Maximus:
"I’m feeling much better now," I reassured both Norman and Kaye as I sat on the ground after shifting back to my human form. After returning from the dream prison, I went through the transition again. It was exhausting, but at least I was able to become human once more.
I could tell my brothers had been scared and worried that the whole mission might not work out.
"Kaye, you keep an eye on him. I’ll go home and check on Helanie. She must’ve been asleep all night," Norman said, checking his phone as he got ready to leave.
"We’ll celebrate the good news once we get back home," Kaye replied, and once again, Norman’s face lit up.
"He’s so happy," Kaye commented as we watched him walk away. Norman would flinch every now and then from excitement and smile to himself.
Even when I was in my lycan form and wasn’t supposed to remember anything, I still remembered catching glimpses of him throughout the night—creeped out by the wide smile on his face.
He looked kind of creepy.
But he was so happy.
"I can’t believe she agreed to go into the prison to free you, especially when she might’ve already known she was pregnant," Kaye said as he sat down beside me, head lowered, his voice heavy with guilt.
"I was shocked too. She’s so selfless, like you," I reminded him that he had once gone into the prison world for her too.
"That was different. Helanie did it out of pure concern for you, and nothing else. And here I was, giving her such a hard time for marking Norman," Kaye said, looking more defeated than I’d ever seen him. Not even when he used to try to impress our parents and failed.
"You were giving her a hard time? Man! I get that you were upset, but it’s not her fault. We all let her down. Norman was the only one who stayed by her side. Of course she was going to fall for him," I said. Then, almost without thinking, I touched the mark on my neck and a smile crossed my lips.
"You know, that constant pain we used to feel? It’s gone," I said, remembering how her touch had felt. freēwebnovel.com
"But what are you going to do now? You’ll hurt even more when she rejects you," Kaye reminded me, grounding me again and my smile began to fade.
"They told you that? I mean, what was decide-? I thought they agreed to—" I paused, remembering what had happened in Rune’s world and what he’d said.
I knew most of that world was based on dreams, but those dreams came from deep within—a part of someone they couldn’t speak out loud or make real.
"You thought Norman agreed to share Helanie with you? Dude, no!" Kaye let out a scoff, almost laughing at me.
"I don’t mean share-share. I just thought maybe they’d let us stay as mates and see where it goes," I said quietly.
But I couldn’t bring myself to tell Kaye about the Rune’s dream prison. At least not yet.
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