Chapter Ten
She didn’t have time for soulmates, or whatever he thought they were. Saving her sister was paramount in her world.
“Savage, if you read my mind without permission, I’ll have to hurt you,” she warned.
He gripped her chin between his thumb and forefinger. “Look at me.”
Taking a deep breath and then letting it out slowly, she did as he asked.
“I don’t intentionally listen to your thoughts, Vita Mea. You tend to broadcast very loudly, and I’ll admit, I enjoy it when you lose control and do it. A lot.” He bent and pressed a kiss to her lips.
Aurora would’ve denied his words, but damn, the male stole every sane thought and word from her mind. She found herself on her tiptoes, licking along his tongue, wanting more.
He groaned, holding her closer to his firm body. She moaned as he lifted her, tangling his hand in the back of her hair. Goddess, she’d never been kissed with such fervor before Savage.
“Would you like me to tell the guests that you’re busy inspecting tonsils, Boss?”
Savage growled deep and low as he pulled away from her. “If I asked you to close your eyes while I killed one of my clan, would you be offended?” he asked Aurora. His face was a mask of complete seriousness.
She couldn’t help but laugh at his disgruntled behavior. “I have a feeling you’d be upset if you did that.”
The scoff he exhaled was sexy, too.
“Savage, they’ve got that girl with them. The one they brought for you as a gift to repay their debt. She’s young and looks...”
Aurora tensed. “What does she look like?”
The male peered around Savage. “Excuse me?”
“The girl. What does she look like?” Aurora wiggled to free herself from Savage’s embrace. She opened the link to her sister, trying to see if she could establish a connection that would show her where she was.
Starla’s view showed an opulent room with black leather furniture and a lot of males. “Are you safe?”
“Weirdly, yes. These males all seemed to be on edge, waiting for some big bad guy to return. I really need to go pee, too.”
“Do you know who the male they’re waiting on is?” Aurora didn’t want her sister to focus on her need to use the bathroom.
“No, but he has these guys seriously on edge. Sis, if they hadn’t kidnapped me and you know, planned to give me away to some big baddy, they’re really not terrible. I sense a lot of goodness within them. Their inner thoughts are kinda of funny.”
“Wait. You can hear their thoughts?” If her sister can hear others' thoughts even though Aurora suppressed her powers—Aurora didn’t want to contemplate what that meant.
“Who are you communicating with?” Savage asked. His brows drew down into a deep frown, showing he wasn’t happy.
She realized he held her face between both his palms. His jaw worked as if he were trying not to demand or force himself inside her mind. Good male.
“My sister,” she said, shocked to find herself answering truthfully.
“Hmm. I see. Well, let’s go and see who my guests are, and then we’ll discern if there’s any connection between you and them. I don’t believe in coincidences.” His voice sent a shiver down her spine.
Aurora didn’t believe in coincidences either. Which meant there could be something else at play that neither of them was in control of.
“This feels kinda like realizing your own mortality when you’re standing on the edge of a precipice after a night out with your besties, and it's barely six in the morning,” she muttered, only she’d never had a night out.
Yeah, surely that’s what this would be like. Butterflies took flight in her stomach.
“I’ve had a lot of experiences after one too many nights like that, Vita Mea.
However, I’ve never had someone as special as you by my side or a reason to want to avoid experiencing the fallout from such debacles.
I think you’re my cure. Come. We’ll face whatever is on the other side of that door together. ” He laced their fingers together.
“What if whoever they brought is supposed to be your—” she waved her hand between them.
He pulled her body flush to his, bent until his lips covered hers, and silenced what she’d planned to say. When he stood to his full height, Aurora found herself lost for words. Damn, the male had a way of kissing the life from her.
“No, Vita Mea, I only want to bring life to you, not away from you.” Savage turned them toward the door and a grinning Scepter.
“La Madrina, welcome to the clan,” Scepter said, bowing low.
“Hmm, he and the others recognize you as mine. That they call you the Godmother is remarkable,” Savage said, nodding at Scepter.
Aurora sucked in a breath. Her focus went to the large black opening.
