Page 39 of Elas (Mate’s Mark #2)

Instinct whispers that I should trust him, but it’s very hard to listen when I’m aware of everything that’s at stake. “You know what they’ll do to me,” I whisper. It’s an admission to knowing too much, but he counters it with an admission of his own.

“Yeah, August. I do.”

Silence hangs thick over our heads for a long stretch. “I have to tell Elas.”

He scoffs, crossing his arms over his chest. “Yeah, I figured. Guess I’ll cherish my head while it’s still attached.”

“He wouldn’t—” I start to argue, but he silences me with another glare.

“Better get going, August,” he says as he turns and walks into the shower stall.

“If Elas is already planning to murder me, it won’t hurt for me to give you a show, will it?

” He yanks his shirt over his head and glances at me over his pale, bare shoulder.

I sigh, recognizing the conversation is done.

The rings on the shower curtain whip closed, and I squeeze my fingers around the dirty scrubs fisted in my hand.

My head is a muddled mess as I enter the hallway and approach the laundry.

Faint rhythmic whirs grow louder as I step inside and toss the used clothes into a machine, and a sense of dread falls over me as I make my way to the supply closet.

The day crawls by, and I’m on edge, waiting for the other shoe to drop.

When I take my lunch, Kopros and Flynn sit in the break room, and both of them nod before returning to their conversation. No one speaks to me as I grab a plate from the fridge and sit at a small table in the corner. I eat quickly, forcing my cramping stomach to accept the food.

Xeni flashes me a quick, disinterested smile as he enters, then joins the other two. I stand and hesitate, uncertain what I’m waiting for, but no one pays me any attention. I head back to work, only stopping to move the laundry to the dryer.

The rest of the afternoon goes by without incident, aside from my heart palpitations at every noise. Every footstep convinces me someone is coming to whisk me away, and by the time the day is over, my stomach has tied itself into knots.

Shortly after I return from sneaking the spare scrubs back into the pile, another set of footsteps thuds down the hallway.

They’re heavier, more determined, and when the door flies open, I yelp.

Elas’s heavy brows bunch as I will my heart not to leap right out of my chest. “You okay, doc?” he asks, his concern growing as I take a few steadying breaths.

“Yeah, I’m… let’s just get out of here. Please?”

He studies me for a moment before giving me a slow nod.

“Of course. We’ll go home.” He walks beside me as we navigate the corridors, and when Xeni steps out of an exam room, Elas snarls at him.

Xeni glances at me, but seems to understand we haven’t had the conversation yet.

He purses his lips and darts past us, careful not to touch me as he whizzes by.

“Fuck that guy,” Elas mutters, and it’s loud enough to carry.

“Elas, come on.” His eyes whip to mine, surprised by the annoyance in my tone. “I just want to go home.”

“Alright,” he says after a pause, but nods and leads me towards the exit. The entire walk to the barracks is tense. He glances at me every few seconds, but doesn’t say a word. Once we get inside, though, all bets are off. As soon as the door is shut, he whirls to face me.

“What’s going on?” He crosses his arms over his barrel of a chest and hikes a brow.

“I, uh, well… something happened today that I need to tell you about. Something with… Xeni.”

His lip lifts as he drops his arms and takes a step forward, but I hold my ground. “What sort of something?” he asks, his face nothing but clenched teeth and savage eyes.

“He, um… okay, well, he kind of… walked into the shower while I was changing.” Elas’s expression turns positively murderous as I hurry to continue. “It was an accident… he didn’t know I was in there.”

“Were you naked?”

“Well, uh, not all of me…”

“I’ll kill him !” The last two words come out as a bellow as he whips around, and his intentions are clear. He’s going to storm back to the clinic and hunt Xeni down.

I grab for his hand, yanking on his wrist. “Wait a second, Elas. Please, just… that’s not the worst of it.”

He pauses with his hand on the door, his chest heaving with his heavy breaths.

A predatory stillness overtakes him as he slowly turns, his eyes narrowed and intent.

“August, you should start talking before I make it out that door, because if I find him right now… I can’t promise he’ll be in one piece once I’m done with him. ”

I move closer and guide his arm around my waist. His expression softens marginally as he waits, and I brace myself for his reaction. “He saw my mark,” I finally say, and that predatory air is amplified by a thousand as he freezes, so still he could be carved from stone.

“He what?” he growls, his anger so palpable I can barely decipher his words.

