"...Brother?"
The armor-clad man turned around. Rui shot his tail up to ask him what his business was with our group.
I didn't want to believe that the man was Lucius. My big brother, though a scatterbrain most of the time, was still capable of surviving through many complex situations. He was born to be out here. He was one of the kings of the wild. A perilous environment was his natural habitat.
He avoided death and death avoided him unless Peaches fetched him himself.
Rui returned with a scowl.
"What happened, kid?" Crowley asked.
"He flew off with his horse before I could ask him," he replied.
I released a breath that I did not know I was holding.
"It's going to be alright. Lucius is a strong knight; he won't go down that easily," Crowley comforted.
The fight settled down when Peaches finally had enough. He released a powerful wave of a dark force that hailed smoke and drummed vibrations on the ground, sending the other four to different directions.
The four groaned in pain but their will to fight did not die yet.
"I won't...let you get away with this!" Caleb cried out in fury.
The anger and pain in his voice were evident that the tremble of it pierced through my chest.
What was making him feel this way? I did not understand. What did Peaches do?
The werewolf got right back on his feet. He lunged with his claws, aiming to strike him down. The reaper vanished, perhaps out of pity, and left Caleb searching frantically over him.
I need to talk to him to clear any misunderstanding. There was nothing to be so infuriated over.
"Hey, are you guys done being immature dicklets now?" Crowley called out.
...
...
...
"Onii, do you want to play whack-and-bite?" Buck asked.
We were preparing to leave for the Black Crystal Mountain but Caleb was nowhere to be found.
I knelt in front of Buck and patted his head.
"I'd like that but...I'm searching for Caleb," I said to him.
His smiling face reduced to a saddened one.
"Onii has been very down since you came back because you smelled different," he spoke honestly.
I tilted my head at him in confusion. I was aware that I haven't had a decent bath ever since I left the castle. I never had a chance of a proper scrubbing. But was it enough reason for him to be antagonized?
"How do I smell?"
Buck smiled naively. "You don't smell like Caleb-onii anymore."
Ah...
"Thank you, Buck. Let's play once we get to a safer place, okay?"
Buck nodded, wrapping his arms around my neck to hold me into a tight embrace. He ran off with the rest of the children.
The activity that I did with Peaches must have really erased Caleb's scent on me. The werewolf had always been possessive and to come back to him with a completely new scent must have made him feel betrayed.
Where was he?
I searched the entire camp and peeked through different tents and jars but he wasn't there. At this point, my heart began to race. My head snapped to the top of the cliff and then I sprinted.
I never pushed myself this much.
I wanted to see his smile.
I wanted to hear his cheery voice again.
His warmth, his laugh, his whines, and his cries had filled the void that I always had in me, but never had the courage of acknowledging its existence. I had hurt him when all he did for me was protect me. I had exhausted him so much. I drained his heart.
He was sitting by the edge of the cliff. His head was cast down with his shoulders slumped.I evened my breaths as I leaned forward and cupped my knees from overexertion. I took heavy steps towards him and stopped once I heard his thick voice from weeping.
"Am I not enough?" he asked. "Am I not good enough for you that you had to do it with another man?"
I wasn't aware that it was an act of affection for him. I had no idea. I truly was ignorant about it.
"I'm sorry," I spoke softly. "I know that my apology will not bring back time nor would it change the result of my actions but even so, I didn't mean to hurt—"
"Bullshit!" He snapped at me, turning around.
He slammed his fist on the floor that created a dent before pulling himself up.
His eyes were red and puffy. Caleb's aura was domineering as he prowled towards me and pinned me with his resentful eyes. He seized my wrists in a very tight and bruising hold . His fangs were elongated.
"I'm asking you....Am I not enough?!" he shouted.
I swallowed down the ache in my throat and loosened my fists.
"I have hurt you immensely and I did not show you the value that you deserve," I replied. "Please, do what you want with me to ease your sorrows. I cannot bear it...I cannot bear to see you like this."
Caleb's tears escaped his eyes; his hold on me loosened. "Do you love him?" he asked me.
He was on the verge of crying again and I was the reason for it.
My eyes hesitated to meet his agonized ones but I did so out of respect.
"He makes me...feel things," I confessed.
It was the same connection I had with Caleb and the twins but with Peaches, I felt how genuine it was. Caleb pushed his face closer to mine. He gazed at me with desperation.
"But how? I'm your mate. How can you have feelings for someone else?"
Was I not supposed to? Can you truly control who you'd love? Was it wrong for me to feel this way?
They refer to me as their mate and that because I was their mate they will love me unconditionally. I was a stranger to them yet they suddenly showed care just because someone told them so.
Was Caleb only caring for me because he was given no other option?
"But I am just that to you, am I not? Your feelings...how do you know that they are true? Are they not just dictated to you?"
Caleb looked at me with widened eyes. He swayed his head many times, showing me that he strongly disapproved.
"These are my feelings. They're not dictated. How can you say that?"
I slipped my arm through the loop of his hold, cupping his tear-stained cheeks.
"From the day you were born, someone had destined you with me. You were given no choice. That is why I am asking: are your feelings yours?"
My words sank into his understanding yet it was clear that he did not like where this was heading.
"You deserve someone better. If you stay with me, you'll only get hurt."
Caleb changed the angle of his grasp on my wrists. I watched his lower lip tremble as he whimpered. I could not help but stroke his head.
I cannot burden someone to care for me just because they were not given a choice. If being with me would cause him so much pain, I would find a way to break this bond so that I could free him from me even if...it would crush me.
He touched his chest where his heart was and then held the back of my arm gently.
"But why does it feel right even if it's not mine?" He asked. "Why do I feel like dying each time you're gone?"
I looked deeply into his eyes, bringing down his head to press his forehead against mine.
"Don't do this to yourself."
Don't hurt yourself because of me. Don't make me bear this guilt of seeing you like this.
"I love you, Lucian. I love you so much that I would chase after you anywhere in the world," he spoke softly, his warm breath fanning my lips. "Even if my core is someone else's, my heart is my own."
My lips opened to respond to his words, but a dash of strike reached him first.
One of the twins elbowed his chin and followed it by a smash at the gut. Caleb grasped the fists coming right at him, but bones pierced through his palms generated from the hands of whom I perceived as Sevor.
"Stop...stop!" I shouted.
I attempted to use my powers in hopes that the withdrawal of my rotten wing would give me such rights, but not a single sprout grew. The werewolf's fury returned and instead of yanking his palms away, he kicked Sevor on his chest and flipped back.
Blood touched the ground and both men glared at each other with their gleaming vermillion eyes.
"What the fuck are you doing?!" Caleb yelled.
"Claiming what's rightfully ours," Sevor replied.
The angel landed on the ground with a sphere of zephyr expelled from his descent. He shielded Caleb with his spear and then turned to me.
"There is an inner conflict. They won't take you to Black Crystal Mountain," he told me.
What? We had an agreement, didn't we?
"Hmph" came from Slade who sauntered from behind. He looked down at Caleb and the angel, tilting his hip arrogantly.
"Black crystal mountain is crossed out of the plan and so are you."