Chapter 137: Between Mate & Brothers

Reign:

Kairo’s question struck harder than I wanted to admit.

For a fraction of a second, something inside me faltered, but I buried it beneath the anger already burning through my veins. I refused to let either of them see how deeply his words had reached me. Instead, I stared straight into his eyes and said coldly, "Whether I deserve Argentis as my mate isn’t for you to decide. That’s for Argentis herself to decide."

I took one deliberate step toward him, and Alaric immediately shifted between us, clearly prepared to stop me if I decided to put my fist through Kairo’s face. I ignored him, keeping my eyes locked on Kairo as I continued, "I don’t care who you are interested in, Kairo. I don’t care who you flirt with or who you decide to entertain. But Argentis is off-limits to you." My voice dropped into a warning growl. "She’s off-limits to everyone except me." ℯ

Something changed in both of them. It was tiny, almost imperceptible, and either one of them probably would have denied it if I had called them out, but my wolf noticed.

Their expressions remained controlled, their bodies relaxed enough to pretend my words hadn’t affected them, yet there had been a brief shift in their eyes. A hesitation. A reaction. And that tiny movement was enough to make my wolf growl uneasily inside me.

For months, I had assumed my friends had no interest in Argentis because none of them had ever supported my attempts to make her bend. Alaric did initially but he too stopped a while ago. And I had thought their indifference was simply because they didn’t care about her.

But what if I had misunderstood them? What if they were interested in her, just not in the way I thought? What if they wanted her willingly rather than wanting to break her stubbornness and force her to acknowledge her position?

The thought made my stomach twist. And then another, far more terrifying possibility surfaced. What about Esme? What about Lorien? Had I been so consumed by my own problems that I hadn’t noticed something happening between them and my mate too?

My wolf shifted restlessly, and for the first time, I didn’t know what to do. These weren’t strangers. They were my brothers in everything but blood. I had grown up beside them. We had fought together, trained together, endured our families together, celebrated victories together, and stood beside one another through things no outsider would ever understand. I trusted them more than I trusted most people in this world. If I had to choose people to stand at my back in a battlefield, there wasn’t a single one of them I would hesitate to choose.

And yet, on the other side of that invisible line stood my mate. The woman the Moon Goddess had chosen for me. The woman my wolf had recognized before I had even understood what was happening. I couldn’t abandon my brothers. I wouldn’t. But I would rather die than willingly give up my mate.

The thought left me trapped between two things I could never imagine losing, and I hated the fact that I didn’t even know how to solve a problem that shouldn’t have existed in the first place.

Before I could begin searching for some way to stop this situation from becoming something that could destroy everything between us, Kairo sighed.

"You know, I still feel bad for the Princess," he said, and the sympathy in his voice somehow managed to hurt more than his earlier insults. "Being stuck with the very man she hates must be a miserable fate."

The words hit directly in the place I had been trying hardest to protect, and my body reacted before my mind could catch up. I moved forward, ready to charge at him again, but Kairo immediately lifted both hands in surrender.

"Relax," he said, though there was still an irritating hint of amusement in his expression. "I don’t care about whatever shit you have going on with the Princess."

He then glanced down at himself, apparently examining his clothes as though he’d only just remembered the reason for this entire confrontation. "I’m actually trying to figure out why I smell like her in the first place."

My wolf practically snarled at the thought. Kairo rubbed a hand over his shirt, then looked toward me with an expression of genuine confusion.

"I think it’s probably because I fell asleep in the library," he finally said. "On the same couch where Argentis spends hours studying. Maybe that’s why her scent got on me."

I stared at him. That was his explanation? Even someone with half a brain could see the holes in it. This wasn’t some faint trace of Elara’s scent lingering on his sleeve. Kairo was practically drenched in it.

My wolf had been able to identify her the instant he’d entered the room, and every instinct inside me was screaming that something much more significant had happened. Yet I didn’t question him.

I didn’t ask why he had suddenly started visiting the library when I couldn’t remember seeing him set foot inside it for years. I didn’t ask how he knew exactly where Argentis sat or how long she spent there. I didn’t ask why he’d chosen the very same couch. I didn’t ask why the scent of my mate was so strong on him.

I asked nothing because the alternative was worse. Much worse. As ridiculous as Kairo’s explanation sounded, accepting it was easier than allowing the darker possibilities forming inside my head to become real.

My wolf clearly disagreed, but I forced the creature down, commanding it to settle despite its continued growling and restless pacing. Eventually, I took a step backward, putting distance between myself and Kairo before my instincts made the decision for me.

I looked between my two friends, both of whom were watching me carefully, and said, "I won’t be attending classes before the examinations." My voice sounded more controlled now, though my body remained tense. "I have things to deal with at home. I’m leaving."

Neither of them stopped me. I turned toward the stairs immediately because I couldn’t remain in that room another second. The scent of Argentis clinging to Kairo was driving my wolf insane, and the longer I stayed, the harder it became to suppress the instinct screaming at me to drag my mate away from anyone who had touched her.

I reached the stairs and had already taken several steps upward when Kairo’s voice followed me through the basement.

"Reign," he called, and I stopped without turning around. His next question settled over me like a blade. "You are actually worse for not telling Elara about the mate bond."

I remained silent.

For several seconds, I stood there with my hand resting against the railing, the accusation echoing inside my head. Then I continued walking without giving him a response, leaving the basement behind me and carrying the weight of the one truth I had never been brave enough to tell the woman who was supposed to be mine.