Kyan knows he scares me sometimes and a few times has even come close to killing me. If it wasn’t for them, weakening every time I’m injured, I would surely be dead by now.
The only reason I’m alive is because of the blood bond. In this form, I am tied to Kaif and Kyan. In our human forms, I get slivers, but not everything. Exactly why we made the bond in the first place.
I’m Kaif’s keeper in a sense, but to stop him from killing me I had to be able to feel him and him me, when he hurt me. The shit you do for best friends, take a beating, then get a beer afterward and high-five it out.
Kaif’s eyes are locked on Lucas. Lucas is about three seconds from shitting his pants. Jax growls at Kaif, whose eyes dart down to us. He shakes his head, raking his claws down the sides of his face, and Jax whimpers as our flesh tears too.
Kaif, I can tell, is trying to remember who we are, what we are to him before he whimpers and leans down, shifting back, and Kyan is left panting on the ground beside me. His hand reaches out, patting our fur.
“Thanks, Jax!” he breathes out and I feel my bones rearranging, my broken leg snaps back into place. I lay back on the grass, also trying to catch my breath.
He smashed me up pretty good this time. I feel his hands reach for the wound across my stomach.
“Oi, no touching the merchandise, don’t want anyone getting the wrong idea,” I tell him and he punches me in the arm. I look over to see Lucas has gone back to safety within the house, and I let out a breath of relief.
“Shut the fuck up, and hold still. And did you have to call him an oversized hyena?” Kyan asks, reaching out and ignoring me, slapping his hands away. He always feels terribly guilty afterward, but I am used to it, this saves me from going to the gym.
“He liked that one huh, I will have to remember that one then,” I chuckle.
“Want me to heal you or not? I swear you have rocks in your head antagonizing him like that,” Kyan growls at me.
Seconds pass, and I feel the coldness of his magic seep into me and I fight the urge to be sick. I hate the feeling of his magic, it’s such an unnatural and sickly feeling.
“Well, at least you will be ready when it comes time to fight for your Alpha title,” Kyan says, and I nod.
I have to challenge my father in two months. I am a stand-in Alpha now, but the official title hasn’t been claimed yet, though I have been called Alpha for years.
“What is it?” Kyan asks.
“Nothing,” I tell him.
“Bullshit, you may not be able to feel me in this form but I can still feel you,” he says, holding up his hand. We both have identical scars running down our palms from the blood bond. I look at mine.
“If I take the Alpha position, what goes on with this?” I ask him, and he shrugs.
“I will find another way. I will think of something,” he says, his brows furrowing.
“What if I don’t want to be Alpha anymore?” I mutter, and his head snaps in my direction.
“You have been training for it since you were a kid. You have always wanted this.” I can hear the shock and disbelief in his words. Yeah, me too, pal, me too.
“I have always wanted this, yes. But it’s different now. I don’t want the same things,” I admit.
“What do you want, then? You are giving me whiplash with your indecision, like the stupid paint all over again for the Casino theme. We changed paint codes seven times,” Kyan mutters. Is he still not over that?
“Eight, but I will let your bad memory slide,” he chuckles, shaking his head.
Kyan stands, offering me his hand and pulling me to my feet. “You never answered,” Kyan says, picking up our shredded clothes and tidying as he goes.
“Leave it,” I tell him, and he growls, trying to clean up the mess. He has always hated mess and disorder.
“Keep walking, send cleaners tomorrow,” I tell him, though I have no doubt after I leave he will be back out here, cleaning.
He growls, rubbing his temples, and presses his lips in a thin line. I grab his shoulders, turn him, and shove him toward the door leading inside. He huffs, storming off through what is left of the conservatory and into the main part of the house.
This place feels haunted and creepy as fuck. The shadows, I swear, have eyes, and it’s always so dark and cold here. Kyan starts walking up the steps and I stop next to the old grandfather clock.
“What about Marabella?” I ask him, and he stops looking over his shoulder at me.
A growl escapes him. His red eyes glow back at me and he continues walking toward his room. I sigh, following him, and he flicks the light on. Lucas, I notice him peering out the crack of his bedroom door across the other side of the landing.
“I know you’re there, Lucas. You can stop hiding now,” Kyan calls as he walks into his room.
“I wasn’t hiding,” Lucas calls back.
“Because peeping through the crack isn’t hiding. Chill old man, he is alive, no bodies tonight,” Kyan says, grabbing a pair of sweats out of the drawer. He slips them on and chucks me a pair.
“So, Marabella,” I question again.
“What about her?” he snaps, though he pauses, sitting on the edge of his bed.
“Are you going to tell her? She showed me the message you sent her?” I ask him, leaning on the doorframe and watching him.
“No, and neither are you. Not that you could even if you wanted to,” Kyan says.
“No, I can’t tell her that, but I can tell her what you are. You never slipped that into your blood bond, seriously who adds a non-disclosure to a blood bond?” I chuckle at my great sense of humor.
“I do because I know you love her,” Kyan says the words in a calm tone, but I can hear the edge of them. He is ridiculously, dangerously even, close to losing control again.
“How long have you known, and why didn’t you tell me?” I ask him.
It’s not that I want the answer to the question anymore. I fucking need it. He kept this secret for years. Has he always known or just once he turned of age?
“Since I was nine.” He shrugs like it is nothing.
“That’s all I get? Since you were nine. You what? Just didn’t think to tell me that the one girl I have ever shown an interest in is your fucking mate?” I barely hold myself back from screaming.
“She isn’t my mate, I haven’t marked her, and I am not going to,” he mutters.
I raise an eyebrow at him and cross my arms in front of my chest. “So you are rejecting her, then?”
“No, Kaif won’t allow it.” He drops onto the edge of his bed, putting his head in his hands. I growl at him, and Jax is also pissed off at his words.
“How did you know?”
“I have had Kaif since I was three. I could sense her. And dad told me she was my mate before he died. He had a vision about her,” he whispers.
“That’s why he took the bullet for her. That’s what you meant at the funeral when you dropped your talisman into the coffin and sealed it in there?” Kyan nods.