Total pages in book: 193
Estimated words: 184001 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 920(@200wpm)___ 736(@250wpm)___ 613(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 184001 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 920(@200wpm)___ 736(@250wpm)___ 613(@300wpm)
The memory fades, and I’m left reeling. What the hell was that about?
Thorin hands me the glass of water, and I drink it because I know he won’t stop watching me like a hawk until I do. When the glass is empty, he takes it from me and collapses next to me. I tap Khalil’s hand, and he lets me go.
“She was in the plane crash, wasn’t she?” I say, and they both stiffen. When neither of them respond, I growl out, “Wasn’t she?”
“I thought you didn’t remember anything?”
I shake my head that already feels heavy and let the lie leave my lips. “Nothing after finding her in Khalil’s bed. Now stop dodging the question and answer me.”
“Yes,” Thorin answers.
“Isaac?”
Thorin shakes his head. “She’s not with him. Far from it.”
“Aurelia’s a singer. A really good one,” Khalil gushes, and I’m once again questioning if I’ve entered an alternate reality. “You should hear her sing sometime. She—”
“It’s been two months,” I interrupt. “If Aurelia was in that crash, why is she still here?”
They both fall quiet, and my heart plummets like a deadweight into the pit of my stomach.
I remember the morning she arrived.
We’d been in the middle of an argument that had nearly torn us apart when I caught sight of her plane engulfed in flames and flying dangerously low over our cabin like a shooting star.
And the argument Aurelia had unknowingly interrupted?
It was whether it was finally safe for us to go into town and find some local girls to seduce.
Seduce, not kidnap.
We definitely would have never brought them here. This cabin, these wilds, and this life were supposed to be ours and ours alone. Finding a woman for each of us would have been about fulfilling a need and nothing more. Nothing as serious or fucked-up as whatever the hell is happening with this singer who makes Khalil Poverly gush.
Staring at my brothers and wondering if I ever knew them at all, I scramble to my feet and back away with my hands clutching my hair and my vision blurring when they stand too. “What did you guys do?” I shout when my mind taunts me with horrifying possibilities. “What the fuck did you do?”
That argument ended with two against one and then she appeared, forcing us to shelve the discussion for now.
Or so I thought.
Only one thing is absolutely clear…
That poor girl’s timing could not have been worse.
“Zeke—”
Thorin sighs. “Let’s face it. We are never leaving this mountain. This is our home now. This is our life. This is how we stay together and keep each other safe.”
Nothing of what he says surprises me because even though we’ve talked about leaving one day, none of us have ever believed it. “What the fuck does that have to do with her?”
“Everything,” Khalil answers. “We finally have everything we’ve been needing.”
My eyes rapidly flick between the two of them, and then I swear viciously. “What the fuck does that mean?”
“She’s ours, Zeke.”
“Ours.” I echo the word, and it clangs around my psyche like a gong on D-day. “Does Aurelia know that?” Aurelia. It’s my first time saying her name out loud.
“Of course.”
“Tell me everything that happened,” I demand. “Starting with the day she got here.”
Thorin shrugs, but feigning indifference has never been a talent of his. The tension in his shoulders always gives him away. “Nothing to tell really. After you split, we questioned her to see if she was one of Isaac’s, found out who she really is, and decided to keep her around for a while in case she was lying.”
“And now that you know that she’s not?”
Thorin’s jaw clenches. “We told you. She wants to stay.”
“Just like that?” I whisper sharply. Do they take me for a fool?
“It’s complicated,” Thorin sighs, “but it was her choice, Zeke. We didn’t force her to make it.”
But there it is…the quick look they give each other that leaves me pushing past the hurt of knowing my brothers are lying to me and focusing on getting the truth one way or another.
And if they won’t tell me…
I’m on my feet and at Thorin’s door before either of them can react.
“Where the fuck are you going?” Khalil barks.
I hear him rising to his feet, so I pause only long enough to say, “I’m going to ask her myself.”
I push open the door of Thorin’s room to their combined shouts. “Zeke!”
I don’t consider the repercussions of barging into a room without knocking until I’m already inside. I throw my shoulder against the door to shut it just as the hard bodies of my best friends slam into it from the other side. Thorin and Khalil’s chorus of pained groans filters through the door as I quickly lock it, but I immediately regret it when I turn to see one very naked girl staring back at me through equally surprised eyes.