Kael.
For a very long mont, the only thing my brothers and I shared was silence. A deafening silence that settled over us like a cloud of smoke.
One that was so thick, you could literally cut through it with a dagger.
My hands balled into fists as I stared straight at Caelum, still not sure if I believed the things he’d just told us. His words... the so-called ex Beta Malakai’s confession— still felt too surreal for to believe.
But do you know what I felt more than confusion?
Embarrassnt.
Sha.
I was ashad of myself. Ashad that I had hopped on a Leilani hate train without knowing the entire truth. I was embarrassed that I had been stupid enough to believe a video I’d seen of her jumping from cock to cock despite knowing how timid she was and has always been.
I was most ashad of everything I’d done afterwards. Of all the punishnt I’d tted to her all in the na of protecting the innocent one— Chalice.
And I was completely ashad that I had hurt my mate. Mine. That I had broken her... hurt her, until she could no longer stand the sight of .
Goddess, how can I show my face to her after this?
My heart hurt at the thought which settled at the base of my stomach like a piece of rock in a pond, and when I raised my eyes to et that of my brothers, I noticed that they were just as lost as I was... just as ashad. Just as confused.
"We need to tell Leilani about it." Caelum said instantly, his voice sounding so detached, one would almost think it didn’t co from him.
He leaned against the wall, his arms crossed across his chest as he toyed with a small beaded bracelet between his fingers. "I think she has every right to know..."
"Or you think this could be an avenue to get into her good graces." Zevran hissed, causing Caelum to imdiately turn to him with wide eyes.
But he didn’t argue.
He didn’t try to repute Zevran’s claims.
So it was true.
"I intend to get into her good graces..." he spat, "I’m not a coward that would deny it. However, this is a matter of utmost importance. She’s out there thinking that her parents hate her for her inability to shift—"
"She knows." Zevran cut in, his voice grave. "There’s a Lycan who’s been after her for a while now, and because of him, she already suspects that her parents aren’t her parents..."
"But her mother is her mother." I added, "...and Chalice is still her twin."
"This whole situation is crazy!" Zevran gritted out, and I hate to admit it but it was true.
I still couldn’t fathom how it was possible for twins to have different biological fathers. And I do not care about the scientific gibberish being used to back it up, it just didn’t make any sense.
As if also as lost in thought as I was, my brothers went silent. Zevran watched his feet while Caelum began to type away on his phone. The heavy silence felt uncomfortable in a way, that is until Caelum raised his head and t our eyes, his voice sounding icy as he supplied; "I have an idea."
"An idea?"
"Yes," he replied, "...I want to try to get the information I currently need out of the woman, I an Beta Malakai’s wife. She’s the one who’s being accused of infidelity so she should have an idea who the father of her other child is... his full na. His pack. You know, everything!"
"So you want to torture it out of her?" Zevran asked, his voice holding a tinge of sothing that sounded a bit like disappointnt.
Even I felt so kind of way after thinking about it too. But soon Caelum chirped in, sounding too excited. "No, but I know soone who can do it."
A mont passed by in silence before I finally began to realize where this was headed...
"Mother?" Zevran called out softly, sounding stunned. "You want to ask our mother to do it?"
"Torture has always been her specialty," Caelum answered. "Moreover, she’s grieving. She needs to do sothing... anything... to channel that pent up anger... anything that will take her mind off her dead mate."
I seed to contemplate his words, but after thoroughly thinking it through, I shook my head and sighed. "No."
"Huh?"
"We do not want her committing murder now, do we?" I asked, and at that, they remained silent.
Because I was right.
There had to be another way.
—
Leilani.
My hands shook with— should I say— despair as I read and reread the contents of the dical result in my hands.
Gavin and I were not fully related.
Mom and I were... Chalice and I were... but dad and I weren’t.
How’s that even possible?
Beside , Jay stood with his arm draped over my shoulder with which he used to pull close to his chest. Usually, I liked it when he held this close but today, all I felt was discomfort and annoyance... and confusion.
"What do you intend to do about this?" He asked softly, his voice slipping into the array of thoughts swarming around my head.
One of these said thoughts—which coincidentally was the most prominent one flooding my mind— was my conversation with Darius.
AndI knew that I needed to et him... to ask him a few questions. I needed—
"Leilani?" Jay called out again, snapping out of my reverie and I gulped when I found him watching closely, his eyes travelling between my eyes and lips and back again.
He took a step back so as to et my gaze and muttered; "What next?"
But I didn’t know what to say. I didn’t know how to tell him about Darius or how to inform him that I may just be what Keisha says I am.
Speaking of which, what the hell happened with her?
That there made my eyes et with his for a brief second and I spurted; "I want to et with Keisha."
He froze. "Why?"
"I have a few things I’d like to ask her. I want to understand how she felt when she first started manifesting. I want to know if she went through all the things I am going through now."
At my words, his gaze softened. He held my hands in his and squeezed them gently. That action alone filled with a weird kind of warmth and I smiled softly. "I know you may not want to et with—"
"You’re not manifesting the sa way she was, Lani." He said slowly, interrupting .
My eyes thinned. "Huh?"
"She had trouble shifting... and when she finally did, it was to sothing that wasn’t a wolf or a lycan. It was both."
"I haven’t shifted yet." I tried to argue but stopped when he shook his head at .
"You haven’t fully shifted. Or maybe you have and you never got the chance to take a good look at it. All I know is that you have silver furs, you have strange powers too. And in the grand sche of things, it’s nothing like what Keisha was or could ever be. You’re sothing different; stronger too and maybe darker."
I gulped.
Goddess, I didn’t know how to respond to that. I had no idea how to feel about being sothing that everyone couldn’t na.
Sothing that seed to scare everyone.
And to top it all, I was lost on ideas. I didn’t know what to do next after this. So I asked; "Do you have any idea what I can do right now?"
"Yes," he answered quietly— quickly. "Talk to your mother. Then squeeze out what you can from that brute you’ve had locked up for the past six hours."
Louis.
Gosh, I had almost forgotten about him!
"Find out why he’s after you. You know who sent him, but try to know what he— or they— are after." He said and I nodded, but I made no move to walk away.
Instead, I simply stood there, taking in his now deep hollow eyes, his slimr face... and I knew, goddess I knew deep down that his feral wolf was slowly winning the battle within him.
I haven’t been able to ask him about his planned treatnt either— not because I didn’t want to but because I was scared of him leaving. I sighed. "I’ll talk to my mother."
"Good."
"And I’ll interrogate Louis."
"Ask Orion to do it for you. Scratch that, I’ll ask him myself." He hissed, and again I nodded.
"Okay." I whispered, "But first, I want you to kiss ."
Jay seed taken aback by my words. His eyes widened infinitesimally, but then he smirked, pulled close and planted his lips against mine.
Guess what?
I didn’t feel pleasure. I felt an extre kind of discomfort so bad that it tethered towards pain.
What the fuck?
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