Roses Wither: Into the Darkness

Aiden

After Rosa stopped crying, Clara came over to grab her another drink and bring it to her, while the two siblings emersed themselves in a conversation so deep that no one dared to interrupt them.

As I watched them, I thought to myself; Marcus had honed his muscle tone and really thickened out since he’d last been here. Is that why he’d been gone so long? Had he wanted to bulk up before his body froze? Did it increase his strength for when he turned? Or had it happened unintentionally? No one really knew. He hadn’t really talked to anyone after he left.

Rosa just seemed so ecstatic to see him that she wasn’t noticing the obvious physical differences in her brother, or maybe she knew it would happen. I was happy for her though, I knew she’d video-timed with him, but I couldn’t help the fact that I felt like I’d missed something. What else hadn’t Rosa told me?

After a couple of hours, Rosa made it my way and came over to the truck for her own refill, Marcus followed.

“Hey, Man.” Marcus gave a nod and I smiled. Hell, he’d been like a big brother to me. We trained together when I was a kid. I wouldn’t have learned to fight and defend at such a young age if he hadn’t taught me. “Where the fuck have you been?”

I watched Rosa as she bent over the hatch to get her cooler. I’d purposely put it back, just slightly out of her reach. It gave me a great view of her heart shaped ass when she reached for it.

“Your sister has been running up a shit storm,” I wasn’t able to look away from Rosa’s ass as I talked to her brother, “I’ve had to watch her ass.”

“Awe no!” Rosa laughed, “Nope, half of that stuff was Aiden’s idea.”

“Yeah,” He followed my gaze to Rosa’s ass and snorted. Shit, “I've heard all about your idea of watching her ass.”

My eyes moved back to him. His flickered with silver and mine with amber as I smiled at him. He was telling me that he was pissed I was checking his sister out, but little did he know, my wolf was just below the surface and ready to fight or fuck. Today was not the day to test me. Even if he was the prince, I'd take on his vampire.

“A weekend trip? Alone, with my sister.” When he moved into the line of my vision, I couldn’t help but cringe. What the fuck was wrong with me? I wasn’t normally like this.

“Oh,” Rosa chimed in as her flask hissed open, “We went to the falls in the South! We stayed in the Florida house.”

“What?” He turned to face her, his eyes narrowing, “You left the guard territory to go to these falls? You didn't tell me that.”

“I had Aiden with me.” She rolled her eyes and handed him a drink, “No harm was caused, we left early, came back late the next night.”

“Where did you sleep?!” He hissed.

“My room.” She shrugged, purposely not telling him that I fell asleep in there too.

“Dad’s not gonna like that one, Rosa.” He warned.

“Dad doesn’t need to know about it.” She grinned up at him and I could visibly see him melt.

“Mom knows, so he’ll know.” He snorted, “You’re forgetting, they’re bound.”

Binding was different from mating. Mating was a connection of the minds. Shifters were able to mentally communicate and share memories if they wanted, but vampire bindings were different.

I was once told that a vampire bind linked them, as if they had lived each other’s lives. When they opened themselves, their bond couldn’t be broken, unlike ours.

“Shit!” I could see her fear at first, then she smiled, “Wait! I’m eighteen now! He can’t punish me.”

“Oh, yes, he can.” He grinned wickedly, “Just give him time to catch up with Mom first. Then he’s all your’s.”

“I’m gonna go dance, and have some fun while I can.” She grimaced and went over to her friends. They all began to bob to the song as they sang and laughed.

“When the fuck did my sister grow up?” Marcus gaped after her.

I noticed that his voice held an twinge to it, similar to his father’s accent, but slightly different and lighter.

“When she started “hanging” with Elijah, Clara and Megan.” I swigged my beer.

I knew the two were still sleeping together. She’d stayed the night at the pack house last night.

“Elijah,” He smiled and narrowed his eyes as he watched her dance, “Yeah, she told me about him.”

“Who cares who she’s hanging with," Ben rolled his eyes, “What the hell have you been up to, man? You’re all fucking beefed out.”

“I’ve been in training. You?” He cocked a brow at Ben.

