Escaping Death
Chapter 9

Woops! Forgot to post last night, fell asleep with the kids 🤣 #momlife

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Solana

I wake up alone later than I usually do feeling like I slept for days, but that good feeling vanishes as soon as I realize I’m wearing someone else’s shirt. Ace’s shirt.

My tank top is nowhere to be found. It’s not in the bed or on the floor. I don’t even know how he got it off me without me waking up. Not to mention what a complete invasion of privacy it is for him to strip me bare without my consent. But I’ll give him some credit for at least dressing me in something rather than leaving me naked.

But why was he even in here?

I know he could tell I was in here without even opening the door to check. He should have gone straight back downstairs to the couch, or slept in one of the bunkbeds, not come in and undress me.

I’m not sure what his goal is but if it’s to piss me off then he’s succeeding. I rummage through my bag, still no tank top to be seen. Just one last pair of leggings. Quickly I dig through his drawers and pull on a pair of his boxer briefs before dressing in the last pair of leggings I have in my bag. I tuck his too-long-shirt into the front of my leggings in such a way that it appears shorter and like I’m wearing an appropriately sized t-shirt.

I throw my hair up into a messy bun on top of my head while I walk towards the bathroom so I can steal a toothbrush and wash my face before I have to face the guys in the light of day.

The door to the bathroom swings open and I’m met with Ace’s fiercely green eyes, golden hair, and inked arms.

He rakes his eyes up and down my body, his green eyes darkening the longer he looks and I can feel his wolf struggling to resist calling out to mine.

“You’re using my toothbrush,” he grunts. Not even a hello, good morning, I’m your soulmate.

“You undressed me.” I hiss back.

“Actually, by definition, I did the opposite of undressing you.”

“Are you done?”

Ace cocks his head to the side like a curious pup, “done with what?”

“Pretending like you’ve done me any favors.”

He rubs his chin, the stubble on his face scratching as he rubs his fingers over it. “Are you done using my toothbrush?”

I roll my eyes in an overly dramatic fashion to cover the smirk threatening to tip my lips upwards. I like the way he argues with me, and I hate that I like it so much. I don’t want him to think that I’ll swoon over him just because I’m his mate. Besides, it’s not like he’s done anything to indicate that he cares to have found me as his mate.

I rinse my mouth and shove the toothbrush against his chest as I walk past him, doing my best to ignore the warm tingles that creep up my arm and spread across my chest at the contact.

I round the corner only to smack straight into Hunter’s bare chest, the only item of clothing on him is a towel that’s slung low on his hips. His arms are decorated in more ink than when I last saw him, and my name is still the only mark he has on his chest.

Pain lances through me seeing my name scrawled across his heart like he has any right to display it anymore.

“Solana, go downstairs,” Ace commands me from the doorway. “Help yourself to breakfast.”

Part of me doesn’t want to give Ace the satisfaction of commanding me, but the other part of me doesn’t want to be anywhere near Hunter.

The latter wins out.

I push past Hunter with no small scowl and take the stairs down two at a time to the kitchen.

Tate is at the table sitting across from Elias, but while Eli is digging into his breakfast, Tate has his face buried in his computer.

Dean is digging in the fridge for something so it’s Eli who sees me first, coffee spewing from his mouth when he catches sight of me.

“What?” I ask him when his bewilderment doesn’t subside.

“Nothing. It just…seems like you had a good night.” He says and then mumbles, “smells like it too.”

“What is that supposed to mean?”

“You’re wearing the boss’ shirt,” Tate says without looking up from his computer.

Ah. Eli must think I fucked Ace.

I saunter over to him until I’m standing directly behind his chair, then I drape my arms over his shoulders letting my hands get reacquainted with his hard chest. I dip down so my lips brush against his ear and whisper, “I’m wearing his underwear too, but don’t tell him that.”

My hands slide up his chest as I stand but with lightning speed he grabs my wrist and pulls me around so I’m forced to sit in his lap.

“Is it wrong for me to like his scent on you?” He runs his nose up my neck. “But now I’m going to cover you in mine.”

He moves to kiss my neck but I push up and out of his arms. “I didn’t sleep with him, idiot. I stole some clothes since I was forced from my home with no notice and only the clothes on my back.”

Eli’s mouth opens and closes repeatedly like a trout out of water. Dean offers me a plate of food, doing his best to withhold the laugh threatening to burst out at Eli’s expense.

The mood of the kitchen tenses when Ace walks in all dominance and power, his aura nearly knocks me back a step.

“Eat up, we leave in ten minutes.” Ace addresses the four of us whilst stealing a piece of bacon off my plate and eating half of it in one bite.

I place the plate on the table between Eli and Tate, glaring at Ace all the while. “We leave after I shower.” I say with saccharine sweetness before snatching the rest of my stolen bacon from his fingers with my mouth, making sure I bite his fingers for good measure.

“Ah, fuck!” He growls when I nip him.

