20. Maeve
20
MAEVE
“ S omething bad has happened,” Ari whispers, and my eyes fly open as I sit up in my bed. My heart pounds, sweat clinging to my skin as the remnants of a nightmare dissolve into the dark room.
I know that she’s interrupted whatever nightmare has decided to grace me with its attention tonight, and I’m grateful for that.
“What?” I croak out, blinking rapidly to try and make her out properly in my dark room. I can see the figure of her in the doorway, her head hung low. The unease from earlier swells, filling the space between us.
My heart is already on edge, and now this. Perfect.
“I had a chat with the herd.” She sounds so utterly pathetic that it likely hasn’t gone well, but fucking hell.
What a dramatic entrance for a situation that has nothing to do with me whatsoever.
“You bitch,” I groan, throwing myself back down on the bed. She comes into my room as I let my body calm the fuck down.
“Sorry,” she says softly. “I didn’t expect for you to panic like that.”
Oh, yes, because Ari still doesn’t fully understand the depth of how fucked up I am. Let’s keep informing her on that as a low priority on the to-do list, I kind of like that she thinks I’m normal.
“Maybe next time, don’t wake me up in the middle of the night by telling me something bad has happened?” I mutter, sitting up and flicking my lamp on.
It lights the room up properly, and I can see her so much better. Her face is red and splotchy, her eyes puffy and painful looking. My irritation fades, replaced by concern. Ugh, emotions. What the hell happened on that call?
Oh, fuck.
“Is this going to be a big thing or…?” I trail off, curious if I can just go back to sleep or if I need to sit through it all.
“Can I sit?” she asks, gesturing to my bed. “I don’t want to make you?—”
“You can sit. I don’t care. Just don’t touch me,” I say, and she laughs, moving to get into the bed with me. She pulls my blanket up over her legs and tummy but stays sitting up.
“Your sheets are so lovely,” she murmurs, moving her legs back and forth under the covers.
“I paid a lot for them.”
She snorts. “You can be such a snob, sometimes.”
I shrug. “Hey, I was raised by rich criminals, and then transferred into the care of another rich criminal—oh, sorry, politician. I’m used to the luxurious comforts of that lifestyle.”
And bamboo is one of the only fabrics that doesn’t send me into a panic every time I touch it. In fact, it’s quite the opposite: I love the feeling of it.
“Sometimes you say things, and I hope you’re joking,” she mutters before shaking her head. “But tonight, this needs to be about me, so we’ll come back to you.”
I sit up straighter, the weight of her words settling in. “What has happened? Is the…,” I trail off and gesture to her tummy, not brave enough to say the words just in case.
“Me and the baby are fine,” she reassures me, and I let out a sigh of relief. “I… okay, so did you know that Tarun, Kheelan, Makao and Holter went to help Atticus with their hunter issue?”
“I didn’t.” But then I grin. “Oh, my god, did one of them die? Was it Tarun? Please say he’s dead,” I say eagerly.
She groans, and I flinch, losing my excitement. This is not the time for ‘dead asshole’ pleas to the universe. “I’m sorry, Ari. I’m not the best at this.”
Supporting people is hard. Being emotional and touchy-feely is just not my kind of vibe. And it’s really hard to pretend like I don’t want Tarun dead when I’d love nothing more.
“It’s not the fact that you asked if they died, Maeve, it’s also how excited you were at the thought of it,” she points out, shaking her head.
“It saved me the job of organising the hit,” I shrug, a poor attempt to brush it off.
Ari groans again. “This is one of those times I hope you’re joking with me.”
“I guess we’ll have to wait and see,” I reply. “But, okay, Tarun and the herd of fuck-ups went to help Atticus with his hunter problem. Why does that matter to you?”
“They called me tonight.”
“They what?” I demand, shoving the blanket off me. My pulse quickens, dread pooling in my stomach. “Did you answer the phone?”
