Read Aran: Love me Harder - Alien Paranormal Romance Online
Authors: Serena Simpson
Aran: Love me Harder - Alien Paranormal Romance (18 page)
She watched as Ash took him out. She would know that red hair anywhere. She looked around for Aran, to find him in a fight with three men. He looked more like he was exercising than fighting.
They all looked that way. The men were screaming and cussing, reaching for weapons while the brothers were systematically taking them down.
Once again, she thought of a hive mentality. They worked so well together. Could they talk to each other like she and Aran could?
They soon had all of them on the ground. She crawled over to Mr. Harris who was crying. He had not moved.
She watched as Nicolas came over, carrying the body of his wife. He stopped in front of Paul.
“Excuse me, Paul. Your wife would like it very much if you would hold her now. She is scared.”
He looked up with unbelieving eyes to see his wife with a small smile on her lips.
“Paul?”
He reached out to her, cradling her in his arms.
“Thank you.” His voice shook.
“You’re welcome. Thank Rena. She made it clear she wanted all three of you to walk out alive. Thank her mate, Aran. He would never disappoint her.”
“What happened to that bastard Lars?”
“He will never bother you again.”
Nicolas reached over and helped Rena to stand.
“We don’t want Aran to find you on the ground.”
“Where is he?”
“He took out the trash.”
Chapter Twenty-nine
Clean up was easy, too easy in Rena’s opinion. After a call to the cops, they came and found a park full of unconscious men and lots of fire power. The park wasn’t empty. The brothers were still there watching until the police got there.
Now they were all back at headquarters as she fondly thought of Aran’s home. Dee was sitting on a loveseat, covered in a blanket, although it wasn’t cold. She was letting her get away with that, because her nerves had to be frayed.
Niko was in the corner, trying not to hiss and stare at Dee. She was letting him get away with that one too. Who was she to stand in the way of true love?
Everyone else, besides Aran, was taking a minute to rehash their victory and complain about the fact that it wasn’t much of a fight.
“There will be another fight.” All eyes turned to Aran.
“What do you know?” Sergey asked.
“Lars wasn’t working alone. He was working with one of us.”
The room went silent. Dee stiffened.
“One of you?” Dee asked.
“Yes. We are a specialized group of individuals. Whoever this person is, he has our training or training like it.”
Heads nodded slowly.
“Someone is hunting us?”
This came from Dante, who Rena knew was not a brother per se, but she was betting money he was like them.
“Yes.” Aran nodded his head and left his perch by the door. He walked over to Rena and picked her up, then sat placing her on his lap.
He kissed her slowly not really caring who was looking. She kissed him back.
“I thought I lost you when you fell.” His hands skimmed her body, assuring himself for the hundredth time that she was well.
“I wasn’t the one who disappeared to take out the trash and didn’t reappear for several hours.”
He smiled at her. “They were informative hours.”
“I want to go home.” Dee stood with the cover still wrapped around her like a shield.
“Why don’t you stay here for a few days? I would love to have you around.” Rena asked in a quiet voice.
“Rena!”
“Dee.” She got up and walked over to her. “The fact that you are bellowing at me, lets me know you need to stay.”
“Fine, I will spend the night.”
“Three days at the least.”
“Two Rena and no more.”
“Ok Two.”
“I’m going upstairs.” Dee reached out and hugged Rena. “I love you woman.”
“Love you too, Dee. You’re my bestie. I will always take care of you.”
They wiped their eyes on the sly and Dee left.
Rena stood until she heard the soft click of the bedroom door upstairs. “I am worried about her.”
“I know.” Aran opened his arms and she walked into them.
“What now?” She hugged him tight.
“Now we wait.”
“We will let the two of you have some privacy.” Sergey announced, as they headed for the door.
“Rena will you stay with me? Live here with me?”
“You want me to stay?”
“Yes. You can unpack everything you brought and put it wherever you want. If you want to change out the furniture, you can. I want this to be our house.”
“We are not married.”
“I know what married means and we are so much more. We are mates. I will love you forever. No separation, ever.”
She reached up and caressed his face. “Yes, I will stay with you.”
He reached down and picked her up. He kissed her and headed for the stairs.
Back Matter
I hope you enjoyed Aran and Rena’s story. I truly enjoyed writing it and getting to know them.
Please leave a review at the site you purchased this e-book letting others know what you thought of it.
How to find me
You can find me at my
website
I am also on twitter at @serena789books
Niko – Book 2 Excerpt
Chapter One
He had tortured her. Not on the outside, she could have handled that. It wouldn’t have been the first time she had been hit or kicked or well other things. Physical torture was so blasé now. She took it in stride.
No, he had messed with her mind. She had nightmares seeing his fangs hanging, feeling his hot breath on her neck. The more she bottled them up, the worse they became.
She was becoming scared that someone might commit her, that someone of course was Rena, her best friend. She tried to avoid her nowadays. It was better for both of them this way.
She flipped the covers off, getting up. The pretense of sleep was long gone. She slipped on her work clothes and went out. It was only four a.m., but she would spend the rest of the night walking or riding around the dark streets.
After what she had been through, the streets no longer scared her. She knew that there were real monsters out there and they only looked like men.
She felt the hair on her neck vibrate. He was following her again. She knew if she looked over her shoulder, there would be no one there. There had been no one there for months, but he was there somewhere.
She refused to say his name, as if saying it would make him appear. SB it was, her little slice of comfort complete with great coffee. If she was inside, he would protect her from the outside. If she chose to walk, he would be so close she could touch him, even though she couldn’t see him.
