Chapter 23
What time was it?
Kai’s eyes pinched open, and his head throbbed from the light peering in through the window and from Felix’s phone. He was using his flashlight to go through his luggage, looking for clothes and all his fancy hair and face products.
Kai groaned, throwing a pillow at him before putting another over his head to block out the light. It had taken him forever to fall asleep, and now he woke up too soon. Maybe choosing Felix over Jude to bunk was a mistake. Especially since Felix had more pillows than there was room on the bed.
No. Jude’s snoring was worse than a few hundred pillows.
BUT WHY IS FELIX AWAKE SO EARLY?
“I’m going to make breakfast,” Felix said, as if that was any consolation to Kai’s exhausted anger. “Do you want me to make you something, or are you going to stay asleep?”
“ARGH!”
“Understood.”
Kai continued to growl as he heard Felix walk out of the room and close the door behind him.
He settled back into the bed, pushing all of Felix’s pillows off the side of the mattress and lying flatly.
The room was finally quiet, if not still a little bright from the morning sun, but Kai could work with this.
He spread himself out like a starfish and sighed happily.
He could hear chatter and laughter echoing down the hallway from the living room.
It sounded like everyone was awake, even their little firecracker. Kai could hear Jude holler her name, Zayden telling him to settle down, and Felix asking what everyone wanted for breakfast. They sounded like the perfect little family.
Well, so what?
It’s not like Kai wanted to be a part of their little family anyway. He was a one-man show.
“Hmph… Hmm… Dammit!”
Kai stood up on the bed, looking belligerent as he looked around the bedroom in agony and defeat.
He decided to throw on some shorts, pulled his hair into a loose, low ponytail with some of the pieces framing his face and the back of his neck, and joined the others.
Not because he felt left out or anything.
No way. He was just hungry, and Felix did make good food. He shouldn’t miss out on it.
Yeah, his alpha scoffed as he walked down the hallway. It’s totally not like you’re jealous that everyone else is with Sonnet but you. And it’s not because she scolded you about spending mealtime with them.
Are you going to be this irritating the entire trip?
Yep.
Great. Just great.
He lifted his head and immediately saw Zayden and Jude shirtless and cuddled up on their sofa bed. Well, cuddled up may have been an exaggeration, but who cared?
“I see the love birds are awake,” Kai teased, nodding towards them as he made his way into the kitchen to brew some coffee. He made a point of ignoring Sonnet, who was sitting at the kitchen island watching Felix cook.
“Love birds?” Jude asked, getting ready to throw a pillow.
“Don’t worry, I made Jude keep his pants on all night,” Zayden teased back, taking Jude’s pillow from him and whacking him with it. “And it’s going to stay that way.”
They both laughed, and the sound sent a shiver down Kai’s spine. When was the last time Zayden laughed, and why did it piss him off that he was?
His hands curled tightly around one of the mugs, and he stared intently at the black espresso pouring. Thank God this place had an actual coffee machine.
Behind him, Sonnet squealed, and when he finally turned around, he watched Jude lift her over his naked shoulder and following Felix outside with the food. Zayden hovered, grabbing some more plates, silverware, and napkins. His eyes shifted over to him, and they both just stared.
Zayden nodded his head and extended a plate towards him. An olive branch.
Fuck him.
Kai was going to stand by his words. He didn’t want to bond with Sonnet; he didn’t want to stay in this pack, and by the end of these two months, he’d be far away making it big time as a solo artist. Kai’s name would erase the bands, and soon no one would remember he was a part of them, least of all him.
Still maintaining eye contact, he took a long sip of his shot of espresso. And then he grabbed the plate.
Fuck me.
Zayden nodded again, turned around, and joined the others outside. Kai contemplated smashing the plate on the floor or taking a long walk, maybe into town, but when he heard Sonnet laughing again, he couldn’t do it. He couldn’t will himself to be angry.
This firecracker had some witchcraft up her sleeve, and damn did she look beautiful when she was happy, like right now. The sun was shining through her smile as she realized Kai was joining them for breakfast. But nothing shone more than the sun reflecting off Jude’s abs.
“You need a shirt,” Kai grumbled as Felix served everyone sausage, pancakes, and scrambled eggs. “I’m going to go blind.”
Sonnet laughed before pouring almost the entire bottle of blueberry syrup onto her pancakes. Kai raised an eyebrow and then froze, watching as she licked off a dollop of the syrup from her fingers.
“What?” She asked, all of them looking at her. “I like sweet things. Sue me.”
Jude barked a laugh. “We should go into town and get some ice cream.”
Zayden placed his notebook on the table and flipped to a page with an entire list of activities. One said take Kai whale watching. If he didn’t know Zayden’s handwriting by heart because he was the one who wrote all of their songs, he would have convinced himself it wasn’t Zayden’s idea.
“We have an appointment this morning at 10:00am. After, we can go into town, and all explore it together.”
“An appointment?” Kai stabbed his fork into his sausage. “Already?”
“Is it for your music?” Sonnet asked.
Zayden didn’t look up from his breakfast plate or notebook, and he especially didn’t look at Kai.
“We’ve made a few appointments while down here to improve our band,” he explained, because why would the perfect alpha Zayden not want to use the word therapy?
“Since we only have a month, Maddox was able to set these appointments up right away. I’m sorry, Sonnet.
But we’ll have to leave you alone for about an hour. ”
“That’s okay! Is your appointment in town? Maybe I could do some exploring of the shops on my own while you’re all busy.”
“Alone!” Jude gasped and pretended a knife was being stabbed into his heart. “We can’t leave our mate alone.”
“Sonnet can handle herself,” Kai gruffed, thinking back to her sassy attitude last night. He looked at her and shrugged his shoulders. “Let her explore. If I were her, I’d want space from us all. Especially you.” He pointed his fork at Jude.
Zayden nodded slowly. “We can drop you off near the shops and cafes.”
“Just don’t do anything fun without me,” Jude whined.
Where they were going, they weren’t going to have any fun of their own. Appointment to improve the band? What a corny answer.
They were all going to see a specialized shrink, but they were too embarrassed to say it out loud. No potential mate wanted to hear that her alphas were so broken they were on the verge of breaking apart and needed a therapist to help salvage what was left.
Dr. Burdough had better have some witchcraft of her own, because it was going to take real magic to make Kai open up and want to fix all these broken pieces inside his pack and himself.