Chapter 14 Arabella #2
You know… in some ways, I truly did think people considered Razar one of the scariest nightmares here.
I knew technically Saint outpowered him, but Razar had a certain level of confidence and a very dark edge to him that terrified people.
Only I got to see the softer side. Although I couldn’t lie, there was a natural dominance that radiated off the man as he approached us, my chest squeezing as I wondered what the hell I was going to say to him.
The others were talking behind me as Zain grabbed a chair and sat down. Razar, though, walked towards me, pulling out the chair next to me. Amun had moved to the end of the table, watching the entire situation with interest.
I squeaked as Razar tugged me onto his lap and buried his head against my neck, on the opposite side of Cy’s mark, and squeezed me against him.
My breath caught as my eyes stung a little bit with emotion, my hand automatically running through his short hair.
I appreciated the others giving us a bit of a moment alone despite them clearly being right there.
It did make me feel like I could talk to him without eyes on us, though.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered softly.
“Razar…”
“No, I am.” He pressed his lips against my shoulder. “We should have talked about this long before now.”
I examined his tense expression, seeing guilt and a bit of fear there, my fingers moving down his jaw as I decided to be bold.
I knew now was not the best time to talk about all of this, but I decided to take a chance.
I tilted my head up and brushed my lips against his, praying he wouldn’t reject me.
He didn’t.
His entire body tensed, a low groan breaking from his throat before deepening the kiss, causing me to shiver with excitement against him. I pulled away only when one of the other men made a surprised noise. Yeah, probably not the best place for this.
“I have no idea what the fuck to do,” he admitted softly, ignoring the others.
“We’ll figure it out.” I infused as much confidence in my words as possible.
“Saint,” Zain groaned, pulling my attention away from our moment. “You are being fucking ridiculous.”
“I don’t like him in that chair.” Saint’s voice was firm, but I could hear the scowl in it, making me wonder what he was talking about.
“Who?” I arched a brow as I followed his gaze to Amun at the head of the table. Oh, for real? Seriously?
Razar shook his head, smiling against my shoulder before starting a distracting pattern of running his fingers up and down my leg.
“Amun,” Saint explained, his eyes flashing with a dangerous light. “I don’t want him sitting at the head of the table.”
“Then switch with him,” I offered.
Saint looked at the chair and then at me, grabbing me by the waist and putting me next to him. Razar growled but left me between them, clearly not bothering to start shit with Saint. I arched a brow as Amun offered me a somewhat tired expression.
“Saint?” I prompted.
“I don’t want to not be next to you though,” he rationalized.
“He doesn’t want me to be next to you,” Amun chuckled. “Age has made you so fucking petty, Saint.”
Something dark, almost cold and ancient feeling, flashed in the repear’s gaze before he shrugged and kissed the top of my hand he was holding captive. I had a feeling Saint and Amun were never going to properly deal with their issues, and there was a not so small part of me that found it amusing.
“Where have you guys been?” I asked Razar curiously.
“We checked on the girl in the emergency center,” Zain explained, making me sit up and lean forward with interest.
“Is she okay? Is she awake?”
“Okay, but not awake yet,” Razar rumbled.
“We should go see her after this,” I whispered. They seemed to agree.
“You need to eat.” Razar pulled my plate over.
As the table broke into comfortable conversation about possibly going to train afterwards, I considered going with them.
Obviously, it wouldn’t be training ‘with’ them as much as training in the gym on the balcony above where they worked, but it would allow me to watch them.
I had to admit, it was one of my favorite pastimes and had led to a few very… interesting situations.
Especially since quite a few Class B nightmares had thought it would be a good time to talk to me, and with how worked up the guys were downstairs training, you can imagine how that went.
I still had yet to see any of them again—I was sort of hoping that was not the bodies that Saint had been referring to.
The balcony gym was fairly empty as I walked on the treadmill, headphones on, as I watched Razar and Blackwell train below. The flush that was on my face was one hundred percent because of them and not because of working out, but they didn’t need to know that, right?
I increased the speed on the treadmill as I looked over towards the others that were using one of the circuits for non-combat training. A small sound caught in my throat, realizing Saint and Damian were both shirtless.
Now that? That wasn’t fair.
Suddenly, a movement to the right of me had my head snapping to the side, finding a large man on the treadmill…
directly next to me. There were twenty of them, and the massive, barrel-chested nightmare had picked that one.
He flashed me a smile and began running next to me, his eyes the only part of him that appeared ‘non-human’ despite feeling a fairly strong signature of magic coming off him.
