A Hybrid's Destiny

Chapter 8

Hands shoved into his coat pocket, Tate sat down on the bottom step of the jet's staircase, looking at the lights blaring out of the small building representing the Benbecula airport. He didn’t know how long he sat there staring at it, his thoughts rolling over and over with the info he learned tonight as well as everything else piling like a weight on his head, when he heard the door open behind him.

Tate didn’t bother to glance behind until he heard someone clank down the metal steps. But he already knew who it was. She could never hide from him.

He inhaled the coconut scent and closed his eyes as he drowned.

Hearing the shift of movement, he knew she took a seat behind him. She didn’t speak to him, nor he to her, for a long moment. If she was outside, staring at a small airport building that looked as much asleep as it did awake, he knew why she was sitting out here, too. But she, like he had discovered, would find no rest out here. Out here, he was alone with his thoughts, and his thoughts were hardly quiet enough to help him relax.

But still, the silence was drilling holes into his stomach. He had to get something off his chest. Right now was as good a time as any.

“When I was with Marcus, I realized something,” he whispered. Even though he couldn’t see her behind him, he could smell her. Smelled how peeved she became at the mention of Marcus’ name.

“I realized something, too,” she didn’t sound happy at all. Now, he was curious as to why she was so angry, so he waited for her to speak. “That you seem to enjoy running around kissing strangers for your own personal gain.”

His brow furrowed. “What in the hell does that mean?” Tate nearly turned and looked back at her, but jerked himself forward again. If she could finally talk to him, when they weren’t face to face, he wanted her to continue, to hear her out. To get inside that pretty little mind and figure out what the f**k was wrong.

“You—stalking me in the library and then… then obviously knew what I was up to. With the whole demon thing. And you wanted to know what I know, and planned to use me! Then kissing me and making me all muddled-brained enough to just jump into your little quest.” Muddle-brained? Tate smiled. He made her muddle-brained, eh? “And then you turn around and do the same thing to that faerie in the club just to seduce him into giving you information.”

So, she wasn’t jealous then? She just thought he was a lowlife w***e-hound?

“You think I’ve muddle-brained seduced you and Marcus for my own gain?” Her accusation bit into him, but he smiled despite the barb she was trying to lash out at him with.

“You can’t deny it! You’re some… some playboy hustler using us and everyone else to get information.”

Hmm. She wasn’t wrong about some of that.

He was a bit of a player. But he couldn’t help himself with that. He was caught up in a life of running after a demon who might just kill him in the end game, so he lived his life to the fullest, the best way he knew how. Tate didn’t let these facts get him down; even with the prophecy hanging over his head, he loved the life he lived and smiled with the blessing of living another day because he knew his were numbered. And with this, he wanted to enjoy every aspect of everything, and sometimes that meant f*****g a beautiful woman at the end of the day. Honestly, he wanted to be free, and this was the only way he knew how to feel it.

But he needed to set this straight with Jaelyn.

“With kissing Marcus, I had no choice,” Tate sighed, bending his head and rubbing the back of his neck. “Faerie are a peculiar race. They pick and choose who they want to play around with depending on their mood that day. And as you heard my father tonight, they often have strings attached to whatever they do for something or someone else."

"So this is the faerie's fault?" She still sounded unconvinced.

Tate shrugged, "Believe what you want. But let me explain before you draw a conclusion." He continued, "Marcus told me he wouldn’t share information if I didn’t kiss him. Those were the strings he was attaching to the deal.” Although, Tate knew the faerie wanted a bit more of him than he was willing to give. Luckily, Marcus didn't push it. He wouldn't know what to at that point. Although a kiss was just a kiss, and a dance was just a dance, no matter how lusty the faerie made it, Tate was not willing to prostitute himself out beyond that.

He finally turned and looked at Jaelyn, resting his back against the stairway railing. “I didn’t instigate the kiss. He did. I only did it so we could get the intel. That’s it.”

“That’s not what it looked like!” Tate frowned at her incredulous expression. Was she only pissed because she thought he was hustling the faerie or was it something else?

Was he so low in her eyes?

"It is what it is." He continued, “With what Marcus did to me,” he wanted to look away from her, feeling the shame build up in his gut, but he kept his eyes trained on hers, “it made me realize I was wrong with what I’ve been doing with you. And… I’m sorry.”

“What do you mean what you’re doing with me?” she whispered.

