It was all enough for me to make a
wide fucking berth around him, and when he grabbed my arm, I shoved him off me.
“You touch me again, I’ll fucking scream!” I was already screaming, and Ares looked horrified.
I think me shaking might have had something to do with it.
I was. My hands were actually trembling, and Ares backed up. It was at this point, Wells shot into the room and blinked at the pair of us.
“What’s going on?” he asked, his phone midair. A voice drifted out of it, and he must have still been on his call. I had no idea where he’d taken it if he’d missed Ares coming in here. Wells’s mouth parted. “What’s with the shouting? What’s going—”
He backed into the door when I shouldered past him, taking the opportunity. Ares and Wells were quick on my heels, but I didn’t slow down.
“Sloane, stop.”
It was Ares to speak, but I ignored him. I cut into the living room, my brother and Thatcher sitting on the floor. They had game controllers in their hands, shooting shit on the screen while Bow watched them from the couch. Dorian sat on her other side, his thumb tapping his phone, but when I came in, his head lifted.
He started to smile, but with all that shit trailing behind me, the expression was only the start of one. Ares’s and Wells’s heavy cadences stormed into the room, and when Ares asked me to slow down again, Dorian lowered his phone. He looked at me, then Ares and Wells. “Um—”
“Ask your friend,” was all I could say in explanation before ripping the controller out of my brother’s hands.
Bru glared. “What the fuck—”
“We’re leaving,” I commanded and not fucking joking. To prove the point, I snatched his keys off the floor. I started to go, but Dorian got me this time.
The dark prince got his big hands on my shoulders. “What’s going on? Why are you… What’s up?”
“Sloane.”
I cut to Ares, who’d spoken, and immediately seized up in Dorian’s hands.
Dorian noticed, appraising me. Blinking, he glanced over at his friend.
Ares cringed. “Sloane, just let me talk to you. I can explain.”
“What the fuck’s going on?” Dorian’s voice boomed in the room, and not only was my brother up, but Thatcher and Bow were too.
The room silenced but it wasn’t as if Dorian hadn’t spoken. Everyone was definitely aware, and no one more than Ares.
Ares’s gaze flickered around, as if a sheep in the lion’s den.
But he was the only predator here.
I reflected back to what I’d seen in his dad’s office, and it was hard to deny the connection to previous events. He’d been so helpful, so unusually helpful. I thought he’d hated me and was simply jealous of me before that like he’d said, but him hating himself made more sense. Maybe he had been infatuated with me, and that put him between a rock and a hard place.
I mean, Dorian was his friend.
Dorian let go of me, guiding me back. “I’m talking to you, Ares.”
He was, but Ares wasn’t looking at him. The boy’s gaze stopped on me. He swallowed. “Sloane—”
I grabbed Bru. “We’re leaving.”
I didn’t wait for him to fight me on the decision or anyone else trying to come at me about it. I simply left, and since I had the keys, I got right in the car.
“Sloane, hold up. What happened?” Bru trailed on my heels but he wasn’t the only party. Ares was once again following me, and how he’d managed to get out of the house before Dorian, I didn’t know, but he had.
Once outside, he physically bounded over the Audi’s hood. I’d seen him manage a feat before. He only had to use a hand since he was so tall, and though my cardio sucked, I managed to get outside and into the car before he could stop me.