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Word Count: 1691

~Mara

It took three frightening minutes to console Kaden.

I didn't dare question, I just sat on the edge of his hospital bed, running my hand slowly down his back. The fear in his eyes has chilled my blood. To see someone like Kaden, who is usually so calm and content in his position, be so genuinely scared, is scarring.

Coen. The innocent, polite man who had once helped me attempt an escape. How could he possibly do wrong? With his warm eyes, and slight smile...

Him and Kaden are nothing alike.

"Why would Coen hurt me?" I question lightly. His breathing has gotten calmer, the more I touch him. He now seems to be fairly steady beneath my fingertips.

His jaw clenched. "Because you're a pawn."

My eyebrows furrow together. A pawn? Kaden twists his head to catch my gaze, noticing my confused expression.

"I love to win my games, Mara. Coen prefers the process of the game. The manipulation that is involved. Using every piece as a weapon," Kaden murmurs.

His words hardly make sense to me, but the look in his eye suggests he's deadly serious. I want to unleash the questions trapped within my mind, but I allow Kaden to talk first.

"You may have thought Coen liked you, but he didn't. He used you, to get to me," Kaden expressed. His words hit me like a lunch to the chest. He never liked me?

"Tell me how?" I prompt.

"Coen is my twin brother, only minutes younger. Mother said he was what was unleashed from Pandora's box. Even though she loved him, she described him of the epitome of envious."

"He was jealous of you?" I question, but I already new the answer.

I could only imagine what Coen had to go through. Your brother getting the title of Alpha, while you, only a few moments younger, is forced to continue on an ordinary life in the shadow of his success.

And now...I've lost all control over him," he murmurs. The frightened look suddenly appears like a flash within his eyes. I tighten my grip on his hand, letting him know that he can share anything with me.

"What did you mean, when you said that I was a pawn?" I decide to ask. The question had been eating at the edge of this conversation.

Kaden swallowed. "Coen has been using you against me. He threatens me with your life. I have no choice but to comply."

My mind whirrs, as I try consume and sought every shred of information I've been cryptically spoon fed.

"You're an Alpha. Why don't you just...Kick him out?"

Kaden shifts in his seat, but winces due to the wound on his chest. Settling even closer to him, I place my hand on his arm, wanting to feel more contact between us. He seems to relax at the sparks that we share between us.

"He's the..." Breaks off, squeezing his eyes shut.

"He's the only one who knows where my parents are."

My heart skips a beat, as I attempt to fight my way through my haze of confusion, and try make sense of his words.

"You told me your parents were dead," I say, my voice strained. It wasn't the fact that he had lied to me about that, I couldn't care less about that though. It was the fact that I assumed his parents weren't alive, when really they are. Which means he has been carrying this burden the whole time I've known him.

"I had to. If I even touch Coen, I'll never see my parents again," Kaden says solemnly.

No longer does he shake in fear, nor gaze over my shoulder as if someone is haunting him. Instead, his gaze is hard, his expression stony. He speaks his words like he is reciting from a poem of pure evil.

"Everything I have done, was under his orders. You think I wanted to kill Althea's child?"

Feeling the blood in my head pound against my temples, I try to make sense of it all. Kaden didn't want me to hurt Althea...It was all Coen. Our of all the things I've heard, that fits the best in my mind.

"And Kace? Why would I willingly let my mate marry my brother without a price?"

Slowly, I begin to feel everything slot in place. "Then why bring me here, to put me in this kind of danger?"

"I had to...I couldn't physically keep myself away from you any longer. As long as Coen doesn't know that you know we are mates, we should be okay," he breathes.

"You're saying we have to go on about our lives without out even beings mates?" I hiss in annoyance. There is no way I could agree to that.

Even if I have to strange Coen myself.

"I don't see another way..."

"Of course there is another way. I will find out from him where they are," I say. Kaden frowns, and I suddenly feel a burden settle heavily over my shoulder.

