Gabriel’s POV
I woke up around 10 am and the first thing I did was smile. It was the day my sister came home.
I got up and went to the bathroom to do my morning business and to take a shower. I quickly got dressed and went downstairs to have a cup of coffee and eat something.
My plan was to get to Annie’s house as quickly as possible. Maybe get them here before 6 pm.
There was a knock on my door and Nick let himself in.
“Hey, man.” he greeted me.
“Morning,” I said, chewing on a sandwich as fast as I could.
“Somebody is hungry,” he smirked and got himself a cup of coffee. “Did you have a girl here last night?”
“No,” I frowned. “I just want to get to Annie’s house as fast as possible.”
“You are going to freak her out and ruin this for both of us,” he said. “You said 6 pm. Give her until then.”
I looked at him and frowned. I didn’t want to wait until then. How was he so calm?
“What the hell am I supposed to do until then?” I asked him. “And how are you so calm? You should want her here even more than I do.”
“Oh, believe me, I do,” he said, sipping his coffee. “I am barely keeping Nate calm. But I talked to my mom. And she made a couple of good points.”
“Did you tell her she is my sister?” I growled at him.
“No, man,” he defended himself. “That is not my secret to tell. I just told her about her grandma and what happened in her village.”
I felt anger coming to the surface.
“That murderer was not her grandma,” I said, clenching my fists.
He looked at me and I could see the regret on his face. He raised his hands like he was surrendering. I took a few deep breaths to calm myself down.
“You are right. I am sorry,” he said calmly. “But my mom doesn’t know what happened. And neither does Aria. So, until you tell her, she is her grandma.”
He was right. But it didn’t make me any less angry.
“You are right,” I said unclenching my fists. “It is just hard. I want to kill that woman all over again.”
“I know, Gabe. Me too.”
I took a deep breath again. “What did your mom say?”
“Well, she is happy for me, of course,” he smiled brightly. “But she said not to push her. She has been through a lot recently and I shouldn’t add to that stress.”
“So, you are not going to tell her she is your mate?” I asked him, surprised.
“Oh, no, I will. Today,” he smiled. “If another Jack happens, I will lose it and go on a killing rampage. I can’t go through that again. And the only way not to is to tell her. I am just going to stop pushing everything else. Like this, for example. If we say 6 pm, it will be 6 pm. If she tells me she can’t be with me right now, I will wait. The only condition to that is no other males, of course. And I will try not to get angry in front of her like yesterday. I hate seeing fear in her eyes. Even more when I am responsible.”
He was right. Well, his mom was right. We have been pushing her too hard. It was natural for us to want her because we know who she was to us, but she didn’t know who we are to her. To her, we were two strangers who entered her life and decided a lot of things for her. If somebody did that to me, I would hate them. And I didn’t want her to hate me. I would die if that happened.
“Your mom is a wise woman,” I smiled.
“Yes, she is. And her son is even wiser,” he said proudly.
I laughed hard. “Do you have a brother that I don’t know about?”
He gave me the finger and put his mug in the dishwasher. I laughed again.
“Okay,” I sighed. “If we are going over there at 6 pm, what are we going to do until then?”
“We could prepare their rooms,” he suggested.
“I already did that,” I smiled. “I had a woman from my grandma’s old firm come and decorate.”
Those rooms were empty and unused. So, I had to make them livable. I didn’t know what to do exactly, so I asked Maire from my grandma’s old firm to come and make them girly. She was an architect, just like my grandma was. They worked together for years, and she loved my grandma. She was happy to help.
She did an amazing job in those rooms. I think. I was not really an expert when it came to girls’ bedrooms. All I knew was that there was a king-size bed in each of their rooms and a closet you could live in. I hope it will fit all their clothes. I knew girls had a lot of those.
“Really?” Nick asked and raised his eyebrows. “You are well prepared. When did you arrange that?”
“Yesterday while we were at Annie’s.”
“How did you know she was going to agree?” he asked, raising his eyebrows.
“I didn’t,” I shrugged. “But I wanted to be prepared.”
“Wow, she works fast,” he laughed.
She does. I was surprised when she said she could get it done in a day.
“You still have to come up with an idea of what to do until 6 pm, since you are the one who messed up my plan,” I said seriously.
“Movie and lunch?” he suggested.
I nodded and went to sit on a couch in the living room.
We spent the day watching movies and eating lunch Nick’s mom made for us.
