Chapter 38
KAI
When Kai entered The Bookshoppe at closing time with the pup wrapped in a blanket, hidden beneath his arm, he hadn’t expected Rhydian and Davina to be there.
Initially, he had planned to slowly introduce everyone to their new addition, starting with Jonah, but that had quickly gone out the window.
Very quickly, in fact, since the moment the pup heard new voices, he squirmed in Kai’s hold enough to peek his head out, all but one of his floppy ears on show.
What had started as joyous greetings from his family rapidly fell to wide-eyed, flabbergasted looks and frozen stares.
“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.” Jonah seemed to understand exactly what Kai held, despite never having glimpsed a bak in person.
A baffled Rhydian sat up in the chair he’d been lounging in across the study table from Davina, whose own eyes were wide with intrigue, confusion, fear, and that same touch of endearment he’d found in Isla’s. “Is that what I think it is?”
Kai pulled the blanket back further and adjusted his hold so the pup was fully in view. “Depends on what you’re thinking.”
Rhydian’s gaze remained fixed on the red eyes, the wet, twitching nose, and the sallow gray skin. “A bak?”
“A baby bak,” Kai corrected, as if it made it any better.
Jonah braced himself against a book-laden column, his appearance conflicted. Kai knew exactly why. A bak was rare to see, but one that wasn’t actively trying to kill you, even more so. “Why did you bring it here? Why do you have it?”
Kai felt like he shouldn’t have found their befuddlement so amusing. Maybe it was because he’d already gone through it himself.
“Because Isla didn’t want me leaving him home alone.” He absentmindedly scratched the pup beside one of his ears, which he seemed to appreciate. “Apparently, he gets scared.”
Though he’d said it mockingly, Kai didn’t bother mentioning Isla had been entirely right.
When he got home, the pup had been whining and whimpering in his crate in their bedroom.
He’d also destroyed the blankets they’d left him.
Kai was shocked when he practically leaped into his arms when he opened the crate’s door, and again when he jumped from Kai’s grip and sniffed about their rooms, clearly noticing Isla’s absence.
Davina’s jade doe-like eyes were fixed on the baby as she asked, “Why do you have it?”
“It’s kind of a long story.”
And they had time, so Kai enlightened them. He had nowhere else to be. No one to go home to but Sebastian, who he hoped was at the House so he could honor his promise to Isla. Otherwise, it was going to be a long night trying to track him down to make sure he didn’t do anything rash.
Kai began his tale further back than the night they’d gone searching the tunnels.
Instead, he spoke of Isla’s coronation morning when he’d initially found the bak in the passageways and fought and killed what had likely been the pup’s mother.
He refrained from mentioning the flare-ups of his power, if only because the guilt for what he’d nearly done to Rhydian reared its head and made him so sick he needed to sit down in a nearby armchair.
His brother hadn’t seemed to notice or realize what happened that night, and none of them had ever really commented on what he’d done to Brax, but Kai wondered how horrible it made him not to warn them about all he could do, what he felt.
How dangerous he truly was when he could slip and break any one of them if he lost control.
But he had the bane now, and it seemed to be working. Granted, it had only been a couple of days, but he’d taken the victory.
By the time he’d disclosed his and Isla’s voyage into the tunnels that night, the pup had located one of his mate’s sweaters behind the shelves.
Any attempt to wrench it away had been futile while he dragged it everywhere he went, wrapping himself in it as if he’d already come to know and miss her scent.
Kai tried to pinpoint when exactly the creature had become so obsessed with her, but there had been so many small kindnesses from her that night and beyond.
Kai couldn’t deny the soft place it warmed in his heart. He, most certainly, would become a fool when he saw her with their own children.
One day.
Once he’d finished explaining, his eyes settled on the pup and Davina, who’d slid to the floor to play with him. He rolled onto his back and exposed his smooth gray belly.
“He is a cutie,” Davina cooed, rubbing the pup’s stomach while he let out a tiny, satisfied sound. She giggled.
“Don’t even think about asking for one.” Rhydian’s voice held a hint of caution as he remained firmly in his seat, his typical bravado cracking from the memory.
Kai knew the guard had seen a bak once before, the one Isla—or her mother, technically—had killed in the house within the wasteland.
That one had been dead but also an adult, likely ten times the size of the pup—what they had to look forward to in the future.
Dead or not, the shot of fear when one glimpsed the legendary monsters never went away.
