KROSS


    <b>81 </b>


    55 vouchers


    I felt strange when I woke up this morning. And I was also rmed. I had woken upte, which was very unusual for me. I woke up before the sun no matter the time I slept the night before.


    And I felt strange because I was… rxed. No muscles ached. My head wasn’t heavy even though I hadn’t taken coffee yet.


    I looked down at my injured hand. It was already healed, the only sign there was ever a wound was a red mark. I could still remember the softness and warmth of her hand as she held my hand like it was something precious.


    The only person who had ever held me like that was… Mother. I cleared my throat when it tightened, getting off the bed and heading to the bathroom.


    That wasst night. I had been tired, therefore opening myself to vulnerability. But I was well rested now, and that was past me.


    <b>*** </b>


    When I went downstairs, Kade and Axel were already in the living room, and they both turned to me, eyebrows raised.


    “Odd,” Kade said, his eyes narrowed.


    “What is?” I asked even though I already knew what he was going to say.


    “You would usually be here when we came down,” Axel answered.


    I paused when I heard his voice, turning to face him. Usually, he would say something chic or make a joke, but not today. He looked dull, circles around his eyes. “You okay? Didn’t get any sleep?”


    He sighed, rubbing his eyes, turning them red. “Not even a wink.”


    “You should drink warm milk,” I advised as I walked to the kitchen. “It’ll help you sleep.”


    “Warm milk?” I heard him ask but I was already in the kitchen.


    <b>81 </b>


    <b>55 </b>vouchers.


    It wasn’t until I was filling my mug with coffee that I realized I was smiling. I paused, my body going tense. “What the fuck, Kross?” First, she was the first thing I thought about when I woke up, and now I was smiling at the memory of her.


    I shook my head as if I could clear her away, but she still lingered, her scent now imprinted on me. Kade and Axel had been affected by her scent. Really affected. But I hadn’t because I stayed away, but now I had gotten close and I was beginning to understand Axel and Kade.


    I took the coffee back to the living room, sipping with a frown between my brows.


    “… get it,” Axel was saying when I stepped in, looking utterly miserable.


    Kade looked at me, seeking help. I sat across from Axel, cing my coffee. “What’s the matter?<b>” </b>


    “Rosette,” he answered without hesitation, looking even more miserable now that he said her name.


    I almost scoffed. Of course it was Rosette. All our problems right now are centered on her–even Kade, though he might act like that wasn’t the case.


    “What-”


    “I’m getting addicted, Kross,” he answered before I even asked the question, looking terrified. “I’m getting addicted and obsessed and it’s not looking well. It has to stop. Men like us can’t get obsessed. What happened to Kade is evident of that,”


    Kade flinched but he remained silent, understanding what Axel was saying.


    “I didn’t mean it like that,” Axel said apologetically to Kade. He just waved it off.


    I sipped my coffee slowly, thinking.


    “Father knew what he was doing when he married her mother,” Kade said.


    “I’m not sure he did,” I said. “Before he married Vera, he had never set eyes on Rosette. He only ever heard of her from Vera. But when he saw her and noticed


    <b>81 </b>


    55 vouchers


    that she and her mother smelled the same, that was when he knew what he was doing. He doesn’t mean bad.”


    “I know that,” Axel grumbled, frustrated. “I know he means us well, but he should know better. She’s human, for fuck sake!”


    Indeed she was. Humans were fragile, easily broken. We had learned the hard way that they couldn’t handle us–we learned from Kade’s pain. And here was the unfair part; we needed humans. When we go into rut, it was painful and hell, and we needed humans to help us get through it.


    Throughout the years, meds have been made to help us manage it, but the meds could only do so much. We still felt pain; they just suppressed it.


    So we needed humans, and not just any humans, but humans with a particr scent. Rosette and her mother had that scent. Dad married the mother for himself, and then he gave Rosette to us.


    To him it was a gift, and in a way, to us it was also a gift. But if we gave into our desire, our needs, she might not survive it.


    And I think something simr happened with Axel and Rosette yesterday, that was why he was this way.


    I sighed, deep and long. I would need more than one cup of coffee.


    “Howe you’re the only one not affected?” Kade asked, his eyes burning into the side of my face.


    I swallowed thest coffee, cing the mug aside, “I am.”


    “Well, you hide it well.”


    That was my specialty; hiding. I’ve been doing that since I was a child. As the oldest, Father expected a lot from me. So I hid my true self, not wanting to disappoint him. And I grew, that just became a normal thing to do.


    Butst night… Last night, I wasn’t able to hide. I was bare for her, my wounds and scars. Everything was open to her like a book. She saw, she listened, and she… understood.


    81


    55 vouchers


    She said I was human, but I was anything but. How would she feel when she knows what we were? Would she still say that? Will she look at us the same way? Or would she think we were monsters?


    Almost absentmindedly, I looked at my hand again, at the red mark she had handled with care.


    “I’ll be going into rut soon,” Axel said, his hands clenched, fidgeting. “A week.”


    Our heads snapped to him, eyes wide.


    “You can’t be in the same house as her when that happens,” I said, gripping the arm of the chair.


    “You don’t think I know that?!” Axel snapped, getting on his feet, his eyes wide and glowing.


    “Control yourself, Axel,” I growled, my voice hard. “Your eyes are glowing. Stop


    that.”


    He tried. I could see he really tried to hold on to control, but it seems he was more frustrated than either of us knew.


    “Dad caused this,” he growled, his teeth turning sharp. “He backed us in this tight corner.” His teeth were turning sharp, his nails lengthening.


    Kade and I exchanged worried looks before we stood up slowly.


    “Axel, she’s upstairs,” Kade said calmly, both of us taking a slow step toward him.


    Axel was young, so there was a lot he hadn’t learned. Holding on to control was one of them.


    “I know that,” he whispered, his shoulders dropping, his ws and teeth withdrawing, but his eyes still glowed. “I know that, and that’s why it hurts. Because I want her. God, I want her so damn much, and I can’t fucking have her. Because I’m a beast. A monster. She probably wouldn’t even look my way if she saw me. The real me.”


    I stopped walking, my chest tight as I watched my brother. He looked defeated. Like he’d lost a game he never yed. I walked to him, drew him into my arms,


    81


    55 vouchers


    and held him. He wrapped his arms around me, burying his face in my neck.


    “I hate this, Kross,” he whispered, his voice shaking. “I hate that we’re… That we’re not normal.”


    I said nothing and just held him. Kade joined, patting his back. Axel’s body shook and my neck grew wet, but I didn’t stop holding him.


    But then I heard soft footsteps, and all three of us froze.


    I turned my head slowly and looked at the stairs, and there she was.