Total pages in book: 70
Estimated words: 66672 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 333(@200wpm)___ 267(@250wpm)___ 222(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 66672 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 333(@200wpm)___ 267(@250wpm)___ 222(@300wpm)
The Xeus glowered at him, his harsh breathing the only sound in the room. But he did stop thrashing. Could he understand him after all?
Jules cocked his head to the side. “Can you understand me?”
The Xeus just kept looking at him with the same unnervingly intense, not-quite-rational look. His muscles were very tense despite him being still. He wasn’t relaxed by any means. He looked like an animal ready to attack at any moment. A cornered, wounded animal.
Wounded animals were dangerous and unpredictable; that much Jules knew.
Jules looked around until he found a bottle of blood stancher. Clicking his tongue in disgust—why wouldn’t his uncle’s people use it on the Xeus when they had it right there?—Jules grabbed it and headed back to the alpha. He hesitated, meeting the hostile gaze. He was soft-heartened, not suicidal.
“I don’t mean you any harm,” he said, keeping his voice as non-threatening as possible. “Will you let me treat your wounds? That gash on your arm looks nasty.”
The Xeus didn’t reply, but his body language didn’t become more hostile, either.
All right.
Jules moved closer.
The alpha was still watching Jules warily, but he didn’t even flinch when Jules applied the medicine to the wound on his arm. Jules was pleased when the blood stancher did its job quickly and the wound finally stopped bleeding.
“Here we go,” Jules mumbled, glancing back at the alpha.
The Xeus was still staring at him.
Okay, this was starting to get a little creepy.
Wetting his lips, Jules stared back. Those glowing eyes were oddly entrancing: scary but transfixing too. It was incredibly hard to look away, his senses sharpening and focusing only on those eyes. He felt—
His phone buzzed in his pocket, and Jules wrenched his gaze away, feeling a little disoriented.
Right. His phone.
It was a message from Liam, warning him that Jules didn’t have much time before the guards would return.
“I have to go,” Jules said, lifting his gaze from his phone. “I need to go before I’m caught.”
The alpha growled.
“I’ll be back,” Jules said. “I’ll help you escape, I promise.”
The Xeus didn’t reply, looking at him with freakish intensity. It made Jules’s stomach clench and his heart beat fast in his chest for no damn reason. Was it fear he was feeling? He wasn’t sure.
By the time he returned to his room, his heart was still beating too fast. He felt confused, flustered, and very lost.
His kitten was on his bed, kneading her claws into the duvet. Because of course she was.
“This is all your fault,” Jules said.
Sheba meowed.
Chapter 2
Jules spent the next few days jumping at every little sound, scared that Uncle Wayne had found out about his visit to the basement. What if they noticed that someone had used a blood stancher on the Xeus? Jules could only hope they’d think it was the Xeus’s superior healing at work.
But as three days passed without any trouble, Jules relaxed—enough to start considering going back.
He knew it was crazy. It was a miracle he hadn’t gotten caught last time. He shouldn’t tempt fate again.
But he had promised. Not to mention his own curiosity wouldn’t let him forget about the Xeus. Who was he? Why was he locked up in their basement? What did his uncle want with him?
Okay, research time. He needed to research it. Or rather, he needed Eric to research it for him. Jules wasn’t the smart Blake brother, after all. He liked to think he was fairly intelligent, but he wasn’t embarrassed to admit that his baby brother was the resident genius.
“Why are you interested in it?” Eric asked.
“It’s a totally hypothetical question,” Jules said, putting on his most innocent face.
Eric, bless his precious soul, didn’t suspect him of lying, of course. For all his intelligence, Eric wasn’t good at people. Or reading people. Or talking to people. Jules kind of dreaded Eric’s debut in society: there was little doubt it was going to be a disaster, and Jules could only hope some asshole alpha wouldn’t use his baby brother’s social cluelessness against him.
Eric hummed and started typing on his computer. “I’d normally say it’s impossible for a Xeus alpha to shift into his beastly form outside of Xeus being full, but there’s an obscure drug that can force a Xeus to shift. It’s called kerosvarin.”
Jules perked up. “Do you know a cure?”
Eric shook his head, pushing his light-brown fringe off his eyes. Physically, he was the middle ground between the fair-haired Liam and brown-haired Jules. He wasn’t quite as gorgeous as Liam—no one was—but Eric was still very lovely. Definitely prettier than him. Jules was glad. He was A-okay with being the plain Joe of the family, and he wanted Eric to have it easier. Because as much as it sucked, an omega’s worth to their family was still in their marriage prospects. Jules had heard that things were different in Kadar for omegas, but Pelugia was still stuck in the dark ages when it came to social issues like omega rights.