Nadine Book 7

3. Lies

An hour later, we are eating island food and enjoying being clean. There are 3 beds here. We might as well stay together. I make the brains put a hidden television in the sitting area. At least we can do something tomorrow.

I fall asleep leaning on Elek, and he wakes me up carrying me to bed. He puts me in bed, and I pull him in with me.

"You know I won't."

"I'll have nightmares. I want to be warm." I yawn and half fall asleep.

He lays down beside me. "I'll see how you sleep." I snuggle with him.

I wake up in the morning and stretch. I'm sleeping sideways over Elek and Johen. Did not see that coming. I close my eyes and snuggle into them. Johen rubs my legs.

I feel Elek tense, then he relaxes when Johen talks softly.

"She sleeps like this, between us, when something bad happens. It makes her feel safe. After she was tortured, it was the only way they could get her to sleep. She would scream and cry any other way."

Elek lightly rubs my arm I have on his stomach.

"The mate touch. Use your fingertips. If 2 of us do it at the same time, she will go to sleep."

"You think?"

"I have no idea. But I'm not going to be mean to you or threaten you. She doesn't feel safe around many people. But the way she was letting you hold her. She does feel safe with you. If you ruin that, it's on you, not me. Always remember, she's been through so much. Be kind and gentle. She's young..."

I fall asleep.

I wake up alone and stretch as big as I can.

Elek, Elroy, Johen, and Omar are in the sitting room. "I love beds." I sit with Johen and snuggle with him.

Omar sits his papers down. "How are you doing with everything?"

"I'm fine."

"Let's talk over breakfast."

"Ugh."

"Nadine, you lost a mate, and you're 'Fine.' We are going to talk about that."

"I always said they are free to go. Other than Tre. Tre's not free to go. I will drag his ass back. But I can't make them love me or want this life. If they want to go, it will break my heart, but they can leave."

Omar gives the boys the stop signal. A minute passes before I talk again.

"But what he did, wasn't leave. He attacked. He planned it. He never cared about me. He pretended and it was all lies. He hurt me. He hurt my mates, that pisses me off more than anything. I want them to die."

"Did you learn anything?"

"It's not my fault. They got by everyone. There is nothing a teenage girl to have done to see what they were doing. They even got by daddy." Johen smiles. "Also, anyone who gets along with my boys right from the beginning is not my mate. The new 1 would be pretending to like them. Because my mates are real assholes, no one gets along with them from the start."

"Well, I don't know about that. Johen got along with everyone, I think."

Johen laughs. "Dipak and Tre threatened me. Dipak would walk around pointing at his sword and hitting it on stuff. Tye is an asshole. I never had any problems with Marcus."

Elek sits back. "Tye is the biggest asshole."

Omar nods. "But I don't think Marcus had any problems."

"Marcus had to deal with Dipak. He would always call for me to come and take Dipak. And Dipak would walk around telling him what an i***t he is. It wasn't the mate wars between them, it was the 2 of them learning how to respect each other. Now they seem fine."

"And Tye had a hell of a lot of problems with Tre and Dipak. And Tre and Dipak had a lot of problems with each other. You may have a point. Anyone who gets along with your mates is faking. They are being overly agreeable and trying to fit in."

"Exactly."

Johen looks at me confused. "Tobias gets along with everyone."

Omar puts an eyebrow up. "And he is on the mate watch."

Elek nods. "You might want to say something to Dipak. Let him watch."

I connect the feathers with Dipak and Marcus.

"Hi angel. How are you this morning? Tye said connect his feather too. He's too lazy to walk over here."

I laugh and connect Tye's. Then I do Tre's for the hell of it. They both connect. "Tre you're better."

"Me too babydoll."

"You were better last night Tye."

"Yea, I guess I was."

"I love you Tye. I'm glad you're better too."

"I love you babydoll."

"I love you all so much." I snuggle into Johen.

"We love you too, sweetheart."

"Oh, this is going nowhere." Omar stands up. "There actually is a purpose for this conversation. Who is connected on that side?"

"Table."

"Anyone else?" Omar thinks about it. "No one else. Remove them from the room. You haven't added anyone in the last week, have you?"

"No. It's only the table. No visitors are here."

"We were talking and realized my mates are assholes."

"YES THEY ARE." Thora yells.

Coral says, "Yea I agree too."

Omar rubs his eyes. "ANYWAY."

Elek smirks. "Yea, you are assholes. Tye is the biggest asshole."

Johen cuts him off. "No, it's Dipak."

Omar rubs his eyes again. "ANYWAY."

Elek laughs while the boys complain. "Well the truth is, no one gets along with you right away. You are always possessive and protective. Nikolas didn't have a problem with any of you. And now we know he was trying to get along with everyone. It was an act to not draw attention to himself. He did whatever he thought would make it easier for him and his family."

