Chapter 25

Mac ported home, having taken a shower and changed at his Netherworld house. He still had clothes there that he thought would work for a first date.

“Don’t be an idiot again,” his uncle said as he was leaving the house. “You’re going to need to be a little vulnerable with her. She needs to see all of you, see what a good guy you are. Don’t fuck this up.”

He was pretty sure he had rolled his eyes, but it was decent advice. He wanted to apologize to her. Again. And explain his history a little more. There were things that not even D knew about, but he thought it would help her understand him. He had dressed in a pair of black boots, his dark wash jeans that hugged his ass and thighs, and a black button-down shirt with a black t-shirt underneath. He grabbed a coat, even though he generally didn’t get cold. But with Viv being human, she might get chilly as the night went on.

Stepping through the portal, he saw Thomas standing there, arms folded. “Hi,” Mac said, uncertainly.

“She’s taking a step. Don’t fuck this up.”

“Why is everyone saying that to me?” Mac asked, throwing his hands in the air.

“Probably because you already messed up,” D pointed out very helpfully.

They all got quiet as they heard her bedroom door open. Thomas pointed at his own eyes and then back at Mac in the universal ‘looking at you’ sign. Mac shook his head, but he was glad his mate had such a good friend.

Viv came out, dark jeans encased her legs, a soft comfy-looking sweater hugging her torso, her hair down, the waves falling loose against her shoulders. Her naturally pink lips were glossy, inviting him to press a kiss. He’d wait, but he really wanted to find out if her lips were as soft as they looked, what they tasted like. She looked gorgeous.

D gave him a pointed look.

“You look gorgeous,” Mac said, loving how her cheeks turned pink at his words.

“Thank you. You look very handsome. I have the picnic basket all ready to go when you are,” Viv replied.

Mac nodded. He had smelled the wonderful food when he came home. He grabbed the basket and opened the door for her. He had brought his truck over when he had moved in. He opened the passenger door, helping her climb up before placing the picnic basket in the back seat. He wanted to drive tonight, for a couple of reasons, one of which was the heated seats. If the temperatures dropped a lot, it would help her stay warm. He also didn’t know if this was a park and watch kind of movie, like a drive-in, or if this was a park in a parking lot and sit on the grass kind of event. He had thrown a few extra blankets in the back of the truck just in case.

“Thank you for setting this up,” he said as he pulled out of the driveway. “I haven’t been to a movie in a long time, much less one in a park.”

“It’s something the city sets up. Thomas and I used to go a lot in college, but I haven’t been in a while either. I thought it was something different. How did the meeting with your boss go?” she asked, plugging in her phone to provide directions.

“Good. It ended up being less about work and more about catching up. I did get to see the new batch of puppies, which was fun.”

“Puppies?”

“Mhm. Hellhound puppies. They’re tiny now, but they’ll end up being about as tall as a Great Dane.”

“Do they have three heads like Cerberus, or just one?” Viv asked, curious. She wondered how many things were wrong in religions and myths, since angels and demons were nothing like she had expected.

“Just the one,” Mac replied with a smile.

“Did you get any new cases, or do you get a bit of a break since you just finished one?”

“It depends on what comes in. Right now, I don’t have anything, just finishing paperwork. If something comes up that I’m better suited for, then I’ll get called in. Luckily, there’s enough Enforcers and most nonhumans don’t behave badly enough for us to be overwhelmed. I know it probably doesn’t seem like it since I’ve had several cases since we met, but there can be a lot of down time,” Mac replied.

“What do you normally do in your off time?” Viv asked. They had talked about a lot of things, but not so much about his job and home life.

“I’m kind of boring. I hang out with my uncle or D, sometimes a few other work friends. I’ll read, mostly detective, suspense, or true crime type of books. TV sometimes. D and I go to the range. Oh! I like making bread too. Smacking the dough around is relaxing and helps get rid of any work frustrations.”

“Huh. I did not see you as the baking sort,” Viv admitted. She loved the smell of baking bread and loved eating warm bread with melty butter even more.

“Just bread. I tend to burn cookies and whenever I try to make a cake, it turns out dry. It got to the point where my uncle very nicely asked if I baked his birthday cake or not before he took a bite.”

