“We’ve been telling you that for years,” Novak piped up from my bed. MY bed. Where he was sprawled diagonally, in nothing but boxers, on his stomach with his face buried under my pillows. Why was he always in my fucking room? I just wanted to go to sleep.
“Why are you in my bed?” I hissed instead. “You have your own room. A room that holds very similar furniture to mine.” He could go lie in his own damn bed.
He moved the pillow from over his head and leaned up just a little, turning his neck at an odd angle. “There’s a naked girl in my bed,” he whined. “And she. Just. Won’t. Leave. Make her go away, please.” His last words were muffled as he slammed my pillow over his head again, like if he could smother himself then she might magically disappear. I huffed a laugh at him. He was so fucking dramatic.
“If I make her leave, will you get out of my room?” I bartered. I really wanted to sleep. I was almost as dead on my feet as he was. I know. That was a corny vampire joke, but it was true.
“Yes.” He dragged the word out. “I asked her to leave hours ago, but she wouldn’t take the hint. I mean, she’s cute, but not cute enough to stay for breakfast.” He rolled his eyes. “I guess Palmer will be the white knight that he is and feed her. Then she’ll never want to leave.” He sniffled and wiped imaginary tears from his exposed cheek. “I’ll have to move into your room so I can permanently avoid her.” He sighed. He was such an asshole. “Make her leave, Vaughn,” he whined again.
“You could’ve just compelled her...” I let my sentence hang, waiting for him to figure it out. Maybe he’d be smart today. Nope. I knew exactly what he was about to say. I mouthed the words as he spoke them, having them memorized long ago.
“Yeah, but then I’d have to look into her eyes again and I just can’t do it, Vaughn,” he mumbled like it was a new confession. It was not new. He was a dog.
“Bad sex, huh? You let her down?” I couldn’t help but tease him. He was terrified of commitment. Stone and Palmer avoided relationships because they were waiting on their mates, but Novak? He was a one-and-done kind of guy, most of the time. Occasionally he was a 24-hour kind of guy. Those girls never got brought to our home, though. Briggs was weary after his last heart break, and wouldn’t be looking for a companion anytime soon. I didn’t do relationships because I was too busy. I was leaning towards a change, though. Fuck. Was I? Did I want to be with Sloane? I’d have to think about that later. When I was by my godsdamn self.
“Fuck you, Vaughn.” There was no heat behind his words. He sounded truly exhausted. He still had his head covered with my pillow. He thrashed his legs violently, almost like he was throwing a silent tantrum, before rolling over and removing the pillow to continue, “She said she wants a relationship with me.” He pointed to himself for clarification. “After one good fuck. I’m not interested, and I told her straight up. She didn’t listen. She’s waiting for me to come back in there with my mind changed. It’s not happening. She doesn’t understand that she means absolutely nothing to me. Last night, today, just showed me that I’m fucking sick of this. I’m ready to find my mate. I’m tired of all these bullshit one-night stands.” He heaved a heavy sigh of relief, and if I had to guess, he needed to get that off his chest.
He sounded so serious that I almost wanted to believe him, but Novak was.... well, Novak. I’d believe it when I saw it. We all wondered sometimes if he’d already met his mate and just didn’t notice. He’d been binge drinking for the past couple of months, so it wouldn’t surprise me. I’d asked him to talk to me about it but he always shot me down. He'd talk when he was ready, though, and he knew I was here to listen when he was. I could tell he wasn’t going to say anything more, so I decided to reroute the conversation.
“Do fae have mates like vampires do? Because if they do, then I think I found my mate yesterday, Novak. I’m a mixture of confused, terrified, and excited,” I whispered. It was an admission I wasn’t quite ready to say out loud, but I’d known Novak longer than anyone in this realm. He was always the first person I told things to. He was what I needed to work my feelings out. A vampire therapist. I needed someone to tell me what I felt wasn’t my imagination. It was real. I really hoped it was real.
He looked up at me with wide eyes and then looked around the room like someone else might be in here. “She’s not here,” I scoffed. “But, that’s where I was last night. I didn’t know you guys were all coming back at the same time. I thought you’d be out until later today. The others weren’t due back for days. Briggs came home, too? What’s going on?” I questioned him, hoping he’d have answers.
“Neither did we.” He shrugged his shoulders. “I just had this feeling that I needed to be home. Like something big was gonna happen, but I didn’t know what.” He had his brows drawn down and his eyes squinted like he was trying to piece together a puzzle while talking to me. With what pieces, I didn’t know, but he never failed to figure it out. Sometimes he was a dumbass, but other times he made me wonder if he was more of a genius than Palmer.
“What are you thinking?” I inquired. What did he know that I didn’t? The feeling that I was missing something huge was weighing on my shoulders. I still felt that strange pull on my chest, too. I distractedly rubbed at the center of my chest and Novak snapped his attention to my hand. His eyes widened, eyebrows flying up in the process, and his mouth gaped open before he could compose himself.
He cleared his throat and then carefully asked, “Vaughn, does your chest hurt like you’ve been punched?” He paused for a beat, but I knew he wasn’t done. “Or does it feel like someone threaded invisible strings through your heart that they’re pulling on right now?” He made a motion with his hand like he was stringing two objects together. I felt the blood rush from my face. My heartbeat was rapidly increasing. My hands were clammy. He saw it all, and he kept talking.
“I’ve only heard stories about fae having mates, but I suppose it could happen. We’d have to talk with Palmer to be sure. I’m gonna go out on a limb here and say you’re not ready to bring that up to the others yet.” He raised a skeptical eyebrow at me, and I nodded my head silently. He slowly nodded his head back at me and dropped his voice. He sounded like he was speaking to himself when he continued, “Surely we didn’t all get the same feeling that we needed to be here solely because you found your mate.” The way he said “your” didn’t go unnoticed.
“What are you talking about, Novak?” I needed to know. It was going to drive me crazy. He was onto something. He had that distant look on his face that he got when he was focusing on putting all those invisible puzzle pieces together. I just didn’t know what all the pieces he had were. Clearly more than me. He didn’t answer. I wasn’t even sure that he’d heard me.
I sat on the edge of my bed and gave him a few more minutes of silence before I repeated my question. This time he looked at me and shook his head. His hair flopped down into his eyes. He pushed it back before he shook his head again. “It doesn’t make sense yet, Vaughn,” he admitted to me, but I didn’t think he was trying to answer my question. He was talking about whatever he was working through. He was answering his own question. I didn’t know what the question was, though, so I couldn’t help him.