Page 13 of Who Owns You?

“Go shut and lock the door as quickly as possible.” Darius finally looks over as my eye stops twitching.

Magic warms the center of my chest. The aid of our nest leader will make me even faster than I could have been on my own.

“Sweet!” I cheer, jumping up and pumping my fist in the air.

I trot over to the wooden hatch in the floor and carefully lift it, then begin the slow descent down the rickety wooden ladder. It groans under the weight of my stone body. Even magic isn’t able to mask my presence entirely, especially when interacting with inanimate objects.

Man, that would be so cool if it could do that, though. I’d be an absolute beast. Well, I’m already kind of a beast, but on the footie field, I’d be able to pass through the competition with my magic, get right to their goal before they knew what hit them…or didn’t hit them.

I snicker again and let the magic settle into every inch of my body. I feel the planes of my face sharpen and the horns on my head grow at least another inch. The yellow hue of my skin glowsfor a second before I take off like a silenced shot. The familiar corridors of the castle pass by in a fraction of a second as I fly through the halls and make my way down some stairs. When I reach our floor, I pause for a breath, ignoring the glimpse of her out of the corner of my eye.

There she is.

I don’t know what whispers that to me, my heart, my soul, or the universe itself, but I hear it loud and clear. That witch is my mate. I can feel it in every ounce of myself. I want to turn and run into her arms, but instead I keep the course.

I dart into my room, shutting the door as lightly as I can. My breaths turn shallow as I close my eyes and summon the image of her. She’s so pretty, soft and full. She’s not even made of stone, but she’s precious, beyond any materials that could be mined from the earth or born of our kind. Her magic permeates the air and tingles on my tongue like popping sweets.

“When I tell Darius, he’s going to lose his mind,” I choke out, thinking about my nest-mates and our mate.

That’s what she is, not just mine,ours.

Atlas’ reaction flashes across my mind like a strike, and I flinch from the intensity of it. I can already see the curl of his cruel sneer. She’s human…well, sorta, and that’s not good enough for him. My hands clench into fists at the thought, and I might just have to punch him to make myself feel better. How dare he judge her before even meeting her?

Indignation flares to life in my chest on behalf of our mate, and I take off again, locking the door behind me and getting to the attic in what amounts to a heartbeat. I zip up the ladder, pulling it back up after me.

“Is it done?”

“Well, yeah, course,” I say, freezing for a moment, trying to remember what I was meant to do.

Oh, right. My football!

“Bollocks,” I hiss.

Darius growls in response. “Did you not lock the door like I instructed?” he questions, his voice that controlled sort of angry.

My balls practically shrivel up in my athletic shorts. I cup them over the material and frown.I’m going to need these to give our mate a lovely pearl necklace.

“No, I did that. I forgot my football.”

“You have to be fucking kidding me.” Atlas scoffs.

“I am very much not kidding you! She could take forever to settle in, and who knows, Eloise could have been pulling our legs about her.”

“I doubt that,” Julius says, quick to defend the owner of the only shop in town with wool and yarn he deems worthy enough to use. “Eloise is a good woman. She’ll let the witch know about us and that this is our home. We’ll give her something from the treasury when she returns the deed to us, and then she’ll be gone.”

“Like she was never here.” Darius gives a curt nod.

“Like she was never here?” I blanch.

Crush me now. Turn the fine particles of my stone to dust. I can’t live with that now that I know she exists.

Fuck. My entire life until now feels like one giant bruise I didn’t know I had until this very moment. Being aware of it finally makes it ache and itch.

“What’s crawled up your ass, balls for brains?” Atlas asks with a shitty grin.

My mouth puckers up, and I debate hitting him like I wanted to downstairs. I love my nest-mate, but he’s such a pain in my ass.

“What? I didn’t say anything.”

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