19. Raven
Iwanted to kick my own ass for coming on too strong, but god damn, I knew I was right and Autumn belonged with my coven.
She was our missing link and I was going to do everything in my power to make sure she stayed with us and never wanted to leave. After this scare with Liam I wasn’t going to let her slip through our fingertips. Keeping her with us was more important than ever to me.
She’d shut down on me after breakfast the other day and retreated back into the safety of her mind. I should have waited for a better time and done it right with the rest of my coven by my side so they could have told her how much they wanted to keep her too.
And I should have more than probably had a conversation with the rest of them to make sure we were on the same page. There was just too much shit going on and I didn’t want to add anymore stress to their plates. I always tried to take it all on myself. I thought that was part of my job and I loved being the protector.
But I couldn’t help but feel like I might be going about this all the wrong way.
She’d just gone through one trauma after the next and the last thing she probably needed was me trying to push my needy shit at her. She likely needed space and a chance to breathe.
I scowled viciously at everyone in the room around me. This shit was not going to help matters at all either.
Rain had called a meeting in my fucking house like he owned the damn place. And every single person was in attendance.
We were in the library room. It was one of my favorite rooms in the house because I loved the mammoth fire placed that took up half of one wall. Winters here could be brutal and that fire place could heat the whole entire downstairs of this house I had built.
The built in bookshelves were all overstuffed with books of every kind and they reminded me of my grandmother. She’d been a mean old bitch to almost everyone but me. She’d hated her coven and hadn’t been able to choose on her own who she’d ended up with. Instead the Council had chosen for her and she’d ended up with a group of depraved, but incredibly wealthy, assholes.
When she ended up pregnant with my dad she’d had enough and ran away from them. She’d spent the rest of her life in poverty and I’d grown up dirt poor.
That old woman had loved very few things but books had been one of them. She’d passed that love onto me.
Reading used to be my greatest escape. Building my construction company from the ground up into something that meant we’d never be poor ever again took up the majority of my time for years but I always made time to read. Sometimes the mind just needed an escape from reality and it was always my greatest one.
This room always made me feel close to my grandmother. Like her spirit was in here watching over me whenever I spent time in here. Sometimes I even imagined I could smell the scent of her clove cigarettes in the air, choking me.
“It’s really up to Autumn,” Rain said. “They were her people and she’d been the one abused by them. Justice should be rightfully hers.”
Autumn paled as she stared down at the floor.
A fucking idiot could see she wanted no part of this discussion and no part of the outcome.
I didn’t get why Rain couldn’t see that and just leave the poor girl alone. She wasn’t like Ariel and she wasn’t gung ho and blood thirsty, ready to take on anyone who ever wronged her.
That didn’t mean she wasn’t just as strong. Their strengths just lied in different places. Not everyone was built to be a warrior.
“Why are you leaving Finn out of the decision making?” I questioned Rain and he glared at me.
Finn flinched but he didn’t look away from where his hands were laced together on his knees.
Romero and Isobel crowed closer to him protectively and I rolled my eyes at their actions. We weren’t going to hurt him, he didn’t need protecting against us.
We weren”t the enemies here.
“Finn doesn’t want any part of it,” Rain growled at me. “Those were not his people anymore. He left that life behind a very long time ago. He has no part in this.”
Double standard much?
“Autumn clearly wants no part of this,” Gunner pointed out the obvious.
“Autumn has yet to speak on the subject,” Rain said in a smug voice. “Why don’t you give her a chance instead of speaking for her like it’s your god damn right or something.”
Everyone turned to stare at the girl in question and I was proud of her for not shrinking in on herself and shutting down. In my eyes she was a lot stronger than Finn was behaving at the moment.
Autumn cleared her throat and straightened out her shoulders. “The forest witches never wanted me, not really. I was shunned all my life. They aren’t my responsibility, even in death. Especially in death. I’ve given them enough of me already. I won’t play the role of the hangman for them too. That’s not who I am. I’ve already played the role of the outcast for them and that’s more than enough for me. I’m done and not giving them anymore.”
I was so proud of her. And I really wanted to kiss her.
I wanted to do a whole lot more than just kiss her.
Rain’s face softened when he looked at her. So did his voice when he spoke. “I know you’re sweet and all but, girl, you need to toughen up a bit when it comes to—”
I cut him off. I’d heard enough of his bullshit. “No, she absolutely does not. She’s perfect just as she is and she doesn’t need to change anything in order to accommodate the assholes in the world. Don’t you dare try to fill her head with anything different. What she needs is a coven to have her back and to be there for her. People she trusts to be able to make the hard decisions for her when she doesn’t want to have to do it for herself.”
“Right now she doesn’t have a coven,” Finn whispered dejectedly.
I wanted to fucking hit the bastard. Now he thought it was a good idea to open his mouth?
Fucking prick.
“How about you go fuck yourself, coward,” Scout practically snarled as he glared at Finn from across the room.
Shit. This was spiraling out of control and quickly. I didn’t like for one second the way that Rain, Romero, and Isobel were now looking at my brother.
Ariel busted out laughing and it did nothing to dispel the tension building in the room.
“Look at you, Finn!” she crowed. “You just make friends everywhere that you go. It’s not just me who thinks you’re an asshole. I fucking love it.”
“Ariel,” Rain snapped at his daughter. She just shrugged and continued grinning like she found the whole thing hilarious.
Autumn stood up quickly and murmured, “Please, excuse me.” She walked out of the room with her head hung down and looked like she might have been on the verge of crying.
Finn got up and looked like he was going to run after her but thought better of it and sat back down after looking at us.
It was the only smart thing he’d done since getting here.
Mason stood up and looked at me. “I’m going to go after her and make sure she’s okay. I think I’ve also had enough of this talk for one day. I’m sorry, Raven, but I can’t sit here any longer and listen to this. Who cares about who actually makes the decision. Just execute them and be done with it. We don’t need to be wasting anymore time or energy on them when we should be focused on Autumn and getting her settled in here with us.”
Liam stood up after Mason left the room. “I’m with Mason on this one, brother. You know I don’t give a shit what anyone outside of us has to say or thinks anyways. I’m going back to my research because that’s what’s important to me right now.”
They were both right.
And I was done with this conversation for now as well.
I looked to Rain who looked pissed about my coven members bailing on this. “We’re done here for now. Emotions are running too high. We’ll come back to this tomorrow with clearer minds.”
We wouldn”t because I planned on taking the matter into my own hands tonight and being done with it.
Then we could focus on Autumn and convincing her that we were the coven for her.
I had a feeling we had our work cut out for us because I didn’t think that girl would accept love easily.