Page 133 of Fractured Fate

“I bet you did,” Riley said with a huge grin on her face. “I didn’t know things were like that between you and Aiden.”

Charlotte lifted one shoulder in a half-hearted shrug. She couldn’t deny it.

“I want to know everything,” Blaire said, grabbing her by the arm.

Riley held her hands up. “Whoa. Hang on. I do not want to know everything. You’re forgetting that’s my brother.”

Layla giggled.

They all turned toward the alley beside the building when the sounds of a fight echoed in their direction.

“Drunk idiots,” Riley muttered.

“I don’t think…” Charlotte squinted as the light caught the face of one fighter. “Are his eyes—” She couldn’t say it. If she mentioned she thought the guy’s eyes were glowing, they would think she was crazy. This was merely the residual association of alleyways with the vampire she thought she saw. Nothing more. Nothing less.

“Charlotte! Where are you going? Don’t get involved.”

“What?” She turned to look at Blaire, and that’s when she realized in her curiosity about the person’s eyes, she had stepped toward the alley.

When she looked back, a man was approaching her, but not any man—Noah. Had he exited through the side door?

His eyes were wide, and the blue in them seemed to glow beneath the streetlight.

“Charlotte, you need to get—”

He grunted as a blond man slammed into his back, snarling. Noah crashed into her, making her lose her balance and stumble. The man zipped around Noah and grabbed Charlotte by the arm, yanking her up with surprising strength.

“Sweet Cherry, so good of you to join us.”

She knew that voice. The nickname made her shudder in fear.

Her gaze met the eyes of her stalker. An obvious amber glow dominated his irises as his canines elongated.

26

MONSTERS

Stepping out of the club into the nighttime air, Aiden looked around in search of Charlotte. Riley said she saw her go out the door and followed her with Blaire and Layla in tow. That was ten minutes ago.

Lukas, Seth, and Dominic trailed behind him. Both Seth and Lukas were eager to check on their Korrenas as much as Aiden was his. Though his friends still didn’t know her importance to him beyond what they witnessed on the dance floor.

He hadn’t realized his friends saw them. At least the fog, lighting, and the dark outfit Charlotte wore camouflaged what he did to her.

As much as he tried to resist temptation, he couldn’t stop himself from touching her like he had. After being apart for a week and a half, only to spend another two days unable to do more than talk on the phone, his body was angry with him, and his need for her dominated his every thought—especially when he saw her in the outfit she wore for him.

When a scream rang out through the air, his blood turned to ice in his veins. He knew that scream, but never accompanied by a blanket of fear.

Pushing through the few stragglers making their way into the club, he rounded the building toward the alleyway where the scream came from.

He saw the backs of Riley, Blaire, and Layla first.

As he approached them, panic grasped his heart, digging its claws in. He stopped short, gagging and struggling to breathe against the dread overtaking him.

“Are you okay?” Lukas said, stopping beside him, putting a hand on his back when Aiden doubled over, gasping for breath.

“It’s Charlotte,” was all he managed to choke out. He felt as if he was being strangled by an unseen force.

Seth stopped on his other side. “What are you—”