58. A Darker Side
Ace pulled away from me as if I’d slapped him. “Car accident?” he demanded. “Why are you asking about that?”
His reaction made me pause. There was fear in his expression…trepidation. It was unexpected and more than a little unsettling.
Ace and I hadn’t talked about the car accident much, despite it being one of the more traumatic experiences of my life.
I’d always got the sense he didn’t like talking about it—that it had been as traumatic for him as it had been for me, no doubt from seeing me in so much pain.
Plus, I didn’t remember any of it, and it’s hard to talk about something you can’t remember.
“Why do you look scared?” I propped myself up on my elbows.
“I’m not… I just…” He shook his head and sat on the edge of the bed. “I just wasn’t expecting you to bring up the car accident.”
“That’s what my nightmare was about.” I pulled myself up and sat down next to him, eyeing him warily. “Does that bother you?”
“You dreamed about the car accident? As in you remembered what happened?”
Before I could answer, Ace’s phone started to ring from its spot on the bedside table behind us.
I frowned. Who the heck was calling him at two in the morning? Probably Madoc just checking to make sure everything was okay after what happened in the kitchen.
“Ignore it,” Ace told me. He didn’t even glance in its direction, keeping his gaze locked on me.
I was grateful. I wanted his full attention during this conversation.
“I didn’t remember anything,” I explained. “At least, I don’t think I did. The dream was after the accident, I think.”
I did my best to ignore the incessant ringing coming from his phone behind me. It wasn’t too loud, just a gentle thrum, but it was enough to distract me.
“You were there. You were taking care of me, worrying about my concussion.
“But we weren’t at my house. We were at another house—somewhere I didn’t recognize. It was big and fancy and…I think we might’ve been in a guest room?”
Ace’s phone stopped ringing, then immediately started again.
“Are you sure you don’t want to get that?”
He shook his head. “No. Keep going. What happened next?”
Okay… “Um, so, I don’t know why, but you had invited this man over. He was super creepy—skinny and old, with these white eyes, like, ~pure white~ eyes, like a demon. I’m not even sure he had pupils.”
Ace was completely still next to me. Like a statue. His face was completely blank. I couldn’t read his expression at all. He was hiding it from me.
I glanced back at his phone, which was still ringing on the bedside table. The least he can do is turn it off.
“When he introduced himself, he…” I felt uneasy. “Well, does the name Gulius Mallor mean anything
to you?”
There it was again! This time I was certain! I thought I had seen his eyes turn black before but always convinced myself it was a trick of the light. But there was no mistaking it now.
“Ace,” I gasped. “Your eyes. They just changed color—”
“Gulius Mallor?” he interrupted, his tone rigid. “His name was Gulius Mallor?”
So, I guess we’re just going to ignore the fact that he had literal devil~ eyes for a second there.~ “Yeah,” I replied. “At least, I think that’s what he told me his name was.”
“You’re telling me you had a dream about a man named Gulius Mallor coming to visit you after your car accident?” He spoke through his teeth as every muscle in his neck bulged.
I was starting to freak out a bit. If it weren’t for Ace’s reaction, I may have been able to write the dream off as just weird. But the way he was reacting to the name told me it was important.
It was real… I nodded slowly.
His phone started to ring for the third time.
I held in a groan of irritation. “Are you sure you don’t want to get that? Someone is obviously very eager to get a hold of you.”
“Um.” Ace stood and ran a hand through his hair. To my great annoyance, he continued to ignore the phone. “You had a dream about Gulius Mallor.” He seemed to be talking more to himself now.
“You know him?” I straightened up on the bed, my heart rate spiking. “He’s a real person?”
Ace’s gaze pinned me, laser-focused with its intensity. After a moment’s hesitation, he nodded. “Yes.
He’s a real person.”
“You mean”—I could hear my heart beating in my ears—“white eyes and all?”
His silence was answer enough.
“Please don’t look at me like that, Doe,” he begged. “You don’t have to be scared of me.”
Ace took a step toward me but stopped when I leaned back. His face dropped. He no longer tried to—or no longer could—hide his emotions. His intense affliction was now painted across his features.
I couldn’t believe all the information he was freely giving up. Usually, he was so good at hiding things he didn’t want me to know. He was a master at changing the subject or distracting me.
But maybe what he had said to Madoc downstairs was true. Maybe he finally wanted me to know… everything.
“Ace,” I breathed out, “what did you do?”
His throat shifted. “I didn’t… It wasn’t… It’s not what you think.”
His phone was still ringing nonstop behind us. e he had pupils.”“Then what is it?” My voice quavered. “Tell me what happened. Please. That man, Gulius, hurt me. He
grabbed my head and”—I searched his expression—“and you held me down while I screamed.”
His eyes bore into me. My stomach plunged to the bottom of my feet. He wasn’t denying it.
I kept going. “This has something to do with the secret you’re keeping, doesn’t it?
The thing you can’t tell me until I’m eighteen. I heard you talking to Madoc. I… heard you say you want to tell me.”
I put my trembling hands on his stomach, and sparks raced from my palms and up my arms. We both
needed the physical contact. It helped calm my racing heart and made Ace’s heaving chest ease slightly.
“My birthday is in less than a month. Why can’t you tell me now? It’s my right to know. There are things that I can’t make sense of, words that people keep using— heat, mates, alpha, omega…”
I took in a shaky breath, the back of my head pounding with a strange sort of pressure. “You told Madoc that you had a…a wolf. What does that mean?”
Ace’s nostrils flared. His eyes darkened again—not completely black this time but a noticeably deeper
blue. o write the dream So, I wasn’t making it up. His eyes really can change color.
