Page 19 of Cursed Beasts

His voice sounded vulnerable, making me want to turn around and look at him, but I didn’t want to scare him away. If he was willing to be vulnerable with me, then something was wrong with him.

Was he afraid to lose me?

“I’m just lost in my head, Aeon, it's nothing.” I climbed the stairs looking over the west wing wondering what the Belladonna was doing back in her room. She was going to be livid when we saw her next, making me smile because she was feisty and I enjoyed last night more than I should have. I walked to the east wing that had our bedrooms in it.

“Fine, keep your secrets but if it’s her who’s making you act this way, I'd appreciate it if you told me. We can’t afford to let her get between us,” he said with a lot of venom in his voice.

“Aeon, aren’t you getting tired?” My frustration was showing through, even though I was trying so hard not to say anything combative.

“Tired? Of the Belladonna?” He looked confused.

“Of this entire situation!” I yelled, irritated as I continued walking.

“You mean being stuck here?”

“Of everything, we do the same thing every time a new Belladonna gets here.” I snapped. “Maybe we need to figure our shit out together?”

“You want to work with the Belladonna?” He followed me into my room.

“I’m just saying maybe it's time to try something different.” I ran my hand through my hair.

“What's really wrong?” he asked, crossing his arms across his chest, and leaned against the door frame.

I looked up at Aeon, wanting to lay everything out, but I knew it would only backfire. We were all on edge with her arrival, but I was truly tired of living my life like this. I took a deep breath, pushing down all my emotions.

“Nothing, I’m just cranky.” I walked up to him, pecking him on the lips. “It’s just been a rough couple of days, and I think it’s just getting to me.”

I wasn’t expecting it, but he pulled me in for a kiss that was anything but innocent. Aeon always devoured me like he needed me to survive.

“Don’t shut me out,” he said, pulling away just enough to lay his forehead against mine.

“Aeon, you said we shouldn’t let our feelings get in the way.”

“I know, but it seems like every year, you move farther and farther away from me. I know this is hard but don’t shut me out.” His velvety voice sounded so sad.

You’re doing this to us.

“I’m not. I just need some space,” I said, before I pecked his lips and moved away from him into my bathroom.

The tub was filled with water already as I got in to wash off the dirt and grime of whatever happened yesterday. It seems Aeon granted me a small miracle by leaving me alone and not pushing me to talk. As much as I wanted to relax in the water, I was curious about our new arrival.

I washed myself quickly, got out, and put fresh clothes on. Once I was dressed, I was going to relieve some stress, but I felt like I needed to check on the Belladonna.

I didn’t need to deal with any more shit today. I walked back to the stairs, about to climb up, when I got another nagging feeling. I was already beyond frustrated, but it seems I just needed to check on her and I could go about my business.

I took the stairs to the west wing wondering how she was going to receive me. She had to be livid at us for leaving her like that, but we had to make our stance. I think I would have enjoyed just watching her tied up and making her anxious, but there were a couple of times where I smelled her arousal. Or maybe it was one of us who was aroused but it smelled sweet and made my mouth water.

Nudity wasn’t a big thing to us, we were used to Belladonna’s coming in with so much clothes on you’d think they were afraid we would see an inch of skin and they would burn up and go to hell.

This Belladonna was wearing the complete opposite with all that skin on display. She looked gorgeously devilish and had me wanting to commit sins that I would have gladly done with no questions asked. I knew it had been a while since we had all seen a woman with that much skin on display; it surprised me we all didn’t go into a frenzy.

My body shivered in arousal as I got closer to her room, wondering what kind of clothes I would find her in tonight. Her bedroom door was opened slightly. I stood close to it listening to her, wondering if she would be that dumb to leave it open.

When I heard nothing, I walked in and looked around, seeing the room in a disheveled state. I smelled the air realizing her scent wasn’t in the air, so it had been a while since she had been here.

I walked outside of her room wondering if she had gotten lost or if she had ended up hiding somewhere else. I walked down the hallway to see if I could catch her scent, but the air smelled like Aeon, Zev and myself.

If she had broken free, I didn’t think she would be safe another night out and about, so I went back to the library to see if I could tell where she had taken off to. I kept trying to smell if she was close, but the air didn’t have any of her lingering scent but the closer I got to the library her scent and something pungent was in the air.

---