Blooming Life (Fate's Intent Book 10) (24 page)

Chapter 38

Dirk

It’s been months and Seth was only getting more and more solitary in his behavior. After losing Rift, we almost never saw him anymore. At home, he’d be in his room, we’d only see a flash of him around mealtimes so he could get his without conversation and at the Academy he stayed to himself. He even ate lunch alone. I know his mother worried and Bryce was even getting worried for him too but I was the only one to leave him alone about it. I wasn’t going to have it affect my life completely. He had his girl already. I spent my time gaining the experience for when I get to meet mine.

As of now, I don’t even know what her name is. That’s pretty pathetic but I hoped to find out soon. My father would give me some meaningless updates about nothing. Knowing her name at least would be nice.

We sat at another quiet breakfast and the day was only going to get stranger from the moment that I sat down. Bryce picked up a knife as anyone would have if they were going to cut their food but he cut his own wrist with it.

Our mothers screamed in horror like they’ve never seen blood before but I know that wasn’t true and Bryce was letting his blood drain into a glass before the wound healed itself.

“What on earth are you doing?!” Jaylyn asked.

“What?” Bryce responded casually like it really was his food he was slicing that knife into.

“Why did you just do that?” Adele asked to clarify the question.

“Breakfast. Seth has been stressed. I’m just helping him out so he doesn’t lay into anyone at school.”

“He’s done that?” Zayden asked it as if it were true and I laughed.

“No but some of the girls wouldn’t mind.”

“You know what I meant.”

“He hasn’t.” Bryce said. “And isn’t it better that we ensure that he doesn’t?”

“I suppose so, yes but I guess we didn’t realize he was having such a hard time with this. Has he bit you for it before?”

“No. That’s gross. The blood alone calms him. He can smell it around people more now.”

He held up the glass and a wind passed by us then the glass was gone.

“Taking it to go, is he?” I asked.

“He probably heard us talking about him and didn’t want to sit through it.”

“How did you know he was coming?” Troy asked.

“Oh, easy. I can sense him stronger since he’s become a wolf. His presence has changed somehow because of it.”

“What do you mean, changed?” Jaylyn asked.

“Like more daring, physically stronger and angry. I mean, he’s Seth.”

“Basically, Seth falls in his own category of weird.” I said.

“You think being angry is a normal trait for him?” Adele asked.

I looked at Bryce. I didn’t have anything to say or more like I didn’t want to. We knew she was still upset about it.

“He’s not angry all the time.” Bryce explained. “Just—lately.”

He should have just kept his mouth shut just like I planned to on the matter. It only upset Adele more and she fled the dining hall, Zayden giving Bryce a look before following.

“Yes, well.” Mother said. “We know all about that. Why don’t you two head off and see him at school.”

“Okay, mother.” I got up, making sure Bryce would get up with me and not say anything else.

Our horses were waiting for us as usual and as usual, Seth’s readied horse was still in its stall. He hasn’t been taking it recently and we would always see him walking at a normal pace once we left.

“Dirk, can I see you for a moment?”

I looked back and my father had come out alone. Troy had not come with him about something so I assumed that meant he wanted to talk to me alone.

“You go ahead.” I said to Bryce. “I’ll be right there.”

He nodded, not thinking anything was wrong and went on his way.

“Yes, father?”

“Come down. I’d like to speak with you.”

I was curious now and got down off my horse. “Is this about Seth?”

“No. I just wanted to get you alone so I could say one thing to you.”

“What is it?”

“Lana.”

That curiosity I had earlier shifted into confusion. “Lana?”

“That’s her name.”

My body froze and I was just left there to stare up at him with about a million more questions racing through my mind but I couldn’t even get out a word.

“Dirk?”

“Huh? Yeah. I heard you. I just—you know already?”

“Your mother had mentioned the final member to me and I knew you’d like to know about it.”

“Ah, yeah. Thank you. When do I get to meet her?”

“About the time Seth will see Cadence again.”

It was a long time just to think about. “Really?”

“Don’t be nervous. Just keep continue doing what you’re doing. Time will go by faster for you. It was just an update I promised to give you.”

“Okay. Yeah. I should go. Don’t want to be late.”

“I won’t keep you any longer. Go ahead and try to get Seth more social today.”

“I’ll try that.”

He smiled and held my horse so I could get on steadily. “It would be appreciated by more than one.”

“See you later, father.”

“Have a good day.”

I rode out of the palace gates and rode a little faster than usual to catch up to Bryce. At this point, he was trotting slowly with Seth walking next to him.

“Hey.” I said as a normal casual greeting.

“What’d your father want?” Bryce asked.

“Nothing. It was nothing. So what are we going to do after this boring day?”

“What do you want to do?”

I answered while looking down at Seth walking without a word. “Maybe grab a few girls and go make-out by the spring.”

“Okay.”

I knew Bryce was into it but I wanted to get Seth to respond. “What about you, Seth?”

“Maybe some other time.”

“Sorry, I’m not taking no for an answer. You need this. You don’t want that Cadence girl to think you’re inexperienced.”

“She wouldn’t think that of me.”

“You never know. All this time waiting and you end up disappointing her?”

I kept looking at him, knowing he was going to give in and he did. “Fine. All right? Will you stop if I go?”

“Maybe. I know I’ve shared this wisdom with you before but you haven’t been acting on it much. Just think about who you want to bring and ask her at lunch.”

