Surrounded By Temptation(30)

“Don’t you even think about it, Mikaela… Not in your fucking condition!” Josh roared.

Ariel felt sucker punched. “You’re pregnant,” she breathed.

Krista, Toby, and Ariel all watched as Mikaela slowly stood upright. “Way to keep a secret.”

“I’m sorry, but we don’t know what shifting will do to the ba—”

A high-pitched yelped made Josh stop in mid-sentence and all of them turned their attention to the fight still going on in the room.

“You have to help him,” Ariel said, not sure where that demand came from.

“If we stop the fight, this could happen again. Rob has to teach Jack a lesson,” Josh said.

“But what if he kills him?” Ariel covered her mouth, feeling sick at the thought of watching one brother kill another. Even if it were to happen because of what had happened to her. Maybe the sick feeling was due to the fact it was happening because of her.

“We won’t allow that,” Toby said.

“Rob is furious, but Jack is still his brother. Now if Jack had succeeded in hurting you…”

Josh didn’t have to finish that thought. Ariel knew if Jack had raped her, Toby would rip him from limb to limb.

The fighting morphed from claws scratches and biting to punches as both men shifted simultaneously.

“I think it’s safe for her to leave,” Josh said, looking at Mikaela.

“C’mon,” she mumbled, holding her hand out as she took a few steps closer to Ariel. “Krista will follow us.”

“She goes nowhere!” Jack roared, his face a bloody mess. “She’s a fucking traitor. She was going to sell us out and she admitted it. Tell them, you sorry-ass whore.”

Krista growled furiously just as Toby said, “Watch your fucking mouth. That’s my mate’s sister you’re talking about.”

Josh looked at Ariel. “Do you know what he’s talking about?”

This wasn’t good. It was obvious Jack couldn’t stand her—though why he wanted to mate with her, she didn’t understand…unless it was just a primal instinct that didn’t cater to his own feelings for her at all—but she didn’t want the others to hate her too.

“It’s a misunderstanding. I sent off some DNA for analysis and he assumed the worst.”

Josh frowned at her. “What were you going to do with that information?”

She was a horrible person for even thinking it, but if she were going to make things right, she had to be honest. “I felt it was necessary in the treatment of your ability if I understood as much of it as I could.”

“And you were going to use us!” Jack yelled.

“Yes,” she screamed back, her defenses all shattered. “I’d briefly considered it when Krista first told me about this. I’m a fucking scientist. It’s ingrained in me to research the unanswered and announce the discovery to the world.” She waved one of her arms around, knowing she look like she’d lost her mind but not really giving a shit at the moment. The fear of her attempted rape and subsequent murder still fresh, she was running on nervous energy.

At her confession, Jack shoved a stunned Rob off of him and stood up, facing his brother. “You know what? You can have the lying bitch. Just get her out of my sight.”

He stormed out, leaving Ariel alone with the others, the hurt look in Rob’s eyes a knife to her soul.

“Um, I found some needles. Looks like he hasn’t been taking his medicine,” Toby mumbled with what Ariel assumed was a poor attempt at breaking the newly found tension in the room.

“He told me. I should’ve been watching him more closely. He said they made him sick and your father wouldn’t relay that information to me,” Ariel responded, but didn’t take her eyes off Rob.

“He still shouldn’t have stopped the medication,” Mikaela said.

Without any emotion, Rob said, “Will you take her and get her cleaned up, Mikaela? Toby, I need you and Krista to make sure she doesn’t have any problems leaving the premises.”

At the dead tone in his voice and the absolute authority in the command, Ariel felt silent tears streaking down her face. “Robbie,” she breathed.

But he walked out anyway.





Chapter Eleven



“She lied to me,” Rob growled at Toby. It’d been two weeks since he’d saved Ariel from his brother, and he still couldn’t find a way to stop the painful, crushing ache in his heart. He hadn’t said two words to Jack since that day. He’d seen him at breakfast, worked as assigned, and glanced at him from time to time during dinner, but as for words, he’d had none. What Jack had tried to do to his mate was unforgiveable. As far as Rob was concerned, Jack was dead to him.