They were going to go skin a rat.
Maybe even literally, if his mood hadn’t improved by the time they made it to that part of the city.
* * *
“This boyfriend.” Sullivan cleared his throat and glanced out the side window of the hovercar as they sped back toward the estate several hours later. The illness was finally catching up to him, and the doctor had already been called and was waiting at home for when they arrived. “Is it serious?”
“Yes.” Baikal didn’t bother lying. He was sitting in the back next to his father, the two of them having just finished taking care of Kor and his men. They’d left Kazimir and Flix behind to handle the cleanup, and Whim was in contact with the police they had in their pockets to try and get the news to die down before it spread too far across the city.
It’d been a bloodbath, so of course they hadn’t been able to keep as tight a lid on things as they’d hoped. Case in point, the fact Baikal currently had red painted up and down his arms and all over his clothes. At least the black helped to hide it.
His father was spotless, having stood in the background, allowing his son to take control of the situation. Kal saw it for what it was, a king showing approval for the prince’s choices publicly. It was a statement that he was confident in his heir. To the rest of the Brumal, it’d seem like he was nothing more than a proud Dominus, preparing to merge his adult son into the family business once he graduated in the Fall.
But Baikal knew the truth.
His father had wanted to put a failsafe in place, a recent event the rest of the Brumal could look back on when he was gone and say definitively, “He trusted his son to take the crown. So should we”.
Which implied anyone had a choice in the matter.
Which pissed Baikal off.
He’d thought he’d expended enough energy when they’d surrounded Kor’s ranch-style home and attacked before anyone knew what hit them. That making his way through the building, killing the traitors who’d planned to not only discredit him in the eyes of the rest of the Brumal, but had also had a hand in what had happened with Rabbit a few days ago, would have relieved all that pent up negative energy.
But it hadn’t. He could still feel it swirling in his gut, threatening to claw its way out. It was the same feeling he’d suffered through at the beginning of his father’s diagnosis when they’d discovered he was going to die and there was nothing any of them could have done to stop it. Baikal had been a wild, chaotic force of darkness.
Until he’d met Rabbit.
“When the time is right,” he told his father, “I’ll move him into the estate.”
Sullivan thought it over. “It’s a little too late for me to get involved in your romantic life. Besides, when I’m gone, you’ll need someone to lean on. He isn’t Brumal?”
“No.”
“Shall I ask Whim to look into him, or will you be forthcoming?”
“I’ll tell you anything you want to know about him,” Baikal said. “I’ve got nothing to hide. He’s the one. Plain and simple.”
“Meaning nothing and no one can change your mind.” He chuckled and clapped him on the back. “And he’s agreed?”
Baikal thought about last night.
Rabbit had tried to change the game on him, and he’d admittedly been caught off guard by that fact. He’d never anticipated his tiny obsession coming around so soon, but there’d been nothing but sincerity shining in Rabbit’s eyes when he’d made the new offer.
After hearing about some of the things his mother had done to him, it was no wonder that he’d developed a fear of the dark and was used to being pushed around by someone with more authority than him. On campus, Rabbit always walked with his chin up, this air of royalty coming off of him. Baikal never would have guessed he was so unhappy just from scratching at the surface.
If he hadn’t seen him play that night one year ago, he probably never would have figured it out even.
Rabbit was good at masking his true emotions, at hiding in plain sight. So the fact that he was willing to come out of his shell even a little, to risk suggesting new terms with Kal…It was progress.
Which was why he’d rewarded him by leaving him alone. They’d bathed and he’d helped Rabbit into his pajamas, laughing when he’d been chided and told that his little bunny wasn’t a child. Then they’d slipped beneath the snow-white sheets on Rabbit’s bed and he’d pulled him in close and…That was it.
They’d fallen asleep with Rabbit’s head cradled on his chest.
It’d been the best night’s sleep Baikal had ever had.
Until Rabbit’s nightmare had woken him.
Some people might say what December Trace had done wasn’t that big of a deal, that she was merely strict and disciplined her son to extreme levels, but that her heart was in the right place. Baikal knew better. He’d spoken to the woman when Rabbit had been drugged, and she’d sounded frustrated that her son wasn’t answering her calls, nothing more than that. When he’d explained what had happened, she’d grunted like it was no big deal, muttered something about a scandal meaning he’d finally made it, and then ended the call.
