Bonds of Cupidity (Heart Hassle Book 2)

We walk—well, they walk and I ride on their backs—for a long time. The sun makes its debut and is shining brightly above us by the time the city of Rochbrook comes into view and the forest starts to thin.

I’m on Sylred’s back at this point, and I’m not embarrassed to say that I dozed off against him. I wipe the drool from my chin on the sly as I force myself to wake up.

“Sleep well?” Evert drawls from beside me.

“Mmmhmm. Yep. Thanks for asking.”

“Think you can walk to the city on your own? It’s about five minutes from here, but we don’t want to strain you,” Ronak says.

I slide off Sylred’s back. “I should be able to handle that,” I answer seriously, taking in the distance. When I look back at the three smirking faces of the genfins, I scowl. “Oh. You were mocking me. Ha ha.”

“You make it way too easy.”

“Keep it up, Ronak, and I won’t be easy at all,” I challenge.

The amusement falls from his face and he scrubs at his brown beard. “Believe me, once the mating ceremony gets started, you will be.”

His words make heat erupt at my core. I shift so that my legs press closer together. He notices the movement and smirks. Asshole.

I turn around and stomp away from them. After a few minutes, I get a good view of the city, and it’s awesome in a weird kind of way. Instead of normal stone houses, everything is made of wood.

Every wooden building erected out of the ground in a dome, the wood bending in beautiful tension. The wood is polished so well that the sun glistens off it. The domes aren’t very tall at all, so it’s obvious that the majority of the living spaces are underground dens. There are a few larger, aboveground domes at the center of the city, as well as one that looks like a giant, wooden egg.

“Huh.”

“What do you think?” Sylred asks, suddenly flanking me.

“I like how all of the domes look like they’re part of the ground. They look like little wooden hills. Some look tiny, but there are really big ones, too,’ I note.

He smiles, his brown eyes crinkling at the sides of his face. “Genfins often expand their dens, inviting their extended families to live with them, which is why some are so large.”

“So, where are we going?”

Sylred points. “See that tree with the white blossoms?”

I squint. “Next to the hill?”

“Yep. The dome built into that hillside is ours.”

From my vantage point, the dome looks big, but not huge. The spot is beautiful, nestled into the hillside the way it is, and I can see a wooden fence circling around it with a garden. The nearest neighbor is about five hundred yards to the east, and the garden and trees separating them offer plenty of privacy. Evert and Ronak join us, and all three of my genfins twitch their tails in pride.

“Did you guys build that?”

Ronak nods. “When we graduated from training. Genfins must build their dens by hand before we can apply to the council for a mate. Our dens are never lived in until we take a mate home. They are considered a sacred space.”

“So you’ve never even lived there?” I ask, surprised. The grounds look so well kept.

Ronak shakes his head. “No. Genfin males live in communal housing until we gain mates. It’s about an hour away from the city. This is the first time we’ll be staying here.”

Based on the look on their faces, it’s something that they’ve been looking forward to for a long time. They look over at me, and I can see that they’re nervous about my reaction.

Ronak rubs the back of his neck. “It’s not as big as some, but the land was good and not too close to other dens and—”

“I love it.”

They breathe a shared sigh of relief.

Sylred smiles at me again. “Good. We want you to feel at home here. Shall we?”

“You show her around while Evert and I go speak with the elders and get the things we’ll need for the ceremony. Put your wings away,” Ronak instructs, and I do.

We part ways, me following beside Sylred as we skirt around the town, while Evert and Ronak head straight to the center toward the egg building.

When we reach their property, I round the small hillside and grin. “It’s even better up close.” I rush to the gate and fling it open. “Look at this garden! You have so many things growing in here.”

“Yeah, Ronak hired on a caretaker after we finished building it.”

As if on cue, an older genfin male rounds the corner, garden spade in hand. When he sees us, he momentarily stops in his tracks. “My lord Sylred!” he says when recognition settles over him. “I did not expect you for another few days.”

Sylred smiles warmly at him. “I apologize that we did not send word ahead of time.”

