by K. A Knight
I watch her intently, running her words through my head, trying to work through the logic. “Why? Why do you care? Is it because it would hurt them?”
She rolls her eyes, staring at the sky as if for help before she tightens her hands and puts her face in mine. “No, it’s not because it would hurt them. Yes, you’re terrible at flirting and your jokes make me cringe, but you also know more about me than even Ezra. You know all my fears, my dreams, my nightmares. I shared that part of me with you, no one else. I want everything you promised. So no, it’s not for them. It’s for me. You promised me a Christmas and a birthday, and a holiday, and you’re going to fucking keep that promise because I care about you.”
My grin is slow but grows bigger and she huffs, letting go of my face and sitting back, her face heating as if her words only now catch up with her. She’s so strong, so sure. She’s willing to lay everything on the line to make someone else feel better even when it means hurting or showing herself.
“I did promise you a Christmas,” I joke, and she groans, leaning forward and laying her head on my chest.
I can’t help it; I wrap my arms around her and hold her to me. From inside, my brothers’ laugh as they tease each other. No doubt they’ll come on the hunt for her soon. But for now, she’s all mine.
“Favorite space film?” I ask, and she laughs in my arms, her fingers stroking my shoulders and chest.
“Star Wars, duh. Worst party?”
I grin, happiness exploding in my chest, and she pokes me. “Sorry, what was the question?” I ask, and she lifts her head and grins at me.
I can’t help but swallow hard.
She opens her mouth, but I don’t hear a word. I’m too busy staring at her. I’m lost.
“Tell me about your family?” she asks, and I freeze.
She lifts her head with a frown, and I force myself to blow out a breath and relax. “What about them?”
“Well, do you have any siblings? What about your parents?” She tilts her head, squinting at me.
Wrapping my arms around her tighter, I watch Nev as he rolls in the grass. “I don’t have anyone but my coven in there. Not anymore.”
“Mikael—” she says softly, and I smile sadly at her.
“Sometimes I forget you don’t know us all. It’s not a good story, Rora, but I know your past. You should know mine,” I admit.
“You don’t have to—”
I shake my head and look at Nev. “I had an older sister; her name was Jules. When she turned sixteen, she caught the eye of another coven’s witch. She was destined to follow in my father’s footsteps and lead our house. He was the same. Their union was blessed, but she was so young, and he was… more evil than anyone could have ever imagined. They went on a date. She told him she wanted to get to know him before they joined, but he had other ideas.”
My sister’s face, when I found her, flashes in my head, and I push it away, telling it like a story so I don’t breakdown, even after all these years. “He raped her, then killed her. He tossed her body outside of our house, and I found her.”
Aurora gasps, and when I look, tears track down her face for my pain.
It softens me and I cup her face. “She was my best friend, Rora. She really was. I looked up to her. She always made time for me no matter how busy she was. Her loss broke something in my mother. Not two weeks after we honored Jules, my mother killed herself.”
“Mikael—”
I smile sadly. “My father was never a big family man. Hell, he was hardly ever there. He was the head of the house and it was an important role, but it made him distant and uncaring. After Jules and my mum, he disappeared. Left me the house and everything and stayed with the coven and council. I was alone. That’s when I met my brothers.”
“What happened to the man who hurt your sister?” Rage fills her voice.
“He went rogue. He had harmed a chosen one, after all. My father would not allow him to live no matter who he was. Hunters tracked him down, and he was executed in front of everyone; a reminder of how powerful the council is.” It’s why I become a hunter in the first place, but I don’t tell her that.
“I’m so fucking sorry,” she cries, wrapping her arms around me.
I hug her back and breathe in the smell of her. “Life has its reasons. Maybe all the bad happened so it could lead me to the good. To you.”
Eventually, she scrambles from my lap and I sigh, knowing she’ll go back to her men now.
