Prowled Darkness (Dante's Circle, #7)(11)

Now, he was alone in his Rover, driving around like a freaking idiot because he didn’t have a home in this realm anymore. He couldn’t go to the one friend he knew was near because Tristan would kick his ass for hurting Eliana in the first place.

He was alone, and he was the only one to blame.

Malik should go back and beg for forgiveness. He should f*cking grovel and ask Eliana to be his. He should listen to her and see what she needed, rather than proclaim that they would be mates in a realm that was as foreign to her as a new world.

His knuckles turned white on the steering wheel as his grip tightened. Enough of this. Self-pity wouldn’t help anyone. The only thing he could do was go back to Eliana and say his piece in truth. She might want space, and he would give it to her, but first, he needed to do the one thing he should have done in the first place.

Recognize her agony.

He did a U-turn and sped back to her place, praying he wasn’t too late—and that he wouldn’t get pulled over. Luckily, no one stopped him until he made it to the front door of her home, his arm raised to knock.

He froze, scared out of his mind.

What if after he’d spoken to her, after he’d told her that he loved her, she pushed him away again? What would he do? He let out a growl and cursed at himself. This was why there was even an issue in the first place. Time to nut up and be a f*cking man about the fact that he loved the woman in that house, and the fact that he was going to be a damned father.

The door opened before he could knock and he swallowed hard at the sight of Tristan’s mate, Amara on the other side.

“You came back,” Amara said as she narrowed her eyes. “Good. Now don’t f*ck up again because if you do, I’ll show you exactly what it means to be a siren.”

“You can’t kill him, Amara! Don’t sing his song!” Eliana called from the living room, and Malik had to swallow hard. Again.

“Please don’t sing my song,” he said gruffly. “I’ll make this work. I promise.”

Amara shook her head. “It’s not me you should be making promises to and you know it. Now, I’m going to leave and see my mates, and you are going to fix this by being honest. I know you’re scared, and you should be, but don’t hurt my friend or I will end you. Got me?” And with that, the sweet-looking siren pushed past him and headed toward the other car in the driveway that he hadn’t even noticed was there when he’d pulled in.

“You’re back,” Eliana said as she moved toward him.

Her eyes were puffy and her cheeks were red, but she’d stopped crying.

“Your friend scares me,” he said honestly. It was the first thing to come to mind, and once it was out, he wasn’t sure if he should have said it at all.

Eliana laughed. “Yeah, she scares me, too. In fact, all my friends do now. They’re powerful and protective but they’re mine. Are you going to come in, or are you going to stand in the doorway for the rest of the evening?”

He moved in quickly, closing the door behind him. “Eliana.”

“Before you start, I wanted to say I’m sorry.”

He blinked. “Why are you sorry? I’m the idiot.”

She snorted. “I won’t say you’re wrong there, but I’m sorry anyway. I shouldn’t have pushed you away while we were trying to talk. It was all too much for me and I just reacted.” She put her hands on her belly. “No matter what happens between us, we’re connected because of this baby. I don’t want to be with you only because of the baby, but I didn’t really give you a chance to talk about that at all. Instead, I freaked out and tried to hurt you like you’d hurt me. And for that, I’m sorry.”

He went to her quickly, cupping her face and tilting her head so he could see her eyes. Her skin was soft and warm beneath his palm, and all he wanted to do was nuzzle her and purr. He was a cat, after all.

“I am the one who should be sorry. I hurt you, Eliana. I hurt you and I hurt myself. But I thought I knew what I was doing. I left you and I shouldn’t have. Both times. I also shouldn’t have, like you said, dictated our future. I should have listened even as I tried to explain. I’m going about this all wrong and all I can think of as an excuse is that I’m scared to death because I’ve never done this before.”

Eliana closed her eyes and leaned in to his palm. He could have purred once again. “I hope you haven’t done this before,” she teased.

He leaned forward and kissed the tip of her nose. She opened her eyes, and he knew he could get lost in them forever. She was his, even if he had to find a way to start from scratch and ensure she knew he could be hers, as well.

“I want to be your mate, Eliana. I want to raise our child together in whatever realm you feel at home in, but I want to be by your side.”

“I’d love that,” she whispered. “But we also have to figure out who we are together with everything out in the open. We fell into the relationship we had before because we each thought the other was human, and that changes how we are now. Does that make sense?”

He nodded and leaned forward again, taking her lips softly. She moaned into him and he had to pull back before he moved too fast, too soon.

“I don’t know how far back to go to start over. I think we’re past the introduction part.” He moved one hand to her belly, and she smiled.