Chapter 74: Bet

"Idiot—" Korū attempted to drag himself to his feet. "Don't be fucking stupid!" He slumped back to the ground, pain wracking his body. "You're gonna die, dumbass!"

Cayne chuckled darkly in his mind as he tore deep into the shoulder of a werewolf, the blood decorating his red brown coat. He had intentionally made the short speech to allow the other wolves to react, but it seemed like their reaction time was even slower than he had predicted. Or maybe they were just plain stupid. Tsk, they didn't deserve his mercy. Cayne's wolf was begging to take over.

Letting go of the whimpering pup in the skin of a teenager, he wheeled on the others.

Mizuto and Akashi attacked him together, eyes changing from brown and gray to orbs of bright red. Hayamu grasped the scruff of the wolf that Cayne had just wounded and dragged him away.

Korū could do nothing but watch with his rapidly dulling vision, his paws twitching as though he would very much prefer to be over there by Cayne's side.

As they charged, Cayne leapt towards Mizuto before both of them could properly gang up on him, briefly blinking back into a human to use a clawed hand to dig into Mizuto's side as he skidded by, before shifting into a wolf and pouncing on his back.

Mizuto shrieked and Akashi tackled Cayne off his cousin's back in a whirl of teeth and claws, snarling wildly. He barely succeeded in dislodging him, and stood protectively in front of Mizuto.

Cayne curled his lips back with a snarl, ignoring the metallic taste in his mouth as he spat out a small chunk of skin and fur. His wolf didn't mind, but he sure did. He cocked his head to one side, once again taunting, exposing one of the most sensitive and fragile parts of his body to his opponents. As if daring them to try to get him there.

Akashi growled, grabbing Mizuto's scruff when he tried to attack, and dragged his cousin away. The other wolves remaining glanced at each other, and most fled the scene.

Cayne mentally projected one last word which chased them as they went, invading their minds with the authority of an Alpha.

"Cowards." He said, in a cold, scathing tone, which reached everyone nearby, especially those that had gathered to watch the fight.

The remaining five wolves dropped into battle stances, only to be interrupted. "Stand down," Kaito commanded, stalking over with Kumori, Shōhei, who had found them halfway through the fight, Cole and Liam close behind. Kagami and Kage peered at them from behind a wall. The werewolves glared at him, and he met their gazes, unfazed. "Do I have to send you to 'train' with the Alpha?" At that, they flinched and backed away, racing back the way they came.

As if nothing had happened.

Kumori crouched next to Korū, trying desperately to stop the steady flow of blood coming from Korū's wounds. "Don't you dare die on me," she growled, willing her voice not to tremble. Korū just let out a weak snarl, and Kaguya ran over to pat his muzzle comfortingly.

"I'll need you to tell me what exactly happened, though I have a rough idea," Kaito told Cayne, eyeing Reiyou's lifeless body as he moved over to Korū. "Can you shift?" he asked his nephew, only getting an exhausted, pained look in return.

Cayne retrieved some clothes from his bag and shifted back.

"The guy challenged him for his future position, he accepted. Kumori said they would turn on me, so I struck first." He reported somewhat nonchalantly, his mental self barging into Korū's mind, shouting at the top of his lungs in hopes of keeping him awake.

His efforts weren't helping. Korū was drifting off, trapped between a semi-conscious state and unconsciousness, his mental landscape fading to a monochrome.

Shōhei was freaking out, screaming at him in real life.

"Calm down, Shōhei, he's not going to die," Kaito assured him. "It's just a bite, and no vital organs were damaged. He'll be fine in a few days. Come on, let's get him to the Theta." He shifted and crouched down so that Korū could be lifted onto his back.

"Don't drop him." Cayne said, with an underlying order. He wasn't blind; he could see the amount of blood Korū had lost.

Kaito just regarded him with a piercing green-gold stare, and didn't respond. Kumori sighed, and both her and Shōhei started to move Korū onto their uncle's back. "Ex-Theta over there, he knows what he's doing," Kumori patted him on the back. "Plus he knows the place better than you do."

