Fated To The Lycan Brothers

Chapter 4: Holy S h i t

Suri Nightingale

“My stuff,” I muttered from the back seat. “I need my stuff.” I told Keith in a sort of demanding tone.

After the car drove off and the fact that I was being kidnapped had finally processed in my head, I realized that I was being taken to a far away place without anything I own – not my identification, not the money I’ve saved up for, but most importantly, not the only picture I have left of my mother and I.

Keith didn’t say anything as he seemed to have crouched down the front of his seat and a few seconds later, he came back up with a pink duffle bag and handed it over to me.

Relief washed over me knowing that my stuff was here, but at the same time there was confusion because, “How the hell do you have my things?”

“I figured you wouldn’t need a reason to stay here anymore so my subordinates got them for me.” He answered like he already knew I was going to ask that exact question.

I was getting ready to open and check if everything was in it when he said, “Don’t worry. We didn’t take anything from your stuff, Suri.”

“Uh… okay, thanks.” I mumbled, but still, I peered through the slight opening of the bag and tried to scan with my eyes to check if everything was where they were supposed to be.

Fake IDs I’ve made over the past few years. Few hundred dollar bills rolled and clasped with a rubber band. The very few clean clothes I owned. And then the picture of my mom and I that a nurse took with her polaroid camera while she was undergoing chemo.

I let out an internal sigh of relief when I knew it was all there.

“I told you we didn’t take anything,” I heard Keith say and I just looked at him emotionless.

“Whatever. Can you just give me some privacy so I can change?” I asked and he gave me a small nod and I was surprised when a black cover started coming up that separated the front seat from the back.

I quickly pulled out my red plaid shirt and ripped black jeans from my bag and got out of the all uncomfortable leather ensemble I was wearing for the club, as well as the masquerade mask.

The black combat boots, though, that one I liked and was going to keep.

Once I was settled back in, I got cozy in the fact that there was now much more privacy in the car as Keith didn’t roll down the black cover separating us.

“Holy s**t…” I coughed up in disbelief before looking around and just realizing how fancy this car was.

One of my mother’s ex-boyfriends, Carlos, was a mechanic and one time he had this rich customer come in wanting to get his fancy car fixed up after someone keyed it.

That’s what happens when you leave a bloody Porsche Panamera in the ghetto, sir.

Anyway, that car looks a lot like this one, but somehow even much more expensive-feeling. The seat reclined and they were so soft. It was nothing compared to the stinky and thin mattresses I had to sleep on. I could sleep like a baby in this, but I won’t because I have to be on high alert.

Eventually, for what felt like more than half an hour, we arrived at the airport. I have to admit, it’s my first time being in one.

Whenever my mom and I moved from place to place, it was always either with her then boyfriend and his car, public transportation, or someone we hitchhiked with.

The place was filled with people, likely because of the upcoming fourth of July holiday. It was a long weekend so people were lined up with their families or their significant others.

I felt a painful tug at my heart when I saw a little girl holding hands with her mother as they shared an ice cream cone. It reminded me of when I had just lost a tooth and we couldn’t afford painkillers so my mom bought me ice cream with what little money she had left.

Cookie dough has become my favorite flavor since then.

As we passed through immigration with just a single nod while the others behind us waited impatiently in the lines, I felt their eyes bore through my back probably wondering ‘how the hell are they just passing through?’

Honestly, I wonder the same thing, but I guess special treatment was valid for every place you went to if you’re a freaking billionaire.

Keith walked in front of me, but he kept looking back every minute or so to check if I was still there. Not like I could go anywhere when his six foot six driver/bodyguard was literally right behind me. I wouldn’t get so far as an inch.

“Good evening, Mr. Whitford. Do you have any meal preferences for you or your guest for tonight’s flight?” A gorgeous blue-eyed lady in an even more blue crew uniform approached us while we sat at some kind of executive lounge.

“Do you have any allergies? I know Stella couldn’t eat carrots so did you perhaps inherit that?” Keith turned to me and asked.

Honestly, I was genuinely surprised that he knew that and it was just piling up on my ‘Reasons Why I Should Believe Keith Really Knew My Mom’ list.

