“He’s mine. He’ll always be mine.”
“It hasn’t even been a month since you met him,” Madden said. Then he seemed to recall something and blew out a breath. “Actually, this is very on-brand for you. You may be spontaneous, but you’re also obsessive. Like these damn corset vests you’re always in,” he motioned to the glittery black and gray one Kel was currently wearing. “You saw one in an AD and boom. By the next day, you’d changed your entire wardrobe. And the roses.” Kelevra’s tattoos were covered by his suit jacket, but Madden looked at his arms pointedly. “How many do you have delivered to your penthouse weekly again?”
“It’s daily,” he corrected. “I have two dozen fresh roses brought in. It spruces up the place. And they smell nice.” And if he sometimes passed his time by pricking his fingers on their sharp thorns and watching the blood roll…That only added to their functionality and appeal.
Madden rubbed his face and snorted. “Yeah, not sure how I didn’t see it before. Maybe you’re right. Maybe I am too oblivious for a job as important as your head of guard.” It’s what he was attending the Academy to become. Every member of Kel’s Retinue already had their future positions selected.
“It’s a good thing nothing slips past my Consort’s notice.” Kelevra was even sure Rin knew what was going on right now. That’s most likely why he’d managed to last this long. But knowing wouldn’t help him forever. Eventually, he’d crack and give in, no matter how illogical it seemed.
“Wow, are you saying he’ll protect you if I can’t?” Madden snorted. “Last I checked, he doesn’t even like you. What makes you so sure he’ll do that?”
“Who says he doesn’t like me?” And even if Rin didn’t, he would. Kelevra was confident of that. “You should see how he treats his brother. How much he cares for him.” Despite the fact his brother was a psychopath.
Kelevra guessed therein laid the difference between the two of them, but that was fine. He didn’t want to be like Sila Varun, he just wanted what he had.
Kel’s sisters loved him, and his Retinue were genuinely friends of his, but he knew even they walked the line, too afraid to push him and suffer his wrath. His flower didn’t hesitate to tell his brother off. It didn’t matter to him what Sila was capable of or the types of things he no doubt dreamed about doing to others—Kelevra had figured that part out about the imposter as well. He’d always been interested in blood. Seemed like Sila was probably the same in that retrospect.
“Rin is perfect for me,” Kelevra said. “It’s almost as though he was made for me even. He grew up with a Devil so he’s already accustomed to us. He’ll learn to accept me the same way he’s accepted his brother. Step by step. I’ll fill him up until he can no longer tell where he begins and ends. Until he’s so used to having me around, life without me will be an unbearable prospect.”
“Your obsession is noted, but it’s important to point out that things are different this time around than they were with your corsets and your roses,” Madden told him. “Those things are inanimate. Easily controlled. Rin is an entire person. He has his own thoughts, his own wants, and his own desires.”
“I’ll simply become all of those for him,” Kel shrugged.
“You’re not even slightly concerned you’ll fail,” he noted. “That’s one serious god complex you have, my friend.”
“I’m an Imperial Prince,” Kelevra corrected. “I’ll have him on his knees just like I have everyone else.” And if he also happened to have those full lips wrapped around his cock again as well?
All the better.
Using the drug on his flower had been exciting.
But his nectar was going to be all the sweeter once Kelevra made him want it without drugs or threats.
If all went to plan, he was going to have Rin Varun begging to be his by the end of this.
Chapter 21:
Rin’s arms cut through the water. He’d lost count of how many laps he’d done around one hundred, and he couldn’t recall when he’d taken his last full breath either. Tiberan’s were born for water, with the ability to hold their breath longer than most other species. Even though they’d left their home world, he and his brother still made regular trips to the pool, though Sila more so than Rin.
Which was technically why Rin was there now, swimming in the Vail University pool. Three days ago, his brother had come to him asking to swap places, and seeing as how he’d been on his last thread of patience when it’d come to surviving on the Academy campus, Rin had eagerly agreed. It’d been a small reprieve.
Too small.
He’d expected to show up to the university, playing the part of Sila Varun, and get to relax, instead, he’d been screening questions about his brother’s engagement to the Imperial Prince. At least as Rin the student body whispered—loudly—behind his back, but as Sila, people were bolder.
Being identical twins meant no one could tell them apart, and they’d been using this trick for so long, slipping into the role of Sila and shedding Rin had been simple. If only he could shake his emotional baggage with the same kind of ease.
Rin was two steps from going off on everyone, which he couldn’t afford. His brother had fucked with the process and upped Sila’s personality since returning from their summer break. Now he had friends and a reputation on campus as a flirty, fun-loving guy, a major change from the quiet and reserved freshmen he’d been last year. No matter how many times Rin asked, his brother wouldn’t explain either. He’d simply say there was a reason and eventually he’d tell him. That was it.
They’d split their “personalities” for a reason, to make it easier for them to switch places and keep up the ruse. His brother had never messed with that on his own before.
Cursing in his head, Rin tapped the wall and rolled in the water, pushing off to shoot across the pool. Three times a week, like clockwork, Sila could be found at this pool doing laps for at least an hour. Rin had been looking forward to it since swimming had always helped him alleviate stress and get his head on straight, but he’d been in here for at least two and was still seething.
How dare Kelevra treat him like this? Who the hell did he think he was?
First he had the audacity to make a public announcement and post that way too personal picture, and the next he’s ghosting? And not just. He was making a public statement by avoiding Rin, and Rin hated that he was aware of that fact. Why couldn’t he be dumb? Ignorance was sometimes bliss, and this would have been the perfect occasion for that. Instead, he was pissed off that the Imperial Prince was messing with him, and stressed out that everyone kept staring at him, and anxious over the rumors being spread attached to Rin Varun’s name.
If their father got word…
