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Ollie gasped, clutching his chest. “What is that?”

Dante pulled back, looking down at Ollie, his eyes red-rimmed and sad. “To save you, I had to link us. It’s called a mating bond. But I couldn’t complete the ritual like we would have if you were conscious.”

“Mating bond?” Snippets from the beach came back to Ollie. “You said I was your mate. You were talking about Harper. That man said…” Ollie’s chest tightened as whispered words filled his mind.

“ You think he loves you, but he doesn’t. He’s lying. You’re nothing but a little plaything to him, and now he’s going to watch you die, and it won’t even matter .”

Dread stole the residual warmth of the shower from Ollie’s body. Claws dug into his neck. He snapped his eyes shut. What the hell had that evil man—being, demon, whatever—been saying? Dante didn’t love Ollie. Why did that murderous shithead think so?

Why try to kill him because of it?

“Who was that?” Ollie managed, his voice sounding small and afraid.

Dante tilted Ollie’s chin up until their eyes met. “That was Lucifer. Ash, Onyx, and I escaped him many years ago, and he’s trying to hunt us down.”

Ollie’s stomach dropped like he was falling. The Devil was real? Ollie’s legs turned to jelly, and if it weren’t for Dante holding him, he’d have crumpled to the tile floor. Everything he wanted to say stuck in his throat.

Dante held him close, whispering. “It’s all right. You’re safe now. I won’t let him hurt you again.”

Ollie pulled himself together, forcing his knees to do their job and hold him up. He nodded into Dante’s chest even though he wasn’t sure Dante could promise safety.

“I’m sorry you got pulled into this,” Dante continued. “If I’d known there was any risk Luc would be back so soon or that he’d come to the beach, I never would have taken you somewhere so exposed.”

At last, Ollie found his voice. “You said demons aren’t what I thought. But the Devil is real? You’re scaring me, Dante.”

Another small whine escaped Dante. “I’m sorry. Ollie, I’m so sorry.”

Ollie could feel how much Dante meant it. It was strange, almost like he could read Dante’s mind. Not his exact thoughts, but his intentions, his emotions. Ollie sensed a regret so deep it was hard to breathe.

“It’s okay.” Ollie wrapped his arms around Dante, the desire to comfort overriding everything else. “You saved me. Tell me how you saved me.”

Dante’s tense muscles relaxed beneath Ollie’s hands. “I linked us through a mating bond. As my mate, you have my healing powers and immortality. Once we were linked, you saved yourself with your newfound power, healing the wound Luc inflicted.”

Hold the fucking phone. “ Immortality? ” Ollie croaked.

“Yes.” Dante nodded, solemn as ever. “Your life will now be as long as mine.”

Ollie’s mind rebelled. That wasn’t possible. But neither was recovering from having his throat gouged open. He trembled. How was he supposed to accept any of this?

That feeling of wrongness reared its ugly head, carving out Ollie’s insides. Maybe Dante was wrong. “You said the bond wasn’t complete. What does that mean?”

“To form a mating bond, we both need to accept the connection, but you were unconscious.” A shadow passed over Dante’s face. “I did as much as I could, but without you accepting, the bond will remain incomplete. That’s what we’re feeling.”

“Can we break it, get rid of it now that I’m healed?” Then Ollie could be a normal, mortal person again and wouldn’t have to try to understand any of this.

Dante flinched like Ollie had hit him. “No, we can’t.” His voice was painfully soft. “It’s irreversible. We’re mates. There’s no going back from this type of magic.”

Ollie’s pulse raced, a heaviness settling over him. “Okay. We’re mates.”

What the fuck did that mean? He wouldn’t have chosen to be Dante’s mate if he’d been asked. Mates sounded intense. So did being immortal. But it wasn’t like he’d have chosen death over this. He trusted Dante. And Dante had done something unfathomable to save him.

“If I accept the bond, will I feel better? Like myself again?”

There was no way Ollie could live with this itchy hollowness inside him. If he focused on the feeling too hard, he’d start crying again.

