Darius looked up at Tobias, who nodded to him before Darius stood.
“Come on then. I can’t leave you here knowing that,” Darius told them.
Lycus looked at Kalen over his shoulder.
“Where would you take us?” Kalen asked, wondering if they were being led to their deaths.
“Home. Now, come on. I wanted to come earlier, but I was in a meeting. Now, hurry up. I have another in an hour and need to get you set up back home before I go,” Darius told him.
“You will let us stay with you?” Lycus asked, a little shocked.
“Well, I won’t have my mates living in a park. Now, hurry up,” Darius said, checking his watch.
“Don’t leave him waiting he is insufferable when he is pissed off. He can hold a grudge like he bloody invented the word,” Tobias said, clicking his fingers.
Darius took them in, provided them with everything they ever needed or wanted, and looked after them despite his father clashing with Lycus constantly. Yet, Darius was always quick to get on Lycus’s side, which often turned into a power battle. Darius barely won against his father, no matter how much he copped a beating in the arena that I now recognized as the outdoor obstacle course, though it was a simple training arena back then.
Darius’s father saw Kalen as a weakness, proven when Kalen nearly got them all killed in an ambush. He ran after Lycus thinking he was hurt, but he was being the bait. It almost cost them all their lives when Kalen alerted everyone to their location. It was declared after that night that Kalen wouldn’t go on the scout teams. He would remain home in the castle, which just added to his depression until Darius handed him a tablet one day.
“What’s this?” Kalen asked, looking up at him.
“The school opened up a buddy system. Lycus said you were bored.”
“You’re lying,” Kalen accused, observing Darius’s aura. Darius laughed and nodded.
“Yes, I am. Tobias opened up a buddy system at the school, made it mandatory, and you have been assigned a friend to talk to, give you someone outside this room to speak with when we aren’t here,” Darius said, kneeling between Kalen’s legs. He handed the tablet to Kalen, and Kalen took it from him curiously.
“Lycus won’t like me talking to random people,” Kalen told him.
“This one he approves of,” Darius told him.
“What would I say, though? I don’t do anything. I am useless,” Kalen said, and Darius growled at his words.
“Don’t speak like that. Don’t listen to the shit my father spouts about, but talk to her. She is waiting for a response. The school logged her in this morning. She will be waiting to speak with you.”
“It’s a girl? I can’t speak to a girl,” Kalen said, handing back the tablet.
“You can because she is our keeper, our mate. You can’t hide from her now, can you?” Darius laughed, and Kalen bit his lips nervously.
“You think she will want to speak with me?”
“She has no choice but, yes, Kalen. You are worthy of your mates, of her, or the fates wouldn’t have given her to us,” Darius told him. Kalen sighed when Darius spoke again.
“No names. You must not tell her who you are. That is the rule of the school, not ours, by the way.” Darius nodded, and Kalen unlocked the tablet.
“I thought you said no names,” Kalen asked, staring at the pen name. “You told her yours.” Kalen laughed.
Darius smiled slyly. “No, I didn’t.”
“HTIARW is Wraith spelled backward, definitely your name.” Kalen laughed.
“Our name. You are a Wraith now, too,” Darius told him.
“What?”
“We all have to take a name, so what better name than to take the name of the Demonic King? No one will dare touch you when you share my name,” Darius told him. Kalen sniffled and nodded, his thumb brushing over the tablet. Darius turned to leave his room when Kalen spoke.
“Darius?” he called out. Darius stopped and turned to look at him.