Chapter 57 Sai #2
He nods softly, but that smile still isn’t quite right.
“People have started camping outside the barrier,” Zeek murmurs, eyes on the window. “I haven’t asked the Barrier Guards, but I’d bet anything her old friends are already there.”
I grind my jaw at the anger that flares, my fingertips crackling with sparks of blue.
“Sai is right. We need to remember her words.” Julien settles on the edge of the coffee table beside Kane. “We shouldn’t doubt them. Not again.”
“She won’t leave.” Kane’s voice is too low, too heavy, and we all see the shadows curling around him. “She’s ours.”
Well, that’s progress at least, using team-player pronouns.
His dark eyes meet each of ours. “But if they try to take her from us… we’ve killed beings for less.”
Anyone else would be shocked by Kane’s casual threat to kill the only family she’s ever known to keep her, but it’s Kane, and we’re us.
We’re not good men, never claimed to be, because if you treat beings like monsters long enough, everyone knows how it ends.
But we’re her monsters.
“She’d hate us,” Zeek says, not with outright rejection, but he sounds a little repulsed. “We couldn’t do that to her.”
Kane glances at me, just one sharp, quick look and that’s all we need, because he knows I’d do it. He could drop them in the Pit with me and—
“Stop.” Julien’s anger sharpens his words as he stares at me, hard, then Kane. “That is not an option.”
My markings flare. “But—”
Red shifts in her sleep, murmuring something random that stops us as we all zone in on her, reminding us that she’s here, she’s choosing to be with us right now.
Because she trusts us. Like we need to trust her.
“Sai.”
Shit.
I know that voice, and that look, it’s when Julien reaches his limit and becomes scolding. It rarely happens, but when it does, I listen.
“She would never forgive us,” he says, stern and slow, making sure I really hear him before glancing at Kane too. “This is one thing that killing will not fix.”
“We’ve just regained her trust, she’s just starting to let us in,” Zeek adds with that same warning tone. “We can’t squander that simply because we feel threatened by others.”
“Threatened?” I scoff, scowling. “Mate, I’m not threatened by those fucks.
But I am a little concerned that we’re asking her to choose between us, and the people who practically raised her, people who filled her head with bullshit for the last few years.
” Then my voice drops into the dark, filled with venom. “And she was fucking one of them.”
The lights explode in a blaring white, shadows flood in. Then darkness.
“Shit,” I murmur into the pitch back, wincing as I restrain my darkness. I shouldn’t have said it, but I did. We’d just got those lights fixed too.
Zeek brings a soft hum of light back into the room with silver slivers, illuminating his face, bright gaze locked on mine with a heavy scowl.
“My bad,” I lamely apologise, giving them each a sorrowful little look. “My darkness is too close, all the fucking time.”
Their glares drop, understanding floating in their expressions.
“We’re not asking her to choose, Sai,” Zeek murmurs. “This isn’t black and white, us or them. We’re bonded. But that doesn’t mean we have exclusivity, she has the right to relationships outside of us.”
“I really don’t like the way you’re phrasing this.” I grit my teeth, and Kane’s shadows slither back out.
Zeek lets out a sigh. “Julien, a little help.”
Julien shifts forwards, gaze sweeping across us.
“When the barrier falls, her family will come, and if Jasmine wishes for them to stay in her life, that choice does not lessen us. Our bond with her is not fragile, mon frères. It cannot be undone by old ties. We will remain hers, as we have always been, and she will remain ours.” His eyes drop to Red, and his voice lowers.
“What matters is that she sees we are steady enough, patient enough, to stand with her no matter what she chooses. Always.”
Damn. Julien’s pretty words sink right in, leaving no space for argument.
“Fine, I get it, we need to be the bigger guys. But if they try anything stupid.” My words roll into a rumble, markings darkening. “Nothing will stop me.”
Kane’s darkness locks eyes with mine. “Agreed.”
Julien’s agreement is a soft hum, a quiet rumble that smooths some of the spiky tension.
Zeek just nods, once. Before clearing the tension with his next words. “Tomorrow will be our last full day before the barrier’s removed. We—”
“We need to get her to the house,” I cut straight in, already trying to concoct a plan. Then I remember what day tomorrow is. I lean back, trailing my fingers over Red’s hair with a grin. “Easy, it’s Friday, meal day.”
Julien smiles at me, catching on. “According to her amendments in the contract, we all have to be there, but she never stated where.”
“Brother, you’ve done well convincing our bond with… other things.” Zeek smirks, and the silver threading the dark in his eyes brightens. “Think you can handle this?”
Kane thinks, his black gaze sweeping back over Red. Then he nods, once.
“But after the meal, you two will leave.” Julien’s calm but sudden words don’t quite make sense.
Ezekial frowns, Kane’s jaw tightens.
Then his eyes flick to me, and they’re glowing a little. “How long do you think we’ll need, my friend?”
His casual tone with no context leaves me blinking. “Mate, I haven’t got a clue what you’re—”
“To woo her.” He grins, both fangs out, and I’m on the same page.
I’m the fucking ink on the page.
I am the page.
My darkened gaze snaps to the brothers who aren’t quite there yet. “Give us three hours, and Zeek—I’m gonna need that collar.”