What I wouldn’t give to be that coffee cup right now, he thought as he shifted to hide his growing erection. Clearing his throat, he replied, “Ahh… yes of course. This is true. However, even with the evidence of your rough night, you still look absolutely ravishing darling.”
Blinking rapidly and blushing as if she weren’t used to compliments, she ducked her head making her alluring red and gold hair fall so that it hid her face. He frowned. Easton didn’t like it; he wanted to see her expressive face with those molten steel grey eyes of hers.
Suddenly, there was a loud, long fart. Easton could have sworn he could feel the cushions vibrate next to him. Glancing around, he saw all of his brothers with wide ass grins on their faces as they looked at Zoey. When he peered down at her, she cooed and batted her eyelashes at him and then laughed and clapped her hands. Ariana snorted as she tried to hide her laughter behind her hand, mischief in her gaze. Seeing this coupled with the adorable look little miss Zoey had given him, he broke out into laughter. That prompted everyone else to break out into peals of laughter as well.
Yep, he was a goner. Head over heels for all of them.
Six
Ariana
Ariana tried not to spill her coffee as she doubled over in laughter at what her daughter had just done; she couldn’t have been more grateful for her. Zoey always did have a knack for breaking the tension in a room. Finally able to breathe, she set her coffee down and went to pick Zoey up and cuddle her for a few precious minutes before she put her in her playpen.
Looking at the guys, she shook her head and smiled, shrugging. “Kids are great, aren’t they?” They all stared back at her with shit eating grins on their faces, she felt her breath hitch. Without Zoey as a buffer, having four of God’s most perfect specimens in her home was starting to make her nervous. “Umm…so…I’m just going to step out onto the balcony and have a quick smoke since she’s contained for now. You can join me if you want and we can discuss what you really came here for, or you can wait.”
With that statement, she opened the sliding glass doors and stepped out into the morning sunshine. The day had dawned bright and clear with only a slight nip in the air. Middle of spring and things were only now starting to heat up. The weather had been crazy lately with late snow storms and sudden monsoon rainstorms. But today…today seemed like it was going to be perfect. She’d have to take Zoey to the park later.
She contemplated not even having a cigarette but figured with her crazy night and shitty early morning she deserved one. The door behind her opened just as she lit up and took a drag. She turned to see Aiden step out, followed by the guys, onto her small balcony that suddenly seemed a whole hell of a lot smaller. Jayden and Easton had to stay inside by the open door as not all of them fit. Ariana blew a hard breath out almost choking on the smoke.
Aiden’s eyes flashed with such anger that she was taken aback. What the hell did she do that would piss him off so much? “Care to explain how you got those bruises on your wrist, Ariana?” he asked in that rich, husky baritone voice.
Ahh, so that’s why he looks so pissed, she thought, peering down at the offending limb in question. She had worn the long sleeve shirt to hide them from Avery, but the sleeves had ridden up when she raised her hand to her mouth. Shit, what was she going to say? That she had traveled to the past in her sleep and ended up chained to a wall while a crazy Dark Mage cast a curse over her family line? That would ensure a one-way ticket to the looney bin!
“This is nothing, I’m fine,” she replied in a tone that made it obvious she did not want to continue with that line of questioning. Aiden’s sexy eyes flashed again but this time with hurt. The emotion was gone so fast she probably imagined it.
Taking another puff, she asked, “So what did you want to discuss? Did you get Don? Did he really do it?”
“No, we didn’t,” Grayson replied when Aiden hesitated too long. “In the chaos of the alley he slipped out. And the guy from the alley didn’t know anything about the drugs.”
“How can you be sure? People lie all the time to save their asses. He probably did the same.”
“You do know we are not regular cops, right?” Jayden chimed in with a cheeky grin.
“Well, I know you two shifted,” she replied dryly, nodding her head at Aiden and Jay. “I don’t know what the hell you other two are.” She raised one of her eyebrows, giving them a pointed look.
