Chapter 13 #2
“Yes. And they made it work. He declared that she was his. Actually, if I remember the story the right way, he barely controlled himself and Maverik almost killed him. But he promised to wait until Maia was old enough to choose him, and he did. In fact, he planned to leave and build a Pride for her to come to when she was ready.”
“And that worked for them?” Kaiser said, encouraged.
“No. She renounced him — literally, and both spent time apart before Maverik brought her here and dropped her off. They almost lost each other forever, had it not been for Maverik interceding.”
“Great,” Kaiser said.
“But she knew from the time she saw Riley that he was her mate. Told her father that he was her mate, but also promised to wait until she was older.”
“I don’t think Keegan knows. And it’s honestly better if she doesn’t. She’s got so much growing and experiencing to do without me interfering with that in any way.”
“So you’re going to go back and just avoid the Pride until you decide she’s old enough to make her own decisions about her own future?” Remi asked.
“You got any better ideas?”
“I can’t decide if that’s selfless, or insulting.”
“What? That I’m going back to Atlanta.”
“Yeah. Do you have the right to take that choice from her?”
“I don’t know, Remi. I know I’m twenty-five.
I know she’s sixteen. I didn’t know she was my mate until the last time I was home.
It threw me for a loop. She’s never given any indication that I’m more than Kaiser, part of the Pride.
I’m thinking if I’m not here for a while, she probably won’t figure it out, and she can at the very least go out and figure out what Keegan wants without feeling like I’m looking over her shoulder expecting anything from her. ”
Remi just watched him quietly.
“What?” Kaiser asked.
“Nothing. Just letting you talk it out.”
Kaiser got up and paced back and forth on the porch a time or two, before he came to a stop right beside Remi.
“I don’t have any idea if what I’m thinking about is the right thing to do.
But I know if I stay here, it’ll turn into a big mess.
And I feel like giving her options is the best choice regardless. Like you’re doing with Cristie.”
“Then that’s what you have to do,” Remi said.
“Yeah, it is.”
“You can’t just disappear, though.”
“Why not?”
“It looks worse than saying you have to get back to training.”
“Oh, yeah. Okay.” Kaiser looked off into the distance, then looked at Remi. “You see?!” he almost shouted. “I can’t even think straight. The hell am I going to do?”
“The best you can for now. It shows how much you really do care to want to give her a chance to live her life any way she chooses, hoping she’ll come to you eventually.”
“Maybe. Think I’ll still be sane?” Kaiser asked.
Remi laughed. “As sane as the rest of us.”
Kaiser nodded. “I guess I’ll go tell some that will really miss me that I’m leaving, and then I’ll head out tomorrow morning.”
“Be safe, Kaiser. And if I might offer a word of advice?”
“Please,” Kaiser said.
“Watch what you put out into the media. If she does know, and she sees you playing kissy kissy with somebody else, I’d think she might have a problem with it. I’m not telling you what to do with your personal life, just don’t advertise it.”
“You’re right. It’s been a while since I wanted more than somebody to talk to from time to time anyway, and they still paint any woman I’m photographed with as my next flavor of the week.”
“Hurts to be so loved, doesn’t it?” Remi said sarcastically.
Kaiser laughed. “Yeah, left myself open for that one.”
“Well, like I’ve said repeatedly about my situation with Cristie…
I created this monster, now I have to live with it until I can fix it.
Do yourself a favor and try not to create a monster between you and Keegan, because at some point you’ll be coming home for some occasion or another, and you have no idea at what point her senses will mature and she’ll figure out who you are to her.
You don’t need some pent up anger of years of watching you screwing around with a different woman in front of every camera that follows you. ”
“You’re right about that.” Kaiser sat down again. “Man, I don’t want to go back to Atlanta right now.”
“That bad?” Remi asked.
“It’s lonely.”
“Roman said everybody wants something from you.”
“The price of fame, right?” Kaiser asked.
“I wouldn’t know, but I can imagine it gets old really fast.”
“I guess I’ll go on home and let my parents know I’ll be leaving tomorrow.”
“I know you have a family home nearby but anytime you want to, you’re welcome to stay with me. And give me your phone,” Remi said, holding out his hand.
Kaiser put his phone in Remi’s hand.
Remi entered his number in Kaiser’s phone and handed it back. “If you need something, or just want to talk about anything at all. Call me.”
Kaiser smiled at Remi. “I hate that I’m leaving. I feel like we could have been really good friends.”
“We are good friends. And don’t think otherwise.”
Kaiser grinned and slapped Remi’s hand in a form of handshake before he stepped down off the porch.
“This is a definite decision?”
“I’m going to mull it over some, but I’m pretty sure I’m leaving. I just feel like it’s best for everybody.”
“Well, while you’re mulling it over, remember you have a Pride here, and family, and they’re not going to understand why you just disappear and don’t come back for years. So, maybe you can come up with ways to visit.”
“I’ll think about it.”
Remi held up his phone. “I expect this thing to ring from time to time.”
“It will,” Kaiser said. “And Remi, thank you. Without somebody to confide in, I don’t know how I’d have managed to hang on.”
“You didn’t confide. I figured it out.”
“Tomato, tomahto,” Kaiser said with a grin. “And I confided after you figured it out.”
“You did do that much. And you don’t have to thank me. It’s what friends do,” Remi said.
He walked down the steps and paused just before he walked out of sight. “I don’t need to ask you to keep this to yourself, do I?”
