Page 2 of His Impossible Elf Mate
Chase was deep in storytelling mode. “He was so upset. Little Blake chased us all around the house, yelling at me to give it back. I don’t even know why Axel was running. Maybe he thought I was going to share it with him. I wasn’t.”
“You were.” My voice croaked withdisuse.
I felt the entire room still in reaction to my words. I attempted to open my eyes. To say something more. Everything felt disconnected. I wasn’t quite there yet.
“Wha—“ Chase again. “Did you hear that?”
“I did.” Two voices spoke at once. One familiar to me. Dakota. The other was beautiful, melodic, with a strange accent. I wanted to hear it speak again. My consciousness surged upwards to wakefulness, that was just out of reach.
After a pause, Chase continued. “So, we stopped, out of breath, and Blake squared up to us. He demanded I give the cookies back, not noticing that there was only one. I refused because I wanted it.”
“Brat,” I muttered. We had been annoying as kids. Chase more than me, obviously.
There was only the briefest pause this time.
“We were at an impasse because I wasn’t giving up the cookie on the principle that Blake wanted it and he was our dad’s favorite. I didn’t get that it wasn’t a good thing until much later. Blake got really mad and his eyes started to glow. His voice got really low. It was pretty scary, actually.”
My laugh burst from me. Goddess, had Blake been scary. It was funny now, but I’d almost peed myself with fright then. Even at four years younger than us, he had been so strong.
I felt Chase’s hand in mine and twitched my fingers, trying to clasp him closer, to use him as an anchor as I swam to waking.
So close. The surface was only inches away. I heard the break in Chase’s voice and tears stung my eyes.
“This voice just came out of him.Drop the cookie, it growled. And I did as compelled. Dropped it there and then. Right in the dirt. As soon as Blake saw it, he burst into tears and ran into the house. Mama saw him crying and found out what had happened. She was so mad at us. Dad, though, was proud when he found out. He actually asked Mama to make Blake a batch just for him.”
Mama had lectured Blake not to abuse his power, especially over us since we weren’t alphas. I missed her so damn much.
“He gave me some.” Finally, I broke through, my eyelids fluttering open, my throat dry and scratchy. “Water?”
Instantly, Chase and Dakota rushed forward to help me, raising the hospital bed I lay in and resting a straw at my lips. I gratefully sipped the water, quenching the burn in my throat.
Then my eyes settled on him. The most perfect being I’d ever set eyes on. “Who?”
They stepped forward warily, and it was then that I noticed the pointed ears that answered what this being was. An elf. Here in Sweetwater.
Our eyes locked, and I sucked in a breath at the most startling turquoise eyes I’d ever seen. His eyes were deep pools I could drown in. Ageless and full ofwisdom. “Much has happened while you slept. I’m… I’m a friend of the pack. Teárlach.”
My heart skipped a beat as he said his name, my eyes never leaving his. It settled deep into my soul.
I repeated his name, matching his pronunciation as closely as possible. If he had been gorgeous before, he was otherworldly when he smiled.
“We need to tell everyone you’re awake!” Chase got up from where he’d been perched on the side of my bed, pulled his phone out of his pocket and called our brother. “Blake! He’s awake! You need to come.”
I didn’t try to listen to the other side of the conversation, as much as I wanted to hear Blake’s voice and check that everything was okay. The male elf beside me captured all of my attention. It was him I looked to for answers.
His focus hadn’t shifted from me despite the flurry of movement and excitement my waking was causing. Easily, he read my thoughts and answered my unasked question. “You’ve been asleep for a few weeks. Chase has been awake for two weeks now. He’s one of the few betas awake.”
A few weeks? A memory came to me of someone saying a month. I’d lost an entire month.
“Huh.” What he was saying matched what I recalled from the void. The longer that I was awake, the less I remembered. It was like trying to hold water in my hands. The memories were slipping through myfingers the harder that I held to them. “The others?” I asked.
“I’ll go check.” Dakota left the room, and Chase stayed close to the window, complaining about poor service.
Still, Teárlach stayed next to me, watching my every expression with a look of rapt wonder. It felt like we were the only people in the world.
Was it possible to fall in love with someone the very instant that you met? All I knew was that I had to be next to him. By his side was where I belonged.
We shared a smile at Chase chatting to Blake, his excitement infusing the room. A wide yawn split my face. The last few minutes had drained all of my energy.
