CHAPTER 66: THIS IS ABSURD

Keith’s POV

Today has taken a wild, unacceptable turn.

After Kayden bolted, Kieran and I had to perform immediate damage control. We ensured no one recorded his panic, making eye contact with every guest in that hallway, our expressions promising ruin if a single whisper left this building. We thought we had contained it. We never imagined he would run into someone.

Our primary concern was that he was alone and vulnerable. We never considered he would be found in the arms of a woman. And not just any woman. Eleanor.

This woman is becoming a persistent, confounding variable in our lives. When I saw him clinging to her, my first, furious thought was that she had exploited his episode.

That she had seen a Vexxon brother in a weakened state and seized the opportunity. I’ve seen it before. Women who would orchestrate a "chance" encounter, manufacture a compromising situation, and hold it over men’s heads for money or fame. I assumed she was one of them.

I was ready to tear her apart. But then Kayden, my brother shoved me away. He put his body between me and her. The level of manipulation required to achieve that in such a short time seemed... impossible.

Then he told us the truth.

His hands moved with a frantic energy. Her face didn’t change to that of the monster when he saw her. She helped to make the voices stop in his head.

The air left my lungs. He wasn’t manipulated. He was... saved. By her.

And then he delivered the final blow. His hands stilled, his gaze intense. There is a more bigger discovery. But i will tell you at home. We have to bring her with us.

A bigger discovery? What could possibly be bigger than Kayden willingly seeking comfort from a woman, and then defending her with such ferocity?

**

The car is silent except for the hum of the engine. Kieran is driving, his focus on the road a little too intense, a sure sign he’s processing. I’m in the passenger seat, making side glances into the back.

Kayden is sitting there, next to Eleanor. He looks... better. Calm. After one of his episodes, he’s usually a ghost—withdrawn, trembling, lost in a horror only he can see for hours, sometimes days.

He retreats to his studio to paint out the demons. But now? He’s just sitting. The tension that usually strangles him is gone. What did she do?

And what is this "bigger discovery" he mentioned? The question is a live wire in my mind.

Eleanor, for her part, looks like she’d rather be anywhere else. She’s pressed against her door, staring out the window, her posture screaming her desire to escape.

We have never allowed a woman in this car. Our space is ours. But Kayden insisted with a look so vehement we couldn’t refuse.

What kind of charm is this woman wielding? I only agreed because of Kayden’s uncharacteristic determination.

The moment he’s fully back to himself, I will get answers. I will make her explain exactly how she managed to get this deep under his skin in a matter of minutes.

A low growl rumbled in my chest at the thought.

It was my wolf’s disapproval.

Great. Even my own wolf is being affected by this... this anomaly.

We arrived at the Vexxon estate just after 3 p.m. The silence in the car broke as we stepped out. Kieran and I waited, watching as Kayden gently—gently—ushered Eleanor out of the vehicle.

She looked like a startled deer, her eyes wide as she took in the imposing property.

Kieran fell into step beside me as we followed them toward the main entrance. He leaned in, his voice a hushed whisper. "Are you seeing this?"

"Seeing what?" I replied, my tone clipped. "That Eleanor did something to him?"

"No," Kieran countered, his gaze fixed on the pair ahead. "Look at her. She’s radiating ’get me out of here.’ What could someone who clearly doesn’t want to be here possibly have done to him? It doesn’t add up."

"It’s probably an act," I insisted, though the logic felt thin even to me.

"I don’t believe that," Kieran said, and I had no rebuttal.

Alfred opened the grand front door, his demeanor as impeccably neutral as ever. But then his eyes landed on Eleanor, and he offered her a small, genuine smile. A real one. That was... odd. Alfred’s genuine warmth is reserved for family.

We moved into the living room. Kayden guided Eleanor to a chair with a quiet deference that made my jaw tighten. Then he turned and approached us, his hands moving in a clear, sharp sign.

Let’s talk at the private office.

We followed him without question. The moment the office door closed, sealing us in our most secure space, I turned on him.

"Are you okay?" I demanded, my voice harder than I intended. "Do you feel charmed? Compromised? What do you need us to do?"

Kayden just looked at me, a flicker of exasperation in his eyes. Then he shifted his gaze to Kieran, who gave a slight, knowing shrug.

"You know how Keith is", Kieran replied.

Kayden began to pace, his hands moving in sharp, agitated signs. I know this will sound impossible to believe. I know how I must seem right now.

"Impossible isn’t the word," I bit out, crossing my arms. "It’s beyond that."

It is for me, too, he signed, his expression earnest. I didn’t understand it. But her presence... it helped. It truly helped. And I don’t think her being drawn into our lives is a coincidence. It feels... significant.

He stopped pacing and looked directly at us, his gaze intense. Kieran and I waited, the air in the room growing thick with anticipation.

When I was in the middle of the episode, Kayden signed, his movements becoming slower, as if he himself could scarcely believe what he was about to convey. I think... I heard my wolf. It said something... strange.

"Strange how?" I asked, my impatience warring with a growing, cold dread.

Kayden’s hands stilled. Then, with a slowness that felt monumental, he formed a single, devastating sign.

Mate.

The silence that fell was absolute,The single sign Kayden made seemed to hang in the air between us, shimmering with impossible implications.

One part of me, the primal part connected to my wolf, felt a surge of fierce, undeniable delight. The other, the logical, recoiled. It was unbelievable.

A treacherous, hopeful part of me wanted to believe it, but that was the most dangerous feeling of all. It was wrong. We had a mate.

Kieran was the one who broke the silence. "He might not be wrong."

I turned on him. "Are you seriously supporting this?"

"Do you think that Kayden would lie to us?" Kieran countered, his voice calm but firm.

"No," I admitted. "But you know as well as I do that his perception can be... skewed after an episode." His trauma paints the world in shades of his past; it doesn’t always see the present clearly.

Kayden stepped directly in front of me, his eyes demanding an answer. You don’t believe me?

"I believe that something happened to you," I said, forcing my voice to remain level. "I believe she calmed you. But what you’re describing... it’s not possible. We already have a mate. Scarlet. We recognized her as our mate. The Moon Goddess does not make mistakes. She doesn’t give a triad two mates."

"But it could be possible," Kieran insisted. "None of us can deny what we felt that first night at Sin and Cinnamon. That... recognition. We all felt it with Eleanor, even if we didn’t understand it."

The memory was a physical blow. The dim lights of the club, the woman whose face we hadn’t seen, the undeniable, electric current that had passed between us. I couldn’t deny it. I had felt it, too.

So, had the Moon Goddess truly made a mistake? Or had we?