Chapter 14: Written All Over Your Face

Essence opened her eyes and fell to the ground. Her mouth ajar, she stared at the beautiful creature in front of her. She could see the reddish hue that sat behind his pointed ears and within his sleek coat. Golden eyes stared fearfully back at her as the wolf backed away.

“Wait!” she called from the ground before she stood. “Sorry, you just caught me by surprise. I’ve never seen anything like you.” A lump formed in her throat. The realization of his words hit her as she looked at the scar that encased his right eye. Her heart bled. “Oh…” she said, and she wrapped her arms around his neck. He could hear her cry into his fur, and Kano let out a whimper. He hadn’t meant to make her cry, he just wanted to show her he trusted her.

Pulling back from him, she screamed, “I should fucking kill them!” He looked at her in surprise, and she placed her hands on her hips. “You know it’s utter bullshit if you ask me. You look fucking badass! Like, let me tell you, if I was a wolf, and I looked like you, I wish a bitch would tell me I didn’t look like—”she paused—“Beyonce!… um… Nia Long!… um… Angela Bassett! Do you think she’s a vampire? She doesn’t age, and I’m not into women, but I could… I could be into her.”

Kano let out a chuckle, and Essence rubbed the back of her neck as her face flushed. Nuzzling into his fur, she felt him still, and she murmured, “I think you’re the most awesomely badass wolf I’ve ever seen. Fuck them.” Kano gave a low growl of content hearing her words. His wolf relaxed against her, and she clung to him tighter. She yawned. “Sorry, after searching for you for two hours, I’m exhausted.”

Pulling him down to the ground, she buried herself into his massive frame. Burrowed under his fur, she fell asleep, and he watched her in wonder. He knew the moment she’d charged at him he should have stayed away. That she would come into his world and leave with his very soul. He yawned and wrapped around her body, and as he drifted to sleep, he heard his wolf whisper.

“I love her.”

Kano sighed. “I know. Me too.”

“Alpha…” Savina hesitantly called out to Cayden as she stood at the large window of the castle watching Kano and Essence sleeping.

Entering the room, he arched his brow. “What’s wrong, Savina?”

“I-I think you should go out to the courtyard.”

Her nervousness put him on alert. Quickly moving, he raced to the door and darted outside. He tore through the courtyard, sensing his brother, his panic growing. “Ka—” His sentence broke, as he looked at what laid in front of him. Shifted and asleep, Kano wrapped around Essence. She slept peacefully under him, burrowing deeper into his fur. Cayden grabbed his chest. Oh, my God. He closed his eyes, knowing at that very moment he was going to need to intervene.

Later that night

“Kano, are you awake?” Essence asked, nudging Kano only to get a light snore in return. Twisting her lips, she rubbed his chest. “Hey Alpha darling, you up? I’m trying to hit that again.” Kano moved in his sleep and her eyes popeyed as she quickly laid back down, her heart pounding in her ears. Shit, he heard me! She sighed in relief at hearing his snore return. Oh, yeah, he’s asleep. He would have given me one hell of a scowl for treating him like a dollar hoe if he wasn’t. She stifled her laugh and silently slid out of the bed. Throwing on the robe that Kano purchased for her, she smiled at the way the silk felt against her skin. She looked at him again. He’s so damn cute.

Leaving Kano’s room, she tip-toed down the hall towards her destination. Entering the kitchen, she placed her hand over her chest as she grinned at the refrigerator. “Hello you,” she said. “You have something I want. Now, we can either do this the easy way or the hard way.” Swaying back and forth, she pulled out some leftovers while humming to herself. “Eating me a fancy meal, eating me a fancy meal.” She turned, and upon seeing Cayden, almost dropped her plate. Caught red-handed, she shouted, “I wasn’t sneaking a midnight meal!”

He laughed and raised his brow. “Looks like you were to me.”

“Ugh, please don’t tell your brother. I don’t feel like getting the ‘you shouldn’t eat after brushing your teeth’ stare down from him.” She placed her hands on her hips. “You never mentioned how bossy he is. You know he shoved my makeup wipes at me, and growled until I went and washed my face? Then when I got mad, he gave me the ‘go do it because I don’t feel like hearing your mouth when your face breaks out’, eye roll. He really needs to learn how to stare at people with some manners because I be ready to fight him.”

