Chapter Three #2
Dermot frowned. Maybe he’d expected Bastien to continue fighting with him or to yell at him. Bastien was tempted, but he couldn’t. Dermot would understand that if he had siblings. He didn’t seem to, which might explain why he believed Celeste was gone because she wanted to be.
She wasn’t. If there was one thing Bastien was sure of, it was that.
“Just walking by my house,” Dermot said. “You don’t think that your sister dragged Rose into this, do you?”
Bastien hadn’t wanted to get into this with Dermot, but clearly, Dermot hadn’t gotten the memo. “Are you insinuating that my sister lured Rose back to Parrish?”
“We don’t know. It could be.”
“No, it couldn’t be. Celeste would never go back to Parrish of her own volition, and she certainly wouldn’t involve someone else. If she did go back to Parrish, she was forced to, and you just said that she was with Rose. We don’t know that Rose isn’t a spy sent in by Parrish.”
“Rose isn’t a spy.” Dermot’s cheeks turned pink. “She’s a Vila.”
“So is my sister!” Bastien snapped. “Yet you don’t seem to care about that.
You find excuses for other Vila, but not for Celeste.
I get that you disapprove of her bonding with Parrish, and it’s clear that you don’t care about mate bonds, but don’t project your feelings about that onto her.
My sister always wanted to meet her mate.
When she did, she thought she’d be happy.
She couldn’t have known that her mate was a monster.
Parrish is smart, and he never showed any of us any hint of the kind of monster he could be.
Trust me when I tell you that when we first found out about all of this, we were wary.
We didn’t want Celeste anywhere near him, but we knew we didn’t have a choice because of the law.
He convinced Celeste that he was a good person, that he’d never had anything to do with the wars, and that he just wanted a peaceful life with his mate.
We know now that he was a liar, but back then, with Celeste clinging to her bond, we had no choice but to accept him.
She truly believed that he was the perfect mate for her.
We all wanted to believe that was the case. ”
And instead, Parrish was the worst thing that could have happened to Celeste.
Bastien still didn’t understand why she’d been saddled with a mate like him, but right now, he didn’t care about the why.
He cared about finding his sister, and he couldn’t do that if he was here yelling at Dermot.
If only Dermot would stop being an asshole, it would be easier not to.
Unfortunately, being an asshole seemed to be in Dermot’s nature.
It was as if he wasn’t even listening to what Bastien was saying, or maybe like he was trying to hurt him intentionally.
Maybe he hoped that if he did, Bastien would let him go without a fight.
Bastien wasn’t planning on doing that, but he also didn’t want to fight right now. He couldn’t afford to.
“So you didn’t want Parrish in your sister’s life,” Dermot said. “Which is exactly what I’ve been saying. Your sister made the wrong decision.”
Bastien really was going to throttle this man.
“Yes,” he blurted out. “Is that what you want to hear? Yes, Celeste made the wrong choice when she chose Parrish, her mate. That doesn’t make her a bad person.
It makes her someone who believes in love, and you know what?
I hope she finds love eventually. I hope that once Parrish is gone and she’s over the pain of losing the bond with him, she can finally be happy in a way she never has been before.
Being with Parrish hasn’t made her a bad person.
He’s an abuser, Dermot. He managed to fool my family and me, even though we were never as taken with him as Celeste.
We could never have imagined that he’d be the monster he is.
You know him. You know that he’s smart and smooth.
You know that he knows how to play people.
None of that matters right now, though. The only thing that does is finding Celeste, and if you’re not going to help me, then get out of my way and stop judging her. ”
“I wasn’t trying to judge her.”
Bastien snorted, because maybe that was true, but Dermot had definitely been judging her since day one.
“But you have to understand,” Dermot continued. “He’s her mate. Maybe the bond between them is too strong for her to be able to stay away.”
“It’s not strong enough for you to stay away from me.”
Dermot blinked. “I’m sorry?”
“You clearly don’t have any problems staying away from me, even though I’m your mate. Why would the opposite be true for my sister?”
Dermot’s face was so red that he looked like he was about to explode.
He looked around, and sure enough, there were people watching them.
It wasn’t a surprise since they were yelling in the middle of the street.
