17. Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Seventeen
No one laughed at his joke. "Tough crowd."
Pain radiated from multiple places on his body, and it made his mind fuzzy. Fortunately, his competent healer ensured the agony he'd awoken to was slowly abating, and easy enough to hide behind a smile. For the moment, he was content to simply rest here on the floor and let her do what she did best.
"Maybe once you stop bleeding all over the place, we'll be more in the mood to smile," Key replied.
Eden was frowning at him. "Jeremiah said you saved him. Is that true?"
"I become a touch territorial when my clansmen are threatened. All part of the Best Sovereign Ever package." None of his clan members held in their groans. Traitors.
"You're all making me look bad in front of my lady. My apologies if I worried you, Eden."
"Worried me?" she scoffed. "You came back bloody, broken, and unconscious. That's a bit more than worrisome."
"I've gotta hand it to you, though, Nero," Jeremiah interjected. "Seeing you take down so many wolves without breaking a sweat was pretty amazing. And I'm fairly certain you could've taken down those two who went for me had you not teleported directly in front of me."
"Once again, your room reading abilities astound me, Jeremiah. Thanks for that."
Nero tried to get up and console his mate, but he earned himself a pinch on his good shoulder from Luna. The healer rolled her eyes.
"Enough of that, sovereign. There'll be no getting up and banishing Jeremiah until you've stopped bleeding. Fates, those wolves tore you to shreds." She paused. "Can you move your fingers yet?"
Nero fought through the pain, gingerly making a fist, then spirit fingers in spite of Luna's scoff of protest.
"Affirmative."
"Lovely." With one last pulse of heat to his wounds, the healer's potent ability seared through the arm to finish knitting together damaged nerves. "Now, I've already told Eden you have to take it easy, so no excuses. Doctor's orders: listen to her."
"Always happy to take that prescription."
Luna ambled to her feet, tilting to one side as she stood. On instinct, Nero shot up steady her, ignoring the wave of dizziness that drowned his vision.
"Physician, heal thyself. Looks like we both need to take it easy. Key, Zia, Jeremiah, please make sure Luna gets home and rests. She overexerted herself."
As soon as they left, one glance at Eden told him everything he needed to know. His gifts were already screaming at him that her worry and concern had escalated every second he'd been gone.
"I'm so sorry, Eden."
Without reservation, she walked into his waiting arms. "When I saw you on the floor, I've never been that scared."
Beneath his skin, his panther began vibrating with the need to comfort his mate, the beast purring and pacing. Eden noticed the change, looking up in confusion.
"My panther hates that you're sad. We'll start a vicious circle if we don't manage to change that."
In response, she gently rubbed his breastbone, the action soft and incredibly tender. "There there, Coffee Shop. No need to chase your own tail."
"I've lost the Cutie now, have I?"
"Bitter?"
"A bit."
"Good. I'm a bit bitter about you almost losing your arm. Now come on, I'm making you pancakes."
Nero followed as she led him into the kitchen, sensing she needed to distance herself from the bloodstains on the floor. It would probably take a bit of convincing before his determined human admitted he was better.
"Pancakes, huh? It's not the morning."
She sent him a withering look. "Breakfast doesn't have boundaries, Nero, and Luna told me you'd need to eat something. Besides, it's that or eggs in a nest."
"What's eggs in a nest?"
"My momma just turned over in her grave." Eden grabbed a pan, then the bread from the counter. "I guess we're doing eggs in a nest, then."
When he went to grab the eggs, she snarled fiercely at him. It was so adorable he struggled against the need to get on one knee and propose to her right then and there.
"Sit! Just—just don't move. I hate that you're in pain." Then, more quietly, "I know what pain is, Nero, and I'd never wish it on anyone."
A sudden chill made him forget about everything. "What do you mean, Eden?"
"Everyone knows what pain is. It's one of the single uniting factors of the human experience—well, human or immortal, I suppose. There isn't a person alive who hasn't been injured at some point in their lives. Varying degrees of pain, sure, but no one has ever gotten through life without being hurt."
He nodded, but couldn't help thinking the universal pain experience hadn't been what she was referring to.
"Anyway, I'm just saying I'm glad you're going to be alright. Why don't you change out of those bloody clothes? I can barely concentrate with the reminder of how badly you were injured."
Nero nodded a wordless reply, too perplexed by her actions to make sense of them. Seconds later, he teleported a new shirt and trousers on his body, but Eden didn't notice.
"I've broken more bones than I can count," he started, "had more flesh wounds and snapped tendons and bloodied noses than is worth remembering. When you've walked the planet as long as I have, pain stops being a surprise. The older I get, the easier I can deal with it. It doesn't mean I like it, but I've found it's easier to compartmentalize and move past it when it's expected."
As she cut a hole in the bread, loaded it with butter, and then broke an egg into the gap, she said, "I'm not sure that's healthy, Nero."
"Probably not," he paused, "but going to bed and expecting two hours of sleep and getting five makes me outrageously happy."
She studied him for a moment. "I can't tell if that makes you a pessimist, an optimist, or a realist."
"You should do a lecture on it!" He grinned. "Study the patterns of Fighters, Flighters, and Freezers, and see if there's a correlation. I bet you most Fighters are optimists. They think they can win."