“No, you do not. I know nothing. Nothing!” Remi said, throwing his head back and shouting ‘nothing’ a third time as Kaiser walked away laughing.
~~~
Lucas stood in the shadows behind Mrs. Constance’s home.
He stood perfectly still, listening to every word exchanged between Kaiser and Remi.
At first, he’d planned to reveal himself and be the over protective father he would normally have been, but then he’d heard Kaiser’s point of view.
And he’d heard Kaiser put Keegan’s possible wants and needs before his own.
And he remembered a time that he’d have given his life for just five minutes with his mate.
Instead of approaching Kaiser, he waited until Kaiser said he was going to go back to Atlanta, then he slipped away and went back to his own home. He needed to speak to Anahla.
The moment he stepped inside their home, he made eye contact with Anahla, and strode directly to their bedroom.
She followed him back to their bedroom and stood there, watching him pace back and forth, waiting for him to reveal whatever had him so concerned. “What is wrong with you,” she finally asked.
He stopped a few feet away from her and turned to face her. “I don’t know what to do.”
“About what?” she asked, moving a couple of steps closer to him.
He walked right up to her and leaned down to whisper in her ear. “I know who Keegan’s mate is. And he’s leaving.”
Anahla looked up at him, her eyes showing worry. “What? Who is he? Why is he leaving?!” she hissed in her own whisper.
“Because she’s sixteen.”
“So he’s just going to leave and she’ll never know he’s ever found her?”
Lucas shook his head, took his mate by the hand and led her into their bathroom.
He turned on the water and closed the door.
“He doesn’t want to affect her ability to live the next few years of her life knowing she’s got to end up with him.
He wants her to have the freedom to grow up and live and explore and experience.
Then if she chooses him, it’s because she wants him, not because she has to. ”
“But…” Anahla started, shaking her head.
“He’s twenty-five, Anahla. He’s older than she is. He doesn’t think it’s fair for her to have to choose him now, or even go live her life thinking she has no choice. And he’s having a hard time staying away from her, so he’s leaving.”
“And then what?” she demanded.
“I don’t even know. I just know that I respect the hell out of him.”
Anahla looked questioningly at him.
“I know that in the culture you grew up in, it was common place for mates to marry early and begin their lives together, but I also know you are aware that most of the time, things don’t happen like that.
Kids, or young people if you’d rather, have the opportunity to grow into whoever they want to grow into.
They don’t have to accept a mate just because the mate bond had reared its head. ”
“I know that! I just, I don’t want her to have to live her life without a mate thinking she doesn’t have one because he walks away.”
“I don’t know if he’s walking away. I don’t think he is, but, maybe he is. It didn’t sound like it though,” Lucas said.
“You still haven’t told me who it is!” Anahla insisted impatiently.
“You can’t go interfering. You can’t go talk to him.”
“How could I if he’s leaving?”
“I know, I just don’t know what to do, or if I should do anything,” Lucas said.
“How did you find all this out?”
“I called it a night and finished the run early. I went to go visit Remi, I like sitting outside with him.”
“I know, he’s a nice… wait! It can’t be Remi! He’s Cristie’s mate!”
“No, no it’s not Remi. But he was talking to Kaiser, and when I heard Keegan’s name I stopped walking toward them and listened. That’s when I heard everything.”
“It’s Kaiser?! Keegan’s mate is Kaiser?” Anahla asked.
Lucas nodded.
Anahla stood there, staring into nothingness as she thought it over. Finally, she smiled at Lucas. “This is good. This is very good.”
“Why do you say that? He’s nine years older than she is.”
“Exactly! If he does what he says and allows her to grow and figure out who she is and what she wants to do before he makes his intentions known — if that’s his plan — he’s older, he’ll be done with all the wildness.
He’ll be more patient, he’ll appreciate her more, and the most important part…
he’s as strong as she is. She won’t be able to bulldoze him like she does everyone else.
She’ll actually respect him. It’s a good match. ”
Lucas sat down on the edge of the bathtub and rested his chin on his hands.
“What’s wrong?” Anahla asked.
“She’s sixteen. I’m not supposed to have to think about this yet.”
Anahla smiled at him. “But he’s leaving, so it won’t happen soon.”
“We hope, if he comes back at all. Now you have me worried that he might be preparing to leave for good,” Lucas said. “He was beating himself up over it and feeling pretty bad that she’s so young.”
“We could go talk to him,” Anahla said.
“No! I told you, you can’t go confront him.”
“I’m not planning to. You are. You’re going to talk to him, and let him know that we know and we just want to be sure that he isn’t leaving for good.”
“Do you really think I should?”
“You should. I think he’s probably horrified that his mate is a sixteen year old teenager.
Knowing that we know and we appreciate that he’s of his own choice, decided to wait until she’s had a chance to live a little, before he even brings it up, is admirable.
That we think highly of him for caring enough about her happiness to want to give her that opportunity, might make a little of what he’s feeling easier to live with. Make it easier for him to come back.”
“So you think I should go talk to him, then.”
“I do. Make this a good thing for him, not something to have to overcome.”
Lucas nodded. “I can do that.”
“Of course, you can.”
“Now what do we do with Keegan?”
“Nothing! Nobody says a word. We just let it happen naturally when it happens.”
“I don’t like keeping secrets from her.”
“Me either. But the whole point of him leaving is to give her freedom without him here. If we tell her, we negate that.”