I didn’t yell, I didn’t think there was a need. I’d be heard even if I whispered.
Swirls of wind preluded speech this time. “You have been chosen, Jessa, to take a burden and to save a race. Chosen often equals sacrifice. What are you willing to sacrifice to save the supernatural people? Would you sacrifice a mate bond with your one true?”
I dropped my gaze to try to gather my thoughts. “Yes, I am pretty sure I would sacrifice my mate bond for the entire supernatural race.”
Even I wasn’t selfish enough to place myself above hundreds of thousands of lives.
“Would you form a mate bond with someone not of your choosing, if it meant saving the supernatural race?”
I sighed. This was some bullshit magic mumbo jumbo. But just in case I was in the presence of a god or something, I’d try not curse them out. “If you put that kind of magical gun to my head and tell me I have to get freaky with some stranger for eternity or we all die, then the answer is ‘yes, I would.’”
“The choice will be soon.”
I growled. “Wait, tell me more of what you speak.”
The voice faded out, and the mists swirled around me. The howling winds forced my eyes to shut. I raised both hands and held them over my face to stop my hair from whipping me. Thankfully, the wind finally died out, and I was able to remove my hands to see what was about to ambush me next.
I was standing at the base of two beds. Back in my room. I scented Braxton and I all over the space, not to mention the visible signs – torn covers and askew beds. Had Braxton and I destroyed the room during sex? Seems I might have missed some of our last few moments.
Movement caught my eye and I realized I wasn’t alone. Braxton was there. He stood near the door to the bathroom. He had his shorts back on, but was still bare-chested.
“Jess.” He took three huge steps across the room and hauled me into his arms.
I wrenched my head back to see his face. “What the hell just happened?” I was clutching at muscles, trying to sort myself out. I didn’t know what to think. Had I dreamed the entire misty place?
“You lost consciousness, and then this energy burst from your body. I couldn’t get to you.” His blue eyes were hard, narrowed, as he ran his gaze across my features. “Do you remember anything?”
He never even flinched as I dug my nails into his arms. I couldn’t seem to stop from clinging to him. “I blacked out and then when I came to I was in this weird misty place. There was a presence there…” I tried to catalogue my thoughts. “Almost as if there was a narrator talking to me. It asked if I would sacrifice my mate bond to save all the supernaturals, or if I would mate someone I did not want to.”
Braxton dropped his head down, letting it rest against mine, and we stayed like that for a moment. “Shit, that’s not good,” he eventually said. “A mate bond partially formed between us, Jessa, but … it’s not complete.”
I startled against him. “What do you mean?”
Low growls were rocking from his chest. It seemed to take him a few moments to be able to speak again. “I don’t know, babe. I can only think of one possible explanation.” He ran a hand over his face. “Do you remember that story Mom used to tell us, when we’d ask about broken mate bonds?”
No fucking way.
I didn’t have to think hard about it. Of the many stories from the Compass parents, that one had stayed with me. Jo had been the supe I’d always gone to for love tales, since I had no mother of my own. Deep down a part of me was always trying to gather facts about mate bonds. I think even back then I’d been trying to figure out how to be with Braxton.
“The one about the lion-shifter?” I asked, barely above a whisper.
We sat on the bed. I was still naked but I knew Braxton didn’t mind.
“Yes,” he said. “The shifter with the two mates.”
I shook my head, there had to be another explanation. That story was an urban legend – the female lion shifter who had two true mates. It was said that when she found the first, a bear shifter, the mate bond didn’t properly form, so they didn’t realize they were mates. It was only when she found her second mate, a lion shifter, that the bonds kicked in, and it was then she had to choose. Once she made the choice, the bond formed with that supe.
I wrinkled my nose. “We can’t seriously be contemplating the thought that I might have two mates?”
Braxton let out a huff of air. “I don’t know. What else could it be?” He looked unsure, which was so not my dragon man. Not to mention there was something simmering behind those mesmerizing eyes, something that seemed a lot like pain. Which made me want to punch myself … in the face.