“Maybe you should think about that.” He said. “I’ve noticed that you still have your two little admirers, can’t bring them both.”

“I could.”

Bryce laughed. “No you can’t! They hate each other.”

“Then you can bring one.”

“So, they can wish they were the one you picked. No thank you. You should just take Janie. No one else really seems to like Lynn still.”

“I’ll think about it. Who will you bring?”

“Can we stop worrying about it and just get there?” Seth asked. “We have to get through the day first.”

He started to sound mad so we shut up after that and rounded the corner to the stables. I was just happy he agreed at all and we got some of the other boys interested in our plans throughout the day so by the end, there were almost a dozen pairs that would come to the spring.

I liked going there. It was like an underground oasis a short trip down one of the alleys by the Academy. A natural spring bubbled up warm water and slivers of natural light shone down around it. The rock formations made great cozy seating for the purpose of our activities and tunnels beyond it for more privacy. Apparently, kids have been coming here for generations as a nice quiet place to explore their sexuality. It wasn’t the first place I’ve done it but I have done it here and Seth needed to—tonight.

He was much too stressed lately not to. A glass of blood every morning wasn’t exactly my idea of total relaxation. We just had to make sure he was really into it enough to stay. Most kids that come here still make sure they’re home for dinner but tonight was going to be a good reason for him to miss it. I even made extra attempts by talking to the girl he’d bring, making sure she pushed the matter so he couldn’t refuse. It wasn’t a problem of course. Who wouldn’t have agreed? He was Seth and him finally showing someone else attention was a good thing.

I ended up bringing Lynn despite what Bryce had advised. She was someone I knew had to be home by dinner so that meant I would be too and could cover for Seth much easier if I wasn’t as distracted. I wanted to be, sure but he desperately needed it more and Becca was the right girl for the job. She was very persuasive after kissing him by the spring for a little bit that she got him to follow her back into the tunnels.

“Ready to walk me home?” Lynn was next to me, tugging at my arm for us to go.

“Yeah. Of course.” I signaled to Bryce what I was doing and left with her, walking my horse all the way to her house since her father was still strict about letting her ride.

“I had a good time. Maybe next time you want to hang out, we can do it here where it’s not so crowded.”

I smiled. Her parlor was the first place I’ve done it and when her father had to work, it was safe because he’d never come in the house.

“I’d like that. Maybe tomorrow.”

“We’ll see. Goodnight, Dirk.”

I kissed her goodnight and rode off to the palace so I could make it there by dinner.

Bryce was already in the stables, putting his horse away. “There you are. Right on time.”

“Did Seth stay?”

“Yeah, looks like he won’t be joining us for dinner.”

“Like he really ever does but that was my plan. Come on.”

We headed inside and our parents were waiting for us.

“Where have you been?” My mother asked.

“What? We’re not late.” I argued. “We just stayed later with some friends.”

“Where’s Seth?” Zayden asked. “He hasn’t gotten his dinner yet.”

I looked at Bryce when we sat and I tried not to look too happy when Bryce answered. “Oh, him? He’ll be along.”

“Where is he?” Mother asked.

“We just got him some company, all right?” I replied. “Why are you always on our case about where he is? Ask him.”

“If we could ask him where he is, we would already know.”

“Well, see? Then why are we having this discussion?”

“Dirk!” My father bellowed my name so I would look. “Don’t be mad at your mother for asking a simple question.”

“I’m not mad.”

“Really because your hair is on fire.”

I patted down my head so the brief flames would be snuffed out. “I’m not mad. We don’t exactly have tabs on Seth all the time. He does what he wants.”

“And right now that’s being with a girl?” Adele asked.

“I made sure she’d be persuasive. He needed to get out and be around someone besides himself. Isn’t that a good thing?”

Adele looked at Zayden and I don’t think she quite approved about his company being a girl. Maybe she didn’t think he’s done anything like that before but it’s not exactly something we’d have a lengthy conversation about with our mothers. Our fathers were a bit more open to understanding so they at least knew.

“We think it’s a very good thing.” Zayden said. “Getting him to be more social is a step in the right direction.”

“So, why are we still talking about this?”

“Dirk, don’t be rude.” My father said. “You should have stayed and left with him.”

“Sorry that I have my own life. I walked Lynn home so she wouldn’t be late then came straight here. I wasn’t going to go back to see if he was done with her.”

“Dirk!” My mother shouted at me this time. I apparently couldn’t say anything right tonight.

“What?”

“No one wants to hear that.”

“Well, I wasn’t. I’m sure he wouldn’t appreciate spectators.”

“Dirk—” My father said. “Stop talking. Adele does not want to hear about what Seth is doing with his dick right now.”

“Darius!” Adele’s voice was clearly raged and I was thankful I wasn’t the only one that was getting yelled at. “And that’s helping?!”

“Well, you don’t—do you?”

She grimaced and fled the dining hall like this morning only she was madder about this than sad.

“Thank you.” Zayden said while getting up. “Could you have made my work a little harder?”

My father laughed. “Relax. Go put your dick to work and she’ll forget all about it.”

I wanted to laugh too but I held back to watch Zayden’s reaction. He wasn’t being a stiff about it like I expected. He actually laughed and playfully punched my father’s shoulder. “Be realistic. That’s never work.”

“Unless she’s angry.” Troy said.

Zayden’s eyebrows raised and he stepped towards him.