Bright lights flashed in my eyes as I spilt beer on my hand. Gasping, I quickly grabbed a towel and wiped it up while preparing a new glass and properly filling it.
"That’s number five." Audrey sang, scooting behind me. "Someone is really off her game today, huh?"
Off my game? That was an understatement. Visions of my earlier conversation with Andrew continued to play in my head, causing me to go absolutely mad.
He had asked me to date him. To date him! Sure, we had already slept together, and dating would be the next natural step, but I wasn’t fully sure if I wanted to take that step.
In the end, I
"Are you jealous?"I knew that he was, but I wanted to hear it with my own ears. Andrew had been sure to share his feelings with me from the start, and now it was my turn to give him something. To hell with Ashton and the fucking mate bond."And if I am?" Andrew challenged, pushing off the wall he was leaning against and approaching me."Is that a bad thing?""No," I whispered, feeling my heart begin to beat rapidly in my chest. "Maybe I like it."My gaze remained locked with Andrew’s as my words sank in. I was being bold, I knew it, but I didn’t want to continue to hang onto something that was hopeless.
I walked slowly beside Andrew, trying to keep my heart steady and my breath even. How the fuck was I even nervous right now? We had already fucked, so why was I feeling like a teenager with her first boyfriend?"Are you cold?" Andrew asked, noticing my discomfort. "Here, take my jacket."I watched as Andrew pulled off his jacket, his muscles rippling from the movement. Dammit, he was built well."Here." Andrew quickly draped his jacket around my shoulders, engulfing me in his scent of cologne and cigarette smoke."Thanks." I murmured, pulling it closer around me. "But won’t you be cold?"
I stood in the doorway of Theo and Chloe’s room. After much struggle, they finally fell asleep. It seemed that they were definitely traumatized from their kidnapping, and I would need to help coax them back to being themselves.While I sang them to sleep, Chloe talked quietly about the nightmares she was continuing to have about a strange, scary man with hollow black eyes. He seemed to tell her that he would take revenge on me. Despite my telling her that it was simply a dream, she seemed convinced that it was all real.As she did that, Theo grumbled about the darkness. I didn’t know what was going on with them, but I needed to get to the bottom of it.Turning, I headed down the
Much later, I sat on the couch sipping on a beer. Leah had already gone to bed, and Ashton was still washing up. For a man, he sure did take his time in the shower. I guess that was what a pretty boy did.As I waited for him to finish, I considered calling Haidan and asking her about having Ashton keep an eye on me, because frankly, I didn’t buy it. However, I didn’t want to know if he was lying or not. If he wasn't, then that would be fine and my hope would be crushed. If he was, then I wouldn’t even know what the fuck to do. After all, I was currently dating Andrew, and I intended to not have any regrets about my decisions.Sighing, I leaned back and took a long swig of my drink as the sound of a door opening reached my ears.
"Chloe," I murmured, trying to calm my raging heart. "Why are you up again?"She hadn’t been asleep for that long, and I could only assume that she had a nightmare."Didn’t you say," Chloe gasped, covering her mouth. "There was nothing."Fuck, leave it to a nine-year-old to not know what to say and what not to say. Lifting my hands, I covered my face to hide the flush that was beginning to creep up my neck."You talked about me?" Ashton asked with interest. "Was it good?"Lowering my hands, I shot a glare at Ashton, who was lookin
Asher and Antoine were outside of the packhouse waiting when Ashton and I arrived. They eyed us suspiciously as we closed the distance. I felt instant embarrassment over how this probably looked, but now really wasn’t the time."Why are you here?" Antoine asked, eyeing Ashton. "Weren’t you supposed to be vacationing with Meghan and her family?"A jolt of shock rushed through me as I shot a look at Ashton. Did this mean that what he said about being asked to watch over me and my siblings was all a lie?"Doesn’t matter right now." Ashton snapped, his eyes darkening. "Thia said you mentioned something about finding an informant in the inbetween."
