Page 94 of Heart of the High King
“He must’ve loved him already.”
“Don’t make it seem like I don’t have feelings for you, Rafe. I’m in a shit mood as it is, and I’m going to have to fly for about a hundred years to shake off my rage.”
“Why don’t you seem like you’re in a shit mood?”
“Because I’m not going to take it out on you. I will spit fire for a while and find a way to handle what I saw today.”
Their eyes met. “I didn’t know the plan was to show the pictures when I arrived at the hospital. It was embarrassing.”
“Embarrassing, how?”
“I don’t know,” Rafe replied, giving his attention back to the dinner that he was slowly consuming. Aleksander had finished his and nearly licked the plate it was so good. “Mortis, hush.”
“Let me guess. He correctly identified that as a lie.”
“Who needs a wolf sentinel with you around?” Rafe muttered. “Look, I hate what’s left of me, okay? I know you think the scars are valor or whatever, but when I have to see them, I remember how I got them.”
“I’m sorry, that must be very difficult for you.”
“Each one is a reminder of the future that was robbed from me.”
“Unless Sorcery D’Vaire can help you.”
“The best I can tell you is that I’ll think about letting them heal the hip wounds. It would make things easier for me. I have to clean them thoroughly and cover them in bandages. It’s a pain, and it would be nice to no longer have that chore.”
“I want that for you. I hope you do let them mend those sores. Perhaps it’ll allow you to grow confident in their ability to do more for you.”
“Yeah,” Rafe responded, though his tone was disbelieving at best.
“I have a confession to make.”
Rafe glanced up with that scowl that made Aleksander’s belly flop. “If it’s something bad, I’m not sure I want to hear it. I know we were apart and stuff, but honestly…I don’t want to know. I can’t really deal with any more shit right now.”
Aleksander cocked his head, giving Rafe a deadpan expression. “Seriously? You think after six centuries of waiting for my mate and sharing my first kiss with you, the minute you walked out the door, I decided to go find some guy?”
“Well, what the fuck do I know?”
“I love it when you get ornery.”
“Just tell me your big secret, Sander.”
“Answer a question first. You were kidnapped for five months. I stopped hearing from you about four weeks after you left D’Vaire. You were taken then?”
“I’m not sure how much I should tell you,” Rafe said. “The case and everything.”
“You’re my mate. Nothing goes past this room, okay?”
“I probably texted you a few hours before I was taken.”
“That’s what I assumed when I started doing the math at the hospital with how long you were in a coma, in the place where you were kidnapped, and the subsequent surgeries.”
“So, what do you have to confess about any of that?”
“I kept texting you, even though I wasn’t getting any responses. I didn’t understand why you were suddenly silent after all those months of constant contact. I have a text from you that I know now you couldn’t have sent me.”
“You need to give that to the Reverent Knights. Did you keep it?”
“Yeah, and I’m never going to hear the end of it, because Worth told me it was off. You called me ‘Aleksander’ in it.”
