Second Chances (Eternal Flames Maddox Book 8)

by Maggie Walsh

  Destrain gasped as pain he had only ever experienced one time in his life before, and that was the day his Clove had died, engulfed him.

  Reeling from what he had just heard, Destrain stood and walked out of the bar.

  “Hey, where’s Clove?” Casimir asked in confusion.

  Destrain couldn’t speak from the agonizing heartbreak he was feeling.

  “Destrain, what’s wrong? Where’s Clove?” Casimir asked, sounding more worried by the second.

  Shaking his head, Destrain felt his knees give out as he hit the ground beneath him. Gasping for air as intense pain surrounded him and it felt as if he was being crushed into a ball.

  “Destrain! Destrain!” Casimir shouted in a panic.

  Destrain could hear Cas at a distance. However, he couldn’t answer. His heart was racing, tingles running all throughout his body, and the world just started spinning. Destrain hoped that he was going to die. His Clove wanted to leave him again, but this time it was by choice.

  Thankfully, everything went black.

  * * * *

  “Talk! I mean it, Clove. I know we don’t know each other well, but we want to help. Don’t let all of this new crap keep you from your mate. It would not only devastate you, but it would destroy Destrain as well,” Logan stated gruffly.

  Clove sat back looking up towards the ceiling, covering his face with his hands, growling. “Gods, I wish I could have stayed dead.”

  Tobias gasped, “You don’t mean that?”

  Clove brought his hands down, saying, “Yes I do.” Looking around at the stunned expressions, Clove explained, “We are taught that when our mate dies, we may not die, but we damn sure wish we had. Some miss their mates and refuse to eat until they actually do die. Some people have said that they’ve known mates to die of a broken heart. Our mates are our everything. Destrain said he mourned for me every day and had it not been for our son, Desdain, he would have died, either by depression or possibly his own hand.”

  “I would feel the same if anything happened to Logan,” Jensen replied.

  Logan squeezed his mate’s hand saying, “As I would feel the same if anything happened to Jensen.”

  “Yes, but I didn’t feel any of that!” Clove hissed.

  Tobias tilted his head in confusion. “Didn’t feel any of what, when?”

  Clove sighed once again. “When I died, I went to a glorious place. It was like a large garden surrounded by forest and flowers.”

  “The heavenly gardens. That’s where I was for a long time, although it was the other side of the forest,” Jensen replied.

  Clove smiled in remembrance. “I had a beautiful home and my Destrain was there every moment. I couldn’t always see him, but I could hear him, feel his arms around me, and I could even speak with him. Hell, there were even a few times we made love. It was beautiful. When Asclepius came to my home and asked me to join him, I had no idea where we were going or what was happening. It never even occurred to me to ask. Then suddenly I was here.”

  Jensen softly said, “I know it’s a lot to take in Clove, but—"

  “I didn’t miss him! I didn’t feel as if my soul was being ripped out! What kind of a mate am I that I didn’t even feel the loss of my own mate? Everyone thinks I’m struggling with all the new technology—and yes, it is difficult and extremely overwhelming, but my issue is that I didn’t suffer as Destrain did,” Clove stated, becoming quieter and quieter as he spoke.

  Tobias hated seeing the pain and sadness on the pretty man’s face. It hurt to see Clove suffering like this. Tobias just wanted to make him all better. Leaning closer, Tobias was going to say something when the man’s scent hit him—chocolate mint! Oh, Gods Tobias loved chocolate mint.

  “Clove, I had no idea you remembered everything after you died. What’s it like in the afterlife?” Logan asked.

  Tobias scooted his chair closer to Clove to be able to smell him better, as Jensen smacked Logan on the arm. “Stop asking silly questions.”

  “What? It isn’t silly. Everyone wonders what happens after we die, and Clove actually knows,” Logan insisted.

  “We are here to talk to a friend about his problem, not get him to explain life after death,” Jensen stated to his mate in exasperation.

  “It’s okay, Jensen. I can’t tell you much more than what I have already. To me, it was as if I was gone for a couple of weeks, yet I came back years later instead. I never came to this realm even when I was alive, Logan. It’s why I don’t know anything about anything here. All of that I can learn. It’s not being a true mate to Destrain that hurts me so much,” Clove said with a catch in his throat.