The morning came much too soon. Despite being told to get some sleep, I was unable to and instead just sat up staring into space as my mind whirled.I still couldn’t believe how quickly things were going from bad to worse, especially after two years of peace since King Nigel’s defeat. It was all so weird and, for the life of me, I couldn’t figure out why it would happen.Sighing, I leaned back on the couch and threw my arm over my eyes."Thia?" Chloe’s sleepy voice called from upstairs. "Why are you awake?"I waited as Chloe bounded down the stairs, two at a time, and then jumped into my lap.
We walked slowly through town, taking in the sights that it had to offer. For this place to be full of darkness, the streets were alive with families and venders.Bright fairy lights lined the carts, making it easier to see the goods that each had to offer. They carried everything from food to hand-crafted goods to potions. It was all so different from our world that I found myself getting sucked into it all."Don’t think about it." Ashton murmured close to my ear.Jumping back, I shot him a glare as a growl escaped me."What did I tell you about personal space?" I hissed, trying to keep my voice low so we didn
[Leah's POV]I looked around the table at all the smiling faces who were here to celebrate my 21st birthday. Even though I insisted that I didn't want to celebrate because I needed to study for Ian's herbal medicine quiz the next day, Thia insisted. After all, according to her, that was the day that I became a true adult."Auntie Leah," Serenity murmured, fixing her large blue gaze on mine. "Why do you look so unhappy?"For only five, she most certainly was perceptive. However, how could I possibly say that I wasn't happy because the one person I hoped to see here wasn't present?"I'm okay." I murmured, jostling her dark wavy hair that was the exact color of Haidan's. "I'm just tired.""You're lying, auntie." My nephew, Devlin, huffed."Leave your poor auntie alone." Thia snapped, shooting a glare towards her son. "Today is to celebrate, not to interrogate.""But...""No buts, young man." Ashton warned, making his way to the table from the kitchen.As he took his seat beside Thia, I s
[Thia's POV]I stood on the stage, staring out into the crowd of familiar faces and strangers. Today was the day of my ceremony to become luna of Ashton's pack, and I still found myself unable to believe that this was happening. After recovering from Lord Santos' attack and saving the world as we knew it, you would think that I would be happy to be going through something like this. However, it was nerve-wracking and my heart was hammering in my chest.Sweeping my eyes across the crowd of onlookers, I found my siblings standing in the center, smiling. The twins were thrilled that their older sister was being made a 'queen' and Leah was happy to be getting more involved with pack life.Letting out a breath, I looked at Ashton as he made his way towards me. A brilliant smile played on his lips and his eyes were ablaze with delight as he reached out and took my hands for all to see."Don't be nervous. Otherwise you'll stress out Devlin. " Ashton murmured, leaning in close to my ear.As
[Ashton's POV]My heart pounded in my chest as we raced towards the portal that would take us back to our world. For some reason, I had a bad feeling that something was happening there and didn't want Thia to be put in any more danger.When we arrived at the portal, Haidan and Antoine were the first to go through, followed by Asher, leaving only Thia and I."Go!" I called as Thia eyed it. "I'll be right behind you.""But…""What a cute scene."Shit, shifting my gaze from Thia, I looked to where a large man with glowing red eyes and long black hair was making his way towards us."You," Thia growled, seeming to recognize him. "Seems you discovered my escape quicker than I thought.""Go!" I called, grabbing Thia and jumping through the portal.Light swirled around us as wind tore at our skin before we tumbled onto the ground of our hideout in the inbetween."Why did you do that?" Thia hissed, quickly getting to her feet."What's wrong?" Haidan asked Antoine, drawing our attention."Brail
