The Awakening Aidan - By Abby Niles Page 0,54
her robe. When her eyes landed on the phone, they rounded. “Are you kidding me? There’s a phone here?”
“Um. Liam. I’ve got to go.”
“Yeah, I hear her. Good luck. Oh, and Aidan?”
“Yeah?”
“Save. Yourself.”
The phone clicked dead in his ear.
Jaylin limped toward him, hands on her hips. “Why didn’t you tell me there was a phone here?”
The limp grabbed his attention and he stared at the vicious red streaks on her leg. Even with the added shifter DNA, she was human. Fragile. Easily wounded, killed. One day she’d die.
Liam had reminded him why he couldn’t bond to her. What the consequences would be if he did so. But that didn’t stop the need or the hope that she’d one day change her mind.
“Did you hear—”
“Why won’t you bond to me?”
She stopped mid-sentence, brows drawing together. “What?”
“You heard me.”
“You know why. We’ve been over this.”
“Humor me,” he said without a trace of humor in his own voice.
“Death, Aidan.”
“And you want to marry a human because of this, correct?”
“Y-yes.”
“And what if you die before your human mate? You’ll have a choice, won’t you? Anavrin or Heaven. Which will you choose?”
“Why are you asking me this?” she asked, hugging her arms around herself.
“Which will you choose, Jaylin?”
She swallowed. “H-Heaven.”
“So you can be with him for all eternity?”
She opened, then closed, her mouth. Finally, she sighed. “It’s not the same.”
“How so? It seems to me you’re making the commitment to be with someone forever.”
“By marrying a human, I’m not condemned to a life alone just for loving someone.”
He crossed his arms over his chest. “Exactly. You could love again. Remarry. Have children with another man. Kind of a sticky situation, isn’t it? What if you die and he remarries. And upon his death, he goes to Heaven…to be with her? Have you thought about that?” He stepped closer to her, grabbing her upper arms. “Our bond guarantees only one great love, Jaylin. Not one or two or even six like some of the humans on this planet. One. Ours is the perfect match. The one we were made for, the one that makes us complete.”
She jerked from his hold and stepped away from him. “You’re only acting like this because of the sting.”
Deflection, and she used the one kind he couldn’t stand. He slashed his hand through the air. “Don’t start throwing your shrink shit around now. I’m being serious.”
“So am I! Had I not gotten hurt, this wouldn’t even be a topic of conversation. Because you couldn’t do anything to help me, you’ve now realized how easily I can—and might—die. It’s got you scared, all angst up. Am I getting warm, Aidan?”
His body trembled. Before he said something he’d regret, he spun around and stalked off, hating the fact that she knew him better than he knew himself. Knew every feeling he’d ever feel before he’d even experienced it.
Hated how she used it to put him in his place.
…
Jaylin sat at the kitchen counter, sipping lemonade. The pain in her leg had lessened to a dull ache. Aiden had been gone for over three hours. She’d caught sight of him a few times stalking through the woods in both human and shifter form. She’d left him alone, knowing he needed time to work out his feelings.
Besides, she wasn’t ready to face him yet. His words had stuck with her, making her question the sanity of marrying any creature, man or shifter.
What if her husband remarried after she died? What were the rules?
Having two mates in Anavrin was impossible. The ramifications of a human husband falling in love again and remarrying had never occurred to her, but it should have. She’d been so focused on why she didn’t want to bond to a shifter that she’d failed to think about why she shouldn’t marry a human.
Did he have to choose between the women he’d loved in life? Was she supposed to share him? Would she even be aware that she was? And if he died first and she remarried, would she be faced with the same decisions?
It seemed so complicated, and for the first time, Anavrin seemed so easy.
One love. One life. One eternity.
The only major flaw with the Fewshon was the actual death of the mate.
And that was still a huge problem. Afterlife aside, she wanted to live this life, the only one given to her, to its fullest, and by bonding to Aidan, he could ruin that. Unfortunately, she was beginning to worry that if she didn’t bond to him, her life may