Blood Of The Marked

At eight o’clock, Iris, Vince, and I stood on the front porch at the Darken’s house.Nervously, I reached out to ring the doorbell—just as the door was flung open.

Aiden stepped out onto the front porch and scooped me up into his arms, twirling me around. “Happy birthday, birthday girl. I’m so glad you’re here.”He continued to twirl me around in the air a few more times like I was a figure skater, before gently putting me back on the ground.

“Thanks,” I replied, grinning up at him. It had been so long since I had gotten this close to him, or any of the Darken besides Colton, that I had forgotten how damn tall they were. I felt like a baby bunny next to an elephant when I was with them.

“Come inside,” Aiden said, holding the door open.

I followed him into the house with Iris and Vince following close behind me. As we entered the foyer, Rhys and Colton were also standing there. Meaning, three of the four Darken were in the room. The only one who was missing was Theo.

“You guys, these are my friends—Iris and Vince,” I introduced them, even though I knew I technically didn’t,considering they were their professors, too.

“We already know them,” Colton said, as if reading my mind. “Thank you guys for coming to celebrate our girl’s birthday.”

Our girl? What. The. Fuck.

I could feel myself growing a little annoyed and the implication that I was their girl when they hadn’t spoken to me in, literally, months.I felt something then: my bones tightening. Oh, no.

My anger was causing me to shift into my wolf form. Of course my birthday had fallen on a full moon.

Calm yourself, Raven.

Trying not to let myself grow angrier by Colton’s comment, I pushed the thought to the back of my mind.

“So, what type of party is this?” I asked.

“What do you mean? It’s a birthday party. Your birthday party, birthday girl,” Rhys said. “Happy birthday, by the way.”

“Thank you. But I mean, what exactly are we doing? I doubt we’re going to just sit here and twiddle our thumbs and toes.”

“Well, we can do that if you want. But I was thinking we could play strip poker.” Aiden shot me a cocky grin.

“That sounds like fun to me,” Vince said.

“Of course it sounds fun to you,” I replied with an eye roll. “We’re not playing strip poker.”

“And why not?” Aiden asked.

“Because I don’t even know how to play poker.”

“Even better.” Aiden waggled his eyebrows at me.

I rolled my eyes. “Seriously, though. What are we doing?”

“Well, I figured we could hang out in the pool, maybe watch a movie,

have some birthday cake, and then you can open your presents,” Colton said.

“You got me presents?” I asked with raised eyebrows.

“What type of birthday party would this be without presents?” Rhys asked.

A smile hit my lips. It was thoughtful of them. But I was curious to know what they could have possibly gotten me. It wasn’t like they knew me well enough to know what my interests or hobbies were.

“Why don’t we hit the pool now?” Colton asked.

“We didn’t bring bathing suits,” Iris, who had been quiet until now, spoke up.

“Well, that’s an easy solution. We’ll just skinny dip,” Aiden said. I glared at him.

I wasn’t going to lie. I wouldn’t have minded skinny dipping with

him—or with any or all of the other Darken.

But I didn’t want to share them with Iris, or with Vince, for that

matter. I knew that was probably really selfish of me. It wasn’t like I was dating one of them, let alone all of them. I just wanted them to be... well, mine, and only mine. It was a feeling I couldn’t even begin to describe.

“Aiden’s just being an asshole. We have some extra bathing suits in the changing room leading to the pool. Come on. Let’s give you the tour,” Colton said.

—-

Every ounce of their home was... well, completely stunning. It felt like I had stepped into the home of some famous Hollywood movie star or something. From the marble floors to the granite countertops and the expensive-looking wallpaper, everything about the house was completely gorgeous.

I knew it was probably a crazy thought for me to have, but I could have totally pictured myself living in the house.I knew that was just a pipedream, though. I was going to be stuck in my private dorm suite for the next four years.

Not that I could really complain about that. I actually did like my living quarters. But this house had one thing that my dorm room didn’t have.

The Darken.

“And this is the changing room,” Colton said finally as we entered what looked like a gorgeous powder room. “Change into the bathing suits and meet us at the pool—right through that door.” He pointed his chin at the door to the left of the room.

“Okay,” I agreed with a nod.

Once they had all left the room, Iris turned to me with wide eyes. “Holy crap. This place is right out of a fairytale!”

“A fairytale? Honey, I’m pretty sure I saw it on WHGTV once.” He glanced over at me and explained, “The werewolf version of HGTV.”

“Well, we’re just here for a party. It’s not like they’re inviting us to move in or anything,” I said, trying not to let my own disappointment about that show on my face.

“No, but you could totally be spending way more time here.” She glanced out a window and said, “Um, did you guys see the pool?”I glanced out the window and then frowned. “The pool is outdoors? It’s November. It’s freezing out!”

“Raven, you’re forgetting something. We’re werewolves,” Vince reminded me. “Even if it was snowing outside, our body heat would melt it. We can swim during any season.”

“Oh.” Duh.

I glanced around the room and that’s when I spotted the bathing suits. They were all brand new with tags.I began to go through them all, looking for one that I could wear before groaning. “You guys, they only have bikinis.”

“So? You could rock a bikini. Have you even seen your tight little bod?” Vince asked, scanning my body. “I mean, not that you don’t have curves in all of the right places. But that is most definitely a bikini bod.”

“Thanks,” I replied, but I still felt weird about it as I grabbed a black bikini and then slipped behind one of the curtains to get changed.When I emerged, I glanced at myself in the mirror. “Um, my boobs are practically falling out of this.”

“I think you look awesome,” Iris said a moment later as she remerged soon after disappearing behind another set of curtains, wearing an emerald green bikini with sequins.

