Zeph
“Fuck!” Kols shouted, his focus on the space Shade and Aflora had just vacated. “I’m going to fucking kill him.”
“That assuming you’ll be alive to do it,” I muttered, looking around the field. “You fucking mated her, didn’t you?”
Kols expelled a long breath, several curses following before he said, “All three of us just fucking did.”
“Oh, I know that part.” I pressed a palm to my chest, irritated by the strand circling my heart and linking back to a woman none of us had any business claiming as our own. “I was referring to before our little quad formation. Aflora was drenched in your power.”
Kols grimaced, his palm gripping the back of his neck as he blew out a long breath. “We, uh, fucked.”
I gathered as much by her half-dressed state. She’d run out here without shoes on, her hair a mess, and her shirt on backward. It was part of the reason I’d chased after her from the Elite Residence. The other part was driven by guilt. I’d been hard on her today. Maybe a little too hard.
And now everything had gone to hell.
“I get fucking her”—more than I ever wanted to admit—“but why the hell did you bite her?” I knew Kols. He had better control than that, even around someone as alluring as Aflora.
“I didn’t. Not until just now, anyway.” He shoved off the ground to his feet, his focus shifting to the damage around us. “Her Elemental Fae bond initiated, taking us to the third level.”
My lips actually parted. “That’s why I smelled her all over you.” I’d known it was deeper than sex, but I couldn’t figure out why she practically oozed his magic. Now I understood it. “She mated you.”
“She did.” Anger colored his tone, but I suspected he was more furious with himself than with her. Kols knew as well as I did that the bond between Elemental Fae required mutual agreement to take form.
Which meant that deep down he’d wanted to mate Aflora.
And that had to be pissing him off.
“It caused our powers to merge,” he added gruffly, taking in the destruction. “She exploded as a result.”
“Your power sent her over the edge.”
“And straight into the deep end.” He shook his head, his annoyance palpable. “I have no idea how we’re going to fix this. The consequences will be severe.”
“They’ll absolutely kill her for this, and likely me as well.” Because I’d failed to protect Kols yet again. I’d also partaken in the four-way bond, not to benefit Kols but to save an abomination. That wouldn’t be forgiven lightly, if at all.
“Yes,” Kols agreed softly. “They’ll slaughter her publicly to punish the three of us. Then they’ll take your life as well to hurt me specifically. And my father will definitely postpone my ascension.” He uttered the words in a dead tone, his golden irises flaring with power and knowledge.
I slowly pushed to my feet, then tucked my hands into the pockets of my sweats. “Is that the path you choose?”
He arched an auburn brow. “Are you asking if I’ll let them kill you?”
“Will you?”
“No.”
“You won’t have a choice.” Once the Council found out about this, they’d have all our heads on a platter.
“There’s always a choice,” Kols countered, his gaze holding mine. “Killing Aflora will literally destroy a piece of my soul—thanks to our illegal mating bond—and leave me in a shell of misery. I’ve seen it done to other fae. It’s the worst kind of punishment imaginable.” He stepped forward to grab my shirt, yanking me to him. “And losing you is a fate I refuse to ever accept. I won’t allow them to take you or Aflora from me.”
Aflora, I knew, was more for his own survival. Losing his mate would destroy him, and she’d bonded him as both an Elemental Fae and a Midnight Fae, marking the consequences of her loss as undefinable. It might very well kill him.
However, he could absolutely live without me.
He just didn’t want to.
I grabbed his shirt with one hand, my opposite palm going to the back of his neck, and kissed him to return the sentiment.
As much as I sometimes despised this male, I also couldn’t live without him.