Masked Fate (Fated Love #3)

CHAPTER THIRTY

Pandora

Reaching out my hand, I find cool sheets instead of Soren. Rolling from my side onto my back, I stare up at the ceiling, flashbacks of last night hitting me.

He told me he loved me.

He wants us to bond.

Can we really make this work?

Can I trust him?

After a quick shower, I get ready and go find breakfast and Soren, in that order. Instead, I run into Astrid in the hallway to the dining hall and smirk when she raises her brows at me. “And how was your night after Soren jealously whisked you away?”

My cheeks heat as I remember everything he did to me last night. But how the night ended is what I can’t stop thinking about, and how he held me in his arms all night. I’ve never had that before—that warmth and security. Astrid used to be the only person who would show me any affection, and now Soren is handing it out to me in spades, and it’s scary how much I don’t want to lose that. “It was good.”

“I bet it was.” She grins, nudging me playfully with her shoulder. “I’m sorry I couldn’t stop laughing last night, but Salem is fucking unhinged. I kind of felt bad for him because I think he genuinely wanted you.”

Salem has always been such a wild card, and I only ever thought he saw me as a possession. But last night, he definitely was acting differently, showing off yet another one of his multiple personalities. If my mother never hurt Soren and Rave never killed her, I would have had to marry Salem.

It’s crazy how fate works.

“He will find his own mate,” I reply, stopping when I hear a woman’s voice say Soren’s name. I grab Astrid’s hand and pull her to a stop.

“What?” she mouths.

“But you aren’t bonded yet, Master,” the voice says in a baby tone. “Are you sure she will give you what you need and know how to take care of you?”

My fingers tighten, and Astrid yelps.

Sorry, I mouth, loosening my hold on her.

I know I should walk out there and handle this situation, but I want to hear what he says. I want to see how he handles it without knowing I can hear them.

“I’m taken now, pet,” he murmurs, and my eyes narrow at hearing that word leave his lips. He shouldn’t be calling any other female that anymore. If he wants to bond with me, those days are long gone for him. “And my mate will give me everything that I need and more. More importantly, I will be everything she needs.”

Okay, that was kind of sweet, but it doesn’t erase him calling her ‘pet.’

Unable to help myself, I quickly glance inside the room and see Soren standing in front of the kitchen stove, cooking something. He can cook? The female, who I recognize as the fae who sat on Soren’s lap one night at dinner, stands closely next to him, looking up at him with nothing short of adoration and awe.

“Does she let you punish her?” she asks as I step back into the hallway, continuing to eavesdrop. “Do you wear your mask and make her submit to you?”

He hasn’t worn his mask. In fact, he threw it out because he’d worn it with other females.

I don’t want him to give up being who he is, but I don’t want to be another pet for him, either.

Am I enough for him?

“That’s none of your business,” Soren fires back, his tone turning low and guarded. “We only spent one night together, and you don’t get to question me. Know your place, pet.”

“She isn’t even your type. You like blondes—”

He laughs a low, amused rumble. “My little witch is exactly my type. She’s the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen.”

“How can you be with a witch after what happened to you? Everyone knows about what happened back then and—”

He cuts her off. “I don’t give a fuck what everyone thinks they know. Yes, my mate is a witch, and she’s perfect. I hope I have little witch daughters that are just like her. I don’t need to explain myself to you, and this is the last conversation we will have about this. I’m sorry you are hurt, but I can’t give you anything else. All that I am and have is for my mate.”

“She hasn’t even bonded with you!”

His pet apparently doesn’t know when to give up.

“And I will wait forever for her if that’s what she needs,” he replies in a calm, serious tone.

There’s a heavy pause, and then she snaps, giving up on playing nice when she doesn’t get what she wants. “If your mate is so fucking precious to you, then why did you spend your time fucking the entire female population instead of looking for her? If you waited for her, she wouldn’t be in this position of being embarrassed everywhere she goes knowing every female in the kingdom has already sucked your dick. Does she know just how many women in this castle alone you’ve slept with?”

Okay, fucking ouch.

Astrid wraps her arm around me. “Don’t listen to her. Soren is obsessed with you.”

That doesn’t change the fact that what she’s saying is the truth.

Soren speaks, his tone colder than I’ve ever heard it. “I love my mate, and she’s the only woman I care about. You want to know why I call you all pet? It’s because I don’t remember any of your names. You all blur together into one giant orgy, and I can’t even remember anything about you. Now you are going to leave this castle and find a new fucking job because if I hear you’ve upset my mate in any way, I will kill you.”

Astrid and I share a wide-eyed look.

“You can’t fire me,” the woman yells, then starts crying loudly.

I’m judging Soren for surrounding himself with these kinds of women.

“Get out of here, now ,” Soren growls and the maid comes running out, freezing when she sees us standing in the hallway.

“He’ll come back to us,” she sneers, wiping her tears away. “He’s not a one-woman man, and he will get bored of you soon enough.”

She voices my biggest fear, and it makes my chest tighten uncomfortably.

“Leave and don’t return,” Astrid orders, looking like she wants to slap the woman but holds herself back.

“Astrid—”

“Talk to him,” she tells me, rubbing my back with her warm palm. “Yes, he has a past, but he would never ruin what he has with you. I truly believe that, Pandora.”

Well, that makes one of us.

“I need to go,” I whisper to her, kissing her cheek before I zip back to my kingdom.

I know I’m taking the easy way out, but I need to think.

Soren might want to belong to me now, but before me, he belonged to everyone else.

Am I ever going to be okay with that?