Chapter 5

Bowden

I pace past my comfortable old leather couch for the hundredth time while I wait for Kaiya to make her appearance. I've been restless all day, to the point that I'm afraid I'll hurt someone if I can't find a way to calm my nerves and settle my wolf. “Mate,” Knox growls in my head. “Go get our mate.”

Knox is behaving completely out of character. Usually after we've found our mate, he'd settle down, content knowing that she was here if he wanted her.

There are no female Lycans, and since we have no need to procreate, our wolves merely crave the emotional bond with a mate. They don't care one way or the other about a physical one anymore. The need for a mate bond is woven into our DNA. A holdover from the ancient times when female Lycans still existed. Before we became immortal and we still needed to breed.

Knox shouldn't be acting this way now that we've found our next mate. Neither should I, for that matter. I want her here, in my arms where she belongs. I haven't felt this way about a mate in a long, long time. I hate and love it all at once, and I don't know what to do with myself.

I look out over my private garden far below. The garden is my haven. I’m the only one allowed in it, and in all the centuries I’ve walked this earth, I’ve never even allowed one of my mates to join me there. The only other person allowed to enter my garden is Lochlan, the caretaker. “Where is she?” Knox growls.

I swear, there are days that I wish I could rip the wolf out of me and cast him aside. “Be quiet,” I snarl back. “You are driving me insane. You wanted a mate. I left our home and went searching for a mate. You have your mate, now give me some peace, for Goddess’ sake.”

"You want her too," he says and finally goes quiet.

He does perk up when we hear Kaiya just on the other side of the door, but he doesn't say anything. I wait for her to knock, but when she doesn’t, I snap, “Get in here," impatient to see her.

Kaiya grunts softly on the other side, and I can hear her digging her feet into the tiles, trying to shift the massive door. I really need to have the doors replaced with more modern versions, but I like the originals – the familiarity of the castle is comforting. It gives me a sense of order in an ever-changing world of chaos.

The squeal of the rusty old hinges echoes through the living room and finally the door groans open. “What’s with these doors?” she asks me straight away. “You can’t oil a hinge?”

I find it at once charming and annoying that she sometimes forgets I’m the king and talks to me as she would to anyone else. Normally, I wouldn’t mind if my mate spoke to me that way – it’s to be expected – but today I do. My nerves are frayed, I’m tired, Knox is driving me bat shit, and all I want is a quiet night with my mate in my arms. “If it bothers you that much, why don’t you do it?” I ask her.

“Okay.” She cranes her head back to look at the top of the door. “It’s very high. Where can I find a ladder and some oil?”

“Oh for fuck’s sake, I’m not serious.”

“Are you sure?” she goes on. “I mean this is a big place. I don’t mind doing it if you can't.”

“What?” I snap.

She lowers her head to look at me. She has once again washed off her make-up, but she’s still wearing the pink dress she put on this morning. Despite her obvious fatigue, she looks fresh and beautiful.

“I mean, you are a king. No one expects you to go around doing castle maintenance. My father couldn’t do things like that either. It’s just how it is.” She shrugs. "I think it's because no one ever teaches you how to do normal things. When I started working as a-"

“I can oil a fucking hinge,” I interrupt her.

“Can you?” she asks me, her tone of voice deadly serious. “Once, my father insisted that he could make me a swing. So he made me one out of an old tyre and some rope he found in the shed. Tied it to a tree, as you do, but he didn’t check to make sure that the limb he chose was strong enough. When I went up that branch broke right off.

“We went flying-” she whooshes her hand into the air -“me, the tyre and the rope. Splat-” she slaps her hands together once -“luckily the rose bushes broke my fall, but let me tell you, it was a bloodbath. Sometimes, if I sit just right, I can still feel the thorns in my butt.”

I start laughing and can’t stop.

“Then there was the time I wanted a water slide. You know, like the ones they showed on television every summer? The ones you can put up in your backyard.”

Smiling, I nod at her.

