Evadne held Hades' gaze, looking straight into his eyes.
She wanted him to see it there before anything else... before the shock, before the pain, before whatever this truth would do to him.
She wanted him to see that her love for him was still there. Stronger than ever.
"We don't know how it happened," Evadne began softly. "And I still don't know how I triggered it…" She swallowed. "But earlier… I marked Casadin."
Hades stared at her.
"You marked Casadin?" he repeated, uncertain, as if the words had reached his ears but not yet his understanding. "Marked… like a mate-bond mark? Like what Nebyros told us before?"
"Yes," Evadne said, never looking away from him. "And the 'tattoo' on his back… it seems it was triggered by my marking. He changed. Physically and internally."
Hades' face tightened.
"What do you mean, baby?" he asked, trying to keep his voice steady, but the unease had already begun to rise inside his chest.
"He's taller than you now," Evadne said carefully. "More solid. More built. And also…" She hesitated, because this was the part she knew would hurt. "We can feel each other. We bonded."
There it was.
That flicker in his eyes.
Pain.
Insecurity.
Doubt.
It passed across his face so fast, and yet so clearly, that Evadne felt her own chest ache. Hades tried to hide it, but he had never been good at hiding pain from her.
Evadne moved without thinking. She climbed across the console and straddled him, taking his face between her palms and kissing him, trying to pour reassurance into it, into him, into the breaking thing inside his chest.
"Hades… look at me," she whispered when he did not answer the kiss.
His eyes were widening slowly now, as if what she said was only just fully sinking into him.
"You're bonded?" he said.
There was pain in his voice.
Not anger. Not accusation.
Just pain.
Then, all at once, he seemed to lose air.
He moved her off him... gentle, but fast. His hands were shaking as he unbuckled his seatbelt and pushed the car door open.
"Hades," Evadne called out immediately, frightened, and scrambled after him.
He stepped out into the parking lot, one hand going up the moment she tried to follow.
He was hyperventilating.
"Hubby," Evadne said, her voice small now, worried, and she tried to step toward him.
"Just… just give me…" Hades struggled to breathe. "Just give me a little space, baby."
His hand found the concrete wall of the parking structure. He braced himself against it, bowing his head for a second as if the ground beneath him had shifted.
Evadne and Casadin were bonded.
The mate bond was not just a feeling. It was not just desire. It was the universe itself acknowledging that two people belonged together.
That they belonged to each other.
Not just body.
Not just affection.
But heart and soul.
If they are bonded… where does that leave me?
The thought hit him so hard he almost folded.
Was that why Vee could never tap into my head?
Hades sank down onto the low concrete barrier by the wall, his whole body trembling now.
Fear.
It was fear.
Not of Casadin.
Not even of the bond itself.
But of the possibility that this was the universe telling him he had no place left in Evadne's life.
How could he compete with a mate bond?
He could not challenge something the universe itself had chosen.
If it was no longer just Evadne and Casadin deciding what they were to each other... if fate itself had spoken... then what was he supposed to do with his love?
"Hades," Evadne said, full of worry now as she finally closed the distance and knelt in front of him.
When she saw his whole body shaking, she wrapped her arms around him and held on.
"Hey, listen to me…"
She took his face in both hands again and gently forced him to look at her.
He was crying.
Tears were falling down his face in silence, as if the pain had struck his entire body first before his mind could catch up to it.
"What about me now?" Hades asked.
Out of all the questions tearing through him, that was the only one his lips could form.
What about him now?
When the universe had already decided that Evadne and Casadin belonged to each other, where did that leave him?
The pain in his chest became so unbearable he began striking it with his fist, as if another pain might help him breathe through this one.
"Hades, stop... " Evadne caught both his hands and held them tightly. Then she placed them around herself. "You need to calm down."
Evadne closed her eyes when Hades pulled her into him and locked his arms around her so tightly it was as if he was terrified she might vanish.
"Nothing changed between us," Evadne said, one hand stroking through his hair. "I still love you the same, hubby. I still love you the same."
She kept repeating it.
Again.
Again.
Again.
But the storm inside Hades did not calm.
Her words reached him, but they could not anchor him.
Because words were not enough against a mate bond.
How could he hold on to words when the universe itself seemed to have chosen someone else for her?
How could he trust only what she said when she could not even enter his mind?
She and Casadin could now feel each other. They could speak without speaking. They could live inside each other's senses if they wanted to.
And he...
He could not even let her hear his thoughts, no matter how much he opened himself and tried.