“Thanks for breakfast,” I grin at him with a self-satisfied smile and run upstairs to shower.

***

When I come down the stairs having showered and dressed in a new shirt and shorts, Ace is the only one left in the house. I can hear the other guys horsing around outside waiting for me and Ace.

The clothes belong to Tate, he’s not a small man by any means but of the five of them he is the slimmest. Even so, I still had to roll the shorts over two or three times before they’d stay up. I took a button up of his, only fastening the first four or five buttons and then tying the rest of it in a knot above my navel.

The rumble from Ace’s chest reverberates through me when he takes sight of my outfit but luckily he doesn’t say anything about it. He huffs smoke out of his nose on the end of a heavy sigh. “You’re riding with me, let’s go.”

“Where are we going?”

“There’s a party we’re crashing tonight, and you’ll need a dress.” He starts walking out of the house, not bothering to look back to make sure I’m following.

I have to walk at double pace to keep up with his long strides. “If you’d let me go home you won’t need to waste your money buying me a new dress.”

Ace ignores me as he swings his leg over his bike, waiting for me expectantly. Even over the roar of his bike I can discern the rumbles emanating from his chest, irritated at me for making him wait.

Despite my extremely limited interactions with Ace, I’ve managed to figure out that he is not like any of the guys from the Grove. His word is law here, and he expects everyone to snap to attention the moment he demands it.

If he expects me to be some submissive she-wolf then he is in for a rude awakening.

Reluctantly, I get on his bike behind him, wrapping my arms around his waist and pretending like the tingles I get from the contact are just the vibrations of the bike. He’s so warm, and he smells like home and all things safe, but all I feel is empty.

There was a time when someone made me feel like the center of the world, when I felt loved, cherished, and safe. And then he left me broken. Now I’m here with a man who is supposed to feel all those same things, who’s supposed to treat me like the sun rises and sets with me, but he’s no better than the one who broke my heart.

He’s no better than Hunter.

We ride for a while before finally coming to a stop in the mall parking lot. The other four guys jump out of their car while Ace and I dismount his bike.

I don’t come to the mall very often — I don’t like crowds. Yet another personality trait I inherited from my mother. I’ve been trained in the art of living off the land, using every skill and material available to me in order to survive and thrive in various environments.

After living life that way it feels inauthentic to walk into a mall and buy prefabricated clothes and items. Not that I don’t indulge, it’s just not something I do with any regularity.

“Assume money is no object, I want you to get whatever you need to be comfortable.” Ace says to me as I remove my helmet and sit it on the seat of his bike.

“I don’t want new things, I want my things.” Even I hate how whiny that sounds, but if he cared about me at all then I think that’s the least he could do to show it.

The look he levels at me screams “dont fuck with me.” Sensing that he’s on the edge of control with his wolf, I take a calculated risk and roll my eyes in defiance of his authority. “Whatever, if you want to waste your money that badly…”

My airway is clamped shut by his firm grip on my throat. I pull on his wrist but his hold on me is iron-clad. I lift my leg up to knee him in the balls but he anticipates that and grabs my thigh before I can succeed. He pulls on my leg, twisting me around so that my back is to his front, left hand still clasped around my throat and his right hand cupping my sex over my shorts, securing me to him.

“Watch it, pup. I find rolling your eyes at me to be extraordinarily rude. While you’re under my roof, I’m your Alpha. So when I tell you to buy what you want, you need only say ‘yes, Alpha.’ Understand?”

In an alternate universe I’d be putty in his arms, I’d let my head fall against his chest and thrust my hips forward so he’d know I want his hand to do more than just cup me. I’d let him run his nose along my neck, scenting me before I turned my head to face him and devour his mouth with mine. Then I’d beg him to bend me over his bike and fill me with his cock which I can feel getting longer and harder against my ass through his jeans. And I’d scream ‘yes, Alpha’ so the world would know I was his, and he was mine.

But that’s not the world we live in.

I slip my hand down his pants, latching onto his balls as hard as his hand is fixed on my throat.

He growls in my ear, no doubt deliberating the pros and cons of being the first to end our stalemate.

“Ace!” Hunter shouts at us, snapping Ace back to the present.

Hunter is looking at us equally horrified and enraged. Eli is grinning from ear to ear while Dean appears bored, like this situation was inevitable and he’s waiting for us to move on. Tate stands apart from the group, his eyes darkening dangerously, his inked hands clenched into tight fists and his bottom lip trapped under his teeth.

Ace releases me and nudges me forward, “we clear?”

“Yes,” I snarl, my flames competing with my wolf for release.

“Yes, what?”

Eli and Dean have been inching closer to Ace and me throughout our conversation and now stand within arm’s reach of me. I know what I’m about to do isn’t fair to Eli, but fuck if I can’t resist playing with fire.

I grab Eli’s hand, lacing my fingers through his, before looking over my shoulder at Ace.

“Yes…Asshole.”