She surprises me by reaching down and offering me her hand. I accept it, and she helps pull me to my feet and keeps her hand in mine as we stroll back to the house where the smell of food wafts out.
Opening the back door, she calls to Nev over her shoulder.
He bounds to us, nearly knocking us over in the process, and butts his way into the kitchen.
We share a smile as Ben yells.
Shaking my head, I laugh. That dog has made it his personal mission to annoy Ben.
I follow Aurora into the kitchen and grin as my brothers joke and laugh. They’re more at home in her kitchen than they ever are at home.
Ben cooks with Jason, and Alex and Ezra sit at the table, a seat left between them with a mug in front of it.
Aurora ignores it, dragging me after her as she goes over and steals a taste of food, earning her a smacked hand from Jason.
He looks at her, and her cheeks heat and eyes flare. It seems my quiet brother showed her his dominant streak. She dances away when Ben tries to spank her.
She winks at me and drags me over to the table.
I go willingly, as long as I get to still hold her hand.
Instead of dropping into the seat between Alex and Ezra, she sits next to Alex and I slip into the one on her other side. Ezra smiles at her, a soft little thing that I didn’t know the big guy was capable of.
Alex pushes the mug toward her, his eyes sparkling when she refuses to let go of my hand to lift it.
I look back at him blankly, almost nervously, but he sits back, throwing his arm across her seat and nurses his coffee, watching her.
“We need to leave about nine. The club is called Encore. Heard of it, kitten?” Alex asks, his fingers playing with her shirt.
“Sure. It’s in the next town over, about forty minutes away.” She leans into his touch like she doesn’t even notice, but he does.
I might have her hand, but he has her completely, and he hasn’t even kissed her yet.
When I try to draw my hand back, she grips it tighter, refusing to let me go.
“Okay, then we leave at nine.” Alex rubs her shoulder and winks at me.
Cheeky bastard.
“Sounds good. Who’s this person we’re meeting?” She sips her coffee as she looks around.
When she catches my eye, she smiles.
“He’s someone everyone in our community uses if you need to find a certain… job. He’s a rat bastard, but he gets shit done. On Sheldon’s orders, we asked him for a dream walker. It seems he’s found one and is calling in his debt.”
She nods. They must have filled her in on what happened while she was saving Darius. Speaking of him, I wonder where he got to.
Aurora must think the same thing. She searches the kitchen, a worried frown tugging at her lips before she snorts and shakes her head. Even as her lips lift in a smile, her eyes look far away, like she isn’t even in the room, anymore.
I don’t understand her relationship with Darius. I don’t think any of us do. He’s different since he came back. One second he’s hot toward her; the next he’s cold, but he’s always here, like he can’t stand not to be in her orbit.
As if she summoned him, Darius slinks into the kitchen and drops into the chair opposite her, his legs stretching under the table.
“Glad you could join us,” she remarks casually, leaning back.
“Sorry, angel face. Didn’t realize you were missing me so much. With how you were screaming earlier, I figured you were occupied.”
At his voice tone, I sit s
traighter, tightening my grip on her hand.
We all heard her with Ezra. Fuck, we’d have to be deaf not to. Her moans are burned into my head, but she has every right. She’s bonded to him after all.
Alex glares at Darius, his mouth opening in no doubt ready to rip him a new one, but Aurora laughs and winks at Darius.
“I was. Jealousy doesn’t look good on you, princess,” she mocks.
Darius narrows his eyes at her, and they have a staring contest.
The silence stretches around us, and we’re unsure of how to process this.
Darius looks away first, and Aurora puts the mug to her mouth, but I see her lips twitching behind it.
Little minx.
43
Aurora
Dinner runs without a hitch. I have to let go of Mikael’s hand eventually, and I find myself missing his comforting warmth. Darius inhales his food, his eyes locked on me the whole time, but I ignore him. Dude is mardy as fuck today, and I don’t know why.
Bloody man. I’m going to get whiplash from his emotions.
