Page 18

THORIN

A urelia glowers from the foot of the bed, where I made her sit while I wrap and doctor her hand. Khalil is still fuming and talking shit as he paces back and forth. Everyone, Aurelia included, ignores him.

It’s her lack of remorse that pisses him off the most.

She doesn’t fight, speak, or even look at us while we try to figure out what to do with her.

If it’s mercy Aurelia wants, she doesn’t ask for it.

Her spine is ramrod straight, legs crossed primly, mouth in a disappointed pout while Khalil’s bathrobe drapes her curvaceous frame, and her dainty foot dangles back and forth like a queen who has given an order and waits impatiently to be obeyed. I can almost imagine a pair of designer heels adorning those pretty feet. I can even imagine her using them to step on whoever got in her way back in her world.

But it seems I’m no better than Sheriff Kelly because I underestimated her, too. I never thought she’d have the stones to actually try to murder one of us.

The moment I’m done wrapping her hand, she pulls it away like she can’t stand my touch while still refusing to acknowledge me.

“What do you say, Aurelia?”

“Thanks,” she offers dryly.

My burning gaze narrows, but if Aurelia feels the heat of my stare, she doesn’t let on. I’m too exhausted to deal with her bullshit, so I let her have it. “You want to tell me why you tried to kill Khalil?” Her lips part, and I rush to say, “Besides the obvious.”

She shrugs as if none of what we’ve done to her no longer phases her. “I told you. I want to stay—at least for a little while.”

“Then why did you try to kill me?” Khalil shouts.

Finally, she turns her head from the window, and the look she gives him is so chilly that I swear the frost on the window behind her spreads. “I didn’t say I wanted to stay here with you .”

“Ouch.” Seth shudders in delight. “What about Thorin and me, Sunshine?”

“You were next.”

Seth’s eyes widen, and then, coming to his senses, he slowly backs away.

I scoff as I begin to pack up my med kit.

I should probably show her the headlines we’ve seen back at the camp. I could tell her how the entire world is grieving, not praying or hoping for her safe return. Because they’ve already written her off as dead. I could show Aurelia just how fucked she is so that she forgets her old life and starts finding a way to make one here with us, but I don’t because, more than anything, I like her fight.

Every time she challenges us, my obsession with her grows.

“You’re going to have to try harder than that if you want to take us out, my wolf.” I don’t realize what I’ve said until Aurelia looks away, a flush working up her neck. Khalil and Seth are both blinking at me like I’d grown a tail, but I ignore those assholes as I say to Aurelia, “Go to bed. We’ll talk about this in the morning.”

“Why?”

“Because I said so, Aurelia.”

“Whatever.”

All right. She’s pushing it now. “Do you give your uncle this much trouble?”

I know the instant her gaze shutters that it was the wrong thing to say. She turns away from me to crawl up Khalil’s bed.

“You got me fucked up,” he says when she tries to take her usual spot in his bed. No one moves as he disappears inside the closet and returns, carrying his sleeping bag under his arm. “You can sleep on the floor. I don’t care where as long as it’s not in here.”

He tosses the sleeping bag at her, but Aurelia lets it fall. “Why don’t you sleep on the floor?”

“Because it’s my bed!”

Aurelia stares at Khalil, and when she sees that he’s serious, she rolls her eyes as she climbs out of his bed. She snatches the bedroll from the floor and pauses. “Can I at least shower first?”

Aurelia makes the mistake of wrinkling her nose like she finds sleeping with any part of him on or inside of her abhorrent, and Khalil notices.

“Nope.”

“Suit yourself. Good luck.” Aurelia manages to reach the threshold before Khalil calls after her and demands an explanation for her parting words. “Well, it’s simple,” she says while tightening the sash on his robe before it can come undone and fall off her shoulders. “I’m guessing kidnapping an innocent woman and forcing her to be your whore is a first for you three. I’m betting you’d rather I make it easy on you and just submit, but you literally catapult any chance of that happening every time. I’m even more sure you feel a smidge of guilt, and for that reason alone, you won’t get a peaceful night’s sleep. At least, not while I’m here.”

When Khalil just stares at her, she quietly leaves the room, and I follow after a heartbeat of indecision. Seth, who had already slipped out while Khalil and Aurelia bickered, is lying shirtless on the couch in the den with one arm tucked under his head when we walk in.

“What’s up?” he asks when Aurelia stops and bleakly looks around the room for somewhere to sleep. This must be what rock bottom feels like for our celebrity princess.

