Heart of Stone - Book 2: Hearts Collide
Chapter 24 - Aubree (Part 2)

Her head was reeling when he left and disappeared into the forest.

He wanted to finish this. Hot damn!

But how? Was that why he was going to talk with Hector and Rosemary?

She was too flustered to think straight now. She paced around the house before deciding to go upstairs and douse herself in a freezing-cold shower.

Damn him for planting such tempting thoughts in her mind and then leave her to stew in her own hormonal juices!

She pulled out her laptop from her luggage and took it downstairs to the sunroom and began searching up information on werewolves, lycans, and vampires on the Internet. Knowing that most of the information present was probably fictitious, some of it had to carry at least an ounce of truth. All she had to do was check with everyone to know what was true and what wasn’t.

Since she was now living in it, she did want to know more about their world. With her thoughts leaning towards becoming luna, she wanted to learn all there was like Stone suggested.

Her breath caught when the first website she pulled up regarding lycans showed a big, hairy, grizzly beast. He looked halfway between a man and a wolf. Most disturbing of all was that the hands looked exactly like Stone’s when he showed her his half-transformed hand.

He couldn’t look like that, could he? Did they all?

The information she had been intent on gathering was soon spent looking at various images that ranged from cute and cuddly wolves to half-human, half-wolf like beasts with razor-sharp teeth, dripping blood, and foaming at the mouth.

They’re warriors, she reminded herself, even though she had a difficult time imagining them as grotesque creatures.

Alistair and Gwen were so humorous, lively, and playful. Gavin, so shy, quiet, and sweet. Gunner, the psychological, muscular, bookworm. And Stone, with all good intentions, was loving, gentle, and thoughtful. It was hard to imagine any of them as these creatures capable of killing and ripping apart vampires.

There were two sides to every coin, and they had all been protecting her from the one side that humans were not meant to see. It was just a matter of time before she’d be seeing that side of them. It was inevitable.

Time to put on your big-girl panties, Bree, she told herself. Your soulmate is a lycan and nothing will change that.

Heaving a sigh, she closed her laptop, needing a break from it. She was feeling a bit peckish as it was.

Taking her laptop into the kitchen with her, she set it down on the table and was about to make herself a cup of coffee when a pair of arms snaked around her waist and lifted her up into the air. She found herself swinging around as she looked down at the tanned arms with dark hair on them.

“Good morning, sunshine!” Alistair exclaimed boisterously before setting her down and eyeing the coffeemaker. “Hey, were you about to make some coffee?”

She shook her head in amusement. “Yeah, why? You want some?”

He pinched her cheek. ”Ja, mein Knuddelmuddel.”

She swatted his hand away from her face. “I don’t know what you just said, but I bet it was something that would make Stone hit you.”

“It was very cutesy-wootsy,” came Gwen’s voice before she appeared in the kitchen.

Playfully, Aubree smacked him lightly across the cheek.

Faking pain and shock, he held it in his hand with his mouth hanging open. “He’s rubbing off on her, Schnuckiputzi. She’s turning violent on her dear, old brother!”

“I’m not even related to you,” Aubree said as she fought back a grin.

“Shots fired!” He clutched his chest dramatically.

Aubree couldn’t help but laugh along with Gwen at that.

“Does anyone else want coffee?” Aubree asked as she reached for the canister in the cupboard over the coffeemaker.

“Just make a full pot,” Gwen said. “If anyone wants some, they’ll help themselves to it.”

Considering the coffeemaker made twelve cups, and she usually drank two cups worth in a big mug, that seemed that a fair suggestion.

While the coffee was brewing, she made herself some toast with strawberry jam on it. She noticed Alistair eyeing the label.

“Yes, it’s strawberry jam,” she jeered. “Don’t eat it all on me.”

A sly grin spread across his face. “I wouldn’t dream of it, Knuddelmuddel.”

“I wouldn’t trust that look if I were you,” came Gavin’s voice as he entered the kitchen.

