32. VULNERABLE

32

VULNERABLE

A breeze blew through the courtyard as Aiden led Charlotte from the main building after dinner. The sounds of the bubbling fountain and low conversations from other students returning to their dorms filled the air around them.

He didn't know how to address the topic he wanted to with her. Of all his friends, he always had the right words, and gave advice to everyone, but with Charlotte, he felt on unstable ground.

"It smells so good out here," she said, stopping to look at the perennial flowerbeds lining the front of the main building.

He tucked his hands in his jeans. "Depending on the time of year, the smells change. Dogwood trees bloom, the apricot blossom trees in the grove over on the other side of the drive, the cascading jasmine on the other side along the hedge maze… There's always something in bloom."

It dawned on him how weird it might be for a guy to know so much about the flora on campus, but his mom rambled on and on about it when they first took a look at the academy grounds before his freshman year.

She smiled and shook her head. "My moms would love it. They don't have the time to keep anything alive in our yard with the businesses taking up so much of their time."

They continued their walk to the dorm buildings in silence.

He sniffed and looked over at Charlotte. "So, how are you adapting?" Smooth. "I mean…" He groaned, bending his head back and closing his eyes. "I don't get why this is so hard."

"What's wrong?" She looked up at him as they walked. "I'm doing fine. Probably because we're not in classes yet, so I'm not interacting with as many people outside of our circle, but I have met a few people. Most of them are nice."

"Most?"

"Well, all but this one girl named Alex." The puckered expression on Charlotte's face, where it looked like she swallowed a lemon, made Aiden think there was more to it. "I think she likes you."

There it is.

"I don't know if anyone does around here, but I'm not interested in anyone else. I told you it doesn't work for me like that, and besides, I have you. You're my Korrena. No one else matters. They didn't matter before I knew."

"What do you mean?" Charlotte stopped and turned to him.

He licked his lower lip and pulled it into his mouth, his teeth showing as he tried to sort out how to say what he felt without scaring her away. Screw it. "You were mine before I saw my mark. It wasn't the Korrena pull. I felt something for you. Genuine. I know this whole biology thing heightens it, but I wanted you even without it."

Her lips parted as she looked at him in surprise. He wanted to kiss her, but he needed her words more than her lips in this moment. Did she feel the same?

"Well, I don't get the whole Korrena thing yet, so I know my feelings for you aren't influenced by anything else. At least that I'm aware of. I thought you were cute when I first met you."

"Cute?" The corner of his mouth ticked up in a teasing smile when her eyes went big and her cheeks flushed pink, making her freckles stand out. Did all redheads blush so easily?

"Not cute like a baby! I mean. Um. You were handsome. Hot." She spun on her heel and started walking toward the dorm. "You're mean."

He rushed to catch up to her and slid his arm around her shoulder. "I'm not mean. I was only teasing."

The cute hmph sound she made in response settled his nerves about how she felt about her time at Blackthorn Academy. If she weren't happy, she wouldn't be able to joke with him this way. Blaire and Riley were right. She would be okay.

Approaching the door to their dorm, Charlotte stopped short, and the shot of fear hit him with all the subtlety of a bucket of ice water to the face.

"What's wrong?" he demanded, stepping around her and drawing up when he saw what lay in front of their door.

A pink rose lay on a piece of paper in front of their dorm door on the floor.

"I thought you killed him," she whispered, her voice breaking.

I thought I did too.

He marched forward and snatched up the rose and paper, unlocking their dorm and letting Charlotte in ahead of him.

He skimmed the note .

Sweetest Cherry,

I see you have found your way into our world. I hoped to keep you away. To protect you from all this as the only gift I could give you. The only way I could show you I love you, even though I can't have you by my side. Unfortunately, it isn't possible now. Now that you know everything, you will face the consequences of your association with your blonde friend.

A pity when childhood friendships turn into nightmares.

Sweet dreams for now,

J

J? Who the fuck is J?

He folded the note and put it in his pocket. Charlotte didn't need something more to upset her right then. He'd show her, but after he settled her fear.

Stepping inside their dorm, he found Charlotte pacing in front of her bed. The trembling fear radiating from her set his teeth on edge. He wanted to throttle the threat, but the threat wasn't here for him to unleash on.

Throwing the rose into the wastebasket next to the door, he approached her, hands coming up to rest on her upper arms from behind. She stopped and sank into his embrace when he slid his arms around her front and held her close, face buried on the top of her head, breathing in her scent.

