Chapter 9

Karter

K ade is lucky he met Dinah in his home far away from the terror triplets. Could they be more obnoxious? Probably not. Thankfully, they heard my bear roaring and listened to my telepathic screaming before they did or said something stupid.

“Stay cool.”

“Don’t be dicks.”

“She doesn’t know.”

“I need time.”

“Give me your support.”

“Fuck off.”

I know it killed Kit to not flirt with her, just as it pained Kason to not give me shit in front of her. Koran is more like me than either of them, anyway. Reserved, thoughtful, and responsible, he’s who Kade contacted to take over for me tonight. He’s getting ready now to do exactly that.

Kylian is a different problem. She can’t speak telepathically and there’s no guarantee she ever will even if her bear comes one day. It’s another thing she hates about her life, and the boys made it ten times worse today by coming home and hinting at knowing something was up without telling her what it was. She was completely blindsided when she ran out and found me with Valery.

Even without a shifter’s sense of smell, once she saw my mate, she figured out why the boys were excited. And she doesn’t have to speak telepathically to convey all her fears to me. I have to talk to her, if for no other reason than to let her know it’ll be okay.

It has to be. One way or another, it will work out.

I have to believe that, or I’ll lose my mind before sunrise.

“I’m not afraid of supernatural creatures hiding in the woods, but if you want to protect me, I’ll gladly take the company.” Valery slides her fingers down my forearm and squeezes my hand as I turn toward the house.

I take control, intertwining our fingers and escorting her to the kitchen, even though my bear is begging me to take her to my bedroom where we can revisit that lame kiss. I wish I had game and knew how to do this. I bet Kash would already have her naked and underneath him. He always was better at this shit than me. More confident, more outgoing—the extrovert to my introvert.

“Can I get you something to drink?” Sticking my head into the refrigerator, I hear Kylian sniffling in her bedroom upstairs. I know this is hard on her, despite her excitement meeting Dinah a few months ago. Her brothers are growing up, taking that next biological step whether or not we’re ready, and she’s frozen in time. I can’t let her leave to explore on her own, because what if she shifts for the first time and I’m not there to help? What if she’s living in the sorority house or dorms on campus and her bear reacts to a perceived threat with no one to intervene on her behalf? We’ve had a dozen of these conversations over the years, but it doesn’t make it any easier.

“Go talk to your sister.” Valery smiles, reaching around me to grab a can of Dr. Pepper—Kit’s favorite. “I know you want to.”

“How do you know that?” I brush a lock of hair from her cheek, her errant curls perpetually reaching for her lush lips.

I understand the draw.

“It’s obvious you’re the caretaker in the family. Everyone depends on you.”

“It’s not that bad. They’d figure it out if I wasn’t around to tell them what to do.” I grin, trying to downplay what I know is true. But Kade is right. The only thing that matters is my mate and what she wants. And if traveling the country is what she wants to do, she has to know I’m more than willing to drop everything to be by her side.

“Go. I’ll sit here, drink my soda, and answer emails.” She sits down and pulls her phone out of her bag slung across her chest.

I can’t stop myself from bracketing her body with my forearms, looming over her until she looks up with a coy smirk on her lips. “Yes?”

“Will you go on a date with me?” My bear pushes out our mating pheromones, her eyes dilating as she takes in a lungful.

“Tonight?” Her voice is a touch husky, making my bear purr.

“For a start.”

Her smirk turns into a full-blown smile. “Yes.”

I lean down and claim her lips again. This kiss is still chaste, but lingering, her mouth softening against mine. She closes her eyes and wraps her fingers around my biceps, holding me over her. It would take nothing to push this further, licking at her lips until she opens and lets me in. Then I’d pull her to her feet, wrap my arms around her, and press her soft curves against my hard body. We’d kiss until we were breathless before I slid my hands under her ass, pulled her legs around my waist, and carried her across the foyer into my bedroom, kicking the door shut behind us.

Yeah, that’s what a guy with game and experience would do.

Instead, I break the kiss and look her in the eye. “Help yourself to anything we have. What’s ours is yours. I’ll be back shortly.”

