Chapter 26
Konstantine
The door slammed behind Arax, leaving me sitting at my desk, wondering what the hell had just happened.
This woman was by far the biggest conundrum to have ever crossed my threshold.
She wasn’t used to our ways, which gave her the freedom to talk to me however she wished.
I was impressed. In the presence of an alpha or not, most people wouldn’t speak to me so openly.
It was telling of who she was as a person.
I didn’t hate it either, even if she chose to do so to stand up to me on Drake’s behalf and not her own.
Her body may have withered some, but the fire I’d seen in her still burned red hot.
I’d scented Arax before she had entered my office, standing outside the door for nearly five minutes.
Cyrus had given me a heads-up that she might come looking for me, but I didn’t know if she would make it inside.
Overnight, she already looked better. Her lips were back to their color of dusty rose, and the dark circles under her eyes had faded, bringing out those incredible irises.
She had caught me staring, set adrift in the nebulous grey.
The new confidence and self-assurance looked good on her, complementing that fire.
It had been an unexpected conversation, to say the least. What was even more unexpected was the way I was reacting to it. I shook my head to clear it, but her and her words wouldn’t leave.
“Because I’m asking you to” replayed in my head over and over. Her words hit me more powerfully than I’d imagined. The simple request delicately phrased as a demand made it damn near impossible not to grant.
I decided to mindlink Drake, hoping his block wasn’t up. I took him by surprise, but within a few minutes, he was at my office door.
“You rang?” he said in his best British butler voice.
“Come in,” I replied, gesturing toward the chair in front of my desk.
He sat and fixed me with a cheery expression, but I knew his joviality was just a way to hide his discomfort. “What’s this about?” he asked, interrupting the heavy silence.
“I just had quite an interesting conversation with Arax,” I said.
“You too, huh?” He grinned. “Don’t worry, she approached me. I tried to get away.”
“It’s fine. Cyrus told me she probably talked to you,” I said to him.
“I see.”
We were quiet for a few moments. I was unsure where to start. I didn’t apologize often, so I didn’t have much practice. It was Drake who broke the ice.
“Bro, listen, if I’d known she was your mate, you know I wouldn’t have moved in on her. I had no idea.”
“I know.”
Drake’s brows knitted together. “Then why’d you get so mad?”
“Mate bond.” I shrugged. “Last night you asked how I could resist it. Obviously there are times I can’t,” I confessed.
“Are you any closer to figuring out what you’re going to do?”
I sighed. “No.”
“Look, I’m just going to say it, as the resident expert on all things Arax.” He laughed at my growl. “My unsolicited advice? Give this a chance.”
I raised an eyebrow at him, and he held up his hands.
“I was mad last night, man. You embarrassed me in front of everyone, in front of her. But… Once I had a second, I realized Vallon was right.” He looked at me, and all trace of mirth was gone from his face. “Arax is your mate, Konstantine. I’m not going to mess with that.”
I studied him for a minute. If there was anyone in life I trusted unequivocally, it was Drake. I knew he was sincere.
“About what I did,” I said slowly. “She was adamant that I apologize to you and—”
“And we all know how much you suck at it,” Drake said, cutting me off.
“And,” I said, continuing. “I agree that I should.” I stood and held out my arm. “I apologize, Drake.”
He gawked at my outstretched offering of reconciliation, looking as stunned as I’d felt when Arax had first approached me.
“She really is something, isn’t she?” he mumbled. “Maybe she’ll make a man out of an alpha.”
“Oh, fuck off,” I retorted.
“No, but really.” He stood and grabbed my forearm and held it tightly, as I did the same with his. “I appreciate it.”
We each nodded at the other, drawing up a wordless pact to let bygones be bygones.
Drake and I almost never had disagreements.
We rarely fought, and our friendship was not contentious in any way.
I hadn’t realized until today how much more bearable the past year would’ve been if I would have confided in him.
“What?” I asked when I saw he hadn’t let go.
“She’s already getting you all soft and shit,” he replied.
Maybe, but I wasn’t going to say it out loud.
“In all seriousness, Stan, give her a chance. You’ve waited a long time, and you let her go once, but she found her way back. Maybe there’s something to that.”
“Such as?”
“Man, I don’t know. Maybe it’s a sign. Our kind is big into signs and crap like that. This could be one of them,” he said. “I’m just saying, don’t get in your own way by underestimating her. Who knows, she might be exactly who you’re looking for.”
Knowing how he felt about her, stepping aside had to be difficult for Drake.
“You all right?” I asked after a while.
“Yeah, man.” He nodded. “I told you, I’m not trying to get in the way. I’ll get over it.” He was still clutching my arm.
