Keata's Promise [Brac Pack 7] (2 page)

He wasn’t fluent in English like Kyoshi was, so the books were more comforting than anything else. They had good stories, too.

“You want to go into town?” Tank asked as he looked under the couches, lifting it off of the floor while Keata sat on it.

Keata held on, thinking how strong Tank must be to do that.

Keata was only five two. Tank was at least six seven. Keata knew the warrior weighed over three hundred pounds because he heard the other mates say so. Tank was bulging with muscles. “You better not drop,” Keata warned.

Tank laughed and sat the couch down. “Now would I do that to you?”

His dark brown eyes always twinkled when he smiled at Keata.

His brown hair was cut really low, and Keata liked it. It was different from his long black hair. The kids back in Japan used to laugh at him and say he looked like a girl. Keata didn’t think he looked like a girl, but if everyone said so, he must.

“Okay, Tank, I go with you, but I find book first.” Keata visited the kitchen next. He remembered coming in here last night for a snack. Maybe he left it on the table. Keata saw that the table was empty. He tried the fridge just to make sure he hadn’t sat it in there when he got his juice. No book. But there was plenty of juice left.

Keata grabbed a bottle and drank his fill, placing the cap back on it for later. He sat in on the table and started to wonder if he ever had a book.

It couldn’t have just disappeared, could it?

“Hey, Keata.”

Keata looked over his shoulder to see Cody. This wolf was always nice to him. He didn’t talk much to Keata, but he was always watching him. Whenever he saw that Keata noticed him staring, he would quickly walk away.

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The wolf was strange that way.

“Hi, Cody, you see my book?” Keata checked the pantry. He could have left it there when he took some crackers last night.

“No book. Sorry.”

When Cody did speak, he always tried to make it simple. Keata liked that. It made talking to him easy. He always got a strange flutter in his stomach around Cody, like an invisible string pulled on his belly button trying to make him go to the wolf. No matter how many times he tried, Cody always ran away before he got close enough.

He knew that Cody was boyfriends with the wolf with red hair named Jasper.

Keata stood by the counter, staring at the warrior. He had never seen hair with every color in it before. It was hip—using Oliver’s word—and his brown eyes reminded Keata of a chocolate. He thought Cody a very handsome wolf.

“How are you feeling? Your leg?” Cody leaned against the doorframe, watching Keata. He did that a lot. Keata rubbed his hands on his pant legs. Anytime the wolf was around, he sweated a lot.

Keata didn’t understand the swirly emotions that always messed with his belly when he looked at Cody.

“Leg good. It no hurt.” Keata slowly moved toward Cody, wanting to bridge the gap, but for every step forward he took, the wolf took one back. Confused, he moved out of the kitchen and back up the stairs to his room.

“I lose my mind here.” Keata shook his head in confused frustration

Since he didn’t understand the feelings he had for Cody, he pushed them aside as he lay on his bed. Maybe he would go find Tank and go into town with him. Tank always made sure he had fun. He didn’t have swirly feeling for the wolf Tank, just a warm friendship feeling.

“You feeling okay?” Kyoshi asked as he entered Keata’s room.

“Lemon peachy.” Keata gave him a thumbs-up.

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“Liar.” Kyoshi pushed him aside and sat on the bed. “Now tell me what’s eating you.”

“Brain cells.”

“Oookay. Just as long as no one is bothering you.” Kyoshi gave him that knowing look.

Keata was
not
about to get into yet another debate with Kyoshi about the wolves in this house. He was tired of his cousin interrogating the warriors about being too close to him.

“You live down hall. I get you if need to.” Keata rolled over and gave Kyoshi his back, telling his cousin he was through talking.

Kyoshi patted his leg and stood, sighing deeply as he left.

Deciding he would go with Tank, he changed into something warm then went looking for the large wolf. He found him in Alpha Maverick’s office talking with the tallest wolf he had ever seen.

Maverick reminded Keata of a gentle giant. He stood almost as tall as the office door but always spoke softly to Keata and answered all his questions the best he could. He liked Maverick. He waved at the Alpha shyly like he always did, and Maverick smiled and waved back like he always did.

* * * *

“I go with you, Tank?” Keata asked when Tank stopped talking and looked in his direction.

