by Belle Harper
“It’s just, we wanted to make sure you were safe. Ada, too—” I held my finger up and gave him the most blank stare I could. He shut his mouth and his eyes widened slightly. I hadn’t really told Galen off since I chose him as a mate.
“If you ever, and I mean ever, do that again, I will never speak to you again. That is a line you crossed, having protection is one thing. But not telling us and we panic thinking we are being stalked. That’s another thing. I thought you would be smarter than that Galen.” Throwing some words back at him.
Ada had got out of the car and came around to defuse the situation.
“It’s okay, at least they weren’t crazy killers… maybe crazy. But not killers.”
I cracked a smile. She was trying to put a positive spin on this, and it didn’t take long before Maverick, Ranger, and Raff were here beside Galen. I had a feeling that they were all ganging up on me.
“We just wanted you to feel like you had space, but also know you were safe.” Maverick tried to add to Galen’s reasoning, but it wasn’t working. I was actually mad. Not that they did that to keep me safe, but to lie to me and say that I could go to Ada’s house. That they weren’t going to be there, I was fine, safe. Yeah, because they had people watching me.
“Look, we are going to talk about trust when I get inside. Something I thought we had in each other, I trusted you when you said I was safe to go to Ada’s without you all. But having others watch me, that’s a breach of trust.”
I could see Saint and Noah walking towards us, I rolled my eyes and shook my head at their approach. Ada saw them but didn’t jump in her car like I thought she would.
“Hi, Ada. Hi, Lexi” Noah said. He looked bashful. His hands were in the pockets of his shorts and he looked up at us through his lashes as he kicked the gravel with his shoe. He looked like he got caught with his hand in the cookie jar. And well… he did. Kinda.
Ada gave a little wave. Ugh… I wish I wasn’t so angry so I could watch this. It was so sweet. I had a feeling Noah was wiggling his way into her heart. Just like Ranger did. But I was angry, and I just needed some space to think.
“Thanks for the lift, Ada. Your parents are super nice. And tell them again thank you for having me.” I hugged her, and she nodded.
“Anytime, my parents loved you. See you on Monday?” she asked. I nodded and started walking towards the gates that weren’t too far away. I could feel the guys behind me, Ranger walked ahead slightly. I watched him… his ass in those jean shorts was—nope. Not going there, looking away, he was doing that Ranger swagger thing. Hypnotizing me with his ass.
Jett smiled at me and nodded. He was smart. Wasn’t looking for any smart-ass comments tonight.
Nash, on the other hand. “Is that trouble in paradise I see?” when I shot him a death stare, he shook his head. “They should have known better is all, they should have told you, Lexi.”
Yeah, they should have.
So, turns out. Being mad at your mates ends up with a lot of chocolate, a bubble bath in my room back in the main house. And whatever movie I want to watch. I picked Frozen. Pretty sure the guys were internally screaming as they plastered on smiles and we watched all together in the movie room.
There was popcorn, a big blanket fort and Ranger shifted and snuggled with me on the lower floor. This was nice, and they did apologise… a lot about the mistake they made, and I may have let them suffer a little more than needed, but I was just glad to be back here, in the movie room. It was all fixed now, you wouldn’t have even known it was damaged at all.
We all fell asleep together, Ranger stayed in wolf form. Pretty sure Alaric was gonna be mad that he shifted and stayed like that, but we could vacuum later.
When I woke up, I was happy. Everyone was sleeping still… Even Galen. He was so close to me, his arm wrapped around me. I moved and sat up and his arm dropped to my legs. He didn’t wake up, so I tentatively reached out and touched his skin where his sweater had ridden up. The scars there were white and raised against his already pale skin.
He was cold, but I had got used to it, I liked it. It was Galen. He wasn’t a real hugger or really initiated physical contact with me. I think he was worried about the temperature of his skin. But now, like this, touching him, I think it went deeper than just the temperature. I think he had some deep emotional wounds.
