Page 10 of Aries Mated

KAI

Wow, she was a real beauty. I couldn’t take my eyes off her no matter how hard I tried. Not that I was exactly trying. I liked watching the curly-haired beauty with the sweet little confused boy walk away. Although, I might have preferred it if they decided to stay.

“Poor kid,” Atlas muttered, but he caught our attention anyway. Despite being in the same competition, I hadn’t had much time to speak with Atlas. The only thing I knew about him was that he was a well-known Pisces police detective. Now, I was a little intrigued. He seemed to know something about her that I didn’t. “Sol is so sweet. Such a great boy. And so is his mother, Maeve.”

Maeve.I rolled her name around in my mind, liking the way it sounded. It suited her. “You know her by name?” I found myself asking before I could even think about it.

“Oh yeah.” Atlas nodded with his lips pursed together in a serious manner. “I know her. Or more, until last night, I only knew of her.” My confused expression must have spoken volumes, because thankfully he decided to explain. “Sol is the friend of a former army buddy of mine.” He sighed heavily. “Pi died before he could even see war, never mind see Sol grew up. It must be really hard to grow up without a father leading the way when it comes to shifting.”

I couldn’t even begin to imagine it. My father had guided me so much, prepared me for years, I didn’t know what I would have done without him. Poor Sol. that made my heart bleed for him even more. I kind of wished I could go after Maeve and Sol, to make sure they were okay.

“That makes sense,” Matt commented. “Because Maeve wasnotprepared for that shift, and Sol seemed so out of control. I wondered why they all seemed not have enough information.”

“I don’t think Maeve would have brought Sol here in that mood if she’d known,” TJ agreed with a sharp nod. “The angst of the games is bound to bring out the bear in a young kid who doesn’t know how to control himself.”

“Maybe I should warn her,” Atlas said as he whipped out a business card. From here I could see Maeve’s name on the card, and the name of her bar, Pleasures. I didn’t know what to do with the weird twist of jealousy in my gut. I wanted to have Maeve’s phone number, even without the past connection. “I’m going to send her a text and warn her to keep away from the games because Sol won’t be able to contain his bear with all the heightened emotions.”

I wanted to watch Atlas as he sent off a text to Maeve, just to torture myself a little further, but something to the left of me caught my bear’s attention. My animalistic side rumbled to the surface and I had to find out what was causing it.

Oh great, my brain grumbled as I caught sight of the source of the danger. He was always the source of the danger.Freaking Drew.

He was coming straight for us, a deep purpose in every step. I knew TJ didn’t have anything to do with the Unaligned Clan, he didn’t like anything that threatened to overthrow the Zodiac Empire, so I knew Drew wouldn’t be coming for him. It had to be Atlas or Matt, not that I could picture either of them being connected with Drew in any way. What the hell was going on?

“What’s up, guys?” Drew sneered. But he didn’t give any of us a chance to answer, because of course he didn’t care. “Where is Jason?”

I glanced at the other guys to see their reaction. Matt and Atlas shrugged, not wanting to engage much with Drew. Understandably so. The only reason this asshole was here was to try to change everything. He wanted to win the competition, marry Princess Azariyah, and become the Bear King so he could overthrow the Zodiac Empire and change things to suit his father’s agenda. No one quite knew what Sly was up to or what he wanted really, which was the most frightening thing of all. Thank goodness he had that collision with Alek in the final racing challenge that put him in the bottom.

“Jason isn’t here,” TJ barked. “He’s gone. Why, what is it you want with him?”

Drew smirked. “Information, of course. We’ve all heard the rumors. I want to know if they are true.”

I swallowed hard. Shit, much as I detested this guy, I had to admit I was more than a little intrigued about the rumors as well. I guess we all were. We all had our reasons for competing in the Astro Games, most of us here in a sense of duty to our clans, so we needed to know what was going to happen if everything changed. If Jason really did have a thing going on with Princess Azariyah, where did that leave the rest of us? Sure, the king had tried to play it all down so we wouldn’t stop competing, but that didn’t keep everything being weird. Even out of duty, it was going to be hard marrying the princess, knowing her heart was with someone else.

Sensing he had achieved his goal of creating a disturbance among us, Drew stalked off, still smirking to himself, leaving us all stewing in confusion. I didn’t know what to say about Jason and Azariyah, no one did, which I guess was why it was one of those things left unspoken. It threatened so much stability, not just of the games, but of the whole empire. I guess we were all going to have to work together just enough to make sure Drew didn’t win. But that didn’t change things with Jason.

“I think I’m going to get some yoga in,” Matt said, shattering the intense moment of thought we were all sharing. Probably for the best, or we might lose control of our bears for the first time in years. “Anyone want to join?”

I scoffed playfully. “Yoga? I don’t think so. I would rather pump some iron.”

“Hey, Kai, your muscles might have been a benefit in the first category of the Astro Games…”

“Yeah, and they will in the third category as well. Mixed martial arts will be where I shine,” I reminded Matt.

“Sure, but you have to get through the parkour category to even think about competing in the third. You need to be agile and flexible for that.” He cocked a knowing eyebrow.

“Hey, Kai is flexible,” TJ jumped to my defence. “And agile. The man wrestles animals on the daily.”

Mat and TJ started laughing, and it wasn’t long before I was chuckling as well, enjoying the camaraderie with these people I didn’t know before I came here. My social circle consisted mostly of other Scorpios, but now I was hanging out with a Cancer, TJ, with whom I had grown really close. Matt was a Capricorn, and of course Atlas was the Pisces police detective. Much as I loved my life as a professor of animal sciences and being a ranch owner, I enjoyed having my mind expanded as well.

“Oh, wait.” The sheer concern in Atlas’s voice stopped our laughing in a heartbeat. “I just got a reply Maeve. She says she needs to talk to all of us, to find out everything we know.”

“Us?” I demanded, because that part of it seemed really important.

“Well, I mentioned that I was with you all, so, yeah, I guess she wants to speak with all of us.” He offered me a one-shouldered shrug. “So, what do you all say? Are you all okay with that?”

I wasn’t going to turn down the opportunity to spend more time with Maeve—I thought she was absolutely intoxicating—but I didn’t want to make myself look too eager. I couldn’t show my attraction to Maeve when I was in the running to marry Princess Azariyah, otherwise I would be just as bad as Jason…assuming that the rumors about him were true, of course. But when the other guys nodded, I felt comfortable with joining in too.

I sucked in and held a breath as Atlas sent a message back. It seemed like I wasn’t the only one who was struggling with the tension surrounding us. Thank God it wasn’t long before Atlas got a reply.

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