Once Alex finishes eating, he leans back in his chair, his hand landing on my thigh under the table. Hiding my smile, I shove a fork full of pasta into my mouth as he runs his palm up and down my thigh, landing closer to where I wish he would touch me each time.
Before I’m done, the others finish and watch me eat, weirdos.
Sitting back, I pat my stomach, nearly in a food coma. “I don’t think I can move ever again.”
Alex laughs.
My phone dings and I tilt my head. I thought I left it upstairs. It comes again, and I look around.
Ben avoids my eyes, his lips twitching.
“Benny, what did you do?” I ask, and he grins.
He jumps up from the table and holds my phone in the air. “Oh, nothing, nothing at all. Tell me, does Lane always call you a fucking cock sucking witch bitch?”
He backs away as I narrow my eyes in warning.
“You’re dead. Run, little Benny,” I warn, getting up from the table as the others laugh.
He grins, blows me a kiss, and darts from the kitchen with me close on his heels.
He laughs as he races up the stairs, and I chase after him.
“Come get me, little witch!” he yells, and I giggle as I burst into the bedroom to find him standing on my bed holding the phone in the air.
“Come get it,” he teases, and I jump onto the bed, reaching to grab it, but I’m too small.
I jump and end up falling forward into him. He laughs as we tumble backward. I land on his chest with our legs entwined.
Eyes dancing with laughter, he grins down at me, the phone forgotten. My eyes drop to his lips. My hair falls to the side, creating a curtain from us and the rest of the room. I can’t help it. I lick my lips to ease their sudden dryness, and he follows the movement, a groan vibrating his chest.
“Sunshine?” He sounds pained.
“What did you do, Benny?” I lean forward, running my hand up his chest and around his neck to his face.
He pants and leans into me, his pupils dilating as his hands land on my ass and pull me in tighter to feel his hard length against me. “Nothing.”
I lean down, running my hands higher to his hair and gripping tight as I lower my lips to his. “Tutut, what did you do?” I whisper, my lips brushing his with the words.
He swallows audibly as I let go of his hair and run my left hand up his arm until I reach his hand. Only then do I drop my lips to his. He groans and kisses me back, chasing me as I keep the pace slow.
Grinning, I slip the phone from his grasp, as he’s distracted, and pull away.
He follows me, his eyes dazed, and I laugh, sitting up with the phone in my hand. It has blown up with messages from Lane and I scroll through the last few, keeping him between my legs with my hand on his chest.
I get to his message and groan. He sent her some coupons for sex toys and escort dates, and he signed her up for ‘services,’ claiming to be me during the whole thing. Dropping my phone to the bed, I arch my eyebrow at him as he watches me. I figured he would be laughing, but his face is serious, and his teeth pull at his lips.
“Kiss me properly,” he asks. Not demands or teases, but asks.
I lay down again, our faces inches apart. “What sort of punishment would that be?”
I run my lips along his cheek.
“The best kind, having you on top of me, tasting you but unable to have you. Torture,” he whispers, and I stop above his lips.
“Kiss him,” a hard voice says from behind me.
I feel the bed dip, and then hands frame my hips, rough and hard, bruising in their pressure. I moan, breathless, loving the contrast between Ben’s soft lips and Jason’s hard hands.
I do as I’m told, loving Jason’s dominant streak. I cover Ben’s lips, tugging at the bottom one, and he opens for me. I sweep my tongue in and he follows, allowing me to do whatever I want. Jason’s hand moves up, sweeping across my hip and back until he moves my hair to the other side.
Lips meet my neck, soft and wet. “Good girl,” Jason murmurs, kissing up the side of my face and then back down my neck.
I groan into Ben’s mouth when Jason nips the sensitive flesh on the back of my neck, wiggling on top of Ben to try and relieve some pressure.
When I pull away to pant, Ben grins over my shoulder to Jason, mighty pleased with himself. “Oh, she liked whatever you just did.”
