With Hearts to Hear| ✔

|13|

Killian showed her past their town's schools and nurseries, as well as several restaurants, pubs, tattoo parlour and an auto body shop. The smell of greasy engine parts reminded Rachel of her father and between her grief and nostalgia she had felt too nauseated to continue with the rest of the tour.

It was growing later in the afternoon in any case, and Killian still had to stop by his office so he wasn't too upset at having to cut their adventure a little short. He had a great desire to get her alone, just the two of them so he could finally relax. Judging by the way her fingertips drummed a steady beat on her jean clad leg, he had a suspicion that she felt the same.

He knew that she would have questions— the staring, the whispering, the bowing from his pack members had in no way been subtle. He himself had slipped up, a possessive display overcoming him when one particular pack member had let his eyes linger on Rachel's body for too long. He had growled, and pulled her in closer enough that those gathered had enough of an indication to realise that this wasn't some random human girl.

The worst part was that Killian still hadn't thought of any way that he could explain things without frightening her off— at this point the truth seemed more believable than anything he could come up with. He sighed heavily, once more shoving the issue to the back of his mind; he still had a little while before that conversation came up.

Rachel watched him carefully, that dangerous aura that seemed to surround him whenever they weren't alone seemed to grow. She hadn't missed his strangely brutish behaviour moments earlier, and judging by Killian's quiet nonchalant avoidance, he knew that she noticed.

He looked momentarily distracted, enough so that he completely ignored Rachel when she tried to get his attention. "Killian?"

"I'm sorry, I'm just wondering if my... Assistant is at the office or not." Killian's hand that rested comfortably on her hip squeezed her hip gently.

Rachel decided not to take it personally, and considering she was somewhat excited to see where Killian worked it was surprisingly easy. He led her a short walk away to the tallest yet oldest looking building she had seen all day, it looked fairly similar to a town hall both on its interior and exterior. A small plaque on the stone stairs leading up to the building marking its founding date in the 1300's.

Rachel had never been one for patience. She lived her life firmly in the belief that one should ask for forgiveness, not for permission, and so far her approach had mostly worked out well enough for her. Perhaps it was that impatience that had her words tumbling from her lips, or perhaps it was the fact that she had been waiting for the two of them to be alone before broaching the potential subject of a cult. (She figured if she were going to confront a cult leader, the last thing she needed was any of his followers close by to overhear.)

Looking about on the steps, in front of the light-coloured brick building, not a soul lingered about; they were alone enough. She was almost certain that she would burst if she didn't say something.

"Okay. Am I in some kind of cult or are you like some kind of secret prince or something? Seriously, first the bowing, now the old crusty building, no offence..." Rachel looked to Killian with a slight grimace. She really had to learn to think before she spoke; she had a horrible track record of her mouth getting her into trouble, it's a wonder she never seemed to learn from it.

"None taken." Killian chuckled, the fact that she thought he was some kind of cult leader would have been hilarious of not for the fact he could definitely see why she had come to that conclusion. He scratched his neck uncomfortably, wondering if he could somehow tell the truth and still keep his secret. "We're just a very small, old town that's all... And the bowing thing, well, I'm sort of the person who is in charge of the whole town. My family have been in charge since this place was built in 1315."