Protecting Shaylee

by Elle Christensen

  “Laila,” I suddenly remember something I wanted to ask her about. “What was up with the power yesterday? I had complete control and then it felt like a new heat wave was practically pulsing right through me.”

  Laila’s phone beeps and she shrugs as she pulls it out. The message puts a deep frown on her face. “I’m assuming it was Aden. When you’re fated, your magic is strongest when you’re together. Aden walked in unexpectedly and since you’ve not really been away from each other since you got here, I’m assuming it was just the shock of feeling your power enhanced like that. I mean, the longer you’re apart, the stronger the feeling of reconnection is,” she answers absentmindedly, still staring down at her phone, unaware of the effect her comments are having. “When Aden found out you were fated, he changed his mind, and let the council reassign him to you. I’m surprised that Aden didn’t mention the boost in strength to you when he explained about being fated.”

  She finally looks up as she finishes and her eyes grow wide at the site of me. I feel all the blood draining from my face and I can only imagine the devastated look on my paler than normal skin. My stomach has started churning and I wrap my arms around my middle—grateful I haven’t eaten anything yet.

  “Shaylee…” she trails off, clearly not sure what to say. “He hasn’t told you, has he?” She rubs her temples and lets out a grunt of frustration.

  I shake my head in answer to her question.

  She sighs. “It’s not like it sounds. Being fated isn’t like the idea humans have created of being ‘mated.’ They’ve once again, taken a simple idea and blown it all out of proportion.” She stops for a second and gives me a sheepish look, “No offense.”

  “So, how is it different?” I croak; my mouth has gone completely dry.

  “You’re not two halves of a whole who can’t survive without the other, nor are you doomed to walk the earth alone if you don’t find ‘the one’ you’re meant to be with. Being fated is more like a meeting of compatible souls. You are fated to one person, however everyone has their own choices to make and it can, like any other decision, change the course of fate.”

  Laila is watching me closely, but I have no reaction to her words. I’m trying to comprehend the fact that Aden wasn’t going to come back to me. Until he found out that I could make his magic stronger.

  My emotions must come through my eyes though—she must be able to see the pain from the way my head is suddenly pounding, because she opens her mouth and pauses like she’s trying to find the right words to say. “I swear it’s different, Shaylee.” She finds them. “Being fated doesn’t mean you have to be together.” She pauses and this time her hands move to rub the back of her neck. “I’ve only known it to happen once or twice, but sometimes fated couples don’t fall in love. Their souls mesh, and they become the very best of friends, but they never seem to find that spark. The problem there is that no significant other wants to be with someone whose soul is claimed by another. These couples go to Fate and have the connection broken. There are some instances where one person simply chooses not to be with the other. If it were truly the case, that we each only had one soul mate, then some of us would be really screwed if our other half decided not to be with us.”

  Laila’s phone beeps again and without looking at the message, she puts in on silent and throws it in her bag with a look of disgust. “Sometimes, those people are just too bullheaded to accept that what they need is right in front of them and if they’d stop being such stubborn fucking asshole, they might just find some happiness. But no, instead, they cling to their ridiculous ideas and push away the best thing that will ever happen to them.” The anger has built up in her voice and I’m taken aback by it. What is she talking about, exactly?

  She must notice the look of confusion on my face because the waves her hand around as if dispelling her last comment. “A discussion for another day.”

  The waitress steps up with a tray and Laila waits for her to place our meals down and leave before she continues. “Anyway, for the person being rejected, Fate would have to be a real bitch to let them suffer like that. Don’t get me wrong, she has a short fuse to her bitch switch, but in both of those cases, and in a lot of others, Fate will step in and help you to find another soulmate. Although, she’s more helpful at certain times than others.” The last sentence in dripping with sarcasm. “Sorry, digressing again.” Laila shakes her head, getting her mind back into focus, then places her elbows on the table and leans forward, staring at me keenly. “Anyway, my point is that Aden could have made the choice not to be with you. It wasn’t an all or nothing situation.”

