Chapter 144: A Kiss

Barric

“There they are!” Ronan announces from beside me.

His heavy arm is slung around my shoulder as I devour a plate of sautéed venison, being sure to mop up the savory drippings with a warm roll.

Thank the gods for shifter metabolism; it is probably the only reason I'm standing right now after drinking Ben’s old ass under the table.

I should feel bad for the easy victory, but I don't.

“Look who I found hiding in the back, whispering with your cousin,” Those say to Kade.

Aria elbows him playfully. “We weren't hiding. We were catching up. You know, it's that thing you do with friends.”

“Can't relate,” Kade grins, pulling her in by her hips until she's standing in front of him. “Me and my friends do our bonding inside you.”

Aria's face turns beet red, making me want to tease her more.

“And what thorough quality time it is,” I smirk.

“Did you guys whisk me over here to embarrass me?” she pouts.

“No, we just missed you,” Ronan strokes her hair. “Have you eaten yet?”

“Not yet,” she replies.

Kade turns her around and places her on his lap. “Then it looks like we caught you just in time.”

I stand and fill up a plate, taking my time to select the choicest cuts and sauces.

When I return to the table, Theo and Ronan are sitting beside them, and I take the seat across from them.

“Had a good time dancing?” I ask, loading the fork with a bit of everything and holding it out to her.

She looks at the fork before taking my offering with a shrug. She has gotten better about that lately, letting us take care of her without resistance.

My wolf growls in approval at her actions.

“Are you jealous?” She teases.

“Yes,”I say without remorse. “I always want your body pressed against mine.”

“What about me?” Kade whines.

“You have the opposite problem. I can't seem to get rid of you.”

“Clingy bastard,” Ronan laughs.

I feed Aria another forkful, and Kade drops his forehead to her shoulder. “Are you going to let them just gang up on me like that?”

She pats his head. “Aww, poor baby.”

“Do you know what will make me feel better?” Kade's eyes go wide with false innocence.

“A lobotomy," Theo deadpans.

Kade ignores him. “A Kiss.”

I throw a piece of bread at Kade.

“Don't be petty,” he tosses out.

“Don't be a pain,” I retort.

“Hey, be good,” Aria says, turning to kiss Kade in a way that makes my dick hard.

Then she leans over toward Theo and then Ronan, giving them the same treatment. After she stands, she bends across the table. I’m up in record time, taking her face in my hand to take control of the intimacy she’s offering.

It takes all my willpower to remember we are in public.

I pull back before our actions could be seen as inappropriate at a family event.

“There. Hopefully you can all get along,” Aria says, going back to her food.

“I like this new problem-solving method you have,” Theo says. “We should make it a permanent thing.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.” She give us all a once-over. “It does seem to settle you.”

Not more then this. Spending time together is what settles us. Even our bond feels clamer, tranquil in the presence of our band.

“Time for charades!” one of the submissives calls out, breaking me from my train of thought, “Everyone break up into two teams per room!”

There are some good-natured groans as people get up and start to divide and arrange themselves into two groups. Within minutes, the entire room has gathered around several long tables.

Pack mates each take a turn, young and old, good and not so good, trying to earn points for each team. Laughs and good-natured ribbing quickly become part of the game when Ben wiggles on the ground looking like a cross between a dying fish and someone getting asphyxiated.

“I'm telling you,” Ronan says between laughs, “that was obviously an earthworm.”

“Gods, I hope not. Otherwise we might have to check to see if he’s finally going senile.”

“You guys have no imagination. He was clearly grass being tossed around by a hurricane,” Aria quips.

The room erupts into another fit of laughter.

“It wasn’t that bad!” Ben grumbles, and Cobalt slaps him on the back, trying to hold in his wheeze.

“Remind me never to be on your team again,” Cobalt teases.

Aria wipes tears from her eyes. “I haven't laughed like this in months.”

Neither have I.

Theo nudges into my side with a curious look on his face.

“What?”

“Grab Aria and follow me,” he says.

Watch him exit with Ronan and Kade following behind.

