Chapter 14

Sleepily, I woke enough to roll over and find my mate. He wasn’t pressed against me, and I just couldn’t have that. He must’ve rolled away from me in his sleep. We normally slept cuddled together all night long, but sometimes he moved around a lot, especially when he had nightmares. I suppose not having his warm body and soft skin pressed to mine woke me up.

With a grumble, I rolled over and reached for him, but my hand hit cold sheets instead. I squinted one eye open and nope, no Mads. What the hell? Maybe he somehow switched sides with me? Our bed was big enough that I could’ve missed him on that side.

I rolled over the other way, and nope. Still no Mads.

I glanced around, and all I saw was Poppy and Licorice curled up together on what should’ve been Madeo’s pillow. I sighed. No Mads.

Okay. Maybe he went to the bathroom.

Closing my eyes, I used our bond to search for him. I hadn’t thought our connection could grow any deeper than it had been with our soul bond, but even simply wearing our tying ropes had made a difference. Not a huge one, but definitely a noticeable one. It made it easy to feel him and sense where he was. I could before, but now, it took hardly a thought.

The second I located him, the breath was knocked from my lungs.

He was doing an admirable job of keeping his feelings to himself, but when I actively searched for him, he couldn’t hide them. We didn’t usually hide emotions from one another, so he was probably doing it now because he thought I was asleep.

My poor mate. He was so, so, so irritated. And sad and scared and nervous. And probably a ton of other things that I couldn’t pick out when I was still half asleep.

Without hesitation, I rolled out of bed, grabbed a pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt, and slipped those on as I headed out the bedroom door and down the stairs. I easily followed the thread that connected us, letting it lead me out into the back yard.

When my eyes landed on my small mate, pacing back and forth with his hands threaded behind his head, I slowed my pace. I didn’t know exactly what had sent him out here at two o’clock in the morning. We hadn’t had a particularly bad day at work today, but that didn’t mean anything. It was a safe bet that he’d had a nightmare—or a memory. And I wouldn’t bet against that memory including Anderson.

God, I really wanted to kill that disgusting rapist. Maybe if he was dead, he’d stop haunting my poor mate’s dreams nearly every night.

Mads had been doing so good before he showed back up, too. My mate used to have nightmares pretty regularly, but over the last couple of years, they’d slowed down enough that they were actually rare.

At least they had been until Anderson showed back up in the city.

I didn’t know if the nightmares were just… PTSD related—I mean, obviously they were on some level—but I thought that maybe Madeo’s promise and his magic were making them worse. But who knew? Maybe having such a huge wrench thrown into our lives had triggered him and this had nothing to do with the promise.

But… I had a feeling it did.

He seemed to think it did, too.

He continued his trek, walking over to the pool shed and back to the chairs around the fire pit. Over and over and over again.

I was going to say something, announce my presence, but I could tell that he knew I was here. So… I waited. I leaned my hip against the fence around the pool and quietly waited until he was ready to acknowledge or talk to me. I didn’t mind. I was glad he hadn’t asked me to leave him alone because I wanted him to know I was here for him.

He knew that already, obviously, but seeing me here helped prove the point.

When he stopped moving, his back was to me. He held the back of a lounge chair with his head hanging. I used our bond to search his feelings, and even though I probably couldn’t put a name to the exact feeling I was sensing, I knew that he wanted me to approach him. The tying rope seemed to be helping me distinguish smaller feelings, wants, or needs like that. I liked it.

“Couldn’t sleep?” I asked, trying to keep my voice low so I didn’t scare him as I made my way across the lawn. I followed the path he’d been walking for the last thirty-minutes but stayed back about fifteen feet or so.

Mads stiffened, and I watched him take a slow, deep breath. “I didn’t mean to wake you.” His voice was quiet, his throat hoarse like he needed some water—I’d have to get him some when we went back inside.

“You didn’t, baby. I just rolled over and didn’t have anything to cuddle, so I woke up.”

I expected him to snort or at least acknowledge my comment, but he just scrubbed his hands over his face and heaved out a heavy breath. “I’m sorry.”

