CHAPTER 66: FIRST HEAT CYCLE

Roman’s POV

Either way, I moved quickly, grabbing a plate with pancakes, a glass of juice, and some French toast to take out to Eira.

"You only care about that bitch," Lucian scowled, as he stood up and instructed me. "Wait here."

He walked back into the kitchen, pulled out Fluffy’s eating bowl from the cabinet, and poured in some dog food before handing it over to me.

As he returned to his seat, Rafe couldn’t resist. "Were you worried for your pet or that bitch?" he asked with a smirk. "Fluffy does have a habit of stealing food from others’ plates."

"I don’t want him being fed by that bitch," Lucian replied coldly. "My pet, my responsibility."

I let out a sigh as I walked to the door. This bastard and his endless excuses.

Anyways, Eira was going to love eating this pancake once more. And I was not wrong. The moment I placed the dish on the table next to her chair, she quickly looked at it.

I placed Fluffy’s meal bowl on the ground and told him to eat, while I picked up that small lawn coffee table and put it in front of Eira.

"Finish it," I instructed.

Leaving Fluffy and Eira to eat, I returned to my brothers, only to hear from Kael what I didn’t want to.

"We have been ordered to be present in front of the council members and the elders, today," Kael’s clear voice reached me, and my heart skipped a beat, my expression soured with worry.

The day had finally arrived—time to face those bastard council members.

I wasn’t the only one. The same look of tension passed across the others’ faces as well.

I turned to look back at Eira, worry for her gripped my heart.

"Have they asked to bring her with us as well?" Lucian asked, though we had already discussed before that she would stay home with me.

Kael hummed, only to have all our expressions turn darker.

"But we’re not taking her with us," Kael said firmly. "Let them do whatever the fuck they want. We’re not submitting."

There was no disagreement. We were all on the same page.

I reached the table and took my seat beside them.

"When are we leaving?" Jason asked.

"In the evening," Kael replied.

"Kael, I don’t think leaving only Roman and Rafe with her is enough," Lucian said. "I should stay behind too, in case anything starts brewing while we’re gone."

Though I trusted both myself and Rafe to protect Eira, as we were no less, I still wouldn’t mind extra help. At that, Lucian was the strongest among us after Kael.

"I agree with this," I told them. "You and Jason—both your presence should be enough to test the waters there."

Everyone agreed to it.

-----

After we finished breakfast, Liam arrived—just like always—to check on Eira.

He greeted us casually, but his attention quickly drifted to the same scene we had been quietly admiring a while ago: Eira and Fluffy.

"Oh! That’s good. You got her a companion," Liam remarked, glancing at us with a hint of amusement in his voice. "That’s actually a thoughtful move... though, least expected from you."

"You can shove your sarcasm up your ass," Lucian snapped. "And for the record, that’s my pet. He belongs to this home. He’s not some fucking toy to entertain a sickly bitch."

"Yeah, sure," Liam replied with a bored look, clearly unfazed.

Lucian gritted his teeth, then glared in Fluffy’s direction. "That bastard..." he muttered and stormed out toward the yard.

I followed him in a hurry, thinking he would take his anger out on Eira.

The others followed us out as well, thinking the same as me. Lucian was unpredictable. The next moment we might just see him strangling Eira.

"Fluffy! Get the hell away from her!" Lucian’s angry voice boomed across the lawn. "She’s a bitch, but not your species. Don’t even think about sticking your cock in her rotten cunt. It might just fucking fall off."

Damn this bastard and his filthy mouth.

"Come here. Let me bathe you," Lucian barked, heading toward the one side of the lawn, which had an open bathing space for Fluffy where he always enjoyed his time in the water.

Fluffy stuck to Eira instead. He hid under the chair Eira was sitting on.

"You coming, or do you want me to send your ass back to the border?" Lucian warned, twisting the tap to start the flow from the shower pipe, and taking out the shower gel for Fluffy from the small stony storage cabinet.

Standing on the side, we waited to see what was going to happen.

Eira, who had looked so at peace just a few minutes ago, had turned cold again. Her soft expression was gone. Lucian, that bastard, had ruined her mood all over again.

"Fluffy, come out," we heard Eira’s soft voice.

Only Fluffy was privileged enough to make her talk willingly. While she didn’t even bat an eye on us, let alone spare a word on us.

And surprisingly, Fluffy came out and snuggled against her. She held his face and whispered something to him.

In the next moment, Fluffy turned and ran back to Lucian, tail wagging, as if following her command without hesitation. Despite meeting her after so long, he listened to her better than any of us.

"What an unexpected scene to come across!" Liam commented as he walked toward Eira, making sure we heard him. "Now this place looks like a home rather than a haunted house."

My heart felt overwhelmed to hear it. And I could sense the same feelings from Kael, Jason, and Rafe. But none of us would admit it, because her sins weighed higher than what we once wished.

Jason walked toward where Lucian was bathing Fluffy, while I heard Kael ask Rafe, "Where’s your cat?"

Yeah, this self-oriented bastard was kind enough to have a cat. Six years back, when we moved here, one day he brought a few-month-old kitten—weak and bony, as if she hadn’t been fed properly.

We all took her in and cared for her along with Fluffy. And it was surprising to see Rafe’s care toward her. That made us think this bastard was not entirely devoid of any emotions.

But in recent days, between his rising bloodlust and the chaos following Eira’s arrival, we had all forgotten about her.

"She’s probably wandering somewhere around the estate," Rafe said, scanning the area. "I’ll find her."

Though a cat, she was a family member now.

"We could use Fluffy’s help. He always finds her," I suggested to which Rafe agreed.

"I’ll be back in a few hours," Kael said, preparing to leave.

But then we heard something that made us freeze in our places.

"When did you have your first heat cycle?"

It was Liam who asked Eira after inspecting her wounds and checking her condition.

We three from this side, and the other two bathing Fluffy on the other side, stopped working as if we waited to hear it.

Though standing away, we could hear them clearly. Our ears—our gazes—darted in their direction.

"I didn’t have it," we heard her reply. No emotions, as if she didn’t care.