She nods her head, and I groan. Why on Earth would she give these people the time of day?
They don’t deserve it. Their numbers should be blocked, for fuck’s sake.
“It’s complicated,” she defends, and her tone is so meek, so unlike her. Where’s her fire gone?
“Uncomplicate it.”
She rests her head in her hands, letting out a whine. “I’ve got a younger sister. She’s just turned twenty.”
“Okay?” I tilt my head, not sure why that is important. The disjointed conversation isn’t helping my anxiety. Can we get to the point before I have a meltdown?
“She’s not able to leave my compound where I grew up. There’s too many rules surrounding it, and there’s such a shitty situation happening that it isn’t safe for her to be there for much longer.”
“Okay. So, this links into things with your herd, how?”
“Tarun negotiated a deal with Atticus that if they helped, then he’s owed something in return.”
I’d like to penalise the cocky prick for that underhanded kind of behaviour, but honestly, I kind of respect it. It’s a smart move—one I’d make myself—especially if they’re risking their lives. But still… they better get something extremely worth?—
“Oh, fuck,” I utter, my eyes widening. The realisation slams into me, making my chest tighten. “They negotiated for her?”
“For me.” She gives me a watery grin, her eyes filling with tears once more. “Once I’m mated, Lila’s life is in danger.”
“Once you’re mated,” I clarify, and Ari nods.
“They’re… figuring out a way to get Lila out of the herd, and Atticus is going to let her stay with us at the pride. They used their IOU from one of the most powerful alphas in the country for me .”
My heart cracks, and it takes me a second to fully process her words. The magnitude of what they’ve done for her, how they’ve fought for her, hits me hard. Men who rejected her and treated her like utter fucking shit have still somehow managed to be more decent than any man I’ve met.
They’re helping her in whatever weird, fucked up way they’ve got going for them.
I don’t know what the situation is going to look like. I don’t understand it, and I probably won’t until Ari opens up more.
But they’ve clearly done something huge for her—something she can’t ignore even if she wanted to. It’s messed up, but it’s something.
It doesn’t sit right with me. It’s fucked up and ballsy… and I’m torn.
I wouldn’t expect anything else from a Graves.
“She’s safe for now?” I ask, and Ari nods. “But she won’t be once you’re mated.” She nods again.
Why is everything so damn complicated with these people? Why is her sister only in danger once Ari’s mated?
Ari sniffles, her nose so red that I’m getting second-hand pain from it.
“This needed Atticus’s favour , why?” I ask. “Surely, he wouldn’t begrudge you your sister?”
“My history is a rough one, but…” Ari trails off, her shame and uncomfortableness filling the air like a sour, bitter aftertaste. Fuck, do I need to comfort her now?
“I don’t like to be touched because my father— stepfather— arranged for him and seventeen of his closest friends to rape me the night before my eighteenth birthday,” I say as matter of factly as I can. My voice comes out colder than I intended, but it’s the only way I can get the words out. “I get a rough history, and I get not sharing. There’s never any pressure here.”
Because, honestly, I go to sleep every night and re-experience my own horrors. I really don’t need to add hers to it.
Her eyes fill with tears. “I’m itching to hug you right now, Maeve.”
“Don’t.”
She laughs, but it’s not one of amusement. The sound is hollow, filled with a pain we both know too well. At least she gets it.
“I have never been safe in the compound, not with Tarun’s attention, not with Makao or Kheelan. The only real safe one for me was Holter.”
“I don’t know the other three, but it doesn’t surprise me that Tarun’s a walking health hazard.”
Ari pales, and I regret my comment because she shuts down. The lightness in the room vanishes, replaced by a heavy silence. “Well, with everything happening over the years, they’ve been working to try and get me safe. I can’t ignore it. They have tried.”
“So, what did you say to them?”
If she tells me I need to be nice to Tarun, I’m leaving. I’m not ever going to befriend a Graves.