"Look, I know you're worried, but just leave this to me," Kaito said via mindlink. "Don't give me those color-changing eyes, I've fought people tougher than you." He stretched out his wings, and turned away to leave. "And if you lay a finger on me, you'll know the wrath of an angry kitsune. Trust me, you do not want that to happen."

Cayne rolled his eyes. Alina was right about his attitude changing with stress. Who could blame him, though? With everything he'd been through the past week or so, it was surprising he hadn't burned the place down yet.

"So you're still alive." Cayne commented lightly to Liam and Cole, and they both shrugged.

"Apparently."

Cayne looked to Kumori and Shōhei, "Do we get to go follow them? On the ground, obviously," he nodded towards the fading figure of Kaito's dragon.

"Yeah, duh," Kumori said. "You are Korū's mate, after all." She paused. "Ah, right, they don't know." She eyed Cole and Liam, who hadn't reacted. "Hikari told me, in case you were wondering."

Cayne blinked. "Okay, can we go?" Impatience and anxiety were weighing on him, but he willed himself to pretend to be calm.

"You two aren't gonna say anything?" Kumori asked Liam and Cole. "Like, hello, your buddy just got mated. And yes, we can go."

"I have absolutely no idea who these two are, but okay, I'll just be over here if you need me," Shōhei said, sauntering over to the cats.

Liam and Cole kind of looked sheepish for some reason. "We kind of guessed."

Cayne studied them for a moment. "How much do you owe each other?"

Liam coughed. "I get a fifty."

Cayne sighed, "Let's go."

Shōhei shifted, once again destroying his one of his seemingly endless sets of clothes, flicked Kumori and Cayne onto his back and took off, snatching up Liam and Cole in his talons. After a number of turns and the passengers narrowly avoiding the loss of their heads on a sudden low ceiling, they made it, intact, to the Theta's home slash office slash hospital. Shōhei dropped them off, then swooped away to find somewhere to shift back without embarrassing the heck out of random passersby.

"That was seriously traumatising." Liam muttered, wobbling around on his feet, Cole beside him, equally unstable. Cayne ignored them and followed the scent of his mate.

"Weak," Kumori proclaimed, going after Cayne.

In one of the rooms, the Theta and Kaito had somehow managed to get Korū to shift back. His wounds were wrapped neatly, and Kaito was talking to the Theta. "Hikari's been singing praises about you for the last five years, Shizuaki. There's no way she hates you," he laughed.

"I wish," Shizuaki responded. "Oh, the visitors are here." His eyes flashed black for a second, and he sighed, "Seriously, the Iota can't do anything right. I'll leave things to you, Saeki." With that, he was out the door, on his way to clean up whatever mess his subordinates had made. Kaito gave him a glance that was filled with sympathy as he passed, then proceeded to sit on the chair behind Shizuaki's table.

"Kaito," Aiki called, entering the room after Shizuaki had left. Upon seeing him, Kaito's stressed-out gaze brightened considerably. "God, what happened to Korū?" Aiki made himself comfortable on the table, something that Shizuaki would never allow if he was there.

"Who are you?" Cayne asked Aiki as he entered the room.

"The kitsune I was talking about," Kaito informed him. "The one you don't want to mess with."

Cayne grunted in response, as Liam and Cole came stumbling into the room after him. "I still can't feel my legs." Liam muttered.

"You guys really aren't made for flying." Cayne commented.

"It wasn't that bad," Shōhei said, walking in. "Like, I didn't even smack you into the ceiling. Oh my god, Korū's awake!"

"Shut it," Korū grumbled.

"Welcome back. You're in hell now." Cayne deadpanned. He was actually dancing around, patting everything in Korū's mind as the colour returned to it.

"Nice to know," he said just as flatly, then winced at the bolt of pain from his neck.

"We could get Jo to like, do the pain sharing thingy." Cole suggested.

"She's not even here any more," Kaito said coolly.

"She isn't?" Liam asked. "Thought she's been hiding out in the room she hijacked."

"Yeah, I didn't realise." Cole muttered. How did it feel to have no one know when you're gone?

Kaito huffed. "Besides, I don't think you'll be willing to share Korū's pain."

"The fact I'm even suggesting it means I'm willing." Cole told Kaito, defensiveness creeping into his words.

