Leilani.

We all watched Jarek sleep like hawks protecting their offsprings, and whenever he would move or stir in his sleep, we would all jerk around to watch him closely until he returned back to his peaceful or not so peaceful slumber.

This practice continued until sometime after midnight when we all began to doze off one after the other as well.

Oh, and... just so you know, all my injuries from earlier had surprisingly healed up. Even the cracked knuckle that I had gotten from punching Jarek squarely in the face was also gone...

Now, back to what I was talking about. I was on the verge of dozing off when I heard a soft sound not so far off. It sounded like someone getting off one of the couches where we were all perked on and when I slowly peeled my eyes open, my breath caught in my throat when I realized that it was Jarek, and I could only watch him as he stumbled to his feet, picked up a bottle of wine and began to tiptoe back to where we all were.

"And what exactly are you trying to do?" I asked coldly, not missing the way he suddenly came to a halt. The bottle slipped from his hands to the floor where it shattered into a gazillion tiny pieces.

"Leilani!" He screeched, "you scared me there!"

"You scared me first!" I snapped back, whilst doing all I could to put as much distance between us.

His eyes thinned for a moment as if trying to understand why I kept taking small steps back, and when it finally dawned on him, they widened slowly before his entire face simply crumpled.

He drawled; "You can’t even look at me."

His words made me whip my head up to meet his gaze and when my eyes caught onto the sadness slash regret swirling in his eyes, my breath hitched again.

"You won’t even come close."

"That’s because you tried to hurt me." I answered, hating the way those words tasted like bile on my tongue.

If I was told some time ago that there will come a time when I’d be having this kind of conversation with Jarek... my Jarek, then I would never have believed.

"I did?" He sounded sincerely shocked and concerned, and I couldn’t ascertain if this was because he had been drunk earlier— hence his reason for not knowing— or he had simply just almost slipped into a feral state.

I nodded but didn’t say anything.

Why?

Because I decided to watch his expressions instead. I wanted to be sure of what I was dealing with by seeing the effects my words had on him directly, and when all he showed was remorse and guilt, I tentatively took a step forward.

"Leilani—" that was Caelum whose voice came with a silent warning. I glanced at him only for a moment to see the worry creasing his eyebrows before I slowly nodded at him.

"It’s okay."

"It’s not. This guy tried to hurt you. First he almost hit you with his car; scratch that, he hit you with his car, and then he scratched both of your arms until you were bleeding all over the place."

The words Caelum said vaguely reminded me of what happened, sending a tremor rushing up my spine.

But do you know what it did to Jarek?

It completely destroyed him.

It ruined him.

His face crumpled even more than it already had and he took steps back from me even without being told to. I saw the tears brim in his eyes before it would even drop, and I didn’t wait for it to drop before I threw myself into his arms, sobbing because... please tell me what else I was supposed to do?

Tell me how to respond to my best friend’s misbehavior, especially now that I do not know if it was due to drunkenness or madness.

I do not know for how long we stood there holding onto each other but by the time I finally let go, I was sure as hell that I had no more tears left.

Jarek now was extremely careful with me. He helped me into one of the sofas, ignoring the pointed look that everyone else threw at him. He then sat on the floor close to the sofa, and with his head resting on the armrest, he drawled;

"Tell me everything."

Those words sounded familiar and not in a good way.

It made goosebumps spread across my skin and made me shudder slightly until I reminded myself that I was safe here, especially with Gavin and the triplets watching over me like literal hawks.

And then, I went on to tell him everything. Including the ones I’d told him earlier tonight, the things he did afterwards even and every other tiny bit of info I could remember.

"I’m sorry," he mumbled calmly, surprisingly taking the news better than he did the last time. "I used to be absolutely sure that I had successfully sent Keisha and her mother out of NYC, but now I know that I am wrong..."

"She told me you exiled her..." I mused,

"And she should have remained in exile!" He snapped, sounding slightly angry. "I do not understand how she thinks she can still reach out to me after I had explicitly asked her not to. But what I cannot understand the most is why she decided to blame you for her daughter’s death. You of all people for something beyond your control!" 𝓯𝙧𝓮𝓮𝒘𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝓵.𝓬𝓸𝒎

His words made me realize that he was fully in control of his mind. Hell, this is the Jarek I knew.

I took his hands in mine and squeezed tightly, sighing when a cool kind of warmth seared in the places our skins touched.

A couple of minutes passed by in utter silence until suddenly, he looked up at me and heaved a deep sigh. His voice was low— barely above a whisper as he said; "I always knew right from the day of the fire that you weren’t dead. I was sure of it in my bones, but there was a reason I suddenly called Alpha Kael some hours ago."

Something in his tone— maybe it was the urgency I felt— made my heart skip a beat. I glanced at him quickly and frowned.

"What?"

"There is another Valemont in town." He answered, and as soon as he did, the rest— I mean the triplets, Maya and Gavin— scooted closer, their eyebrows scrunched up in confusion as their gazes flickered from my face to Jarek’s.

"I have no business with that family..." I began to say but stopped when Jay lifted his head, waved his hands in my face and snapped;

"This is not one of the usual ones. This one carries— holds— a lot of power and you can feel it by merely looking at him. I did a deep dive into your family tree and I can only tell you this, this man, this man that I am talking about right now can only be one of two people."

"Who are?" My voice cracked as I asked that and my heart for some reason began to pound against my chest.

"Theon Valemont, son of Morningstar, your biological father’s twin, or Ragnar Valemont, son of Morningstar, your biological father himself."

As soon as those words rang out, I literally felt my stomach do a deep dive.

My entire body stilled and the blood in my ears roared so loud, it was the only thing I heard.

I never knew my father had a twin.