“You all right?”
I jerk my head up from where my sweaty forehead is resting against my hand to see Khalil standing next to me. I didn’t even hear him approach because the wilds long ago honed each of us into the perfect predator.
I nod. “Yeah.”
“You want to talk about it?”
I shake my head. “No.”
Khalil nods and then reaches into the pocket of his trunks and pulls out a blunt and lighter. I turn and lean against the tree while he lights the end. “Here.”
I take the blunt, and the two of us smoke in silence until I hear Aurelia’s excited chattering and Thorin’s quiet responses. I’m not naive enough to think this means she’s no longer upset with us. I think she’s just happy to be out of that stifling cabin. We all are.
“What are you guys doing?” she asks cheerfully when she reaches us. I just handed Khalil the blunt, which he hid from her gaze.
“Nothing.” Khalil smirks, and Aurelia gives us both an unamused look.
“Really?” she asks dryly. “Because I smell weed.”
“You smoke?” Khalil asks her curiously.
Aurelia wrinkles her nose. “No.”
“Then no, you don’t.” She rolls her eyes and then looks around as if she’s searching for something. “What’s wrong?” Khalil asks when he notices.
“I’ll be back. Nature calls.”
She’s already walking off when I hear myself say, “Stay where we can see you.” Catching onto to what I’ve done, what I let slip, my gaze drops to the ground like a coward when I feel three sets of eyes land on me.
Aurelia’s the first to break the tension by saluting sarcastically. “Yes, sir.” She spins on her heel and walks off, and only then do I let my gaze rise to watch her go.
“You’ll get used to it,” Thorin says the moment she’s out of earshot.
“What?” I ask without looking away from Aurelia’s back.
“That incontrollable need to guard what’s yours.”
“And her mouth?” I ask without denying Thorin’s claim. “Will I get used to that too?”
He shrugs and accepts the blunt from Khalil. “Either man up and admit she makes you hard or learn to hide your boners better, brother.”
I don’t bother looking down to confirm that I am in fact hard as hell. I have been ever since I made Aurelia wrap her arms around me on the ATV and felt her breasts pressed against my back. And it hasn’t gone down in the minutes since we climbed off—not after I won the rematch and she threw her arms around my neck to kiss my cheek in gratitude.
“I don’t think either of you want me doing anything about it,” I say after giving Thorin’s words some thought.
“Why not?” Thorin asks before placing the blunt between his lips.
“Because if she were mine, she’d only be mine. I sure as shit wouldn’t share.” Pushing away from the tree, I walk in the opposite direction of where Aurelia went, feeling my brothers’ gazes on me as I go.
AURELIA
The hike to my guys’ latest attempt to get past my iron walls seems to go on forever. I assumed we were returning to the hot springs, but when we bypassed Maia during the race for the furthest edges of the valley, I realized belatedly that I had inexplicably returned to where it all began.
Little Bear.
Honestly, I never thought I’d see it again. I’m not sure what emotions I expected to feel now that I’m back, but I realize a little alarmingly that it doesn’t seem as scary as it once did.
Tyler and I had stood on a cliff once that gave a view of the entire wilds, along with the other peaks, and I remember feeling terrified of being lost in all of it.
