Suddenly Fated (Wolves of Riverton #1)

12. Ari

12. Ari

Jamie ducked under my punch and got me in the ribs with one of his own before I could block him. As he started to back away, I simultaneously caught him in the jaw and swept my leg under his, and he fell, sprawling on the ground.

“Damn, Ari. You’ve gotten quicker. It must be all the sex.”

“You’re slower than usual. What’s your excuse?”

“Fucker.” Jamie laughed as I gave him a hand up.

We were surrounded by sparring warriors, some in human form, some in wolf form. I gave them the message earlier that we’d have to train harder in light of some potential trouble coming our way, and they were more than ready to follow my orders. Warriors didn’t have much to do in times of peace, but Jamie and I made sure that they were always ready. I’d bet my inheritance that some of them were even hoping that we’d have a war on our hands.

“ Ari!” a voice screamed. I whipped around as Avelin came streaking through the training grounds toward me. I couldn’t recall the last time I’d seen her run. Something was wrong.

She reached Jamie first and flung herself into his arms, sobbing.

“Av, good goddess, what is it?” he asked.

“Ari,” she wailed. “It’s Esyn. We were at the tea and she was doing great and we were almost done and then she-” she took a breath and attempted to get it together. “She collapsed in the middle of the tea, and fell right into the head table. She’s been taken to the hospital.”

I slumped next to her hospital bed as she slept on, holding her hand in both of mine, my forehead on our joined hands. I felt someone touch my shoulder. “How is she?” Jamie asked me quietly.

“The doctors had to pump her stomach. They said she’d ingested poison. Poison , Jamie. They are sending samples off to figure out what it might have been.”

“Holy shit. Was anyone else affected?”

“No. Esyn was the only one.” I gave him a hard look.

“You think it was deliberate.” Jamie said with concern.

“Of course it was deliberate! Do you think poison accidentally got into just her food or drink? I’ve instructed Harris to question every single person who handled, served, or even looked at her food.”

“You don’t think it was the tea?”

“I don’t think so, or the rest of the people at the table would be ill too, including Avelin. She told me that she sat to Esyn’s right, and Mrs. Johansen was on her left. That woman is a grandmother of 9 cubs. There’s no way she poisoned the tea.”

“She was my preschool teacher. You’re right, there’s no way.”

“Could you two keep it down? I’m trying to sleep.” Esyn turned her pale face toward us with a tiny lopsided smile. Jamie and I moved to either side of her bed.

“Esyn, love! Goddess, I’m so glad you’re awake.” I grabbed her hands and kissed them. “How are you feeling?”

“Like I’ve been run over. It was the tea, Ari.” Esyn told me in a weak voice as she closed her eyes again. “Everyone was nearly done, but I had one last cup. It wasn’t until I finished it that I started to feel off.”

“Everything is going to be ok, love. You’re fine, the Doctor says you come home in the morning. We’ll get this figured out. For now, you just rest.”

“Please don’t leave me, Ari.”

“Never.”

After she slept again, I motioned Jamie out into the hall.

“Has my father been informed?”

“Yeah. He and your mother had a pretty loud fight about it.”

“A fight? What now?”

“She went on and on about how Esyn has stained the family name with her antics, how she’d never get over the embarrassment. She told your father that Esyn must have been spiking her own tea with alcohol.”

“The hell she did! I really will strangle that woman with my bare hands. If that rumor gets out-”.

“Your father wouldn’t hear it. He told her to keep her mouth shut and to make sure her ‘society bitch friends’ did too, or it would be the Outlands for all of them.”

“Yeah, yeah. If only he meant that.”

I instructed Jamie to go home to Avelin and to check in with my father and with Harris. I crept into Esyn’s room, but she wasn’t sleeping. She stared at me.

“I can’t sleep. Will you come and lie down with me?”

I eyed the single sized hospital bed and the IV strapped to Esyn’s arm. I eased myself into the bed beside her, gingerly arranging my arms around her without jostling anything important. Half of my body jammed into the bed’s handle and my feet stuck out off of the end, but Esyn sighed a contented sigh.

“You know what’s funny?” she croaked.

“What’s that?”

