Page 213 of Bliss & Her Idols

Immortal looks offended. “There’s always time to think about my cock. Also, curry and beer. You swore that when you came back, you’d smuggle them in for me. So, where are they? I ordered a chicken tikka masala. I’ve been dreaming of it for five years. Don’t disappoint me, Charming.”

“You may not have noticed,” Torin helps Immortal to limp to the bed, before Jin and him gently lower Immortal onto the bare mattress (the bedding still hasn’t been replaced after it was destroyed last night), “but I’ve been rather busy.”

Immortal stretches out with a groan. Pain flits across his face.

Unlike Jin or Torin, Immortal doesn’t try to hide it.

Jin worriedly sits by his friend’s side, clutching his hand. He grabs a water bottle from the nightstand, nudging it to his mouth to get Immortal to drink.

Immortal takes some greedy gulps, before choking.

His throat must be injured.

Jin careful wipes Immortal’s chin, before using the excess water to wash the dried blood off his temples, as well as out of his matted hair.

I’m fascinated that Immortal casually lies still, allowing Jin to tend to him, as if it’s a familiar routine between the two of them.

“I’ll just imagine that the water is beer. Lucky that I’ve got a bloody brilliant imagination.” Immortal studies Cricket and me. “And yeah, I see the bond bites. You’ve been busy all right. Congratulations.” He appears to truly mean it. “I’m Zero, in case these pricks haven’t talked to you about their awesome best friend.”

He says it like it’s a joke, but I can hear the vulnerability underneath.

Still,pricksounds like a term of endearment, when he says it in his London accent.

Maybe it is in England?

Cricket peers at Immortal, clearly having no idea how to talk to this bratty extrovert.

So, I answer for both of us. “Actually, they haven’t shut up about you. It’s been Zero this, Zero that. We’ve been plotting how to rescue you for ages. I’m Bliss. This is Cricket. I hope that we can also be besties.”

As I speak, Immortal’s smile widens to become a grin.

He glows, relaxing back onto the bed.

“How about we call ourselves family? Now you’re bonded to these two muppets.” He smirks at Torin, who glares coldly back.

Yet I don’t miss the way that Torin’s lips quirk.

Torin’s glare also has no effect at all on Immortal, who truly does appear to use insults affectionately.

Immortal turns to Jin, flinching as Jin rubs away another trickle of blood on his temple. “Leave it. If it scars, then it’ll just make me look rugged. I could pull off the bad boy look.”

“Don’t.” Jin’s voice wavers. “What they’ve been doing to you… What they’re planning to do to you…”

“Not going to happen.” Immortal twists with a wince on the bed, wrapping his arms around Jin. “Can you see me being the obedient Beta to some elite Alpha without busting his fucking balls? But you both came back for me. Now, we’re going to put into place our plan, yeah? This all ends now.”

Seeing them like this, I can imagine them together in their dorms. They’ve been best friends since they were kids. Then they saved Torin and pulled him into their found family.

It shocks me how dominant Immortal is within this dynamic.

Perhaps, I should have known that he was the missing piece.

Their caged friendship was.

“I’m sorry.” Tears chase down Jin’s face, as he hugs Immortal tighter. His voice breaks as he tries to talk, desperate to get out the words. “I was p-p-pushed to s-s-stardom…but I was kept in line by threats to you. Every time that I f-f-fucked up,youwere punished.”

Immortal wipes Jin’s tears away. “Bloody hell, don’t cry. You’re going to make your eyes as swollen as mine are. We swore that we’d never blame each other for the punishments. I’ve never blamed you, idiot. I knew that you must have a good reason for that stunt at the arena.”

“But you didn’t get to perform.”

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