Chapter 39
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Ilyas
Adrik: You could have avoided this.
I resisted the urge to throw my phone across the room. Everyone was stuck going through files for the audit despite the fact that I knew everything was above board except for the stuff with Eric. Well, at least for team one.
Chet was old school, and I knew there were cases he might purposely leave out of his reports.
I’d been helping him a few years ago when Deuce was out with an injury, and I’d seen it firsthand.
There’d been an abused siren on Southside, and I’d gone with Chet to the call out.
He’d moved her out of the city to some refuge over the border, and there’d been no report on it anywhere.
I’d never mentioned it to anyone else either.
Hopefully my mistakes didn’t come back to bite Chet in the ass. Day three of our shift was winding down, and I knew Hailey would soon clock off and head home with Eric, which meant Louis would pine for the rest of the night until Hailey returned tomorrow morning.
As if I summoned him with my thoughts, the elevator doors opened, and Eric appeared. He’d loosened his tie at some point and unbuttoned the top of his dress shirt. I wasn’t sure I was imagining it, but the expression on his face looked tight, and he had purple inky smudges beneath his eyes.
His whole face lit up when he saw Hailey, and any sign of strain disappeared. She wrapped her arms around his body, and his muscles relaxed. “How was your day?”
I went back to reading my reports, giving them their moment. It was intimate, and I didn’t want to intrude, even if we were in an open plan office.
Hailey dashed away, and Eric strolled over to me. I realized everyone else had already disappeared to the common room, and it was just Hailey and me left in the work area. Eric sat down on the table opposite me with a soft grunt. Looking up at him, I saw it more clearly.
“The clan sickness is creeping back?” I asked softly, and he nodded.
“Since we moved out of Louis’s apartment.” He sighed heavily. “Hailey helps. I think I could even struggle through until Louis is ready to mate bond with her, but I’m so fucking exhausted.” His words were defeated, his tone heavy with the bone-deep weariness you hide from your loved ones.
Poor bastard. “If you tell Louis, he’ll bond you sooner rather than later.”
He was already shaking his head before I’d finished. “No, she deserves to be courted properly, not the fucked up way I did it. He also deserves to court a mate in the way he’s probably been planning since he was a kid.” Eric sighed. “I can wait.”
“I’ll bond with you,” I offered before I even thought about the what-ifs.
Otis’s words from Mario Kart night had been playing over and over in my head, and why not?
It would get the flight off my back and make me completely undesirable to most gargoyle females.
I could also move out of flight housing without worrying about getting my own version of clan sickness.
Honestly, it felt kind of right.
Eric, however, looked at me like I’d lost my mind. “Uh, thank you, I guess? Why would you even do that? I didn’t think you, uh, liked men.”
My lips curled up. “Assumptions are rarely right. However, I have an archaic flight that is trying to use me like a stud, so thoughts of people’s preferences aren’t really taken into account.
” I sighed heavily. “I’m stuck there because, like you, I’ll get sick if I don’t.
A bond between us would be a win-win situation.
You’re a good man, so you’ll be a good bond mate. ”
He frowned again. “What if you find someone you want to bond with later? Someone who sets your world on fire?” My eyes flicked to the common room almost against my will, and Eric smiled.
“Ah, I see. Well, I have to discuss it with Hailey, of course, and probably Louis… and Syke, I guess. For now, at least.” He hesitated.
“Thank you for even suggesting it. I really appreciate it.”
I shrugged, my face feeling warm. “Okay.” I cleared my throat. “Even if you don’t want to bond—” Why did I sound like an awkward pebbling? “You should tell Hailey and Louis about the clan sickness. Hailey loves you. She would want you to be healthy above all else.”
Hailey reappeared, and Eric shifted off my desk. “I’ll think about it.”
Wandering toward us between the desks, she smiled widely. “Have a good night, Ilyas. Whatever Louis is cooking smells amazing. I’m kind of jealous.”
Eric had his arm wrapped around her waist, so Hailey wasn’t the only one jealous at the moment. “Drive home safely. Did Louis tell you to message him when you get there?” I asked lightly, like I had no vested interest in her answer.
She patted me on the shoulder. “And Otis and even Syke. I’ll message the team group chat so everyone knows.
