by Ashlee Price
He had been crazy to think that it couldn’t be the same. It was in some ways, but as he looked down at her and met her bright blue eyes, he knew that there was something more. They were something more and she had finally become a proper wife.
“We should have done this a long time ago.”
Callie nodded and whimpered as he pulled away and lay down beside her. It was too intense one moment and the next she was aching from an open space that she knew only he was meant to fill. It had been what she had wanted all along and getting it was even better than she could have hoped for.
She looked up at the side of his face and smiled. “I am glad you came home early. I didn’t think I was ever going to get your attention.”
Thomas just grinned and closed his eyes. “Well, you definitely have it now, wife.”
~THE END~
Sold to the Pack
Chapter 1
Aria was having a special day. It was her eighteenth birthday and her parent’s had told her that she had a surprise waiting for her when she got home that evening. Aria wasn’t sure what it was going to be, but she knew it was going to be big. She had caught the two of them whispering and staying up late talking for several weeks. There was a tension in the air and it was hard for Aria to contain herself.
Her hopes were on a new car or maybe some money to go backpacking the next year with her friends. She had hinted hard for both of them, but when she had seen their expressions she figured it wasn’t going to happen. There was all of the excitement leading up to her birthday, she was sure that something big was about to happen. Aria just wasn’t sure what it was going to be.
Aria spent most of her day at school. Two months before she was supposed to graduate, Aria could only look forward to the summer and her hopes of the next year in Europe. The day dragged on, as she knew that it would. All she could think about was what better things she could be doing. It didn’t even faze her when she got a B on her math test, something that before would have driven her crazy. Now, all she cared about was what was next. The options seemed endless to the young woman.
“Aria. Hello earth to Aria.” She smiled and then looked over at her friend Amanda.
“What?”
“What are you thinking about?”
“Tonight. I can’t wait. I hope we have a party or something.”
“I thought you were coming out with us tonight?”
“I am. Later. My family has a surprise first, so I am not going to be able to come out till after that. Hopefully I will have a new car to drive to your house.”
Amanda smiled back at her and they were shushed by the history teacher. “Ladies if you’re going to disrupt the class, please leave.”
“Gladly.”
Mrs. King gave them both a dirty look from behind her glasses, but said nothing as they walked out into the hallway. Seniors were given a little more slack at the school, especially if their grades were up. Aria had been using it to her advantage lately and she was ready to get out of there.
“Let’s just go Amanda. I mean the last class is just art anyways.”
The redhead looked reluctant. Aria knew that she loved that class. “We can go get a mocha…”
“Okay, you twisted my arm.” Aria smiled. The only thing that Amanda liked more than art was chocolate.
The two girls grabbed their things out of the lockers that they were assigned and headed out of the school. They were technically supposed to sign out when they left and have an excuse, but it was another rule that tended to be overlooked more often than not.
Aria got into Amanda’s car, hoping that it would be the last time she’d have to ride with her. Aria was ready for her own wheels. She was ready for her parents to realize that she was an adult and that she was all grown up.
Amanda went to the coffee place first, ordering them both a frozen sugar and caffeine concoctions. Aria paid like she promised and they went down to the park to drink them and feed the ducks. It was a beautiful afternoon and Aria couldn’t help but feel optimistic. Something big was about to happen. She just knew it.
***
Aria made her way home after Amanda dropped her off a little ways from her house. She didn’t want her parents to know that she had skipped out of the last two classes, but they never paid much attention and the school never called.
She fixed her short hair, pushing it out of her face as she walked down the cracked sidewalk. She pulled the checkered skirt down that was part of her school uniform and sprayed some perfume to hide the faint smoke smell left from her snuck cigarette in the park. It was a nasty habit that she had picked up from Amanda, but she had gotten to like it too much to give up her lapses.
There were several strange cars in the driveway and pulled on the curb in the front of the white clapboard house she had lived in her whole life. Everything that Aria knew was in the small town of Chesterfield and the house on the corner of Smith and Star. She used to think that living on the road with your name on it was something to be proud of, now Aria saw it as just another nail in the coffin of her freedom. All of her family was from the small town, but no one ever seemed to leave. Aria wanted nothing more than to leave and a plane ticket or car was her way of doing it.
Excitement made her hand shake slightly as she opened the door up and then she was confronted with several strangers looking back at her. She smiled politely and scanned the room for her mother. One dark haired, dark-eyed man stepped forward with his hand outstretched.
“Aria?”
She nodded and grasped the hand out of habit and decorum. “It is so good to meet you Aria. My name is Keith. I have heard so much about you.”
Aria was confused. His brown eyes held hers for several moments, before she pulled them away and looked at their hands still touching. She moved her hand away. “It is nice to meet you too, Keith?”
