I quickly turned the water off and jumped out.
After drying off, I glanced at my phone to see that I’d showered for over an hour and a half. I grimaced, as I mumbled to myself. “Well, hopefully she won’t be too pissed I used up all the hot water.” Although, I knew it should be warm again within an hour, so it wasn’t like it was the end of the world.
Quickly brushing my short hair, I then got dressed in black gym shorts and a dark gray t-shirt, before exiting the bathroom to head downstairs when I heard the front door crack open.
However, just as I took the first step, I realized there was a second heartbeat with my sister — a heartbeat that was pounding rather quickly. Serenity appeared in the doorway, catching sight of me frozen at the top of the stairs.
“Oh, hey! I tried calling you. They found her!” she announced.
I only nodded, trying to smile as Gabriella stepped into sight, looking straight down, her face actively turning red. Serenity noticed my odd reaction, but continued with her statement anyway.
“She’s been through a lot, so she’s going to stay with us tonight.”
Despite Gabriella’s embarrassed reaction, I honestly wasn’t sure if she knew who saved her. After all, she’d only met me once, although my face still looked the same when I was transformed — the only difference was the coloring. I was glad it was dark when I found her, because that meant it was possible she might not realize it was me. However, I still didn’t want to hang around too long and give her the chance to figure it out.
After all, I’d spoken to her too, so even just talking too much might tip her off.
“Right…” I said hesitantly, looking away. “She can sleep in my bed.”
“Kai!” Serenity exclaimed.
Suddenly confused, I looked back at her, noticing that Gabriella’s face was now even more flushed too, almost matching her red hair. Which was so red that I would have thought was dyed were it not for the fact that I could detect the difference in smell between natural hair, extensions, and dyed hair.
And then it finally dawned on me what it sounded like I was saying.
I quickly held up my hands in shock. “No, no, no! I didn’t mean it like that. I’ll sleep on the couch, obviously. Jeez sis, way to make things awkward.”
But I knew it wasn’t just my sister. Gabriella had misinterpreted what I meant too — that much was obvious just from the color of her face. Was it because of how I’d said it? Maybe my tone was off?
Sighing, I ignored my sister’s apology and headed back up the one step to grab myself a blanket and make sure my room was presentable enough. I could hear Serenity now apologizing on my behalf, since I’d left so abruptly.
“Sorry, Gabriella. I’m not sure why he’s so rude around you. He’s normally not like that.”
“It’s alright,” she replied quietly. “I don’t think he’s trying to be rude.”
Serenity scoffed. “Disappearing whenever you’re around seems pretty intentional to me. I’m sure he will warm up to you though. He was bullied pretty bad after our parents passed away. I think he developed trust issues from it, because he still doesn’t really have any friends.”
“What did they bully him about?” Gabriella asked softly, her voice a little more distant now that they’d moved into the kitchen. It sounded like Serenity was heating up some of the potato and bacon soup I’d made.
Had my sister forgotten she was a vegetarian?
“Well, he’s adopted,” Serenity explained. “Some of the kids found out we weren’t actually related and teased him because we were living alone together.”
“He’s adopted?” Gabriella repeated, sounding surprised. “At what age?”
“My parents adopted him when he was about two years old,” she replied, before returning to the bullying topic. “But you know what’s interesting? Even though he doesn’t really talk to anyone, I think he still cares about them. For example, there was a fight at school a couple of years back — both of the guys involved were kids who had bullied him in middle school — yet he stopped the fight without hurting anyone, defending the kid who was getting beat up.” She paused. “He’s also always doing nice things for strangers, just little stuff even, like opening the door for people when we go out. I’m really proud of the man he’s becoming.”
Honestly, I had conflicting feelings about my sister’s statement, especially the last part. Because a big reason why I did stuff like that was because I wanted to make her proud. I needed her approval, probably more than she’d ever know, and in a way she’d likely never be able to give me, since I had no intention on ever telling her my secret.
The risk of rejection and losing her forever wasn’t worth it to me. However, I didn’t linger on those thoughts long, since I heard her place a bowl down on the table in front of Gabriella.
Sighing again, I quietly dashed to the stairs and called out to her. “Sis, that has bacon in it!”
Serenity immediately apologized. “Oh, I’m sorry Gabriella! I forgot!”
“No, it’s fine!” she exclaimed. “I’m not religious about it. I’ve just grown up as a vegetarian because both my parents are. Although, I have to admit I’ve never eaten bacon. Only chicken a few times.”
