Page 113 of Bonds of Fate

They all watch Nix go—of course, they do. And when haven’t they had their eyes on him in the past week?

When they hear the far-away door click closed, a sad Rowan lures Grayson into helping him clean up. The promise of a movie and the potential for Rowan-cuddles is too much to refuse, especially with the way their sensitive mate is hurting even after their earlier heart-to-heart.

Distraction is the best way to deal with things when the source of the upset is unavailable for comment, and Jay must think the same.

“Leo, I think we should give your father a call now so Finn can get the ball rolling. This is going to be high profile.” He stops suddenly, smacking himself on the forehead. “Shit. I need to get our Ripley managers and PR on board for the court case. Finn, we’ll meet you in the library in twenty so we can call Mr. Costas and Erin.”

“You’re not going to spill the vanilla beans to the company yet?” That’s from Rowan, who has Grayson on his back, where he’s piggy-backed him in from the kitchen.

“Not yet, but we’ll need a statement. They know Hayes was an employee, fans and the press are already making connections with our impromptu hiatus, and we need a plan of attack. I don’t fucking care about Ripley, but our fans should know we still care about them, and I think we should give them as much of the truth as possible. Were and Human both. It’ll take some professional finagling.”

“I’ll see you in the library in twenty.”

Finn fills the time by finishing up in the kitchen, as neither Grayson nor Rowan are naturally tidy. It’s why Finn is almost always assigned kitchen duty with their baby alpha, and when the comforting intro toFifth Elementstarts, he throws popcorn into the machine for Rowan and Gray.

He can just make out the two enigmas cuddling on the couch.

The living room holds no trace of last night’s memorable events—probably Jay’s doing again.

But the scent of vanilla lingers, even over the smell of popcorn. And though the couch will still need a deep clean, it really is the scent of home.

Chapter Twenty-Three: Nix

Nix

After several days of sharing space with his mates, Nix realizes he doesn’t enjoy being alone. Maybe it’s because he spent most of the past decade without Jamie, truly alone and lonely, and now that he has him back–and has the others, too–the minutes he doesn’t have them in his sight are harder than ever.

Not that there hadn’t been people moving in and out of his life after his parents and sister died—at his grandmother’s, at school, even when he was with him—but Nix wasn’t new to the feeling of being alone even when surrounded by people.

Especially if they were the wrong people.

So choosing to seclude himself in this new space, despite his preference for company, might have seemed a bit strange.

Oh, the spare room is beautiful, and the bathroom, with its soft yellow towels, is fancy—but having his own space after so long feels weird.

In the end, Nix can only assume it boils down to this: It’s not where you spend your time but with whom.

Add to it that his freshly washed and pack-scented clothes have magically made their way into the bureau and the closet…well, that is even weirder. During his time withhim, Nix had only ever wornhiscastoffs. The day he’d finally been freed fromthat life, Nix could count only the clothes he’d been wearing that last day to the ER and the sleep shorts and t-shirt as his own.

In retrospect, he—no, he needs to try to at least thinkhisname, even if he can’t bear to say it out loud yet—Hayeshad been providing less and less of life’s necessities in those past few weeks. Less food in the fridge (that he wasn’t even permitted to eat), fewer errands to the market when he could slip away to the library, and fewer cast-offs. Nix doesn’t have a hard time imagining thathe–Hayesmight even have been planning to kill him.

Nix has to laugh at the absurdity of the whole thing because hedidalmost kill him. Maybe this attempt hadn’t been premeditated, but the result had been the same. Nix can’t feel entirely bad about it, though, because it did free him. He may have had to walk through the proverbial fire to do it, but he was here.

And fuck, is he glad.

Nix can’t miss the irony of surviving Hayes’s attempted murder just to throw himself in front of that moving train again, but this is different. This time, it was on purpose. This time, Nix is Were. They are at least on the same playing field now, and if Nix has anything to do with it, it won’t be Hayes runninghimover. It will be Nix’s turn.

If anyone had ever asked him, he would have never said—not in a million years—that he would one day look forward to causing harm, to taking a life.

And he isn’t. Not really.

It’s not the process Nix is looking forward to—it’s the result. What is that saying? It’s not the journey—it’s the destination.

Yeah. That.

He desperately needs to know that Dawson Hayes will never come for his mates.

That he will never have to live that life again.

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