He nodded and she searched the room with her eyes. He was still standing in front of her, but when her mother came into view, she excused herself with a touch on his hard shoulder. Aria was starting to get a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach that was rapidly erasing her earlier feelings of glee. There was something in her mother’s eye that she had not seen much. Something was bothering the older woman and Aria was sure that it had something to do with the men in the living room.
She was urged forward into the kitchen with a nudge of her mother’s head and Aria followed her into the only unoccupied room on the bottom floor. Aria caught a glimpse of her father in the library talking to another man that looked similar to Keith and she saw a large case full of money on the table between them. Something made her pause, but she kept going, sure she’d find out about it later.
Chapter 2
“What’s going on ma? I thought this was going to be a party or something, but I don’t know any of these people.”
Aria only recognized one person and that was the reverend from the local church in town. It did not make sense for him to be there. Her mother’s green eyes kept shifting away from her and that made her more nervous than any of the other strange occurrences of that day. Her mind flitted back to Keith in the living room and his comment of hearing so much about her. She wasn’t sure why he’d have heard anything about her.
Beverly looked up at her youngest daughter and she almost had tears in her red-rimmed eyes. The woman did not know how to say what she needed to say and she knew that her news was not going to be taken well at all. While Aria had always just wanted freedom to roam, since her birth, she was shackled to a life that she did not even know existed.
“Mom. You’re starting to scare me. What is going on and why are you looking so sad?”
“I just don’t know how to tell you this dear. I have always known that one day it would come to this, but I’d always hoped that things would turn out differently.”
The woman was talking in circles and confusing Aria even more. Her mother motioned her down to sit at the table and she waited anxiously for what it was all about.
“Beverly hurry
up. We have a wedding to do. Have you seen Aria yet?”
Beverly looked to the man standing in the doorway. Her husband had less tact than most and he did not seem to understand the need to handle a situation with a softer hand. The woman knew that he had tried to act like a father to Aria, but there wasn’t a bond that many had, even with fifteen years of raising behind them. Howard was just not as invested as she was and he did not really understand the situation. All he knew was that he got a bunch of money and rid of a thorn in his side.
“Oh there you are. Have you told her yet or what? There are all these people waiting out here and it seems rude to be sitting in here chatting about it.”
Beverly glared at him. “Howard we will be in there in a minute. Stop rushing me!”
As her mother got upset, so did Aria. She did not understand what it was all about and she certainly didn’t know what wedding he was talking about. Why was everyone waiting for her and what had her mother looking at her as though she had just sold her to the devil?
“You’re getting married Aria. Today.”
Aria was shocked. She asked her to repeat herself, unsure that she had heard her correctly. The words just didn’t register in her head.
“Aria, you were always promised to Keith. I didn’t want to burden you with all of this. I wanted you to live as normal a life as possible.” The older woman paused, sighing like she was releasing pressure that had been on her shoulders for years. There was also an internal struggle inside of Beverly. The inner question of how much does she say?
“I don’t understand mom. I thought I was getting a car or a backpacking trip, not a husband!”
Aria voice was raising but she didn’t care. Her mother was just too calm about it and she for one, wasn’t going to read into all of the nonsense about promises. Aria had made no such promises to anyone.
“Calm down Aria. They will hear you. Do you really want to start your marriage off on a bad foot?”
Aria just stared at her in astonishment. She was acting so emotionless about it, like it wasn’t the rest of her life she was talking about so nonchalantly.
“Mom, I am not getting married. I am eighteen now and even if I wasn’t, I wouldn’t agree to this. What are you guys talking about and who are all these people?”
“They are your new family Aria.”
“How can you do this? How can you give your daughter away?”
Aria was crying and though she knew they could hear her in the other room, she didn’t care. Beverly got up and went across the table and went to her level. “Aria you had to have known that you were different. That you don’t look anything like me and your father. You had to know that, I mean look at you?”
Aria still did not understand, though she was trying to. What did she mean that she doesn’t look like them? “What?”
“Aria you’re not really my daughter. Although I love you as though you were, it is true. The truth is, you were given to me to take care of until your eighteenth birthday. They are here to collect you now.”
“I don’t understand, so they are my family?”
“No, they are the family you were promised to as a child. It was your real parents that made it. I am only here to honor my side. They paid a handsome reward for the success of your raising, so please don’t make me look bad. You can do this Aria. I raised you to be strong. You’re meant for Keith, even if you don’t realize it yet.”
Aria couldn’t think and when she was pulled to her feet, she didn’t want to move but she did anyways. Aria was the ever obedient daughter, to whoever the woman next to her was. She was all she had ever known and now, it was all gone in the blink of an eye. Back in the other room, all eyes were on her and the one that she had spoken to earlier, stepped forward to take her hand.
Chapter 3
The wedding wasn’t much more than a ceremony. Aria couldn’t even think and her mind was in a blur. She was prompted to say ‘I do’ in the right place and then his hot mouth was on hers. By the time she had recovered from the sudden shock on her lips, he was done and pulling away.
