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Laughing, Mason stood up to his full height and reached for the kid's hand.

The little boy jerked his hand back, away from Mason. He pursed his lips unhappily as he eyed Mason shrewdly. "Nuh-uh. Stranger danger, mister. I'm not going to hold your hand. I don't care that I've never had apple pie beforeorwhipped whatever, and how bad I want to try it. You can't hold my hand because you're a stranger."

But going into a house with said stranger just so you could eat pie was okay? Kids were weird and I didn't think I'd ever want one of my own. No thanks.

"Who's never had apple pie or whipped cream before?" Gunner asked, sounding upset.

"Someone who grew up foraging for food for not only himself but his mother," Quinton retorted.

"Someone I can relate to," Ariel remarked as she joined our group again. She had a black tote bag over her shoulder that was zipped shut with a purple and white grinning sugar skull on the front of it. "I thought we were headed inside. Why are we still standing around out here?"

Foraging for food...

Someone I can relate to...

I closed my eyes tight for a brief second while I pulled myself together. My falling apart and raging at the injustice of the world wouldn't help anyone. I knew Ariel had had it rough, she herself had told me enough things about the woman who'd raised her to know that. But to think of her or this innocent little boy going hungry really set my blood boiling.

The guys headed inside with Baxter in the middle of them. Quinton trailed behind the group, almost reluctant to go inside.

I stayed outside, waiting for Ariel and the woman who had yet to speak a word since she'd arrived. I'd go in after they did.

"Isobel? Are you coming?"

"Are you sure this is safe?" the woman whispered in a husky, feminine voice that raised the hairs on the back of my neck.

I spoke before I could think better of it. "Why wouldn't my home or my coven be a safe place for you? Ariel has been in my presence several times now and no harm has come to her person. Nor will it ever. I don't know why you think you'd be any different? It's insulting, really."

And it honestly was insulting, that was what it boiled down to. Not just insulting for myself, but on the behalf of my entire coven. We would never harm a female. Even after Annabell the Destroyer had run her way through my coven, squashing hearts like bugs beneath her stilettos, and they still hadn’t lifted even a single pinky finger in her direction in order to harm her. It had been Quinton Alexander who'd marred her face and fucked her all up. I wasn’t going to say that none of us had thought about it, because that would have been a lie. The difference was we would never have acted on it and Quinton hadn't hesitated too.

And yet Quinton was safe enough for her to be around but we weren't? That pissed me off.

Ariel walked back to the woman and grabbed her by the arm. She dragged her forward while speaking. "Reapers killed her whole family. She was the sole survivor, and she only survived because they forced her to hide. The Council found her like that, and instead of doing the right thing by her, they stuck her down in a well and tortured her until they decided to drown her to death. She came to me in my dreams and my dad, Rain, who the Council actually knowsnothingabout, went and got her. We've been keeping her safe and hidden from them ever since. Now, I'm going to ask for you to do the same for me. She's become family to me and my coven, and we don't want anything to happen to her. If the Council were to get their hands on her again..."

Ariel trailed off unsteadily as tears suddenly flooded her eyes. She blinked several times. She didn't cry, but the bottom rim around her eyes remained wet with unshed tears.

In a choked up voice, she spat out, "I've seen firsthand on several occasions what they do to women, and I won't allow them to touch her ever again. If you don't want to help me, I’ll find someone else who will, but I want it to be you."

My heart beat so fast I could barely speak around the feel of it in my throat. "Why?" I shoved out. "Why me?"

I didn't dare look at Isobel. I now understood the look in her eyes and her distrust with her safety while being here with my coven. I felt shame for the first time in my life for being a male witch and the way our females were treated.

Ariel squeezed my shoulder gently as she walked past me, dragging the woman along behind her.

"Because I trust you. And because of the story you told me about your father. You'll look after them both, and you'll not let harm come to either of them. Right now the safest place for them that I could think of that's far enough away from home was with you. Also, don't let me forget, I brought a gift for you."

"It's not like you had many other options," Isobel muttered in her husky, phone sex voice that went straight to my dick. I didn't even hear her words, just the sound of her voice. "Be honest."

I was being honest, the sound of her voice made my dick twitch.

"Yeah, and there's that too."

The sound of Ariel's soft laughter lingered outside with me long after they both walked inside my home, leaving the door open for me behind them.

I stood out there for a while, alone, staring off into the distance at nothing, with a pit of dread blooming to life in my stomach.

Ariel was right. Both the boy and the woman would be safe here. My coven would protect the innocent ones with our lives. Though, I hoped it didn't come down to that. And I knew, without a doubt, that the boy was as innocent as the woman.

I didn't need to ask the others to know they'd be welcome to stay with us for as long as they needed.