The look on Kaden's face suggests he knows what I am insinuating, and doesn't like it.

"You're not-"

"I will manipulate it from him, exactly like he has been doing to us," I say confidently.

Standing, I feel my white dress billow around me. Suddenly, I feel empowered by the simple idea of helping Kaden. If I could do this, maybe I will finally find the reason for why I am on this earth. Maybe I will feel like I belong, for once in my life.

"Kaden, I'm going to get your parents back."

💚••💚

"Are the games his idea?" I question.

Kaden and I sit at the back of car moving steadily toward the Vengeance Pack. One of his hands is clasped in mine, while the other clutches his chest. It has still be an hurdle for him, that he to attempt to climb.

Coen can't know.

"No. I do enjoy a game. And perhaps a good riddle is always necessary," he muses.

"So...Milly," I say. I didn't want to bring it up, it just happened. Kaden seems to startle at the mention of the girl he had presumably murdered. He taunted me with a riddle I couldn't answer...I felt like I had failed her.

The clench of Kaden's jaw suggests he doesn't want to speak of it right now.

"I still have a lot to tell you. But right now, I want to enjoy the last moments with my mate, where I can openly show her my admiration," he says warmly. My cheeks heat up on reply.

But his words sadden me. From this point on, we will be sneaking around. Kaden and I haven't spoken about how I'm going to manipulate Coen yet, but I think we have a pretty good idea.

Which I'm sure he isn't too happy about.

My thoughts are blown away, as the thunderstorm I know as my mate approaches me from across the middle seat. He kisses me softly, and I savour the currently bliss that floods my pores.

His tongue against mine, his hands through my hair is a heady mixture. To lock this moment away in a chest, and to throw away the key would bring me as much pleasure as Kaden's currently roaming hands.

"Coen can't keep me from you," Kaden whispers against my lips, his hot breath making me shiver in delight.

"Yeah, but I could drive this car off the next bridge," I hear Grayson grumble from the drivers seat.

Pulling away from a growling Kaden, I glance at the Grayson to see him looking irritated in the rear view mirror. He has agreed to drive us to the Vengeance Pack. Apparently it would look better to Coen if we showed up with another Alpha.

"You don't have to look," I comment, smiling at an unamused Kaden. Something tells me he didn't want to be disturbed.

"We are nearly there anyway," Grayson says. I look out the window to see he's right. The Vengeance Pack walls are closing in on us at a fast rate. Almost as fast as my heart rate at this point.

Kaden tugs at my arm gently, and holds up a black cloth. Right, I forgot I agreed to being blindfolded. This would expel any suspicion that I was here willingly.

With gentle hands, the cloth is tied loosely over my eyes, coating my world in darkness.

"This would be nice, in another situation," Kaden whispers in my ear. I can't help but smile at the sly tone in his voice, as I pick up exactly what he means by that. 

A few moments pass by, before I feel Kaden's lips by ear again.

"I have a riddle for you," he says gently.

Great...

"You shall be asked when Coen is around. You need to answer correctly," he insists. My heart sinks. I am terrible at riddles, and he knows it!

I lift the edge of my blindfold up? So I can meet Kaden's gaze.

"Will you give me the answer?" I ask. He shakes his head slowly, making me frown.

"I will give you a single guess now, as a practice," he says. The look in his eyes suggests he's excited to see if I can decode his wicked riddle.

"An unfortunate soul, can spin quite a tale.
Words weaved like a needle, with string like fire.
Cracks between the lines are memories;
a pair of eyes, she admires, the holder.
Blessed with one, but not granted solitude.
Living in fear, such a novelty.
Creating it, a hobby."

💛••💛

The answer?

If yah get it, I'll give you top commenter! (: But you have to give me a reason as to why you think it's that, so you don't just comment what some else said.

Yeah, you know who you are.

It was such a mission to write this chapter with fake nails! But I think to worked out :p

Vote and comment if you enjoyed!! Much appreciated (:

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