“Baby, you don’t need to apologize.” I was trying to give him some space, but maybe that wasn’t the right approach. I slowly made my way closer.

He didn’t move or turn around to face me, and I was making enough noise that even if his hearing hadn’t improved with our soul bond, he would’ve been able to hear me.

“Mads?” I stopped right behind him. “Talk to me, sweetheart.”

He didn’t say anything for a long time, but I could tell he was searching for his words, so I stood there, at his back, waiting patiently for him.

Finally, he said in a low voice filled with horror and sorrow, “Every time I close my eyes, I see his ugly face. I see him standing over me, sneering at me, yelling at me. I see… I see him hurting me and touching me, and I feel his hands all over…” He visibly quivered.

I hesitated, unsure if he wanted to be touched right now or not. His emotions were such a jumble swirling around inside my chest I was surprised he could even breathe through them at all. So I walked around to the side of him so I could get a better look at his face. He looked at me, and my heart broke the second I saw the hurt in his eyes and the tear streaks down his cheeks.

“Can I hug you?” I whispered.

He took a shaky breath and nodded. “I’d like that.”

Without missing a beat, I pulled him into me, and he gripped onto my waist tighter than he ever had before as he buried his face in my chest.

“Shhh. I’ve got you. You’re safe, Madeo. You’re safe here, okay? You’re safe.” I wish I could tell him that he never had to see that prickhole Anderson again, but that bastard was still out there, still terrorizing other people, which was why these damn memories were plaguing him in the first place.

God, I wished there was something I could do to make it all better.

After a long while, Mads whispered, “My magic is pulling me to find him and keep my promise. I… I can’t stop it, Cos. I have to kill him. I have to do it soon, or I…”

“Or you what?”

He shook his head, then leaned back to look me in the eyes. “I’m afraid of what my magic might do. I… I feel like I’m going to be a danger to everyone around me. I’ve put off keeping my promise for far too long, and it’s impatient.”

I stared at him for a long moment before I spoke. “You talk about it like it’s a sentient being. Like it isn’t a part of who you are.”

He’d never spoken about his magic like this before. Not until Anderson showed back up.

Mads took a deep breath. “It never used to feel like this before. It’s always just been this part of me, an extension of myself, of my soul. But now it feels… wild. Like I’m not fully in control of it anymore.”

I… did not like the sound of that.

But I certainly wasn’t going to say that. I didn’t need to freak him out even more.

I pulled him back into a hug. “We’ll find him soon. You won’t have to wait much longer.”

“I hope you’re right because I… I don’t think I have much time left.”

This time it was me who shuddered. I tried not to think about what that meant, but my heart still filled with dread and sorrow.

After Madeo’sdisplay last night, I decided to double down on my own search of the Red Cloth and Anderson specifically. So after breakfast, I’d locked myself in my office—with Mango, because she was awesome and liked hanging out with me—and started making calls. I’d already asked everyone I knew for help, but this time I put more pressure on them.

It was too bad I couldn’t do this in person and use my alpha presence to help intimidate them into listening and doing my bidding.

I didn’t expect much in return, but it was the only thing I could think of to help my mate. Well, aside from canvassing every inch of the city myself and searching each and every building and home for an elusive man who knew how to hide in the shadows.

If I thought I could actually do that—and that it’d work—I would. But that obviously wasn’t realistic, so here we were.

We just needed someone to lead us to a known witch that we could catch unawares, bring in, and question about their hideout locations… before they offed themself.

We’d apprehended plenty of witches over the last few weeks, but they were really good at keeping quiet or committing suicide before we could get anything useful out of them.

What we needed was a lower-ranked witch or a brand new one. Assuming the Supreme Rose’s message was recruiting more humans… which, if the state of the public was anything to go by, I was sure it was.

God, I’d thought we’d get a reprieve when we came out of hiding. I thought we’d get some much-needed breathing room, some time to help our society settle into the new way of things.

I hadn’t expected… this. At all.

Why were some people such absolutely disgusting prickholes when it came to anyone different from themselves?

