“I don’t have the time or patience to go through everything,” Keon confessed, straightening from his slouch on the sofa.
Vega settled on the armchair across the fireplace.
Keon tried to condense his feelings. It was the story of his life, not having enough time. Time with his friends in Dnara, his mother, his father, or Teowulf. Time to tell Vega how he felt. Time to decide what to do. “I believe in the Fates. I believe everything happens for a reason. I don’t believe I would be sent to Dnara and see their acceptance of men like us, if not to show our people we deserve love and respect, no matter who we love.”
Vega’s eyes softened. “You’re a hopeless romantic.”
“No,” Keon snapped, moderating his tone when Vega flinched. “Iwasa hopeless romantic. I’m a realist, now. A hapless egoist took his size-ten shoes and stepped over my hopelessly romantic heart,” he said, confessing the hard truth Vega had forgotten. “I went to Dnara because my heart was broken. By you. I tried to forget you, to move on, to grow strong, and it worked. When I returned, I could look at you without melting or convincing myself to forgive you. Forgiveness doesn’t exist for what you’ve done.”
Though Vega’s eyes welled with the onset of tears, Keon didn’t feel remorse. What had been done could never be undone.
“Can’t you tell me what I did to earn your wrath?” Vega whispered, admitting he had no idea of the severity of his crimes.
Keon shook his head, the lump of emotion clogging his throat a stark reminder of how he had never recovered from what happened. “I’ve tried not to hate you, but I won’t deny it. After what you did, I’ll never forgive you and I’ll never forget. I can’t mate with you. Nothing will change how I look at you,” he confessed, accepting the awful truth.
“As to what you did,” Keon scoffed, shocked and disappointed he asked, “remember the one time Simeon let me go camping? You, me, Simeon, and Teowulf, the summer after Teowulf’s recovery. The summer before he died. The answer should be clear.” He caught Vega’s eye, watching the flicker of surprise morph into confusion. Remembering the trip. When he didn’t speak, recollection lost, Keon bit out the final, incriminating words burned on his heart at thirteen years old.
“You completed m’nuni with my brother.”
Chapter Five
Keon
Nine Years Ago
THE BACKPACK WASheavy, but Keon refused to complain. Simeon teased and joked, telling him not to fall over. When he staggered trying to put the straps on, Teowulf stopped to help lug the pack onto his shoulders. Not to take it, despite being older and a stockier build.
Keon had learned early his brothers weren’t nice. They were barely civil to each other, but hardly tolerated Keon. As if it was his fault he’d been born different. He wasn’t made of arrogance and muscles, didn’t enjoy bullying others, and didn’t see rules as a challenge.
Why the Fates gave him two brainless idiots as brothers, Keon couldn’t say, but he refused to be cowed. He’d always wondered what they did on their camping trips, when they returned hungover and slept for two days. After three days of badgering, Simeon agreed to take Keon. He wouldn’t waste the effort by complaining, when they could send him home whenever they felt like it.
“Come on, pup. Miles to go before we make camp,” Simeon called, wading through the overgrowth.
Keon glared as he navigated the long grass and fallen tree branches of the forest floor. He was lagging behind, but had snooped at Simeon’s map last night and thought he could manage alone, if they left him behind.
Teowulf and Vega walked in front, deep in conversation, joking and teasing. He couldn’t bridge the gap the age difference put between them. Teowulf could be nice if he found the right subject, but his proximity to Vega made Keon’s throat close with nerves.
For six months, Keon had known the awful truth: Teowulf’s best friend, Vega, was his true mate. He’d experienced the physical tug, couldn’t escape the mate scent of pine and wet grass, and was inflicted by the constant need to impress and serve. An instinct the bond developed, the moment it was formed.
The last hour of walking had made instinct unbearable. As they left the village and headed into secluded forestry, the older boys took advantage. Keon had been abandoned, left behind, sent to gather leaves and wood for a fire they never stopped to make. They’d dumped anything he found, each request nothing but a cruel trick. He’d become their lapdog to run errands. They’d sent him to ‘follow an easier trail’ and discovered he was alone. The more he tolerated, the more difficult they made it.
The long route and the heavy pack were a burden he could shoulder without complaint, if not for the constant exposure to the sun. Simeon followed the path without canopy protection on purpose. Sweat beaded on Keon’s forehead and neck, trickling from his sweaty hair to his spine. If he hadn’t fought to be allowed to come, he would have gone home, defeated and disappointed.
When Keon tripped and the pack flew over his head to thump against his chest, the straps caught beneath his arms, the yelp of pain was automatic. He never expected running feet or Teowulf hovering. Helping him to his feet, Teowulf dusted him off, checking for injury with concerned eyes.
“You’re not hurt?”
He shook his head, only his pride wounded.
“Come on, slow poke.” The words belonged to Simeon, but the voice was distinctly Vega.
Keon flinched and pushed at Teowulf’s fluttering hands. “Go back to your boyfriend,” he snapped, guilt and shame creeping in at the flicker of shock in Teowulf’s eyes.
He ruffled Keon’s hair. “Nothing wrong with you.” The words, achingly fond and brotherly, caused a tightening in his chest.
These last few months, his world had flipped. The day he felt the bond with Vega had been similar. Walking a trail behind the house, heading to his favourite clearing, when he tripped over a twisted root. Instead of Keon falling, Vega’s strong arm caught him around the waist. Pulled against a strong chest, facing the nineteen-year-old dreamboat he’d been swooning over for a year, Keon’s heart had stopped at the flare of the mate scent. He’d never imagined his secret crush was his true mate. Vega had tensed and his eyes widened, learning the same secret.
Everything changed.
