Chapter 85 - Small Pause for Breath

Rae rolled over in the bed. She was still asleep, but her hands instinctively felt around for her mate. Feeling the disappointment at coming up short in her search, Rae started to awaken further. She sat up in the bed and allowed her eyes to focus for a moment before she started scanning around the room. His oak and peppermint scent still lingered in the room, so she knew that he couldn't be far.

Whilst he was training her, they had been staying in one of Kai's bolthole homes in the middle of nowhere, amongst lush green hills. Light from the moon was streaming in through the large netted balcony window. Her instincts told her that he was out there. Rae slipped on one of Kai's t-shirts over her head then slid open the door. Despite the large open-air balcony, the smell of expensive cigarette smoke instantly flooded her nose. A smell that was strangely nostalgic to her.

"Kaiden Lucius Caine." Rae said very authoritatively, but her mocking tone had a hint of playfulness to it. "Are you smoking? What would your mother say?"

"Uh oh, caught red handed." Kai said without turning around. He held one hand out open in surrender as he felt his mate approach him.

Rae walked up alongside him then rested her elbows on the balcony railings. She looked up at him with a raised eyebrow and doe eyes.

Kai looked down at her and swept some of his hair out of his eyes. With the way the moonlight was hitting his face, his blue eyes shone like aquamarine. Some long loose shorts hung loosely on his hips whilst his top half was completely bare. Rae stared at him in silence for a moment, just appreciating how handsome he looked.

Kai waited for more chastisement from her, and was surprised when no more came. He looked at her curiously as a smile stretched out on his lips. "What is it? Why are you looking at me like that?"

"Has anyone told you how drop dead gorgeous you are?" she said with a laugh. She brought both of her hands up to her face to cup it.

Kai laughed back. "That one beer you had with dinner really went straight through you huh?"

Rae poked her tongue out at him. "Seriously though, are you actually smoking? I thought you always hated the smell of them when we were kids." Rae sniffed the air. "I recognise the scent. It's the same brand my dad used to smoke whenever my mother would yell at him for something."

Kai nodded. She wasn't wrong. He had never liked the smell of cigarette smoke and there were rarely many young shifters who did in this day and age. "You're right, I still don't like the smell." He scrunched up his nose as he took in the scent. "Arrow, left them in my jacket pocket. I thought it might relax me a little but I don't think it's making much difference" He went to flick it over the side of the balcony.

"Wait!" Rae grabbed his arm to stop him.

"Whoa, what?" he asked, startled by her reaction.

"Can....I try it?" she asked sheepishly.

Both of Kai's eyebrows shot up. "Have you smoked before?"

"Yes," she said with a fake confidence in her voice.

Kai snorted unconvinced, but gave her what was left of the cigarette. He could already tell she was lying, but her commitment to the lie made it too tempting to see her try and go through with it.

Rae took the cigarette from him awkwardly and then brought the end up to her lips as she tried to remember how her dad used to smoke them.

Kai leaned back against the railing and crossed his arms. He struggled to not to smirk or laugh as he saw her thought process play out in her facial expressions. "Make sure you pull from the cool end," he said mockingly.

Rae frowned in silent acknowledgement to his attempt to tease her. "I've done this before!" Rae took a long deep inhale of the cigarette. The thick heavy smoke filled her lungs in an instant. The burning sensation caused her to cough and gag reflexively.

"Liar." Kai said with his smirk now fully on display. He took the cigarette back off her, stubbed it on the railing then flicked it over the side. "Are you okay?" he asked as he started rubbing her back. "Definitely a habit that should die out with the previous generation," he chuckled.

After managing to settle her chest, Rae poked her tongue out. The heavy smoke smell and taste still lingered in her mouth. "Bleurgh! So gross."

Kai smiled as he pulled her in to his chest.

She wrapped her arm around his waist then rested the side of her face against his hard chest. "So why did you need one of those to relax. You couldn't sleep?"

Kai inhaled deeply. "No, not really. It was either a choice of waking you up for the third time tonight or try smoking one of those cigarettes and I figured I gave you a pretty good workout on the field today, so I should probably spare you some of my advances tonight."

Rae pulled out of his hug and looked up at him suspiciously. "I don't see how you waking me up twice during the night so far is you *'sparing me'*.

"Believe me, us having sex twice in one night is me holding back." He winked at her suggestively.

Rae gave him a small poke in the ribs then rested her head back against his chest.

