Chapter 63 - Time's Up

Kai and Adalyn had spent the rest of the morning *reaffirming* their new mate bond and had now passed out in the bedroom.

Adalyn was the first to stir in the bed and break the silence. "I have to go home" she said lazily with her eyes still closed. "My aunt will be wondering where I am."

Kai said nothing, but instead pulled her naked body closer in to his chest. He had his arm tucked around her waist and his head buried in to the back of her neck as he spooned up behind her. He took a few long leisurely sniffs of her scent. "Do you have to? Can't you stay another night?"

With her ass pressed up against him, he could already feel himself starting to get hard again. He pulled her closer against him to try and tempt her to stay a little longer.

"Oh no you don't! Are you trying to kill me?" The little wiggle of his hips had her jolting up out of the bed.

Kai laughed then slowly opened one of his eyes. "Was worth a shot" he said leisurely as he swept some of his dark hair out of his face.

With her hair all disheveled and his mark sitting pride of place on her neck, she looked well and truly fucked. Both he and Pax couldn't help but feel smug about it. Kai sat up in the bed and watched her as she put back on her black skirt and red halter neck top.

"Is it okay, if I borrow your t-shirt?" Adalyn asked. The outfit that she wore to his didn't feel appropriate to wear during the day and it would be obvious to everyone else that saw her that she was doing the walk of shame back home after spending the night out.

"Yeah, keep it," he replied. With the way that black mini skirt hugged her ass he'd feel more comfortable for others to see her more covered up. That and his t-shirt would make her smell like him. Two benefits for the price of one! Not that it particularly mattered though, with his claim mark on her, she would eventually start smelling more like him anyway, warding off any unwanted male attention. Kai slid his feet out of the other side of his bed and started putting on his track pants and another long sleeve shirt.

"Let me drive you back home. There's actually a few things I wanted to talk to you about."

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Kai helped Adalyn out of the car as they pulled up just outside the forest of her family home. Adalyn slipped her hand in to his and held on to it tightly as they started walking through the forest.

"So, what did you want to talk about?" Adalyn asked first. Kai looked down at her and smiled as they walked. Now that they had mated, nothing else seemed to really matter, but he knew he had made that mistake back at the palace. He couldn't repeat letting his guard down again. If anything their bond to each other would draw more attention to her. He sighed as he faced back where they were walking again.

"Okay, two things." Kai started off very methodically.

*'Uh oh, a list?'* Adalyn thought. That couldn't be good.

"I know we talked briefly before about me training you. Now that we're mated, I think we should prioritise that. Now that I'm not at the palace, I'm effectively suspended from any of my responsibilities, so I should have a lot more free time on my hands." Kai smiled as he said it. Part of him was secretly wishing that this would be a permanent fixture.

"Okay, I think that would be great!" Adalyn responded cheerily. More time with Kai would be amazing. It was all that both she and Tara wanted now.

"We're gonna need to get Tara onboard with the program though. That's not going to be easy after 18 years of free reign." Kai's lips tightened as he thought about what would be required to get Adalyn to the place she needed to be at to be able to fully subdue her wolf. His old master Arya had been the one to train him originally and she damn near killed him to get him the strength he needed to control Pax. With the threat to her from the council and potentially another threat that Gabriel alluded to, she'd need every arsenal in her back pocket at her disposal. Kai couldn't be everywhere at once, so whatever he could arm her with would help to give him at least some level of peace if he ever wasn't around.

"With you having a wild dominant wolf, I'll probably have to go quite hard on you for the training to be effective." With the training that he had in mind, he knew that he'd effectively have to hurt her to give her the tools she’d need to keep her safe in the long term. Kai looked down at Adalyn anxiously. To his pleasant surprise there was a look of both excitement and determination on her face.

"If it means I can get stronger, I wouldn't have it any other way!" she beamed up at him.

His mate was continuing to surprise him at every turn. He recalled how she had downright challenged him in front of an audience at the club, when she flooded the room with her dominant energy. He was quickly going to have to learn to stop being so surprised all the time. Kai tried to smile in response but deep down he wasn’t looking forward to it. He just hoped that she wouldn't hold his planned methods against him. "Good" Kai forced a hint of a smile to mask his unease.

"The other thing I wanted to talk about is us. The cat is pretty much out of the bag now with my mark on your neck. Your scent is going to start changing. Anybody that knows me will know that you're my mate, and those that don't will at least know that you're mated. We're not going to be able to hide this from your family anymore." Kai looked down at Adalyn again to gauge her reaction

"I was thinking...maybe I should just talk to them. Your family. Prepare them for what's to come. I don't think we need to give them every single detail and scare them but we'll have to get them somewhat prepared. It’s gonna be a bit of an adjustment for them when we move your stuff in to my place and.."

"Move my stuff to your place?" Adalyn asked curiously.

“Yeah, I don’t know how long we'll be at the apartment for but we should prepare for it to be for a while for now."

Adalyn stopped walking and Kai stopped suddenly as her hand held back his.

“Kai, I can't move in with you”

Kai furrowed his brows in confusion. “What are you talking about?”

“What am I talking about? You mean what are you talking about? When did we ever discuss me moving in with you?”