Stepping into her personal space but not touching her, Aiden looked down and leaned in to whisper in her ear. “I for one, am more interested in what you are Ms. Stone. But for the record, we’re special forces.” Ariana shivered, and not in a bad way, which was surprising to her. Normally, if someone got this close to her, Ariana’s first instinct was to fight back. But she just stood there with pleasant shivers traveling over her body and warmth pooling between her thighs.
“Are you now?” She lowered her voice to match his. Testing the waters, she brushed her lips over his ear, and to her surprise, he groaned. Leaning back, she glanced at his friends over his broad shoulder and searched their expressions—no contempt or jealousy to be seen. Raw naked desire shone in their eyes as they devoured the sight of her and Aiden together. Even if it was just whispering. “As for what I am? That makes two of us.” Ariana stepped around him to head inside, hoping maybe she would be able to breathe properly again.
Following her inside, Easton spoke up in his calm and sexy British accent. “You don’t have to be afraid. Ariana, we are all supernaturals, same as you. I’m guessing you didn’t have anyone to teach you or tell you about yourself.”
Mmm...I could sit and listen to that man talk for days. Ariana shook off the thought and focused on his actual words.
“No one sane, until recently.” Unsure of if she could truly trust them, she continued to be cautious with what information she gave. Maybe she should start asking questions to gauge what they knew about her?
“What do you mean by that?” Aiden sat on her ridiculous couch. Poor guy looked like he had been up all night. Earlier she had been too busy ogling his fine ass to really look at him and notice the tension lines around his eyes and the dark circles beneath.
Trying to make him smile, though she had no idea why she felt the need to ease some of his tension, Ariana pouted comically. “I’ll show you mine if you show me yours.”
That did the trick! Aiden gave her a small wicked smile. Wait. Why was he smiling that way? He shouldn’t be smiling that way at her. Standing slowly to his feet, Aiden took off his suit jacket and tossed it over her favorite chair. His smile turned even more wicked as her eyes widened and she stuttered, “Wha...What are you doing?”
“I’m showing you mine,” he murmured in his sexy voice as he started to unbutton his shirt. She swallowed hard. This was not what she had meant…was it? She couldn’t remember as his firm, tanned chest was being revealed to her inch by inch.
Suddenly, her phone went off with a text message just as Zoey let out an angry squeal. Saved by the bell. She looked wistfully at Aiden’s half bare chest and breathed deeply. Maybe not saved. Did she even want to be saved? A part of her said yes, while another louder part screamed no.
Pulling out her phone, Ariana moved to grab Zoey’s favorite toy that she had thrown out of her playpen. She didn’t recognize the number, but that was nothing new. Jazzy was always either losing her phones or breaking them all the time. But when she opened the message she gasped, and her phone slid from her suddenly numb hands.
The guys crowded around her at once. “Are you ok Ariana?” Aiden asked as he bent to grab her phone
“What’s wrong?” Easton and Jay asked at the same time, but their voices sounded as if they were far away.
“She needs to sit down. Ariana honey, can you walk to the chair?” Grayson waited for an answer.
When she could do nothing but stand there and look at the phone in Aiden’s hand like it was a snake, as his face darkened and his expression grew fiercer, Easton growled, “Screw this. Ariana darlin
g, I’m sorry.”
Mere seconds before he picked her up, it triggered her fight reflex. Ariana gave a keening cry as she shuddered and bucked in his arms so violently that he dropped her. She landed in a crouch and snarled, “Don’t. Fucking. Touch. Me. You don’t have the right to touch me!”
Ariana stood slowly with murder in her eyes and terror lashing at her insides. She dimly heard Aiden speaking, but all she saw was him reaching for her. Without thinking, she slashed at him, stopping inches from ripping out his heart with her dragon claws. Something inside her wouldn’t let her actually hurt him. Aiden didn’t even flinch, which let a kernel of respect plant itself inside her. That was the only thing that snapped her out of her fighting haze. Staring into his piercing blue depths, she didn’t see disgust or fear. What she saw was worse, much worse.
