We Are the Wolves

[3] Here Lies--

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Colin commented when we arrived at the amazing resort housing that was our luxury lodging. After climbing out of the van, he looked back to Trevor who climbed out of the passenger seat after finishing his conversation with the driver. "Who did Daddy Versailles have to kill to get us this?"

Trevor flashed Colin a dark, warning look from behind his sunglasses at the mention of his father killing anyone. Stella joined in on the silent chastisement as she wheeled Trevor's bag to him. "His dad is a hotel, resort and lodging reviewer. This happened to get his 5-stars," she informed very matter-of-fact. Trevor grabbed his bag and threw his arm over Stella's shoulder as he intended to walk past Colin. But he stopped to look at him.

"We also happen to own some stake in the realty company that just sold this place," he added before continuing. Colin was finally speechless for once.

Trevor punched a code into the door while the rest of us exited the van and gathered our luggage. I knew Ryder was already going to grab mine so I stood admiring the outside of the villa like Dakota did. It was the most subtle way I could create distance between me and Andrew, Dezi or Ryder. I certainly hadn't talked on our drive over here. Everyone could tell why except for me. I couldn't articulate exactly what I was feeling. Dakota had even asked if I was okay in the car, to which Ryder responded: "Leave it alone." He was about to ask again, but before he could get a Southern drawn word out of his mouth, I followed Trevor and Stella into the house.

"There's five bedrooms, four and a half bathrooms, and two of the rooms have double beds. The last one-bed room that isn't master-style has the half bath and it's downstairs just like one of the doubles rooms," Trevor notified as we all walked in to take it all in. At the sight of the open floor space, I became speechless. Andrew and I came from a beach house. Dakota came from a farm. Stella came from the suburbs. Ryder came from a mansion. And Colin came from a trailer home. This place was something else.

***

"Did you know she was coming?" I finally asked Ryder when we had taken our bags upstairs to the large master bedroom. I paced the length of the room while he was focused on texting his mom that we were settling in. The emotions raging through me were the furthest thing from "settled" though. Ryder threw his phone onto the bed so he could round it and make his way over to me. I searched his face trying to find an answer before he'd say it.

"Ashlynn," he named. I narrowed my eyes for a second before shooting him an impatient look. Yet he let out a breathy laugh and his hands found my waist. "We are on vacation. All of us are."

"I know that."

"So why does it matter if she's here or not?" he asked. "If anything—"

"Because nobody knew she was coming!" I reminded. I wanted to dramatically throw my arms in the air and go back to my stress pacing, but two things stopped me: One, Ryder's hands. Two, the fact that stress pacing was supposed to be his thing. Nonetheless, I paused. "Yet you're incredibly calm right now and acting as if this isn't a big deal," I noted. "Unless that's because you did know—"

"I didn't know she was coming," he assured absolutely, and he continued to gaze down at me for a moment before letting me go and taking a seat on the bed. What else? "But I did," aha! "recognize that specific kind of excitement that gives us a stupid look on our faces when we know we're about to see our mate after a while. You have it, Brett has it, Miles has it, even Evan has it. I'm pretty sure Zander's teased me once or twice a week about mine so—" I sealed the distance by skipping over to his lap and kissing him quickly. He accepted it and shut up while I wrapped my arms around his neck and his went to my waist and thigh. He kissed me quickly once more and I was sucked into a surrounding only involving me, Ryder, and this bed. No outsider stressors.