Chapter 3 #2
No words. No show. Just presence—tall, imposing, and tightly coiled. His magic rolled off him in subtle waves, brushing against hers like a storm just held at bay. His fingers twitched at his sides, and she knew—his wolf was awake. Watching.
Protecting.
And then—they walked in.
Adonis. Atlas. Ares.
The Stavros brothers didn’t enter a room. They consumed it.
All three stood close to seven feet tall, built like mountains wrapped in designer suits and primal dominance. None of them were slim. There wasn’t a lean bone among them. They were massive, muscles stacked on top of muscle, shoulders broad enough to block the sun.
Adonis, the eldest, led the charge. Bigger than Aeolus.
Bigger than both of his younger brothers.
His body was pure, brute strength—hard, unapologetic, and coiled like a living weapon.
His face? Sinfully beautiful. But his golden eyes burned with the kind of violence that made kingdoms kneel.
He walked like the world belonged to him—and maybe it did.
Atlas followed, built just as wide but with a different weight to him.
His red hair was slicked back, his sharp jaw shadowed with stubble.
He carried the chill of winter—calculating, cool, eyes that missed nothing.
There was no softness to him, but there was wisdom.
Experience. His magic moved like ice beneath the skin—silent, deadly, precise.
And then came Ares.
If Adonis was the mountain and Atlas the storm, Ares was the wrecking ball.
The beast. Broader than both. Scarred and unapologetic, his golden-blond hair brushing thick shoulders, his heavy boots echoing across the stone floor like a warning.
He didn’t smile. Didn’t blink. His gaze hit her with the force of a blow—cold, emotionless, evaluating her soul.
Candy didn’t flinch.
She looked back—steady, sure, sharp.
And in that moment, something unspoken passed between them.
A test.
And when Ares gave her a single, short nod—it was like the ground settled beneath her feet.
Acceptance.
She exhaled slowly, only then realizing she’d been holding her breath.
Atlas was the first to speak, his voice low and thoughtful. “She’s smaller than I expected.”
Candy tilted her head, lips curving in a slow, deliberate smirk. “I make up for it.”
Adonis grinned, sharp teeth flashing like a wolf just shown something shiny. “Oh, I like her.”
Aeolus growled low beside her, the sound all possessive instinct, his arm sliding around her waist like a chain forged from fire.
Mine.
Atlas shook his head, amused. “Calm down, you know my mate is at home. Also, you don’t have to prove anything to us, Candy. You’re already one of us.”
Ares finally spoke, voice like thunder cracking across the stones. “We protect our own.”
Candy held his gaze. “Good. Because I do too.”
Something shifted then—a ripple in the air, thick with magic and bond. A subtle, feral acknowledgment.
And then Atlas delivered the unexpected.
“We sent someone to collect your sister, Betsy. She’ll be here soon.”
Candy blinked. “You—what?”
Aeolus turned toward her, his expression calm, but his voice brooked no room for argument. “We weren’t going to leave her out there, Candy. She’s your family. That makes her ours.”
Emotion slammed into her chest like a punch. For years, she and Betsy had only had each other. She’d carried the weight of keeping them safe on her back for so long, she didn’t know how to let go of it.
But Aeolus—and his brothers?
They didn’t just take her.
They claimed all of her.
Her breath trembled as she looked at them—three giants, monsters in man’s clothing—and realized:
They weren’t waiting for her to prove she belonged.
They had already decided she did.
“Thank you,” she whispered.
Atlas gave a crooked smirk. “Don’t thank us yet. She might not be thrilled about it.”
Candy laughed, for real this time—full and warm and unguarded. “Oh, she’s going to lose her mind.”
Adonis clasped his hands, expression gleaming with mischief. “I cannot wait.”
Ares muttered something that sounded like, “This is a terrible idea,” and rolled his eyes.
And Aeolus?
He said nothing.
He just pulled her tighter into his side, his hand settling at her hip like he was anchoring himself there.
Unshakable. Possessive. Alpha.
Candy leaned into him, letting his heat settle through her, letting herself believe that maybe—for once in her life—she wasn’t alone anymore.
* * *
Candy sat at the long wooden table in the Stavros compound’s great hall, a fortress of paperwork spread out before her like evidence in a trial she never agreed to be part of.
