Chapter 69 Werewolf bond
We were at the front door when Hale took my hand in his. I raised my eyes to meet him.
“Are you OK?”
“Will he be OK?”
We voiced out at the same time. His hand tightened around mine, but he did not smile.
I look away, embarrassed.
“I’m sor…”
I bumped into something hard, right at the front door and jumped back with a gasp.
My eyes traveled up from the pair of stocking feet in house slides, to the worsted flannel loose trousers and a cream-colored cardigan over a white shirt.
Those aqua-colored eyes were glassy and bright when our gazes locked, staring at my face with a hint of worry.
I swallowed.
His curls were tumbling all over his face. As though he had his fingers in them all day, mussing them up like those American teen actors loved to do.
It was difficult to hold his gaze, but harder to look away. He looked like a French model on the streets of Paris in Autumn.
My heart was beating like a caged bird at this point, time had stopped, and I felt an overwhelming urge to cry.
It was the way he looked at me, that longing, yearning gaze he had always given me from the moment we first met in the garden.
His eyes looked lost, sad. A similar sadness to the kind the dragon carried for his dead queen.
And at that moment, he winced, as if in pain. He gave Hale and me a small nod, and wordlessly walked around us.
“Daine needs you.” Hale stroked his cheek with his index and middle fingers as he walked away.
My heart squeezed.
I tried to pull my hand out of his, but he tightened his hold on me till I met his gaze again.
My cheeks were burning now, and I could not decide the actual source.
My jealousy?
The embarrassment at this jealousy, or the confusion at what exactly I was jealous about.
Finn and Hale, Daine and his old queen now living in Finn’s body, making him so goddamn priceless, or Hale loving other people who were not me?
I turned away from the elegant man in his crisp, custom tailored suit and white shirt.
This was a mess. This was a whole mess. And why was I having these thoughts when my priority right now should be to avoid giving my heart to any of them. Even Finn.
“Thank you.” I said as Hale pulled the passenger door open for me.
“Always, fairy.” He responded gently, and when I glanced up into those midnight blue eyes, warmth spread round my chest.
I cleared my throat noisily and turned to face the windshield. He shut the door carefully.
“You carry so much sadness for everyone,” he said about ten minutes into our quiet drive to my parents’ house.
I took a deep breath but maintained my silence. What did he expect me to say?
Around us, the LA traffic was at its thickest as the sun was beginning to wane.
“Lys,” Hale called as the cars started to move again. There was a new steel in his voice.
I turned my head. He started to speak, and then exhaled. Gave it another try, but stopped again.
Hale had never been one to be at a loss for words. I waited.
“Are you not sad for us? Daine has found his queen, in the boy he has loved for years. Are you not sad for us, what we could have been?”
I jerked my head away, wishing there was a bottle of water or any kind of drink at all.
“Behind you,” he said.
I jumped.
My head swiveled to him, taking in that silver hair shining like a fluorescent chandelier against the sun streaming in from the windshield.
“You really need to stop reading my thoughts.”
I reached behind, stretched and pulled out a bottle of water from the ice chest between the backseats.
The water was cool against my throat and I felt less like crying. “It’s impolite.” I finished in a whisper.
He laughed, surprising me. “Who told you that? The immoral dragon?”
“He’s moral enough if he respects my agency and doesn't insist on eavesdropping on my thoughts.” The plastic bottle crinkled in my grip as my hand tightened around it.
“You’re defending him?”
“You confuse me, Hale. Do you love him or not?”
He growled low in his throat and my clit kicked. Night take me!
His face was tight, his jaw working, bringing to mind the image of him in that cave. His anger at my suggesting he claimed me without his partner.
It was unbelievable how much had changed in just one week. Now they all secretly wanted me for themselves.
Look at them, pet. So fucking jealous. They want you.
“By all phases...” Hale's voice cut through the car, and then he stopped. “Can you not question my love for Daine anymore? I’ll give my life for that man, and he knows it.”
I turned to the window.
“And you’re my mate in case you keep forgetting that. Unlike Daine, I would have to actively force myself to not listen to your thoughts. Especially when you are distressed, I hear everything, no matter what part of the world you are in.”
I stole a glance at him, and turned to the window, staring at a Still Night Pearl colored Honda CR-V that stopped right in the middle of the road, as cars started to circle it.
“Is that how you found me at the cave?”
“That was all Daine.”
From my side vision, I could see him relaxing in his seat finally, spreading those thick thighs, with just one hand on the steering wheel as he wove through traffic.
“He says you summon him. Your heart summons him.”
“Oh.”
Now, I remember him resting a hand on my chest that day he stormed into my bedroom, accusing me of using spells on him.
But how does my heart summon him without trying?
“It may have just been a coincidence.” I shook my head.
When our eyes met, that mischievous light was back in those blue eyes. “You want to give it a shot? Although I should warn you, in the state he is right now, it would be a very angry dragon who would appear in this car.”
I shivered at the thought of it.
“So you know exactly how my heart summons him?”
“You don’t.” It was not a question.
His brows furrowed in surprise, and I realized immediately that he would not tell me.
If Draki had decided it was best to tell me nothing about this, he, too, would conclude it was best to keep me in the dark.
My head fell against the headrest.
This was exhausting. The mysteries, complexities, feeling like a third wheel in the multiple pockets of love triangles between four of us.
Love? Get a grip, Lys.
“Maybe our love would not have lasted anyway. It was always…” I stopped. “Chaotic.”
“Passioante.” He cut in. “Passionate Lys. We are wolves, wolves who denied ourselves of intimacy. Chose abstinence when we were supposed to be bonding, supposed to have bonded for years.”
“So you’re saying…” I cut him off. “All we had to do was mate? That if I part my legs.” I raised my right leg to the dashboard, “And let you fuck me, I'll rid myself of this constant urge to fight you?”
He paused, staring at me in shock, and then his eyes flashed.