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puppet, Jace followed the man out of the room, and even after the guard left and he was alone,
Jamie screamed until his voice gave out.
* * * *
The explosive sound of glass shattering had Cyaan and Seth racing to the kitchen. His mate
was in there, and with the stress of the past several days riding him, he was ready to rip apart
anyone who would dare go after Loland. The sight that met him, however, was almost worse.
Splinters of glass littered the floor and the steaming casserole Loland had been baking lay all
around his bare feet. On his feet.
Seth narrowly dodged the ceramic sugar pot that flew past his head before crashing into the
wall behind him, and reached Loland in time to save the next object his mate grabbed. He lifted
him up but nearly lost him again as Loland flailed his arms and legs, fighting him the entire way
to the downstairs bathroom.
 Let me down! Let me go, please Sir. I can t do this anymore! I can t& I can t just wait
here. Please, I have to& 
 Shhh, baby. I know.
 No, you don t know! Loland squirmed in his arms and pushed at his chest, trying to get
free.  I promised I would always take care of him and I failed. I failed in the hospital and I failed
when that crazy asshole hurt him to get to me.
Seth sat him on the countertop beside the sink, inserting himself between his legs. When
Loland reared back, he caught his head just before it smashed into the mirror behind him.
 Enough! You are not responsible for this. Do you hear me?
 The fuck I m not! I was holding him in my arms and I still lost him. And what are you
doing about it aside from sitting on your& 
Seth absorbed all of Loland s violent energy into himself, leaving nothing behind, and
Loland promptly passed out. He knew his mate had been bottling his emotions up until this point,
but the force of his guilt and anger mixed with his own was like a blow to his psyche. He would
have to release the energy soon, but Loland s care came first.
He gently stripped him down and assessed his injuries. Loland was wearing nothing but
pants, which had protected his legs but his feet were red and raw from the hot food, with tiny
slivers of glass coating them. A few of his fingertips were also blistered but thankfully that was
all he could find. After stripping him, Seth ran cool water from the sink over his feet, making sure
to remove the shards before patting them dry.
With a curse, he recalled that the burn ointment he kept for emergencies was in the
bathroom upstairs and the nearest towels were in a closet in the hallway outside. He was about to
strip out of his own shirt to cover Loland s nudity when there was a knock on the door. He laid
Loland s limp body in the dry tub then turned to see who it was. Cyaan stood there, with a robe in
one hand and the tube of ointment in the other.
Seth gave him a grim smile and took the items.  Thanks, man. Once his mate was
medicated and bundled, he carried him to their room and took the robe off before tucking him
under the covers. A wave of shame hit him as he took in the dark circles under Loland s eyes and
the stress lines on his brow and around his lips. Even in sleep, his mate s agony over their loss
was plain to see.
 Don t take this onto yourself. The time for self-recrimination can come later, Cyaan said
from the doorway. If it had been anyone else intruding on his privacy with Loland, he would not
have been able to hold back his temper. But Cyaan was his friend, former Dom, and teacher. And
the man seemed to be suffering just as much as he was.
The Gods had had no choice but to accept Kaia. The fact that she was mated with children
and had lived peacefully for thousands of years attested to her good nature. They would have
been fools to label her a threat simply because of her additional powers. But they withheld their
judgement on Jamie, demanding proof that he wasn t a threat either. That was impossible to do,
however, without Jamie s actual presence.
After they d concluded that either Death or Mikel had Jamie and Jace, the warriors amongst
the Keepers who had come to offer their support stayed in order to help him recover his lost mate
and friend. It had quickly become obvious to Seth, however, that Cyaan was taking all of this just
as personally as he was.
 You re right. I appreciate that you stayed here with the others to help, but something tells
me there s more to it than that.
Cyaan pressed his lips into a thin line and his body tensed. Indecision warred on his face
and for the first time since Seth had met the ancient, his composure lacked its usual air of
confidence.  He s my mate. Jace, he clarified.
Seth almost staggered back at the news. His mind reeled but it came up blank.  Does he
know? Did you know before now? If Fate screwed around with you too& 
 No. She told me when he became my mate, but that wasn t until after& after Jace got over
what happened to him.
Again he felt nothing but confusion.  Maybe you d better start from the beginning.
Cyaan sighed and dragged a hand through his white locks.  Maybe I should. I don t plan on
letting him go after we find them. Mind if we talk about this somewhere a little more [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]