“Hey,” he whispered, my eyes flicked to his. It was enough to stir Maverick, who rolled over and started snoring… badly. We both glanced over to him and I pursed my lips to try and stop the giggles from coming out. Galen had a beautiful smile on his face, I looked down at him and stroked his cheek before running my fingers through his curls.
“Hey,” I whispered back. I like that we were the only two awake. It was nice, a little one-on-one time. I tugged a little on his dark curl towards me. His brows raised and a little spark flashed in his eye as he sat up and kissed me and pulled away. Oh, hell no, I wanted to be kissed by him. I pulled him to me, our lips crashing together, his mouth opened, and I slipped my tongue into his mouth and deepened the kiss further. We were waking everyone up, but I needed this. I needed to kiss Galen right now.
“Get a room,” Ranger grumbled and threw a pillow at us. It broke us apart, and I giggled as I threw it back.
“No, you get a room. Or go back to sleep.”
He didn’t, he sat up and rubbed the scruffy mop of hair. It had grown heaps. All of theirs had. Even Raff needed a haircut. The shaved sides were really long.
“You need a haircut,” I told him as I wrapped myself into Galen and stretched my feet out to Raff. He took them in his hands and started to massage them.
I moaned, fuck. “this is like heaven.”
Then we heard a huge snore, and all looked over to Maverick and laughed. His eyes popped open, and he looked stunned. Oh, poor thing.
“What?” he asked, his voice deep with sleep as he rubbed his eyes.
“You snore like a freight train.” He smiled sleepily and dropped back down to the pillow. I smiled as I rolled away from Galen and Raff, and laid my body down on Maverick’s. The blanket between us. He groaned and said I was heavy. I laughed and tickled him.
“Get up sleepyhead, let’s go in the pool today.”
Chapter Thirty
Rafferty
It was amazing that a week ago, we were all preparing to fight. That I was protecting my mate from my uncles who thought it was their right to take her. From me. The same way they took my mom. I remember Uncle Jordy tell me once they snatched her from the street and forced the change on her. That was one of the many reasons why I gave the go ahead to wipe out the whole pack. There were no redeeming qualities about them, drugs had taken over their lives and they did too much hurt, delivered too much pain to me, to others. They needed to be wiped out before they slipped up and showed themselves to humans. Exposing us all would be the downfall of our world.
“Hey, you have been really quiet. Wanna talk?” Lexi pulled herself out of the water and nudged her arm against mine. I had come out here to watch her learn to swim, Maverick was training her today because yesterday we found out that Ranger was not the best teacher for Lexi. He was a jokester but had the patience of a two-year-old.
“Just was thinking.” She nudged me again, and I almost fell in.
“Yeah, I can see that. But you haven’t really been yourself all week. Like I know everyone hasn’t been, and it almost feels like a bad dream the way everything is back to normal around here. Even the patrols are less. But it did happen, and I think you should talk to someone.
“Doesn’t have to be me, maybe Jack? Or Grayson?”
I shrugged. I knew I should, and talking with Lexi has been good for me in the past when I opened up a little to her. But how do you tell your mate you don’t feel any guilt for signing off on your pack’s death warrant. That because they were all gone, and I was the only living heir, that all the Russet land was now mine. I wanted to go there and burn that piece of shit they called a home down to the ground. I want to
wipe all those memories from my mind and start to live again.
“Let go back inside for a while. Just you and me? Out of the sun.”
We went to Galen’s; I was happy we were more or less living here. Even if I had to share the sofa. It was better when we were all together. I felt… whole. Even though at times I felt alone, I knew I wasn’t. They could tell when I needed space to be with me, or like Lexi now. She wanted to try and help me. But I didn’t think I could be helped. I wasn’t broken, yet I wasn’t whole either.
“Is it about your mom?” she asked really softly as she held my hand. I guess it was a part of it. I didn’t like to think too much about it, my wolf didn’t like that. Didn’t like the feelings it brought. But it was something I had been struggling with.
