Queen of Death

Chapter 20

I should know — I'm equally afflicted.

We've spoken about marking her. It's something we both want and think that she'd allow. But with the way things have been going... what we feel is bigger than what can be expressed by one mark.

If that were to happen, it needs to happen organically. We can't push the others into feeling what we feel. And it's essential that we all feel the same way. Tate is there. I'm shocked that of the three other guys he was the first to fall for her, but I guess stranger things have happened.

By their scents I can tell that she and Dean have bonded, and by the dopey, love-struck look on his face I'd wager that his heart now belongs to her.

Which leaves Eli. Arguably the most burned of us all. Fate hasn't been kind to any of us, but to him least of all.

"I don't know, Hunter. He's a big gamble. He's an alpha wolf so he's stubborn and prideful," Sol lifts a shit-eating grin at Ace. "He's my eldest sibling, and you were his Beta. His fury burned for a long time, at you and at me."

I prop my chin on her shoulder and speak softly, "exactly why it needs to be him. If I can get him to believe, everyone else will be a piece of cake."

Silence settles comfortably over the group, we eat at our own paces and get lost in our own thoughts. Until Ace's aura fills the room like smoke. But instead of suffocating in it we're comforted by it — by him.

"We're bringing in Cole. He's confronted us once about Hunter's scent and even then his expressions never so much as hinted at wanting revenge. He lost his beta, his best friend, and his sister in the same night... he wants answers. He wants his world to make sense again."

— — —

Solana

Ace and Hunter are right.

The words are like vinegar in my mouth but it doesn't make them any less true. They're right.

When I first met the guys I would have found a way to argue with them or begrudge the fact that they were right. That feeling doesn't reside in me anymore, or at least not in this situation. They're right. It's okay to let them be right and to let them feel my trust and support in that belief.

Despite agreeing with them, and having all five of them back under the same roof, I barely slept that night. In the morning we were going to their offices and calling my brother to meet with us.

Now that time has come and I'm stuck in the bathroom giving myself a pep talk. Any attempts to splash cool water on my face are in vain as it evaporates before it even touches my skin.

I walk out of the bathroom and towards Ace's office. The memory of him taking me on his desk for the first time hits me, my mouth and my core watering at the same time in want of a repeat. I have half a mind to demand help releasing the tension coiled within me when I catch their hushed conversation.

"I'm just worried that if we're all in that room he's going to know. He's obviously familiar with the feeling given who his mother is," Dean's voice is calmer than his words suggest.

Well this is interesting. The boys are gossiping. Honestly, they're worse than the fledgling girls back in the Grove sometimes.

"Would it be the worst thing?" Tate questions. "It's only a matter of time before the wolves sense it...if they don't already."

"Hunter is there. He knew it even before I did," Ace says, his aura radiating pride and respect. "But even if E gets there it has to be unanimous. Meaning her, too."

Oh. They're gossiping about Eli...and me? Suddenly what was supposed to be harmless fun eavesdropping turned into a full recon mission.

"She's there," Dean asserts. "She may not have connected the dots and said the words but she's feeling it."