The Viper's Son (Man x Man)

Chapter 22 ♡

Nate's P.O.V

It was difficult to focus on the words coming out of Cooper's filtered lips when Kai's face stayed occupied in my mind.

The way he smiled and showed no real concern for the fact that I told him his mother has been an illusion this entire time is no doubt unsettling.

It made me question what his motives were for imagining her and if his demon hounds knew about it as well.

They acted just as worried about the situation when I mentioned it to them but were they a part of Kai's scheme the entire time?

Was this some cruel test to see if Kai could trust me?

I've been conflicted about telling him since the moment he made me "meet" her in his office.

I decided to play along with it to avoid hurting his feelings and search for X and Z to see if they knew Kai was losing his marbles but their reaction consisted of letting Kai believe his mother was actually there.

That didn't sit well with me and has been bothering my entire soul with the way he expressed so much love toward her so I couldn't bring myself to hurt his feelings.

Regardless, I didn't want to lie to Kai and worked up the courage to tell him even if he ended up getting mad, sad, or in denial of it...

"Earth to Nate! I'm standing right here! What is this house doing to you?" Cooper smacked me with his boxing glove to get my attention.

I rubbed my reddening cheek and hit him just as hard with my black boxing glove until he made a run for it so I threw it at his head when he did.

"You little punk! Watch the hair!" Cooper was able to dodge the glove and was quick to shield his head.

"For how long will we be boxing today?" I removed my other glove and fixed my boxing shorts before grabbing a towel to wipe the sweat off my forehead.

Cooper picked up the mess I made and rolled his eyes, "I'm sure you have other important things to do like... punching Z again..." he said with a taunting chuckle.

"How did you know about that?" I asked a bit shocked that he already found out about it.

"Don't question my ability to find out about everything that happens in and out of this house. Just like I'm sure you don't know that Kai has fallen out with his father and because of that Viper has been in a very bad mood lately. I heard about a week ago he executed about ten young men that resembled his precious son quite a lot if I do say so myself. Want to know how he tortured them?" Cooper looked around the empty gym we were in and took a few steps closer so he could lower his voice when he spoke to my ears only.

I hesitated to decide whether to agree since it was very unsettling information but it involved Kai so of course I wanted to know everything that had to do with him.

"Are you saying Kai cut ties with Viper? Is that even possible? His father wouldn't let him out of his grip that easily, right?" I whispered back at Cooper and unconsciously stared around the gym in case we were being watched or heard by anyone but more specifically by Kai.

Cooper nodded, "If you ask me...I believe Kai always had the ability to kill his father but he just doesn't have the heart to go through with it. Viper must have said something to finally make Kai snap and do the one thing Viper thinks Kai would never do. Which is no longer follow his demands. Big stab to the Viper's ultimate ego for sure. This is why he tortured those young men with the cause of death being an iron pole impaled through their asses until their colons ruptured. Direct message to his son? Of course, it is. If I was Kai, I would prepare for the worst considering how lethal Viper can be without caring if it's his son he is harming. You need to be careful around him," Cooper sounded conflicted about sharing this gruesome news but felt the necessity to warn me about what was happening in the dark world that Kai never mentioned.