Chapter 42 - Third Wheel

Adalyn woke up suddenly in the middle of the night. Pain. She could feel pain in her side. She clenched her chest as she felt the stab of pain that she felt there, but no sooner had she felt it had it disappeared. She was still in her corset top following her date with Kai. She pulled it up and over her head and examined her chest. Nothing unusual was there. Perhaps the rigid structure of the corset top had irritated her during the night. Her head ached, but it wasn’t anywhere near as intense as the ones that she had experienced previously. This felt more like the tell-tale signs of an impending hangover.

*‘Why had I drunk so much?’* she asked herself. She massaged her forehead with her hand then flopped back in the bed before quickly falling back to sleep.



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A few days had now passed since Kai had taken Adalyn out to dinner. She could still recall how she had outright asked Kai to sleep with her in her inebriated state, and she felt embarrassed at how brazen she was. Fuelled by the alcohol and Tara no doubt. She was grateful that Kai didn’t take advantage of her in that state, but part of her felt that she was definitely more open to them advancing their relationship sexually. She was also finding herself craving his presence more and more.

She had wanted to call or text him the past few days but didn’t know how to quite break down the mental barrier that stopped her from reaching out to him first, following her drunken sexual outburst. Her cheeks flushed thinking about it. Equally, she hadn’t heard much from Kai at all the last few days. He had gone silent bar the odd text message or two, and that was mostly to advise her of Arrow’s whereabouts. She had assumed that he was busy but she couldn’t help but feel annoyed about it.

Gabriel was still nowhere to be seen or heard of either. Adalyn was still feeling guilty that they hadn’t yet had a chance to try and sort things out since she went missing. It wouldn’t be too long till she’d need to start packing to move out for university and she wanted to get things straight with them before she moved out.

The ball was today and Kai still hadn’t made any mention of it to her but Melody was still convinced that it was a good idea for her to come. She was sending Naya to come and fetch her and bring her back to Melody’s quarters in the palace. She was going to have to sneak her in, in order for Kai not to notice.

There was a knock at the door and Adalyn grabbed her jacket and opened it. Naya stood at her front door. She was dressed down in a simple tight-fitting t-shirt and jeans, similarly to Adalyn. She looked miles apart from the formal soldier that she first met back at the manor.
“Hey, are you ready to go. I’m gonna have to get you to…” Naya stopped talking as she sniffed the air. She sighed as she recognised the familiar scent.

“Naya?” Arrow had jumped down from a tree and started walking over to the both of them. “I didn’t realise you two were more acquainted.”

“Is that any of your business?” Naya responded harshly. She motioned to Adalyn “Let’s go.” She clearly wasn’t in the mood to engage with Arrow, and she marched straight past him. Adalyn’s eyes darted back and forth between them. The hostility from her towards him was thick and less playful than when she was last in a room with the both of them.

As Adalyn turned to follow her Arrow grabbed Naya’s hand, stopping her from tearing off. “Will you wait one second” he asked her. His face looked slightly strained. He turned to look briefly at Adalyn who was now standing in front of her feeling awkward and like a third wheel. “Sorry Ady, can you give us five minutes?” He asked apologetically.

“Sure!” Adalyn responded quickly, almost in relief at being excused from the potentially volatile situation. She started walking ahead until Naya called her back.

“No, wait!” Naya demanded. The tone of her voice made Adalyn stop in her tracks.

Naya looked back at Arrow who was still holding on to her hand. “Let go of me Arrow,” her voice was low and threatening this time. “You can’t even spare me five minutes Naya?” Arrow pleaded.

“Not now.” She glanced ahead at Adalyn who was struggling to find somewhere to look. She couldn’t help but feel that she was intruding on a private moment. Arrow let Naya’s hand slip through his. “Fine, later then…” he whispered to her.

“Where are you two going anyway?” He asked. Kai hadn’t mentioned anything about her meeting up with her.

Naya caught up with Adalyn and proceeded to walk with her down her front garden. “Out. You won’t need to follow us. I’ll have her covered. Melody already told me that Kai has you watch her.” Melody hadn’t told her any more than that but Naya assumed that Adalyn was a ‘friend’ of his.

Not wanting to piss of Naya off anymore then he had done, Arrow let them walk away without a fuss, but thought best to call it in to Kai just incase.


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The walk through the forest back to the main road, where Naya had parked, was long and quiet. Adalyn had barely said two words to her when they first met at the Manor House and now after her fall out with Arrow, Adalyn felt even more uncomfortable around her. She had an air of intensity about her which didn’t make her very approachable.

“I’m sorry about that,” Naya spoke up suddenly. Adalyn whipped her head round. She wasn’t expecting that to be the first thing that she said to her.

