Chapter Eleven
I awake feeling too hot and . . . Heavy?
That doesn't make much sense. Awakening a bit more I realise the reason I feel weighed down.
I have two sets of arms wrapped around my waist and legs intertwined with mine.
I don't have a second of doubt about whether it's my men holding me or not.
The pleasant thrum of Sparks comforts me and lets me know that I am surrounded by all five of them.
With my eyes still closed, I challenge myself to guess where each one of my guys are in the room to see if my new instinct from last night is still working.
I take a deep breath and focus on thoughts of my guys; I can easily discern that Levi is snuggled up behind me and Maverick is in front of me.
I know that the other three are by my feet but figuring out who is whom is slightly more difficult.
I concentrate harder and without fully understanding why, I concentrate on the new Imprint tattoo on my sternum.
As soon as I've done so, It’s like a switch has been flipped and I can tell that sitting on the bench by my feet are Hunter, Jax and Kai, in that order. Still in my fog of sleep I open my eyes to see if I'm right and grin widely when I see I am.
"That's a beautiful sight to wake up to Titch." Maverick says, his voice gravelly with sleep.
My mood suddenly plummets as I recall what happened last night.
“Why are you all in here with me?” I ask shakily, barely daring to hope it’s because they still want me around them.
“You had a bad dream Sweetheart. We didn’t want to leave you.” Hunter replies from down by my feet.
I wriggle myself out of the grip Levi and Maverick have on me and hug my knees to my chest. It doesn’t make much sense. I was sure they wouldn’t want anything to do with me after the display I put on with Jax. I glance at the end of the bed and find Jax already smiling reassuringly at me.
“I can see you overthinking Darling, coffee first and then we have a few things we need to talk to you about.” Levi says gently.
“It’s nothing bad Beautiful, promise.” Kai says, trying to reassure me.
I give him a small smile in return and wait as the guys all exit the room to go to the kitchen before following quietly behind. My feet sink into the plush carpet as I follow them down the wide staircase.
My mind is whirring with all the possibilities of what they could want to talk to me about, none of them good.
Kai wouldn’t lie to me though and he said there was nothing to worry about.
Of course, their version of nothing to worry about and my version could be completely different.
Suddenly a cup of coffee appears in my hands.
I’d been so lost in thought, I hadn’t even realised that I had made it to the kitchen.
I glance around and can’t help but admire the guys in their sleep mussed state.
As soon as we all have mugs of coffee, Jax turns to me.
“Come on Little Star it’s time we explained some things. Just try to keep an open mind. Please?” Jax pleads with me, his sapphire blue eyes worried.
I nod my head in agreement feeling even more confused than I did before, as Jax leads me to the huge dark wood dining table we ate dinner at last time I was here, and we take a seat joining the rest of the guys.
I take a moment to study their postures and I feel a small modicum of relief that they all seem relaxed.
Except on closer inspection I can see Hunters hands clenching and unclenching, tightness around Levi’s eyes and Jax’s mouth, Kai tapping his fingers repeatedly and Maverick rubbing the back of his neck every now and then.
My men are worried about whatever they are about to tell me and that immediately causes me to tense back up.
“Before explaining anything I need to ask you a personal question that might help us to explain. Is that ok?” Levi ask sincerely.
I simply nod too nervous to talk.
“Do you have any Imprint Tattoos?”
I look around at them all, confused and slightly nervous. I’m not ready to get into the story behind my Imprint Tattoos at the moment. I shared a big part of my past with them last night and I still feel raw, my nerves frazzled.
“Beautiful, you don’t have to explain what they mean if you do have them. It would just help us to explain and you to understand if you do.” Kai explains to me, instantly putting me at ease.
“Yes, I do.” I say simply.
“That will hopefully make this easier then.” Maverick smiles reassuringly at me his posture relaxing slightly.
“Around a thousand years ago Soulmates existed, they were not common, but they were not so uncommon that they didn’t have a decent amount of numbers around the world.
The book says that there were about seventy-five percent more regular humans/Imprint Tattoo humans.
The Soulmates were a significant part of a ruling council due to the amount of power they had.
There was a war, the humans with Imprint Tattoos, joined forces with regular humans and fought against the Soulmates.
