Soul Ties

Chapter 50: How Could You?

The bed is soft, the sheets cool against my skin as I lay facing the windows. I watch the ships float by one by one, my mind in a state of pure bliss. Scorpius lays behind me running his fingertips lazily along the curve of my waist. I listen to him breathe, slow and steady, but not in a way that makes me think he's trying to control his emotions. His breath is calm.

This seems easy. The two of us laying in this bed together in this comfortable silence almost seems normal. Could this be something I could get used to? If I just accepted him as my mate, if I gave him my heart like he wanted, could this be my life?

It didn't feel wrong. It didn't feel hard. Somewhere in my mind this all felt natural. We had made it to Xoven. We had a place to call home. I had a mate who would do anything to protect me. He didn't even want to rush my love for him. Would I be able to take that plunge? It was possible if things stayed like this that after a certain amount of time, maybe I could see myself falling for him. Scorpius was changing in ways that he didn't even think were possible. Maybe if I just let myself, if I wasn't so hesitant anymore, I could open my heart and love him.

His lips brush against the back of my head. He pulls me into him, our bodies melting together so easily, me sliding into the curve of him.

"You're thinking too much," he whispers against me. "Tell me."

I look down at his hand, his golden tattoo in my line of sight. Intertwining our fingers, I watch our threads come together. He squeezes my hand a little tighter, our names almost meshing into one.

"Does this feel too simple?" I ask, looking back out the window.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, doesn't this all feel too easy? Like this has finally come to an end."

He hesitates for a moment. "Would you rather things be more complicated?" he wonders.

I shrug my shoulders.

"I don't think this is really an end. It feels more like the beginning of everything."

Was he right? Maybe I was looking for something wrong in all of this. This could be what it was like to finally come to terms with your mate. This comfortable feeling I had tingling all over my skin could be something I felt for years to come. Our souls had already been tied together. All that was left was to just live. To just be.

I turn around to face him, keeping his arm wrapped around me. His face looks just as I had expected, calm and almost sleepy. The low hood of his eyes widen a bit more, but his expression stays the same as he makes himself comfortable in this new position.

"I have to tell you something," I say, twirling his hair around my fingers. "When I left you up on the flower field, I went to check out one of the tree house's. It was abandoned, but it didn't look like it was left intentionally."

"What do you mean?"

"It looks like whoever lived there was forced out. Everything was all messed up and thrown all over the place. And there were still pictures hanging on the wall but the glass was broken."

He stops my fidgeting and looks into my eyes, his body alert now. "Do you think it was Demien?"

"I don't know, but who else could it have been? My mother never told me there was a city down here like this one. I thought when we got here there would still be functioning tree house's. I wonder why they were all torn down."

Scorpius sits up. "Maybe Demien took over this side of Xoven more recently than we thought. But still, what would others living in houses have anything to do with him?"