I shook my head. “No, I can eat anything.” Hell, I do eat anything. You can’t be picky when you barely have an opportunity to eat.

“Wonderful. We’ll have it all sorted out for your flight. Buonasera.” The blue-eyed lady said in a perfect Italian accent because maybe she is Italian.

I don’t meet a lot of foreigners where I’m from and the places I’ve been, so this was all just too strange to me.

“It’s good you don’t have any allergies, Suri. I still remember the first time I freaked out when I found out Stella was actually allergic to carrots. From then on, I made sure to always eat my veggies, as well as hers.” Keith said with a soft chuckle and a smile that looked like he was actually happily reminiscing on that memory. A memory with my mother.

I felt my chest tighten and my heart skip. I don’t think I’ll ever get used to someone else giving me new knowledge about my mom, but I also couldn’t help but take it all in like it was water and I had been dehydrated for months.

Anything to keep her in my memory, I was more than willing to grab.

–

“Holy s**t…”

That’s becoming my go-to phrase now when I can’t decide that something is really happening to me or if I’m in some kind of very long and hyper realistic dream.

This cannot be real. None of it can.

Keith Whitford doesn’t just own a private jet. He owns a freaking house thousands of feet up in the air.

A guest lounge as pretty and as pristine-looking as the one we were waiting at earlier is the first thing that greets us. The gray leather seats look so comfortable, like it’s just screaming for me to lay down on it and fall asleep on.

While I was living in rat infested rooms, people like Keith Whitford lavished in more expensive and extravagant things than they could ever need.

My eyes landed on a gold-plated vase holding fresh flowers and the thought of its price being enough to last me like what, five years, has me stupefied.

I look away and focus staring into the hallway. It looks like a bunch of cabins and down far at the back is a mini bar and buffet complete with more than enough drinks you need on air, colorful lights, a wide selection of food, and is that a freaking chocolate fondue?!

Keith must have noticed my eyes staring stunned and mouth almost drooling at said area because he breaks the silence between us.

“You can eat once we’re steady on air. You must be hungry.”

I wanted to tell him that I was starving since the last food I had was one piece of banana from the cafeteria, but I bit my tongue.

“After that, Miss Bella can assist you to your cabin to rest and refresh. The flight is only about two hours, but I’m sure that’s enough time for you to recuperate.” Keith glances to his side where the blue-eyed Italian lady from earlier is smiling widely at me.

I can’t even ignore her because she seems way too nice, so I give her a formal nod and a small smile.

The second the pilot announces that we were now free to stand and whatnot since we were steadily up in the air, I don’t even wait for Keith to give me a go signal before standing up and almost sprinting to where the food is.

Besides, he looked too busy with whatever papers there were in front of him.

My mouth was salivating just by looking at the different types of food. There was breakfast, lunch, and dinner, plus dessert. I could live here forever. I wondered if Keith would let me have a job here. He seemed like he cared about my well being so if I told him my well being would be, um, very well here, doesn’t that mean he has to say yes?

I don’t get too far into my thoughts because all my attention is brought back to the numerous delicious foods in front of me.

I must have turned into a food monster because the next thing I knew, my stomach felt like it was going to explode and looking at another marshmallow dipped in chocolate had me close to puking.

Maybe I did eat a little too much, but hey, who can blame me? I was starved for years. I would never pass up this opportunity to eat anything and everything I wanted.

“This tea will calm your stomach and help with digestion.” A cup of nice-smelling tea was held out to me and when I turned, I saw Keith.

His tie was now loose and his hair ruffled. Definitely looked less uptight compared to earlier. He looked more… stressed. I should tell him I’m the one who’s being kidnapped, not him.

“When we get to Los Altos, you’ll need to get your picture taken as well as your biometrics. You need a new ID. A real one.” He said, emphasizing on the ‘real’. So he did look into my bag.

“Los Altos…” I mumbled, mostly to me, as I was finally realizing that I was l e a v i n g.

