Misting outside the barrier, I start the long trek into town, trying to get my head on straight before I go to see Kiara. I’ve already handled her mortgage, bills, and groceries. So how else can I take something off her plate?
The clinic.
I could arrange for some upgrades; new equipment and supplies. Find her some potential clients and hype her up so she gets more business. She prefers working with rare animals; I’m sure I have a few decent contacts that’d love to hire her. The guild usually receives job requests for assassinations, but we get plenty of odd jobs, too. Tracking down a missing person, rescuing a loved one from dangerous criminals when the proper channels have failed them. And we always have our ears to the ground to keep up with the criminal underworld. It wouldn’t take much to bribe a few of my men to intercept a few illegal transports of mythologicals.
“Shit, but what would she do once she had them? Nobody to pay the vet bills and then she’d have more mouths to feed and nowhere to put them,” I mumble, trying to riddle out all the plot holes before my gift turns into a burden.
I could buy her land to open up an animal sanctuary, maybe? Pick up more jobs so I could fund it with ‘donations’? Or we could turn it into a humane zoo, one prioritized on theanimals’ comfort and humans could walk through clear tunnels throughout so they wouldn’t disrupt them. Help offset the cost.
I’m lost in thought when I bump into someone, his shopping bag crashing to the ground and spilling out across the frigid sidewalk. “Shit, sorry.” I bend down automatically to help pick things up, pausing when I see his face.
Killian Sterling.
When I freeze for too long, he frowns at me. “I’m sorry, have we met?”
I’m your brother in law. Or Iwould beif your sister didn’t hate me.
“I… know Kiara.”
He gets instantly defensive, but once his gaze falls on his sister’s mark branded on my wrist, he pauses with his hand half toward the fallen items I offer up. “You’re hermate?!”
My lips press into a thin line. “I am.”
Killian frowns. “She never said…”
I sigh.“She wouldn’t.”
His gaze hardens. “Why not?”
I open my mouth to reply, but nothing comes out. How do I even go about justifying what happened? Sure, it wasn’t completely my fault.Someonehas been sabotaging my relationship with Kiara, gods only know why. But every explanation on the tip of my tongue feels like an excuse, and I can’t bring myself to utter a single one. Because… she was right.
Miscommunications happened on both sides, but that doesn’t erase the fact that I could have tried harder. Asked Arson to get her number. Said to hell with it and misted inside her house so nobody else would see me coming and going, and confronted her about why she hadn’t texted me.
But a small part of me was afraid. That I was too old for her, that I wasn’t good enough for someone as sweet as her. I had every excuse in the book to delay the conversation wedesperately needed to have, but that doesn’t make me a martyr. It makes me a coward.
“Because I’m afraid she’s going to reject me.”
He gives me a contemplative look, assessing me from head to toe. “Should she? Are you good enough for my sister?”
I swallow roughly. “I’d like to be.”
He nods slowly and extends his hand. “I’m Killian.”
I shake it firmly. “Havoc Knight, guild master of the Shadow Knights.”
“What the heck is a Shadow knight? Is that like a gang?”
Fucking hell. The Sterling’s are a humbling experience I wasn’t prepared for.
“More like a family.” Running my fingers through my hair, I grimace. “Of assassins. It's my job to keep them in check, ensure they uphold the guild's values, make sure they're properly trained, and don't dishonor our reputation. Pay the bills to keep the guild hall up and running so everyone always has somewhere safe to stay and regroup.”
“Let me get this straight,” he asks, head cocked. “You take care of dangerous people and invite homeless murderers to live with you?”
“Well it sounds moronic if you phrase it likethat.”
He snorts. “Yep, you and my sister are clearly made for each other. She's been bringing home dangerous animals that could kill a fully-grown man with a single strike since she was a kid and insisted on nursing them back to health and loving them because, and I quote, ‘Animals only attack you if they're hungry, protecting something, or scared. Even monsters need help sometimes, and I'm not afraid to love them just because everyone else has decided they don't deserve to be loved’.”
My chest aches. My mate is far too fucking sweet for this world, and it scares the hell out of me. People destroy soft things.Snuff out the good, and use people until they’re a husk of their former selves if they aren’t careful.