I was going to assume Class B here. I couldn’t tell which type though.
I refocused back on the training and frowned, no longer seeing Saint next to the three on the training course.
A tap on my shoulder had me muttering a curse while moving my headphones and offering the man a curious look. I turned down my treadmill so I could actually focus on what he was saying, despite knowing it probably wouldn’t be all that interesting.
“What’s up?” I asked curiously.
“I just wanted to introduce myself.” He flashed a smile, jogging as his dark eyes that contained no whites seemed to run over me.
I was sorely regretting only wearing a pair of yoga pants and sports bra right now.
To be fair, usually my boys didn’t allow any other people in here while they were training.
“Okay…” I hedged.
“I’m Travin.” He paused his treadmill and stuck out his hand as I let out a small sigh, stopping mine as well. Last thing I needed was to reach over and fall on my face.
“Arabella.” I met his hand briefly before trying to retract mine, but unfortunately he gripped it harder, making me freeze up.
“I know who you are.” He chuckled and stepped forward. “I actually knew I would find you here.”
Oh… well, that was weird.
“Right.” I tugged my hand back, and he finally let go. I stepped back. “Well, it’s nice to meet you—”
“My team. We were hoping to work with you sometime. I know officially you are assigned to your A team, but we could use your advice on some of our missions,” he explained. “And honestly, you’re somewhat of a big name around here, so we have been wanting to spend time—”
“Get the fuck out of here.” Saint’s voice, suddenly appearing behind me, wasn’t that shocking.
My chest squeezed with excitement. I could practically feel his hard muscles behind me as Travin’s eyes went wide.
To his credit, he didn’t pale or shake like most of the Class B nightmares, but he still looked uncomfortable.
“I’m not trying to start a problem,” Travin promised. “I just wanted her advice—”
“I don’t give a shit,” Saint snarled, his arm coming around my bare stomach. “She isn’t part of your team, nor will she ever be. She’s not yours. She’s ours. Now fuck off and get the hell out of here.”
Oh wow.
I looked up at him and saw something very dark in his gaze, any lightheartedness completely absent. His words were possessive and territorial, making me nearly turn around and attack him with the desire that slammed into me.
Travin made a noise that had me looking over at him, and as he looked at both of us, something that looked like realization hit his face.
“Totally get it,” Travin grunted. My eyes widened as Razar appeared behind the nightmare, a darkness flashing through his gaze that had me feeling nearly mesmerized.
I wanted to hear what he said to the man, but Saint turned me into his chest and narrowed his eyes on the figure behind me, his firm grip causing my entire body to feel like it was combusting.
I didn’t even watch him walk out, burrowing further into Saint as he narrowed his eyes on the retreating figure. As a door shut, his face transformed, a smile filling it as if nothing had happened to begin with.
“What was that?” I breathed out.
“Just got rid of the pests.” He shrugged. “Come downstairs with me. I don’t want any more fuckers bothering you.”
I had followed him in a bit of a daze, I couldn’t lie. He had shocked me.
That had been one of the more civil times.
Other times, there had been people that weren’t as polite as Travin, and those encounters had ended far more violently.
Bad enough that Cy had literally picked me up and taken me back to the office, leaving Razar and Saint to have a ‘talk’ with the nightmare.
To be fair, they were being a creep… but yeah, I’d never seen them again.
I wasn’t complaining, but the more I thought about it, the more I started making a list of who was probably underneath my garden.
Should that bother me? No. Honestly, it would take a lot to bother me, and violence wasn’t one of them. Nightmares were just… different, and I loved that about them. Darkness and all.
I had eaten most of my food before a chill of apprehension ran up my spine, making me feel as though I was going to pass out momentarily.
I froze as Razar stilled next to me, and Saint’s head snapped to the side, looking towards the window of the dining hall.
The skies were darkening, the last bit of evening still hanging on in a hue of light purple, making the moment feel all the more eerie.
I stood up, walking towards the window, looking across the institute grounds.
Something was wrong. I could feel it.
My gaze narrowed on the distance ahead where the gates were, the sensation growing in my chest. I spoke to Saint, who appeared behind me, sliding a hand over my hip and pulling me back against him. “Something is very wrong.”
Almost accenting my words, the alarms began going off right as a massive sound, almost like an explosion, rattled the windows, light sparking over the treetops past the security walls.
Shit. What the hell was going on right now? My lips pulled back in a snarl as Saint’s words confirmed my fears.
“The humans. They followed us back.”