“Oh, no! He wouldn’t eat it if you made it?”

“No, he was a good sport, and he ate it. He just made sure he had plenty of coffee or milk to go with it.” Mac grinned. “A really, really tall glass of milk.”

“Oh, that’s nice of him,” Viv laughed. She had a picture in her head of the scene, but she wondered if one day she would get to see it in person.

“I promise to buy your birthday cakes,” Mac said. “I won’t subject you to my horribly dry cakes.”

“It’s the thought that counts,” Viv said, a little touched he was planning on celebrating her birthday with her. It was still a while off. “I love making Christmas cookies. Thomas and I spend the whole day baking and decorating. Maybe you and D can help this year,” she offered.

“I’d like that,” Mac replied, quickly looking over to smile at her. He pulled into the parking lot, noticing it was pretty full already.

“I’m surprised they still have the movies when it’s this cold out,” he admitted.

“This is the last one for the season, I think,” Viv said.

Mac climbed out, grabbing the picnic basket and a bunch of blankets from the back of the truck. “I brought some extra blankets in case we get cold.”

“That was a good call. I have one packed in the picnic basket too,” Viv said. “I have a base layer on, which should help.”

They walked over to the movie area, a large screen set up, with several couples and a few families already sitting around. Mac could smell hot chocolate and saw a drink vendor, as well as a popcorn machine and a roasted nut truck sitting off to the side. That was smart. Mac laid down a few blankets, thinking it would help stop the chill from seeping into them from the ground. He kept one out to wrap around Viv if she got cold.

The food was wonderful, the movie cheesy with a bit of a predictable storyline. He enjoyed having Viv snuggle up next to him, his arm wrapping its way around her back. Mac draped a blanket over their laps as the temperature got a little cooler. They had finished their dinner, leaving their cookies and mini brownies for dessert and the second half of the movie. There was a brief intermission, where people got more snacks or took bathroom breaks. He jumped up and grabbed them two hot chocolates.

As he sat back down, Mac thought he could use this time to explain things to Viv. The darkness made it feel easier to talk about these things; probably like Viv had felt when they talked over the phone. He waited until she had her hot chocolate and was situated under the blanket again, their legs touching.

“So. Um. You know I had a mate a while ago. And that she tried to kill me. There’s a bit more I haven’t told you, some of it even D doesn’t know.”

“You don’t have to tell me, if you don’t want to,” Viv responded, laying her head on his shoulder.

“I want to,” Mac said. “It doesn’t excuse my behavior, but it might explain it a bit.”

He took a deep breath, trying to gather his thoughts in a coherent line.

“My parents were awesome. They were mates and had met each other a little later in life. My paternal grandparents were gone by then as well, but my uncle raised me when they died, my dad’s brother. My mom’s parents didn’t approve of their mating and stopped talking to her long before I was born. I was an only child, which isn’t all that uncommon in the nonhuman world. We tend to only have one to three, spaced widely apart. They were on a vacation one year. I was staying with my uncle while they were gone. All of a sudden, he jumped up and had a guard come watch me and he left. It all happened in seconds. He came back, covered in blood. It was the only time I’ve seen him cry. My parents had been killed. Someone saw my father perform some magic and even more so back then, humans were a fearful superstitious bunch. A group of them surrounded my parents and killed them. My uncle brought their bodies back to bury and I lived with him from then on.”

Viv made a sound and hugged him tighter but let him carry on his story.

“I avoided humans for a long time; I was scared I would end up like my parents. Uncle taught me how to blend in with humans and how to interact with them. There were a couple of Enforcers that had human mates and they helped as well. Time passed and I slowly got more comfortable being on Earth. One of these times, I was near a small village and scented the most amazing smell. I followed it and found my first mate. She was beautiful. She seemed to get along well with everyone in the village. She had many beaus courting her. Her father was a rich landowner and men came from all around trying to tie their houses together. I pretended to also be a rich landowner; I had land and some riches, most of it was in Netherworld. I courted her for months, bringing gifts for her and her family. Her father accepted my proposal and I was the happiest I had ever been.