Cayden’s eyes danced with amusement. “It amazes me how well you can understand him.”

Her face flushed. “Yeah, it’s weird. It’s like I can just see it.”

“Because he allows you to, just like his wolf showed itself to you.”

“What do you mean?”

“I saw you two in the courtyard earlier. Kano is a rare red wolf. He doesn’t show it unless he must like in protection, anger or fear, but he showed you because they wanted you to see. Trusted you to see.”

Essence bit the side of her lip. “Cayden, what happened to him? He told me a little, but then he clammed up, and I didn’t want to push.”

He nodded. “There was a time Blood Moon, and many other packs slaughtered red wolves. The genetic rarity was something that left many fearful because it wasn’t understood. So, much like with anything, people panicked, and they feared. Our parents alone broke the record and almost drove red wolves into extinction.”

Her eyes enlarged. “How could they do something like that?”

“Have you ever heard of the Milgram experiment? Milgram measured the willingness of participants to obey an authority figure who instructed them to perform acts conflicting with their personal conscience. They were led to believe that they were assisting an unrelated experiment, in which they had to administer electric shocks to another person. The fake electric shocks gradually increased to levels that would have been fatal had they been real.”

“Okay, but what does that have to do with anything?”

“Milgram found many people will blindly obey authority. He showed that, under social pressure, many people will say and do things that can harm themselves and others. Think about genocides, and people who took part in things they normally wouldn’t… hell, even Kano’s favorite book, The Lord of the Flies, shows the same behavior.” He watched her eyes darkened in anger.

“That still doesn’t make it right.”

“I agree, which is why I use my power to educate my pack of its ignorance. Unfortunately, our parents went along with what they knew and it wasn’t until Kano shifted, they were faced with the veritable monsters they were.” He sighed in frustration. “Blood Moon would have killed him, and on the night my father was to officiate him becoming future alpha, Kano shifted out of fear, and someone threw a glass bottle at him, hitting him in the face.”

Essence’s entire body shook, enraged, Cayden’s words slowly drowning out. He grabbed her shoulders. “Trust me, I know how you feel. We were just kids, but I took his place because he needed me to. Though, if I’m honest, I am exhausted and I really want to assume the proper role as beta. Blood Moon has changed, and I know Kano is the alpha we deserve… deep down, I think you do, too.”

Essence knew where he was going. “I can’t get him to do that, Cayden,” she whispered.

He smiled. “Yes, you can. You really wish to continue to pretend as if you don’t see how he feels about you? As if you don’t know that all the changes he’s made are because you have given him the courage to do so? I have spent a century trying to do what you have done in a mere few months.”

She inhaled sharply as tears welled in her eyes. “H-He shouldn’t feel… I can’t…. if he knew…” She quickly wiped her eyes, and Cayden tilted his head.

“Perhaps it’s time you allow Kano to do what you’ve done for him because”—he smiled at her brightly—“your face is even worse than his at hiding how you truly feel.”

Kano sat up in his bed, realizing that Essence was gone. He looked around into the darkness, trying his best not to panic. He heard a shuffle, and his door opened, and he turned on the lamp. Essence looked at him, and he could tell she had been crying.

She sniffled. “I know, I know, no eating post teeth brushing, but I have a big appetite. You should know that from the bill at dinner.” She smiled sadly. “I ate more than you.” She saw his face etch with concern. Standing, he walked to her and took the plate from her hand. He placed it on the nightstand and then pulled her in his arm.

He murmured, “Tell me what’s wrong. I know little, but I can try to understand.”

Essence tightened her eyes as the tears fell. She pulled at his shirt and connected their lips, kissing him deeply. She felt herself calm, and she laid her head against his chest. “You shared a lot with me today, and I want to share with you. I-I don’t know how you will look at me after, but I hope that... I hope you’ll still consider...” Kano leaned her up and wiped her tears. His pale eyes looked at her with so much intensity, her breath hitched. Cayden’s words replayed in her head, and she took a deep breath. “Okay, well, I guess I should start with my brilliant father Maurice, and the night he took something that didn’t belong to him,” she said.