MAHINA.

“I don’t want to see another dress or pair of heels in this lifetime and the rest to come,” I declare collapsing on my bed.

Andrei follows me in cradling Blue who is dead asleep, it is late, no one told me mage parties went hard through the night.

I raise my head tracking his movement as he moves to Blue’s room to tuck him into bed, I don’t know what happened after we practically abandoned him to the wolves yesterday but it must have been good since the dads let him come up here with me.

He comes back to the room leaning against the door eyes intent on me.

“Are you going to change?”

“I should, but I can’t move an inch right now, everything aches.”

Sighing he moves towards the bed and I tense up.

“Relax, I’m not going to attack you.” I try to mask my disappointment at his statement, but he sees it if his amused huff is anything to go by.

“That was a mistake…” I tense further getting ready to throw him off me, heart stupidly breaking but he grabs my hands moving them above my head, moving to straddle me.

“What I mean, you little spitfire, is that none of what happened can happen again before we talk, I was pulled to you before, and now that I know you’re my mate I want to do this right, so no funny business tonight you need sleep, and also your dads and brother are right outside the door waiting for a chance to castrate me.”

“so, you’ll accept the bond?” I hate how vulnerable my voice is, but I hold his gaze as he stares down at me.

“yes, I want the bond, you might be a pain in the ass but you are mine.”

“why?” I blurt and I feel my conscious smack their forehead in dismay.

But he answers anyway, cleaving a path into my heart, “because I’ve always wanted someone to call mine, I consider the boys brothers but I’ve been alone in some way, the fact that I get you is just an added bonus.”

“I can feel you…in there…one eyebrow goes up and I flush rushing to explain, “it’s like a tug like with Blue I think it’s the bond but it’s kind of incomplete…it feels unfinished…” I finish off realising how dumb that might mean.

“Maybe you have more than one mate, Ke…” he breaks off grimacing… “It’s not common but it happens.”

I go to ask what he wanted to say but he stops me with a finger on my lips.

“enough of that, you need rest, you start your classes tomorrow.”

With that he moves off me, going to unstrap my heels which he throws behind him carelessly.

“get in the sheets, I will get rid of your dress once I can’t see you, I don’t trust myself or you, and I like my balls exactly where they are.”

I comply curious and once my head hits the pillow, a breeze filters through and the dress and everything else is gone, I glance inside my sheets to find myself dressed in an oversized t-shirt with faded print.

I glance up at him in question and he shrugs looking sheepish.

“I figured you’d prefer that over silk and fancy sleepwear.”

I nod not wanting to unpack that, “I need…” I break off as I feel the soft, familiar weight of a bonnet on my head.

“Don’t be so perfect,” I grumble nuzzling the pillows.

He smirks looking very proud, “sleep we will talk tomorrow,” he says walking out of the room and shutting the door behind him softly.

After turning for the fiftieth time, I give up on trying to get some sleep, my mind doesn’t want to shut down and let me rest, thoughts and scenarios zooming past in a blur. The moment Andrei left I had been assaulted by what-ifs, and it was pissing me off.

Letting out a sigh, I try to scoot without jolting Blue who had moved to my bed around two hours past. I envied him, he was peacefully in dreamland without a care in the world, the snoring only confirmed that; I’d have to check on it tomorrow, and help him clear his sinuses.

I stumble to the bathroom, praying not to hit any of his discarded toys, as I wash my hands at the sink I glance up at the mirror and it takes everything in me to swallow down my terrified scream.

A glaring Nyx is staring through the mirror at me, eyes groggy.

“Nyx, you do not sneak up on someone like that, especially in the dead of the night.”

“it is the dead of the night, so why exactly are you awake?” He practically yells.

“ssshhh, don’t wake him up.”

“Please, that baby can sleep through the apocalypse.”

True…

“you can’t sleep?”

“yes, Mahi, I cannot sleep, you know why, because your damn thoughts are too loud, turn them off!”

“what are you doing in my head,” I ask haughtily to rile him up, if I wasn’t going to sleep might as well have fun.

“Because…” he enunciates the word like he’s speaking to a toddler, jerk! “your shields are down, dumbass, and you are practically yelling in my head, trust me, I do not want to be in that head any more than you do.”

I sigh moving back to my bed to sit on the edge, he follows face resigned, I swear he has the most expressive face I’ve seen ever!

I sigh again just to stir him up and I’m rewarded when he mumbles under his breath, “OK, lay it on me, what exactly is keeping you awake, is it the whole mates thing?”

“not really,” as I say this I realise how true that is, I was not going to unpack how I just went along with that like it was the least of my concerns.

“during the ceremony, I heard someone say how weird it was that I hadn’t ascended yet, that other than my very clear and believable lineage, I was practically human?”

“you know better than to…”

“That doesn’t bother me what does is the fact that it is concerning, why haven’t I ascended? Ax told me he could speak to his inner fae way before he ascended but I have nothing, it’s like there’s nothing in me at all, that’s what is keeping me awake.”

“Well, you want to do something else then?”

His blasé response startles a laugh out of me, I don’t think that was the response I was getting, figures, as I was asking for advice and assurance from a sort of stuck-up tiny dragon.

“Sure, we can watch something,” I say shelving my inner thoughts.

I slip back into bed and Nyx settles on my feet facing the tv rising from the bed frame.

“what are we watching?” he asks wiggling to settle down better.

“Only the best form of entertainment ever,” I reply a smile forming on my face as I open the Bangtan TV on YouTube.