"He's not dead," she whispered.

"He is."

"No." Her curls brushed his lips as she shook her head negatively. "He must've healed."

"I tore his throat out. There's no coming back from that. "

She spun in his arms and looked up at him, taking a step back from his hold. "Then how?" She motioned to the door. "How did they know to deliver a rose? A pink rose. Not many know about the stalker, and I know y'all didn't do it." She sniffed and swallowed hard. After a moment of silence, she looked up at him with widened eyes. "Maybe you didn't kill the stalker."

"What do you mean?"

"The guy in the alley outside the club called me Cherry, so I assumed he was the stalker, but so did idiots at the diner. I've always hated the name. Maybe it was a coincidence."

With the note also referring to Charlotte as Cherry, it didn't sound illogical. He didn't think the use of the name was so common, but if two different people used it, and people at the diner… What did this mean for them? Who was the man he killed other than a rogue who bit his Korrena? Whoever the man in the alley was, he still deserved his fate. He seemed so determined to capture Charlotte with the way he demanded Noah get her.

Aiden cursed under his breath. Noah. Noah stayed close to Charlotte in Athens, and now he showed up in Rosebrook Valley when she did? Something about that rankled him and had his instincts on high alert. Noah knew more than he let on. Was he her stalker? Then who was J? Did he use the letter to throw them off his trail?

"Aiden, how did he get on campus? I thought the security here was tighter than Fort Knox."

"It is. I don't know how he got in, but we have to tell the headmistress so she can inform Blackthorn Security their safeguards are compromised."

He tried to tell himself her fear of the rogue Vasirian wasn't a generalized fear of his kind, but that ugly black feeling in the back of his mind became harder to ignore when he felt her apprehension on a visceral level.

Charlotte said she didn't see him as a monster after seeing him at his most primal—had shown him she accepted him—but did she harbor lingering hesitation about his world? She didn't balk at their consumption of blood. Didn't seem opposed to a lot of their way of life. But when faced with his fangs, the prophecy in action, and the violence of the rogues, would she still keep such confidence in her ability to handle it? He had to trust her the way she trusted him.

Hoping to ease her mind, he said, "They won't get to you here. I don't know how he got on campus to deliver that, or if he had someone deliver it, but I won't leave you."

She blinked several times in rapid succession. "Um. Hate to break it to you, but a rogue bit me before and Riley was right there ." Her mirthless laugh made him tense. "What makes you think the stalker won't get to me?"

His voice hardened. "Because I won't leave your side until that piece of shit is found." The thrum of his pulse increased as his blood pressure rose. Did she think he wasn't capable of keeping her safe?

Charlotte flinched at his tone, and his spine stiffened.

"I'm sorry." He turned away and stalked across the room before he said something in anger he would regret. He collapsed in his chair and sighed when the bathroom door closed behind him.

Tugging the note from his pocket, he shook his head. He didn't get a chance to talk to her about it. Tossing it on his bedside table, he pulled out his phone and called Lukas. "We have a problem," he said before Lukas even said hello.

"Charlotte?"

"Her stalker."

"Isn't he dead?"

"I thought so, but there was a note and rose left at our door for her."

Lukas cursed, and Aiden heard movement before Lukas said, "I put it on speakerphone. Blaire, Riley, and Seth are here."

"What's going on?" Riley asked.

"Charlotte got a rose and a note from her stalker. At least I think it's him. The rose was pink, fitting the stalker's MO. I don't think the rogue I killed was the guy."

"The fuck?" Seth said, his voice incredulous.

Blaire asked, "What's the note say?"

He grabbed the note and read it to them before tossing it back on the bedside table.

"Who's J?" Riley asked.

"That's what I want to know. I need to ask her," he said, rubbing a hand over his face as he tilted his head back.

Lukas muttered, "I want to know how they got on school grounds."

"Did you call the headmistress?" Seth asked. "Riley, stop moving. I'm about to fall off the bed."

"I'm trying to get close enough to listen."

"You can hear just fine right there."

Aiden couldn't even find amusement in the back-and-forth between Seth and Riley. His fingers scraped through his hair, and he tugged at the crown of his head in frustration. "I think the rogues are trying to get to Blaire through Charlotte."

"It sounds that way from what the note says," Lukas said.

"Though it sure sounds like one of them has taken an extra liking to Charlotte." Riley's words made sense. The additional words of love and obsession weren't necessary if this was all about Blaire.

