Strength in Darkness

Chapter Six

Everyone sat in silence at the table. Kellan sat across from his mate, while trying to sneak glances and hide his own happiness that Katelyn had been coming down for meals. Charlotte eat her meal slowly without making eye contact with anyone at the table. Kai and Alex sat in an uncomfortable silence after having spoken so few words throughout the day already. Underneath the table, Ace rubbed circles on his mate’s knees while he sipped his blood like a smoothie. Watching everyone, Brady couldn’t stand it any longer. 

 “Dammit!” he slammed his fists down, causing Loraina to jump and everyone else to look at him. “I know we have been going through s**t recently, but somebody needs to talk. Now!”

The members of the table all looked at one another, unsure what to say. “Uh,” Kel cleared his throat, “any news on anything?”

“No!” Brady yelled. “Somebody talk about anything but this s**t show we are in. We need to talk, we have never had silence even when the twins were fighting. Considering we run the damn community house right now, it shouldn’t be this silent.”

Katelyn cleared her throat, bringing all eyes on her. She looked at everyone slowly, “well,” she patted her napkin to her face, “my friend Ari has been on vacation with her family recently and will come home soon. We were thinking about hanging out.”

Charlotte nodded, “that sounds like a goo—”

“No,” the gruff voice from across the table simply spoke. “You’re not going anywhere.” Katelyn threw her fork down and excused herself from the table without another word.

“You’re such a d**k,” Kai said.

“She’s not leaving my sight, Kai. I’m not going to risk it. I don’t care if she hates me, I won’t lose her.”

“You could always be less of an asshole about it.”

“You know what—”

“For f**k’s sake just shut up,” Alex grunted. “She’s been scared and Kai is the only one who has been able to coax her out of her room. If you don’t want her to reject you, ease up on the caveman bullshit.”

Kel nearly choked on his food at Alex’s words. “She wouldn’t reject me, she doesn’t even know what that is.”

“Sure she does. I told her,” Kai said.

“Kai!” he glared at his sister. “Why would you do that!”

“Because she has the right to know.”

“You know, just because you and Cal sat and rejected one another like you were saying ‘no thank you’ to a piece of cake, doesn’t mean you can interfere in my relationship with my mate!”

“Kids,” Charlotte cleared her throat, “you’ve only just stopped fighting.” She looked at Kel, “son, you kidnapped a girl and have yet to make things right with her. She has every right to do as she wishes, including a rejection if she should so choose.” She looked to her daughter, “Kai, I realize she is your best friend, but your only job is to make things right with her on our level. You don’t talk to her about rejecting your brother. That is just plain wrong!”

“We weren’t—” she started out with a loud voice, but cleared her throat to soften her tone, “we were talking about,” she quickly glanced at Alex who was not looking her way, “something else and it came up. I wasn’t” she shook her head, “I wasn’t trying to talk to her about rejection.”

Alex sat in silence. He was slowly losing his patience the longer he and Kai went without talking about her mate bond. Though she wasn’t saying anything to Cal, he could sense her inner struggle. She had been putting up a front for him and would change the subject if he brought up that night at Roman’s.

Breaking the silence, Ace cleared his throat, “does anybody know where James is?”

Knock knock

Brady stood from the table and opened the door to Darrin and Cal with their werewolf council member, along with someone he didn’t recognize. “Alpha,” he nodded, “please come in,” he widened the door and gestured everyone to come inside. “We are in the middle of dinner, would anyone like anything to eat?”

“That’s alright, Brady,” Barnes held his hand up. “We won’t be here long, we just wanted to check on things here and ask a few questions. You and your family can keep eating.”

Kai looked up and locked eyes with her boss. “John?” she rose from her seat, “what are…what are you doing here?”

John smiled, “Kai, it is so lovely to see you.” He walked ahead of everyone else into the dining room, “I see you are in one piece.” He shook her hand. “We needed to follow up on some things with the issues with Emerald Mountain and knew we also needed to check on you.” He looked to Brady, “do you mind if I speak with Kai alone?”

“She is my daughter and is still technically underage—”

“It’s okay, dad,” she nodded to him, “we can go into my father’s office.”

Cal watched Kai leave the room with the sorcerer. He thought about mind linking her beforehand, but couldn’t muster up the courage to say anything after everything she learned about him. She didn’t know the full story, probably, but it didn’t matter if she was conflicted. He watched her disappear and turned his gaze over to the table and met Alex’s eyes. The angel didn’t look angry, but it was obvious something was wrong.

