Page 74 of House of Kallan
It’s not that I disagreed. It wasn’t even that I thought Haven needed me to be there to run or that hell would take the entire building because I wasn’t there. I was simply bored!
Fuck, if I’d had a bed at Haven, I’d have probably moved in. Talk about unhealthy work/personal life balance.
I didn’t just look forward to the end of the day and coming home now, I actually wanted my days off. That didn’t mean I stopped thinking about work. Or that I wasn’t called in from time to time when I was needed to deal with something. It happened, and I was glad that my staff felt comfortable calling me when they needed to.
One of my favorite things to do with my men was just lounge around the big couch bed in the back room. Sometimes we had the television on and other times we spent hours just talking and laughing. Sharing stories from our childhoods or asking questions about each other.
There were only about a hundred-thousand questions that I wanted to ask each of them. They had about as many for me. When I used to think about relationships, it always felt like a hassle getting to know someone. Sometimes I’d convince myself that if I could walk into a family and already know everything there was to know, if I could start a life with them already three years comfortably in our relationship, I wouldn’t hate it. I might have sought one out sooner.
Getting to know so many people just felt like a chore.
But the reality of that wasn’t true at all. Every little thing I learned was meaningful, and I loved hearing it. I loved to store it away and recall it later. The way they’d look at me when I remembered something they said. It was almost funny because Iknewthey remembered silly things like Rahael hated spinach and Cobalt’s favorite color was burgundy.
But then, almost all of them had known each other their entire lives. Aden and I were the ones who came in late, but you’d never know that. They knew Aden as well as they knew each other. It never ceased to make me feel good when they recalled something small about me, too.
This was what we were spending the morning doing. After breakfast, we got ready for the day. Dressed and appropriate to go out. Then promptly decided that we weren’t going anywhere. We gathered on the couch-bed intending to watch a movie, but ended up chatting instead.
When all our phones went off at the same time, we knew what we’d find. Glances went around the room as we exchanged matching expressions. I pulled my phone out to read the alert.
SILENCE ATTACKING HOUSE OF REYES.
I swallowed, a shiver racing down my spine. ‘Attacking’ meant it was currently happening, right? Another notification came through.
SILENCE ATTACKING HOUSE OF ASTOR. SILENCE ATTACKING HOUSE OF VOS.
“What’s going on?” I asked, my body covered in chills as a third notification came through.
SILENCE ATTACKING HOUSE OF THERON.
“These are all names from the hit list,” Aden said, sitting up in his chair.
Two more notifications followed this statement back-to-back.
“What do we do?” I asked.
Six families were currently being attacked.
“I’d like to say that they can’t take on that many strong families, but I fear the truth is that they can,” Toby said.
A moment of silence passed before Hadrian stood. He tapped a few buttons on his phone and then began to pace as different voices answered. I wasn’t sure how many were there, nor who was speaking as the quick conversation unfolded before us.
“We have to do something.”
“That’s why I’m calling,” Hadrian said. “It’s one thing to come to each other’s aid, but not everyone has that network.”
“What if there are kids there?”
A cold chill broke out over my body as my eyes went wide.What if there were children there?!
“Our window is small before we’re too late. If we’re going to do something, it needs to be now.”
“Split. There are six families. Triple up on teams and head out.”
“Please understand; I’m not letting my humans join us.”
“The fuck you aren’t.”That voice was from the background. I smirked, but my eyes turned to Aden and my smile fell away.
Yeah, no. He couldn’t be there.