“Drake, five more seconds, and this becomes us holding hands,” I said.
“Come here.” He laughed and pulled me into a quick hug, patting me on the back. “I’ve missed you, K-Bear.”
I shoved him off of me so he fell back in his chair.
“You want to put this bromance on hold and go find the others?” he asked.
“In a minute,” I answered. “There’s another thing I wanted to talk to you about.”
He put his hand over his heart and leaned forward urgently. “Stan, this is so sudden.”
“What is?”
“I always thought there was something special between us, but I never knew if you felt the same way.”
I snapped my teeth at him impatiently. “Will you shut the hell up and pay attention? This is serious.”
“I’m very serious when it comes to the subject of us.”
“Drake,” I snarled.
“Okay, okay.” He laughed and sat upright again. “What’s up?”
I pulled out a few volumes I had ready and waiting and stacked them on my desk. “I’ve been reading up on the gamma bond this morning,” I said.
Drake’s eyes flickered toward the books, and a shadow of nervousness passed through them. We’d known one another for so many years that it wasn’t too hard for me to tell what he was thinking. His hopes of the subject being dropped were dashed as soon as I brought up the gamma bond. “What about it?”
“Didn’t you ever wonder why you were so drawn to Arax? Especially when she wasn’t your mate?”
His gaze stayed low, held fast by the ancient pages. “Is this a trick question?”
“No,” I said sternly. “I’m genuinely asking.”
He took a deep breath and lifted his head to answer. “At first, no. I was, am, really attracted to her. But…”
“Yes?”
“Awhile after she left, I did start to question it, why I wasn’t getting over her. I thought about her day and night. The—” He stopped speaking. “Stan, are you sure you want to hear this?”
I nodded. I had to know so I could get to the bottom of it.
The gamma bond was a connection between the alpha’s mate, ergo the future luna, and the gamma.
Once accepted, the gamma would pledge to protect the luna with his or her life.
Since the luna was looked upon as the heart and soul of the pack, it was considered as one of the most sacred and revered bonds, irreversible except by death or rejection.
It was distinct from the fated bond in that it was a platonic connection, established in friendship and trust, not passion or romance.
“The closer it got to her coming back to this area, the more excited I got,” he said, fidgeting in his seat. “The more excited both of us got.”
“Both of you?” I asked.
“Me and Ty.”
My ears perked up at the revelation. Typhon, Drake’s wolf, was a deadly beast, almost feral.
Contrary to Drake, who preferred a cold beer and a good time, Typhon was always down for a fight, ready to go at any given moment.
He was a big part of why Drake was the killing machine he was, but they were opposites, and Drake didn’t let him out unless absolutely necessary. It could get far too violent.
“That week she was here,” Drake explained further, “he was really calm, protective of her from the moment we saw her on the cliff.” He ran a hand through his hair, and his eyes met mine. “But none of it made any sense to either of us until last night.”
“None of what made sense?” I asked, wanting him to put his thoughts into words. “Does he feel the way you do about her, beyond the gamma bond?”
Drake was nearly jumping out of his skin with the anxiety percolating over him.
“He does.” He could no longer sit still and got to his feet to pace in frustration, swinging his arms as he spoke.
“That’s the part I don’t get. I mean, I suppose I can understand how I could feel this way.
Rox is… She’s amazing, but for my wolf to feel just as strongly about someone who isn’t his mate…
” He halted so we were face-to-face. “I’m sorry, Stan,” he said, lowering his head.
“Don’t apologize, Drake.” I sensed his shame, gaining an understanding for his confusion.
I was equally dumbfounded. Our wolf sides were wired differently than our human sides.
The human could feel affection, even love, for someone who wasn’t their mate, but the wolf rarely did, often only in extreme cases such as a chosen mate when the bond was forced.
I thought of the countless times I’d been with other women.
Apollo would be uninterested and disengaged.
He’d shown no desire for anyone until we’d met Arax.
For Typhon to find her just as appealing as Drake did was an oddity.
I tried to mitigate Drake’s creeping melancholia. “Last night, after all of you left, Vallon came by again. I told her I thought there was something more to this, and given what you’ve shared with me, it seems I’m correct.”
He looked up hopefully. “Did you find out what it is?” he asked, nodding at the books.
I shook my head. “I’ll have to ask the elders, have them consult their texts.”
“When will that be?” he asked hesitantly.
I brought the tips of my fingers together and drew a breath. “That’s a good question, and not one I can answer any time soon.”
Drake worked out what I meant. The future with Arax, if there was such a possibility, was unwritten. It was better to take it one day at a time rather than get ahead of ourselves.