Library
Home / Accepting His Mate / Chapter 9: Aislin

Chapter 9: Aislin

Chapter 9: Aislin

Muriel never ended up coming to my apartment that night. I wasn’t sure if it was because Gavin was so angry at me that he didn’t trust me, or if it was because it was too late to bring her over. Either way, I was in no mood to talk to anyone, and it was a miracle I managed to fall asleep as quickly as I did.

The next morning, Gavin texted me, ‘Muriel will stay at your place tonight. Please let her heal you.’ I didn’t acknowledge the request. Memories of last night—Gavin and Everett both imploring me to get help with my injured lungs—suffused me with anger I couldn’t handle.

Most of my day was spent working at a cheap accessory store in Grandbay’s strip mall. I was the Assistant Manager and usually worked four to five days a week, making just enough money to pay for my apartment, but not much else. The job was good enough, but I spent a lot of time surrounded by nattering tween girls and adult women that tried too hard to be cool, and both types of people grated on my nerves after a while. Today, especially, I was having a tough time not snapping at anyone who asked if I was okay after a hard cough. The good thing was that it was easy to separate myself from my job once my shift was over. The moment I stepped out of the store, I was back to being Aislin Mundy, wolf shifter and future Beta of Grandbay. As long as nobody I knew dared to visit the store while I was working, I almost felt human while I was there.

That evening, I walked over to Gavin’s apartment and knocked on his door, dreading the look he might give me. Thankfully, it was Billie who answered the door. “Hey!” She blinked up at me. “He and Muriel won’t be here for another hour. Sorry about that.”

“That’s fine.” I shrugged.

“Do you want to come in?”

Rubbing the back of my neck, I considered it. I hadn’t spent much quality time with Billie lately, and her female companionship would be a breath of fresh air. “Sure.”

After settling on Gavin’s couch, Billie brought me a glass of water and I savored it. “How’s your chest?” she asked.

I frowned. “Gavin told you about that, huh?”

“I thought something might be wrong.”

“It’s not as bad as he makes it out to be,” I insisted. But even now, the tightness returned to my chest and the underlying pain was rising to the forefront of my attention. “What else did he tell you from last night?”

Billie pulled her feet up onto the couch, wrapping her arms around her knees. “He told me about you and Everett.”

“That we’re fated mates?”

She nodded, glancing at me with prolonged uncertainty about my reaction. Billie was still a sensitive soul despite all the strides she’d made in opening up to us. I took care to soften my face with a sigh, trying not to let it show how much it annoyed me to broach the subject.

“Yeah, uh… it’s not gonna happen. He’s the Alpha of Eastpeak,” I scoffed. “And he’s a self-important jerk with no interest in Grandbay. He’s never cared about us and I doubt that would change if we became mates.”

Billie’s silence all but screamed that she knew I was bluffing about my feelings for Everett. He was the one that rejected me, and Gavin would have told her that. Even without speaking anything, I knew she was wondering whether I was okay with what transpired.

“I don’t care that he rejected me,” I continued. “I would have rejected him if given the choice.”

“Are you sure?” she asked.

I curled my lip. “I’m sure. I’d rather get skinned alive before becoming Everett March’s girlfriend.”

“It didn’t bother you at all that he’d been attacked by the Inkscales?”

“No. Should it have?”

Billie picked at a scab on her knee. “Maybe the connection just doesn’t feel the same for you as it did for me and Gavin.”

I tried to ignore my subtle burn of envy. “What did it feel like for you?”

“At first, he rejected me. I would’ve sworn he hated me… but then he broke up with Catrina, and eventually he told me it was because the fated mate bond made him feel so much more at peace than he felt being with her. It was like every time we were together, all of the anger just washed away,” said Billie, lifting her eyes to stare across the living room. I imagined her remembering those tender moments between herself and Gavin, but whatever sweet and gentle reverie her memories incurred, I couldn’t relate. “I was somebody he could let his walls down around. He didn’t have to prove anything to me. Instead, I was like… shelter for him, where he could feel safe.”

“That’s not what I feel around Everett,” I muttered.

“But do you think he’d feel that around you? I mean, he’s the Eastpeak Alpha, sure, but he must have a lot of obligations to worry about.”

The face I made could have said enough about my perception of Everett. “He thinks I’m a nuisance. Shit, he’s probably embarrassed that I’m his fated mate.”

