Page 87 of Aria's Desire

“Mmm, less news, more gossip… but Skaa and Sauran made some kind of treehouse and have been holed up in there for almost a week! I’ve been dropping off supplies so they dont starve, and let me tell you, the sounds coming from in there?” Vee snickered. “Woo! Goodness. Skaa has… stamina!”

Aria felt a slow smile stretch her lips, happy as hell for her friend. It was about damn time those two gave in to the chemistry between them. Skaa had been resisting Sauran's very dedicated efforts to woo her for a while now.

Aria understood it.

She knew Skaa had been married or mated back on her world. She also knew what happened to males of her kind when they were parted from their mates. But she’d seen the way Skaa looked at Sauran. Her friend deserved happiness, and she was damned glad she’d finally decided to grab it.

Maybe that meant it was time to broach the subject of her returning home, again. Aria knew she was terrified she’d get there and find she’d lost not just her mates, but her children, too. It was safer, in her mind, to not know, to imagine them safe and whole than to take the chance of finding something terrible. But, Aria had also noticed the deepening shadows in her friend’s eyes. Skaa needed to know, or it would continue to eat her alive.

And she needed her children.

After Vee finished catching her up on the other goings on at the complex—thankfully mundane stuff and no more surprises—and Aria caught her up on the progress here, they signed off.

Bathing quickly, she finished her night routine and entered the bedroom again to find all her guys piled up on the bed. They were talking and laughing quietly as they ate a huge spread of food one of them had ordered.

Struck by the scene and the sense of family, she paused for a moment, her heart clenching in her chest.

They stopped talking to smile at her.

“Bathroom’s open,” she murmured.

None of them moved, instead watched her like a pack of hungry wolves as she approached and crawled onto the bed with them. Rellik surprised her by pulling her against his chest and giving her a slow, toe-curling kiss before releasing her to answer something Tirox said.

Checking her men’s expressions when Rellik sat back, Aria was relieved to find there wasn’t so much as a flicker of jealousy or anger. She ate as they picked their conversation back up, content to listen and watch.

She felt like she was learning things about her men, things she hadn't known or perhaps hadn't been able to see. She realized that, not only were Tirox and Sin good friends, but her demon and devil had a tight bond, as well.

They were polar opposites. Tirox was straightforward, to the point, bold, and booming. Rellik was sly, cunning, silver-tongued, and calculating. Their friendship struck her as that of a bull and a fox becoming unlikely companions. But theywerefriends, understood and appreciated each other in a way that warmed her. They bantered and bickered, the camaraderie between them easy and natural.

Slightly less surprising, was the bond between Sin and Kix. That, she understood. They were both quieter, a bit brooding, very intense, and introverted. They preferred to watch rather than speak, to observe rather than interact. They shared glances more than once in response to something Rellik or Tirox said, and she knew immediately they were talking telepathically.

The closeness between Rellik and Kix surprised her, as well, though; thinking about it, it shouldn’t have. On the surface, their personalities were just as dissimilar as Tirox and Rellik’s, but they were alike in more ways than they were different. They were both genius-level brilliant and connected over that shared intellect, but Aria realized, with a start, their senses of humor were damn near identical.

Her men were each so unique, each so unlike anyone else she’d ever met, that she often struggled to see the similarities between them. But, in that moment, she realized the four of them were much more alike than she’d thought. More than that, they seemed to genuinely appreciate each other’s differences.

It made her happy in a way she didn’t think she’d ever felt before to see them like this, made her feel like they were a family, a unit.

The worry that there would always be a separation between the pairs had been niggling at her for days now. She didn’t want that, at all. She wanted a family,onefamily, with all of them.

As they ate, they all took turns showering. When the food was gone and everyone was clean, they cleared the dishes off the bed. Aria tensed, wondering if Rellik and Sin would retreat to the connecting room again.

Her heart thumped in her chest when Sin climbed back into bed, Rellik crawling in right behind him after extinguishing the lights.

In the sudden darkness, Aria laid down, surrounded by her men, her mates, all of them touching some part of her.

This felt right in a way she couldn’t describe.

This felt like… home.

Chapter 42

The next two weeks at the castle flew by. Progress with the army was finally coming along. In another day, maybe two, Aria thought they'd be capable of handling whatever they came up against in the cities and untamed wilds of this world.

Regardless of how busy they were, she made time to go on dates with all of her men, every day. That time with her mates wasn’t just something she treasured, it was needed.

It took leaving the complex to realize she’d essentially skipped the dating and honeymoon phases of her relationships with Tirox and Kix. They’d gone from fighting for their lives to taking over the world. Love had happened in the midst of all that, but they hadn’t ever had a chance to savor the fall.

So, she made sure to savor it, now, and sought out her men at every available opportunity.

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