They called themselves Ordo de Libera, The Order of the Free, and claimed that the Soulmates were too powerful.
Although, in the book we found the information in there was no mention as to why they were thought to be too powerful.
This war wiped out most of the Soulmates.
The surviving ones were thought to have gone underground.
No Soulmates have been found in the future generations since the war. ” Levi explains to me.
“What does this have to do with me?” I ask not understanding at all.
“Well, one of the ways that you could tell you had found your Soulmate was an instant connection, they felt familiar to you like you had known them forever, regardless of whether you just met them. The other way was that the Soulmates would feel sparks like electricity when they touched.” Levi finishes they all look at me nervously.
Finally, it sinks in.
I jump up from my chair and start pacing, running my hands through my unkempt black hair and tugging. My heart beats like a freight train in my chest as realisation after realisation crashes through me.
“But I feel that with all of you.” I say panicking, if it’s true and they are my Soulmates, then according to them I’d be Soulmates with all five of them and there is no way that they would all be ok with that.
“Are you sure?” I ask still pacing and missing the genuinely happy smiles plastered on all their handsome faces at my unintentional admission of feelings for them.
“There is one way to be completely sure.” Levi says.
I stop obsessively pacing and face him.
“What is it?” I ask impatiently.
“The book says that the nucleus of the bond, which is the male or female, is the centre of the Soulmate bond and the one that all the other Soulmates bond to. It frustratingly doesn’t go into much detail, but it says that this person is called the Centrum, which literally translates to centre.
The Centrum is the one that, when fully bonded, holds all the Soulmate bonds of his or her Soulmates.
The other Soulmates are then called Bondmate’s.
” Levi scrubs a hand over his face, “It’s ridiculously vague and spends a lot of time talking round in circles but, what I did manage to gather from it, is that the Centrum of the Soulmate bond would get a tattoo similar to an Imprint Tattoo somewhere on them.
Except it would feel different from a normal Imprint Tattoo, it would give the Centrum a sense of peace and happiness and in some cases react with the sparks when the Centrums Soulmate touched him or her. ”
I feel the colour drain out of my face, in shock. Before a feeling of utter euphoria flows through me. These wonderful men really are my Soulmates. I am hoping that since they are all smiling at me right now that means they are ok with them all being my Soulmates.
“Do you have one Beautiful?” Kai asks, anticipation making his grass green eyes glow.
“Yes, I do.” I smile widely.
They all look at me expectantly.
“I’m not showing you all right now.” I say gesturing to Mavericks t-shirt that I’m still wearing.
“Underwear is just like wearing a bikini in the pool, Little Star.” Jax says, whilst taking a bite of his toast.
“Yes, I agree, it would be exactly like wearing a bikini. If that bikini was invisible.” I say grinning wickedly.
Several of the guys splutter coffee across the table as my meaning sinks in. There’s a sudden crash and I can’t help but giggle as Kai’s head pops up over the table after falling off of his chair. His eyes rapidly running up and down my t-shirt clad figure.
“You mean to tell me you are wearing nothing underneath that shirt?” Levi questions his eyes wide and heated.
“My shirt?” Maverick adds his deep baritone growls, sending shivers down my spine.
Trying desperately to control my hormones that have suddenly gone mad at their reactions. I try to sound nonchalant as I reply.
“What? I didn’t want to put my underwear back on after my shower and I didn’t know where my bag was.” I shrug, watching curiously as Hunter gets up and leaves the room.
The guys continue to watch me intently, their eyes never leaving me. The absolute undivided attention from my Soulmates causes my skin to heat and my heart to pound. Just before it gets too much to handle, Hunter returns.
He hands me a pair of black boxers that I can only assume are his. I pull them on and take a hairband off of my wrist and bunch the excess material at my hip. Once secured I look up at the others and raise my eyebrow in question at their looks.
“You bastard.” Jax grins at Hunter.
“More like, fucking genius.” Kai chuckles leaning back in his chair.
“You’re all just jealous that you didn’t think of it.” Hunter say smugly before winking at me, causing me to blush bright red.
“Do you want to see the Soulmate Tattoo now?” I ask them nervously.
“Yes, please Titch.” Maverick says grinning, whilst all of them nod enthusiastically.