At 5:45 we left my house to get the girls. Finally,
Aria’s POV
I didn’t really have a lot of stuff. It took me about 30 minutes to pack everything that I own. I brought my clothes and a few items that were in our safe. Everything else was lost in a fire.
Not Annie, though. We woke up around 9:30 am and she hasn’t stopped talking about the clothes she was going to bring to Gabriel’s house. Around 11 am I wanted to put a spell on her to stop her from speaking and running around the house. She was giving me a headache.
It is 3 pm now and we are sitting in her room going through her shoes.
“Do you think the closet will be big enough?” she whined.
“What if there is no closet?” I smirked.
She looked at me with a horrified expression on her face. I laughed hard.
“Do not even joke about that!” she yelled. “My clothes and shoes can’t live in a suitcase or on the floor. They need a spacious closet.”
She talked about clothes and shoes like living things. It was funny.
“I am sure Gabriel has a closet for you,” I said. “And you can keep the stuff you can’t fit in mine. I don’t have anything to put in a closet anyway.”
“For now,” she winked at me. “We will go shopping and fix that.”
“My money doesn’t grow on trees.”
“You can always ask Gabriel,” she said, looking at different shoes to bring. “I have a feeling he would give you everything he owns anyway.”
Was she crazy? I was having enough trouble living with her and figuring out how to pay her. And she was my friend. How could I live with a stranger and take money from him?
“Are you insane?” I said. “I will have enough problems with rent, and you want me to take more money from him?”
“What rent?” she asked and looked at me with a shocked expression.
I frowned at her. “You didn’t think we would live there for free, did you?”
“Um, yeah,” she said. “I am not giving him money. He is the one who wanted us there and safe.”
“Well, I am going to pay rent as long as we are there,” I said and crossed my arms. “I was going to pay you as well.”
She smiled at me like I am a child who did a silly thing.
“I wouldn’t take it. And Gabriel won’t take it either,” she said confidently.
I frowned and stared at her. After helping her pack for a whole day, I didn’t have any energy left to fight with her. I was paying rent and that was final. If he won’t take it, I will put it in his account.
“Do I bring the red ones or the blue ones?” She interrupted my thinking.
I looked at the shoes she was pointing at.
“Annie, his house is like 10 minutes away. You can come back and take whatever you need,” I sighed.
“I know. But I love them all and want them to come with me,” she whined.
“You do know that they are not alive, right?” I smirked.
“Watch it, witch. You are talking about my babies,” she said, faking anger and pointing a heel at me.
I laughed hard and got off the bed.
“I am going to grab something to eat,” I said. “Are you hungry?”
“No, thanks,” she responded. “I need to finish this.”
I grabbed a bowl of cereal and sat in front of the TV in the living room. I got so caught up in my favorite TV show, Once Upon a Time, that I didn’t even hear Annie come downstairs.
“Hey, girl,” she said, and I jumped slightly.
She laughed and sat beside me. “Did I scare you?”
“A little,” I smiled. “I got caught up. Are you done?”
“Yeah. I think,” she sighed. “I will have to come back to get more clothes and shoes, though.”
I laughed and looked at the clock. It is 5:30 pm. The guys will be here soon.
“Should we bring the bags by the door?” I asked and got up.
“Yeah. They will be here soon,” she said.
We went upstairs and got our bags. I had one and she had five. I chuckled. We placed them by the door, and I helped Annie to make sure everything was okay in her house.
“Do you think you could put a spell on my home?” she asked me. “Something to make sure we are the only ones who can come inside. I don’t want somebody breaking in.”
I smiled and nodded. I quickly remembered a protection spell and altered it slightly so Annie and I could come inside if we needed to. Nobody else can.
As I was finishing the spell, I heard a car pull up. Annie opened the door and smiled at the guys.
“Hi, girls,” Gabriel smiled. “Are you ready?”
I nodded and grabbed some of the bags from the floor. Nick took them from me and loaded them in the car.
“Did you put a spell on the house?” Gabriel asked me.
I nodded. “Yes. Annie asked me. It is a protection spell so only Annie and I can enter.”
He smiled at me. “Impressive.”
I didn’t think it was. He could do so much more with his unique powers. But I didn’t say anything. I just thanked him and smiled back at him.
We finished loading our bags in the car and Annie took another look around the house to make sure everything was in place. She locked the door and we got in the car.
As we started driving toward Gabriel’s house, I took a deep breath to calm myself. Everything was going to be okay. I hoped so.
