“Woah, woah, calm down. I won’t hurt you. Neither will Lycus, see?” Kalen said, pulling bandages from his pockets and alcohol wipes and showing them to me.
“Just hurry, Kalen. If Darius comes in and finds you with her, he will lose it,” Lycus told him.
“Since when doesn’t he, Lye? He gets angry if I am out of damn sight for more than five minutes or if I don’t text him every five bloody minutes,” Kalen mumbled. Lycus sighed but perched himself upon the sink basin while I glanced between the two of them.
Chapter 16
“He won’t do anything,Aleera, sit. We want to help,” Kalen told me.
“Speak for yourself. The only reason I even brought her up here is for you. Not because I want anything to do with her. Don’t speak for me, Kalen,” Lycus snapped, and Kalen rolled his eyes and sighed. I glanced briefly at Lycus but sat on the bathtub’s edge again.
Kalen started cleaning and bandaging my feet. My eyes burned with tears at the stinging sensation as he washed them with the alcohol wipes.
“Can’t you just heal her?” Kalen asked, glancing over his shoulder at Lycus.
“Not after last time,” he said, glaring at me before looking down at Kalen. Kalen muttered under his breath and started wrapping my feet with the bandages.
“Kalen, just hurry up!” Lycus snapped at him; his hearing would be a lot better than mine being were-fae. I wondered what he heard Kalen mutter.
“No, it’s fucking bullshit. Darius shouldn’t be the only one allowed to have a say about her,” Kalen argued.
“Kalen, enough! Or he will do more than just take your magic,” Lycus scolded him. I was a little shocked he would take Kalen’s magic. Is that why they didn’t want me near him?
“He only did it because he knew I would heal her when pulls shit like this,” Kalen snapped back.
“You shouldn’t have pissed him off. Now, hurry, so I can get you out of here before he realizes.”
“Just go if you are worried about being caught.”
“I’m not worried about me, idiot. I am worried about you, and I will not be leaving you alone with the likes of her.”
I said nothing the entire time. Just observed. I peeked at the markings on Kalen’s neck, and before I could stop myself, my hand reached out to touch them. Lycus’s hand was wrapped around my wrist in a bone-crushing grip before I could, his reflexes crazy fast.
His grip hurt, and I pulled my hand away, feeling stupid for wanting to touch him; their marks called to me. I knew it was the bond making me act strange. Didn’t they feel any pull toward me at all? I just wanted to touch him, reassure him that I would be fine and not to worry. It was odd that I would even think to do that when I didn’t know him.
“Don’t touch him,” Lycus snarled at me, and I swallowed and tugged my hand away and placed it back in my lap. Lycus growled, and I averted my gaze back to what Kalen was doing.
“Ignore him. You can touch me,” Kalen said before glaring up at Lycus. My fingers twitched to touch the markings, to give him magic. I couldn’t explain it because I had none to give him. I clasped my hands together to refrain myself.
“Can I ask a question?” I asked, finally speaking for the first time.
Kalen’s head whipped up instantly, and he smiled. “Always.”
My breath hitched in my throat at his breathtaking smile. Lycus, however, growled but said nothing. Instead, he kept watching Kalen as he finished my other foot.
“Why did you mark each other? I thought mates only marked their keeper?” I asked.
“Well, you ruined that, didn’t you?” Lycus snarled. Kalen pressed his lips in a line before running a hand through his hair.
“So, we didn’t lose our magic, and yes, it is taboo for male mates to mark each other, frowned upon. But it was the only way if we wanted to keep our magic,” Kalen explained. I nodded. Looking at Lycus, he stood with his arms folded over his broad chest.
“I had already marked Lycus before I found out about you or them,” Kalen told me, and Lycus growled at him.
“Enough!” Lycus snapped at him, but Kalen ignored him.
“Lycus and I were already together before we found out we were mates,” Kalen told me.
“So, you were boyfriends?” Kalen nodded, and my eyes darted to Lycus.