My eyes blinked as each thought and memory passed me like a tidal wave. Leaving the old and dirty towns I chose to hide out in. Leaving the people–though few I actually cared about–and probably never seeing them again. Leaving the only things I was familiar with and coming into this big and scary unknown world.

“I know this is a lot to take in, but I promise you that I will be right next to you every step of the way. Suri, I just want to give you the best. What your mother would–”

“Have wanted.” I finished his sentence for him before taking the cup of tea. “I know.”

The look on Keith’s eyes soften as he stares at me. Like, really stare at me. I was about to retaliate when I remembered this is the first time he was really seeing me without the stupid mask on.

He was probably going to call me a freak now, with my weird double-colored eyes and all.

But then his facial expression looks like he’s about to cry and he says, “My God, you look just like her.”

His words are said with a shuddery whisper, like he also can’t believe what he’s looking at, and for the first time, I don’t feel like a freak.

A tear was about to fall from his right eye before he wiped it with the back of his hand and gave me a warm smile. “I really loved your mother. As much as a young boy would love the person that was there for him when nobody else was. Stella broke my heart when I woke up and she was no longer there, but it was also because of her that I became who I am now.”

I looked at him, taking in every word he was saying, and cross-checking it with what I knew about his life from my research.

Keith Whitford was only sixteen years old when he made and released his first app. It was something about food delivery and because nobody else had thought about it, it became a hit in a week. He got offers from huge companies that ranged from millions and even billions.

He didn’t sell it. Instead he improved on it until he got the biggest offer yet – a hundred billion dollars. From then on he started his own technological company and he was of course given the title as the youngest billionaire in the world.

“The money she left me, I used it to make the app that made me famous. So like I said, if it really wasn’t for her, I wouldn’t be where I am now.” He added just before his eyes got serious and I got a little bit scared at what he was going to say next.

“So, I want to make a deal with you, Suri.”

I looked at him with a raised brow. “A deal?”

He nods his head like this is something normal in his everyday life, meanwhile my mind was boggling with questions.

Out of nowhere, he gets something out of his pocket, like a checkbook of some sort and starts writing on it. He pulls it out then hands it over to me.

My eyes almost popped out of my socket when I saw the amount. Five hundred thousand dollars. I thought I had imagined a lot of other zeroes, but they were all there when I read it again.

This is more money than I could ever need in my simple life. Was he serious? I looked at the top where it had my name written on it and I couldn’t help but just stare at it in disbelief.

“What’s the catch?” I asked, narrowing my eyes on him. There has to be some kind of impossible catch to this. Nobody in their right mind would just give half a million dollars to a girl they barely know, even if they once knew their mother.

“Like I said, I want you to live with me and my sons. I just got confirmation that I have been accepted as your guardian so there will be no legal issues. That money, consider it your first big allowance. I will give you a thousand dollars every week which you can use for whatever you want that is legal and not dangerous. You will study in the same Academy as my sons and once you graduate, you can have the other half of your one million. If you choose to stay under my guardianship after graduation, that is your choice, but I would like to still care for you and your university fees and entrance are all on me, whatever you may need. All I ask, Suri…” He takes a deep inhale and exhales.

“Is for you to treat me with respect, and think of my sons as your brothers. Don’t run. Don’t fight. You accept your life with me and then you can have the life you have always wanted. You get into a good college, graduate, get a high paying job, and become the Suri you want and dream of.”

I swallowed the lump in my throat. “Become the Suri my mother would have wanted…” I tell myself.

His smile is sincere and I just can’t help denying the fact that I’m actually thinking of saying yes to this. Like, I am genuinely taking all of this into consideration.

“Do we have a deal, Suri?” He asks, his expression obviously eagerly waiting for a response.

It didn’t sound bad. Not at all. Hell, I was going to get money to study? I was already doing that for free!

Not only that but I would get to live in what would probably be a gigantic house with no rats and cockroaches and sleep on a good and clean bed.

All I had to do was say yes.

I raised my cup up to my lips and chugged the tea in one sip before placing it on the counter and letting my hand out for Keith to shake.

His smile widens just as I say…

“Yes, we have a deal… Keith.”