by Lynn Hagen
He knew he shouldn’t have trusted Malik. As soon as he’d gotten what he’d wanted, he’d bounced. Tears stung Emilio’s eyes as he wiped them away with the heels of his hands. What could be so important that Malik would leave after…after the best night of Emilio’s life?
When his bedroom door opened and Malik walked in, Emilio wasn’t sure what to say. Then his anger found a voice.
“How the fuck can you leave Moose in my house?” he shouted. “After all that shit you talked about what mates are supposed to be like, you left me and asked someone I barely know to babysit me?”
Malik looked haggard as he closed the bedroom door. “I can explain.”
Emilio held up a hand as he shook his head. He didn’t want to hear Malik’s excuses. Not when he couldn’t breathe. His chest felt like it was caving in, and his limbs were shaking. He was lightheaded as he balled his hands into fists. He knew he was being unreasonable, that Malik had to have a good reason for bouncing, but he couldn’t seem to calm down when his worst fear was controlling him.
“Save it. I trusted you and—”
“And what?” Malik said in a low and deadly voice. “You thought I walked out on you? You thought that after everything I said to you that I just bailed?” He looked incredulously at Emilio. “Tell me what else I can do to win your trust because I’m at a fucking loss. Should I glue you to my side?”
“Fuck you!” Emilio tried to get past Malik, but the guy grabbed his arm.
“Who fucked you over so badly that everyone is the bad guy now? Who shattered your trust in humanity?”
“My father!” Just that fast, the anger drained, and Emilio felt like that seven-year-old boy who’d stupidly waited by the door for an entire month for his dad to come home. “He walked out on us, and then my mother remarried, only to have my stepdad leave, too. Do you know what that does to a kid, how something that traumatic shapes a fragile child’s mind?”
Malik loosened his grip, but Emilio refused to look at him and see the pity in his eyes. He didn’t want Malik’s pity.
“After that, my mom had a nervous breakdown and left for work one morning, but she never came back.” Emilio didn’t bother wiping at the hot tears this time. “I was ten, all alone with no parents. I ended up bouncing from one foster home to the next.” He looked up at Malik, and Emilio felt a hard, burning lump in his throat. “Why didn’t anyone want me?”
Malik pulled him into his arms, and Emilio let him. “I don’t know, but it wasn’t you, love. They were self-absorbed adults who’d only thought about themselves. It wasn’t you, babe. It wasn’t.”
Emilio wanted to believe Malik, but not even the foster families had wanted to keep him, so after a while, Emilio had stopped trying. He’d just given up, running away to live on the streets at the tender age of sixteen.
“I left to hunt Calvin down because it hurts me to know some sick fuck wants to take you from me. I don’t know what I would do if I lost you, Emilio. That terrifies the shit out of me.”
“Why?” Emilio asked. “We hardly know each other.”
Malik pulled back and tucked his fingers under Emilio’s chin. “You just don’t get it,” he said. “We might not know each other well, but a mate, fuck, Emilio. Our souls are bound together. If something happened to you, my very reason for existing would be gone. You really don’t comprehend what you mean to me.”
That was when Emilio noticed something at the collar of Malik’s shirt. He tugged at the material and saw scars that hadn’t been there before.
“What happened? Why do you have scars that look old when I know you didn’t have them earlier?”
Malik wrapped his fingers around Emilio’s wrist and gently removed his hand. “We’ll talk about that after we square you away.” He kissed Emilio’s temple. “You can’t think I’m abandoning you every time I have something to do. I need you to trust that I’m never leaving you, love.”
Emilio let out a shaky breath. “I can’t kill that fear overnight, but I can promise to work on it.”
Malik’s smile was heart-stopping. “And I left someone here who would protect you while I was gone.”
“Next time give me a heads-up.”
“I did.” Malik furrowed his brows as he crossed the room and picked up a scrap of paper Emilio hadn’t noticed. “I left you a note telling you Moose was here and that I would be right back.”
