Chapter 31
thirty-one
KAT
The party was fine.
Callum and I sat on couches and made small talk whenever someone came up to us. The majority of the attendees were far too afraid of my mate to start a conversation, so we mainly just sat next to Grayson Darke while he worked from his phone.
Grayson didn't seem to give a damn that Gwen made every excuse in the book to touch or brush up against Jonah. He barely looked at her.
I guess if he'd been obsessed with Merrily for an entire century, my sister probably wasn't appealing. They were extremely different.
Jonah looked like he was enjoying Gwen's attention, too, even though he wasn't touchy with her like she was with him.
"Have you ever heard of fated mates?" Callum asked Grayson as the party came to an end, his voice casual.
Grayson pinned him with a look. "What?"
"Fated mates. All fae have them." Callum took a sip of his drink, never glancing in Grayson's direction. "I recommend doing research on the subject before you claim my mate's sister any further."
In this case, research probably meant torturing a fae in the penitentiary for information.
"You're meddling?" I asked Callum.
"Immortality is a long time. If Merrily loses him, it's permanent. She can hate me for it if she wants. I'd prefer her hate to dealing with my own conscience if I chose not to get involved."
I understood.
My mate valued fated connections fiercely, and after seeing the way our bond affected him, meddling seemed like a good call. Merrily might want that what we had too, eventually.
"What does that have to do with the woman I'm engaged to, Frost?" Grayson drawled.
"It has significantly more to do with the woman in your dreams."
Grayson's sarcasm disappeared, and he didn't ask another question. After a few minutes, he left the villa.
We stayed until the party finally ended, and Gwen showed Jonah to his room. He flashed me a look that told me I'd better get my ass over there, and I ditched Callum on the couch to act as Jonah's wingman in an effort to keep him from ending up alone with her.
She walked us down a few hallways before opening a door that led into a sprawling room that smelled like Simon.
Mine and Jonah's noses wrinkled at the same time.
"We've cleaned and aired it out, but it's taking time to fully remove his scent," Gwen explained. "We may need to pay the spellcasters to erase it. I can send some of our men to help you move your things."
"Thanks. I'll get moved in tomorrow." Jonah headed back down the hall, leaving me alone with Gwen.
I wondered if she'd asked him to do that.
To bring me over so we could talk.
If she had, I'd consider asking Callum to kill Jonah after all.
"I owe you an apology," she said, looking down at her feet for a moment before meeting my gaze.
"I didn't find out that Simon cancelled my end of the business loan until the news announced your relationship with Callum.
I don't know if your mate bond is because of that bargain, but I'm sorry.
If I had realized, I would've done whatever I had to so you wouldn't lose the café, even when I was angry with you. I'm sorry I didn't."
My chest squeezed.
The apology was worth a lot to me.
"Our relationship started with the deal, but Callum never called it in.
Because we're mated, he can't anymore." I gestured to my arm, knowing the fated mates thing needed to stay a secret.
"I appreciate the apology, and I'm willing to try to mend things, but it's never going to be like it was between us. "
She nodded. "I know. We've changed too much. Thank you for being here, though."
I nodded, and slipped back down the hallway Jonah had just walked down.
Callum was still sitting where I'd left him on the couch. He stood as we approached, and I slid my hand into his. Jonah was waiting next to him.
"Where are we going?" I asked.
"The cafe. We have a dinner to attend, remember? Liv's planning on it."
We had met there after every other challenge, so I should've expected it.
"Congratulations are in order," Callum drawled to Jonah, as we walked to the parking lot. "Welcome to the Cabinet. You won't be able to leave Gwen's side much after this, I assume."
"Nope." Jonah dragged a hand through his hair, suddenly looking exhausted.
"Is Liv going to be able to act normal for the dinner?" I asked Callum silently. "Or is she going to tell him?"
"According to her text, she wants to keep it a secret for now, to give him time to work through his feelings for your sister. Apparently, he already messaged her to make sure she understood that their friendship wasn't going to change."
"Wow."
"Yeah. If he falls back in love with Gwen, I'll get involved."
"I never realized how much of a meddler you'd be, Callum." We reached the car, and he let me into the passenger seat while Jonah sat down in the back.
"I'd say meddling is the natural progression after a successful stalking."
I smiled.
Jonah sat quietly in the back seat, staring out the window, and Callum turned the music up the way he would've if Liv was in the car.
Liv already had loud music playing in the cafe when we got there, as if it were a nightclub instead. She and Dare were dancing, though he didn't look thrilled, and there was a drink in her hand that definitely hadn't come from the kitchen.
Dare held a cup of coffee that definitely had come from the kitchen.
Jonah joined them, and Liv offered him her drink. He drained the whole cup, and she grinned when he handed it back.
"She should just tell him," I murmured to Callum.
"I don't necessarily think it's a bad idea to let things play out for a bit before she claims him. He and Gwen may realize they're not compatible anymore."
Maybe.
There was a chance, at least.
Though I knew Jonah well enough to be sure he would've rather had a serious conversation about the future at the moment, Liv dragged him onto the makeshift dance floor she and Darius had set up by pulling my shop's tables and chairs out of the way.
Merrily was there too, for once, her arms tight around her middle as she sat scrunched in a ball in a weird-looking camping chair. I assumed it caused her sensitive skin a little less discomfort than a normal seat.
She managed a small smile when she saw us, so I figured she must've been feeling better than usual. Or Liv had told her what was going on, so she'd sucked up her discomfort to be there.
Probably the latter.
Liv clearly didn't want to talk about it, so we all chatted about anything else we could think of while we ate and celebrated the victory that might cost our friend her soulmate.
When we got home, we headed for our room. Callum tossed an enchanted bath bomb into the tub while we stripped, and I climbed onto his lap in the water without hesitation.
He kissed me slowly, and I buried my hands in his hair as I kissed him back. His hands slid down the curve of my waist, and I pulled away, breathing quickly.
"Callum?"
"Yes, Kitten?"
"I feel horrible," I confessed.
"Why?" His hands were still on my hips, gripping me lightly.
"I told Jonah to fight. If I hadn't, he and Liv could be figuring things out right now. Instead, they're..." I shook my head. "I don't know what they are."
"Friends."
"Right."
Callum squeezed my hips lightly. "She wants friendship in a mate bond anyway. If you had told him not to compete, he may never have had the chance to find closure on the engagement Gwen broke off. He and Liv wouldn't be starting from a good place the way you and I did."
"You think stalking and manipulation were a good place for us to start?"
"We didn't start with stalking. We started with me taking care of you during heat."
"That's fair." I let out a long breath. "I have a confession to make. I may have decided to try to manipulate you into falling in love with me after you forced me to seal the bond with you."
Callum's eyes gleamed wickedly. "Good."
"What do you mean, good?"
"You deserve to be loved. How about we both agree to stop manipulating each other and just function as a team from now on?"
"That sounds perfect."
I leaned in and kissed him.
Hard.
"I really do love you," I said against his lips, as I pulled away.
"I know. But I loved you first, Kitten. I just didn't realize it."
I laughed. "It's not a competition."
His hands cupped my face and I buried mine in his hair, as he recaptured my mouth. Our tongues tangled and danced.
When I lifted my hips to line the tip of his cock up with my entrance, he filled me slowly, driving into me again, and again.
We came together until I didn't know where I began and Callum ended, until we were one and the same. Until we were so lost in each other that I didn’t even want to find myself again.
Fate was right—we belonged together.