The door was like something out of a fantasy.
Much bigger than any standard office she’d ever seen.
Sleek polished black stretching from floor to ceiling, at least fifteen feet tall and ten feet wide, with a brushed chrome handle.
She noticed some intricate designs on the grip, but his large palm covered it before she could get a good look, and then her focus zeroed in on the scene in front of her.
“Starla,” she cried, releasing Savage’s hand.
Savage reached for her, stopping her from taking a step away from him. “Aurora,” he growled.
“That’s my sister.” She pushed him away from her.
He stumbled back, eyes wide.
“Everyone, freeze,” Savage ordered.
Aurora grabbed her sister into her arms, happiness flooding her being.
All of a sudden, she realized the entire room stood unmoving, including her sister, Starla. The way her sister’s body stood, as stationary as a statue in her arms, scared her. Only she and Savage appeared to be unaffected. From the way he eyed her, he hadn’t expected her to escape his order.
Her sister’s eyes stared as if she’d been transfixed, straight ahead at Aurora with horror written on her young face.
“What did you do?” Aurora yelled, holding onto Starla’s arms as she glared over her shoulder at Savage.
Savage had one hand on his chest, the other hung in a loose fist at his side. “How are you able to break from my order?”
“Release my sister at once, Savage, or so help me I will...I’ll hurt you,” she promised, ignoring his question. This man, who had shown her so much pleasure only moments ago, was fast becoming her mortal enemy.
“Vita Mea, I have only halted their ability to make foolish moves that could set me off. Right now, my emotions are a little...unpredictable.”
She glared at him, then motioned toward her sister. “Release her, right fucking now.”
He let out a sigh. “I will release her, but not the others for now.”
Aurora felt the stiffness leave Starla the second Savage’s power no longer held her captive. Her sister shivered from head to toe, then, being the teenage hothead Aurora knew and loved, Starla flipped Savage the bird and told him.
“Eat a bag of dicks, asshole,” Starla snarled.
Savage’s eyes widened, and then his head tipped back as he laughed. The deep timber rolled over Aurora, sending a delicious thrill through her.
“Little girl, I’ve eaten a lot of things, but dicks have never been one of them. Of course, I could be persuaded to add a certain—”
Aurora crossed the several feet separating them, her hand covering his too sexy lips before he could finish what she was sure to be a scandalous suggestion. “I will cut you,” she warned.
His eyes glittered in the bright room, and then she felt his tongue lick her palm. Warmth radiated from that one touch, making her entire body heat up.
“Ah, sis? Do you two need a room?”
“You make me lose my head,” Aurora groaned, taking a step away from Savage.
“That makes two of us,” he agreed.
Savage sighed and ran his hand through his hair, giving her a reprieve from his too mesmerizing, too intense, too intoxicating presence. She needed to get a grip on her emotions and remember why she’d come to New York in the first place—hello, it was to save her little sister.
“Starla, this is Savage. Ah, this is...”
“I am Savage Rossi. This is my territory, and your sister is mine, little one. As such, you are under my protection as well.”
Starla’s mouth dropped open and snapped shut. “Um, say that again? First of all, buddy, I refuse to be a sister wife. Second of all, this is not an episode of Wicked Mormon Wives or some shit.”
Aurora’s eyes widened at the low growl her sister emanated, but she also couldn’t help but laugh.
Starla pointed her finger at Aurora. “Don’t you dare tell me you’re good with sharing a mate with me, Aurora.
That is so not happening. I’m not even eighteen.
Well, technically, I’m eighteen in a half hour if you go by when the clock strikes midnight, but whatever.
I’m still not sharing a mate, man, hubby, dick, or any other male part with you or any other female, period. ”
By the end of her sister’s tirade, her chest heaved so hard Aurora feared Starla would hyperventilate.
She moved toward her slowly, both arms extended.
“Starla, I have no intention of sharing a mate with you or anyone, either. I am a strictly no-share kind of female, too. I think that’s part of our DNA, Biddy Bee. Calm down.”
