Chapter 57: The Third Voice. The Kitchen Witness!
The voice came from deeper in the cave.
Not the main space. Not the kitchen entrance where Cael and Kael stood. From further back, from the direction of the bedroom.
Cael’s head turned so fast his neck made a sound.
Ryker stepped out of the shadows between the main cave and the kitchen with the expression of someone who had been standing there long enough to hear all of it and was not bothering to pretend otherwise.
Kael’s hand went to the talon reflexively.
"Don’t," Ryker said flatly. "That’s not yours to grab. I’m not even there for that."
Cael stared at Ryker. "How long have you been here?"
"Long enough." Ryker looked between them with a particular focus, like he was finding them all interesting. "Long enough to hear you making deals about Neve without consulting anyone who actually lives here."
Kael stepped forward slightly. "This doesn’t concern you. You don’t even live here. You’re a guest."
"Neve is my family," Ryker said. "Which makes it my concern." He looked at Cael specifically. "Well, soon to be family. And before you start explaining, I want to hear why you think you can handle this alone but don’t think you can handle it with him." He tilted his head toward Kael. "When there’s someone far more problematic already asleep in that bedroom."
Cael’s jaw went tight.
Kael looked at him. "What does he mean?"
"He means nothing," Cael said. "He’s just playing games. He’s part of the beastmen that wants Neve."
"I’m referring to Neve," Ryker said. "Neve is in that bedroom. Neve is the one who will have to deal with the consequences of whatever agreement you two are making in his kitchen." Ryker moved closer, his steps deliberate, his expression settling into the specific face he wore when he was about to deliver professional news. "I came to check on him, but he’s exhausted. He bonded with you yesterday, dealt with the dragon king tonight, and now there’s a bear tribe wishing to stay in the village because Neve treated one sting. He doesn’t need you two making decisions for him."
"We’re not making decisions for him," Kael said. "We’re protecting him."
"From what?" Ryker asked. "From Isabella? Cael already handled that, right?" He looked at Cael with something that was almost approval. He was definitely not there to watch the ending since he had sneaked into the bedroom. "That was good, by the way. It needed to happen. But the rest of this." He gestured at the space between them. "The deals, the arrangements, the agreements to keep other beastmen away. Neve doesn’t need protection from having options."
"He has enough options," Cael said.
"Does he?" Ryker said. "Or do you mean you have enough options for him?" He crossed his arms. "Neve chose with you. He’s going to make choices with others. If he wishes to have five to ten mates, he can do exactly as he wants. Females also have twenty to thirty mates, so why can’t Neve?"
A deep silence followed as Kael looked at Cael, but Cael did not look back at him.
"So what?" Kael said slowly. "You’re saying we shouldn’t try to keep him exclusively ours."
"I’m saying you should ask him what he wants before you start negotiating how to make it happen," Ryker said as he folded his hands. "I won’t sit and watch you two do that to him."
"You heard everything," Cael said.
"Everything," Ryker confirmed as he tilted his head till it made a small crack. "Don’t be too shocked. I’m from the tiger tribe, and we deal with information."
Cael looked at the floor, as he didn’t want to listen or understand what he was saying.
"The bear is coming to stay," Ryker said. "Aldric, was it? He’s shy. Good with plants. Will probably be terrified of most social situations. Neve decided that was fine and worth having him here anyway." He looked at Kael. "You decided you were staying without asking. Neve decided that was fine too. The dragon king marked him and left, and Neve didn’t fall apart, which is what I was actually worried about." He looked at Cael. "So before you two start making arrangements to protect him from the world, maybe ask him if he wants protection or if he just wants mates who let him make his own choices."
Kael opened his mouth.
Ryker held up a hand. "He’s asleep. It’s late. And frankly, I don’t care enough about this conversation to have it fully right now." He walked toward the main cave entrance. "If you two are going to keep living here, you’re going to learn that Neve doesn’t need managing. He needs people who trust that he knows what he’s doing. Most of the time he does." He paused at the entrance. "Well. Some of the time. The point stands."
He left.
The kitchen was quiet. Kael looked at Cael again, and Cael still was not looking back.
"He has a point," Kael said finally.
"I know he does," Cael said. "Which is why I hate it and hate him."
Kael made a sound that might have been a laugh. "Me too."
They stood in the kitchen without speaking for a moment. The cave around them was silent except for the sound of snow against the entrance and the occasional pop from the banked fire in the main room.
"So what do we do?" Kael said.
Cael looked at him.
"We ask him," he said. "Tomorrow. When he wakes up. We ask what he wants from us, and we listen to the answer."
"And if the answer is something we don’t like."
"Then we deal with it," Cael said. "Because apparently that’s what mates do."
Kael nodded slowly.
He looked at the talon still sitting in the corner where he had dropped it. At the kitchen space Neve had built. At Cael, standing there looking like someone who had just realised he had been approaching this entire situation wrong.
"This is going to be complicated," Kael said.
"Yes," Cael agreed.
"I’m staying, though."
"I know you are."
"Good," Kael said. He moved toward the main cave, toward the entrance, toward the path back to wherever he had been staying at the festival. "I’ll come back in the morning. We can ask him together."
Cael nodded.
He watched Kael leave, watched the snow swallow his figure, watched the cave go back to being just the space Neve had built, and Cael had learned to move through.
He thought about what Ryker had said.
About trust.
About letting Neve make his own choices.
He walked to the bedroom and looked at Neve asleep on the mattress, curled on his side, his tail tucked around himself, his face peaceful in a way it hadn’t been all evening.
Cael did not get into the bed.
He sat in the chair beside it instead and watched him sleep and thought about what asking instead of deciding might look like.
It was going to be a long night.