Page 30

THORIN

“ G ood luck,” Khalil says from the other end of the channel.

The irony isn’t lost on me that my brothers will be roughing it and spinning lies for the next couple of days, but I’m the one in need of prayer.

“Yeah, you too.”

Tossing aside the two-way radio, I pick up the axe and resume chopping wood outside the shed. It’s unnecessary since we’ve got plenty, but I needed out of that cabin.

So much for fresh air.

Seth and Khalil had just given me the heads up to stay inside and out of sight while the search team combed our mountain. We should have seen it coming, but we get tunnel vision when it comes to Aurelia.

It might even be a necessary thwart to our plans.

Aurelia is the only one still missing, and Big Bear is the only place the team hasn’t searched because of us. The military can’t stare down the eyes of the world empty-handed and claim they gave it all they got, knowing more than a third of the Cold Peaks hadn’t been combed. It would leave too much room for speculation and questions of competency. It could even bring the entire search team itself into focus.

Making it all the easier for Isaac to find us.

Swearing, I leave the axe buried in the tree stump and rip off my gloves before grabbing the radio and heading inside.

I see Aurelia the moment I step through the front door.

She’s standing in front of the panoramic window below the loft, staring out at the two smaller peaks and the valley between, but her eyes aren’t on the miles and miles of brutal wilderness below our cliff.

They’re cast to the sky like she’s waiting on something.

Letting the front door slam behind me, I wait for her to act caught, but true to form, she doesn’t give a damn that I know what she’s up to. Her head just keeps swiveling back and forth. “Get away from the window.”

“Why?”

Of course, she doesn’t move and continues to stare out of the glass.

Aurelia’s been doing that lately. At first, I thought it was because she enjoyed the view. It is pretty epic. But our devious captive doesn’t strike me as someone who appreciates nature.

No, it’s much more likely that she’s plotting another escape.

After our fight this morning, we’d pretty much stayed out of each other’s way, but it didn’t last. I hadn’t made it an hour without eyes on her before I tracked her down and found her up in the small loft singing .

Her powerful voice had held me arrested long enough for her to realize she had an audience, and then—as if it had never happened—she stopped. Hoping she’d sing for me again, I offered to carry down the heavy boxes we’d stored up there and forgotten about. I’d even dragged up Khalil’s thick bedroll and extra pillow from the basement for her to sleep on, but all I’d gotten for my trouble was a cutting side-eye and her telling me to go away while she finished dusting out the loft. I’d sat on the couch watching her for a while before accepting that she wouldn’t sing again while I was around, so I’d left to chop wood.

Instead of explaining that I don’t want to risk her being spotted by a passing helicopter, I walk over to join her at the window. I wrap my arm around her waist, and she doesn’t fight me, even when I lean down to mark up her neck with my stubble. “Because I said so, wolf. Let’s go take a shower.”

We’re still pressed together when she lets me ease her away from the window.

“I can’t do this. I can’t do that. Why don’t you just throw me in the dungeon and be done with it? Grab that,” Aurelia points to the conditioner now resting on the coffee table, and I swipe the bottle as we pass.

“Kinky, but we don’t have one.”

“What about the root cellar? You could put a lock on the door and—”

Aurelia stops, and her expression becomes appalled when she realizes she is actually giving me ideas on how to lock her down.

I smile as we enter my bedroom, but it feels strained from the effort it takes not to give in to the dark impulse to do exactly that. “Don’t tempt me, wolf.”

Aurelia rolls her eyes half-heartedly and clears her throat. “You didn’t have to babysit me,” she claims once we’re in my bathroom. “I’m not going to run.”

My gaze flicks to hers as I reach for the thin bow tied between her breasts, and she stops breathing when I pull on the string. The small slit in her bodice parts a little while my hand drops to her brown corset with embroidered daffodils. “You’ve said that before, but I remember you running.”

“Okay, I’m not going to run again .”

Slowly, I loosen the laces on her corset until it falls to the floor, and her bodice parts even more until her nipples spill out of her dress.

“I wish I could believe you, my wolf, but then you wouldn’t be my wolf.” Aurelia wraps her arms around her stomach like it’s upsetting her all of a sudden and chews on her bottom lip. I pause from relieving Aurelia of her dress. “What’s the matter?”

“Nothing,” she says too quickly. “How did you learn to hunt?”

