Escaping Death

Chapter 48

Hunter

"Wait, just wait," Eli shushes me with eyes glued to his watch. "Three, two, one..." he winces, bracing for yet another wave of vibrations originating from Sol's phone. The incessant ringing has been antagonizing us for 180 consecutive minutes, soon to be 181.

The bones of our shitty little house do nothing to attenuate the vibrations so we can hear and feel every phone call, every text, every notification.

I did try going in to shut it off earlier, but as soon as she caught my scent she began to stir in her sleep so I quickly backed out and listened by the door to make sure she was sleeping. Eli, Dean, and Tate all tried, too. But it didn't matter which of us went in there. One whiff and she'd roll over towards the source. It's a miracle any of us had the strength to walk back out and walk away from her. I was tempted to crawl into bed beside her but if that happened then she wouldn't get the rest she desperately needs to finally recover post-heat.

So we've been muscling through as best as we can but the longer it goes on the more it feels like water torture.

Ace drew the short straw which is why he's upstairs right now dealing with the offending device.

"Holy shit I think he's done it!" Eli exclaims when five full minutes pass without any sound or vibration, though we hesitate to celebrate just yet. We've been hopeful before, only to feel our skin crawl seconds later when the ringing started again.

We both flinch to the first noise we hear, bracing for impact, but it's not the phone going off, it's Ace jogging down the stairs looking...happy.

"Are you...smiling?" Dean beams from ear to ear at the sight of Ace unable to hide his smile.

Eli twists around on the couch, practically falling over himself as he leans over and stretches his arm over the back of it as far as he can reach. In one hand he holds up his phone, zooms in on Ace's face with the other, and then snaps a photo. "For the scrapbook," he shrugs off Ace's glare with a grin.

"How can we be sure it's not just gas?" Tate chimes in with his own jokes and it's at this point that I really feel like the house has gone mad. Ace smiling, Tate joking...something is in the air.

"You're all idiots," Ace says with no heat and joins us in the living room. "She's awake but in no hurry to get out of bed. We're going to be out for most of next week so we'll need to go into the office tomorrow and Monday."

"New job?" Tate asks.

Ace's smile widens so much I actually see teeth. "We've been invited to a party. Her brother's and sister's Centennial."

Tate and Dean perk up almost imperceptibly. It's in the way their eyebrows twitch up, how their heart beats skip a beat.

"In Twilight Grove?" Dean confirms and Ace nods.

Every dragon colony in the world has heard about Twilight Grove, especially after the war her parents were in a few years before we were born. Queen Magnolia and the king alphas are big on community outreach and aid.

They're the most beloved leaders in the country, in both dragon and wolf communities. Queen Magnolia is sunshine incarnate — she's radiant and magnetic, and admittedly a little terrifying, but I'm positive that more than a drop of her light lives within Sol.

"Are we traveling with her for business, or —" Eli wiggles his eyebrows suggestively.

"Or what?" Ace plays dumb.

"Or pleasure."

"Technically, she doesn't need guarding in the Grove. Her fathers are confident that her safety is guaranteed within their borders. But that doesn't mean we're there to party. We're on duty, and she's off limits for all of you." There's a subtle command woven in his words that my wolf snarls at in defiance.