Chapter 19
Kane
Blair isn’t exactly running straight into my arms, but after last night, things feel a little less loaded today than they did yesterday.
She came downstairs this morning freshly showered and smelling like the vanilla-scented body lotion I picked up for her the other day.
She ate breakfast and didn’t complain about the coffee tasting like “ass.”
She even helped Kylie with the dishes.
All in all, she’s finding her way here.
And trust me, I know what a feat that is for her.
Blair might be spoiled and difficult and stubborn, but beneath the snobby exterior lies a woman who has had her entire world flipped upside down.
She’s soft and fragile and vulnerable, and I savor every single one of the moments she’s let her guard down enough to just let me hold her.
Because, fuck, that’s all I want to do.
It’s nearing three in the afternoon, and she stands just inside the tree line surrounding the cabin.
Even while she’s dressed in my flannel and sweatpants, she doesn’t look like a woman who belongs in a place like this.
But she’s trying. I know she’s trying.
I can feel the sincerity through her intentions.
Though, she’s also confused and still fighting against our bond. I can feel that too. It’s like an incoming thunderstorm brewing, and you’re not sure whether it’s going to dump buckets of rain and lightning or pass over you without a drop of precipitation.
I walk across the lot in front of the cabin and head in her direction. She turns abruptly when she hears my boots crunch over gravel.
“You doing okay?”
At first, she says, “Yes,” but that’s quickly followed up by, “Actually, no.”
“Anything I can do to help?”
“I need to call my mom.” Her voice isn’t sharp at all.
If anything, it’s pleading, and that’s what breaks my heart the most. “She has to be worried sick about me, Kane,” she continues when I don’t immediately answer.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if they have a search party out for me at this point.
My mom, my dad, my sister Bonnie, they’re probably all losing their minds. ”
I don’t tell her there’s no search party. Or that her face isn’t plastered across national news. I don’t tell her because we still don’t know why that’s the case. And the last fucking thing I want to do is make her assume something that’s not true—make her think her parents don’t care about her.
“I know you want to call your mom. I get it. I really do, Blair. But—”
“No,” she cuts me off. “No buts, Kane.” She gestures vaguely at the forest. “I can’t let them think I vanished. I can’t let them think I’ve been, like, left for dead or something. Can you imagine how horrible it has to be for them right now? They are probably worried sick.”
“I know.” I sigh and run a hand through my hair. “You’re right.”
“So, you’ll let me call her?”
My chest aches over what my answer has to be. “No. I’m sorry, but no.”
“You don’t get to say no,” she says quietly, but I can already see the sheen of tears behind her eyes. I can hear the shake in her voice.
“If you call them right now,” I explain, “you tell them where you are. Or you tell them enough that someone tracks it. Then this place isn’t safe anymore.
Not just for you or for me, but all of us.
For Kylie. For Rook. For Cal. I can’t put them in a bad situation they didn’t ask for.
” I’ve sure as shit already done enough by bringing her here against her will.
“Seriously, Kane?” She laughs, and it sounds almost hysterical. “You think my parents are going to send someone here? You think they’re dangerous?”
I don’t answer fast enough, and a small gasp escapes her lungs. “You do. You think my parents are dangerous.”
“No.” I choose my words carefully. “I think they’re involved with people who are.”
“My father is not some criminal mastermind,” she snaps. “He sits on boards. He donates to hospitals.”
“And he walks inside elite vampire circles.”
She stiffens. “That’s different.”
“It isn’t, Blair.”
She shakes her head, stepping back like I physically pushed her. “You don’t know anything about my family.”
“I know enough.”
“Enough to what?” she fires back. “To decide I’m better off cut off from them? To decide I don’t get to hear my mother’s voice ever again?”
The word mother cracks on the way out because it’s the real wound. Her mom is at the surface of all her current turmoil.
“She raised me,” Blair continues, her voice trembling.
“She prepared me my whole life. You don’t get to step in for mere days and act like you know better than the woman who birthed me.
Sure, she wasn’t always the greatest at times, but what parent is?
She’s consistent and only wants the best for me.
That’s all she’s ever wanted. For me to have the best of everything. ”
I keep my mouth shut. Mostly because I don’t know what to say. I don’t think I know Blair’s mother better than she knows her, but I know more about the elites than she does. She’s been told lie after lie, and the fairy-tale facade she has in her head doesn’t even come close to the reality.
Does her mother know the truth? I honestly don’t fucking know.
When I don’t say anything, my silence triggers her even more. Her eyes widen, filling with something raw. “You think my mother would hand me to monsters,” she says, and it’s not a question.
“I didn’t say that.” I run a hand through my hair. “I think she believes she’s doing what’s best.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“It’s the only one I’ve got.”
Her breathing turns ragged. “You won’t let me call them,” she says, more to herself than to me.
“I will, eventually, but not yet.”
“When?” she demands.
“When I know it won’t get you hurt.”
“You don’t get to decide that!” she shouts.
My connection to her sparks inside me. You’re mine. Not property. Not ownership. But mine in the way the ocean belongs to the moon. I can’t let anything happen to you. It would kill me.
I want to tell her the truth—tell her she’s my fated mate. Tell her she’s my destiny. Tell her the universe created us to be together—to be one. But she already has too much on her plate right now, and I fear that would simply push her over the edge.
“If you call them,” I say quietly, “you risk walking straight back into the same hands I pulled you from. Or worse, bringing them straight to our door. And I refuse to put my brothers and Kylie in that situation.”
“That won’t happen, Kane. I’ll make sure of it.”
“You can’t make sure of that, Blair. It will be out of your control.”
“You killed two men in my driveway!” she screams. “You dragged me into the woods! And now you’re telling me my parents can’t be trusted?”
Her pulse spikes, and I can see it thrumming at her neck. I can hear it rushing through her veins. And I see a million different emotions flit across her face and a million more intentions roll through her head. Her mind is so all over the place that I can’t even pinpoint what she intends to do.
“Why are you doing this to me?” she asks, and tears stream down her cheeks.
Because I love you. Because it feels like you’re my whole fucking world. “Because I have to, Blair. Because I fucking have to.”
She takes a step backward.
Then another.
“Blair,” I warn, but I don’t command.
She shakes her head violently. “I just need a minute, Kane,” she says, voice breaking. “I just need a fucking minute.”
Her intent shifts, and it isn’t escape or betrayal. It’s resolve.
And then, she turns and walks straight into the trees.
I move instantly, but then I hesitate because she’s asking for a minute, and her intentions aren’t showing me anything that would give me the power to stop her.
She’s merely trying to understand it all.
And understanding it all, truly wrapping her head around the truth, comes with an emotional toll of grief and anger and rage and sadness. Deep, deep sadness.
So, I give her a few moments of space.
By the time I surge forward into the forest, she’s already deeper than she should be.
“Blair!” I call once.
She doesn’t answer, but my body can sense her heavy breaths and fast heartbeat.
She’s running now.
Fuck. I have to stop her before she does something reckless.
I have to stop her before they get to her first.