Kai could feel her heartbeat and her bare breasts under the light long t-shirt she was wearing. He'd struggle not to make it three times at this rate, but that wasn't the reason he was struggling to sleep. With everything that they had planned for when they got back to the capital, he couldn't help but feel slightly apprehensive of everything that would inevitably come with that.

"You know, a lot of eyes are going to be on you once we're back at the capital and everybody knows who you really are."

"I know." Rae nodded slowly against his chest as Kai pulled her a bit tighter against him.

"Are you gonna be ready for all that?"

"I'll have to be," she responded simply.

Kai sighed. He wasn't sure what he was expecting to hear as an answer, but her being so frank about it only confirmed his expectations. She had never liked having a lot of eyes on her, even when she was a child, but being the youngest daughter in her family that was never meant to be a requirement for her. Similar to him, but that was all about to change.

"Don't stress about it." Rae spoke in to his chest. She could feel him getting unsettled.

*'Damn mate bond'* Kai thought. He couldn't stop his emotions from filtering through to her.

Rae pulled out of the hug and leaned on the railings as she took in the view of the rolling hills. The moonlight lit up the dewy green grass that covered them.

Kai bit his lip. "You know, Dylan is still convinced my brother is involved in all of this. If Matias is behind all of this, there’s a good chance that things will get ugly between us again. Very ugly."

"Is that what Dylan was referring to? About you becoming King?"

Kai nodded and then turned to look at the hills too. "If things turn out that way, I may end up as the first alpha after all this, which will set me up to be King after my father."

Being the third son, and a bastard child at that, it was not something he ever thought of as a possibility, but it was becoming more and more likely by the day.

"It's not what I want, but I may not have much of a choice. Don't get me wrong, there is no love lost between Matias and I as you may have gathered, but I have no desire to end his life."

Rae reached over and grabbed his hand. "I'll hope for your sake that he's not."

Kai gave her a tight smile. It was more to settle himself than her. He hoped the same too. The silence between the two of them stretched out as they both sought comfort in the presence of each other. There were still too many unknowns threatening this small pause for breath that they had with each other in this hillside hideaway.

"I just wish I understood why Colton is so desperate to have you."

That thought alone made Pax growl aggressively in his mind.

"He obviously knows about your dream world ability. I just don't understand why he covets it so much."

That and the thought that Colton would be willing to go to war over her made no sense, but he didn't want to overburden Rae with this additional information without more affirmative proof. That thought had been playing on Kai's mind for a while. From the moment that he spoke with Colton inside Rae's mind. The face Colton made was not one of someone who had simply acted on a whim. He looked fiercely resolute in his desire to have her.

Kai felt Rae's hand tighten over his.

"I won't let him get to you. I promise you. I'd die before I'd let that happen."

Rae shook her head. "My dream world ability is not why he wants me."

Kai looked at her curiously. His silence prompting her to continue.

"That ability isn't the only one that I have."

Kai looked at her tentatively. "What do you mean?"

Rae stared back at the ground. She told Mya that she wouldn't tell anyone about her other gift, for fear that she'd be exploited, but she couldn't keep this from him. Not from the man she loved and the man the man that continually put his whole life on the line to protect her. He should know everything.

"I have another gift."

*'Two gifts? Wait, is she talking about the other gift that Gabriel was referring to in our conversation before?'* Kai asked himself. Lately it felt like gifted shifters were popping up everywhere, but for one person to have two gifts? That was completely unheard of.

"Mya told me not to tell a soul, but you should know." Rae clutched one of her hands over her chest. "I have the ability to awaken dormant gifts in other shifters. I don't know how to do it, but it's the main reason why Colton wants me. It was my mother's gift but she was able to pass it on to me before she died."

Rae's mouth opened and closed repeatedly as she tried to find the words to explain it. For him to truly understand, she'd have to explain everything that had happened on that day. The day that her family was slaughtered. The memory had only resurfaced recently and trying to find the words to explain it all would be more than painful. For both of them no doubt.

Kai could see the inner battle in her face and her eyes starting to well up. "Raeliana?" Kai questioned.

"I need to show you what happened that day. Can I show you?" she asked.

Kai tried to hide his apprehension. He'd spent so long trying to block that memory from his mind, but now he knew that the small sliver of what he could see or hear through that door, back at the castle, wasn't even half the story. Kai took a breath and steadied himself. This wasn't about him anymore. If she felt the desire to share that, he was determined to listen and support her in any way that he could.

"Okay," Kai said quietly as both his and Rae's eyes started to cloud over.