Chapter 56

Moisture gathers between my thighs. I fight for breath and close my eyes as I feel his finger inside my mouth. I’m so wet I can feel it slicking my skin, and I grow wetter when his eyes dart there.
Ethan pulls his finger out of my mouth and licks it clean, groaning. I’m speechless. I drop the papers that are still in my hand onto his desk. I wish he could plunge one of his fingers into my soaked core so I reach blindly for him, for his huge cock, but with one hand and with ease, Ethan captures my wrists. Immobile, I can do nothing but look up at him and wait. I feel my nipples aching with jealousy of his hand on my wrists. 
He looks at my lips again, and this time, I don’t know what comes over me, but I drop my jaw.
However, something breaks his haze of lust. He draws his hand back, releasing my wrists.
He stares down at me for a moment, but then Ethan shifts his gaze to the door. “You can go now.”
My mind clouds, filled with disbelief, as I stare up at him. 
I finally close my mouth and grab my papers, hugging them against my still-hard nipples. 
What just happened? Maybe I pushed him too hard? I start to walk towards the door but stop midway and look back at him again. I know what I saw in his eyes! Why did he stop so suddenly?
“Ethan—”
“Please, go,” he interrupts me. Ethan’s voice, a rasping sound, is filled with harshness. Along with something else... *hurt*? But that doesn’t even make sense.
With tears in my eyes, I nod even though he isn’t looking in my direction and numbly walk as fast as my legs can carry me out of his office. I try to be strong and not let my own insecurities get to me as a reason for him to reject me out of the blue, but it’s hard. I feel cheap when he pushes me away. Yet, something inside me, maybe the dumbest part, tells me I shouldn’t give up on him.

🐺 🐺 🐺

The sun beams down on the sprawling backyard, illuminating the manicured lawn and the ancient oak trees that stretch toward the sky with little clouds. Vi and I sit comfortably on the patio with a cold glass of iced tea in my hand and a lemonade in hers, watching the kids dive into their game. The treasure map, a carefully crafted concoction of tea-stained paper, burned edges and scribbled riddles, is clutched in Lily’s hand as she argues loudly with Theo for the umpteenth time. 
“Theo, you’re holding the compass upside down! North isn’t that way, you ding-dong!” Lily’s face is scrunched in frustration, and she waves the compass wildly in front of the little boy, who has been getting really close to Az and me lately.
“And you’re holding the map wrong!” Theo snaps, turning the map sideways and squinting. “We should be going that way!” He jabs a finger toward the gazebo.
“Uh, yeah, if you want to end up in Pirate Purgatory,” Lily quips, tilting her head smugly. “It’s upside down, genius. You’re leading us straight to the ‘Land of the Perpetual Loser,’ which, honestly, feels on brand for you.”
“Oh, please, you didn’t even know how to read the map a minute ago!” Theo fires back, cheeks turning red.
“Like you’d know north from your left shoe, Captain Clueless,” Lily says. She bursts into laughter, doubling over as her pirate hat slips off. She quickly scoops it up and perches it back on her head, grinning. “Captain Clueless! That’s perfect for you!” 
“I am not Captain Clueless!” Theo yells, stomping.
“Cool it, Clueless,” Az says breezily, taking the map carefully from Lily’s hands. He points toward the rose bushes. “The map says ‘beware the thorny seas.’ Lily is right. The treasure’s clearly that way.”
"*Thorny*, Theo! Use your brain!” Lily adds, adjusting her too-big pirate hat. 
“Your brain! Ungrateful crewmates!” Theo mutters under his breath, sulking, but grudgingly follows as Lily leads the way, Az right beside her.
The rose bushes rustle as they race forward, their bickering and laughter echoing across the sunlit backyard. From my spot on the patio, I glance at Vi beside me and chuckle. “They’re so serious about this.” I take another sip of my tea.
“They’re invested,” Vi replies, sipping her lemonade. “At least until one of them trips over their sword and declares mutiny.”
Out on the lawn, the kids continue their quest, Theo dramatically hollering, “Hoist the sails!” as Lily corrects him under her breath with an eye roll. “Pirates don’t have sails on land, genius.”
“You did a great job creating the map. It was very impressive!” Vi praises me, chuckling. 
“But you hid the treasure well and made it fun by telling them that they were forbidden to use their *super smell*, I didn’t even know that was a pirate thing!” I say, crunching my brows.
Vi chuckles even more, “Right!” She arches a brow before smiling.
A few minutes later, the self-proclaimed pirates walk out of the greenery, Az proudly cradling a small chest in his arms with a tooth grin while Lily and Theo bounce around him.
Az places the small chest on the ground, and Lily immediately grabs her sword from its scabbard, pointing to Theo but saying to Az, “We’re going to split the gold fifty-fifty!”
Az beams. “What about Theo?”
“He can have the chest it came in,” Lily says with a shrug. “That feels generous.”
“You’re the best captain ever,” Az says, absolutely sincere. I giggle. Lily is really his sweetheart.
“I know,” Lily replies, tossing her hair dramatically over her shoulder.
“You promise that when we find it, we’ll share it equally. Pirate code, remember?” Theo snaps.
“I’m not sharing my gold!” Lily says, narrowing her eyes.
“It isn’t actual gold!” Theo retorts. “It’s just chocolate coins!”
“Real gold,” Lily declares, barely pausing to think. She opens the chest on the ground, picks up some gold coins in her hand, and holds them up. “It’s gold! Real gold. You just need some imagination, Theo!” 
Beside her, Az plays with the chocolate coins, marveling at them as if they were real gold.
“It’s gold, Theo!” Az says with his green eyes wide. “I recognize real gold when I see it!” 
Vi and I burst into laughter.
Lily says solemnly, placing a hand over her heart. “See? That’s why Az and I are the best pirates! Forever.”
“Forever,” Az repeats, mimicking her gesture with a bright smile.
I glance at Vi and laugh. “Do you think they’ll ever grow out of this?”
“Not a chance,” Vi replies, sipping her lemonade and looking at my son and her daughter. “And I wouldn’t change a thing.”

