“These are blades too, not swords though...something smaller.”
“And this?” I ask, tilting my head back and pointing at the circle under my chin.
Wekun smiles, satisfaction lighting his features. “That, Falon, is your Sept rune.”
“We can’t find her anywhere, are you sure that—” Treno’s question chokes off as he storms inside the tent and quickly takes me in. His eyes jump to Wekun’s close proximity to my very naked body, and his purple and blue gaze flashes with fury. “What in the rut do you think you’re doing?” he bellows, stomping over to place himself in front of me.
Wekun wisely slips himself to the opposite corner of the tent, his hands up and his face and body radiating innocence.
“I’ll rip your eyes from your head for looking at her and then choke you with your own severed hands,” Treno threatens.
I wince at the visual.
He takes a step in Wekun’s direction and then stops himself. Treno seems momentarily torn between wanting to rip him apart with his bare hands and protecting my naked body from Wekun’s unwelcome gaze. Treno has the same marks on him that Zeph does, that I do, and I realize that Wekun never answered my question about what went wrong when trying to sever the mate bonds.
“He wasn’t doing anything, Treno. He was just telling me what my runes mean. I asked him to,” I defend, reaching up to his massive shoulder and trying to pull him back.
He doesn’t budge.
“That’s not his place, not like that, and not with a mated female,” Treno argues, fury and self-righteousness wafting off him in waves.
I snort. “Then whose place is it? And we’re not mated. This is none of your business,” I counter.
He rounds on me, stepping forward until his tunic-covered chest is pressed against my naked one. “I could have told you what my marks mean, and the fact that you’re still wearing my runes, and I’m now adorned in yours, proves that we’re as mated as we ever were.”
I narrow my eyes and shake my head at him. “You had plenty of time to fill me in, Treno. You were too busy blaming me for your problems and your brother’s attempts to kill you.”
“Falon,” he implores, cutting me off and lifting his hands to gently cup my shoulders.
I shrug him off. “No. You have no right to come barging in here and accusing anyone of anything. Wekun is trying to help me, which is more than I can say of anyone else.”
“We’re mates, Falon, this will take time for all of us to adjust to, but you need to hear me on this,” he orders.
“I don’t need to do anything,” I snap, stepping back from him. “What we are is temporary, because I’m going to fix it. It will be better for all of us in the long run, you’ll see.”
“We are not temporary. It doesn’t work that way. You may not want to listen right now, and I’ll respect that, but you can’t shut me out forever.”
“Watch me,” I growl and reach for the dry shirt I hung on top of the screen. I pull it on over my head, needing the buffer between me and Treno to help fortify my indignation and my choices.
“You can leave now,” I tell him, giving him my back as I pick up a comb from the side table next to the bed.
I brush through my frizzed locks, the ends of my hair still wet from sitting in the bathing pool with Zeph. Concern and curiosity over where he is and if he’s okay trickles through me, but I turn the worry tap off and tell myself he’s not my problem. Well, hopefully not for much longer anyway.
Treno is still behind me, radiating irritation. I can sense that he wants to say something, but he holds back. Good. Because I don’t want to hear shit he has to say.
“This isn’t over,” he finally grumbles, and then he spins on his heel and storms out.
“Yeah...fuck you,” I mumble under my breath as I comb through more snarls.
I miss conditioner.
“Sorry about that,” I offer Wekun on a tired sigh.
I pull several furs off the bed and drag them over to the pillow nest that’s calling my name.
“You look shot as fuck right now, so I won’t push you tonight, but when you feel up to it, can we try to break the mate bonds for good?” I ask, my voice breaking slightly and forcing my vulnerability to leak out against my will.
“Falon...”
I stop what I’m doing and turn to Wekun. The way he just said my name is screaming that there’s going to be a bunch of words that pour out after it, and I’m not going to want to hear any of them.
“I tried,” he tells me somberly. “It appeared to work for two of your connections. I felt them break, just like I was expecting. But then with the third... When it came to Zeph...maybe it was your awakening that messed with the strength of the connection. Or in your case, it might be that severing things just isn’t possible. I couldn’t cut the cords between you, and not only that, when I tried, it almost drained me completely, and the next thing I knew, the two connections I had already severed were back and fortified as fuck. I’ve never seen anything like it. I understand why you’re making the choice that you are, but there’s nothing more that I can do at this point to help you break away from them.”
His words burrow into me, cutting me deeply as they go. Desolation pours into the wounds, and I collapse onto the cushions and stare at nothing as I try to think through a future where I’m stuck with mates like these. Choosing to sever our ties hurt, but I knew
