“Ah little mate, time to go.”

“Go where?”

Why was the rooftop so shaky? And where had Rhian gone?

“Drac!”

“Wake up!”

“Time to wake up little mate.”

“Rhian…?”

“Who’s Rhian, come on sis, you have to wake up.”

Was that Axel?

I pry my eyes open feeling the weight on my chest and half my face.

“Get him off me,” I croak at Ax sleepily.

“That’s why I’m waking you up, he won’t fucking budge he’s dead asleep, and so were you.”

“Just yank him off Ax, what do you mean he won’t budge he’s a kid.”

“Your funeral.”

The next moment I feel my hair getting yanked from my roots.

“Fuck! that hurts…stop …stop!”

“See.”

“Was it so hard to tell me it was my hair he was glued on/ this is why I cover it, this kid, he’s lucky he’s mine,” I grumble going through the painstaking process of prying off Blue.

After what feels like hours, I detach the last finger from my hair and lift him off my face, “Here, taking him to his bed, he’s not waking up anytime soon.”

Ax takes him from my outstretched hands heading to Blue’s room. I slump back into the pillows staring at my ceiling.

“Did I dream all that?” I ask out loud.

I think I hear a familiar chuckle but before I can investigate, Ax walks back in jumping on the bed causing me to bounce.

He turns onto his stomach crossing his feet in the air, “So, you wanna tell me why your mates rushed out of here as if their assess were on fire, and now dad has them on lockdown?”

“No idea,” I answer honestly shoving his weight aside so I could stretch my feet.

“Something about a dream, and I being too much for them to hold back.”

I freeze and Ax’s face turns smug.

“Maybe I tried to kill them in my sleep.”

“Nu-uh, I need more.”

“Why is this so interesting for you.”

“Oh, I don’t know maybe because, Andrei shot up from the couch right in the middle of our movie marathon because we couldn’t sleep, then proceeded to lock himself up in the bathroom, and when I come out to go talk to dad I meet your other two mates, one who is all but a legend by the way, high-tailing out of here. And now my dad has all of them in his office, and I was sent here to and I quote, go wake your sister up before we have a riot on our hands.”

Oh no, Rhian…rooftop…no…no way would they know about that. Is there?

“Ah, you won’t look at me, you do have an idea don’t you?”

“Don’t we have class?” I ask deflecting.

“Actually no, we have today free, Friday and Saturday too, courtesy of the Dean, so no Drac we don’t have anywhere to be.”

“Maybe I do.”

“You’re not leaving that bed till you spill, that’s what best friends do, so quit deflecting and answer me.”

“I’m older than you.”

“Yeah I know, I stuck around the office for a while before Rhysand started spilling some heavy shit which is when I was kicked out.”

“How much did you hear?”

“Your mom is a colossal bitch, Blue wasn’t supposed to be a kid, and he’s Rhys’s too, that explains a lot and there’s a dude called Rhian who my dad doesn’t really like, and neither does Rhysand.”

“Well, technically Rhys is Rhian and vice versa…”

“So Rhian is his…”

“Yeah.”

“Wow.”

“Yeah,” I answer back with a laugh.

“So this Rhian guy, I’m guessing he’s the root cause of today’s problems?”

“You could say that.”

“What happened?”

“You remember when you guys were teaching me how to dance, then Andrei and I…” I break off flustered.

“Holy shit!”

“Yeah so that happened, I’m guessing they felt it too.”

“You hussy!”

“Shut up,” I answer smacking him in the face with a pillow.

“We are skipping right to the finish line now ay?”

“Technically, he got to second base and I got to see him naked before.”

“First of all, ew, I don’t need to know that, I’m your younger brother, don’t corrupt me.”

I go to smack him again but he holds up his hand, “No I’ve done my brotherly duty, this best friend needs all the tea, scooch over,” he says moving to join me in bed.

“Start from the beginning please,” he says with a bright smile after settling in and snuggling into the blankets.

“You’re weird.”

“Pot, kettle, from the start…spill.”

“So he’s a psycho,” Ax concludes after I finish recounting my first encounter with Rhian and his hounds.

“He was stuck so deep in his head it created a whole new realm, so yeah.”

“Do we like him or not?”

I go to answer but he cuts me off, “Scratch that the boat has already sailed.”

“Axel!” I shout tackling him.

“Mama?”

Blue’s voice has me pausing, Axel slaps at my hands which have him in a choke hold and he wheezes slumping back into the pillows when I let him go.

Dramatic much, I was barely strangling him.

I turn to Blue with a bright smile.

“Morning baby,”

“Afternoon,” Ax wheezes from next to me.

“Huh?”

“It’s afternoon, you two were passed out for more than 72hrs.”

“Wait, today is Thursday?”

“Uh, I had already mentioned that.”

“Suck it, I was half awake, I wasn’t really listening.”

“Sure let’s call it that and not the post-orgasmic haze you had going on.”

I’m tackling him again, damn him and his big mouth.

“Damn, I sparred once and got knocked out for 3 days, nothing screams weak bitch like that.”

“Bad—” starts Blue but I don’t let him finish.

“OK, you gorgeous boy let’s go eat, I’m starving, are you starving?” I ask scooping him up and nuzzling him to me causing his sweet giggles to fill the air.

“Easy there, now I’m all for freedom of wear, but I doubt you want to head to the undoubtedly crowded cafeteria in that.”

I glance down at myself only realising what I was wearing, I was in a t-shirt and a pair of shorts.

“Who…”

“Mom and Morrigan cleaned you both up and changed your clothes, you were covered in…he pauses throwing Blue a glance…you were filthy and the kid had snuggled into you so he was too.”

“Oh…”

What was I covered in?

I place Blue back down heading into the closet to grab a bra and a pair of sweatpants to throw on top of the shorts.

I head back out and we all trudge into the elevator, Blue sitting around Ax’s neck.

“Mind if we just grab food and head to our hang-out spot?” Ax asks as the elevator drops.

“Cool, I don’t feel like facing anyone yet, but I was willing to face it to get food.”

“I figured,” he says with a laugh.

“The rest of the guys will meet us at the house,” he says moving out once the elevator stops, “Or not.”

I follow him out to find the guys standing outside the elevator, Keon’s fingers on the call button.

“Uhm, Hi…”

Smooth Mahi, smooth.

He nods moving past me and into the elevator without another look in my direction.

Cold.

I’m grabbed from behind and I turn to face him, I open my mouth but he covers it with his in the next instant and proceeds to kiss the life out of me.

“Wow,” is all I can say once he lets me go.

“See you later,” he rasps moving back into the elevator.

Rhys turns me to face him, he kisses my forehead tenderly and the contrast sends flutters down my spine, “We will see you later mate, we’re not mad, just…see you later.”

With that, he joins Keon and we stare at each other as the elevator door closes.

“Well,” starts Aziz.

Roan scuffs him on the back of his head and he shuts up.

“I… I’ll go get food, meet you guys at the house,” Andrei states vanishing before anyone can answer him.

“The sexual tension is off the charts, you guys should just bang and get it off the way so that they can go back to functioning normally,” Damon states.

“Babe!” Aarya admonishes.

“What, we are all thinking it.”

“He’s righ—”

Aziz stops as Roan smacks him again.

“Will you fucking stop that!” he yells turning to Roan.

Blue, all but forgotten, still on Ax’s shoulders perks up, clapping his hands, “Bad word, ZeeZee, drop and give me twenty princess,” he adds trying to make his voice deep.

Everyone cracks up, and the underlying tension ebbs away as we start moving towards the Alodae hang-out spot all this after Aziz does his time of course.