“Okay.” She smiles dazedly, watching me back out of the kitchen.

O ne gentle knock, and I let myself in without waiting for permission.

“Go away,” Kylian says, her voice muffled by her pillow.

“I need your help, Ky.”

“Why is this happening to us?”

I sit next to her on the bed. “That’s funny. I asked Kade the same question.”

“What did he say?” She rolls to her side to face me.

I shrug. “He didn’t have an answer.”

“What happens now?”

“My uncharming ass will spend every second I have getting to know Valery while letting her get to know me, and hope she feels the connection between us as strongly as I do.”

“And if she doesn’t?”

“We can’t think about that.” Grabbing her teddy bear off her headboard—the one Mom gave her when she was a little girl—I stare down into his worn face. “I need your help, Kylian. Come meet her. Talk to her. Get to know her. Make her feel welcome in our home.”

“I’m sorry I was rude to her. I just—I don’t want to lose you too.”

“You’re not going to lose me.”

A solitary tear runs down her cheek. “You don’t know that. You don’t know what your bear will do if she rejects you.”

Tenderly, I reach out and swipe her cheek with my thumb. “Which is why I need you to welcome her into our world. She just lost her parents, but we could be her new family. Another sister you always wanted but never had. Isn’t that what you said about Dinah?”

“Yes.” She nods solemnly.

I smile. “You’ll like Valery. She’s smart and educated and has a wanderlust spirit like you.”

“She travels?”

“She just started.”

Kylain frowns, her bottom lip jutting out. “So, if she accepts you, you’ll be leaving. Either way, you’re leaving.”

I drag my hand down my face and blow out a breath of frustration. “I don’t know, Ky. That’s far down on my list of things to tackle right now. She has to accept my mark first. She has to accept our world. Then we’ll talk about what life is going to look like as a mated couple.”

“Do you love her?”

The question takes me aback. I hadn’t considered love separate from the biological need to mate, mark, and claim her. It’s a very human question—one Valery will probably have as well. “What is love, Ky? I’m certainly attracted to her. I care about her, and I absolutely need to protect and provide for her. My bear knew it the moment he scented her, and although we only met six hours ago, I think my heart knows it too.”

Kylian sits up and swings her legs over the edge of the bed, her hip pressed against mine. Her gaze is on the floor as a moment of silence hangs between us, both of us missing the words we need to make this better. The truth is, I’m at a fork in the road, a precipice that will affect my family regardless of which direction my life heads, and although I’m behind the wheel, I’m not the one driving.

Bringing her eyes up, Kylian gives me a smile. “You did a good thing last night by voting to open up Fortune Falls. Maybe we’ll all find our mates now?”

“Maybe. Kade said his buddy found his mate a few months ago. Must be something in the air.”

“I guess.” She rests her cheek against my shoulder. “Think she’ll like me?”

I kiss the top of her head. “I think she’ll adore you.”

“Okay, I’ll go downstairs and apologize. Give me a minute before you come down.”

“Why?”

“A bit of girl time before your overwhelming stench drives me out of the room.” Kylian pulls back and gives me a sassy wink, the one she’s been giving me since she was a bratty teenage girl.

“Yeah, I’m sure I stink. I have absolutely no control over it. I’m barely keeping my bear under control as it is.”

She pushes off the bed and bends forward to look at her face in the mirror. Pulling a makeup wipe out of a container on her vanity, she quickly removes any mascara streaks and runs a brush through her hair. “Wish me luck.”

“Good luck.”

I watch my sister walk out of her bedroom and glance around the walls that have been frozen in time. She’s twenty-two years old, and if she had shifted in her teens like she was supposed to, I wouldn’t be so overly protective of her. She’s the same age as Kade’s mate Dinah and could easily be married with cubs if she had found her mate years ago.

Instead, I’ve trapped her here with my responsibilities to our father and baby brothers, keeping her young and sheltered. Hell, most of the teddy bears in here I’ve bought over the years to compensate for the lack of a maternal figure in our home. The wooden carvings of tiny bears were made by me too. Did she even want them after turning twelve? Probably not.

Sweet Fates. Am I part of what she hates about Fortune Falls?