Kick Back - Susi Hawke Page 0,28

face lit up as he smiled at Marcel. "And somewhere along the way, our friendship turned into love." He turned back to Nathaniel. "Turns out, I wasn't as straight as I thought. I was stupid to think that my sexuality was set in stone. Love is love, especially when your lover is also your best friend. And now Marcel is my mate and the light of my life." He giggled softly and tilted his head toward me. "Your turn. Tell me how my brother the priest came to have a mate. Weren't you supposed to be married to God or something?"

Nathaniel groaned, rolling his eyes at his brother. "I can't believe you have to ask. The Anglican church allows its priests to marry. And it's LGBT friendly. Meaning, for any humans who don't understand the mating bond, they still won’t bat an eye at a gay priest taking a husband. However, that didn't come up for me. Dear and I are true mates. Prince Darius is mated to his brother. They came to Aurelia to save my life, but I was already planning to leave. When we met on Sunday, I was giving my final service. It's been a whirlwind there."

Tony's mouth fell open for several seconds before he turned to me. "I'm not sure what part of that I want to dissect first. You met my brother, what, four days ago now? Yes, it's after midnight so this is the fourth day. And you are already claimed mates? And true mates, at that? I can't imagine how you're sitting there so calmly; I'd be ripping my hair out still and trying to make sense of the whole thing. And how did you know that my brother's life needed saving?"

I couldn't help but laugh. "Unless someone has experienced meeting their true mate, I don't think you can truly understand. His scent was irresistible to both me and my puma. And it's like falling in love at first sight. We've all heard the stories about how true mates can't hurt each other, right? It's true. The thought of Nathaniel being in pain is more than I want to think about. And once we exchanged claiming bites, it was as if I found the missing part of my soul. That sounds super schmaltzy, but it's the truth. I already knew that I would fall in love with him, but it was surprising how quickly it happened. And now I know that I could never go a day apart from him."

Tony and Marcel were both moon-eyed by the time I finished. And damn but if I didn't feel the same way as Nathaniel and I smiled at each other. I hesitated for a moment and then decided to share my secret.

"About your brother and saving his life. This can't leave this room, but I come from a long line of assassins. We work to free the world of evil, only taking out the targets who deserve it. After Darius and my brother returned from visiting Aurelia, our agent contacted my family with a contract to take out a priest from that country. Naturally, we took it so we could protect him. Not only would we not take out an innocent priest, but Darius told us his story."

Marcel stiffened, seeming to go on the alert as he studied Nathaniel. "Is your life still in danger?"

I answered for my mate. "Yes. We believe it was his work on the underground that inspired the contract. One of the omegas he was rescuing this week was contracted to mate Saul Everly, the leader of COME. While we don't understand why someone of his importance would want an arranged mating with a lowborn omega from a small island country, he’s our best suspect right now. I'm trying to keep Nathaniel hidden until I find proof of who took out the contract so I can arrange to have it broken. Either that, or take out the person who paid for it. Until then, Nathaniel won't really be safe outside of protected homes like yours. The only reason we left the safety of my family's well-guarded estate in Portugal was to transport the omegas and come find Tony."

Well-guarded, ha. Except for surprise visits from parents and broods of ninja bunnies, maybe.

Marcel sucked a deep breath in through his nose as he nodded and leaned back in his chair, drumming his fingers on the arm while he considered that. "And if you don't find this person who paid to have your