17. Kezia

Cannonand the others were planning, and they looked like they would be there all night. My knowledge of planning a strategic attack was very much limited to one-on-one combat, and I managed to leave them to it on the pretense that I was going to the bathroom. I knew that I hadn’t fooled my brother, who knew exactly where I was headed, nor my alpha who had dropped a kiss to my temple as I walked past him.

Climbing the stairs, I wondered what room Cass was in, but I needn’t have worried—I followed the sound of crying.

She was in one of the guest rooms I hadn’t been in before, decorated in gray and white. I hovered in the doorway before making the decision to go in. She was curled in a ball, her back to me, and while so much had changed, familiarity made me climb on the bed beside her and scoot in until I was lying on my back, staring at the ceiling, knowing she knew I was there.

“I’m sorry about your mom.”

“Were you telling the truth?”

It stung a little that she asked, but I kind of understood. If she had told me Kris had acted like her brother or father did, I would have doubted her too. Only, my brother would never have done that. But…when I thought about it, wouldn’t Cass say the same about Landon?

“I was.” Clearing my throat, I said with more conviction, “I am. You can ask me anything.”

“Dad hit you?”

“Yeah.” We lay in silence while she digested it. I didn’t think she would speak, but I felt her move until she was on her side, facing me.

“What happened to him?” Her voice was a soft whisper, causing me to turn on my side too.

“You’re pregnant?” Her eyes widened in shock that I knew, but she couldn’t hide the smile. “Does Kris know?” When she shook her head, I bit back a sigh. “Your dad does.”

“How?”

“I don’t know. Tell me what happened.”

She lay on her back, her turn to stare at the ceiling. “It was all so…odd,” she began. “Landon was acting so weird. I mean, even for my brother, he was being extra.” Cass pressed the heels of her hands into her eyes. “I can’t forget the feel of the silver clicking around my neck.” Tears ran down the sides of her face, and I wanted to comfort her, but I knew it was best to let her get it out. “They came for us at night. Kris was downstairs. He was making me a tea. I felt nauseous, and I wanted something to soothe my tummy. I was in the bathroom, and I just knew what was wrong with me. I opened the door to tell him, and I heard him shout. I ran to the stairs and there was a male on the stairs, someone I didn’t know. I heard Kris shout for me to run, but I had nowhere to go.” Cass took a deep breath. “Where would I even go?” she asked me bitterly. “I would never leave him.”

I hated to admit that I really needed to hear her say that, and when she did, a knot in my chest I wasn’t aware I had, loosened.

“You’ve never seen the guy before?”

“No. I stupidly thought we were under attack.” She snorted with contempt. “I couldn’t speak when I realized he was with my dad. I still thought he was there to protect us, and then…” Her face crumpled as emotion overcame her, and through much sniffling, sobbing and inability to speak, I figured out she realized how bad things were when she saw Kris.

“They beat him?” I asked quietly. “You realized that you were being taken prisoner when you saw my brother?”

“He was on the floor, and there was so much bl?—”

Cass dissolved into tears again, and I had no option but to let her sob. I knew hormones had a lot to do with women’s emotions during pregnancy, and I had no doubt that a shifter would experience the same. It was a long time later when the door cracked open and Kris poked his head around the door.

Cass was on her side, but her head was on my shoulder, and when he saw her fast asleep, he opened the door fully, coming into the room, his face tired. But when he gave me a soft smile, I returned it.

“Is she okay?”

Was she? I had no clue. “She will be.” I eased myself away from her, both of us waiting for her to wake when I moved her head onto the pillow. “She has you.”

Getting off the bed, I welcomed the hug my brother gave me. “She has you too,” he reminded me. Kris motioned for me to follow him, and in the hall, I waited until the door was closed and he faced me. “I need to know about Landon.”

“Cannon told you.”

“Kez…” I hadn’t missed that look of reprimand at all. “Tell me.”

With a sigh, I pulled his arm, taking him to Cannon’s room and closing the door firmly behind us. Kris felt the soundproof spell the moment the door was closed and looked at me in surprise.

“He’s full of surprises, your mate.” Kris looked around the room, taking in the simple décor, eyes lingering on the hole in the wall. “Do I want to know?” he asked me with a rueful look.

“Always so quick to assume that it’s my fault.” I didn’t add that it could have been my fault. I wasn’t sure why there was a hole in the wall either.

“Known you all your life, Kezia,” Kris joked as he took the seat across from the bed. “I’m going to say there’s a strong possibility you were the reason the alpha wanted to punch something.”

