-Kaden's POV-
Adam took his pack back to their house with the agreement of talking more later, and the moment Adam disappeared through the portal, I felt it.
He was suddenly too far away, and it left me with an unfamiliar feeling, almost like when you can sense something being wrong, but this was different. I couldn't help but feel like a part of me was missing now that my keeper was gone, and I was really starting to wonder how my friends did it.
I ignored it as much as I could and forced myself to attend to my duties as usual. Zach and Gabriel weren't hurt during the attack but explained that when my message for back-up was sent out, they'd snuck through with the guards.
At first, I was angry, but Adrian and Cameron had both been hurt pretty badly and they could sense that, they needed to be there with their keepers, there was simply no keeping them away when they had so much to lose.
We were all advised to take things easy to allow ourselves to heal quicker, and I could only hope that would be an option for us.
There was no word on whether Amelia was alive or not and no trace as to where the portal she had created would lead to. Jacob still wasn't speaking to anyone, and I made a mental note to visit him later.
It goes without saying we all skipped the rest of school for the day, which gave me more time to catch up on work.
I started to draft my speech on the announcement of my keeper, knowing the sooner I had it ready, the better for all of us it would be. I didn't get too far with it, and to say it was a very rough draft would be too generous. I had to accept the fact that I would heavily need Adrian's help with it, he was far more empathetic in that aspect and had a way of connecting with people that others didn't.
However, I left him with his keeper so he could heal more before forcing the task upon him, even if it was just drafting a speech, and not heavy work.
There was no further news from Jupiter as of yet, and now my keeper had marked me, it was getting hard to resist not fully claiming him. I was starting to crave the idea of our souls being bound together, and I was no longer sure of how long I would be able to hold that back for.
I shook my head and finished the last bit of coffee in my cup. Sitting here doing tedious paperwork was driving me crazy, it was hard to go longer than five minutes without thinking about Adam now, my mind would always find its way back there.
I needed something else to keep myself busy, and so I stepped from my office and was surprised when I bumped straight into Adrian.
"Adrian, you are supposed to be resting." I raised an eyebrow as I examined him quickly, he definitely looked okay.
"I've rested, the healing balm is doing wonders, I made love to my keeper and I'm feeling great!" He grinned. I resisted the urge to roll my eyes, always the over-sharer. "And besides, you're injured too yet you're still working, and school is over now so this is the time I would usually start. So, what will you have me do, sir?" Adrian smirked.
I didn't hold back my sigh but of course, it only made him smirk more, knowing he had won.
"I do want to ask you to draft up a speech for me in regard to the announcement of my keeper, I started one, but I feel you will do a much better job of it."
"I can look through what you wrote, but it should be you announcing your keeper, it needs to come from the heart, you know? I can deal with the complications, why it was kept a secret and the delicacies of the war and all that, in fact I've already started it."
"You're a good knight, Adrian." I smiled, patting my friend on the shoulder in appreciation. "I need to speak with Keiron quickly, and then I was thinking about paying Jacob a visit if you would like to join me."
"Sounds good! Hopefully we'll be able to get some answers this time."
"Very well, meet me at the prisons in five."
"Yes, Sir!"
Adrian left and I made my way to Keiron's office, he was typing away on his computer when I entered and quickly turned to greet me with a smile on his face.
"Sir, how are you feeling?"
"Well enough, thank you, Keiron. I thought you might like to know that he works at the school." His eyes lit up, not in colour but there was a slight sparkle that graced his irises as a smile touched his lips.
"Thank you, Sir. If I may ask...what's his name?"
"Tom. He teaches us History," I smiled.
"Tom..." Keiron repeated his name so softly I barely heard it, nor did I think I was supposed to.
"Have a lovely evening, Keiron."
"Thank you again, Sir. Enjoy your evening."
I met with Adrian at the top of the stairs that would lead down to the prisons, two guards were situated at the top and greeted me upon arrival.
Adrian and I didn't speak until we reached the bottom of the stairs.
"We want to know if Jacob knew what the plan of attack was, what that thing that attacked us was, and what Amelia's end game was," I explained, though I had little hope for getting any answers to these questions.
"And when we fail, we're just gonna take the information from him, right?"
"I'm hoping it won't come to that." I sighed.
We approached Jacob's cell, he was laying on his back on the bed, staring up at the ceiling, his eyes were open, so he was obviously awake. On the floor beside the bed sat a plate full of untouched food.
"You should really eat something." I frowned; I didn't like that he was starving himself in here.
"I'm not really hungry." His voice held no emotions, and he didn't turn to look at us, he seemed kind of...well, for lack of a better word-broken.
