Keldin stood in Aiden's study and listened as she conducted business with her brothers. It was normal for her to do since they had taken over the Silver Court two years, almost three years ago.
It wasn't anything short of a miracle that they were doing so well but since coming to New Orleans, they had opened a series of restaurants and bars that were doing so well. Aiden had a meticulous eye for business.
Cole nodded at something she said. Keldin had quit listening somewhere between the figures of Nemesis and Cadney's, two bars they ran in the vicinity. Nemesis was the one bar Aiden could be found tending every weekend. It was her secret passion that they didn't bother managing it.
He should have been listening considering he was their bookkeeper but his mind was preoccupied. Skander could have been killed because of him and he hadn't been able to stop it. It galled him to no end when he found out that Max, the one person he trusted most after Aiden, Austin and Tyler, had betrayed him. She had told the men after Skander where he was and they had come after him. What kind of person does that?
He leaned his head against the window and sighed, fogging it up in the process. Moving him had been the best thing for him but he didn't think Skander would see it that way. He had been picked up and moved once before because Keldin had asked him.
This time would be different. He had been hurtled through darkness and space to a different city in a different part of the country with no warning. If it had been Keldin who had done it, it might have been different. It had been Deuce who had done it. That didn't bother Keldin but he wasn't sure what Skander thought about it.
Groaning in frustration, he banged his head against the window. This was not how he wanted Skander finding out what he was.
"If you hit it any harder, you will break that window." Aiden stopped by his side and held out a glass to him. "Here."
Keldin turned around and took it, downing the dark liquid immediately. "Thanks."
She nodded. "Any time. Now tell me what's bothering you." He looked back out the window. "Okay. Then tell me why you haven't explained the mark on Skander's neck to Skander."
He sighed and ran a hand through his short hair, making the longer portions of it spiky. "I don't know how."
"Keldin, I get it. Instinct took over and you couldn't help it. It happens but that doesn't mean you can keep what happened a secret. It involves him as well and the more you keep him in the dark, the more danger he's going to get into. You can't stop it."
"How did you keep Clint from all the danger?"
"I didn't. I was honest with him from the beginning. I had a nine month old son and I wasn't going to just let some random guy come in and mess with that. He happened to be a good guy and the man I was intended to marry. I couldn't mess with that. Now I have three beautiful children, a wonderful husband, and friends I'd die to protect."
The man in question was behind them at the desk, his head bowed low over whatever he was working on. He didn't look dangerous, but Clint Miller had something the rest of them had never seen. He had the ability to handle his wife and all of her responsibilities as well as his own.
"How does he handle it?" he muttered.
Aiden followed his gaze, a gentle smile playing at her lips. "You'll have to ask him about what he does to handle it personally but as a married couple, we talk over everything. We try not to argue but sometimes that happens because that's life."
She took his hand and squeezed gently. "You have to talk to him about it. If you don't, it's only going to end your relationship."
Keldin leaned forward and hugged her. "Thanks, Ace."
He let her go and headed for Clint. They talked a for a long while, trading folders, before Keldin left the office altogether.
Aiden stood by the window, continuing to monitor her quiet husband. She glanced to her left then looked back at the man at the she'd married.
"What do you think he'll do?" Austin asked as he materialized from the shadows to where she'd been looking.
"He'll talk to Skander about it. It's the only thing he can do if he wants this relationship to work." She moved to collect the glasses from the table. "Have you ever seen him like this before?"
Austin shook his head. "Nope, not even when Eric got him to talk. I think this is the first time Keldin's had to do something on his own and he's not sure how to handle that. Eric called all the shots when they first got together."
"Yeah, and that's because Keldin was getting over some serious trauma that forced him to stop talking."
"True but Keldin was always very forceful with our brothers and me."
Aiden glanced at him then pointed her finger at him. "That's because you're family."
Austin stared at the door, finally looking at his friend with a faraway look she had a hard time reading. "Do you think he'll do it?"
She shrugged. "He'll have to, Austin, if he wants to keep that boy."
"I fear my brother will go to his death protecting him."
Aiden laughed. "He'll have to. They're bonded." She left the older twin in the study with a shocked look on his face.
***
Skander sat in the library with a huge volume. It was the history of the Gold and Silver Kingdoms of the preternatural world. It told of how they were established by the Lowen family eight hundred years earlier and in those centuries, there had only been three uprisings. The most recent one was when Celia Lowen was overthrown by her own grandchildren.
He dropped the leather bound book and looked out the window. What a world he had suddenly been dropped into. He had been a simple graphic designer who was on the fast track when he had been yanked from his home. Well, not really yanked, but easily persuaded. Keldin had been an enigma he wanted to get to know but he was far from doing just that.
In the three days they'd been in New Orleans, he had seen so little of the man it was frustrating. He figured that since they were in a secluded area in the bayou he'd be able to spend time with him. But Keldin had made excuses to get away from him.
Skander had no doubt he had things to do since he was in the heart of the Kingdom but he could at least make time for the one he was protecting. He had seen more of Austin than he had Keldin. He could read all day long but until he heard it from the horse's mouth, he was going in blind in all this.
"I'll never understand this if you don't tell me," he said aloud to the empty room.
"I know that but it's hard to be open about what I am." Skander swiveled around to find Keldin standing behind him. The other man waved. "Hey."
That only fueled his anger. He jumped up, the book falling to the floor at the sudden movement, and stalked forward. "It's been three days and all of a sudden you come in here spouting nonsense about you not being able to open up. I've been open with you about how I felt about this and yet I know nothing about you. I don't know when your birthday is or what your favorite color is or your favorite animal. I don't know who's older, you or Aiden and I certainly don't understand what the hell this thing on my neck means."
