An Unacceptable Mate

Chapter Forty One

That night I was restless. I awoke bathed in sweat with my elbow in Inerra's face. Acera was in the room below us. We'd kicked him out.

Inerra grumbled something, biting at my elbow. I stole it away and turned onto my side, glaring at my hands in front of me.

What was wrong with me? What am I doing? Why did I say I wanted Inerra all of a sudden? I fired at myself. It was like I'd been in some sort of dream the entire day where Inerra had controlled everything I thought and did.

My heart was in hectic mode. My body ached like I'd been dragged over concrete and driven over by hundreds of cars. I just didn't feel right.

    "Are you ok, sweetie?" Inerra breathed, hand stroking my side.

I stiffened. That didn't feel right. It was like I was moving away from being drunk, the haze had been lifted and I could see clearly.

  "Did you...use your mind tricks on me?" I asked, not looking at him.

He stiffened. I could read his mind. Fuck. That's what he was thinking.

  "How long?" I grilled through my teeth.

He groaned. "You're going to hate me, Charlie."

  "Tell me!" I roared.

He sighed a long, heavy sigh. "When Acera left last night with the others. Your mind was weak. I've been...in your mind since then."

I bit on my lower lip. "Get out of my bed," I said in a lethal, quiet voice.

    "Charlie, come on, everything was fine..."

  "Get out!" I screamed, glaring full-pelt at him. He'd tricked me into saying that I wanted him. He'd almost hypnotised me into saying it. It was like the time he'd made me believe we'd slept together. Just thinking about that pissed me off further.

He raised his hands above his shoulders. I pointed my finger at him. "You...you bastard! I said we should be friends and then you trick me and make me say I love you instead of Acera!"

    "I'm sorry," he said earnestly, face contorted in pain. "I want you, Charlie. I'm in love with you. I've never wanted something so much. I had today. I managed to imagine having you love me more than you love him."

  "I thought you cared about Acera. Why would you do this to him?" I spat.

    "I'm selfish," was all he said.

After an intense silence where I glowered at him, I clambered off of the bed and headed out of the room. He didn't follow me, he knew where I was going.

I charged down the stairs and ran to his room and knocked, heart thudding in my ears. Would he forgive me? Would he believe that Inerra had made me say that I wanted Inerra instead of my true mate?

Inerra had made me doubt my mate. Inerra was dangerous. And now that I was in the light, I couldn't believe how stupid I'd been to let him walk all over me.

The door opened, revealing a shattered looking Acera. He had dark rings under his eyes, his raven black hair was a mess, his amber eyes were sad and lonely.

My heart broke for him there. I did this to him.

    "Acera..." I began to whisper. I stopped myself as I found the smile on his face lighting up his beautiful features.

  "I wondered how long it would take until you realised," he murmured and then hauled me against him, taking the breath out of me.

What? Repeat? He knew?

    "How did you...?" I breathed, feeling tears in my eyes. My fingers gripped his top.

  "My Charlie would not turn her back on me within an hour," he informed softly into my ear.

    "I'm sorry," I whimpered. "Ah god I don't deserve you, Acera. Why do you keep forgiving me when I get tangled up with Inerra? Why don't you just...just...end it?"

  "I love you, Charlie. Inerra is merely another obstacle in our relationship. There were, are and will be more obstacles," he said wisely.

I pushed the door closed behind me as he walked over to the bed, fingers laced with mine. I gritted my teeth, honestly hating myself. Why would I ever forget that I loved Acera?

As the amber-eyed beauty tilted my chin up and smiled carefully, the tears spilled. "I'm sorry," I repeated. "I love you, but I don't deserve you."

He stroked my cheek with his thumb and shook his head before dipping his head closer and planting a kiss on my lips. It was soft and left me wanting more, but his assurance was there.

    "I will always love you, Charlie, and only you. Never in my eight hundred years have I found love and now here it is, right in front of me. You're perfect to me. Even if I live for another eight hundred years without you by my side, I'll remember you and I'll love only you."

I cried harder. He pulled me to his chest. "Sorry, I shouldn't talk about the future. It's a...tricky subject."

  "I just want these moments with you...I want to live in them over and over...time is so unfair...I don't want to die and leave you behind here," I admitted shakily, sounding like a child talking to its mother.

He backed onto the bed and pulled me flush up against him so that my head rested on his chest. I closed my eyes, feeling the wetness of my cheeks begin to dry as he stroked up and down my side with a cool hand.

    "We don't need to talk about then, Charlie. I want to enjoy our time together. Don't worry about anything else but the present time we have now. Please, please don't fret," he begged in a gentle tone.

I ran my palm over his flat stomach and then propped myself up on my elbow. My face hovered above his. His orange eyes looked tired but content as he studied my unhappy frown. His thumb brushed my lower lip tenderly.

  "If I ever say I don't love you again, I'm lying. After everything we've gone through, from you asking if I was going to kill you to you kidnapping me," I recited. He rolled his eyes, smile lengthening. "To listening to you talk for hours in Spain to spin the bottle to the ball to seeing you after so long and then to where we are now. We've made it through so much and we're still here together. I don't want us to end. Ever."

He pushed a lock of hair behind my ear, eyes sincere as he looked up at me. His head lifted from the pillow so he could kiss me once. I leant back down with him and kissed him again. The all-encompassing warmth and sense of love for this creature was overwhelming and brilliant and simply my life now.

Just as the kiss deepened, the walls started to shake. I jerked back and we stared at each other. Denial hit me first. Not now. Please. No.

Acera held me to him as he moved to the window and we both peered out.

Rogues.

Hundreds of them.

Coming directly for us.