping as he tried to survey the damage until the tears burned his cuts. How could his father and brother do this to him? Sullivan had been his closest confidante until he met Aleksander.
Rafferty simply couldn’t wrap his head around their treachery, but he would see them pay for the damage they’d already wrought and whatever plans they had for the future. The druids employed at hospitals had the ability to heal him; then he’d run headlong into the arms of the man he could not deny he wanted to be with. Such thoughts should have his strong dragon rallying to the cause but, again, Rafferty could find no remnant of the animal that had dominated his existence since his first shift.
Gathering his courage and strength, Rafferty slowly repositioned himself to a somewhat upright position. It had taken countless minutes, and blood soaked his skin as he cracked fresh scabs, and Rafferty gritted his teeth against the pain. Needing to empty his bladder, what remained of his boxer shorts was buried in gaping wounds on both hips, and there was no way to even get the damn underwear down even if he had the energy. Humiliated and devastated, Rafferty closed his eyes and pissed himself.
“Well, look who’s awake,” Sullivan taunted, strolling into the small area where Rafferty was chained. When Rafferty lifted his lashes to glare at his older brother, Sullivan gasped loudly. “What the fuck?”
Refusing to say one damn word to the man who was intent on killing him and had likely already done damage to the relationship Rafferty had worked so hard to build with his mate, he simply stared at him with the burning hatred filling him.
“Wh-what’s going on?”
Without a blink, Rafferty delighted in the strange mix of fear and confusion on his brother’s face, though he could not understand the cause.
