Rising Sun (The Awakened Trilogy Book 3)

by Amanda Carol

  “But now I know.” He wiggles his eyebrows.

  “You thinking what I’m thinking, baby?” Hunter asks me, looking at his best friend.

  “Burn the couch when we get home?” I say, staring wide-eyed at Bennett.

  Out of the corner of my eye, I see Hunter nod. “Yep.”

  Bennett laughs. “Oh, you guys. Look, I love you both, but I do not want to be around when the sex happens.”

  “So, you just happen to pop in before and ruin the moment?” Hunter asks.

  Dani and Kyler laugh.

  “I don’t know you guys are about to do the sheet tango! Like I told Z, how am I supposed to know?” Bennett throws up his hands.

  “Have you tried knocking first?” Kyler asks with raised eyebrows.

  “No,” Hunter and I say together as Bennett shouts, “Yes!”

  “Wow. You should talk to Zach about what a person gets to see when they don’t knock,” Dani comments, and Kyler bursts out laughing.

  Bennett makes a face. “Ugh. I will use the link, text, call, and knock super loud when I plan to come over.”

  “That’s all we ask,” I say, and lace my fingers with Hunter’s.

  “Anyway, now that we have you guys alone,” Kyler starts to say as he puts his arm around Dani. “We have something we would like to ask you.”

  “Sure. What’s up?” Hunter lifts a brow.

  “Well, first off, we want to personally invite you to our wedding. We haven’t sent out the official save the dates. Actually, we haven’t settled on a date yet, but Kyler and I thought that we should ask you in person,” Dani smiles at us.

  “We would love to come!” I tell her, reaching forward and giving her a hug.

  “Great! It wouldn’t be the same if you guys weren’t there.” Dani hugs me back, but then looks at Kyler.

  Kyler clears his throat and turns his attention to Bennett and Hunter. “Dani’s right. You guys, all of you, are so important to us. You trusted us with your secret even though you had just met us, and from there, we became lifelong friends. You even brought us here because you wanted to keep us safe. Not only do I want you guys to attend the wedding, but it would mean the world to me…” He pauses for a moment and looks at Dani, who’s grinning at him to continue. “…if you two would stand up there with Zach as my groomsmen.”

  Bennett playfully sniffles. “I knew you loved us.”

  Kyler pushes a laughing Bennett. “Asshole.”

  “I’m kidding, bro. I’ll be happy to be there for the big day.” Bennett claps his hand in Kyler’s, and they hug.

  Hunter does the same as Bennett as he hugs Kyler. “I’d be honored.”

  “Thanks, man.” Kyler says.

  “Aria, I want you to come to my bachelorette party and get ready with us for the big day. I know—” Dani starts to say, but I cut her off.

  “I wouldn’t miss it.” I beam at her.

  We’ve only been friends for a few weeks, so it doesn’t bother me not to be included in the wedding party. I don’t have the history with her that Bennett and Hunter have with Kyler. I’m just happy to go to witness their day, and see my man in a tux. Dani gives me a warm smile in return, looking a little relieved that I’m okay with attending as a guest.

  “All right, bros’ night at Hunt’s house?” Bennett claps his hands together and stretches.

  “Sounds good to me,” Hunter replies as we all make our way back to our cabin. “Knox will be bringing Grace, along with Zach and Haylee, over in a few minutes.”

  When we arrive back at our cabin, it doesn’t take long for the rest of the girls to show up. Then once we are all there, Hunter comes with us to Abby’s cabin.

  Hunter pushes a lock of hair behind my ear. “Link me if you need anything.”

  “I will,” I whisper as he brings his lips to mine for a quick kiss. “Have a good night.”

  “Give Abby my love and condolences,” Hunter says, taking a step back.

  He’s going to take Zayne back to our cabin to hang out with the guys. Bennett texted him earlier and told him about our plan, and he was reluctant at first, but ultimately agreed.

  I walk up to the door and knock.

  I hear footsteps, then the door slowly opens and Abby is standing there. Her eyes are swollen from tears, and her cheeks are flushed.

