CHAPTER 117: TANGLED MESS {II}

{I am really sorry the system has publish my draft from another book. Currently working on releasing the original Chapter. I have also change the earlier version on clare POV of the previous Chapter you can check out if you had read the earlier version.)

BLAZE POV

It’s an old saying in vampire culture—"Your beloved grants you sleep."

We say it like a wistful legend, something ancient and poetic passed down through bloodlines, but rarely believed. Because we don’t sleep, not really. We rest. We lie still and quiet our minds for an hour or two if we must, but true sleep? That’s almost myth. Dreamless rest, sure. But dreams? Deep slumber? That’s for mortals. For those who breathe and age and feel time like a noose.

Until tonight.

Today... I finally understood what that meant.

Vampires don’t really sleep. We rest—brief, cold, dreamless states that barely qualify as unconsciousness. Maybe an hour here or there. Enough to keep the body functioning, but never enough to feel human about it.

But tonight-tonight was different.

I slept. Not just rested. I slept.

And I dreamt. I dreamt of her.

I can’t even remember how long—I slept. And I dreamt. Of her.

Clare.

Her laugh, her stubbornness, the fire in her eyes that flickered even when fear made her hands tremble. In my dream, she wasn’t afraid. She was smiling. At me. Gods, it felt so damn real.

And now, awake again in her apartment, I feel the ghost of that dream still clinging to me like warmth in the cold.

Her scent, her voice, the warmth of her body wedged between mine and that damn mutt’s. I had always thought the tales about a mate’s presence being calming were just poetic bullshit passed down by romantic elders. But now... now I knew it was real.

Her presence wrapped around me like a balm, like something ancient and sacred my soul had been aching for. It was as terrifying as it was... comforting.

The last thing I remembered before the darkness pulled me under was Reed’s smug look.

That stupid mutt. He’d worn it proudly when Clare shifted toward him in her sleep, curling closer to his warmth like a damn cat seeking comfort. I’d watched it happen, blood boiling under my skin, wanting it to be me

instead.

Hell, I almost gave in to the urge. I nearly reached over, pulled her against my chest, and whispered every selfish want right into her ear. I’d be lying if I said it didn’t sting. I’d wanted it to be me. I’d imagined her curling into my chest, not that damned mutt’s. Every bone in my body itched to pull her back toward me, to claim even a scrap of her comfort. But I held back. Barely.

And now?

Now I wake up tangled in a situation I never asked for.

Literally.

Because Reed and I? We weren’t just on the same bed.

We were cuddling.

Waking up in a tangled mess, only to find myself cuddling with Reed of all people—my eternal rival and the bane of my undead existence—was not part of the plan. I blinked once, twice, hoping I’d misread the situation. But no, my arm was very much around him, and his was draped across me like some terrible cosmic joke.

I didn’t feel her move. Not a damn twitch. She had slipped out without so much as a rustle of the sheets—how, I’ll never know—but somehow, she ended up on the floor...

And Reed?

That bastard looked just as horrified as I felt.

He sat up fast, face twisted in disgust, like waking up in my arms was the worst thing that had ever happened to him. As if I was the problem.

He shoved me. I shoved back. There were expletives. Lots of them. Clare? Nowhere in sight. Somehow, she’d managed to slither out of bed without either of us noticing—again. And we were too busy playing unconscious tug-of-war to feel her leave.

I shot him a glare that promised fire if he opened his mouth. He scowled right back.

What the hell had we become? Two ancient beings who had once bled across battlefields now reduced to squabbling like teenage boys over a girl who barely understood what she meant to us.

But damn it, she was everything.

She had made me sleep. Actually sleep. That wasn’t just biology. That was something deeper.

And as much as I hated Reed’s smug face, as much as it burned that she’d shifted to him instead of me...

A part of me still smiled.

Because she was here.

Alive.

Safe—for now.

And I wasn’t about to let that go.

REED POV

What. The. Fuck.

I was sure as hell holding my mate—not a cold-blooded, soulless, walking corpse of a bloodsucker.

I was sure as hell holding my mate when I closed my eyes. Her soft body tucked against mine, her scent—warm, earthy, uniquely her—filling every breath. I remember the steady rhythm of her breathing, the subtle way her fingers had curled into my shirt. That comfort? That warmth? That peace?

Yeah. That was my mate

And yet, when I shot up from sleep, instinct on full alert after hearing the unmistakable thud of someone hitting the floor, who was in my arms?

Blaze.

Now I’m wide awake, and the first thing I see when I open my eyes is Blaze’s pale, smug, fucking undead face two inches from mine.

Worse? Our limbs are tangled. Our bodies pressed together. I can feel his arm around me. I don’t know whether to scream, vomit, or burn the entire goddamn bed.

Fucking Blaze.

I jerked back so fast I nearly fell off the bed myself. My face twisted in pure disgust, my skin crawling from the icy contact. He looked just as appalled, like he’d just woken up spooning a corpse.

Well. He technically had.

"What the fuck, man?!" I barked, already pushing him off like he was some parasite that latched on during the night. Blaze scowled, baring those fangs like that was supposed to scare me.

Yeah, right. I’ve fought worse than his smug ass.

"Don’t what the fuck me!" he hissed, adjusting his shirt like I’d somehow violated him. "You were the one rolling around like a damn puppy!"

Blaze looks just as horrified as I feel. His expression says I’d rather cuddle a rotting corpse, and I’m inclined to agree.

"I was holding my mate," I snap, running a hand through my already-messy hair. "Not you. Definitely not you."

"I thought I was holding her too!" Blaze growls back, wiping his hand on his pants like I’d infected him with fleas.

My hands curled into fists, jaw clenched so tight I could crack a molar.

"She is the one I want to hold. Not you," I growled lowly, pointing toward the edge of the bed where Clare had clearly made her escape. "I know I was. What the hell happened?"

We both turned toward the end of the bed where the blanket was still tangled—proof that someone had crawled down that way. A faint trail of disrupted sheets, like a desperate escape route. The image was too vivid: her tiny body wriggling like a worm trying to avoid waking the two creatures she probably considered emotionally unstable and completely insane.

And then the realization hit me.

She left us like that.

She saw us. She probably fell and everything, and we didn’t stir.

And we just—stayed wrapped up in each other like a damn vampire-werewolf honeymoon horror show.

"Fuck," I muttered, dragging a hand down my face.

Not only did she manage to escape both of us without waking us up, she had to witness this mess.

What was she thinking? That her so-called mates were more into each other than her?

Fucking hell.

"I swear," I said to Blaze, pointing at him again, "you ever end up that close to me again and I will burn your icy ass to ash."

He just scoffed, adjusting his cuffs like I wasn’t worth the breath. "Relax, mutt. It’s not like I wanted to be cuddling you either. If anyone’s been violated, it’s me."

I almost lunged at him right there, but the sound of water running from the bathroom reminded me why we were even here.

Her.

Clare.

She was probably in there right now, wondering if returning to bed meant crawling between her territorial, cursed soulmates who couldn’t even share air without threatening murder.

I sighed.

My wolf was restless, pacing inside me, wanting to be near her. Wanting her warmth back. But more than that, it was the scent she left behind on the bed that clung to me like a ghost.

Mate.

"Fucking disaster," I muttered again under my breath, glaring at Blaze, who had fallen silent too.

Yeah. This was definitely getting out of hand.

And she would have to choose eventually.

But gods help me...

I wasn’t ready to let her go.