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So was my mate.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Omaera

I didn’t speak to Drak for the remainder of our time in Hell. In fact, I actively avoided him. Which, now that I knew the secret he was keeping from me, probably caused him a great deal of pain. But I could only have so much compassion for such a colossal idiot.

He experienced The Mate’s Ache because we hadn’t mated yet.

How could he keep me in the dark about something like that?

And more importantly,whydid he keep me in the dark?

Like a stubborn buffoon, he thought it would be a better idea to suffer in silence rather than keep me in the loop. Even if I wasn’t ready to mate-bond, I would have been a bit more conscientious about my distance from him, since the further apart we were, the greater the pain he felt. I learned it all when I opened the door of secrets in his mind. I discovered that because I was mate-bonded with Maxar and Zandren, the Mate’s Ache for Drak was more severe. He also experienced debilitating pain whenever I had sex with Maxar or Zandren.

Was that why he was sick the other night? Was his ache even worse when I had sex with both the mage and bear at the same time?

I huffed a laugh as I packed up the little belongings I had in preparation for our departure to the portal.

Served the stupid vampire right.

Even though I knew the secret now, I still had a hell of a lot of questions for the dumbass. However, I was currently giving him the silent treatment. So those questions would have to wait.

“Ready to go, baby girl?” Maxar asked, poking his head into the bedroom door where I stood wrapped up in just a towel, stuffing things into my backpack.

I nodded and flashed him a smile. “Yep. Just wanted one last glorious sulfur-scented shower.”

He smirked at my sarcasm and stepped into the room, resting his hands on my hips. “You still pissed about what you found out in the vampire’s brain?”

Of course, I told Zandren and Maxar what I uncovered. Neither of them were overly surprised though. Zandren just growled and said, “Typical vampire.”

While Maxar rolled his eyes, shook his head, and scoffed. “Serves the fucker right, I say.”

“Yes, I’m still pissed,” I said with a huff. “He’s been lying to me. And not only that, I’ve been inadvertently causing him pain.”

“No,” he shook his head, his eyes soft and warm, like liquid pools of gold I wanted to dive headfirst into, “he caused himself pain with his stubbornness. Do not blame yourself. This is all on him. He wanted to be the big, brave vampire. Show us all that he’s the strongest species, or some stupid shit like that. When in truth, he just proved he’s the dumbest. Because no way in hell would I keep a secret like that from you.”

I gave my mage a look. “You keptasecret from me. The fact that you couldn’t be touched by another woman until we mated. Otherwise, it caused you pain.”

He was barely sheepish. “Yeah, but that’s different. The odds of me needing to be touched by another woman were incredibly slim. And not particularly relevant to our mate-bonding, or our proximity. If you being in a different room made me double over in agony, you can bet your sweet, edible ass that I’d be handcuffing our wrists together until you fell in love with me and we mate-bonded.”

His words, as crude as they were, made me weak in the knees and unable to keep myself from smiling.

Seeing that he succeeded in pulling me from my crappy mood, Maxar grinned, then bobbed his brows salaciously. “Speaking of edible assholes … do we have time?”

That made me toss my head back with a laugh. “I think we need to get moving, unfortunately.”

He pouted dramatically. “First thing when we get back to Earth though, okay?” He tugged me closer so I could feel his erection against my thigh. “I’m going through withdrawals, baby. Need my fix.”

It was impossible not to smile or get turned on by his dirty talk. The man was an expert. “I promise we’ll carve out some time when we get back to Earth. Maybe not immediately, but soon.”

Maxar’s shoulders slumped, and he pouted again, which took him from sexy, to sexyandadorable. I pushed up onto my tiptoes and pressed a kiss to his lips. “You’ll just have to do with sticking your tongue in my mouth for now. A quick make-out session. Okay? To tide you over.”

His growl caught me off guard as he gripped me by the back of my neck and aggressively yanked me forward, crushing his mouth to mine. I melted into him, my pussy dripping down my inner thigh in seconds as he wedged his tongue into my mouth and swept it around, giving me a preview for what he planned to do elsewhere later.

A throat clearing behind us had me pausing and pressing my hands against Maxar’s chest. My mage didn’t give a shit, even though I knew he heard whoever was behind us. He wasn’t going to stop making out for anybody.

Chuckling, I pushed a little harder on his chest as our guest cleared their throat more forcefully. “Maxar,” I said with a laugh, “let me go.”