Page 25 of Mated Exile

"Do you want us to be here for this?" He motions towards Niall, then back to me, and his eyes flick briefly to Kieran and back. "After last night's revelations, maybe you'd like to discuss your father and his business alone."

Cat calls out, "Not without me." She eyes Roarke, waving her oven mitts in the air as she sets another dish in the oven. "You speak for yourself and the other howlers, but leave me out of it. I'll be sticking around to keep a close eye on my little girl."

Roarke shoots her an affectionate smile. "Not you, Cat. I just meant—"

"He meant," Kieran takes a deep breath and stalks over to face us, "that he thinks I can't handle anything at all, because I'm one big revelation away from a relapse."

Swallowing, I look up into Kieran's eyes. "Aren't you?"

He takes a ragged breath, his expression sharpening, and says, "I'm not—I'm not a useless toddler." Putting his hands on the back of one of the chairs, he leans forward, and I'm struck by the clarity in his gaze, despite the circles beneath his eyes and the messiness of his auburn brown hair. "I can handle my shit. I know I didn't the other night, but I'm figuring things out. I'm going to get better."

Finn looks over at Kieran, brows raised. "Not to be that guy, but: how?"

"I'd like to know how as well," Lance says, re-entering the room, "but maybe we should save this conversation for later. I think Niall has some important news for us, and Delilah might want to hear that before we stage yet another intervention."

Annoyance flickers across Kieran's face. "No one said I was going to let you stage an intervention. I don't want to be a burden or a topic of discussion. I'm going to figure all of this out on my own."

"No you're not."

Even I'm surprised by the words, and they come out of my own mouth. Taking a shaky breath, I set down my fork and stare into Kieran's eyes, feeling for the first time in a while like he's actually looking backatme, not just in my direction.

So I keep going. "I want you here, Kieran." There's a sharp intake of breath beside me, and I note it, even as Roarke turns his head away and clenches his fists at his side, uncharacteristically quiet. "We were so close for so long, and even after everything, it hurts to see you like this. To know this is what you've become."

"It's not who I am, it's just—"

"Listen." He shuts his mouth, an unhappy frown settling on his face. "You matter to me, no matter what, even though I'm still pissed as hell at you and I think I always will be. But I want you to be better more than I want you to bestrong,and you should want the same thing for yourself, too. You're not going to get better alone—you've tried it, I'm sure, and it hasn't worked. So if you're going to sit here and learn everything Niall has to say, and be a part of my life again, I want you to admit that you need help, and start asking for it. No more lone wolf. Only the pack survives the long winter's night."

They were words my father said so many times, and as I speak them, a heavy grief settles into my chest. I haven't let myself feel his death at all these past few weeks. Something about saying them, here in the middle of his old house that I've spent so much sweat and money restoring, feels strange now that he's not here.

After I speak, the room is quiet for a long moment. Lance is the first one to speak up. "She's right, Kieran, and we all know it. You need help—and not just from Roarke. You needallof us, but it won't work if you don't admit that you can't do this alone."

After a long moment, Kieran admits, "I can't do it alone. But I don't know what else to do. Especially because almost everyone has already given up on me—and I know I deserve it." He looks down at his hands unhappily. "Roarke is ruining his life trying to fix me."

In a soft voice, Roarke murmurs, "I don't have a life worth ruining if you're not running beside me."

My heart does a funny thing in my chest. Looking down at my plate, my vision swims, and suddenly I'm thinking of those long summer days, the sun shining down on us, golden and glowing. Wherever Kieran was, there was Roarke, always just behind him with a smile on his face, happy just to be included.

I never should have doubted that he'd still be at his side. There are some kinds of love that are too deep and true to be denied. The love of a friend who's been with you as you grow is too valuable to set aside with ease.

There's someone at the table who hasn't spoken up yet. Finn looks over at Roarke, up at Lance, then across at Kieran, and tilts his head, considering. His eyes land on me, and I glance over at him, sucking in a deep breath and dashing away my unshed tears. Concern briefly draws his brows together, only to be smoothed away a moment later in a charming smile, as if it never existed.

"Yeah man," he shoots across at Kieran, his lips turned up in a dashing smile, "if you need someone to punch you in the face the next time you think about slipping up, I'll be there. Just call me when you think it's getting to be too much. I'm sure I can make you think about something besides getting stupid high for no reason."

Kieran frowns at him and mutters, "The only thing you make me think about is punching you in your face."

This only makes Finn grin wider. "Fair enough, since your aim is shit when you're drunk. Gotta stay sober if you want to ugly up this pretty mug of mine."

"I hate you."

"Awww." Finn claps his hands to his chest in an exaggerated gesture. "Youdohave the hots for me."

I roll my eyes, but tension eases in me. Niall has watched this all with a distant look on his face, like an outsider viewing it from the other side of a glass window pane. He turns his mug around in his hands, sipping at it gingerly, even though no steam rises from the coffee anymore.

Cat interrupts the heavy air by walking into the dining room with a dish of roasted veggies in her hands.

"You know, out there in the human world, there are programs. People pay to be sent away and get better. Seems like that would work a lot better than punching Finn in the face anytime you want to get high.

"It'd be a shame, after all." She curves an affectionate hand against Finn's cheek, and hewinksat her. "Such a nice face."

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