Chapter 13 Aiden
Aiden
I woke up the morning after the club feeling well-rested even though we’d been up late. I glanced at the clock, seeing it was just after noon, then rolled over to find Skye’s side of the bed empty. I frowned, running my hand over the sheet to feel it wasn’t too cold. She must have just gotten up.
The bathroom was empty, though. I showered, expecting her to join me at any moment, but she didn’t. I dressed in some of Zephyr’s sweatpants and a t-shirt before making my way to the kitchen, where Zephyr stood at the sink.
Wyatt stood against the far wall, sipping a mug of coffee while Rafe was across the room, near the front window. The three men appeared to be ignoring each other, each pointedly looking anywhere but at the other two.
“Morning,” I said, surprising Wyatt and Zephyr, who hadn’t heard me come down the hall.
Zephyr glanced at the clock, saw it wasn’t morning, then smiled. “Morning,” he said anyway, sliding a sky-blue coffee mug across the kitchen island toward me.
Skye and Zephyr drank a lot of coffee. I hadn’t noticed while away at school, but it was noticeable now. Hot coffee, iced coffee, blended coffee. Skye always seemed to have one near her. Sometimes she and Zephyr even had a hot coffee at midnight right before going to bed.
I took a sip of the warm drink, pleasantly surprised that it was the perfect mix of sweetness for me. I shook out my wet hair, stifling a laugh when Zephyr made a disgruntled noise. I took a seat at the kitchen island while Zephyr wiped up the few drops of water from the counter.
“How’d you sleep?” he asked.
“Great,” I replied. “Skye’s bed is way better than anything at the academy.”
Wyatt made an indiscernible sound at the back of his throat while Rafe huffed a laugh. Zephyr shot both of them a glare before his face relaxed back on me. I finally glanced at the counter top to see what he’d been up to.
There were several pretty blue flowers mixed with a few white ones laying out. Zephyr was cutting the stems, then carefully arranging them into a nice vase.
“Pretty,” I commented. “Skye always had some of those in her dorm.”
“Irises,” Zephyr explained with a wistful look. “She loves them.”
I hummed at that. I didn’t really know what Skye did or didn’t like when it came to flowers.
I’d wondered where she was finding flowers while at the academy.
Aside from the random garden we’d found in the woods, there weren’t a lot of wildflowers around.
She must have taken a lot of walks deep into the woods.
Or…duh. She probably teleported somewhere to find her favorite flowers.
“Where is she now?” Rafe asked. He stood at the front window, holding the curtain aside and peeking through the blinds like an old neighborhood gossip.
Not being able to stalk Skye constantly was starting to fuck with the Prince.
He texted me incessantly wanting to know her every movement, and he became irritated when I didn’t respond quick enough.
Even now, he vibrated with a weird energy, like he simultaneously needed to rest and was about to take flight.
Skye had been really close to letting him into our room last night. Like, really close.
Also, our room?
I was so gone. I hadn’t even been here a week and I was already considering this my home.
“She’s visiting our parents,” Zephyr replied easily before filling the vase with water.
“She do that a lot?” Rafe asked.
I nodded in reply as Wyatt watched us. Skye had been up to the gravesite three times already since we’d been here. I could tell it was something that settled her. She always came back more relaxed, especially after seeing Levi.
I chewed my lip.
That was something I needed to talk to her about. She was always on edge before going to see her dad. She was a little snappier after having spoken to him, too. He’d seemed normal enough when I met him, but I couldn’t help but wonder what was going on there.
“How often do you visit your parents?” Zephyr fired back.
“Never, if I can help it.” Wyatt replied, even though the question hadn’t been for him. Rafe snorted, but didn’t look at Wyatt, which was surprising. The two friends were truly on the outs. Even in my earliest memories from childhood, the two were attached at the hip.
Maybe that’s why Wyatt was resisting Skye so hard. Maybe he blamed her for coming between them.
Which was stupid, of course. We could all be happy together if he’d just get over himself like I did.
Zephyr’s lips twitched like he wanted to grin.
“Who are the flowers for?” Wyatt asked, taking the lack of verbal jab as an opening. “I didn’t take you for much of a decorator. Unless you have a girlfriend?”
Zephyr snorted.
“Boyfriend?” I tried.
Zephyr laughed. “These are for Skye. Our mom always kept flowers in the kitchen. I kind of stopped putting them out while Skye was gone, but she likes them, and she’s home now, so…”
I hummed thoughtfully at that. I’d never gotten Skye flowers before, but I knew how to get to that little garden. I made a mental note to get her some flowers when we got back to school.
I mean…if we went back to school.
“I’ve never gotten my sister flowers.” Wyatt said, because he was an asshole.
