Gabriel’s POVWe were sitting in the kitchen, chatting with Annie while she made dinner.Nick was frowning.“What’s wrong?” I asked and took a sip of my beer.“I don’t know,” he sighed. “My feelings are a mess.”“It is probably because of everything that is happening with Victor,” Annie said and turned to look at him.“I guess,” Nick said as he ran his hand through his hair.“Do you need help?” I asked Annie.“No,” she smiled and turned back to continue making dinner.Suddenly, Nick bolted out of his chair and his eyes went black.“Nick?” I called him quietly.“Aria,” he growled and started running upstairs.I ran after him and followed him to Cassie’s room. He opened the door and growled loudly.Aria was sitting in Jacob’s lap, his arms wrapped tightly around her. She was crying.“What the hell is going on?” I said angrily.“Get your fucking hands off of my mate,” Nick growled.Why the hell was she crying? And why was she sitting on his lap? Nick was going to kill him. He was seconds
Gabriel’s POV“Will you stop pacing around?” Annie sighed. “You are driving me crazy.”I just couldn’t calm down. I wanted to talk to Aria. Apologize and explain. But I could feel Nate was on edge and nothing good would come of my insisting on staying in the room with them.So, I went downstairs into the kitchen with the intention of helping Annie with dinner. But I couldn’t focus and ended up almost burning the sauce she was making. She almost threw me out of the kitchen.“I am just nervous,” I mumbled.“She is fine,” Annie said. “I am surprised she lasted this long.”“What do you mean?” I asked, my eyes narrowing.“I would have broken down much, much sooner,” Annie said and turned to look at me. “I am amazed at how she managed to keep it all together.”She was right. Aria’s whole life turned out to be one big, fat lie. She was in danger. She was scared. And she never complained. She never told us. She had been keeping all of that inside. Until she couldn’t anymore.“You are right,”
Gabriel’s POV“Come on, Aria, focus,” I said as I grabbed her hands in mine. “You can do it.”She sighed and closed her eyes. I could see her reaching for the source of her power. We had been practicing for the last three days and she was getting better. She could now project emotions, but she still had trouble with focusing them on a single person. She brought us all down yesterday when she projected pain.“Can you feel my aura?” I asked her. “Can you feel my warmth?”“Yes,” she mumbled with her eyes still closed.“Good,” I said. “We all have our auras. We all have different levels of warmth. You need to differentiate it. Separate us from one another and focus only on one of us. Try focusing on me. Feel me.”Her eyebrows scrunched together, and her hands squeezed mine.“Try focusing on what you feel for me,” I told her. “Don’t create an emotion. Project your own feelings. That should be easier to do.”She took a deep breath and exhaled it slowly. A few minutes passed, but I felt no e
Nick’s POV“Can we please go back?” I sighed.Gabriel had been dragging me through the forest for the past half hour, telling me about plants and potions you could make from them. I have never been more bored in my life. I still didn’t understand why he wanted to take this walk.“Why are you so cranky?” he asked me.“I don’t like Aria being alone,” I said and stopped walking.There was no way I was walking any further. We were going back. I missed her and I was not going to let him bore me to death.“She is not alone,” he said and turned to look at me.“I don’t like who she is with,” I growled.I was thankful to Jacob for helping her the other day, but that still didn’t mean I like the guy. He wanted what was mine.Gabriel rolled his eyes and sighed. “Fine. We can go back.”“Finally,” I muttered and turned around.I swear to Goddess, the way back took us even longer. Gabriel was walking so slowly that I was tempted to pick him up and run back to the house.“If you slow down a bit more
Gabriel’s POVThe next few days flew by in a blur. Aria and I were practicing magic, and she got better. She could focus on one person at a time, and she could manipulate it really well. Nick and I have been teaching them the basics of one-on-one combat. Jacob and Blake were great. The girls not so much. They weren’t fighters. But it made me feel better knowing that they at least knew some basics to defend themselves. Mike, Jack, and Annie still hadn’t managed to locate Patricia. They still had one more village to go through, but I was beginning to lose hope. She was either dead or hiding pretty damn well.Victor hasn’t called again. Nick was content because he thought that meant he believed our lie. I had a funny feeling. It just seemed too easy. “Any news from Mike?” Jacob asked as we were eating breakfast.“No,” I sighed. “They have arrived at the last village today.”“They won’t find her,” Aria said quietly.“Don’t be so sure, love,” Nick said as he twirled her hair between his
Victor’s POVI was standing behind the tree looking at the house where she was hiding.If she thinks she could hide from me, she was really stupid. Luckily, I didn’t need her brains. I needed her power.“Do you think the boy will succeed, boss?” Rick asked.“If he doesn’t want to see his girlfriend dead, he will have to succeed,” I said, not taking my eyes away from the house.“Do you think she knows where Calvin is?” he asked again.I rolled my eyes and looked at him. “Stop talking or you will be sleeping in the dungeons tonight.”Rick bowed his head at me and looked away.I sure hoped this bitch knew what happened to him. I knew he was dead. I was not stupid. Calvin would always pick up the phone. Always. I was sure the bastard didn’t even know how to type. I wanted to hear it from her. I wanted her to tell me what they did to him. He was an annoying fucker, but I could always rely on him. He was one of my best men, and now I had to put up with Rick.Not that Rick wasn’t good. But h
Gabriel’s POVI was lying on my bed, going through my phone, when I heard someone knocking on the bedroom door next to mine. It was Jacob’s room.The knocking was loud and impatient.I stood up and walked over to the door. I opened the door and saw a very nervous Nick standing in front of Jacob’s room.“What’s wrong?” I asked him.“I can’t find Aria,” he growled and knocked on Jacob’s door again.Before I could ask him anything, Jacob opened the door.“Where is she?” Nick growled and pushed him out of the way to enter his room.I followed behind him.Jacob’s eyes widened. “Who?”“Aria,” Nick growled.“She didn’t come back?” Jacob asked, surprised. “I came into my room half an hour ago. She said she would grab a glass of water and come back up.”“She is probably with Cassie,” I said and walked out of Jacob’s room.Nick and Jacob followed me.Nick banged on Cassie’s door. “Aria?!”“Easy, man,” I said and grabbed his arm. “You are going to break the door down.”He looked at me, and the f
Gabriel’s POVI couldn’t breathe.Images of her being tortured and killed kept replaying in my mind.He was going to use her and kill her.I can’t let that happen. I have to find her.“NICK!” I yelled. “Trace her scent!”I could hear him walking behind me. Anger was rolling off of him in waves.He ran past me into the forest, picking up her scent and following it. Jacob was next to me, and I could see how tense he was.I think this was the hardest on him. Blake was his friend. And as much as I hate to admit it, Jacob was in love with Aria. Blake’s betrayal hit him the hardest.We have been running for a while now, and I could see the road ahead of us. My heart tugged painfully. If they left in a car, there was no fucking way we would be able to track them down.Nick stopped by the end of the road and sniffed the air.A loud growl pierced the silence.“I lost it,” he muttered. “I can’t smell her anymore.”“They left in a car,” Jacob said, rubbing a hand over his face.“FUCK!” Nick grow