The fae shakes his head, dropping the spade in a bucket next to the fence. “No need for apologies. I can’t tell you how pleased everyone is that you have returned to us at last.”

“Thank you, Fenian. I’d like to introduce you to Emelle. We’ve decided to take her as our mate.”

I smile. “Hello.”

The genfin gapes at me in open-mouthed horror.

My smile falters. Sheesh. What a way to make a girl feel welcome.

He stutters. “You…She…Mate? But she is not a genfin.”

“No, she’s not,” Sylred says simply. “But she is our chosen mate all the same, and deserves the respect of one,” he gently rebukes.

It takes Fenian another moment to recover. “Of course, my lord. Forgive me. I will get out of your hair. Everything in your den is exactly as instructed. The food stores are stocked, and the clothing you requested has been brought. Your garden is doing very well, too.”

“I can see that,” Sylred says appreciatively. “Thank you, Fenian. The place looks great.”

“You’re welcome, my lord. I’ll be back to tend to the garden in a few days. If you need me, send word.”

“I will.”

“Good day,” he says, nodding. He flicks me a gaze before hurrying away, tail tucked under him.

When he walks through the gate and flees from view, I blow out a breath. “Well, that was awkward.”

“Genfins don’t ever choose non-genfin mates. It’ll take some getting used to, but they’ll get over it.”

I bite my lip. “And if they don’t?”

He shrugs. “Then they don’t.”

“But these are your people, Sylred. I don’t want them to shun you because of me. You’re already giving up a lot. Your powers, your wings, political gain…”

Sylred cups my face in his hands to staunch my rising panic. “Emelle. Breathe. Relax.” When I do, he continues. “We knew what we might face. We decided this with our eyes open. We chose this. All that matters is our covey. Don’t let the opinions of others ruin us before we can even get started. Okay?”

I grudgingly nod. “Okay.”

He leans in and places a soft kiss on my lips. It’s over before I can deepen it, and his smile proves to me that he purposely left me wanting more. “Wait here a second.”

He walks to the end of the house and rounds the corner, leaving me alone in the garden. I look around at all the pretty flowers and dangling fruit, and find a spot with a wooden birdbath sitting beneath the white-blossomed tree that I noticed when he first pointed out the place. There’s a bench right below it, and I can just picture spending time here, feeling the sun and wind on my face, smelling the plants, and stuffing my face with all the fruit I’ll pick.

When Sylred comes back, his sleeves are rolled up against his tanned forearms and his shirt has drops of water on it. “Lose a fight with a puddle?”

“A water well. And I won,’ he smiles.

Taking my hand, he pulls me through the garden and toward the front door. We have to take a set of steps down to get to it, and then there’s another set of steps on the other side of the door.

When we get to the bottom of the stairs, I walk over the wooden floors and take it all in. The den is warm and inviting, with circular windows high on the walls and a skylight on the ceiling. The whole place smells clean, if only a little musty from disuse. A fireplace sits at the far end of the room, a kitchen to the left, and there’s a nice sitting area equipped with plenty of bookshelves.

“The washroom is through that door,” Sylred says, pointing. “We have a basement with extra rooms and food storage downstairs, the office is at the door next to the kitchen, and our bedroom is through this door here.”

Our bedroom.

Our. Bedroom.

I don’t know why that hits me so hard, but it does. I’m going to be mated to three hot genfin males and get to enjoy things like the garden and our bedroom. I’ve never had anything that belonged to me before, aside from my bow and arrows. Now, I have a bedroom to share with my mates and a den house that they built for me. I stand on my tiptoes to kiss him on the cheek.

“What was that for?”

I lift a shoulder, a smile spreading across my face. “Just because.”

With a pleased look, he leads me forward and opens the door to our bedroom. Inside is a space almost as big as the sitting room. There’s a massive bed at the center with different colored pillows against a feather white blanket. There’s another fireplace inside this room, too, as well as beautifully carved shelving and drawers inlaid into the walls. A huge circular skylight overhead bathes the entire room in inviting light.