“It’s okay, you don’t have to tell me. Just trying to help.”
Her eyes, so unusual and so unreal. They were big and bright, like they were looking into my soul.
“It's not that I don’t want to, I just find it hard to control my wolf when I think too much about it. It’s like a trigger for my shift almost now and I’m scared I will shift and might accidently hurt you.”
I bent forward, dropping her hand and resting them both on my knees.
“Oh, Raff, babe. It’s alright, I can heal fast remember,” she reminded me. Not fast enough for my liking, but Galen would be able to speed it up. I took a deep breath and sat up straight.
“It’s just I keep thinking about her, what they did to her. And to find out they murdered her. My mother.” I growled low, my wolf itching to jump out and rip their throats out. But they were no longer here, they were dead. When I didn’t speak for a while Lexi rubbed my back softly in circles. It calmed me down, and I relaxed slightly.
“Do you think maybe you would want to go back? Like you know. To Russet?”
That I didn’t know. To burn it down, yes. But then my mom’s roses. She was buried with the roses; they said. I looked over to Lexi, it's funny. The first thing I really noticed about her was the way she smelt. Not just like my mate, but she smelled like my mother’s roses. I was drawn to that, the good memories in springtime when they blossomed. Their fragrance on the wind. She loved those roses. I did everything I could to make sure they were looked after, but now no one was there to take care of them.
“Yeah, actually. I would. Maybe after Josh’s adoption? I can go there on my own after. Or if you want…”
She kissed me, I didn’t realize I was crying until her thumbs came up and wiped my tears.
“I will be there with you, we all will.”
I sagged down and let it all out as Lexi held me tight, stroking my hair and saying soothing words. Eventually I felt them all home, they were quiet as I rested with Lexi but each, one by one, came over and held my shoulder. Letting me know they were there.
We are all in this together.
This was my family.
Chapter Thirty-One
Lexi
It had been a few days since Raff broke down in my arms, four days to be exact. It had been good for him to let it out like that; he had been doing better. And tomorrow was adoption day, and then we would be going to Russet straight after. It was cleared with Alaric and I was excited. And my period had come, which I wasn’t expecting the guys to notice, but as soon as I woke up yesterday morning, Galen had told me everything I needed was in the bathroom.
I laughed when I walked in there. He was right, everything I needed. As soon as I walked out, all the guys asked how I was feeling, Ranger rubbed my back asked if I need a hot water bottle. Chocolate, take the day off school. I just blushed under all their attention. It was sweet; they did load me up with chocolate before we left for school.
It would be even sweeter if they learnt how to put the lid down on the toilet. Like really? Was that asking for much? Probably because I had mentioned it a few times along with their aim! Ugh… didn’t even want to go there. Boys were gross.
As soon as Ada saw me, she grabbed my arm. Her eyes were wide, and I knew she wanted to talk. And exactly what she wanted to talk about.
“So, did Noah have a good birthday dinner?” I tried to whisper, but it was hard in the school halls with so many students being loud. Her eyes widened more, and she slapped me gently as she shushed me. “That good?” She rolled her eyes, then stopped suddenly in the hall. I turned back to her, she was red in the face. Oh, crap. I looked over to where her eyes were trained and yep, Noah was standing there watching her. And from the huge beaming grin on his face, he was happy to see her. He was standing with a few other Kiba boys, Luca and Harley. They were all watching us. I smiled and started to wave as two big arms wrapped around my waist from behind and lifted me in the air.
“Ranger, put me down,” I protested. He laughed and dropped me to my feet. But not before he had walked up to Noah.
“Hey, man. How was your birthday dinner?” I pursed my lips and rolled my eyes. Ugh, can’t they just let us girls talk for one minute without listening in. I peeled myself from Ranger, I went back to where Ada was still standing, students walking around her. I grabbed her hand and took off with her in a different direction until I found the restroom and dragged her in with me.