Dante adjusted the towel around Ollie’s shoulders, studying Ollie’s face closely. “Yes, if you accept, you’ll feel like yourself again.”

“Then, I accept.” Ollie waited, but the pit inside him seemed to grow.

Dante guided Ollie out of the shower, through the bathroom, and into the adjoining bedroom. “Saying you accept isn’t enough. I think we need to go through the ritual again, with you actively participating.”

Ollie pulled away. “Wait, you mean a mating ritual? Like sex?”

“It’s a mating ritual by definition, but it doesn’t have to be sexual,” Dante said in a hurry.

He sat on a couch beside a large window, putting distance between them, and braced his hands on his towel-covered knees.

“All I did to save you was cast the mating spell, give you my blood, and take some of yours. If we repeat that with your consent and intent to form a bond with me, everything should be fine.”

Ollie stepped forward slowly and perched on the couch beside Dante, a whole new set of feelings sparking in his veins. “Is the ritual usually sexual?”

Dante swallowed audibly. “Yes, but I’m not asking that of you. We’re mates, but that doesn’t mean we have to physically mate. Sex isn’t essential to the magic working. If it was, I wouldn’t have been able to save you.”

“I don’t get what being your mate means, Dante.

Does it mean to complete the bond and get this deep ick out of my chest, I have to be in a relationship?

” Ollie’s heart jolted. Dante said the mating bond was irreversible.

Ollie had never said he was okay with being someone’s mate.

It sounded like a boyfriend or partner, and Ollie didn’t want that, but he couldn’t live feeling half-wrong and incomplete either.

He didn’t really have a choice.

Dante gripped Ollie’s hands. “We don’t have to be in a romantic relationship. We don’t have to change anything between us. But we are bonded. We will always be connected. I know I shouldn’t have done this without your consent, but I couldn’t let you die.”

That threw perspective back in Ollie’s face. “Hey. Of course you didn’t want me to die. And I’m glad you saved me. Fuck, I don’t think I’ve ever been more grateful in my life. I’m just trying to figure out what this is. There’s no doubt I’d rather be bonded to you than dead.”

Dante had made a huge sacrifice for him. He wasn’t even asking Ollie to commit to anything romantic when a mating bond sounded like it should be marriage or something.

“I’m glad you don’t regret me doing this,” Dante said, relief softening his face. “And I promise, the bond can be whatever we want it to be.”

“Of course I don’t regret it.” A smile tugged at Ollie’s lips, warmth filling his insides for the first time in what felt like years. “Let’s redo the ritual, and I’ll accept. It feels right.”

And it did. Somehow, nothing had ever felt so right in Ollie’s life. His doubts faded and he became even more sure. The need to accept Dante’s bond pulled on the center of his chest, reaching every deep piece of his soul.

Dante pulled Ollie into an embrace. “Thank you, Ollie.”

Relief radiated off Dante. The strangeness that had coated everything since Ollie woke up faded and something good took over.

“I think I can feel you,” Ollie murmured, no matter how strange it sounded.

Dante pulled back. “You can. I can feel you too.”

“Wait, really?” Ollie patted his towel-covered chest, the pull on his heart turning into an ache. “You know how I feel?”

Dante smiled his bashful little smile. “It’s the bond. Our connection.”

“So, some things are going to change between us.” Friends couldn’t sense each other’s emotions. Ollie didn’t know what to think of that kind of intimacy, no matter how right this felt.

“We can learn to control what we share,” Dante said as if this was all normal, though to him, it probably was. “I’ll respect your boundaries, Ollie. ”

But how? There was no real way for Ollie to get his head around any of this. He’d have to trust Dante.

And that didn’t seem as hard as it should have been.

One thing shone brightly among all the confusion, and it pointed toward Dante.

Ollie followed the light, guided by that right feeling flowing through him. It pulled him onto Dante’s lap. Ollie straddled Dante, his towel falling from his shoulders and pooling around his hips.

Ollie placed his hands on Dante’s shoulders. “Make me feel better, Dante. Please?”