The swift change in subject stumps me for a second, but I play along. “A lot of trial and error. It was either learn or starve, and if it was just me, maybe I would have, but I had Khalil and Zeke and neither can hunt for shit.”

“Can you teach me?” she blurts. I raise my brows, and it’s the wrong reaction because Aurelia becomes flustered and tries to backpedal. “N-never mind. That was stupid.”

“Why?”

She huffs. “I don’t know why. I said forget it, okay?”

“Aurelia… why do you think it’s stupid to want to take care of yourself?” I clarify.

“Oh.” She shrugs and then reaches for my jeans. I doubt she’s even aware she’s undressing me like this is normal for us as she talks. “I don’t know. I guess because I haven’t had to lift a finger for myself in…well, ever.” I toe off my boots and step out of my jeans once they drop to the floor while Aurelia lifts my shirt over my head with my help. “My uncle has always taken care of me. I wouldn’t know how if I tried.”

“Yes, you would.”

Aurelia skates by my statement like it will burn her if she gets too close, and I let her as I turn on the shower. Once the water is warm, we both climb in. She’s not as nervous as the first time we showered together, but I can tell she’s waiting for me to jump her like last time.

“So, what did you do before you came to be one with nature?” she asks to try to distract me.

Watching her step under the weak spray to wet her huge mound of curls, I answer while somewhat entranced. “Recon. Marines.”

“Oooh.” Her eyes bug playfully but then sobers when she remembers what I’m capable of. “Scary.”

Laughter punches out of me unintentionally. “Not really. A lot of watching and waiting. I can’t think of a more boring job.”

Grabbing my shampoo, she squirts some in her small palm and then starts to lather her hair. “Is that why you don’t do it anymore?”

“No. Zeke needed me more, and nothing was going to keep me away. Desertion wasn’t an option, so I got myself discharged.”

“How?”

“I punched out my CO.” After an awkward silence, I say, “Don’t worry. He had it coming.”

“Wow. Extreme. You must love Zeke.”

“He’s my brother,” I say simply.

Aurelia nods her understanding but looks sad for some reason. “I wish I had siblings.”

“We’re not related.”

“No, I know. I just…I don’t have friends either.”

My head cocks to the side while my eyes narrow. She’s got to be bullshitting me. “None?” She gives an abrupt shake of her head, and since I can’t stand to watch her struggle to wash her hair any longer, I turn her around and take over. “How is that possible?”

Aurelia is an international icon with more power and money than one person should have. Surely, there have been people—even if their intentions are self-serving—who have gotten close.

“Other than the obvious?” she returns wryly.

I grunt as I work my fingers over her scalp and watch her lashes flutter. “You’re not that bad, wolf. Have you met me?”

“You’re not…that bad.”

I laugh and use my grip on her hair to pull her against me until my dick is nestled between her plump ass. “Careful,” I warn playfully.

“Are we seriously bonding over being terrible people?”

Grinning, I kiss her neck, and then I ask again as I work the shampoo through her hair, “So, why don’t you have friends?”

“My uncle wouldn’t let me.”

My hands pause as something cold and angry rises in my chest. “The fuck are you talking about?”

Aurelia tenses, and I force myself to chill the fuck out. Marston George hasn’t been the only villain in her life. The fact that I don’t want her to be afraid of me should be enough for me to leave this shower right now, but I don’t. Something changed after we got Aurelia back to the cabin, and I don’t want to ruin it before I can figure out whatever the hell this is.

“Tell me what you mean,” I demand a little gentler.

“It’s not a big deal, really. Haven’t you heard that it’s lonely at the top?” Aurelia tries to mask her pain by chuckling through it, but only stony silence follows. “I, uh…I wanted to be a singer since I was nine,” she explains. “When my dad died a few years later, my uncle became my guardian. He said I had to stay focused if I was serious about being a star. I had to make singing my whole world, so I did. Nothing came before it—not my mom, who was in rehab or even school. I dropped out before I even got to high school, and my uncle hired a private tutor and called it homeschooling, but most of my days were spent building my voice and learning how to perform.”

“What about others in the industry?”

“Oh, sure. There were people I met on my way to the top. My uncle even set me up to “date” or befriend other high-profile celebrities whenever I had a new album or tour coming up, but none of it was ever real. And I learned the hard way how fast clapping can turn to stabbing. My uncle didn’t have to convince me of shit after that. Life is the best teacher, right? Once I hit the big time and everyone knew me, the only thing that mattered was my image. My persona was so carefully curated and protected that I didn’t even recognize myself anymore. How could I ask someone to like me for me if I didn’t know who I was, you know?”

