Page 23 of Worse Fates (Soulmates Suck #1)

Golden.

His name is my first thought upon waking, before a hollow ache digs into my stomach. A familiar pain of hunger, worsened from having to heal so much.

But that doesn’t matter now.

“Golden.”

My voice is raw, and even cracking my eyelids open takes effort. But I do it all the same and raise my head. My torso is no longer a patchwork of bleeding holes, but the freshly healed skin is tender. “Golden.”

“Calm down, brother.”

I smell Rurik’s scent of dark chocolate and coffee a moment before a firm hand pushes me back onto the bed.

“Where is he?”

I demand weakly.

Rurik inclines his head. Turning, I find Golden sleeping, curled up on his side, sheet fisted under his chin. Relief cools my rising panic.

“He’s okay,”

I breathe out, and reach for him, ignoring all my needs but the desperate urgency to have him in my arms.

“Wake up, beautiful.”

I know he needs rest after everything he’s been through. Yet nothing will quell my beating heart but seeing life within his big, brown eyes.

When Golden doesn’t wake, I run careful fingers through his soft curls, gently cradling his crown and tilt his peaceful face up.

“Golden?”

But when his eyelashes don’t even flutter, a cold anger directs my glare to Rurik.

“How dare you,” I growl.

Rurik doesn’t waver. He stays firm, arms crossed.

“I had no choice. The boy was in shock, crying, screaming. He kept trying to get to you, and we were hurting Golden by restraining him. He wouldn’t even let me or Ramy feed him our blood to heal him, Luc.”

My face buries into Golden’s curls, arms tight around his smaller body.

“Dammit all,”

I bite out. Golden is too fragile. How I wish we could lock ourselves away in this room, and forever be safe.

“His wounds were severe,”

Rurik’s voice gentles.

“If I didn’t compel him to sleep, you would’ve woken to find him in agony. Or worse.”

Eyes closing, I fill my lungs with Golden as the memory of our car crash rams into me—so vivid I feel shattered glass slice into the back of my neck.

My mate had been terrified, screaming as we were flung out of control—and then flipped.

He’d been bleeding when I pulled him from the wreck, confused but reaching for me.

Every instinct demanded I get my mate to safety, and damn the others.

But then Jace, and the blood mage woman showed up.

“Golden fought hard,”

I tell Rurik, proud and hating it at the same time.

“But he shouldn’t have to. I’m his protector. He shouldn’t get a papercut, let alone in a fight between vampires and blood mages.”

“They’re assholes,”

Rurik grunts.

“And soon, they’ll be dead.”

There is no doubt in him, or arrogance. Only facts.

My gaze locks to his, our eyes serious—deadly.

“They wanted our attention, and one of them wanted my mate. We find them, and annihilate the cunts.”

Rurik nods once, jaw ticking.

“You won’t see me arguing.”

Dropping my head back on the pillow, I tuck Golden’s head safely under my chin. My muscles relax, and the pull into a healing sleep tugs at my psyche, but I temper it down.

“Thank you, Rurik, for everything. But mostly for looking after Golden.”

He shrugs, as if it were a given.

“How is Ramy and Kai?”

And slip my hand under Golden’s t-shirt to feel his skin. Someone changed him into fresh, soft pajamas.

“Ramy’s healed. Pissed off, though. He cleaned the crash up as best he could and just got back.”

When he doesn’t mention Kai, a needle of fear worries at me. I should be ashamed—I care for Kai, and it’s always tragic when a young, bright spark is snuffed out. However, my concern remains on Golden, and his heartache if he lost a friend.

“And Kai?”

I ask cautiously.

Rurik clears his throat.

“Alive and healed. Scared mostly. He never expected to be in that type of situation. But who would?”

I wait for him to go on, but he stays silent, his eyes not meeting mine. Or rather, avoiding Golden.

“You fucked him.”

I don’t bother making it a question; the answer’s in the set of his shoulders.

“Kai. You fucked Kai.”

My brother grinds his teeth, and glares into a point I can’t reach.

“Kai is this small ball of energy. A protector, like you,”

he scoffs. His face shifting into something sad and gentle.

“The idiot huddled in the corner, blaming himself for what happened. Eyes all big and watery.”

Rurik drifts far away, probably fifty years ago to somewhere with his dead mate, and he whispers.

“I hated how quiet he was.”

After a beat, his gaze finally returns to mine.

“Kai just needed not to feel for a time. So did I, really. You may be immortal, Luc, and if you’re gone, I’m next in line to take charge. So, try to avoid dying in the future, yeah?”

I snort.

“I’ll try my hardest.”

We’re both quiet for a moment, Rurik so he can remember the love he lost, and me to embrace the love I have now. Golden had been a breath away from death—even the thought is unforgivable. But while I’d been fighting the unfamiliar blood mage, I caught the way Jace looked at Golden—and it sickened me—salivating over my mate as if he were a thing to be owned.

Rurik hesitates for a breath, then pulls a slim black phone from his pocket and holds it out.

“The male blood mage dropped it.”

Curious, I take it.

“Can we find his location with this?”

Rurik’s gaze is hard as concrete.

“I didn’t show anyone else.”

Frowning at his non-answer, I unlock it.

“Look at the pictures.”

Rurik’s voice becomes rough.

I do as he asks and go into Jace’s files, one arm around Golden to protect him from whatever horror I’m about to find.

Jace’s pictures are boring; food, bills, a cliché black and white sunset.

On the next, I nearly choke on a breath. It's Golden, Jace and a woman, Jace’s arm thrown around her shoulders. Monsters come in all shapes and sizes, so seeing Jace smiling and happy doesn’t shake my world. What takes me completely by surprise is the woman—take away her lush curves, painted pink lips and longer hair and she’s a mirror image of my mate.

I go to the next picture, my stomach sinking further. The mystery woman smiles up at Jace, a little blush on her cheeks. So close to how Golden blushes. Jace couldn’t have Golden, so he found a copy. God, did Golden realise?

“Keep going,”

Rurik instructs, moving away and casting his gaze to the window. He watches the sun rising through the mist, standing so still he could be mistaken for a photograph himself.

Dread stills my thumb. But I continue, and what I see has my fist tightening, a crack splintering the screen from one corner to the next. “No…”

I want to open my chest and shove Golden inside, away from this world of that’s been too cruel to him. Golden is a laugh when the world tries to sob, an outstretched hand to even those who don’t deserve it. When he offered me his vulnerability I was left humbled, and while unworthy, I knew it was a gift I could not refuse.

With each image, my fist tightens and more cracks web across the phone’s screen.

Never should Golden have purple and yellow handprints impressed into his neck. His eyes swollen shut, lips busted. Laying on a bed, God, all of them are him in a bed, face tilted away, defeated. Ashamed.

T Shirt raised up, Golden’s chest a constellation of pain. A brutal story on his flesh of Jace’s warped version of love—or lust, more likely.

My stomach can only take so much and I slam the thing face down on the bed. Cradling Golden, I wish I could reach into the pictures and save him.

“I’ll kill him.”

It’s a vow made between clenched teeth and one never to be taken back. Jace will die screaming, and without mercy.

“Do you want me to wake him, Luc?”

I calm myself by sucking in lungfuls of Golden’s sweet cherries, sea breeze and home scent.

“Do it.”

Rurik leans down and puts his lips to Golden’s ear—a flicker of possession whispers through me, but I ignore it. Rurik might’ve bedded Kai, but no one will ever get their hands on Golden again.

“Come back, Golden. Lucero is awake now.”

Rurik’s whispering compulsion sneaks into Golden’s ear. Then he stands and leaves the room as my mate begins to stir.