Ryland rips me into the shower as soon as I strip my clothes off. While washing my hair, I hear a knock on the door. My heart is beating rapidly. Ryland groans and steps out, not even grabbing a towel, just walks out and answers the door. I hear nothing but silence until the door unexpectedly swings open, and I hide behind the shower curtain.
“Why are you hiding?” Orion asks, pulling the curtain back, and I jump on him, wrapping my arms around him.
“Where is Thaddeus?” I ask, looking to see if he is in the room.
When I don’t see him, I pull back. Orion shakes his head. “I don’t know, we had an argument, and he took off. When he didn’t return after a few hours; I came looking for you,” he says.
I don’t remember him calling, or Ryland telling him where we are. “How did you find us?” I ask, confused.
Orion smiles and presses a kiss to my mark. He sucks on it, and I moan loudly as sparks run straight to the apex of my thighs. “Your mark pulls us in your general direction; that’s how Ryland found you when you left. We can feel direction, just not the exact place, and as long as you’re conscious, we can find you no matter where you go,” he says.
Ryland steps past, and I move over, letting him in. Orion can’t fit in the shower because it is too small, so he sits on the sink and watches us.
“Don’t suppose you brought any clothes?” Ryland asks him as he steps out, wrapping a towel around his waist.
Orion nods and walks out to grab a bag. He tosses some loose-fitting pants to Ryland, and I grab my sweatpants and shirt. Drying myself, I slip them on.
“Where do you think he went?” I ask Orion.
“Don’t know. Evelyn, this isn’t the first time he has gone off the radar. He can mask himself, so we can’t feel him. Last time we didn’t find him until he came looking for us, which was about three months.”
“Three months?” I gasp. I can’t imagine being without them for more than a couple of days, no matter how much I deny it. The mate bond is in full swing; it is like losing a piece of yourself without them.
“He will come back, but for now, we just need to think of what to do next,” Orion says.
“What did you do last time?” I ask.
“Well, I went to mom and dad’s,” Orion says.
“And I went searching for him,” Ryland adds.
“So, you two didn’t see each other either?” I ask, and they both nod.
“No, but we still communicated.”
“Why didn’t you look for him with Ryland?” I ask curiously.
Orion doesn’t answer, but Ryland does. “Because Thaddeus was in a dark place. He enjoyed hurting us. Orion couldn’t take it and tried to leave.”
“Hurting you?” I furrow my eyebrows at his words.
“Yeah, you think what he did to you is bad? He locked Orion up for two years in a cell under the house and drained him of his blood, so he was weak.”
His answer just led me to more questions. “Why?”
“Because I left him. I didn’t want to be a part of his effort to destroy the world,” Orion answers.
“Amara and Bianca got him out; finally made Thaddeus see what he was doing was wrong.”
“Why didn’t you?” I ask, wondering how he could let his mate suffer at the hands of his other mate.
“Because he scared me, and I wasn’t a good person, Evelyn. I enjoyed being with Thaddeus, doing what he was doing.” His answer floors me; I am gobsmacked. He enjoyed killing people with Thaddeus.
“So, what changed?” I ask, wondering when he suddenly stopped going along with everything Thaddeus did.
“I met you,” he answers, and I look at Orion who just shrugs.
“But you aren’t like them?” I ask Orion.
“No. I like humans, Evelyn; like their humanity; like their simple minds and energy. I have never agreed with Ryland and Thaddeus’ ways.”
“Then why did you stay?” I press the matter more.
“The mate bond. You can’t escape it. Three months without him is torture, kills your soul, and you become a shell of yourself without them,” he says.
His answer scares me. What if he doesn’t come back? Will I become like Orion and Ryland, a vacant shell of a person?
“We should get some sleep. We might go to mom and dad’s tomorrow; at least you might be more comfortable there with Amara and Imogen,” Ryland says. I agree; I don’t know how I will handle going from motel to motel.
E
velyn
It has been a month since we left. We have been staying at Thaddeus’ parents’ house. Orion is right; without Thaddeus, I feel his absence deeply, even though I still have them. I miss him; the first week was fine, the second was harder, and now it is agony.
Orion and Ryland try to cheer me up. They have even been letting me see Lana every week. We meet in the city every Friday. Tomorrow, I will see her again, and I look forward to it. It is my favorite day of the week because I get to see her.
April hasn’t said anything since the first day I saw her, and we have been getting along fine. Though, I sometimes catch her staring, and the look on her face is a little off sometimes when I catch her watching. Ryland and Orion don’t trust her and say there is something off about her that makes them not trust her. She has given me no reason to distrust her, so I just put it down to the fact they don’t like her because of what she said that one time.
Amara lets us have her room, and she stays inside with her parents. His parents are always welcoming and nice, but I often catch his fathers watching me. Not in a bad way, but like they want to ask me something but don’t know how, or maybe they blame me for their son taking off; I’m not sure.
Walking into the kitchen, I see Ryland talking to Tobias at the counter. Amara is talking to her other father while making coffee. I’m about to see if they want help, but Imogen pulls me toward her, pulling a stool out. I sit down, and Tobias has that look on his face again, like he wants me to answer something.
Imogen nudges him with her elbow. “Don’t stare; you scare her when you do that,” she tells him, and he looks away. “Don’t mind him, dear. Guilt is eating at him,” she says, making me furrow my eyebrows.
“I don’t understand,” I tell her. Theo places a coffee in front of me, messing my hair as he goes and retrieves another. Tobias says nothing, but Theo answers.
“Amara told us what happened to you. Tobias, and even Bianca, blame themselves for what happened. They think they should have just kept you,” Theo says.
Well, that’s not what I thought he was going to say.
I shake my head. “You told them?” I ask, shocked; I haven’t even told her, but I know she snooped into my past.
“I know I shouldn’t have shown them, but dad kept pestering me, thinking he destroyed your life,” Amara says, and my face flushes with humiliation.