I fling myself onto the pillowy bed, stretching my arms and legs as far as they can go, and run my hands over the silky covers. “Oh my gods, this is comfortable.”

Sylred puts his hands in his pockets and smiles down at me. “I’m glad you approve.”

“Look at all these pillows. There’s like a hundred.”

“A dozen, but who’s counting?”

I throw one at him. He catches it before it can hit his face.

“It’s so big. I’ve never seen such a big bed.”

“Genfins sleep near their mate. It’s part of our protective instinct. We need a large bed to be able to do that.”

And to do other things, is what he doesn’t add.

I sit up and look around at the curved ceiling. “I can’t believe you guys built all this. You were holding out on me on the banishment island.”

“We weren’t going to build a replica of our mate-den on our banishment island,” he says with a frown. “We built only what was necessary to sustain us for five years.”

“And a training yard,” I add.

“Believe me, that was necessary. If we hadn’t had a training yard to work out our frustrations, Evert and Ronak would have killed each other.”

“Poor Sylred; always stuck between them.”

He sits down and picks up my ankle. Taking off my slippers, he starts kneading my arches. And yeah, I moan a little. It feels that good.

“I don’t mind sticking by my covey,” he says quietly, just as my eyes flutter shut from the bliss he’s wreaking on my foot.

“You should definitely keep being the peacekeeper. The gods know those two assholes need it,” I say, moaning when he hits a particularly tight spot on my arch. “You should be a professional foot-rubber,” I sigh.

“Can I ask you a question?”

“Mmmhmm,” I tell him.

“You have your Love Arrows back, but you didn’t use them on us…”

“I wouldn’t do that. I just use Lust on you because it’s funny.”

I hear him smile. “I know. But why not use the arrows? It seems like a lot of other females would have used one on Ronak to get him to come around. All along, you could’ve used your powers to seduce us. But you didn’t. Why?”

I shrug a shoulder as he continues rubbing. “I want everything that you guys feel to come just from you. I don’t want to influence anything with my cupid powers. When someone does finally fall in love with me, I want to know, without a doubt, that I didn’t force it in any way.”

I can feel him smiling, but I’m too focused on the foot rub. “That’s very honorable of you.”

“Yep,” I sigh. “I’m totally honorable. Keep rubbing.”

Laughing, he pats my feet and then lets go. “Later. Come on.”

I groan and open my eyes. “No. Touch the feet. Do the rubs.”

“I figured you’d want to get clean. I’ll show you the bathroom and bring you the clothes we ordered if you’re ready.”

I look down at my dirty, torn dress and grimace. It’s the same dress that I wore the last day of the culling, including when I was beaten, so there’s even some of my blood stained on it, which has not gone unnoticed by the guys.

“Yeah. Clean would be good.”

I follow him out of our bedroom and into the washroom. “Whoa.”

If I thought the place was great before, it’s perfect now. There’s a huge bathtub next to an exposed brick wall with a window overlooking the flowers the other side. There’s a toilet in one corner, a pedestal sink and a vanity in the other, and an ornate mirror that stretches above the sink. The marble tile at my feet is gray and impossibly shiny.

“This is super nice.”

Sylred looks around like he’s seeing it for the first time. “This took us a while to build,” he admits. “We got all the materials from other islands. We wanted this room to feel more luxurious. A place our mate could relax.”

The bath certainly looks relaxing. When I see the silver spigot poking out of the wall beside the tub, my mouth falls open. “You have indoor plumbing?”

He smiles. “No more outhouses or outdoor baths for us.”

“Is the water cold?”

He shakes his head and I practically beam with excitement. “There’s a water basin outside set above a fire pit on the other side of this wall,” he explains. “When I told you to wait in the garden, I was filling the basin and lighting the fire for you. It’ll heat the water quickly, and then you can fill your bath.”

“You genfins are geniuses.”

“Always so impressed with baths.”

“Well, yeah. Baths are awesome.”

Sylred walks over to the vanity and opens some of the drawers. “You should find everything you need in here. Clean towels, soaps, and…lots of other girly crap that I have no idea about.”