He asked Kai, “How are you sure this thing isn’t going to try to eat you?”
They weren’t.
“His teeth are barely sharp enough to cut through meat. Isla had to chop up and tear every morsel we’ve fed him into bits.” He’d had to do the same just before they got here. Maybe he should’ve brought more food with him. He had no clue how big his appetite was.
“Mother of the decade,” Jonah commented from where he’d been shielded behind the stacks, having gone to get things from his apartment. “Hasn’t she killed like twenty of these things?”
Six, Kai was pretty sure.
He twisted his head as his brother resurfaced in the main lobby, a haul in his arms. He had some of the things he and Isla had discussed earlier that morning, and most importantly, alcohol.
“She has a strong maternal instinct.” Kai watched as Jonah placed each item on the study table where Rhydian sat: the diadem, the dagger, Aneurin’s journal, and that woman’s picture. Despite the bane, he felt that void within him twitch, bite, then recoil.
Strange.
Only Jonah seemed to notice the way his features pinched and relaxed, but he didn’t comment.
Rhydian mused, “Clearly.”
It took Kai a bit to realize they were still speaking of Isla. He watched Rhydian cast a keener eye over the pup and noted how his shoulders eased at the melody of Davina’s laugh. It filled the belly of the room as the bak lapped at her hand with his pinkish-gray tongue.
Kai could’ve sworn a smile tugged at Rhydian’s mouth. “How long are she and Meera gone?” he asked.
Kai frowned. “Two days.” He couldn’t keep the grumble out of his voice.
“Two days, and after only five hours, you’ve shown up here with a baby monster,” Jonah said, lining up a few glasses. “I fear what you’ll have for us tomorrow.”
“In my defense, I was with her when we got him.”
Davina tied her hair back when the pup became too intrigued, playing with the long, brassy strands. “What’s his name again?”
Kai accepted the liquor Jonah had poured for him. “We haven’t given him one yet.”
Rhydian reached out to his twin for his own glass. “A name sounds permanent.”
“That’s what I said.” Kai took a drink, savoring the burn in his throat, grateful for it. It was going to be a long night. It had been over a month since he’d been in their bed without Isla, and he wasn’t sure how well he’d handle the empty space beside him. “We’re taking suggestions.”
Davina rubbed the pup between the ears. “I’ll see what speaks to me. I doubt you want to call him adorable little button.” She gushed the last words, bringing her face closer to his. “Because that is exactly what you are, isn’t it?”
Kai snorted. “I’ll keep that one in mind, but yeah. Maybe keep trying.”
Davina gave him a deadpan look before going back to playing with the baby.
When Kai pulled out a seat at the study table, he realized Jonah had been watching him.
He lowered himself into the chair. “Isla never got to tell me what you two talked about the other morning.”
“Well, she never mentioned him.” Jonah nodded towards the pup in Davina’s lap and then to the spread of wares on the table. “We discussed all of this. Same old, same old. Though she says she feels like the dagger’s broken.”
Kai observed the finely worked blade, his brows knitting as that essence seemed to tuck tighter within him. “How?”
“She just said it feels broken,” Jonah repeated exasperatedly. “And then she told me about the dreams she’s still having. My theory right now is she’s a priestess.”
No, that felt wrong.
Kai’s eyes dropped to the artwork of the white-haired woman. For a heartbeat, Kai swore the answer to who she was lingered right on the cusp of his mind.
Before he could say anything, Jonah asked, “Do you know where your father’s journals are? His personal accounts.”
Kai snapped his eyes up to meet his, feeling like he had punched a hole into his chest and squeezed his heart. Jonah shifted his focus back to his mapping, seeming to know Kai hated the vulnerability slashing across his own face.
He wished his voice hadn’t sounded so damn vacant. “No, I don’t.”
He should’ve known, though, shouldn’t he? So had been the tradition for the newly anointed alpha to study the wisdom of their predecessor. Kai should’ve started keeping his own records.
“You didn’t come across anything in the old archives when you were down there?” he asked Jonah. The catacomb-like cavern beneath the hall held some of their oldest books.
His brother shook his head.
“Why do you want them?”
“Isla asked me if I’d seen them.”
And just like that, Kai had seen how that wonderful mind of his mate’s worked. Maybe they could find out why his father had wanted to protect him.
He had an inkling of where he could begin searching, and his stomach turned. “I’ll see if I can track anything down.”