Chapter 18 Xelene
EIGHTEEN
XELENE
Xelene stood abruptly, her fingers moving to the waistband of her jeans with shaking hands. She pushed the denim down just enough to reveal the top portion of the mate mark on her left hip—four precise claw marks that stood out like a brand against her pale skin.
“This is the problem.”
The silence that followed was deafening. Xelene could hear Janice’s sharp intake of breath and could practically feel her friend’s shock radiating across the room.
“Holy shit, Xelene.” Janice’s voice was barely a whisper as she moved closer, her eyes fixed on the marks. “Is that what I think it is?”
Xelene pulled her jeans back up, her expression a mixture of panic and resignation. “It’s Lev’s mate mark. He accidentally scratched me during his orgasm and didn’t realize it until it was too late. Now we’ve completed the mate bond between us, and I’m bound to his soul forever.”
The words hung in the air between them. Through the bond, Xelene felt a pulse of Lev’s emotions again—his regret, his fear, his desperate need to comfort her. The intensity of his emotions made her knees weak.
Janice sank onto the bed, looking stunned. “Forever? Like, actually forever?”
“Forever.” Xelene began to pace. “And Janice, what’s worse is that Lev said I can walk away from him if I want to, but that seems impossible. Just this short distance apart from him right now feels like I’m missing a limb.”
She stopped pacing and faced Janice, her green eyes bright with unshed tears.
“So how would I live the rest of my life on Earth feeling incomplete while he’s here on Nova Aurora?
Walking away doesn’t seem like it’s going to work, but my career is back on Earth.
I can’t just abandon my life and everything I am just because he accidentally marked me. ”
The panic was rising in her chest again, making her voice pitch higher.
“We’re connected in ways I still don’t fully understand yet. Like right now, I can feel his emotions as clearly as my own. I can feel how upset he is that he did this, how scared he is that I might walk away and that he’ll lose me. And it’s intense, Janice. Plus, he can feel my emotions too.”
Through the bond, Lev’s protective instincts surged so strongly that Xelene had to grip the bedpost to steady herself. His alpha nature was responding to her distress, demanding that he come to her and comfort her regardless of the consequences.
Janice shook her head slowly, her expression a mixture of amazement and concern. “So basically, you guys can’t hide anything from each other anymore? You can’t deny any feelings or emotions?”
“No.” The word came out sharper than intended. “I can’t hide from him or escape him no matter where I am. And I’m assuming the same goes for him.”
Xelene’s carefully constructed walls—the ones she’d spent decades building to protect herself from exactly this kind of vulnerability—had been obliterated in a single moment of passion.
The thought of Lev being able to sense her every emotion, her every fear and insecurity, made her feel stripped bare in the most terrifying way possible.
“It’s terrifying,” Xelene admitted, her voice breaking slightly. “No one has ever seen me this intimately.”
Janice stood and moved to Xelene’s side, placing a comforting hand on her arm. Her touch was warm and grounding, a lifeline in the storm of confusion and panic.
“Hey, look at me.” When Xelene met her eyes, Janice’s expression was gentle but firm. “Why don’t you just take it one day at a time? Focus on what you can control right now, which is cleaning up his reputation and helping him become king. Then decide what you’re going to do after that’s done.”
The suggestion was so practical, so perfectly Janice, that Xelene felt some of the tension leave her shoulders. Her friend was right—she could compartmentalize this situation.
“Yeah,” Xelene said, taking a deep breath. “That’s a great idea. I’ll just push this whole mate bond thing aside for now—this business about my soul being bound to Lev’s soul—and focus on the job at hand.”
Janice smiled, and there was something mischievous in her expression that reminded Xelene why they’d been best friends for so many years. “Perfect. Because I have some intel from Benjamin on their pride’s traditions and politics. Maybe throwing yourself into research will take your mind off Lev.”
Doubtful, Xelene thought, but she nodded anyway.
“Yes. Let’s go to the library and go over everything you know about this place and this pride so we can get Lev ready for the Trial of the Sun.” She paused, doing the mental calculation that made her stomach drop. “In five days.”
As they moved toward the door, Xelene desperately hoped that drowning herself in work would help her forget about this messy mate bond situation—at least for a few hours. Though with Lev’s emotions humming constantly through their connection, she suspected forgetting would be impossible.