“Unfair.” Sitting on Cannon’s bed, I pushed myself back until I had enough room to cross my legs and wait for my brother’s questions. “What do you need to know?”

“I’d like to know how you are.” I hadn’t expected that, and it was obvious that my reaction had told my brother that when Kris laughed. “You’re my sister,” he said, turning serious again. “You’ve been beaten, kept a prisoner, thought your mate was dead, and been through hell. Yes, you’re mated now, but you’re still my little sister.”

Turning my head, I tried to hide the emotion from my brother. He had Cass; he didn’t need to see my emotion too. “I’m better now that I’m back with my pack.”

“Your pack.” Kris looked thoughtful. “I never thought of that. Of course they would be.” His expression remained neutral. “How do you feel about that?”

“I belong here,” I told him simply. “I wanted to be here before I ever accepted who Cannon was to me. Everyone’s treated equally, they all contribute to the system in place, and, Kris…they’re happy. It’s so refreshing. They fight, they train, they stack dishwashers wrongly…” I saw his puzzled frown and I gave a light laugh. “I’ll explain another time.”

“I tried to make Anterrio that for you,” Kris said, his focus on his hands. “But they are stubborn, single-minded and…stupid.”

“You want to stay there?” I asked him. “You are an alpha, you deserve your own pack, is Anterrio the pack you would fight for?”

I didn’t think he was going to answer when he shook his head. “Once, maybe I would have. But…” He looked away from me, anger creasing his forehead. “The way they turn a blind eye to all the wrongs, their impassiveness and lack of empathy. I don’t doubt that there will be many of them who fight against us. Against me.”

“I’m sorry.”

“I’m not.” Kris gave me a genuine smile. “We can start a new pack. Once we’re clear of this business, we’ll have options.”

“I hope so,” I told him honestly. “You deserve happiness.”

“Thank you.” We watched each other for a moment before I sighed, and Kris let out a low chuckle.

“You can be nice to me all you want, Kez, but you know me better than to think I will let this go.”

“I know, I don’t know what I was thinking,” I told him dryly. “He told me the Pack Council knows how to break the bond. I thought he meant mine and Cannon’s.” Kris was stony faced and I carried on. “But they mean you and Cass.” He said nothing and I wasn’t sure what to say. “I’m sorry.” My brother still said nothing, and I didn’t take it personally; it was a hard thing to know. “She would never go through with it, you know that, don’t you?”

“I do.”

His voice was clipped, and I knew better than to push. “Um…”

“Use your words, Kez,” Kris murmured, his brow still furrowed in thought about the fact Bale wanted to break the bond.

I took a deep breath. “He admitted it,” I said softly. “Bale. He told me he killed them. That he killed our parents.” I felt how still my brother was. “He thought I was a stray. He never knew I was your sister when he shot me that day.” Rubbing my nose to stop the tears, I couldn’t look at him. “He told me, so easily, that he killed them, and I could do nothing.” I felt my chest tighten as I spoke. “Landon told me that Cannon was dead.” It was my turn to break eye contact. “I believed him. The pain was…a lot. I didn’t care about anything. I’m sorry, I should have been fighting for you and me.” I hesitated. “I gave up.”

“I’m going to kill that bastard,” Kris vowed, his voice a tight whisper. Looking at him, I saw his pain and anger. “You did not give up. You were beaten, and your mate was full of silver. The pain would have been excruciating,” Kris reasoned. “Even without the bond fully made, you would have felt your mate’s suffering.”

“Bale called me broken,” I remembered. “Landon told him I needed time.”

“Time for what?”

Puffing out my cheeks, I blew out a loud breath. “To be his mate. He was spinning a story that he and I were more than we had pretended previously. There are cameras everywhere, even in Landon’s room, and he would whisper in the dark that I had to play along. He said he was being watched more than anyone.”

“Watched for what?”

“I don’t know.” I debated whether to tell him my fears and then decided that Kris needed to know. Kris would understand. “I don’t know if he was always honest,” I admitted. “He seemed too eager for me to be his mate.” Pulling my hair over my shoulder, I tugged at the ends as I told him all the ways in which Landon had confused me. “He was too good at acting, if you know what I mean? He said I could give him an alpha son.”

“What the fuck?”

“That’s what I said.” We looked at each other, and I saw my brother’s anger rising. “It was little things like that, that made me wary, and then other times, he was reminding me we had to play the game.” Checking the door to the room was closed, I turned back to my brother. “I don’t know if he’s alive.”

“Moonstar?”

“I don’t know who she killed and who she let live.” Biting my lip, I confessed my worst fear to Kris. “I don’t know how to tell Cass.”