  There is a spark of rationality in the back of my brain that knows she is right, but it’s over shadowed by bigger emotions of hurt and anger. The churning in my stomach has expanded into full blown nausea and when my eyes drift down to the turkey sandwich on my plate, my hand flies up to cover my mouth and I bolt to the nearest bathroom. I make it there just in time to lose what little I’ve eaten today, then plant my ass down on the floor, bringing my knees up to my chest and lowering my head to rest in the crevice between them.

  “Shaylee?” Laila’s voice is filled with concern. “Are you alright?”

  “I’m fine, Laila, just give me a minute, please,” my voice is muffled, my face still planted on my knees.

  “Ok.” She sounds uncertain, but her footsteps fade as she returns to the door. “I’ll be right outside.”

  My mind is a whirl of thoughts. Aden isn’t capable of lying to me, so his declaration that he had come to see me for my birthday was not a falsehood, but it was still a manipulation of the truth. And, while I knew that he loved me, it hurt to know that he had only come for me because our destinies were tied together. I had hoped that he had been as lost without me as I had been without him. I was terrified that my love for him was stronger and that his reasons for loving me weak, meaning that it might not take much effort for them to slowly disappear over time.

  A tight knot continues to coil in my belly, but the nausea had subsided. I stand up, rinse my mouth, splash some cool water on my face, and step to the bathroom door. I open it, but I hesitate to fully walk out when I hear Laila on the phone a few feet down the hall.

  “Well, you should have told her, jackass! I didn’t figure you for being such a coward, Aden, so it didn’t occur to me that she didn’t know!”

  I obviously can’t hear the other side of the conversation, but my mind is racing to imagine what he was saying.

  “You better fix this, Aden. Not only will Fate and the council be pissed at you, but I’m going to kick your ass from one side of Rien to the other if I lose her friendship because you were too stupid to be upfront with her.”

  I can’t help the small smile on my face knowing that Laila will always be my friend. I miss Brenna almost as much as my mother and aunt, but my time with Hayleigh and Laila have helped me settle into my life here.

  Laila snorts in derision before responding to whatever Aden has said. “Yeah, good luck with that one, Aden. Shaylee isn’t a pushover and I don’t think your powers of seduction are going to help you. I’ll see you tomorrow when you’re limping from the kick to your balls I’m sure is coming your way.” She snaps the phone shut without waiting for a response and mutters something unintelligible.

  She turns to walk back my way but stops when she sees me waiting there at the door. “Hi. Sorry about that. Please don’t be mad at me for warning him.” She comes forward apprehensively.

  “It’s fine, Laila. Just because he knows to watch out for my ball shot, doesn’t mean he’ll be able to avoid it.”

  Laila’s face washes with relief at my humor. As soon as she reaches me, she slings an arm through mine and we walk together out to the car. She stops me with a hand on my biceps as I go to walk around to the driver’s side.

  “He really didn’t have to come back for you, Shaylee. My brother is an idiot, but he’s been in love with you since the moment he no longer looked at you like a child. He loved to tell st
ories about you as a child. Then one day, he didn’t say much at all anymore. But, I think each of us took a turn dragging it out of him because by the time you arrived, I felt like I already knew you.” She grasps me a little tighter and her voice persistent. “He’d made the choice to be with you before he knew you were fated. It just hadn’t truly registered in his mind. I swear it.”

  I sigh, “But, we’ll never truly know that, will we Laila?” The hurt in my heart becomes sharp and knifes through me. Laila’s face falls and she steps back, her shoulders slumped in defeat. “I love your brother. And, I’ll love him forever, but I don’t want to wait around and see if his love for me is born of this connection between or souls, or if it is a result of the connection between our hearts. He broke my heart, Laila. I don’t think I’d survive it a second time.”

  Laila nods and without a word, gets into the car. On ride home, I contemplate what I said, but I realize, I’ve sunk too deep. I know I’ll forgive Aden because I love him too much to let him go, until he leaves me. That doesn’t mean I’m not going to let him have it, though. I perk up a little at the thoughts of what I can do to make Aden suffer just a little bit. The little devil in me cackles.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Aden

  Damn it all too fucking hell.

