eyes, and the sigh I can practically feel on the tip of his tongue.
“How are you guys doing?” I ask lamely, turning to face him on the log and give him my undivided attention.
He looks at me for a minute, like he’s trying to gauge if I really care, and then releases that sigh I knew he was holding in his mouth. “We’re okay. All of this has just been a lot,” he confesses, and I wait patiently for him to say more. “My coven and I weren’t exactly doing great before the runes, not since I dropped the Sentinel bomb. Nash knew, but they didn’t, and that didn’t sit well with Kallan and Becket. Next thing you know, this happened.” He gestures to the runes on his middle finger. “Then the shit with Becket’s dad, and now we’re here where we’re barely allowed to breathe, let alone get too close to you, without triggering some bullshit caveman response from someone.”
I chuckle, but it’s hollow. “Yeah, a lot is probably an understatement for everything that’s happening,” I admit. “For what it’s worth, I’m really fucking sorry that you guys have been dragged into all of this. It’s not easy by any stretch of the imagination.”
Enoch reaches out and sets his hand on mine. “Don’t. Don’t be sorry. We’re glad we’re here. I’m glad we’re whatever we are to you; it’s just hard to be in the dark about everything.”
I turn my hand over from where it was sitting on the log and trace my finger over the mystery runes before I take his hand in mine. “Tell me about it. That’s been the story of my fucking life up until now. I wish I had answers for everyone. I have about a billion questions in my mind that I’d love the answers to, but the reality is we’re probably never going to get them. It fucking sucks, but there’s nothing we can do to change that,” I tell him, and I give his hand a comforting squeeze.
He squeezes back, and it makes me smile. I used to be so awkward about physical affection, and in this moment, I’m proud that I can offer comfort and not feel weird about it. It feels natural.
“So what do we do?” Enoch asks, his eyes searching mine. “Do we just leave things as they are, open-ended and unsure? Or do we try to find what answers we can?”
“What do you mean?” I ask, confused.
“We have some of your runes, but not all,” he recaps, and I nod. “None of us know what that means, but there is a way that we could find out whether or not Nash, Kallan, Becket and I are in fact Chosen. Torrez had runes that you guys didn’t have until you completed the bond.”
I stare at him for a beat as his words circle around my mind. I pull my hand back, and Enoch furrows his brow in frustration.
“You want to fuck?” I ask, making sure I’m clear about what he’s saying.
“I’m not saying right here and right now. All I’m saying is that we all want answers, and whether the others like it or not, there is a way to find out if somehow we have a partial connection that would be completed if we mated. We would know for sure if we were Chosen or somehow something else to you.”
I run my gaze over his face and try to think through how I feel about what he’s saying. I study his lips and try to picture what it would be like to kiss him, to have his body pressed into mine, moving in and out of me. He’s attractive, there’s no denying that, but is that enough?
I pull my eyes from his mouth and move them up to meet his stormy gaze. “And if I said okay, let’s see what happens right here and right now, what would you say?”
Enoch leans into me slightly, and he searches my face for something, his eyes bouncing from my sea-green gaze to my parted lips and back up again. “I would say yes,” he tells me, and then he moves to close the distance between our lips.
I put my hand on his chest as he leans into me and press him back gently, stopping him. “See, that’s the problem, Enoch.” His eyes fill with confusion. “We could fuck out here in the dark, test whatever connection we may or may not have, but then what happens?”
“We would know,” Enoch counters.
“Yeah,