Page 82 of Threads of Fate

Luca gets it. There’s something about Nix that just encourages them to want to be more and to do better, and it’s not all his scent or his secondary gender. It’s only going to get better the more they get to know him. He completes them, trite though it might be. “Do you think it’s the same for the others?”

Gideon nods and pushes a strand of hair behind Luca’s ear. “They may not know it yet. Grayson definitely, although I’m not sure what’s going on going on with him.”

“It’s not like him to miss out on making a memory like today. Nix is changing everything, and today is just the first day.” Anticipation swirls in his belly, and for once, Luca can tell it’s 100% excitement and not anxiety.

Gideon breathes deeply before kissing his forehead and whispering, “You know I’ll always love you best, right?” His alpha wants to reassure him, and Luca could not love him more.

It’s easy to smile at his romantic soulmate. “Me too.” Luca tilts his head until he can kiss him softly on the lips and the tip of his perfect nose.

Chapter Thirty: Grayson

Grayson

Grayson didn’t know himself at all.

Oh, until a week ago, he’d just been Grayson Pearce: beloved mate, architect, artist, even a fair dancer, if Finn’s response to his Truth-or-Dare lap dance had been any indication. More importantly, however, was who he was on the inside, and that person washappy. Not just go-along-with-life content, but genuinely happy. He was loved and lived a satisfying life; what more could anyone ever ask for?

The only things he’d allowed himself to hold regrets about were about their lost mate and, maybe, just sometimes, the effort he had to put in to hold some of the darker parts of himself in check. It’s not like he’s a murderer or plans hate crimes in his spare time, not at all, nothing so terrible as that. He can offer his browser history as evidence for that—or at least hecould haveuntil last Saturday night.

It makes him think about Dickens’ quote, “It was the best of times; it was the worst of times.”

Because it was; they’d found Nix, or maybe he’d found them, and Grayson discovered that he had a very precarious hold on the parts of himself that…burned. He burned with curiosity, with love, with passion, and with the desire toconsumeeverything that is Nix Rena. Never had he felt like that about another person. Period. Just thinking about what it will feel like when,instead of sleeping beauty, he faces a very awake, veryalivenew form of temptation scares him.

It is an obsession, an overwhelming desire to slot him into that place in Grayson’s heart like Nix might be the other half of himself. Imagine how terrifying it is to realize when he had already thought he waswhole.

People who don’t have a fated mate (let alone seven) can’t possibly understand the feeling, but it’s like all your parts finally falling into place when you bond;click-click-click, like interlocking pieces whose whole is infinitely stronger than the individual parts. Grayson had always known one piece was missing; Jay had felt it, and maybe Gideon had mentioned it one time that he felt a bit lopsided.

He’d had to accept that Nix was gone—like a machine missing an essential part that prevents it from functioning perfectly, but still good enough to do almost everything it was designed to do. But when his wolf scented Nix that first night, he realized it hadn’t been a small piece missing, but a huge one; it felt like half of his soul slotting into place. And his wolf had been loud ever since.

After days of searching and searching in all the wrong places, he’d discovered completely by accident an academic paper about the reports of Were soulmates. Luca and Gideon joked (while not really joking) that they were soulmates, and it was easy to see their connection beyond what they all shared as fated mates, which Grayson respected and envied. But he hadn’t understood it. Not really.

The study was largely anecdotal, so it had an understandably small sample size and zero empirical evidence. However, it cited historical texts and even several astrologers. They all claimed the answer was written in the stars. The Were faith is heavily tied to the planets and the moon in particular, so Grayson was at least familiar with the premise, if not the practice.

He’d sent some desperate inquiries to every single one of the astrologers listed, and he had already made plans to visit the University library to see if he could get access to the texts the study had cited. A last-ditch attempt at getting a handle on this obsession with a person he’s never even spoken to.

When Jay and Gideon had beelined for the hospital from Antonio’s office, he’d deliberately attached himself to Leo because he knew Rowan would not let Grayson get away with his mysterious silence. Then he’d begged Leo to take him home, relying on Leo’s usual non-confrontational approach.

His beta was always full of understanding, more likely to cajole than insist, and it’s just what Grayson needed when he wasn’t ready to answer questions. He felt a glimmer of shame that he took advantage of his mate’s respectful nature when he locked himself in the rut room with its blanket Do Not Disturb rule in place.

Even under the sensory restrictions of the suppressants, he hears the security system activate “home” mode, and he knows Leo has gone. He desperately wants to call him back and change his mind, to see Nix as soon as possible. That place in his heart—no, hissoul,reminding Grayson they were incomplete.

And yet, he doesn’t.

He responds to Rowan’s texts, the persistent weight of his omissions making his conscience twinge. With a sigh, he carefully hangs up his bespoke suit and changes into swim trunks. Lowering the pool’s temperature to an icy chill, he dives in, swimming lap after lap until he loses count somewhere past fifty. When his limbs finally give way to exhaustion, he dries off, sheds his drenched swimsuit, and pads naked to the kitchen to retrieve a snack. After taking his daily dose of suppressants, he steps into the shower, reflecting on the idea of “letting off steam,” as his endocrinologist had advised.

But his wolf is having none of it; he wants Nix, and while Grayson might let thoughts of his beautiful mate—awake, smiling—flicker through his imagination, he will bedamnedif he uses images of him to get off. Not when they haven’t even held a conversation when he hasn’t kissed his cheek or fed him from his hand.Fuck that.

By the time his shower ends, he’s sweating despite the icy water. Neither the cold shower nor the intense swim has done anything to quell the simmering desire to bond with his new mate. Knowing that Nix is awake seems to have intensified his body’s relentless drive to reunite their souls. It feels as if the drugs are suppressing everything except his obsession.

Dressing in his painting clothes, Grayson retreats to his bedroom studio and uncovers the thirty-by-thirty-inch oil canvas, its surface still marked with the faint outline of eyes, a nose, and full lips. He’d kept it here in the house, unable—or unwilling—to leave it unattended in the Art House behind the main house since he began the piece a month ago. But it had mostly remained untouched since then, the details stubbornly eluding his artist’s mind.

But now, he knows exactly whose eyes those are and what those lips look like in real life. Once he admitted to himself that they belonged to his omega, the rest of the painting came together in yellows and pinks, in black and white, and he lost time to his art and to his muse.

Sometime later, he hears Rowan’s footsteps stop outside his door, but he doesn’t knock, and Grayson is so grateful when they head back down the hall toward his room. Almost immediately, the door to Luca’s room slams, followed by the low rumble of the soulmates blowing off steam. It’s distracting in the best/worst way to hear Luca cry and beg, and since he’s almost done anyway, Grayson sets his brushes to soak before he finally thinks to check his phone.

2:08 PM - from Finn

You missed the 2-hour check in

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