by Camryn Rhys
Aria and Marco stepped through the open front door and Mary closed it softly behind them. He laid a hand on her shoulder and she had to stop herself from leaning closer. He might be angry, but she wanted nothing more than to finish the bond between them as soon as possible. He was her Fated match and she was terrified he’d never want to touch her again.
Marco’s mother returned from the kitchen. “My neighbor will be here shortly. Let me go put some clothes on. I’ll be right back.”
Aria nodded.
* * *
Marco could have thrown up all over his mother’s doilies and afghans. The sensation of Aria’s heartbeat and her lungs constricting, in addition to the hum of her energy, and the presence of Mary Foster… It was overwhelming. When his mother finally disappeared into her bedroom, Marco turned on Aria.
“What the hell is going on? And don’t tell me you’ll explain later.”
Aria glanced down the hallway, shifting from foot to foot. “It is a much longer conversation than we have time for right now. Trust me.”
He drilled her with all the fury he was holding back and squared his shoulders to face her. “Give me the fucking highlights.”
She took a step toward him, so close, her breasts almost grazed his chest. He found himself looking down at her breasts straining against the leather, and remembering the car, where she’d almost jumped him. He couldn’t stop thinking about her, naked, wet, waiting for him. His breath came faster and he could feel her heart pound. Her lips curled into a sexy smile.
“That is the highlight.” Aria reached for his cheek and he jumped at the contact. “And another highlight.”
“What the fuck is this, Aria?”
Her forehead wrinkled and she dropped her hand. “It’s magick. Okay? There. Welcome to the real world, where Fate has a say in our future.”
Marco bit his tongue against his lip to keep himself from lashing out again. Something had burned a couple of green swirly marks on him, and he could feel her, what she felt.
He had seen the same marks on Francis, but his mother didn’t have them. It must be some sort of pack bond, because everything felt more alive to him, like everything would pulse and sparkle from now on. Like nothing would be the same, ever again. Without thinking, he touched Aria’s cheek and she flinched.
“Unnerving, isn’t it?”
“Will you stop?” She stepped away from him, but he closed the distance, marching her backward until her back was against the tall, wooden grandfather clock. He could feel the cut of the hard wood in her back, the cool of the glass on her neck, the thrumming in her belly.
The smile was back on her lips as he moved in to kiss her. The sensation of her lips on his, feeling the tiny pressure of her tongue pushing back at him. It was like kissing in stereo. He could feel his cock lengthening, hardening.
Everything buzzed against his skin, and he wondered if it was Aria’s sensation or his or the magick. Whatever it was, it urged him forward, made him press against her with more fury, wanting to be closer, deeper.
The wolf was surprisingly active inside him, but not clawing to get out. He couldn’t quite put words to the way it bounded, licking at the energy as though it fed off her. He dropped his hands to her breasts and she moaned into his mouth.
An electric sensation shot from his feet, up his spine, to warm his face and then every inch of his skin. He was so hard, he could have torn through her clothes and fucked her right there against the clock.
The hazy memory caught him by the throat and choked him away from her. He coughed and spluttered and fell back against the table. Aria’s eyes narrowed in concern.
“Why do you do that?” She fisted her hands. “By the gods, I promise you, you’re not going to shift.”
“You can’t promise me that.”
“Between the two of us, I think we’ll trust my knowledge of what wolves do and don’t do.”
He shook his head. “You don’t understand.” The memory flooded over him again. Thrusting, grunting, groaning, and then the pulse of the wolf and running out through the neighborhood, into the night. Shifting.
“I don’t need to fucking understand anything. I know.”
“Fuck you, Aria.” Marco ground his teeth together. Without a glance backward, he stormed out of the house. He wanted to hit something. More than anything else in the world, he wanted to fuck Aria. But he couldn’t.
He’d never felt like this before. Wanting so badly to be inside someone. Sex had only ever been play for him, since he started bringing pleasure to women—since he had learned that he could get more pleasure from a woman’s orgasm and from her breaking apart under his tongue than he had when he’d had sex as a teenager. Or than he did when he made himself come.
Aria was different, and not just because she was a wolf. As mad as he was, as confused as he was, he couldn’t help wanting her. And it was tearing him apart.
Chapter Nine
Marco sat through the car ride to the hotel, alternately being angry at Aria and his mother. They were both silent the entire way, as though everyone waited for someone else to break the silence, and no one was willing to risk what might come spilling out of their mouths.
Aria parked in front of the main hotel entrance and tossed the keys to the waiting valet, practically running into the hotel. She expected him to follow, and Marco knew it. She may have been giving him a moment with his mother, or she may just want to get away from him. He couldn’t tell.
The valet opened the car door on Mary’s side and his mother looked at him with sad, deep-brown eyes. “Why did you come, Marco?”
“It wasn’t me.” He tore his gaze away from hers and focused on the dash.
“You promised me.”
“Then why are you here?” he spat back. “If this is such an inconvenience, Aria can take you right back where you came from.”
She sighed. “Now that they know where I am, they will keep coming. This is why I asked you to stay away.”
Marco fisted his hands against his jeans and rubbed the rough fabric with his knuckles. He hated that she could make him feel like a little boy again. Fuck this.