  “Hey, Abs. We’re here for a girls night. Whatever you need, we’re here,” I tell her as I step forward and wrap my arms around her.

  Ciera is the first to step in behind me and she wraps her arms around Abby, who hugs us both as she starts crying again.

  Zayne walks around us, and Abby releases Ciera and I and goes straight into his arms. He pulls back and cups her cheeks in his hands. He doesn’t say anything, but he leans in and leaves a gentle kiss on her lips. I take comfort in the fact that she has a man like Zayne in her life. He’s always there to protect her and be there for her when I can’t be.

  “I’m just a phone call away,” he tells her.

  Abby nods as Zayne kisses her once more. Then he jumps down off the steps and goes over to Hunter. I take one last look at the man I love, then turn my attention to Abby. We all pile into the cabin and set up our sleeping bags up in the living room, get out all the snacks, and do our best to help Abby get through one of the toughest nights of her life.

  We manage to get Abby to laugh a little by reminiscing about our childhood experiences, but the smile is wiped from her face the moment her phone rings and she looks down at the caller ID.

  “Abs?” I say, sitting up from my position on the couch.

  Her face drains of all color as she holds the phone up in my direction.

  My eyes grow wide and a gasp escapes my lips. The call is coming from her father’s number.

  Abby hits the green answer button on her phone, and then the speaker button. “H-hello?”

  “Upon listening to the sweet little voicemail that you left dear old Dad, or should I say Henry—since, you know, he’s not your real father—I figured you must have found his body,” Isabella’s voice carries over into the room.

  The girls gasp, but keep quiet.

  “Did you like the nice little bow I had wrapped around his neck?” Isabella taunts.

  I snatch the phone away from Abby. She doesn’t need to hear this, so I turn the speakerphone off and put the phone up to my ear.

  “What do you want, Isabella?” I snarl.

  “Oh, hello, Aria. What a pleasant surprise,” Isabella says sarcastically. “You see what happens when I’m denied what I want.”

  “I will never let you near Declan,” I spit into the phone, getting up from the couch.

  “Oh really?” Isabella counters.

  I hear some ruffling going on, and a soft moan coming from the other end of the line.

  “Go on. Say hi,” I hear Isabella say in the background.

  “W-what is going on?” I hear an all-too-familiar voice on the other end of the line. A voice that I believed to be dead.

  “Mom?” I whisper.

  “Aria?” My mother’s voice raises as soon as she realizes she’s talking to me.

  “Mom!” I shout into the phone as I open the door and step out into the brisk night.

  I’m wearing only a tank top and leggings, since we had the fire going inside. I hear the distinct sound of a smack, followed by a loud thump.

  “What did you do to her?!”

  “She’s alive. For now,” Isabella tells me.

  I hear a door slam shut, followed by the sound of a lock.

  “Give Declan my love.”

  Click.

  It’s been a while since I’ve just spent time with the guys, so it’s nice to kick back and have a moment to relax and have a few beers, especially with how crazy shit has been. Sitting down at the table in my tiny-ass kitchen playing poker, I glance down at my cards and feel confident that I can win this round with a full house. We’ve played seven rounds, and I haven’t won a single one. Everyone around the table has great poker faces; usually Zay
ne has the best one, but tonight, his mind is elsewhere.

  I know Abby is in great hands with Aria and the rest of the girls, and if anyone is going to help Abby get through this, it’s definitely them. I know the pain that she’s feeling, having just lost my dad, and it's unbearable. I wasn’t even that close with my father, so I can’t even begin to imagine the pain Abby must be feeling.

  We’re just about to reveal our hands when Declan’s phone rings.

  “Hey, tell Ciera you can have the phone sex later. You’re hanging out with the guys!” Bennett jokes.

  Declan flips him off. “Hey, suns…whoa, whoa, whoa! Slow down.” He sets his cards down and gets up. “What happened?”

  He pauses, listening intently.

  I set my cards face-down and try to open the link to Aria, but I get nothing, which is unusual for her.

  “What?!” Declan shouts, rising up from his seat. “We’re on our way. Stay in the cabin.”

  He hangs up the phone.

