Authors: Joyee Flynn
Chapter 7
I woke sometime that night to find Imogen sitting on my bed staring at me. I so didn’t want to do this again, and I was starving. Plus, whatever pain meds that doc gave me long since wore off, and I wanted more.
“I didn’t want to wake you to give you your next dose, but the idea of you waking up hurting was too much for me to bear.” He handed me a glass of water and a couple of pills. I nodded my understanding and downed them.
“Thanks,” I said as I pushed up to get out of bed.
“May I ask you something?”
“I don’t want to fight anymore, Imogen,” I whispered as tears burned in my eyes. Mostly from the physical pain but there was a lot of emotional and mental hurt going on right then, so who knew which caused them.
“Me neither, which was why I let Trey hand me my ass until I calmed down and started listening while you were sleeping.” I glanced over my shoulder at him and nodded that he could ask his question. “If I’d told you I was crossing over to my world to talk with my family about the evil vamps and zombies, what would your reaction have been?”
I wanted to scream in frustration. Now he asks? I took a deep breath and got my warring emotions under control. We couldn’t get past this if he didn’t understand. “I would have wanted to know a few things before having any real reaction.”
“Such as?”
“How far to their nearest portal? How long would you be gone? Did you have to go right then? Is there another way to communicate with them across the planes? I know you couldn’t take Aaron with you there, but I wanted to ask one of my brothers to accompany you since we have a better sense of smell. It would have given you advance warning if the zombies found you and more of a chance to run.”
“Why one of your brothers? Why not you?” he asked after a few moments of consideration, eyeing me over warily. I shook my head in disgust and went to use the bathroom. Did he really think I was that stupid? If Imogen had to ask then he really had no faith in me.
“Because I was too injured and shouldn’t have been moving much less crossing into another world,” I said calmly when I was done. “I would have slowed you down and been a hindrance instead of help. I trust my brothers to have helped you stay safe just as well as I would have uninjured. But, right now, no one would be going anywhere alone with those things out there.”
I didn’t wait for his answer. I left the room and headed to the kitchen. Luckily there was still tons of food, and I thanked my lucky stars when I saw there was my favorite beer as well. I popped one open and stuffed my face while chugging the bottle down. If there was ever a time I needed some alcohol, it was now.
“I’m sorry, my feisty kitten,” Imogen whispered as he wrapped his arms around me from behind. I hadn’t even heard him come after me I was so upset. “I was wrong, and I’m truly sorry I hurt you. You’ve just been so take-charge and commanding since I’ve met you that I did not think you could relinquish that authority over me.”
“I don’t have authority over you,” I snarled and pushed him away. “Some apology!”
“Sasha, you bossed me around and ordered me what to do when we first met.” He didn’t say it in a mean way, more confused that I wasn’t seeing his point.
“You were half out of your mind with the need to release some of your magic,” I said as I bared my teeth at him. “And I remember someone fucking himself on my cock without even asking. So yeah, I was horrible to you, mean, bossy, and unreasonable.”
“That’s fair,” he conceded and moved toward me. I wasn’t ready for that yet, so I took a step back.
“You didn’t have a plan, Imogen, so I came up with one. It didn’t have to be
my
plan we followed, but there wasn’t any plan. We had to do something, so I decided the main priority was getting you out of there. Yeah I screwed up by taking you to a bunch of vamps, but we wouldn’t have found Aaron otherwise. And so what if I took charge? Why is that a bad thing that led you to drugging me to get your own way?”
“You’re absolutely right,” Aaron said softly from the other doorway. I spun to look at him and my injuries protested. The pain made me dizzy, so I started to fall until my mates caught me. Aaron lowered me in a chair and knelt in front of me. “I figured out the part we’re all missing here when I talked to Trey after Imogen was done.”
“That I’m not an asshole?” I was going back to pouting now, and fuck if I cared that I sounded whiney. I hurt, damn it! And they weren’t helping, instead making it worse.
“No, we’ve known that all along.” He chuckled and kissed my cheek. “You were hurt. I assumed you wouldn’t be calm and rational when in that much pain knowing they were after Imogen. I didn’t…” He glanced over at Imogen who nodded. “We didn’t think that you’d be in your right mind to make decisions right then.”
“You didn’t even hear us discussing my going until right before I knocked you out.” Imogen moved next to Aaron, not even flinching for once. “You were in so much pain, my feisty kitten, it was killing me.”
“Why didn’t you say that?” I exclaimed, glancing from one to the other. “I understand that part. Why not tell me that then knock me out? I would have agreed with you, but you didn’t even
tell
me what was going on!”
“There was a lot of confusion and not a lot of time,” Imogen answered. He finally looked repentant for what he’d done. His mouth was turned into a frown and his eyes practically begged me for forgiveness.
“I get that, too, but when I woke up, you should have said that instead of acting like I was being all unreasonable.” I wanted to accept their apology and let it go, but we needed to get this out so it didn’t happen again. They had to understand how I felt so they saw I wasn’t some unreasonable jerk.
“You’re right, and we are sorry,” Aaron said as he took my hands in his. “We handled it in the way we thought best, and I wouldn’t change anything except having this discussion when you woke up instead of the one we had.”
I thought about what they said, and it made sense. “Okay, I accept and declare this fight over.”
