Chapter Six #2
“Yes!” Asmos pumped his fist. “I can’t wait to meet your mate.”
“Mate?”
Bel snapped his head toward the wall across the office where Atlas stood freshly showered and dressed in jeans and a hoodie. His mate was beautiful. Hair neatly styled, eyes bright, cheeks with a pink hue, and he glared at Bel.
“Mate?” Atlas repeated.
“Oh shit,” Mammon muttered before disappearing.
“Uh,” Bel stammered.
“Hi!” Asmos bounced up from the chair.
Damn! Bel slowly rose. He ignored Asmos who practically danced in front of the desk.
Atlas hadn’t taken his narrowed eyes off Bel.
“I can explain,” Bel offered, holding up his hands.
Mammon appeared back in the office and grabbed Asmos. Then the two demons were gone for good as Atlas stomped forward.
Bel locked his knees to keep from retreating. He never backed up for anyone. Except his mate did not look happy at all.
Atlas was nearly vibrating. “I knew it!” He slammed his palm on the top of the desk.
“Uh,” Bel said again.
“Sit!” Atlas ordered while pointing to the chair that Bel had just vacated. “Now.”
Bel sat.
“You have some explaining to do,” Atlas said.
Hadn’t he said that once already to Bel?
Oh well, Atlas demanding answers couldn’t be helped.
There was so much that the human didn’t know.
And he wasn’t a fool. Bel knew he had to tell Atlas everything.
It was just the way mates should be with each other.
Even if Atlas needed time to adjust or even think Bel would give him all the time in the world.
They had eternity after all.
Mates were important to the demons. That meant that Atlas was important to Bel. More important than anything else, in Bel’s very long existence.
* * * * *
Atlas
Bel looked like he’d seen a ghost. His normally dark skin had a gray tint to it that looked somewhat unhealthy.
Not that Atlas meant to overhear the conversation that Bel had been having with two strange demons, but he didn’t know how to announce he was entering a room yet. There was too much to learn.
“Would you like a chair?” Bel offered. “Coffee? Breakfast?”
“I want an answer,” he snapped. Although he wouldn’t mind coffee.
“Yes,” Bel said quietly as he linked his fingers and placed them in front of him on the desk.
Atlas didn’t miss the stiff way Bel sat and watched him.
Yes? What did that mean? Okay, he needed to calm down.
He’d already expected that he might be Bel’s mate.
Nothing else made sense with Atlas’s easy acceptance into the realm.
“I’d like a chair and coffee please,” he requested.
If Atlas relaxed, maybe his demon prince would do the same.
Bel nodded and both appeared.
Atlas pulled the chair close to the desk to sit directly across from Bel.
His mate. Atlas had known. Felt it in his heart.
He might not know what being a mate technically meant.
All he could do was base his best guesses off TV and movies.
And being around Lucifer, Gage, and Cary.
Mates were important. That much he did know.
After settling in the chair, Atlas picked up the mug and sipped. A strong robust flavor of coffee at the perfect temperature. Magic really was awesome.
He peered at Bel over the rim of his mug.
The big demon hadn’t said another word.
Atlas drank half the mug before lowering it. Immediately it was refilled to the top. “Mates.”
“Yes.”
Bel wasn’t even blinking. Just staring back at him with those dark eyes.
“Well?” Atlas rolled his wrist.
Bel frowned. “Well…what?”
If Bel didn’t look so confused, Atlas would swear the demon was being a smartass. “We are mates?”
“Yes.”
“And?” What the hell was happening in hell? Ha! Atlas amused himself. But seriously. Bel hadn’t had any problems explaining things to him over the last couple of days. Why was Bel freezing up now? “I need a little more information than that. Remember, I don’t know anything unless you tell me.”
“We are mates. Fated mates. The fates decided that you are my perfect match,” Bel told him. “As I am also yours.”
At least that was a start. They were getting somewhere. Although, it was strange to think some mystical fate thought that Atlas was perfect for a demon prince. Should he be insulted? Nah. At least he wasn’t mated to a shifter. “When did you know?”
“As soon as I walked into my office and found you here,” Bel revealed.
This whole time? “How do you know?”
“By scent,” Bel answered. “I had blocked my ability to smell when we met in your realm. It wasn’t until you followed me here that I realized who you were to me.”
They could have missed each other. If Atlas hadn’t felt the pull, curious, obsessed with the strangeness he’d seen through the flickers, he wouldn’t be here.
Had there been something more going on? That whole fate thing or something?
