15. Rath
Rath
“Are you sure he’s okay?” I questioned as I looked over the passed-out wolf.
I didn’t have healing magic like Finley did, but I could check someone over for anomalies to see if they needed a healer. The beta in question seemed fine, if a little dehydrated, but by the sounds we heard all night, I wasn’t surprised.
“Trust me, after a rut like that, he’ll be sleeping for a good long while,” Colt assured me as we left the bedroom.
I cocked my head at the term. “Rut?”
“It’s when a male werewolf goes into their own version of a heat and they become mindless sex fiends,” Mason answered with a yawn as he entered the living room.
“I’m not surprised it happened to him. In the eight years I’ve known him, he’s never let a woman get close enough to him that sex could happen.
All that built-up testosterone just exploded once he blew the first load. ”
“Gross, don’t ever say that again,” Lane said, scrunching up his face in disgust. “She still sleeping?”
“Yeah, all curled up next to Noah, but I couldn’t lay there anymore and not want to start something. Pretty sure if I tried, she might shrink my dick or something equally horrible.”
“Wise choice, my friend,” Derven agreed. “I just made a fresh pot of coffee, knowing all of us were going to need it after last night.”
Barely having been with us for a week, Derven seemed to be fitting in with the pack easily. Then again, he’d always been like that. With the flash of a smile and sweet words, he could charm just about anyone. It was how he survived so long with what I knew about his father.
His gaze met mine with a questioning look, probably wondering why I was staring at him so oddly. Shaking my head, I wandered to the kitchen and pulled open the fridge looking for something to eat.
“Something the matter?” Derven asked in a low voice behind me.
I should have known he wouldn’t leave things be. He was a fixer and hated to have a situation unresolved. Between us, there were many things unresolved or unspoken when it came to telling Finley anything about what our friendship had really been like.
“It’s nothing, just got lost in thought and didn’t realize I was staring at you,” I answered with a sigh, closing the fridge, not seeing anything I wanted.
Derven narrowed his eyes as he looked me up and down like he could spot the problem if he searched hard enough. “Are you upset about the wolf keeping Finley to himself?”
“What? No, if I had the chance to do that, I would take it, so I can hardly begrudge the man for doing it himself,” I said, moving to the coffee maker.
I’d really never seen the appeal to coffee, preferring tea, and they’d been gracious enough to now have an electric kettle at home for me to use. It made things much easier and I truly appreciated the effort to include me in normal life things like that.
“You’re doing that thing where you tell me things are fine, but really you’re upset and don’t want to talk about it,” Derven challenged.
“I’ve seen it before, and trust me, I hated it when you were mad at me about something.
Thankfully I know it’s not me you’re upset with, or you’d be sealing my mouth with magic so I couldn’t irritate you. ”
I slammed the mug I’d just grabbed down on the counter much harder than I planned to as I glared at him. “Stop talking like that.”
“Like what?” Derven asked, confused. “Oh, you mean stop talking like we weren’t together for five years as more than just friends before we got separated?”
“Yes,” I snapped. “I haven’t told Finley anything about it, and I want her to hear it from me first, not to stumble into a conversation and feel like I was lying to her.”
“About that…” Derven said, pointing at something behind me.
Spinning on my heel, I found Finley standing in the kitchen rubbing the sleep out of her one eye with the heel of her hand.
Her hair was wild, and I could tell she was exhausted, not just from lack of sleep but everything else on top of it.
Planning for this mission had pushed her to the max.
Last night had been a good idea in theory, but the sexcapades might not have had the best timing.
“Good morning,” I blurted, unsure if she actually heard what I had just said or not. “Coffee?”
“Can I just have the whole pot?” she mumbled as she walked forward right up to me and let her head land on my chest. “I feel like I still haven’t gotten any sleep, but it’s already the middle of the afternoon. How is that possible?”
“Nin mel, you have taxed yourself well beyond just last night’s adventures,” I pointed out. “The week up to this point, you were sleeping a few hours just to get things right.”
“Ugh,” she groaned, wrapping her arms around me. “You’re making too much sense before I have coffee.”
