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Chapter 8
Violet smiled when all the women in the common room warmly greeted her. It had taken her and Finn a good ten minutes to reach the room, but her muscles felt much better.
"How are you feeling?" Noelle asked from the couch. Raine was sitting next to her with a possessive arm draped over her shoulder. She shrugged his arm off and stood to give Violet a hug.
"I'm feeling much better now. It helps to get my body moving a bit too," Violet responded softly, returning the hug.
Noelle led her to the other couch and sat down with her, inwardly smiling when Finn sat down right next to Violet not a second later. Raine growled from the other couch, giving Noelle a look that said he knew what she was doing, but she ignored him, directing all of her attention to Violet. "I understand you may not want to talk about it, but I want you to know that I will love you no matter what you are. Finn told us you were something different but he didn't know what. I don't care. If I can handle panther men I can handle whatever you dish out."
Violet smiled softly at Finn before directing her attention to Noelle, "Thank you Noelle. You don't know how much that means to me, but...I can't tell you."
"Are you afraid to tell us?" Tamsin asked, worrying her lower lip between her teeth. The other women looked at Violet expectantly, trying to hide the hurt on their faces.
Finn laid a reassuring hand on Violet and looked at the women, "She wants to tell you, but she can't. I had to guess what she was. Lucky for you, I can simply tell you," he paused to make sure it was still okay to tell everyone before saying softly, "Violet is a pixie."
Ingrid gasped, "A pixie? I didn't even know they existed! Good Lord, what else is there? Vampires, Werewolves, Fairies?"
"Oh my," Delilah chuckled softly. The women laughed lightly and smiled at Violet, letting her know that they accepted her.
"We still love you Vi," Noelle grinned. "So do you have any cool powers or talents?"
Violet shook her head, "Nothing really. My eyes change color, that's about it." She looked around uncomfortably, before abruptly changing the subject. "So what have you all been up to today?"
Noelle frowned, recognizing Violet's attempt to hide something by changing the subject. She didn't call her out on it though, willing to let it slide for now. "Raine explained to me why we were all kidnapped; you should probably let the guys explain to you separately though." The women nodded curiously, wondering what the big secret could be. They figured it had to be important if the men wanted to tell them separately.
"I checked in on Theo," Delilah said with a smile. "He's resting now."
"And you would still be there with him if Noelle hadn't forced you from the room." Ingrid smiled when Delilah stuck her tongue out at her. She turned to Violet and said, "I've been here watching television for most of the day."
"So have I," Tamsin grumbled, "with Fletcher checking in on us every five minutes like some mother hen." She mumbled something else along the lines of not having anywhere else to go.
Fletcher grinned annoyingly, "Don't try and pretend you weren't happy to see me."
"Oh please," she scoffed. "More like annoyed. I don't know what happened in any of the shows because you kept interrupting!"
"It's not my fault you were distracted by my good looks and charm."
Tamsin felt her face heat up in anger. How dare he act like such an ass? "In your dreams, pookie."
He grinned wickedly, the kind of grin that sent bolts of desire straight to Tamsin's abdomen. "Oh pumpkin, you have no idea," he purred.
"Enough!" Raine roared. "Do I need to separate you two? All you do is bicker and frankly, I'm fed up with it! I have enough on my plate without having to worry about you two killing each other!" Tamsin flipped off Fletcher, but blushed when his eyes flared hotly. She looked away and tried to focus on something else, anything else.
"Sir?"
Raine sighed in relief when he saw Paxton enter the room with a couple other men. "Yes Paxton?"
"We're all ready to go, whenever you are."
"Good. We'll leave in ten minutes. You can check on your brother while I prep the men." Paxton nodded and left the room, letting the other men pass and sit down.
There were three men that entered the room. A tall guy with mahogany hair and cerulean eyes sat down next to Ingrid while the other two men sat on the same couch Tamsin and Fletcher were on. One had curly blonde hair and green eyes while the other had messy brown hair and onyx eyes.
