— Eveline —

We were at the airport on the outskirt of Blakeden.

Jasmine was weeping like a widow at her husband’s funeral.

“Stop crying, please,” pleaded Jean-Philippe. “Come here beauté,” he said, his arms wide.

She rushed to him and they hugged like he was a soldier about to leave for the trenches of World War I.

“I’ll be back soon,” he whispered in her ear. “Before the end of the month, promised. Je te rapporterai un cadeau pour te remonter le moral, ma petite chérie.” He kissed her.

His people signed for him to board the plane, but they would not rush their Alpha either and waited patiently for him to finish up.

Jean-Philippe and Jasmine muttered their farewell and he came to hug me.

“Take care of yourself, Eva.”

“You too,” I told him.

“Take care of her,” he told Darren, shaking his hand.

“Always do,” Darren answered.

“And take care of you too. We’re family, if you need anything, call me.”

“Much appreciated.”

The men nodded at each other, then Jean-Philippe walked to the plane.

Jasmine kept jumping up on her toes waving frantically at him.

He turned and gave her one last wave and the door closed behind him.

“What did he say?” she asked me.

My French wasn’t that good yet, but I knew enough words to make out the gist of it.

“I will bring you back a gift to cheer you up, my little darling,” I translated.

“Ooooohhh,” she cooed with her hand on her heart, her eyes on the Boisclair plane as it began moving into position for takeoff. “Beauté means pretty, right?”

“It means beauty,” I corrected her. “Belle means pretty.”

“Oh, he calls me that too.” She turned to me. “Isn’t it romantic?”

“Sure.”

“I won’t survive this,” she said, crying again. “I hurt already.”

“Kaden survived twenty-two years of separation, you’ll survive a couple of weeks.”

“What do you mean? He just met Elaeya.”

Oops!

I didn’t say anything more and turned to Darren.

“Are you okay?” I asked him.

He nodded.

He had been a lot more silent than usual. As much as Jasmine can’t stop talking when things are wrong, he turns silent. But I knew it would pass and eventually he would talk to me. So I just gave him a peck on the cheek.

The plane took off and Jasmine began wailing in earnest.

I hugged her and tried to cheer her up but nothing seemed to work.

Our plane moved into position.

“I have to go Jass,” I told her.

“You-you can-can’t,” she said in between hiccups.

I looked at the car, pleading.

Sam got out and came to us.

“Can you take her home, please?” I asked him.

“Sure,” he said.

Jasmine refused to let go of me, and I had to force her towards Sam. When he moved in to get a hold of her, she let herself fall to her knees, the waterworks even worse than it already was. But Sam caught her before she hit the ground, took her in his arms like a child and took her to the car.

“She can be such a drama queen sometimes,” I muttered to Darren.

We walked to our plane.

“I’m a little worried for Boisclair,” Darren told me.

“Maybe it’ll get better,” I suggested.

“I hope,” he said as we took our seat. We have bigger things to worry about, and soon we fell back to a heavy silence, knowing what we were going to deal with.

I laid my head on his shoulder and took his hand between mines.

We can do this.

— Elaeya —

My mother and I were in the upstairs library, sitting both on the window seat, our legs crossed, one in front of the other, looking outside at the setting sun, the trees seemingly ablaze, dressed in their red leaves, at least for the few that still had any.

“I will forge the bond,” I told my mother.

She said nothing for a few seconds.

“I know this is my place,” I said.

“I know,” she replied.

I turned my head to look at her. “Do you?”

She nodded, still looking at the dusk.

“There will be wars,” I said.

“I know.”

“What do you know?”

She closed her eyes and took a long inspiration.

“You will save lives,” she said, her eyes still closed. “You will take your place here, you will rule wisely, you will be loved, but you will suffer too. You will hurt and hurt him.” She opened her eyes and looked at the ground.

I looked too, there were two squirrels chasing one another.

“You will start a war,” she said.

“Are you sure?” I asked hesitantly.

She nodded.

We looked through one another’s eyes.

“I will not leave,” she told me.

I nodded.

“What has to be done will be done,” she said.

My mother and I stayed together a little longer, but she left before dark had completely settled.

I went to see Kaden in his office.

