Page 14 of Seared Fates

“Yeah, Golden told me you’d been…depressed.”

“A discussion for another time,” I say. Kai doesn’t need to know the gory details of my apathy—how it hollowed me out until I collapsed inward, and for eight long years I was nothing but a bottomless pit howling into an uncaring void. He doesn’t need to know that I’m only just beginning to fill myself back up, or that a soulmate was the last thing I wanted when I’m still trying to repair my relationship with the offspring I abandoned.

“Alright, well…that’s that then. We can’t be anything else to each other. You’ve said your piece. So…bye. I guess?”

“Not goodbye,” I rush out, not yet ready to part ways. “I was taken by surprise last night and took that out on you, which was unfair. I still want to get to know you. Become your friend.” None of this I meant to say, however, it seems I cannot control myself around Kai.

“You wanna be my friend?” This makes him laugh, his head dropping back against his door with a soft thud.

My gaze travels the lean length of his neck. “Yes,” I say with too much force, then clear my throat. “A very good friend.”

“And you're straight?”

I nod. There’s no denying the pull—raw and unexpected. A kind of hunger I’ve never experienced, whispering that the only way to sate it is Kai. But to give up women forever? “I am.”

His emotions draw back, but I can’t stand it. So I close the last breath of distance between us, caging Kai to the door with my bigger body. He lets free a surprised exhale, the sudden scent of oranges bursts in the air, sweet and sharp arousal, and I fill my lungs before I can think differently.

“Whoa, okay. Time out. Big time out, buddy.” Kai puts his hands on my chest and pushes to create space.

“Annoying,” I grunt.

“Yeah, well, get used to it. If you wanna be my ‘friend’ no sniffing, and stop being so bloody clingy.”

“Me?” My eyebrow cocks up.

Confusion wrinkles his brow until Kai realises his hands are gripping my chest and snaps them away.

I chuckle, but truthfully, I find my actions just as confusing. However, all that stops when his stomach grumbles.

“You're hungry,” I say. “Get us inside and I’ll cook you something.”

“You can cook?”

“I like marshmallows.”

Another laugh. “Mate, that doesn’t answer the question.”

“Maybe not, but I like to cook. Let me make you something to apologise.”

Shrugging one shoulder, I lean back to give Kai space to fish out his keys, a victorious smirk tugging at my mouth. I made him laugh—again. Already, I’m planning on hunting that sound down with more determination than I ever gave to tracking meat for my people, or Saxon gold to fill my coffers.

I am going to be an amazing friend.

“But I guess I can’t turn down someone else cooking.” Kai opens the door for us.

The inside is tiny, more of a single large room with a bed to one side and a tiny kitchenette on the other, with a door to the left which must be the bathroom.

Before I can comment on anything, the stink of rotting flesh hits me. “What is that smell?”

“What smell?” he asks, closing the door.

“If you’ve murdered someone, you should properly dispose of their body.”

“So your issue wouldn’t be that I’m a killer?”

I shrug, looking around to find where the stink of rancid meat is coming from.

“Seriously, I have no idea what you're talking about.”