They both sighed in relief and hugged me gently. Imogen brought me my food and a pop to the table. I didn’t miss the way he hid the beer I’d been drinking, and I didn’t say anything. He was right. I shouldn’t be mixing alcohol with pain meds no matter how upset I’d been. Shifter metabolism was faster than a human’s, so I wouldn’t feel the same effects they might, but it still wasn’t smart to drink right then.
“So fill me in on what happened,” I said through a mouthful of food when we were all sitting. I’d long since missed dinner, I realized when I glanced at the clock, so I wasn’t surprised the sandwiches were going down like crackers. I had to have eaten three before I even realized it.
“I went to see the king, my uncle Roland, and told him what had happened,” Imogen explained, looking almost lost and a little sad. “I was already supposed to have checked in, but I was distracted for various reasons. So he was a little miffed that I went this long without security. My uncle is not a fan of my travels to your realm with the dangers here.”
“Like vamps,” Aaron whispered and wore the same distant, hug-inducing look as Imogen.
“Yeah, like that,” our mate replied and reached across the table to take Aaron’s hand. “But you’re not like the rest of them, and I understand that now. And with the way everyone talks of Conley and Marc, I know they’re not either. They
wanted
to control how they reacted to me. I never thought vampires would care enough to do that. We’re just food to them from what I’ve seen and been taught.”
“Honestly, I do know some vampires who are like that,” Aaron admitted with a sigh and seemed to brace for impact because of his statement. “They’re older and full of themselves and see everyone and everything else as beneath them on the food chain. They’re not people I’d ever hang out with and in a way are like rich, human elitists as they look down their noses at everyone.”
“We have those types in my world, too.” Imogen chuckled and shook his head. “My uncle can be like that sometimes before one of us close to him smacks him back into the real world.”
“I’m loving how much I’m learning about you both and the fact that we’re all being so open and honest. But please get to the part that explains why I smell ten other fairies,” I said, almost laughing when both their mouths dropped open in shock. “I’ve smelled them since I woke up and that might have been what woke me up. We have an extraordinary sense of smell.”
“He demanded I bring guards with me until we know more if I was going to live here with my keepers.” Imogen snickered and shook his head in disbelief. “I can’t believe you were keeping that to yourself this whole time. You never fail to amaze me, my feisty kitten.”
“I gotta do something to keep you both on your toes.” I chuckled and bumped my shoulder into his. “Okay, so now you’ve got guards. They’re not in the house. I’d say past the barn somewhere?”
“Yes, in the trees. My people are of nature and all the mysticism that surrounds it. They have no issue with taking up posts and spending the night outside. They will have someone relieve them in the morning and sleep in shifts for now.”
“That’s why there are ten of them?” This part I found fascinating. I mean, I knew Imogen was special, it was never about that. It was he just seemed so normal. He didn’t act like he was some high and mighty royalty of some elite supernatural beings. He was simply our Imogen, our mate.
“I am third in line to the throne with a known threat after me in a hostile world,” he replied with a lopsided grin. “Ten is what I talked my uncle down to. They were harsh negotiations. I agreed to never leave my strong kitten’s side, offering to handcuff myself to you always if it would appease him and he let me leave with only ten guards.”
“Yeah, so strong that I got badly hurt and couldn’t come with you on your visit.” I wasn’t mad that he went, I was upset that I hadn’t been able to go with him. Those things were after him specifically and he shouldn’t be going anywhere alone.
“Warriors get injured in battle, Sasha,” he said firmly and took my hand in his after letting Aaron’s go. “There is no shame in that. And I can honestly tell you that my uncle is thrilled about our mating. He says he’s met your father Martin and respects him.”
“I’ll have to ask my dad when I talk to them. It was just a quick conversation, and I said I’d call them after the honeymoon heat, which was today.” My dad knowing his uncle would go a long way in smoothing out some of the wrinkles in our mating. And if the king trusted my dad, who trusted Conley, who trusted Aaron, maybe that would help, too, in a backwards, convoluted way.
“Oh right,” Aaron said sheepishly and cringed. “Your mom’s on her way. Well, Trey said she’ll be here in the morning. I forgot to tell you. I guess he was pissed before we talked to him while you were sleeping, and rightly so, of course. But he called her for reinforcements to help kick our asses, I guess, and I was supposed to tell you she’s coming. Please don’t be mad that I forgot.”
“Aaron, it’s okay.” I giggled and pulled his chair closer to mine. “It’s understandable you’d forget something like that with everything going on.” I felt the drugs really kicking in, so all the pain was pretty much gone, and all that was left was the dopiness. “But if you wanted to make it up to me, I have several ideas of how you could do that.”
“Oh really,” he drawled and ran his hand under my shorts and over my thigh. “You’re too injured to have sex, Sasha. As much as I’d love to make sure I got back into your good graces before your mother gets here, I won’t hurt you. From what Jasper and Addison told me, that woman is scarier than Hades.”
“She
can
be if you mess with her family or mates. But if you’re good to the people she loves, she’s the sweetest person in the world.” I was gentle in the way I said it, but I let him know my tone said I wasn’t messing around or allowing anyone to badmouth my mother.
“Of course,” Aaron said quickly and kissed my cheek. “He said she was a wonderful woman but never, ever fuck with her. I didn’t mean to imply she was unreasonably scary. We would deserve it.”
“We would?” Imogen asked with a cute little smirk.
“Yes, because we fucked up, remember?” Aaron growled, and I swear he tried to kick Imogen under the table. I felt something move, but I couldn’t be sure that’s what happened.