“Well, maybe you should.” Rafe muttered from his spot near the window, where he continued to watch the neighbors.
Wyatt glared at Rafe’s back. “Something interesting going on out there?”
“Yes, the neighbors are packing for a trip.” Rafe said lightly. “Somewhere cold, it seems.”
Zephyr ignored the interaction, then replied to Wyatt, “That doesn’t surprise me at all. Can’t even get flowers for your sister, why would you get them for another woman?”
My stomach dropped, and as if he could sense it, Zephyr glanced up at me apologetically.
I swallowed hard as his face softened. I nodded just slightly.
He wasn’t insulting me. How could he even know I had never given Skye flowers before?
Skye wouldn’t have been gossiping with her brother about a guy, would she?
“Wait a minute, can’t you make flowers, earth boy?” Zephyr said then, giving Wyatt a cursory glance.
Wyatt’s cheeks actually turned slightly pink. He cleared his throat. “Yeah. I can.”
Zephyr hummed a judgmental sound. I stifled a laugh, coughing at the last second. Wyatt looked wounded, but Zephyr hid his smile by turning back to the sink.
“I’ve given Skye plenty of flowers,” Rafe drawled. “She just…didn’t actually know it was me giving them to her, but still.”
The dots connected in my mind. Skye hadn’t been picking those flowers for her dorm. It’d been her shadow.
Zephyr snorted. “I told her that stalker was a man.”
“So did I!” I chimed in with a laugh.
Rafe rolled his eyes.
“Anyway,” Zephyr said lightly as he tied a ribbon in a bow around the vase. “Skye deserves nice things. Sue me.”
“You deserve that, too, Zeph.” I said softly. Zephyr paused his movement for just a moment and his eyes flicked up to mine. He swallowed hard before going back to his bow.
“Skye has had a really hard time. She doesn’t deserve anything that’s happened to her.”
“Neither have you,” I argued. “You stepped up. You did a lot of work that you never should have had to do.”
Zephyr breathed a laugh. “So, what? I deserve flowers now? We both did what we had to.”
“Haven’t we all?” Rafe drawled before he flopped into the bar stool next to me, evidently done with his neighborhood watch for today. “How long is she usually gone?”
“Hours,” Zephyr muttered. “All night sometimes. Though I’m guessing she’d come back for Carrot Cake here if she decides to stay out for the night.”
I snorted. Carrot Cake. It was a really stupid nickname, but something in me warmed as Zephyr used it.
He’d accepted me incredibly easily. I’d made my mistakes with Skye, like when I let one of my old friends insult her and then when I’d insulted her myself at that disaster of a party, but Zephyr had forgiven me as easily as Skye.
Wyatt on the other hand…I eyed him warily. His entire body was tight with tension, like a snake coiled and ready to strike at any moment. He was pissed, but he was the one who’d fucked up. What the hell was he expecting? He was lucky she’d even let him hang out here.
“Carrot Cake,” Rafe murmured. “She doesn’t call him that.”
I nearly jumped when I realized he’d been looking at me.
It was unnerving to have the full attention of the Prince.
His dark eyes seemed to glow when the sun hit them at the right angle, making him look almost other-worldly.
He was an attractive man. I could see why he had Skye tied up in knots.
She should’ve just invited him back last night.
You wouldn’t find me complaining, though. She was so keyed up when she came back to bed, she’d practically backflipped onto my dick.
“So if I’m shadow, and you’re angel…what’s Wyatt?” Rafe said, holding my gaze while his eyes glinted with mischief. He looked to Wyatt in the next moment, who was clenching his jaw so hard he could’ve cracked a tooth.
“Asshole,” Zephyr replied with a laugh. “She calls him asshole.”
The three of us chuckled while Wyatt’s cheeks turned pink.
“You don’t have to be a dick to me,” he muttered. “My issues with her are my own.”
“Wyatt,” Rafe sighed, but Zephyr cut him off.
“That’s where you’re wrong,” Zephyr said, his voice hard as if a flip switched. Wyatt blanched. “Skye’s problems are my problems. You’re a big problem for her, so you’re a big problem for me. You can’t throw glares in Aiden’s direction when he hasn’t done anything wrong.”
Wyatt sighed. “Aiden–”
“Is right here,” I finished, clenching my hands into fists. “I am right fucking here, Wyatt. I can speak for myself.”
“You fucked up too,” Wyatt said, throwing his arms out. “I just ran her in circles. You insulted her! You took those fucking pills from Carla. After everything we’d worked on? Everything we’d talked about? How could you do that?!”
Rafe hummed from next to me. “There it is. You’re not mad about Aiden and Skye, you’re just mad at Aiden.”