Page 26 of Protecting His Treasure

“You don’t look like it.”

Why did everyone keep telling him that? “So, I’ve been told,” Kaede responded. “Open the gate?”

“You only have a few days left.”

“No shit, Tak. Open the gate.”

With a nod, Takeo pressed the button to open the gate. Kaede strolled through. The usually quiet wolf shifter wasn’t done talking.

“Kaede, if you don’t figure out something and end up hurting your mate, we’ll have to put you down. You know that, right?”

Kaede stopped. For a second, he just stood there, staring up at the night sky, not saying a word. Then he nodded and continued walking.

“They’ll end up asking me to do it,” Takeo called out. “An unhinged alpha is hard to put down. And since I’ve done it before, I’ll be the one who’s asked to do it.”

Kaede stopped and stared over his shoulder. “You’ve done it before?”

“I had to put my brother down. My twin brother.”

Shit. Tak’s twin brother was an alpha. That meant Takeo more than likely had the alpha gene also.

“One day, you’ll go through the same thing I’m going through,” Kaede said.

“And I’ll need you around to put me down if I can’t control it.”

It was there in Tak’s eyes. That fear that one day he’d be in Kaede’s shoes. That fear that one day, he’d become a threat to the one person he was supposed to love and protect forever. The curse of the alpha.

“I’ll find a way to get it under control,” Kaede vowed.

Takeo nodded. Again, Kaede turned and left. Like him, Tak was a man of few words. But Kaede knew what the wolf shifter was trying to tell him. Not only was Kaede a threat to himself and his mate, he was a threat to others. Just like Rhen pointed out earlier. Kaede needed to get it together, not just for himself and Sinclair, but for everyone at the compound.

Takeo had already been forced to put down his brother. It would reopen old wounds if he had to put down Kaede too. And like Tak said, one day he or some other alpha in the compound would find themselves in the same predicament. It would take someone of great strength to put that alpha down.

Someone like Kaede. He was needed. His mate needed him. The people of the compound and outer villages needed him. He wouldn’t succumb to the curse. He would fight it. And he wasn’t ashamed to admit that he needed help doing so. Kaede called on his inner dragon. The creature answered the call and Kaede started to shift.

Once he was in dragon form, he took to the sky, heading toward the Frozen Forest. A few days ago, the Elders had mentioned a test that could possibly help Kaede overcome the curse. They’d told him the test would be painful. And if he failed, he could die. Kaede was ready to take that test.