10. Kace
10
KACE
I watched Nevin take the bags and scurry off down the hall like a skittish little mouse, and my stomach did a somersault. He wasn’t the only one who was anxious. I could feel nerves building, bouncing around inside of me like jumping beans. I took a deep breath to steady myself. It would be okay. It had to be okay. He was my mate, I was sure of it.
So I busied myself with setting the table for breakfast. I’d stopped at Bob Evans on my way home, since it was right around the corner. I knew Nevin would probably be hungry. I opened the foam containers and doled out the food, until our plates were piled high with fluffy scrambled eggs and strips of crispy bacon.
I was just finishing up by pouring two glasses of orange juice when movement caught my eye. I glanced up to see Nevin peeking into the kitchen, wearing a pair of rainbow leopard-print leggings and a soft gray sweatshirt. I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. Xan’s fashion sense was something else, but for some reason, it looked good on the Omega.
Borrowed clothing aside, Nevin was possibly the most beautiful person I’d ever met. A wintry beauty with a fretful heart. His white-blond hair fringed over his eyes, hiding them from my sight. I had so many questions I wanted to ask, but I also didn’t want to overwhelm him.
Not that staring at him was much better. His cheeks turned pink as he ducked his head, stuffing his hands deeper into the pockets of the hoodie.
I laughed softly, offering up a sheepish smile in return. “Sorry. Are you hungry? I brought breakfast.” As much as I wanted to stand there and pour over his fragile beauty, my stomach gurgled in demand for food. I carried our glasses over to the table and sat them down, before taking my usual spot.
Nevin hesitated, but only for a moment before joining me. The chair legs scraped softly over the floorboards as he scooted himself closer to the table. His smile was uncertain, but damn if it didn’t make my heart stumble all over itself.
I bit off a chunk of bacon and chewed, but I could hardly taste it. I was too wrapped up in watching Nevin fiddle with the little container the sausage gravy had come in. He peeled off the flimsy lid and set it aside before scraping the creamy goop out onto his biscuits. The gravy formed a puddle on his plate. He licked his fingers clean and his eyes darted up to meet mine.
He smiled shyly, soft pink lips curling up at the corners. “…Hi.”
I grinned a dopey grin right back. “Hi.”
He bit his lip and my heart swooped again, beating so hard and fast against my ribcage, I feared it might take flight. Damn. This was real . Fate had finally answered my pleas for a mate. He was real, and he was sitting right in front of me…and for some reason, I couldn’t quite stop staring at him.
“Sorry. I’m making this awkward, aren’t I?” I shoved the rest of the piece of bacon in my mouth, turning my attention to my nearly overflowing plate.
“I-It’s okay, I’m just…not used to having such a rapt audience while I eat breakfast.” Nevin laughed, his voice soft and a little raspy, probably because he’d been locked away in his wolf form for weeks on end. “Though I guess it’s payback for watching you get ready for bed every night.”
“Right,” I joked back. “Well, I guess if we’re even, I probably shouldn’t bombard you with questions while you eat.” Even though I really wanted to. I really , really wanted to.
His face flushed pink, but he hunched his shoulders in a quick shrug. “I can’t really fault you for that. If you wanna ask me questions, it’s okay. Really. I, um…” He cut himself off, shaking his head, almost like he was shaking a thought. “Ask away.”
As much as I was dying to learn all about him, I hesitated. “You sure?” I didn’t want to push him into anything he wasn’t comfortable with. Even though he’d spent the last month or so living with me, I knew literally nothing about him.
Nevin nodded slowly. “Y-Yeah.”
“What’s your full name?” I asked, and it must’ve surprised him, because he blinked owlishly up at me. I smiled and shrugged. “I’m curious, that’s all.”
“Nevin Aster Moore.”
“How old are you?”
“Twenty-five. Um... My birthday is in October, if that was going to be your next question.”
I raised a brow and took a big bite of my eggs. “October what? Are you a scorpio or a libra?”
His laughter pleased me. “Are you one of those astrology nerds?”
I scoffed. “Hardly. Just curious. So damn curious. I have a ton more questions, but I figured we’d get the easy ones out of the way first. So?”
“So…?” he repeated, slower.
“Scorpio or libra?” I insisted, which made his smile shine a little bit brighter—which was exactly what I was aiming for. “I’ll tell you mine if you tell me yours.” I waggled my brows suggestively, and he burst out laughing.
“Libra, I think?”
“I’m a Leo. I was born in the middle of August, during a full moon, on the hottest day of the year,” I told him, like any of that truly mattered. That wasn’t the point. “And I’m twenty-six, the middle child and Mom’s favorite.” That last part might’ve been stretching the truth a little, since I knew Mom loved all four of us equally, but it didn’t hurt to fluff up the resume, so to speak.
