Chapter 11

ELIANO'S POV

——∆♣§§♣∆——

"You're not supposed to be smoking on school property; that is a bad attitude."

I didn't look at him at all. I just lifted my middle finger and let it do the talking for me.

Rafael's voice never changes to me. It was calm, level-toned, like he practices sounding unbothered in the mirror every morning before going to class. His voice used to get under my skin. Now it just makes me want to throw ash in his direction and watch him react to it.

He won't react. He never does; he's so cold. He crosses the roof and leans against the ledge beside me. He was so close to me that I could smell whatever expensive oil he washes his hair with. Gideon and Xavier came up behind him a bit later; just like that, my forty minutes of peace were officially over.

"You could've knocked before coming up here," I say.

"There's no door up here, Eli…"

"Exactly, that means you weren’t invited here."

The roof of the Alchemy building is mine. It has been mine since second year. Ever since I worked out the plan you can hop the fire escape gate if you're not scared of a ten-foot drop, then take the drainpipe the rest of the way to the rooftop. Nobody would ever bother climbing up here. That was always the point of why I chose here as my haven.

I came up here before dinner to avoid a call from my dad. He'll try calling again tomorrow. He always does that, right up until he stops caring whether I picked up or not. Which is usually around four missed calls. I had one cigarette left in my pack and about forty minutes of actual peace alone before the fire escape gate creaked open and gave me away.

"What of Elvira?" Gideon says. You can’t say hello to me. You just went straight to the point. "How is she doing?"

I took my time before answering him. I took one more drag. I let the smoke go sideways in the wind before I even looked at him properly.

"Ask her yourself when you see her. I thought she was your mate to be."

"We don't know that for certain," Xavier says. He was more quiet than the other two, with his arms folded. His gold eyes were flat in the fading light. "We are not sure until her tattoo turns."

"Then relax." I flicked ash off the ledge of my cigarette and watched it scatter. "If all three of you are getting the same pull from one girl, it's her then. What are the odds that's a coincidence, you tell me?"

"It is easy for you to say." Rafael's jaw tightens. "We've waited a year for this time."

"Cry me a river then, if you can’t wait a little more days."

"Let's get to the actual point that brought us here," Gideon cuts in before Rafael can take a step closer.

"You mean the point you care so much about," Xavier says. Gideon didn't even dignify it with a look.

"You're getting too close to her, and we don’t like that," Gideon tells me instead. "We asked you to watch her. And not you putting your arm around her every five minutes of the day. I have to sit through Alchemy listening to you flirt with her, and it takes actual effort not to rip your head off your shoulders."

I laughed. “It will be unfair if you can hear me flirting with her, and probably not hear her flirting with me too. You might want to have a word with your own mate about that."

Gideon makes a sound low in his throat that isn't quite a growl. Rafael cracks his knuckles like that has ever rattled me once in the last ten years.

That’s cute, but it is not working on me.

I stub the cigarette out against the brick and push myself up, brushing dust off my trousers. All three of them were watching me the same way, like I'm something they don't trust and can't quite dismiss either. Like I give a single damn what they think of me.

"Your mate's fine," I told them. "She's happy, and she's doing well for herself. Don't ruin that for her, at least not yet."

"As her friend," Gideon said. I could feel exactly how much hurt it costs him to call me Elvira’s friend. "How do you think she'll take it? Being mated to all three of us at once."

Honestly? I have no idea. I've never gotten to find out what it would've felt like to be mated to all of you.

I didn't say that part out loud to them.

"I can't tell you that," I say instead. "If she's really meant for you guys, she'll come around. Do you want me to check her search history and see if anything is interesting on it for you guys?"

"You wouldn't do that," Rafael says, though he sounds less sure than he wants to.

"Try me and find out if I could."

All three of them hiss at the same second, like I flipped a switch. I can't help laughing at how easy it still is to wind them up.

"You're walking a fine line, Wolford," Rafael snarls.

"She's talked about all three of you more today than yesterday," I said, ignoring him. "That's the bond doing its thing, whether she knows it yet or not."

Their eyes lit up in perfect unison. Like I knew they would.

"What did she say?" Xavier asks.

"Did she mention anything about me?" That's Gideon, already leaning in to know more from me.

"Did she say anything about the knife throw?" Rafael, right over the top of him, asked for himself.

Three grown men, and they were sounding like a hallway full of girls trading notes before third period. I didn't hand over everything to them. Some of it isn't theirs to have; I'm not in the business of doing the three boys any favors. I gave them enough to ponder about. Rafael goes almost soft when he hears she called his voice sexy. Xavier already knew she couldn't look away from his eyes, but hearing it from me confirmed it for him. It did something to his face I've never seen before on him. Gideon gets boastful about being the first one she actually talked to among the three.

When I've finally been wrung dry, I pushed past all three of them and walked towards the fire escape.

"She deserves to be treated right," I told them on my way down. I did not bother to turn around to look at them. "Don't screw this up for her. And don't come up here again to my spot. This place is my safe space and mine alone."

I took the drainpipe faster than I should, landed harder than I was meant to. I stood there a second longer, catching my breath on the gravel behind the building.

Three of them have been waiting a year for one girl the Moon Goddess already promised them. Watching each other so closely, they've basically forgotten how to want anything without checking if the other two want it first.

I rolled my sleeve down over my mosaic mark that says I'll never get to have a mate.

My phone buzzed in my pocket. I already knew who it was before I checked. I let it ring out loud, shoved it back down, and headed toward my dorm before anyone could catch me still standing there, staring at nothing, like it meant something.