She grins, her eyes going misty with the memories of her childhood. “Anyway, my mother said no, they’re too dangerous, but my father was sure he could make me one with an old plastic groundsheet. I have to take some blame for that one though…I really encouraged him and helped him to make it.

“We made a spectacular water slide. I think the crucial mistake was covering it in dish soap and forgetting to put something at the end to stop me.” She hisses softly. “We rolled it down the hill at the back of the pack house-” she walks deeper into my apartment -“best ride of my life, but if you feel here-” she lowers her head and parts her hair at the crown -“you can still feel the dent where I hit the side of the pack house wall.”

I roar with laughter. I can’t help it.

Her smile dries up and her grey eyes fill with tears. “That was the last time…Klaus killed him a few weeks later.”

“Our mate is sad,” Knox says.

I know what he wants me to do. Automatically, I reach out to cup Kaiya’s cheek, desperate to see her beautiful smile retun. I run my thumb over her soft skin, shivering as sparks ignite between us and electrifies me. She flinches when I touch her, but otherwise doesn’t move.

The warmth of the mate bond floods through me. Knox purrs happily and finally settles down.

I drop my hand. “He was good to you.” I stuff my hands into my pockets so I won’t be tempted to touch her again. “Hold on to that.”

“Yeah,” she sighs and clasps her hands in front of her, picking at her nails again. “You wanted to see me, your majesty?”

“It’s the full moon,” I state.

“I know. I have eyes.”

I chuckle softly. “Would you like to shift tonight?”

“I don’t have a wolf.”

“You do. I think she won’t manifest out of fear, but maybe she’ll emerge if she feels safe enough.”

Kaiya slowly shakes her head. “I don’t think so, I felt safe at my-”

“All right,” I say and put my hands up. If she doesn’t want to try, forcing her won’t help matters. “Then you must stay here tonight.”

“Why?”

“You know what happens when regular werewolves shift?”

“They lose control of their animals.”

“Yes. That’s why the wolves here shift deep in the woods, far away from the castle and humans. My Lycans go with them to prevent any…mishaps, but one or two always find their way into the castle.”

Kaiya’s eyes go wide. “Clara.”

“Gamma Jaeger will stay with her tonight.”

“Poor Jaeger.”

I laugh. Goddess help me, I like her.

Liking her doesn’t mean I have to fall in love with her, I remind myself. I liked all my mates and only loved a few.

“You will take my bed,” I say. “I can sleep out here.”

“There is no need, I can-”

I growl softly in warning. I don’t mind playing around with her a little, but I expect her to follow my orders when I give them. “It’s not a request.”

She goes quiet and nods. “Yes, King.”

“You should get used to calling me by my first name,” I say.

“We are not mated yet.”

I narrow my eyes at her.

“But I will try to remember,” she adds quickly.

I smirk and walk past her to open the door for Griffin who is on his way with our supper. On the full moon, we usually meet in the kitchen and enjoy having the castle to ourselves, but with Kaiya here and Knox out of control, I don’t want to risk it. Not this month.

Griffin gives me a sly little wink as he enters with the tray and puts it on the dining table close to the window. “Thank you,” I say aloud.

“I’m not your butler, you know,” he says through our mind link.

He's not serious, but I'm in no mood tonight. I growl a warning at him, but he doesn't pay me much mind. We’ve been through too much together, and we both know what's really going on. “I can't leave. Knox is…out of control.”

“I can sense it, yes. Do you know what’s wrong with him?”

“No, I don't. He never behaves this way.”

“Well, I do,” Griffin states confidently. "It's the girl."

“Maybe,” I grunt and glance at Kaiya who had wandered over to the window. “She’s different.”

“Yes. Of course she is. She’s a wild child.”

“I noticed.”

My Beta cocks his head at me, his amber eyes filled with confusion. “You don’t know? All these years I thought...never mind,” he says and starts to leave. “Maybe it’s for the best if you don’t know what's waiting for you.”

I push my aura out at Griffin, pinning him in place just before he reaches the door. “What is it?” I ask.

He sighs deeply and runs his hand through his hair. “Knox is behaving differently because he knows…Kaiya is your last mate.”