But this was no trial.
It was war.
The files were thick—layered with grainy surveillance photos, spell-locked documents, and timelines that stretched over more than a decade. Every page bled with memories she’d tried to bury. Every detail was a ghost that refused to stay dead.
Her stalker.
He wasn’t a new threat. He wasn’t part of this latest chaos.
He was the same monster who had haunted her since she was sixteen.
For years, she’d never seen his face. Never heard his voice directly. But he’d made damn sure she felt him—sending messages, leaving gifts, carving himself into her life like a sickness she couldn’t shake.
He was clever. Careful. Patient.
He was also obsessed.
And she had done everything in her power to survive him.
She’d played his game. Walked on eggshells. Swallowed her rage. Smiled through interviews while checking exits. Kept quiet when she wanted to scream.
Because he hadn’t just threatened her.
He’d threatened Betsy.
And Candy would’ve burned herself alive before letting harm come to her baby sister.
That’s why she’d joined Stavros Entertainment in the first place.
Not for the career. Not for the money. But because she’d heard the rumors—that Aeolus Stavros built his company like a kingdom.
That he protected what was his with brutal precision.
That working for him was the equivalent of wrapping yourself in iron and daring the world to try you.
She hadn’t known he was her mate.
But some part of her—some hidden instinct—must have felt it.
Because the moment she’d stepped onto his radar, her life had started to change.
And now?
Betsy was safe. Secured under Stavros protection. Adonis had personally retrieved her, and from what Candy had heard, her sister was making her displeasure known loudly somewhere in the east wing.
Atlas and Ares had returned to their estates to be with their pregnant mates. But Adonis—beautiful, terrifying, always-smirking Adonis—had launched the investigation himself the moment he got back.
That left Candy here, alone at the table—except for Aeolus.
He sat beside her, silent and unmoving, his massive frame coiled with tightly leashed violence. His arm draped along the back of her chair, not touching, but claiming all the same. His eyes never left the files—never left her.
When her hand trembled, barely, as she flipped a page, his gaze snapped to her fingers like he could force them still.
“You don’t have to do this,” he said quietly, voice thick with restraint. “You can walk away from it now.”
Candy didn’t lift her head. “No, I can’t.”
Aeolus leaned forward, slow and controlled, until his forearm rested on the table, his other hand bracing on the edge like he needed something to keep from snapping. “Adonis is on it. He already has three witches tracing the signature on the last spell. Let us handle it.”
Candy’s breath hitched as she stared at the page in front of her.
A grainy image. A receipt. A timestamp.
Her fingers brushed the edge of a letter tucked inside the file. The handwriting was unmistakable. Slanted, clean, obsessive. She knew that loop in the “Y.” She’d seen it on a birthday card when she was seventeen. Again on a backstage bouquet during her off-Broadway debut.
This wasn’t a new threat.
It was him.
“It’s the same guy,” she whispered.
Aeolus tensed beside her. “What?”
Her voice shook. “The same stalker. From when I was sixteen. He’s never stopped. Just changed tactics.”
Silence.
Then—a growl, low and lethal, ripped from Aeolus’s chest.
He pushed back from the table and stood in one fluid movement, towering over her, breathing hard. His fists clenched at his sides, shoulders tight, barely suppressing the beast just beneath the surface.
“I should’ve known,” he said, his voice dark with self-loathing and fury. “I should’ve seen it sooner.”
Candy reached for him, grabbing his wrist. “This isn’t your fault.”
“No,” he growled, voice dipping into something primal. “But he made you run. He controlled your life. He made you afraid. And that ends now.”
She stood too, facing him fully, refusing to let him drown in guilt when she was finally ready to rise.
“I’ve lived in fear for over a decade,” she said softly. “But I’m not afraid anymore.”
Aeolus’s hand moved to her waist—firm, claiming, grounding her like a tether to the earth. His eyes, glowing faintly now, locked onto hers.
“You’re not just not afraid,” he said. “You’re ready to end him.”
She nodded. “Damn right I am.”
He leaned in, his mouth brushing her temple. “Then we do it together.”
Candy rested her hand over his chest, right where his heart beat like a war drum.
“I want to be part of this,” she said. “All of it. I’m done letting men like him define me.”