Escaping Death

Chapter 47

Solana

It's uncharacteristically quiet in the house when I wake up but I can smell all five of them so I know they're all here and I can still feel the warmth on the bed from where Ace must have slept beside me. But the house is missing its usual bustle and urgency.

I roll over to Ace's side of the bed, turning my back to the door, so I can soak up the residual heat he left behind. I'm trying to process how I feel after the past couple of days. It's been one thing after another; Hunter, heat, Ace's conversation with the guys, talking to Eli on the roof, the club with Dean and Tate.

My "me time" ends before it begins as I hear Ace's bedroom door creak open. His expression is stern. To be fair Ace always sports a very serious face, but he's teetering on anger and it's only — well, I don't know what time it is but judging by the sunlight I'm sure it's at least still morning...ish.

"You sleep like the dead," he grunts at me, quickly walking around his bed over to the nightstand where my phone is. He scowls at it like it personally wronged him and tosses the now vibrating phone into my lap. "It's been going off all morning. Please, for the love of the Gods either answer it or turn it off."

Calla's too bright, too pretty face is smiling up at me giving me the choice to accept or decline the call. This is not a hard decision. I tap decline and toss it on the bed next to me, curling back into the covers dismissing Ace as I do.

"Who was it?" Ace probes.

"My sister," I mumble into his pillow.

"Does she normally call this often in a three-hour span?" He throws up his palms when I shoot him a scowl of my own. "Easy, Solana. The wolves in the house can't stand the sound of your phone going off anymore. I can practically feel the vibrations in my teeth at this point."

My phone starts vibrating again. Ace looks at me, looks down at the phone, and then back up to me before he lunges for it. I reach out to grab it before he can get it but I'm not as fast as him. Even kneeling on the bed he's taller than me and he easily holds the phone out of my reach.

"Are you going to answer it, or am I?" His tone might sound playful but I know he absolutely will answer it if I don't.

"Don't you fucking dare!" This was the wrong thing to say because Ace's eyes light up like this just turned into the most exciting game on Earth.

I stand up on his bed so I can gain the upper hand and grab my phone from him but he teleports out from under me causing me to land on the bed on my hands and knees.

He teleports back in so he lands on the mattress like it's a trampoline, launching me off the mattress into the air only to land flat on my stomach. Ace's hand on the center of my back weighs me down like a cinder block and for the life of me I really can't push up against him to get out of his hold. He leans down so his lips brush the shell of my ear and he whispers, "you or me, Sunshine?"

I fight the burn igniting my veins originating from where his body makes contact with mine, I fight the chill that runs down my back at his words. But hardest of all I fight the part of me that is encouraging me to submit.

"I can't answer it with you suffocating me," I exaggerate. Ace would have to do a hell of a lot more than lay a single hand on me to hurt me, but he backs off of me immediately and rolls me over onto my back where I see that any playfulness that might have existed a second ago has now vanished.

Once he's sure I'm not actually having trouble breathing, the hand not holding my phone captive slips off my hip and relaxes across my stomach. His hand lingers there, his fingers splay out a fraction wider, all while my phone buzzes like an angry wasp in his other hand.