Escaping Death

Ace

“Yes, asshole.” Solana volleyed the insult at me right before turning around and walking hand in hand with Eli into the mall.

I combust into flames on the spot. That was the wrong thing to do, I shouldn’t have grabbed her like that. Especially not in front of the guys. Fuck! Since when do I lose my control like this?

“Ace? What the fuck?” Hunter replaces Solana in front of me.

“I know!” I snap, my fingers combing through my hair. I shouldn’t be snapping at him either, Gods I need to get my shit together. “I know,” I repeat more gently this time.

My flames go out and I walk with Hunter behind Dean and Tate, who are themselves behind Solana and Eli.

“Has she always been like this?” The question flies out of my mouth before I can stop it.

Hunter chuckles sadly and shakes his head, his entire body sags like it’s been weighed down by painful memories of her. “No,” he says. “She was…effervescent. Hot as fire and light as air. But this girl,” he shrugs his shoulders, “she looks the same, she smells the same, but now she’s like a caged animal…trapped inside her pain and her anger.”

The only response I have is to nod, if I allow myself to speak I’ll say something I’m not ready to reveal — or worse, I’ll push her right back into his arms.

So though it physically hurts me to hear his description of who she was and who she’s become, I don’t tell him to heal old wounds. This is yet another sign that she will shred my pack apart, because judging by the emotions wafting off of Hunter, he would jump at the chance to be with her again. And because the very idea of my mate choosing him over me makes my skin crawl, I feel like the only solution will be to leave her broken and walk away when all of this is said and done.

“Where to first?” Eli asks.

“Wherever she wants. Lead the way.” I gesture for Solana to guide the way and thankfully she does so with minimal scowling. Her fingers are still laced together with Eli’s and they stroll hand in hand through the mall like a pair of young lovers.

I wonder if he can feel my eyes on the back of his head since he keeps looking over his shoulder at me. I know she’s just trying to get back at me for what happened in the parking lot, but I don’t like that she’s toying with my pack mate in order to hurt me.

“What kind of dress will I need for tonight?” She asks the group as her eyes roam the store fronts.

“Formal, black tie. We’ll be in tuxes.” Tate responds to her question.

We pass store after store, following behind her like a flock of geese, but finally something manages to catch her eye because she drops Eli’s hand and walks into the store entranced by something she saw.

I watch her, almost mesmerized by the way she sorts through the racks of items on display, running her fingers across the rows of clothes, tilting her head as she spreads out the fabric to get a better look. I see her bite her plump bottom lip when she finds something she gets excited to try on, handing item after item to all four of the guys surrounding her. My eyes focus on the devious smirk curling her lips and the way she holds back her smile and laughter as the guys struggle to keep everything from falling to the floor.

I can’t help watching her. She’s methodical and deliberate in the way she moves, the way she assesses and chooses what she wants. She’s functional in her choices, choosing comfort and utility over glamor.

“Ugh,” Eli groans, “another oversized sweater?” He already has three draped over his arms that she picked out before.

“She’ll need them if she wants to be anywhere near your frigid ass,” Dean pokes fun at Eli’s gift.

“Why don’t you go pick out something for me then since what I want is so offensive to you.” She says with no heat, carefully combing through another rack of shirts.

“Really?” Eli asks slowly, skeptically.

Solana shrugs, “sure. Worst case scenario I don’t like it and then you can wear it.” At this she grows a self-satisfied grin.

Eli steps into her space and waves me off when a low growl instinctively builds in my chest and rumbles out.

“Anything?” He taunts her with an arched brow, his lips a breath away from connecting with her neck. Her head swivels around slowly to look at him over her shoulder, her eyes catching on mine as she turns. Her cool, coy grin waivers and I swear I see her brilliant green eyes flare with light.

She moves out of Eli’s arms, putting space between them as she turns to face him, and for a brief, selfish moment I hope it’s because she feels how much it aggravates me that he can wear his desire for her so publicly.

“Anything,” she says, clearly a challenge.

“Does that go for all of us?” Tate’s voice is filled with desire and dark intentions. Knowing him, he’ll either pick out something made entirely of leather or he’ll bring her back nothing but rope and silk ribbons.

