Page 64 of The Stone Survival
Oh god, I’d liked it.
“Cameron?”
“Don’t say my name like that.”
“I don’t understand…Like what?”
I grit my teeth. “Like it matters to you.”
“It does matter. You matter. You’re my mate.”
“Don’t say that!” I spun to face him. “You should have stopped.” Stopped touching me. Stopped kissing me. Stopped making me feel good.
“I know. I…This is my fault.” He dropped his chin. “I should have walked away. I was selfish, telling myself that I needed to maintain the ruse. Telling myself that as long as I didn’t take you fully then it was all right.”
I squeezed my eyes shut as the memory of last night was chased by the night before. I’d abandoned myself to him. Enjoyed it, thinking it was Serath. I’d been fooled. What kind of mate was I?
“It’s not your fault,” he said. “We have a bond too…you and I, your beast and mine.”
“You have a beast?”
“I do.” His eyes lit up, and he took a step closer. “My beast and Serath’s are connected now. It’s…new and different and I…I’m sorry for any hurt I’ve caused.”
I wanted to be mad at him. To blame everything on him, but how could I in good conscience do that? If what he was telling us was true, then he was a victim too. Trapped in a body that wasn’t his own, in a world that wasn’t his home, and now in a bond with me that he hadn’t chosen.
If anyone had something to be upset about, it was him.
“Cameron, I swear to you I will not touch you intimately again. I will ignore our bond, and I will find a way to vacate your true mate’s body.”
“And what if you can’t?”
A muscle feathered in his jaw. “Then we will find a way to coexist.” He swayed on his feet, and I rushed forward to brace him on instinct. “Serath is waking,” he said. “I must lie down.”
I helped him to the bed, where he stretched, his eyelids fluttering as he tried to keep them open. “Tell him…tell him that I am sorry…” Sleep took him, and his breathing evened out. A few moments later, his eyes snapped open, and he sat up, panic etched across his features. “Cameron!” His gaze was wild and unfocused.
Serath was back. “It’s all right. I’m here. I’m safe. We’re both safe.”
His breathing slowed as he took in our surroundings before focusing on me. “Fuck.” He cupped my face and kissed me hard on the mouth. My mate. My Serath.
I kissed him back, eyes burning under the weight of what I was about to tell him.
He broke the kiss abruptly. “Cameron, how did we get back? What happened?”
And here it was. The moment. Best to just say it. “Ubron never left.” His eyes flared with comprehension, the muscles in his arms tensing beneath my hands. “And he saved us all.”
I spilled the beans,words falling over words until I was spent. Until he knew it all. About how Ubron had gotten the other graynites to stand down, about how the infernals were trapped in a web by a voice, and then…then I told him about the two nights I’d spent with Ubron. Those words were hard, stilted, my throat aching, pulse pounding because what was he going to think of me?
He was still and silent for several moments after, and it took every ounce of self-control not to ask him what he was thinking. Not to demand that he say something, anything. I let him process and waited with heavy, guilty breaths.
“You didn’t know,” he said finally. “I understand that, but him…” His mouth twisted. “He knew and he…” He took a ragged breath and looked down at his hands. “He used my body to take pleasure from you.”
“He’s sorry.”
The rage in Serath’s eyes pulled me up short.
I should have kept my mouth shut. “I’m sorry.”
He made a gruff sound that was part sob, part growl. “Dammit.” He tugged me into his arms and crushed me to his chest. “This is so fucked up. Cameron, I’m so sorry. I failed to protect you, and he…he abused you.”
