“You know being the only one who drinks around here sucks,” I grumble. The five of us and Orion have been sitting at the bar for the last hour; I’m becoming restless, as there’s only so much we can do here.
“That’s what I thought when I first arrived here and Jasmine was pregnant,” Gabriela states.
“What do you usually do around here?” I ask curiously. I’m sure there must be something I can do to keep myself busy.
“Well, I have my vegetable garden outside that keeps me busy. Gabriela still decorates wedding cakes for the bakery when required, and Jasmine has her paintings,” Aria discloses excitedly.
“The only thing I can bake is pancakes, I definitely don’t have green fingers, and my drawings are stick figures,” I grumble. “What do you like to do, Brielle, when you are not at the hospital working?”
“I make my own natural products with herbs and flowers. This place is perfect for all the stuff I need. I’m going to miss this place terribly when I have to leave, and all of you have been great. I’ve had so much fun since being here,” Brielle divulges. “Not to mention the eye candy.”
“Yeah, that is definitely one of the perks of being here,” Gabriela jokes, “but I have noticed that your eyes are usually glued to one specific candy.” I see Brielle’s cheeks heat with colour and her eyes lower in embarrassment.
“What!” Jasmine squeals, frightening Orion in her excitement. He starts to whimper, but I stretch out my fingers, wiggling them before him. My two semi-precious stone rings catch his eyes, making him stretch out his chubby little hands to grab mine. “Who is she ogling?” she asks quietly, not to frighten Orion again.
“I’m not ogling anyone,” she states quietly, looking around to see if Gloria and Tina heard. Both Jezebels are sitting by the bar, looking at their phones, ignoring us completely. That’s good with me. Knowing that Ceric has slept with both drives me crazy. Every time they are near him, I want to scratch their eyes out, and I’m not even a violent person. The first time I saw the two of them no one had to tell me what their function was here, but Jasmine and Aria explained about them and how they serviced the brothers. The good thing is that they keep away from me, but most importantly they keep away from Ceric.
“Of course not,” Gabriela continues to tease, a twinkle in her eye as she winks at me. “You nearly tripped over your own feet yesterday when he asked if you wanted a drink.” She then looks at Jasmine and continues. “But it’s not only her. I saw a very impressive bulge when he was staring at her before he got the courage to ask her if she wanted a drink.”
“Ohh, just tell me already!” Jasmine mumbles.
“Bion,” Gabriela states with a wide smile on her face.
“Really? You go, girl. He’s hot.” I have only known Bion for a short time, but he has always been very supportive with anything I ask him. “You think they’re mates?” I ask curiously. I know that the men have been looking for their mates for centuries, and now in the last two years, four of them have found theirs. If Brielle is Bion’s mate, then it will be five of them.
“Don’t be silly. How can such a hot guy want someone like me?” she protests, her hands nervously sliding down her voluptuous hips.
“What do you mean? There is nothing wrong with you.” I state angrily. One thing that upsets me is when people get put down for their weight. Brielle is a beautiful voluptuous woman with curves in all the right places. “Bion will be very lucky to get someone like you. Don’t cut yourself short.”
“Nova is right. You’re beautiful, and the way I have caught Bion staring at you with that intense look of his, it won’t be long until he jumps your bones.” We all burst out laughing at her words. Brielle is blushing to the roots of her hair, but a laugh is lighting up her face now instead of the insecurity that I saw there a few minutes ago.
“How long do you think the men will be? Maybe we can go out,” I suggest. I’m tired of being cooped up here. Maybe the five of us can go out to a beauty salon or shopping or something. Gabriela snorts at my suggestion as she shakes her head.
“We can see you haven’t been here long. The only way we’re going out is if we have an escort,” Aria enlightens me. “We tried it once; they have trackers in the cars that block the wheels. Your mate and Cassius blocked the wheels of the SUV we were driving and came out to get us.”
“You’re joking. Are you telling me that we can’t go out unless they babysit us?” All three women nod at my question. “What if I manage to get us out? Maybe we could call a taxi. They wouldn’t know where to find us then.”
“We could try, but not today. Wulf sent a text about an hour ago saying that they would be home soon,” Jasmine reveals. “And how do you think you’re going to manage that? You do know that your persuasion doesn’t work on the men. How are we going to even make it out of the compound?”
“Leave that to me. The next time they go out, we will go on an outing,” I promise. The idea of getting out of here even if just for a few hours lightens my mood. The others seem a little wary. I know that the guys will probably be upset, but they can’t expect us to sit around and do nothing the whole day.
“I need to go get Orion’s bottle,” Jasmine states as he starts to fuss, and she gets up from her chair. She’s about to leave when I ask if she would like me to hold him while she gets his bottle. “He can get really loud until he gets what he wants. Are you sure?”
“Of course. Give me the little guy.” Taking him from his mom’s arms doesn’t help the situation; he looks up at me, and instead of mewling as he did with his mom, he starts to howl in anger.
“Wow, your mom isn’t joking. You are loud,” I say quietly in a calming voice. I pull him up against my chest and start to sing to him as my mother used to sing when I was small. A few seconds later, he hiccups a few times and then quietens. I close my eyes as I sing, enjoying the feel of him against my chest, his sweet baby smell, and his chubby hand playing with my face. When I sing, I’m transported into my own world. There is nothing that can hurt or worry me in this world. I sing a few songs before I open my eyes at the stillness around me; I come to an abrupt end when I see all the women and now the men, too, staring at me with awe.
When I stop singing, everyone continues to just stand there as if in a trance for a few seconds before they all start talking at the same time.
“I could listen to you the whole day,” Gabriela states with a dreamy look on her face.
“Your voice is so calming, beautiful, really beautiful,” Aria declares.