I nod but don’t speak as I rinse the shampoo from her hair.

Aurelia is pensive for a few moments before she says, “The last meaningful relationship I had was with my bodyguard. Tyler. He was the closest thing I had to a friend, but I knew if I ever actually believed it, my uncle would catch wind, and I would never see him again.”

Her voice softens when she says his name, and I stare at the top of her head as my hands continue their task. I barely keep the possession out of my tone when I ask, “And was Tyler more than just your bodyguard?”

“Huh?”

“You heard me.”

And just like that the spell that made her pliable and forthcoming is broken. “Crying over spilled milk, Thorin? That’s so unlike you,” she mocks.

Shaking my head, I snatch up the conditioner and apply a generous amount to her hair. “Just answer the question , Aurelia.”

“Why does it matter? He’s dead .” Choosing to step right over that, I don’t bother to correct her assumption. I just turn her around to face me and hold her stare until she submits in the only way Aurelia can—purely fucking infuriatingly. “What can I say, Thorin? A girl has needs.”

“He didn’t meet them.”

She looks taken aback at my confidence. “How would you know? You weren’t there.”

Wrapping both hands around her neck, I push her against the tiles and choke her until she’s clawing at my hands and arms for air.

And then I give it to her.

I let her throat go and force her lips against mine before she can even draw a breath. I give her the air in my lungs until she’s convinced she can’t breathe without me. And then I kiss her until she’s breathless again so that I can be the one to revive her.

One kiss and she forgets she wants to be saved. Instead, she’s clawing and panting for me, not freedom.

Instead of fucking her senseless like she wants, I pull away, only far enough to see the brown in her irises, while shoving a hand between her thick thighs and cupping her warm pussy. “Because I know what you need, and the only ones depraved enough to feed that fantasy were right here waiting for you, Aurelia. That’s how I fucking know.”

She rolls her eyes but, for once, doesn’t deny that she craves this. She probably even thinks she deserves it. Whether she does or not makes no difference to me. I would have kept her, anyway.

“Anyway, he’s ex-military too. You’d probably like him.”

I should have drowned his ass when I had the chance. “I guess we’ll never know.”

I don’t want to talk about Tyler anymore. I don’t even want her to remember him. I might want to string her uncle up by his ankles and then gut him like I would my dinner before I eat it, but he had one thing right.

Distracting Aurelia from herself is the best way to keep her in line.

My dick is brick-hard from that kiss, so I lift Aurelia off her feet and wrap her legs around my waist. Lining myself up with her entrance, I hesitate and I’m not even aware of the question on my lips until it falls off.

“Do you want it?”

Too late now to pretend I don’t care.

Aurelia looks surprised but not more so than me when she nods. Her breath hitches when I enter her pussy slowly while staring in her eyes. I don’t give her a chance to recover when our hips finally meet. I work to muddle that head of hers by fucking her hard against the tile wall.

“Don’t mention him again,” I warn against her soft lips as she mewls from the rough treatment. “I don’t care if I’m not around to hear it.” I’m grateful to Tyler for keeping Aurelia alive and leading her right to us, but that’s as far as my gratitude extends. “Don’t fucking say his name again. I won’t share any part of you with anyone but my brothers. Understand?”

Digging her nails into my back, Aurelia nods with a pinched expression, and I don’t even realize I’m easing up until her expression smooths and she softens in my arms. “Don’t stop.”

“Then kiss me.”

Her head snaps forward, and Aurelia crushes her lips against mine with an eager moan while I fuck an orgasm out of us both. After she’s caught her breath, I set her on her feet and keep one arm around her waist when she sways. Silently, I wash the conditioner out of her hair.

“Do you still hate me, wolf?”

I must be a glutton for punishment because what other answer could there be than yes? I don’t know what I’ll do if she does. Punish her for telling the truth? It’s too cruel even for me.

Slowly, she shakes her head slowly as if she doesn’t want to admit it. “Not as much at the moment. Keep it up.”

Finished with her hair, I crush her against me as I hold her and feel her heart beating wildly against my abs. “You’re just saying that because I made you come,” I joke.

It’s a piss-poor attempt to run from this.

Because it’s foolish what we’re doing. What we’re letting happen. I’m not even trying to fight it anymore. Quiet as kept, Aurelia scares the shit out of me.

