Page 46 of Mastering their Maiden

“Get off me.”

His hands didn’t move, and searing heat engulfed my shoulder. I moved to shove him off, but Umber grabbed my free hand, clasping it in two of his. “Aria—”

“Get off me,” I hissed, turning to look at Umber as rage took over, pushing aside pain, fear, hope, and anything else that might try to get in its way. “Leave me be. Take your fucking hands—”

Umber looked stricken. “Your shoulder—”

“I’ll handle it myself.” I turned away and shoved at Dex, who was so big and solid my punch to his gut barely caused him to move. “I said don’t touch me!”

“If I don’t fix it, you’ll never shoot a bow again!”

Dex’s face was hard, his voice rough with anger and some other emotion. He met my angry gaze with a stern one, and we glared at each other while he finished his healing or whatever it was. The moment he moved his hands back, I yanked my arm free and shoved my feet into his gut. Umber jumped aside when I lashed out, backing away before I launched myself off the bed.

“Aria, please,” Umber begged, looking just as sick as I felt. “Please let us—”

“I’ve already let you do enough.”

“Stop this,” Zander snarled, stalking toward me. “You’ve been hurt. Let us take care of it so you—”

“You did this,” I snarled, shoving him back and stalking toward the door only to have Kaiden walk through it and slam into me. He caught my arms briefly to stop me from falling, but when I wrenched myself free, he didn’t try to stop me. He held up his hands, palms facing me. Placating. Cajoling.

I wanted none of it.

“We should have listened to you.”

My eyes widened, and the laugh that tore out of me sounded borderline insane. “You should have.”

Kaiden’s face twisted in guilt, and I smiled despite the sudden ache in my chest. Of course he should feel guilty. He did this. Had he just listened to me, none of this would have happened.

Why did I care that he felt guilty?

Why did it matter to me?

It didn’t. It never should have. I was right. The whole time I was right and these men—all of them—were not to be trusted. I was not a frightened, silly girl waiting for someone to save me.

Not anymore.

The four of them were quiet, and that was fine because I had nothing more to say. Nothing they didn’t already know. I’d wasted enough of my time with these bastards; I wasn’t going to waste more.

Umber was the first to move when I tried to walk past Kaiden. He flanked his side, holding his hands out like he was taming a frightened foal. “Aria, you need us.”

“The hell I do.”

Dex moved forward, trying to put his hand on my arm only to be slapped away. “Your shoulder is not… let me heal you, please, Aria, I want—”

“So you can hurt me again?”

“That’s enough,” Kaiden barked.

“I agree. Let me out of here and we can end this.”

Zander growled from behind me, and Umber shook his head while Kaiden’s face twisted in anger. “Nothing ends. You’re staying here, and you’re going to let us take care—”

“Move.”

We stared at each other. The rage calmed me, sharpened my focus, but it seemed to unsettle Kaiden. He snarled angrily and reached out, trying to grab my face, my arm, my hand while I backed away. Zander moved close, managing to grab hold of my bicep and turn me to face him.

“The four of us fucked up. We fucked up.” He looked to the others, and I watched them nod but my eyes stayed on Kaiden when his jaw hardened.

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