Chapter Seven
EZEKIEL
My lungs and thighs burn as I push up the final hill, over the crest, and into the clearing. The snow is long gone, so our glade is green once again, and I can even smell the dew in the air. The air is still cool this high up, but it’s a balm against my hot skin as I wipe the sweat from my brow.
When I see the cabin door, I slow my jogging pace until I’m walking and panting to catch my breath. I usually run every day—sometimes twice a day—but Seth didn’t keep up my routine because I barely made it three miles before turning back.
I’m passing by the woodshed, where the framework of the unfinished bed Khalil’s been building and the small garden that earns a glare from me sits unfinished, when I hear voices and stop walking as if I was caught somewhere I shouldn’t be.
“Where does it go?” I hear Thorin’s rough voice ask.
“Inside me.”
A thud from the shed is followed by a high-pitched inhale in response.
“Where?”
“Inside me, Thorin. Please. I’ve been a good girl,” she pleads in a voice that’s too sweet for the thorns she wears like a crown. “Give it to me.”
My jaw tightens when I hear Thorin’s telling groan coming from the shed where he stores his kills. Losing control, he picks up his pace, the rhythmic pounding of their bodies colliding with complete abandon mingles with their cries, turning our clearing into some kind of salacious Eden.
I assume they’re inside until I start walking again, eager to get away and pass the shed. Catching movement in my peripheral vision, I make the mistake of following the sound and seeing Aurelia pinned against the side of the shed, her legs and arms wrapped around Thorin as he drills into her.
Her hair is unbound and wild, and she’s only wearing her yellow silk robe.
At least it’s not mine this time.
The robe has fallen off her shoulders and hangs halfway down her arms, the panels open so that Thorin can use her body.
I quiet my steps as I sneak past, but I can’t take my eyes off them. I know Thorin’s aware of me. He’s an apex predator. But if he has issues being watched, they aren’t big enough for him to stop and run me off.
The muscles in his bare ass flex as he drives into Aurelia one last time. The divot between her brows deepens, and I tell myself to look away.
But I can’t.
I know what he’s doing to her. Thorin’s had this kink for years. What I don’t expect is for her to open her eyes—for them to find mine and hold my stare while my brother breeds her.
I’m frozen in place until they finish. Thorin sets her on her feet, and just as they both turn, I rush inside the cabin and slam the door behind me before leaning against it.
Now I feel like the creep.
It’s been a few days since the avalanche, and while Aurelia and I have barely spoken and have seemingly agreed to steer clear of one another, I’m alarmed by how quickly I’ve become used to her presence.
She sleeps in the loft, takes care of the cabin, asks a lot of fucking questions, and distracts my brothers…
a lot. And when she’s not doing that, Aurelia’s watching me when she thinks I’m not paying attention, and I know what she’s searching for.
Seth.
Don’t get me wrong. I still want her gone, but I no longer have panic attacks when she walks into a room, so that’s something.
Now I only have them whenever she talks to me, looks at me, or gets too close.
It should be a good thing that I’m getting used to her, but I’m worried about letting my guard down like my pussy-whipped brothers.
Thorin and Khalil haven’t been subtle in their attempts to play matchmaker either. They can feel the connection between Aurelia and me—my wariness and her anguish weaving together into a rope that’s quickly fraying at the edges.
But Aurelia doesn’t want me.
She wants Seth.
And I don’t know if my interest, however thin, is because Aurelia’s a tempting and convenient hole or because she’s just tempting.
I can still enjoy a good fuck. It’s the one thing Isaac didn’t take away from me.
After Thorin and Khalil rescued me from the compound, sex was the only thing that made me feel in control, so for a while, I used it like a torch to chase the darkness away… however briefly.
And then we came here, and there was no running from it, so the three of us welcomed the dark instead. We embraced who we truly were at our core, but alone up here, there was no one to unleash ourselves on. No one to unveil what lurked underneath.
And then Aurelia showed up, and I’m supposed to believe she’s not looking for a way out?
Doesn’t she know what we are?
Finding out from Khalil and Thorin that Seth and—by some fucked-up extension—me is head over heels in love with this perplexing and prickly girl is hard to swallow.
If only I could remember…
Unable to trust my own feelings, I’ve been spending a lot of time hiding out in my now empty room.
