Chapter 26

~Rien’s POV~

My eyes followed him as he paced the room—back and forth, back and forth until I became dizzy and had to look away. I understood his anxiety because it was something I felt myself. Our future, our livelihood and our continued existence as a coven depended entirely on the decisions we made today. It all rested on our shoulders and with each passing minute the burden seemed to grow heavier.

I crossed my legs and strategized in my mind, but only one path was clear to me and I knew my brothers would not approve.

“Jorlon would you stop with your pacing, it’s giving me a headache!” Marcan shouted, but Jorlon didn’t slow.

 I imagined he was trapped in his own mind...too worried and desperate to remain in the present as he tried to find a way out of our current predicament.

“With every day that passes our time dwindles…we need to act now.” Peitre said softly and for a moment I glanced at him.

He sat by the window, staring out into the yard below. More than any of us, he looked worn—beaten. Father’s actions had already started to take its toll.

“I agree, we must act now, while we have the opportunity.” I told them and Peitre glanced my way.

“It is easier to speak the words than it is to do the deed.” He said and I nodded.

“I have racked my brain for weeks and I do not see how we could end his life without facing serious consequences. The coven would be in an uproar and Kandane will have our heads.” Jorlon finally paused long enough to say, and once again I nodded.

“You’re right of course, but short of framing another after we have done the need, I see no way to proceed. He is always surrounded by his most loyal warriors—day and night he is with them and Kandane is also never far behind.” Peitre continued.

“And let us not forget our own father’s cunning. He himself has been made leader for a reason. He will not be easy to trick, nor will he be easily killed and I myself am no match for him.” Jorlon finished.

“I have taken all these things into consideration.” I told them and  Peitre raised a brow.

“And what conclusion have to come to brother?” Jorlon asked and I looked him straight in the eyes.

“You will not like my answer.”

He scoffed. “Nonsense! Any answer that will do the job will have my favor. Speak brother. I grow tired of my own helplessness.”

I looked to Jorlon, to Peitre and finally to Marcan and they all watched me with interest.

“I have decided to fight with the wolves. It is the only way to guarantee our success.” I told them in all seriousness, but Marcan laughed and the others simply stared at me as if I had gone mad.

“I would not tell jokes at a time such as this,” I said. “Father cannot be made to see reason and if we fight with him this coven will fall.”

Marcan shook his head, his gaze piercing in their intensity. “Your plan is flawed. Our aim is to protect this coven, how can we protect our people if we choose to fight against them?”

Jolron nodded.

“We can, if they choose to stand with us. I will take a stand against father. I will speak to our people and have them decide who they will fight with. I have no doubt many of them will see reason, but for those who do not…then they are just as crazed as our father and we do not need those thinkers in our coven in any event.”

It surprised me that Marcan seemed to be contemplating it.

“Father would have you killed before he allowed you to persuade his people.” Jorlon said, but I disagreed.

“Father is a prideful leader. He would watch and see if anyone in the coven would choose to side with me and then he would strike us all down…but I will not allow that to happen. We will all travel to the wolf pack and if he strikes us down it will be while we fight for what is ours.”

“What makes you so certain the children of the moon would trust us? What makes you so sure they will want us to fight with them?” Marcan asked and I smiled.

“I have a way of persuading people. I shall visit with the Alpha tomorrow and I will tell them of father’s plan after I have been given assurances that we may seek refuge among their kind until this is all over.”

Jorlon still seemed skeptical, but Peitre and Marcan, having no other ideas, nodded in agreement.

“Very well Riener.” Peitre began. “I can only hope your plan proves fruitful or we are doomed to die before the battle has even begun.”

………………………………………….

Kaio’s distressed face gave me the answer before I asked it, but I questioned him nonetheless.

“How is he?”

He shook his head—his eyes darting to the top of the staircase and back. “There has been no change my Lord. He is just as downtrodden as he was at first light. He has refused my company and his meals.”

My worry only grew. We had retired to bed in good spirits the night before. There was nothing that took place between the time he feel asleep and the time he opened his eyes this morning. Yet, he had begun his day with an expression that showcased his depression.

