Page 11 of Frost and Fate
Darren turned to find Leah standing in the entryway. Her jet-black hair hung loosely against her tan skin. She had her arms crossed as she narrowed her dark eyes at him.
“Care to tell me what’s bothering you?”
“Nothing’s bothering me,” Darren grunted.
“Come on, Ridgewell,” she scoffed. “I can practically feel your wolf clawing to the surface. It’s enough to setmywolf on edge.” She raised an eyebrow. “This wouldn’t happen to have anything to do with our new Ice Queen, would it?”
Darren let out a low growl. “I said it’s nothing.”
Leah just stared at him. Her fierce, dark eyes had always made Darren feel as if she knew what he was thinking, knew his secrets, and sometimes, even knew things before he did. If Leah really did possess these intuitive powers, she never revealed it. “Get your wolf in check,” was all she said before exiting the training room.
Darren wiped the sweat from his forehead. All he could think about was Nova. She was driving him crazy. He wondered how things would have gone if they hadn’t been interrupted…by the Alpha…who wanted to mate with her. How was he supposed to get close to her, while maintaining his distance so she could be with Gideon? He didn’t think his wolf was going to be able to bear it. He sighed and headed back to his room for a shower. Things were about to become very complicated.
* * *
After her encounter with Darren, Nova could think of nothing else. She had showered, changed into another ill-fitting outfit, and accidentally covered her apartment in snow, twice. It turned out she was good at accessing her powers when she was stressed, or happy, scared, turned on…basically it looked like this was going to be a twenty-four-seven gig from now on.
Nova lay on the couch staring up at the ceiling. She watched as a small flurry of snowflakes danced and spun above her. Even as a kid, snow had always been one of Nova’s favorite things. She remembered praying for snow days and blizzards. The memory made her smile.
There was a knock at the door and Nova was on her feet. Her heart fluttered as she turned the knob. To her surprise, it wasn’t Darren on the other side. “Nova!” a gorgeous petite brunette flung herself into the apartment, wrapping Nova in a fierce hug. “It’s so good to finally meet you!” For someone so tiny, this mysterious girl sure was strong. Nova struggled to take in air through the woman’s tightly wound arms.
“Aria! Please, let her breathe!” Nova recognized the familiar voice of Laurie.
“Sorry!” The brunette giggled as she released Nova. “I was just so excited to finally meet you! You are all anyone can talk about in the complex! I’m Aria!”
Nova stared at the beautiful girl. She was small, probably close to Nova’s age in her early twenties, with thick brown hair that fell in loose curls around her shoulders and down her back. Her most striking feature was a pair of cobalt-blue eyes. They looked extremely familiar.
“I know what you’re thinking,” Aria started. “People often mistook Gideon and me for twins when we were younger, despite our height and age difference. Don’t worry, I’m the fun sibling!” she added with a wink.That’swhy she seemed so familiar. She and Gideon shared many features including their deep-brown hair and intense cobalt-blue eyes. As if that wasn’t enough they were both stunningly gorgeous.
“Well the Ulrics certainly have good genes,” Nova muttered.
“Oh, I’m not technically an Ulric,” Aria explained. “I mean I guess I am until I get married. Ulric is the name given to whoever the Alpha is. So each territory has an Ulric leading them. It passes down from Alpha to Alpha. Usually it’s the Alpha’s male heir who is next in line, but if something should happen to the current Alpha before he has an heir, the Beta takes over and assumes the Ulric name. Since my dad was also Alpha, I inherited the Ulric name, too.”
“Why Ulric?” Nova wondered aloud.
Aria laughed. “It means wolf ruler.Wulfricis the proper term, but it felt a little too obvious.” Well that made sense, Nova supposed. “So…” Aria started, sheepishly, “can I see some ice magic?” She grinned at Nova, her blue eyes sparkling.
“Aria!” Laurie exclaimed. “We literally talked about this before we walked up here.” She frowned at Aria.
“I know.” Aria gave a dramatic sigh. “I just really want to see it! Nothing crazy, maybe just alittle bitof ice magic.” She held her fingers up to indicate something tiny. Nova chuckled. Aria had such a bright and infectious energy. It was a far cry from the brooding moody energy that flowed off of Gideon.
“Okay, you got it.” Smiling, Nova rubbed her palms together. She blew through her fingers as flurries of snowflakes encircled Aria, who squealed in excitement as they landed delicately in her dark hair.
“Ahh, this is amazing! So can you…” A knock at the door interrupted them. Laurie opened it and found Darren on the other side.
“Oh, hi, Darren,” she greeted.
“Oh my gosh, Darren!” Aria said giddily. “Can you believe what she can do? I can’t believe you’ve been keeping her all to yourself!”
Darren glanced from Laurie, to Aria, to Nova. When his eyes met Nova’s, they stopped. Darren’s hair was wet, no doubt freshly showered. He was wearing a fitted black t-shirt and dark jeans. Nova’s pulse quickened as she stared at him. Heat crawled up her cheeks. Her body flushed under his honey-fire gaze. They stared in silence until the clearing of a throat broke their trance. Aria looked suspiciously back and forth between Darren and Nova.
“I was just checking on you, but I see you’re in good hands.” Darren gave an awkward nod and left. Laurie closed the door after him. All eyes were on Nova.
“Sooo…” Aria started with a mischievous smile. “Wanna tell me what’s going on there?”
Nova frowned. “What’s going on where?”
Aria gave her atsk-tsk. “You know exactly what I’m talking about. There was some major sexual tension between the two of you. Not to mention you were sending off enough pheromones to catch the attention of everyone in this building.”
