Cursed Hearts (A Crossroads Novel) (45 page)

“I—”

“Just
stay away from me, Amber!”

Christian’s
head popped up at the sound of Rome’s booming voice. He could suddenly hear all
the sounds of the forest, including the crunching of leaves beneath Rome’s, and
apparently Amber’s, feet.

“Christian,”
Ariahna said, attempting to draw his attention back to her. “Christian.” Her
hand came up to touch the side of his face, gently turning him to meet her
eyes. “We have to get up.”

“Shhh,” he smiled. They were nearly hidden by bushes, and
he
thought maybe,
just maybe if they were quiet, Rome wouldn’t find them. His fingers curled
around her neck, intending to kiss her again when she winced. When he pulled
his hand away, he could see shallow puncture marks. She had scratches going
down her side as well. He licked his lips and leaned down, getting her to bare
her neck to him with only a little reluctance. “Let me clean you up,” he said.
His tongue brushed over her lightly dirt-covered skin.

Aria
felt her lips tremble as Christian started sliding down her body. Rome was
getting closer, she could hear him arguing with Amber, and Christian was
pressing hot kisses down her chest and stomach. “Christian,” she breathed
anxiously. “Stop.” His tongue moved over her skin, and she blushed, realizing
he hadn’t intended to do what she’d been thinking. This wasn’t much better. He
moved back up, covering her body protectively with his own just as Rome found
the two of them.

“Go
away,” he grinned. Rome didn’t look happy.

“I
told you she was a cheater,” Amber said evilly. She was the only one dressed
between the four of them. That meant she got to enjoy smacking Rome on the ass
with her hoodie, though.

Rome
whipped around and snagged the soft fabric from Amber’s hands. That was about
the fiftieth time she’d done that. She’d been nothing but defiant since last
night, and it wasn’t any better now that she was standing on two legs. That
just meant he couldn’t get her to stop bitching.

“Hey!”
she said.

“That’s
what you get for not summoning my fucking clothes,” Rome growled. “Deal with
it.”

“Are
you okay?” Ariahna asked.

“He’s
great,” Amber said dryly. “Scamper along now.”

“You
don’t get to tell her what to do,” Rome said. “Now take your own advice and
leave us alone.”

Amber
crossed her arms, staring back at him haughtily. “You don’t get to tell me what
to do, either. Why are you defending her?” she asked. “If you were any kind of
real wolf, you’d be able to tell she’s not like us.”

He
turned fierce golden eyes to Amber. “You are not my equal, and you do not get
to judge what kind of wolf I am, or what kind of wolf she is. If you ask me,
she’s better than all of us. You’re just a sore loser.”

“I
did
not
lose. I told you, she cheated. I would have kicked her ass in a
fair fight. I’m a lot stronger than that pathetic bitch.”

“Hey,”
Christian interjected. “That fight was fair. You said it yourself, you’re
stronger than her physically. Well guess what? Her magic is her strength. And
that’s not the only area she outclasses you in. She’s obviously smarter and
more gracious too.”

Ariahna was trying to disappear underneath Christian
.
She summoned
their clothes suddenly, hoping to end the
conversation. She was tired of everyone talking about her like she couldn’t
speak for herself.

“We
should get dressed,” she mumbled.

Rome
hurried to gather his clothing, stumbling into his jeans before tossing Amber’s
sweater back to her. “Christian, get dressed.”

“Do
I have to?” he grinned. The look in Rome’s eyes was enough to get him up. He
made sure to grab Aria’s clothes to cover her as he stood.

“You’re
obviously not cut out to be a leader,” Amber said. “You can’t even keep your
beta in line.”

“Do
you ever shut up?”

“How
am I out of line?” Christian asked.

“You’re
not,” Rome replied.

“Yes,
he is. He should not be cuddling up with your proclaimed ‘alpha female’. And
when you give him an order, he should comply without question.”

“We
may be wolves, but we’re also people. I don’t own him, and I respect her right
to be with who she wants. Even if that means sharing.”

Amber
sighed. “You’re so misguided.”

Now
that Ariahna was clothed she felt like she could contribute to this
conversation. She stepped between Amber and Rome, staring down the distasteful
expression Amber was giving her. “It’s apparent that you take this all very
seriously. However, if you’re going to view us only as wolves, then you need to
acknowledge that Rome outranks you. And for that matter, so do I. Your opinion
is unwanted. We’ll handle our own business in our own way. If you don’t like
it, you’re free to leave. We’re not forcing you to remain with us, and you
certainly weren’t invited.”

“You,” Amber whispered furiously, “do not outrank me.
Despite
what
these foolish little boys think, you
are not alpha material. You shouldn’t even
be
with them. Your kind is
not welcome among us. You don’t belong. And by the way, I’m not going anywhere.
I am the only alpha female in these woods, and I’m going to be the only one in
this pack. You?” she said, shaking her head. “You can’t even look me in the
eye.”

Rome stepped around Ariahna, staring into Amber’s cold
expression. “You listen to me,”
he said. “
You
don’t belong. You are the omega. Do you even realize that
out of the four of us, you are the only one who can’t change at will? That
makes you weak. The truth of it is, you need us, not the other way around. So
you have two choices. You can either fall in line, or get the hell out of the
way.”

Amber
waved a hand dismissively in his face, turning wordlessly and stomping off
through the trees.

“Major
attitude problem,” Christian commented. “Hey Amber,” he shouted. “Watch out for
falling tree branches!” He watched Ariahna blink away in astonishment a moment
later. She was there, and then she was just gone. “Shit, did you know she could
do that already?”

“Yeah,
but it’s not really fun,” Rome mumbled.