Pity. Like he knew what she had gone through, and something else… something she refused to look to closely at. Realizing her hand was still close to his heart, she looked at her arm. Shit! Her entire arm was covered in the red scales of her dragon. Her preferred form as dragons were fierce and big. Nobody fucked with a damn dragon and lived to tell the tale. That was why she loved them.
How did this happen? She started trembling violently as she retracted her scales and claws and lowered her arm. How could I have done that? With Zoey in the room, no less! Zoey rubbed her eyes tiredly, and Ariana felt like a pile of steaming shit. She was a monster. It had been years since she had lashed out that bad, but that wasn’t what shook her to her core. No, it was the fact that she broke her own rule. To never let violence near her children. She wanted to crawl into a hole and cry. Despair sank into her bones; her breathing hitched. What had she done? Her only thought… she had to run. She had to get away. The time had come for her and her girls to move again.
Aiden
Staring down at Ariana’s phone, Aiden felt a wave of anger mixed with fear wash over him. On her phone was a picture of her next to him when they were outside on the balcony-- when he was standing close to her and whispering in her ear. It looked like they were lovers. The message, You’re Mine Bitch! I’m coming for you! showed on the screen.
Aiden was confused as he couldn’t see how she could have someone when she didn’t even like to be touched. Then he remembered her bruised wrists and saw red. That was until East had tried to pick her up. Easton just couldn’t stop himself from fucking touching her, could he? Knowing it was a trigger for her. Sure as shit, she flipped her fucking lid. He had never seen anything like that. When she had landed in a perfect crouch and looked up at him, he lost his breath. Not only was blind terror in her eyes, hate was there as well. He didn’t think she even recognized who was here anymore. He had silently communicated with the guys to back up quickly. She had snarled… literally snarled. Her eyes where no longer human, they looked reptilian. Scales slid effortlessly over her arm and he saw her fingers elongate and curve. Her fingernails grew into deadly, sharp, wicked claws. HOLY SHIT! He could feel his eyes nearly bug out of his head. Her arm looked like a fucking dragon. He had to calm this shit down, right now!
Using a voice he reserved for cornered animals, as that was what she was in this moment even if she was breathtaking as she stood slowly, he said, “Ariana, honey, you need to calm down, okay? No one will touch you. I promise.” And of course, like the dumb shit he was, he automatically made a move to touch her. Shifters liked touch, it was unnatural for him to not offer comfort through touch. But fuck, he should have known better. He made sure to lock his body up tight as she slashed at him. He would not flinch. He would not cower in front of her. She was beautiful, and he would not have her think of herself as a monster.
As her eyes traveled from Zoey to him, Aiden wanted to cry. She seemed so beaten, so ashamed. He had to show her that it wasn’t her fault. Ariana had the most severe case of PTSD he had ever seen. Which meant some really fucked up shit had happened to her. Ariana looked at him with so much horror in her storm cloud eyes that he couldn’t breathe.
There was something about this woman that made his wolf go nuts.
He slowly, so as not to startle her once again, brought up her phone and asked. “Do you know who sent this? Is he the one who hurt you?” Aiden nodded to her wrists, to emphasize his point.
“What? Let me see!” Jay snatched the phone and growled, then he passed it to Gray. After he took one look and tossed it to Easton, Gray started pacing. Easton stared at it for a few seconds and threw it on the floor, clenching his fist as blue flames engulfed his hands. Giving East a stern look, which easily conveyed his thought of get it the fuck together man, Aiden inclined his head towards Easton’s hands. Glancing down in shock, East released the flames and shakily went to sit on the couch.
Her expression confused, Ariana glanced at her wrists, shaking her head making her curls bounce. She gave a long sigh, “What? No. This wasn’t him.”
“So, you do know who sent this?” Gray whirled around, stopping mid pace to stare at Ariana.
“No, I don’t. It can’t be who I thought it was at first.”
“Why not?” East glanced up at her.
“Because, he’s dead,” she said flatly. Clearly, she wanted that to be the end of the discussion as she strode over to Zoey to calm the little girl’s fussing.
Picking up her sweet and adorable daughter, Ariana held her close as if she could block out all the bad in the world simply by hugging her. Aiden wished he could give her that. His wolf growled his agreement.
