Romans & histoires King Two Hearts

she muttered. “You still are.” “Yes.” “Good.” She frowned. “You keep saying that.” “Because anger means you still save enough to feel something.” His hand moved between them, palm up on the concrete. Not touching. Just there. An offering. Rae stared at it for a long moment. Then placed her hand in his. Neither spoke. The sun went down around them. Part Five- He kissed her again three nights later. Not because either planned it. Because storms have habits. Rain rolled in after dark, sudden and hard, drumming on the metal awning, flooding the lot in silver sheets. Rae was closing the till when the power flicked.

But he would never again have the chance to hold her. He struggled to reach his hand out through the shattered car window, but she was too far away. Just like that day years ago, in the hospital, when he had reached out for her hand, then pulled back at the last moment. He would never know that if he had just held on a second longer, she would have come running back to him. Some things, once lost, are lost for a lifetime. Matej was the boyfriend of Julia, one of the employees at Nikki's flower shop.

They fell into easy conversation and I stood in the doorway watching them and understanding something that settled cold and heavy in my chest. Adrian was back in Kofi’s life. Which meant he was back in mine. The dinner table. The front door. Every ordinary space I had built my secret carefully around. The two worlds I had kept surgically apart were no longer separate. They were in the same room now. The same table. The same man sitting in both of them without knowing it. The system I had spent eight months building was already cracking at the foundation. I was clearing cups when Adrian appeared in the kitchen doorway.

For the first time, a sliver of confidence about our relationship bloomed in my chest. I went back to bed and for the first time in days, slept like the dead. I was woken by my phone vibrating non-stop. I opened Pack Net. The homepage was live-streaming the opening ceremony of the Centennial Hunt. The drone footage showed Caspen and Victoria, side-by-side on the highest viewing platform, leaders of their packs. The comments were still going crazy over the "dream couple." But one comment suddenly blew up the screen: "WAIT! Look at Alpha Caspen's left wrist! Is that a mate bracelet?!"

They only cared about the heart that would one day belong to Nathaniel. I slowly raised my head and met their disbelieving eyes. For the first time in my life, my voice was completely calm. "Nathaniel? Isn't he still alive? What exactly are you still pretending for? My heart was always meant for him, wasn't it?"

Well, just like that, we were back to it—the usual ping-pong of raining petty—the war that I found out we both secretly enjoyed engaging in. “You gonna be a good boy and apologize now?” I dared him, frowning. “No, that's never gonna happen.” “Didn’t think that would be possible.” Then, he stared blankly at me, almost scared. Then, suddenly, he said something out of the blue, something I never expected. “It wasn't just one, I heard two heartbeats.” I froze in shock. “What, how possible is that?” “Why two? Not even the regular one.” “No, that's not happening. Ryker, I didn't sign up for...are you in any way insinuating...”

Our love was leading us blindly into an ending that might not be all that happy. My heart twisted with that thought. And the doubt—always the doubt. Nudging at the corners of my mind despite fighting it away. I knew it was irrational and it was wrong, but I couldn’t hold it at bay. Now, the doubts were infinitely more. Just…more. More painful. More intense. More potentially devastating. Because I had two hearts to consider. Two hearts beat inside me. Two hearts love inside me.

The image blurred, then sharpened. Two flickers. Not one. Two. "Twins," I whispered. "No." Dr. Hayes shook her head slowly. "Not twins. Look." She pointed at the screen. At the space between the flickers. They weren't separate. They were connected. Two heartbeats. One body. "What the hell is that?" Kael moved to the other side of the table. His shoulder brushed mine. He didn't pull away. Dr. Hayes's hand trembled slightly.

Sable asked. "Approximately four months," Kia said. Sable moved the instrument. Listened. Moved it again. "The heartbeats," Sable said. "Twins," Kia said. "I've known for a while." "Yes," Sable said. "Two. Definitely two." She removed the instrument and looked at it, then at Kia, with an expression that was working to stay professionally neutral and not entirely succeeding. "Mara," she said, which was the name Kia had given at the door.

I try to scream, but my mouth doesn’t open, and nothing comes out. I watch his claws push into Aston’s chest. His eyes go big, and a tear rolls down his face. King turns to me and pulls his hand out with a gleam in his eyes. He stands up tall with his bloody hand in front of him. His fingers are closed around the heart of my mate, and the anguish I feel is overwhelming. He tosses the heart backward and saunters over to me.