*Ch 276: Unsolved Questions

Not long after buying these gifts, they returned home. Unfortunately, Kai found Victoria was already out cold for the night. So he hid the gifts in his closet, then he sat at her bedside. In his eyes, she looked so gorgeous as she slept with one hand curled under the pillow while her other hand was tucked underneath her chin.

"I'm sorry for everything," he whispered before he lowered his face to kiss her cheekbone.

"Mmm." She sang like an angel in her sleep. Her face moved slightly in reaction to his affection without comprehending it was he who stirred her dreams.

Taking this minute, Kai sat there admiring every aspect of her. That motherly glow was radiating off her porcelain complexion. Over the blanket, he put one hand on her stomach to bond with his offspring. Two were asleep, while the most dominant offspring he sensed was broad awake. Kai breathed, sending this frequency to his active offspring when his eyes closed. Back in response, the unborn baby moved more alert to his father's sound wave. Even the baby's heartbeat fluttered in higher elation. Outside the womb, Kai could tell this energetic little one was disturbing its two sleepy siblings from how much the vamp baby wiggled.

"I can tell you're going to be quite the handful like me." Kai lowly chuckled as his eyes opened at the thought of how he challenged his father countless times on end. Mentally, he hushed them all to sleep. Though the same defiant unborn vamp baby still refused.

After bonding with his unborn offspring, he left the room to hang with his friends. Altogether, they went to the living room near the kitchen, where they found Jack's son, scoffing at the screen on his phone.

"What's wrong, kid?" Jack asked, sitting beside him as everyone else joined in with several glasses and a bottle of blood to pass around.

"Lily hasn't texted me," Ian frowned in a flouted woe mood.

"She's probably busy with her dad and meeting everyone in her Coven," Jack explained. "I'm sure she's making new friends and meeting her vamp family."

Ian asked with a hesitant tone, "You don't think she found someone else?" Although everyone caught that tone was laced with envy.

"You mean a new shapeshifter boyfriend that she could relate to?" Jack purposely rubbed it in.

"I guess!" Ian snarled without realizing it, though he had them chuckling.

On the couch toward the right, Ace asked him. "Are you having dreams about her?"

"No way!" Ian bellowed as he eyed his phone more tentatively. "Why would I?" Of course, he was having dreams about her, he thought, but he wasn't about to admit that to them. They'd likely believe he's being obsessive with Lily.

Jack chuckled. "Relax, it was only a question."

"I'm going to bed," Ian got up and disregarded them.

Everyone still chuckled, shaking their heads after he was long gone.

"Maybe some sleep would be good for him," Glenn stated on the opposite couch from Ace, Ivan, and Rome, then he took a sip from his glass.

Jack couldn't disagree. They remember what it was like being eighteen.

Nearly holding the glass to his lips, "I wonder if Lily's his mate," Ace outwardly shared his opinion before he sipped his drink.

Jack made a peculiar face from Ace's opinion, sinking into his head. "I'm sure he'd tell me," he dismissed it once he thoroughly sorted this thought in his mind. "It's not like he's dreaming about her."

"He's acting odd though," Ace voiced out his thoughts.

Jack wrinkled his brows, perplexed. "You think?"

"Think about it," Ace reworded. "I didn't tell anyone about Rose. Glenn didn't say anything about Alice until later."

Next to Kai on the same couch, Glenn nodded in consensus, "Yeah, he makes a fair point."

Kai shook his head, saying, "That was pretty stupid of both of you. Honestly, you could've spared Rose the heartache."

"You're one to talk," Ace boldly pointed out. "You failed to tell me you dreamt about your mate the night before your wedding whenever I asked you not to marry Rose."

"You're right." Kai flatly replied before sipping his drink. "I didn't."

Beside Ace, Ivan chuckled, "Therefore, you admit if Rose didn't cause such a scene after you canceled the wedding, you never would have said anything about having a mate."

"No, I probably wouldn't if she didn't blurt the news because of her outrage directed at me," Kai admitted without hesitation.

"Honestly, you acted as if you weren't going to back down from marrying her." Ace openly shared how he felt.

"That's because I was making sure you were her mate," Kai replied while his mind went to that tragic day.

"Why would you question me about that?" Ace asked curiously since he never knew why Kai questioned him that day he was supposed to marry Rose.

"Because I realized I had to go to Rose's tent and break her heart," Kai shares truthfully. "I wanted to be sure she'd have someone to help her through it. There's no one better than your mate to help you recover from such a devastating heartache."

"I get that," Ace faintly smiled to finally understand after all this time.

"Remember to tell yourself that, once

Victoria faces her worst heartbreak too," Glenn gently told him.

Kai exhaled before he took a sip of the blood. "Every day, I do tell myself that. It's only a matter of time before it comes," he replied after swallowing the warm blood down his throat.

Ivan suggested, "You should talk to Victoria, and maybe it will spare her that pain."

"She'll have to learn the hard way," Kai gave a plain reply, raising his wine glass to his mouth.

After one minute of silence, "So you think Ian and Lily are destined mates?" Jack randomly asked since the whole conversation veered over to these unresolved questions from the past. Jack was certain Ace was going somewhere with his theory about Ian, until things got personal with unanswered questions he had for Kai. Thanks to both world wars and Coven battles after that. Following Kai's disappearance, nothing was resolved in the past. Plus, Jack never had a fated mate. So it's not like he could relate to that shock and emotional effect it had on a vampire.

Everyone sorta laughed, then Ace shared his theory. "They could be. My point was he might not be willing to open up about it."