I generally don’t go there, I am always worried I am going to distract him, or bother him. He did now most of his business at home and would only go to the office for meetings and such.

But I felt compelled to go and see him, and I never really question my intuition.

I knocked on the door.

“Yes,” he said on the other side.

I moved in.

“Are you okay?” he asked, worried as he saw who it was at the door.

“I am,” I said. “Are you?”

He looked about to say ‘Everything’s fine’, but he caught himself and hesitated for a second before he answered, “Not really.”

“Anything I can do?” I asked.

He seemed about to say ‘No’, but he stopped himself again. “I don’t know,” he said frankly.

He looked tired.

I moved closer to look at the papers on his desk.

He wrapped one arm around my hip. I bent forward a bit to take a better look.

He moved me to a more comfortable position on his lap and I let him.

There was a lot of papers. I began piling them in five different piles.

“What are you doing?” he asked me.

I shrugged, I still had no idea and I just took the folders, and papers and split them one after the other in one pile, then another, then another in what seemed like no exact pattern.

He didn’t try to stop me, or tell me I was messing up his things. He just let me, looking a little curiously at me.

Once all the papers were organised in their neat little piles, I put one hand on one of them and closed my eyes.

I wasn’t sure what I was looking for, but I knew I had to look for something, so I did and waited patiently until it became clear.

I took that pile and dumped it in the recycling bin next to the desk.

“What just happened?” Kaden asked me.

“Bad deals,” I said.

I put my hand on the next pile and repeated my process.

It took me a few more seconds until I opened my eyes again. I grabbed a Post-it, slammed in on top and wrote, Need more information — Brandon.

Kaden bent down to look at it, as I put my hand on another stack.

I put another Post-it on it, and jotted, November, on it.

“Why November?” he asked me.

“Don’t look at it until then.”

“Why?”

I shrugged. “Maybe you will have the right information then?” I suggested. “Maybe it will be the right time? Maybe it will be a better timing?” I shrugged again.

“Okay,” he agreed.

I put my hand on the next pile. It took maybe two seconds, then I added a Post-it on it with yes written on it.

“Yes to what?” he asked.

“All of it,” I said.

I did the same with the last stack. It took me the longest. Kaden didn’t move and waited patiently. I finally wrote, to evaluate on its Post-it.

“Evaluate?” he asked.

“I am not sure about those. I am missing information. I think they are more complex issues.”

He looked at his desk. “So that’s that?”

I turned to look at him. He looked a little aghast.

“Did I mess anything?” I asked suddenly worried.

“Nope,” he said. “You just saved me hours of work.”

“Erm, would you not prefer looking at them yourself?”

He pressed his back against his chair to better look at me.

“I learned not to question you,” he said.

I felt my eyes go round.

He smile and gave me a kiss. It was a good one.

“You tried to cause a mess?” he asked me.

“Of course not.”

He shrugged. “Then I will send this pile back to Brandon.” He pointed at the one in need of information. “And I will give this one too with a no,” he said pointing at the one in the recycling bin.

I felt a little uncomfortable for throwing it, instead of just writing ‘no’ on it.

“This one will wait until next month.” He pointed at the November pile. “This one I will review quickly tomorrow and sign everything that I have too.” He pointed at the yes stack. “And I will study the rest,” he said. “That pretty much steamrolled everything.”

I looked at the piles worried.

“What’s up?” he asked me.

I recounted to him my conversation with my mother.

He pressed my head on his shoulder. I let him.

“We’ll deal with it in time,” he said. “Just promise me one thing.”

“Anything,” I said.

“The second you or your mother have any more information about what’s coming, you tell me. I can’t act if I don’t know what I need to or how.”

I nodded. “Sometimes knowing is a burden,” I told him.

“If you can bear it then so can I.”

I kissed him.

My arms twined around his neck and soon, we were pressed against one another, our tongue dancing to their own quiet song.

His hands traveled up and down my back, pressing me further against him.

When the kiss finally ended, we were out of breath.

“Tonight,” I said.

“What?”

“The bond.”

I didn’t need to explain myself further, he understood.

His eyes darkened.

He took a good grip with his left arm around me, and used the other to push himself up.

It didn’t take long until he carried me this way, with my legs around him, all the way to my bedroom.