Chapter 16 - Faye

So many feelings—there were too many feelings. I was relieved to see Kylie and Fred. I was ecstatic that they were here. I was thrilled that I could hug Kylie again. But I wasn't thrilled about seeing them wrestling around with Hector. A splash of anger came through my chest as I realized how long it had taken them to get here.

I grumbled, "Why didn't they come sooner?"

I had only just started feeling things for Hector. If they had appeared before the mating ritual, then I wouldn't be stuck here the way that I was. I wouldn't be stuck with a horrible decision to make—them or Hector. Beaufort Creek or Silverfang.

Kylie gaped at me. "Excuse me, Miss Priss. You didn't exactly leave a trail of cookies."

Relief slid in again as I realized that she was okay. She had to be okay with her typical sarcastic humor directed at me. I spread my arms. "Shoot, it's damn good to see you. Come here!"

She threw herself into me, wheezing as I squeezed her tight enough to crack a few ribs. Hector hadn't done much damage to her. They hadn't done much damage to Hector either. There was a little bit of a mess on the porch, but there was nothing else that worried me. I gave Kylie one last squeeze before releasing her to check on the other two idiots.

Hector's nose trickled with blood. I raced over to him and dabbed it with the edge of my sleep shirt. As soon as the blood was wiped away, I stood back to look at everyone. Kylie had her nose twisted like she had smelled something foul. Though, the expression on her face was one of confusion—I knew it because of the way her eyebrows stuck together—it was also a look of concern. The one that she would claim was just concern and nothing else. But I always knew it was more than that because she was my best friend.

Fred stood aside, awkwardly lanky in his movements as always. He looked a lot like a ghost with the backdrop of an impressive night sky with the way the flood lights illuminated his face. It gave him a spectral appearance that would have been haunting if I wasn't so used to it. His eyebrows contorted, making his expression more malicious than concerned.

I frowned. "What is it?"

Fred unwound his brows and pointed to his throat. "You got a little something—"

Kylie huffed. "A big something."

I bowed my head while touching my mark. "Oh, that."

Fred pointed to Hector. "From him?"

I nodded. "Yeah, I sort of… ran away and eloped. Kinda of. Maybe?"

Kylie wheezed. "Goddess, are either of you going to invite us inside? It's been a long trip. I'm glad we're not fighting, but I sure would love to sit down."

"Sure." Hector gestured for the door, casting a curious glance in my direction. I couldn't blame him. We were in a terribly strange situation together. "Right this way."

Kylie took my hand in hers. "I was so worried about you. I just didn't know where you went. There was a huge struggle and…" she trailed off. I led her inside and kept my hand in hers, trying to get her to understand through my gentle touch alone that I wasn't in any danger. "You sure you ran away on purpose , Faye?"

Though the mixture of feelings remained, all was well here, and I wanted her to know that. I sighed. "It's just hard to explain. We'll tell you all about it in a minute. Tea?"

Her brows turned from folded in to spread out and up. The sudden jolt expressed astonishment. At least from what I could tell. I looked into her eyes for a while, trying to gauge whether she was cool with me being mated or not. Her lips turned down into a frown. "I don't understand what happened. There were signs of a struggle."

I motioned to the table. "Sit, please."

Fred ran his fingers through his hair. "You don't seem to be struggling." He looked at Hector. "Sorry about that, man."

"Could have gone easy on the bludgeoning, but I'm good if you're good."

"All good here." Fred gestured for Kylie to sit next to him. "Come on, honey. Don't make them feel any more embarrassed than we do."

Kylie sat down and then blushed while Fred wrapped his arm around her. How long had they been together? And she was still giggling like a teenager with him.

As soon as I sat down next to Hector, I realized that this was the first time anyone from my old pack had visited. It would be the first time anyone would see me in a state of being mated to another person and not just sitting alone in a bougie-looking apartment with a bunch of plants and birdhouses. I was so nervous about it. What was I supposed to tell them, that Hector kidnapped me because he wanted me to be his mate?

Not a good look.

But at the same time, I knew that this connection was right for me. I knew that this mating bond would be the one that could potentially last. It was complicated. I was in a state of complication. Too many feelings again. Too much danger.

Then came poking through my certainty was a sense of doubt that seemed to originate from nowhere. Somewhere deep inside me, that strange voice came again. Turn around and run. No one has your best interests in mind.

I looked at Hector, who appeared worried.

But I do , the voice said. I can protect you. I can teach you how to use your power.

I shook my head. Where was that coming from? How did the voice know that I wanted to learn how to control my power? The clock struck three in the morning. Maybe I was still dreaming a little bit. It was odd to come across my mate fighting with my two best friends on my back porch. And if I hadn't, maybe I would have woken up in a better state.

