Chapter 59: Chapter 59

LENORE

“Do you want me to find her?”

I had not expected that, so for the first couple of seconds after he asked, I just stared at him. Then his words replayed in my mind and I sucked in a breath. It was like a new realm of possibility had opened in my mind even though this wasn’t the first time the idea of finding my mother had been placed in front of me. Aimee had been the first person to say it a couple of years ago, and she had tried to find her, but there was only so much she could do when all she knew was my mother’s first name. Nicole… Apparently she’d heard my father muttering it when he fell asleep in the living room once.

If Killian tried to find her, I knew he definitely would, and I didn’t know how to process that. I used to dream of her coming to the pack and taking me away when I was younger, and when my acceptance letter from Caldwell arrived, I’d thought of trying to find her after leaving the pack, but now that the very real possibility of meeting her was here…

“I… don’t know,” I finally said and Killian didn’t respond immediately, but the expression on his face told me he understood.

“Let me know when you do.”

The waiter came back then and I straightened in my seat, directing my attention to her. “Apricot-glazed bacon spirals,” she said, placing my plate in front of me.

“That was fast.”

“Enhanced speed, my sweet,” Killian said and my lips curved into a smile at the name he’d only just started calling me this morning. Then I pictured vampires dashing around with boiling water and hot oil, trying to get a meal ready as fast as they could, and I tipped my head to the side.

“In the kitchen? Won’t that lead to some kind of work hazard?” I asked, and he shrugged before letting go of my hand. I instantly missed his warmth. “...I’m sorry for dumping that on you.”

He gave me a small frown. “Don’t call it that. And don’t ever apologize for telling me what weighs on you.” He sounded like he truly meant that and the fact that I never really felt like I had anyone in my corner until I came to Eyrosa came to mind. Now I knew I had my siblings… and I also had him.

I smiled before popping one of the spirals in my mouth, and the moment the sweet-and-salty flavor burst on my tongue, my eyes widened. “Oh, that’s good.” I immediately grabbed another and held it out to Killian even though he had his own plate. “Here.”

He didn’t hesitate to accept it, making sure to lick my thumb in the process which in turn made my mind stutter. “It truly is,” he stated, his eyes glinting, clearly pleased with the effect he had on me. I stared at him blankly for a moment, then brought my thumb to my lips and also licked it.

Killian raised his brows, his lips slowly curving into a smirk. Then he placed his elbows on the table and rested his chin on his intertwined fingers. “Tell me something I don’t already know about you,” he said while I ate another spiral.

“What do you know about me?”

“Well, your name—”

I gasped. “No way.”

He smiled and his gaze dropped to my lips for a moment before he continued, “Your birthday. Your high school. Your grades. The university you applied to.”

What the—

“The major you listed on your application. What people in your pack say about you. Your go-to order at your pack diner—”

“How do you know all this?!” My voice was a bit louder than intended, but who could blame me?

“I had Fabien look into you after our first…” He set his mouth in a hard line, the tips of his ears turning red. “...encounter.”

Oh. But still. “Creep. Both of you,” I said, pointing directly in his face, before pausing. He’d had Fabien look into me because he thought I was a witch and trying to find witchy connections, so—“How was my go-to order and my high school grades going to help you figure out if I was a witch?”

His mouth twitched. “Fabien likes to be thorough,” he answered and I furrowed my brows.

“Ooooh, she got a B minus in history and she orders a hamburger instead of a cheeseburger. How suspicious.”

Killian instantly burst into laughter, startling me. Yes, I’d heard him laugh a couple of times but this was the first time I was hearing him lose himself to it, and I silently watched him for a couple of seconds before the laughter became too infectious to ignore. I absolutely wanted to hear him laugh like that again.

“I need to take a look at what he put together when we get back,” I said when we finally managed to compose ourselves, and Killian nodded, the back of his hand pressed to his mouth. “If this file on me is as all encompassing as it sounds, you basically know everything about me.”

He cleared his throat, but the remnants of the laughter were still all over his face. “It doesn’t have personal stuff.”

“My go-to order is pretty personal,” I said, shooting him a look, and he snorted. Then I tilted my head. “Do you know I got a full-ride scholarship to Caldwell?”

His brows lifted before he answered, “No, it didn’t mention that.” Then one of those bright smiles that always made me giddy overtook his face. “That’s my girl.”

Heat rushed to my face.

Apart from Wayne and Virginia, I hadn’t told anyone else—Cameron could have learnt about it from them though—and they’d been happy about it, but Killian sounded proud of me… That was a first.

“Looks like Fabien isn’t so thorough,” I muttered, trailing my hand down the stem of my empty wineglass.

“You’re going to break his heart if you say that to him.”

I shook my head, smiling. “How did you meet him?”

“I grew up with him. Aurora and Aurel too… They’re practically my siblings,” he replied, and my smile widened a fraction. Seeing as his father wanted him dead, his brother would kill him if things went according to their father’s plan—I had no idea what his relationship with his brother was like, but it was most likely terrible seeing as he’d thought about killing him last night to stop the tournament from taking place—and his mother had been gone decades, I was glad he had them.

His father wanting him dead was something I wanted to bring up—it was bizarre—but I didn’t want his smile to disappear again.