Chapter 4.

BELLA.

Rafe fucked me for hours after he awoke, beautifully, and so passionately. I wasn't sure why, but the danger of the moment made every kiss we shared even more special. Maybe because there was always a possibility that it would be our last?

Around midnight we made our way down to the kitchen where we found everyone gathered, preparing steaks for the men who'd just woken. They liked them cooked, sort of. A mere ‘sizzle, sizzle, serve' was more accurate. Seared on the outside, raw on the inside.

"Good evening," Roman called out from one of the kitchen stools where he sat, his arms wrapped around Chrissy.

"Good to see you looking so well, brother." Rafe said, walking over to Roman and giving him a hug.

I went over to the kitchen bench and grabbed a grape from the fruit platter. "Any news?"

I glanced around the group, and everyone shook their head, except for Rose. I zeroed in on her. "Have you heard something?"

She glanced over at Nate, then back to me. "No, but I was talking to Bill about getting a message to my stepmom. Anthony is willing to take it for me."

"Isn't that dangerous for him?" I asked, already knowing the answer.

"Yes, it is." Rose said, chewing on her lips in a worrisome way.

Nate draped an arm over Rose's shoulders, "But it could be the best way to keep Rose safe, for the long term. Because even if we get to Rose's birthday and she legally inherits everything, her step mother is still a threat."

He didn't say it but that meant the threat could be around forever.

I turned towards Roman, the oldest brother and the head of the house. "Have you heard anything from the other gargoyle families? Does anyone know who could be behind these attacks?"

Roman shook his head, which I wasn't surprised by, but I just thought I'd ask.

"I don't know about any of you," Gabe said, grabbing Angelique and pulling her close. "But I'm getting sick of this shit. We've been fighting, and hiding, and running now for, what? How many years?"

The guys all grunted and nodded.

My stomach tightened. "But what else is there to do?" I asked. "You're doing everything you can. You keep us safe, and during the day the security team keep us all safe. What other choice do we have?"

"If only you all didn't have to turn to stone through the day," Chrissy mused. "That's the problem. If you didn't need to do that, they'd never be able to hurt you."

I glanced back at my beautiful Rafe, his damaged face a testament to how vulnerable they were in gargoyle form.

Roman heaved a huge sigh, "We know, Chrissy. It is our only weakness, except for our Beloveds of course." He stopped to kiss Chrissy's golden hair, but his words had stirred something inside me.

"Roman, you said there are other shifters in the world, right? Wolf shifters? Bear shifters?"

He nodded. "Yes, and a lot more than that."

"But they choose when they shift, right? They're not like... werewolves that turn under the full moon?"

He stared at me for a long moment, as though trying to decipher what I was getting to. "Yes, that's true."

"Then how come you guys are the only shifters that don't have a choice when you shift?"

Rafe answered from beside me, "But there's others that have no choice. Like vampires in sunlight, werewolves... as you said."

"We're cursed," Nate said.

I pointed at him and grinned, "Exactly. So, could the curse be broken? Do you think that's possible?"

I looked around the group, hope flaring in my chest for the first time. If we could break the curse that forced our men to stand on a stone circle for the day light hours in a vulnerable, frozen state; there might be a chance to outrun the bad guys and disappear forever.

The brothers all exchanged glances which told me they didn't believe a word I was saying. But I was convinced. If there was such a thing as wolf shifters and vampires, surely witches and curses existed too?

Bill walked into the room, dark smudges under his eyes. "Good morning, everyone."

"Hey Bill," I waved at the head of security and picked up one of the toasted cheese sandwiches Chrissy pulled out of the press. "Yum, thanks."

The cheese was thick and melted, oozing out between the toasted bread and making my stomach rumble just looking at it. I bit into the sandwich and Bill placed a folder on the marble counter and began pulling out surveillance photos. "I managed to get into the police station and speak to the guy hired to shoot you guys. The police arrested him, but the lawyers were willing to let me make a deal, since he was just a hired gun and not the people responsible for the attack."

I glanced up at Angelique who was frowning heavily, her arms crossed over her chest. "He didn't deserve a deal," she muttered.

"What's with the photos?" I asked, gesturing to the black and white pictures that sent shivers down my spine.

Spread across the counter in front of us all were photos of the guys in their stone form, shifting and standing naked in the lounge room of our apartment. Pictures of me, of Rose, of Chrissy.

"This is... intense." Rose said, pushing the photos around so we could see all of them.

