“You’re mates?” Loriene asked as she dropped down limp. Her husband knelt down beside her and held her in a side hug. Looking at Armoni in disbelief, Garreth asked, “Armoni you, you’re not lying to us, are you?”

Armoni looked at Garreth, feeling bitter. He had no words to explain how all of this had occurred, nor did he have the energy to explain anything to them. As he opened his mouth to speak, Jeffree came out of the operating room with a heavy sigh.

Armoni quickly stood up and as he made to step forward, Jeffree’s gaze snapped towards him. Armoni hesitated, then released a sigh.

“Ho–how is Ari doing?” He asked.

Jeffree smiled at him and spoke, “Thankfully, he was healed through the mate bond. I’m sure his injuries must have taken a toll on yours and Lycan’s bodies. Why don’t you go rest in Ari’s assigned room? I’ll have my wife set you up with an IV to help replenish your energy.”

“Are they really mates, Jeffree?” Armoni’s father asked.

Armoni turned to his father as he heard, “Only Armoni and Ari have the answer to that question, but the Ravenfur’s don’t need to worry. Your son is well on his way to recovery, but we need to keep a watch on him. I have done all I can as the pack doctor and Armoni has helped us extremely, but we can only rely on Ivy to do the rest of the work.”

“I’d like to see Ari, please,” Armoni spoke. They could all hear how broken he sounded.

“Su–sure,” Jeffree said and stepped aside. Armoni walked past Jeffree with heavy steps and walked into the room. As he looked ahead, he saw Ari bandaged up by his head, neck, his arms, torso and legs. He was barely visible, and he was blue.

Holding back his whimper, he reached for Ari’s hand and took it in his. Leaning against the bed, he looked at their hands. He could hear and feel Ari’s heartbeat. It was a bit too fast from his normal, but that was a good sign. He was fighting—fighting for survival.

Lawrence and his wife, followed by the Ravenfur couple, walked in and found Armoni kneeling beside the bed with his head placed against Ari’s hand. Tears were streaming down his cheeks, but there was no sound coming from his mouth.

Loriene looked at her husband, then as she touched her hand over her heart she asked, “Armoni, how are you and Ari mates? It’s impossible between males and–”

“Aren’t you supposed to be happy?” he asked her.

“What?”

“Ari found his mate. That’s all that matters, what happens afterwards, that’s between us.” Looking at his mate, he let his tears fall. “It’s between us.”

*

Roman, Valen and Emmett were sitting in Armoni’s living room, waiting for him. Armoni was in the shower cleaning up and hadn’t been himself since—well, since the rogue attack.

Emmett sighed. “How much longer do you think he’ll be?”

Valen looked at him, then looked behind them at the door and shook his head. “Did you see his face? He’s distraught.”

“Why’d he keep it to himself?” Roman suddenly asked.

Valen and Emmett looked at him. Shaking their heads, they had no answer for him. “We’ll just hear him out?”

“I mean, Armoni was looking forward to marrying his mate. They got the dress and all, wedding venue, menu…”

“But didn’t he change his mind?” Valen said, recalling how Armoni stopped talking about his mate. Frowning, he said, “Didn’t it stop?”

“What?” Emmett asked.

“He stopped talking about finding his mate around his birthday. The conversations were awkward at first, awkward, then he just stopped speaking about it all.” He said.

Emmett thought back to it, then slowly nodded his head. “Yeah, he doesn’t even want to attend the gala.”

“Maybe it’s because he knows who his mate is this whole time,” Roman said.

The two friends looked at him, then looked at each other. Things seemed really complicated right now.

“How will they have children?” Valen suddenly questioned.

Roman shook his head. Standing up, he stalked over to the master bedroom and found Armoni sitting on the bed with his hands in his palms.

As the other two came running in, Armoni slowly raised his head to look at them with his eyes swollen and red. He was weak, weaker than they’d ever seen him.

Armoni had a terrible time back when he found out that Alana wasn’t his mate but now, now that his mate was here, and in pain, on the verge of death, “I—I keep thinking that what would have happened to him if we didn’t return home. Would he just have died? Wh—what if I rejected him like I wanted to in the beginning and this happened? Would Ari have died?”

Roman stared at his friend, conflicted. Walking up to him, he sat down on the bed beside him. He was about to bombard Armoni with rejecting this impossible bond, but to see him like this—”You’ve known he was your mate this whole time?”

Armoni nodded his head. His tears wouldn’t stop, his vision was blurry, and it felt like his body was going to cave in on itself.

“Why didn’t you tell us?”

“I was scared.”

“Scared of what?” Roman urged.

Armoni shook his head, “No—not scared. I’m a coward. Roman, you should’ve seen his face when I acted as if I didn’t know anything. I never want to see him look like that again—I never want Ari to hurt again, especially not when I can prevent it but Ari—Roman, my mate, he’s in so much pain and I can’t take it away from him. I lost so much time with him, I don’t want to lose him—Ever.”

*

Two days later…

Ari opened his eyes and was blinded by the light. Trying to sit up, he couldn’t. Immediately, strong arms slipped in under him as someone spoke. “Be careful.”

Ari looked at the person and was surprised, “Ar—Armoni? What are you doing here?”

Armoni smiled at him. He hugged him, saying, “I’m so glad you’re finally awake.”

Immediately feeling the spark of their bond, he melted into his hug and took in all of Armoni’s scent. It was finally happening. His mate was finally by his side after so many years.

Suddenly, when Ari realised what was happening, he placed his hands firmly on Armoni’s chest and pushed him away. Looking at him, confused, Armoni asked, “Did I hurt you?”

Ari shook his head. He was in shock, pain, and confused. “Why? After all these years?”

Staring into his eyes, Armoni could see that Ari was lost, confused, especially confused about him. Chuckling nervously as he held his breath, he asked, “Ari, what do you mean?”

Ari looked around at them after picking up on someone else’s scent. He was relieved that it was his parents that were here too. He smiled at them, then looked back at him and shook his head. “Why are you here?”

Armoni let him go and stared at him horrified, “Wh—why wouldn’t I be here?”

Ari stared at him, mirroring his confusion. Then it finally hit him. A sharp pain stabbed at his head, then he let out a scream. His mouth opened, mimicking a gag, but nothing came out.

Pushing Armoni to the side, he mumbled, “Where’s Ivy? I can’t feel Ivy.”

Armoni looked at his mate, who rushed to his mother and knelt down at her feet as he started crying in panic.

Loriene looked over at Armoni. She had just told everyone that Ari was awake and now, as she looked at Armoni, his eyes rolled to the back of his head as he spewed out blood all over them.

Ari turned around to look at what happened, especially with the smell of blood in the air and when he saw Armoni lying on the floor lifeless, his heart ached as his stomach turned.

Rushing in a crawl to Armoni’s side, he clawed at his body, trying to lift him up—cold air entered Ari’s body as he held onto Armoni. Looking at his wrist that was in pain, he saw two canine marks.

He looked down at Armoni, holding him close as he shuddered. “What’s going on?”