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“Alright, if you took any videos, delete them now.”
After watching and making sure they deleted the videos, I left Ryan to supervise the rest of the party and to take note of anyone who tried to bring up conversations about what had happened. I would deal with them later.
Once that was settled, I grabbed Aiden’s arm and dragged him out of the big hall, refusing to let go of him until we got back to the room where Mateo and Aurora had been together.
There was still a faint smell of sex and the fragrance of Mateo and Aurora’s intermingled scents in the room when we got there. Mateo was still seated where we’d left him, with his eyes fixed on the ceiling like he was stoned. But I knew him well. He was the kind of person who could never cede control over himself and his actions to substances of any kind, so he was definitely not stoned.
He just regretted things differently than I did. When he regretted things, he got paralyzed by regret, and he was usually too proud to apologize or attempt to remedy it. Instead, he spent hours, days, or weeks regretting, rethinking, and agonizing over it before he finally took action to remedy his actions.
“Hey, what the hell, Caden? What do you want to do?” Aiden glared at me as he pulled his arm out of my grip.
While I loved my twin very much, I didn’t like how stubborn he could get, so stubborn that he couldn’t see what was right in front of him sometimes. Just because I found a close friend when I was younger, he’d closed himself off to me. And just because our father had gotten a much-needed Luna who took over our mother’s position in the pack, he’d all but separated himself from our family, living with us but barely interacting with us when he didn’t have to.
His stubbornness, mixed with a tinge of self-righteousness, was so blind that he usually refused to see what was right in front of him. That was why he still didn’t know that our father and his current Luna, Eleanor, were a contracted couple who didn’t even sleep in the same room.
However, I didn’t care to explain these simple truths to him right now. All I wanted to know was what he knew about my mate and the vampire that took her away. “Tell me everything you know about Aurora.”
He sneered. “And why should I tell you anything after the stunt you and Mateo just pulled? You and Mateo are so—”
Filled with pride over my destined relationship and goddess-given bond with Aurora, I interrupted him. “She’s my true mate. Is that enough—”
Before I could say more, Mateo snapped out of his stupor, straightened up, and interrupted me. “No, that can’t be true . . . Aurora is my true mate!”
“Mateo, are you sure you’re not making a mistake? I can swear that . . .” I was going to start arguing, but then I glanced at Aiden, who plopped down on the bed, wearing a dumbfounded expression.
If Mateo’s words were unbelievable, Aiden’s words were nearly incomprehensible. “Moon Goddess! Aurora is just like her mother! She is my true mate too, and she has multiple mates.”
“Wait a minute, are you sure Aurora didn’t use some kind of charm or magic spell to make us all think we’re her true mates?” Mateo stood up, staring at Aiden nervously like his answer was the most important thing in the world.
“No, can you stop thinking the worst about Aurora all the time? I did some . . . well, a lot of research. There really are Fae Omegas in this world and they truly have multiple true mates. According to the articles I read, other than making instant connections with their true mates, Fae Omegas can’t identify their true mates when they meet them like other werewolves. Although Aurora might have been attracted to each of us when she met us, she had no idea that we were her mates, except one of you told her. Did you tell her? Caden?”
My head shook in disbelief, my expression a canvas of sheer shock. “I thought she knew we were true mates.”
“Mateo?”
“I thought she knew, but didn’t want to admit it because she wanted to be with Caden.” Mateo started pacing and I just knew from the strangled look on his face that he had done some other things to hurt Aurora while I wasn’t looking because of his assumption.
“Why didn’t you tell her?” I asked Aiden.
“I asked her a couple of questions and deciphered that she didn’t know we were true mates. I didn’t tell her at first because I wanted to get to know her well and I didn’t want to scare her away. By the time I was ready to come clean, I found out about your relationship with her and things just kept getting f*cking complicated . . .” Aiden released an exasperated sigh, which I wanted to echo.
“How are we going to get her to forgive us?” I couldn’t help asking as I sat on the bed and held my head in my hands.
“Us?” Aiden asked in an incredulous tone with his brows raised. “That’s you and Mateo’s problem. I’m going to give Aurora some time to calm down and then I’ll worm my way right back into her good graces.”
Before I could speak, he stood up and sauntered out of the room, leaving behind a suffocating cloud of regret that threatened to consume Mateo and me.
2
Levi
Instead of driving her back to the Davis’ home, I took Aurora back to my rented apartment located on the outskirts of Crawford Town. As far as I was concerned, the Davis’ home was not a safe place for her anymore, as long as their daughter hated Aurora as much as she did.
I couldn’t imagine how long the Crawford boys would have continued to intimidate and demean her if I hadn’t heard Alice Davis giggling on the phone, as she left for the party, about how Aurora was going to get what she had coming.
Because I was lying in Aurora’s bed soaking in her addictive poppy scent that had sunk into her pillows and bed, I didn’t immediately process what Alice had said. It took a while for me to realize that Alice and someone had something planned against Aurora and while I knew that my little princess could handle anything thrown at her, I couldn’t help feeling concerned. So I’d gone to that party to find my mate crying under the onslaught of accusations from the next generation of the Crawford Pack’s ruling members.
I glanced at Aurora, who was seated in the passenger’s seat, but all I could see was the back of her head because she was leaning on the car door and staring out the window absentmindedly. I knew her better than to try to console her or discuss what happened tonight. Right now, she was in turtle mode, and any attempt to force her out of her shell could backfire.
