Chapter Twenty-Nine
Aiden
Three months later.
The most beautiful green eyes full of longing, want, elation.
Then, a strong jaw, the softest looking brown hair.
I had the same dream over and over. Of him.
In my dreams I felt his lips meet mine on repeat.
It was a glorious torture. The pills I took so I wouldn’t dream were strong, I knew that.
But this dream felt never-ending, like I was stuck in a loop on the handsome stranger.
The feeling of rightness that came over me as our gazes locked, of how drawn I was to him.
He felt like the answer to why I was travelling, the answer to who I was, or who I wanted to be.
I came to, blinking slowly as the room I was in came into focus.
I didn’t even remember this room, that had to mean the pills weren’t good for me, but how could I stop taking them?
They helped with the nightmares and I really didn’t want other people complaining about being woken up by a screaming guy next door.
I’d stopped taking them at home. Annie was firm that I didn't annoy her with my screaming.
She wanted me to be free of drugs and I loved that she cared.
Hushed voices close by had my attention. Even though it was a struggle, I managed to turn my head and look in the direction they came from. My vision was sort of blurry and very light sensitive, so I struggled to make out who they were.
“You just focus on your mates, hon,” a female voice said. “We’ll come visit next month.”
Then a smooth male voice replied, and it sounded like it was coming from right next to me. “I know, Mom, but you won’t really meet them.”
She tsked. “I want to see you, silly boy!” She said something else but it was muttered so I couldn’t make it out.
The male voice sounded softer now, like he was smiling. “I miss you too, Mom.”
“Good, see you soon, hon. Take care of those mates of yours. We can’t wait to see them.”
There was silence then, so I tried to move my body closer to where the male voice came from, feeling a body right next to mine. I gasped, and it came out croaky, like my throat wasn’t used to making sounds anymore. It was all really weird.
“Aiden?” the male voice asked with a surprised and hopeful tone.
“Mmm,” I hummed, hoping it was answer enough.
“Oh, Aiden,” he sighed. “How are you feeling?”
With my eyes closed so I could focus better, I decided to be honest to the stranger.
I wasn’t tied down on the bed and it sounded like a hospital, with beeping machines and the smell of disinfectant, another clear sign that I might have been in an accident or something.
The man next to me was likely a nurse watching over me, and talking on the phone while working, because that was definitely a call between a mother and a son.
“Weird,” I finally replied, trying to focus on my body.
“Makes sense, considering you’ve been in a coma for four months.”
“What?!” I shouted, startling myself and the stranger beside me.
I sat up, feeling like everything around me spun.
Strong hands gripped my shoulders then, grounding me.
When I felt like my world once again stood still, I opened my eyes and saw the green eyes from my dreams. I was mesmerized, unable to look away from their depth.
How could eyes show one’s soul? I felt like I saw more than just colors.
I saw emotions, and if I was completely honest with myself, I saw my future in them, however silly that sounded.
Of course, I would latch onto the only man I’d ever found attractive.
But why was he here with me? I remember our kiss, and then nothing. Were we hit by a car or something? What a way to ruin my first ever kiss.
“Hi,” he whispered, his face so close to mine I could count his eyelashes if I wanted to.
“Hi,” I whispered back, entranced by him. His scent, his looks, his damn beautiful eyes.
“I’m Nolen,” he said, his eyes never leaving mine.
“Aiden,” I said, feeling stupid because he already seemed to know that.
His soft smile turned into a grin, showing a bit of his teeth. How did he manage to look better and better?
“I feel like I should tell you where we are,” Nolen said, his gaze briefly leaving mine to look at our surroundings.
“If I’m dead I’m not mad,” I said, already coming to terms with the possibility this wasn’t a dream but that I’d died or something instead. This couldn’t be real though, could it?
His expression turned pained, so I guess I had died, somehow. I sighed, accepting it was what it was.
“Did Oliver survive?” I asked, knowing he had been with me before I’d kissed Nolen. I hoped he was still alive and well. He deserved a good long life. I was already broken, so the world wouldn’t miss me, but it would miss the bright soul that was Oliver.