Teeth sinking into her bottom lip, her brown gaze becomes unfocused for several moments before it clears, and she shrugs. “Maybe.”

We finish showering and I wrap a towel around her and then me. After, I leave the bathroom to get dressed while Aurelia stares at herself in the mirror. I find one of my shirts for her to wear, despite the clothes we salvaged from the camp because I like seeing in her my shirts, and return to the bathroom. Aurelia’s fussing with her hair now and cursing as she tries to part her tangled curls with her fingers.

“What’s wrong?” I ask as I stand behind her.

Her gaze flicks to mine in the mirror before returning to her hair. “Nothing.”

“Looks like something.”

“You won’t understand.”

“Try me.”

Sighing heavily, she drops her arms. “Okay. Well, I have to do something with my hair before it drives me crazy, but I don’t have any of the stuff I need.”

“Like what?”

“A comb or brush for one?”

“What else?”

Turning around to face me, she folds her arms and runs down a list of products that make me wonder if she’s secretly building a bomb instead. When she’s done, I raise my brows. “Is that all?” I ask sarcastically.

“Forget it.” Her nostrils flaring, she faces the mirror once more and goes back to trying to section her wet hair.

After the third or fourth wince, I can’t take it anymore and leave the bathroom. I walk over to my bed, and after making sure the coast is clear, I pull her duffel from under my bed. I’ll have to find a better hiding place soon, but it’s the least of my worries as the sound of Aurelia cursing hard enough to make a sailor blush reaches my ears.

The small case I’d found her conditioner in is sitting on top, so I find what she needs in no time. I hesitate only for a moment since the plan had been to use this shit as a bargaining chip before remembering an old adage.

Happy wife, happy life.

Kicking the rest of her shit under the bed again, I ease back into the bathroom with Aurelia’s hair products. She ignores me when I walk in until I set the designer case on the counter, and her gaze flies to it before finding mine.

“What…how did you…?” She doesn’t finish her sentence when she dives for the travel case and flips it open. A few of the bottles are busted, but most of them are intact. Aurelia doesn’t seem to notice the mess as she squeals happily and then throws her arms around my neck and kisses me. “I don’t even know how the hell you found this and just happened to have it, but I don’t care. Thank you, Thorin.”

I grab a handful of her ass—which is more than a hand full— and groan before stealing another kiss because I’m greedy like that. “That’s right, wolf. Keep ignoring those pesky questions, and we’ll get along just fine.”

She sinks her teeth into my bottom lip until she draws blood.

My perfect, vicious thing.

Aurelia stays in the bathroom for hours.

When she finally emerges, the day is gone, and she looks exhausted but relieved. Light floods my bedroom from the bathroom when she opens the door and steps out wearing my T-shirt. The front of her hair is twisted to her scalp in small, neat rows, while the rest of her hair is in its usual unburdened mass, though the curls do look more vibrant than before. I’d always known she had beautiful hair but seeing it now has my fingers flexing, imagining her golden curls slipping through my fingers.

Aurelia doesn’t notice me, doesn’t even look my way.

I’m lying on my bed in the dark with my fingers linked behind my head. I’d been careful not to make a peep.

Shortly after leaving her alone, Aurelia started singing again.

She hadn’t stopped—not once in all the time that she’d been locked inside my bathroom. When one song ended, she immediately started another, and I’ve been rooted to this spot ever since. Even when my hunger turned to pain, my back hurt, and I needed to piss like no other, I ignored the discomfort and stayed to listen to her sing about love and heartbreak and being true to yourself.

All things she knows nothing about, thanks to her uncle.

“So, when girls claim they can’t go out because they have to wash their hair, it wasn’t a lie after all?” I ask, startling her.

Aurelia yelps and jumps back with a hand on her heaving chest. “What the hell, Thorin? Could you be more creepy?”

“I could try.” Tilting my head, I grin and end my slow perusal at her chest. “I know how much it excites you.”

She glowers and ignores my statement. “Why are you in here?”

“It’s my room.”

“Shouldn’t you be out raiding, plundering, and ravaging fair maidens?”

“Not today.” Swinging my legs over the side of the bed, I stand and stretch, but it doesn’t cure my restlessness.

Aurelia—despite her derision—gets me better than she should.

I’ve never been good at lying around the house and doing nothing. Cabin fever has already set in after being stuck inside for almost a week, and now it will be another two days before I can leave.

Fuck.