“You go, Keata.” Tank smiled and excused himself.

“Come on, Keata. We can go.” Tank led him out to his half-ton truck. Being three hundred and twenty pounds, Tank needed a super duty truck. He helped the pint-size guy in and buckled his seat belt, scanning the area for any sign of intruders. He didn’t need a repeat of what had happened to the Sentry Micah.

Micah had taken his mate, Oliver, out to dinner, inviting Keata to tag along. On their way home, they were run off the road by rogue wolves and Keata had been attacked, his thigh bitten into, leaving a
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15

nasty scar behind.

Tank had fought for Keata when he was told by his Alpha they were under attack. Keata meant the world to the Sentries. He was young and naïve, beautiful to the point of looking androgynous. They all took it upon themselves to look out for him and keep him out of trouble because Keata was very inquisitive and friendly. Too damn trusting in Tank’s opinion.

“You can pick the music.” Tank pointed to the radio.

Keata beamed and began to play with the dials.

“No way, Keata.” Tank growled when Keata left it on a country station.

“I like.”

“No way, change it.”

“Then why tell me I pick?” He pouted.

“Pick anything but that.” There was no way he was listening to country.

“Fine.” Keata began to mess with the dials again, picking a rock station.

“Now you’re talking.” He laughed. “Give me some dap.”

“What dap?”

“Ball your fist up and give it to me.” Keata did and Tank tapped it with his knuckles.

“Hip.” He giggled.

“Very.”

Keata’s stomach grumbled loud enough that it was heard over the music.

“Are you hungry?” Tank asked as they pulled into a parking spot close to the diner. Tank had to pick some things up from the post office, and the diner was only right next door. In a small town, everything was in walking distant once you were in the town square.

Brac Village was the perfect place to live in Tank’s opinion.

“Little. I can get smoothie?” Keata beamed up at him.

“Anything my little friend wants.” Tank held the truck door open
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Lynn Hagen

as Keata hopped down and started toward the diner.

“Hold on, Keata. You know to wait for me.” The Sentries had entertained the thought of getting one of those human kid leashes for Keata. The guy wandered everywhere and would disappear in five seconds flat, claiming something sparkly had caught his eye. Tank loved the wonderment in Keata, but it made for a solid headache when they had to chase him down.

“Sorry, Tank.” Keata took Tank’s hand as they made their way into the diner. It wasn’t that Keata was too young—he was eighteen years old. He was just unaccustomed to the ways of America and didn’t see the dangers in wandering around alone. Again, he was too damn trusting and would wander off with a stranger in a heartbeat to go look for a nonexistent puppy. The Sentries took no chances with Keata.

They grabbed a booth by the window, and Tank tried to explain the menu. Kyoshi had been working with Keata on American food, the names and combinational ways to eat them. Keata seemed keen on chicken strips and fries along with smoothies.

“You find your book?” Tank asked as he played with a sugar packet from the little dish on the table. He knew how much those funny looking comic books meant to Keata. After all, he was in a foreign county with nothing familiar around except Kyoshi. Tank wanted to kill the men who had kidnapped the two. Although he was grateful to have Keata here, it was horrific what those traffickers had planned.

Keata sighed and shook his head. “I lay by bed. Now gone. Poof.

No more.” Keata flicked his fingers in the air to demonstrate disappearing into thin air. Tank thought the little guy comical.

“You’ll find it. Try to remember last place you laid it down,” Tank offered. Maybe someone wanted to read it and couldn’t find him to ask. That would explain why it wasn’t where Keata had left it, but it wouldn’t explain
who
because it was written in Japanese.

“I try to, but no find. Someone maybe use?”
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“Maybe. I’ll ask around when we get home.” Tank gave their choices when the waitress made her way over. Tank hated the way people gaped at him when he ordered his meal. He ordered three plates of fried chicken and mashed potatoes. He was a big guy and required a lot of calories. Keata sat there with his mouth hanging open. He liked the little man, but times like these made him uncomfortable.

“Sorry, Keata, but I have to use the restroom, and since I can’t leave you out here alone you have to tag along.” Tank slid from the booth. He chuckled when Keata just blinked up at him. Sometimes using short, broken words were difficult, and this was one of those times. He held his hand out, and Keata took it. Showing him would be easier.

