“Then help me understand,” Cristie insisted.
Kaiser closed his eyes for a few moments and shook his head. It was clear that he was hurting, and was near to losing control.
Remi patted Roman’s hand where it rested on his shoulder, then stepped away from the line. He went over to Cristie and Kaiser. “Kaiser?” Remi asked.
Kaiser looked up at Remi.
Remi could even scent the pain on the male.
Kaiser stood up. “Hey. You must be Remi.”
“I am.”
The whole kitchen was silent, waiting to see if Cristie had created a situation that would turn violent between these two males.
Remi extended his hand, waiting for Kaiser to shake his hand.
Kaiser seemed a little confused at first, but then he shook Remi’s hand. “Good to meet you.”
“Oh, crap,” Lucas said, when he got into the kitchen and found Remi and Kaiser face to face.
Kaiser looked over toward Lucas and saw his whole family standing with him, both daughters and his mate, and Laz and his mate and daughter, too.
Kaiser’s chest almost collapsed with the depth of the sigh he let out before sucking his breath back in. The pain he felt was palpable.
Remi quickly scanned the group of people already in the kitchen to find the source of the pain Kaiser was feeling, but couldn’t figure out who it was. “You got a minute?” Remi finally asked.
Kaiser opened his mouth to object and even started shaking his head, but Remi started walking toward the hallway outside the kitchen, looking back to be sure Kaiser was following.
Kaiser started following Remi.
“Kaiser,” Roman said.
Kaiser held up his hand, and looked back at Roman. “It’s fine,” he said, then he stepped out of sight, following Remi to wherever he was leading.
Chapter 12
Remi came to a stop in the living room at the front of the house and turned to wait for Kaiser to join him.
Kaiser walked into the room and stopped only a couple of feet from Remi. “You want to talk to me?” he asked. There was no animosity, no anger, no aggressive stance at all.
It was clear to Remi that Kaiser was simply trying to contain his emotions. “You are about to blow. You alright?”
Kaiser laughed sarcastically. “If even you can see it, then I’m failing miserably at pretending I’m alright.”
Remi hinted at a smile. “I can smell the pain. And it’s not my place to say any of this, but here goes… The last time I recognized this kind of pain was Havoc, watching his true mate walk away from him when they were still teenagers. There was nothing he could do. I don’t know which one of the females in that room is your mate, but it’s clear that you believe you can’t have her, so I could hazard a guess or two.”
“How about you mind your own business and not make up shit to lay at my door. I’ve already got more than enough.”
“Fair enough. Thing is though, you’ve been struggling yourself, or so I’ve been told. Ran out of the last family gathering, too. So I don’t think I’m too far off the mark. I know what it’s like to be faced with not ever having your mate accept you. I’m living it now. But I don’t think you should be running out of here again. It’s going to cause a lot of attention to be focused on you.”
“Assuming you are anywhere in the hemisphere of being on to something, what do you suggest I do, because if I stay here, I can’t guarantee I’ll be able to control myself.”
Remi thought about it for a second, then reached into his pocket and took out his keys. “My house is the first one on the right. Go there. I’ll tell them you have a headache or you’re throwing up or some shit.”
“They know I’m not sick.”
“Go in there and tell them you’re sick. They’ll scent something being off, might believe it.”