  I run my hands through my hair for the twentieth time, gripping the roots and tugging so that the little pinpricks of pain take my focus off of the confrontation I know is about to happen.

  That’s what you get for being a pussy.

  I ignore the inner taunting in my mind as I pace back and forth in the living room, keeping my eyes trained on the door. I never meant to keep this from her for so long, and now, by not telling her, I’m sure she thinks that I held it back so I would not to have to confess that I wanted her simply because we were fated.

  My thoughts are interrupted when the door to the apartment slams open, bouncing of the wall. Shaylee marches in, fury blazing in her beautiful eyes. The blue is so penetrating that I feel myself reacting—seriously? Get a fucking grip, dude.

  Just as I open my mouth to speak…

  “I don’t know why you didn’t tell me about being fated, Aden,” Shaylee cuts me off. “I don’t know why you felt that I wouldn’t be rational enough to consider the facts and trust that it only makes our love stronger. But, by not telling me, by omitting it, you’ve come perilously close to lying.” Her hands are gripping her hips and her voice is low, her tone deadly. Ok, that’s better than hysterics, right? Mad is better than hurt. I think?

  * * *

  Her words hit me a little hard and I flinch. “Baby, that’s not what happened, I—”

  “—Whatever, Aden. You weren’t going to come for me until you found out. You didn’t have an uncontrollable need to be with me, you weren’t consumed by your love for me, no—you were doing what was best for you. And isn’t that always your MO? To do what’s best for you?”

  I know she’s hurt and angry, but her words piss me off and I can’t help jumping to correct her ludicrous assumption. “Shaylee, this convoluted reasoning you’ve conjured up couldn’t be further from the truth.” Apparently, my stupidity knows no bounds, because as soon as the words leave my mouth, I know they were the wrong thing to say.

  “Convoluted?” she questions. At the look in her eyes, I take a step back, a little worried that she might open a grave under me, this time on purpose.

  “Look, I shouldn’t have used that word. I just meant that you’re seeing the situation wrong.”

  Shaylee scrutinizes me and for a moment, I think I see her becoming willing to finally listen to me, but then she stomps past me, headed for our bedroom. I don’t let her get far. I grab her arm and whirl her around, pinning her to my chest with my arms banded tightly around her.

  “You can be as mad as you want, baby. But don’t be so petulant that you won’t even listen to what I have to say,” I demand. She scowls at me, but gives me a short, jerky nod of acceptance, then squirms a little trying to get out of my hold. “No, I think I’ll keep you right here, so you can’t run off without hearing my side of things.” Besides, all her wiggling rubs our bodies in all the right places and I can’t help feeling a little smug when I see the desire in her eyes as well. She rolls her eyes at me but stops pushing against my arms, since she knows she won’t be able to break my hold.

  “You’re right; I hadn’t intended to come back to you.” Hurt flashes stronger on her face, before she schools her features into a flat expression. “I let myself believe that I’d imagined the connection between us—that it was just physical and it wouldn’t be right to give in to that when there was someone out there that you were fated with. When the council reassigned me to you, I realized what I’d overlooked before—it’s me. You were always meant to be mine.”

  Shaylee’s eyes soften just the smallest amount and she looks down to hide it, but I can tell that she is listening intently. “Since the day my little Buttercup disappeared and a beautiful, grown up woman appeared, I’ve been addicted to you. To be fated with you just gave me permission to accept what I was feeling for you. To allow myself to give in to what I knew deep down—that I was—that I am, completely in love with you.”

  To my relief, I can see that my words are having at least some effect on her. However, hurt is still swimming in the blue depths of her eyes. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

  “Honestly, I was afraid of how you would react and I wanted you to fall in love with me first, so that you couldn’t just walk away. I admit, I wasn’t giving you enough credit. I wasn’t thinking about the Shaylee I really know, the one who would listen and consider the situation before reacting to it.” I lower my forehead to hers and close my eyes, sighing. “I don’t know what the hell I was doing, baby. I was just terrified that, for some reason, I would lose you. I meant to tell you so many times, but we’ve been so happy and content, I couldn’t bring myself to disturb it with the unknown.”

