Chapter 29 – Wave
Wave was curled up on the couch, still trying to absorb everything Risha had told her. Based on Jarred’s reactions, about half of it had been news to him, too. Once he had muttered “Fucking Hellion.”
Now Jarred was at her back, absentmindedly stroking his thumb over the claiming mark, and Risha had her legs in his lap, doing the same absentminded stroking over her calves.
“So,” Wave finally decided to speak. “How’s your family going to take our little mate bond?”
“They will be ecstatic that I’m bonding up so significantly,” Risha grumbled.
Jarred cleared his throat. “It’s not his family I’d be worried about. It’s Hellion—”
Wave shook her head empathetically. “Uncle Essi would never let Lucifer send assassins after me. I still can’t believe he did that to you, even as a joke,” she grumbled.
“Joke?!”
“It wasn’t a—”
Both males started to protest, but Wave shook her head again. “Of course it was a joke. If Lucifer had wanted you dead, you would be dead.”
“But…” Risha gulped. “You talk about the Lord of Hell a little too casually for my liking, mate.”
Wave shrugged. “Grandfather has a yearly lunch with him. I was mandated to show up. That’s how I met Uncle Essi.” She smiled at the memories of the huge demon towering over her toddler form, teaching her how to shield and protect herself from Hell creatures.
“And the fact that you are smiling when you talk about High Duke Esserieh in that tone is equally creepy.” Risha shuddered and Jarred mimicked him behind her back.
“Anyway, Hellion and his family is a moot point,” Wave pointed out. “We are definitely broken up. Not that we were together to begin with.”
“Not to burst your bubble,” Risha began, but Jarred cut him off.
“Let’s leave that discussion for later. I’m not helping those two idiots out.”
They fell silent again, and Wave relaxed against Jarred’s chest. He kept stroking the claiming mark and Wave couldn’t help the little, happy hums that escaped her throat. Careful to keep her siren voice in check, she wrapped the stormbringer aura tighter around herself.
Irishen snarled when he felt the change in her aura, but it was Jarred who finally broke the silence. “Love, we can take it.”
When Risha growled under his breath again, Wave threw her hands up, dislodging Jarred’s hold. “I can’t help it,” she snapped. “It feels unnatural to just… let it all hang out.”
“It’s unnatural to keep it contained like that,” Risha shot back.
“Love”—Jarred tried to calm her—“we just don’t like knowing it’s causing you strain.”
“It’s not,” Wave argued. It wasn’t her stormbringer side that was the issue usually. So, the heir apparent power had claimed her back and was coursing through her veins, but it had also brought with it the fortifying well. A strong base to lean on.
“Why are you so resistant to this?” Irishen growled.
He had been snappy about this subject since the beginning and Wave’s patience was starting to run a bit thin.
Especially on top of all the emotional turmoil and having to adjust to two fucking bonds swirling and twirling around her insides.
Fuck butterflies. The feeling in her stomach was a buzzing beehive.
Probably some dangerous fae realm species of them.
“Because I don’t know any other way,” Wave snarled right back at him.
The silence that followed was stunned. Slowly, Risha turned to face her more fully and Jarred stiffened behind her.
“What do you mean?” Irishen asked quietly.
“What I said,” Wave replied. “Now, can we move on?”
“No, we can’t,” he said. “Please explain because I must be misunderstanding.”
“Love?”
“Sheesh. You are making a big deal out of nothing.”
“Morsel, are you saying that you don’t know how to relax your aura?”
“Of course I know how,” Wave grumbled. “In theory.”
Now Jarred moved to lean around her to see her face, too. “Precious, when was the last time you let it unravel? All of it.”
Wave looked at him and quirked a brow. What did he expect? That she could just go around with siren powers flaring all over the place?
“Morsel?”
“That would require me dropping my shields,” she finally said.
Jarred frowned, clearly thinking about something hard.
“Yes,” Risha said. “When’s the last time you let them drop?”
Now Wave looked at him like he was an idiot. How were they not getting this? Did she really have to spell out such basic precautions? “Why would I do that?”
Risha looked stupefied. “Because of the strain and pressure? You can’t go around shielded all the time. The pressure it would…” His eyes widened.
“Never,” Jarred growled softly. He moved to kneel in front of her on the floor.
“You’ve never let them fully drop. That’s why you can’t grasp the shielding Marc and I were trying to teach you.
It requires you to build the shield on top of your core, but your core is already fully shielded. All the time. Is that it?”
Now it was Wave’s turn to blink and try to figure out things. “You mean… but how… why would you…” She rubbed the temples, the headache intensifying. “You can’t mean you don’t shield your core at all times?”
Both men looked at her like she had sprouted a second head and maybe some demon wings. Wave blinked and shook her head.
“Morsel,” Risha finally choked out, “that’s not normal. Or healthy. Why would you do that? Who would tell you to do that? And how the hell are you even capable of doing that?”
“When do—” Jarred cut himself off and glanced at Irishen and cleared his throat before starting again. “When did—”
The worry and wariness radiating from Jarred finally made it click for Wave. She locked eyes with him and smiled softly. “At first kill.”
“You’ve literally never—” Again Jarred cut himself off.
Clearly frustrated, Risha threw his hand into the air. “Would you two like me to leave, since I’m clearly not part of this discussion?”
The echo of his feelings reached Wave through the bond loud and clear. He was hurt. And he had every right to be. He had told her everything. Answered her every question. Through the bond, she had sensed how much of his pride and heart he had laid bare, not hiding back all the mistakes he had made.
Esserieh’s warning rang in Wave’s ears, but still she found herself speaking.
Chances of this ending well were minuscule, especially with Hellion and Marc digging into things, but the need to lay it all out here, reciprocate the vulnerability he had shown, was too strong.
If her bonded mate betrayed her, what was the point of anything, anyway?
“Wa—” Jarred lurched forward.
“Siren’s power matures at first kill. I’ve been shielded from birth.”