When Keata saw that they were heading to the men’s room he pulled at Tank’s hand. “I sit by self. I grown man.”

“Not now, Keata.”

Keata pulled his hand free and crossed his hands over his chest, his lips pursed and his eyes rolled. Tank noticed his foot tapping as well. “Brat.”

“Speak to hand.” Keata threw his hand up.

“Fine. I won’t hold your hand, but you
are
going to stand right inside the door.

“Fine.” Keata threw his hands up and followed behind Tank.

Tank took care of business pretty quickly, washing his hands then drying them.

“See, that wasn’t so hard.”

Keata rolled his eyes once again and followed Tank back out.

By the time they made it back to their table, their food was waiting on them.

“Tank?” Keata stopped nibbling on his chicken strip. Tank looked up as the waitress brought his third plate over. They had to make room by shoving the sugar container and condiments aside, but all the plates fit.

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Lynn Hagen

“Yes, Keata?” Tank wiped his mouth with a napkin and stared down at his little friend.

He could see Keata struggling to find the words. It sucked that he wasn’t fluent like his cousin, Kyoshi. Finally, Keata laid his hand on his stomach. “Cody, he make butterflies here.” Keata lowered his head as if he were ashamed.

Tank’s jaw dropped as his eyes widened. “You feel funny around him?”

“Yes. My belly tug to him. Why?” Keata implored, his eyes on Tank.

“You sad when Cody is gone?” Tank spoke in simple words, making sure he was fully understanding what Keata was trying to say.

If he was interpreting him correctly, it answered the question a lot of the Sentries had been wondering. They knew one of the warriors was Keata’s mate. They just didn’t know which one, and neither Keata nor the guilty party volunteered that information.

“Yes, my heart always sad.” Keata laid a hand over his heart, his small fingers clenching into his shirt. Tank could see the pain in the small man’s eyes.

“I think he’s your mate, Keata.” Tank did not like this one bit.

Cody was too busy running behind Jasper. Killer part was Jasper had a mate waiting on him—Zeus, the Alpha of the Eastern pack. It was a wonder they weren’t at war because of Jasper’s refusal to go to him.

“My boyfriend?” Keata looked at him confused.

“Yes.”

“But he red-hair boyfriend.” Keata looked even more confused now. How could Tank explain the complications of that screwed up relationship? He didn’t even think an interpretation from his cousin Kyoshi would help this mess out.

Tank only half understood Cody and Jasper. Normally, he stayed out of it, but Keata now had a vested interest in it, and Tank wouldn’t stand by to watch his buddy get hurt.

Tank was getting angrier by the moment. If Cody was indeed
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Keata’s mate, then this was one fucked-up situation, and Keata deserved better than Cody acting like an ass. Keata deserved someone who would love and cherish him. Tank almost wished Keata was
his
mate. There wasn’t anything Tank wouldn’t do for the little human.

For some reason fate decided it should be Cody, and Tank thought fate must have been drunk off of her ass when she decided to pair them.

“I don’t know what to say, Keata.” Tank fisted his hands. Cody had some damn explaining to do. “Finish eating, buddy.” His jaw clenched as he tried to eat. Keata sat there daintily as he ate. Cody was a damn fool. Tank dropped a tip on the table and had the rest of his meal tossed into a to-go container as he led Keata back out to his truck and took him home, forgetting about the post office.

Tank walked Keata into the house and headed straight for Cody’s bedroom. He banged on the door, seething that Cody hadn’t stepped up and claimed what was his instead of acting like a retarded wolf.

“What?” Cody barked as he swung his door open.

Tank shoved past him and stepped into the room. He turned and towered over Cody.

“I know you are aware of who Keata is to you. Why the fuck is he still unclaimed?” Tank wanted to throttle the wolf.

“That’s none of your business.” Cody had looked shocked for a moment then quickly recovered. Tank wondered if he was shocked that he knew or that Keata was his mate. No, Cody had to have known.

“It is my business when Keata is hurting. He feels the pull and can’t understand it. He’s sad when you aren’t around, Cody. Figure your shit out, or I’ll take Keata from you,” Tank threatened.