Leilani.

"You will what?" He asked, sounding so stunned, I couldn’t help but smile, "...you can help?"

And ladies and gentlemen, this is the part where I know that I should say no. That I should’ve told him that that was a slip of the tongue; But because I was too invested and I felt some sort of pity for him, I nodded stiffly;

"I’ll help."

His eyes widened; "Really?"

"Yes." I answered tentatively, and as soon as I said that... Well, as soon as I said that, Kael did what Kael would usually do. 𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

He lifted me up like I didn’t weigh more than a crate of eggs and began to spin me around with so much enthusiasm and excitement that my eyes began to spin and water. His loud laughter rang in the air, filtering into my ears and echoing around the hall as he continued to spin me around again and again, until...

"Alpha Kael?"

He froze and my cheeks burned like I had a high fever when he stopped, only to find Maya looking at us like we were two aliens that had dropped right out of Pluto.

Ladies and gentlemen, Maya again!

Her eyes thinned as she regarded us with keen interest, and I didn’t miss the way it never left his arms which were still wrapped around my waist in that possessive yet cold manner.

And hell, I was flustered.

Even flustered was too light a word to describe how I immediately felt when I saw her. And as if to diffuse the already un-diffusable air, she whispered; "I think I need to leave you two to do your thing."

’Your thing’ like we were having some sort of fun.

’Your thing’ like my entire face isn’t heating up at the mere thought of having her witness ’this’ for the second time tonight.

I lowered my gaze and stared pointedly at Kael’s arms which for some reason were still wrapped around my waist and snapped; "Let go."

He didn’t hear me immediately or maybe he did but was too stunned to speak or move.

"Alpha Kael..." I drawled, letting my voice trail off as his face suddenly brightened.

"Huh?"

"Let go."

It wasn’t until I said it this time in a harsher tone that he finally let go. His eyes found mine in a split second and I didn’t miss the small smile lifting the corners of his lips before he slowly pulled away, smiled shyly and whispered; "I am sorry."

"I know."

"I was just too excited."

"That I know as well so we will talk about it later." I replied, ignoring the way his eyes bored literal holes into my face.

A couple of seconds went by, and when he still wouldn’t move away, I muttered; "good night."

"Goodnight to you too," he answered after a long second with a smile. "And good night Maya." He finished, and with that, he walked away, not sparing me another glance until he disappeared behind one of the sharp corners at the end of the hall.

It wasn’t until he was gone that I finally let out the breath I had been holding, and it also wasn’t until then that Maya cleared her throat, her eyes shining with wild intensity as she drawled; "That was heated."

"Huh?" I frowned, feigning confusion.

"I mean the heat between you two. It was so heated, it nearly scorched me whole... almost turning me into barbecue."

I rolled my eyes as I walked away from her and went into my room, but despite my nervousness, and my very obvious refusal to have this conversation with her, she didn’t let me breathe.

She also didn’t allow me to see the end of it and I spent the rest of the night informing and re-informing her that there was nothing going on between the triplets and I.

She didn’t believe me.

—And even I didn’t fully believe myself.

—

It was a few minutes past midnight when my eyes slowly fluttered open again, and for some reason, when I peeled my eyes open, I realized that I was thirsty and strangely tired.

I yawned as I slipped out of bed so quietly, so as not to wake Maya up and slipped out of the room, that is after draping my silk nightdress around my body.

And because it was past midnight, the house was eerily quiet; well, besides the distant chirping of birds and howling of wolves somewhere deep in the woods.

The soft pit-pats of my feet hitting the tiled floor echoed as I made my way downstairs to the kitchen, but just as I got there and began to pour myself a glass, the hairs at the back of my neck suddenly stood on end.

My nerves all came alive as if on high alert and my body thrummed with a kind of electricity that zapped all the way from my scalp to the tips of my toes.

My heart also began to pound against my chest as I glanced around me. But there was nothing. Not even a sound.

"Who is there?" I found myself asking before I could help myself, but there was no response— not like I was really expecting one.

I tried to dispel the strange feeling clawing its way down my spine and the way it felt as though I was being watched by someone in the shadows, but no matter how hard I tried not to think about it, I couldn’t.

So I tried again; "Is anyone there?"

Still... nothing.

Now, that was strange. That was making me scared. Not just scared but utterly petrified. My hands shook as I set my glass onto the counter and turned to leave the kitchen but just as I moved, I saw a shadow move so quickly past my peripheral vision. The speed with which it had used was so surreal, I would’ve thought I had imagined it if I didn’t perceive the sharp smell that came next.

It smelled like filth and rotten flesh... and something along the lines of a bad sewage system plus vomit.

It was that bad.

"Who the fuck is there?!" I yelled now, because yelling was the one way to sound less frightened than I really was.

The sound of something hitting the floor made me snap my head to the side and I froze when I saw a very large, very strange looking man standing by the kitchen door. He was dressed in a hoodie that covered most of his face, but I saw the tips of his hair that fell down to his shoulders...

And they were silver.

A striking shade of silver.

Oh goddess, soon I am sure I would hate that color!