  Tobias gently placed a hand on Clove’s forearm, asking, “What does your heart say when you think of the pixie king?”

  Clove looked at Tobias, and the love was in his eyes before he even spoke. “Destrain is a wonderful mate. He is loving, sweet, thoughtful, and kind to all he cares for.”

  “That’s nice, but it sounds like a resume for a king. I asked about you and what your heart says. Before you died, when Destrain walked into the room, what did you feel? When he walks into a room now, before you start with the guilt, what do you feel?” Tobias asked.

  Clove looked straight ahead, his voice became even more tender as he spoke about Destrain. “Every time Des walks into the room, it’s like the sun shining even if there’s rain outside. Listening to him speak is better than any music that might be playing. I miss him the second he leaves the room and get lost if he is away too long. That is how I felt then and how I feel now. However, the problem is, how can we be true mates if I didn’t feel the loss like he did? We are supposed to connect our souls when we mate. Why, if I love him more than my next breath, did I not feel that loss?”

  “Because when you died, you took everything with you, Clove,” Jensen softly replied.

  Clove looked at Jensen in confusion. Jensen sat forward, saying, “When shifters and paranormals mate, their souls combine—wrap around each other like a constrictor’s knot. The Gods know that mates need to be together, but when one dies without the other, his soul goes with him, and so, Destrain’s part that he gave to you, went with you.”

  “Wait! Are you saying that when we die we take our entire soul plus half of our mate's with us? That seems kind of harsh,” Logan said.

  “And stingy. Why not halfsies?” Tobias asked.

  Logan snorted, “Halfsies? Is that even a word?”

  “Look, I know it sounds harsh, but it’s the only way mates can find each other in the afterlife. When one dies without the other, the one who dies goes to heaven. The outer skin is just a hull. It’s really what’s inside that matters, and that is the soul. There is no choice but for your entire soul to go with you. However, it is bound with your mate's in a knot that can’t be broken. So, part of your mate’s soul goes with you. You’re then placed in a location that only you have ever dreamed of. It’s where you stay until your mate passes, and his soul rises and reattaches with the other half, bringing the mates together in the afterlife,” Jensen explained.

  “That sounds painful,” Tobias muttered.

  Jensen nodded, softly saying, “It is. The pain Destrain and other mates feel when their mate dies is not just the loss of their mate, but a loss of part of themselves as well. However, it also allows for the mate in the heavenly gardens to exist in peace until their loved one returns to them.”

  “It still sounds cruel,” Logan stated.

  Pursing his lips, Jensen turned to Logan asking, “Who would you rather be in pain and turmoil, Logan? You or me?”

  Logan didn’t have to say a word, his eyes said it all. Jensen must have agreed because he nodded, saying, “Exactly. There are no good answers for what to do with the one left behind. It’s something the gods talked about for as long as I can remember. Destrain was hurting, but he was left with a child and people who loved him surrounding him every day. He was never alone. Yes, he still hurt and hurt deeply, but Clove never suffered a day. The one thing I remember
my mother telling me was how wonderful it was when the souls joined in dreams. It allowed for the mates to be together, talk, make love, take walks in the gardens. The time is short, but at least they can still be together during that time.”

  Tobias sniffled and wiped his eyes. “That’s beautiful.” Then he sniffled once more, leaning closer to Clove.

  Clove nodded, “Yes, it is, and it explains why I didn’t miss Des or feel the pain he spoke of.”

  Tobias was almost on top of Clove now.

  Pulling back, Clove asked, “What are you doing?”

  “You smell so good,” Tobias whispered. Then his eyes widened, as he gasped, “You’re my mate.”

  Clove’s eyes went huge. “How much did you drink? You know my mate is Destrain.”

  Tobias asked in awe, “You can’t smell it? We’re mates.”

  “Pixies don’t find their mate by smell, they find their mate by kissing,” Clove stated in discomfort.

  Logan gasped when Tobias stood up, “What are you doing?”

  Giggling, Tobias slurred, “Proving a point.” Then he grasped Clove by the collar and kissed him.

  “Arrest that man this instant!”