  “What’s going on?” I ask, getting up from my seat.

  The look on Declan’s face worries me, and what worries me even more is that I still can’t get through to Aria.

  His face pales, and he slowly lifts his eyes. “Isabella called Abby back, and Aria—”

  I don’t even let him finish before I’m rushing out of the front door, but I stop dead in my tracks on the porch when I see Aria standing there in nothing but her tank top and leggings in the cold. Her skin is ghost-white, her face is tilted toward the ground, and she’s staring at it blankly, almost as if she’s unsure of where she is. Declan, who was just a second behind me, stops right next to me when he sees her.

  “Aria? What happened? What did she say?” he asks as I try to use the link again.

  Baby, are you okay? I’m a little surprised that she let me in this time.

  No. I need to run. I’ll tell you everything, but I just…I need to run, she tells me as she lifts her eyes to meet mine.

  Do what you need to do. But come back home to me, I reply.

  I can see her nod, then she turns and takes off running toward the woods.

  Declan moves to go after her, but I hold my arm out.

  “Dude, what the fuck?” he snaps. “That’s my sister! Let me go after her.”

  “Let her go,” I tell him. “She’ll be back, but she needs a minute right now. Go with Zayne and sit with the girls. Make sure everything is okay. Aria will tell us what happened when she’s ready.”

  Declan scoffs, but ultimately agrees. “Text me the second she’s home.”

  “I will.”

  He nods, motioning to Zayne.

  I turn to Kyler and Zach. “You guys can head over there with them. I’m sure that call from Isabella probably scared Dani and Haylee. I’m going wait for Aria to get home.”

  “Are you sure you don’t want us to wait with you?” Zach asks, concern lacing his tone.

  I know if I gave any indication that I wouldn’t mind them staying, they would. But Dani and Haylee need them more than I do right now.

  I nod. “Yeah, I’m sure.” I look at all the other guys. “I’m sorry to have to cut this night short…” I trail off, running a hand through my hair.

  “Hey, man, it’s not a problem. What would you like us to do?” Caleb asks, as the other Alphas step forward.

  Even while they’re clearly exhausted, they’re still ready for any order that I give them. But there isn’t an immediate threat to the Compound right now, and I’m not about to send them out on a manhunt to track Aria. I know she won’t stray too far the edge of the woods.

  “This is your night off, so it’s up to you,” I reply, staring out into the woods. Now that I think about it, I should have followed her, but I trust that she’ll come home. “Knox, can you please walk with Zach and Kyler to Abby’s?”

  “Sure,” he says. “I want to check on Grace, too.”

  Kyler slaps a hand on my shoulder before he follows Zach and Knox down the steps. The other guys follow suit, leaving me standing alone with my best friend.

  “What’s going on?” Bennett asks as we turn and head back inside.

  I walk back into my kitchen, grabbing two glasses and the bourbon from the cabinet.

  “Aria didn’t say. All she told me was that she needed to run, and that she’d be back,” I reply, pouring the amber liquid in both glasses and handing one to Bennett.

  “Wow. I hope she’s okay.” He takes a sip of his drink.

  “She said she wasn’t, which is what worries me,” I say, downing the contents of my glass in one gulp.

  “Why? Think she’ll clam up again?” Bennett asks, setting his glass down on the table.

  “No. It’s not that. I know she’ll talk to me. I just don’t want anything bad to happen to her while she’s out there alone,” I explain, scrubbing a hand down my face.

  Bennett takes another sip. “Blondie can take care of herself. Want me to try and track her down?”

  I shake my head. “Nah. She’ll link me if something’s wrong.”

  Besides, if anyone is going to track her down, it’s going to be me. Aria knows she’s not alone anymore, but if she needs space to gather her thoughts, I will damn well give it to her.

  I really start to fear the worst when an hour passes and she’s still not home yet. I have to trust that if Aria was in some sort of danger, she would alert me. But the more I think about the look on her face earlier, the more I regret not going after her. What if whatever had Aria so upset had distracted her so much so that some vampire got a hold of her?

  No.