I honestly couldn’t even comprehend that thinking at all.

With a sigh, I rubbed my hands over my face, trying to stop myself from going off on that tangent, even in my own head. It would only make me more angry and upset. So I did my best to push those thoughts out of my mind.

Mango purred and bumped her head against my arm from where she sat on my lap.

I petted her and murmured, “Thanks, girl.” Her purrs did kind of help.

I wasn’t even surprised when there was a knock on the office door a minute later. I’d been projecting my feelings pretty strongly, and the tying ropes were magnifying everything.

“Can I come in, kitty cat?”

Every time he called me that, I was pretty sure my heart melted a little. Not because of the words themselves, but because Mads always had a sort of softness, a fondness, in his voice. He was incredibly sweet, even when he wasn’t trying, even if he didn’t think so.

“Of course,” I called back.

My mate opened the door and leaned against the doorjamb, staring at me with his arms crossed. “What’s wrong?”

I sighed and leaned my head back against the chair, my fingers still buried in Mango’s fur. “Nothing new. I’ve been putting feelers out again, trying to find someone who knows a witch… and I’m having absolutely no luck whatsoever.”

Mads stared at me for a long moment before he pushed off the wall, walked around my desk, turned my chair to face him, and leaned down with his hands on the armrests, and his pretty face close to mine. “I think you need to take a break, honey.”

I shook my head. “No, I need to keep at this. Someone has to know something.”

“No. You need a break. After last night, I think we both do.” He picked up Mango, gave her a quick hug and a kiss, set her on my desk, grabbed my hands, and started to pull.

I could, of course, keep him from pulling me up, but he was my mate and he looked very determined, so I gave in and stood. Plus, he was right. Even if I didn’t think I should take a break, I absolutely thought he needed one.

Mads led me out of the office, and for a moment, I thought he was taking me to our bedroom—something I could definitely get on board with—but then he tugged me toward the stairs.

We walked right past the family room—it looked like at least half the pride was in there playing charades or something similar—through the dining room and right out the back door. He pulled me over to the fire pit and pushed me into a seat.

Once I was seated, he said, “Take your clothes off. Oh, I shouldn’t have made you sit yet. Sorry. But get undressed.”

I lifted a brow. He wanted to get naked here? In the middle of the back yard? In the middle of the day? Where anyone, kids included, could show up and see us?

“You gotta give me at least a three-minute head start.”

I stared at him blankly. Was I supposed to know what that meant? What he was thinking?

He rolled his eyes at me like I was the one being ridiculous, then bent over and kissed the tip of my nose. “Shift, kitty cat. And then come find me.”

Before I could ask what the hell he was talking about, he took off at a run toward the woods. It took me far longer than I would ever admit to understand what he was doing.

Hide and seek.

It seemed like such a silly game to play—especially for two adults—but it wasn’t. Not for a shifter. It helped keep the cat side of us from getting bored and helped hone our senses, especially our sense of smell, and let us practice our tracking abilities.

A smile pulled along my lips as I stood and undressed without looking in the direction Mads had gone. Then I knelt on the ground and called on my lion. The sounds of popping bones and moving muscles filled the air, but it didn’t hurt. It felt nice, like stretching my body out after a long sleep. I pushed my shift and made it go faster, too excited to get going.

As soon my shift finished, I shook out my mane, stretched my back and each of my legs, then turned toward the woods. Surely it had been long enough to go after my mate now.

I gave myself another shake and stretch to eat up a bit more time, then decided to hell with it and took off across the grass. I ran as fast as I could with my nose to the ground, immediately picking up Madeo’s trail.

I followed it straight into the woods. His path went straight for about twenty feet before he veered to the left. It led me to a tree, and I sniffed at it. Madeo’s scent went upward, but it was faint enough that I didn’t think he was in the tree right now.

Going up on my hind legs, I sniffed farther up the trunk.

Yes, he’d definitely gone up right here.

I searched every branch I could see from here for any sign of him, but I didn’t see him. So I went back on all fours and walked around the trunk, searching for his scent again. If he’d climbed the tree and wasn’t there now, he’d had to have come back down somehow.