“Come on, babe,” I whisper in Aria’s ear, taking her smaller hand in mine as I guide us out of the room.

“Where are we going?” she asks.

I shrug. “I guess we're about to find out.”

We walk down a corridor I’ve never been in before. The passageways are darker, less visited than others, and I can’t seem to recall if we’ve planned to clear out this side of the mountain.

“I’ve been waiting for the right moment to bring you all here. I found it a few days ago when I was on patrol inspecting the less used parts of the mountain,” Theo says.

He reaches a shadowy alcove and keeps walking until he disappears through it.

We all follow through the shadows until a pinprick of light can be seen on the far end of this hidden passage. The cool air breaks through the warmth of the mountain, and before we know it, we are outside on a decent side platform along the side of the mountain. There are small tufts of grass and smooth earth beneath us, and above, a clear sky lit by countless twinkling stars.

Theo takes a seat on the ground, gesturing for us to join him.

I settle in on the ground and lean back, looking up at the navy endless sky.

Our bond wraps around us like silk; it slips over my skin, gathering the jagged edges of my thoughts and smoothing them together. It leaves me adrift in the oneness we created with easter. The growing sense of losing the feeling of “other.”

I feel like I'm home.

And I guess I am when I’m with them.

I look over at Kade, Theo, and Ronan, wondering, marveling at how I thought they were important before our bond, and now I can see what I felt for them was just the beginning. We were all just waiting for Aria to make our closeness make sense.

“It’s beautiful up here,” Aria whispers into the night as if she doesn't want to break the peaceful silence but can’t keep the words in just the same.

The wind blows, causing the leaves to rustle around us.

It feels almost unreal.

“I missed this,” I admit quietly. “Having time together. Some nights I realize we never really got enough of those before everything started.”

“Maybe that's a good thing. The trials we faced together, the ones we’re facing, they paint a clearer picture about who we are and how we fit than we could have ever known with just an exchange of words,” Kade says.

Theo chuckles. “So is all it takes to get some poetry out of you?”

“It’s the stars. Really give me a word-on,” Kade jokes.

Ronan rubs his hand down Kade's arm affectionately. “You don’t have to pretend; we already know how soft you are.”

“Move your hand a little to the left and see if you can still call me soft with a straight face,” he encourages.

Aria laughs. “You know what he means. I love how playful you are, but I love when you're real too. It’s one of my favorite things about you.”

Kade is quiet, but I can feel the careful delight flooding the bond.

“I forgot how many stars there were,” Ronan murmurs.

Theo reaches over until their fingers find each other. “They've always been there. I think we’ve just been forgetting to stop and look.”

His words settle heavily inside me. He's right. We've spent so long staring toward tomorrow, preparing for the next trial, the next battle, and we forgot to see today.

Or maybe his is a reminder of how much today matters.

“So,” I say, “When this is over, what do you all want?”

“I want to sleep for a week,” Theo says.

We laugh.

“A month,” Kade corrects.

Aria smiles softly. “I want a garden and a studio that overlooks it.”

Theo squeezes her hand. “You'll have it.”

Kade stares toward the stars. “I want pups.”

I grin at his bluntness. “ Fuck. Jumping straight into fatherhood, aye?”

“When everything settles. I’ve always wanted a house bursting with them. Alive, you know. I figure it will be easier to achieve with all of you helping me.”

Aria snorts. “Yeah, there's only one womb so I wouldn't bank on it happening so fast.”

That isn’t a no, though. And Kade doesn’t miss that. He smiles to himself, content.

Ronan glances toward me. “What about you, Barric?”

I don't answer immediately.

Because until recently, I hadn't allowed myself to dream that far ahead.

“I want this.” I gesture toward all of us. “Evenings together. Family Dinners. Arguments over games. Watching our pups grow. I just don't want us waiting until another crisis reminds us life is short.”

Aria turns her head toward me. “I think our dreams are becoming the same.”

They are.

And as I fix my eyes to the stars above us, I hold onto one certainty stronger than anything I've felt in months.

We will have it, even if I have to pave the way to our future in blood.