Page 15 of House of Kallan
Hawthorn brushed his fingers through my hair. I didn’t want to hear his answer.
“You know, many humans think that they see angels in moments of extreme trauma. You’ve always been super sensitive to moments like the one you were in. It’s possible that maybe you needed something to pull you out of your spiral andlatched onto the energy of another divine to do that,” he said gently.
I harrumphed because I didn’t want to believe it.
But no one could tell me who I handed the woman to. Why hadn’t they known? Even if no one saw me, surely someone had to know the woman I was referring to. She had been the only one who was in such a dire state.
Had multiple people been with her?
“I refuse to believe she’s not real,” I said.
Aden joined us then and gave me a bemused, sympathetic look as he crossed the room. Great. Even our sweet human was taking pity on me.
He climbed onto the bench and pushed one leg aside so he could crawl between them. He laid his cute, lean body against mine with his face right in mine, smiling sweetly.
I sighed and glared.
“You know how impatient I am,” Aden said, tracing my lips with his tongue. I tried valiantly to ignore the way my body responded to it. “If I had the ability to feel that instant connection, I’d storm Haven for you.”
“No, you wouldn’t,” Hawthorn said. “I know you feel like this is a calamity, but what they have going on there is far more important.”
“You will eat those words when we find our wife,” I said. Yes, I said when. Notif. I refused to believe there was a chance that I imagined her. Traumatic screaming echoing in my soul or not, she was real. I was sure of it. “They won’t even let me volunteer,” I whined.
Aden at least pretended to take pity on me.
“Don’t you have work to do?” Hawthorn asked me.
“I’m an archeologist. I work when there are projects I’m interested in,” I said, sniffing.
“And you’re telling me you’re not interested in any of the projects the university is funding right now?” he challenged.
Oh, fuck yeah, I was. There were half a dozen that I wassalivating over. I also had an open invitation to join when I wanted to.
I wanted to, but I’d been resistant to commit to any since Zuri and Emrys shoved a bouquet in Cobalt’s face fifteen months ago. That meant our wife was coming. Committing to an archeological expedition meant I could be taken away from our family for months at a time. I didn’t want to risk that when our wife could be here any day.
We were waiting for the call. Waiting. And waiting. And waiting.
The call wasn’t coming.
Because now I was sure she wasn’t going to come to us through The Harem Project matching bot. She was part of The Harem Project in a different way. Now we just somehow needed to facilitate a meet-cute story that we could tell our great grandchildren one day that would make them go ewww but secretly feel all warm and fuzzy.
Why was this so difficult?
Aden was stroking my neck and, I swore, I could justhearhim purring ‘sweet baby angel’ in my mind. This man was infuriatingly perfect. I loved everything about him. Sweet and sassy and excited.
Maybe because his past was dark and traumatic in a very different way than the hell we’re living through now, but I just wanted to wrap him in bubble wrap and squeeze him with all my might. I wanted to lock him in this house and never let him out. He’d already lived through the ugly and had scars to prove it. Now he was just to be protected and loved.
Still, I glared at him when he continued to pet me. Considering Hawthorn was doing the same thing, I scowled at them both.
“She’ll find us,” Aden said quietly.
“But I already found her,” I said. “I just need you to believe me!”
Pushing him off me—gently, because I’d never hurt him—Istormed to my feet and stomped out of the room like a child. I needed a new plan. I needed to somehow facilitate running into her again. Did that mean suffering through another retrieval? Was that how I needed to make it happen?
The front door opened, and I practically sprinted down the hall, slamming right into my Nephilim. Both men were yummy as sin. Cobalt was covered in scars, especially all over his chest and back from his years within Silence’s dungeons. He never talked about it. Not that I blamed him. I sure as fuck wouldn’t want to live through it all over again. Part of me was glad he’d never shared those moments with us. My imagination was bad enough, especially with all the reports coming back with what our friends were finding.
Yet, I was sure what he experienced was even worse than that. I didn’t want to know that anyone I loved with all my soul had suffered through it.