It was weird that while Atlas secretly watched shifters, he’d never been as bold as to follow one so closely.
“I am still amazed that you came to me,” Bel told him, revealing that their thoughts were running along the same line. “I don’t think I would have ever returned—”
Atlas smiled as Bel swallowed hard.
“I might have missed my mate,” Bel whispered.
“Why didn’t you tell me sooner?” Or at all? Did Bel not want Atlas? Was Atlas not what Bel wanted?
“How could I?” Bel asked in return. “You already have so much going on. The flickers, the shifters that killed your family, learning that you are a quarter demon. I just didn’t want to add more to your plate.”
On one hand Atlas could understand and even appreciate Bel’s explanation. On the other Atlas didn’t like that Bel would keep something so important from him. That was what bothered Atlas. Being mates was huge. What else might Bel hide from him?
“You’re angry,” Bel said, like he was surprised.
“I am,” Atlas admitted. There was really no point in lying. Not that he knew how Bel picked up on that emotion. Atlas thought he was pretty good at controlling his facial expressions and emotions.
Bel sighed as he sat back. “I’m sorry that I didn’t tell you sooner. That you had to find out that way.”
Atlas picked up his mug and sipped while running his gaze over the demon across from him. The demon prince that was apparently his mate. It could be worse. Atlas found Bel attractive. Wouldn’t it suck if he wasn’t attracted to his mate?
A silly thought, maybe. Still, Atlas had so many questions.
Even more questions that he’d awoken with.
And his mind had been filled already. In the shower, Atlas had mentally planned his day.
Or what he wanted to know. This morning had been easier.
Atlas was figuring out how to use the magic that the hell realm was filled with.
So convenient. Atlas wasn’t sure how he would have handled returning to the human realm and going back to having to do everything himself.
Plus, he really didn’t want to leave Bel. Bel felt…like home.
The demon prince wore a shirt that must be custom fitted as his wings were visible from slits but still managed to look almost business-like.
When Bel spoke or smiled, the sharp fangs peeked through, but Atlas wasn’t afraid.
Maybe he should be. He couldn’t see the rest of what Bel wore with him sitting behind the desk.
The shirt was open to reveal that amazing black demon flesh with the gold veins circling around his throat and chest. Bel’s horns shone in the low light of the office.
He really was smoking-hot. No pun intended.
With Bel in his full demon form, Atlas didn’t have to worry about the flickers. At least whatever screwy thing that was happening with seeing through glamour didn’t affect the demon that he was supposed to belong to. Or maybe it was Bel that belonged to him. Atlas liked that way better.
If Atlas was going to turn his entire life upside down, he needed to have some sort of control. “Can you explain more about mates to me? I’m basing my thoughts off what I’ve seen in TV and movies. Not all of that can be accurate.”
“You’d be surprised,” Bel said with a little smirk.
Atlas huffed.
“First let me assure you that you have a choice,” Bel said. “Until the mate bonding has been completed, you can walk away. I am not and would never take your choices away.”
“And after the mate bond is completed?”
Bel winced. “If would be difficult for either of us to spend long periods of time apart. It is not advised.”
“But if I wanted to, I could stand up right now and leave? Just walk away?”
Bel sucked in a breath as his eyes widened, going pale once again.
“Is that a no?” Atlas pressed.
“You could,” Bel said slowly.
“You don’t want me to,” Atlas pointed out.
“Of course I don’t,” Bel replied quickly. “I was going to eventually tell you. I had planned on courting you first. Showing you the best places in hell. I even went out and picked you up a gift this morning.”
A gentleman. Gentledemon? Whatever. Bel was cute with his stiff and old-fashioned tendencies.
Of course it might not be old-fashioned to Bel.
Atlas didn’t know Bel’s age. Truthfully just the thought of the major age gap made him nervous.
That wasn’t the important bit at the moment.
He never got presents. “What did you get me?”
Bel watched him for a moment longer before he opened the top drawer in his desk. He reached in but paused.
“What?” Atlas asked. “Did you not get me anything after all? Are you just a tease?” He was mostly joking. More accurately Atlas just liked the way that Bel licked his lips nervously.
“You…confuse me,” Bel told him.
Atlas cocked his head. “I confuse you? Me? In the past forty-eight hours I have moved to hell, met demons and shifters, found out I have demon blood in me, that my grandma might have had sex and a child with a demon, and I confuse you?”
“Yes,” Bel hissed through his sharp teeth. “You should be freaking out, maybe?”