Now Emilio felt like an idiot. He took the note and read it. “Next time scribble this on the back of the bedroom door in large, bold letters.”
Malik chuckled. “I’ll put a dry erase board on the back of it.” He walked back over to Emilio and cupped his face. He shuddered at the feel of Malik touching him. He didn’t doubt what Malik had told him about mates. Emilio felt a connection to the guy that he’d never felt with anyone else.
“Next time you feel like you can’t breathe, you call me. You’re stuck with me, although I’m not sure that’s a good thing.”
“Okay, but, Malik?”
“Yes?”
“Stop trying to distract me.” Emilio gave him a kiss. “You’re gonna tell me about those scars.
Chapter Eight
“Why do I have a feeling you’re not telling me everything?” Emilio asked as he curled into him. Malik couldn’t stop inhaling his mate’s baby-powder scent as he traced lazy circles over Emilio’s back.
Now that Malik knew some of Emilio’s history, he better understood the guy’s fear. God, his heart had broken as he listened to his mate tell him about his childhood. Malik wished he could track their locations. Then again, maybe it was a good thing he didn’t know their names or where they were.
Who the fuck walked out on their kid? If Malik was ever blessed with any children, he would worship them and raise them with all the love he had inside him. He couldn’t fathom leaving them behind because he had his own shit to work out or because he no longer wanted the privilege of raising his son or daughter.
“I might have left out some details, but you got the nutshell of what happened.”
What Malik hadn’t told Emilio was how terrified he’d been at never seeing his mate again. He’d known Emilio had issues about abandonment, and if Malik had never made it back, Emilio would’ve been left alone, eventually finding out what had happened to him. But the thought of leaving his mate to fend for himself in this world made boulders form in Malik’s stomach.
Emilio looked up at him with a cute little frown. “A dragon? Seriously?”
Malik snorted. “That’s still fucking up my head. I never want my feet to leave the ground again.”
Malik considered himself a badass, but if he never went anywhere near Remtin again, it would be too soon. He still felt those talons digging into his shoulders as the ground had grown farther and farther away.
Were they talons or claws? He didn’t give a rat’s ass. He had the scars, and if he ever ran across that bartender again, Malik would end the guy. He also hadn’t known he’d had a great fear of heights until he’d nearly had a heart attack tonight. He wasn’t even sure a fear of heights even covered dangling in the air.
When a knock sounded on the door, Malik was startled. He hadn’t expected it and was still shaken from his experience. “Stay right here.”
Malik got up and opened the bedroom door. Shit, how had he forgotten about Moose?
“I’m taking off. Grayson is downstairs waiting for me. You guys cool?”
Malik slipped from the room and closed the door behind him. “Sorry Phoenyx did that. Had I known, I’d have called you first.”
Moose waved off Malik’s apology. “Anything for a friend, but make sure you call first next time.” He wiggled his brows. “I could’ve been getting busy, and you would’ve seen my naked ass.”
Malik didn’t want the image of Moose and Grayson having sex in his head. That would be like two mountains colliding over and over again, although Grayson was nowhere as big as his mate.
When Moose walked out, Malik grabbed his phone from the coffee table
and dialed Phoenyx. He didn’t like how things were left and wanted to make sure his longtime friend was okay. The call went straight to voice mail. Malik would try again later. Although their search for Calvin had been a bust, Phoenyx had still come through for him.
He padded back to the room and curled into bed with Emilio. His mate snuggled under him as Malik closed his eyes, ready to put the demon realm behind him.
* * * *
“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” Grayson said as he looked out his bedroom window and watched as David pulled into his driveway. He hadn’t been sure who had been behind the wheel until the person cut his headlights and the security lights came on.
His son-in-law had balls showing up after what he’d done to Grayson’s daughter.
Grabbing his gun, Grayson headed out of his bedroom, uncaring he wore only underwear. Moose was in the kitchen cooking breakfast, and since Grayson didn’t see his daughter, he assumed Alisha and the baby were still asleep. It was only five in the morning.