Bastien didn’t care, though. He didn’t know why Dermot had tried so hard to keep what they were to each other a secret, but maybe if Dermot had talked to him, he would’ve understood.
Maybe he even would have kept the secret.
Right now, though, nothing but his sister mattered.
He didn’t care who knew that Dermot was his mate.
“You have no right to say that,” Dermot said, his voice soft enough that the people around them probably wouldn’t hear him. He was still trying to keep their bond secret, and it hurt.
Bastien hadn’t minded how prickly Dermot was.
He’d known that getting Dermot to accept their bond and give him a chance would be a battle.
Dermot had made it very clear what he thought about Bastien’s sister and her bond with Parrish, so Bastien had expected to have to work hard.
Now, he wasn’t sure that even if he did, he could convince Dermot to give him a chance.
Hell, he wasn’t sure he wanted to give their bond a chance anymore.
Dermot wasn’t worried one bit about Celeste.
Meanwhile, he was worried about Rose, even though she was probably the bad guy in this mess.
Dermot wouldn’t accept that he could be wrong about Celeste and Rose, and Bastien didn’t know what to do about that.
He didn’t even think there was anything he could do about it.
Dermot had his convictions, and nothing anyone could do or say would make him change his mind.
“I have the right to say anything I want,” Bastien told Dermot. “Just like you clearly do. I don’t see anyone trying to stop you from badmouthing my sister.”
“I’m not badmouthing her. I’m just trying to get you to see what’s going on.”
“You don’t know what’s going on. You trust Rose even though you can’t know if she’s linked to Parrish.
You don’t think so, but what if she’s bonded to one of Parrish’s followers?
What if she’s using your prejudices against the village?
You need to take a good look at yourself, Dermot, because even though you’re trying to help, you might end up being the downfall of this clan.
Is that what you want? Do you want the clan to be hurt because you chose to believe and trust the wrong person?
” Bastien shook his head. “That’s something you’ll have to learn to live with.
I have better things to do than worry about that right now, though.
If you can’t help me find my sister, then get out of my way. ”
* * * *
DERMOT DIDN’T WANT to get out of Bastien’s way. In fact, he wanted to strangle him for exposing their secret the way he was. He didn’t seem to care that the people around them were listening in. He was apparently willing to yell at Dermot before they could even talk about the situation properly.
Though Dermot had to admit that part of that was his fault.
He and Bastien should have talked a while ago, probably right after they’d met.
Bastien had been focused on Celeste, though, and it had been easier for Dermot to leave him to it.
He was starting to regret it, if anything, because he had no idea how to handle Bastien.
He also didn’t know what he wanted from Bastien, which didn’t make things easier, unfortunately.
“I saw something,” someone said.
Dermot blinked and looked around. There were about six or seven people around them, most of them acting as if they were talking to each other, but they weren’t fooling anyone. They certainly weren’t fooling Dermot, who narrowed his eyes at them.
Two of them quickly turned and left. Dermot hoped neither of them was the one who’d just spoken up.
“What did you say?” Bastien asked, stepping closer to one of the men who remained.
The man was human and a hunter. He looked like he was ready to bolt, but as Dermot watched him, he squared his shoulders and faced Bastien.
It was admirable, although maybe Dermot shouldn’t be surprised.
As a human, it would’ve been easy for this man to leave the fight against Kudlak to the Krsnik.
He hadn’t. He’d fought them, had lost family members to them, and he was still standing to tell the tale.
He was clearly brave enough to face Bastien.
“I saw Rose and Celeste,” the man said. “They were walking by the shield, and Celeste didn’t look happy.”
“What did she look like? Scared?”
“Kind of. I’d say she was obviously uncomfortable, and Rose was pulling her by the wrist, as if she wouldn’t let Celeste get away from her. I didn’t see them crossing the shield. I didn’t stick around because I didn’t think it was important.”
“What did you think was happening?”
“Honestly, I thought it was a friend fight, but friends fight all the time. I mean, I know that Rose is new here. I thought that she’d said something that upset Celeste, maybe about her past. She was dragging Celeste along in a weird way, though.”
“You didn’t happen to hear what they were saying, did you?”
“No. I didn’t think it was my business, so I let them be.”