Page 28 of Fated Redemption
“God help us from the twins,” Rhys said.
The four men looked at each other.
“Which set?” Emmett asked.
“All of you.”
“You do know we have two more sets coming up in the ranks. Landon, Lucas, Matthew and Merrick,” Duncan offered.
“There goes Arkadia,” Moe said, wiping down tables, a smile on his face.
“Rock on!” Emmett said.
Chapter Five
“Peyton, don’t stay up too late.” Moe yelled as he and Rhys walked up the stairs to their apartment.
“I won’t!” Peyton called back.
“He so will.” Rhys smiled.
Moe nodded. “I know, but he’s having fun with friends. It may be a first for him. I’ll just make sure I have extra coffee for him in the morning.” Moe chuckled.
They reached the top of the stairs and Moe opened the door for his mate. Rhys smiled and stood on tiptoe. He kissed him softly then headed to the bathroom.
Moe couldn’t keep the grin off his face if he tried. He went over to the bed and pulled the covers down. He was about to head to the kitchen to make a cup of tea when he smelled blood. He took another deep breath and the scent remained.
He walked over to the bathroom and the scent got stronger.
“Rhys, you okay in there?” he asked.
“Yup, fine.”
“I smell blood.”
“Nicked myself shaving.”
“Oh, okay.” Moe started to walk away, but something kept him rooted by the door. The scent was too strong for a shaving nick. Without asking for permission he opened the door. What he saw nearly drove him to his knees. His beautiful mate had a straight razor out and was making horizontal cuts across his forearm.
“Baby, no!” Moe raced forward, grabbed a towel, and laid it across the blood-smeared arm.
“Don’t look!” Rhys cried out, his face a mask of shame.
“Why, baby? Why?” Moe applied pressure with the towel to get the bleeding to stop. Rhys just shook his head, unable to answer.
“Do you want to hurt yourself?” Moe asked, desperate to understand.
Rhys shook his head frantically. “It feels good, it’s like I’m letting out all the bad blood that I was forced to drink. I know in my mind that it left my body months ago, but when I see the blood drip, it’s like the addiction lessens.” Rhys wiped his eyes with his free hand.
Moe took a deep breath. He knew better than to tell him not to do it again or that it wasn’t helping. Because he knew that in Rhys’s mind it was helping.
“What triggered it?” he asked instead, lifting the towel to check the cuts. To his surprise they were mostly healed. His surprise must have shown.
“Vampires heal superficial wounds pretty quickly.”
Moe didn’t want to think about the number of times Rhys had cut himself and he missed it due to his accelerated healing.
“I’m glad it heals so quickly. What happened tonight that trigged the need to do this?” Moe asked again gently.
