Page 96 of My Unexpected Mate

I stepped inside and closed the door behind us.

I turned to Nick with a serious expression on my face.

“We have to tell her,” I said.

Aria’s POV

I could already feel the consequences of not sleeping the entire night.

My eyelids were heavy, and my mind was a blur.

I was reading a book inside Gabe’s library, but the words were just mixing together. My tired mind wasn’t able to make sense of the things I was reading.

Annie was beside me, flipping through some books. She didn’t have any luck finding anything so far.

So she said. I still didn’t really believe them. They were hiding something. I knew it.

But after what had happened, I couldn’t go to the City library alone. Not that I would want to. I was afraid. And, even though it was hard for me to admit, I felt safer around Nick and Gabriel.

So the only way to look for some information was to look here. And to do that I had to tell them why I wanted to come in here.

And I did feel safer knowing that Nick and Gabriel were just downstairs.

This mate bond stuff was really powerful. I wanted to be around Nick all the time. When he touched me, I felt complete. I felt safe. I felt tingles all over my body and I didn’t want that feeling to end.

I felt similar around Gabriel. Safe and complete, but in a totally different way. It was very confusing.

On the other hand, I was terrified. I didn’t want anybody to touch me. When they did, I felt the need to run and never stop running.

I knew they would never hurt me. But my body didn’t listen to me. And I was getting tired of these confusing reactions.

“Did you find anything?” Annie asked me.

I shook my head. “No. You?”

“Nothing. Just boring political and legal stuff,” she said.

I heard my phone ring and I grabbed it.

It was a text message from Ian. He had managed to speak to somebody who worked with Claudia. He didn’t get any relevant information yet, though.

But he worked fast. I thought it would take him longer to do that.

I messaged him back to tell him I won’t be able to meet with him and we would have to exchange information over the phone.

“Who are you texting?” Annie asked and looked up at me.

Should I tell her?

“Is it Jack?” she asked with a frown on her face.

“Goddess, Annie, no,” I said quickly.

“Then who?”

“Ian,” I said quietly.

“Ian?” she asked, confused. “Who is that?”