Shattered

Chapter 9:

Kaden's POV:

"Some old wounds never truly heal, and bleed again at the slightest word."- George R.R. Martin

"Who do you love more than anyone else in this entire world?"

Tess's question came with her yanking the book from my hands. I looked up at her with a frown and snatched the book back. "That's how you want to ask me that? While making me lose my place in my mate's book?"

"Okay," she shrugged. "Fine. Then I guess you're not interested in the fact that Lola invited us to go out with them and watch one of her and Violet's friends play a gig tonight."

"What?" I asked, sitting up and dropping the book.

"Yep. She texted a few minutes ago. Wanna go?" She asked, wiggling her eyebrows.

"Obviously I want to go," I said, standing up. "When? Why do you have Lola's number?"

"We hit it off, I've had it since that first night at that horrible party," she shrugged. "At eight o'clock," Tess grinned. "You're welcome."

"You're the best," I said, giving her a quick hug before running off to the bathroom to take a shower.

Xander and I had more or less made up. He was still concerned but he wasn't being an asshole. Tess pointed out I needed to be fair to him too but it was hard. I loved Xander but I didn't like the way he wanted to discard Violet so easily just because she was going through some shit. Still, Xander was family to me so we came to somewhat of a middle ground which mostly included him keeping it to himself.

It felt like forever before it was eight o'clock. Xander was a little tense and Tess sent me out of the room to talk to him without me. When he came out, he was slightly better and gave me an encouraging smile before we drove to the place we were supposed to meet them, apparently used to be a fire station.

We walked in and, thanks to our bond being so intense that I felt Violet before we were even in the building, it didn't take me long to find her. It also didn't take long for all the air to be knocked out of me once I did see her. She was wearing a red sweater dress that fit her better than most the clothes I'd seen her in. She also for once wasn't wearing leggings and was wearing those tall black boots like she had the other night. Damn, she looked good in boots.

She was near the stage, helping some guy with some cables and laughing and smiling more than I'd ever seen. I couldn't help the bout of jealousy as he leaned in close and whispered something to her, making her cover her face and laugh again. I hadn't known her long, but I'd never seen her that happy and carefree. I could feel it in our bond, that she wasn't as heavy, still in pain but not nearly as much and it all seemed to have a link to the guy standing next to her.

"Tess!" Lola called out.

We glanced over and found Lola at a table, waving us over. I followed Tess over but couldn't stop looking back at Violet and that guy who could make her laugh like it was nothing. I was used to having that effect on people, but I had to try way harder with Violet. This guy didn't even have the mate bond to his advantage and she felt better with him than she did with me.

Xander nudged my shoulder with his as we walked to Lola's table. Relax, we don't know anything about him. Remember Travis with Addie?

I sighed because he was right. We'd seen Xander's mate, my Luna, acting way more affectionate with Travis than Violet was with this guy. It ended up although they had history, he was just a really good friend. A friend that was still around and visited regularly. I breathed out slowly before we reached Lola, offering a smile. Her and Tess were already talking but they paused as we approached.