#Chapter 469- Friendship Across Boundaries
Ella
I ignore the soft growl that rumbles from the doorway, though Calvin glances briefly in that direction.
“No, Calvin,” I say, shaking my head softly. “We did a little bit of research this afternoon. And I’m sorry to say it if it makes you sad, but you’re not my mate.”
“What?” he breathes, confused, his eyebrows knitting together. “But – ”
“Why do you think you are?” I ask, honestly conflicted now.
And Calvin sweetly and awkwardly blushes, looking down at the carpet. ” My wolf is…pretty convinced, Ella,” he murmurs, probably fully aware that the words are enough to set Sinclair off again.
“Really?” I ask, pushing now,” Because my wolf – she says that you’re important to me, but she wasn’t sure enough to give it the name mate. And everyone else I’ve asked, Calvin…they were sure. Is your wolf absolutely positive?”
He sighs now, looking down at his hands as he perhaps consults with his wolf inside. “It’s…the strongest connection I’ve ever felt, Ella,” he murmurs. “With anyone. Is it…is it not enough? Even if my wolf feels a little bit of doubt, and can’t give you a certain yes?”
And suddenly my heart breaks for this man who I realize is…lonely. Who had an arranged marriage to a woman I’m not sure he loves, who is surrounded by a Kingdom full of people whose deepest beliefs he at least doubts, if not outright disbelieves. Calvin – he saw the bond between us and he grasped at it desperately, wanting it.
Wanting the different life I potentially offered one with love in it, and a new world full of different ideas.
My heart – it absolutely breaks for him, and down the bond I feel Sinclair’s own pity as he feels my emotions along with me.
But still I can’t love him just because he wants me to. I have a mate whom I love very, very much.
“Maybe it would be enough,” I say softly, “in a different time, a different… life. But Calvin, we asked and had it confirmed. You’re not my mate – I only have one. And it’s Dominic.”
Calvin looks up at me now, his face twisted in confusion. “Who on earth would you ask about that?”
“Well,” I say, smiling a little bit. ” She’s not precisely on earth -”
Ella, Dominic says down our bond in warning. Because the Atalaxians – they don’t know anything about my divine origins right now, or at least we don’t think they do. We honestly don’t know how much Xander told him, but since they didn’t bring it my or Cora’s powers in the peace talks as a negotiating point, we’re assuming Xander kept any knowledge of or lineage and our gifts to himself.
He deserves to know, Dominic, I reply as Calvin stares at me in confusion. It’s his bond too.
“Can we trust you, Calvin?” I ask quietly, leaning forward and raising a single eyebrow at Calvin.
Slowly, Calvin nods and I bizarrely feel a little pulse of truth down…down what I can only assume is a new bond between myself and this prince. My lips part in surprise as Calvin stares at me in confusion, feeling it too, and then I feel almost a sigh down my bond with Sinclair as he gives me tacit permission to continue.
And so I tell Calvin everything – about the Goddess being my biological mother, and contacting her today, and everything she said about our bond being a seed. By the end of it, Calvin stares at me with wide eyes.
“God,” he says, leaning back against the couch’s arm. “Now I’m just… embarrassed. Here I was, ready to confess my devotion to you, and all along it was…nothing romantic. Not at all. Instead just a seed, whatever that means.”
Sinclair lets out another low growl from the doorway, letting Calvin know that he needs to watch himself, but I ignore him, reaching out a hand between us. “Just because it’s not romantic doesn’t mean it’s not important,” I say quietly.
Calvin reaches out as well, hovering his hand above mine until we feel that pulse between us. Until the glow forms between our hands, eventually raising sparks in the air. We both stare at it and a smile finds my lips.
“See?” I say. “Magic.”
“Incredible,” he murmurs, shaking his head. But then he pulls his hand away and tucks it into his pocket, glancing towards the door. “I’m sorry… I realize what I did was selfish, and hasty, and it likely caused you a great deal of stress.”
“Stop,” I say, scootching forward across the couch now so that we sit close together. “Calvin, you have nothing to be embarrassed about – ”
He huffs a laugh, looking down into his lap. “I was ready to leave my wife, Ella,” he murmurs, “to leave my entire country behind-”
“No,” I interrupt, and he looks up to see me shaking my head. “You’d have gone home, Calvin. For your children. And eventually, you would have figured out that what’s between us? It’s special, but it’s friendship. And you’d have been glad for it.”
Calvin sighs and raises a hand, pressing it softly to my cheek. “For what might have been, Ella,” he murmurs, “I’ll at least treasure that always.”
The connection burns between us, humming through me and raising the hairs on my neck. I stare at him, smiling a little, marveling at the magic that swirls in the air. But before I can get truly lost in it, someone clears their throat from the doorway.
I smile as my eyes fall on my mate, my sweet baby in his arms, glaring at both of us. Rafe lets out a little happy squeal and waves his hand, clearly choosing to respond to my emotions instead of his father’s. Calvin hastily drops his hand from my cheek.
“I should go,” Calvin murmurs, starting to stand.
“Do you have to?” I say, sorry to see him leave. There’s so much left here we need to explore –
“Yes,” Sinclair and Calvin say at once, making me grin and look between them.
“All right,” I say, putting my hands up and admitting when I’ve been outvoted. “But Calvin, you always have friends here. I hope that you truly believe that. The Goddess has wrought a bond between us, though it may be a mystery why for a long, long time.”
“And you’ll always have a friend in Atalaxia, though I may be the only one,” he says with a little shrug. Then he looks over at Rafe, sleeping in Sinclair’s arms. “Though I hope the numbers grow as our children do.”
“Me too,” I say, standing and daring to put a hand on his shoulder, feeling the little pulse pass through me like a zap of electricity. Calvin grins at me a little when he feels it too.
Enough, Sinclair says in my mind, and so I take my hand away, though I hope Calvin doesn’t notice.
Calvin looks at me for a long, long moment before he nods once and turns. Then he nods tensely to Sinclair as he crosses the room. He takes a moment to study Rafe before he walks silently out the door.
I sigh as I watch my friend leave. He doesn’t look back.
Sinclair slowly walks to my side, wrapping a supportive arm around me when I press myself against him. “Are you all right?” he murmurs.
I look up at him. “Yeah,” I sigh. “I wish that it wasn’t so awkward now. I mean, I really like him, Dominic. He feels like an old friend. I don’t want to part on bad terms.”
“It’s not bad terms,” he says quietly, his lips turning up at the corner. “He’s just disappointed because he thought he was finding the love of his life a very pretty love of his life at that – and as it turns out it’s just some weird sparky Goddess bond that does not get you in his bed.”
I laugh out loud at the bluntness of my mate’s words, shaking my head at him and wrapping my arms around his waist. “Don’t sound so smug about it, Dominic.” I can’t help a little smile though.
“I’ll be as smug as I want,” he says, smirking at me before dipping his head to press a kiss to my mouth. “I get you in my bed, after all.”
“My bed,” I say, narrowing my eyes. ” I picked it.”
“I paid for it,” he counters. I laugh, and when I do Rafe fusses and reaches for me, sending a little pulse of want down our bond.
“Ohhh baby,” I say, taking Rafe in my arms and cuddling him close. “You’re right, let’s get you to bed, little boy.”
And even as I walk quietly back to my room with my baby in my arms and my mate at my side, a little coil of grief still curls in me.
Because even if I have a new friend in Atalaxia, one my mom picked out specifically for me?
Tomorrow, we still go to war.
