Dear Enemy, You're My Mate

Chapter 75 **

Maya

I peer up at Finn while I'm busy taking off the bracelet from around his arm. Seeming to notice me staring, he tilts his head with a sweet, crooked smile. "What is on your mind?"

My lips part, but not a sound leaves my mouth. I can't possibly tell Finn the truth—that I've been a prisoner for too long and don't know where to go after this is over.

I want to be with Finn. He is a good friend, the only one I've ever had, and something warm and exciting travels through me whenever I tip my head to meet his gaze. In my world, Finn is too beautiful to belong. Bigger, more robust, and not human, and yet I want him.

He might not be my mate, but I swear there is chemistry going on between us, and I'm dying to find out if it can lead to an actual relationship.

But as soon as I think that, I feel crazy—I'm in too deep, and we barely know each other. My mother wouldn't approve of us—fairy and werewolf, and my father probably wouldn't like it either, or my sister, but my heart tells me Finn is the one.

He is so gentle, sexy, and although a bit clumsy, my heart does somersaults whenever I think of his name.

"Maya?" Finn's eyes are still locked with mine. It's terrifying and wonderful at the same time. He looks worried, and his gentle expression blows the rest of the world away.

I toss the last bracelet on the floor and throw my arms around him. My eyes close on instinct when his scent fills my nose, and finally, I can breathe again.

Why is it that everything feels so damn right when I'm near him?

"I'm sorry..." My voice is muffled against Finn's warm skin, and I'm shaking, terrified of him pushing me away. I want him so much. "I just-... I can't find words but-..."

"You don't have to say anything," Finn murmurs. "Just remember to breathe, Maya."

I sob and squeeze him tighter.

I'm not sure if Finn likes me hugging him—I practically attacked him without his consent, but since I can't tell him how I feel, perhaps I can show it through physical contact?

My muscles strain to embrace more of him, but I can't reach around him. Not that I care. I got more than enough of Finn in my arms to satisfy my greedy heart.

Yet I know, with devastating certainty, that Finn is soon leaving me to return to his world. Shit! Tears are prickling behind my eyelids like needles from a cactus. I'm dying and grieving, but my world shifts when Finn picks me up.

"Why are you crying?" I find his calm, collected voice soothing and lean my head against the crook of his neck. Finn walks. "We are finally getting out of here—aren't you happy?"

I don't give him a reply, and Finn nonchalantly tilts his head to make the prison door fly into the opposite wall. The wind seems to listen to his command.

I give him half of the truth. "I'm just confused and don't know where to go after this is over. I have a rocky relationship with my parents and sister. They have always seen me as weak and in need of special treatment."

Finn flickers his eyes to mine. "Because you didn't have a wolf?"

"Yes," I breathe a laugh, but the sound is more pained than happy. My head is in utter chaos. "They love me, but I've always wanted them to accept me for who I am, and I'm scared that reuniting with my wolf will make them do that, but for the wrong reasons. Fuck, I can't figure out how to explain my own stupid emotions!"

A vampire guard screams when we make it up the stairs, but Finn quickly steps out of the way and then, with his sheer gaze, freezes the man to the wall. I blink repeatedly—okay, so my friend controls both the water and the wind element.

"No, you make perfect sense. You want your parents to love you as a human, and if they seem to love you more after you have reunited with your wolf, well, holy shit, Maya—anyone would be sad!"

Suddenly, it's as if someone has removed a rock from my chest. I gave Finn a lousy explanation, and somehow, he still understood what I meant, which warms my heart. I like him a lot.

"Thank you, Finn. Your words mean a lot."

Finn smiles. "No problem," he blasts off a guard down the stairs and moves through a long corridor leading to June's lair. "You need to talk things out with your parents, confront them. I'm sure they will be sorry for the past, and you can work things out."

"Maybe," I sigh in defeat, already imagining the hugs and kisses I will be given when I see my parents again. They probably thought their helpless girl was dead. "My mother is bright, and I think we can work things out, and my father is lovely too, even though he favors my sister."

"What a shitty father—what is his name?"

"Dior Lavigne."

Finn freezes, and then with a comically mechanic movement, he squints his eyes at me. "Wait, so you're Dior's daughter?"

I lift an eyebrow. "Is that a problem?"

Finn is wearing a rather challenging expression to read. I can't tell if he is happy or about to scream. "Is your mother by any chance named Patricia?"

A lightbulb blinks inside my mind until, finally, I get it. "Oh, you're that fairy my mother has mentioned!"

By now, Finn is hyperventilating and slowly slides me off his chest with a paling face. "How old are you?"

"Eighteen."

A relieved sigh escapes his lips, and then he places his massive palms on my shoulders with dead-serious eyes. He is wearing a smile, but I can tell he is about to crack. "Don't tell your parents what happened inside of the prison cell—they would have me killed. Dior would call forth his shadows from hell and-..."

I laugh. "Oh, it's not my father you should be worried about—my mother, on the other hand, is scary when she raises her voice."

Finn shudders. "Yes, please keep everything a secret, and I'm so, so sorry for ever touching you!"

"Wait, what?" I stare up at him, hurt by his words. "You don't mean that, do you?"

Finn brushes past me, already on his way into the next room to steal the orb containing my inner wolf. "I'm sorry, but my best friend's kid is a big no, and if I knew about it sooner-..."

I slap Finn's face, shocking him. He gawks down at me, the dwarf picking a battle with him. I'm in his bubble and not afraid of challenging him. I'm flames and thunder, angrier than a fighting bull.

"Now you listen here, you idiot—who I choose to fuck is none of my parent's business, and I quite like you, so if you're sticking around, and I believe you will, then it will happen again. I will kiss you and make it feel as if you've been in hell for all the days you've spent without me."

Amusement crosses his features, and his smile, so damn charming and sexy, gives me butterflies. He is showing his pearly whites, and I fall a little deeper for him.

"Wow, big words—someone is confident all of a sudden."

I walk past him. "Shut up—we have a vampire to beat up!"

Finn chuckles. "I like you too, little wolf, but a relationship wouldn't work between us."

My eyes meet his. "You don't know that without making a try, and if you aren't willing to take the goddamn leap, then you're not worthy to chase either way! Cowards aren't sexy."

He sighs. "It's not just your family. We come from two different worlds, literally speaking, and I don't age in the same way you do. There are a lot of things in the way for us to be happy."

The truth hurts more than I expected, but am I surprised? I had sex with a man and fell for him—I'm pathetic. Girls aren't supposed to swoon over a man this quickly, but then again, we spend every minute of the day around each other, and I love every second.

I suck in a deep breath. "Does the thought of me aging quicker than you bother you?"

"Not at all, but I think it would sooner or later make you miserable. And although there are solutions to this, we aren't exactly there yet to discuss them, and we won't be there because I'm heading back to my world."

My heart falters. "I wish you would give me a chance..."

He says nothing, but his lips curl mysteriously as if my words got to him. For a long moment, his eyes roam my face, but then he snaps out of the spell and opens the door.

"The plan is to grab the orb and run for the portal," Finn says. "Think you can do that?"

I stare at him. "The portal?"

He grins. "Do you trust me?"

"More than I should."

Finn's smile turns wider. "Then in one, two, three—and run!"