Kindred Souls Complete Series: Books 1-4

Chapter Fifteen

My mind still hadn’tcleared up a week later. Our days had settled into a strange rhythm — I spent my mornings training with Elora and sometimes Sky, my afternoons were filled with reading and studying the ways of the royals, my evenings were usually spent chatting and eating with Aster and my assassins and sometimes Whist’s mother and the princess, and my nights were spent curled up with my kindreds.

I’d stayed out of the king’s way and he seemed to have completely lost interest in me. Something for which I was grateful, but I didn’t trust. It was only a matter of time before he remembered me and did something about it. I’d gotten to know Aster pretty well, and I agreed with the guys, he was a good man. And the attraction between us was strong, but I just couldn’t convince myself to give into it.

It made it worse how little he pushed it. If he did, my natural rebellious side would shut him down fast, but instead he was friendly and helpful, but kept his distance. It was driving me mad. I was spoiling for a fight and he refused to give it to me.

Convinced he knew exactly what he was doing, I kept poking and testing him. I pushed and prodded. But he remained steadily polite and kind. It had to be a trick, a mask, a plan. I knew it couldn’t be who he really was and I was determined to shatter his mask and reveal the man behind it.

Whist waited for me in his room when I stepped out of the bath. “Hey gorgeous.”

I smiled at him as I toweled off my hair. “Hey.”

“You planning more games tonight?” Whist asked.

“What are you talking about?” I bent over to wrap my hair in the towel.

Whist huffed. “With Aster. I know what you’re doing. We all do.”

I stood tall and stuck my fists on my hips, not caring about my nudity. “I’m determined to break him, Whistler. No one is that calm and polite and charming. I don’t trust masks and his is thick.”

He forced his eyes away from my chest. “You’re going about seeing beneath it all wrong.”

“What do you mean?” I yanked on a pair of trousers and threw on a simple shirt I’d found in the rack of clothes from Indigo.

“Aster only lets his guard down when he’s alone or when he’s around people he trusts implicitly.”

Why did it hurt hearing the prince didn’t trust me? “I don’t care if he trusts me. I want to know if I can trust him.”

“The two of you are driving the rest of us batshit bonkers. We all want the same thing, gorgeous. The king off the throne. Can we please stop with the games and just work together? Trust me and Saber and Sky to know the prince is on our side? Aster isn’t going to break no matter how much you annoy him. Look who his father is and everything he has to deal with? He’s used to being annoyed and bugged and bothered. Until he trusts you, the mask is all you’ll see.”

“Why wouldn’t he trust me? You three do.”

He nodded. “We do. But you’re also our kindred, so he probably thinks we’re biased. And he trusts you to help against the king. He just doesn’t trust you with his heart. And you’ve been clear from the beginning that he shouldn’t because you have no interest in the bond with him.”

Guilt pooled in bottom of my stomach. I was making everything harder on everyone, disappointing them. They didn’t push, but I knew my kindreds wanted the prince in our family. They wanted to stay and work against the king instead of running now that we had another option. I never wanted to run either. I wanted to stay and fight and pretend the bond between me and the prince didn’t exist. And I was the prince’s only kindred, his only chance with the laws the way they were now. And even if they changed, most people would still choose their kindreds.

The hand of fate seemed to be pushing me along a path I had never wanted and I couldn’t decide if I should keep fighting against it, or give in.

Not being able to see the real prince didn’t help. “How can I make a choice if I don’t know who he really is?”

He clapped his hands over my shoulders. “You chose us before you knew us very well. Hell, we’re still all learning new things about each other every day. You took a chance on us, gorgeous. Something I am grateful for every single day. You either jump or you don’t. It’s your choice. It’s always been your choice.”

I was starting to hate the word. Something I used to be so determined to fight for. Choice. Now that I finally had choices instead of having them made for me, I was starting to feel the weight of the decisions I needed to make and it wasn’t as awesome as I used to think. How did I reconcile my beliefs with the needs of my kindreds and with what was right for us and what was right for the country?

“I don’t know what to do, Whistler.” I unraveled my hair from the towel and wound the damp tresses into a sloppy bun.

“I can’t help you there. But what I will tell you, is that you are to be polite and a delightful host when the prince comes to dinner tonight or there will be consequences.” His eyes darkened, turning smoky and heated.

My brows furrowed. “What kind of consequences?”

“Harsh ones.”

I shivered at his dark promise as he wrapped my new scarlet cloak Saber had gotten me to replace my old green one around my shoulders. He pressed a kiss to the back of my neck, his beard tickling my skin, and I shivered again.

“I’ll be nice. Or try, anyway.” His promise of consequences intrigued me. His punishments had been enjoyable so far, but maybe I should go about dealing with the prince in another way because what I’d been doing wasn’t working.

“Good.” His hands wrapped around my waist from behind. “I much prefer taking your clothes off, gorgeous.”

I chuckled and turned in his grip to press our lips together. His hands slid down my body to cup my ass, his fingers digging into the soft flesh while he plundered my mouth.

He pulled away with obvious reluctance and I slid my fingers against my swollen lips. “To be continued, gorgeous.”

“Don’t think I haven’t noticed the three of you winding me up before dinner every single night before the prince comes.”

His only reply was a wicked grin, one to rival Sky’s devilry. The asses.