Page 51 of Mastering their Maiden

“You haven’t gone far.”

“Not yet.”

There was a threat in those words that unnerved me, and Zander moved, forcing me to push him back. “Where will you go?”

“It’s not your concern.”

“Call it curiosity,” Zander interjected, a soft smile curling his lips. “I can’t be curious about where my princess is headed?”

“I’m not your princess.”

Aria stalked through the brush, face twisted in rage. The tip of the arrow she nocked nearly touched the hand I had pressed against Zander’s chest. Her arms shook, her chest lifting with heavy breaths that matched my own panicked ones. Zander was the only calm one out of the three of us, oddly enough, and he gave me a soft look before pushing my hand aside. Tension laced itself around my heart, squeezing tightly when I watched my partner, my friend, walk right into the path of Aria’s potential shot.

“Zander—”

“She’s not going to hurt me.”

Aria’s face twisted violently. “The hell I won’t.”

“Kaiden made you a bow. A real one,” he explained, and I watched Aria’s eyes widen for half a heartbeat before they narrowed again. “It got me thinking about where you might be.”

She scowled. “I should have left,” she snapped, though I guessed she was speaking to herself more than Zander. “I never should have let him convince me to stay.”

“Frayne cares,” I said gently, trying to stretch out the warmth of my body as much as I could and envelop her in it. She looked torn in half, split between sadness and rage. The two emotions weren’t all that different. I reached out to touch her, taking a step back when she turned the arrow toward me. I held up my hands in surrender, then took it a step further and got on my knees. “He just wants you safe.”

“If he wanted me safe, he would have let me go on my way,” she snapped. “There’s no safety here. There’s no safety anywhere you—”

“Aria.”

Zander’s sharp voice cut her off, and he grabbed the tip of the arrow and pointed it back to his own chest, fixing her with a stern gaze. “Don’t be a tease.”

She scoffed a laugh. “A tease? Do you think I’m playing?”

“Then do it.” Zander’s expression was hard, but I could see his eyes soften, and I watched his chest lift with a deep breath. “Do it and spare us all the pain of another night apart.”

He continued to stare, and my eyes slid to Aria when I heard a soft but sharp intake of breath. Her arms were straining to hold the bow steady, and when Zander narrowed his eyes and stalked toward her, I felt my whole body tense—

But Aria backed away.

“Don’t,” she hissed, but Zander walked right up to her and pressed his body against the tip of her arrow, shaking his head.

“You can’t.”

Aria gritted her teeth, and when a breeze moved the trees above, light fell on her shadowed face long enough for me to see the tears on her cheeks. Her stance faltered, and Zander made a husky, growling noise when he snatched the weapon and threw it to the side. She blanched angrily, and less than a second later she was on him. Kicking and punching and slapping him as hard as she could, cursing him the whole time. Zander took the blows like they were nothing, standing perfectly still, making no attempt to stop her until she let out a pained sob and collapsed into his chest.

I shot up off my knees and caught her around the waist while he took hold of her wrists. Her heart was pounding, and she was breathing so hard I worried she’d hurt herself from the force of each exhale.

“Let me go.” She thrashed again and landed a kick to Zander’s shin, and he grunted in pain, releasing her wrists so he could take her face in his hands.

“I swear to the gods, Aria, as soon as I can see to it, I’m going to spank your ass so hard—”

“You want me back so badly so you can punish me?”

“I want to wipe away every trace of doubt about who owns you from that pretty head of yours. And yes, that means spanking your ass for running away when you needed us. It means disciplining you for ever thinking you had no one on your side. It means the four of us taking you to bed and kissing, licking, worshipping, and fucking you until there’s no question in your mind about how we feel.”

His expression was nearly feral when he pressed his forehead to hers, grabbing both her hands again when she tried to shove him away. “You’re ours, Aria, and I’m sorry—I’m so fucking sorry—that we ever made you doubt it.”

My hold on her didn’t loosen, even though I ached to agree and was jealous of Zander for stealing all the things I wanted to say. Aria shook in my arms, but I pulled her close, burying my face in her neck so I could inhale her scent.

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