4. Rena #4
“I think I can manage coffee,” I said loftily, walking over to the pot. I wasn’t sure where anything was, but I was feeling pretty smug when I found the mugs in the first cupboard I opened.
That feeling was quickly replaced with shock and regret when I reached up to grab one, and the wound in my side sent a sharp pain through my whole body. It hurt so badly that for a split second I wasn’t sure where it had even originated. I was just trying to stay on my feet.
“Whoa,” Chance called. Within seconds, he was behind me, his arm wrapped under my arms and around my chest, supporting my body weight. “Gods, woman, I said I’d get the coffee.”
“I forgot about my side,” I wheezed as he reached up with his other hand to grab our mugs. “Fuck me.”
“Maybe later,” he replied drolly.
I let out a small laugh and groaned. “Don’t be funny.”
“I’ll try, but it’s who I am as a person.”
“Knock it off.”
I leaned back against him and tried to catch my breath, and Chance seemed to have no problem with that. As soon as he’d put the mugs on the countertop, he just waited, holding me. I could feel his lips pressed against the crown of my head.
“Better?” he asked against my hair a couple of minutes later.
“Yeah.”
“You sure?” I could hear the smile in his voice. “Because I could stand here all day.”
“I need coffee.”
“Okay. Go sit down, and I’ll get it,” he ordered, his arm loosening before falling away. “You want cream or sugar?”
“Both,” I answered as I made my way back to my stool. What an absolutely idiotic mistake. I couldn’t believe I’d reached for those mugs without thinking.
We ate in companionable silence, but with each passing moment, I felt panic growing at the base of my throat, and I couldn’t figure out why.
Maybe it was because eating beside Chance felt so normal, like we’d done it a thousand times before.
Even the rhythm of his fork scraping across the plate felt familiar, and it was freaking me out.
“So, I need to talk to you about something,” he said, setting his fork down. “You done?”
I nodded and let him take our plates to the sink.
“As you probably know, any separation between mates is painful.” He glanced at me. “But, for mates who haven’t completed the bond or those who just recently completed it, the separation is, well…agony.”
I swallowed hard at the weight of his words.
“Danny and Rosemary have gone out ahead to check things out, and once they call and give the go-ahead, the rest of us, along with some Vampires that Rosemary used to work with, are going to go after Hermann. There are two properties that we’re going to tonight.”
“Okay,” I said, when it seemed like he had paused for a really long time.
“All of the mates, including Reese, Lucy, and my mother, are flying out with us but staying on the plane while we work.”
I just stared at him, wondering if they’d let me borrow a car to go home. If no one was going to be at the house, I couldn’t imagine that Chance would ask me to stay there. It was good, actually, that they were leaving. I needed to go home, to my own house, where my things were.
“I need you to go too,” he announced, like he was bracing for impact.
“I can just go home,” I countered. “I’ll give you my address, and we can meet up after you’re back. We obviously need to figure this out.”
The heat flared beneath my skin, but I’d gotten pretty good at ignoring it.
When he spoke again, his tone was gentle, almost consoling. “Baby, if I get on that plane and leave without you, neither of us will be capable of anything beyond breathing.”
I sputtered, trying to find words to contradict him.
“I don’t even know that I could force myself onto the plane,” he continued.
“It’ll be that bad?” I’d heard every word he’d said about the pain of separation and the inability to walk away.
I’d heard it, but because I barely knew him, it had been easy to brush it off.
I hadn’t felt the heat then, the angry rush of fire through my blood.
Even when Reese had tried to explain, I’d stubbornly refused to internalize what she was saying to me.
Now that I’d spent some time with Chance and I’d felt the relief that his proximity and touch gave me, it was impossible to ignore his warning.
“Worse,” he said, pushing his long hair out of his face with both hands. “If I could leave you here—safe—I swear to the Gods, I would. But I don’t think it’s physically possible.”
I opened my mouth to tell him that he could stay behind with me, but closed it again without a sound. He wouldn’t force me to go. He needed me to agree. The importance of my answer was written in every line of his body.
I barely knew him. We’d been thrown together by fate or the universe or the gods or whatever, but he was basically a stranger. I didn’t owe him anything.
Still, I couldn’t forget the worry in his eyes during those lucid moments when he’d assured me that everything was okay. Since the moment we’d met twenty-four hours before, devotion had informed every one of his actions.
It felt like I’d gotten the wind knocked out of me as the weight of the situation finally seemed to sink in.
I was a fucking Vampire’s mate.
I cleared my throat. “When do we leave?”