“We don’t,” he said firmly. “She’s too delicate right now. This will tip her over the edge.”

“Delicate?”

“Her mom’s dead and her father’s trying to kill her mate,” Kris said with exasperation, and I took the reprimand, grateful that was all he meant and I hadn’t told him something I wasn’t supposed to know before him.

“Right, of course, I knew that.”

Kris’s fingers drummed on the arm of Cannon’s chair. “We have to treat him as an unknown,” he told me after a while.

“What?”

“Landon,” he confirmed. “He’s not a threat, but right now, he isn’t an ally.”

Shit. That was a very clear line in the sand. Even for an unknown, Landon was still…well, Landon. “You sure?”

“I am.”

He had his you can’t talk me out of it face on, so I let it go, pleased he was the one who had to tell Landon’s twin.

“Will you tell Cannon?”

Kris gave me an eye roll. “Who do you think suggested it first?”

“Ah.” I should have known. “I guess you strategized a lot?”

“We all knew what was to happen; it was just the first time we were all in the room together since getting you back.”

“Right.” He was looking at me, and I recognized the look so well. “You’re wearing your you’re not going to like it face.”

“I have a face for that?” he asked me with a smirk, and I stuck my tongue out at him.

“Just tell me.”

“We need to fight Bale and the Pack Council and win.”

I nodded. “I knew this.”

“There are two battles to plan for.”

“Anterrio Pack and the Pack Council—I’m not deaf.”

“No, that’s one and the same,” he corrected me.

“It is?” I frowned. “So what’s fight number two?”

“You are.”

Kris said it so matter-of-factly that I doubted I had heard him correctly. “Me?”

“Moonstar. She needs to be handled.”

“And how do you plan to do that, brother?” My voice was low, almost a hiss, senses on full alert in case he called her forth. “She’s inside me.”

“We’re aware.” Kris was nodding.

“We are? Who is we?”

The flat look my brother gave me was enough, but I wanted to hear him say it, and with a resigned sigh, Kris threw his hands in the air with exasperation. “Luna, Kez, you know this is all Cannon will fixate on. To him, getting rid of her is more of a priority than Anterrio Pack.”

“Stopping Bale is all that matters.”

“Not to your mate.”

Pushing myself off the bed, I crossed the room to the door. “Well, he’s stupid. Let’s go fix his thinking.”

“Kezia, wait.” Kris was on his feet, and I hesitated at the door, looking back at him. When he held up a phone, I felt my mouth drop open. “He already knows.”

“What the heck?” Looking between the phone and my brother, I wasn’t sure whether to laugh or erupt. “You…you’re…he’s listening?”

The bedroom door opened, and I stepped back automatically, letting Cannon into the room. “Before you lose your sh?—”

“Too late. Ship’s sailed. Train’s left the station. Rocket’s launched. Shit’s lost.” I walked to the corner of the room, eyeing both of them. “You two are cozier than I thought.”

“That feels like an accusation,” Cannon murmured.

“Good, it was supposed to.”

“Kezia—”

“You’re my mate,” I snapped. “You’re bonded to me. Equals? Right?”

“Yes, but?—”

“There is no but. Me and you. Equals. That’s what you said? Am I wrong?”

Cannon sighed. “No.”

“Then what in the name of the Goddess is this shit?” When I saw my brother start to speak, my glare cut him off. “You, you can shut up until I tell you that you can speak.” For once, he did as he was told, and on any other day, I would have had a smart comment for that. But my focus was all on the male in front of me.

“I needed you to be open and relaxed.” Cannon saw my disbelief and he raised his hands. “I appreciate that it was probably stupid.”

“Probably?”

“Fine, it was stupid.” He looked at Kris. The look was one of expectation, and I gave my brother my full attention.

“This was your idea?” Pointing at Cannon, I knew my voice had risen. “Him? Him I expect this crap from! You…”

“You needed to be relaxed?—”

“Both of you get out.”

“Are you going to listen to us?” Kris demanded, getting to his feet.

“Like you listened to me?” Kris dipped his head, and I opened the bedroom door. “Out, both of you.”

“This is my room,” Cannon murmured as he walked past me.

“Tough. You’ve pissed me off. Stay away before I lose it completely.”

“Kez…”

“Save it, Kris. I don’t want to hear it from either of you.”

When the door was firmly closed behind them, I shook my head in disbelief. Just what I needed, my mate and my brother to be cut from the same cloth and be in cahoots with each other.

Glancing upwards, I sent a look of reprimand to the ceiling and the Goddess beyond. “Just once, I would like a break. Just once.”

The ceiling didn’t answer, and neither did the Goddess.

Typical.