“Don’t tell me to calm the fuck down when he literally just said that because he claimed you as his, then I was automatically his, too,” she snarled.
On her last word, Aurora gasped as Starla’s hands became covered by fur and claws, and inside her mouth, her canines became much more pronounced like those of her wolf.
“Um, Savage, I think my sister is about to undergo her first shift.”
“No shit. Can I ask why she’s never shifted before now?” he inquired in a tone that was a bit too calm for the occasion, in Aurora’s opinion.
She let out a defeated sigh, wondering how the fuck to explain their past. “Can they hear us in that state?” Aurora gestured toward the males in the room.
Savage shook his head.
“When I was Starla’s age, our parents discovered we were being hunted.
They didn’t share with me who hunted us, just that we had to run and leave everything behind.
Our father was a shifter, while our mother was a very powerful Fey.
Together, they decided to suppress our shifter sides so that we could be part of the human world without the need to be part of a pack.
I’ve never felt...that burning need to be part of the shifter society.
My father said it was all-consuming and didn’t want my sister and me to feel compelled to follow the rules of his world.
Our mother, on the other hand, didn’t have any such ties to another world.
She didn’t have other Fey to speak to, as her mother died giving birth to her, so she’d been brought up in Foster Care.
Nobody wanted the weird child who had vivid dreams and believed in magic back then.
Their mother learned through those dreams how to wield her magic and said she had met a fairy named Jenna who would one day save them.
Goddess, if you were to see her, you’d have thought she the most beautiful being to have walked the Earth, but the way she spoke of Jenna, you’d swear the fairy was the true Goddess.
” Aurora paused and took a shaky breath.
Starla moved to stand next to her. “She really was. You look a lot like her, Aurora. You have her hair and strength.”
The feel of her sister’s human hands wiping at the tears tracking down her cheeks gave her strength to continue.
“We were taught not to show any of our abilities for fear of being outcasts. On the day th...that our parents died, we were running. A storm suddenly appeared, and then a tree fell on our car. It was horrible, Savage. Starla and I barely escaped with our lives.” She held her hand up as he moved to take her in his arms, knowing she’d crumble and be unable to finish.
“At the time, I was moving on instinct and an inner knowledge. Our parents hadn’t kept me in the dark completely, so I got both of us out of the wreckage of the SUV, took what valuables I could from the luggage, and realized the forest across from us spoke to me.
We must’ve been heading somewhere my mother knew, or at least a place she sensed was safe for all of us.
Once we were inside the safety of the woods, the beating rain didn’t seem to touch us.
Time became weird. I remember taking things from the suitcases, and then Starla and I went in search of a certain tree our mother had spoken about.
” She wasn’t going to tell him about the magical tree and how it had given her the knowledge of the Fey.
Her bloodline and its secrets were for her and her kin.
“Is that how you got us away from the forest and set up across the country?” Starla asked.
Aurora laughed. “No. It didn’t give me a magical portal that whisked us across state lines.
However, that would’ve been amazing. The magic provided me, or rather us, with the ability to move without being traced.
The suppression spell might seem harsh, but my dad said that when females without a pack come of age, it could be extremely dangerous not only for us but also for those in our lives.
I chose to continue suppressing my wolf and Starla’s. ”
“Aurora, I hate to tell you this, but my wolf is not liking the whole suppression thing.”
Before Aurora could do or say anything, the air in front of them shimmered. Savage moved beside her, placing one large arm in front of her as if he prepared to sweep her behind him.
From one moment to the next, the space in front of her went from empty to filled with a tiny female and two identical glowering males standing next to her—one on her left and one on her right.
If Aurora hadn’t seen Savage first, she’d have thought they were the most handsome beings she’d ever laid eyes on.
Her gaze flew back to the blonde woman sandwiched between the males.
Her long hair flowed down her back, but it was her sparkling purple eyes that captivated Aurora.
“Who are you?” Aurora asked.
“Hello, family. I am Jennaveve. These two angry-looking males are my other halves. Damien and Lucas, can you two please pretend not to be so...stern?”