Page 96 of His Bonded Omega Mate
He laughed. “What?”
Taking my phone from my pocket, I was glad to see some service here. Magic sure was handy. I did a quick search for what I was talking about. Pictures of two people stuffed into one shirt with the words, ‘this is our get along shirt’ blazoned on the front, came up. When Axel saw what I was thinking, he laughed.
“What the hell has gotten into you?” Asher grumbled from just outside the small room. I held up my phone.
“Instead of a shirt, we’ve got a get along cabin,” I joked, trying to break the ice.
Asher cracked a smile, the first in my presence actually directed at me for a long time. “Good one.”
His approval shouldn’t have meant as much as it did, but here we were.
I helped Asher cook from one side of the tiny kitchen, aware that Axel was watching every interaction we made.
Dinner was tense, though the food was good. “This is great,” I praised Asher. “You were always good at cooking.”
“And Hiroshi could burn water,” Asher joked.
I laughed. “True, but he’s been learning.”
Axel’s eyes widened at the exchange. I gave him a quelling look. This was exactly the thawing that we needed. Still, I avoided bringing up Tate or the babies. We stuck to generic topics, like the weather and pack news. Just general bullshit that was light and easy, avoiding any topics that might trigger rage in Asher.
We sat thoughtfully at other sides of the room after we cleaned up from the meal. Hiroshi had thought of packing me a couple of books to read. I didn’t know why he’d picked one of his Boys Love manga novels that he liked, but I guess it was cute because he wanted to share one of his interests with me. It took me a minute to figure it out. “You start from the back,” Asher pointed out. He moved closer. “Oh, that’s a good one. I’ve not read it in ages.”
I went to hand it to him, “you can have a re-read now, if you like.”
He pushed it back at me, our fingers grazing. “No, you read it first. Let me know what you think.”
I didn’t breathe for a whole minute. I was scared that things would turn with him.
Asher retreated a couple of steps toward his corner.
“Oh! Here, he gave me this series, too.” I held the other book out to him. “Do you want to read this one first? Let me know if it’s good.”
The other alpha studied the paperback in my hands, his eyes widening. “He let you borrow this one?” I examined the book and gave Asher a questioning look, an eyebrow raised. “That’s his favorite. He keeps it in the plastic because it’s worth a lot.”
“It’s worth money?” I turned it over and saw there were few signs he had read before it. My mate must have looked after it well.
“There was a limited print run on that version. Hiro has it on his ereader, too.”
That explained a lot. “Well, I think he’d be okay with you reading it as well, as long as you are careful with it.”
“I just can’t believe he let it out of his sight. He must really love and trust you.” Asher took the offered book with a smile.
It grew dark as we read. The low lights flicked on, powered by the magic of the realm. I grew almost relaxed, letting my guard down for the first time since we had changed Asher.
Asher got up, placed the book carefully back in the plastic and put it on the low table carefully. “I’m getting tired. Think I’ll start getting ready for bed.”
The tension returned as I remembered the small bed. I gulped, “okay, I guess I’ll turn in too.” Exhaustion was creeping in. Being away from my mate was hard enough without worrying about what Asher might do in the middle of the night.
We both went through our routines before stripping down to our underwear and getting into bed.
The light was on my side, so I extinguished it, plunging us into darkness thicker than I was used to. In Sweetwater, there were lights around the compound fence to prevent people from getting in and hiding in the shadows.
“You get used to how dark it is,” Asher said quietly.
It was strange to lie next to him, our arms nearly touching, aware of the heat of his skin. For the first time that day, we were alone. Sure, Axel could probably hear us. There was no noise here either. It was kind of creepy.
“Roan?”
