"I think we need this" Rory Daggart replied to Kyrrian.

"No, I agreed to that before everything became complicated. Absolutely not" Kyrrian was determined, but not as determined as Rory was.

"And yet you admit that you agreed. I think one evening away could be monumental for our coping ability" he pressed.

Kyrrian sighed, frustrated at his persistence. Rory Daggart had been trying for two days now to get her to honor her word of a date. She turned and looked toward his Alpha, and said "did you know that you have the most annoying bear in history in your Sleuth?"

"He is stubborn" Scottlin Reik acknowledged with a small smile and nod.

"Can you tell him to leave me alone?" she asked as she dried a plate.

"No, but if you went on the date he would probably leave you alone after that" the Alpha admitted.

Kyrrian put the plate up and sighed, hanging her head, "fine".

And that is how Kyrrian ended up with Rory Daggart in a dimly lit Italian restaurant eating bread sticks and sipping Italian margaritas.

"You look beautiful" Rory complimented.

Kyrrian looked down at her blue jeans and black top.

"Really, this is pretty much how I always look" she replied with an eye roll.

"And you always look beautiful" was his smooth reply.

"Your sweetness almost makes me nauseous" she sneered.

He laughed and took another sip of his drink, "flinging insults at me won't disuade me from the fact that I think you are an impressive were-being".

"Alright, I'll bite. What's your deal?" Kyrrian replied after searching his face for some sign of a sleazy interior, but Rory Daggart came off as a nice, albeit flirtatious, man who spoke his mind with brutal honestly.

"What do you mean?"

"You're attractive, nice, and a little on the older side. You should be mated or at least married? Why are you single, is it because you like to be a lecturous man-whore?" Kyrrian was not pulling any punches.

Rory Daggart smiled, but this time it was a sad smile, something Kyrrian wasn't expecting.

"I found my mate when I was seventeen years old, of course I didn't know she was until I was ninteen, but I had a feeling. She died when I was twenty-two. I've been relatively single since then" he admitted, looking in her eyes to gauge her reaction.

"I... am sorry you lost your mate" Kyrrian awkwardly took a bite of a breadstick.

"She was an amazing person, much like yourself, and the world has a tendency to snuff out radiance like that. That's why I feel it's important to worship the gems you find in life" he continued.

Feeling uncomfortable with the depth he was exhibiting, Kyrrian blurted out, "When I was twenty I was dating a man who turned out to be a Hunter in training. He tried to hand me over and have me skinned but my brother saved me."

"Is that where the scar on your leg is from?" Daggart's blond head tilted curiously.

"You noticed that? I-yes. They cut my leg before Kaddian could get there" she answered, recalling the night.

"I'm sure that made him even more furious"

"You have no idea" Kyrrian whispered.

"You two are very close" Rory pointed out.

"Yeah, but it wasn't always like that" for whatever reason, Kyrrian was admitting these massive truth's to this practical stranger but in all honesty, she wasn't bothered by that fact in the least.

"What changed?"

"Well... the Brian thing. That was my Hunter boyfriend's name, Brian. But it really started after our parents died" Kyrrian looked at Rory Daggart and found him to be patiently waiting for more.

"When we were birthed, I was actually the first one born. But because I was the girl, I was placed in some nurses hand and shirked to the side. It was my brother everyone was excited for. From that moment onward, I would always be 'the other one'. Grayson was trained from the moment he could walk how to be a great leader, how to control a Sleuth, how to command many. I was told to go play and leave everyone alone. I wasn't allowed to play with Kaddian because he had 'duties' and I would be a distraction. By the time I was old enough to rebel, I did. I was disciplined in every way imaginable by my father, and every time I broke a rule and he had to punish me, he resented me more because I became less and less of an acceptable comparison to my brother. I learned to resent my father for never loving me, my mother for letting him treat me like crap, and my brother for being the pride and joy of the sleuth. Being twins made everything two times worse because I always said that we should be treated the same because we were practically carbon copies, but to no avail. It wasn't fair of me, to hate Kaddian, he was as much of a victim as I was. He was never allowed friends, play time, or excessive emotions, and he definitely was not allowed to make a mistake. Ever." Kyrrian hesitated to take a large gulp of sweet alcohol.

"I can understand his personality a little better now" Rory admitted with a soft laugh.