He jumped out of the car and followed after Aria, but his mother called his name in a shaky voice, and he couldn’t help that he stopped cold. Soon, her hand was on his arm.
“You know that I love you.”
He chewed the inside of his cheek. “Yeah, I bet you do.”
“This was always about your father.” She tightened her grip and tried to turn him toward her, but Marco wouldn’t give in.
“You know how we found you, Mom?” He rounded on her, towering over her in his anger. “I found out there’s a pack. Here. In Las Vegas.”
Her lips settled into a tight line and she hid her eyes under dark lashes.
“It seems that packs are a thing. Funny. Because I seem to remember you telling me that we had to stay as far away from each other as we could.” He glanced around and lowered his voice as a group of douche-bros passed too close for comfort.
“It was for your own protection. Don’t you see that?” Her eyes, when they met his, were desperate, red, and wide. It reminded him of the day he’d come back home after shifting for the first time. She looked at him like he was breaking her heart. He had never forgotten that feeling. It gnawed on his insides.
“Whoever my dad was, don’t you think it would have helped us to have a pack around us?” A burning behind his eyes caught his breath for a moment. “Carl and Teresa, I met them. They’re armed to the eye teeth.”
Her lips quivered and she took a step back from him, shaking her head. “They never would have taken us in. Not after…”
When she didn’t continue, Marco threw up his hands. “You don’t know what they would and wouldn’t have done.”
“I know,” she hissed. “I’ve been trying to protect you.”
“Mary?” Aria’s voice sent a chill through Marco’s body. Had she heard him? He looked down at his hands, clenched and ready to strike. He hadn�
��t felt this tense in years, or this angry. With a deep breath, he stepped back from his mother.
Aria walked around him and put her body between the two of them and gestured to someone behind her. ”Rain, this is Mary Foster.”
The giant, muscle-bound man from earlier appeared in the corner of Marco’s eye. Gods, had everyone heard them arguing? Marco stepped away, edging toward the hotel entrance. He wanted to get away from this whole mess.
Rain and Aria spoke with Mary for a moment and Marco tried to calm his breathing. He was entirely too much on edge, and it was hinting at the time of night he would usually be in bed.
He hadn’t even checked his text messages all night. There were probably a string of angry texts from Troy, telling him the kitchen wasn’t really running properly with only the expediter at the helm. But Marco had the long leash that could only come with having the owner in his back pocket. Still, he almost wished for an excuse to duck out and get away from this mess for good.
The jury was out on whether he wanted to get away from Aria or not, but he certainly could have used some space. Between Aria’s orgasm and the Vegas pack, the alphas, the bond thing… It was just too much. His psyche needed a break.
Rain hustled past him, holding his mother’s arm like a Regency lady entering a ball. Marco was glad the big wolf hadn’t asked him to accompany them. He needed to get out of there.
He turned around and ran straight into Aria. The confusion of feeling the physical contact still hadn’t normalized for him, and he was disoriented long enough that he almost lost his balance. He relaxed against one of the big columns and tried to catch his breath.
“Watch out,” she said, coming toward him, but he shook her off.
“Don’t tell me what to do.”
“You know that it hurts me when you are hurt now.” She held the side of her jaw, where he could feel thrumming in his face from smacking into her. “Be careful.”
He held his breath for a long moment. “I don’t want to hurt you.”
“That’s good to hear.” She stood straight and shook off some of the pain. “Come on, we have to go with them.”
Marco gestured a stop and held out his hand. “They don’t need me. I don’t know anything else.”
Aria blinked fast and shook her head. “You don’t think you want to hear about your father?”
“Fuck my father. And fuck my mother. And fuck the world.” He turned and smacked the column with an open hand, about to walk away. Aria laced her fingers into his and pulled him around to face her.
A thousand emotions glanced across her features as she stared at him. It seemed like she was about to speak several times, and Marco was mesmerized by the ice and fire of her eyes. It calmed him just to stand in front of her, to breathe in and out, to watch her.
Still holding his hand, Aria leaned toward him and whispered, “You’re not alone anymore, Marco.”
The words struck him so deep, he couldn’t form his own words. Her gaze flickered back and forth over his eyes, and his face. He had never seen her be soft like this, and it drew him to her like a magnet.
He took her face in his hands and drew her lips to his, easing her mouth open and kissing her deep. His tongue slid along hers and he relished the earthy taste of her.
Sure, he liked kissing her, but could he really trust her?
Aria pulled her lips away and settled her forehead against his. “I know you’re angry. I can feel your heart beating. Just trust me. You will want to know what she has to say about your father.”
He drew his eyebrows together and was just about to shake his head and walk away when she took his hand again. The warmth of it. The right of it. He had to trust her. Aria pulled him through the big glass doors of the hotel, past the little clusters of round, red seats in the lobby, and across crystal floors.
When they got to the elevator, he found himself tensing in anticipation of that feeling he’d experienced before, with all the alphas around. But when they stepped inside the box that would carry them upstairs, he found that the reflection of Aria standing beside him stirred up feelings he hadn’t ever expected to feel.
