He kissed me like he was waging war. A war neither of us would survive. His erection pushed against my apex, and I rocked my hips as my legs lifted to wrap around his waist. The purr started low in my chest, and he mirrored it, pulling away when it sounded from his chest in answer to mine. His eyes burned into mine and narrowed with confusion as he inhaled, fighting to get his breathing under control again.
“Don’t piss me off again,” he warned, letting me slide down his body slowly, feeling his erection, which started a need burning within me. “And the next time you dance like that, it better be for me, and you better not be wearing anything when you are. Go inside, Aria,” he growled, pressing his forehead against mine briefly. “Stay the fuck away from the mutt, or he will die, either by your teeth or mine.” He stepped back, turning on his heel as he left the property.
Chapter 43
It was days before I left the house, and when I did, it was only to the store and home. I would clean the store, polishing the crystals before decorating the shelves. I bundled sage, preparing smudge sticks and other herbs for use and spells. Everything was slowly moving on without Amara. She’d vanished without a trace, and there was nothing we could do to change it. I was walking back to my car when I noticed a note on my windshield, tucked beneath the wiper blade. I picked it up, looking around me before unfolding it.
I know you don’t understand what is happening, Aria. The realms aren’t what you think they are. You don’t belong in the Human Realm; we’re so much more than anything it could ever contain. I have taken steps to ensure your future is…fulfilled in every way you deserve it to be. Remember the old oak tree we used to pretend was white oak stolen from Norvalla? Meet me there on Sunday, and I will tell you everything. Time isn’t something we have the luxury of waiting on, as your new life here awaits you. I promise it is everything you deserve in life, prickly twin. ~A
I folded the note and looked around, narrowing my gaze on the area. I exhaled, watching as Kinvara skipped toward the car while staring at her phone. One of these days, she’d end up hit by a car for not paying attention.
“Kinvara, look around before you walk into the parking lot. People actually want to hit you.”
“It was one guy who said he was single. He lied about his situation.” She shrugged. “She’s better off without the cheating prick.”
“Still, if you looked up, you may see her car coming before she hits you. I got a note,” I announced, slipping behind the wheel before I checked the mirror while I waited for her to climb into the passenger seat.
“Love letter?”
I rolled my eyes. “Did you hear that? It’s my eyeballs ringing that bell at the way back in my head, jerk. It’s from Amara.”
She gasped as I handed it to her and waited for her to read it. I waited and waited, and she had to have read the damn thing several times before she handed it back to me. I pushed the note into the center console and gazed into the mirror.
“That truck’s been following us since we left the shop,” I muttered, turning onto a random street, and watching as it turned with us.
I turned several more times, and Kinvara called the house to inform them of the situation as I started toward it with my foot on the gas. She chuckled, and I didn’t look away from the road.
“What the hell is so funny?”
“It’s Tamryn,” she said, and I slowed down, peering at the driver before pulling off of the road. “That asshole, whose truck is she driving?” I questioned, watching my sister peel her tiny frame from the oversized truck.
Tamryn was ethereal and beautiful. She had platinum-colored hair that shined like diamonds in the sun’s early morning light, and I wasn’t jealous at all. Big, perky breasts bounced as she made her way to the car while her tiny hips swayed. Tamryn was full of fire, but it hid the pain she had been through. Losing the love of her life to cancer was brutal. We’d all watched his decline with sadness since he refused to allow us to help him.
He’d refused to be changed into an undead creature, or use the potions that would hold off the inevitable. He’d been brave and strong during his fight. Tamryn had been falling apart, but she never cried or broke down, not until he’d taken his last breath on this earth. Now she was reborn through the fire and pain she’d endured, and was still beautiful, maybe even more so because of what she’d been through.
“You trying to lose me?” She leaned against the window, glaring at us as her full lips twisted into a naughty grin.
“Are you trying to scare us to death?” Kinvara flipped her off before she leaned over me, squishing me to hug Tamryn over my lap.
“Get off of me, you asshat. Are you home for a while this time, or just passing through?” I watched as she stepped back and allowed me to open the door to exit the car to hug her properly.
“You bet your pretty titties I’m back. God damn, I have missed you girls something fierce, that and I heard we got trouble brewing. I also wouldn’t miss being here for Luna and her new little ones for the world. Besides, I will be the best aunt they’ve ever known.” Tamryn shrugged, smirking at me, and I stepped back.
“She has a lot of aunts, and most of us assume we will be the favorite.” I shrugged as I held my hands up, leaning back against the car as she joined me. “I think that will be one fight where we will have to actually try to win. I’m glad you’re home, Tamryn, you’ve been horribly missed around here.”
“I missed you too, asshole.”
“Try not to create too much of a scene, there’s chaos playing out.”
“Reign told me some badass bitch took down the alpha wolf this week. You wouldn’t know where I could find her? I hear she’s a beautiful badass who is about to set the world on fire, maybe even literally.” She smiled, leaning against my shoulder before lifting her gaze to look at me with pride shining in her eyes.
“Fallon was slaughtered because of me.”
“Fuck Fallon, he chose his death by choosing to hurt one of our bloodline. He tried to dominate you by force, he lost, and it is as simple as that. I’d say the prick got what he was asking for.”
“Yeah, well, the entire House of Alpha is being rebuilt from the inside out. They’d been keeping us up all night while celebrating their crowning of a new king of the pack. Fallon’s head has been placed on a spike outside the main house. There are screams that never end coming from within that mansion, and they don’t ever seem to stop.”
“Interesting, but it doesn’t change the facts, sister mine, and you seem to think that if you hadn’t taken him down, he’d still have that head on his shoulders? He grew sloppy, Aria. He was also very aware that you were an alpha by nature, which was apparent even before shit started getting twisted. He made a choice, and that choice cost him his head. That isn’t something you can take the blame for. You want to feel guilty, fine, but even if it hadn’t been you, he’d have died eventually. Now, I seem to be unable to remember the way home, so I’ll follow you unless it’s going to freak you out again.”
I shook my head, uncertain I bought her reasoning. Fallon was brutal in his reign. He didn’t fuck around, and if an alpha started acting out, he was sent back into the Nine Realms. He’d ruled for the last fifty years with an iron fist. While I shouldn’t be upset about them murdering him for being taken down by me, I wasn’t particularly normal. I’d enjoyed pinning him, the motion his hips made when I’d subdued him by force had something inside of me aching to do it again. It terrified me and left me numb. Knox had said that I could go get Dimitri if I wanted him, but the idea of doing that to him horrified me.