I glanced back up, triple checking for him in the branches, then walked in a wider circle around the tree. I did this two more times until I caught a whiff of Mads off to my right. I rushed over to it and found a spot where his scent was a lot stronger.

I could smell him at the base of a different tree. I followed the scent up the trunk, and my eyes widened when I realized what he’d done.

Had he seriously gone up one tree and come down another? Had my little magi developed shifter abilities and turned into a monkey?

With a huff of amusement, I put my nose to the ground and followed his trail again. It was strong enough for me to follow, but it almost smelt like the trail was a day or two old instead of only a matter of minutes.

He was doing something to his scent, my sneaky mage.

I couldn’t help but smile at that, or at least the lion version of a smile.

He obviously knew how to thoroughly distract me from my problems and my mood because I could barely remember why I’d been frustrated earlier.

When I could tell I was much closer to him, I picked up my pace and ran the last few feet until I came to the bottom of another tree. I growled as I went up on my hind legs and met his pretty blue orbs.

“You found me,” he said with a smile. “I thought I’d at least throw you off a little.”

I let out a small yowl to tell him that he did, if only for a minute. I wasn’t sure how my magi mate had gotten so good at reading me in this form, but he could usually tell exactly what I was thinking or trying to tell him.

He laughed. “I’ll have to try harder next time.”

He climbed down, and the second his feet were on the ground, I didn’t give him room to move away from me. I nuzzled his chest with my head, and he laughed as he sort of fell against the tree trunk.

“You’re a brute, you know that?” There was no malice behind the words, and he even started petting me, so I didn’t take his comment seriously. He liked me in my lion form.

His chuckles, soft face, and relaxed posture were an oddity these days. He didn’t often let himself go like this and just allow himself to have fun. He’d been even less inclined as of late. It made me incredibly happy to see him like this.

Happy and determined to keep this lightness and fun going for as long as I could.

Especially after last night.

It gave me hope and made me feel like, despite all the shit he’d been dealt, he still enjoyed living here and being with the pride… being with me.

I knew he did because I could feel it, but it was nice to actually see the evidence sometimes, too.

I purred and nuzzled him further, wanting to cover him in my scent more than he already was. He always smelled of me—and I smelled of him—because we slept in the same bed together every night and spent time cuddling and having sex and just being in each other’s space. I loved the scent of us.

God, when I’d first met him, I never would’ve believed this complicated, prickly, wonderful man would be my mate, would want to tie with me, and would climb around like a monkey in the trees just to make me happy.

I nuzzled him again before stepping back and giving him a small, friendly growl.

He chuckled. “Ready to go again?”

I gave him a nod with my large lion head.

With a grin, he leaned in and kissed the top of my head. “Close your eyes and count to one hundred.”

I let out a growl.

“No, it has to be a hundred. That should give me enough time to make it a little bit challenging. If you come sooner, I won’t be able to get far enough.”

I huffed.

“Good.” He kissed my head again, giving my chin a scratch that I couldn’t help but lean into. “See you soon, kitty cat.” And then he was off, running through the trees again.

This time, I must’ve counted too fast because I found him more easily. He laughed when I found him behind a tree this time instead of in it.

“Cos, you didn’t give me enough time.” He sounded out of breath. “I’ve been using air and fly to try and air out my scent. Is it even working? You came straight for me this time.”

Ah. So that was why his scent smelled older than it should. That made sense. I grumbled at him.

“So it’s working, but not well enough to really throw you off, huh?”

I nodded, only a little surprised he’d gotten that from my grumbles.

He sat on the ground with a huff and pulled me down with him. I moved my upper body between his legs so he could keep petting my face, chin, and mane. My body was probably at least twice as long as his legs—possibly closer to three times as long—so I was sure we were quite the sight like this.

“We can go again in a minute. Just let me catch my breath.”

I nuzzled him in agreement.

We spent over an hour playing hide and seek until Mads ran back toward the house and hid up in the treehouse. If he’d thought I was above climbing a ladder or the small staircase in this form, he was wrong.