He didn’t respond, but I could see the wheels turning in his head. I could also see his resolve was breaking. He wanted to tell me the truth. I was so close.
Ace’s eyes momentarily swerved to his phone as it started to ring yet again. He growled.
Desperate to have his attention back on me—seriously, whoever was calling had the worst timing—I grabbed his chin and turned it until his gaze was forced on me.
“It’s time to tell me, Ace,” I stated. “This is your chance to explain everything to me before I leave this house and go figure it out on my own, without your help.”
His muscles stiffened beneath my palms.
He doesn’t want me doing my own investigating. Good to know. I can use that to my advantage.
“Maybe I’ll start with tracking down whoever this Gulius Mallor is,” I continued.
“I’m done being left in the dark. I’m done waiting for you to fill me in on what’s happening in my own life.”
Strained silence ensued as I anxiously waited for him to speak.
“You’re right,” Ace replied. He spoke slowly, his tone even and controlled although still tense. His onger tried to—or calmness surprised me. “You deserve to know.”
I blinked. “So, you’re going to tell me?” It can’t be that easy, can it? After all these years of keeping secrets from me?
He nodded. “Yeah. I’m going to tell you.”
I let out a breath of relief. Oh, I guess it can be that easy. “Right now?”
He hesitated. His phone began ringing again for what felt like the millionth time.
“For fuck’s sake,” I muttered under my breath, glaring back at the stupid thing.
Ace growled when I swore.
I rolled my eyes. “Oh, get over yourself. Given the circumstances, I think it’s perfectly acceptable for lius, hurt me. Heme to swear. I’m allowed to feel frustrated right now.”
He let me push him away from me.
“Go put your phone on silent. Then we’re going to sit down, and you’re going to tell me everything.
You don’t get to decide anymore.”
“Doe, I…I don’t know. Maybe we shouldn’t… Maybe…”
“No,” I snapped. “You’re not backing out now. You have to tell me.”
Ace dragged his hand down his face and took another step back. He paced at the front of the bed,
clearly thinking over what to do.
I nearly screamed. I was more than ready to walk home alone and never talk to him again if he thought he was going to get out of this.
While he started to pace the room, I crawled up the bed to his phone.
I picked it up and read the name flashing on the screen. “Who the heck is Grayson Stoll, and why is he calling you a million times at two in the morning?”
“What?” Ace snapped his eyes at me.
I squeaked in surprise when he suddenly appeared in front of me, crossing the room so fast that he was nothing more than a blur.
He snatched the phone from me, and his nostrils flared when he read the name.
“Fuck.”
“What? Who is it?” Although I didn’t recognize this Grayson person, he had Ace’s last name. Could they be related?
“I have to take this, baby.” He swallowed hard. “I’m sorry. So sorry. I can’t ignore this.”
“Right now? We’re kind of in the middle of something here.”
“Yes. I’m sorry,” he repeated. “I’ll try to make it quick. Just stay here, okay?”efore I leave this Whatever this phone call was about, it obviously had to be important. There were very few things on this earth that could make Ace panic the way he was at that moment.
But that didn’t mean I was going to let him use it as yet another excuse to avoid talking to me.
I grabbed his arm when he tried to walk away. “Ace, you are not getting out of this conversation. Don’t you dare leave.”ening in my own Ace let out a sigh and reached down to cup my face. “I’m not trying to get out of anything. This conversation between you and me needs to happen. Now more than ever. And it will. I promise.
“But Grayson wouldn’t call me unless it was important. Please, just let me take this call and then I’ll come back and we can talk.” He pressed a firm kiss to the crown of my head.
I tried to will him to stay, and I dug my fingers into his wrists as he held my face.
His phone continued to ring loudly in my ear.
“Ace, please,” I whimpered. Tears of frustration pooled in my eyes. “Don’t go.”
He placed his forehead against mine. His dark-blue eyes felt like they were piercing straight into my soul. “I’ll be right back, okay? I promise.”
He released me and stepped back. Then I watched him race out of the room.
*** I sat on Ace’s bed with my head in my hands, my heart aching, waiting for him to return from his phone call for fifteen whole minutes.
And then I got sick of waiting.
For so many reasons, I got sick of waiting.
I stood and prepared to get dressed and leave for home alone when I felt a rabid roar shake the house. I
froze, my breathing stalling, too shocked to do anything other than stand there, listening.
Ace. I’d never heard him make a sound like that before. I’d never heard anyone make a sound like that before…except for maybe monsters in movies and TV shows.
Footsteps pounded up the stairs and toward his room. Ace punched in the code, and his door came swinging open, slamming into the wall with a loud bang, making me jump.
Ace stood by the closed door for a moment while visibly seething, his chest rising and falling with his
heavy breaths.
His dark eyes met mine.
I didn’t say a word. I wasn’t afraid of him, but I was wary of him when this side— his darker side—was in charge.
nversation. Don’t
froze, my breathing stalling, too shocked to do anything other than stand there, listening.
Ace. I’d never heard him make a sound like that before. I’d never heard anyone make a sound like that before…except for maybe monsters in movies and TV shows.
Footsteps pounded up the stairs and toward his room. Ace punched in the code, and his door came swinging open, slamming into the wall with a loud bang, making me jump.
Ace stood by the closed door for a moment while visibly seething, his chest rising and falling with his
heavy breaths.
His dark eyes met mine.
I didn’t say a word. I wasn’t afraid of him, but I was wary of him when this side— his darker side—was in charge.
