Page 1 of Aries Mated

MAEVE

Irolled my head to get rid of the knots balling up in my neck as I locked the door, ending yet another wild night in Pleasures. My bar was always pretty insane, there was never a dull night, but these last few weeks had been even worse than normal. Pleasures was the entertainment venue closest to the arena. I’d made sure of it. A once in a century event with the best members of the Zodiac Clans competing to win the hand of Princess Azariyah and be next in line to be Bear King was of course going to draw an extra rowdy crowd. Honestly, I didn’t think any of us could have been prepared for how insane things were going to get. Although tonight was one of the craziest. The first round was done, and boy it was wild. Some of the highest rated players had already been kicked out.

But I couldn’t get caught up in worrying about the players in the Astro Games, not when I had accounting to do. As a final way to end the whole night, I grabbed the remote to shut off the TV…but I guess I was more interested in the games than I thought, because I couldn’t help but watch the latest drama unfold. It looked like the final race had been a strange one. Alek and Drew were in line to be the top two players—they were the ones all the other guys seemed to fear—but they had a crash on the track. Drew ended up being the last person to qualify for the second round, and Alek was out. Everyone was loving the fact that there was a bit of drama.

“Huh, seems like everyone was wrong,” I commented as the judges’ ruling came up on the screen. “It seems it wasn’t foul play after all.”

Honestly, I didn’t care much about the outcome of the games since it was never really going to impact me. Sure, while the games were going on, my bar would be reaping the rewards of heavy business, but the rest of the time it just didn’t matter. However, I did understand why people were wary about Drew winning. His win would change a lot for all of us all because of the clan he was in. The Unaligned Clan.

The Zodiac Empire was based on the star signs. I was an Aries, and happy to be a part of my clan. But some people, namely Sly, who was Drew’s father, didn’t like the way things were done. He wasn’t happy with the empire at all. After endless fights, he started his own clan, the Unaligned Clan, and was now trying to use his son to win the position of Bear King. Then he wanted to dismantle our entire way of life. I hoped the possibility of that happening wasn’t as close as some of our patrons seemed to fear it might be.

“Hey, Marco,” I called out to the bar manager. “You still here? You should come see who has been eliminated in the Astro Games.”

He was more interested in the games than me, so just in case he wasn’t here, I made note of everyone who was no longer playing. Each clan had two competitors, and none of them had been completely eliminated, which I thought was interesting. Unfortunately, the Unaligned Clan hadn’t lost anyone, so I suppose it was a good thing Drew was currently in last place. When Marco didn’t answer me, I turned off the TV so I could focus on the numbers that needed crunching.

Bang!

I snapped to attention, wondering where that sound came from. I didn’t need any kind of distraction right now; I was already exhausted and struggling to focus. Maybe Marco was in here after all.

“Marco, is that you?” I slid off my barstool, leaving my laptop and spreadsheet behind to try to see what was going on. “Where are you?”

Silence followed. It was kind of a weird silence that was thick with something, but I didn’t know what. I was used to being alone at night at the bar, so I wasn’t sure why I suddenly had a strange shudder racing down my spine.

“I need to get out of here,” I murmured. “I can do the books at home.”

Much as I was sure that it was probably just the wind knocking against something, there was something telling me that I needed to get home. I hoped I was freaking out over nothing.

I actually jumped as my cell phone rang, the sound oddly loud in the silence. When I saw the name on the screen, Sol, my heart began to race with terror as a hundred and one unwelcome thoughts flooded my brain.

“Hey, Mom,” he answered as soon as I picked up the phone, not even giving me a chance to speak. It seemed like he was just as tightly wound as me. “Where are you?”

I glanced at the time. Three a.m. “Sol, why are you still awake at this time of night? You need to get a decent night of sleep.”

“You shouldn’t still be at work at this time, Mom,” he whined. “I’m worried about you being out this late. That’s why I can’t sleep.”

“Oh, Sol, it’s sweet of you to worry, but you know you don’t have to. I will be fine. I only have a couple more things to do to finish up here and I will be home.”

After a brief moment of silence, Sol broke my heart a little bit. “I know, but I miss you. It’s only me and you, and you arealwaysworking.”

I swallowed hard and slid my eyes closed, my heart shattering. While Sol was fine with his nanny, Viola, it wasn’t the same as having his parents around. But what could I do? I had to work to bring in an income for us since his father, Pi, passed away when Sol was a baby. It was such a shame that my son never got a chance to get to know his father because there was a lot he could have learned from his dad that I couldn’t teach him. Not being a bear shifter myself meant I could only help him so much with that side of his life. God, I really hated the fact that Pi was dead. He was my high school sweetheart and someone I was supposed to be with forever. We were just getting our lives together, and he had just been given his dream job in the military, when a training accident killed him and destroyed everything.

I sucked in a deep, shaky breath, pushing those thoughts away, and snapped my eyes open. If I got lost in thoughts of Pi and everything we could have had together, the night would truly be ruined.

“Hey, Sol, why don’t I bring you for a meet and greet with the Astro Games participants in the morning?” I asked, changing the subject. “Would you like that?”

I didn’t know if I would definitely be able to get Sol to meet them all, but I was sure I could arrange a meeting with some of his favorites. Not that I actually knew who they were at the moment.

“You would do that?” The sadness was gone from my son’s voice. He was happy all over again. Hopefully relaxed enough to go to bed. I was going to have to speak to Viola about these late-night phone calls, not that she could do a lot when she was clearly sleeping. “That sounds awesome.”

“All you need to do for me is get some sleep so you’re fresh in the morning, okay? Love you, baby boy.”

“Fine, Mom. But you have to let me know when you get in so I can at least say goodnight to you.”

Guilt flooded me as he hung up the phone. He didn’t even tell me that he loved me, which showed just how upset he was with me. He had become so temperamental recently, and I knew it was because he wasn’t happy with the way things were. But I honestly wasn’t sure how I could make things better. I didn’t know how to make my son understand that I was doing my best. Every single moment of my life I was trying, and it was all for him.

As I sighed with frustration, I heard that banging sound again. Only this time I couldn’t blame the wind, because it was followed by breaking glass.

“What the hell?” I whispered to myself as I grabbed the baseball bat I always kept behind the bar for situations just like this. “No wonder I felt weird.”

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