“Agreed,” Gwen said. “He’s up to no good. Better put a lock on that fridge door now.”

“Right, I’ll tell Father to pick one up on his way home,” Gavin said.

“Aw, come on, guys. Stop ganging up on me.” Alistair pouted. “What happened to you, mein Gummibärchen? We used to be best buds!”

Gavin perked an eyebrow, his lips twitching as he tried to maintain a grim expression. “Since you just called me Gummibärchen right now.”

“Aw, Kuschelbär!”

Gwen was in tears, she was laughing so hard. “He just called Gav, gummy bear and cuddly bear.”

Gavin cracked and started laughing as Aubree joined in with the translations.

“And you guys are lycans?” Aubree asked in disbelief between fits of giggles. “You’re like the biggest pussy cats ever!”

“Aw, pudding-pop, even pussy cats have claws,” Alistair said with a grin and a wink.

“P-P-Pudding,” Gwen stuttered, unable to contain herself as she doubled over laughing.

“It’s like he ran out of German pet names to use,” Gavin gasped between guffaws. “He’s grasping at straws now.”

Aubree couldn’t breathe, she was laughing just as hard. She didn’t know how Alistair could stand there, grinning like a madman, and not even chuckling, while the three of them were laughing so hard, tears fell from their eyes.

“As usual, no one invited me to the party,” Gunner said as he came into the kitchen and headed straight for the coffeemaker.

Alistair finally cracked and threw his head back in laughter.

Aubree was clutching her stomach, trying to calm herself as she watched Gunner calmly help himself to a mug and pour himself a cup of coffee. Black. When he turned, she saw his eyes dance in amusement. He may not have been present, but she had no doubt that he still heard everything.

“Ah, Goddess,” Gwen said with a groan. “My stomach hurts so much now.”

“I love you too, Schnucki,” Alistair cooed as he helped himself to some coffee. He loaded it up with more cream and sugar than Aubree even used.

“Got any coffee in that cup?” Gavin asked him as he dipped the end of a spoon into the sugar pot before stirring it into his coffee.

“And I thought I liked mine creamy and sweet,” Aubree added to Gavin’s comment as she poured the last of the cream in her mug, thankful that it was enough to suit her taste.

“You going to eat that toast, babygirl, or—”

“No, no,” Aubree interrupted Alistair as she grabbed her toast from the counter and took a bite. “I got it.”

“You sure? Because one bite out of it isn’t enough to deter me from stealing it.”

“You behave, or I’ll use my luna authority on you,” she challenged, remembering that Stone said she was his equal and he was the head of the pack.

“Now you’re talking, girl,” Gwen said with an appraising grin.

That seemed to do it and he settled right down. “I’m just teasing ya, Luna.”

“I know,” she said, noting that he dropped the pet names and addressed her respectfully. “But I’d like to drink my coffee now and not worry about it spraying out my nose at the next thing you say.”

“I’d like to see that...”

Gwen smacked him upside the head. He grinned at her and batted his eyelashes. She scowled before shaking her head lightly with a smile. “You’re too much, Uncle.”

“And that’s why you love me.”

“Yes, as annoying as you can be sometimes,” she said with a sigh.

Gunner cut between them as he went to the coffeemaker a second time. He poured the last of the coffee into another mug and added a bit of sugar. Seeing Aubree’s puzzled expression as he turned around with two cups of coffee now in his hands. “Alpha will be back soon.”

She nodded, remembering that Stone said he was going to speak with Gunner privately.

And then he wanted to finish it with her.

Her heart jumped in her throat and heat rushed over her as her stomach clenched into delightful knots.

A few eyebrows from the others peaked up in question, but they remained silent as Aubree lowered her gaze to the floor, her cheeks growing hot.

You need to learn to control yourself better around these guys, she reminded herself. They can sense everything you don’t want them to.

