Page 44 of Elas (Mate’s Mark #2)

Elas

I’d envisioned a more thrilling exit as we left the base.

Gunfire raining from the heavens, maybe, or a high-speed chase.

A team swooping in to drag us from the vehicle and throw us in jail.

My body was coiled and my senses were on high alert, ready to fight off an entire army to make our dramatic escape.

Instead, the guard at the gate glanced at my papers and waved us through.

“Well, that was anticlimactic,” I mutter, and August laughs from his spot beside me.

“Did you want some grand battle to send us on our way?”

I scoff and ensure he’s looking when I roll my eyes. “I mean, a little suspicion would’ve been nice. A bit of roughing up, so it feels like I earned it.”

August shakes his head, still chuckling.

“Want me to rough you up later to make up for it, big guy?” he teases, and I shift my hips as a pool of arousal builds in my core.

We’d fucked into the night, and I remember how his shoulders bunched and mouth hung slack as he’d lost control.

The memory is permanently imprinted in my brain.

August has a knowing grin on his face when I glance over, and I grunt as I reach down and adjust myself.

Damn leathers are too restrictive.

“Well, this might be fun, huh?” he teases, far too pleased with himself.

“Does the big, dangerous warrior want me to swat his ass? It’ll probably hurt my hand more than it hurts you.

Your ass cheeks are made of cement.” I burst out laughing, and August’s attempt to keep a straight face fails as he laughs, too.

“I suppose I could go for the nipples, but even those are lethal weapons when you’re turned on. ”

The base becomes smaller in the distance, and I’m lighter than I’ve been in decades.

We have enough food to last us at least a week, containers of gas that will get us far away from here, and plenty of time before anyone starts looking for us.

They won’t know we’re gone until we’re beyond their reach.

Communication dissolved quickly after the veil fell. When we first crossed over, the humans’ technology amazed us. Phones that worked all over the world, devices that pinpointed exactly where you were and got you anywhere you wished to go. They were constantly connected—never truly alone.

But their reliance on technology was their downfall.

They’d lost touch with their instincts. Their stance as the apex predators was a mere illusion without the shield of those gadgets. All the devices in the world couldn’t stop us, though they tried at first. Guns and tanks and bombs, taking out as many of their kind as ours.

But we were not their typical enemy.

We aren’t human, and don’t share their weaknesses. Three times their strength with senses that can hear the click of the trigger as they pull it and react just as quickly. The tides turned in our favor, and their kingdom fell.

We won.

We were always going to win.

But with our victory came the loss of the minds that maintained their technology, and soon we reverted to more basic forms of communication. Written messages. Radios, if the mission was important enough. The years that passed haven’t changed that.

Our kind don’t share the same arrogance as the humans with possessions.

Advances stalled out, and we learned to maintain what we needed.

Vehicles, appliances, and electronics are all the same as they were a century ago.

We don’t care what they look like, as long as they provide us with what we need.

Their obsession with immediate communication was something we never understood or embraced.

Right now, that’s working to our benefit.

The commander gave me express permission to follow leads before delivering August to Ljómur. By the time they realize we’re missing, we could be a thousand miles away.

He could be mine, and I could be his, without the deceit.

Without the fear .

August must be thinking the same thing, because as the wind whips through his golden hair, he reaches over and takes my hand.

An orange glow from the rising sun shines off his skin, highlighting those almost invisible freckles that dot his cheeks.

I smile, and he smiles back, and life in that moment is damn near perfect.

“So, where is this camp?” he asks.

“Northeast of the base. They gave me the coordinates.”

“You can find a camp on coordinates alone?”

I chuckle, squeezing his fingers. “Tracker, remember? I know the road grids and the maps, and with that information, it’s not too hard to figure out.”

“Ronan is a tracker too, then? Since you two were in the same division?”

I laugh louder at that, a fond smile on my face as I shake my head. “You would think that, wouldn’t you? Hells, even Ronan would tell you he’s an amazing tracker, but do you know what his secret weapon was?” August grunts in question, and I glance over with a smirk. “Me.”

“You were the one doing all the heavy lifting then, huh?”

“He likes to think he kept up with me, but there were so many times I’d have to steer him in the right direction. Couldn’t outright tell him he was wrong, because he’s proud as fuck, but sometimes I guided him there without him realizing it.”

