The mayor’s mouth presses into a thin line. His gaze flickers across Kade, then Felix, and he looks out the other window. Kade bristles at the callous way Felix’s father treats him.
“Close the door,” the mayor says. “We’re leaving.”
Felix flinches. He turns back to Kade with a wan smile and wriggles his fingers, as though he’s hiding it from his father. See you tomorrow, he mouths.
“See you,” Kade says. Was this what his mom had been worried about? The expensive car, or Felix’s father treating them both like disgusting midgets? Kade knows they can’t afford anything expensive. But that doesn’t mean the mayor can treat Felix like a mangy dog.
The car door slams. Kade tries to look through the window at Felix, but all he sees is a reflection of himself. Then the car rolls off, a sleek monster prowling out of the narrow parking lot, and Kade is alone once more.
In the following days, Kade and Felix realize that the bullies don’t care about bonding marks. Nor do they care if someone gets hurt.
They haul Felix away from the playground into a bathroom. Kade chases after them, kicking and punching. They give him black eyes and bruised ribs, and Kade shoves someone hard into the wall, breaking his arm.
Felix apologizes after, when they’re both huddled in a stall and shaking, and it’s only the two of them, their breathing loud in the silence of the bathroom.
“It’s not your fault,” Kade growls, looking down at his own hands. He needs to get stronger. Better. So he can beat the crap out of those bullies and protect Felix, so they won’t threaten his friend anymore. “I swear I’ll trash them so hard they won’t even think about touching you.”
Felix sighs, leaning into his arm. “I’m sorry for getting you into this. You really didn’t have to.”
But Kade’s mom had pulled him aside the night before, telling him about bondmates and staying by his mate for life. Kade will be damned before he abandons Felix. So he holds on to Felix’s trembling hand, giving him a squeeze. “We’re in this together. I’ll swear it again if you want.”
Felix smiles weakly at him, holding his hand tighter. “Thank you.”
Two years later, they kiss in Kade’s bedroom.
It’s not something Kade anticipates, when all he meant by the bonding mark was to protect Felix. But as they sit side-by-side at a low table, doing their math homework, Felix sighs, and Kade has never seen anyone with greener eyes than him.
“So the bonding mark,” Kade says, turning his wrist up to face them both. The scar Felix left is a thin, curved line now, tiny against his growing wrist. “You ever thought about what it means?”
“Other than we’re supposed to be mates?” Felix laughs, then sobers. His brows draw together. “Do you regret it? I mean, if you find someone you really like out there...”
Kade stares. He’s never even thought about anyone other than Felix. “Do you like someone else?” he blurts, suddenly uncertain. Because he still remembers the mayor’s cool stare, the way Alastor Henry never seems to be satisfied with him. “Someone with more money?”
Felix laughs. “I like being here,” he says, looking up at the dusty rafters of Kade’s bedroom. “It’s nice.”
But Kade has been to Felix’s house once—it’s all marble, shiny and vast and expensive. When they got home, his dad had said, “We’ll buy something like that if we shit gold bricks.”
“This is a small house,” Kade says. He looks at the worn covers on his bed, the chewed ends of his pencils, Felix’s legs kicked out on a threadbare rug. “I’ll get something better for us.”
“You don’t have to,” Felix says, his eyes twinkling. “I have everything I want.”
Really? Kade wants to ask. Because Felix is worth so much, and he deserves all the best things Kade can give him.
Felix leans in, his nose skimming Kade’s neck to catch the pine and cedar scent. When he follows Kade’s jaw up to his mouth, Kade freezes.
He’s thought about it. Never really known if this is what Felix wants, because their friendship is fragile. He can’t risk kissing Felix, and having Felix reject him. Not when they’re bondmates. His heart thunders in his chest.
Felix brushes their lips together, slow and soft. Then his hand slips on Kade’s thigh, thumping hard on the floor. In the next moment, he’s sprawled across Kade’s legs, giggling. Heat sweeps up Kade’s cheeks.
“You call that a kiss?” he says, because Felix kissed him, Felix just kissed him, and he has been hoping for this to happen for months.
“Maybe?” Felix grins, pushing himself back up. “Should we try again?”
“Hell yeah,” Kade says, hauling him close. Felix purrs, shoving him down onto the floor.
Against him, Felix is warm and delightful and safe. Kade can’t imagine his life without this boy. He wants to spend years and decades with his bondmate, wants Felix laughing by his side, wants to hold him close and never let go.
In that moment, he understands why his dad had given his mom that bonding mark. He will protect Felix, no matter what it costs.
30
Kade Present day
When he opens his eyes, Kade finds his fist clenched around the ring on his chain. He looks into the shadows, unfurling his fingers. In the glow from his laptop screen, the ring gleams a silvery-blue.
Once upon a time, he had promised Felix everything. Nothing is left between them now, and his heart aches for it.
Kade sighs, peeling himself away from the door. He settles down in his bed, staring up at the ceiling, and the same emptiness haunts his gut again. Felix is pregnant. The baby isn’t his.
This happens in the news sometimes. Famous Omega Carries An Outsider’s Child. Kade never imagined it would happen to him. It feels like he’s a failure, like he never was good enough for Felix.
He piles other thoughts on top of
