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Inhaling deeply, Kaien nodded, and she stepped away from him. With a backwards glance at Lucius, Kane followed the Raeth from the room. The door slammed shut behind them moments later, leaving her alone with Lucius and Drake.
It took less than two seconds before Drake spoke. “Are you mating with him?”
“A bond exists between us, yes.”
Lucius let out a string of curses in Hindi, his hands running through his dark hair in agitation before he turned back to her with undiluted concern. “Why did you not tell me?”
Her eyes flicked to the barely perceptible swelling that lined underneath Lucius’ right eye, the only evidence he’d narrowly escaped Kaien’s wrath.
“When, precisely, should I have mentioned it?” Blair’s eyebrows rose comically. “Before or after you were cutting into me about my bullet wound? Or perhaps when you were gripping me like I stress ball? Would a text or email have been sufficient when I got back from being stranded in the wilderness?”
Rolling his shoulders to loosen the tension, Lucius scoffed, but it was Drake who cleared the air. “A warning would have been appreciated, Blair. A mating Raeth is a dangerous Raeth.”
“When are they not?” Blair shot back bitterly.
Before she could loosen another retort, Lucius’ arms wrapped tightly around her. With a start, she realized the man was barely hanging on to his sanity.
For one so opposed to attachment, Blair seemed to have developed her fair share of them regardless of her intent. But now, held tightly in her fledgling’s warm arms, she knew her stubbornness against connection had always been a losing battle.
“You nearly died, sire.” His voice cracked uncharacteristically. “And now I’m losing you all over again.”
Blair blanched at the emotional sentiment, all at once softening towards him. “Luc, I’m fine. Kaien healed me. If not for him, I wouldn’t be here.”
“Then I owe him a debt that can never be repaid.”
“I could say the same, Luc. He saved your life—and Kane’s life—when you were injured. Kaien is a good man, regardless of what you may think of him.”
“I know he is, sire.” Releasing her, Lucius shook his head soberly before searching her eyes. “But you must understand. If there’s anything I’ve learned from my time with the Raeths, it’s that their males are insanely protective during the mating process—and well beyond. When Isaiah began the mating dance with Rukia, he sent her away because he feared unintentionally hurting her. Kaien and Isaiah may be entirely different personalities, but they’d react the same way to a broken mating bond.
Lucius’s eyes flashed, acknowledging Blair’s past before he continued. “Raeth mating isn’t trivial, sire. Don’t push him too far or you won’t like the outcome.”
Blair was missing a piece of the picture. “What are you not telling me?”
Sharing a knowing glance with Drake, Lucius straightened. “Now that a bond has developed, Kaien won’t ever desire another. And if you reject the bond—rejecthim—he may accept your decision and let you leave, but you’ll destroy him in the process.”
“Destroy him?”
“Raeths can’t exist without their mate, Blair,” Drake spoke quietly. “If you reject him outright, he’ll simply lose the will to live. Become a shell of who he was. He’ll take greater and greater risks before he eventually succumbs. Rejected mates—when the bond has been irreparably severed—don’t last longer than a few months at most.”
“But Nina and Zeke are mates.” Blair’s internal walls had begun crumbling at the thought of Kaien’s death, her heart racing under her skin. “Both still live.”
A shake of Drake’s head. “Zeke and Nina never intentionally severed their bond, Blair. They knew that doing so would spell their own doom—and as sovereigns, it’d condemn their people to a clanless existence. Neither could afford to devastate their subjects, and so they agreed to let it ghost, never acting on the impulse to claim it.”
“Isaiah sent Rukia away knowing the bond would still be intact, but knowing he’d never finalize it,” Lucius added. “He still became suicidal in her absence.”
Shivering, Blair wrapped her arms around herself. “Why didn’t Kaien tell me?”
“I’ve known Kaien for centuries, Blair, as have you,” Drake said. “And you know that he’d never force anyone into a bond they didn’t wish for, least of all his own mate.”
A deep, aching hole hollowed out in her chest while her mind mulled through the conundrum before her. Kaien would never intentionally hurt another without due cause. Or, given recent events, without plausible justification.
Still, the thought of cementing the bond and tying herself to another person eternally cut deeply.Unwilling to stew on the thought, Blair exhaled and narrowed her gaze at Drake and Lucius.
“Since when did you two become Raeth mating experts?”
“You forget, sire,” Lucius smiled broadly, “I happen to be mated to a Raeth.”
Drake nodded. “And we’ve been invested in building relationships with the Raeths for years now since the Peace Accords were signed. Our societies have intertwined. Perhaps you’d have noticed if you weren’t so intent on being a recluse.”