"Ladies, these are a couple more of my men: Ryder," he pointed at the man sitting next to Ingrid, "Dmitri," the blonde one, "and Eamon," the brown haired man.
Ryder turned to smile at Ingrid. He held out his hand, "I'm Ryder and you are?"
Ingrid felt herself smiling in return. Something about him was genuine and likable. "I'm Ingrid."
"Ingrid? What a lovely name," he drawled. "Did you know that Ingrid means Ing's beauty?" She shook her head shyly. "Well, you certainly are beautiful," he murmured before giving her a sheepish look. "That was cheesy."
Ingrid laughed at him, enjoying just being able to talk to him. It was rare that she felt comfortable with a male. Usually she felt threatened or cautious, but with Ryder she felt at ease. His dark blue eyes spoke of warmth and relaxation. If only he had been the one to kidnap her instead of Paxton.
"Why the sad face?" Ryder asked, brushing his finger down her cheek. Gods, her skin was smooth as silk.
"Hmm? Oh nothing," she murmured, pasting a smile back on her face.
He frowned and opened his mouth to say something, but was cut off by Noelle.
"What exactly are you doing?" Noelle asked Raine suspiciously. She had a bad feeling about this.
Raine cleared his throat uncomfortably, knowing that Noelle was going to flip out when he answered her question. "I'm taking the rest of my men to find mates. We'll be back soon."
He watched as the anger slowly flooded her face and jealously set in. "You're leaving all of us here to find more women?" she seethed. "What is wrong with you?"
"I'm only taking Ryder, Dmitri and Eamon to find their mates. I'm not bringing back any more women than what they pick. I already have you." Raine reasoned.
Noelle gasped in rage and stormed towards him, poking her finger into his chest. "Oh, you already have me? Well I'm sorry you can't have fun and pick some other woman out!"
"That's not what I meant, woman!" he said, exasperated. Raine grabbed her by the shoulders and tugged her flush against his body. "Listen to me, and listen carefully because I'm not going to repeat this," he said fiercely, pinning her with his hot gaze. "I am glad I found you. It took me forever to find the perfect woman, but I found her in you. I love how you challenge me. I love that you're stubborn. I love that you are jealous. But I don't love how you can't respect and trust me enough to know that I wouldn't go out hunting for another woman to replace you!"
By the time he was done, he was breathing harshly and shaking her by the shoulders. Noelle looked frightened, chastened and a little bit...aroused? "Okay," she whispered.
"Okay? Okay? That's all you have to say, is okay?" Raine hardly lost his temper, but Noelle was quickly pushing him to his limit. First she doubted him and then all she could say after he confessed that he practically loved her was 'okay'.
Raine let go of her shoulders and ran a hand through his hair. He couldn't love her. Ridiculous. He was just tired after all the fights with the Hunters. He needed to get away. Thank goodness he and his men were leaving soon.
"Paxton!" he bellowed towards the doorway. Ten minutes was up. Time to go.
"I'm sorry," Noelle said miserably. "I didn't mean to doubt you...I just...I don't know." She sighed and sat back down on the couch. Violet patted her on the hand soothingly and offered a smile, but Noelle's response was only halfhearted. Stupid. She always spoke before she thought. Now look what happened. Raine was pissed at her.
Paxton returned to the room and nodded sharply at Raine. "All right men," Raine barked. "We're heading out. We need to be careful and keep an eye out for any Hunters. We certainly don't want a repeat performance of last time." The men nodded in agreement and stood to follow Raine. "Paxton?" Raine asked. "Will you go with us? Theo was supposed to originally go."
"Of course," he replied emotionlessly. He turned look at Ingrid one last time but froze in jealousy. Ryder had grabbed her hand and was placing a soft kiss on it. Ingrid giggled softly in response and blushed, but quickly withdrew her hand when she heard Paxton's warning growl.
Paxton's eyes flared hotly before they narrowed to tiny slits focused only on Ingrid. He gave her a look full of retribution and payback. No way in hell would he stand for another man taking away his woman. When he returned he would make sure she understood that she was his. And his alone.
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