Page 4 of Fated

“Her pain is not just physical though, what’s happened to Anna could destroy Aly. She’s going to feel guilty, like Anna getting turned is her fault,” Jay points out.

“It’s not though, this is all Ryan’s fault!” Kiran clenches his hands in the comforter on the bed.

“Shh, keep your voice down,” Jay whisper yells at him.

Kiran reminds me of another thing, though. “We all met him, how did none of us realize he was a vampire?”

“He was over three thousand years old. Strong enough to hide himself from us,” Jax points out.

“I never liked him,” Jeremy feels the need to say.

Rolling my eyes, a little tension leaves my shoulders at the familiar moment. Bickering with my best friends is too normal.

“Yes Jeremy, we know, you were right.” Kiran gives Jeremy a little shove.

We all settle in around Aly, taking up any available space, as we all try to touch her. The guys got cleaned up while I was with Aly so at least no one is bringing this horrible night into the bed.

“Where did you put Anna?” I ask.

“In a guest bedroom,” Jay answers.

“I should go renew the spell before we sleep soundly next to her.” When I roll out of bed, each step away from Aly is painful.

I almost trip over Bailey who’s curled up on the floor next to the bed, he doesn’t look up.

Anna is sprawled on the sheets in the bedroom next to us. They took care of her, making sure her body at least looks comfortable.

The sleeping spell I perform should knock someone out for twenty-four hours. I will be renewing it every twelve, just in case. After performing the spell twice today and healing Aly earlier, the exhaustion finally catches up to me. I’m dead on my feet but there’s one more thing I need to deal with before I can go to sleep.

I promised Aly we would find a way to help Anna and I intend to keep that promise.

I head to the kitchen and grab one of our many burner phones. It’s late but if I had to guess, one of my parents is awake. The phone almost rings all the way through before my mom’s voice answers.

“Hello?”

“Hey mom, it’s Nic,” I respond back since I’m sure she’s confused by the random number.

“Nicoli! How are you my sweet boy?”

Even over the phone she can make me blush.

“I’m… okay mom.” She cuts me off before I can tell her why I called.

“And Aly? How’s that beautiful mate of yours?”

“She’s okay too mom but that’s why I’m calling.”

“Alright, tell me what you need. I was trying to get some small talk in and pretend my son isn’t currently in hiding.” She’s joking but I almost wish I had stuck to lighter topics longer for her. I make a mental note to call her without needing something but right now I’m too exhausted to pretend.

“Sorry mom, I’ll call again soon, I promise. Something happened tonight,” I start. I go on to tell her everything about mates and hunters, the encounter with Ryan and stop before what happened to Anna.

“You’re telling me that supernaturals have mates who are hunters? Well that would explain why fated mates became rare, because a whole species has been taken out of the equation. Hunters tend to be female while the other species more male, so there’s only been a chance if your mate was one of the few females in the other species.

“On top of that, people don’t believe in cross species mixing anymore so it’s more unlikely for someone to find their mate because they’re only looking in their own species! Everything has been distorted over the years making it almost impossible to find mates!”

Well, that sums it up well. She’s right, by changing the beliefs of supernaturals, they made it almost impossible to find a mate. We only found Aly by pure chance. A deep sense of loneliness settles in my gut when I think about a life without her. Sure, I would have eventually found a mate in the mage community, but she wouldn’t be made for me like my Aly is. I sure as hell wouldn’t have shared her with my best friends either, it would be a random group of mages that she picked out.

I thank whoever or whatever brought my Aly to me, I never want to imagine my life without her again.

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