  Tobias pulled away and turned, but things started swirling. He wasn’t sure if he saw two or four men coming towards him looking pissed, but he was sure about the man marching behind them and Clove’s startled gasp confirmed it.

  “Des, what are you doing here?”

  Destrain came face to face with Tobias, snapping, “Who is this man accosting my mate?”

  “Destrain, this isn’t what it looks like. This is Tobias Walker and he—” Logan said as he stood.

  Destrain’s brows rose, stopping Logan from continuing. Then he turned angrily to Tobias. “Tobias Walker, you are under arrest for interfering with a mating. You —”

  “No. No. No interfering by me. He’s my mate,” Tobias said with a hiccup.

  Clove brought Tobias closer to him. “Destrain, stop. He wasn’t—”

  “Until you break our mating, Clove, we are still mates. As such, I have every right to arrest this man, try him, and then execute him for interfering with a mating. Take him to the council building for trial,” Destrain snarled.

  CHAPTER 4

  How had things got like this? Last thing he really remembered he was sitting in Wyndingo’s office and the man was telling him that he may not become a firefighter. Then he carried his sorry ass off to the bar to have a drink and drown his sorrows. The next thing he knew he was sitting next to the hottest man he had ever seen, and all he wanted to do was climb the guy and rut against him.

  Shit, why couldn’t he remember more? Okay, so maybe he had too much to drink, but he was a shifter and that human shit didn’t affect him the same way. Okay, so maybe he was a little bitty of a shifter, but still. Just goes to show ya, like everything else in his life, he was pathetic and managed to fuck up whatever he touched.

  But what exactly had he done to land himself here in jail? And where the heck was he anyway? This didn’t look like lockup in Maddox. Not that he had firsthand experience with being in jail, because he had never been in one before, but being part of the Maddox Fire Department, he had visited the police station a time or two to check over their sprinkler system.

  Tobias stood and quickly sat back down on the cot as his head spun. “Geez, how much did I actually drink?”

  After a moment and the walls around him stopped spinning, Tobias opened his eyes again and looked around. Three solid walls of concrete and one wall of bars. Great, just what he…wait, one wall of bars? Tobias smiled to himself, then carefully stood again. Taking stock of himself, he was relieved when his head didn’t feel all wonky and his eyes didn’t go all blurry.

  Stripping off his clothes, Tobias folded them neatly then placed them in a pile on the foot of the cot. He turned to face the bars, then allowed his shift to take over. He opened his eyes again and saw the world from his lower vantage point. Sniffing around a bit, he just barely caught that delicious scent. Oh, that scent. The gorgeous hunka-hunka from the bar carried that wonderful scent. Suddenly images and memories came back to him and Tobias froze. Mate.

  I found my mate. I found my mate. Tobias started to jump and skitter around happily. Standing on his hind legs, he raised his paws and began shaking his ass as he twisted his waist. Mate, mate, I have a mate. Yes, I have a mate, that’s right, and he is F. I. N. E. Fine. Woo Woo.

  But if he had found his mate, then where was he and why wasn’t he here? That thought stopped Tobias dead in his tracks. Wait, there was another mate. Two mates. Both so freaking hot. Even though the other one looked ab-so-lute-ly pissed, he was still hot. The king! That was it, now he remembered, Clove, that was his mate and he was talking about his other mate, the king. King Destrain. Oh shit!

  Tobias dropped back to the floor and curled up. King Destrain. He had heard many people around Maddox talk about the king and what a wonderful man he was, but Tobias had never met him before. And now that he had, the memories of the king ordering his death filled Tobias with a grief so heavy, he didn’t know how his little heart wasn’t crushed under the weight of it.

  There had been a terrible misunderstanding. The king saw him kiss Clove, who was the kings mate, and not knowing that Tobias was also his mate, had only walked in and witnessed his mate cheating on him with the kiss. Well, warm shit on the pavement, didn’t that stink?

  He needed to do something. He needed to get to the king and explain. Tobias could see the hurt and anger in the man’s eyes as he looked at Clove, and Tobias took that pain into himself. He would probably feel the same way if he thought his mate had stepped out on him and found him in a lip-lock with someone else. Oh, the poor king must be heartbroken. No, he needed to do something and make this right. He needed to ease the king's mind and heart.