He would have gone on had Keldin not grabbed him and kissed him. It was very cliché, but it's how happened. One of Keldin's arms hooked his hip while the other braced his neck. He pulled him up and covered his mouth with his.
For a moment, the younger man was incensed. But as the older man's mouth worked at slowly pulling him forward, the younger collapsed against him. His body molded to his and his hands came up to roam his massive back.
Keldin slowed the momentum down, peppering gentles kisses on his mouth. His fingers tightened on Skander's neck and he went to pull him back in for more.
When he came to his senses, Skander realized he was being played or yet it was a possibility. He slammed the heels of his hands into Keldin's chest hard enough to push him away. The older man looked shocked but dropped his hands to his sides.
"Don't try to distract me from the subject. Why have you been avoiding me?" Keldin looked away, his ears turning pink. It only made him madder. "Keldin, answer me."
"I couldn't protect you. I brought you with me and I still couldn't protect you." Keldin's voice was thick as he spoke. He licked his lips because he had nothing else to do. "The last time that happened, two people ended up dead. I can't have that. I can't have you die. It will kill me."
Skander's frown deepened. "That's not funny."
"It's not supposed to be." He finally looked at him face to face. His eyes burned brighter and hotter than he had ever seen them.
"Keldin?" Skander gasped when he walked forward and yanked the neck of his shirt down, exposing the burning mark on his skin. He bent his head and kissed it. The motion made him weak with need and desire. "What are you doing?"
"You want to know what this is? This mark on your neck means you're belong to me. I told you once I kissed you that you were mine but this shows it to everyone in the two Courts. We are bonded."
Skander was so shaken he didn't know what to make of it. More information was coming, and he wasn't sure how much he truly wanted to know. "What does it mean?"
"It means that you are the only one that can bring me back from the abyss should I go over. Our people have a tendency to use our powers to the extreme. In some cases people do not come back and extend over into madness. The man who took Eric from me was one. The ones who do come back have someone to anchor them to solid ground. Clint is like that for Aiden. I can't tell you how many times she's nearly lost it."
This was so much for him to take in. Skander sank into the plush couch once again. He was certain there was a stunned look on his face. He gripped his neck, feeling the spot throb dully.
"So I'm your anchor into this world?" Keldin simply nodded. "Does that mean I'm yours forever?"
"If you wish to be."
He tilted his head to look up into the face of the man who had marked him without his consent. "This is my choice?"
"Yeah." Keldin knew what he was thinking, and it made him slightly ashamed.
His anger was refueled. This time he punched him in the gut pretty hard. The auburn haired man doubled over from the force of it. He was nearly eye level with the attacker. "Then why the hell didn't you ask me to do this in the first place?"
"We had just met and I was more worried about you being safe from idiots than anything else. When the instinct took over, there was nothing I could do. I had to act on it. It wasn't until after it was done that I realized I'd acted foolishly. I hadn't given you a choice. I had tied your life to mine selfishly."
There was anguish in his voice. He had only had one bonded and that was Eric. When the bond was ripped from him so violently, he had hurt both inside and out. It had felt as if his reason for living was gone. No matter what he had done, he couldn't find solace. It was as if his heart had been ripped out and it might as well have been.
That had changed the night he had intentionally run into Skander on his way home from work. He had known of what had happened to the kid beforehand and how skittish he would have been. Yet he still went after him. The feeling that had overcome him when he met him had been suffocating and there was nothing he could have done.
His body had burned for him after the first touch. Usually that was only indicative of a mating between male and female, but when he and Max had decided not to bond, the desire had vanished. When it had resurfaced with Skander, he'd been shocked and confused. But the more he'd spent with the kid, the more he had wanted until he had unintentionally done.
After two days. He'd made the decision after knowing him for two days. He already felt like an ass, but now he felt worse than an ass. He felt like he'd taken something from Skander he would never get back.
Skander watched the emotions fly across Keldin's face in rapid succession. He was thinking deeply about something and it was affecting his emotions. Without thinking, he stood and wrapped his arms around his waist. He pulled him close and buried his head in his neck. He smelled of fresh cut grass and an open glade full of honeysuckle.
"If it hurts you too much, don't think about it," he whispered.
Keldin brought his arms around him, encasing him against him. "When I felt Deuce yank you away, I thought I'd lost you."
"What did he do?"
"It's called shadow-walking. Like I said before, we're able to bend shadows and space to suit our needs. It really helps when we need to make a clean getaway. When I felt Deuce open that portal, I thought all was lost. Then Landen said you'd been under attack and I knew he had pulled you to safety. It still didn't quell the urge that I had done something wrong."
Snuggling closer, he asked, "Will I ever know of all your power?"
Keldin smiled. "Maybe, but right now you need to understand what you're reading."
As they sat down on the couch with the book between them, neither one had any clue that they were being spied on. Aiden stood at the door eavesdropping.
Usually she kept her distance in her friend's affairs but this time it was Keldin. That man held a special place in her heart and it was hard to keep her distance. They'd lived parallel lives and had found so much support in each other as they'd learned to heal. He'd been her best confidant, and she wanted to make sure he was happy.
"Leave him be, my love," Clint said as he walked by. Dressed in jeans and a white cotton button up with no shoes, he looked like a tanned Adonis.
She turned and planted her hands on her hips. "Why are you spying?"
"Because, my little minx, when you get that glint in your eye, I know you're planning something." He held out his hand. "Come. Let's go play with the children in the courtyard."
With a bright smile, she placed her hand in the King's and followed him to the courtyard where their family waited.