“Hey, are you coming in after?” I ask.
“If you want me to,” Mateo offers, stopping, and I nod.
“Kat is all yours when she wakes up, Kora called me some pretty horrid things, and I am not dealing with her crazy ass, she has a huge vocabulary of curse words,” Maddox grumbles in a growly pout.
“Great, you are ditching me too?” I accuse.
“No, I just don’t want to blow up near her, she doesn’t understand, she thinks we did it because we hate her mother, and I am too riled up to be near her.” Maddox huffs.
“I don’t hate her mother,” I correct.
“No, but I am not sad about her death, I won’t miss the woman, I love that she saved Kat, but that doesn’t change what she did, karma can be a real bitch,” Maddox adds. Yeah, it is probably best he steers clear, Kat won’t appreciate him saying any of that.
I head for the bedroom, hoping she wakes up and sees reason. We can’t let her die for the sake of her mother, we can heal injuries, but not a silver bullet in the heart.
I peek into the room, she is still out cold. I never thought I would have to knock her out like that, marking someone tends to be erotic for the person you’re marking, but can also be used to ascertain dominance over your mate, forcing them to submit, I hate that Maddox did it, but we had no other choice. I’d never done it before, and I have no idea how long she will be out.
Her body is completely limp as I pull her over to me, the mate bond still affecting her even in her unconscious state. She presses her face into my neck, inhaling my scent, her own always calms me, mint and eucalyptus but sweeter, almost fruity, such a weird combination but oddly right. I try to get comfortable sitting back on the headboard, her arms fall down my sides limply. I rest my eyes.
At some point, I must have dozed off because Mateo’s scent hits my nose a while later, rousing me from my sleep. I crack an eye open and watch him stand next to the door, staring at us.
“She’s still asleep,” he observes.
I glance down at the warmth that is pressed against me now, but I know once she wakes up, she’ll try to get away from me again. I rest the back of my head on the headboard.
Mateo strolls in and takes a seat next to me, bending over and brushing her hair from her face.
She twitches in her sleep and she sniffs his wrist. Her tongue pokes out and she licks at his wrist. Kora is stirring within, but she’s yet unable to rouse herself from her slumber.
“Derrick asked if he could stay the night, so I put him in one of the guest rooms. I think he just wants to be near Kat,” Mateo says, and I nod.
“Yeah, I can’t imagine how weird it would be going home to an empty house,” I reply, and Mateo nods.
“When was the last time you ate? Want me to get dinner for everyone?” he asks.
“This morning, and it’s up to you,” I reply, and he leans down, kissing her head. Maddox watches him, but says nothing, just making me sniff him for some reason.
His scent is changing slightly, I can’t wrap my mind around why I think that.
“Can I ask you something?” I ask, and he looks at me. “What does she smell like to you?”
He shrugs, “Similar to you, probably because she has your mark or maybe the other way around? You smell like her, but mint, and…” he trails off like he is searching for the word.
“Eucalyptus?” I suggest.
“Yeah, that’s it, but sweeter like strawberry essence thrown in there. A strange combination, why?”
“That’s what she smells like to me too,” I admit, and he seems to think for a second before he sniffs me.
“Your scent is stronger than hers though, more masculine while hers is sweet,” he observes before realizing he just sniffed me. “Sorry, that was probably weird of me to do.” He chuckles, looking away.
“Well, you have always been weird,” I chuckle, not willing to admit I sniffed him as well.
“The good kind of weird, though,” he insists, making my lips tug up slightly. Yes, a good sort of weird, I think to myself.
“I will go get dinner and see what Derrick wants to eat,” he offers, hopping up and walking out. I watch him leave. I can hear Derrick in one of the guest rooms, but figured I would let Mateo check on him, and I don’t want to go anywhere in case she wakes up.
I don’t have to wait too much longer. She shifts slightly, her hands pushing on my chest before she turns her head to the side. I looked down, watching her eyes flutter open, and a dreamy smile graced her lips for half a second. She sits up, jerking her head from side to side, and her confusion buzzes through the bond. Maybe she thinks she’s still in a dream.
“Mom?” She asks. I stare back at her as the realization hits her, I can see Kora is talking to her by how bright her eyes glow, when they suddenly dim, and she is back, focused on me, yet the way she looks at me is hollow and empty. As if she suddenly just switched off our bond, there’s nothing there, and by the look on her face, she did exactly that, she is completely hollow of emotion.
Katya
Waking, I sit up and see Ezra and our bedroom, making me wonder if it was all some sick dream my mind conjured up to torture me, or another vision of a time to come.
“Mom?” I ask him, praying he will be confused and not know what I am talking about, that it was just a dream. However, he just stares, his eyes softening like he doesn’t know what to say.
“She’s gone, Kat, it wasn’t a dream, though I wish it had been,” Kora sobs in my head, her soul-crushing pain piercing every fiber of my being. She is dead. My mother is truly gone.
I never pictured my life without my mother in it. Who does? You don’t think of someone who raised you, who is the strongest figure in your life, the one that holds the most influence in who you become as just gone.
My mother was my biggest supporter, my biggest critic, but she was mine. Nothing measures up to the pain of losing a mother, especially when she gave her life for yours. Inconsolable pain, soul-shattering, and destroying pain is what it feels like when you realize the woman that was always there would no longer be.
Then there is my father, if I felt like this? I would hate to know what it feels like for him to lose a mate. Your other half, a piece of yourself, yet he lost it twice, and all because he loved me.
I am my father’s destruction, that I know is something which will always be mine to bear, my life took everything from him. First my real mother, then the woman who raised me. My life seems to cost everyone theirs, and all for some curse bestowed by a Moon Goddess who is supposed to love us. But instead, she condemned me to a life of misery. Cursed to watch those I love, die around me. Anger is not a strong enough word for how much I hate my existence because she would still be here without it.