As I went to the coffee machine to start making something for us to drink, the voice came again, taking over my ears, taking over everything, trying to convince me of something that I couldn't quite discern. It just kept saying that it could save me. It tried to convince me not to do the explanation.

For as long as they knew the truth, then they might take me away from my mate. They might take me away from this place that had finally accepted me.

I couldn't let that happen.

***

I felt winded when I was done explaining everything. I decided to tell them the entire truth, that Hector came to my apartment, took me away to save me from a demon, and drove me all the way up here. Even though he had kidnapped me, I was staying here of my own free will at this point. I had chosen to go through the mating ritual, just as Hector had encouraged. I could tell Kylie was more than concerned at this point. She was in awe of my explanation, while Fred looked utterly bewildered. Which was funny to see on his face because he usually wasn't as expressive as other people.

It must have been truly surprising if Fred was showing any kind of emotion. Kylie and Fred shared an equally dismayed look. Then Kylie looked at me and held her palms out in a sign of surrender. "I guess as long as you're happy…"

I nodded curtly. "I am. He's my mate."

Fred leaned forward. "Are you sure?"

After Kylie set her hands down, her eyes kept drifting over to Hector, who was standing guard to my left. His hand was on my shoulder. His senses were on high alert. I could tell by the tension in his fingers. So much strain sat inside of his knuckles. And every so often, he squeezed me. I guessed it was a form of making sure that I was okay.

"I'm sure," I affirmed. "We used to be in this pack together about seven years ago. This has been sort of…" I glanced up at Hector.

He shrugged. "Everyone expected it."

I nodded. "Yes, everyone expected it."

Kylie chortled with disbelief. "But did you expect it? I mean, you sought refuge with the Beauforts. Why would you leave that?"

"Because I'm supposed to be here."

"It just doesn't seem to be adding up. You said he was your bully—" She pointed at Hector. "But now he's your mate—" She pointed at me. "And now you're just going to live together? Because he kidnapped you and then went on a high-speed chase with a demon—to allegedly save you?"

My heart felt like it was lurching in my chest. How did I explain to one of my best friends that this was the right path when I hadn't been honest with her about who I was or where I came from? How did I assure her mate, who's overly protective of everybody in Kylie's life, that I wasn't in any danger?

How did I know that I wasn't in any kind of danger?

See? They're already turning against you.

The bizarre voice returned, sounding funky and screwy now like a garbled piece of music coming through an old speaker. I tried to sort it out, but Kylie and Fred were now talking erratically to Hector. Their voices were on the rise. Hector was clutching my shoulder like he was about to yank me into another dimension. Was he going to kidnap me again? Was he going to take me away from everything? Panic bubbled inside me, making the hair on my arms stand up and slamming my heart against my sternum.

Agitation filled up Kylie's face. That apprehensiveness alone was enough to inspire the rest of my feelings to flare up. Though Fred wasn't as expressive, I could sense his nervousness that slid through the room. It stuck in the air like the humidity that crackled with electricity before a storm.

Thunder rumbled in the distance. The storm clouds were rolling in. I could already feel the electrons in the air shaking, shivering, quivering. The whole house was charging up. A bolt of lightning would probably strike us right this second. I stood up and pressed my palms to the table.

"Look, she's sick. What have you been feeding her?"

"We should really get in touch with our alphas. This doesn't seem right."

Hector slammed his fist on the table. "You're not taking my mate away from me!"

I had to go outside and calm down. I had to get the clouds to go away. But as I took a step to the right, the room spun. I halted with my hands on the table, noticing that the living room was growing darker and darker. Black cotton clouds covered the living room ceiling. Lightning flashed over the furniture. A thread of mist came down in a slow spiral at first, turning in on itself, twisting about into a perfect vortex.

Not this again , I thought, mortified. Anything but this. I can't control this. Please, make it stop…

I walked around the table, standing with my back to the argument happening behind me that I knew was about whether I was safe and sane in this household. I raised my hands to the storm forming in the living room. I needed to stop this before it became another disaster on my record before I ruined everything that I had worked so hard to achieve.

I charged my fingers. I pressed them together. I held them out to the living room, and then—

Another thought occurred to me, a disturbance so great that it made me tremble inside. It blotted out the sound of my friends shouting at my mate and my mate roaring in response. It blocked out everything with a modest truth:

You could just destroy it all.

I shuddered as I held my stomach, trying to figure out if it was my thought or not. And if that was the case, was it stress? Was it the fact that I had missed so much of my routine? Maybe the Virginia air was getting to me, and I had to sit down.

Simultaneously, I realized that the origination of the thought wasn't the problem at all. No, this was worse. This was so much worse than I could comprehend.

The real problem was my terrifying desire to do it .