Vashu is losing his shit. I hope her shifter healing isn’t all that good, or she’s gonna be awake soon. I look down the hall at her room. I just want to go hold her so she knows she’s safe. Connor and Fry don’t say anything. A few subtle head nods or shakes here or there. I stand up and pretend to stretch. I just want to go hold her.

“Sit down Xander, no one goes in her room without her permission,” I whine at him. Connor just shakes his head at me. “I mean it, man, it is the one place in the house that is hers. We want her to trust us and to continue to open up. How do you think she’ll react with just the little you’ve been told about her, to a man in her bed?” I whimper again and sit down.

“Vashu is done fucking up the forest. He’ll be back soon,” I tell them both. I know neither of them are shifters. Fry is an incubus who can see people’s magic or some shit like that. I don’t knowmuch about Connor, but not a shifter. Vashu walks through the front door, his cock hanging down to his knees. Fucking dragons. I bet he doesn’t even know how to use that thing, and every girl has run away screaming when they saw the size of it. Fry rubs his face.

“I know that we have three shifters in the house, but please guys, make sure you are covered up. Trust me, we will all know when she is ready to see us naked, and that may be years from now. We don’t really know, but we are taking everything at her pace. I will warn you though, she has a habit of forgetting to wear clothes. I guess spending eighteen years chained naked clothes feel pretty strange to you.” I look at Fry, EIGHTEEN YEARS? I feel the wooden table snap under my hands. Vashu is doing some pretty heavy breathing, and the table splits in two.

“SHE WAS SIX WHEN THAT STARTED?!” I grab my phone and quickly send my mom a text.

Me: Mom, don’t ask me questions, but please go check on Felicity and tell me she’s alright.

Mom: What!? It’s the middle of the night, Xander!

I tap my fingers on the broken table. Fry seems to be waiting for something, me too buddy, me too. Come on Mom. The bubbles show up to tell me she’s writing.

Mom: She’s fine, Xander, though she’s pissed off I woke her up. What is going on?

Me: Nothing Mom, I will talk to you tomorrow, love you! Give Fel a kiss for me since she’s up!

I put my phone back in my pocket, glad that my sister is okay. I look around the table and everyone is looking at me. “What, do I have food on my face or some shit?”

“Anyway, since you guys have calmed down now, you know most of the awful shit. Some of it we are just beginning to put together, but we don’t know for sure yet. Let’s see what you guys come up with on your own after a few days around her and we will compare notes. But onto the good shit, and yes, there is some good shit. She fucking loves music, and I mean any music. I don’t think we haven’t found anything that hasn’t made hersmile. She has no fucking clue what a tune is, and I swear to the Gods I could fall asleep listening to her tone deaf ass for the rest of my life. She loves bacon, hates lima beans. Please never ever get her anything with lima beans. Connor can tell you how she likes her coffee. We have a list in the kitchen of the foods she likes, those she’s unsure of, and those she hates.”

I need to see this list. I can get her all kinds of treats. She’s too skinny. Shifters shouldn’t be so small. Wait, Fry just said something that sounded important.

“Say that again, sorry I was thinking about all the food. I was going to get Farlen.” Connor laughs and nods his head at Fry. Hmmmm.

“I said, it seems like she has been dreaming about all our eyes for as long as she could remember. She has told Connor about always dreaming about us when she was asleep. She has seen no other features of us, just eyes. But from what Connor gathers, they are the only things that have brought her comfort before now. There are still three more missing matches for her. We don’t know when she’ll meet them, but we don’t tell anyone a thing about Farlen until we know if they are going to accept the bond or not. If they don’t want to accept her, get them the fuck out of here and they get nothing. You both already know about what I can do and who I am. Connor, the floor is yours now.”

Connor rubs the back of his neck. “Man, you make it sound all mysterious and shit. I’m a demigod. I have the power of telepathy. Sorry guys, I was reading your mind to make sure you were telling the truth about accepting the bond. We won’t fucking let anyone hurt her. I will try to stay out of your heads. If you see Farlen touch her head like this, and then look at me. She’s having trouble saying something, and she wants me to listen to her. I try not to listen to her, she needs to have some privacy, but Gods sometimes she screams things so loud in her head that I can’t not hear it. Uh, since we are all going to be match brothers, I guess you should all know this. My Mom is the seer Sharron.”