“Is there a reason you’re heading outside with a weapon?” Moose asked. “Did you spot that skunk again?”
“I’m not shooting a skunk,” Grayson snarled. “I’m shooting a rotten son of a bitch.”
“Whoa!” Moose went after him, but Grayson made it out the front door and aimed his gun at David as the bastard climbed out of his car. David’s eyes widened when he saw the weapon.
“You grimy fucker!” Grayson fired his gun over the roof of the car. “The next bullet goes into your nuts.”
“Goddamn it,” Moose snarled as he yanked the gun from Grayson’s hand. “Are you fucking crazy? You could’ve killed him.”
“Dad!” Alisha ran onto the porch, her hair disheveled and wearing a robe that was tied at the waist. “Did you just seriously shoot at my husband?”
She ran down the steps, placed herself in front of the cheating prick, and then spread her arms.
“Get out of the way.” Grayson clomped down the steps. “Why the hell are you protecting him?”
He couldn’t believe Alisha was defending the guy after what David had done to her. His daughter was a pistol, and she should’ve been trying to take her husband’s head off, not standing there staring wide-eyed at Grayson like her daddy was the bad guy in all this.
“You can’t kill him.” Moose climbed down the steps and stood in front of Grayson, stopping him from reaching the car.
“Why the hell not?” Grayson snapped as he jabbed a finger at David. He was so damn angry that all he saw was red. “He slept with another woman. He should have his balls cut off.”
If it was up to him, he’d do the honors. Grayson hated seeing his daughter so distraught, and there wasn’t a damn thing he could do about it. He hadn’t been able to take away her pain, but he sure as hell could take away the person responsible for hurting his baby girl.
“Let us work this out,” Alisha said. “You trying to put a bullet in him isn’t helping matters, Dad.”
David simply stood there like the dumb fuck that he was. He hadn’t said a single word, and that pissed Grayson off further.
Grayson rubbed a hand down his face. “And why on earth would you want to work things out? He’s already proven he can’t keep his dick in his pants. You gonna trust him after that?”
“We need to go inside,” Moose whispered to him. “This isn’t our business.”
“The hell it’s not,” Grayson said incredulously. “How is this not our business? She flew here to get away from him. Alisha came to us. That makes it our goddamn business!”
Grayson shouted and threatened to gut Moose when his mate grabbed him around the waist, hauled him off his feet, and carried him inside.
“Give me my gun back,” Grayson demanded. “After I kill David, I’m gonna shoot you in your kneecaps for sticking up for the shady asshole.”
“I’m not sticking up for him,” Moose argued. “But you’ll only drive a wedge between you and Alisha if you don’t leave them be.”
Grayson took a seat at the table. A hard, burning lump formed in his throat as he looked toward the front door. “He hurt my little girl, Moose. How am I supposed to be okay with that?”
Moose hunched down in front of him and took Grayson’s hands into his. “You have to let her make her own choices, babe. They have a daughter, and maybe they can save their marriage. But that decision has to be Alisha’s.”
Grayson squeezed Moose’s hands. “She might forgive him, but I never will.”
“And if you don’t, then Alisha and Anna won’t come for the holidays or in between those times. Are you willing to make that kind of sacrifice?”
No, Grayson wasn’t. He wasn’t willing to cut out the only family he had left. He loved his daughter and granddaughter too much, so if Alisha and David decided to fix their marriage, Grayson would just have to swallow his anger and deal with it.
That didn’t mean he had to treat David like a son, though. Those warm feelings had died a grizzly death.
Moose straightened when Anna started to cry. “I’ll go get the munchkin. Don’t you dare go back out that door.”
“Then you better hide my gun,” Grayson said as Moose walked away. He loved his mate so damn much and was glad Moose had been there to stop him from killing David.
He might have regretted it later.
Still, Moose was right. If Grayson interfered, his daughter would only resent that fact. He had to trust her choices, even if they weren’t the ones Grayson would’ve chosen for her.
