Their Thief: Redemption

Chapter 19 (Part 2)

Luca

* * *

I abandoned the vehicle outside the tall iron gate that blocked off the partially hidden path that lead to the estate Alec had decided to set up house in. It had been open when we left last night, hence why I hadn't noticed the new installation that wasn't there when I had last visited the quaint house a few decades ago. The silver-laced metal would have been easy enough to break through but decided to choose the advantages of a silent approach.

Ignoring the chain and lock holding the gate firmly shut, I reached for the metal bars. Using my upper body, I pulled myself over the obstacle as my hands tingled and turned red at the contact with the metal. I gave the mild irritation no mind as I set my sights on the picture-perfect family home ahead of me.

It made sense Alec would choose this place considering the shift in his goals since we had first encountered our Aris, but it was too late for him to try the approach I knew he would. Trying to play house wasn't going to work after we had already introduced her to a mansion of horrors. A cute facade wasn't going to trick her into forgetting the last place we told her was her home. Or what had happened within those walls.

And out.

But it seemed Alec was adamant about leaving the past where it occurred, in the past. He didn't understand that we weren't going to get a clean slate to start over. Especially not while he was keeping secrets.

We had an agreement. Aris's presence here was enough to let me know he had broken it. She was to remain in her bubble of a world until the mess with the Fae was taken care of. But it seems she wasn't the only one being fooled by the carefully crafted illusion Alec had been left in charge of in my absence.

And I wasn't the only one that would hold him accountable for whatever I would discover when I walked into the only place that ever came close to being home. It never quite held the warmth needed to make it one.

Maybe Aris was the warmth that was missing from the house before me, just like she was the warmth that was missing from my arms as I tried to find temporary solace in sleep. I was sure Alec was going to feel her heat when he stopped with his scheming and took a moment to see how much she had grown. It was evident in the way she carried herself. Though we still scared her and her eyes had trouble holding ours, I could see the fire that I was so worried we had extinguished that night.

The night that she needed us.

My heart clenched painfully in my chest as regret attacked me from the inside, threatening to expel the blood I had forced myself to consume this morning to ease the cravings I felt with Aris so close. Her scent had filled every inch of the apartment by morning. It was why I had woken up with wood this morning that was almost painfully hard.

I couldn't recall when I was so aroused last.

Nor could I recall when I had last felt such debilitating guilt. It left me reaching a hand to my throat as it grew difficult to breathe past the weight pressing on my chest. We had more than just failed as mates, we disgraced the goddess with our atrocities against the mate she gifted us.

I was going to make things right, I told myself, hoping if I said it enough times I could convince myself it was true. But Aris's voice as she told me the truth of what we had walked into that night sliced through my wishful thinking.

But I wasn't one to give up so easily.

I would set things right. She didn't know it was only going to get better. She didn't have hope, how could she when she didn't know everything we wanted to give her? I would give her that hope and everything else she has ever desired.