“Please, El, I’ll tell you everything, but I need you to come sit with me. You can’t leave me right now, okay? I’ve been stressed and scared all day, and I’ve just... I’ve needed you.”

He whines low in the back of his throat, like my words have physically hurt him.

“I’m here, baby,” he murmurs as he scoops me up.

He carries me to the couch, cradling me in his lap as he sits, and I tuck my face into his neck and breathe in his calming scent.

“I won’t go… I’m sorry, I wasn’t thinking.

” Strong, steady arms circle my back and hug me against him, and his touch dissolves the tension from my muscles.

“It’s alright now,” I whisper, and his fingers thread through my hair as he lifts my head, pressing a gentle kiss on my lips. He’s acting calm for my sake, but his hand trembles against my scalp as he holds me there.

“Tell me what happened.” I recount the entire conversation, including the part where Xeni confessed he’d had real feelings for me.

Elas’s breathing becomes strained, but he calms himself enough to let me finish.

When I explain the black, lifeless mark on Xeni’s hip, he frowns and confirms he doesn’t know any more about it than I do.

I finish the story, up to Xeni swearing he’ll keep our secret and refusing to say anything more.

“I don’t trust him… not for a fucking second. This information is a weapon to him, August, and he’ll use it against us someday. Mark my fucking words.”

“What do you suggest we do, then?” I ask, and there’s no mistaking the murderous gleam in his eyes as he narrows them. “No,” I insist, and he scoffs. “Absolutely not, Elas. We can’t hurt him.”

“You are asking me to do nothing, then? Sit around and wait for him to hurt us?”

“I don’t think he will.” Elas glares with an annoyance he’s never directed at me before, and I struggle to climb off his lap. His hands bracket my hips and hold me there, though, so I stop squirming and return his scowl. “Violence solves nothing, El.”

“Sounds like it would fix the problem to me,” he counters, and I growl in frustration.

“You can’t just go ripping heads off people you don’t like!”

“I can when they’re a threat to you!” he shouts back.

“Gods, are all your kind so stubborn? Can none of you trust that the world isn’t evil?”

“The world is evil, August, and I have the scars to prove it,” he snarls, jabbing his finger at the jagged line across his lower lip.

“You asked me once how I got this? I got it because my kind shoved me into a dark cage for days. Barely any food and water, and no light. None . By the end of the third day, I was so determined to get out that I tried to squeeze between the bars. I knew I’d never fit, but I was so fucking desperate that I didn’t care.

Those corroded bars ripped my skin right open as I screamed, and still, no one came. ”

“Elas,” I whisper, horrified.

“Those scars across my body? I begged for them, August. Traded my nights in that hell for the countless fucking lashes, because at least I knew they’d end.

At least I could see what was happening to me.

” Tears pool in my eyes as I remember the thick, raised scars that cross his wide torso, and my lip wobbles at the way his pupils distend, even here in the bright afternoon sun.

“You want to know why I wake up some nights terrified? Why I lose myself and can’t figure out where I am?

The darkness haunts me, August, because my people, the people that were supposed to be my allies, the people I abandoned my dying mother to serve, have always been my greatest enemies.

” His chest heaves and his eyes are faraway, even as he looks directly into mine.

“Do not forget what we are. We do nothing but hurt.”

“Not you,” I whisper, resting my palm on his chest as I inch closer. “Never you. You’d never hurt me.”

The fog clears from his eyes as he sags, seeming so much smaller than should be possible. “No, I’ll never hurt you… but I won’t let them hurt you, either.”

“Don’t be reckless, okay?” He’s skeptical as I scoot closer and cup his cheeks.

My thumb drags over that awful scar, and I lean forward and press a gentle kiss to the raised skin.

“I need you, El. I need you more than I’ve ever needed anything in my life.

Don’t do something that would take this away. ”

“What would you have me do?” His voice is rough, raspy, as he nuzzles into my hand.

“Stay,” I whisper, and his eyes are heavy as they land on mine. “Just stay. That’s all I ask of you. You’re all I need in this world.”

“Fuck, doc,” he murmurs, his hands circling my waist as he tugs me closer. “Nothing could make me leave. Not when the most perfect man in the world is right here in my lap.”

“Elas?” His lips graze mine and he pulls back, waiting. “What does it feel like to be in love?”

Those endlessly dark eyes search mine for a long moment. “I think it feels a lot like this,” he finally says, and then he kisses me, and nothing else matters.