“I took her on a carriage ride and brought her to a local pond. It was still public enough to conform to societal restrictions, but private enough that I could quickly show her my other side. She was taken aback but seemed to accept that side of me, telling me that she would accept me in either form. Looking back, I should have paid more attention to her body language and actions than her words. She didn’t touch me after that, climbing up into the carriage on her own, rushing out after giving me an air kiss whereas before she had been kissing my cheek.

“About a week later, I received a message saying she would like me to come to her father’s house for a luncheon. When I arrived, it seemed quieter than normal, more subdued. I was escorted into the waiting room, nothing out of the ordinary, but there were men there I didn’t recognize, including a priest. I wasn’t sure what was going on, but didn’t think anything bad. She came in, dressed in black, which seemed odd. I asked if she was in mourning, what had happened. She came close to me, hands held out like she wanted to hold my hands. I held mine out as well, but a pair of cuffs were slapped on instead. A noose thrown around my neck. The men had surrounded me while I was distracted by her. The priest tried to perform an exorcism, which doesn’t work. I had salt and holy water thrown at me. When that didn’t work, a couple of the men shot me, but it takes a lot to kill one of us. As they held me down, I watched as my mate walked toward me. She stood there, staring at me with hatred and disgust in her voice saying she would never love me, she loved another. She would have gone through with the marriage to get the riches for her family, but there was not a chance she would associate with such filth. She stabbed me, I believe going for my heart, but she missed by an inch or less. I would have died otherwise. I managed to open a portal and got to the nonhuman hospital.

“I was despondent for weeks afterward. I had been so hopeful that it had been someone overhearing or seeing my change that had set the whole thing up. I knew when she stabbed me that she had been actively involved in it. Uncle sent an investigator and they found out that she had married another, days after trying to kill me. I didn’t want any part of me tied to her, even if she would die much sooner than I would. I didn’t want to risk having my soul tied to hers in the future. It’s rare, but you can break the mate bond; have it dissolved so that your souls will never be tied together again, no matter how many times they may be reincarnated. It became my mission to have that done. It’s not easy to do and the higher-ups have to do some pretty intrusive and dicey things to break it. The bonds aren’t meant to be broken and they only try in severe cases. Uncle petitioned on my behalf, pushing them to accept my bid to have it broken. I don’t know what made them do it, but I was so relieved when it was done. I was unconscious for part of it, delirious with pain and fever for the other part. D doesn’t know how bad it got; I never told him. I had to be in the hospital while they tried to break the bond due to the risks associated with it. It took about a week, and I almost died twice. I did flatline for a couple of seconds before Uncle forced my soul back into my body. I had to stay in the hospital for another week for all my vitals to stabilize,” Mac said, pausing as he tried to figure out what to say next.

“You weren’t tempted to break our bond?” Viv asked.

“You aren’t a bad person; I just couldn’t bring myself to trust in a mate bond or a human again. Your soul is beautiful and something in me didn’t want to even think about breaking the bond. I was drawn to you over and over again, even following you on dates to make sure they were good enough for you. I wanted you to be happy, even if I couldn’t see it with me.”

“And now you think you can?”

“I do. You care about others, you’re loving and giving. I was just stuck in my fears and not willing to let myself be hurt again. When you were taken, it was the most fear I have ever felt in my life. Even more than when Uncle ran out of the house when my parents were taken from us, more than when I thought I would die trying to break the first mate bond. I realized just how stupid I had been. I would love to be able to show you that I can be the mate you deserve, not the one that I was when we first met. I want to show you me; not the version that was determined to push you away and was cruel on purpose even though my demon raged at me the entire time. I’m normally not that big of an asshole, I swear.”

“Okay,” Viv said simply.

“Okay?” Mac repeated, not sure if she was acknowledging his words, agreeing with his last statement, or agreeing to give him a chance.

“I don’t agree with what you did, but I understand why you felt like it was too big a risk to take me on as a mate. I’m not saying we are going to finalize the bond tonight, but I am willing to be your mate. We just need to keep getting to know each other better; I think that’s best for both of us.”

“I agree. And thank you for giving me another chance,” Mac said, pressing a kiss to the top of her head. He wrapped an arm around her and drew her back in to snuggle. The movie started moments later, letting them relax again after their heavy conversation. Mac felt lighter than he had in a long time.