Page 5 of Guarded (Hopeless Blessed #3)

Jeremiah

N oah was right.

Flowers didn’t make up for making your mate watch you fly away without looking back. It felt like there was a physical wound in my chest that was bleeding out more with every mile he put between us.

I’d hurt Noah more than I’d realised, and now he was making damn sure I understood just how much.

My lips twisted in a wry smile. My mate was a force to be reckoned with.

Luckily, so was I.

Releasing my own wings, I prepared to launch myself into the air.

I may have run from Noah, but now I’d run after him.

I’d chase him for as long as it took. This meeting hadn’t put me off the idea of him being my mate, it had solidified it.

Noah was a man who knew what he wanted. Who’d stand up to whoever challenged him, even if it was his fated mate.

He was beautiful, fierce, and unforgiving.

Exactly what I wanted in a man.

Now all I had to do was convince him to give me another chance .

Before I could take to the air though, a hand wrapped around my wrist, holding me in place. “Oh no you don’t.”

Puzzled, I turned my head to see it was Micah holding me, a grim set to his mouth. “What?”

“You’re going to have a little chat with the rest of us before you go hounding Noah,” Micah said, a chill in his voice that had never been there in our previous conversations. “He’s not the only one you need to explain yourself to.”

The rest of the Seraphim fell into position behind Micah, equally serious expressions on their faces. All except the twins, who looked positively gleeful. Probably hoping they’d get the opportunity to beat on me a little bit.

Fuckers.

I turned to Nox, who was leaning against the doorframe, sending him a silent plea with my eyes.

Nox chuckled, shaking his head. “Nope, you won’t get any help from me. Unlike you, I know better than to upset my mate. He wants to have a conversation with you, so that’s what he’s going to get. It’s a lesson you need to learn if you want a chance of anything happening with Noah.”

“That’s if he survives this chat,” Rami said darkly.

One of the twins clapped his hands. “This is going to be so much fun!”

T en minutes later, I was still alive and seated at a long conference table. My eyes kept drifting to the one empty chair. The one I knew my mate should be in.

My mate. Now that I’d finally acknowledged it, my mind couldn’t stop repeating it. Like it was crowing over the knowledge that I’d given in. That I’d made the right decision after so many moronic ones.

Ironic really, given how little I knew about him. But I’d spent months running from it. From him.

From Noah.

I didn’t want to run away anymore. I had many flaws, but cowardice wasn’t one of them.

True to his word, Micah had given me the opportunity to explain myself. Knowing I needed Noah’s unit on side if this was ever going to work, I’d told them what I could. The reason why I’d run. Why I’d stayed away.

Why I’d chosen myself over Noah.

I didn’t go into the details—I wasn’t sure I could—but I’d told them enough to understand. At least, I hoped I had.

When I was done, there was a beat of silence before Nate spoke. “That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever fucking heard.”

Fuck. Apparently, it wasn’t enough.

His twin grunted in agreement. Nox had given me a heads-up as to which was on the left and the right. That was all he’d done though, merrily throwing me to the wolves otherwise.

“Surely you must understand?” I said desperately. “You’re trapped as much as we are, right?”

“We are,” Ezekiel grunted. “But we still wouldn’t put our freedom ahead of making our mates happy.”

That was obvious given what he’d recently gone through for his human mate. I had no doubt that he would’ve sacrificed everything for Sam. It wasn’t just Ezekiel either. When we’d arrived on the scene, the entire unit had been prepared to fight to their immortal deaths, if that was what it took .

Including Noah. My mate was a far more selfless being than me.

I hung my head. They were right. I’d put myself first over my mate, hurting him in the process.

Nox interrupted my self-pity party. “Actually, you aren’t.”

I snapped my head up to see Micah looking at his demon mate quizzically. “We aren’t what?”

“Trapped.” Nox raised a hand, silencing the protests.

“You are to a certain extent. Gloria certainly likes to remind us all of that on a regular basis. But you have far more freedom than Jeremiah or I ever did. You pretty much come and go as you please. You live topside, for fuck’s sake.

Yes, you have an overseer, but it’s nothing compared to what we went through. ”

“What did you go through?” That was Benji, the smallest of the angels. From the silent power rolling off of him, I knew better than to underestimate him based on his size though. “Maybe if you explain it to us, we’ll understand better.”

Several pairs of eyes met mine, questioning. But there was only one pair I met. Only one who knew the truth of what we’d been through.