[Thia's POV]I watched with wide eyes as Andrew and Ashton rolled around on the ground. I was having a hard time believing what was directly in front of me and couldn't help but wonder if it was a dream.'Get out of here, Haidan and Antoine are waiting by the window.' Ashton huffed as I remained in place.'I'm not leaving you.'How could he possibly expect me to just up and leave while he was fighting a powerful vampire?Looking around, I tried to find something that could be used as a weapon. When I spotted a torch sitting against the wall, I began to move.I weaved in and out of the bodies that were locked in battle until I reached what I was after. I could only hope it wouldn't be too hard to dislodge without my lycan strength. Reaching up, I wrapped my hands around the smooth wood and began to pull. After a few tugs, it began to move, and then, with a loud crack, it snapped, giving me the perfect edge to do what I had in mind.Turning, I quickly ran back to where I left Andrew an
[Leah's POV]"Have you heard anything yet?" I snapped, stopping in the middle of the room I was currently waiting in with Ian and Dion."Not yet." Dion huffed in annoyance. "Are you going to ask that same question every five minutes?"It had already been almost a day since Asher and the others left to seek the help of the necromancers to help Thia. Initially, I tried to go with them, but the irritating kitsune brothers held me back."I wouldn't have to bother you if you hadn't trapped me." I growled, shooting a glare at Dion. "Blame yourself.""You would have been no help to them." Ian sighed, fixing me with his stoic gaze. "Their mission is dangerous and you aren't even trained to fight."I bit back my response to Ian's dig. Even though I wanted to argue, I knew that he was right. I didn't know the first thing about self-defense after being protected by Thia up until now. Even though I knew, that didn't stop me from wanting to help."Anyway, please take a seat." Ian continued. "You'r
[Ashton's POV]I looked around at the hellish scene in front of me, trying to determine which direction we should go. "We need to wait for the collector." Asher announced as if reading my thoughts."Collector? What the hell is that? " I asked, narrowing my gaze."The one that takes the damned to the demon lord." Asher responded matter-of-factly.Nodding, I turned to the tengu that remained on the ground shaking. It looked like even in death, his soul was still affected by the poison we dosed him."How long do you think til that collector arrives?"Now that we made it into the underworld, I had no interest in wasting time. I didn't know how Thia was and couldn't relax until I saw her."Any minute now.""Over there!" Haidan announced, pointing towards the horizon.Turning, I fixed my gaze on where she pointed and found two cloaked men making their way towards us with a rolling cage."Are we actually going to let them put us in that?" I asked Asher. "How the hell are we supposed to get
I peered around the corner of the building we were currently hiding behind. According to those damn necromancers, our target should be leaving the bar around this time.As much as I hated doing someone's dirty work, I reminded myself that this was for Thia and that I needed to get it done as quickly as possible."If you remain so tense, we will be sensed." Antoine snapped from behind me. "I get you're terrible at being patient, but if we fuck this up, we won't be able to rescue Thia.""I know," I growled, pulling in my aura that I didn't realize was trickling out.Letting out a huff of frustration, I turned away from Antoine and fixed my gaze on the same door we had been watching for the past hour.So far, only overly drunk kitsunes and mages had exited, not the guy we needed to kidnap.Finally, after what felt like eternity, the door opened and out stepped our man.Keeping my gaze ahead, I watched as he looked around while pulling out a cigarette. When he was sure he was alone, he li
[Thia’s POV]I stood in front of a large mirror, taking myself as Martha stood behind me looking smug. She had spent the last hour doing my hair and makeup, and now all that was left was to get dressed.Peering over, I noticed the blood red sequin gown hanging on the wall, as well as the corset perched on a chair beside it."I don’t think that is a good idea." I murmured, pointing to the corset. "It isn’t safe for a pregnant woman, correct?"For a moment, Martha remained quiet, considering my words.
[Ashton's POV]"Don't be such a hostile wolf." The man chuckled, holding his arms out innocently. "See, I am but an old geezer with no motives.""Sorry, Fred." Asher sighed. "He is a little on edge since losing his mate.""Is she the one you need our help locating?" Fred asked, furrowing his thick brows. "Could you tell me what it was she did to offend the lord of the underworld?""It wasn't her." I growled. "Watch your damn mouth!""Ashton!" Haidan hissed, shooting me a look of disapproval.