"Yes, it is." Bill said, grimacing. "I got them off our friend in jail. Him and his team were all given specifics about the gargoyle shifters habits, their weaknesses, and their women. Their orders were to kill all the men, not harm the women unless they got in the way, and to take advantage of you all in stone form if they could."

I flinched, then turned to wrap my arm around Rafe's waist.

Rafe stepped closer and asked, "Did you find out anything useful?"

"I did." Bill said triumphantly, pulling out a folded piece of paper from his pocket. "Number one, Rose, your stepmother's lawyers want to deal, so Anthony's setting that all up. And..." He spread the paper out onto the countertop. "I have the name of the shell company who paid our assassins."

"How's that going to help us?" I asked. As far as I knew, a shell company would hide the name of the true owners.

Bill grinned at me. "I have connections in Homeland security, and a few other secretive organizations. They're tracking this company for me as we speak."

"A money trail is a good thing." Rafe agreed. "It's something to follow."

"Yes. And once I know where the threats coming from, we can attack it. There's nothing worse than chasing a ghost."

I pressed my head into Rafe's chest. I didn't want to even think about more fighting coming our way. It seemed... ridiculous to think that after everything we'd been through, we still had more battles to win.

"What did the lawyers say my stepmother wanted?" Rose asked.

"Basically, everything." Bill said. "But I told them that you'd never wanted the empire, all you ever wanted was the one country house, but you'll take the whole enchilada if they don't make a deal before your birthday."

Rose's eyes went round as saucers. "What if they find out where we are? What if..."

"Anthony will die before he gives away our location." Bill said. "And I'm bringing in ex-military friends to stand guard over you the next few days."

"Have you done a will yet, Rose?" Angelique asked suddenly.

Rose frowned as though searching her memory banks. "No... why?"

"She's only twenty-four," Nate responded, sounding insulted at the implication that Rose had done something wrong.

Angelique rolled her eyes. "I'm only asking because that would be the only way to make sure your stepmother doesn't receive the funds. Because at this point, even if you make it past your birthday, without a will, if something happens, she'll win the case in court, and get it all."

Bill turned towards Angelique and smiled. "Not just a pretty face, are you?"

She shrugged and grabbed a sandwich. "I'd get that organized today if you can, and get it lodged before your birthday."

"What would it need to say?" Rose asked. "I don't have any assets yet."

Angelique shrugged. "Just something along the lines of, you leave all your worldly possessions to X, Y, Z. Name a charity, or a University fund, or other family if you have it. But that would be the best way of dealing with this, I think."

Bill's shoulders seemed to drop in relief. "Angelique that is the best thing advice I've heard in a long time. So now that's sorted and the wheels are in motion on the other, I'm going to shoot off an email to some very expensive lawyers and get a few hours sleep."

"Thanks Bill," we all chorused together.

Bill nodded his head and walked out of the room.

Rose sighed and sat down on the stool. "That went well."

"It did." Angelique said. "Now the only question is, are you all happy enough to stay here for the moment. I know the house isn't the fortress you were hoping for."

The brothers all looked around the circle and I waited, unsure of what they were going to say.

"We haven't had much time discuss it," Gabe began.

"Especially with Roman being hurt." Nate finished.

"But?" I asked, loving the bond the brothers shared where they could literally finish each other's sentences.

"But..." Roman said with a grin at me. "We would like to get moving as soon as possible. It isn't safe here, and now that we know we can go anywhere our stone circles can travel, why stay here?"

"Yes." Rafe added, stepping behind me and sliding his hands around my waist. "We can go anywhere. Canada, South America. Hell, if we hired out own private plane we could probably get to Europe, or even Australia."

"Just gotta watch the weight limit for those private planes," Rose added.

We all stared at her. Was she making a weird joke?

She went bright red under our scrutiny. "They have strict limits due to the engineering and if you all shift, won't your gargoyle statues weigh a ton?"

"She's got a point. But if we play it right, we could travel during the night only, when you weight the least." I considered that option for a moment, a smile taking hold of my lips. "We could, you know. Travel. See the world. Get away from whoever is trying to kill you."

Rafe wrapped his arms around me in a possessive move I recognized too well, and all the couples excused themselves to go back to bed. The sun would come up soon and we all wanted to spend our awake time loving our partners.

The future, only hours ago, had seemed so dark and uncertain. But now we had a plan and surely there was a way out of this mess?