“Okay,” Thorin says and I’m turning again with my wide eyes shifting between the three of them.
“Really?”
“Yeah,” Khalil says and then downs the rest of his beer and tosses it onto the shore. I frown at that and make a mental note to make him pick it up later. This place is too beautiful for him to litter. “If that’s what you want, then fuck it. We’ll kill them all for you, baby.”
I only just remember not to smile like a loon at that and choose to appear responsibly grim about taking a human life instead.
KHALIL
Ugh, my feet hurt,” Aurelia whines for the second time in ten minutes. We’re finally heading back to the cabin after spending a couple of days camping by the falls, rather than leaving the next morning as planned.
I stop walking and wait for her to pass me before I scoop her spoiled ass up since I know it’s what she wants. We’re not far from the ATVs anyway, and I’m tired of damn near breaking my neck to make sure she’s still behind me every time she rolls an ankle or falls a little too quiet for my liking.
“Aww, thank you, my big, strong man. That’s why you’re my fave.” She pats my cheek.
Thorin damn near trips over his feet and I smirk at the instant jealousy flooding his blue eyes when he turns around. “Wait, what? Why is he your fave?”
Aurelia hoods her eyes and raises her nose like the princess Zeke proclaims her to be. “Because both of you pretended not to hear me. That’s why.”
Thorin looks at me in complete confusion. “Hearwhat?”
I could explain to Aurelia that he really hadn’t heard her complaints because he was deep in thought figuring out how to deliver her uncle’s head to her on a platter, but I’m not willing to give up my spot as number one, so I leave his ass out to dry. “No clue.”
I walk past him and Zeke who’s quietly chuckling at Aurelia’s antics. A month ago, he would have been convinced that Aurelia pitting us against one another was a sign of her being up to nogood. Now, he finds it amusing, his green eyes twinkling like she’s the most adorable thing ever.
Just what the actual fuck were they doing at the top of that waterfall?
We reach the ATVs and ride back to the foothills of Big Bear, where we store them inside the cave before making the slightly grueling trek up to our lonely cliff. One of the reasons we chose it was for how hard it was to find and difficult to reach if you did happen to spot it. Aurelia must have been truly desperate the day she found our cabin.
We breathe a collective sigh of relief once we reach the haven of our clearing and see that it remains unmolested.
“Home sweet home,” Zeke says as he holds open the front door of the cabin for us.
Aurelia smiles up at him as she passes, and when he grins back and immediately goes to follow her like he’s possessed, I grab him by the collar and yank him back out onto the porch. Thorin sees and drops his arm over Aurelia’s shoulder, steering her toward his bedroom before she can see.
The front door slams closed, and they disappear from view while Zeke rips away from my hold. “What the fuck, Khal? What the hell is your problem?”
I shove him into the door, and he grunts from the impact. “Is there something you want to tell me, Ezekiel?”
“Yeah.” He shoves me back and shoulder checks me as he walks past me. “Don’t call me that.”
I don’t point out that he doesn’t seem to mind when Aurelia does. He’s stopped correcting her, but apparently, she’s the exception. Instead, I spin around and grab his nape before he can leave the porch, and then I force the front of his body against the pillar cornering the stairs and railing.
“You can’t be around her,” I warn while he grunts and growls to get away. “Not while we don’t know what’s happening withyour alters. Seth and Bane are even more unpredictable now. I mean it, Zeke. It’s not safe.”
“That’s not your call.”
My fingers loosen from the unbridled possession in his tone. “Oh, so you want her now? Just like that?”
Zeke manages to twist enough to throw an elbow into my face that I see coming a mile away and still narrowly miss. “All you need to know is that I’m not going to hurt her.”
Unconvinced, I shake my head. “You can’t promise that. Something’s changed. You almost died, and Bane couldn’t care less. Aurelia almost kissed you, and he charged to the surface before you even knew what was happening. The only thing wedoknow is that Aurelia is affecting Bane, and until we know why or what it means, staythe fuckaway from her.”
I feel Zeke’s dark energy follow me into the cabin, but he doesn’t come inside. I watch through the windows as he retreats into the woods, and it’s a few hours before he returns.
Just in time for dinner.
Unhooking my tool belt, I give Zeke’s old room one last surveying glance and then leave, following the smell of pasta, tomato sauce, and freshly baked bread up the stairs.