She shook her head. These were the things she couldn’t tell anyone. They sounded insane. She was scared to even tell Rena and she told Rena almost everything.
She walked into SB, smiling at the two familiar faces. They were there most nights when she came in. One was a writer she knew, because they had talked several times. She said she got some of her best writing done at night.
The other was a friendly, elderly gentleman. His wife had passed a couple of months ago and nights were the hardest for him. The bed was too empty he would say.
She went up and greeted Jim, the barista. He was a twenty something college student who was working his way through. He was smart and nice. She always enjoyed talking to him.
“What brings you back, Dee?”
He had called her Mam more than once when they first met. She had found it imperative to stop that. He was making her feel old. She had finally convinced him to call her Dee.
“I couldn’t sleep again.” She looked into his bright blue eyes, sky blue. He made her feel like she was outside. His dirty blonde hair fell into his eyes. If she was ten or fifteen years younger. She would consider going after him.
Now all she thought about was a cup of coffee and sleep that didn’t scare her.
“The usual?”
“Yes. Wait. No. Give me a pastry too, that one, the chocolate one that looks like pure sin.”
She took her glorified drink and her pastry and found a nice stuffed chair to sit in. She set the pastry down and looked at.
She could almost see her mother’s disapproving face. ‘Dee.’ Her mother would say. ‘Remember, you have to keep your body slender. How else will you get a man?’
She would love to tell her mom about slender bodies and men, but her mom was no longer with her. She had learned the hard way that having a man wasn’t always what it was cracked up to be.
She picked up the pastry and sunk her teeth into it. Damn it was good. Maybe she would just eat and eat until the opposite sex never looked at her again. She was good with being the local cat woman.
She turned to the window and licked her lips, taunting without remorse the imaginary male watching her.
When the pastry was gone and the coffee had warmed her insides, she slumped back in the chair. She wrapped the handle of the purse around her arm and then stuck the rest under her ass.
Yes, she was paranoid. She deserved to be after all that had happened to her. Then she closed her eyes, hoping she might cat nap for the next two hours.
She got some sleep, waking at the occasional noise. Once she swore her invisible body guard was standing over her. She felt a warm sensation. It made her tired and she slipped off to sleep.
When she woke up, four hours had passed. It was the most sleep she had gotten since the kidnapping. She almost felt human. She got up and stretched. Jim was gone and the new day was in full swing.
She needed to go. She was already late. She worked for Aran’s Dare. They were a large security company with contracts all over the world. She had always wondered how a security company became that big.
She knew from her best friend, who happened to be living with the big guy himself, that they had government and military contracts. Wow, she had no idea when she got the job.
She waved to security when she walked in. She was an accountant. Yeah mom, I can take care of myself. They actually paid good wages here. They could afford to. She knew, since she did the books. They actually hired several accountants. They were that vast.
“Dee. How are you?” Cheryl one of the secretaries called out to her.
She changed course to stop and talk for a minute. “Doing good, but as you can see, I am late.”
“Hun, you look like you slept in that outfit.”
“That’s because I did. See you later.”
Anyone who knew her knew she wasn’t the same anymore. There was a time when she wouldn’t have been caught in anything but the finest, sharpest clothes. Now she really didn’t care.
She still cared about herself, barely, but she didn’t care about the outer trappings of clothes and even hair. Her extensions were gone, nothing but tracks anyway.
She now wore her long, but way too fine hair straight. It was funny how different it made her look. She was still attractive, but not really cover girl model anymore.
The smell of donuts stopped her march towards her desk. Her stomach rumbled. She had just eaten that pastry five hours ago. Yeah, her stomach protested and before that you ate three days ago.
Oops she had forgotten that. So much for sticking it to her mom. She went over and picked up a nice big fluffy donut and grabbed another cup of coffee. Coffee was appropriate at all times as far as she was concerned.
Finally, she was at her desk. Maybe her boss would not notice she was late. Yeah, he would notice. The man noticed everything. Taking another bite of her donut she logged into her computer and hit the net.
She wanted to start by looking at the bank account. Although the money in there was not hers, now that Rena was tied to it by the owner, she wanted to make sure none of it was missing.
She had noticed a month ago that money seemed to be rerouted. Not only was she not a thief, she didn’t want one on her shift. She had gone and told Vance. He was head of the department.
Many times the brothers headed each department personally, but they had brought in managers not too long ago, because of things that had happened. She wasn’t sure that she trusted Vance. Then again she was justifiably paranoid. She did try and remember that.
She had informed him of the suspected missing funds. Unfortunately it was not the job sites she was responsible for.
She started with checking the balance. They had such a healthy bank account in this economy that hundreds of thousands of dollars could go missing with no one except the accountant of course, being any wiser.
She checked the beginning balance with the ending balance last night. She looked at every withdrawal and deposit. Money was still being directed elsewhere. There were two withdrawals that she couldn’t account for, again neither in her particular job sites.
Did she bring them to Vance’s attention again or leave well enough alone? The question became mute when Niko walked in.
Niko was one of Aran’s brothers, or at least they called themselves brothers. None of them looked alike. Maybe they had different mothers. They all shared a last name.
Ironically, it was Dare. Niko Dare. The man who haunted her dreams when the nightmares gave her a few minutes of peace. She had dreamed of him as she slept in SB’s earlier. He had stood over her and sang her to sleep in a language she had never heard before.
Table of Contents