Chapter 9
Zephyr
Alpha’shalf-brotherwasseriouslyhot.
She didn’t know what she’d expected, but a suave, stunning, perfectly sculpted man greeting them at the airport hadn’t been it. And he was a charmer to the boot. He’d taken one look at her, asked Alpha, “Who’s this gorgeous creature on your arm?” and promptly kissed her cheek platonically in greeting. Had she not already been in love with the grumpy giant by her side, she would’ve swooned.
“Where’s your bride?” Alpha asked after introducing her, keeping his distance from her. He’d pulled back after opening up on the flight, taken a step far enough back that she could feel the cold seep in the gap between them, because of his idiotic sense of keeping it platonic or because of his vulnerability on the plane, she didn't know. And being in a new environment as she was, she didn’t know how to close the gap yet.
Dante grinned. “Letting Tempest have quality time with her grandmother and sneaking a beauty nap. Not that she needs it but motherhood is tiring for her.”
Zephyr looked at the man. She was surprised by the openness of his affection for his wife-to-be. The men she’d encountered rarely wore their love with the kind of pride he did and still managed to pull off the self-assured, cocky vibe that was kinda hot. Damn, the girl was lucky. He was an interesting personality.
He escorted them to a large, black Range Rover, slightly different from Alpha’s back home, and opened the door in the back for Zephyr. Oh, a gentleman too.
Smiling, she thanked him and climbed in, glad she’d worn leggings instead of a skirt. She was surprised though that her husband didn't just pick her up and plop her down as he'd taken to doing in their city. He was definitely taking the platonic, keeping his distance thing seriously.
She settled in, as did both men, and Dante smoothly pulled out of the airport, another dark car tailing behind them with the security. She wasn’t surprised. From her internet search alone she’d learned Dante Maroni was a pretty big deal in the mafia world, recently having taken over after his father’s death. The only thing she was curious about, however, was how he and Alpha had met, and precisely what Alpha was involved in. It couldn’t have been mafia, because Los Fortis had never really been the center for one. She knew he was into something with security, just not what exactly it was. She’d find out eventually, and she just hoped it wasn’t something she couldn’t live with because there were some lines that just shouldn’t be crossed. Knowing who he had once been though, Alpha had always been a protector. She could not imagine a world where he could be crossing those inhumane boundaries.
All in good time.
Tenebrae City was vastly different from Los Fortis. For one, the climate was more temperate than tropical, the hills in the distance a darker shade of green than the jungles around her city, the cover of the dark clouds something she only saw during the heavy rains.
She rolled the window down, enjoying the cool, dry wind on her face, her eyes taking in everything.
“Thanks for coming,” Dante broke the silence after a while. “It means a lot.”
Alpha grunted. Grunted.
Zephyr observed him quietly from the back, trying to understand why he was more reserved with his own blood. He was more aloof, more rigid than he had been on the flight, and she didn’t know if it was because of her or Dante. Alpha attending something like a wedding had made her assume that he was on good terms with his half-brother. Was that not the case?
“So when did you get married?” Dante went on, seemingly unbothered by the silence, with such ease she liked him immediately.
“Monday,” her husband replied. “Courthouse wedding.”
Dante looked at her in the rearview mirror. “Are you pregnant?”
Zephyr loved how everyone automatically assumed she was knocked up because of the whirlwind wedding. She shook her head. “No, we haven’t even—”
“It’s just for six months,” Alpha interrupted her, quite rudely. “Not a real marriage.”
Ouch.
She knew that’s what they’d talked about, but saying it out loud like that just made it all so… clinical. Reductive. Lesser. Like the little moments they’d had never happened.
Dante was considerate enough not to comment, simply shifting the conversation to include Zephyr, asking her questions about her family, her work, normal generic talk she appreciated more than she could say.
She looked down at the ring on her finger, the beautiful piece unlike any she’d seen, a band of platinum adorned with tiny rubies, amethysts, sapphires, and emeralds, colorful and unique.
‘One day, when I have money, I’m going to buy you the prettiest ring, sunshine.’
Zephyr felt her nose burn and looked out, remembering the whispered promise on the last night she’d seen him before he’d disappeared from her life. The ring was more precious to her than he’d ever realize. She hadn’t expected him to get her one, had been fully prepared to buy one for herself, but he had and it was perfect, and Zephyr tucked that moment he slid it on her finger in a corner of her heart, cupping it like a flame in the fluttering wind, keeping it alive, warm and loved, to revisit if she failed in making him love again.
It scared her sometimes, the enormity of the task she had undertaken. She didn’t know what he’d been through in the years between then and now. She didn’t know what kinds of traumas he had, didn’t know what his triggers were, didn’t know if the walls he’d built around his heart could be scaled at all. She’d bruise and bleed if they could be, drag herself to the corner where he rested and lay her head down with him if he let her. But she had to take her time. He would get spooked and run the other way if he figured out what she wanted—him.
The men talked about something related to work using code words because she didn’t understand a thing. Within thirty minutes, they were out of the city and driving up a rolling green hill towards a large mansion she could see. The tall gates, manned by security guards who nodded at Dante respectfully, opened and it looked like a different world inside. The huge mansion, a few buildings off to the other side, all over the green hill and fenced within a wall was like a movie set. Her entire neighborhood could’ve fit in the area easily. People were bustling about decorating the venue, some carrying chairs, some carrying boxes, and some carrying guns.
Zephyr had never seen so many guns in real life. She'd seen one in Victor's jacket when she'd interrogated him, but that had been it.