“Yes, we can,” he says tightly. “The last thing – the last fucking thing – that I want is to force anything else on you. I’ll work with the bond. And if you never want to complete it, Ken, I’ll take it.”
“But you wouldn’t be able to bond with anyone else.” I force the words out, even though they feel like razor blades. “You’d be… stuck.”
“That’s not how I see it,” he says quietly. “I get to feel you. I get to spend every day knowing if you’re safe. If you’re healthy. If you’re happy. Without question, or doubt. I get to feel all of that, and that is a gift to me. And there is nobody else out there – not a single person – that I would choose over that. And I’d feel the same even if we didn’t have a bond, Ken. Even if I didn’t wear your bite. I promise you.”
His next words are slower. Enunciated. “I want this. I can’t be any clearer. I don’t want you to go a single moment more thinking that I might not want you. Because I do. You are all that I ever wanted, Ken. But… we don’t always get what we want. As long as you’re happy, everything else is just background noise to me.”
It will hurt him, if I don’t complete it. I know that pain intimately. More than anybody else. I lived with it for months as my body unravelled. And it wouldn’t be the same for him – not as many. Not poisoned. But enough. I loosen a breath, letting it shudder into the quiet room. “You don’t know what it feels like, Theo.”
“I know that whatever pain I get would be a shadow of what you experienced.” His eyes fix on me. “And I know that it will be nothing –nothing– compared to this last year. And I’ll take more. All of it. As long as you’re safe.”
I can’t… I can’t think about it right now. Not when I feel like this. I take a breath. “What if I go back to… that?”
To that cage. To those bars, and the unending darkness. To the loneliness.
My voice breaks, and I feel his fingers brush against my cheek. Comforting, but no more. Theo sounds ragged, his breathing wet. “Then we will bring you home again. We’re always going to bring you home, Kenny. You’re not on your own anymore.”
I don’t know what to say. He sighs. A quiet, soft sigh. “We have time now. As much time as you need, Ken. Whatever you need, it’s yours. Without expectation. I just want you to heal.”
Always, if I need it. While he walks around, connected to me with every beat of his heart and not getting anything back. “Can I see it? The bite?”
He turns to me, surprise flickering in his green eyes. But he tilts his neck in silent invitation, and I shift onto my knees, shuffling closer so I can see. He hasn’t covered it with anything.
Something unvoiced settles, my pulse lowering. “It’s not poisoned.”
There are no black lines spreading out, toxic and seeping. Only a slightly messy, oversized set of teeth marks, already healing. Possessive. It almost covers the side of his neck.
He’ll never be able to cover it, not without a scarf or a high-necked top.
A warm hand closes over mine, Squeezes, and lets go. “You were already in my veins, Ken. I already belonged to you. All it’s done is strengthen what was already there. But I’ll never cover it up. Not ever.”
I bite the side of my cheek to try to hide the satisfaction that fills me at the thought.
But he feels it. Of course he does.
No more hiding.
Oscar
Kennyburrowsherheadin my chest, breathing in. Her cheek rubs against the material in a blatant scent-marking gesture as my hand comes to rest in the small of her back, gently rubbing. “Where were you?”
My heart turns over at the small, plaintive question. “It took longer than I thought, but I got an update from the board.”
She pulls her head back to look at me. Her golden skin still looks sallow, washed out from the light in this damn room.
She needs sunlight. Fresh air. I can see the desperation in her eyes that she tries to hide, and it’s killing me that we can’t give it to her.
And this… no, I don’t like this.
“They want to assess you themselves,” I say gently. My eyes lift briefly, taking in the others. All of them look pissed. They’re about to get worse. “And… we’re not allowed to be in the room, Ken.”
She blanches. Her head is already moving, shaking. “No.”
“That’s ridiculous.” Max straightens, his hands clenching into fists. Kenny leans back into him, visibly shrinking as he draws her into his arms. “Of course we need to be there.”
Theo is rubbing at his chest. His face is pained. “What’s their reasoning?”
My mouth twists. I address my words to Kenny. Trying to explain to my mate why we have to leave her for this part. “They think that we might be an inadvertent shield. They want to see how you respond without us.”