“Well, we talked. I told them to fuck off,” she says sheepishly, and I burst into giggles. “It always makes me smile when you laugh like that.”
“Why?” I demand, sobering up.
“Because you’re so unrestrained, Maevey Baby. You’re happy, genuinely happy, and it just bubbles out of you.”
“Ugh, these feelings talks are really disgusting.” I fake a full body shiver, letting my disgust show.
My chromius doesn’t even react, knowing that I’m not being honest with ourselves. She knows, even if I won’t admit it, how much I’ve come to crave these moments of connection, fleeting as they are.
“I’m worried about the political repercussions of me snapping at them.” She bites her lip, and I’m wondering if this is why she’s opened up to me tonight instead of going to Nora.
It wouldn’t surprise me. It’s not like I’m a good choice for emotional support.
“Lucky for you, I’m a bigger commodity than Tarun,” I reply, and she raises her brows. “We talked about me being a chromius who can shift into whatever my mate can shift into, right?”
She nods.
“Well, whatever child I birth will shift into the original, undiluted, extremely powerful version of whoever I mate with.”
“Well, fuck.”
That’s the understatement of the century.
I salute her, and she rolls her eyes. “Adrian will not place Tarun’s importance above mine, and neither will Atticus. Any repercussions that will come, we’ll handle together.”
“Because we’re best friends!” Ari practically cries.
“No. Because he’s a Graves, and any win I get over them is a personal victory for me.”
She waggles her brows. “But it’s really because we’re best friends.”
“No. We’re roommates, and we’re people who talk about things.”
“Friends.”
Why do I even try?
“How did the rest of the call go before you told them to go fuck off down to the pits of hell that they crawled out of?” I ask, relieved that she’s a lot happier now.
“They apologised. Repeatedly. We talked a lot about our history and everything that we’ve been through,” she says with a heavy sigh. “Then they asked if they could court me properly.”
“They what?” I snarl, annoyance filling me. The protective instinct flares up, anger rushing through me like wildfire. The audacity of these pricks. “They asked if they could court you after they rejected you? After they spent your entire first heat ignoring the bond and refusing to mate you? They think that they now get the option to court you, after you gave them the fucking gift of you, and they threw you away like you were nothing?”
She sniffles, tears dripping down her cheeks. Her pain is palpable, tugging at something deep within me. “You’re the true fucking gift, Maeve. You came into my life right as I needed you.”
“They’re spineless, worthless, pathetic fucking males who deserve their tiny fucking cocks chopped off and their broken brains carved out of their skull for it to be mushed together and then fed to them through a fucking straw.”
“Um,” Ari says, pressing her finger to her lips, opening and closing her mouth as if she’s going to say something, but she just can’t think of how to word it or what to say.
“I’ve met many men who don’t deserve to live for committing despicable actions. But them? They deserve to fucking burn .”
“Well, I told them they’ve got just under fifteen months to decide if they’re worth it,” she says, not looking at me but at her hands. Her fingers tremble slightly, betraying the strong front she’s trying to maintain.
“But what about your sister? If you can’t be mated, then…” I trail off.
“This gives us fifteen months to figure out her situation,” Ari says softly. “It means they can… help her escape. Maybe.”
“But she’s safe?”
“Lila’s safe for now,” Ari says, rubbing her stomach, and her unease is killing me. With the way her fingers are digging into her skin, it tells me she’s a little more anxious than she’s letting on.
“Really safe? Nobody will hurt her or?—”
“She’s really safe,” Ari repeats. “I wasn’t, and I was running out of time just as my guys came back and my heat hit… but Lila’s safe as long as I keep playing the game.”
Her guys. I don’t miss the way she says it, the soft edge to her words.
I’m missing a lot of the pieces in Ari’s story here, but unpacking her entire history is going to take more than one night to accomplish everything.
