Page 60 of Twisted Mates

“Okay, I trust you,” she says so easily, so wholeheartedly that it makes my chest ache.

“Good,” is all I can manage without getting all emotional, and I keep drawing while she watches.

“This is really relaxing,” she says after a few minutes, and I notice her eyelids are getting droopy.

With a grin, I say, “Close your eyes while you can, Alexia. When the needles touch your skin, I guarantee you, you won’t be sleepy.”

She grits her teeth, and her eyes immediately fall shut. “You don’t have to tell me twice.”

With my rough outline complete, I set to work readying my machine. She watches me from the corner of her eye, tiny beads of sweat forming on her brow. I move a little slower just in case she needs time to gather her thoughts or to ask me to stop. I’d be a little disappointed if I couldn’t ink the piece on her, but I’d understand.

I hit the pedal to my machine and a buzz fills the quiet shop. Alexia fidgets in her chair. “Are you sure?” I ask one more time.

“Yes.”

It’s all I need to set to work. I talk to her through the process, asking questions about her teenage and college years.This woman is so intelligent. She goes on about her love for history and science. And that due to her ADHD, she had to study a lot harder than the rest of her friends (excluding Carrington) to maintain her grade point average. I’m pretty sure the only thing Carrington was studying was dance routines and boys.

Our conversations drift into the politics of our people and my thoughts on Clayton acting in my mother’s place. We talk about the secrets we keep from humans and how it is our duty to protect them from the other creatures that mean them harm in this world. She shares stories about her siblings and her very first shift before we circle around to more recent events.

“Who do you really think is stalking me?” she asks.

I wipe the black ink from her skin and continue to work. “Someone that doesn’t want to see you become queen. Maybe it’s someone with a vendetta against my brother. Goddess knows that none of us know what’s really going on with him.”

“Kai seems so unproblematic. Who would have a problem with him?” She pauses and then glances up at me, worry clouding her big, brown eyes. “Tell me the truth, Xander. Do youreallythink he’d hurt me? Do you actually think it could be him doing this?”

I stop tattooing. There is no way I can give my full attention to inking her when we’re discussing this topic. “The truth is that I’ve been a piss poor brother these past years. I don’t know either of my siblings the way I should. What I thought I knew about Kai has been turned on its head. I never thought he would abandon his duty to our kingdom, yet here we are with no future king. I don’t know what he’s capable of. You’re better suited to answer that than I am.”

“I don’t really know theadultKai. We were friends when we were kids, but in college, he went his way with basketball, and I went mine with academics. Regardless, I don't think he’d hurt me.” She pauses and seems to contemplate her nextwords before saying them. “But I will admit, I’ve never really understood why he’s the future king and not you,” she says.

“You know why,” I say, starting back up with the inking. This part doesn’t bother me so much. Since accepting that I was destined to be without a mate, I’ve also come to terms with the fact that I would never sit on the throne. I was always all right with the latter.

“Well Iknowwhy. I just don’tgetit. It’s the mate thing.” She rolls her eyes. “That’s so stupid. Your father was the actual king. You’re the oldest son.Youshould be king. Not Kai just because he was mated first.”

I chuckle at how easily she applies human rules to the complicated ways of shifters. Our kind has taken great strides not to be like the humans. We are the protectors of those who don’t know the truth about the paranormal, and as such, there are still rules that don’t always make sense to the younger generations. Alexia is able to see all on an equal ground, which would do the whole system some good, to be honest.

“Is it any stupider than giving someone power because of their birth order?” I ask pointedly.

She tilts her head back and forth as if considering my question and purses her lips. “Fair. That’s fair. Both things are kind of dumb. But here’s what isn’t dumb: you are the son of both the Queenandthe King. Therefore, you should get to be the next ruler. Period. That’s what makes the most sense to me.”

I wipe the blood and ink away from the detailed piece I’m working on and say, “I’m happy with the life I’ve made here. This is what I wanted more than anything else—a sense of freedom. Even as a child I never imagined myself with a crown on my head. I’ve created the life I’ve always wanted with only a few holes in it.”

“Oh, well, if you don’t want to be king, then you shouldn’t be, I suppose,” she says, a slightly wistful tone to her voice. “What‘holes’ are there in your life?” I don’t even have to look up at her to know she’s looking right at me when she asks.

“Well, one of them is something I can never get back—my parents.”

“Of course. That makes sense. I don’t remember your dad, but your mom was so kind. Everyone loved her.”

I smile as I continue tattooing her, focusing on the art to ward off the emotions threatening to burst through the surface. “Yeah. She was the best. My dad too.”

“It was a car accident, right?”

Tears spring to my eyes at the memory of the day my mom came to get me from school to tell me my dad had been in an accident on his way back from a conference in Richmond. I blink away the moisture as I wipe the excess ink off her skin. “Yeah. He was coming up Mount Selene, it was raining, and he hydroplaned.”

She reaches over with her free hand and pushes a strand of hair out of my face, tucking it behind my ear. “I’m sorry, Xander. I can’t imagine how badly that hurt, losing them both.”

“It was horrible. Not something I’d wish on my worst enemy—not even Clayton. You’re lucky to still have both of yours.”

She nods and settles back into her seat. “I know. What else? What are the other holes? What else is missing?”

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