"I am not asking you to put your life on hold for anyone." Edira began tentatively. "I am just asking you to keep your distance from Inez for the time being, at least until everything cools down. You will be surprised what could happen if Molly starts targeting her."
Brows snapping together, Killian said to his grandmother, "She is capable of handling herself. Even if she is not a highly dominant shifter, she has faced her own share of battles and come out victorious. I don’t think she will like it if I were to tell her that we need to go our merry ways just because of what happened today, and she might even think that I am looking down at her because I think that she cannot look after herself. That is going to hurt her pride for sure."
"But at least she will understand that you are only trying to look out for her."
Killian fisted his hands and stated, "Would you stay away if it were Grandpa? Would you leave him alone?"
"If it means keeping him alive? Sure," replied Edira. "And even if I couldn’t, then it was because that man is my mate. Inez is not your mate, and even if you keep claiming that she is yours, you have no intention of keeping her with you for long, do you? Just until whatever you are feeling has fizzled out and you are free of the ties, right? So, unless you are telling me that you have placed a claim on her that cannot be revoked, I think you can and you should do what I am telling you. Putting her life on the line just because you cannot stay away due to the physical intimacy that you crave, Killian, is truly, really sick and twisted."
Edira fell silent, waiting for him to tell her that he was going to stake his claim on Inez, but when he didn’t, she pursed her lips and continued, "I will ask Ajax to take care of her when you are not with her. I believe that the two of them had gotten a bit close. I was going to ask Laxus, as he seemed to be more understanding of her situation, but I don’t think he would like to stay away from Selene."
The two of them had the most complicated and twisted relationship that Edira wouldn’t want to delve deeper in.
Killian’s beast surged to the surface with a growl that rippled in the room dangerously.
When Killian was done suppressing his beast, Edira shook her head and remarked, "I underestimated the possessiveness of your beast when it came to her. I merely mentioned that you should let another man keep her company, and he reacted so strongly."
Killian merely grunted.
"That only brings me back to my earlier statement. You should put some distance between the two of you. Unless you want to be bound to Inez, you should also start thinking whether you are with her because you truly want to be with her and not because of your beast."
When he did not say anything, Edira looked at him and said, "If you don’t want to be the bearer of the bad news, then I can do it for you."
"No. I can do it myself," said Killian. The least he could do was to explain the entire situation to her rather than push her away without facing the consequences himself. He was not that big of a coward.
He turned around on his feet and walked out of the office before making a beeline straight to the lodge where Inez lived.
The woman was sitting on the porch and reading a magazine when she saw him come; she raised her head and smiled at him. Her smoky voice snaked over both him and his beast. It was as comforting as it was seductive. "Hey, are you okay? I hope that you are not upset because of what she said to you."
Inez got to her feet and shook her head before saying to him, "I am not upset, but I cannot say the same for you. Are you okay?"
Fuck. She really knew how to read him. And that too a bit too easily, he sighed and said to her, "You saw my mother, right? She is used to antagonising any woman with whom I get entangled or whom she thinks might endanger the perfect plans that she has for me."
A frown etched on her face as soon as he finished speaking. "Okay?"
He scratched at his nape. "Edira’s concern is that this is going to put you in danger with my mother. She thinks it’s best if the two of us stay away for a while; I can’t say that she is right or that I am fine with the idea, but I don’t want you to get involved in the fuckery that my mother might come up with."
When Inez did not say anything, he stepped forward and placed his hand on her shoulder. "Inez?"
"I heard you." She finally said, her voice was a bit stiff. "After all, I do understand that it’s the right course of action. However, I just think that when you tried to push your way into my life, even when I explicitly told you not to, you didn’t listen to me, and I never stopped you because... I thought you could take care of yourself. Is it because you think that I cannot face what your mother might throw at me?"
Killian cursed when he heard her words. "It’s not like that, Inez, and you know that. I know that you can protect yourself. It’s just that my mother... is not sane. She is twisted and vile, and she loves the control that she has over me, and she will go to any lengths to keep the status quo."
She sighed. "Fine. Whatever."
Something about her tone put him on edge. "Inez...I am not using this as an excuse to put some distance between us, and you know it. If that’s what you think I am doing to you."
"But you are right; we should put some distance between us because this way it will be easier for me to leave the pack after we are done fooling around."
"Fooling around?" Killian snapped his teeth. "Is that what you call this?"
"What else am I supposed to call it?" Inez shrugged, but there was a hint of challenge in her tone.
He truly had no answer for that question. Seeing this, Inez peeled back her upper lip and crossed her arms before saying, "You should go and get your act together, alpha. Don’t want to linger around here lest you fear getting caught by your mommy." And then she turned around and walked away, leaving Killian to fume at the entire situation.
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