Vale was going to kill me. Okay, maybe not kill me but definitely torture me. Hell, I wouldn’t put it past him to tie me to the bed and shove a vibrator in my ass; forcing me to come over and over against for hours from as far away as the bluetooth would reach. Faris growled, seemingly liking the idea but I shook my head. I gave him the mental image of us, writhing in pain as we were drenched in sweat and cum and seemingly no end in sight. He seemed to back off a little after that image when through our mind.As soon as she had stepped out, I was shocked. Auri had been teaching me and sometimes, through the quiet of our work, she would talk about the old days. Her old days with her crew and how she took up the name Astra back when she was on Nova. I’d tracked down some old songs and even some old performances that had been uploaded online.She was incredible and I fell in love with her sound. Morgan even helped me track down some of her earlier stuff, when she would sing with her frie

“You’ve met my wife before.” Hector stated and looked over everyone.“Estel Storm is your wife? She’s incredible! I’ve heard some of her stuff over social media!” Lucy grabbed Hector’s forearm. “I mean, Z got to meet her and talk to her!”His smile widened even more. “He did. She told me about it.”Bryan elbowed him. “Couldn’t get her to change her last name to yours?”Hector shook his head. “Nah. I changed my last name to hers. It was better than having to do the paperwork for all seven kids.”Everyone snapped their heads to him; even my eyes widened. I hadn’t heard she had kids. It wasn’t in any information about her. Though, there wasn’t much I could find in general. I’d tried to do a deep dive on her once I found out Auri was using the name Estel Storm. In the middle of digging around, a little fairy flew across my screen and dropped a note.‘Nice try, Ezekiel. You aren’t going to find anything.’Pipsqueak had struck again and I knew I wouldn’t find any information on her based on

We all froze as Auri was smiling at the group of us. Logan slinked behind her like a sad puppy, his hands shoved in his pocket. Behind him, Felix was holding Lucy around the waist. However, everyone waited as Vale struggled to get out of her grip.“Auri!” Jax was the first one to move and he stepped forward.She let go of Vale’s wrist as he hugged her. His face fell to her shoulder and from where I was standing, I could see his hands grab her shirt tightly. Leaning her head against his, Auri rubbed his back and hushed him quietly.“It’s alright, Jax. I’m okay. I’m sorry I wasn’t there for you when you needed me. I’m here now though. I’ve got you.”I couldn’t help the smile on face as I watched my Beta’s shoulders shake. It was easy to see the pain and the tear that Auri’s leaving had on Bryan, Hector, and Vale. But AJ and Jax were as much affected because they had called her mom as much as any of her biological kids. AJ joined the hug and Auri laughed, moving to stroke the back of his

I don’t know how late it was when Vale stumbled back into the bedroom but I was already laying in bed. He slipped into the bed but curled up on his side, making sure to keep a canyon between us. Flipping over so I was facing the balcony doors, I laid there for a while before finally getting up. It was still dark and I took a pack of cigarettes out of my drawer and sat on the balcony, smoking as I watched the sun rise.Part of me wished I hadn’t stormed out of there. I would have liked to listen to what Auri had to say and see what other questions we were able to get out of her. Still though, Vale was way out of line. Chuckling, I wondered how much time I would spend in the cell. I’d built them myself so I knew they really weren’t terrible. How to explain it to Reagan and Rowan though. That would be a tough one. Maybe just that I was going to be gone for a little bit for work.Letting out a puff of smoke, I sighed. The feelings and the look Vale gave me was exactly what I was expecting

We were all sitting at the table eating. For some reason, no one outside of Vale and I seemed absolutely flabbergasted at the display. Logan, Bryan, Týr, AJ and Jax all hadn’t seen it and didn’t even mention it. They should have known we didn’t have a table that looked like this. All the kids made it seem like it was perfectly normal too. Was it normal for them? Was Auri just able to work fey magic like it was nothing? I knew we had seen the markings on her back when she was at the club but to actually be able to use magic like she was; she seemed a whole other level.“Mom, are we going to be able to swim today?”One of Auri’s kids asked and she smiled. “I’m not sure. Your dad and I need to be in a meeting for a little while. After that, we should have enough adults around to help everyone swim.”She looked around the table and there were enough smiles that she nodded. The kids cheered, including ours and I rolled my eyes. As though they weren’t in the sea every single day. Hector tap