It was a truth we were never supposed to share. Lucifer might have been locked miles below the surface, controlled by his sons, but who knew how long that would last? If he found out that I’d told others…

“It’s okay,” Nox said quietly, interrupting my spiral. “You can tell them. None of them will speak of it outside this room. They won’t judge you either.”

“Speak for yourself,” Theo muttered before scowling at Rami. “Did you just fucking kick me? ”

The massive angel shrugged nonchalantly. “Noah isn’t here to make you behave, so I figured I’d do it for him.”

I swear, my heart started racing at the mere mention of his name. At the tiny crumb of information I’d been given about him. I added it to the meagre list of facts I already had.

Noah is beautiful.

Noah fights to protect others.

Noah knows his self-worth.

Noah is sassy.

Noah is a force to be reckoned with.

Noah is selfless.

Noah is a peacekeeper.

It wasn’t much. The crumbs barely made up a mouthful. But to a starving man like me, they’d keep me going. They’d give me the sustenance I needed until I found more.

“Do you need to take a lap?” Sam sat forward, glaring at Theo. “Because I’ll make you do it.”

To my shock, the massive angel slunk down in his seat, his cheeks flushing. “Sorry. I’ll behave.”

What the fuck? I’d seen the twins in action during a battle in Hell. The fuckers had slaughtered their way through demons and ghasts alike, while giggling. Yet here was Theo, reduced to a puddle of shame by a human. A human who wasn’t even his mate.

Rami must’ve noticed my confusion. “Sam makes us take laps when we’re…misbehaving.”

“When they’re using violence instead of words,” Sam said with a sigh, giving me a kind smile. “Which is often. It’s something none of them enjoy.”

My eyes swept over the assembled angels. The most powerful beings on any plane, who, apparently, were at the mercy of a human. “All of you? ”

“Not me,” Micah said, his lips twisting in amusement. “Nor Breann or Grace. We’ve all…matured somewhat more than the others.”

Benji frowned in confusion. “I’m mature.”

Sam sighed, reaching across to pat his hand. “You are. Your laps are more a chance to talk out where your brain is at.”

He nodded understandingly. “I like our walks.”

Sam smiled. “Me too.”

I fidgeted in my seat, knowing I had no right to ask the question. It didn’t matter anyway. It shouldn’t matter if Noah took laps with this gentle human…even if it was killing me not to ask. I needed to know. I had no right to, but fuck, how I wanted it.

It wasn’t that I was jealous—Sam was very clearly in love with Ezekiel.

But I needed to know. I needed to know everything about Noah.

I wanted to add to the list until it was pages long.

Enough to fill a book. No, a volume. A whole damned library.

That was what I wanted. A library of knowledge about the man who was meant to be mine. Who’d rightfully put me in my place.

I wanted to know it all.

Nox cleared his throat until I looked at him, offering me a smile filled with too much understanding for my liking. “Noah doesn’t take laps with Sam.”

“Fuck no.” Sam snorted. “Noah only uses violence when necessary. He’s the one I can rely on to help when one of the others loses control.”

Noah uses violence as a last resort.

“Hey, what about me?” Rami stuck his lower lip out. “I’m helpful too.”

Sam sighed. “Rami, you’re wonderful. But you’re also the one who helped Nate hold Theo’s head down the toilet last weekend.”

“Well, he deserved it.”

“Saying that Disney has made the MCU better isn’t a good enough reason to drown someone in a toilet.”

Ezekiel laughed, hastily covering it with a cough as his mate glared at him. “Sorry. But it’s not like Theo can die permanently.”

Sam turned to me wearily. “This is why I go to Noah. He’s the only one who seems to understand logic most days. Other than Micah, of course, but he’s often busy with Seraphim stuff.”

Noah likes to help people.

“Indeed,” Micah said smoothly, sitting forward in his seat and bracing his forearms on the table. “We’re more than a unit here. Noah might not have been part of it for long, but he is part of it. And as such, we’re going to protect him. You might be his fated mate, but we’re his family.”

Noah commands loyalty.

Ezekiel sat forward, mirroring Micah. “In other words, start talking or we’re going to kick you out on the street where you belong.”

Sam patted his mate’s shoulder. “And I won’t even make them take a lap for doing it.”

In my earlier explanation, I’d skimmed over the details, only saying I’d run to hold on to my freedom. But that hadn’t been enough to make them understand.

Fuck, how I wished it had been.