The
two of them walked back in relative silence, but Christian could
tell by the stern, apprehensive look on Rome’s
face that something was on
his
mind.
“You okay?” he asked, stopping him near the greenhouses. “
You aren’t
pissed at me, are you? Because I thought—”

“I’m
not mad.”

“Not
even if I told you that… she kissed me?”

“No,”
Rome said tightly. “Just… know your place.”

“What
is my place, exactly? Do you really want both of us to be with her? Or is this
about you and Kaleb?”

Apparently
they shared a keen sense for deductive reasoning.

“…It
is about Kaleb, but that isn’t the only reason. I understand enough to realize
that if we fight for her love, neither of us will have it. Besides, two guard
dogs are better than one,” he smirked.

“You’re
smarter than you look,” Christian grinned.

“Thanks,”
he scoffed. “That’s not what I wanted to talk to you about though… Are you
willing to tell me what the counselor has over you yet? Because I don’t care
who you are, or what you’re into, I know you don’t like sleeping with a forty
year old man.”

“He’s
thirty-six,” Christian muttered. That really wasn’t the point.

Rome
raised his eyebrows at him, waiting for him to elaborate.

“…I
ran away.”

“Ran
away? Like from an orphanage?”

“From
a foster family. They weren’t the worst I’ve ever had, but let’s just say they
cared more about the check that came in the mail than me. They always did.
Anyways, I forged some fake names and signatures to get into the school after I
got an acceptance letter. And because I had the money to afford it, no one
really questioned anything. But he found out, and if I don’t—” He sighed. “He’ll
get me kicked out.”

“I’m
sorry,” Rome frowned, roughing a hand through Christian’s hair. “I want you to
know I didn’t mean that shit I said yesterday. I really do wish we would have
grown up together. I should have been able to be there for you. This would have
never happened in the first place.”

“It
is what it is,” he said. “And Rome, for what it’s worth, I’m sorry. For… everything,
I guess.”

“Don’t sweat it. We’ve both got a lot of lost time to
make up for. I just want you to start with making things right with Aria. What
you did was—”

“I
know,” Christian said. “I was just doing what Dallas taught me. I didn’t want
to leave. I just didn’t know what else to do.”

“Well,
from here on out, you’re going to go off of what I teach you, not Dallas. Okay?”

Christian
nodded. Rome didn’t know it, but he was really starting to look up to him. He
was actually proud to know that Rome was his brother. There was something about
being around him that made him want to strive to be a better person. Perhaps it
was because for the first time, he felt like someone really cared about him.

“I’m
going to blackmail him,” Rome muttered abruptly.

“What?
No, Rome, you can’t. I tried that. If I tell anyone this is all over for me.
Believe it or not, I like this school. I get good grades, and I actually want
to freaking stay.”

“What
if I come forward and say he did it to me? Your name will never even come up.
He’d be stupid if he tried to expose you then, because he’d have to admit to
blackmailing and abusing you.”

“You’d seriously do that, for me? You’d publicly go on
record
stating
that another man forced you into
sex? And that you let him—you know.”

Rome
took an extremely deep breath.

“What
are we talking about?” Kaleb grinned, crossing his arms and leaning against the
side of the greenhouse.

“What
are you doing out here?” Rome asked.

Kaleb
shrugged. “I don’t know. I wanted to find you, and then I just started walking.”

“…Is
that my fucking journal?”

“You
have a journal?” Christian laughed.

“No,”
Rome said. “I meant—it’s the Artisan’s. You know that!”

“Yeah,
but teasing you is so much fun.”

“I
found it in your room,” Kaleb said casually.

“Okay,
clearly we have to establish a few ground rules.” Kaleb
looked back at him with a devilish grin and Rome felt his skin flush with
heat.
He didn’t know why, but he was embarrassed.

Christian
tried not to smile at the two of them. It was like watching Rome meeting Aria
all over again. His shoulders shook with silent laughter when he realized his
older, clearly more mature brother, was less sexually experienced than he was.
There was something amusing about that. “I’m gonna get to class,” he said,
pointing over his shoulder and slipping away.

Rome
rubbed a hand over the back of his neck as Kaleb stepped closer. “So… um… what
did you want to talk to me about?”

“Who
said I wanted to talk?” Kaleb teased. He was annoyed with Rome and his
indecisiveness, but there was still just something fun about
watching him squirm. Kaleb shook the small leather
book in his hand a moment later. “I wanted to talk to you about this, actually.
I think you’d agree
it’s an interesting read.”

Rome
let out a breath he didn’t know he’d been holding. “I was looking to talk to
you about it,” he said. “I wasn’t hiding it from you or anything, if that’s
what you think.”

“No,”
he said. “But after looking through it last night, I think I have a little
theory on how to break these curses.”

“We
have to bring the yew tree back to life.”

“My
way’s easier.”

“Wait…
were you snooping through my room?”

“No.
I was looking for you and I found this on your nightstand. Honestly, you should
have hidden it. What if someone else had found it instead of me?”

“Well…
are you going to tell me, or not?”

“That
all depends on you,” Kaleb said.

Rome
sighed. He knew right where this was headed. “Come on, we shouldn’t be talking
about this here anyways.” He led Kaleb back into the forest, walking with him
along the trail to the yew. He figured it would be good if he knew where it was
located, if nothing else.

“I
think this is probably my favorite place in the world to be,” Rome
muttered. He pressed his back against the trunk.
“Well, out of the few places
I’ve been,” he laughed. “So, what do you
want for this grand piece of information?”

“The
same thing I wanted last time,” Kaleb said. “But I think you already knew
that.”

Rome turned his head to look out at the water through the
tangled branches. “I had a feeling,” he admitted. He waited the span of several
heartbeats before walking over to Kaleb. This wouldn’t have been happening
if Christian hadn’t told him
Ariahna had kissed him. Rome took the journal from his fingers, thumbing
through the pages for a moment.