Page 35

Titan

It seemed an unnecessary precaution.

The precipitation was light—so light, it had failed to wet their clothing on their walk from the Great Slut’s residence to the ground vehicle—but as they drove, Paul W.

’s prudence paid off. The rate of rainfall quickly increased until it was striking the car with frequency, fat droplets pinging off the roof and impacting the windows.

The trails they made as they streamed down the glass blurred Titan’s view of the desert, but he did not look away; he simply shifted his focus from the landscape to the scene playing out upon the window, watching in silence as the droplets swelled, fell, and merged with each other.

It was the best he could do to distract himself from the waves of stress and anxiety rolling off Ezra, but as was so often the case when it came to the ambassador, Titan’s best was not enough.

Willful ignorance would not solve this problem .

Honest, open conversation about all they had learned that day would be the only way to put Ezra at ease, but with Paul W. there listening in, such a thing would not be possible until later. For now, all they could do was sit with their difficult emotions.

Ezra’s… and Titan’s as well.

He had come in search of answers, and he had found them… but they had not been the ones he had been hoping for.

He and Ezra were not True Mates.

There was no bond connecting them.

It was a devastating blow. Without a bond in place, Ezra could, at any time, decide he no longer had feelings of love for Titan, and there would be nothing Titan could do about it.

Their relationship was not compulsory, and fate would not intervene.

Titan would be left alone, and his feelings of love would become feelings of great pain and sadness.

It was frightening to know such harm could be done to him, but more frightening still to realize that there was nothing he wanted to do about it.

He did not want to stop feeling love for Ezra, not even if it hurt.

Not even if it was the end of him.

At that second, something soft and heavy touched Titan’s shoulder, startling him from his thoughts.

It was Ezra. In a rare display of public affection, he’d rested his head and all its wonderful, abundant hair on Titan in what Titan first assumed was an act of reassurance, but came to realize was simply an act of exhaustion.

Ezra had slipped into unconsciousness.

And as he slipped in further, all his feelings of stress and anxiety faded away.

Very gently, taking care not to jostle him, Titan pushed a lock of Ezra’s dark hair out of his face and looked down at the human.

He was breathing slowly and deeply through his mouth, eyes fluttering slightly beneath their lids, even more gorgeous than the day Titan had first laid eyes on h im.

There was not a more beautiful, intelligent, and capable being in all the universe, yet somehow, Titan had earned his love.

And he would not lose it now.

No matter what happened, he would heed Human Corbin’s directives and be excellent for him.

When they arrived back at Al’s dwelling, Titan gathered Ezra in his arms and lifted him out of the ground vehicle as though he were a child.

The human grumbled a sleepy protest, but the day’s events had worn him out so completely that he merely wrapped his arms around Titan’s neck and let himself be carried inside.

Bidding Kyle a good night, Titan brought Ezra to his bedroom and laid him gently down on his bed.

Titan undressed him down to his underwear—he did not want Ezra to have his unconsciousness in his uncomfortable work clothes—then pulled several of the blankets from Ezra’s unmade blanket nest over him.

When he was tucked in, Titan leaned down and pressed a kiss to his forehead, intending to retreat to his own room for the night, but when he went to stand, Ezra took hold of his shirt, anchoring him in place. “Stay?”

It was the first thing he had said since they had left the Great Slut’s residence, and the emotion in it was raw, like Ezra was uncertain that Titan would acquiesce.

But he needn’t worry. The idea of leaving him alone was so disagreeable that Titan’s heart felt as though it would tear itself in two—of course he would stay, so long as he was welcome.

“Yes,” he whispered in response. He shed his own outerwear, letting it pile on the floor without care, and climbed into the other side of the bed so that the two of them were face-to-face.

Ezra wasted little time in closing the distance between them and snuggled into Titan, the softness of his body fitting perfectly against Titan’s toned physique .

In a twilight state of unconsciousness, Ezra went on to wrap his arms around Titan’s neck and tuck a knee between his legs, pressing their chests together. He sought out Titan’s lips, which Titan gave him willingly.

The kiss they shared was long and languid, and all the while, Ezra clung to him as though he was afraid Titan would disappear were he to let him go.

“I am here with you, Ezra,” Titan whispered against his lips, hoping to soothe him.

In response, Ezra mumbled something he couldn’t hear.

“Say that again? I could not understand you.”

“You’re here for now,” Ezra repeated, voice still barely audible. “But people leave. They always do. We’re not True Mates, so why should you stay?”

Through their touch, Titan felt an old, deep pain radiating through Ezra—a hollow feeling with roots so deeply entrenched within him, they had to have sprouted during his formative years. With all he had learned about Ezra recently, Titan was confident he knew their source.

He thought of the Great Slut, and how he had left Ezra without a trace.

Of the men who had shared Ezra’s bed, but who in the end, had left him, too.

Human Corbin had stated that Ezra was not one for commitment, but Titan was beginning to think that this was not true. Ezra was capable of commitment. It was just that no one had ever been willing to commit to him.

The painful feeling in Titan’s heart tightened all the more.

“There may not be an innate bond between us,” Titan said softly, “but I do not need such a bond to want to stay. True Mates or not, Ezra, my heart is yours.”

Ezra did not reply. Exhaustion had claimed him, and he had slipped back into unconsciousness.

But it did not matter.

Eyes strangely wet and with an uncomfortable lump in his throat, Titan cradled Ezra to his chest and pressed a kiss into his soft hair. “Forever and always, I will belong to you.”