  Tobias looked toward the wall of bars again and quickly skittered across the floor and out of the cell, easily slipping through the bars. He made his way down a cold hallway until he came to a set of stairs. Slowly he climbed each one until he found himself at the top and faced a heavy steel door. Shit, now what?

  Should he go back down and see if there was another way out? A window, maybe? No, there was no window that he remembered seeing. Um…Oh, a vent! I did pass a vent!

  Quickly he made his way back down the stairs and over to the vent. Studying it, Tobias saw that it was held closed by four screws. Great, now all he needed was a screwdriver. And his hands. Where the hell was he going to find a screwdriver?

  After a minute of pacing back and forth in front of the vent, Tobias remembered the tray of food that was sitting on the table in his cell. Did it have a butter knife on it?

  He made his way back to his cell and through the bars, then shifted to his human form. Looking at the tray Tobias smiled when he saw a roast beef sandwich, an apple, a small plastic bowl with gravy, and a fork and knife.

  He grabbed the tray and moved to the bars, then slid it under into the hall. Shifting quickly, Tobias slipped back under, then shifted again. He bent and snatched up the tray, then went back to the vent and sat. “No use wasting a perfectly good meal. And I am kind of hungry.”

  Tobias took a few bites of the delicious sandwich before he lifted the butter knife and began working on the screws. After he removed each one, he took another few bites. Once he had all the screws out and he pulled the vent screen free, Tobias took the last bite of the sandwich, then shifted.

  He climbed into the vent and scurried along, taking rights and lefts along the way and hoping he wouldn’t get lost. Not that he knew where he was going to begin with, but he hoped eventually he would come across voices.

  The vent tilted up and Tobias followed it. It wasn’t as easy as one might think seeing as he was in ferret form and the angle of the vent was like a slide in a kid’s playground, but after a while he managed to get to the top where the vent evened out again, and he followed that around for a few more turns until he did hear voices. One in particular that was ve
ry sad and made his heart hurt.

  Tobias moved to the vent that overlooked the room where the voices were coming from and saw the king and Illan, the dragon and council leader, sitting on a couch talking.

  “I think you need to calm down for a few minutes and think straight, Destrain. I know things haven’t been going smoothly since Clove returned and he seems a little different than you remember, but he is still your mate. He is still Twix’s father, and the man you love. Just hear him out,” Illan said in a pleading voice.

  Destrain leaned forward putting his elbows on his knees and ran his hands through his hair as he sighed heavily, and Tobias could feel the frustration coming off the man in waves. “Don’t you think I have tried talking to him? It’s all I have done since his return, Illan, but he just clams up and shuts me out.”

  “Well, he’s trying to talk to you now.”

  Destrain sat up quickly as he dropped his hands to his lap, and Tobias could see the hurt and anger in his eyes. “I have tried over and over again to get my mate to open up to me, to allow me to help him, but no, he just keeps on closing me out. Now he wants to talk.” Destrain stood and began pacing. “Sure, now he wants to talk because he found himself another man and wants to leave me.”

  “Des, you’re true mates and that’s not possible. True mates cannot and would not ever cheat on their mate, you know this. Even if Clove wanted to―”

  “Oh, he wants to,” Destrain said between clenched teeth, cutting Illan off. “I heard him tell Logan, Jensen, and that other…one, that he is planning on leaving me, Illan. Then I saw the two of them kissing, so what the hell am I supposed to do with that?”

  Illan sighed heavily, then rubbed his hand over his mouth, looking like he was thinking. “Okay, so it doesn’t look good, I understand that. But until you have all the facts, I can’t in good conscience have that little guy, Tobias, locked up in the council jail forever, or sentence him to death for interfering in a mating. We need all the facts first,” Illan said and stood.

  He went to Destrain and placed a hand on his shoulder. Once Destrain looked at him, Illan said, “And if we find out that this Tobias did in fact come into your mating, then I will give the order to have him taken out. But if the facts come back that Clove was a willing participant and actually did cheat on you, you know he will have to be dealt with in the same manner, Destrain.”