Kira
Thanks to the mental distress that arose from my disturbing thoughts of D'Angelo, I paced back and forth in the room with my eyes fixed on my phone in my hand.
The last time I heard from him was over ten hours ago, and now his phone was switched off. I couldn't help but imagine the worst. I needed to be sure that he was fine.
Because of this, I couldn't sleep. All I did was call and wait and hope.
I had repeatedly questioned the bodyguards about their boss's whereabouts, but they remained clueless. It made my heart race with growing anxiety..
"Kira, please come to bed and get some sleep," my mom pleaded with me. "D'Angelo is fine. Maybe he doesn't need any distractions."
"No," my voice trembled. "This was the same thing that happened during the war. I don't want any surprises. If he was okay, he would have called me and not left me hanging like this."
My mom sat there, not knowing what to do, while I continued pacing back and forth, sending a ton of messages and voicemails, hoping that he would call me back. The minutes ticked by, and my worry turned to fear. D'Angelo would never ignore me like this. Mom tried to comfort me, but I didn't listen to her.
Strangely, I felt a bit better in the morning and kept hoping that he was fine. I was heading to the kitchen to get some water when I noticed some movement at the pantry. I ignored it at first, but from the sounds, I knew that two people were making out.
Curious to know who they were and why they were hiding, I went to see for myself and almost collapsed in shock at the sight of my mom kissing one of the bodyguards. It wasn't just a flimsy kiss. Their tongues were entangled in a passionate battle between lips and tongues. They had each other pinned on top of the island.
My brain was frozen and I couldn't speak or move. My mom was the first to notice my presence, and she shrieked, jumping off the bodyguard as if she was sitting on a cactus plant. I ran back upstairs because I was too stunned to believe what I'd seen.
Not only did I never anticipate my mom finding a lover after my dad left, but the dude was younger than her. He seemed like someone in his late twenties to early thirties. It was very uncommon in my world for females to be with younger males.
My mom barged into the room, lacking composure and a flush that crept across her cheeks. She was visibly sweating, and she couldn't hold my gaze.
My toes curled up, and I sat on the bed, pulling my knees together.
"What's going on, Mom?" I asked softly. "I wasn't expecting to see that."
Gritting her teeth, she slid down on the ottoman and fiddled with her sleeve. Although I was not mad at her, my thoughts were muddled.
"You don't have to be ashamed," I said to her. "I just want to know if it's a fling or..."
"It's nothing," she said in a rush. "I swear to you, it was a spur-of-the-moment thing, and it will never happen again."
Rolling my eyes, I sat up straighter and faced my mom. "Mom, this isn't normal behavior for you. You're normally very open with your life. I'm surprised that you haven't told me about him yet.I may be young, but over the past few months, I have been in a roller coaster relationship with my mate. I know love and lust when I see one. So, tell me, what is going on?"
"Oh, Kira," she groaned into her palms. "I'm so ashamed of myself."
I closed the distance between us and held her hands, squeezing lightly. "But why? Love is a beautiful thing. Well, I must admit, it's weird for me to have found my mother in such a steamy position, but you've got blood running through your veins. I just want to know what's going on between you and the bodyguard.”
"I... I don't know," she stuttered. “I tried hard to avoid this temptation but our bond kept growing stronger and-”
My ears perked up. "Did you just say bond?" I interrupted her, my eyes widening like saucers. "I don't understand."
She sighed and stared at her palms. "Me neither, but we found out, we're mates."
She sounded so unsure of herself and was fidgeting. I, on the other hand, found it difficult to speak. My tongue lay like a stone in my mouth.
"Wait, I don't get it. I thought one gets a mate for life. Doesn't that mean that my dad wasn't your soul mate?"
"Of course, he was," she said with a light scoff. "On rare occasions when the first mate is deceased or the bond has been broken, the Moon Goddess, on a very good day, could bestow a second chance mate on that lucky fellow."
I was so shocked by this news and didn't know when an excited squeal escaped my mouth. It was so loud that my mom had to cover my mouth.
"I can't believe this," I said, my voice sounding muffled, before she removed her hand. "This is a good thing, Mom. You deserve to be loved again. You know, I've been thinking of how boring life would be for you when I eventually move in with D'Angelo. I don't want you to be alone."
Tears blinded her eyes and choked her voice. "I don't know, honey. This is a new territory I'm navigating, and the fact that he is much younger is making me very skeptical. What will people say? I mean, we're not even over your relationship problems with the alpha, adding mind to the mix is just crazy."
"Mom, you're overthinking," I said to her. "His age doesn't matter as long as he loves you and has good intentions and will take care of you. Go with the flow and see how things unfold."
"It's easy for you to say," she said, sounding very subdued.
There was a knock on my door hours later, with the same bodyguard coming to inform me that I had a visitor. He looked stern, and there was no trace of apology on his face.
"Someone is here to see you," he said with a gruff tone. "He says his name is Caleb."
My mom rushed to the door, and when she saw who it was, she quickly covered up her cleavage with her robe. I imagined how excited the bodyguard must have been to see his mate and realized that my mom wasn't even old, and that I was only giving her that attribute because she was my mom.
Other than the years of hard living, she was just an older version of myself. The same ash blonde hair, same blue eyes, same body structure, every damn thing.
"Who is he, and what does he want?" my mom demanded, sounding unnecessarily harsh, and I had to suppress my laughter until I realized that Kaleb's visit was unusual.
"I don't know," the bodyguard replied, "but he says it's important."
"You're not seeing him," my mom said while shaking her head vehemently, "this could be a trap to lure you."
But I was too curious to listen to her. I wanted to know why Caleb took the risk and came here and what he wanted, so I begged my mom to let me see him. After much hesitation, she let me go.
From the stairs, I saw Caleb downstairs, dressed in all black. The bodyguards were searching him roughly, patting him down and checking his pockets. He submitted to the search without even looking annoyed. His eyes darted around the room, and when the bodyguard stepped aside, Caleb's gaze met mine, and he rushed over to me.
"What are you doing here, Caleb? And why do you look so scared? What's going on?"
"I don't know," he trembled. "I've been trying to reach the alpha for hours now, and I haven't heard anything. Please, do you know his whereabouts?"
"Oh God, please don't let anything happen to him," I whispered to myself, and my heart began to race with fear. "No, I haven't heard from him either. Did you hear something about him?"
"Relax," he said to me while gripping my hand. "It's not about him. It's about my sister, Alexis."
"What about her?" I asked with a frown.
"She sent me a live location about nine hours ago, and we haven't seen her since then. She sent a picture of her hands covered in blood. I don't know what it means, but I need to find her."
When he showed me the picture, I felt a dreadful chill run down my spine, and I was also surprised because from the little time I had spent with them, Alexis was a very good friend of Isabel, Leo's wife.
"We need to find D'Angelo. He's the only one that can help," he said to me.
"I'm sorry, but D'Angelo made instructions that I shouldn't leave the house. I guess we'll have to wait until his return."
Caleb scratched his face. "I can't wait. The longer I wait, the greater her chances of losing her life. Please help me, Kira. I know the alpha may not help us without your influence."
I asked him to forward the location and the image to me, and then I sent them to D'Angelo, paranoid as hell and hoping that his silence wasn't an indicator that something bad had happened.