He only held her tighter, like a drowning man clutching the only thing still keeping him above water, while inside him, the fear continued to spread.
Evadne had to coax Hades several times before he finally calmed down enough to move. It took patience, soft words, and a great deal of pleading, but eventually, he let her guide him out of the parking lot and up toward his penthouse.
Thankfully, the building had a private elevator accessible only to members of the Falcon family and to those given a special access card. At least she did not have to worry about anyone seeing Hades like this... shaking, breaking, barely holding himself together.
"Drink this," Evadne said the moment they stepped into the penthouse. She guided him to a lounge chair in the living room and handed him a glass of cold water.
Hades' hands were still trembling so badly that although he managed to take the glass, he could not even bring it properly to his lips. In the end, Evadne had to hold his hand and guide the glass for him, helping him take small sips just to steady him.
Evadne rarely regretted her decisions.
But now, she did.
Maybe she should have listened to Casadin. Maybe it would have been better if Hades had discovered the mate bond gradually. Maybe she could have given him hints first, little by little, enough to prepare him instead of throwing the whole truth into his lap all at once.
Her chest ached at the pain she had caused him.
She turned away for a moment just to wipe her own tears before he could see them.
"Baby…"
Hades' voice stopped her.
She looked back at him, and the plea was not only in his voice... it was written all over his face.
Evadne immediately sat beside him and gently pulled him so that half his body rested across her lap. She wrapped her arms around him, hoping her touch, her warmth, her presence... anything... might be enough to reassure him.
"I love you, Hades Falcon," Evadne whispered near his ear.
Hades buried his face against her stomach and wrapped an arm tightly around her, as though he feared that if he loosened his hold even a little, she might disappear.
Evadne kissed his cheek. Then his temple. Then the top of his head.
Over and over, she repeated those same words.
"I love you. I love you. I love you."
After a long while, Hades finally spoke.
"What happens to us now?"
He sounded calmer, but only barely. The way he still held on to her made it obvious that he was only trying to be calm... for her sake.
"If Casadin is your mate…" He hesitated. "What am I?"
"My boyfriend," Evadne whispered immediately. "My fiancé. My future husband. My man. All of those things combined."
Everything except your soulmate, Hades thought bitterly.
But he could not bring himself to say the words out loud. He knew they would only hurt her.
"Nothing has changed between us," Evadne assured him again, stroking his hair.
"You don't know that," Hades said, his voice strained. "Casadin is your mate. He has…" He could not finish.
He could not say it.
That Casadin now had every right in the universe to claim her.
That she belonged to him as much as he belonged to her.
Evadne combed her fingers gently through his hair.
"I do know," she said softly. "Because I asked Casadin."
Hades stopped breathing for a second.
Then he shifted, lifting himself just enough to look up at her while still lying across her lap.
"I asked him what he thought about me being with you," Evadne continued. "And he said nothing changed. He still feels the same way. He still thinks that me being with you feels right. That we still belong to each other."
A faint smile touched her lips, though her eyes were still wet.
"Mate bonds do not work that way," Hades said. "He should be possessive of you. He should not want to share you. The thought of you being with another man should hurt him."
"Yes," Evadne said. "He told me he felt exactly what Lyxaria described. The possessiveness. The madness. The pain. He said he feels that too." She paused. "But not with you."
Hades stared at her.
"Casadin and I believe that you and I are mates too," Evadne said carefully. "That the mark on his back... the wing... is proof that the mate bond between us is still incomplete."
Hades immediately sat up straighter beside her.
He looked at her as though he had not dared hope for those words. He even had to swallow before he could speak.
"Are you saying…" His voice shook, though this time it was with hope more than pain. "Are you saying you can mark me too, baby?"
"We believe so," Evadne answered.
"Then let's do it," Hades said at once.
He started stripping off his suit jacket, then his tie, then reached for the buttons of his shirt with frantic hands. His movements were too impatient, too desperate... so desperate that in his rush he tore some of the buttons right off.
"Hades, I can't," Evadne said quickly, catching his hands.
The panic came back into his eyes instantly.
"But you said…" His voice cracked. "You don't want to mark me?"
"No," Evadne said, holding his face. "Of course I do. I want to mark you." Her own voice trembled now. "It's just… I don't know how."
He froze.
"What do you mean?" he asked, heartbreak bleeding through every word. "Wouldn't you just do the same thing you did with Casadin?"
"That's the problem," Evadne whispered. "I don't even know how I marked him. I blacked out when I did it to him."
He looked at her like her words made no sense and all the hope that had briefly lit his face was now threatening to collapse all over again.