Billie went quiet with thought. “And what do you feel around him?”

“I think I’ve made it obvious how I feel about him.”

“No, I mean… what does being around him make you feel? What do you feel through the fated mate bond?”

My immediate response was the same sentiment I’d shared before, being that I was utterly disenchanted with Everett and wanted nothing to do with him, but that suddenly felt dishonest when I took a mental step back and re-evaluated the feelings that Billie probed me for. I took a moment to really think about what I felt around Everett, rather than what he ignited in me, and I had to admit that those unusual feelings brought out a sense of vulnerability in me that I didn’t want to confront. “I don’t know,” I said at first, wanting to avoid the question. “There is some kind of… magnetism, I guess. But that’s just the fated bond. It’s not real.” I kept telling myself that. “More than anything, he makes me feel like I’m not good enough.”

Billie nodded. “You’ve never had a chance to speak alone, have you?”

“Oh, I’ve spoken to him alone before. I mean, you know I’ve been trying to get into the Mythguard for years. He’s never even given me the time of day,” I grumbled.

“But this was all before your Moondream,” said Billie.

“Yeah.”

“You should speak with him if you get the chance. Just the two of you,” she suggested. “Try to have a sincere conversation about your fated mate bond. I bet you’d find you have more in common than you realized.”

“Hah!” I laughed, then I coughed, the hoarseness in my throat catching me off guard. Hacking into my arm, I grimaced before shaking my head at Billie. “We’ve done all the talking we need to do. I think we’re both pretty set in our decision to not want to have anything to do with each other.”

Billie’s expression fell. She was far more tender than I was, and I had the feeling she’d call herself a hopeless romantic after having formed her bond with Gavin. Obviously she was hoping that I’d want to give Everett a chance, but doing so would only be setting me up for disappointment.

“Well, can I ask what your Moondream was about?” Billie ventured.

“Why does that matter?”

She folded her hands on her knees, fidgeting with her knuckles now. “I’m just curious.”

Part of me wanted to accuse her of trying to act like she was the expert. But, in her defense, she was marked by her fated mate and I wasn’t. With a sigh, I pulled my feet up too, and rested my chin on my arms. “I woke up in the middle of a fire. It was eating up the entire forest and I couldn’t breathe because of the smoke, though I think not being able to breathe was because of my injury in real life. I couldn’t even run until he showed up. Everett.” I vividly remembered how he looked in the dream, robed in his timber-greys and standing over me something like a guardian angel. “He got me to my feet and we ran. I don’t remember much else after that.”

Billie nodded, digesting the information, analyzing my Moondream like she was trying to find meaning within it. I was sure I had analyzed it a million times over and not found any interpretation worth looking into. “When did you have it, exactly?”

“Ah… it was right after Niko choked me.”

Billie’s eyebrows rose. “When you went unconscious?”

“Yep.”

“You didn’t even say anything about it.”

“Sorry, it kinda caught me off guard,” I drawled. “I wasn’t ready to blurt out that I just had a Moondream and found out my fated mate was fucking Everett March.”

“I guess…” Billie frowned. “But you know, you can tell me these things and I won’t judge you or tell anyone. You’re my friend, Aislin.”

The harshness in my voice petered into a laugh under my breath. Then it struck me, a second later, how much courage it must have taken Billie to say that. I couldn’t imagine she ever had a chance to be a source of comfort to somebody before. I was probably the first real honest friend she had outside of Hexen Manor. “I… yeah. I know.” Catching her eye, I smiled. “Thanks, Billie. I appreciate that.”

She smiled back and reached out to me. I clasped her hand, feeling a little less alienated.

But as much as I appreciated Billie’s openness with me, it was a relief when the conversation shifted into less serious territory. There was so much heaviness surrounding us lately, it was nice to just talk about the book that Billie was reading, or the shows I watched when I was trying to fall asleep.

I was on guard again as soon as the door opened and Gavin stepped inside with Muriel. When they entered the living room, his attention went straight to me. “I thought I smelled you,” said Gavin. “How long have you been here?”

“About an hour,” I said defensively.

A wall had risen between Gavin and I. After last night’s conversation, and now learning more about the connection between Billie and Gavin, it felt like I had become displaced. It was harder for me to muster my usual camaraderie with him. I had already identified the source as jealousy, but not because I wanted Gavin romantically. I was just used to being his female confidante. He’d never had that with Catrina, but Billie… she gave him everything he needed. He didn’t need me, except to scold me for being stupid.

