AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“No. I’ll tell him.” Annabelle slowly stands, her eyes still focusing on me. “I’m the one who asked him out of order.”
“He’ll understand.” Eros squeezes her hand. “We can come with you.”
“I’ll do it,” I say. It’s half-shout. I never shout.
“Nico. It’s not your responsibility.” Annabelle’s calm, too calm.
“No, but you’re right, he is my best friend. And he will have questions.” I nod and make my way down the hall. I half expect her to stop me, or to follow me, but she does neither.
Castor sits stiffly on the sofa. He’s cleaned up the dishes that were on the end table, something I’m sure he hasn’t done often in his life, living with a dozen servants in his parents’ apartment for most of it.
“Hello.” He tilts his head to the side, but his downturned lips tell me he’s not surprised to see me. “You vetoed me.”
I give him a curt nod. “It’s not safe.”
“When has it ever been safe here? That’s something I’m planning on changing.”
“And by mating into this pod, you’ll be making your bid for king that much harder.”
“Maybe, but I don’t care anymore. I can’t mate Saraphina or someone like her.”
I raise my eyebrows at him because Saraphina has had a thing for him for years.
“Sure, I could mate Saraphina. But I don’t want to. I don’t want to touch anyone else. Mating someone else would be wrong. I’d be thinking of Annabelle. That wouldn’t be fair to them or to myself. And I can’t live the bachelor’s life. After the disaster that is Atlas, it’s going to be a long time before we can have another single king again. Whether I’m king or not doesn’t matter. What matters is that I’m with Annabelle. If I can’t be king, I’ll find another way to make change happen.”
“You’ve really thought this through?” I scrub my hand over my chin.
He stands up. “Honestly, no. But I haven’t been the same since I’ve been away from her. That, and I cleaned up.” He motions to the tidied salon.
“You didn’t finish it.” Holter’s jacket is on the floor.
“I did a good job.” He stares back at the clean room.
“Not the room, your plan. One, there is no plan. You didn’t think it through.”
Castor shakes his head. “I can’t think about anything else. I raced to America to find her missing relatives, missing a board meeting. I’ve never asked you for anything, Nico.”
My eyes widen.
“Fine, I’ve never asked you for anything truly important. This is everything to me.”
“No.”
“It is.”
“My answer is still no.” I cross my arms over my chest.
“You’re being an ass.”
I cock my head at him. When did being called an ass ever change my mind about anything? Never.
“Please.”
I smirk. Because my mate didn’t say please. A little voice in the back of my head clangs. She knows if she said please, you would have given it to her. You would live in Boston for her. You would change the tides for her. She didn’t say please because she was letting me decide. Whereas I can say no to Castor. I can say no to my best friend. “No.”
He nods. His face firms. Someone who doesn’t know him might think this isn’t affecting him at all. But that’s Castor holding it all in. Holding it all back.
He strips his shirt off, and I scowl at him. “What are you doing?”