“Mmm, I see.” Nevin took a bite of food and chewed thoughtfully.
“Do you have any siblings?” I asked, immediately wanting to kick myself for the pain that flashed across his face, even if only momentarily. Shit. “You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to,” I added, but he shook his head.
“It’s okay. Really. It was a long time ago, but yes. I had an older brother, but he passed away when we were pups. There was an accident,” he admitted softly. “He was twelve.”
My chest tightened. “I’m sorry, Nevin.”
He smiled sadly. “Like I said, it was a long time ago. What about you? Is it just you and your brother, or…?”
“Xan’s the youngest—short for Xander, by the way, though we only ever call him that when he’s in trouble. Then I have a younger sister named Quinn, and an older sister named Tasha. They’re both mated, and Quinn and her husband Shannon have a daughter named Isobel.”
“And your mom is the Alpha of your pack?”
I nodded. “Yup. She’s the founder of Rubydawn and the local veterinarian here in Greymercy.”
“Greymercy?” He glanced up at me, fork poised halfway to his mouth.
“That’s the name of the town we live in. It’s a nice place, though honestly, I’m born and raised, so I guess I’m kinda biased.” I chuckled. “What about you? Where are you from?”
Nevin’s expression fell, and suddenly, even in the cheery morning light, his face looked…haunted, almost. “It doesn’t matter,” he muttered, setting his fork down on the side of his plate. He pushed it away from him and leaned back in his chair. “I’m never going back there. I’d rather die.”
His words punched me in the gut, reminding me of the wolves who’d hunted him down and brutally attacked him. Their snarls and shrieks and screams I’d heard in the woods that day still lingered in my memory. Had those wolves been part of his pack? Had his past truly been that painful and wrought with chaos?
I swallowed around the lump in my throat. “Nevin… I need to know. Who did this to you?”
His face blanched and he quickly ducked his head, refusing to look at me. Instead, he fixed his gaze on beam of sunlight in the middle of the kitchen. A frown deepened the worry lines on his forehead. It made me ache for him. My poor mate.
“It doesn’t matter. They won’t be back for me. Don’t worry, I didn’t bring danger to your door.”
Danger to my… I frowned. Did he really think that that was what I was worried about? “I don’t care about that. My pack can handle it, I promise.” I softened my tone, not wanting to hurt him, but needing to know the truth. “Who would do that to you?”
Nevin shrugged, but pain flashed across his face. “You wouldn’t understand,” he mumbled.
It chipped off a piece of my heart. “Can you let me try, at least?”
He was quiet for a long minute, before he sighed, deflating right in front of me. He rubbed his nose on the sleeve of his sweatshirt and looked down at the floor. “My pack was one where you were only worthy if you were born an Alpha. I didn’t matter to them and they culled me. It’s that simple.”
Anger nipped at me, and before I could stop the growl from slipping up my throat, it was too late. It rumbled between us and Nevin froze, his eyes wide, a deer caught in the headlights. He flinched back, his arms moving to wrap tightly around himself, as if that might protect him.
From me.
“Shit, I’m sorry,” I uttered, a deep-seated ache settling in my chest where my heart belonged. I could only imagine what the so-called Alphas in his last pack had done to him, and it pissed me off. “I’m so sorry, Nevin. If you have names, we could always press charges?—”
“N-No!” He shook his head frantically. “I-I don’t want them to find me! I don’t want them to know I’m still alive. It’s better off for everyone if they th-think I’m dead.”
“Nevin…”
His Adam’s apple bobbed with a hard swallow. “It doesn’t matter. I’m free now. You… You saved me. I thought that I was going to die out there, all alone. I was so scared, but you saved me.” His blue eyes glistened, tears brimming but never once falling. “That’s the only thing that matters. I owe you my life.”
I reached over and touched his hand. “I did what my heart told me to do. That’s all. I couldn’t just sit there and watch you die.”
His laugh was humorless as he said, “Anyone else would’ve.”
“Well, I’m not anyone else. I’m me, and you are worth more than you think. I don’t know what those Alphas said or did to you, but knowing they hurt you makes me so angry. It’s wrong. Unjust. But you’re right. You’re free now, and you’re welcome to stay here with me for as long as you need. I won’t lie, I kind of like having the company.” I squeezed his hand with a smile.
“Thank you. I don’t know how I can ever repay you.”
“Don’t worry about it,” I told him. “Now, what do you think about watching a few episodes of American Horror Story. We could start season three, since you’ve seen the first two as a wolf and all.”
Nevin blushed, laughing a little breathily before nodding, and I knew—I just knew —this man was tailor-made for me. My soulmate, the one I was meant to spend the rest of my days with. I just had to convince him of that.