“Well, now we know how to quieten Orion. Just give him to Nova,” Wulf suggests to Jasmine, who is now wrapped in his arms with a content smile on her face.
Ceric is still standing in the doorway, a smirk on his face as if there is nowhere else he would rather be. When I lift a brow at him, he simply gives me that sexy smile of his. I’m about to ask them how everything went, when Orion starts to fuss again, but this time, his mom is there with the bottle in hand. She lifts him into her arms, thanking me as she places the bottle against his lips. Instantly, he quietens and all we hear is gulping.
From the corner of my eye, I see Ceric leave his place by the door and make his way straight towards me. As he walks past the Jezebels still sitting at the bar now accompanied by Gunner and Cassius, I see them look at him, and then their eyes widen, and huge grins adorn their faces. Gunner bursts out laughing and shakes his head; Cassius grins and then winks at me.
Something is going on. Why’re they all acting so funny? Looking around, I see all the guys grinning as they look at him, and Bjarni is whispering in Gabriela’s ear. Her eyes widen, her head shoots towards Ceric who has just passed her on his way to me, and then she starts to giggle uncontrollably as Bjarni covers her eyes.
“What’s going on?” I ask, suspicious.
“Well, you see, Nova, it’s quite a disturbing story,” Brandr states. “We were all ready to mount our bikes and make our way back here, when suddenly, Ceric’s pants start to smoke. When we realized what was happening, he was already spanking himself. We were so shocked at his actions and then his lily-white ass that we had to take a few minutes to get over the shock of seeing something so ugly.” The guys are all chuckling uproariously, so I know that what he’s saying can’t be true.
“Just you wait, asshole,” Ceric says with a chuckle. He must have seen my confused look, because he turns his back towards me to show me what everyone has already seen. I’m sure my mouth must have fallen open in surprise, because at my look, the guys laugh louder. The back of his jeans are burnt away, exposing his ass cheeks and parts of his boxer shorts.
“You’re right,” I state, still acting as if I’m in shock. “It is darn ugly.” I wrinkle my nose as if disgusted, and then burst out laughing with everyone else when Ceric quickly turns to look at me with an evil look on his face.
“Is that so?” He advances towards me with a playful glare. “You’re supposed to be on my side, you evil woman,” he teases before he lifts me by the waist, making me screech in surprise as he throws me over his shoulder and spanks me playfully on the ass.
“Ceric!” I scream. “Don’t you dare.” But I’m laughing too hard to sound believable. Everyone is also laughing at our foolery until Sven walks in with a long box under his arm. He stops in the doorway in shock when he sees Ceric’s ass looking at him.
“What the fuck?” he mumbles.
“What have you got there?” Draco asks, as it’s obvious that it was delivered for someone. The long box is wrapped in a beautiful gold and black wrapping paper with a big gold bow on it.
“Oh.” He looks down at the parcel and then walks towards Aria. “This came for you.” As he starts to hand it to her, Brandr takes it from his hands with a frown on his face.
“Who the fuck sent you this?” he growls.
“I don’t know,” she replies with a confused look on her face. He looks at the box as if it’s going to tell him something, turning it over in his hands.
“Are you going to stare at it the whole day, or are you going to give it to me to open?” Aria asks teasingly as she takes it from his hands. Sitting back on the couch, she starts to unwrap the parcel, Brandr standing over her like an avenging angel. When the wrapping is all off, she takes the lid off the box and then pales at what she sees.
“Motherfuckers,” Brandr roars in anger. Just then, Aria gasps and drops the box on the floor as she stands up, hurriedly swiping at her clothes. “What’s wrong, sunshine?” His voice is laced with concern when he sees her agitation.
“There was a spider. It bit me,” she says, still swiping at her clothes.
“There,” Cassius calls, already moving towards where he sees the spider. “Fuck, this is a black widow.”
“Where did it bite you?” Brielle asks with a determined look on her face.
“Here.” Aria shows her a mark that is already reddening on her arm, her face a milky white.
“Sons of bitches, I’m gonna kill the motherfuckers,” Brandr roars in fury.
“I can help you,” Brielle says as she takes hold of her arm. Placing her hand over the spider bite and the other under the arm, she closes her eyes. Aria looks at her with big blue eyes as Brandr stands next to her.
I see perspiration bead on Brielle’s forehead as she frowns, still with her eyes closed. After a few minutes, she opens them, lifting her hands. “There you go. All gone,” she whispers.
Aria looks down at her arm, a surprised look on her face. “There is nothing there. It’s as if I weren’t bitten, and there was such heat when you were healing me. Thank you.” She draws closer to Brielle again and hugs her close.
“Well, ladies, I think we have just found another one of us,” Gabriela declares with a splitting smile.
“Thank you, Brielle,” Brandr calls as he pulls Aria into his arms, burying his face in her neck.
“Bion, can you check for any clues?” Draco asks. Looking down at where the box is now lying, I see long-stemmed dead roses. Whoever sent those was meaning to frighten Aria, and if it wasn’t for Brielle, she may have been seriously hurt.
“Yeah, after we kill all the fucking spiders,” Cassius calls out as he’s about to kill another spider that’s crawling on the floor.
“No,” Bion calls out, “don’t kill them. I can take samples.” He bends to pick up the box and replaces the lid, closing it and preventing any other spiders from escaping. Looking around, I can see the guys who were all laughing just a few minutes ago are now furious. The anger is palpable as it radiates from them.
“Who dropped the fucking parcel off?” Draco asks as he looks at Sven.
“A delivery company,” he answers. Pulling out a paper from the back pocket of his jeans, he hands it to Draco. Draco looks down at the paper and then passes it on to Celmund.
Whoever sent that parcel should start hiding, because looking around, death is looking for them.