Crimson Moon

Checkmate, Bitch

"He's coming." 

My brother Kiem signs after he tossed his nitrocycle helmet down on the counter and our sister Vailen gives an exasperated look. I lean back in my seat, closing my eyes as I try to get past the pounding of my own heart getting caught in my throat to focus.

I had run out of the illegal scent suppressors I had been taking this morning and already its effects have worn off. Not only could I now smell him, but he can smell me and it won't be long before the petty Alpha of Lotus barges into my sister's hidden armory at this apartment complex in the middle of Crimson City to kidnap me. 

But Kiem and Vailen could do nothing to stop him. 

I could hide all I wanted, but as the royal family of the house of Crimson, the second their menacing finger so much as touched Alpha Caius we would be declaring war. 

And my eldest sister Lilliana, the reigning Alpha of Crimson, had already decided I'm not worth starting a war over. But my triplet siblings refused to abandon me when I showed back up at their doorstep after the mating ceremony and here I've been for the past month in hiding. I couldn't even go to my Lily's coronation yesterday because he was there. 

Looking for me. 

I opened my eyes once more and darted my gaze back and forth from my sibling's panicked signs in a heavy debate over where I could hide next with Kiem's dark amber brows furrowed. 

"How long are we going to hide him for? We can't bring him to Myah, he'll hand him over on a bed of flowers in his sleep," Kiem signs and Vailen slams her fist on the table, the vibrations shaking my unsteady hands to the core. I carefully eye the keys to his nitrocycle, his he stupidly placed on the table in his anger. 

"What are we going to do Kiem? Hand CJ over to that Lotus scum? You know what he'll do to CJ! Caius doesn't even know sign language so CJ will have his communication stripped from him and who knows what he'll punishment will be for running! What if we never see him again?" Vailen signs back and Kiem looks away.

He wants to hand me over. 
My own flesh and blood. 

"You're just like Lily, I hope you never see me again," I sign in Kiems face and his gray eyes track mine with his hopeless abandonment clear. 

"CJ-" 
"We don't have time for this,"

I cut him off, snatching his helmet and key fob off the table before running out of the apartment. It was my first time out in a month and I'm lucky I still have the layout in mind as I make it to the elevator. Punching the garage button with Kiem and Vailen chasing me, unable to make it before the doors quickly closed. 

I slip the helmet over my head and instantly I'm bombarded with screens of various information pertaining to Kiem's job as the warden of the Crimson prisons. I shake my head to make it go away before exiting the elevator and touching the metallic floor of the garage. With the various vibrations and the strong dominant scent, I know he's already here. 

I hop on my brother's nitrocycle, taping the fob to the control center with more useless information to me and throw it in neutral. Walking the bike to the nearby wall in front of the exit and holding my breath as the caravan of three black cars flashing royal purple and navy blue followed one man on his own nitrocyle. 

So this dumbass came prepared. 

The game of cat and mouse is simple. I have to remain at least a few feet ahead of him so he can't use his dominance against me. Something I didn't know he was capable of until we were face to face at the mating ceremony and he had the straight-up audacity to smile at me.