“Is he right?” Jason bites me again when I don’t answer fast enough for him.
“Yes,” I pant and lean down to kiss Ben again.
“Good.” He bites again, then licks away the sting and I writhe, caught between Ben’s softness and Jason’s hardness.
Finish up, will you? You need to get ready.
I ignore Darius’s grim as fuck voice in my head and rub myself on Ben until his voice comes again.
I will come in there. Either fuck them or get dressed.
He sounds pissed, so I ignore him again.
You want to play, fine.
Uh-oh, no nickname. This can’t be good. I scream out loud, falling from the bed and curling up on the floor and breathe through the pain of him ripping away from my mind. Tears run down my face, but the moment passes, more shock than anything.
Darius slides back in, gently this time.
I warned you. Now, get dressed. His voice is soft now, regret in his tone.
Sighing, I sit up, knowing he didn’t mean to hurt me.
I really didn’t. I thought it would make you freeze. Sorry, princess. His whisper slips away.
I zone back in to find Ben and Jason crouched in front of me, both panicking, their hands fluttering over me.
“I’m okay.” I cough and wince.
“What did we do?” Ben asks, panicking more than I’ve ever seen him.
Unable to help it, I laugh, and once I start, I can’t stop.
They glance at each other, their worry growing.
“Something’s wrong,” Jason says.
“Do you think we should get Alex?” Ben adds, and I roar louder with laughter, tears dripping down my face as I try to wave them away with my hand.
“Okay. I’m okay.” I snort out another laugh. Blowing out a breath, I try to calm myself.
Them panicking more sobers me up enough to talk.
“Okay, I’m fine. Sorry about that, but you can thank Darius for the mental cock block,” I finish, a giggle slipping out before I clamp my lips shut.
Their eyebrows raise and they look at each other with various degrees of perplexity.
“Do you know what that means?” Ben asks, and Jason shakes his head.
Grinning, I stand and they shoot to their feet, their hands held out to catch me. “Seriously, I’m okay. Just took me by surprise. Now you better let me get ready or Darius is going to throw a B.F.”
“B.F?” Jason asks slowly, staring at me like I lost my mind.
“Bitch fit. Duh.” I trot over to my wardrobe as Nev comes pounding i
n, a shoe in his mouth.
I grin, and he drops it at my feet, sitting back.
Crouching down, I examine it and laugh. “That Darius’s, baby?”
He nods.
Biting my lip, I rub his head and lean closer to whisper, “Good boy.”
They hear me anyway and laugh, obviously realizing I’m okay, and lay back on the bed to watch me.
I stand back up and turn with an arched eyebrow. “Can I help you?”
“Nope.” Ben pops the p.
“Shouldn’t you be getting ready?” I ask.
“Nah, we don’t take as long as you. Come on, hot thing, show us what ya got.” Ben wolf whistles, and I roll my eyes, although the smile doesn’t leave my face.
I can barely remember the feeling before I met them, of constant loneliness when I hardly ever smiled. Now it splits my cheeks all the time.
Shaking my head, I open my closet door and look inside. I might not always be a girly girl, I like my punny shirts and big biker boots and leather jackets, but I drag Lane partying a lot and I do love dressing up. There’s something about a nice dress and heels that can make any girl feel like they rule the world. Plus, I want to see their jaws drop, they never got to see me in the one from Perses, and I bet they would have loved it.
Rooting through the hanging clothes, I giggle at the dress I pick out. Hiding it in front of my body, not for modesty, more so they get the full effect, I slip into the bathroom. I shut the door, hang up the dress, and check myself out in the mirror.
I do my makeup, taking more time than normal by lining my eyes and matching the color of my eyeshadow with my dress. I even own matching lipstick. The dark plum looks amazing against my pale skin. The blush highlights my cheekbones. I lean back and play with my hair. It dried in a big, curly mess thanks to hands in it and me not drying it probably.
