by KT Strange
“Eh, his loss. Means I get you more to myself. Get to make you squirm, my hands all over you, with none of his cock-blocking bullshit getting in the way.” His hands followed his words, tracing my curves until he cupped one of my breasts.
“Hey!”
Finn jerked away from me as Ace glared at us both. He was in the kitchen again. Someone needed to be nice to him and take over some of the cooking duties, it was seriously unfair to the younger wolf. I blushed and pushed my hair out of my face.
“Set the table,” Ace ordered us as we approached the folding table where we all ate our meals.
“Paper or plastic?” Finn asked as he grabbed out the disposable plates we used when we had guests. I frowned. He saw my face and looked nervous. “Eli’s bringing Max over. I think he misses us. He hasn’t spent this long away from the pack in a few decades, and I have a feeling that Max is more into painting toenails and doing hair than he is. He even texted me, and you know how much he hates using his phone.”
“I hope he’s not telling her he’s annoyed. I don’t want her to feel bad,” I said, mulling over my feelings. I missed Eli, even though he was in general a huge grump, and I really missed Max. She was barely speaking to me as of late.
“I think it’s fine,” Finn said, setting out forks and knives.
When they got there a few minutes later, it was clearly not fine. Max was quiet, Eli quieter, and when we settled down to eat, all the guys were looking at the two of them. Ace and Cash had made spaghetti with extra meat in the sauce, something that Max would have normally loved, but she was picking at her food.
“So this is awkward,” Finn said as he helped himself to seconds after plowing through his first serving.
“Charlie on the roof?” Eli asked, his voice somehow so cutting despite not saying much at all. His eyes flicked to me, and I glanced away. Had Cash talked to him? Blamed me for what was going on? It wasn’t my fault. I bit back on the urge to defend myself without asking if that’s why Eli was giving me that weird look. Try not to jump to conclusions, Darcy.
“He likes it up there. Helps him commune with the stars or whatever,” Cash commented lightly, with a quick look at me and a brief smile. I let out a breath I didn’t realize I was holding— maybe he was being a bit of a dick but at least he wasn’t going to rat me out to Eli. Immediately I resented my own self for thinking that. I hadn’t done anything wrong. Charlie had come onto me, had made me come, and the memory still warmed my skin every time I thought of it. He was the one who had pulled away after, like I’d burned him.
“Maybe I’ll bring him some dinner,” Eli said, setting down his fork. Max reached for her glass and knocked it with her hand, spilling liquid everywhere. “Shit, sorry—”
“I got it.” Eli grabbed a napkin and mopped it up immediately.
“You don’t have to fix everything,” she snapped at him, and he jerked back as if she’d hit him. Finn inhaled, the noise sharp.
“Alright,” Eli said, and dropped the napkin and went back to his dinner like nothing had happened. Ace’s eyes were wide when I looked at him. Cash cleared his throat.
“How’s school?” he asked casually. Max shrugged.
“Internship is going okay. Or it would be, if someone didn’t shadow my every move like he’s a controlling boyfriend,” she said, not sounding at all like herself. She glared at Eli. Cash’s eyebrows both popped up.
“You guys need some uh, like, marital counseling or something?” he asked, trying for the laugh, but his joke fell flat.
“No,” Max said, setting down her knife and fork. “What I want is some freedom. Not some guy, who by the way, I barely know, to hulk around after me, make my life difficult, and act like everyone who wants to talk to me is about to knife me in the stomach.”
“Well they might,” Eli’s voice cracked as he spoke, frustration evident as he stared her down. “You want to die? Because that’s what they wanted. That’s why they tracked you down.”
“Then why won’t you let me talk to my dad and he can deal with it?” She leaned forward in her chair, practically vibrating with anger.
“Because,” he sputtered, “you think we can just waltz into the cop shop, let them take our IDs and tell them who we are? I’ve been alive for longer than your grandparents have!” He roared the last word, and she pulled away, thudding into the back of her chair.
“Elias,” Finn’s voice was calm, almost reasoned. “Why don’t we talk this out. Obviously this isn’t working.”