"It's not physical pain that bothers him," was the response. "Trust me, you don't want to share that." Aiki gave his mate a sympathetic look.

"Wait, what pain sharing thing?" Cayne asked. "Why am I so out of the loop?"

"Something a witch did when she visited." Kaito waved a hand dismissively. "It doesn't matter."

Kumori blinked. "It doesn't?" She questioned a tad bit doubtfully.

"No, it doesn't." Kaito fixed Kumori with a stern gaze. "It's over, anyway."

Cayne narrowed his eyes at Kaito, before turning back to Korū, "Other than shit, are you feeling like anything else?"

Korū reached out, his fingers snagging Cayne's shirt, then tugged him closer, burying his face in Cayne's neck, mumbling something no one could catch. Kumori stared in surprise for a moment, then broke into a grin.

Aiki smiled, took Kaito's hand, and half-dragged him out of the room, ignoring his mate's protests.

Cole also stood shocked for a moment, before Liam pushed him out of the room too, Kumori in tow.

Cayne had stiffened at the suddenness, before smiling slightly and wrapping his arms around Korū, careful not to touch any of his injuries.

"I feel like absolute shit," Korū said softly, his voice muffled by Cayne's shirt.

"You'll be fine." Cayne muttered back.

"Haven't been for the past eight years."

"But you say so yourself, that's the past."

"I haven't killed anyone in eight years." Korū's grip on his shirt tightened.

Cayne rested his chin on the top of Korū's head, not really scared of losing his head for it. "Doesn't mean that now you've gotten more blood in your hands, you can't work up to being fine eventually."

"You overestimate me."

"Do I?"

"Yeah."

"Hmm." Cayne hummed, and loosened his arms from around Korū a little to lean his forehead against his mate's, "I don't think so." He pushed away the unease that he felt, holding his mate in his arms.

"Heh, bullshit," Korū said flatly. "The only thing I can actually do well is beat the living crap out of people."

"Really?" Cayne asked, a hint of amusement in his eyes.

"What else?"

"Looking out for the people around you? Drinking coffee?"

"Drinking coffee doesn't count," Korū responded with a roll of his eyes.

"Why not?"

"Why?"

"Because it's something you can do. And it's a little quirky, especially when all of us are standing together in a stranger's kitchen, stealing their coffee and talking about how not to die."

"Not quirky enough for you?" Cayne asked after a moment of silence.

Korū just blinked slowly at him.

Cayne chuckled. "Fine." He leaned back and thought for a while, "How 'bout the fact that we have cats travelling with us and they haven't gotten hurt yet, and the fact that one has just been sitting at the end of the bed staring at us for the past few minutes? Is that quirky enough?"

Kaguya just stared up at them with unblinking golden eyes. He padded across the bed and flopped over Korū's legs, his soft paws reaching up to bat at a stray lock of Korū's hair.

"See?" Cayne said.

"Mrrr," Kaguya purred.

Korū poked gently at Kaguya's paws, his sharp gaze softening.

Cayne's smile widened as he watched them.

Korū smiled. Not the full-blown grin Hikari was capable of, but more of the small smile of a person who was just grateful for every good thing that had ever happened, who was just happy to sit there with his cat and his mate for a brief moment of peace.

The warmth of pure bliss seeped into Cayne's heart, something he hadn't felt in a while.

***

Meanwhile, the rest of the group were just hanging out around the area. "What do you think they are doing now?" Liam mused.

"Who, Korū and Cayne, or my uncle and his mate?" Kumori asked.

"Both, actually."

Kumori let her mind wander, searching for Korū's, Cayne's, and Kaito's mindlinks. "Whoa, my uncle literally has a 'do not disturb' outside his door."

Liam snorted. "Interesting."

"Guess he's busy," Kumori said with a shrug.

"With?" Shōhei called from his perch in a hollowed out part of the wall.

"Work? I don't know."

"I found Cayne's. Looks... different." Cole said, slight surprise showing on his face.

"How?"

"It used to look like... solid steel? Now its etched with... quartz, I think." Cole replied, and Liam burst into a grin, "This is where your weird obsession with rocks will come in handy."

"Someone find Korū's," Kumori said. "I can't find his."