“We can't be late for class,” she protested as the warning bell rang.
“Because we won't pass?” She didn’t say anything, her face still looked like it had seen a ghost. But when she cracked a smile, I knew she got it. I hugged her. Something I noticed I was doing a lot of lately. The door slammed open, and the sound bounced off the tiles. Olivia and her little group of bitches were here.
“Oh, gross. It’s contaminated in here. Don’t want to get any stripper or nerd germs.” For fuck’s sake. Who the fuck told these bitches about my former employment. If I find out I was going to kill them. But first, if she didn’t want stripper germs, she should have walked away. I walked over to where she was looking at herself in the mirror and pressed my body against hers.
“Hey, back off. Don’t touch me. Stripper whore.” I grabbed her ponytail and yanked, hard. Her hand flew to her head as she crumbled to the floor. The other two girls pulled their claws out.
“What, you both gonna take me?” Olivia was whinging on the floor and cussing at me. Why did girls find the need to do this to each other? Why bash each other down? She infuriated me, and I lashed out. I shouldn’t have. I should have been the bigger person, but she pissed me off.
“Look, don’t know why you bother to be nasty. Like seriously, you obviously like the Kiba boys. You were at their parties. You know I’m with Maverick and Ranger. Yeah… you know. They are not going to leave me for you. So you might as well accept that.”
She got up and spat at me.
“They were mine, I had them first they will come back to me. I know they will. They’re only with you because you’re new. They don’t actually want to be with you. They just see a stripper who can perform.” My blood was boiling. It was like talking to a dumbass.
“Stop being such a bitch, Olivia. We all know they wouldn’t leave, Lexi. You can keep trying, like you have all week. But no. They are with Lexi, they want her. I’m sorry if that’s hard to understand, but you need to back off.” Ada had her hands on her hips. I felt so proud in that moment. She stood up to them. I smiled to show Ada how good that was. In the corner of my eye, I saw something blue whip past. Then Ada was flying down onto the tiles. My hand reached out, but I couldn’t grab her in time.
She hit her head hard and made a pained sound as I moved to her. Fuck. I turned back to see Olivia straighten up her blue dress and brushing her hair from her eyes. My eye flared as she laughed. The other two girls didn’t. They were smart, because I was going to make sure she hurt… bad.
“You think I’m gonna hurt you? That would be too easy… I’m going to destroy you.” She put her hands up in a fighting stance.
I chuckled, “I ain’t gonna fight you, no. This is worse. I’m gonna freeze you out. You are done with Kiba boys.”
She stood tall, her
hands on her hips she just laughed, you could tell she was worried, the other two girls just watched on. Not saying a word about their friends.
“You think your magic pussy is going to stop all the Kiba boys from wanting me? Ugh, pathetic piece of trash, you will be the one they kick to the curb bitch. Not me. Let’s go, girls.” The other two ran to the door, I guess they didn’t have anything to say as Olivia strutted out of there like her shit didn’t stink. Ada moaned as she sat up, her hand on the back of her head came away stained with red.
“Oh shit, you need to see the nurse.” I moved behind her and saw her blonde hair was now stained with sticky red blood. She had hit the floor hard.
“You’re bleeding, Ada.” I jumped up and grabbed some paper towels and wet it, then quickly put it to the back of her head. She flinched.
“I have a headache, it’s like a little army of soldiers marching in my head.” I didn’t know if her describing it that way meant she had a concussion, but I wasn’t going to wait to find out.
“Hold on, I will get help.”
Chapter Thirty-Two
Lexi
Poor Ada went home; her parents were going to get her checked out. But she would be fine. I had thought of using my powers on her, but when she saw the way I looked at her, she told me not to. She knew how much pain it put me through, and that she was okay. Just a headache, mostly.
“Ah, Lexi. Hi. Um…is Ada okay? I tried calling her, but she didn’t answer.” I turned and saw the concerned look on Huxley’s face, his dark brows all scrunched up.