I’d never seen Max so upset, maybe broken-hearted over Craig, but never as worked up as she was now.
“What?” she snapped at me. “Stop staring.”
“Max,” I didn’t know what to say.
“Want me to take you home then?” Eli sounded defeated. “I won’t stay. I’ll come back here.”
“Yes, please,” Max said, shoving away from the table and storming toward where she’d left her bag and jacket on the couch.
“I can go with you guys,” Ace offered. Eli shook his head.
“It’s my own damn fault,” he muttered, casting a long glance at her. “Just... brings back some memories, and I think I was a little too much.”
I knew Eli could be overbearing, especially when he was trying to accomplish something, and in this case, he was taking Max’s safety personally. But Max was acting completely out of character. I got to my feet and approached her slowly. Before I could even talk though, she turned to me, her normally light eyes dark with frustration.
“Don’t,” she said. “I’m not sorry. He acts worse than my dad was when he was pissed at Craig. I am not a prisoner and he treats me like one.”
“I’m sure he doesn’t mean—”
“Stop making fucking excuses,” Max half-pleaded, half-spat, as her eyebrows pulled together. “I just want to be normal, okay? Normal! Is that too much to ask? I was fine before, nothing ever happened to me that was out of the ordinary other than you blowing the lights every so often, and I was okay with that. That was my life. And now?” She stared at me, her voice cracking. “I can’t do this.”
How had Eli not seen that Max was breaking? That she was falling apart? I was upset at her for being so rude, but at the same time I knew that it was because she wasn’t dealing well with anything that had happened. Not even remotely.
“Max, it’s going to be okay,” I promised.
“Oh, you know that? Really? From what I hear, Phoenixcry is about to get dumped by their label, and then what? You guys are all going to get killed if you can’t tour, right? How’s that going to be okay?!” She grabbed her bag. “I’m going home.” She pushed past me.
“Running away isn’t going to change anything,” I said, desperate to have her understand that. She’d still be a phoenix, she’d still be at risk.
“Oh, like you’re one to talk,” she snapped, heading to the door. “You’re the fucking queen at running away.” The truth in her words cut me deeply and I stood there, not able to speak. Ace slipped up beside me, his arm wrapping around me. The guys were quiet, Eli still while waiting as Max paused by the door. I don’t think anyone knew what to say. She turned, eyes falling on his embrace around me, and her eyes hardened even more. “And there they are. You get everything. At least you knew what you were. I had no idea. I didn’t ask for this.”
“Nobody asked for this, Max, please. Just calm down, please?” I was not above begging. She was my best friend. I knew she was having a full out panic attack, and that was why she was acting so crazy, but I still wanted to try to have her see reason. It was so much for anyone to handle, let alone a mundane, or someone who’d thought she was a mundane.
“What part of this should I be fucking calm about!” She clenched her fists and she burst into flame, sheets of fire climbing up around her. Ace jerked me back, behind him. Cash shouted. Eli was a blur, grabbing a blanket off the back of a lounge chair, and tackling Max to the ground with it. Finn was just after him, the small kitchen fire extinguisher in his hand.
> “Stop, stop,” she begged him, shoving at him, the flames guttering and dying out. He pulled back, the blanket covered in soot. Her clothes were intact, but burnt at the edges, soot streaking her face. “I can’t, please—” She scrambled to her feet and ran out the front door, letting it slam shut behind her. My breath choked in my throat, muscles going tight as I wanted to cry out after her.
“I’ve got this,” Eli said, voice husky as he got to his feet.
“You sure about that?” Finn asked. Eli gazed at him then left, following Max out. The sob that had been threatening me finally hiccuped out of my chest. Ace grabbed me tight to him. My fingers shook as I clung to him.
“Shhh,” he soothed me as I started to cry, fat, hot tears dripping down my cheeks. She hated me. Maybe she was right. Maybe if she’d never met me, she’d never have known? I had no idea. I was so out of my depths.
“I’ll clean up from dinner,” Cash said, sounding like he was weighed down.
“Eli will call when he gets her back to the dorm,” Finn replied, with false optimism. “It’ll blow over.”