* * * *
When Emilio opened his eyes and didn’t see Malik lying next to him, panic tried to settle into his chest. He lay there for a long moment, telling himself that his mate hadn’t left him, that Malik was probably somewhere in the apartment.
Just in case Malik had left, Emilio looked around for a note but didn’t see one.
“You have to stop acting like this,” he whispered to himself. “You’re only gonna drive him away.”
After taking a deep breath, Emilio got up and slid some pajama pants on. There was a small container of breath mints on his dresser, so he popped a few into his mouth and headed out of his room.
He’d brush his teeth once he found out where Malik was.
A strange tapping noise drew Emilio’s attention. He followed it to the living room, and his jaw dropped when he saw his couch flipped upside down.
“What on earth are you doing?”
Malik pointed the hammer at one of the legs. “Fixing it before it gets any worse. You didn’t notice how it wobbled?”
“No, but I’m not as heavy as you are.” And damn, Malik didn’t have a shirt on, showing off his gorgeous muscles. Why had Emilio never noticed that his mate had back dimples? They sat right above the waistband of his jeans, and Emilio wanted to lick them.
“I’m almost done. Sorry if I woke you.” Malik nodded toward the coffee table. “There’re some pastries Steven dropped off and a fresh pot of coffee in the kitchen.”
“Steven was here?” The news shocked Emilio. Sure, Steven had called to talk, and had even invited them out to dinner, but he was making an effort, so maybe Emilio needed to, as well.
“Yeah, and I met his brother-in-law. Russell’s the one who told me how to fix this leg. Nice guy.”
Not from Emilio’s experience. He’d meet Russell twice, and both times hadn’t been pleasant. Then again, Emilio had been trying to borrow Steven’s Xbox. Not that Emilio wanted to actually use it. He’d just been lonely and had wanted to hang out with Steven.
Emilio padded to the kitchen and poured himself a cup of coffee. He glanced at the change jar. Maybe he should give Steven a call and thank him for the pastries.
Emilio looked through the kitchen window. How had he not heard it raining outside? How had he not heard the constant pitter-patter of heavy, wet drops against the window? When he moved closer and looked, the sky was dark gray and the thick clouds were blocking out the sun.
He found the sound soothing as he curled his hands aroun
d the warm mug. This was the kind of day he wouldn’t mind curling on the couch with Malik and watching some movies.
Just as soon as he fixed the leg.
Emilio left the kitchen and noticed the porch door open, the scent of ozone filling the room. He loved that smell, as though the world had been cleansed and ready to start over.
As Malik battled with the leg, Emilio stepped onto the porch and was glad for the cooler air. It had been so damn muggy lately that every time he stepped outside he felt as though he was drowning in his own sweat.
Malik moved in behind him and curled his arms around Emilio’s waist. “I love days like this.” He pressed the side of his face against Emilio’s hair. “Unless I have to go out in it.”
As he listened to the rain patter against the roof of cars and watched as people walked with umbrellas over their heads, a calming peace settled in Emilio’s chest. “Steven invited us out to dinner with him and Derek.”
Malik brushed his thumb up and down Emilio’s stomach. “Just say when and we’ll be there.”
“I’m broke,” Emilio said. He wanted to make that clear upfront before he was handed an expensive bill he couldn’t afford to pay.
The hairs of Malik’s goatee tickled Emilio’s cheek. “Babe, you’re my mate. You’re not broke. What’s mine is yours.”
Emilio wasn’t sure what to think. No one had ever helped him before. He was used to poverty, breaking his back to make ends meet. He didn’t feel right using any of Malik’s hard-earned money.
“I can’t live off of you.”
Malik turned him around so they faced each other. “That’s an argument you will never win.” He pressed a kiss to Emilio’s lips. “I like my luxuries, not that I have many. I’m also not going to see you struggle to get by when I can help.”
Emilio opened his mouth to argue, but one look from Malik made him close it. “Fine, you can pay for dinner.”
Malik backed him up to the short wall of the brick porch. Emilio was trapped when his mate placed an arm on either side of him. “Let me move in.”
