Strength in Darkness

Chapter Nine

Quietly shutting her door when she walked into her bedroom, Kai found Alex sitting up at her desk on his phone. He looked up at her with a small smile when she came over to him and bent over for a hug. 

“How was everything today?” he asked.

“Fine,” she nestled her face in his neck, “I talked to Max a little.”

“Really?” he pulled back, “she actually talked?”

“Yeah,” she sighed, “she’s angry and protective over him but I get the feeling that she only wants him to wake up so she can leave.”

“She’s clearly independent.”

“I guess, I mean, she depends on him for food for whatever reason.”

“She say why?”

“No, but I think if anything, it’s his way of making sure she’s okay.”

“That makes sense,” he stood up and sat on her bed, patting the side for her to sit down too.

Kai sat next to him and leaned into his shoulder. Alex was surprised by her sudden need to lean into him, but absolutely wouldn’t pass it up. He laid a kiss on the crown of her head and rubbed his hand across her shoulder. 

“Hey Kai?”

“Hmm?”

“Is there something you want to talk about? A lot has happened, and I want to be able to be here for you. You just need to tell me what it is you want.”

Everything seemed to be pushed aside since Ethan has been asleep. She hasn’t thought about the stuff with Roman or Cal or Hernandez since James brought Ethan back. Truthfully, she was ignoring it for now, needing space away from her own problems. “You’re right. I have a lot to tell you. Have you heard back from Gabe about what could be the reason behind Ethan still being asleep?”

“Gabe is looking into it. He said a lot of the time they can be out for a while, but he depleted his energy. Then he fed a vampire his blood. My bets are on that. Whatever he did with Cal to get rid of Roman was bad enough then however much blood Max took probably multiplied it.”

“You know what Roman said while he was in that room with me?”

“What?”

“Roman was supposed to be a twin. He absorbed the twin in the womb and somehow carried the other twin’s wolf.”

“That’s…unexpected.”

“He said he had found his mate. A human. She lives in the pack house and they use her once a month to satisfy his wolves. I just don’t even understand. I would have thought he rejected or killed her, especially if she was human. I don’t get why he would keep her like that.”

“He’s just evil, Kai. Evil people don’t need actual reasons behind their actions.”

“I guess. It just…I don’t know.”

“So, Ethan helped hold him back with the strength of two alpha wolves. That makes sense then why he was already weak.”

“Alex, I need to tell you something, and I want you to know I’m working on figuring it out.”

He turned to face her completely. This is what he’s been waiting for. She was finally opening up to him about whatever it was, and he would be here to help her as much as she would let him. 

“My bond with Cal is still…there…like, we rejected one another, but we can still feel it.”

“Oh,” a solid punch in the gut. All this time, she was slowly distancing herself because of a bond they supposedly rejected. “So…what are you going to do?”

Tears pooled in her eyes when she looked up at him. “Alex, I—”

“Are you going to be together? Are you going to choose him, Kai?”

“No, I’m—”

“Kai, I’ve promised from day one I will stay by your side as long as you want me here. I do love you. Before you answer, I want you to know that no matter what, it’s your choice. Don’t worry about me or Cal in the process. At the end of the day, yes, one of us will get hurt, but this is about you, okay?”

She nodded as the tears spilled over to her cheeks. She leaned her head into his broad chest. Wrapping her arms around his torso, she allowed herself to let her cries out softly. “Alex, I love you and yes, he’s been in my life since we were born.” She choked on her tears, “I can feel him, and his heart. He feels guilty and I can feel everything. Since I’ve been home, it’s even stronger.”

He rubbed circles on her back while she spoke. “It’s okay, Kai.”

“I love you, Alex.” She looked up with her hand on his chest. “I choose you.”

A weight was lifted from his shoulders. She said it. She said the words. She’s choosing him, not Cal. He held her tight against him, “Kai, you don’t have to do this right no—”

“Yes. I do. Alex, I’m choosing you. It’s going to be you. I love you.”

“But…you seemed so distant lately, I never thought…I just thought you were leaning another way.”

“Alex, when he did what he did to that girl, instead of fixing it, he wrote me off. He slept with half the class and paraded it in front of me. In my own house, knowing we were mates. That’s not…that’s not love, Alex. It’s not what I need in a mate.”

“He did that in front of you?!”

She nodded her head. “I’ve seen and heard plenty of it. He was just as bad as my brother, who really doesn’t deserve his own mate, either.”

“You shouldn’t have had to go through all that, Kai. On top of everything else.”

“I’m not sure why, but, having you has helped me so much and I just think you should know there’s no competition for me, okay?”

“Okay.”

He leaned back on her bed, bringing her down with him. He held her head on his chest while squeezing her tight against him. Of all the ways it could have gone, he wasn’t expecting her to choose him a second time even though the bond was somehow still there. “Are you going to look into the issue with the bond?”

“I’ve looked into it a little. I’m not sure how it is acting this way, but I’ll keep looking. For now, I am still technically searching for my mate as far as John is concerned. Apparently it’s vital in the investigation since Roman claimed we were mates.”

Alex nodded, “just keep doing what you’re doing, then.”

“Alex?” she sat up, resting on her elbows. She looked into his eyes, the eyes she adored from the time he was just delivering hot Italian food to the eyes she saw every day in school. Alex truly was angelic in the sense that he was beautiful and pure. “Do you think you’d want to get married?”

***

Darrin, Cal, Brady, and Kellan sat around Darrin’s office, each with a glass of whiskey in a hand.

“So, Gabe called earlier. He got a description of Mariana. He’s working on getting close enough to snap some photos,” Darrin said before taking a drink. “She’s in Munich right now, he thinks she’s meeting with some fine arts dealer.”

“She’s looking for something,” Cal murmured.

“Just don’t know what. We don’t know anything about her, but whatever she does, it’s obviously for Hernandez. So, if she’s looking for something, it’s probably for him.” Darrin’s phone beeped with a message from Gabe.

Gabe: Got her on the way out. She tore this guy’s shop apart. He’s in pieces around the back. Not sure if she got what she came for or he didn’t deliver. Either way, she got rid of him.

Next, a picture of a young woman popped up on his screen. “He got her.” She was walking out of a building, looking to her left. The image was far enough in the distance, but zoomed in enough to capture her features. Pale skin, dark eyes, and dark red hair. “Anyone recognize her?”

He showed his phone to Brady and Kellan, who shook their heads no.

He turned and showed the screen to his son. Cal’s eyes locked on the image, and he grabbed the phone from his father’s fingers. Zooming in on her face with a concerned look, he looked back up at his dad. 

So many questions came to mind that he couldn’t string together sensibly. So many thoughts ran through his head. All this time, she was here. Close by.

“It’s her.”