Page 11 of Elas (Mate’s Mark #2)

Patient files aren’t the only source of chaos.

Flyers and pamphlets are scattered around, advertising different walk-in clinics and community events that happened years ago.

Others are warnings about viruses, including one for a strain of flu that mutated until it’s contagious to their kind.

Behind a shelf, I find another stack of flyers that had been distributed in the large cities, urging anyone with glowing skin to report to the nearest military medical facility.

That one was wild.

There’s simply no fixing what’s here, so I’ve started from scratch. I’ve disassembled the entire thing, and now I stand among mountains of paperwork and a room of empty shelves. “Well, you wanted to be helpful,” I mutter to myself as I plant my hands on my hips, “and you got your wish.”

“Talking to yourself?” An amused voice from behind me causes me to startle, but I shake my head with a rueful grin as I turn to face Xeni.

“Some thoughts are so chaotic they need to be purged from your brain in order for them to make sense.” I gesture around at the manila folders, stacked as tall as my shoulders, with only a small path to walk between them. “Case in point. How did I not realize everyone here is so disorganized?”

“We aren’t disorganized,” he argues, but I wave again at the mess and he laughs. “Okay, some of us are. We’re just busy , and this got pushed to the wayside. But now we have our pet human to handle the busywork for us.”

I glare at his giant smirk, my eyes moving to the file clutched in his hand as he lifts it.

“Don’t you…” He drops it onto the empty shelf with a chuckle.

“…dare,” I finish weakly, snatching the file and plopping it onto the nearest pile.

“If you’re going to be a nuisance, scamper off.

You’re so terribly busy, after all.” He laughs again, and my stern expression falters as I chuckle along with him.

The afternoon passes in a dull blur as I develop a filing system.

Alphabetical order for the open shelves, with high-ranking officers given the space in the cabinets with locks.

The mindless task makes the hours pass quickly, and I find myself stuck in a memory of the day my ex-girlfriend, Maryna, broke things off between us.

“I don’t think this is working, August,” she’d said with a sad smile. “ You aren’t invested in our relationship. ” Until that very moment, everything had seemed fine to me. I hadn’t understood her logic.

Still don’t, if I’m being honest.

“How am I not invested? I make you happy, don’t I? We’ve been together for almost six months, and I thought I was a good boyfriend.”

“You are,” she’d stressed, which only confused me further. “You’re a great guy, August. Everyone knows that.”

“So what’s the problem, then?”

Her deep blue eyes had become pleading at that point, her brows drawing together in a way that made me feel even worse.

“Sometimes… okay, most of the time… it’s like you’re making all the right moves, but it’s not for the right reasons.

You do all those things that we expect from our partners…

you’re sweet, and you always listen. You pay attention to what I like and never put yourself first.”

“Okay…” I stretched the word out as my mind spun. “I still don’t understand. What am I doing wrong? ”

“It’s just…” Her throat had bobbed in a swallow, and I hated seeing her so uncomfortable. Hated knowing it was me that made her that way. “You do those things, but you don’t mean them. They’re what’s expected of you, but your heart isn’t in them.”

“Of course it is,” I’d argued, but she held up a hand, and like the accommodating, polite man I’ve always been, I stopped and nodded for her to continue.

“There’s no passion between us. Even when we have sex, it’s just going through the motions.

Part of you is locked up tight inside that giant heart of yours, and I’m not the person you’re willing to give it to.

I love you, August. Can you say the same about me?

” My eyes had burned as I stared into hers, and that sad smile turned downright heartbreaking.

“It’s okay, sweetie. We’ll always be friends, but we both deserve better than this. ”

In my thirty-three years on this planet, I’ve had very few relationships. They all ended the same way—with them saying I wasn’t invested. Despite my confusion, I’m not cruel. I’d never try to force a relationship that felt one sided, regardless of how content I might be.

But I also don’t know how to be any different.

Generally speaking, I’m a happy guy. Content to share my time with someone whose company I enjoy, and I take pleasure in making them smile. But inevitably, there comes a time where they demand more from me.

More than I know how to give.

Passion and explosive physical attraction aren’t something I understand. They can’t be studied from a book or examined. I can’t teach myself how to love someone—not in the way they want to be loved .

Maybe I’m not capable of it, and that realization fills me with a sharp, heavy sadness.

“How’s it going, pretty boy?” Xeni asks from behind me, and I keep my back to him for a moment while I swallow past the knot in my throat.

“Hey, do you have that file I dropped off earlier? It wasn’t supposed to get put away just yet.

” I finally turn around, immediately noticing the nervous tension in his shoulders and the way his hand fists at his side.

My brows pinch, but he says nothing else. “What was the name?”

