Chapter 12

Aiden’s POV

Goddess, she’s beautiful; Axel is such a dickhead! I think she might have kissed me if we hadn’t been splashed! But chasing her now was just as fun, nothing better than a good chase. The sound of her laugh is addictive; mix that with her scent, and damn, anyone would be knocked for six.

This place was amazing, though; I can see why she loves it so much. I could spend hours here. If I’m honest, I could spend hours anywhere with this girl.

Watching her run before me, the way she kept squealing and looking over her shoulder, I just wanted to grab her and hold on to her forever; that might come across as a bit too strong, though.

I could feel Blaze getting excited; he wanted to play chase instead of me, but now wasn’t the time to wolf out.

Ayla hasn’t had a shift yet, and she’s so close to her first one it’s best to let her go through the change before bombarding her with Blaze.

I could feel my brothers watching us and laughing; their wolves were dying to come out, but we just had to hold back. We are closer than ordinary wolves. We function better as a unit than solo, don’t get me wrong, we are formidable on our own, but together, that’s a whole different story

I think tonight we will need to go for a run; all this pent-up energy was driving me nuts.

Archer had just nodded at me; he was going to join in. I can’t wait to hear her laugh when she realises, we are coming for her. With that, Archer jumped out in front of her, and she ran right into his open arms; she squealed with shock but started laughing uncontrollably.

“I got her, Aiden,” he laughs

I spring up behind her, and a tickle war starts. Axel was laughing and heading over; Ayla had no chance now. Not when all of us have her pinned.

She wiggles and giggles in Archer’s arms. The sparks that happen every time I touch her, the way she drives me crazy. This just feels right. Knowing the same is happening to my brothers doesn’t bother me. Yet her being this way with anyone else fills me with rage.

“Enough, you win, you win,” she pants, trying to catch her breath.

The sun filtered through the leaves above and bounced off Ayla’s auburn hair; it was like she was covered in hundreds of tiny diamonds; her smile was everything right now.

“Shall we check out that cave?” I say as I pull myself up; Archer still has his arms wrapped around her waist; I don’t blame him; I’d want to be holding on too if she was sitting on my lap.

“Sure, but we will get wet,” Ayla tells me.

“A little water won’t kill us,” I laugh. “Come on; we will look after you.”

“Phfft…it’s going to be me looking after you guys more like,” she scoffs

Bending down, she took off her trainers and left them on the side; she had a good idea there, nothing worse than walking in wet shoes.

We follow suit and walk across the rocks around the pool’s edge. This close to the waterfall, the noise was deafening. I watch Ayla take the lead; she hops from stone to stone with crazy agility. One last glance, she was through the water, nowhere to be seen.

“Ayla, this is amazing. Behind the water was a whole new world in itself. It was like we had stepped into a different dimension. The walls were covered with every colour crystal you could imagine. It was stunning. The depth of the place went on forever, or so it seemed. Stalagmites and stalactites were rising from the ground and hanging from the ceiling everywhere we looked.

“Welcome to my special place, the only place no one else knows about, well, until you guys, of course,” Ayla says as she turns in circles with her arms stretched.

“Well, we are honoured that you would share this with us,” I say as we step up to her. I hear her heartbeat quicken again. Being closer to us excites her but makes her nervous too. We would have to change that. I get it, though; it’s not like we are small.

“Ayla,” I ask

“Yes,” she turned but wasn’t entirely looking at me; I’m not sure if she found it hard to look at me or what?

“I got to ask you,” I began; I saw her stiffen; she was nervous, I knew it!

“Okay, what” she answered quieter than before.

“How do you feel when you’re around us,” I ask; it all came tumbling out a bit faster than I wanted, but I had said it now; I could see my brothers perk up. They wanted to know the answer too.

“Oh! Umm, I don’t know how to answer that” her face was flushed again, and it was easy to see she was uneasy.

Archer stepped beside her and touched the small of her back; Axel did the same. She looked at them in turn, then at me. She didn’t know what to say.

“Uh, maybe we should be getting back, the sun will be setting soon, and all the other visiting wolves are arriving,” She stammered.

