Sabine frowned, nodding at the anger and hatred that dripped from my words. “She was crazed after she came back. Something was off, Aria. I don’t know why she did what she did to you, but whatever the reason, know that she wasn’t the same when she returned from the Nine Realms, heavily pregnant with you and Amara.”
“It doesn’t excuse her actions, Sabine. She tried to murder me.”
“Yes, and Aurora saved you. She never tried to murder Amara directly. She only aimed for her when you were both in her womb, so not sure you can assume she’d go for her now. That is what we are saying, and since we left this place, she hasn’t been able to find you. Aurora made certain we were untraceable.”
Our mother, God love her, wasn’t selective about the creatures she took between her thighs. Freya also never kept track of who had fathered us, making it impossible to know what we were until the change began within us; then, we handled it on our own. Aine and Luna had glowing blue eyes, marking them alpha wolves, alerting us to their heritage. Sabine and Callista were nymphs or sirens, but it was hard to tell since there wasn’t much difference between the two species. We’d resorted to calling them hookers because it made them laugh when we did. Kinvara and Valeria were succubi, the result of our mother getting busy with a horde of incubus demons on one of her trips into the Nine Realms. She’d created her own twisted version of Noah’s ark, but with daughters.
Our father’s blood only determined half of what we were; our mothers, the other. Unlike my sisters, who had realized what they were by their sixteenth birthday, I had no idea what I was. Where they depended on nature to cast magic or spells, I wielded it from someplace else. It was exhilarating when I used magic, but there was a call to something darker within me that preened proudly when I did. As if something deadly slumbered within me and had yet to awaken fully.
“Cars are coming from the east,” Luna stated, staring in that direction. She tilted her head, listening as we all followed her gaze.
“Friend or foe, Luna?” Sabine asked softly as if she feared they would hear her.
“Silly sister,” I chuckled darkly. “They’re all foe.” I watched the dark highway behind us and then narrowed my gaze as headlights finally came into view.
Luna sniffed the air and smirked generously. “I smell men, and nice smelling ones at that. Alpha wolves or something else similar to the genetic makeup. I smell raw power and violence in the air that screams of danger. Eight men or so,” she said, sniffing once more before nodding. “I’m thinking foe.”
“But we like men,” Aine said as her own nose lifted, inhaling deeply. “Especially ones that smell like these creatures. Meow, mommas, get ready. Get your game faces on.” She fluffed her hair and fixed her breasts before speaking again. “Definitely foe, but I can use some hate fucking about now.”
“How do you know they’re foe?” Sabine asked, worrying her lip between her teeth as she waited for their answer.
“Easy, Aria just said they’re all foe,” Luna snorted, rolling her eyes as she adjusted her breasts and compared hers with her twin, Aine’s. She withdrew a tube of lip gloss, slathering it on her lips as we all studied her prepping for sex.
“You guys are disturbing sometimes,” I muttered.
I reached up, hooking my silver hair behind my ears, not that it would help with the wind howling around us. I didn’t need a mirror to know my eyes would be bluer than green with the lack of sleep I’d had in the last twenty-four hours. I’d had nightmares and had given up trying to sleep at the thought of returning to this place.
The car’s pulled up, aiming high-beams directly at us. It forced those who were sensitive to light to cover their eyes as it shined over us. I silently inspected the men unloading from the black SUVs, moving toward us in a dark, lethal way that couldn’t be concealed, no matter what mask of civility they’d donned to enter this realm.
My eyes locked onto the tallest male, inspecting him as muscles pushed against the shirt he wore. He was a good head taller than the others. Power exuded from him, pushing against my flesh as he reached up and pushed light brown hair away from his face. Ocean-colored eyes slid over the lot of us before they moved back to me, lifting his nose, inhaling our scents.
“You’re unwelcome here. Leave, and you can live; stay, and you die,” he announced with an accent I couldn’t place. He was sex in the purest form, and even I couldn’t tear my eyes off him—or couldn’t until Kinvara snorted.
“Is that how you welcome ladies to town?” she asked, her pheromones filling the air to tempt him to her. Hussy.
“I won’t ask again, ladies.”
“You don’t have the authority to tell us to leave,” I said, pulling his lethal glare back to me and off of my sister. I crossed my arms over my chest, daring him to tell me I was wrong. When I got mad, I dug my heels in deep and didn’t give an inch of room for anyone to push me around.
Chapter 2
He smiled coldly, studying my face while I did the same to him. His power wrapped around me threateningly. It was debilitating power that tightened around my throat, causing the hair on my neck to rise in warning. The smirk on his sinful mouth told me he had done it on purpose, knowing it wasn’t something that could be ignored. His intense gaze swallowed me whole, drowning me slowly as it beckoned me into the deep waters, white-capped waves that promised to consume me.
“Oh, but I do, little girl,” he chuckled darkly. “I am the king here. That means I hold all the power over any who enter Haven Falls and my jurisdiction,” he snorted, stepping closer to where I stood, silently taking him in. He stopped mere inches away from me and sniffed the air again.
I inhaled his scent, barely containing the shiver that raced down my spine. It was a mixture of sandalwood and a hint of whiskey. The button-up shirt he wore did little to conceal the contours of his body, which I studied absently. Not too beefed up, but more than a swimmer’s build. His arms were lightly tattooed, with writing in ancient languages, if I wasn’t mistaken. He wore jeans that hugged powerful legs ending at black Doc Martin shit-kickers. I pulled my gaze from his body and rested it on his face, taking in the sharp jawline that was lightly dusted in a five o’clock shadow. His mouth was full, sensual, and pulled back tightly to reveal a smile that was all teeth.
“Are you finished eye-fucking me?” he asked darkly, his voice sending a shiver racing down my spine.
“Maybe,” I said before giving myself a mental shake. “Since when does Haven Falls need a king?” His eyes did a slow perusal of my body, stopping briefly over the top I wore, which crisscrossed over my chest, exposing my midriff and sides, leaving a little more cleavage than I was comfortable with being exposed to his heated stare. My skirt was slit up the sides of my legs, revealing both thighs before it stopped at my hips. The boots I wore matched his, but they were more for comfort than kicking ass. Slowly, his eyes lifted to my breasts once more before stopping on my face.
“Since I took control of it,” he growled. The sound of his voice slithered over my flesh, wrapping around my throat until air no longer could enter my airway. “Who the fuck would you be, little girl?”