Total pages in book: 194
Estimated words: 187754 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 939(@200wpm)___ 751(@250wpm)___ 626(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 187754 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 939(@200wpm)___ 751(@250wpm)___ 626(@300wpm)
I strain to hear, but I can’t make out the angry words. The three of them are standing over me, but they might as well be on the moon. When they start to circle me too fast to tell where the attack is coming from, I try to run away again, only to realize my foot is stuck in a metal mouth with sharp teeth and an unforgiving grip.
Bear trap.
Every yank and tug at my ankle makes the trap dig its teeth in deeper, and I instinctively know that it will tear me apart before it lets me go. I hear what sounds like the crack of thunder and feel the ground trembling as if it’s about to split apart just before Tyler’s voice rises in my mind, screaming at me to run before he’s swept up in the frozen tidal wave.
The bear trap springs open, and I’m up on my feet, sprinting away from the massive wall of snow hurtling toward me. I’m much too slow, though, and I scream as I get swept up by the avalanche.
Instead of being buried alive, I’m falling, plunging through the starry night sky. Burning debris from my plane rains down around me like meteorites until I crash through the frozen surface of a lake that pulls me deeper and deeper into its depths—
“Wake the fuck up!”
The freezing water sinks into my bones, and my eyes fly open with a gasp.
It takes a second longer to realize I’m not trapped under the ice of a frozen lake. I’m not drowning or even dreaming anymore.
I’m in a bedroom, and I’m not alone.
There are three fuming shadows standing over me in the dark, depressing room.
Thorin’s expression is by far the most vicious as he holds an empty tin cup upside down that I’m guessing was filled with the cold water now soaking through my thick flannel.
Sitting up, I huff and swipe an angry hand over my face, which is also dripping water. “Was that necessary?” I shout.
THORIN
I’m going to strangle this woman.
Besides appearing a little miffed at being woken up abruptly, Aurelia sits up like she’s without a care in the world. I wish I could say the same after a long day of freezing my ass off in the snow. I came home expecting a hot meal, a hard drink, and a tight pussy to warm me, but what I found was an empty table, and this pain-in-the-ass girl curled up in my bed as if she belonged.
“Was that necessary?” Aurelia still doesn’t meet our gazes as she peels the soaked flannel from her chest. She’s all false bravado, this girl. My grip on the empty cup tightens as I try to keep my focus on her face and not her bare thighs.
“Why isn’t our dinner ready?” Khalil asks. “And don’t think I didn’t see our laundry in the same place we left it. I gave you our instructions.”
“I don’t know,” Aurelia answers with a curl of her upper lip while finally making eye contact. “Because you didn’t make it before you left? Because I’m not your maid?” Her stomach takes that moment to grumble loudly. “Speaking of food. I’m hungry. When’s dinner?”
I pinch the bridge of my nose and exhale. “Aurelia…please tell me you’re fucking with us.”
We searched the kitchen from top to bottom when we arrived home before finding her belligerent ass in my bad, tossing and turning like she was having a nightmare.
If she wasn’t, she’s about to.
“Why would I be fucking with you?”
My body trembles with the effort it takes not to snatch her ass up. If I’m a ticking bomb, this girl is undoubtedly the trigger.
Seth takes a seat on the edge of the bed, and Aurelia eyes him warily. “Why didn’t you do what you were told?” he asks her curiously, almost gently.
Aurelia would be dumb as shit to fall for it.
I may be holding on by a thread, but Seth shredded through every single one of his the moment he was born from the tattered remains of Zeke’s sanity. He doesn’t realize there is no such thing as gentle with this bitch. She’s too damned used to getting her way.
“Did you forget, Sunshine?”
The look Aurelia gives him says all we need to know. “I thought you were joking.”
Reaching out, Seth plays with one of her longer curls. “Why is that?”
Aurelia wrinkles her nose and slaps his hand away while climbing from my bed.
None of us moves to give her space.
I can tell the moment she remembers the night in the den. The night we found her. We’re crowding her, circling her just the same. The fear that we might repeat that night doesn’t paralyze her, though. It feeds her need to self-destruct.
“Because it’s the twenty-first century, you sexist shithole? You want me to cook and clean for you like I’m your maid, and when I’m done, spread my legs like I’m your whore. What’s next? Bear your child? That’s basic bitch, shit. I’m Aurelia fucking George. I can ruin your life with one tweet. Find someone else to iron your drawers.”