“I was trying to seduce you, Jae,” he used the pet name that he had heard Lincoln use. He liked it. It was cute, like her. “You were right about that. But not about why.” He exhaled slowly as he remained looking at her. s**t, was he going to do it? Was he going to tell her about the bond? His heart hammered. “I wasn’t doing it to use you, Jae. Anything you may or may not know about demons would have been great to add to our team, but honestly, I've been studying this s**t all my life. I already know a lot of it." He swallowed, prepping himself for the big reveal. "I was just making excuses to keep you around. Because.. I wanted to hang out with you more. See where this could go," he swiped the space between them a few times.

"What do mean this?"

He motioned with his hand again, "This meaning us. Because we," s**t, just say it. He looked her straight in the eye, "we are bound together by the Powers that Be, and I couldn’t fight wanting to be with you.”

“What do you mean? Bound?” Her beautiful brows pinched down her forehead. He fisted his hand to keep his fingers from trying to smooth her furrow away.

“As you probably know, with a werewolf, and a vampire for that matter, both of which I am, we are imbued to find a soulmate within our lifetimes—”

“—no!” she interjected. “Me and you? No. No.” She said again, spiking another nail within his heart.

Not the f*****g response I wanted to hear.

Tate ripped his eyes away from her, looking at his hands that dangled on his knees. “I should have paid attention to the signals you were giving me. Or maybe more like, stop ignoring them,” he nodded, convincing himself this was for the best. “I shouldn’t have forced you to dance with me. Kiss me. I shouldn’t have touched you. You told me no in the library, I should have stopped there.” If you were any other woman, I could have stopped there. “I let the bond control me, and I wasn’t thinking.” Tate shook his head at himself for being so damn weak. “I am sorry I made you feel uncomfortable.”

"What bond, though? I don't feel we're bonded." The spikes twisted in his chest.

"As a human, you won't feel what I feel. Not until I've marked you," he clarified. "Until that time, a human, you, would just feel like those butterflies in your stomach when we touch. Perhaps feel an excitement under your skin." When she hadn't said anything, hadn't admitted feeling anything like that with him, he stopped explaining and simply looked outward at the airport building again. It wasn't like it was at all interesting, but it was something that was not Jaelyn.

“Tate,” her voice was so soft, and he relished in how it blanketed his heart, as if trying to protect it from banging too hard against his ribcage. He nearly glanced back at her. But he didn’t. He knew if he did, he wouldn’t be able to stop from losing himself again. This isn’t what she wants. And he needed to be ok with it.

"Don't worry about it, ok? You and Lincoln can walk away from all this. My dad can get you back home, if it's what you wish. And don't worry. I'll make sure that motherfucker Jonnach is killed." Are you going to leave me, Jaelyn? “Yet, if we’re going to be working together," he needed to let her know she was still welcome to stay! Even if it sucked. "I need to make this less awkward for us. If that is even possible at this point. So, we can just do it the old werewolf way? I can reject you and then boom no more mate-bond and I won't be bothering you anymore.”

“I’m sorry—”

“Stop." I don't want pity! "Don’t be,” he said quickly. Tate braved a smile up at her. He noticed a sadness in her eyes; that sadness he wanted to protect her from. How deep did it go? “My life has been a bit unconventional to say the least. It makes sense that any mate bond I had wouldn’t disappoint that craziness.” He laughed, even when his chest burned to the contrary. But this was ok. This is what needed to happen. He didn’t need a mate. She was making this easy.

This didn’t feel easy.

“Unconventional, for sure,” Jaelyn hummed a giggle. Tate decided in that second it was the best sound he had ever heard. “And I am majorly confused. Tonight, it was clear you had two fathers and one mother,” She squinted, “Now, I know vampires can’t have children, so that threw me immediately when you said Elder Raith was your father,” his name was like a curse on her lips. Tate watched her brows flex as she said his name, and wondered why she spit venom with it. “So there must be a story there.”

Tate nodded, “Yeah, there is. My mom was changed into a vampire when she was pregnant with me.” Ok, here come the awkward questions.

“But the vampire is your dad?”

“Yep.” Tate sighed, pulling at the elastic that held his topknot and freeing his long blond hair. After he ran his hands through it a few times, contemplating how much he wanted to tell her, if anything. Did she need to know he was a sangpyth, the vampire equivalent of a witch, and could wield the umbre de sânge blood magic? Although she was his mate, right now she was more like a one-night stand. Meaning, as soon as this whole Dèanadair thing happened, if they managed to survive it, she’d be outta the picture. He decided to stick with the cliff notes, “Without going too much into my parents’ s*x lives, some magic mojo was involved and then boom! They got me,” He wagged his eyebrows. That explanation should be enough for her, seeing she was a witch. She could understand magic and spells. Though, he could tell she wanted more by the way her head tilted to the side.