His face softened. “Oliver is okay, he’s on a date with his mate.”
“Huh, mate?” Well, I had been dead for four months, or in a coma for that long.
Maybe I had just died now, and that was why I was awake?
And in some kind of afterlife place? It was a rather dull place if I had to spend my eternal afterlife in what looked to be a hospital room.
But with Nolen for company, I guess I could deal.
“Yes.” Was all he said to that. “You’re in the medical wing of our rulers’ castle.”
The afterlife had rulers? Made sense. Every place needed somehow to hold the order.
“Do my dads know? About me being dead and all?”
Nolen’s face turned panicked. “You aren’t dead, Aiden. And yes, I talked to both of your dads when they called your phone. I told them you’d been in an accident and would call them when you woke up.”
“So, we were in an accident? And I’m not dead?”
“Not dead, but also not an accident.”
I sighed, closing my eyes. I felt drained, and Nolen didn’t make much sense. But at least my dads knew I was alive and not dead, which I apparently wasn’t.
“Tell me please,” I begged, keeping my eyes closed so I could focus on what he told me and not how pretty his lips looked in the dim lighting.
“You want the whole thing? Because to be honest, I need to tell you a lot, and I don’t know how tired you are.”
“Everything,” I begged.
“Okay…” He took in a deep breath and began.
“Your biological father is from another world, the world we’re currently in.
My world.” Okay, schooling my reaction for now and filing that for later when I can have a good cry in private.
“And because half of your DNA is from here, where magic is common, your father tried to force your magic to appear, which it did in the end. You ended up in a coma from what I’m told and was adopted soon after. ”
Everything he said sounded so farfetched, but I had been in a coma and been adopted. How he knew about it was a mystery, and it seemed he wasn’t just some stranger I kissed, but someone who knew much more about me than I did of him.
“Your father abandoned you after the accident, thinking you were too broken.”
I could only scoff at that, because if this was all true, then my bio dad really had known me.
I was broken. And maybe that could never change.
Even if I somehow found myself, I would still be a broken vase mended together with my cracks showing for all eternity.
I could never be flawless like those perfect crackless vases.
I would forever be broken, even if I somehow managed to pull the fallen pieces back.
“This world we’re in, is different,” Nolen continued.
“We each have a mate, our one person we find attractive, and until we meet them, we don’t find anyone else attractive, and never will.
Only our mates are attractive to us. It’s normal here to find your mate and fully mate with them soon after, because they’re yours.
I know your world is far from that, and that attractiveness can be found in many people.
But you, because you aren’t really from there, you haven’t experienced attractiveness until you saw me. ”
I gasped. “Pretty conceited thinking so highly of yourself,” I snapped, and maybe I was overreacting, but I felt really called out.
I had kissed him, but how dare he think so highly of himself?
We’d only met, and yes, he was kind and what he said was definitely true, but I felt called out and I didn’t care for it.
He frowned. “I know it’s true because you’re my mate, Aiden.” The way he said it, like it was a matter-of-fact, took the fight right out of me.
“So, you find me attractive, too?” I dared ask, knowing I was ridiculous for asking about something so silly and petty, but I wanted to be certain I hadn’t made a fool of myself.
He nodded.
“And only me?” I added, because I wanted to know he felt the same as me.
But instead of nodding, he shook his head. “I have another mate, too.”
I scoffed. Because of course, he did. I would be the broken mate, the one he was stuck with.
I bet his other mate was perfect with no traumatic childhood.
A perfect vase. And when did I start to believe all of this shit?
Because being dead was way more realistic than other worlds with magic and mates.
“Want to see him?” Nolen asked, surprising me enough that I opened my eyes.
Nolen sat up and there, sleeping peacefully behind him, was…
I gasped. “Is that me?!”
Nolen’s smile was sympathetic. “No, that’s Derek, your twin brother.”
My gaze landed back on Derek, and then I passed the fuck out.