25. Kato
KATO
The cabin’s more than a little lonely without my mates. Especially when I still don’t have my bond sense back with either of them.
Can’t feel Nate, wherever he is on the road, driving to…
wherever it is he’s going. I should probably get to know this country.
I’m a citizen by descent, thanks to my a-dad, and I’ve visited frequently enough, but it’s always been out here in the middle of nowhere.
The nearest city I’ve visited is Inverness, years and years ago.
I guess if I’m going to make a life here, I need to brush up on the geography. Among other things.
And now Cas has up and gone too. Glad he’s made some friends, at least. Can’t imagine how he feels, going through what he has, losing what he has—his entire identity, practically—only to wind up with two mates he never asked for, but he’s making the best of it.
He seems a little lighter now, at least. No more secrets between us.
I hope now he can start to get back to some semblance of a life.
I hope we all can.
Maybe now we can finally breathe a bit. My uncle’s off our backs—at least for the moment—and the pack is thoroughly distracted by the horse fair.
Cas is safe for now. How his body will respond as the chemicals slowly seep out of his system is anyone’s guess, and he’s yet to decide what he wants to do about it, but for now it’s okay.
It’s a tomorrow problem. Surely there’s a shifter-savvy doctor who can figure out what’s going on with his body, what we can expect going forward.
One day at a time, as with all things. I think that’s alright. Just moving slow. Just figuring things out. Waiting for it all to make sense.
So my alpha goes off to make our pack official and my omega who isn’t an omega goes to play with his friends.
That’s well and good. It’ll wear off eventually, the suppressant, and then times like this won’t feel so isolating.
I looked up the goofy ads and they said that it takes about four weeks.
Maybe more, in my case, since Declan fucking double-dosed me, but it’s not permanent.
Either way it means I’m left groping for something to do after I’ve made a fine mess of the kitchen, attempting to prepare a nice lunch that turned out to be a lot of burnt chicken and spicy smoke, so I decide that some tidying up won’t go amiss.
I think Nate would appreciate that when he gets back, coming home to a clean house.
We’ve already cleaned up the worst of my destructive meltdown, but the place is still kind of a pigsty.
It hasn’t seen so much lived-in action for years, I think.
I reflect, as I vacuum and dust and wipe down and straighten up, on how I would’ve never done this of my own volition a month ago. It’s gotta mean something, right? That I want to be better. Like I’m getting better.
And sure, I wouldn’t mind a drink. Or a cigarette.
The call of oblivion still has some appeal.
Yes, being alone sucks, and being alone with my thoughts sucks, but I’m being productive instead of destructive and I feel like that’s something worth being proud of, and it’s been a long-ass time since I’ve been proud of anything I’ve done.
Maybe self-validation can be enough in small doses.
I’m busy stuffing the mop and bucket back into the tiny closet by the kitchen when my phone buzzes in my pocket.
I let it ring as I quickly shove the door shut before everything can fall back out again.
The mop handle clatters against the door as I pry my phone out of my tight jeans, assuming it’s one of my mates calling.
To my shock, it’s my big brother.
I thumb the answer button and shove the phone against my ear. “Hey, Kai. I thought you forgot about me.”
“Kato,” he returns wryly. He’s always wry.
He’s in a permanent state of wryness. It’s part of his charm, completely gagging every omega within fifty feet.
He also drives a motorcycle and wears a lot of leather, which probably helps.
“Care to explain why Dad’s about to blow a gasket over whatever’s happening with Uncle Dec? ”
“Um.” I mosey across the kitchen to sit at the breakfast nook. It has the best view of the hills. “Dad didn’t tell you?”
“No, and if Poppa knows, he won’t breathe a word of it to me, either.”
“And you’re calling me for the first time in nearly two months to grill me for details.”
He makes an impatient sound. “Kato—”
“Yeah, yeah.” I shift the phone to my other ear as I look out the window. “I fucked up. I made a mess. Trust me, I don’t need any more scolding.”
“More mess?”
I wanna say no so bad but that would be a lie and fuck it, Kai’s gonna find out eventually. Our a-dad can only hold his tongue for so long against the heir apparent. “Okay, look. Something happened. Um…well, a lot of somethings happened.”
“What did you do?”
“Who said I did anything?” I pause. “So this omega showed up—”
“Oh, god.” I can practically hear him rubbing his eyes. “Kato.”
“Just shut up for a second and listen.”
