Paramore Series: The Maffioso

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Oak POV

Sebastian couldn't help himself. He lifted her up, even went against the grunts of protest from all of us and put her on his lap, pulled the blanket back over them and kissed her forehead. A part of me was incredibly jealous, because that was supposed to be my spot. Another part of me had been prepared to share a mate for my entire lifetime. But since it was her. It was still different somehow.

She cried on his chest for a while and then fell into a restless sleep. A deep frown still etched on her forehead and two streaks of wet tears lining her flushed cheeks.

'I'm taking her to my bed.' I said. There would be no discussion. She was not sleeping on Sebastian tonight, her body was too sore for that.

He didn't protest. I gently lifted her up again and carried her to my king-size bed, all the while planting soft kisses on her forehead. She was so beautiful and small in my arms.

We were all sitting around the fire. Whiskey in hand. Faces dire. Everything had changed tonight. Dominic Rios was at the moment taking over all of Elia's remaining forces. Taking no chances. Chris and Dean had taken a vow of secrecy about the mating bond and what they had seen. But still, we were at campus. Even though it had officially been the first day of summer break, many more Rainers could have seen what had happened. There would be no doubt in their minds that she wasn't human after that display. As all of us had realized. It made sense. How could we have mated to a human anyway?

'Anyone have any theories?' Jax asked.

'Seeing her like that... I-' Sebastian choked up. I got it. I was not a quick crier but everything about tonight made me want to ugly cry for the first time in years.

'Facts are that she is our mate.' I let the words hang in the room for a second. Nothing else mattered anyway. The how we would figure out soon.

'The four of us here... Dominic and Kai.' Six lines on our arms. Six mates. I said pointing to the ones who were here at the moment. Facts I could understand. I needed facts to get through this. I was a scholar. An academic. I needed some real hard facts right now. I continued solemnly. 'She is also able to communicate with Wolvaby's... which is...-' Communicating with animals is solely an attribute of our worst enemies. The fae. I didn't even want to say it out loud. But these were the cold hard facts and nobody could deny them any longer. I had to have seen it sooner. Who else even gets close to a Wolvaby anyway? But perhaps a Fae with magic.

'You think she's...'

'At least partly.' I grunted. Because it was probably true. She wasn't entirely Rainer. Otherwise we would have smelled that. She wasn't entirely human, or we would have known that also. There was another aspect to her DNA. A darker, more dangerous aspect. If Rainers knew... good god. Our mate was in serious danger from all sides of this coin.

'Doesn't matter. She's my girl. I don't care what she is. I know that I love her and that's enough.' Ash stated angrily. As if we would leave her if she turns out to be a Fae? In what reality was he living in. None of us would be able to walk away from Lux Elmrose. She was our entire world. The reason we were here and I would not, could not, ever be separated from her ever again. The fire that thought alone awakened in me was enough to consume this entire planet if unleashed.

I heard screams from the bedroom. All four of us were in there in under two seconds. She was having a nightmare. She woke panicked, eyes big and frantic, but I was on her before she could search for a warm body to hug. 'Baby, it's ok. We are here.' She sobbed against my chest. 'I can't do this anymore.' She cried. 'I don't know what is happening to me.'

'It's alright sweet cheeks.' Ash had joined her other side and kissed the back of her head tenderly. 'We will get through this together.'

'He betrayed me...' she sobbed. All of us suddenly realized we had no idea how she had ended up in Elia's clutches. A slow deep rumble was starting in my chest. 'Who?' was all I could utter without spitting fire. I swear I saw the pits of hell open in front of me. Someone had set her up. Someone was going to die. Painfully.

'Kai.'

The entire room felt so tense it could explode. Ash was already planning Kai's funeral. I could see the cold hard fury spinning behind his sky blue eyes. My brother also held grudges like no other. Lethal grudges.

Yet, Kai was her mate. That would not work out great for any of us. The bond protected the six in the mating circle, to not be able to harm each other for the purpose of the bond. It was clever actually, otherwise any jealousy, competition, or other hard feelings could just be... dealt with.

The asshole knew.

'As your mate Lux... things just don't make sense...he could not have realized you might have been killed there. Why would he bring you to his mother, knowing she wanted to end your life? It makes no sense.' Sebastian was huffing and pacing around the room. 'Why would he give up his mate like that?'

She wiped away her tears and said.

'Because he isn't my mate.'