Chapter 99
[ 759 words ]
She hated me barric
99: 99.
She hated me barric Barric
“Get your dick away from me,” Ransom gripes as a grinning Elliot.
He pushes him out of his personal space.
The bastard Alpha ignores the hunter and steps closer.
“Didn’t take you for a prude, princess.”
I look over at Kiara, urging her with my eyes to separate the two males before things get physical.
Kiara moves between them easily.
“Elliot, sit your ass down so I can heal you.”
The Alpha looks like he wants to argue, but thinks better of it.
A healer is no one to take lightly, especially when their wolf is hounding them to take care of others.
He moves to the bed next to Ransom, his eyes never leaving the human for long.
When Ronan and the others returned, they brought all the warriors they had gone to battle with.
I had to put my diplomacy to good use.
My wolf instantly alerts with these new allies.
But I know the time of infighting between our pack had passed, and even if the road was bumpy, we would be together in the future.
We’re all crowding into the two infirmary rooms as the healer assistants set up rooms for our guests.
Our enforcers help transitioning people.
I go over to Aria, who is quiet, looking at her hands as she sits on the bed that Kiara assigned her to.
I could feel her closing down, see the shuttering of her eyes.
Carefully, like I was approaching a skittish rabbit, I take the seat beside her.
Moments pass before she notices me and lifts her beautiful blue gaze to me.
Her skin is too pale, too dull, of the life I’m used to seeing when I look at her.
My wolf whines, pacing, needing to comfort our mate and take the sadness away from her.
She stares at me, eyes slowly clearing as if she’s coming out of the grips of an overwhelming thought.
A nightmare.
It is the stillness that worries me.
Aria never sits still.
Even wounded, even furious, even exhausted, there is always movement inside her.
Fire beneath skin.
Teeth hidden behind sharp words.
Some kind of storm threatening to split open and unleash on us.
But not now.
It’s like someone reached inside of her and held their hand over that light until it snuffed out.
Fix it.
My wolf presses.
The savage ambition takes hold of me as if I can claw apart sorrow the way I’d tear through an enemy’s throat.
I’d do it if I could.
Gods, I would.
I’d pluck that vicious infection right out of her chest and smooth over the wound it left until all she could feel is peace and happiness.
If only.
“Sweetheart,” I say softly.
“Talk to me.”
Her fingers twist and untwist together.
“I’m…just thinking.”
The word lands like a stone.
Ronan’s earlier recap of events echoes through my head.
Aldren had her mother.
Aria saw her, and Lorian didn’t make it.
Didn’t take a genius to piece together the rest.
We had suspected their death was odd, and now it makes sense how the Assembly knew to come after Aria even before her first shift.
They had Lorain, and they used the woman for the veil.
I take one of her hands, rubbing my thumb along the back of her palm in small circles.“You know, thoughts generally do better if you have someone to bounce them off of.”
“I don’t know if you want these. They’re not exactly pretty ones.” Her voice is flat.
“Hey,” I scoot closer, cupping her face in my hands.
“I don’t need you to be anything.
I just need you.
All your highs and lows and everything in between.
Let me be there for you.”
“You talked to Ronan,” she asks, leaning into my touch.
Not a question.
“A bit. He gave me the quick and dirty version. Now I want yours.”
Silence stretches.
Heavy.
Fragile.
Solom.
“They had her bound to Kane,” Aria says finally.
“All this time that sick fuck had her imprisoned, bound, and used like a tool to control the Vail, and they wanted me like her. They tried to bind me to Kane, too.”
A snarl rips from my lips at the thought of that bastard trying to take her autonomy.
Her voice sounds scraped raw.
“My mother stopped them, with the help of Ransom. She….” A look of nausea flows over as she tries to get out the words.
“She killed herself to kill Kane. To take the power over the veil, the assembly had to go back.”
Her last words come out on a whimper, but she doesn’t let herself cry.
I grab her, hauling her into my chest.
Her body is stiff for a moment, but then she softens against me.
“She hated me barric.” The words are muffled against my chest.
Low and just for me.
“And I don’t know what to do with this.”
“Baby, she didn’t hate you,” I say softly.
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