Unconsciously, I try to imagine what her room back at home looks like.

An image of a gargantuan bed with a canopy even higher and more ostentatious than Khalil’s, sheer white curtains, satin sheets that cost a fortune, and one stubborn but sexy magnate sleeping soundly within.

And then I imagine what it would be like to sneak inside her bedroom, part those curtains, and take whatever I want.

And I wouldn’t be alone.

I could offer Aurelia my bed, but I won’t. She had the chance to share it but chose Khalil, so now, she can suffer his ego and selfishness.

Okay, so maybe I am jealous.

“Khalil kicked her out,” I explain.

There’s a beat of awkward silence, space for me to fill with the offer or demand for her to warm my bed. Bane destroyed Zeke’s again, and Khalil refuses to build him another, so Seth doesn’t have one to offer. Fleeing my chance to behave honorably, I disappear into the den’s bathroom to store my med kit, and then I drag my feet coming out.

When I do, I find Aurelia in the same place.

“Couch for a kiss,” Seth offers.

“I’ll take the floor.”

Grinning, Seth swings his legs over the side of the couch and stands. Aurelia stiffens, readying herself for Seth’s wrath. When he starts dancing like Jack Nicholson did as the Joker in Batman , hopping onto the footlocker, spinning, and hopping back off, her wariness turns to…well, more wariness.

Seth is unpredictable, and I think Aurelia’s catching on quickly.

Melancholy roots me to the spot as I watch him dance. Seth has never seen any of the Batman movies, which means he’s pulling from Zeke’s memories…again. Zeke was hardcore into comics and Batman was always in heavy rotation solely because of his favorite supervillain—Bane.

Seth grabs the long poker by the fire, and Aurelia tenses again. He twirls it in the air as he dances over to her, and it’s all I can do not to roll my eyes when he tosses it aside to lift her in his arms bridal style.

“What are you doing?” she whispers nervously.

Ignoring her while still dancing, Seth carries her over to the couch and places her on it like she’s some gentle maiden he’s sworn to protect.

One of the many blankets Sheriff Kelly’s wife crocheted for us over the years is draped over the back of the couch. Seth takes the folded brown and blue blanket and snaps it open with a flourish. He then drapes it over Aurelia and sketches a dramatic bow.

“Sleep tight, Sunshine.”

Before she can settle on a suitable reaction to his antics, Seth pries the bedroll from her and unrolls it with a snap of his wrist. He lays it out on the floor between the footlocker and couch before lowering his body onto the bed roll.

“You sure you trust her to be sleeping so close?”

Aurelia gives me a withering look before getting comfortable under the blanket and turning her back to us both.

“I trust that she’s not dumb enough to try twice in one night,” Seth says. “I just figured you two losers would sleep better knowing she’ll have to get past me to get to you.”

Except there’s one problem with that theory.

Seth is a disturbingly deep sleeper.

When the nightmares overtake him, it’s almost impossible to wake him. He’s also twice as dangerous if you succeed because he always wakes up thinking he’s back in that hellhole. It’s the reason Khalil installed those lights in his bed. They sleep in there sometimes when we need to restrain Seth or when Zeke’s afraid of being alone.

Waking up in the dark can be confusing for them and catastrophic for us.

Now, it’s Aurelia who’s in danger with this new sleeping arrangement.

I consider warning her, but she looks exhausted and traumatized enough without me adding to it, so I tell myself it will be fine as long as the light doesn’t go out.

The fire will die eventually, but there’s a lamp on the side table by Aurelia’s feet. I dim it just enough to keep the room lit with a soft glow, and then I take one last look at her curled up on the couch before I force myself to leave the den. By the time I reach the main floor, my teeth are gritted to the point of pain. I might actually chip one if I don’t unclench.

She’ll be fine, damn it.

Once I’m in my room, I strip off my shirt and, out of habit, run my hand over the raised scars marring my abs and chest before shedding my jeans, too. Walking into the ensuite, I turn on the shower and lament the shitty water pressure once again. It gets the job done, I guess.

Aurelia enters my thoughts not a moment later.

What does she think of the home we built with our bare hands?

I have no doubt it’s nothing like what she’s used to, but she could be happy here, couldn’t she? What would it take to make sure that happens? Yes, it would be easier to make her want to stay rather than forcing her, but how would we even go about it after the start we had? First impressions are hard to shake, and Aurelia was well within her right to try to take us out tonight.

These thoughts stay with me as I crawl into bed, and I spend the night tossing and fucking turning just like she said I would.