“Haven’t we all?” Rafe drawled before he flopped into the bar stool next to me, evidently done with his neighborhood watch for today. “How long is she usually gone?”
“Hours,” Zephyr muttered. “All night sometimes. Though I’m guessing she’d come back for Carrot Cake here if she decides to stay out for the night.”
I snorted.Carrot Cake. It was a really stupid nickname, but something in me warmed as Zephyr used it.
He’d accepted me incredibly easily. I’d made my mistakes with Skye, like when I let one of my oldfriendsinsult her and then when I’d insulted her myself at that disaster of a party, but Zephyr had forgiven me as easily as Skye.
Wyatt on the other hand…I eyed him warily. His entire body was tight with tension, like a snake coiled and ready to strike at any moment. He was pissed, buthewas the one who’d fucked up. What the hell was he expecting? He was lucky she’d even let him hang out here.
“Carrot Cake,” Rafe murmured. “She doesn’t call him that.”
I nearly jumped when I realized he’d been looking at me. It was unnerving to have the full attention of the Prince. His dark eyes seemed to glow when the sun hit them at the right angle, making him look almost other-worldly. He was an attractive man. I could see why he had Skye tied up in knots.She should’ve just invited him back last night.
You wouldn’t find me complaining, though. She was so keyed up when she came back to bed, she’d practically backflipped onto my dick.
“So if I’m shadow, and you’re angel…what’s Wyatt?” Rafe said, holding my gaze while his eyes glinted with mischief. He looked to Wyatt in the next moment, who was clenching his jaw so hard he could’ve cracked a tooth.
“Asshole,” Zephyr replied with a laugh. “She calls him asshole.”
The three of us chuckled while Wyatt’s cheeks turned pink.
“You don’t have to be a dick to me,” he muttered. “My issues with her are my own.”
“Wyatt,” Rafe sighed, but Zephyr cut him off.
“That’s where you’re wrong,” Zephyr said, his voice hard as if a flip switched. Wyatt blanched. “Skye’s problemsaremy problems. You’re a big problem for her, so you’re a big problem for me. You can’t throw glares in Aiden’s direction when he hasn’t done anything wrong.”
Wyatt sighed. “Aiden–”
“Is right here,” I finished, clenching my hands into fists. “I am right fucking here, Wyatt. I can speak for myself.”
“You fucked up too,” Wyatt said, throwing his arms out. “I just ran her in circles. You insulted her! You took those fucking pills from Carla. After everything we’d worked on? Everything we’d talked about? How could you do that?!”
Rafe hummed from next to me. “There it is. You’re not mad about Aiden and Skye, you’re just mad at Aiden.”
“I apologized to Skye, and she forgave me.” I said, feeling my arms heat slightly. “You should fucking try it, Wyatt. You keep making stupid excuses for how you acted and continue to act. Zephyr is nice enough to let you into his home, and you continue being a dick to him. He could easily send you away and only allow you to be here while Skye is around. Why are you provoking him?”
Rafe chuckled next to me, but I didn’t miss how he shuffled away from me slightly as my arms began to grow warmer.
“Not to mention,” I continued. “You still owemea fucking apology. You knew Skye was our Key and you hid that from me!”
“Are you kidding?” Zephyr said lowly, looking back at Wyatt with new disgust. “Do you have any idea how important this family Chain could be for her?”
The temperature in the room dropped. Rafe shifted uncomfortably from beside me again.
“You see how we live. You know what happened to our parents–”
Wyatt was shaking his head before Zephyr finished. “No, I don’t,Zephyr. None of us know any of that because she won’t tell us anything. I know they’ve passed, but that’s all.”
“Our parents were killed in the Gulf Capitol Massacre,” Zephyr said. “Skye was with them. The bombs went off, and Skye’s affinity protected her, but not them. She saw them dead, mangled, andimpaledbefore I got to her and told her to close her eyes. The bombs blew out her eardrums. She can’t handle anything loud, even to this day. She has to sleep with earbuds in to keep the nightmares away.”
I let out a shaky breath.
That was…fucking awful.
I look down at my hands, catching Rafe in my periphery. He wiped at his face quickly, clearly having been moved to tears. Wyatt had turned away sharply, trying to hide how the story had affected him, too.
“I didn’t know,” Wyatt said softly.