“Uh, it was two… Freyan and Alexander.” I nod, thumbing through the files I placed earlier until I spot it. There’s an unfamiliar word written in pencil across the front, but he snatches it from my grasp before I can attempt to decipher it.

“Thanks,” he blurts, a slight flush creeping up his neck before he smooths his face, regaining his usual air of relaxed confidence. He tucks the file under his arm and steps closer, brushing a stray hair from my forehead. “I knew I could count on you.”

Confused about the entire exchange, I frown as he takes another half-step closer and wraps his hand around my wrist. “Did you need something else?” I ask. A breathy laugh huffs from his lips as he smiles, but as he opens his mouth to speak, a low growl causes both of us to jump.

“What the fuck is going on here?” Elas demands as he storms into the file room, so big he seems to take up the entire space. I glance over Xeni’s shoulder and smile—the first genuine one I’ve had all day—but it quickly fades when I see the fury on Elas’s face.

He isn’t looking at me, though.

Xeni releases me and takes a giant step back, his eyes wide. Elas charges forward and shoves his shoulders, and a few files flutter to the floor as he crashes into the shelves with a thud.

“Elas!” I scold as my mouth drops open, but he’s face to face with Xeni, not paying attention to anything else in the room.

“Did you fucking ask to touch him?” he growls, and Xeni’s head whips toward me before Elas grabs his chin and forces him back. “I asked you a fucking question. Did you put your filthy fucking hands on him without asking?”

“N-no,” Xeni stutters.

“ No, you didn’t, or no, you didn’t ask?”

“Elas, it’s fine, really.” I take a hesitant step forward, keenly aware there’s absolutely nothing I could do to separate the two. Xeni is strong, but Elas is nearly seven feet of solid muscle, even if he’s rarely without a smile on his face.

And I’ve never seen him angry. Not like this.

“Elas, please don’t do something you’ll regret. We were just talking. I’m fine.”

His black eyes dart to mine momentarily before focusing on Xeni once more. “Touch him again and you won’t have hands left to do it with. Look at him wrong and you’ll find yourself missing your eyes.” He releases Xeni, who sags against the wall in shaky relief before darting out the door .

“Elas—”

He whirls towards me, a finger in my face as he charges forward. “I warned you about him, August. Did I not tell you he would try to manipulate you?”

“He wasn’t… there wasn’t… he was only here to get a file.”

“And he needed to put his hands on you to do that? He needed to be that close? His intentions were crystal fucking clear.” His nostrils flare, his wall of a chest heaving in his anger.

“We’re friends , Elas. That’s all. I don’t…” I trail off and the first of his aggression fades as he watches me. “I don’t exactly have many friends here.” Something akin to guilt crosses his expression as he swallows, then drags his palm over his face.

“Fuck, August,” he says, more to himself than to me. “You really have no idea how people look at you, do you?”

Confused, my brows bunch, but he continues before I have the chance to sort my thoughts. “Promise me you’ll tell me if he tries anything inappropriate. Anything that makes you uncomfortable, or if you even so much as get a tingle in your brain when he’s around.”

“You want to hear about my tingles, then?” I tease, my lips twitching, but he’s undeterred as he meets my eyes again.

“ Promise me.”

“If we’re being honest, I’d be a little afraid to tell you. You might react… badly.”

“Badly,” he snorts, the first signs of his own grin forming and relaxing the tension in my chest. “If by badly you mean I’d kill him with my bare hands. ”

I scoff, but it’s a teasing sound. “No need to murder on my accord.”

He stares at me for a long stretch, the gears in his brain turning with something I can’t decipher.

“I’ve killed for much less, August. Don’t forget that even though we’ve adapted to your world and your kind, we are not human.

I’ll rip the head from his body for even looking at you the wrong way, and I won’t regret it for a second. ”

I realize we’ve each taken a step closer, the space between us shrinking as I crane my head up towards his. “You don’t scare me, you know.”

He grunts low in the back of his throat, and his gaze drops to my mouth before swinging back to meet my eyes.

The harsh lines of his face and the ivory tusks jutting from his lower jaw are handsome in a way that’s forbidden.

Those dark eyes move around my face again, the only sound the hum of voices in the distance.

“You should be scared of me,” he finally says. “Should be terrified.”

“Well, I’m not,” I say, lifting my chin defiantly.

His gaze darts to my mouth again, and something deep in my belly swoops.

I clench my hands to stop them from shaking, an unsteady breath whooshing out of me as I try to ground myself against this confusing rush of emotions.

“And you can’t say anything to change that, so you might as well get used to the fact that you don’t intimidate me. ”

His tongue flicks out to wet his lips, and my eyes drop to watch without my permission. Another quiet laugh pushes from his nose as he eases into a smile. “Come on, August. It’s time to go home, and I have a surprise waiting for us there.”