KYLE
Her reaction was... amusing. Had I really been giving the impression of a murderer all these years?
I hoped not. I mean, I hated Kaea, sure. I didn't now. Sometimes I felt she didn't either, but then she was crazed to see me doing something like this.
It had felt...right. It felt right to see her smile. To see her eyes light up, to shut her up for two seconds.
It felt right to do this. Her eyes, amber, maybe they were light brown- I had been studying them for a decade and I still couldn't place them, but they were beautiful. They hid so much, and gave away so much.
Like cryptography. You just needed the key to unlock the whole code.
She had passed the ball to Rebecca, even when she knew that maybe Rebecca wouldn't be able to make that shot. But she did. She believed in her.
The way she set Jackson straight, the way her collarbone peeked out from her shirt, the way she bit her lips. Everything about her was driving me crazy.
Getting too ahead of ourselves, aren't we?
A small voice in my head spoke up. That part was right. She might never forgive me.
And it had been what- Two days? Three days? – Since we had actually started talking properly. There were times when she was heartless, ruthless- just horrible to people. And whenever I thought it was too much, that gave me enough reason to keep going.
She still wasn't as horrible to people as I was to her.
I sighed, eyeing the bottle of whiskey in the kitchen, then rollin my head back, I closed my eyes.
KAEA
"He did what?!" Lee screamed through the phone. "What the hell?!"
"I don't know." I whispered furiously. "Can you speak a little less loudly? My ears are bleeding."
"Sorry." She said, still very loudly. "I am just so... confused."
"What is confusing about this? This is just well.. out of nowhere."
"Exactly, my point. What the hell is going on in his brain? And he asked you on a date? What the hell?"
I let out a breath. I had no idea what was going on in his brain. I had tried to unravel it, thinking there would be an answer. I had found two. One would hurt me & break me and the other would scare the bejesus out of me.
"I don't know, Lee. You think I should go?" I wanted to. I really wanted to. Half because I was curious, but half because some part of me really did want to.
"Well he swore an oath. He won't murder you, or do anything wrong. But Kaea... what if he is just trying to emotionally manipulate you?"
"You think that?"
"I mean... I don't Kaea. I don't exactly trust him, you know."
She was right. I could be walking myself right into a trap of emotional nightmares. What if he was manipulating me? What if him trying to be nicer was just another step into his stupid, psycho plan?
I didn't trust me farther than I could throw him. And I couldn't throw him whatsoever.
But what if he wasn't? What if this was his way of showing that he was changing?
Only one way to know.
***
"So?"
"What?" My dad asked, eating a toast and glancing at me.
"How did you like our report?"
"Oh but that is something me and the Alpha will tell you both at the same time, Kaea." He smiled mischievously. "Are you nervous I won't like it?"
"No, because Mom already told me you did."
He scowled at her, feigning annoyance. "Damn."
"Meet you at the pack house?" I asked, putting picking up my bag.
"You are going early."
"I thought I would read up on a bit of our pack's history." I blushed.
He hmm-ed. And when he looked into my eyes, I felt like a deer caught in headlights. "Kyle won't be there."
"What? Why? Never mind, I am not going for him."
"Alright, then. Meet me at 9 at the Alpha's office."
As it turned out, my father was right. Kyle wasn't there. That meant I came in earlier than him, which pleased me for some weird reason because coming early was not a competition. And yet, I couldn't keep the smug look out of my face as I tore open books on werewolf history.
Supposedly the goddess had converted thirteen people to werewolves as gift, although seven of them had mysteriously disappeared. Their mates were humans, which was common early on, but as out population increased it became quite rare. The werewolves divided into packs for effective control and...
Someone tapped on the table. "Busy?"
I looked up. Kyle. Checked my watch. 8.50 am.
He was one hour twenty minutes late.
"You are late." I grumbled.
He was silent for a time, but then spoke. Hesitantly at first, "Abi had some problems."
"She still staying with you?"
"Yes." Short and curt.
I looked at my watch again realising we had to meet with our fathers, but as soon as I opened my mouth, he beat me to it.
"The Alpha has called us both."
I nodded back, but as we walked to the room, an awkward silence had settled between us both. I picked on my nails, looking anywhere but him, trying to think about ways the report could have gone wrong. The Alpha...
"Why do you not call you father- dad?" I asked, out of nowhere. Well a decade of communication tends to mess up the said skill.
"It just... it didn't feel right."
I waited for him to explain, but it was clear he wasn't going to. So I wagered a guess. Like the excellent listener that I was. "Is it because of his... status?"
He gazed at me, stoic. "We are here."
Fine then, if he didn't want to say, then I don't want to hear.
***
"Who wrote this?" The Alpha and Dad were sitting, looking upon our report. My heart beat furiously, and nervously. I was the one who came with the most of the things- what if they said it was the stupidest things they had ever seen? I had suggested some rather radical changes to channel money to the right causes, and it included taking away assets from people with criminal records against them and I-
"This is really good. Creative, radical, bold." The Alpha eyed Kyle, and then cracked a smile. "I don't suppose you wrote this."
The corner of Kyle's mouth turned up as well. "No. It was all her."
"Not all me. He came up with some amazing things too." Me being angry at him aside- I wasn't about to take the whole credit for this thing.
The both nodded. Then my father spoke up. "It obviously has some mistakes. Some things won't work practically, but there is a lot in here that we can use even right now." He nodded slightly at both of us. "Good work both of you."
My heart swelled. My father was a strict man, and every time he said something like this, I always wanted to sit for ten minutes and take it in like it was the only source of sunshine.
"We wanted you to go on fieldwork with us, till Saturday. Kaea with me, and Kyle with the Alpha. It will be mostly finance related, especially that one scheme about the children in the pack house... who came up with that?"
"I did." Kyle said.
My father and his father were both surprised- like I was when he suggested that.
"Okay, you are suggesting here that we should ask for donations than just cutting the money through taxes, and have the schools and the kids perform some events for this. Would you be willing to do something small-scale for this? We want to see the results."
He nodded. "I would need Kaea with me."
They both eyed us curiously. Then stared at each other, exchanging words with sight. Then looked at me. "Fine. E-mail us the plans. You have two weeks."
We both nodded and got out of there, but I stopped him. "You can do this alone."
He looked at me, rather sadly. As if he was seeing something that I wasn't. "No, Kaea." He tilted his head. "I can't do this without you."
I sighed. I was hoping to have some time alone, to sort out this mess in my head. But meeting him everyday?
It confused me even more.
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