  I drop a soft kiss on her lips and despite the fact the she doesn’t respond, I feel hope that she didn’t turn away from it. “Can you try and step back, look at this as if I’d told you right from the beginning?”

  Her head drops and she lays her cheek on my chest, just over my heart. After a deep breath she sighs. “I can’t forget, but I know I’ll forgive you. I’m just not ready right now, Aden. I need some time to process all of this. Every time I start to think I’ve got a grip on this new life, something else drops in my lap and takes me back. Two steps forward and one step back.” She pushes against me a little and, this time, I let her go. Her eyes are tired with dark circles ringing them—she’s exhausted.

  I kept her up for most of the night, but she looks as though she hasn’t slept in days. I put my hands around her neck and use my thumbs to lift her chin so that I can study her face. “Baby, are you alright? You look like you’re about to fall off of your feet.”

  Shaylee shrugs, her hands fluttering around before returning to hang at her sides. “I’m just tired. I didn’t sleep well while you were gone.”

  I carefully suppress any smugness from my voice but I can’t help asking, “You missed me?” I slept like shit without her.

  As I watch her, she seems to droop, like the world is pulling her down. “Yes, but mostly I just had terrible nightmares and when I woke, I couldn’t go back to sleep. Look, I’m going to go take a hot back and lie down for a while. I need to be alone,” she adds quickly. Evidently, she knew I was about to ask if she wanted company.

  Now, it’s me drooping. She’d said she would forgive me, but I can’t help feeling defeated, knowing she is hurting and wondering how long it will be before she lets me in again. I reach for her and she allows me to place a soft kiss on her forehead. Then she turns and makes her way down the hall.

  When the sun begins to descend, I crack open our bedroom door and walk in softly to avoid waking Shaylee, who is sleeping on her stomach, her head facing me. After our argument, I figured she would sleep in her pajamas and I’d prepared
myself to sleep without her warm, naked body snuggled up next to mine. But, she looks as though she simply collapsed and passed out on the bed after her bath, not even bothering to remove her towel.

  I pad over to her and remove the damp towel as carefully as I can, so as not to disturb her. Quickly, I strip out of my clothes and go to my side of the bed, slip under the covers and gently pull Shaylee into my arms, before drawing the covers over her as well. With her warmth seeping into mine, I sigh in contentment, and let myself succumb to sleep.

  My eyes fly open at the awful sound emanating from behind the bathroom door. I sit up, noticing that Shaylee’s side of the bed is empty and I hurry to see if she’s all right. She’s lying, curled up on the floor, in front of the small room, housing one of the toilets, her forehead resting on the cool marble below her.

  Kneeling down, I feel to see if she has a fever, but her skin is cool and a little clammy. I stand back up, grab a cloth and dampen it with slightly cool water. Returning to the floor next to her, I turn her face and wipe it tenderly before placing it on the back of her neck.

  “Are you all right? Can I get you anything, baby?” I ask as I rub her back softly.

  “No,” her voice is subdued and weary, as though even that one word took too much effort. After a moment, she sits up and carefully crawls into my lap, wrapping my arms around her and practically burrowing into me.

  “Are you feeling better?” Her head bumps my chin when she nods. “Want to get back into bed?” Same response.

  I anchor my arms under her and lift as I get back onto my feet. I sit her on the counter by the sink and keep her upright while I put toothpaste on her toothbrush and hand it to her. She lazily brushes her teeth and when she’s done, I lift her back into my arms. Back in the bedroom, I softly lay her down, then climb into bed and cuddle up next to her, spooning with her back right up against my front. A glance back at the clock tells me it’s just after 6am, so I snuggle her in a little deeper and go back to sleep for a couple of hours.