Page 14 of Twisted Ties

“I doubt it, Rhi, fated mates are extremely rare.”

“You said your cousin was one.”

Winnie screws up her face. “That didn’t work out.”

“What?” I say with alarm. I thought it was meant to work out between fated mates. I thought that was the whole point. I assumed that when my anger for Azlan fades it would be all right, eventually, somehow.

“It wasn’t the real thing. They got their bloods checked.”

I shake my head. “I’m confused.”

Winnie holds up her hand, then dives into the satchel she has slung over her shoulder. “I couldn’t find books, but I did download and print everything I could find on the internet. I mean, some of it will be bullshit, but some of it will be accurate.”

“Hmmm.”

She dumps a load of printed pages onto the bed. “There are loads of people searching for answers on the internet, loads of agony aunts answering questions. I used to devour this stuff when I was a teenager,” she says, staring off into space, “hoping one day …”

“It isn’t all it’s cracked up to be,” I point out.

“Not even the,” she tilts her head, “you know.”

“We haven’t done the ‘you know’, which you know, Winnie.”

“I just assumed … in the last few days … he certainly looks like he wants to get his hands on you.”

I swallow, both terrified and turned on by that thought. “I’ve been injured, remember? And really, really damn angry at him.” I push a napping Pip gently from my lap and drag a couple of the pieces of paper towards me. “It’s been intense,” I tell Winnie. “Every time he leaves the room, it’s like my insides are being ripped out from my body. I mean, how am I meant to function like a normal person if I always have to be chained to his side?”

“I’m not sure I’d have a problem being chained to his side,” Winnie mutters.

“Winnie, would you want Trent with you 24/7? When you have to pee, when you have to–”

“Wait!” Winnie says, lifting her hand. “I remember reading something on this.” She rifles through the piles of paper until she finds whatever she’s looking for, lifting it with an “uh huh.”

“What does it say?”

“Hang on.” She runs her finger down the text, halting and peering up at me. Her cheeks sizzle but there’s a look of mischief in her eyes.

“What?”

“It says here that when fated mates bond, they are forced together by that newly cemented bond, making it painful to be apart.”

“I told you that bit.”

“But that force lessens considerably once the fated pair start …” she clears her throat, “banging.”

“It does not say that.” I snatch the paper from her hand and read it for myself. “Shit,” I mumble when I see she’s right.

“It seems most fated mates get it on pretty darn quickly so they don’t have this,” she waves her hand about, “phase you’re going through.”

“Yeah,” I say, lowering the page and glancing towards the door. I can see the dark, towering outline of the man in black outside the misted window, and my pulse jumps in my throat as well as between my legs.

I can’t deny it. I may be angry as a hellcat with him right now, but I also want to rip the man’s clothes off. And I suspect that would be true with or without the bond.

“This sucks,” I say, half-heartedly.

“Yeah, sure, banging the super-hot dude really sucks.” Winnie rolls her eyes at me.

“He lied to me, Winnie,” I say. “And now you’re saying the only way I can escape the dude is to start sleeping with him.” I rub my thighs together at the idea and swear I hear a low growl from behind the door. Jesus Christ!