“So, you have a werewolf dad, vampire dad, and werewolf mother?”

“Yep.” He popped his ‘p’. “That’s right. My mom and dad are werewolves. And my other dad,” he nodded back to the jet, “is a vampire.”

Jaelyn burst in a bombardment of questions. “So, are they all a couple, too? Is this a threesome thing? Ménage à trois sorta thing? Polyamorous sorta deal?” She added quickly when he flinched up at her. “Well, I saw how Elder Raith flirted with your mother and she didn’t stop him, and sorta flirted back. And your werewolf dad didn’t stop it either. Well, I guess he was a little pissed at the end--"

“Hold up!” He threw up his hands, eyes large, “Let me explain. No, they aren’t in a three-some. My Alpha dad would probably throw a gasket if he had to share my mother with anyone,” he chuckled. “But my mother is my vampire father’s Beloved. Again, it’s kinda a crazy love triangle, but without the polyamorous ménage à trois thingy."

“s**t, that must really suck for Elder Raith.”

Tate nodded, “Yeah, but he's being patient, waiting, for his chance with my mom.” The nights he heard his father crying, missing his mother, were the worst. Why was it when he looked at Jaelyn now, he was actually feeling more empathy for his father’s pain? “As hybrids, we don’t age after a certain point. Like vampires. You probably noticed my mother looks like she’s eighteen when my werewolf dad is pushing fifty. The Alpha King has a good thirty or forty years before dies. That’s just a drop in the bucket for a vampire.” He didn’t like to think of any of his parents dying, but it’s inevitable for his werewolf father, and a possibly for his vampire father and hybrid mother.

And himself.

“And me,” Jaelyn whispered. She probably didn’t mean for him to hear it, but he did.

“And you?”

“Witches,” she shrugged. “We don’t age after a certain point.”

Oh, wow. Tate studied her face, wondering if she had hit her age limit as he did and wouldn’t be looking more than early twenties for a long time now. Jaelyn, too, looked like she was maybe early twenties, could she be older?

He asked, “When did you hit your pause date?” The breeze picked up, blowing his long hair in a few directions, some of it covering his face. He didn’t bother with it, leaving it to the wind’s whim. It felt good.

“About twenty years ago,” she smirked. “Your mate is as old as your mother,” she winked.

He liked this playful side, liked that wink. He liked learning more about her, how she was opening up. How she called herself his mate…

Yet, would all this make it harder to let go?

Tate shrugged and purred, “Damn sexy MILF, too.” The wind tangled more long strands of hair across his face and he nearly reached up to move them. But he was glad he didn’t.

Jaelyn’s soft fingers laced through his hair, guiding it delicately behind his ear. She was attentive to her task, snatching a few more renegade strands that didn’t stay put the first time. After making sure they were secure, her fingers lingered there, touching his ear, his cheek, torturing him with the sparks that hit every nerve.

Do you feel it, too?

Jaelyn finally looked at him, and he caught her eyes with his, tethering them with a smoldering heat. The electricity wasn’t only harassing the nerves under his skin, but sizzled in the space between them. His eyes flicked to her delicious lips and there wasn’t anything he wanted more than to taste them.

Raspberry-red.

But she doesn’t want this. f**k, Tate stop this s**t.

So, when she leaned in, when she pressed her lips against his, Tate’s chest nearly burst. Instinctively, he slid his hand on the back of her neck, pulling her in to deepen the kiss. When her mouth opened for him, he teased her tongue with his, waiting for her to take more of the lead, letting her know she controlled everything that was happening to her.

And she did kiss him back, her tongue seeking out his, stoking the fire that was raging within his body. Tate pulled her down onto his lap, and then turned them around, facing forward, so she could straddle him. He wanted to feel her close to him, on him, against him; he wanted to feel her riding him, here on the stairs, back on his bed. Feeling her like this. It felt right. She felt good, and they weren’t even naked yet.

When she began to gyrate against him and moan into his mouth. When he fisted the pants on her hips and helped her grind against his hardened length. When it felt like gasoline had been thrown onto the fire as their kiss grew more demanding, more intense, Jaelyn suddenly stiffened.

Once again. Just like before.

Cupping her mouth. Eyes wide.

"Jae," his hoarse voice wisped.

She pushed herself off of him.

And he let her go.

Tate closed his eyes, lowering his head as his hands raked through his now-disheveled hair.

Fuck.