"We follow you so far. We know they were good at manipulation."

"They were saying how Tobias gets along with everyone too. Never any issues. Then they said he got along with Nikolas the best. We think there maybe something there."

Gunner says, "That is true. They got along. And oddly enough, he gets along with Tye. Think about it. A potential mate getting along with Tye, right away."

Tye says, "Tobias is different. He's not going after her. He's not trying to be alone with her. He's not doing anything with her."

"Kind of like Elek. But that i***t is going after other girls right in front of you, so you stop thinking he likes her. REALLY THEY ARE STUPID."

Bud says, "We lost you on that 1 Coral."

Coral takes a deep breath.

Then Dipak yells, "NO. Let that 1 go for now. Alright, so he is either pretending not to be interested, so we don't pick fights with him. Or he isn't. But he does get along with us and that is weird. He is probably manipulating, but how much is the question and whether he is or was working with Nikolas is another question. For right now, until this is over. No one talks to him. If he shows up, he will be escorted out due to impending war."

Daddy says, "That sounds good."

Thora screams, "HE'S HERE?"

Dipak yells, "WHAT?"

"Angel, I have to disconnect. 1 of the doctors from the mountain is here. We need to talk to him."

"I love you all."

"We love you baby. We'll connect this afternoon. You can swim and stuff, but stay on Tye's island please."

"Ok."

Johen squeezes me. "Why were they jumpy about a doctor showing up?"

Omar looks at him. "They're very weird sometimes. Ok. Back to losing a mate."

"I don't know Omar. Everything he did was a lie. It was fake. I'm mad. I never felt the bond break. I think it happened after they drugged me. I woke up with it gone. It's like it was never there. I guess in some ways it wasn't. It was a lie."

"How do you feel?"

"Used. He used the bond to take a command spot to steal from us and hurt us. There was no reason."

Elek looks at me. "There was a reason. They planned this for probably a good year. They were, at the very least, trying to steal the money from the castle. At the most, they were trying to take the castle over and kill everyone."

Johen kisses my head. "Yea, we know they planned this for a long time hun. But no one thinks he could have known he was your mate. That's why they either backed out of the plan or had to alter it somehow. But if you look at his dad, he killed his real soulmate. Nikolas never tried to hurt you. But he still went forward with taking gold and leaving. He went back to his girlfriend. That's what he chose."

"I guess he likes her more than me."

Omar shakes his head. "I think there may have been some brainwashing going on there. Those boys were probably always told to kill their real soulmate. It's the way their dad did it. I don't think he liked her more than you. You can't fake the bond. He was in love with you. But because of his parents, he chose her over the bond. Nadine, the soulmate bond, can kill the other party if it snaps after you are fully bonded. But if you fully bond with someone who isn't your soulmate, the bond will be much weaker. The risk of death would not exist."

"So you can choose a mate and not have a soulmate bond?"

"Yes. But the potion, like the one with Kane and Mary, is the soulmate bond. If one of them died, the other 1 probably would too. But if they marked each other without the soulmate bond, their bond wouldn't be near as strong and the risk of death would be gone."

Elek nods. "His dad chose to kill his soulmate. That way he won't die if his chosen mate dies. He does not have a soulmate bond with her. If she dies, he can choose another mate."

I wrap around Johen. "MINE."

"I'm all yours hun. I love you." He kisses my hand, then my nose. I start giggling.

Omar smiles. "Nadine, you are choosing, as most people do, real love. You are choosing your soulmates."

"I don't want to live without them. I don't want to find someone else to replace them. I want them. What kind of life is it, if you go around replacing people? Never feeling real love? Always feeling like you'll be replaced when someone better comes along? You could end up with the whole world, but no one you even like to share it with. Why would anyone do that?"

"Not everyone thinks like you. Some people would rather have the whole world, no matter the cost."

"Real love doesn't make us weak. It makes us stronger. It makes us fight for the people we care about. It holds us together. Even when we nearly hate each other, we still love each other."

Omar motions at Elek. "And there seems to be a misunderstanding over something that has to deal with you as well. The day Nadine's face was bashed in, that had nothing to do with you. Well, maybe a little. I'm not sure."

Elek tenses, and I can see him trying to relax.

"Nadine was super speeding away from Dipak and Marcus. I was carrying a bunch of bricks from your castle. The second I walked around the corner, she slammed into them face first. Neither of them hit her. You seem to be under the assumption that 1 of her mates hit her that day."

"I tried to run away. The bricks hurt. They said I busted my teeth and my nose shattered. I guess it was terrible."

Elek puts his face in his hands. I see his body relax.

"You thought they did that because we kissed?"

He nods.

I sit on my knees on the couch beside him. I give him a hug. "I'm sorry you thought that. They aren't that bad."