I explain the entire sordid tale from start to finish.
Every bit of it, even the batshit insane parts.
Like me hitting an alpha with Nate’s SUV.
Like Cas not actually being an omega—if only because I’m hoping he might have some advice or insight on that score—and the fact that I managed to mate with Nate.
And, of course, I cap it all off with our uncle’s frankly sociopathic behavior.
I do leave out the part where I fell off the wagon, though. It’s fine. Whatever. I can get back on, like Nate said. I don’t need to be told off about it for the millionth time, anyway. I already know I can’t handle my liquor. Another slap on the wrist won’t drive that home.
My brother mulls over this information in a brief silence, and I think he’s trying to figure out what part to respond to first. “Well,” he says at last. “Explains why Dad’s so pissed.”
“Which part?” I ask dryly. “The one where I managed to be mated by an alpha? Or the one where my uncle has been keeping me fucking captive for weeks?”
“The latter, Kato. I don’t even know what to say about the former. I’ve heard anecdotes of alphas dominant enough to mate any designation, but I’ve never seen hard evidence of it.”
I feel a twinge of what may be jealousy. I don’t want Nate to go out and mate any old wolf just because he might be able to. “Uncle Dec is fucking nuts, Kai. That bond suppressant—he’s using it on himself and Eden, too.”
“Eden?” It’s the most emotion I’ve heard in his voice the entire call, laced in just one word. “But why? What did Eden do to deserve that?”
“I don’t know, dude. He’s treated him with nothing but contempt the whole time I’ve been here. You remember the wedding, when he was so—”
“Young?”
“Well, yeah, that, but also, you know…bright. Vibrant.”
“Most kids are.”
“Well, he’s nothing like that now. He’s basically a shell.
” My stomach twists when I recall how poorly I treated him the last time we interacted.
Fuck, I shouldn’t have screamed at him like that.
He didn’t deserve it. Was the last shifter in the pack who did.
He wasn’t my enemy just for being married to my uncle.
“This sounds like a total shit show. You know how Dad feels about suppressants of any kind. He wouldn’t condone the use of it on you or Eden.” I can picture his nostrils flaring imperiously. “And I’m inclined to agree.”
“Yeah, well. After being on the receiving end, I’m in the same fuckin’ boat.”
“And speaking of Dad—he wants you home. Both Dad and Poppa do.”
There is a quick, brief silence. I look out the window again. “And they got you to tell me? Instead of picking up the phone themselves?”
“They thought you might not answer the phone if they called.”
They might be right. Or, maybe not. After everything that’s gone down, it might’ve been nice to talk to my a- and o-dads. Nearly two months without their stern, scolding voices has been strange. “Well, I can’t. I’m mated now. Twice.”
“Yeah, but—”
“Kato!”
I bolt upright at the sound of Nate bellowing outside.
Distracted by the phone call, I didn’t even smell him approaching.
“Call you back,” I say to my brother before I hang up on him.
Before I can even squeeze out from the table he’s already storming inside, the front door banging against the wall behind him.
“What?” I say, reaching for him. “What’s wrong? Why are you—”
“Where is he?” His eyes have bled to his wolf’s. “Where’s our mate?”
“What?” My hands come to rest against his broad, heaving chest. His heart beats a million miles an hour beneath my palms. “Jesus, Nate, relax. He’s gone to get drinks with Adrian and Niall. Apparently they needed a break from the fair.”
“He’s not here?” His head whips towards mine.
His wolf is roiling so close to the surface I can practically feel its furred sides quivering under his skin.
It’s a strange sensation, enough to bring my own wolf out to play, all that desperate and confusing fury like blood in the water to a shark.
In my mind’s eye I see him looking up from a long, dark tunnel, yellow eyes glowing.
“No, he left a couple hours ago. Why?”
Snarling in his throat, he grabs my shoulders so tightly that for a moment I worry he’s going to snap my collarbone. “I can’t feel him anymore. I can’t feel Cas.”
“You can’t?” Oh, no. Automatically I reach for our bonds, but of course they’re dead.
Dead as they’ve been since my uncle plunged that shit into me.
There’s no information there for me to glean.
I glance back up into Nate’s panicked face.
“Oh, god. I’m sorry. I didn’t notice. I mean, I couldn’t—” I’m babbling, making excuses like I’m in trouble.
“He told me he was going out, Nate. I swear, if I thought anything was wrong, I would’ve–”