Read The Ballad of Aramei for Free Online

guards: dark jeans, tight-fitting t-shirt and black biker boots. He moves to the back door and opens it and Trajan steps out. He is always more handsome and intimidating and frightening than anyone in his company. I can never understand how someone can seethe so much power, how he can put fear in the hearts of men simply with the turning of his gaze or the solemnity of his expression.
    I said before that I don’t fear anything, but that was a lie. Trajan Mayfair, or rather Lord General Vukašin Prvovencani, is the one I fear.
    But why is he here?
    I step up closer behind Isaac, watching the scene from the view around his shoulder.
    Isaac bows his head as Trajan locks eyes with him, but Isaac doesn’t take his hand from behind his back which holds onto my arm protectively. Trajan stops only a few feet from the Escalade and folds his hands behind him on his backside. And suddenly I feel his gaze on me. I don’t just see it I feel it, like he’s under the surface of my skin, raging like a fever. I swallow hard but the knot in my throat just won’t go down.
    “Father.” Isaac says in greeting.
    I hear the front door of the house open and several people from inside come out onto the porch, but I find myself focusing on something…some one else. I hear a delicate, steady heart beating, the rise and fall of soft breaths. I can smell the sweetness of musk oils and vanilla and lavender heavily on the air. My heart falls when I realize that Aramei is somewhere inside that Escalade. It’s like I can feel her inside of me, I can taste her on my lips and hear her heartbeat underneath the sound of my own. My throat begins to close up with tears, but I’m stronger now and I force them back into the deepest part of my chest.
    Then I hear a voice in my head:
    “We need to talk,” Trajan says to me and apparently to Isaac at the same time. “Isaac, you will go inside and instruct your pack to remain inside. All of them. Adria will join me in the vehicle.”
    Isaac’s hand tightens around my arm and his body stiffens. The link stuns me at first; I shouldn’t be able to hear anyone’s thoughts or telepathic communication other than Isaac and Harry’s.
    Isaac must’ve opened his link with his father to me.
    “But father,” he says telepathically and I can hear the unease in his words, “I mean no disrespect, but I cannot leave her. Not alone with you.”
    My eyes feel bigger all of a sudden and I turn my head robotically to look up at him, stepping around his side just a few inches so that he can see the worried look on my face. The thought of sitting alone anywhere with Trajan is alarming, but I think Isaac refusing to do what his father commanded is more-so.
    “You will leave her alone with me,” Trajan says and I see that his solid, emotionless expression never wavers. “I will not harm her.” It was an intolerant demand spoken in the calmest of words, yet at the same time I could sense that Trajan was also doing right by his Alpha son by giving him his word that he won’t hurt me. Trajan would never feel the need to give anyone his word, or the need to explain himself. I know that he would kill someone first before ever offering such an accommodation as this.
    And Trajan isn’t the type to lie or use manipulative tactics like Viktor Vargas would. Trajan doesn’t need to. This alone gives me reason to trust in his words and so I step out the rest of the way from behind Isaac.
    “I’ll be fine,” I say aloud, putting my hands on Isaac’s hand before he can grab me. “I believe him.”
    Isaac’s chin rolls outward, the look on his face unsure, concerned, but he knows as well as I do that we have to give in to what his father commands or else the situation will quickly take a violent turn.
    “Leave your mind open to me,” Isaac whispers and I nod once, agreeing.
    I peer deeply into his bright blue eyes and let our thoughts sync. Instantly my head feels slightly heavier as Isaac’s mind wanders through mine and