"I haven't showed Charlotte the note yet, but when I do, I think we should take it to Headmistress Velastra."

Riley asked, "Why haven't you shown her? "

"She was upset, and I said something that made it worse. I think she's still afraid of us, even if she doesn't act like it."

Riley's loud yell and incoherent rambling came rapid-fire-fast through the tinny phone speaker, and rustling sounded on the line until Lukas's voice became clearer.

"I took it off speakerphone. Riley is having a fit about proving we are safe. Seth's trying to calm her down."

"I don't blame her."

"Why?"

"Because our world isn't like Charlotte's. You went through this with Blaire, remember? You tried to drive her away from here because you were afraid for her yourself."

"True," Lukas conceded. "But things are different. We understand this situation now. I don't think Charlotte's afraid of us, but she has every right to be afraid of the rogues and a stalker. I mean, fuck, you were killed, man." Lukas's voice cracked on the last words.

The reminder of what happened threatened to trigger memories he didn't want to experience. He closed his eyes and counted backward from ten until he exhaled heavily, focusing on the truths he knew: He was alive. Charlotte didn't fear him. He didn't represent his world, just like Charlotte didn't represent the human world as a whole. There were bad people to fear in both.

"Listen, she'll be out of the shower soon. I need to get off here."

"Call us if you need."

"Yeah. Tell Riley not to confront her, though. I don't want to make things worse."

"I got you."

"Oh, I'm gonna run and grab a blood packet. Can you come down and hang out on this floor until I'm back? I don't feel comfortable leaving her alone. "

"No problem. I'll head down now."

He stood. He suspected Charlotte might wait him out in the bathroom until he went to bed, so grabbing a packet now to give her space sounded like a good idea. If it made her comfortable to go to sleep without him around, he wouldn't wait on her, but he wouldn't leave her vulnerable—not more than she already was.

The problem with not being able to sleep meant finding himself experiencing a different form of torture than what awaited him in his nightmares.

Lying in the darkness, he tried to keep his attention off the girl lying in the other bed who stole his heart. It took all his willpower to fight the urge to go to her in her bed. The need to be close to her made his skin itch.

The ache radiating through his chest from missing her body heat and the feel of her smooth skin brushing against his when they slept together made the possibility of sleep a fleeting fantasy.

He wished he could crawl into her bed and feel her curl against his side.

He closed his eyes as visions of their nights in Athens together trickled into his mind. Sometimes she would unconsciously sling her leg over his and wrap her arm over his chest in a full body hug.

He even missed the nights where she seemed less relaxed, and he ended up with her foot jammed into his ribs or a set of toes in his face.

Sure, they were in the same room together, but the longing to be physically touching made it hard to breathe sometimes. It felt like desperation. Ever since they returned to Rosebrook Valley, the distance became painful. Now sharing the same room, the pain lessened, but it brought little comfort .

He tried to match his breathing to her soft, deep breaths. Tried to relax. He really tried. But the longer he watched her chest rise and fall with every deep breath she took, studied the way her legs looked bathed in moonlight from the window, and listened to every little sigh that pushed past her soft lips, the more his cock thickened.

He pressed the heel of his hand against the base of his erection to ease the ache.

Seeing her in his T-shirt did things to his lizard brain that he wouldn't admit to anyone. She had plenty of her own clothes now, but every night she stole the T-shirt he'd worn for the day before going to bed. Except tonight. Tonight, his hamper stood open. She'd grabbed another one he wore recently, since she'd gone to bed before he changed.

He knew it was his scent. While it might not all be biology making her want to surround herself with his scent, he understood the need. They taught them all about it in the Korrena education classes growing up.

He wondered if she sought it for comfort or something more.

Either way, the action did nothing to quell the growing desire he felt.

When she rolled over, putting her back to him, hitching a leg over the blankets, he bit the inside of his cheek to hold back the groan at the sight of her sleep shorts riding up and exposing the bottom of her backside and the expanse of her thigh.

The position, with her leg forward, thighs slightly spread, teased him with a shadowed view of a place he knew all too well felt like heaven on earth.

Gripping his shaft through his athletic shorts, he willed himself to calm down. She didn't need to wake and find him in this state. He needed sleep or he wouldn't be able to protect her like he should .

When she murmured something soft and breathy in her sleep, he groaned.

It was going to be a long night.