I wasn’t sure I’d actually fit on the staircase like this, so I started up the ladder, and I heard footsteps rush across the floor of the treehouse a moment before Mads said, “Don’t you dare. You’re going to fall.”

I huffed at that. I was a cat for god’s sake. I could climb a ladder.

“Merrill Cosmo Ono-Nai, stop. I’ll come down. You obviously found me.”

I ignored him and climbed the ladder carefully, just to prove I could, while he continued to huff and puff at me. The second I made it to the top, his arms were around my neck.

“You just shaved at least a year off my life.”

I tried to lean back to get a look at him, but his grip was too tight, so I rumbled my purr at him to reassure him. Had he really been that scared?

I reached for our bond and only felt his relief and what felt like amusement. No scent of fear on him, either. Our bond hadn’t flared with fear while I was climbing or anything, so I guess he was okay and only being dramatic.

He let out a bark of laughter. “I can’t believe you climbed up that ladder. Do you know how ridiculous you looked?”

Hey. I let out a small growl of displeasure.

“Well, you did. And you had this look of pure concentration on your face.” He paused. “It was kind of cute.”

I huffed, half in annoyance, half in amusement.

“You know I love your fluff, so you pretty much always look cute like this.”

If he could’ve seen my eyes, I would’ve rolled them at him.

Without warning, I shifted to bipedal form, and I was taken aback that he didn’t even let go of me. He hated the sounds of shifting, and while I’d shifted against him before, it definitely wasn’t something he preferred.

I stretched a little without moving away from him. As soon as I finished, I pulled him into my arms tightly. “I’m a cat.”

He snorted. “Thank you, Captain Obvious.”

“No, I mean, I have great balance and have climbed ladders before. You know this, and I do not look ridiculous doing it.”

He chuckled. “Did you seriously shift back just to say that?”

I grumbled under my breath.

“What was that?”

With a sigh, I said, “Maybe.”

He huffed out a laugh. “Okay, is this better?” He leaned back to meet my gaze and cleared his throat. “You looked magnificent and majestic.”

I lifted a brow. “You can’t even keep a straight face while you say that.”

He snorted and tried to cut himself off but tiny chuckles kept breaking free, and his amusement made me laugh, too.

After a moment, he said, “Sorry. You just… you were so serious, and I…” He trailed off with another laugh.

I snorted. “Yeah, yeah.”

“Is it so bad that I find you adorable and fluffy and want to snuggle with you?”

I blinked at him.

He blinked at me.

My eyes widened, and I opened my mouth to respond, but he slapped his hand over it.

He hissed, “No. I did not say what you think I said.”

“You said snuggle,” I mumbled against his hand. It came out garbled, but I had no doubt he’d understood.

His eyes narrowed. “Nope. I did not say the S word.”

“Mhm.”

“I didn’t.”

“Mhm.”

“I didn’t, Cosmo.”

I waggled my eyebrows at him as I pulled his hand away. “You want to snuggle me.”

“Nope. I definitely didn’t say that.”

“Yes, you did.”

He huffed at me, staring for a few seconds. “We will never speak of this again.”

I snorted in absolute amusement. “You might never speak of this again, but there’s nothing stopping me fr?—”

He slammed his mouth against mine to cut me off, and I couldn’t help but laugh against his lips. He climbed on my lap and wiggled around in a way that made me groan as he buried his fingers in my hair and deepened the kiss.

Just when I thought about taking his clothes off so he’d be naked, too, he mumbled against my lips, “Never again.”

I couldn’t help it. I laughed loudly and gave him a push.

He leaned back with a smile, then pecked my lips. “If we want to continue this, we need to go somewhere else. We’re on the kids’ treehouse porch.”

I wrinkled my nose as I took in our surroundings, then sighed. “Yeah, you’re right.” I kissed his nose and lifted him off my lap, depositing him on the ground beside me. “Race you to our room?”

Before he could respond, I took off, rushing to the ladder and climbing down.

Mads yelled, “Cheater!” But I heard him running after me, both of us laughing along the way.