“No!” Dathal and Rys spoke at the same time.
Gabriel held up his hands. “It was just a suggestion. But he can’t stay in the house all the time.” Turning to me he said, “You need to start doing what you normally would before all this happened.”
Goddess, could I even remember?
And I still needed to talk to Talis.
When the fuck was I going to find time for that now?
“I’d still see pack members if things were back to normal. I can’t just avoid them, because won’t that look suspicious too?”
Gabriel hummed. “Go to the pack house then. Don’t have them here.”
Not ideal to talk to Talis there, but it’d been four days since I’d seen him. I couldn’t leave it any longer.
We hashed out a few more details, Gabriel promised to bring Max up to date, and Lady Sarhin suggested that maybe the high court didn’t need to know details about what we were planning.
Worked for me.
She left to go back through the gateway on the condition we contact her as soon as possible if anything happened.
When Rys and Gabriel stood to leave, I caught Rys’s arm as he passed. “I’d like to talk to you before you go.” I gave Gabriel and Dathal a meaningful look and they disappeared into the kitchen, leaving us alone.
“What’s wrong?” He grasped my shoulder, clearly sensing my nerves.
That move alone settled them though, and I smiled. “Nothing. I’m about to confirm something I think you’ve known about me all along.”
Rys grinned back, all teeth. “Tell me.”
“You remember asking me if I could read minds?”
His eyebrows rose. “More than once. And you always said no.” He pulled his bottom lip between his teeth, smile fading. “You telling me you lied, Axel?”
Chlah’al.
Like most of his pack, Rys was taller than me, and this close, I had to tilt my head to meet his eyes.
“Not exactly. But I wasn’t completely honest either. I had my reasons,” I added quickly.
His hand moved to the base of my throat, grip firm but reassuring, not threatening. “I believe you. You’re a part of my pack just like everyone else. I hope you know you can tell me anything, Axel. If you need me to listen, I’m here.”
I hadn’t realised how badly I’d needed to hear that from him. I wasn’t a shifter. Rys wasn’t my alpha like he was to the majority of his pack. But he wassomething,and I belonged to him just like everybody else did.
So I told him.
I told him everything from meeting Zh’alek, him finding about my secret, to Dathal discovering me tied to a chair and bleeding out.
By the end of it, his grip was verging on painful and his body vibrated with barely contained rage.
Alpha power was so heavy in the air between us it was almost suffocating. “If he sets foot in this territory, I’m going to kill him.” The rough timbre of his voice sent a shiver through me.
“I should’ve told you all this before now.” I looked away. “I’m sorry I didn’t.”
“No.” Rys tilted my head up until I was forced to look him in the eye. “No apologies. This was your secret to keep or to tell as you saw fit. You told me when you were ready, and I would never ask you to do it before then.”
“Thank you.”
He eyed me curiously, and I smirked, knowing what was coming. “When Gabriel first arrived. Did you know? That he was my soulmate?”
