Fates Entwined

35

“I’m an adult,” I said. “I can be with whoever I want.”

“Yeah, but...him?” Kaden asked. “Out of everyone, you had to choose him?”

I didn’t, I wanted to say, but I bit my tongue again. The less Kaden knew about how complicated our situation was, the better. And it wasn’t really true, not anymore. I'd chosen Jordan today, without any mate bond forcing us together. "Try not to sound so horrified," Jordan said, as he returned with glasses of water for Kaden and Ayla. He’d put his shirt on as well.

Ayla took her glass from Jordan with a wry grin. “I knew it. You’re mates, aren’t you?”

Kaden, who had just taken a sip of his water, choked. “I’m sorry, what?”

I supposed there was no way to hide it. We might as well air out all the dirty laundry now and get it over with. “We were,” I said, as he took another sip of water. “Until I rejected him.”

Kaden choked again, and this time, he set the water down on the coffee table, hard. When I glanced up, he was glaring at me. “You rejected him? What the f**k?”

I threw up my hands. “Do you want me to be Jordan’s mate or not?”

“Well, no. But you can’t just reject him!”

I crossed my arms. “Too late."

With a smile, Ayla gestured to where Jordan stood behind me instead of sitting in the other chair. “It doesn’t look like it worked very well."

“It’s complicated,” Jordan said. “We’re still trying to figure things out.”

Kaden growled deep in his throat, and then he was up, moving across the room so fast it was a blur. Before I could even react, he grabbed Jordan and slammed him into the wall.

"Kaden!" I yelled, one second away from prying him off of Jordan, but Ayla held me back.

Kaden had his forearm on Jordan's throat, his face twisted in rage, but the Leo alpha just looked back at him like he was bored. "My, my, isn’t this familiar,” Jordan said dryly. “I thought your days of pinning me against walls was over.”

“I’ll tear you apart if you hurt my sister,” Kaden snarled and pressed his arm a little harder against Jordan’s throat.

Ayla and I shared a look. Damn overprotective alphas. I wanted to snap at him that I could take care of myself, but Kaden had always been extra protective of me, ever since our parents had died.

“I would never do anything to hurt Stella,” Jordan choked out. He glanced over at me. “I love her.”

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Everyone froze as those three little words rang out through the air.

Kaden recovered first. "Oh... Shit."

He let Jordan go and stepped back, while I opened and closed my mouth a few times, trying to figure out what I was feeling. My heart raced so fast I worried it might jump out of my chest and run out the front door. Jordan...loved me?

Kaden looked back and forth between Jordan and me for a minute, rubbing his jaw like he wasn't sure what to do now. "Sorry," he eventually said.

Ayla grabbed his arm and yanked him back to the sofa. "If the alphas are done posturing, maybe we can sit down and have a real conversation now."

"I was just making dinner," Jordan said. "You're welcome to share it with us."

"That would be great," Ayla said.

While Jordan disappeared into the kitchen once more, I got everyone to move to the dining table and then I set out forks and knives. My head was still spinning from what Jordan had said. I wasn't sure how to respond. Did he expect me to say it back? I wasn't sure I could. Not yet.

When Jordan said the food was ready, we all headed into the kitchen to load up our plates with spaghetti. He raised his eyebrows at me as he handed me a plate and our fingers brushed. I gave him a smile so he knew I wasn’t upset with him. He visibly relaxed as he passed plates around, and soon we were all digging in.

"I had no idea that you cooked," Kaden said to Jordan.

"I didn't before, not really." He met my eyes. "But it's more fun when you have someone to cook for. I asked my mom to send me all her recipes. This is one that she used to always make. Hopefully, it turned out okay."

"It's really good," Ayla said with a smile for her brother.

"So what brought you guys here today?" Jordan asked. "Not that we mind you stopping by, but it'd be nice to have some advance warning next time..."

Ayla gave us a sheepish grin. "Sorry about that. I got worried when you guys weren't answering my texts so I grabbed Kaden and teleported us over. Blame the pregnancy hormones. They're making me a bit nutty."

"No kidding..." Kaden muttered, and she smacked him on the arm. "Mostly we want to know what's going on with the missing males and the Sun Witches." Jordan and I launched into a long tale, trying to cover everything that had happened since I'd arrived. So much had changed over the past few days, and it was a lot to fit into one conversation. When we mentioned Roxandra and the vampires, Kaden's hand tightened on his fork and his eyes narrowed.

“It’s concerning that she still has so many allies among the vampires,” he said.

“I know,” I said. “I guess they still believe she'll help them break the Sun Curse."

"Or they're just using her blood to help them walk in the daylight," Jordan said.

"The two of you fought them off by yourselves?" Ayla asked.

"We did," I said, meeting Jordan's eyes. "Thanks to Jordan's new sun magic."

"What?" Ayla asked with a laugh. "You used magic?"

"I did, and not just that one time," Jordan said, sitting up like a proud lion. "Stella's been training me, and I'm starting to be able to control it."