“So, John,” Kai shut the door to her father’s office, “first I want to thank you for—”

“Absolutely no need, Kaiya,” he held up his hand to Kai as he sat down. “You may take as much time as you need. I am simply here to talk to you.”

She sat down in her father’s chair and nodded. The last time she had seen John was in Switzerland. The only other interaction she had with him was a vague phone call that she wouldn’t be able to make it into work for a while due to the attack. She didn’t mention the fact that she also was harboring an escaped witch, a recovering Ethan, or the fact that there was a kidnapped human upstairs. Man, how did she ever get herself into a situation like this?

“As you may know, we are aware of the situation with the Alpha, Roman, and we were told of his…death.”

“Yes…?”

“Were you present for his death?”

She paused for a moment. She was there up to a point, but Alex dragged her out before she saw whatever Cal and Ethan did to Roman. She knew he was dead, considering they both left so easily, but she didn’t actually see it happen.

“I left just before it happened.”

“So you were, in fact, in his territory. How exactly did you get there?”

“I actually don’t remember.”

“What do you mean?”

“We were here for the attack and he sent me pictures of my mom and a friend tied up. I left to go look for them and next thing I know, I’m tied up in a dark room.”

“In Emerald Mountain?”

“No, in some old shack or something. It was somewhere between our packs. I couldn’t move my body at all. I was completely paralyzed.”

“What happened?”

“I’m not sure. I woke up and heard some voices saying something about being followed then I blacked out again. Next thing I knew, I woke up again in a bedroom in Roman’s pack house and then he was there.”

“Did he mention anything to you about anyone in particular?”

“Umm…” she scrunched her face trying to remember everything he said. She was quickly forgetting all the minute details, just like she forgot the k********g. “He mentioned having a human mate that he kept in the house somewhere and knowing a Mariana who helps him out sometimes.”

“What about Mariana? Do you know what she helps him with?”

“No, he just said he uses her sometimes and that he pays her…physically.”

“Did he mention anything else about her? Or anyone else?”

“He said I may have seen her once but that was it. The rest of the time he was talking about taking me for himself. After that, he left.” 

“Kai, if you are losing your memory of the night, I highly suggest you write everything down as soon as possible. You may very well need it in the near future.”

“Why? What’s happening?”

“Well,” he scrubbed his hand down his face and sighed, “I will only tell you this because I want you to trust me and I want to keep you in my office for the next few years, if you wish to stay. But some accusations are being made from Emerald Mountain as well as from some others who claim Roman was murdered without cause. His written statements indicated you are his mate. Now, I need to ask, was he, in fact, your mate?”

“No.”

“I have a hard time believing an angel may be your mate, but is Alex your mate?”

She shook her head no. 

“If The Council questions it, you may need to try and find your mate because as far as they know, Roman was your mate and unless you can prove otherwise, you may have trouble convincing them of this.”

“I don’t understand, are they accusing me of murdering him?”

“I can’t discuss the accusations before the investigation starts, but just try to do this. I’m giving you as much time off as you need, but you need to know that this may in fact help others in the case.”

“What do you mean?”

“I can’t discuss it. We just need you to show you found your true mate.”

“Why does it matter? I mean, none of our statements even mattered three years ago when he came.”

“Kaiya, I know it must be hard, but just try to do this. Try to find him so this is easier, at least, on you.”

Well, it wouldn’t be that hard anyway considering he is outside the room. But they’ll definitely want to know why they rejected one another and then that would just open up an entire new set of issues for them. Well, mainly Cal. 

“Other than that, I won’t ask about the missing witch who is dining with your family this evening. Mainly because I hate Elder Lockwood and am sure that girl is far better off here than she was in his home. However, I will say that Hernandez intended to purchase her and he is... well, let’s just say he is not happy about her sudden disappearance.”

 “Do you know why he—”

He held up his hand. “Now, that is all I am going to say. If you plan to keep her, I suggest you find a way to disguise her or hide her because he will come looking for her. I have no doubts about that.” He stood up from his seat. “Now, I do need to go, but tell no one about this conversation and work on your testimony. Until you find your mate, just keep me updated on how things are. When this is over, I will officially be offering you a formal position in the office.”

She watched John get up and leave the office without waiting for her. She probably had the most stressful conversation of her life, but with a job offer on top. 

If she had been nervous to talk to Cal before, she had no clue how she was feeling now, especially that he may be dragged into the case. Well, he had to be, since he was there, too. So would they risk telling The Council about the bond, when she really wasn’t sure where things were going? Would he want to tell anyone? What if they ask why they rejected one another?

This should be interesting.