I’ve heard of her before. She’s a lower God, cool.

Fry looks around at everyone, “Alright well now that everyone is up to speed on this shit, we need to talk about what happened today.”

32

Vashu

Someone violated my mate. Someone peeled the skin from her bones and tortured her. My dragon is pounding against my ribcage, demanding we eat the piece of filth that did that to her. Instructor Fry, Connor, and Xander have been talking nice and calm for a little while. How in the fuck are they so calm about all of this? We should be out hunting the fucker down and peeling off his skin one layer at a time, ripping off his toenails and forcing them through his bleeding eye sockets.

Connor looks over at me. “He’s already dead, man. That’s one thing we have kind of put together. Farlen has said he is dead, and the way she says it with such confidence, we believe she’s the one that killed the fucker.”

“How in the fuck are you all so calm about this? My dragon is demanding vengeance at any fucker who hurt her, or even looked at her funny. She needs to be fucking protected!”

Everyone shushes me. Oh yeah. Farlens asleep.

Fry is the next to speak. “I don’t think any of us are calm about this man, I fucking had to go trash some trees when Connor told this to me, how he is sane having told it to me and been told it, then hear it told to you all I am still fucking amazed by. But does it help Farlen for us to lose our shit? She is terrified of violence. Fuuuuuuuuuuk. Do either of you two have Payne’s combat class on Fridays? Damnit. Hopefully, he’s up for spectators for that then. If we give into our anger and rage, it hurts Farlen. You need to fucking have a long talk with your dragon. You can NEVER direct any anger or rage towards her, and I mean ever. If shetakes your favorite fucking necklace, you just need to smile at her and let her. I don’t care if she rips your still beating heart from your body and takes a bite from it, smile at her. She’s had too much fucking pain in her life. Let's not make it any harder on her. I fucked up big time today because I got in my damn head about her getting hurt, which we need to get back to talking about.”

“So Sarah Tempest the mind teacher,” Connor nods, “Came to me today, and told me that one student in her class needed to be evaluated, which was true, or else she’d be choking on a pool of her own blood by now, her class is right next to mine, so I didn’t think it would take long. I left to go check on the kid, cuz that’s what I’m supposed to do at this fucking school. I began to hear screaming from my class, I didn’t get a good read on the kid, but he was leaning more demon than mind, so I fucking booked it back into the classroom, Farlen had her nails under her skin and was ripping off her flesh. Connor knows the rest of that part of the story. I can’t fucking tell it again right now or I am not going to sleep. When Healer Daniel got there, he said she smelled of mind magic. I didn’t honestly hear him until later and could think again through the fucking fog of self-loathing. He suspects Sarah as well. And before any of you interrupt like, I can see all of you wanting to do. She’s jealous. We were fuck buddies for a long time. She’s never really searched for any of her matches, she isn’t even in the fucking database, and I honestly gave up for a long time ago of ever finding Farlen. As soon as I met Farlen, I told her we were done, but she didn’t seem to get the hint. She thinks I’m going to come running back to her at any time because of the way Farlen looks. I suspect she’s the reason Farlen got hurt today.”

My dragon and I are fucking conflicted. We don’t hurt females. Even if they hurt us. They are too precious, there aren’t enough of them anymore, and even WE know this. Xander starts cackling. Dude has a screw loose, but he’s a brother now, and I can’t beat his ass anymore or it will hurt Farlen again. Damn. Connor is looking at him with his eyebrow raised and shakes hishead.

Xander does that evil mastermind bullshit he likes to pull? “So, we can’t hurt her, but she fucked with our center? We can’t lay a finger on her. You all have either powers that are fucking useless to this, or are, well, I guess you’re all useless for this task. Tell me what the bitch looks like. I’m gonna make every one of her fears come to life. Oh, I know you and Fry know but Connor, I can manipulate fears, any fear, I also think I can take them away, something we can test out later, but all I have to do is see someone and get a little taste of their fears. Once I know the taste of it, I can always manipulate it. Everyone has a distinct flavor to them, just like everyone smells different.”

Fry pinches the bridge of his nose. “What time do you guys have class tomorrow? I can show you where her classroom is. And you will not use your ability to take away fears to take away Farlens' fear of sex. You can’t manipulate her that way. That would almost be like a rape in itself.”

“STOP SAYING THAT WORD!”