Taking a deep breath, she tried to calm herself down, but it was hard when a shadow of a grin played on Gwen and Gavin’s face, while Alistair didn’t try to conceal his at all.

Instead, he winked back at her.

Pervert.

In an attempt to conceal her embarrassment, she turned her back to him as she set her mug of coffee down on the counter. With her toast in one hand, she continued to eat it while she put the jar of jam in the fridge.

The sliding door opened and she glanced over her shoulder to see Stone walk in, his bare feet coated in dirt.

So much for a clean floor...

Guess that was something she was going to have to get used to with these guys coming and going all the time.

He caught her eye for a split second, not long enough for her to register what thoughts might be passing through it, before he turned to Gunner and give him a curt nod. Gunner nodded in response and waited for Stone to pass before following.

She was itching to tip-toe after them, to know what kind of information Stone had gathered in his talk with Hector and what new insights he might get from Gunner.

A thought struck her and she turned the Alistair, Gavin, and Gwen. “Um, why is he only talking with Gunner and not you guys too?”

Gwen shrugged. “He’s the oldest.”

“They’re cousins and go way back. Practically grew up together,” Gavin said.

“And besides Stone, he’s the only one of us who had a mate,” Alistair added.

Aubree felt her eyes widen. “What? Really?”

The three of them nodded.

“So,” she asked hesitantly, “what happened to her?”

“She died shortly after they met. Before Papa was even born,” Gwen said.

“During the late 11th-century Crusades,” Alistair said as he crossed his arms over his chest and leaned against the counter next to the sink. “Just like the humans were at war with each other, so too were the vampires, lycans and werewolves.”

“Damn,” Aubree muttered.

Her eyes wandered to the doorway where Stone and Gunner had disappeared through. That had been a long time ago, yet he had managed to move on and live another nine-hundred years without her.

“The wars around that time were said to be brutal,” Gavin said. “So much so, that a third of the werewolf and lycan populations had been slaughtered.”

“The vampires faired better,” Alistair said. “But only because there was so much carnage among the humans, they never had to search for their next meal. That and many humans welcomed the idea of living eternally and joined the vampires in hopes of escaping the Crusades, only to be pulled into another war of supernatural proportions.”

He shook his head, while Gwen sighed. “And history repeats itself a few times after that. Once before the Bubonic Plague, then again around the 16th century, and 19th century, but not to the same extremities. Our numbers were never able to recover from what they once were.”

“The werewolves came close because breeding is easier for them, but not on us,” Alistair added.

“Our numbers continued to dwindle, growing slowly, but not substantially,” Gwen said. “Mates were the targets of vampires, preferably females because they’re naturally weaker than males. That’s why, if you ever go and meet other packs, you’ll see twice as many males as females present.”

“And that’s one of the reasons Papa was so worried about accepting you in the beginning,” Gavin said.

“It was a risk worth taking,” Alistair said.

The twins nodded in agreement.

Aubree frowned as she regarded Alistair. “So, you never found your mate?”

He shook his head. “Not all of us do, darling. And I’m not going to hold my breath waiting for her. I got enough hearts to toy with around here.”

Gwen jabbed him in the ribs with her elbow.

He laughed and wrapped her up in his arms. “Your love-taps are always appreciated, Schnucki.” He grabbed Gavin by the collar of his T-shirt and dragged him over. “Get in here, Gummibärchen.”

Gavin smirked and let himself be pulled into the group hug. “Just don’t try to eat me, Uncle.”

Alistair pretended to take a bite out of Gavin’s head before turning to Aubree with a grin. “There’s room for a luna in here too.”

She arched her brows before shrugging. Why not? “Don’t squeeze too hard. Apparently, humans are fragile,” she said before she allowed herself to be pulled into their warm embrace.

“Wouldn’t dream of it, Knuddelmuddel.”

— Knuddelmuddel: difficult to translate from German. “Knuddel” is “cuddle” and ”muddel” is added on to rhyme. Closest likeness might be “cuddle-muffin”