Dean, Tate, and Eli look at me, asking for permission while Hunter broods in the corner, twirling his favorite knife between his fingers.

“Fine. But remember…if she doesn’t wear it, you will.” I say to the group but it’s meant for Tate, and his shit-eating grin tells me he knows that I know exactly what kind of outfit he’d pick out for her.

I have no doubt that she’d look exceptional in anything, but I’ve seen what Tate can do with a silk tie and some rope. But she’s not his to truss up like that.

Dean, Tate, and Eli shove everything they’re holding at Hunter and practically fall over themselves rushing out of the store like it’s a road race. I can read Eli’s emotions like an open book, he’s not even attempting to hide his desire from our link. Dean and Tate have always been more difficult since they’re dragons, but over the years as our pack bond grew and solidified I’ve been able to read them better. Right now they’re just as excited as Eli. Solana has just unleashed them on the most exciting hunt of their lives, second probably only to hunting her.

Hunter’s unease wafts steadily off his body. He stares at the floor actively avoiding looking at Solana just as much as she avoids him. Every once in a while she’ll look over and find me fixated on her, checking to make sure Hunter is keeping his distance and perhaps hoping that I’m here as a buffer. But while I may be preventing whatever conversation they obviously need to have, he’s preventing me from speaking freely with her too.

“Should we head out and find you a dress?” I ask her now that the three stooges are occupied elsewhere.

Her eyes dart back and forth between me and Hunter. Her anxiety and my wolf’s agitation increase together in linear fashion.

“Just the three of us?” She asks cautiously not wanting to insult anyone. This is not an easy situation for any of us. It’s like a tragic, goddamn love triangle except none of us wants to pursue the other.

Maybe that’s not true. Maybe I do want to pursue her, or at least my wolf wants me to, maybe in her darkest thoughts she wants me like I want her, maybe Hunter and Solana do want to reconcile, but none of us can do that without destroying our other relationships. I can’t have her and my pack too, and I think the three of us are painfully aware of that.

I sweep her long, wavy brown hair over her shoulder so I can feel the electricity of her soft skin as I massage circles on her neck and trace the lines of the flower she has tattooed there, making sure to block the act from Hunter.

“Hunter, find the guys and get our suits. We’ll meet you back at the house.”

— — —

Solana

Before Hunter can take off Ace pulls him aside and whispers something to him so lowly that even my advanced hearing can’t pick it up.

His back is all I see as he walks out of the store. No stopping to look back, no hesitation. He’s good at that, after all – walking away from me. Nothing has changed.

Ace on the other hand is rather perplexing. I can’t tell if he wants nothing to do with me, or if he wants everything to do with me. I’m not blind to the way his eyes have trailed my movements through the store, I can feel his every growl when the guys get too close or too friendly. But he never says anything about it, he doesn’t stop them, he doesn’t lay claim to me.

Once Hunter is gone, Ace flags down an employee and gestures to the pile of clothes I’ve accumulated. “We’ll take them all. Bill me and have it delivered to this address,” he says, handing her a business card.

Reflexively, I grab onto Ace’s arm to stop him. “What are you doing?” I whisper-shout at him. There’s no way I’m going to let him pay for everything I so much as glanced at, I was never going to buy that much.

“Certainly, Mr. Harrington,” the female employee coos at him before sauntering away.

Ace looks at me under a furrowed brow, “I’m buying the things you want?”

“Ace,” I sigh, dismayed at his laissez faire attitude towards spending. “This is insane, I don’t need all that.”

His meadow green eyes darken so much they’re almost black. “Say that again,” he practically purrs, causing my wolf to stir.

“That I don’t need all those things?” My voice is pathetically breathy.

“No, my name. Say it again.”

Heat blooms in my chest first, then dives headlong to my core. He may be rough, controlling, and demanding, but there’s no denying the constant pull I feel towards him. Fighting against it is like swimming upstream, but allowing myself to fall for him could never end well. I can’t stay with him while Hunter is part of his pack, and I won’t ask him to choose between me and him…I could never.

“Ace,” I breathe. His name is spoken as a desperate plea for him to continue to treat me as the girl he was hired to protect and not his mate. He’s been doing a fine job of it so far, we should just continue on that way.

Ace’s eyes pinch shut and I can see his jaw clenching and tensing, probably focusing on settling his wolf.