“So, is that your fantasy then?” I tease, hardening my expression as I approach. Aurelia nervously backs away with her hands up like I’m not stronger and faster than her. I bend and wrap my arms around her thighs just under her butt, and she yelps, her hands finding my shoulders when I lift and carry her out of the bedroom. “You want to be plundered and ravaged by a sexy Viking?”

“I didn’t say you were sexy.”

“You were thinking it.”

“I didn’t say you were a Viking either.”

“You called me Ragnar when we first met.”

Her eyes dart to the side. “And?”

“I happened to catch a couple of episodes of Vikings before we left the States , and my memory is a little fuzzy, but I think I remember a certain humble blue-eyed, blond farmer turned ruthless raider who looks nothing like me.

“You’re full of yourself, aren’t you, Thorin…whatever your last name is.”

“It’s Thayer. And I could make you full of me, too. Just say the world, Aurelia.” Since my face is level with her chest, I bite and kiss her breasts through my T-shirt as I walk, and her fingers curl in my shoulders when my voice drops a decibel. “I’ll even chase if you want. I can throw you down on my furs, and tear off your dress. You could scream for me, wolf. As loud as you can. I promise I won’t stop.”

“You’re making fun of me.”

My head lifts, and I stare into her eyes as I slowly set her on her feet inside the kitchen. “Aurelia, I know you’re still trying to figure some shit out, but I can promise you that no one here is going to make fun of you for what you want. It’s more likely that the three of us will come to blows to be the one to give it to you.”

“Except if I want to leave, of course.”

“Of course.”

I don’t want to ruin this tenuous peace we have, so I don’t bother to suggest she might not want to leave—especially when I’m not sure how we even got here. One minute, we’re fighting, and the next, we’re stripping each other bare before stripping each other bare.

“I like your hair,” I say as I brush her lip with my thumb. “Did I tell you that, wolf?”

She shakes her head while staring up at me with wide eyes. Her tongue darts out and licks the tip of my thumb, and my dick jerks in my sweats, wanting a piece of that action.

I sigh and drop my hand. “Get started on dinner. I’m going to chop some wood,” I announce before heading for the front door.

Some distance seems necessary, but Aurelia has other plans.

She follows me out of the kitchen.

“Can I come?” The request stops me in my tracks. I look over my shoulder to see her looking hopeful, but I’m already shaking my head. “Why not?”

“Because you have to stay inside and out of sight for a couple of days.”

“What’s the big deal? I thought you said search and rescue wouldn’t come this far?”

“I know what I said, wolf. It’s just a precaution.”

“Why?” she demands, looking seconds away from a panic attack. “You haven’t had a problem with me going outside before. You said as I long as I stay within sight, it’s fine. Why hide me now?”

I don’t respond right away.

Two weeks ago, I would have taken great pleasure in pulling the rug out from under her, and while I still would if necessary, I can’t with her looking at me like I’m the answer to her problems and not the reason for her distress.

When did I start wanting to be the former and not the latter?

Dropping my head, I rub at my temples. “Come on, baby. You know why.”

Her sharp inhale is audible as tears well in her eyes but don’t fall. It hasn’t escaped my notice that even through all of this, and what we’ve done to her, Aurelia never cried. Not once. “They’re calling off the search?”

“Yes.”

“When?”

“Two days.”

“Two…” It’s all that makes it out of her before she clutches her stomach and turns away from me. Aurelia doesn’t say another word, and she doesn’t come with me to chop wood. She leaves the kitchen in a daze and climbs the bookcase up to the loft before crawling inside Khalil’s sleeping bag, where she stays for the rest of the night.

I end up making dinner for us, but she doesn’t come down when I call for her. She hasn’t eaten since this morning, and I know she must be starving.

I don’t eat either because I can’t stomach the food, so I try to check on Khalil and Seth, but they’re unresponsive as well, which means it’s not safe for them to talk. I glance up one last time at the loft before lying down on the couch.

Aurelia’s silence is driving me crazy.

I end up falling asleep, waiting for my wolf to snap out of it and come down, but she never does. When I wake before dawn, I peel myself from the couch, shower, and get dressed before grabbing what I need for the day.

Once I have my weapons and pack shouldered, I return to the living room.

“Aurelia.”

No sound comes from the loft above me for a few seconds, and then I hear the sleeping bag rustle.

“Aurelia, I know you hear me.”

“I hear you, but I’m trying not to,” she grumbles sadly while sounding wide awake. Had she even slept? “Go away.”

