Barron looked blearily at Brandt. “You want coffee?”
“Sure. So, you gonna tell me why you were up all night?”
“Emmalyn. Why else?” Barron said.
“Maybe you should just grab her and mark her and force her to come home with you so you can keep an eye on her until we know she’s safe, then she can do whatever she wants.”
Barron chuckled, his voice still gruff from sleep and fatigue. “I kind of did.”
“What?! She’s here?!”
“Yep,” he said nodding. “She’s still sleeping. Didn’t mark her with a bite, but all the rest… done. She’ll be staying here while we work this out.”
“How do you feel?” Brandt asked.
Barron shrugged as he poured his coffee and sipped the hot black liquid as he poured Brandt's. “Doesn’t much matter how I feel. It was going to happen. May as well be now so we can get it over with.”
“Did she fight you?”
“Naw, it was a mutual thing. I promised her that if at the end of this whatever it is she wasn’t happy, I’d let her go. It won’t take long for her to play that card no matter what I do, so we may as well enjoy ourselves while this runs its course. The rest will fall into place when it’s supposed to the way it’s supposed to. Doesn’t really matter what either of us wants, it will be whatever it’s going to be, which is her running — as usual.”
“You knew that before you claimed her?”
“How you think I got her to agree to come home with me. Only way I could make it happen was to believe whole-heartedly that it was only temporary and to accept that.”
The sound of movement caught their attention and both males turned to look around the living room.
Barron’s brows bunched up and he walked across the living room to the small hallway that led to his bedroom, his ears piqued for any sense of her moving around, but there was none. He went so far as to stand outside his bedroom door andlistened, when he heard nothing, he shrugged and went back to the kitchen.
“She up?” Brandt asked.
“I thought so, but no, no sound at all. She’s still sleeping. We were up late,” he said with a satisfied smirk.
“So, hold on, the only reason you claimed her was because you knew it was only temporary?”
“No. Dude, keep up. The only way I could get her to agree to come back here with me was to make myself believe that it was temporary so when I told her if at the end of it she wasn’t happy, she could go and I wouldn’t make her stay, she’d have scented a lie if I didn’t make myself believe it at least a little. It was a struggle to make it feel like the truth, though. I knew the moment I said it, it was a lie. No fucking way I’m letting her go. Ever.”
“This is a good thing, Barron. Y’all are going to make this work. I’m happy for the two of you.”
“Me, too. It feels right. That anxiousness that’s been riding me is done. I feel, settled. Right with the world, you know?”
“I do. I feel it, too, because of Tempest. So I know exactly what you mean.”
“I knew that there was a bond that mates felt, something that drew them together, but I had no idea this wholeness was part of it. And now I’m excited for her to wake up and watch her realize she feels it, too. I hope she does, anyway.”
“I’m sure she does. She’s your mate.”
Barron nodded and grinned. “She is. Emmalyn’s mine, and I’m so fucking glad she is.”
“So, you don’t think she knew you saying you’d let her go was a lie?”
Barron glanced at Brandt from where he was digging in the cabinet for a skillet to cook breakfast for Emmalyn. “Doesn’t matter. I lied to get her to agree to come home with me, to giveus a try. I gave her a safe way out, but I’ll be damned if I let it actually come to fruition.”
“You do know she’s going to figure it out.”
“I’ll fight that fight when it happens. Hopefully, it won’t be more than a hiccup, because this is it. Permanent. I love her, and I’m going to give her every reason to love me.”
Brandt nodded emphatically. “Whatever you got to say to get them to accept you long enough to realize they love you.”