🐺 🐺 🐺
***Alpha Ethan***

I sip my coffee as I look out the kitchen window at the children playing and my sister and Alicent laughing at them, sitting on the patio with their backs to me. I can’t blame them, I found myself laughing too in the last five minutes as I’m watching the kids play during my break.
The kids are dirty and messy. I don’t think I’ve ever seen my niece so happy. “My cheeks hurt from smiling,” I hear Az saying. 
“Well, you aren’t eating this all at once,” Theo says. “I will take what is mine!” 
“Az! Keep an eye on our treasure!” Lily says, and the boy holds the treasure chest against himself protectively. 
“Lily, sharing is caring,” Theo replies. 
“I’m a pirate! Pirates don’t share!” She points her sword at him. “We plunder and fight!” 
Theo grabs his own sword from its scabbard. “Is that so?” he says before he starts to fight with my niece.
“Stay back, Captain Clueless! Or I cut you off with my mighty sword,” Lily warns. “I’ll protect you and our treasure, Az! I shall fight until I die!”
But Theo sneakily ducks down where Azrael is already unwrapping two chocolate coins simultaneously and grabs several chocolate coins, spilling gold everywhere before taking off, running with them in his raised hand. “I’d like to see you catch me!”
Lily gives the running boy an outraged look. “You’re in for it now, Captain Clueless!” Then, she races after him toward the gazebo. 
Meanwhile, Azrael is happily gorging himself on chocolate, laughing at the other two, with chocolate smeared around his cheeks and on his lips.
I hear the sound of laughter and clinking glasses coming from the patio, a symphony of happiness and chatter—until it doesn’t. I feel a surge of alert when Alicent asks my sister something in distress, but before I can grasp the situation, she yells at her son, springing to her feet, “Azrael! No!”
Then she places her glass of iced tea on the table nearby and races toward her son, saying, “Oh my God! Oh my God! Oh my God!”
My sister runs after her, and I do the same. I look at Azrael, but I can’t see anything wrong with the boy. Alicent’s sudden desperation makes Theo and Lily stop fighting and look at Az, too.
“Az! Stop eating those chocolates! They contain lactose!” With a pale face, she kneels on the ground next to the boy, who looks at her with wide eyes and then shifts his gaze to his hands covered in chocolate. He opens his mouth as though he’s been struck by a sudden, terrifying realization.
“Where’s the EpiPen? Where did you put it?” she asks, voice rising. The kid blinks at her, then shakes his head.
Little Dove places her hand on her heart as if her world is ending. I feel her sadness and despair so strongly that I stumble backward, setting my hand on my chest to steady myself.
“I... I don’t have it here with me, Mom,” the boy whispers, his voice terrified and trembling.