“Never,” he promised, his hand gliding to her throat to force her attention back to him. “Our souls are engaged, Aflora. You can’t change that.”
“Watch me,” she snapped.
His lips curled. “It’s not possible, sweetheart. Your soul claimed mine and vice versa. Even Sol saw it, despite the glamour tied to my wristband. He about killed me for it.”
Aflora stopped fighting, her eyes widening. “Sol?”
“Yeah, big guy with rocks for fists,” Kols drawled. “He introduced one to my face. Thankfully, I heal quickly.” He released Aflora and took a step back. “He gave me a few things for you. They’re in a bag in my room.”
“What? Why didn’t you give them to me when you returned?”
“Because you stormed through the room last night, slammed your door, and refused to come out afterward,” he replied, crossing his arms over his chest. “You haven’t exactly been all that chatty lately, Aflora.”
“Because you were off playing in the Human Realm.”
“If by ‘playing,’ you mean meeting with Exos, Cyrus, and Sol, then sure. And before you ask, yes, I fed. Something I can do without fucking, by the way. But I’m really glad we’re having the exclusivity discussion because if you so much as touch another male, I’ll kill him.”
“Same,” I agreed.
Shade merely shrugged. “You two have it covered.”
Aflora gaped between the three of us, acting as though we’d all grown multiple heads. “How…? How did this conversation become about exclusivity? I just told you all that I want to undo the mating.”
“And we told you that’s not happening, pixie flower.” I cocked my head to the side. “Three votes against one.”
“Hardly seems fair,” she muttered.
“Welcome to Midnight Fae society,” Shade drawled. “Where men make the rules and women are expected to follow them. Isn’t that right, Prince Kolstov?”
Kols ignored his commentary, his focus on Aflora. “You chose me.”
“Yeah, and you rejected me,” she countered. “And then, to add insult to injury, you set all my things on fire. Which, I guess, didn’t matter since none of them belonged to me anyway.” She shook her head, her exasperation palpable. “Why are we even debating this? None of us want to be in this situation.”
“You’re right,” I agreed. “None of us want to be in this situation.”
She flinched, the movement slight but visible. And then she waved her hand at me. “See? Zeph admits it.”
“I admit to not enjoying our current situation,” I clarified. “The one where you’re mad at all three of us and punishing us with hurtful comments about breaking our ties to you. I strongly dislike this situation and would like it to cease. Now.”
She gaped at me, her mouth working without sound.
“Much better,” I praised, stepping toward her and brushing her dark hair behind her ear. “How about we go sit in the living room and try to discuss this like adults, hmm?”
“I-I don’t understand.” She seemed to be talking to herself more than to me, but I answered her anyway.
“We don’t want to break our quad, Aflora. Well, I might be okay with removing Shadow, but something tells me he’s staying.”
“I am,” he put in, seemingly unperturbed by my comment. If anything, he appeared amused.
I’d evaluate that later.
“You’re upset, and I know we hurt your ability to trust us. But we can’t change the past, Aflora. We can only fix the future.” Shade coughed, causing me to level a glare at him. “Is this entertaining to you, Shadow?”
He cleared his throat. “I can’t even begin to explain that reaction. Just. Yeah, continue.” He still appeared to be fighting a grin.
I sent a question to Kols with my eyes, and he just shrugged as if to say, It’s Shade. What do you expect? Which, yeah, what did I expect?
Rolling my eyes, I refocused on the female before me. “I’m sorry for not telling you what was about to happen. There wasn’t time, and I worked the situation to the best of my ability to ensure your safety, in addition to mine and Kols’s.” I cupped her cheek and tilted her head back as I stepped into her personal space. “I’ll prove to you over time that your best interests are important to me. But I need you to allow me the opportunity to try.”