“Here you go, sangele meu,” Ven said, handing over a mug just the way she liked it, teeth achingly sweet.
She didn’t have many vices but allowing herself some sugary treats throughout the day was one of them. “Can we have pancakes or French toast for lunch? I really want breakfast, but I know it’s well past that time of day.”
“How about both? They are easy enough to whip up,” Ven suggested as he pushed off the counter he was leaning on to gather the ingredients.
The person who organized the penthouse for us asked what we would want, so we gave them a list and ensured to have all of Finley’s favorites just in case we needed to do something special. Now I’m glad we made that call after having run into her father last night.
Finley took a seat at the island while Ven worked, and I made a cup of tea, letting the moment fall into a comfortable silence.
“So, what did you want to tell me before I accidentally overheard it?” Finley asked just as I was taking a sip of tea and nearly choked on it.
My gaze instantly went to Ven since what I was going to say had as much to do with him as it did me.
“Go on, tell her,” he directed, waving his whisk at me. “I have zero shame about our past. That’s all you.”
Clearing my throat, I gave Finley my full attention. “When I told you that Ven and I didn’t know each other well, that wasn’t the truth of the matter. Ven and I became best friends, and after a year, we became more than best friends, in an intimate nature.”
Ven sighed and looked over at Finley. “We were fuck buddies that then became lovers until we were separated because Rathal was sold to a new master. My old master was a sick and twisted bastard who liked to use whatever he could to cause me pain, so he took Rathal away.”
I grimaced at how bluntly he put it. We’d cared deeply for each other, and some might call it love.
I might have called it love until I found Finley, the difference between being with your mate and a person you have strong feelings for, are completely different.
To this day, I still love Ven, but not in the same way that I love and belong to Finley.
Being able to have them both in my life was something I never thought could happen and I was thankful for it.
Yet Ven and I would be nothing more than best friends who know each other inside and out.
“Are you two still wanting to be together?” Finley asked, looking at us both with curiosity. “For the record, I would never stand in the way of people’s love if that’s what you both want.”
Just when I didn’t think I could love that woman any more, she said things like that.
“While it means everything that you would say that, nin mel, that time for us is passed. Now that we both have you, we can be best friends to each other. As an elf, once you are bonded to your mate, there is no one else for you. I love Derven, but in a way that you would a brother. He is family and getting to have him back in my life is something I never thought I was going to get.”
Ven quietly flipped the pancakes he was cooking and didn’t respond right away, making me nervous.
He wasn’t one to hold back how he felt about things and if he told Finley that he loved me in the way we used to be together, I didn’t know how I would feel about that.
My gut reaction was guilt and sadness for not being able to love him that way, but it was impossible.
With the way elves were, once we have our mate, we are incapable of feeling intimate love with another like I could before.
Everything in me wanted Ven to be happy, and I thought things were going well, but maybe that had been wishful thinking.
“Rathal is right,” Ven said when he finally spoke.
“We used to love each other, and I think when I first found him again, I had hoped that we might rekindle something.” He paused to look at Finley.
“That changed once you and I solidified our connection. It showed me that I hadn’t loved Rathal the way I’m falling for you, sangele meu.
As he said, to have him back in my life is amazing, and to be able to share you with him, so he is able to have the same joy that I have is everything to me. ”
“I’m sorry if you feel like we kept something from you, but I felt like I needed to figure out how I felt before I could explain it to you,” I said, reaching across the counter to wrap my hands around hers.
“You know, as an elf, I cannot lie, but a way to work around that is just avoid it, and that’s what I was doing. ”
Finley smiled and kissed my lips softly. “That is something I understand completely. Many times I need to sort through things myself before I share them with others. I’m not upset with either of you, so put your mind at ease.”
“You are the world’s most perfect mate, you know that, right?” I whispered before giving her another kiss and pulling back.
“Couldn’t have said it better myself,” Ven agreed as he slid a plate over to her. “Hope you don’t mind. I snuck some chocolate chips in there.”
A delighted smile beamed on her face. “Who would ever be upset about that?”