Page 34 of Eternally Bound

Ainslee disappeared into another room while Bram remained next to me, everyone’s eyes on us. I was surprised Bram felt comfortable to remain with me, rather than trailing after his mother or going to his grandmother or Lachlan. It made me feel proud, like he was my own.

Lachlan murmured something into his wife’s ear and she stood up, striding after Ainslee into the kitchen. I knew what was coming. It didn’t surprise me, knowing everything I knew about Lachlan McLaren. The whole family was close, and he wouldn’t be a good cousin if he didn’t attempt to assert his Alpha authority. After all, he has been the constant male figure in her life, her big brother and always overprotective. In that aspect, it would seem Lachlan and I were similar.

“Bram buddy, can you keep Grandma company?” Lachlan asked him in a serious tone. The boy nodded seriously.

I ruffled his blonde hair and stood up. “Are you leaving?” Bram questioned me.

“No, I’m just going to talk to your Uncle Lachlan.” Technically they were cousins, but I was fairly certain he called him uncle.

I nodded at Ainslee’s mother and followed Lachlan outside.

“What’s going on?” Lachlan went straight to the point. I liked that.

I eyed him, debating how much I should tell him. I wasn’t sure how close Lachlan and Callen were; though truthfully it didn’t really matter. My main goal was to keep Ainslee and her family safe.

“Callen gambled against my uncle.” The moment ‘gamble’ left my lips, Lachlan’s face hardened. “He put Ainslee on the table. I intercepted and won the card game, but my uncle didn’t like it.”

“Goddamn Callen,” he grunted.

“I think he was the weak link,” I told him honestly. “My uncle had Ainslee on his radar before that game. Either way, I won’t let him get near her or her family. So in order to keep her safe, I decided to search her out.”

I kept the kidnapping part to myself.

I held his gaze. I wouldn’t let him get in the middle of Ainslee and me, but it would be better if he was on my side. They were a tight knit family, and I didn’t want to be the one to tear it apart. Therefore, I’d do what was necessary to get Lachlan on my side.

“Very well,” he finally said. “Callen was never the one for her, but if I get my hands on him, I’ll kick his ass.”

“You might have to wait your turn,” I told him, the darkness and anger inside me probably evident in my eyes. “Shall we go inside? I don’t want to alarm Ainslee.”

He nodded, and we returned back into the small living room, taking our seats.

“I’m assuming you are here to stay,” Lachlan asked, the earlier tension completely evaporating. My lips tilted up. He was exactly as Ainslee always described him. Overprotective. I liked that about him.

“Yes, I’m here to stay.”

There was no sense in pretending we just ran into each other and were having a visit. I wanted Ainslee in my life for the rest of our lives.

To love. To hold. Till death do us part. Nothing less would do with her. We spent too much time apart already. I’d ensure I remained by her side for as long as I lived, right after I eliminated the threat of my uncle.

Lachlan opened his mouth to say something but his wife came back to sit with him and stopped him.

“Don’t be too nosy, husband,” she scolded him in a soft voice. Looking at those two together, they seemed like two opposites, but somehow they fit each other. I knew they were recently married, for a few months only. Eve Bailey was a romance writer that lost her first husband and a son in a freak explosion a few years ago. She turned her dark eyes my way, a hint of faraway sadness in them. “Don’t mind, Lachlan. He’s overprotective.”

I nodded without a comment back. It was my turn to take care of Ainslee.

Ainslee came back into the room with tea for me and herself. I made room on the loveseat for her and without hesitation she sat down next to me. The small acts like that would break me. The little telltales of trust.

“One cube of sugar,” she told me and something inside me swelled. She remembered how I liked my tea. Not that I drank tea much. In fact, the last time I had tea was with Ainslee.

“How was yesterday’s performance?” Ainslee’s mum broke the silence

Ainslee’s posture stiffened slightly, but she kept a smile on her face. “It was good.”

“So how did you two connect again?” Lachlan asked, his hand lazily circling his wife’s palm.

I could feel Ainslee glaring at her cousin without looking at her, in fact she was glaring back and forth between Lachlan and me.

“Why do you have to be so nosy?” Ainslee retorted back at her cousin.

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