"If you don't know him he can be off-putting. So yes, when my parents died, I felt relieved, as bad as that sounds. It was as if a major weight had been lifted from my shoulders. And I began to try to do things to anger him. While my parents had been alive, I had refused to go to college because I knew it angered them. When I saw my brother struggling with the weight of his new responsibility, I knew he would need my help. So I told Kaddian I wanted to enroll in junior college and I left him alone. But my pleasure in that only lasted a year or two because he appeared to stop investing care or effort into anything I was doing. I got bored and for a year I learned to mellow out, I stopped trying to be the bane of everyone's existence and instead just focused on myself. I started dating Brian at first because I liked him, but I soon tired of him too, and right when I considered ending it with him, Kaddian expressed the fact that he didn't want me to see him anymore. That was all I needed to rekindle the fling with fervor. But that backfired on me as well, and at that point in my life, I was a weak, sniveling, whiny girl who refused to train or learn or do anything beneficial, and I paid the price for it" Rory watched as Kyrrian's eyes glazed over as she told the immense truths of her life.

"And now? You're a strong, independent woman who hates men?"

"I don't hate men, I just don't trust the ones who want to get in my pants" Kyrrian returned to her spitfire of a dialogue choice.

"And what about your mate?"

"What about him?" she asked.

"Have you found him" Rory asked, unperturbed by her vehemence.

"I turn twenty-five on friday" was her response.

"Has your brother found his?"

Kyrrian appeared to think for a moment, "I don't think so, but I get the feeling sometimes that he wouldn't tell me if he had. He's the type to deny a mate if it means focusing his life on the Sleuth".

"That he is" Daggart agreed.

The waiter brought giant plates of pasta at that moment, and once he had left, Kyrrian asked, "if you don't mind me asking, how did your mate pass?"

Rory swallowed his bite then cleared his throat, "Hunters. She was visiting family out of state and they attacked her on the trip home. Completely coincidental, they figured out what she was when she stopped for food at a restaurant in a small town. Followed her for a few miles outside of town, and killed her" the expression on his face had Kyrrian realizing that Rory Daggart was the type of man who had a temperment that never let you realize how angry he was until it was too late. The fake smile resting on his lips was malevolent and sinister in all regards.

"What did you do?" Kyrrian whispered.

Rory Daggart looked up from his plate and stretched his smile slightly wider, "I killed them".

Kyrrian stared at Daggart, holding his gaze for seconds that felt like decades. This man was terrifying, in a completely respectable, primitive animal way. Caught off guard by his intensity yet again, Kyrrian said, "I remember what happened to Lizbet and Porter after they broke the mating bond".

Rory tilted his head curiously, his previous maliciousness gone.

"Lizbet, the brunette with short-" Kyrrian began to clarify.

"I know who Lizbet is" he interrupted with a laugh.

"Yeah, well she met her mate in college... in a mental institution she was working at. He had been admitted for multiple suicide attempts. From what Lizbet told me, his father was a shifter and his mother was not. He never told her, and when he died of a heart attack, the possibility of an explanation died with him. The first time he shifted at two, his mother freaked out and swore he was possessed. She spent years convincing him he was evil, dirty, and disgusting. Lizbet only knew him for six months, but by then there was no repairing his broken psyche. He was too far gone. He choked himself with a noose made from frayed sheets. She spent months crying and writhing on the floor as the bond broke" Kyrrian vividly remembered the pain of her friend.

"How old was she?"

"She had just turned twenty five when she met him. And that was only two years ago. She's recovering in her own way" Lizbet could be a bit odd, but with her life, no one judged.

"Lizbet Penner is a fascinating person" Rory stated with a wide smile.

"My, my that's a large smile" Kyrrian teased.

Daggart laughed, "I like her, she's interesting". Kyrrian smiled merely because his was so contagious. It felt nice to talk to someone... period. Kyrrian didn't need a brother or a boyfriend but she did need someone she felt comfortable telling her insecurities to. Unfortunately, even after everything they had shared and talked about, Kyrrian felt absolutely no romantic attraction to the man other than the fact that she could appreciate his pleasant appearance.

Daggart took Kyrrian home after dinner, walked her to the front porch, and shook her proffered hand with a laugh, knowing she had just officially placed him in a zone of no dating. But he had received everything he could ask for, and all that was, was a simple chance.