Will it? I wanted to ask, but instead I clung to Ace tighter. I needed to go after her, but if I did... would it just be a repeat of what had happened? This time more public, where hunters might notice?
Ace’s warm fingers wiped away my tears. “C’mon to bed,” he said. “Let’s go make a blanket nest.” He urged me to the back of the room. At least there I could cry in private, feeling overwhelmed and unsure of what to do next. I let him take me to bed, crawling into the small pile of blankets before the tears really took over. Ace’s warm bulk slipped behind me, and he cradled me while I cried myself to sleep.
Fourteen
Darcy
My throat was raw and tight when I woke up, my face itchy with dried salt. Someone, one of the guys, had pulled my bra off without moving my shirt, and undone my jeans so that I was in my underwear. The jam space was dark, the sounds of heavy breathing all around me. Ace was closest, Cash right behind him, the two of them cuddled up with Cash’s arm tossed over Ace’s hip. A smile caught me by surprise at the sight. I glanced over to the other side of the bed. Finn was there, stretched out on his back, blankets only covering his belly and nothing else. Eli was missing.
Probably at Max’s, I thought with a pang of hurt. I needed water and to not think about it. Eli was just trying to keep her safe, and I was glad he was taking care of her... but still. My feelings were all mixed up. Sliding from the bed as quietly as I could, I crept into the kitchenette and poured myself a glass of water. The jam space was eerie at night, moonlight and street light glowing through the clerestory windows, splashing the cement floor with dueling orange and white patches of light. Cash’s drum kit glinted in the dark, the silver hardware winking red and white as car lights from a nearby overpass filtered inside.
Charlie was still outside, serving some penance or avoiding me, whatever the hell was happening. Guilt bit at me. I was making so many people who mattered to me miserable. What did that say about me? Even if it never had been my intention, just my existence was hurting the people I loved. I took another long sip of water and closed my eyes. More tears were threatening to come cascading down my cheeks. I flicked a few droplets of water onto my face and wiped away the dry, sticky feeling that my crying had left on my skin.
Bare footsteps on the cement floor made me sit up straight. Ace came around the corner, yawning. His eyes seemed to glow in the dark as he smiled sleepily, bumping me with his hip as he passed to get himself a glass of water.
“Hey,” I protested softly, so not to wake the other guys.
“Hey back,” he said, taking a gulp of water. “How are you feeling?”
“Shitty.” I looked at my glass of water. Ace sighed and slouched beside me against the counter.
“Makes sense. That was rough.”
“I feel like everything for the last few months has been rough.” I needed to be honest. My life had been flipped upside down since that first day at XOhX when I’d walked in on a meeting-room full of werewolves-turned-rockstars. My brain tried to thread together all the things that had happened, but I was so exhausted and just worn out. Ace polished off his glass of water and set it down on the counter with a soft click.
“We’re walking an uncut trail,” he said after a moment. “Sometimes we’re running down it. It’s normal that our ankles get snagged on a few tree-roots here and there.”
“I feel like I’ve run into a tree,” I admitted. He laughed, a soft chuckle of breath, and rubbed his cheek up against the top of my head. Letting him, I snuggled close as he folded me into his arms. He was warm through my shirt, and my fingers curled against his chest. The hard play of his muscles under the silky-smooth of his skin made me think. “Hey, who undressed me?” He paused, his breathing still.
“Me. Was t-that okay?” He stumbled over his words, and I couldn’t help but be charmed by how sweet he was.
“Yeah, of course. I slept much better like this than I would have in my jeans.”
“And your bra,” he said, pride in his voice. “I took off your bra.” A giggle burst out of me. “Hey, I worked hard at that!” He grinned down at me, well aware of how ridiculous he was and not caring. That was half the reason I loved him. He never took himself too seriously. Like some people. Here’s looking at you, Cash and Eli. “I just wanted you to be comfortable,” Ace explained, his hands so warm on my lower back. He rubbed over the cotton of my shirt. “Nothing I hate more than seeing you sad.”
“There’s nothing you hate more than that?” I couldn’t quite believe it. He looked thoughtful.