For now, I know her sister is going to be in danger in the near future, and to solve that, Ari needs to continue to be unmated so her sister can come and live with her. Alvie better slow his courting process down.
“So, what else is happening with your herd of fuck-ups?” I ask, adjusting my legs to get more comfortable.
“Well, I told them they can fuck off with the courting bullshit. But… I said if they could prove they were suitably repentant… then maybe they could be in their child’s life.”
“Holy fucking shit,” I gasp, covering my mouth with shock. “How did they take the news?”
“Not well. Tarun fainted.”
I snort, clutching at my stomach. Of course, he did. Drama queen.
“He banged his head and has a bump on it.”
“Stop it now.” Actual tears are dripping down my face at the mental imagery. “That’s the best thing that I’ve heard all day.”
“Well, it got worse without Tarun there to rein the others in,” she says, losing her amusement. The lightness fades again, replaced by a solemn heaviness. “Makao kicked off and wasn’t impressed about my wording.”
“Did he expect you to open your legs for him again?”
“My heart, probably.”
“I hate him,” I mutter, shaking my head. “I can’t wait to meet these men. I’ll set them straight.”
“I wish it could be that easy.”
That tone. The shift in her voice makes my stomach drop. My brows pull together. “What’s wrong?”
“Well, Alvie messaged during the call, and I had to tell him I was busy.”
“Right, well, that’s none of his business. He’s your security guard, not your jailer.”
She sniffles. “He knew they called.”
“Oh, fuck,” I groan, hanging my head in my hands for a brief minute before snapping it back up to look at her properly. “How does he know they’ve called if you didn’t tell him?”
“Because they’re absolute assholes who want to continue ruining my life without actually being a part of it. They reached out to him, just as a courtesy.”
“Oh, they fucking didn’t.”
She’s got a grim smile in place and shakes her head. The smile doesn’t reach her eyes, and it twists my gut with worry. “Trust me, I wish I could. So, then, I had to deal with a big chat with Alvie, who was understandably hurt that I kept it from him.”
“Well, he can get over it.”
“He’s anxious about the entire situation. He’s not happy that they know about the baby, that they’re planning on courting me, and even worse—that they’re going to be showing up around here a little more often.”
“Can you blame him?” I ask, not sure of the answer. Their dynamic is one of the weirdest things I’ve seen, but it’s clearly working for them.
“No.” She brings her knees to her chest, resting her head on them. She’s shrinking into herself. “Can I ask you a question?”
“Sure.”
“What do you think Tarun’s real goal is here?” she asks. “It’s been ten weeks. Barely. They’re changing their minds about the rejection, but that’s not enough time to even grieve the pain of losing the bond.”
“I don’t know,” I say, moving to lie down on the pillow. The weight of her question hangs heavy between us. “I wish I could give you that answer, but I don’t know him well enough. He’s… duty bound.”
“Do you think that Adrian maybe?—”
“No,” I say, cutting that train of thought off. “Adrian would never, ever stand for his nephew rejecting his mate. He’d never force it, never expect it.”
“From what I know about Tarun’s family, they’re snobs.”
“The entire family are,” I reply. The bitterness in my tone surprises even me. “They see common shifters as beneath them.”
“Well, that’s the vibe I got, too. I wondered…” she trails off, coming to lay down with me, too. There’s plenty of space between us, but she rolls on her side to face me. “It’s silly.”
“What is?”
“The fact that a small part of me still loves them.”
It’s not silly, it’s infuriating. She deserves better.
“Feelings aren’t silly, Ari. Men are.”
She snorts, and I yawn, burrowing into my bed properly as we talk about nothing and everything.
As the conversation drifts, my mind lingers on what she said. She’s too soft on them, but it’s her choice. It’s pretty clear, though, that Tarun, Makao, Kheelan, and Holter aren’t out of her life.
And that means, somehow, they’re about to invade mine.
Another Graves man to ruin my life just by existing.
At least this one isn’t my problem. Yet.