“Are you sure?” Serenity asked. “I can get you something else.”
I heard Gabriella take a big bite in response, causing my sister to chuckle. I then heard her shift in her chair in surprise. “Wow, this is really good! You’re a really good cook!” she exclaimed.
Serenity laughed again, sitting down at the table with her own bowl. “I’m horrible at cooking. Kai made this.”
It was quiet then, which only made me wish I could see Gabriella’s face, desperately wondering what her expression was like.
“He…he did?” she finally managed.
“Yep,” Serenity confirmed. “He does basically all the cooking around here. One day when he was fourteen, he officially banned me from using the stove for anything other than boiling water.” She laughed again. “He was kidding of course, but I think I’ve only cooked a handful of meals since then.”
“Oh…” Gabriella said quietly. “So…he eats potatoes?”
I could tell my sister was confused by the question. “Well, yeah. Why?”
“No reason,” she said quickly, shoving another spoonful in her mouth.
Of course, that only confirmed my worst fears. Gabriella must have recognized me after all, because her heart rate picked up significantly. Not to mention the weird question about my diet. What did she think I ate? People?
I wondered if I could still somehow convince her that it wasn’t me, in the event she asked about it, or if that was a lost cause. ‘I can just play dumb,’ I thought to myself. ‘Act like I don’t know anything.’ I wasn’t sure if it would work, but it was my last chance at this point.
Serenity was still talking about me, whispering now. “I don’t know how he does that.”
“Does what?” Gabriella whispered back.
“Know I was about to give you this soup.”
Gabriella paused for a moment before responding. “Well, it does have bacon in it, which is a pretty strong scent. Maybe he smelled it when you were heating it up and just assumed?”
“Yeah, maybe,” she agreed. “But he’s always done things like that. Like when I came home earlier, I was crying. And somehow, he seemed to know. Normally, he just waits for me to come inside, but as soon as I pulled up, he came out to get me.”
“Maybe he saw you from the window?” Gabriella offered.
I groaned internally, suddenly realizing what she was doing. She was covering for me. She did know it was me, and now that she realized my sister didn’t know my secret, she was helping me hide it.
Dammit! I already liked her a lot, at least physically. Why did she have to start covering for me? I mean, it was what I both wanted and needed, but now it was like we had our own little secret. I groaned again at the thought.
‘Dammit, dammit, dammit. You can’t be with her,’ I chastised myself. ‘She’ll make you transform every two seconds for the rest of your life!’
I’d already long since realized that being with someone wouldn’t be an option for me, but it wasn’t like I was lonely. I had my sister after all, and as far as I was concerned that was all I needed. Granted, there were a lot of complications that came with that arrangement. For one, what was I supposed to do if my sister ever finally got a boyfriend?
I’d been lucky that she’d put it off for so long, despite the fact that she was twenty-three and objectively hot, with her instead focusing on making sure that life was stable for us by not having random men in the house. But I knew it might happen eventually.
Just the idea made me feel conflicted in so many ways.
Being completely honest, I would probably end up feeling jealous if she dated, though I knew I had no right to. However, it was much more complicated than that, with a strange desire in me almost wishing she would date. Why?
Honestly, because there was a shameful part of me that wanted to hear her fuck. And then there was an even more shameful part of me that wanted to be the one fucking her. Obviously, if I could really choose, then I’d pick the second option, but I knew that was never going to happen in a million years. Which meant I could almost live vicariously if she dated, especially with my heightened senses.
At the very least, I felt like listening to her fuck was definitely better than nothing.
But I knew I shouldn’t even want that, or even think about it. And with Gabriella? I couldn’t have her either, even if she somehow decided she was okay with the fact that I wasn’t human. I shouldn’t even hope for such a thing, because the devastation that would come, when things didn’t work out, would be unbearable.
Feeling annoyed and defeated now from my own dejecting thoughts, I ran back to my room to grab my earbuds, so that I could try to ignore their conversation. Technically, I could still hear what they were saying if I concentrated, but I had gotten fairly decent at ignoring all the external stimuli bombarding my mind every day. I then gathered the large blanket I planned on using and headed down the stairs.
Both my sister and Gabriella stopped talking when they heard me, and Serenity called out my name, but I ignored her.
Also in this series:
- Innocent Devil’s Harem Taboo Ch. 04 by KaizerWolf
- Innocent Devil's Harem Taboo Ch. 02 by KaizerWolf
- Innocent Devil’s Harem Taboo Ch. 03 - by KaizerWolf