His behavior was strange indeed.

“Malik has tried his hand at raising his spirits, but I fear he has only made it worse.” He continued apologetically and I nodded in understanding.

“Hand me his supper. I shall take it to him.”

Kaio bowed and left the room.

I glanced to the top of the staircase with a frown as I racked my brain, trying to arrive at some conclusion as to why his temperament had taken such a sudden turn, but nothing came to mind.

My Tony was a strange one indeed and it worried me that there was truly something serious troubling his mind. I closed my eyes and straightened my spine, listening to the sounds around me; every indrawn breath, every whispered word, the shuffling of feet and the echo of water dripping from a leaky faucet. As I listened, I slowly disregarded all other sounds except that of his beating heart. It beat steadily in his chest and his breaths were just as normal.

I did not wait very long for my drudge to reenter the space with Tony’s meal in hand and I took it without pause, before turning to make my way up the stairs, down the corridor and up yet another flight of stairs that led to the roof.

I smelled the nicotine before I spotted him with it and I frowned.

“I was not aware that you smoked,” I said as the door closed behind me and he glanced from his perch upon the ledge. He held the cigarette between his fingers and turned around without a word, before he brought it to his lips. Then he took a long drag of the thing and let it out through his nose.

“You’d be surprised at how much you don’t know about me,” he answered without glancing my way and my frown deepened.

“Feel free to enlighten me.” I offered, moving closer to where he sat with a foot dangling over the ledge.

For a while he said nothing and I allowed him his silence to think upon his next words, but when they came, they were as I had expected them to be.

“Maybe some other time.”

He said it without emotion, his vacant eyes staring out over the empty courtyard. He looked lost.

“Kaio tells me you haven’t eaten today and it is already the evening.”

No response.

“I took the liberty of presenting you with your meal myself,” I announced as I took the few steps necessary to reach his side. When I placed the plate beside him on the ledge, he glanced down at it momentarily then looked away once more.

“I’m not hungry,” he explained.

“Of course you are. Any human would be after so many hours without a bite. You will weaken if you choose not to eat.”

“Like I said...I’m not hungry”

“What’s the matter with you? You’ve been this way since the morning.”

I stood with my hands behind my back and my eyes intent on him as I awaited his reply.

“I can’t get them out of my head,” he said simply and I lowered myself onto the space beside him.

“What do you mean?”

“The guys…they had families waiting for them at home and just like that…they’re gone. I couldn’t even go to their funerals.” He shook his head. “It’s fucked up…and now all the others can only assume I’m dead or a prisoner of war. I can’t even visit their families and tell them what brave men they were…I can’t tell them what their last words were…I can’t even give them that.” He continued and finally I understood his plight.

“Their demise was indeed tragic…but dwelling on that will achieve nothing. Now you must live the life they can no longer have,” I told him. “Do not sully their memories with these sad thoughts, it is as you said…they were brave men—brave men who died honorable deaths.”

My words didn’t seem to have much of an impact on him and I could only watch him helplessly.

“Tell me something Rien.” He began and I raised a brow in question.

“Out of everyone you could have saved…why Malik?” he asked…not with malice, but with genuine curiosity and I thought of just how badly this day would end if I chose to tell him the truth.

“It was Kaio who saved him, not I.”

“But still…why him?”

“I sent Kaio to rescue you, but he mistook him for you.” I answered honestly and his brows furrowed.

“You people can track a human by their blood alone, how could he mistake someone else for me?”

“I suppose he thought Malik’s blood signature was a close match.” I said, slowly easing him into the truth.

He placed the cigarette to his mouth without another word and I watched and he took another deep breath and let it out slowly. Soon, we were surrounded by a cloud of stinking smoke and I thought briefly of pulling the thing from his hand.

“I suppose if you had the chance you would have had Kaio rescue a friend of yours rather than Malik,” I commented and he surprised me by shaking his head.

“Who am I to decide who lives and who dies.” He said wisely and I nodded.

“It is that very thought that should motivate you to think happy thoughts once more and put all this behind you.”

