Chapter 287

Chapter 26 – Chelsea POV Day after day I gave Kieran updates on Oakley, listening to him war with himself over why he was coming down here to see her anyways. After giving one overall gag order – no one tell Oakley and Kieran that they are mates – I continued thinking what would be done when Oakley finally was removed from the induced coma Jack had placed her in, knowing that I had no right to forbid anyone from being with their other half but we did have to protect Oakley. I wasn’t just concerned with Oakley though, I was uneasy for Kieran as well, even if he lashed out and was somehow able to hurt Oakley, I know he would be consumed with guilt. The biggest obstacle I had found was his location, where he chose to reside. It would take someone – without mine or Gabriel’s teleporting gift at Oakley’s speed – two hours to get to where Kieran remained on one of the tallest of four mountains on the island. Despite his concern for Oakley, Kieran showed no signs of shifting into his human form, and while I could have ordered him to do so, after three years in this form, and meeting his mate, he still wasn’t inclined to shift on his own. Gabriel, Jack, Lux and I, all thought it needed to be done on his own, because Kieran felt that he was ready to take that step, forcing him to be human didn’t mean he would miraculously be ready or able to handle whatever demons he was facing. “He’s back,” Grant said referring to Kieran, sitting next to me, taking the spot Ben had vacated to go play with his new island friends. “He comes around the same time every day, give or take one hour,” I shrugged, drawing yet another picture of Oakley, again from Kieran’s point of view.  This time, instead of her eyes being the main focus, it felt like I needed to get her lips parted perfectly right, her upper lip larger than the bottom, the shade of pink, and the slight lines the focus of this piece. I listened for a moment only to Kieran, his thoughts as he watched a group of children – Bradley, Dayton, Farrah, Sage, Clover and Ben – play in my back yard, but he wasn’t truly focused on them. No his mind was replaying Oakley reading to him, “In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort…” the beginning of the book, ‘The Hobbit,’ she had been reading to him on top of his mountain. “It had a perfectly round door like a porthole, painted green, with a shiny yellow brass knob in the exact middle. The door opened on to a tube-shaped hall like a tunnel: a very comfortable tunnel without smoke, with paneled walls, and floors tiled and carpeted, provided with polished chairs, and lots and lots of pegs for hats and coats—the hobbit was fond of visitors,” Kieran listened, watching as her lips parted the words flowing from her mouth, beautiful regardless of the words being said. Oakley smiled at him, her face relaxed in a way I realized she only was with him, ‘I guess you’re nothing like the hobbit huh?’ she giggled while he stared at her, wondering if she hadn’t been told he didn’t like to be around others, ‘I mean all the way up here!? You sir, mountain King Wolf are not fond of visitors,’ her voice joking, playful to me, but mocking but to Kieran, yet his anger never flared. “What’s got you smiling so big?” Grant asked curiously, pulling me from Kieran’s’ thoughts, turning to him the picture in my lap the colored pencil waiting for use, “Ben said you were drawing her… you’re quite good,” he complimented but still waiting to be clued in on what I was thinking. “Yeah, Kieran, this,” I said putting the colored pencil down and holding my sketch book for Grant to see, “is how he sees Oakley, or rather, this is how she is when with him,” I corrected. Too young for a boyfriend… or mate… he thought glancing at Oakley. “Yeah she is young… Ava found her mate… it’s Casey-” “Little Boss?” he chuckled throwing his head back, the name Oakley gave seemed to have stuck, “Yes… Little Boss has a mate, but to her he’s just someone that plays with her… especially when she didn’t have kids her age around, now she has more of that but she still finds comfort in him. He wants her happy, safe and it’s hard because sometimes she cries and it’s because she wants her friend. Yet sometimes she cries and it’s probably hard for Casey because she wants her momma and papa, but overall she happy and-” I stop abruptly this sounding more and more like a session. Grant eyed me, “She has so many people around – in a way you didn’t – that she’ll always be loved…” I snorted, “You’re good,” he just laughed. So much like Norine, he thought as I rolled my eyes, I pursed my lips, “What was she like?” I only side glanced. “You know I’m not sure but I don’t think she knew Chelsea, that you weren’t with your father I mean… I –I’ve spoken with Julia about it, when the kids aren’t around and I believe with full conviction, that if Norine had known you weren’t with your father, she would have searched for you. Norine was different… when Pat first brought her around, she was always trying to overcompensate, but it wasn’t fake, you could tell that she had a hard life, and she was trying everything to just be welcomed in…” nothing like Sarah… “We were a hard working family and she was full of surprises, when her and Pat got married, she paid off our parents house, what was left on loans they had taken out against it. Before Oakley was born, she paid for two semesters of College, and then one for Julia as well, she was intelligent, I mean she tried to hide it, just blend in but she’d have these talks with our dad and while he had experienced it, Norine could hold her own. She never gave anything away of course, but I guess thinking back it made perfect sense. She lived through that same history as my father,” he thought resting his head back.