Chapter 8 - Charlize #3
Heat rises in my face, something old and sharp flaring behind my ribs. “Perhaps I wouldn’t be such a ‘bore’ if I weren’t worried my head would end up on the floor for saying the wrong thing.”
Silence.
For a moment there I think I’ve angered them and my heart sinks into my stomach.
Wayne’s grin doesn’t fade, but something flickers behind his eyes—real surprise. “Fair point.” He clears his throat. “Consider this me promising you won’t lose your head over a casual conversation. So go on. Grow a personality. I’d like to meet the real you.”
“I’ll make no such promise,” the mean one says, flat, not bothering to look up. “Speak out of tone, and there will be consequences.”
Wayne rolls his eyes hard enough it looks like it hurts. “You know, you don’t have to be such a buzzkill all the time. God forbid you extend basic courtesy to anyone.”
“Courtesy isn’t owed. It’s earned.”
“Really?” Wayne shoots back. “By whose measure? Yours? Everything’s earned by your measure, Chris, that’s the whole problem with you—”
Chris.
So that’s his name.
Now, I know all their names.
Chris is the mean King.
Wayne’s the jovial—free-spirited one.
And then there’s Sinth. The kind and calm one. From what I know, he’s the youngest of the three Alpha Kings.
I’ve noticed right from the day I almost had my head chopped off that Chris and Wayne never get along. In fact, everyone in this wing of the Star island knows that the Kings don’t see eye to eye most of the time.
What they don’t know is that Chris and Wayne are the ones with the problem. Sinth is calm as still water. And I easily realize he’s the anchor—the one always trying to keep the peace.
When I glance at him, he’s rubbing his eyes already as though he’s embarrassed by their banter.
“The problem, if there is one, is you have no boundaries—” Chris’s cold voice cuts through my thoughts.
“At least I have a personality people can stand to be around,” Wayne says.
“Unlike you, I do not need the validation of others to feel good about myself.”
I watch this unfold like I’m seeing something private I wasn’t meant to witness. It’s almost funny, two grown Kings sniping over breakfast like children, except there’s real weight behind it, years of grievance packed into every jab.
Sinth rubs his temple. “You two do realize that we’re not alone, right?”
Voices fall silent.
No wonder the elders want a shared mate for them. These two would burn the region down before agreeing on anything without a third voice keeping the peace.
I don’t like any of them, and I want that clear in my own head—even now, watching Wayne’s grin and Chris’s icy stillness and Sinth’s tired patience.
I haven’t forgotten the cold way Chris looked at me the night he called me not worth the trouble. That doesn’t just wash away because someone gave me a warm bath and a soft bed.
But some stubborn thread under my ribs disagrees anyway, pulling toward all three of them at once, warm and unwanted no matter how hard I try to smother it.
Sinth looks at me, and although he doesn’t say a word, I can almost swear that that stare is an apology for what I just witnessed.
My lips curl into a small smile.
***
After breakfast, they bring me to my room, and I notice that a corner of my new room has been reworked entirely.
My bed is piled high with pillows in deep, soft colors, blankets layered until the whole space looks less like furniture and more like something meant to be climbed into and disappeared inside.
It smells faintly of cedar, and something warmer underneath that I can’t quite name.
Nobody has ever built me anything. Not once, in twenty-four years of sleeping on a cot in a converted storage room, working myself raw for people who resented having me around.
This is the first space I’ve ever stood in that felt made with me in mind rather than simply tolerated because I happened to be occupying it.
“This is your nest from here on now,” Sinth says to me.
“Those pillows belong to each of us,” Wayne adds, standing behind Sinth. “You can have them.”
Chris is by the door and doesn’t come in, nor does he speak.
I sit down before I can talk myself out of it. The pillows feel too good against my back. The blankets settle around me like they were shaped for exactly this, and I’m still half-embarrassed by how close I am to crying.
Chris is the first to disappear, then Wayne follows.
“Get some rest,” Sinth says before leaving the room.
I lay in my nest, breathing in the scents of my mates lingering around me. I wonder how long it took to convince Chris to release his belongings, considering he’s made it pretty clear that he doesn’t approve of me.
Regardless, a part of me is grateful for this gift, and that alone thaws something frozen inside me.
Later in the day, I hear a knock on my door. It’s not as gentle as Briana’s, and that sparks my curiosity. I get out of my nest and head to answer it.
When I open the door, I stand frozen at the entrance, my eyes latched on the tree of a man standing across from me.
It’s Wayne.
He leans in the frame, arms crossed, that same easy grin fixed in place. “Hey, cutie.”
My heart stops.