” She laughed. “I’ll see you in the morning,” she called as they walked to the elevator, Eric carrying her tote.
As the door’s closed on them, I sent up a prayer to the moon that they said yes.
Picking up the hotline phone, I walked into the common room.
The guys were all sitting around, and there was an action movie playing on the TV, but no one was really watching.
When I walked over to the long, stainless steel countertops, Louis wordlessly handed me a huge block of cheese and a box grater.
It was an unwritten rule of the kitchen—if you were going to stand at the counter and distract him, you had to do a job. I didn’t mind.
“You should know that I just propositioned your future bond mate.”
Louis’s hand stopped stirring. “You propositioned Hailey?” I don’t know why he sounded so incredulous. I could woo the human if I wanted to, which I did, but he didn’t know that.
“No, Eric. Asked him if he wanted to bond.”
Louis was still watching me like I’d lost my mind. “Why?”
I didn’t want to break Eric’s trust, and besides, it wasn’t like everyone didn’t know about my problems with the flight anyway, and Otis had practically suggested it. “He needs a clan, and I need a way out of my flight. It just seemed to work.”
There were so many holes in that explanation, and when Louis just stared at me, I wondered if he could see them all. Instead, he just continued stirring. “Okay.”
“Okay?” This fucking werewolf was the chillest creature on the planet.
“Yeah, okay? Ilyas, I obviously don’t tell you this enough, but you’re one of my closest friends, and I love you.
I want you to be happy. If joining my future pack” —he winked— “makes you, Eric, and Hailey happy, then I’m fine with it.
Delighted, even. I know you’ll treat them with respect and love, and we have the same values.
I couldn’t ask for a better pack mate. If anything ever comes for them, I know you’ll protect them with your life.
” He takes the cheese from me, and I realize I’d grated it all.
“Besides, at least you weren’t a man whore like Syke, and I’ve accepted that there’ll be no getting rid of him either. ”
“Hey!” the demon in question protested, but he was smiling.
He gave me a shit-eating smirk, and I wondered if I’d just been maneuvered into this position.
It was like that sometimes with Syke. He nudged you where he thought you should be, and you didn’t even realize it’d happened until you were strapped to a cross in a leather bar while someone called Johan poured champagne down your chest and licked it off.
I learned that lesson the hard way. But he was fiercely loyal for a demon, so I didn’t worry he was trying to fuck with my life.
Unfortunately, we didn’t have time to discuss it further or eat whatever Louis had cooked, because the hotline number rang. I took down the details, and then we were out, driving into the night to a call about a sleep paralysis demon.
* * *
An hour later, we managed to carry the starving sleep paralysis demon out of the gaming hub downtown where it had gatecrashed a LAN party.
Apparently, they’d been speed running some new release video game where you were an assassin, and everyone had been awake for nearly forty-eight hours, mining something.
There was no mining or running happening from what I could see, just a bunch of humans, two werewolves, and a sleep paralysis demon hunched over keyboards, surrounded by empty takeout containers and energy drinks.
When the sleep paralysis demon had dropped, the werewolf kids called the hotline. We’d taken him back to the demon district where the local incubi would fix him up. I didn’t quite know how, but Syke assured me that this was how it was dealt with, and the incubi would patch the demon up in no time.
At some point on the drive to the LAN party, Hailey had told the group chat that they’d arrived home safe and sound and wished us a good night, so I was surprised when at midnight, my phone buzzed in my pocket just as we got back to the center.
Pulling it out, I noticed the message was from an unknown number.
Unknown: She said yes.
Unknown: So did Louis and Syke. Welcome to the clan.
My lips curled up into a smile, and I saved the number in my phone as Eric.
Me: Thank you. I promise I’ll be a worthy bond mate.
Eric: I know. We all know. We’ll set something up for when your shift ends. Hailey says it needs to be special.
I laughed beneath my breath as I lay down in my bunk.
Me: It’s already special.
I didn’t feel trapped or herded. I didn’t feel like I was being used for my pedigree or as if my desires didn’t matter.
If anything, I didn’t think a single one of them cared that I was one of the most eligible bachelors in North America for my lineage alone.
They just accepted me for the man they knew.
For the first time in a while, thoughts of the future filled me with hope instead of dread.