Page 104 of Butterfly Assassin
Aaron laughed and shook his head. “I was not cute.” Far from it. “Anyway, I was living with my nan at the time, and she used to tell me that I was beautiful inside and that my teen years wouldn’t last forever. She said I’d grow up into a beautiful butterfly… I just had to wait.”
Michael smiled. “She was right.”
“Thank you.” He hadn’t thought about his nan in a while, and the reminder of her was bittersweet. He missed her. “She died a month before I was due to be bitten, so I got this”—he pointed to his chest—“to remember her, while my body would let it take.” He’d had to Sam to authorise it since he was under age.
“It’s amazing.” Michael traced all of it until Aaron took his hand and intertwined their fingers.
“Now it’s your turn,” Aaron said.
Michael went to sit up and winced. “Ow.”
Aaron narrowed his eyes, panic spiking. “Did I hurt you?”
“No.” Michael put a hand up. “You didn’t. I’m just a bit sore. It’s nothing. I maybe exaggerated a little on what the doctor said.”
Aaron growled, but Michael waved him away. “I’ll be fine with some rest.” He allowed Aaron to shove a couple of pillows behind his head, propping him up. “You know about Blake?”
“I know he’s in Krillick Hall.” The alpha council had told them that much. “Alpha Wallace has banned him from ever becoming a member of a shifter pack. If he ever gets out of there, he’ll have alpha council supervision but won’t ever be part of a pack.” It sounded like the worst punishment ever. Aaron would never survive without his pack.
“I spoke to Frank and the DCI. We’re going to charge Blake with four counts of murder and two counts of attempted murder.”
“You found proof?”
“Yep. They found traces of blood on those metal claw things.” Michael yawned. “Sorry. Guess I’m still not a hundred per cent.”
Aaron smiled and gave his hand a gentle squeeze. “We can have a nap if you want?”
“I’m not an old man, I don’t need a nap.” He yawned again, and Aaron sniggered.
“No?”
Giving Aaron a playful shove, Michael sighed. “Let me just tell you the rest of it and then we can put all this behind us.”
Aaron liked the sound of that. “Okay, go on then.”
“Basically, Wilson was able to fill in some more details about the killings, enough to prove that both White and Blake were involved as well as a couple of the other bodyguards. And we found Blake’s DNA inside the metal claws.”
“Ahh.” Made sense now. Aaron knew about the replica claws they’d found at Blake’s cottage. “Why did he have them, though? If he wanted those people dead, why not just shoot them? It seems a lot of trouble to go through to kill someone. And why did they want them dead?”
“Blake’s not talking. He denied everything he told you at the cottage, so we can only assume they wanted us to look at a shifter for the killings. With the SCTF involved, the focus would be on the packs, not humans. As for the why… Crossford was likely killed because he tried to throw a fight in his own favour and cost White a lot of money. The other two, we can only speculate as to why. Maybe they overheard something they shouldn’t? Unless Blake starts talking, we’ll probably never know for sure.”
“Except it didn’t work out that way, did it?” They’d still focused on Smith.
“No, it didn’t.”
Aaron grinned and edged closer until he pressed up against Michael’s side. “Your gut instinct was right, then?”
“Yeah. Looks that way.”
Leaning down, Aaron stopped when their lips were centimetres apart. “So was mine.”
“Oh?” Michael looked up at him, a smile curving the corners of his mouth. “What did yours tell you?”
“After that night in the bathroom, I knew there was something special between us. Knew it was more than the heat of the moment. We had a connection, something I should fight to keep, no matter what.”
Michael swallowed, gaze locked on Aaron’s. “And you still believe that?”
He let his fangs slide out enough for Michael to see them and pressed his growing erection against his thigh. Pitching his voice in that low growl he’d learnt Michael liked, he whispered, “What do you think?”
Slipping a hand into Aaron’s hair, Michael drew him the rest of the way, lips brushing. “I think we should always trust our instincts.”
“Me too,” Aaron mumbled as Michael kissed him. They were just starting out, and the future would be challenging for them, but Aaron knew in his heart that his instincts about Michael were right.
He was the one.
Letting himself be drawn into another kiss, Aaron sighed into it. “Me too.”