“We can all tell.” Ben snorted, “I’ve been in Law School the past year.”

“Law School?” He snorted with laughter, “My sister gets you into that much shit?”

“Let’s just say, the Beta does a lot of shit to get her out of the shit she’s gotten herself into, and if this is a precursor of how my brother will be as Alpha, one of us needs to be ready.” Ben pointed at himself jokingly.

Another upbeat song began to play and Megan howled again as they ran to the truck bed to leave their drinks.

When Megan noticed Ben though, she paused.

They stared at each other as he drank his beer, playing it cool. She only looked away when Clara pulled her arm to get her to move. Once she was back with everyone, Ben sighed heavily.

I watched as they began to dance around the fire. It was about that time. They were drunk enough to really dance now.

Only one drink worked for Rosa, Homemade moonshine. It was why I had some made for her birthday.

By shifter law, sixteen was the legal drinking age. Because, in the days of the originals, they didn’t live long.

My father’s first wife had even been fourteen when they married. That was before he met my mother. The pair hadn’t had any kids, but it was crazy to think that if they had, they would have been parents at fourteen and twenty.

“Someone’s got a connection.” Marcus smirked at Ben.

“She’s my mate.” Ben’s eyes turned a flat amber as he leaned against the truck, watching them dance and sing to the music.

“Join them.” Marcus smiled at my brother.

“I can’t,” Ben shook his head, “Future Beta, I need to control my emotions.”

“Yes you can.” He snorted, “Life is short, live while you can. Feel the emotions.”

That was new. What was even newer, was that my brother contemplated it for a moment, before actually joining them.

“So, what have you really been up to?” I asked Marcus, when Ben was gone.

“Sparring every waking moment.” He scoffed as he leaned against the tailgate watching his sister.

“Seriously?”

“Pretty much.” He nodded, “I worked about a year with my dad then, when we moved onto weapons and he brought in The Guard. The guy that trained me as a boy. He worked me over and really honed in on what I needed help with. I worked on it and I’m here now.” He shrugged, taking a swig of the beer in his hand that was mixed with the moonshine, “Now, tell me, exactly how have you been guarding my sister?”

“We hang out, that’s it.” I put my hands up in surrender, “We’re friends. We go on runs, trips and fuck shit up together. I take her punishments, that’s it.”

“You say it, but no wolf here, believes that shit.” Marcus snorted, looking around as he sighed his beer.

“How?”

“I hear their thoughts, Aiden.” He fully turned to face me, “I have been told it’s because I’m carrying the power to train my sister, when the time comes for her to move into the next phase of her prophecy. It is a power that Rosa will have one day.”

I swallowed hard. He was serious.

“I saw that Ben wanted to dance with his mate,” He told me nonchalantly as he turned back to the crowd, “I could hear it and see it in his thoughts. Just like I can see and hear how you feel about Rosa, about the differences in my appearance and your concern that I would have bitten my own sister.”

“I also see visions of the future,” Marcus leaned in my direction as he whispered, “I know that she will be the most powerful beings that anyone has ever seen, and she will need training.”

“What does that mean?” I glared at him

“Are you willing to wait for her return, Aiden?” He asked dryly.

“Return?” I gaped at him, “She’s not leaving.”

“Excuse me,” He spoke almost mechanically, “I asked Elijah to play this song for her.”

What did he mean? I watched in shock as he walked toward Rosa. She hadn’t told me she was going anywhere, but I had felt like she’d been hiding something from me. Could this be it?

When he reached her, he scooped her into almost a ballroom dance, but faster. She laughed as he twirled and paraded her around the fire. His grin showed how much he truly loved his sister.

I had forgotten their upbringing. They were vampire and shifter royals, not country bumpkins, like us.

The way they moved so smoothly, so quickly, and laughed and presented themselves was something otherworldly.

He twirled her so close to the fire that I cringed, but she laughed and Clara cheered. The flames wouldn’t hurt them one bit, but it still killed me to watch.

I knew he was doing it on purpose, as if to remind me that she was so much more than I was.

Something I already fully knew and had accepted.