“You took care of him,” he says softly, and a bittersweet smile lifts my mouth. Another wave of nostalgia hits me at the lifetime of memories.

“I’ve always taken care of him.” It comes out quieter than I intend, and August grips my hand tighter as I clear my throat.

“Although, it wasn’t any sacrifice keeping him around.

Ronan’s a hell of a fighter, but an even better cook.

Someone should give that man an apron and toss him into the kitchen. He’d make a mate happy.”

“Do you think he’s cooking for Cameron?”

A wide, delighted grin digs into my cheeks at the picture in my mind. “He’s covered in flour and fawning over his mate... I’d put money on it. The times we visited Cameron in the prison, Ronan baked the bread we brought him.” I glance over again with a wink. “He’d murder me for telling you that.”

“How long will it take us to get there?” August asks, a giant yawn stretching his mouth, and I jiggle his hand.

“Why are you so tired?”

His head lays back on the headrest, watching me with sated, sleepy eyes. “Someone kept me up all night.”

“Oh, I kept you up, didn’t I?” I reach over and pat his crotch, and he snorts a laugh.

“Good luck getting a response out of him right now,” he teases. “Pretty sure there’s no fluid left inside my body after last night.”

“There’s plenty of fluid in there,” I snort.

“It just might not be yours.” He barks out a loud, surprised laugh as I reach for him again.

My smile softens as he tugs my glove off my hand, then twists my palm upwards so he can stare at the tan of his complexion.

“Do you like seeing part of you so permanently on my skin?”

“Yeah,” he says, still smiling as he traces the shape with his finger. “We look good together. ”

“We are good together, baby.”

“Sap,” he teases as he pulls my hand to his face and presses a kiss on the mark. Our fingers zipper, and he rests our joined hands on his thigh.

“The drive will take most of the day,” I say. “We should be there before dark, but we have a long way to go. You should get some rest.”

He argues with me and claims he isn’t tired, but as the sun shines through the windshield, his body gradually relaxes. The air that whips through the SUV is hot and dry, like the cracked ground outside, but he’s wearing shorts and a t-shirt and the fan is gently blowing.

August grew up in these lands, lacking the conveniences I’ve taken for granted, and the heat doesn’t bother him. Soon, his eyes are heavy, and his hand twitches in mine as exhaustion overtakes his stubborn need to stay awake and entertain me.

“El?” he mumbles, and I hum in response. “I meant what I said last night… if you had any doubts.”

“Doubts about what?” I nudge, and a sleepy grin pulls onto his lips.

“That I love you.”

Another of those punches of emotion hits me in a warmth that fills my entire chest. It’s not blazing and burning like a wildfire, though.

This is quieter, more controlled, and calming…

a candle flickering in the night. It’s peace like I haven’t felt since the day I left my home all those decades ago.

“My whole life, I’ve always thought love was beyond me… a gift that wasn’t meant to be wasted on someone like me,” I say as his breathing gets heavier. He’s on the edge of co nsciousness, fighting to stay awake and losing the battle. “And then I met you and everything changed.”

“Would you go back if you could?” he asks, his voice a nearly inaudible murmur.

The thought sends an ache through my chest, a loneliness I can’t explain.

He’s right here beside me. “No, August. There’s nothing in this world that would ever make me regret this.

” He twitches again, and I glance over to find a tiny smile playing on his lips.

“Even without the mark, you were always meant to be mine.” My words are soft, but he’s lost to the world, fast asleep.

Hours pass in uneventful silence, and the hum of the road is contemplative underneath our feet as I allow my mind to wander.

When Ronan first left, I questioned how he so easily walked away from his life.

The sacrifice of his familiarity seemed impulsive.

But now that my bond with August is firmly in place, I can’t imagine spending even a single night away from him.

The days he worked in the clinic were torture, the monster lurking inside me desperate to protect him.

If I had my way, I wouldn’t let him out of my sight.

August is too pure for the world we live in.

Too trusting, too kind , and while I’d never try to change that part of him, it makes me even more protective of his innocent nature.

Thirty-three years of seeing the bad that thrives in this world, and he’s still convinced that everyone is inherently good.