Chapter 6

AIDEN

Yara… She had been all I had on my mind during the drive back home and even now as I sat in the car, breathing in her scent which still lingered in it, what I wanted more than anything else right now was to talk to her and see her again.

I wanted her.

My phone buzzed and I immediately picked it up, thinking Yara was the one that sent a message, but my excitement fizzled out when I saw it was a message from Julian instead.

Julian: Are you going to call a meeting with the council tonight?

Julian: To tell them about Yara.

Me: Not tonight.

I’d wanted to let them know as soon as possible when I became sure that she was my mate but seeing as she only found out what a mate was less than an hour ago and didn’t even know that she was mine, I decided that I needed to talk to her before I called a meeting with the council to let them know. Now, I just had to wait for Yara to reach out to me and tell me the restaurant she wanted me to take her to for our dinner date.

Once more, a smile crept onto my face at the thought of seeing her again before I shoved open my door, climbed out of the Jeep, and made my way over to my house. The moment I opened the front door, the scent of perfume hit me and I frowned because I wasn’t expecting anyone. Even if I was expecting someone, they wouldn’t just walk in while I wasn’t home – the only person that was allowed to do that was Julian and he didn’t smell like that.

Then I remembered the blonde who loved showing up uninvited and my frown deepened before I walked into the living room and saw her on my couch. For fuck’s sake.

“Finally,” Estelle said before getting to her feet and her robe fell open to reveal the lingerie she was wearing. I balled my fists and took a deep breath. “You’re late.”

“What are you doing here?” I asked, keeping my eyes on her face, and she smiled as she tilted her head to the side.

“Am I not allowed here?”

She knew the answer to that because all the times she’d showed up at my house dressed like that, I’d sent her away and told her not to come over without me telling her to but she was hell-bent on driving me up the wall.

“Leave,” I stated before hooking my car keys on the key stand and walking into the kitchen. I was in the middle of pouring myself a drink when she entered the kitchen and I gritted my teeth while she walked over to me.

Before I could turn around to tell her to get the fuck out once more, arms suddenly wrapped around me from behind and a wave of fury crashed through me while fingers began to trail a path to my jeans. Fuck this!

Estelle let out a yelp as I grabbed her wandering hand with a force just shy of what was required to crush it and turned to face her with a scowl. “What is your problem?”

“I’m merely choosing to be civil to you so don’t mistake my manner for indulgence. My disregard for your presence doesn’t grant you any privilege.”

Her green eyes blazed with anger at that and I began to make my way over to the front door while pulling her in tow. “Stop acting like this. We’ll be engaged next week.”

“No, we will not.”

“Oh. Did you postpone your birth date or something?” Her words dripped with sarcasm as she tried to pull her hand out of mine but I didn’t relax my grip on her till we got to the door and I yanked it open. She stumbled when I pushed her outside but she managed to catch herself before she could eat shit on the ground. “What the fuck, Aiden?!” she yelled after turning to face me and I looked her dead in the eye before telling her what I was aching to tell the council.

“I found my mate.”

It took her a little while to process my words and I knew the moment that she did because the color drained out of her face. “You’re kidding… You’re turning twenty-four next week and I’m supposed to believe you suddenly found your mate today. Be fucking serious, Aiden!”

“You think I’m doing this out of desperation?” I replied and her left eye twitched at the word desperation before I flashed her a smile – the first one I’d ever offered her. “Fuck off, Estelle.”

And with that, I slammed the door shut and locked it.

I took a couple of deep breaths to try to dispel the anger that had built up within me while heading back to the living room but when my gaze landed on her clothes which were neatly folded on a couch, my anger was reignited. I walked over to the couch and grabbed her clothes along with her shoes which were on the ground just as the doorbell rang.

Good thing she hasn’t left yet.

I went back to the door and opened it, prepared to throw her stuff out, but paused when I saw that it wasn’t Estelle that was at the door, it was Georgia, and she looked like she’d seen a ghost. It also looked like she had run all the way here because her shoulders were rising and falling rapidly.

“Georgia?”

“It’s…” A line appeared between her brows as if she didn’t quite understand what she wanted to say and with every second that passed without her saying something, I couldn’t help but worry that something terrible had happened somewhere in the pack.

“Georgia, what’s wrong?”

“It’s your brother,” she finally said and my brows snapped together.

What the hell?

Seven years ago, the Moon Valley pack invaded ours and during the fighting, I lost my parents and brothers, Dallas and Vernon. I’d sort of lost my only sister, Olivia, too because she had fallen into a coma that day and still hadn’t woken up.

“What happened to Olivia?” I asked, thinking she meant my sister because that was the only sibling I still had, and she immediately shook her head sideways.

“Not Olivia. It’s Vernon. He’s– He’s alive,” she replied and air whooshed out of my lungs while I dropped the items in my hands. “He’s here.”