Murmuring softly at Zoey, she looked at them with resignation, panic still evident. “I don’t have time for this. You need to leave. I have to go.” She walked to the door quickly.
“Go where? Woman, if you think we are leaving right now, I hate to burst your bubble, but that is not happening!” Aiden growled, planting his feet and crossing his arms.
He knew what that look in her eyes meant. Aiden knew without any doubt that if they left, she was going to rabbit. He had seen that look countless times on criminals as they tried one last desperate attempt to get away. His wolf started pacing and scratching to be let out. Wanting to protect his Mate.
Whoa, Mate? Where the hell did that… No, it made sense. He stared at her holding the door open. He and all the guys were drawn to her, and that fact didn’t bother him like he thought it would once his wolf had found his mate. Even his wolf was okay with sharing her, as long as they got her in the end, they would be happy. He wanted to take all the bad shit that had ever happened to her and gut the person or people responsible. Wanting to see that spark in her eyes again, Aiden brought out his inner asshole, somehow knowing she would fight back. No matter what had happened she was theirs, and they were not going fucking anywhere. Best she learned that now and started to accept it.
“What are you going to do Ariana? Uproot your kids? Rabbit and hide like a coward?” Her head started shaking from side to side, denying it. So, Aiden pushed harder, “I know that look in your eye Ariana, I’ve seen in on criminals. You’re going to run. I didn’t take you for a coward, but hey maybe I’m wrong. It’s been known to happen once or twice.” He sneered, really laying it on thick. “Your tough attitude is just for show, isn’t it? You pretend to be this badass when in reality you’re nothing more than a fucking scared little girl running away.” His voice rose at the end to drive the point home. Damn, he didn’t mean to be quite so harsh.
He could feel the menacing eyes of his brothers on him, promising blood for daring to speak to her in such a way. Yeah, he probably deserved to get his ass handed to him. But he knew it was the only way to break her out of the fear induced shell she was in.
Aiden just hoped it wouldn’t cost him Ariana in the end.
Seven
Ariana
Who the hell did he think he was? Her nostrils flared in fury as she slowly let the door close. Oh, his ass was going to pay for that shit. A coward? Maybe. But a scared little girl? Not a chance! She had been fighting for her and her daughter’s survival since she was fifteen. He knew nothin
g about her life or what she had been through.
Glaring at him, she walked past them and headed for Zoey’s room to put her down for a nap. Her baby girl didn’t need to see what happened next. She had seen enough violence for the day. But damn, was her momma going to put a world of hurt on that insufferable man.
Striding back into the room, she got right up in Aiden’s space and pushed his chest, making him stumble back a step from the force of it. Maybe she had cheated a bit and put some extra strength behind it, but the asshat deserved it for calling her a scared little girl.
“Who the fuck do you think you are? Coming into my home and calling me a fucking coward? A scared little girl? Screw you Aiden, and your holier than thou shit that you spew! You’ve seen the same look in criminal’s eyes?” She narrowed her eyes as she kept pushing him. “You sir, don’t know shit about me or my life! I am not a coward! But If I do choose to run to keep myself and my kids safe, that is certainly none of your fucking business, now is it? You’re not my father, or my brother, and you sure as shit aren’t my lover. So, you can take your particular brand of utter horse crap and get the fuck out of my house!” Breathing heavily, she realized that she had pushed him up against the wall so hard on that last bit, it had cracked the plaster. Well damn, there went her security deposit, but the shithead had totally deserved it. He calmly stared back at her, and suddenly a brilliant smile lit up his face. What the hell?
“There she is. Welcome back,” he purred.
Stumbling back, she spun around to look at the guys. They were all smiling, grinning actually. She quickly turned back to Aiden. “What the hell? You did that on purpose? You…you...Asshat!” she yelled. But deep down, she was eternally grateful he had somehow known how to snap her out of her panic. Not that she would ever tell him that. It wasn’t necessary for him to know that his harsh words were just what she had needed to flip her internal bitch switch and start fighting back instead of fleeing.
Cursed by Fate Page 6