Haven 5: Invincible Read Online Free Page A

tired, caro . You aren’t taking care of yourself.” The smile that tilted the corners of his lips upward couldn’t be stopped. Aslan didn’t want to open his eyes, though. It might be a dream, and if he opened his eyes, he’d wake up to find the room empty. “I miss you,” he whispered. It didn’t make any sense. He’d spent a whole ten minutes with the man. How could he possibly miss him?
    “And I miss you,” Torren replied very quietly, just barely above a whisper. He sounded sad. Why was he sad?
    Blinking open his eyes, wanting to see the look on Torren’s face to confirm his suspicions, Aslan frowned when he got a good look at his mate. “You’re all glowy again.”
    Torren smiled, but it didn’t reach his eyes. His onyx eyes looked haunted, lost. “It’s not safe for me to come here, but I had to make sure you were okay.”
    “You’ve been here before.” It wasn’t an accusation, nor was it a question. It was just a simple statement. Those other times when he’d felt like someone was watching him, hovering near him protectively, it had been Torren.
    Nodding slowly, Torren never took his eyes off him. “You’ve had bad dreams.”
    Pushing up to a sitting position, Aslan curled his legs closer to his body and pulled the blankets up around his shoulders. “Why are you so sad?”
    The question obviously surprised his mate. Torren’s eyebrows lifted, his eyes widened, and his mouth fell open as if he would say something. Then the look was quickly—and unsurprisingly—turned to one of denial.
    Aslan didn’t understand why people, and men in particular, felt the need to hide when they were sad. Maybe they thought it made them weak. Sadness was a natural human reaction to unpleasant things, though. Aslan had been sad plenty of times in his life. He didn’t think that made him any less of a man, or any more of a weakling.
    “It’s okay if you don’t want to tell me.” He pulled one of his arms out of the blanket and patted the mattress beside him. “Come sit down. We can talk about something else.” Again, Torren looked surprised. Hesitantly, he closed the short distance between them and eased down onto Aslan’s bed. The mattress dipped with his weight, and though Aslan could still see right through him, he wondered if he could touch the man beside him.
    So, that’s what he did. His fingertips slid over the back of Torren’s hand, very gently caressing the knuckles. He could feel something, but it wasn’t as substantial as if he had been touching his own hand. “I can touch you, but not really.” He looked up and smiled as he tilted his head to the side. “Does that make sense?” Probably not. Not often did anything he said make sense.
    Torren’s lips crooked on one side into a half smile. “It makes sense. What would you like to talk about?” His mate was awfully formal. Maybe he’d been raised that way.
    Perhaps he’d gone to some preppy school where they taught classes in manners along with the rest of the curriculum. “Why didn’t you come back for real?” It was the question he’d been dying to ask, and now seemed like the perfect opportunity.
    “I…” Torren trailed off and pressed his lips together. Apparently, whatever he’d been about to say didn’t sit well with him for some reason. “You are a distraction.”
    Well, that hurt.
    “I told you so,” a feminine voice whispered inside his head.
    “We all told you that he was an asshole,” another voice commented, this one masculine, older, and with a slight accent.
    “You can do so much better than him. Just look at the way he won’t even meet your eyes. He doesn’t deserve you.” The last voice was also masculine, but hard, mean, and always sent a shiver down Aslan’s spine.
    “Shut up,” he whispered. He didn’t know how long he’d have with his mate, and he didn’t want to miss a second of it because the imaginary friends in his head wouldn’t shut the hell up.
    “Excuse me?” Torren shifted so