“Not a bad idea,” Ares agrees, coming out of the shower and stuffing clothes into his backpack. He tosses it to Cole and joins us, scooping Ian up and throwing him over his shoulder easily. “But we need to get on the road. Now that we know he’s capable, we should get him to Sarah.”
He heads for the door and I steal Rin’s hand as we fall into step, absolutely obsessed with being able to touch her. No matter how much I desperately want to, I haven’t kissed her yet. She’s been through so much so quickly, and the vamp attack left her shaken despite how she tries to hide it. If after everything she’s endured, I ended up being the thing to push her past her breaking point?
I’d never be able to live with myself.
But honestly? This is enough. To just be able to touch her, hold her if I want to? The option is there, and I’ll never take the little things for granted again.
Ian is tossed in the back and Rin starts to climb in next before I grab her hips, setting her back on the pavement and switching places. Extending a hand down, I help haul her in since it’s a decent step up and she looks at me in confusion.
“I think it’s pretty clear by now that he’s not going to hurt us,” she points out, closing her door and fastening her seatbelt.
Shrugging, I stretch an arm over the back of her seat, toying with a strand of her hair and lean in closer to whisper in her ear. “Call it a stupid guy thing, but I don’t want to smell Ian all over you. If you’re going to be coated in anyone’s scent, I’d rather it be mine.”
Ares starts driving as I pull back, reveling in the shiver that snakes down her spine. “So, Ares was right.”
Raising an eyebrow, I wait for her to continue while resuming playing with her hair. I may be self-disciplined enough not to maul her in the backseat, but that doesn’t mean I can stop at least casual touches.
“You’ve always been clingy.” My fingers still before she starts laughing, leaning into my side. “Breathe, I’m only teasing. It’s just amusing that I was so worried about this when you’re simply a less hairy, larger Ozzy. Still trying to climb onto my lap and rub your scent all over me; it’s cute.”
“Maybe one day you can even upgrade from cute to sexy,”Cole teases and I snort in amusement.
Says the guy that would let Rin wear him like a coat if she asked. You’ve been halfway up her ass since the day you met her.
“Not too far off base there.”Ares barks out a laugh that has our mate narrowing her eyes at us.
“Keep it up and Ian and I will have all sorts of inside jokes that you won’t be a part of,” she threatens.
“It’s cute when you try to be intimidating,” Cole teases, turning in his seat to face her. “But seeing as we’re ditching the mage after he fixes Sarah, it falls a little flat.”
She raises an eyebrow as she flicks her gaze to the side, thinking on her feet. “Alright, then I’ll ask Gage to make the bed for my room. Every time we have sex, you’ll be forced to admire his handiwork and marvel his skills.”
Ares slows down and I admire his restraint at not slamming on the breaks while he growls. “The hell you will. Only skills you’ll be thinking about in bed are ours.”
She shrugs flippantly, smiling softly to herself in victory. “Guess we’ll just have to see if you keep cutting me out of the conversation.”
“You are devilishly perfect,” Cole purrs, and I’m half expecting him to try and crawl in the back with us.
We drive a little ways more before running into construction. Ares sighs, backtracking and taking an even longer route out of our way while I have a brief pang of worry. Sarah was looking fairly well when we visited, but her symptoms tend to come in waves. If she was good then, I have no doubt she took a turn within a couple days of us leaving.
The lows are getting lower in recent months and I hate to think that we came so close, just to be a few hours too late because of some construction. Logically, I know I’m likely being ridiculous, but it’s hard to rationalize the vision away after she took such a bad turn I decided to risk going to the city.
Hours pass, and Rin senses my mood, trying to pull me out of my introspective silence. “So, tell me something about yourself. I know Cole and Ares’ stories, but what about yours?”
Shaking my head to clear my thoughts, I pull her tighter into my side. “Afraid you’re going to be pretty disappointed, love. My family is the one that took in Cole as a kid and Ares as a teen. They’re pretty amazing people.”
She smiles, tucking her head beneath my chin. “Not disappointing at all. Just because I had a few shitty experiences doesn’t mean I’d wish them on anyone. And I like knowing that Cole and Ares had a safe space, had people to love them when they needed it most.”
Cole glances at our mate in the rearview mirror, absolute devotion softening his gaze. “But still nothing compared to being near you. I completely shut down for the longest time despite their best efforts, but you just swoop in and cauterize old wounds like it’s nothing. Pretty damn amazing if you ask me.”
She snorts. “You don’t need to pander to my ego. I’m all feeble; and that’s okay. I don’t need to be able to tear someone’s head off when I have you three. I’ll just figure out a different way to contribute to the pride, because I’m not about to just accept you waxing poetic about how my very existence is gift enough. That’s lazy and conceited. Least I can do is organize your workshop or something,” she chuckles, sounding less self-deprecating than before, so I’m taking it as a good sign.
The piercing shriek of a siren assaults my ears long before I see the flashing lights reflecting off of the mirrors, all levity draining away in an instant. Ian sleeps right on through, the palpable fear in the air not fazing him any more than the blaring noise.
Ares lets loose a string of curses as he pulls over and Rin’s heart isn’t the only one sprinting right now. We were so fucking close, the wilds taunting us before we had to backtrack, that I should have anticipated something like this happening. Things were going too smoothly, I should have anticipated something like this happening. There’s simply no way that the cosmos would allow us to just fucking go home without kicking us in the balls a few more times.
A single highway patrolman strides up to the truck, his hand already resting on the gun holstered on his hip. “That’s not a good sign,”Cole breathes, not even thinking too loud for fear of drawing any more attention to us.
Just keep cool and don’t engage.
