38. Kage
829 Words
“Are you ok?” Mika asked as she sat next to Kage in the truck.
Kage nodded as he wiped his nose and eyes with his coat sleeves. He hadn’t stopped crying since he left Kieran alone in the shower. He had hoped what everyone had said about Kieran and the woman he had turned last night wasn’t true. He had prayed they hadn’t started the shifter courtship. But he had smelled that slight scent of chocolate on him.
Kieran had mated with her, and he felt guilty about it.
Everyone gets to be with him but me…
Mika took his hand in hers and smiled at him. “None of them had much control over what they were doing. Rand explained that to us, remember? It was their first full moon.”
Kage nodded. “Am I too male for Kieran? Is that why he hunted for the closest female?”
“Kage,” Mika said gently as she wrapped an arm around his shoulders. “If you were too male for him, he would have never claimed you when I made my jab at Hikaru when we first saw you.”
“Why were you two with Kieran?” Kage asked through his sniffles.
“Hikaru wanted to find you,” Mika said. “It was luck that the first Furian he found was one who knows you.”
“Why did he want to find me?”
“He wanted to know you.”
Kage looked out the truck's window and watched as Hikaru and Artem were led into the back of another truck. The others Kieran had changed the night before were shown into yet another, separated from the two men Kage knew. He hadn’t seen the woman, but another truck was heavily guarded, and he wondered if she was in that one.
Auron exited the bunker with Kieran at his side, and Kage looked away from the pair as they entered the heavily guarded truck.
“I’m dying. The room Martin had held me in made me sick.”
Kieran’s words floated through Kage’s mind, and tears fell down his cheeks. He hadn’t told Mika what Kieran had said, and he wasn’t sure how or if he should tell Echo. He wanted to tell her. To tell someone. Did Papa know? Was that why he commanded Rand and Kage to destroy the poison crystal before Kieran could take it?
Rand got in the passenger seat as another werebear got behind the wheel. He turned in his seat to look back at Mika and Kage. “Is there anywhere you wish us to drop you off, Mika?” he asked.
Mika shook her head. “No. Alpha Kaname will cast us out when he learns Hikaru was turned Lurah and contacted his brother.”
“I figured you would say that. Dad got a nasty call from him a few months back,” Rand said with a grimace. “I’m sure we can find a place for you both as we figure out what to do with Kieran and his Clan.”
“Wherever Hikaru goes, I go. Why did Alpha Kaname call a Sleuth Grizzly?” she asked as she held Kage close to her side.
Rand’s gaze glanced at Kage. “From what dad said, he wasn’t happy to get a call from a Nephilim Doctor about a son he had cast out.”
Kage tensed at that, and Mika rubbed his side gently. “That was around when Hikaru learned he had a twin,” she said thoughtfully.
A single act of kindness can send ripples like a stone thrown into a calm pond…
“Kieran…” Kage said in a voice so soft it was barely a breath.
“What did you say?” Rand asked as the truck began to move in line with the others.
“Kieran saving me started it all…”
Rand raised an eyebrow at that. “How do you figure?”
“If Kieran hadn’t taken me home with him… If I hadn’t smelled Lacey’s unfaithfulness…” Was that all Kage was? The means by which the Gods got Kieran to this point? Would Mate Marking with that woman save his life? Breathing became hard as his eyes burned and his throat was tight. “… I was never meant to be his… He was never meant to love me…” he said in a tiny voice as tears fell hot and heavy down his cheeks.
Slap!
Kage’s cheek stung where Rand had slapped him, and the truck was dead silent when the werebear spoke with the full force of his Alpha Voice. “Don’t you ever say Kieran doesn’t love you again. I know my brother, and he wouldn’t have jumped off a f*****g cliff to go through with something that would shorten his life to protect someone he didn’t love.”
“But-“
“No buts Kage. Kieran loves you.”
- Writer
