Kalen said nothing, in shock that Lycus’s lips were pressed to his. He had always secretly wondered if they were as soft as they looked but his kiss was rough as he forced his tongue into Kalen’s mouth when he didn’t answer.
“Is this what you want, Kalen? You want me?” Lycus asked, pulling back to look at him. Lycus was rocking his hips against Kalen, who realized Lycus had an erection. Kalen gasped, and Lycus watched him breathe heavily, an unsure look on his face. For once, Lycus looked scared.
“Please, say something,” Lycus said to him.
Kalen looked away from him. “What I want is wrong,” Kalen murmured.
“Then I guess it is wrong for me too to want the same thing,” Lycus said.
Kalen looked at him, thinking Lycus was playing with him. “You’re not grossed out?” Kalen asked.
“For wanting you, too? No! I always have. I just didn’t want to act on it. Didn’t want to lose you, in case you didn’t feel the same way.”
“You want to be with me?” Kalen asked, confused by his own words.
“I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t,” Lycus told him before smiling and dipping his face closer to Kalen’s.
He pressed his lips against Kalen’s, his tongue moving across the seam of his lips. Kalen’s lips parted before Lycus deepened the kiss.
“Just so you know, I love you, too,” Lycus whispered. That was one of the first times Kalen felt truly happy. He got a glimpse of happiness. It was also the same night Lycus marked him.
Now that Lycus was aware sleeping with women hurt Kalen, he stopped, which sent them back to having nothing. Lycus was okay with that as long as he had Kalen. Kalen, however, felt he was ruining Lycus’s life. Stopped him from becoming who he could become, and when their magic manifested, fear rushed through Kalen when he saw Darius and Tobias’s names appear on their wrists. The marking was made more shocking when they realized they were mates all along.
I watched the memories play out before stopping again. One of them slowed down, and I was sucked into it. It was a week after their eighteenth birthday. Both of them were sitting at the park under a tree in the sweltering summer heat. Kalen had felt faint all day from having not eaten. Neither of them had found anything much to eat, and the days were so hot now. Lycus was too weak and dehydrated to try to get to the forest outside the city so he could hunt for them, and Kalen was withdrawing from having no medication that day.
“Maybe they will help?” Lycus murmured.
“Are you insane? That is Darius Wraith. He will kill us,” Kalen murmured. Everyone knew the Wraiths, and even they feared the Demonic Fae King.
“We don’t know that. We are technically his mates,” Lycus said.
“Yes, if he wanted us near, he would have called on us by now.”
“Well, we haven’t exactly called on him. Besides, I don’t see much bad stuff about Tobias in the news. He might come?” Lycus told him.
“No, it isn’t worth the risk and what about that reporter? Tobias killed him in front of the cameras. I thought fate couldn’t fuck us over more, so to prove me wrong, they had to fate us to the two most influential families, a fucking Demonic Fae King and a vampiric prince? Seriously, Lycus, they find us, either would kill us or me, anyway; I am the weakest link.”
“We don’t know that,” Lycus said, sending a flare of magic into his infinity mark before Kalen could stop him.
“What have you done?” Kalen gasped, horrified, as his mark tingled. He looked at it. My name was faint on his wrist, unlike the rest.
“Anything has to be better than living like this,” Lycus said, only the tingling stopped, and Lycus huffed.
“See? Told you,” Kalen muttered when they felt the mark stop. “I wonder who rejected it,” Kalen said, a little sad. He rubbed his wrist before lying back down and resting his head on Lycus’s shoulder.
“We’ll figure it out. Maybe once she comes of age, they will accept us,” Lycus murmured to him. They both fell asleep, and Kalen was later woken up when someone kicked his foot. He yawned, shaking his head and sitting up. He peered down at Lycus when someone cleared their throat.
Turning his head, he came face to face with Darius crouching next to him in a suit. He eyed Kalen’s mark on his neck before looking at Lycus. Darius’s brows furrowed while Kalen tried to shake Lycus awake, petrified. His heart was pounding in his chest when he noticed Tobias standing behind him, also staring at them.
Lycus groaned and sat up before noticing them and ripping Kalen behind him with strength that clearly indicated what Lycus was. Darius tilted his head at Lycus, looking him over.
“Are you the one who called on us?” Darius asked.
“Yes,” Lycus said while Kalen was worried Darius would kill him for it.
“Why are you at the park? Do you live nearby?” Tobias asked, and Lycus looked up at him. Tobias tried to look around Lycus at Kalen, who was peering over Lycus’s shoulder.
“We live here, but you can go. He didn’t mean to call on you,” Kalen blurted.