"You shouldn't starve yourself, man. We just want to help but we can't do a lot while you're a suspect. Just talk to us and we can help you." Adrian sighed loudly, pressing his face against the metal bars.
"What's the point anymore?"
"What's that supposed to mean? Don't tell me you've given up already, you can still get out of here, we understand that none of this was your idea and you're not the only one to fall victim to Amelia's words."
I let Adrian talk, knowing he would be better at warming to the boy than me, but I couldn't help but frown.
"She LIED to me, Adrian." Jacob rose from the bed, coming to stand a few feet away from us, his eyes solely on me. "She's not your Keeper, is she?"
"No, she is not." It felt good to get that out there, I didn't want anybody thinking that were true, it was disrespectful to Adam.
"Shit, shit, shit." He turned his head away. "She lied to me, she lied to all of us. I trusted her, and she made me...I betrayed my King, my people, there's no coming back from that. How could I be so stupid?" He was mostly muttering to himself, but we heard everything.
"Why did you not just trust me?" I asked, hiding my confusion.
"You didn't know, Sir. She wanted to be the one to tell you, to show you. I do trust you; I just didn't want to ruin the surprise...if I may ask, Sir...what happened?" He asked hesitantly, avoiding my eyes as they drifted to the floor.
"She attacked us after I proved she was lying, she summoned...something. A giant monster, black in colour with a dozen arms, you wouldn't happen to know what it was, would you?"
Jacobs eyes widened in fear, he stared me down in shock, his mouth bobbing open and closed a few times before he forced his mouth shut and swallowed down hard.
"She-she told us she had a secret weapon, one that would help Galtolga, it was a fear to all that threatened us...or it would be...she called it a Sieloid, an ancient creature from a different dimension. She didn't know much about them, just how to summon one but the spell wasn't perfect, she was hoping you would be able to help with that."
Adrian sent me a look before glancing back at Jacob. "So, what was her endgame?"
"To rule over Galtolga with the King. I swear, she never mentioned anything to us about attacking you, I really didn't think she would do something like that," he pleaded.
"And that is all you know?" I asked.
"Yes, Sir," he nodded.
"Very well. Eat!" I commanded. "Give me a moment," I told Adrian, and walked down the hall.
"Adam?" I tried.
"Angel?" His voice still surprised me, but it was comfort.
"Have you ever heard of a Sieloid?"
"Hmm, can't say I have. I might need more context."
"That thing we fought earlier, it is called a Sieloid."
"I'm surprised that thing has a name. I could ask Tom if that would help? He's pretty knowledgeable on that kind of thing."
"I would appreciate that, let me know what he says?"
"Of course."
"Thank you, Adam."
"Anytime, Angel."
"I'm starting to think I should give you a pet name too." I didn't mean to say the words to him, it was more of a thought, but his response was instant.
"Oh yeah?" I could hear the teasing in his voice and could picture his smirk perfectly in my mind.
"I'll get back to you on that." I was holding back a blush, turns out I still wasn't used to that.
"Can't wait."
When I returned to Adrian's side, Jacob was finally eating. "You will remain in here for one week, that should give you time to think about your actions and the problems you have caused us, and what you plan to do once you get out of here. You will eat the meals given to you and answer any and all questions you are asked by either me, Adrian, or a member of the guards. Once the week is up you will be evaluated and will publicly apologise to me and the people of Galtolga. Then I will give you the chance to rebound yourself with this world."
"Yes, Sir. Thank you, Sir. And I am really, really sorry, Sir." Jacob sat on his knees to bow deeply.
"Are you sure you want this to go public?" Adrian asked.
"Too many people were involved in this, I do not see another way, if we punish them privately and word gets out, we will have bigger consequences. Trust me, I do not want to have to do this either. I will cover this personally; you need not worry."
"Yes, Sir."
Work past quickly after that and Adrian was eager to get back home to his Keeper, I let him go early and checked in with Cameron who was recovering fine, but I had a dreadful feeling I may have interrupted something, so only a bare minimum of messages was passed between us before I got back to work.
When night finally came around, and as time ticked on, I felt myself becoming restless, it was near impossible to focus on my work and eventually, I gave up for the night.
Now I found myself laying in bed, staring at the ceiling, feeling wide awake and anxious. I touched the mark on my neck and was surprised to feel it burn. My eyes clenched shut, a hiss being pulled from my lips.
I moved my hand away, forced myself to roll over and tried to get some sleep. I'm not sure how much time had past with me just laying there, praying for sleep, but it never came.
