Page 153 of Crucible
Seth throws back his head and howls like a wolf.
Khalil leans over to kiss my frozen cheek. “And don’t you fucking forget it, Goldilocks.”
SETH | EKEZ
“Sunshine?” Aurelia’s deathly still and too fucking quiet by the time we reach the edge of the lake. I’d been praying that Thanatos hadn’t come to steal her anyway. “Sunshine, can you hear me?”
“Mmm, Seth, no,” she whines with her eyes closed. “Sleepy.”
“I know, baby, but you got to stay awake. At least until we get you warm.”
Khalil rushes past me and starts getting a tent set up near the fire. It’s probably not a good idea to make camp at the scene of a crime, but we can’t risk the longer trek back to the meadow, and we still need to dispose of the bodies.
Pete’s included.
Realizing we’re back at the camp, Aurelia’s head lifts, and I know she’s searching for him. I tuck her head back against my shoulder before she can spot Pete lying in a pool of his own blood with his throat slashed. I know she ran to save him, and I don’t want her to be sad that she failed. His death was quick rather than the slow one we planned, but I know asking Sunshine to see the bright side in that will likely send her right back out onto that lake.
“Can you stand?” I ask once we’re by the fire.
She nods, and I carefully set her on her feet before lowering the zipper on her coat and pushing it off her shoulders. Khalilshoos Thorin away when he tries to help with the tent, so Thorin comes over and pops a squat on the log while I undress our girl.
“You too, Thorin. Clothes off,” I order when he rocks the log from how hard he’s shaking.
He’d already shed his coat before going into the lake after Sunshine, so he fists his wet thermal and lifts it over his head without a word. Thorin isn’t much of a talker, but he’s unusually quiet even for him, and my mind shifts to the reason why before I can stop it.
Something happened between him and Aurelia on that ice, and whatever it was, Aurelia now clings to me instead of pushing me away. I could kiss Thorin if I thought he’d go for it.
One thing at a time.
The talk they had, not the kissing.
Khalil has the tent set up by the time I’m done getting Aurelia’s clothes off. Even drugged and hypothermic, it doesn’t take our princess long to notice that she’s naked out in the open. I can only imagine how this would look if someone were to happen by and see dead bodies everywhere, a naked and drugged-out girl, and the three of us like rabid guard dogs protecting their bone.
“Heyyyy…where did my clothes go?” she sluggishly asks as I walk her back toward the tent with my arms around her waist.
“I took them.”
“Whyyyyy?”
“Because they’re wet, you’re cold, and I’m going to warm you up.”
“Mmm, I know how you can warm me up,” she teases uncharacteristically.
“Yeah?” I can’t help but smile down at her. It’s too bad my cock is soft-serve after almost losing her again.
There will be no fucking tonight.
I get Aurelia inside the tent and into one of the bedrolls Khalil has laid out. Thorin follows, and I try not to be jealous when he climbs inside with her but no luck.
I’m jealous as hell but not murderously so, like when I saw Aurelia grab Pete’s hand.
I can hear Khalil outside the tent moving the bodies, so I make sure Aurelia and Thorin are both tucked in tight before kissing Aurelia’s forehead. I fuck with Thorin by trying to do the same and he scowls at me while mushing my face away.
“I’ll be right back, Sunshine. You two stay put.”
Leaving the tent, I find Khalil standing at the back of the van with the doors thrown wide open. He’s already done hiding the bodies inside, but he has a weird look on his face, and then he mutters, “This shit looks like something out of a serial killer documentary.”
“What is it? What did you find?”