“I’ll figure it out.”

“I’ll leave you some clean clothes outside the door. Holler if you need anything.”

“Thanks.”

When he leaves, I quickly strip out of my gross dress and pile it on the floor. Then I go through the vanity drawers, checking the inventory. Hairbrushes, combs, shaving razors, scissors, soap, shampoos, hair oil, lotion, perfumes, and more awaits me.

After choosing my stock, I turn the valve on the spigot and watch as steaming water starts spurting into the tub. Pouring in some soap and perfume, I don’t hesitate to step into the bath and melt under the water.

By the time I finish, I’m washed, cleaned, perfumed, smoothed, scrubbed, and shiny. I even pushed my wings out so I could wash them, too, and was very excited to find that the tub was plenty big enough to accommodate them. It could also easily accommodate a genfin or three. Just saying.

After drying off, I lather myself in so much lotion that my skin practically drips with it. Then I carefully brush my hair, which takes way too long because of the amount of tangles in it, but I finally manage to braid it over my shoulder before my arms fall off.

When I grab the clothes Sylred left me, I pull on a nice, comfortable dress. It’s not fancy like the stuff I wore at the culling, but it’s simple and light linen that fits my curves perfectly and even has accommodations in the back for my wings. These damn genfins thought of everything.

Satisfied, I start to leave the bathroom… And walk right into the wall. ‘Ouch,’ I mutter, rubbing my hurt forehead.

Note to my stupid cupid self: I can’t just float through the walls when I’m not in the Veil. Geez. Popping in and out of invisibility is confusing. And makes me prone to injuries.

I grab the doorknob, thankful my guys weren’t around to see that.

I leave the bathroom to search for Sylred, only to stop short at the sight in the sitting room. I stare at the lounging figure sitting on the chair. My mouth opens and closes several times as the fae watches me with growing amusement.

Finally, my brain manages to make my mouth talk. “Umm…”

Wow, Emelle. After all that time, that’s what I come up with?

With his feet propped up on a table and his hands behind his head, he continues to smirk at me.

“What are you doing here?” I finally ask the Horned Hook.

Belren grins. “Hello to you, too.”

Should I keep standing here? Or should I sit? I scratch my arm absently as I work through what to do. I should definitely walk further into the room and take a seat across from him, right? Or am I supposed to kick him out? This is considered our love den right? Gods, I can’t handle these social situations.

“Won’t you join me?”

I practically sprint forward, grateful for the direction. When I sit down, I start to fidget nervously under his smirking gaze. I can’t get my arms to set comfortably on the armrests. Putting both arms up on either side makes me feel like I’m pretending to sit on a throne. But putting them in my lap makes feels weird, too. Maybe if I put one on the armrest and one in my lap, then—

“You look better than the last time I saw you.”

I breathe slowly, attempting to act normal. “Yeah, I can’t really pull off the beaten and tortured look,” I quip.

He continues to lounge easily as he takes me in, causing me to blush. “Stop it,” I snap.

His brows raise. “Stop what?”

“Looking at me like that. You’re freaking me out.”

Belren laughs. “How should I look at you?”

Irritated, I shoot him a look. “What are you doing here? Where’s Sylred?”

“Which genfin is that?”

“The nice one.”

“Ah, the blonde feline. Don’t know. Haven’t seen him.”

I frown. “Then who let you in?”

He lifts his capable hands. “I did.”

“You broke in?”

“I turned a doorknob. That’s hardly breaking. Technically, I didn’t even touch it,” he says, reminding me of his telekinesis magic.

“What are you doing here?” I repeat.

“I came to see how you are.”

“Oh. Why?” I ask suspiciously.

He smiles, displaying his perfect white teeth against his gray lips. He looks around the room. “Nice genfin den. I take it you’ve come here to form your mate bond with them?”

“Umm, yeah.”

“Hmm.”

Hmm? What the hell does that ‘hmm’ mean?

I’m about to ask when the front door opens and all three of my genfins walk inside. They stop in their tracks when they notice Belren, and their expressions turn murderous. Great.