Chapter Thirty Two
Talia
All of the men are looking especially broody today, but not Soren. He looks highly entertained by the pain in Vaughn’s eyes. I decide to take the attention off Vaughn and place it on someone else.
“Diego?” I ask, setting the jug of juice on the counter.
“Hmm?”
“Can you braid my hair again?” I ask innocently, but everyone freezes. Vaughn takes a few steps back like he’s realized he’s off the hook for now. “Well?”
“Uh…” Diego says, glancing at Soren.
“What are you looking at me for?” Soren laughs. “She asked you, not me.”
“Uh…” Diego says again. “Sure. Come here.”
I walk over to Diego and turn to put my back to him. He carefully brushes my hair off my shoulders and down my back, and I wink at Soren when Diego’s fingertips brush my shoulders.
Everyone but Soren and I are tense as hell. When Dad walks into the room, I smile at him when he instantly cackles seeing Diego braiding my hair.
“Morning, Dad,” I say happily.
“Morning, Kiddo,” he laughs. “What did I miss?”
“I had to twist Diego’s arm to braid my hair,” I say.
“It’s true. I saw the whole thing,” Soren adds.
“You two are a fucking menace,” Diego grumbles as he braids my hair.
“Diego, can you rub my shoulders?” I ask innocently. “That cot was awful on my back.”
“Oh, poor you with your cot,” Soren laughs.
“You had that nice comfy table and the ceiling shackles,” I say with a grin. I am loving how tense everyone but Dad is.
“Talia,” Diego nearly whines.
“Yes?” I ask.
“You’re doing this shit on purpose.”
“Doing what?” I ask sweetly, maintaining my innocence. Diego groans dramatically, and Soren bursts into a fit of giggles, grinning at me. “What? He’s good with his hands.”
“Oh, my God!” Diego says desperately. “Girl, stop before you get me killed.”
“Stop what? Have you done something wrong, Diego?” Soren asks calmly. Diego doesn’t say shit; he just turns and walks out of the kitchen, making me cackle.
“Smart man.” Dad laughs as he pours coffee into a cup.
“Why?” Vaughn asks. Dad takes a sip of his coffee as he steps away from the counter to mask his shit-eating grin.
“Son, she’s just getting started,” Dad says, and I grin proudly.
“No,” Vaughn says, glaring at me.
“Yes,” I counter.
Caine groans, and Dad starts laughing again. Soren? Well, he looks like he’s having the time of his life.
I decide to let them men breathe for a moment and go to the living room to relax for a while. Everyone slowly filters in to sit with me, and Vaughn is the only one brave enough to sit next to me. I keep my eyes on the television as he lays his head back and sighs.
“Hard morning, Vaughn?” I ask, not looking at him.
“You’re a fucking brat,” he grumbles. “Look at me.”
“What’s up?” I ask, turning to smile at him.
“Stop it.”
“Stop what?” I ask.
“You know what.”
“I don’t. Tell me.”
“He’s going to fucking kill us if you don’t stop teasing us,” Vaughn says.
“It’s a good thing you are immortal then, huh?” I say with a wink as Soren walks in carrying a plate for him and me.
“What are we talking about?” Soren asks as he hands me a plate of waffles with bacon on the side.
“Nothing,” Vaughn says quickly.
Soren sits on the couch next to me, and I promptly steal a piece of bacon from his plate. Vaughn is relieved for all of three seconds before Soren talks. “You know,” he says, and I laugh.
“Talia,” Vaughn says again.
“Yes, Vaughn?” I ask.
“Stop encouraging him.”
“What am I encouraging?” I ask. “I’m just laughing at my mate. Isn’t he so silly?”
“Fuck my life,” Vaughn says with a heavy sigh as I take a bite of my waffle. I grin at him, and he just shakes his head, trying to hide his smile.
“I could think of other things to fuck than your life, Vaughn,” I say between bites, and he looks like he is about to go play in traffic.
A long stretch of silence fills the room, but we are all comfortable in it. Eventually, Dad is the one to speak first.
“So,” Dad says. “You met your mother?”
“She hates me,” I say with a frown.
“No.”
“Then what?”
“She wants to be you,” he says gently. “She always wants what she can’t have.”
“Was this always her plan?” I ask. “To wear my skin like Kill Bill?”
“Yeah,” Dad says. “What happened?”
“Well… I bullshitted my way into making them think they ruined the bond between me and Soren,” I say. “Oh… Micah marked me.”
“He did what?” Vaughn snaps.
“But that’s not how that works,” Laurent objects.
“It is when he fed his blood to her,” Dad says. “When she was nearly dead, and you all fed your blood to her, that created a bond.”
Vaughn, Diego, Caine, and Laurent all look at me, and then Soren. They look positively horrified, but they don’t say anything, so Soren doesn’t either.
“His was so weak that it didn’t really take all that much effort to go against him,” I say. “I only feed what feeds me, so to speak.”
“It’s not a completed bond,” Dad says.
“Then what is it?” Vaughn asks cautiously, still looking at Soren.
“When a hybrid feeds their blood to a marked mate that is not their own, but hasn’t been turned, it creates a foundation,” Dad explains.
“A foundation for what?” Diego asks.
“A mate bond, obviously,” Soren answers.
The room goes silent, and they all look like they forgot how to breathe. “Hold on,” Vaughn chokes out. “You’re saying we are all mated to Talia?”
“No,” Dad says, and everyone relaxes, but he ruins it in the next breath. “Not yet.”
“What?!” Caine asks.
“It’s not a matter of if you will mark her,” Dad says, looking between the men. “It’s when.”
“Shit,” Vaughn sighs.
“You all saved her life. The bond remembers that. That’s what it’s built on. Loyalty, protection, and the instinct to keep her safe.”
“Why are you smiling?” Vaughn snaps at Soren for looking absolutely giddy.
“Oh, it just explains a lot,” Soren muses.
“Like what?” Laurent asks.
“The way you all look at her,” Soren says.
“How do you know so much about all of this?” I ask Dad.
“After I killed your mother, or thought I did, I spent a long time researching,” he says.
“If you could do it over again,” I say. “Would you have done everything the same?”
“Yes,” he says. “I don’t know if that was the answer you wanted to hear, but you can be mad and alive. I can live with that.”
“That’s a shitty answer,” I say with a frown.
“Yeah,” Dad says with a shrug.
“I hate that I understand it.”
“That part never gets easier,” Dad says honestly.