I averted my eyes when Gavin approached Billie to give her a kiss. Thankfully, I had Muriel to look at instead, catching her gaze and nodding in greeting. The older woman wore a thin, fluttery blue dress that complemented her already mystical appearance, with her silver hair tied up in a bun and soft purple eyes set within her gently wrinkled face. She gave me a smile as I stood up from the couch. “You ready to go?” I said.

“What’s the hurry?” asked Gavin, detaching from Billie.

“It’s late. I had a long day,” I replied.

“Are you working tomorrow?”

“I have a short shift at five.”

“I’ll send Oslo to get Muriel then,” said Gavin. “I was just hoping we could spend some time together tonight.”

“Why?” I snipped. I didn’t mean to sound short with him, so when Billie and Muriel looked curiously at me, I shrugged it off.

“I just think we have a lot to discuss,” said Gavin.

“Already got everything off my chest that I need to. I’m sure Billie can fill you in,” I said, then walked past them to Gavin’s door. “C’mon, Muriel.”

Behind me, Gavin sighed. I imagined Billie reaching out to him, reassuring him that he didn’t need to go after me. Nothing more was said on the matter. Muriel joined me in the hallway of the apartment complex, and we walked silently back to my apartment building a little way down the street.

Once inside, I wanted to drop the tension I’d been carrying, but Muriel’s presence kept me feeling like I still had to hide parts of myself. I opened the door of my spare bedroom and gestured inside for her. “Sorry it’s not as nice as everybody else’s places. The bed’s my old one from when I still lived at home, but it’s clean.”

Muriel settled on the edge of the bed without complaint. She was so poised and polite, even if I hadn’t known she was a unicorn, I would have guessed there was something otherworldly about her. With a glance up at me, she patted the bed and invited me to sit beside her.

“It’s okay. I should sleep, really,” came my excuse.

“I know you’re still injured from the fight,” said Muriel. “I’ve recovered since then. Please let me help.”

The hair on the back of my neck rose. “I’m fine, I don’t want to exhaust you in case somebody else gets injured and you have to help them.”

Muriel tilted her head, looking at me with unassuming sympathy. “I’d still be able to help. Please,” she urged.

But I knew that if I received healing, Everett would feel that. He’d know I was recovered and that would be giving him what he wanted, and I felt so spiteful and bitter toward him—and everyone else—that I didn’t want to give him that satisfaction. My wrath toward Everett was so overpoweringly intense that I would rather he suffer just to prove how much of a nuisance I could be. Swallowing the phlegm packed in my throat and lungs, I shook my head and stepped out of the room. “Maybe later. Just… it’s fine, Muriel. Let me handle this on my own.”

Looking crestfallen, Muriel simply let me go. I knew she didn’t understand why I was so stubborn about this. I barely understood it myself. The alienation I felt from everyone made it hard for me to open back up, and I just kept pushing people further and further away. But it felt safer for me to do that than lower my guard.

I struggled to sleep that night. More than once, stuttering coughing fits kept me awake, the taste of blood bitter on my tongue. I hoped Everett felt it. Maybe, in some fucked up way, I was hoping it would give Everett another excuse to confront me.

When I recognized how obsessively Everett occupied my thoughts, I realized that something had to change. The isolation of night probably wasn’t the best environment for me to be coming up with schemes, and yet I found myself thinking back to Colt, wondering what his feelings toward me had become. It would piss off Everett even more if he found out I was endangering myself by communicating with Colt, but recklessly, it was Colt I wanted to talk to the most. That was the only escape I could conceive of. Besides, we still needed to find out just how loyal Colt was to David.

I pulled up Colt’s number in my phone. ‘Sorry for punching you,’ read my first text. ‘Can we talk?’ read the second.

At 3 a.m. I wasn’t expecting to get a reply. It sent my heart into overdrive when my phone screen lit up with a text from Colt.

‘Okay,’ he said.

Comments

0 Comments
Best Newest

Contents
Settings
  • T
  • T
  • T
  • T
Font

Welcome to FullEpub

Create or log into your account to access terrific novels and protect your data

Don’t Have an account?
Click above to create an account.

lf you continue, you are agreeing to the
Terms Of Use and Privacy Policy.