I was planning to clear it out the day Aurelia’s plane crashed, but those plans were derailed when I found her in Khalil’s bed and Seth hijacked my head before I had a chance to even truly process her being there.
Some days I worry that Aurelia might be expecting more from me than I’m capable of giving, and others I hate myself for what she must be feeling. Maybe like having the rug pulled out from under her?
None of this is fair to her either, and my brothers have sacrificed too much for me already. I want to be strong for them. It’s the least I can do now that they’ve found this slice of happiness for themselves.
Fleeing to the kitchen when I hear footsteps on the porch, I grab myself a glass of water.
Aurelia walks in a moment later looking flushed, with her robe tied, thankfully, and her golden curls slicked with sweat and pinned on top of her head.
Jesus.
I can see the fucking stubble burn Thorin left all over her neck.
The sheer amount of spontaneous fucking in and around this goddamn cabin is the only thing I haven’t gotten used to. Thorin, Khalil, and I have been monks for the last nine years, jerking off in private and silently wishing for better days.
Now those days are finally here, but there’s only one problem.
I don’t trust Aurelia George.
Startled when she heads for the sink where I’m leaning, I find a reason to escape to the other side of the island.
Aurelia doesn’t look at me though as she turns on the water, washes her hands, and splashes her face and neck.
She then grabs one of the tin cups drying on the mat, and I start inching out as she fills it up with water and sips from it.
I’m clearing the edge of the island when her voice, soft and teasing, stops me in my tracks. “Are you running from me, Ezekiel?”
Feeling ridiculous since I’m nearly a foot taller and have at least fifty pounds on her, I force myself to face her. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“You’re afraid of me,” she says in that blunt way of hers.
Am I that fucking transparent? “Don’t let it go to your head,” I say. “These days I’m afraid of my own shadow.” This is quite literally the longest we’ve spoken since the avalanche, and it’s freaking me the fuck out.
“Having met one of them, I’d say it’s not without reason.”
My eyes narrow, and the easy banter between us dies a swift death. “You said Seth didn’t hurt you.”
Aurelia sighs like my concern is an inconvenience and then changes the subject. “Are you hungry? I can make you something to eat before I shower.”
“No,” I say tightly even though my stomach feels like it’s touching my spine. And then I remember to at least try to be civil. “Thanks.”
There’s no way in hell I’m eating her damn food.
Aurelia quickly turns away from me like she’s hiding her reaction and sets her cup in the sink. “I guess Seth must have warned you about my special stew.”
I almost tell her that I haven’t heard Seth since I woke up—not even to mock me as he’s prone to do, but I hesitate at the hopeful look in her eyes before swallowing the words down.
She’s searching for him.
In little ways. In whatever ways she can.
Aurelia probably thinks if she talks about Seth enough, he’ll come back to her. Does she know the only way to him is through my pain? Would she care? I swallow when I feel my hands begin to shake.
She’s not Tatum, I remind myself.
Aurelia isn’t even close to being anything like my ex.
When I met Tatum, she was soft and sweet and never had an unkind word for anyone, but as it turned out, it was all a front to hide the fact that she had no soul.
And when I look at Aurelia? All I see is her heart and spirit. She quite literally glows from it shining through her with the brightness of a star and the force of the sun.
Sunshine.
My heart jolts from the shock of hearing Seth’s voice after so many days of silence, but when I reach for him, I once again grasp onto nothing.
Seth?
Frustrated when he doesn’t answer, not even to taunt me, I glance at Aurelia who isn’t even trying to hide the fact that she’s watching me, and a theory forms. The only way to know for sure is to test it.
“Are you okay?” she asks me before turning to the sink to wash out her cup.
“Actually, it was Thorin and Khalil who warned me to watch out for your stew,” I say, responding to her earlier statement.
Looking at me over her shoulder, she flashes a sneaky smile, and it’s the vengeful, unapologetic gleam in her eyes that oddly makes me relax. “It’s an Aurelia George specialty. I call it Fuck Around and Find Out.”
My amusement is earnest when I laugh, and like I theorized, images begin pushing themselves into the forefront of my mind.
It’s the memory of a terrified Aurelia standing on the threshold of our cabin with the dark night like an impenetrable wall of black behind her.
There’s something surreal about the memory though.
In my head, Aurelia glows—white light at first and then golden like the sun.
Her torn milkmaid dress is wet and plastered to her body, and she’s pleading with us not to let her go.