"And the Flighters think they'll lose."
"I'm not sure what that says about the people who Freeze."
"They know they're probably dead either way," Eden chuckled. "They're realists."
The sizzle of the stove was the only noise for the next few minutes. She'd directed her attention solely to the frying pan, avoiding him. He could feel her fear, how much she struggled to repress her emotions, and how incredibly conflicted they were.
Even if Nero had lacked the ability to read emotions, he would've known. He could read it all over her face.
A tight smile flitted over her lips as she expertly flipped the food. "These are a heart attack and a half, but they're amazing."
"Who taught you how to make them?"
"My grandpa." Affection pulsed from Eden as she continued her work on the griddle. "Here, they're ready."
Flipping off the griddle, she plated both slices. Sunny side up eggs were nestled inside the wheat toast with a layer of butter.
Eager to sample the dish, Nero reached for the plate, grunting a bit when a searing pain burned along his shoulder. Though his fingers connected, they twitched perilously, and Eden immediately withdrew.
" Nero ."
"I'm fine, truly."
Without looking, he knew he'd reopened one of the gashes, the familiar dampness of blood spreading over the cotton shirt. Eden's attention flicked up to the top of his shoulder, and he caught the spreading red out of the corner of his eye. When he looked back at her, terror and anger dueled on her face. Sliding to his feet, he enveloped her in his arms.
"Do we need to get Luna? I won't have you bleeding out on my watch."
"Eden, I'm okay. I'm magical, remember? An all-powerful immortal, who's super handsome, charming, and incredibly modest, too." The way she clutched at told him she wasn't ready to take the situation lightly. "There's just a superficial wound left. My body is actively healing it. I'm right here, and I always will be, I swear."
Gingerly, he tilted up her chin and caught those stunning green eyes.
"May I kiss you, Eden?"
A soft smile and a nod gave him permission. He claimed her mouth with as much tenderness as he could muster. His entire world narrowed to the feeling of her lips on his, the sweet scent of peony enveloping his senses. Her slight frame rested against the broad panes of his, fitting perfectly together.
Everything he was and everything he would be existed purely for her: his mate. His hands tenderly brought her closer, cinching around her frame as she dissolved against him. That was when they both felt the pulse in their souls, the burgeoning link of the mating bond.
Nero could barely contain his boundless joy. After eleven hundred years, the bond he'd spent his entire life longing for finally arrived.
Bewildered, Eden retreated from his kiss, her wide eyes blinking up at him. Her hand rested on her breastbone.
"What—what is that?"
Hesitating, he searched her gaze as he fumbled for the right words. "Eden, do you remember when I said I was drawn to you, and that I wanted to keep you safe?"
"Yes, but what does that have to do with what I feel right now?"
"In your research, did you ever run across the concept of mated pairs?"
"Mated pairs?" Eden's eyes went wide. "Nero, are you alluding to fated mates? Two people who are destined to be together … soulmates?"
He nodded.
Her face crumpled. "But that's impossible!"
"I assure you, it's very possible, Eden." He took a tentative step forward, reaching for her. "This link between us, this connection: it's a mating bond."
"A bond?" A palpable desperation filled her voice, the heavy punch of regret hitting him in the gut. "Nero, you can't be tied to me!"
He stopped moving toward her, struggling to sift through the emotions that were barreling at him through both their nascent mating bond and his ability. He took a gasping breath to keep from suffocating under the barrage of negativity.
"You—you don't want this?"
"Nero, I can't be what you want me to be," she breathed. "This— us —we could never work."
"I would never expect anything of you," he promised. "If it goes no further, if all you ever wanted to be was friends, or social acquaintances, or even pen pals, Eden, I'd love every second of the time you gifted me. And if you wanted to leave …"
Nero's voice broke, but he forced himself to finish. "If you wanted to leave, I'd take you anywhere you wanted to go. I just want you to be safe. To be happy."
Tears pooled in Eden's eyes as she made a sound of apology and agony. "This is just too much, Nero. I can't deal with it right now. I need time to think about all of this."
He forced himself to nod.
"I can't go back to my apartment, can I?"
Despair knifed into Nero like a red-hot dagger— Eden's despair. His attention was on her in an instant. "I meant it when I said this house is yours, Eden. You can stay here; I'll leave. That way, you'll be safe, and you can have time to think. Alone, no one would interrupt you."
Eden didn't speak.
"Tell me what you need at your apartment—or anywhere—and I'll get it for you."
She nodded.
The sudden and inexplicable change in their relationship had left him reeling. To know that her feelings were awash of negativity made his panther confused. Eden's emotions, now funneling through the ghosting mating bond between them, were breaking his heart.
"I'm sorry," he swallowed against a throat thick with emotion. "About all of this. If there had been another way, I would have taken it."
Nero opened a drawer and pulled out a pen and a notepad. He scribbled down the names and numbers of the people Eden had met while she'd been here.
"If you need anything, anything at all, call someone on this list. It doesn't have to be me." He offered her a sad smile.
As he turned and walked out of the house, he didn't look back. Eden needed time, and he'd give it to her. If she needed space, he'd run to the opposite side of the world. It didn't matter that his soul was shattering into a thousand pieces.
Hers was far more important.