“I never shared a bed with anyone before I met you. I always said I enjoyed my space. We’ve been together less than a week and I can’t imagine sleeping without you now.”

“Right back at you, Little Mate.”

I love you, Ari.

And I love you.

The next morning Esyn was healed but still feeling weak. Her clothes were ruined by spilled tea, smashed cakes, and broken porcelain, so Avelin brought her a sweatshirt and leggings to wear.

“Wait, these are mine! I mean, we didn’t just buy these, they came from my house! I mean, um, my Parents’ house.” She cringed and glanced my way.

“You’ll get used to it.” I reassured her as I brushed my hand over her cheek.

“We had your things brought over yesterday,” Avelin informed her. “Your parents came to see you here, but you were out cold. The Doctor told them you’d be fine, though. Hopefully you can visit with them very soon.”

Esyn smiled. “I’d like that. I could especially use a hug from my Dad.”

I wanted to carry her to the car, but she wouldn’t allow it. “I feel fine, just tired,” she assured me. “I want a bath, a cinnamon muffin as big as my head, and a nap, in that order.”

“Yes Ma’am, I believe we can make that happen for you.”

Several days later, Esyn felt back to normal. We spent the time together, talking, laughing, and holding one another in the night. I wanted her badly but also wanted to be respectful of her need for rest. She told me stories about her childhood.

“We’ve lived in a few houses in town, but I mostly grew up in the house my parents live in now. It only has two bedrooms, an eat-in kitchen, and a living room. The whole house would fit into your dining room. But we were very happy. I went to the pack school and then off to University - it was my first time mingling with humans, which was super weird. Luckily my roommate was a shifter as well, I don’t know what I’d have done living with a human for months and months!”

I chuckled. “Your life was so normal,” I told her. “I never got to go to pack school and I was always really jealous of Jamie because he did. I had private tutors for my entire school career, including University.” Her eyes went wide.

“I didn’t even know that it was possible to do that,” she said, amazed.

“Neither did I, but my mother made it happen. I think she’d have kidnapped half of the professors and forced them to teach me if they hadn’t agreed. It must have cost my parents a fortune.”

“It’s so funny that growing up, I was always jealous of your family living in this gigantic house with servants and what not, and all that time you were jealous of the way I lived.” She shook her head in wonder.

On the evening of the third night, we lay on the sofa in the dark in our family room, watching a horror movie. Avelin and Jamie were sprawled on the floor in front of us in two giant bean bag chairs. It would surprise most to learn that Avelin was the one who liked horror. She was all things proper, polite, and gracious, but the woman loved her slasher films.

I enjoyed the experience, mostly because every time something happened, Esyn jumped and buried her face in my chest.

I ran my fingers up and down her arm before moving my hand under the blanket covering us, smoothing over her hip and then back up to cup her breast. I moved my thumb across her nipple and she gasped quietly.

“ Ari, what are you doing !” she thought. I heard her loud and clear.

“ Payback ,” I answered with a grin, thinking of several days ago and my interrupted phone call. I glanced at my friends on the floor, but they faced away, engrossed in the movie.

I continued rubbing and squeezing her now hardened nipple until her breathing started to become shallow. Then I reached lower, under the elastic waistband of her shorts and stroked her over the soft cotton of her underwear. She was so wet already that I could feel it through the fabric.

She let out a whispered cry as I moved aside her underwear, stroking my fingers up and down, covering them in her wetness, but purposely not giving her what she really wanted. She began to undulate her hips, her ass grinding against me. I closed my eyes for a few seconds, just enjoying the sensation.

Finally I circled her clit with my fingers, a gentle movement at first as she tried to keep her face stoic and her eyes open. I quickened my pace. The killer appeared on the screen just then, the music hitting a crescendo. At the jump scare Avelin cried out, burying her head in Jamie’s chest, both completely unaware of Esyn shattering under my fingers. Her nails bit into my forearm, her eyes rolled back and then closed as she tried to come silently. Her body arched, her breath heaving in and out. It was one of the hottest things I’d ever seen. As she came back down to earth, the movie ended and Jamie stretched.

“Well, what did you think of it?” he asked.

Esyn and I exchanged a look before I answered. “It was…phenomenal.”