“I wouldn’t know, but I can imagine it gets old really fast.”
“I guess I’ll go on home and let my parents know I’ll be leaving tomorrow.”
“I know you have a family home nearby but anytime you want to, you’re welcome to stay with me. And give me your phone,” Remi said, holding out his hand.
Kaiser put his phone in Remi’s hand.
Remi entered his number in Kaiser’s phone and handed it back. “If you need something, or just want to talk about anything at all. Call me.”
Kaiser smiled at Remi. “I hate that I’m leaving. I feel like we could have been really good friends.”
“We are good friends. And don’t think otherwise.”
Kaiser grinned and slapped Remi’s hand in a form of handshake before he stepped down off the porch.
“This is a definite decision?”
“I’m going to mull it over some, but I’m pretty sure I’m leaving. I just feel like it’s best for everybody.”
“Well, while you’re mulling it over, remember you have a Pride here, and family, and they’re not going to understand why you just disappear and don’t come back for years. So, maybe you can come up with ways to visit.”
“I’ll think about it.”
Remi held up his phone. “I expect this thing to ring from time to time.”
“It will,” Kaiser said. “And Remi, thank you. Without somebody to confide in, I don’t know how I’d have managed to hang on.”
“You didn’t confide. I figured it out.”
“Tomato, tomahto,” Kaiser said with a grin. “And I confided after you figured it out.”
“You did do that much. And you don’t have to thank me. It’s what friends do,” Remi said.
He walked down the steps and paused just before he walked out of sight. “I don’t need to ask you to keep this to yourself, do I?”
“No, you do not. I know nothing. Nothing!” Remi said, throwing his head back and shouting ‘nothing’ a third time as Kaiser walked away laughing.
~~~
Lucas stood in the shadows behind Mrs. Constance’s home. He stood perfectly still, listening to every word exchanged between Kaiser and Remi. At first, he’d planned to reveal himself and be the over protective father he would normally have been, but then he’d heard Kaiser’s point of view. And he’d heard Kaiser put Keegan’s possible wants and needs before his own. And heremembered a time that he’d have given his life for just five minutes with his mate. Instead of approaching Kaiser, he waited until Kaiser said he was going to go back to Atlanta, then he slipped away and went back to his own home. He needed to speak to Anahla.
The moment he stepped inside their home, he made eye contact with Anahla, and strode directly to their bedroom.
She followed him back to their bedroom and stood there, watching him pace back and forth, waiting for him to reveal whatever had him so concerned. “What is wrong with you,” she finally asked.
He stopped a few feet away from her and turned to face her. “I don’t know what to do.”
“About what?” she asked, moving a couple of steps closer to him.
He walked right up to her and leaned down to whisper in her ear. “I know who Keegan’s mate is. And he’s leaving.”
Anahla looked up at him, her eyes showing worry. “What? Who is he? Why is he leaving?!” she hissed in her own whisper.
“Because she’s sixteen.”
“So he’s just going to leave and she’ll never know he’s ever found her?”
Lucas shook his head, took his mate by the hand and led her into their bathroom. He turned on the water and closed the door. “He doesn’t want to affect her ability to live the next few years of her life knowing she’s got to end up with him. He wants her to have the freedom to grow up and live and explore and experience. Then if she chooses him, it’s because she wants him, not because she has to.”
