Chapter Fifty-Two #2
Khalil pushes through curtains on the side of the bed just as I cradle Aurelia’s belly with both hands just to be sure my eyes aren’t playing tricks on me. “What? What’s wrong? What happened?” His gaze drops when he doesn’t get an answer from me, and then he stumbles back a step when he sees.
The curtains on the other side of the bed are ripped open, and Seth appears holding one of Aurelia’s perfume bottles. He sniffs it distractedly and then grumbles something about liking Aurelia’s pussy better.
“Seth,” I say, my voice cracking a little. I grab his hand, and the perfume bottle falls out of it, dropping onto the bed as I yank his hand forward and rest it on her belly. “Do you feel that?” I demand, unable to trust what’s real. My head still doesn’t feel right sometimes. I need to know.
“She feels different,” he says with a frown that’s confused.
“She’s pregnant, Seth.”
His eyes widen and then dart back and forth between my face and Aurelia’s belly before settling on our girl. “I’m going to be a daddy?”
The three of us are quiet for a while as we let in sink in. I’m going to be a father. I’m not sure how long we sit there in silence before I break it. “How far along do you think she is?”
Khalil’s hand inches forward, and then he places it reluctantly on her belly above where mine and Seth’s still rest. It’s warm despite the rest of her skin feeling cool. “At least five or six months.”
It’s the last time any of us touched her.
“I don’t understand,” Seth says with a wrinkle in his brow. “Why isn’t she waking up?”
Khalil removes his hand and turns toward the nightstand. “I think this might explain why,” he says as he shows us the small bottle of Benadryl.
Seth’s frown only deepens. “Is that safe?”
“Don’t know,” Khalil answers as he replaces the bottle on the nightstand. “But I trust that she wouldn’t take it if it wasn’t.”
More light spills into the room, and I turn my head to gaze out of the window at the sun creeping higher into the sky. Aurelia will be waking up soon, so we leave the bed and blend into the remaining shadows to wait for her.
We only have to wait an hour before she starts to stir. I watch through the sheer curtains as she rolls around for a while as if trying to get comfortable but can’t so sits up with a sigh that makes my cock hard when I see the strap of her nightie slip off her shoulder.
I watch her pause when she notices her ruined blankets and then the perfume bottle that wasn’t there when she went to bed.
She doesn’t react at first, and then she speaks.
“I know you’re there,” she calls out calmly. “You can come out now.”
Khalil and I look at each other, and he looks mildly impressed, and then I’m turning my head toward Seth, who smiles with delight. He’s practically fucking giddy at seeing her again—at least while conscious.
Seth leaves his corner first and approaches the bed. I hear Aurelia gasp, but before he can say a word, Khalil reveals himself too, and Aurelia shifts like she wants to go to him, but the hard look in his eyes warns her to stay away.
She shrinks back and then fists the sheets. “Thorin?” I hear her inquire after me. “Is he?”
Leaning my head back against the wall and closing my eyes, I try to quiet the voice that keeps whispering, she left you.
She could have chosen anytime to walk away, but she did it when I was at my most vulnerable.
I’m angry and itching to get even, but at the first opportunity we had, we came running instead.
And I know I’m not the only one feeling this way.
Khalil is still angry, and apparently, so is Zeke.
He split the moment we found her rather than face her again.
Seth is the only one who doesn’t feel some type of way, but then again, he’s Seth.
Aurelia could say she wanted to let the world burn, and Seth would light the match.
It’s hard to blame her after seeing all of this and all that she has to lose, but it still hurts, and I don’t know when it will stop.
I finally walk over to the bed and watch her eyes widen when she sees me standing there. Her hands cover her mouth, and then she shakes her head to ward off the tears in vain. They spill uncontrollably over her hands like a waterfall.
Finally, she drops her hands to choke out, “You’re awake.”
I tip my chin down and coldly greet, “Aurelia.”
She gulps and then she takes turns looking at all three of us standing in her bedroom like thieves in the night. Or morning. It feels like déjà vu. Like we’ve come full circle.
“You’re here. You found me.”
“Don’t flatter yourself,” I retort. “We’re here because you have something we want.”
Misunderstanding me—or perhaps knowing me better than I know myself—her hands rise to cradle her belly.
“I—”
“Your uncle tried to kill me,” I explain and watch her brows slam down in confusion when I don’t acknowledge the obvious elephant in the room.
“We want him dead as bad as you do, and you’re going to help us get even.
” I let my gaze trail her body that’s ripening like freshly bloomed fruit and let my anger show. “It’s the least you can do.”
“The least I can do?”
I step closer toward the foot of the bed. “You heard me, wolf.”
“Thorin, what is your problem?”
“Did you seriously just ask me that?”
Her breathing quickens, and then her gaze climbs, and her lips part when she notices my hair.
I see the question form in her eyes and her pleasure at my new look, but she doesn’t allow herself to act on either.
“Well, if you hate me so much,” she asks instead, “then why are you here? You don’t need me to get at my uncle. ”
“We saw the news that someone tried to hurt you. We were worried you might need us, so we came,” Seth answers honestly before I can think of a lie.
I roll my eyes when Aurelia’s gaze softens. A moment later, she thrusts out her hand for him in invitation, and Seth wastes no time accepting, letting her pull him onto the bed. “Hi, Seth,” she whispers softly once he’s sitting next to her on the bed.
“Hey, Sunshine.”
“Are you okay?” she asks since he hasn’t been awake in months. Not since the night Isaac came.
“I should be asking you that,” he retorts. I nearly swear when he tentatively reaches forward to rest a hand on the swell of her belly. “You’re having a baby.”
“Mm-hmm,” she confirms noncommittally. “I am.”
“Are you scared?” he asks while Khalil and I stand there like we’re furniture. It’s our own stubbornness getting in the way, but tell that to my heart because it won’t budge either. The jagged, broken pieces lie at her feet and to reclaim them would mean cutting myself open again.
Aurelia makes a sound caught between a laugh, gasp, and a sob. “I’m terrified.”
“Don’t be,” Seth says immediately as he rests his chin on top of her head. “We’ll help you.”
“Seth,” Khalil growls in warning.
Aurelia peeks up at him and then her face crumples before she pulls away from Seth and angrily swipes the tears from her face. Her eyes and the skin around her nose are both red from crying. She’s so fucking beautiful, even when she cries. “What’s your problem, Poverly?”
“I don’t have a problem. You clearly didn’t want us involved,” he says, waving at her stomach. “I don’t want Seth getting reattached if you’re just going to leave him in the lurch when things get too hard.”
“Oh, yeah?” she challenges. “Is that what happened? Is that what you think I did?”
“Aurelia,” I interrupt before things get out of hand. We didn’t come for this. I still don’t know why we came, but we’re here now, so down to business. “Are you with us or not?”
“With you?” she echoes.
I could be wrong, but I swear there’s a tiny spark of hope in her eyes that I waste no time snuffing out. “Are you going to help us with your uncle?”
Khalil’s right. I was told the doctors examined her too when I was brought into the hospital, which means she had to know she was pregnant when she left, and she still did it anyway.
Aurelia was having our baby, but she didn’t want us to be a part of this.
The wound she left gaping just keeps getting bigger.
“Fine,” she says while rising from the bed unsteadily and passing us as she heads for the bathroom. “I’ll help you but not for free. If you want to stay, you’ll have to earn your keep, boys.”
She walks into the bathroom and slams the door before we can ask her how.