Instead, my body felt overheated, and the restlessness increased, it felt wrong, everything felt wrong.
Pulling the covers back, I rose from my bed.
2:34. The bright red numbers on the alarm clock glared in the room and I sighed, walking towards my bathroom, and wincing when the lights came on.
I checked my wounds, they still didn't hurt but they only looked a little better, they would probably take a few days to heal. I was feeling lethargic, yet full of energy and found myself staring at my image in the mirror.
My complexion was slighter paler than usual, but a gasp left my lips when I noticed the mark on my neck. I didn't think to look after Adam bit me, and I had been wearing a shirt all day so it was hidden but now I was shirtless, I could see it fully.
His teeth marks were imprinted into my skin, and seeing it just seemed to make it more obvious to me, I could feel the mark throbbing, I could almost feel his teeth buried into my neck.
My hand ruffled my hair, and I watched as my eyes lit up, glaring at the mirror with a Golden hue.
I can't do this. I'm going out of my mind here.
I rushed back into my room, pulling on a shirt and a pair of pants. The castle was silent at this time of night, yet I barely noticed.
My mind was foggy and distracted as I activated a portal, taking a deep breath and pressing my fingers to the mark once again.
Fuck, it burnt.
I didn't let myself think about anything else as I stepped through the portal and into Adam's room.
The room was dark, really dark, but I could sense his presence, and that alone was enough to calm me down.
"Kaden?" His voice sounded surprised, and my eyes moved to where the bed would be. I let my eyes light up so I could actually see him.
He was sitting up in his bed, watching me with a small smile on his face, yet his eyes looked concerned. I was soon locking onto bright red eyes as he let his own glow with life.
"Angel, what's wrong?" His voice was soothing. He climbed out of bed and moved towards me. I couldn't find any words, couldn't think any coherent thoughts. All I could do was close the distance between us and pull him into a bone crushing hug.
His arms immediately wrapped around my shoulders, holding me close against his chest.
"You're worrying me, baby," he whispered.
"I'm sorry. I'm okay, I just had to see you." I buried my head into his neck, inhaling his comforting scent and feeling the unease finally leave my body.
Adam's lips ghosted over his mark on my neck, and I shivered, holding him tighter, I was surprised to hear myself whimper, and I felt him smile against my neck.
"I missed you too," he chuckled. Hmm, I didn't think about it like that...I guess I did miss him, is that what that feeling was? Longing?
"I'm sorry I woke you. Would it be improper to ask if I could stay with you tonight?"
Adam chuckled again, pulling me towards his bed as he pulled back just enough to see my face. "Not at all, I would love to have you here."
"Thank you."
Adam climbed back into bed and pulled the sheets back on the other side so I could join him. I removed my shirt and pants, folding and placing them neatly on the chair in his room. I could feel Adam's eyes on me the whole time and I tried not to be distracted by it.
His bed was warm and welcoming, not too soft, yet not too firm and the scent of my keeper surrounded me.
A sigh of content left my lips almost silently, and I found myself laying next to Adam, face to face but not touching.
"Okay?" He asked with a charming smile.
"Perfect. I promise I won't talk the whole time and I will let you sleep, I just wanted to apologise for what happened, I hope your pack is doing well, and I'm sorry you had to hear Amelia call me in such way, I was hoping I would have the time to fill you in on everything, but time does not seem to be on my side lately."
"You don't have to apologise, Kaden. Like you said, we're in this together, right? My friends are fully healed again, you'll have to tell me what's in that healing balm Keiron used," he laughed. "Though I will admit, I didn't like Amelia calling you that, guess my wolf got pretty possessive."
"If it's any consolation, you handled it very well." I'm not sure how I would have handled things if somebody else called Adam his mate, in fact, I didn't like to think about it at all.
"I think I was too stunned to respond, honestly. I'm just glad you cleared it up, I look forward to being able to claim you publicly, I want everybody to know that you're mine." His eyes flashed and a shiver wracked my body. I never thought I'd like someone being so possessive over me but turns out my body liked it a bit too much.
"Keep talking like that and we're not going to get any sleep tonight."
My keeper laughed, his arm finding mine under the covers before it was wrapping around my waist and pulling me closer. "I'm glad you're here," he whispered.
God, he was beautiful. I placed a kiss to his cheek and lay my head close to his. "Me too." My eyes closed, and I pushed my forehead against his, letting him pull me closer so our bodies were pressed together.
"Goodnight, Angel."
"Goodnight, Adam."
I fell asleep cuddling with my keeper, his warmth and body creating a safe haven for myself, and it felt right, everything felt right.