“Let’s get your dress and go,” he says through gritted teeth before striding out of the store back into the heart of the mall.

I follow him silently to another store, this one exclusively for dresses and gowns – expensive gowns. Tugging at a few of the price tags, not one of them is under a thousand dollars. I’m not averse to glamorous things, I grew up in a palace as second in line to the throne currently occupied by my mother, the Queen.

Apparently second-in-line is part of who I am, not just a title. I’m the afterthought. My sister will become Queen, her twin will become Alpha, and my other brother will become like uncle Incandis, serving his sister-queen as a guardian. And then there’s me, the afterthought. I have no place in the grove, I’m not the queen, I’m not the alpha, I’m not a guard. I’m nothing.

I just never expected Hunter to feel that way about me – as nothing, as something that can be tossed aside for the real prize. Maybe that’s why it hurt so much. My heart was wide open for him to have, and then he ripped it to shreds and threw it away.

I promised myself I’d never feel that way again. Keep whatever is left of my heart hidden away, buried under sarcasm, scars, and ink and attempt to find a place that’s my own, where I belong. Where I’m wanted.

A sharp whistle pierces through my thoughts. “Hey, you okay?” Ace asks me, concern marring his face.

“Yeah, sure. Sorry.” I quickly pull out a few dresses to try on and rush myself into a fitting room.

Ace’s voice is so loud against the quiet of the store that it feels like he’s right next to me as I’m getting changed.

“How do you know Hunter?” He asks innocently enough. I’m thankful for the door between us so he can’t see my body go rigid at the sound of his name being spoken aloud.

“What makes you think I know him?” I try to steady my voice as I slip on the first dress.

“People don’t just slap people. I know you know him. I want to know what he did to make you so angry.”

I’m not angry…I’m devastated.

“I don’t think you’d understand.” I tell him honestly. On some primal level I know he won’t be happy hearing me talk about how I loved someone else, someone not my mate – someone not him.

“He’s just as responsible for your well-being right now as I am. I need to know if I can trust the two of you under the same roof.”

I step out of one dress and take my time putting on the next, giving me time to figure out what I should say…how much of the truth I want to reveal.

“I can hear your heart beating faster. Death has no secrets, I don’t tolerate lies.” He states calmly in a voice so deep it’s practically a purr.

“No, it’s not that. It’s just…complicated to explain.”

When he doesn’t say anything, I sigh knowing that he’s just waiting for me to explain. He’s not going to engage in a debate with me about what I think he does or doesn’t want to hear or what he will or will not understand.

“I’ve known him my whole life, we grew up together. I’m pretty sure he was my spark. But when he found his mate he ended up choosing her and tossed me to the curb. We never saw them again.”

I twist in the mirror to look at the dress from all angles, I think this is the one so I slip out of it and start getting dressed in my clothes.

“How are you unsure if he was your spark? From what I understand it’s as obvious as the mate bond.”

“You really want to know?” Exasperation is beginning to crawl into my tone. He must be a glutton for punishment, I don’t know anyone who can just sit there and listen to a story about their mate sparking with someone else.

“Yes,” he grunts like he wants to believe his own words but isn’t absolutely sure.

“Well, he’s all wolf. He can’t exactly spark back. Since I’m a hybrid I think my wolf may have suppressed the spark, trying to keep from bonding to someone who wasn’t my mate.”

I emerge from the fitting room to find Ace leaning against the opposite wall, hands in the pockets of his dark jeans, his sandy hair falling in front of his face enough to veil his eyes.

The compulsion to apologize to him overwhelms me. My wolf is upset that I almost bonded with someone who wasn’t my fated mate, she doesn’t like feeling like we’ve upset Ace and his wolf with my talk about practically sparking with Hunter.

“For a wolf you seem to know a lot about sparking.” Is what I say instead. Because I am surprised. I don’t know many wolves outside of the grove who know the first thing about dragons.

He continues to look down, “probably because I’m not a wolf.”

I don’t have to voice my confusion, he looks up at me and it’s written all over my face. I know he’s a wolf, I know he’s my mate.

He walks towards me slowly and takes the dress I’ve chosen from my hands, folding it neatly over his arm.

“I’m a hybrid, too.”