Page 33 of His Rejected Fated Mate

“I think I’ve been doing fine. I kind of miss the quiet that came with the convent.”

“I bet. I imagine it was peaceful.”

I nodded. “Extremely.”

As we talked, I started to feel my shoulders relaxing. I found Janella and Riley were easy to talk to. Janella talked about growing up and how hard it was. I felt like I could relate to her. I found myself even laughing at her jokes.

She talked about Troy and how great a brother he was. Troy looked a little embarrassed as Janella went on about him. I couldn’t help but smile, thinking that I knew Troy was sweet. He’d always been sweet.

“Well, as long as my brother is treating you right.” Janella beamed. “And if he ever doesn’t, you just give me a call.”

“Don’t give her any ideas, Janella.”

I smirked. “I might take you up on that.”

“Does anyone feel like having dessert?’

“God, no, I’m stuffed,” Troy said, shaking his head. “I can’t eat anything else.”

Janella turned to Riley. “I’m full, but I will love the idea of brownies in about twenty minutes. Can we get it to go?”

“Or, we could stop at the bakery. I think they have better brownies.”

“Ooh, if we stop there, can we also get a caramel apple? Oh my god, no, let’s get their stuffed chocolate cakes.”

“I can get on board with that.”

“I’ll go order that and go pay,” Riley said, sliding out of his chair. Troy frowned. “I was going to pay.”

“Why would you pay? We invited you.”

“Because you paid for lunch last time,” Troy said as he slid up. But Riley ignored him, already walking across the space to the register. Troy hurried after him.

Janella smirked as she shook her head. “Always fighting those two. Honestly, you would think they were related more than him and me being related.”

I thought of her words from earlier and chewed them over. “Janella, do you mind if I ask you a couple of questions about this bonding? I figured you’ve been married for a while, so you must know more than I do.”

Janella nodded. “Yeah, what about it?”

“How exactly did you get your guys bonding to another level? I know that Troy and I are connected, but I just wondered if there was a way to strengthen it. I’ve been trying to read up about it, but there isn’t much about it. It just explains that if you want powerful magi to have a powerful connection. It kind of goes in circles.”

Janella nodded and made a face. “Ah, that. Did you not get told about bonding?”

I nodded. “Yeah, I know about bonding. But I just feel like there is more to this. You mentioned you had visions, and I haven’t, so… I just wondered.”

She raised an eyebrow. “The full thing? You’ve been told about the entire thing?”

I paused. “What do you mean by the full thing?”

She cringed. “So, you don’t. It’s okay, I didn’t know either. Uhmmm… It’s stated that the bond is never fully formed until you sleep together. You know… have a physical connection.”

I couldn’t help but be a little surprised by this. How had I not known this? Was Troy ever going to tell me?

“Oh…”

She offered a tight smile. “It doesn’t have to happen, but that is what helped me. I started having visions after Riley and I had sex.”

I chewed on my cheek. “I see.”