So, we’re back to this then.

I blow air out through my nostrils, but that’s as far as I let my anger travel. I should have expected this, really. Aurelia may be acting like the perfect submissive, but she’s never stopped charting a course for home.

I’m teetering between immense pride and grating frustration that she refuses to let us have our way. I’m pretty sure if Aurelia had fallen in line from the start, I would have grown bored after fucking her once and then thrown her off the deck like I imagined doing that first night.

It’s just before dawn, so we don’t have a lot of time to waste on her pity party.

“Get up, get dressed, and let’s go,” I order sternly.

“Why?”

It’s her favorite fucking question.

“Because I said so,” I reply, giving her my favorite fucking answer. She slowly sits up and peers out the tip of the A-frame window overlooking the peaks and the tip of the full moon peeking over the horizon before glaring down at me over her shoulder. She notices I’m fully dressed with the crossbow strapped to my back and my hunting rifle across my chest. “Let’s go.”

Aurelia scoots to the edge of the loft to climb down the bookcase, but I get there first and wrap my hands around her waist before lifting and setting her on her feet.

“Now, get dressed.” I shove the warm clothes I pulled from the salvage we stole. If Aurelia recognizes the items when she takes them from me, she doesn’t remark on it. It figures when I want her to ask questions and chew my ass out, she doesn’t.

“Where are we going?”

“You asked me to teach you to hunt. We’re going to hunt.”

“I thought I had to stay inside.”

“We won’t be gone long, and we’ll stay close to the cabin. It shouldn’t be a problem so long as you do as I say and don’t wander off.”

“So, like normal then?”

“Exactly.”

“Does this mean you’ll show me how that works?” She points to the crossbow sticking over my shoulder.

“Why? So you can use it on me?”

“Maybe. Wouldn’t you?”

“Be ready in ten or be left,” I tell her so that she gets going.

Aurelia sticks her nose in the air when she walks past me and takes her stubborn ass down to the basement instead of using my bathroom, knowing the slight will irk me.

When she returns with the coat that belongs to another man, I grab the sleeve before she can pull it on, and we play tug-of-war with it until I manage to wrestle it from her without hurting her. Aurelia talks shit while I add it to the pile of firewood, but instead of pissing me off, I feel myself fighting back a smile.

It’s never been my intention to break her past the point of repair—at least not since we decided she was one of us.

She falls silent when I return and hand her the winter coat Khalil grabbed from her luggage. It’s puffy and white with a fur-lined hood and has yet another designer label I don’t recognize, but it actually looks useful, unlike those boots she arrived in. She slips the coat on with a perplexed look on her face before tugging on the hat and gloves Seth gave her. I watch her hesitate a moment when she grabs the blue and purple striped scarf.

“Something wrong?”

“This was Cassie’s.”

I search my memory for the name. “Your assistant?”

Aurelia nods. “Wolves got her the first day. I tried to help her, but I…she died anyway. If it wasn’t for Tyler finding me when he did, I’d be dead too.”

And now I understand the hesitation. “Put it on,” I tell her.

“No.” She tries to step around me, but I grab the scarf and drape it around her neck. “Stop it, Thorin.”

“Torturing yourself won’t make you a hero,” I say as I wind it around her neck. “It just makes you obnoxious and repetitive.” Tugging on the tails, I yank her into me. “Take the fucking scarf and stay warm. Cassie would want you to have it.”

“She hated me.”

“And you hated her, I’m sure, but you still put yourself in grave danger to try to save her. Let Cassie help you now.”

She’s retrospective for a few moments before smirking a little cruelly. It perplexes me at first sight until she says, “It’s funny…you know who said the same thing.”

Fucking Tyler Westbrook.

“Let’s go,” I order before my jealousy puts us right back at square one.

As we start for the door, I pause to grab the compound bow and quiver I’d left on the couch. Aurelia’s brown eyes widen, but she stays still as I slip the empty quiver over her shoulder and hand her the vertical bow. At first, she holds it awkwardly with both hands like an offering, but when I cross my arms to wait her out, she rolls her eyes and holds it down by her side.

“Rule number one of weapon training…” Turning, I start for the cabin’s front door. As I pass the oval mirror on the entry wall, I catch sight of her arms raised as she aims the unloaded crossbow at my back with a narrowed gaze. “Never point it anything you’re not prepared to fucking kill, Aurelia.”

She lowers the bow.