Aria was pulled out of the house and she noticed one of her bags was thrown in the trunk of a black sedan.
“This way my love.”
She balked at his words and touch, but did as she was told. There wasn’t anything else to do. She was promised before she could talk and now she had to live with it. None of it added up to what she had once planned. Aria had a thick feeling of resentment that she wasn’t told sooner. She had resigned herself to the fact that this new reality was hers, but it was harder to stomach the idea that she had been left to dream of things that she’d never know. That was the worst tragedy of it all, hope.
“I have waited so long for this day. Do you know how long eighteen years is?”
The man did not look much older than her, though he talked about it as though he had actually waited that long. Surely when he found out about her, he was just as young. She paused for a moment, realizing that maybe he had had as little of a choice as she did. That thought seemed to brighter her countenance for the man. It was easier to swallow that they were in it together.
“I wish I had known. Were you told or did you just find out as well?”
Keith looked at her strangely and his strong jawline softened as he smiled. “I have always known Aria. It is the way it has always been.”
The more he talked and the more she learned, the more confused she became. Her head hurt from it all and she was overtaken with an exhaustion brought on by emotions. Aria half-thought that she was in some kind of dream, though she could feel the heat emanating off of him and she didn’t think that was a sensation that transferred. Her lips could still feel his on hers. They tingled with the very memory.
“How can I be married to someone I don’t even know?”
“Arranged marriages are far more common in the world than love-induced. Can you not feel our attraction to each other already?”
Aria did not look at him. He talked of love like it was a disease to be caught and he seemed less like a husband. While his words of attraction were true, Aria planned to ignore her body’s responses to him. She moved further away from his disturbing presence and hugged the interior of the door. He made a chuckling sound and she had a thought go in her head. “You can run my dove, but you can’t hide.”
Her eyes lifted and met his blazing depths. The dark brown had lightened up to a glowing ring of yellow. She gasped and looked away. She realized than that she had not said anything out loud and the last part he had not either. Silence overtook the car and Aria tried to clear her mind. She had a nagging question of where he was taking her, but she refused to verbalize it.
“We are going home dear. Well, one of our homes. You will like it there.”
Aria grimaced. She doubted she was going to like anything that was about to take place. She had effectively gone from one cage to another and the one she currently resided in was shared with a lion. Her heart pounded and she closed her eyes, not even caring to see the beast beside her.
***
It was dark and Aria had dozed off before they had arrived. She started to awaken when the car came to a stop and then she felt him shake her slightly. She looked over at him and sighed. “It wasn’t a dream.”
“I am afraid not.”
Aria got out of the vehicle and she was at first overtaken by the darkness around her. There were no outside lights besides the moon and stars. The moon was almost full and after a few moments, her eyes had adjusted to the blackness and she could see the outlines of a large, sprawling house. The garden in the front was perfect and there was a little grass on the edges. The rest of the house though, was surrounded by deep, thick woods. It was as if a tiny slice of heaven was placed in the deepest thicket.
She looked down at the dirt packed driveway. There were several weeds growing up through the rarely-used path. For some reason, the idea that very few people went there, made her even more nervous.
“Come Aria. It will be okay.�
� She was ushered towards the uninviting house by a firm grip on her arm. There was no reason to fight as it would be moot anyways. Aria was resigning herself to an unknown fate.
Lights started to fill the windows and she was greeted with a flood of colors. Her eyes squinted, trying to readjust and she was then thankful for his steering. He seemed unaffected by the blare of the light and she was quickly in a large old house that boasted furniture from another era. Several men and women started to quickly remove plastic tarps over couches and tables.
“Sorry it isn’t ready yet. We rarely use this place.”
“We?”
“The rest of the family. You will meet them later. I don’t want to overwhelm you.”
Aria made a disparaging noise. “A bit late on that one hubby.”
Keith smiled. Glad she was getting her spunk back and especially liking his new title.
“Petra will show you to our room. I will be up after I attend to some business.”
He turned away, not really waiting for an answer. Aria was partly peeved, but there was nothing she could do but go with the raven-haired woman. She walked up the long staircase and tried to gauge her reaction when she took her into a beautiful room. Her eyes went to the bed and she avoided it like the plague.
“Is there a bathroom here that I can use to take a shower?”
“Sure it is right over there. There are clothes in the closet and I have laid out a dress to wear after you get out.”
Aria crinkled up her face. The last thing she wanted to wear was a dress. She looked down at her shorts and tank top. “I don’t really wear dresses. Is there anything a little less girly?”
Petra was taken aback. Not only was the woman different than them, she demanded things of them like she were already Queen. Petra realized then that all of the family’s fears that he had made a bad choice were laid to rest. She should not have questioned his judgment.