“Ronan,” he ground out, trying to get a hold of himself.
“It’s the truth. You should have people lined up out the door, trying to win your heart. But trust me, I’m glad I don’t have to worry about so much competition.”
Aiden’s brain automatically argued that no one stood a chance against Ronan. Or was it his heart? Never mind.
Seeing no one in the dingy living space, Aiden pushed the door the rest of the way open and stepped inside. It was better to just ignore Ronan’s comments and press forward. He frowned at the windows along the main wall. Only one of them was boarded up while the other offered full exposure to the rising sun. He continued on silently through the apartment to find that it was actually a studio. The only other room was a bathroom, which, as luck would have it, also had an uncovered window. The bright side was that it was completely vacant. He’d been worried they’d run across a squatter or two.
“Not ideal,” Ronan muttered. “We should have at least a corner of space where the sun can’t reach us in the main room. There was also a closet off the bathroom.”
Aiden glared at Ronan. “I’m not hiding in the closet with you.”
“Why not? It’ll be cozy.”
Aiden walked toward the main room and dropped onto the dirty floor with his back pressed to the corner the farthest from where the sun was most likely to pour through the one window. It was temporary. He grabbed his phone and scrolled to his contacts, hesitating over Bel’s name. The sun was rising, and his sweet son was likely falling asleep already. Waking Bel once he fell asleep was never an easy feat, and he didn’t want to send him into a panic over this situation.
Instead, he scrolled down and tapped Wyatt’s name. The werewolf was infinitely calmer and more level-headed. Was it wrong of him to hope that Bel was asleep? Maybe his wolves could just slip out and pick them up without Bel finding out until he woke that evening.
“Hey, Aiden,” Wyatt greeted in his usual rich, deep voice.
“Hi, Wyatt. I’m sorry to be disturbing you so late.”
“It’s no problem. Did you need Bel? I think he left his phone on the charger downstairs.”
“No! No, it’s okay. I was actually looking for you.”
In the background, he could hear Bel’s sleepy voice. “What’s wrong? Is that Aiden? Is he in trouble?” With each question, he could hear his voice growing more worried and awake.
“No, please tell him I’m fine and that he needs to go to sleep.”
Listening as Wyatt gently relayed his message, Aiden scrubbed a hand over his face. He lifted his gaze when he heard Ronan settle on the floor next to him. The vampire nudged his foot with his toe and smirked, but there was something warm and supportive in his eyes.
“What’s up?” Wyatt asked.
Aiden swallowed a sigh. “It seems that I’ve gotten into a position where I can’t get home prior to sunrise. I was wondering if maybe you and River could come fetch Ronan and me.”
“Uh…just a moment. Let me check,” Wyatt replied in a slightly strained voice while still trying to sound calm. Aiden could hear the rustling of a blanket as the werewolf likely climbed out of bed. It was another minute before Wyatt spoke and this time it was at a harsh whisper. “I’m going to assume that since you called me, you’d rather Bel not know.”
“I don’t mind him knowing, but I don’t want him to worry as he’s trying to fall asleep.”
“The sun is nearly above the horizon, Aiden.” Wyatt’s voice was nearly a growl with concern. “Are you somewhere at least protected for now?”
“Yes, yes of course. We could stay here for the entire day if we needed and be perfectly safe. It’s just not as safe as it would be if I were home.”
“Or as comfortable,” Ronan muttered.
“And Ronan?”
“This isn’t his fault,” Aiden said quickly. “We were hunting together, and I allowed us to get sidetracked. We weren’t paying attention to the time.”
“Uh-huh. Where are you?”
Aiden rolled his eyes as he rattled off the address for the apartment building as well as which apartment they were hiding in.
“Okay. Just a heads up, we’ll probably need to grab Fox as well. He knows a handy spell for bringing in some cloud cover.”
Bringing in Fox definitely meant Winter finding out, and his youngest son had been very vocal about his lack of trust when it came to Ronan. But that just brought up an entirely new and unpleasant thought.
“Yes, I understand that Fox has been very handy about moving vampires during the daylight hours.”
Wyatt hissed softly. “Ronan told you about that, did he?”
“I was hoping that you had more sense than to involve yourself in that nonsense.”