“I don’t like it much when Finn uses all the hot water in the tour bus, but still, I was on a tour bus, not a van, on tour, with my band. I didn’t have a lot to complain about.” He bit his lip, his gaze swooping low, over the length of my body, down my legs. He looked like he wanted to eat me. Weirdly, I could barely breathe. Funny how just one look from him would do that to me. “Plus we had you. I had you. You know what that’s like, Darce? Getting the one thing that you never thought would happen? It felt like I’d died, gone to warrior’s last rest, where good wolves go. Laying in bed next to you, listening to you dream... it was like someone had taken every single wish I’d ever made, and brought it to life.”
Words were gone. I had nothing to answer that. His blue eyes were so intense, his brow furrowed. Breathing wasn’t happening. It was all I could do to just look up at him and hang on tight. I was so gone for him. A thousand hunters could have broken down the door of the jam space and I knew I would evaporate them with a click of my fingers. I’d die to protect him.
“Ace—”
His kiss cut me off, and I moaned into his mouth. His fingers scrambled up under the back of my shirt, hands spanning my waist. I wanted him so badly that I didn’t protest when his hands slipped down over my ass and he picked me up. My knees squeezed around his hips. He kept kissing me, mouth hot and sweet on mine, walking me backward. The cool air slipped over my exposed skin, and he groaned when I rocked my hips into his.
“Gonna drop you if you do that,” he threatened, but I knew he was lying. Ace would never drop me. I rubbed myself against him again, my arms tangling around his neck. “Darcy,” he hissed. His cock was hard in his boxer-briefs, and I had every intention of teasing him until he fucked me. I was already wet for it, or at least well on the way there. This was what I needed to take my mind away from things. Him. He kissed me and grunted when his knees hit the edge of the couch. He turned and dropped down on it, taking me with him.
Kneeling over him, legs spread over his lap, I leaned back to pull my shirt off, letting it drop behind me. My arms were stretched in the air and I watched him looking at me, his eyes low. His gaze scraped over me, dragging along my belly, up to my breasts. His breath hitched in his chest and he reached for me, his hands cupping them. My head slipped back as the rough calluses on his thumbs brushed over my nipples. Golden light from the street was spilling down, dappling my skin
with stripes and blotches, which he kissed, licking and biting up the curve of my stomach until he could mouth at one of my breasts.
“Ace,” I breathed out his name when his lips closed around my nipple, and I felt his sharp teeth on me. My arm folded around his neck, fingers tangling in his blond hair, pulling him so close that his breath was barely escaping from him. His other hand pinched my nipple hard before grabbing at my hip.
“You want it like that?” he growled, his voice quiet in the silent room.
“Like what?” Adrenaline was making me shaky, and his teeth dragged over my nipple. I gasped. He pulled at my underwear, swatting me on the hip until I rose up so he could work them down my thighs. Instantly, his hand was between my legs, cupping my sex, fingers stroking along my wet pussy.
“Rough. You need it rough, Darcy?”
My cheeks were on fire, my body grinding down to meet his hand. Yes, yes, that’s what I want, I couldn’t say it, so I’d have to beg with movements instead. He flicked a thumb over my clit, hard. I cried out, the noise ringing across the room. Ace looked up at me, inches from my breasts, heavy smirk playing on his lips.
“Let’s wake them up,” he said. “See what they do when they come here and find me fucking you so hard you can’t even breathe.”
“Ace, shit.” His words had my legs trembling. He lifted me, tugging off my underwear, leaving me naked to him. He was never like this, but it was exactly what I needed.
“You think I can’t make you feel good like the other guys do? Oh, I can. Charlie thinks he’s the only guy who can make moves on you when no one else is around.” Ace flipped me onto my stomach and I jerked as the cold fabric of the sofa met my exposed front. He didn’t make me wait though, sliding over me, his hand rubbing between my thighs again from behind. “You’re so fucking wet. Hands out in front of you, stretch out for me, just like that.” I did as he asked, burying my face in the side of my arm, trying to catch my breath. He rubbed the flat of his palm in slow, wide circles over my clit, gravity forcing me down onto his hand as it was trapped between me and the couch. It was the exact right amount of pressure, revving me up.