Kai raised his eyebrow at her. “Adalyn, we’ve mated and claimed each other. Of course that’s what would happen now.”

“Well, it can’t. I’m starting college in a few weeks.” He was speaking as though everything he was saying was a forgone conclusion.

“Well now you don’t need to as you’ll be living with me.”

“Kai, I’m going to college.”

“I’m not stopping you from going to college. You could just switch to an online course and then stay with me.”

“I don't want to do an online course! I want to ‘go’ to college. I want to stay on campus.”

“Why? Given a choice, who would choose to stay in a college dorm anyway?”

Adalyn pulled her hand out of Kai’s. “I would! That’s the point, it’s my choice! I’ve finally been given this chance to live independently and do what I want and now you’re trying to take my choice away.”

Kai frowned. He wasn’t trying to take away her independence, but at the same time he couldn’t help but feel slightly hurt at her reluctance to stay with him. “That’s not what I’m trying to do. I thought we were both on the same page here. You said we were going to do this together; I need you with me. I thought that’s what we both wanted.”

“Kai, I want to be with you too but I need this for me, some level of independence. Please understand, I don't want to fight with you on this” she pleaded. She had already made up her mind but she wanted him to understand it. It wasn't about him, it was about her. It had taken her a good six months to convince her aunt to do this. She wasn't about to give up on this when it was finally within reach.

Her fierce green eyes were burning in to him. Regardless of what he said, he knew his beautiful stubborn mate would do what she wanted in the end. He’d have no choice but to relent on the matter or suffer the consequences.

"Fine." he huffed "If that's what you really want." He'd have to rethink about what extra measures he could put in place to try and safeguard her at college. With him being kicked out of the palace, he wasn't sure how much that would be, but he'd have to come up with something.

"Thank you." she said genuinely. That had gone smoother than she had predicted. Quite clearly their new unified mate bond had already started to stabilise how he was behaving. Her possessive mate was already starting to be more reasonable.

As Adalyn looked up at Kai, somebody in the distance suddenly caught her eye. She smiled broadly and ran over to one of the trees just off the forest path where a young shifter pup was crouched down in the long grass.

Kai watched quietly as she trotted over and approached the young boy.

"Hey Alex, what are you doing?" Adalyn asked the young boy. He couldn't have been any older than 6 or 7.

"Hey Ady!" he responded. His focus remained fixed on something in the grass. "I'm trying to catch that frog."

"Ooooo cool. I used to be an expert at this once. It's great for pounce practice. The best bet is to sneak up on the slippery beast then catch them like...this." Adalyn lurched forward quickly and then cupped the frog in her hand.

"Wow! You caught it so easily." Alex was staring in to her hands in awe as she gave him a peak of her prize.

"Thanks! These are the coolest little beasts on the planet," she continued "I don't know why so many people are so afraid of them."

Adalyn leaned in to his ear to talk quietly to him with a big grin on her face. "If you want to be really cheeky, you can go and surprise your friend over there with him."

Alex giggled then accepted the frog from her, then went running over to his friend in the distance.

Adalyn laughed to herself as she started walking back towards Kai.

When she locked eyes with him he was transfixed, just staring at her. His face was as white as a sheet "Kai?" she asked alarmed. She quickened her pace as she walked back over to him. Just as she got close to him Kai suddenly grabbed her shoulders, startling her.

"Who are you?" He asked panicked.

"What do you mean?" Adalyn looked at him confused and scared. Was he still unstable? Was Pax still acting out? she asked herself.

"What you just said over there. The frogs, the beasts..." Kai's eyes were darting back and forth across her face as he searched for answers.

"Kai?" she asked again completely bewildered.

"I know the truth, I know that you and your family are using fake names. I don't care about that. I don't care who you really are. I love you, but what you just said to that boy over there...it can't just be a coincidence." He was inadvertently squeezing her shoulder as he played back what he had just heard in his mind.

"Kai, you're scaring me!" she replied nervously. He wasn't making any sense to her.

"Rae? Are you her?? No, I know you can't be her but..."

The name rang a bell to her. "Rae?" She said back to herself out loud. "Raeliana?" That was the name that Melody had told her. Kai's chosen mate. Adalyn pushed herself violently out of Kai's arm. She couldn't understand why he was calling her by that name, but all that she knew was that him saying it hurt. Did he still love her?

As she took a few steps backwards Adalyn suddenly cried out in pain. Her head suddenly felt like it was going to split in two. She took a few more staggered steps backwards as she held her head and doubled over in pain.

Kai was jolted out from all of his questions and thoughts as he started to feel Adalyn's pain through their mate bond.

"Adalyn what's wrong?!" He went to approach her but she started backing off in confusion.

"Adalyn?!" he called out again.

The pulsing in Adalyn's head was already too much. She hadn't had one of these headaches in ages but this one felt worse than before. She could feel her feet starting to buckle underneath her. As they gave way, she felt familiar arms picking her up off of her feet, but they weren't Kai's. As she forced her eyes open, she recognised the face and the blonde hair. A deep-set scowl was engraved in his face and aimed at Kai.

"Gabriel?" she mumbled just as her world went black.