“

And you’re trying to get Theo’s attention, right?” Vince asked a moment later. “Your boobs hanging out of that thing are a damn good way to do that.”

“So,” I said, glancing at myself in the mirror, “There’s something I haven’t told you guys yet. You both already know I have feelings for Theo, but...”

“What is it?” Iris pressed as she pulled her hair up into a bun.

“I think I have feelings for... all of them,” I said in a quiet voice, just in case any of them were listening from the other side of the room.Something I’d learned in my classes at the Academy was that werewolves actually didn’t have supersonic hearing like you’d believe; that sense only kicked into high gear when we were in predatory mode or trying to protect ourselves. So, the odds were that if the Darken weren’t right outside our door, they probably hadn’t heard me.

“All of them?” Iris just stared back at me. She paused for a moment and then said,

“Well, I can’t say I blame you. All of them are hot, and they all seem interested in you.”

“I don’t know about that,” I replied with a sigh. “None of them have even talked to me for more than a month.”

“Well, you’re about to find out the explanation for that tonight,” Vince reminded me. “I’m sure that strutting around in that barely-covers- anything bikini top will help you in that department. Now, let’s go swimming.”

“Okay.” I took a deep breath and then glanced at myself in the mirror one last time. I had actually straightened my hair for this occasion and put on gasp—makeup. My black mascara and black eyeliner made my green eyes pop.I wasn’t sure if it was the lighting or if it was my new life as a wolf, but I thought I looked better than usual. My skin had this vibrant glow it’d never had before.

In fact, I hadn’t even looked this glowy all week.Was it possible that it could have been because I was around Theo again? Everything about me just felt—and maybe even looked better when I was within a close proximity to him.

The only question was why?

——

“Ow, ow!” Aiden hooted as I climbed down the ladder into the pool. “You look freaking hot, birthday girl.”

I rolled my eyes at him. “Thank you.”

“Why don’t you come over here and sit on my lap?” he asked.

I swallowed hard. I wasn’t going to lie. The idea did sound tempting,

but... I wasn’t sure about doing that in front of the others. I didn’t want to make anyone jealous.And in front of Iris and Vince? That would have just been too much for me.

Don’t get me wrong. I loved having my friends here to celebrate with me. It was more than any girl could have asked for on her birthday. I just wished I could have been alone with the Darken pack tonight.

Really though, it was probably best that Iris and Vince were here. I deserved answers before anything could happen between any of us, especially after the Darken had been so weird lately.

“The water is so warm,” Iris commented as she climbed into the pool after me.

“That’s all body heat,” Colton explained. “Since we’re Ancients, our bodies tend to be a little hotter than regular wolves, so having just three of us in an average-sized pool like this can make it heat up to hot tub-like temperatures.”

“It’s amazing,” I told him as I swam across the pool, enjoying the warm water. I thought about the last time I had gone swimming. My parents and I had gone to the beach just a few weeks before their deaths.It was my first birthday without them. I tried to push the thought to the back of my mind.

“So, where is Theo?” I asked then, noticing that he was still missing.

“He should be here any minute now,” Rhys informed me, glancing down at his watch.

Hmm. Supposedly this whole birthday party had been his idea, and he was late for it. It was making me question, yet again, if Theo was going out of his way to avoid me for some reason.

“Anyway, how is your first semester going?” Colton asked me. “It’s... going,” I replied with a shrug.

“Whose class is your favorite? I will be really offended if you don’t

say mine,” Aiden said with a grin, but I knew he was joking. He had been the first to admit how boring the History of Werewolves was.

“Actually, I do love your class,” I admitted.

“Are you freaking kidding me? It’s boring as hell.”

“I like history,” I replied with a shrug. “The more we learn about the

things that have gone wrong in the past, the less likely we are to repeat them in the future.”

“That’s sometimes true, but not always,” Aiden said, swimming across the pool and over to me.

He placed his hands on the edge of the pool, locking me in between his grip.

“How do you figure?” I found myself whispering because it was too hard to get the words out. Something about being this close to him, with his honey brown eyes pouring into mine, was giving me all the feels.

“Sometimes, people—and werewolves know that they’re about to do something that will complicate everything, and yet they choose to do it anyway,” he murmured, still staring into my eyes.

All.

The.

Swoons.

“Aiden,” I heard Colton say, but his voice droned into the background as Aiden brought his lips down on mine. His kiss was wet and warm from the water.I kissed him back slowly at first, hesitant because of Theo.

Except Theo wasn’t even here...

So I kissed him back, knowing that he’d definitely find out about our kiss later. But in that moment, I didn’t even care.

It was passionate and hasty, a kiss that was obviously driven by a lot of built up tension.

Not caring that everyone in the pool was probably watching us, I wrapped my arms around his neck and, tugging on his wet hair, pulled him in closer to me and latching my legs around his back, trying to pull him in as close as possible to me.

When he finally pulled away from me, we were both breathless.Wow!,Everything about that kiss had been completely wow. It had been... amazing. There was just no other way to describe it.

“Ahem.” I heard a throat clear behind me.

Glancing over my shoulder, I was surprised to find Theo standing there behind us. He looked... well, honestly, he looked crushed.

If there had ever been a doubt in my mind about his feelings for me, the look on his face completely cleared it up for me.

He really did feel something for me, and I had just hurt him.

“Sorry I’m late,” he finally said after a long moment. “I went to pick up the birthday cake.”

Then, without saying another word, he headed into the house.

“Holy shit,” Vince said quietly from behind me. “I feel like I’m in the middle of a romantic comedy, except it’s not funny.”

Well, that was one way to put it.Climbing out of the pool, I did the only thing I could think of.I started to go after Theo, but then something happened.

I began to feel dizzy and before I even knew what was happening, my

eyes were fluttering shut and I was falling hard to the ground.