“No need to apologise at all.” Adalyn gave her a short smile. Despite how serious she was there was something cool about her, with her cropped hair and athletic build. Knowing that she was a solider and a guard to royalty impressed Adalyn. There weren’t many female soldiers, so you had to be a pretty good fighter to be able to make it as one. On top of that, Naya was a royal guard. She had to be one of the best of the best to earn that position. She betted that she could have Gabriel on his ass in seconds.

“We never really got a chance to talk before, back at the Manor House,” Adalyn started. “You’re Melody’s guard, right? That’s really impressive.”

Naya raised an eyebrow at her. There were still many men and women for that matter that didn’t feel it was a female shifters place to be in combat positions at all, but Adalyn’s face showed genuine adoration and respect. She was pleasantly surprised.

“You think different to most women, but thanks I appreciate it.” Naya replied. A small smile formed on her lips.

“I train a bit with my brother but he still tends to overpower me. There is so much that I’d still like to improve on. I heard that there are quite a few women soldiers in the Blue Moon pack. Is that right?” Adalyn followed up. She gauged she was on to winner with this line of conversation.

Naya was loosening up to the conversation too. “Yes, still not as many as we would like but more are applying each year. King Maddox has been really accepting of increasing the numbers of women in combat positions. His former guard was a woman.”

“Really?” Adalyn asked with genuine interest. She was finding more common interests with Naya and the awkward atmosphere was rapidly disappearing.

“Yeah, she was pretty bad ass. She’s retired now though. I heard she…”

Adalyn’s phone started ringing in her pocket, interrupting what Naya was about to finish saying. Adalyn wanted to keep talking with her and was actually a bit annoyed with the sudden interruption. Adalyn couldn’t help but look apologetic for having to cut her off to answer it.

“Go ahead,” Naya nodded after realising it was her phone.

When Adalyn took the phone out of her pocket, she saw Kai’s name pop up, she slowed down her pace seeing his name. She hadn’t heard from him for a little while and now suddenly he was calling her out of the blue.

“It’s okay. Take the call,” Naya prompted, seeing Adalyn start to fall back behind her. “I’ll walk ahead. Tell Kai I said Hi.” Arrow had most likely phoned Kai to provide him with an update. As soon as Naya was just out of earshot, Adalyn answered.

“Where are you going?” Kai answered abruptly. She hadn’t heard from him for a couple of days and that was the first thing he had to say. *No ‘Hey, how are you?’ or ‘Sorry I haven’t spoken to you in a little while,’* Adalyn thought. It riled her up instantly.

“I didn’t realise I had to check in with you to leave my house.” Her reply was curt and to the point.

“Of course you don’t.” His voice softened a little after he realised that he was being a bit rude. “I just didn’t realise you and Naya were friendly. When did that happen?” Kai asked curiously.

“Since recently. Is there a problem?”

Kai was silent for a moment or two. He had picked up that she was annoyed pretty easily by the tone in her voice. “Are you upset with me for some reason?”

“Should I be?” She answered. Her question was dripping with cynicism. She was still annoyed that Kai hadn’t said anything to her about ball and that he had next to ignored her the past few days, so soon after telling her that he had trouble staying away from her.

Kai was silent again after her loaded question. “Then what is it?”

*‘It’s about you ghosting me for two days after telling me how much you couldn’t stay away from me. It’s about you lying about the ball in your honour and telling me that you just have stuff to do tonight.’* “It’s nothing.”

Kai knew it wasn’t nothing but he was still in some pain from where Elias and Arrow had to re-break his rib a few days ago to stop it healing abnormally. That whole process had knocked him for six. He was also being hounded by his mother about the ball tonight. She had gone overboard with the guest list and plans to invite lots of eligible women to the palace. His patience was already thin and he didn’t want to accidentally snap or say the wrong thing to her.

“Fine. Tell Naya to let Arrow know when you’re done so he can resume keeping watch.”

“Fine. Bye Kaiden.” Adalyn replied bluntly.

*‘She called me Kaiden again. She’s definitely not fine’* Kai thought.
Kai’s chest tightened both at the pain from his ribs and how Adalyn was being with him. He had such a good time with her the other night. Perhaps she was pissed about him turning her down when she was drunk. He’d have to make it up to her later.

“Bye Adalyn” he said with a hint of sadness in his voice.

Adalyn hung up first. She looked down at her phone disappointed. She didn’t mean to be so snappy with him but she couldn’t stop her emotions from bubbling to the surface. Adalyn huffed then straightened her back. If he wasn’t so quick to tell him his business then she wasn’t going to volunteer hers. Regardless of if he wanted her at this ball or not, she was determined to have a good time tonight.

Adalyn quickly caught back up with Naya, who was waiting next to her car by the main road.

“Drink this.” Naya offered Adalyn a small vial just as she approached her.

“What’s that?” She asked curiously.

“Melody is convinced that Kai will pick you up the second that you enter the palace. This will mask your scent for a while, so we can get you in unnoticed.”

Adalyn took the vial and swirled it in her fingers. “Bottoms up”