  I can’t think like that. Aria is smart. She would definitely call for help if she was in danger, no matter what Isabella said.

  At some point, Bennett and I moved from my kitchen to the living room, where I have been pacing for the last twenty minutes or so.

  “Dude, you’re going to actually wear a hole in the floor,” Bennett says as he watches me make my eight hundredth pass by the coffee table. “In fact, I’m pretty sure the floor is caving in slightly.”

  He chuckles as I shoot him a look.

  The sound of the front door opening halts my steps, and I turn to see Aria closing it behind her. Her cheeks and nose are red, and her lips look slightly blue from the cold. Her gaze meets mine, and feels like she’s looking right through me.

  I’ll catch you later, Bennett tells me through the link as he quietly gets up from the couch and exits out my back door.

  I watch Aria walk further into the cabin, and l glance down at her feet, which are bloody and bare, something I didn’t even think about earlier when I noticed what she was wearing. It seems as though her adrenaline from running is wearing off and the cold is finally setting in because her entire body starts trembling. Her legs start to give out, and I have her in my arms in a second, carrying her upstairs to the bed. I set her down gently, then grab one of my hoodies from the closet and help her get into it. She’s shaking so bad that it takes a while to get her arms through the sleeves.

  Sitting down on my knees in front of her, I examine her feet. Any cuts she had are healed, so I get up and go to the bathroom, grabbing a washcloth and wetting it with warm water. When I come back into the room, I grab some socks out of the drawer, then I kneel back down in front of her to clean the blood off her feet before I put the socks on. After tossing the dirty washcloth in the bathroom, I climb onto the bed, pull her to my chest, and cover us both up, using my body heat to help warm her. She’s shivering so much her teeth are starting to clatter together, so I hug her tighter and kiss her head.

  She places a hand on my chest, and her skin feels like icicles, even through my shirt. After a few minutes, her shaking starts to subside and her body starts to relax into me, her breaths evening out. I start to think she’s asleep, but then she wraps her arm around me, pulling me closer, and I’m honestly never going to complain about that.

  “I’m sorry. I just needed to think for a while,” she whispers.

  “It’s okay. I’m j
ust happy you’re home,” I murmur.

  Aria inhales sharply. “Isabella called Abby.”

  “I know.”

  “I took the phone from her, because Abby didn’t need to hear her voice and what she had to say,” she explains. “Isabella definitely killed Mr.…Thibodaux, and…and…”

  Aria lets out a shaky breath and sits up in bed, hugging her knees to her chest and resting her head on them, angling her face to look at me.

  I grab my phone and send a quick text to Declan, letting him know she’s home. He replies letting me know he’ll be over soon; he’s just trying to calm Ciera down. I’m sure all the guys are busy trying to distract the girls right now. They’ve heard of Isabella, but they’ve never had to deal with her. Not yet, anyway. And she’s one scary bitch.

  Aria sniffs and lifts her head to wipe a tear away. “I’m going to tell you, but I just can’t get the words out.”

  I sit up and wrap my arm around her, pressing a soft kiss to her forehead. “Take your time.”

  Aria leans her head against mine, and I feel the tug, so I open the link.

  My mom is alive, she tells me.

  I jerk my head back. I couldn’t have heard that right. Could I?

  “What?”

  “I don’t know how, and I don’t know why, but Isabella has my mom, Hunter. She has my mom, and she’s still alive.” Aria’s voice cracks with a sob as she covers her face with her hands.

  Shock renders me speechless for a moment as I pull her back into my arms. I’m not sure how I feel about this so I can’t even begin to imagine how my girl must be feeling right now.

  Her voice sounded so weak. Isabella has to have been feeding on her this whole time. We have to save her. Please, we have to go and find her, Aria tells me through the link as she cries in my arms. What’s the point of being the Demigoddess of the Hunt if I can’t even track the vilest creature in existence?

  My heart breaks listening to her words. She’s a damn good tracker, and an even better hunter. That training she did with Artemis proves just how capable and strong she is. Isabella knows of all the gods and their powers, so she must know to keep her distance from Aria, because if she was near, Aria would find her.