SEDUCTIVE PREY

DIE FOR ME

The plane ride from the airport back to GA is seven long hours. Which means seven long hours I'll be sitting beside my mate whose wife just died in his arms. A wife he never wanted, and now that she's gone, he feels incredibly guilty for smiting. And while our friends are busy planning our next move, having a direct tether to his soul, I know he's hurting.

Placing my hand over his, I shoot him a comforting smile because I'm here for him. Even if it's to mourn a girl I hated because I envied her so much.

"Talk to me." I tell him. He needs an outlet, and since I'm responsible for all this, I feel it's only right I be the one to give him one.

Ethan's tortured gaze meets mine. Contemplating whether he wishes to share his thoughts with me. "Zara wasn't exactly your favorite person, Ali." He studies me with those observant eyes of his. "But she was pretty fucking amazing. And she put up with more from me than she should have."

"I didn't get it at first, but after seeing how much she was willing to protect you, and how she lost her life because of it... it made me feel foolish and undeserving." I admit. "Because she fought for you when I wouldn't, and you are indelibly imbedded in my soul. I never should have let you go."

"Then why did you?"

I don't know what alarms me more. The question itself, or his tone. Because it sounds an awful lot like he has more than just a few things he wishes to get off his chest. And while I struggle to answer a question that should be so simple, he does just that.

"Not only did you push me away, but you turned to Lucas of all people. A walking, breathing, bloody fucking shining example of everything that is wrong in this world. And while I am aware of your reasons why, and the resources he has, I can't help but feel slighted." He laments me. "You are my mate, Ali. My responsibility and my obligation. Not his. And I take both of those things very seriously, because like it or not, your fate is tied to mine and vice versa. Don't ever do anything like that again."

Damn.

I am both affronted and turned on at the same time.

"You're right." I nod. "And I'm sorry. I-"

"What did Lucifer show you?" Ethan asks. Giving me a look that lets me know he's done playing the nice guy. That anything less than the truth will likely push him further away than he already is. And it's for that reason alone I finally tell him what frightened me into pushing him away. "He showed me your death... that you die because of me."

I'm expecting him to recoil or back away from me, but he does neither. It's like he expected as much. Or like him dying because of me is a perfectly acceptable occurrence when it isn't. It will never be acceptable by me.

"I would happily live and die a million times over if it means you get to live. It is what mates are created for. To provide the sort of unconditional love we won't be able to find anywhere else but here." He motions between the two of us with his finger. "An unconditional love that would move me to stare down the barrel of a gun, without fear or thought for my own life, if it were pointed at you."

"Or move you to protect what you love most by walking away from it." I add.

Both speaking from our own perspectives.

A silence settles between us as we accept each other's truth. He's willing to die to protect me, and I'll do whatever it takes to prevent that from happening. Because if the end result is we lose each other, then for me... life just isn't even fucking worth living anymore. And for him, a world without me in it may as well be purgatory.