Otherworldly Redemption [Book 7]

11

"I'm sorry, what?" I questioned, the words that he had spoken bouncing around in my mind. There was no way he could be serious right now. Nothing that he's done or said has shown that he even considers me as a mate. It didn't make sense.

"This will be interesting..." Marin whispered as he tried to take himself completely out of the conversation by phsysically distancing himself from us.

"Did you say mates? I don't think that's possible. I would have felt it as soon as-"

"No you wouldn't have. You're practically a mortal now." Jelani cut me off causing me to glare at him for interrupting me in the middle of my sentence.

"But..." I began, mind racing. "I wasn't a mortal until I crossed the bridge. That's what Asha led me to believe, at least. Which means I would have felt the connection as soon as I met Marin." I rationalized. Sure, I felt incredibly attracted to Marin but it wasn't like this obvious, overwhelming sense of love. From everything that I've heard about the meeting of mates it was this glorious wonderful feeling that washes over you.

"No you wouldn't have." Jelani sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose before looking up at me. His eyes were pleading with me to stop the questionnaire but I'm certain he knew that I wouldn't be doing that anytime soon.

"Why not?" I whisper hissed as the sound of Tali moving about the bathroom sounded into our room. He was beating around the bush instead of simply being honest with me causing my annoyance tolerance level to drop.

"Marin isn't your mate." He explained as calmly as he could.

What did that even mean? He had already told me that he and Marin were mates and he just told me that we were mates so wouldn't that mean that Marin and I were mates as well? Wasn't that how soulmates worked?

"My kind are able to choose our own mates and I chose Jelani." Marin explained. With that bit explained my mind went back to the day that I arrived here. Every day since that day had been filled with frustration and many questions and now I had another one.

"So, you knew that I was your mate from the beginning and you're just now telling me?" I snapped, my voice was hard from the anger that was surging inside of me. 

"Yes, but I couldn't just tell you." Jelani tried to explain, his eyes were pleading with me to understand but I didn't.

"And why not? It would have been nice to know that the person that I'm supposed to spend my entire life with was right in front of me the entire time." 

"I still had a job to do. You were still in need of rehabilitation and I didn't want you to get distracted or think that you could 'mate' your way out of it." Jelani tried explaining as if that was going to change the fact that he had blatantly hid this momentous fact about my life.

"You couldn't have done that while allowing me to get to know you as my mate? Maybe it would have helped me learn what ever fucking lesson I'm supposed to be learning! I'm supposed to be able to trust my soulmate but right now I don't even want to be in the same room as him." I snarled. My mind was awash with all the types of betrayal I had endured in the past and it seemed like this one hurt a little more than any of that.

The look of pain that flashed in Jelani's eyes almost had me wanting to take the words back but I meant it. There was no way that I could stay in the same place as either of them. From the beginning they lied to me and it wasn't something that I would easily forgive. All I wanted was an out.

"Horus, plea-" A loud knock sounded on the door cutting off Jelani's pleading as Tuli exited the bathroom in the outfit that Marin had given her.

"Son we need to speak. Now!" Jelani's father was clearly agitated but not as agitated as Jelani seemed when he glanced over at the door. His fingers clenched into tight fists as his upper lip pulled up into a quiet snarl.