Blaze wasn’t happy. He wanted the answer. He wanted to know if she felt the same way if she was our mate like we have a good feeling she is.

“Chill out; she’s overwhelmed,” I tell my wolf. The last thing I wanted was to scare her.

“Yeah, your right. We better go back and get ready; we can’t be greeting people looking like this” I smile at her; she is physically relaxed with the change in subject.

Ayla’s POV

What the hell! How am I meant to answer something like that! All three are standing next to me, waiting, expecting me to say something. But honestly, I don’t know how I feel. I know there is something between us, but it’s not something I want to talk about yet. I haven’t had a proper boyfriend, and now I have three guys interested at the same time? What if they wanted me to say who I liked best? I couldn’t do that; I like them all; what if they think I’m a slut for wanting them all?

“Nope! this is too much for me right now,” I scream inside my head. It’s not something I want to deal with just yet.

“Maybe we should be getting back,” I say, hoping against hope they would agree and leave this conversation for now.

They did, but the disappointment was apparent.

I wanted to stay longer here, but right now was not the time. We had another meet and greet party. The other pack’s representatives were arriving tonight. I liked that the Chase brothers were here for an extra day and night. It was like a special treat for me…even though they aren’t so little!

Water fell heavily on our heads as we returned through the cave entrance. Grabbing our shoes, we head back to the house. We are all quiet for the first few minutes of the walk back. It felt uncomfortable, which was horrible after the fantastic time this afternoon.

“Ayla, are you okay?” Archer asked me.

“Yeah, I’m alright, bit cold,” I reply, looking at the darkening sky, “We better hurry; they will all be here soon.”

“Better move those little legs of yours then,” Aiden mocked.

“We can’t all be giant size, now can we!” I felt a bit better now Aiden had started being playful again.

“What do you think the visitors from the other packs will be like?” I ask them. I wasn’t very keen on Tristan, so I hoped the others would be better than him. But on the other hand, I didn’t want more God-like beings like the Chase brothers, as frankly, I can’t cope with more of them.

“I don’t know, hopefully not knobs,” Axel says randomly.

I can’t help but laugh at him as he doesn’t seem to care what he says.

“Ayla,” Aiden said

“Yes?” I turn to look at him

“I’m not trying to sound like a scary stalker guy, but could you stay close tonight and try to make sure you’re not alone with Mason,” he asked. He sounded concerned

“I hate Mason; trust me when I say I won’t be spending any time with him alone willingly,” I reassure him. “Oh, and I don’t think you’re a stalker, so don’t worry” I smile at him.

As we walked back to the pack house, my hair had begun to dry in the gentle breeze. It was getting colder; I wish I had thought to bring a jacket with me.

I liked that he was worried about me; maybe he generally liked me. But it still wasn’t something I was ready to talk about with him or his brothers.

Fifteen minutes later, we were back inside the house. Everyone was rushing around once again. The dining room was slowly filling up with all kinds of foods, and the kitchen smelled amazing.

“Damn, that smells good; I’m starving,” Archer inhales deeply.

“You’re always hungry, though” Axel laughs at him. “You could eat for England.”

I watch them joking with each other for a few seconds longer. But I did have to go wash up and change. My hair had fallen out of its braided bun since being in the waterfall.

The door opens then, and we turn to see who it is. In walks Tristan and Mason. Both gave me weird stares; I suddenly wasn’t so keen to get changed. Mason had a habit of visiting me in my room, and I didn’t want to deal with that tonight.

“You okay, babe?” Aiden says.

I couldn’t believe he called me babe, yet I couldn’t revel in it as I was too distracted by what Mason would do. I could tell he wasn’t going to leave me alone; he had a horrible look.

“Yeah, I’m okay; I just don’t like how he’s looking at me; he’s always so horrible,” I confess.

“How about I come with you, I’ll stand outside your room, if you like?” he suggests sweetly.

“You would do that for me,” I asked, my voice shaking.

“Of course, I would, Ayla,” he answered. “My brothers would too.”

Both Axel and Archer were nodding their agreement. The relief I felt was unmeasured. I couldn’t believe how I had landed on my feet with these three. For once, I didn’t feel quite so bad about myself.