“I can’t just put it behind me. Those guys were like my family…you don’t just forget about your family.” He finished.

“I suppose you’re right,” I said. “But as much as it hurts you to know that they are no longer with you, you should not neglect your health Tony.” I said, pushing the plate closer to him.

He shook his head and pushed up from the ledge.

“You wouldn’t understand.” He spoke quietly, before he turned away from me and pulled the door open, leaving me alone with his untouched food and my thoughts.

It was not very difficult to imagine the emotions coursing through him. I suppose I could liken his loss to that of any of my brothers, and the thought alone was almost too much to bear. Which is why I would allow him his time to mourn. I would leave him be for as long as he needed so that  he could come to terms with the deaths of his brethren and eventually find the will to move on.

I stood and walked the short distance to the door that would take me back inside and while there, I decided it was time to have a word with Malik. This could go on no longer.

………………………………..

I pushed open the door to Kaio’s bedchamber and stepped in, in time to spot them in an intimate embrace. They broke away quickly and Kaio stared at me with wide, guilty eyes.

I turned to Malik who appeared to be unperturbed. “It’s time you told Tony the truth,” I told him and he frowned, moving to lower himself onto the edge of his unmade bed.

“I told you, I’m waiting for the right time.”

“You have been presented with many a good opportunity and you have wasted each one. The time for waiting has come to an end. The longer you wait, the worse his reaction will be and we will all be forced to bear the brunt of his displeasure.”

He pinched the bridge of his nose and closed his eyes briefly. When he opened them, he stared up at me with conviction.

“It’s not something I just want to blurt out. I want to earn his trust before I explain it to him. It will be easier for him to take in that way.”

“You cannot earn his trust. He already knows that you are harboring secrets and every time you open your mouth he loathes you even more,” I told him. “Tell him now.”

“No.”

His disobedience angered me. “You may have saved his life on that battleground before I arrived, and I am forever indebted to you for that, but make no mistake Malik, when it comes to my mate I do not play games. Tell him what he needs to know, or I will and I promise you…if he hears it from anyone but you, you will never have his trust.”

He offered no retort and without another word, I left them to their activities and exited the room. It was a gloomy day at best and with every turn there was some new burden to be endured. I walked silently down the corridor and stopped before an open window. In the courtyard, Tony stood, throwing his ball against the wall and catching it before it could bounce away into the bush.

His expression was one of concentration, but his eyes were troubled. I imagined that for as long as he lived he would have days like this, where the death of those closest to him would haunt his dreams and waking hours, but eventually  he would learn to cope…it was life. All things had a time to die and those left behind moved on.

…………………………………

~Kaio’s POV~

 “You must not anger Lord Riener Mal, you should tell Tony. I am certain that given time, he will understand.”

My mate shook his head, his expression one of misery as I watched him.

“You don’t understand Kaio. He loved those retches he calls his parents. If I tell him the truth...if I tell him that they orchestrated his abduction he won’t believe me and more than that, he’ll hate me for ruining whatever memory he has of them,” he said and I bit my lip.

“Tony has been searching for a family all his life. He would not give up a newfound brother. He is stubborn, it is true, but eventually he will come to care for you.” I tried to persuade him.

“I need him to trust me first, that way he’ll know that what I’m telling him is the truth.”

Tony was stubborn, but so was Malik. They were truly brothers.

I sighed. “You don’t have a choice now. Lord Riener has ordered it and you must not disobey him. He is capable of much more than you know and I will not have you suffer the consequences of your own inaction,” I said adamantly and after a moment of silence, he smiled and I all but melted.

He reached out from where he still sat and took hold of the front of my robes, puling me closer to him, and when I stood before him, he wrapped his arms around my waist, resting his forehead on my belly.

“I won’t tell him…not yet,” he said and when I tried to pull away, he held on tighter so I relented.

“You must.” I told him, running a hand through his soft hair.

“I won’t.” he said and I sighed.

                                       AUTHOR'S NOTES

THERE YOU GO GUYS, THANKS FOR READING AND AS ALWAYS KEEP SWEET!!

-DoUbLe.A

-unedited.