Stronger as One (#1, Completed)

54. Where is the fire?

He didn't let me answer as his lips mashed against mine, the intoxicating taste of his mouth making me want to undress him so that we could get back under the covers.

The footsteps I heard along the corridor though made me pull away from him. Aiden was surprised at my reaction but I knew that it was Rafe on the other side. I guess the walls of the mansion were pretty thin for me to hear him or he was just walking that loudly. The crazy thing was that I could swear I heard his heartbeat as he knocked on the door- was he really that nervous that his heart was starting to beat faster?

I wondered about Aiden's heartbeat and suddenly I could hear it loud and clear in my head like I had a stethoscope pressed against his chest.

Lub-dub, lub-dub, lub-dub.

The sound of his blood flowing through the chambers of his heart was like a soothing lullaby.

The knock on the door brought my attention back to the person standing on the other side. Aiden walked over and opened it, letting Rafe back in the room.

"Seriously, are you two still not ready? Erix will be here in fourty-five minutes to portal us back to Luss. We don't really have time to waste. Markolf can make his next move anytime now," the wolf Alpha barked around the room.

I wasn't exactly hoping for a Good Morning but I expected a bit more than this after last night. He was behaving like nothing had happened and it was rubbing me the wrong way, especially when I still hadn't had my coffee.

"For an Alpha, you have terrible manners, Rafe," I said with annoyance, even if I knew that this was not going to be the start of anything good.

"Oh, excuse me for interrupting your relaxing lie-in, your Majesty. Goddess forbid that there is something urgent that spoils it." His sarcasm did nothing but piss me off even further.

"What the hell is your problem, Macalister?" I didn't mean to explode but I could not help it. My senses felt on their edge and that did not help either.

"My problem, Moreau? My problem is that I have a cambion to destroy and us chilling here is not helping with making that happen," he snarled but I could practically taste the anger that I could sense through our bond.

He was not angry at me though. He was angry at the cambion. He hated Markolf....because of me. It was right there, I could feel it clearly when I set my mind on understanding his emotions through the bond. What the cambion had done to me at the gala, on top of everything else that he was responsible for, was pushing Rafe over the edge and he was itching to do something about it. And yet he seemingly refused to acknowledge the fact that they had marked me and that the three of us went further than that.

Sure, we didn't mate fully, whatever that was meant to entail, but we still had sex. The three of us. Together. At the same time. And that, along with the marking, was a big fucking deal given out relationship so far.

My own anger was now starting to simmer beneath my skin. I knew he cared- I had seen it the night before. I felt it every single time we fucked until the early hours of the morning. Hell, the freaking bond barely left anything hidden within our triad, even if the guys were better at protecting their thoughts than I was as a newbie in mind linking. But that was exactly what pissed me off- he was ready to play it all cool and uncaring when I knew that he was fucking lying.

"You know what- I don't have time to babysit you. You both better be ready on time," he finished lecturing us and turned on his heels to leave the room.

Oh no, you don't get to walk away from me!

"This girl..." He barely muttered under his breath. Normally it wouldn't have reached my ears but I heard it distinctly.

My hand stretched out as if to hurl something at him when my anger boiled over. A fraction of a second later, the lamp on the chest of drawers right next to Rafe caught fire but I could not care less as I moved quickly right in front of him, poking a finger in his chest.

"Don't you dare walk out of that door," I threatened him.

To my surprise, Rafe just stared at me in shock, his jaw practically on the floor. Good, I caught him off guard.

That was until he spoke again.

"What the fuck, Moreau?" He blurted out, startled.

Sure, he was probably not used to his hookups ordering him around like I just did but his reaction was a bit over the top even for him.

Aiden walked over to the two of us and put his arms around me to keep me calm.

"Riley, maybe you should sit down," he murmured, stroking my arm with his thumb.

Is he serious? How was I the one that needed to be reasoned with in this situation?

"Oh, come on, Aiden- I know he is your best friend but he is being a prick."

The smell of something burning grabbed my attention and I finally turned to look at the burning lamp, just before Aiden snapped his finger and killed the fire.

"What the hell? How did that happen?" I exclaimed.

To add to that, I was perplexed as to why they both looked at me like I was crazy.

"You, Moreau," Rafe said, his tone deadly serious.

There was a tension in the room that I had only just noticed.

"Me what?" My eyes blinked with confusion. My glance darted around the room, looking for an answer but I came up with nothing. I turned my head from Aiden to Rafe and back, impatiently waiting for someone to answer my question.

Finally, Aiden gave me a weak smile. " You set it on fire, Riley."