He kept focusing on the echoing memory of her words. You’re not alone anymore. He could almost let himself believe that.
Almost.
* * *
The elevator doors opened to an empty hallway. Aria took Marco’s hand and pulled him down the hallway. It was high time he understood that his wolf wasn’t something to be feared. That it is a wonderful gift and that being part of a pack was one of the most amazing things about being a wolf.
“Where are we going?” Marco tugged her hand.
“I need to show you something,” Aria answered, pulling even harder. He wasn’t getting out of this. No matter what. Fire burned up and down her skin, desire for her mate who was so close to accepting who he was, yet still had so far to go. He might as well have been on the other side of the country. His anger radiated from his body and fed her already guilty mind.
She could change his mindset. She had to. But it was going to take some drastic measures. Forcing him to shift was going to be one of them.
“What? More wolf shit?” Marco snarled, trying to yank his hand away. “Some other spell that I don’t get a say about?”
Knife to the gut. She deserved that one. They were supposed to be together. The magick never lied. But he didn’t know that. To him it was all one big high he couldn’t come down from and she was the drug that wouldn’t let go. Well, pal. Prepare to be even more pissed. Cause I’m not done yet.
“Yes. More wolf shit, Marco. Guess what, you’re a fucking wolf. You’re my mate and I’m yours. I can explain everything, but you have to give me a chance.” She breathed slowly and evenly, willing away the overflow of emotions riding just behind her stalwart wall of enforcer bravado. Where was a girl’s BFF when she needed one? That and a tub of chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream. This plan she’d concocted to help Marco also involved her doing things that might ruin the bond between them. Or it could work perfectly and she’d finally get the ride on his cock she’d wanted from the start.
Making him face his wolf was the only option she could see. Everything standing in his way was internal. Until he faced that, they could never be together. So really…she had nothing to lose, right?
Aria held on tight to Marco’s hand. He was Fate’s gift to her and she wasn’t giving up on him, not by a long shot. He could kick and scream and throw a fucking fit and she still intended to show him how much he was missing by being afraid of his wolf. She just had to get him into her hotel suite.
Her room was just around the corner.
“Where are we going?”
“My room. I told you, I need to show you something.” Aria pulled a key card from her back pocket to slip into the slot of the door handle. The phone in her hip pocket buzzed. She released Marco’s hand and pulled it out. The screen flashed with a message from Rain.
Conference room. Bring Marco.
Shit. She let the hotel door swing shut.
“We’ve been summoned.”
“I’m not going in there if they’re questioning Mary.” Marco crossed his arms and took a step backward.
“I’ll be there with you. Everything will be fine.” Aria escorted him down the hallway and pulled the conference room door open. She gestured for Marco to enter first. All eyes were on them both as they entered the packed room.
Aria ran her hand up Marco’s arm, calming the tension she could see tightening the muscles in the back of his neck. A muscle in his jaw twitched and his heart rate soared. He needed time to adjust to all of this. She couldn’t imagine how hard this was for him. Never being around wolves. Not having the grounding connection to an alpha.
“Breathe,” she whispered. The magick coursing through a room full of alphas was a lot to take, even for her. Mary sat in a large black leather conference chair about midway down the table. The table was full. At least twenty alphas from around the country sat staring at her.
<
br /> She recognized the Cavanaugh alpha from Boston –old money and old blood with a side of narcissistic asshole. The Davis alpha from Hollywood. The McConnell and Gallagher alphas were familiar faces too. Most she didn’t recognize and had never met before. Aaron VonBrandt and Francis Dubois sat directly to Mary’s right and Carl Rivera –the Vegas alpha– sat on Mary’s left with Teresa, his mate, standing just behind his chair.
Damn, they all got here fast. Not only that, none of them looked like they’d ever gone to bed. Numerous paper coffee cups billowed out of the trashcan near the door.
She glared at Rain where he stood behind Francis’ chair, like the other enforcers. The room was packed. More alphas stood along the walls with their enforcers. Where did they expect her and Marco to stand?
Francis caught Aria’s questioning gaze. “That was quick. Elise isn’t here yet, but we have a few more questions for Mary. Just wait there.” He turned his attention to Mary again. “We don’t have any knowledge of Elise’s mother,” Francis said, his voice calm and level. “This is why you are so important to us, Mary. Elise was raised in the human foster care system. She was left at a church with a note stating only her name and that she needed a home.”
“Lupe left her daughter?” A sob shuddered through Mary’s body and tears glistened in the woman’s eyes.
Aria’s throat closed.
Francis nodded.
“She wouldn’t have left her unless… He must have found her, which means he can find the rest of us. Me. Marco. Elise. He’s probably hunting us as we speak.” Her voice rose with each word.
“Who is he?” One of the alphas at the table leaned forward with a drawly coastal accent on his tongue.
Mary’s eyes were wide as she ignored him. “When we left we agreed we would separate and hide for our own protection. Bringing us together only makes it easier for him to locate us.”
“You called Elise’s mother Lupe. Do you remember her last name?” Francis asked again, ignoring Mary’s frantic behavior. “Focus, Mary. We need you to do this. We can’t protect you, Elise, or Marco without this information.”
