Wanted Bonds (Their Fated Mate Book 1) [Reverse Harem]

Chapter 14

Aurora

"So how old are you?" I asked, feigning nonchalance as I stirred my iced matcha tea with a straw.

"21," Aiden answered with a smile.

"What do you do?" I asked.

"I'm a student at Crawford University." He answered, taking a sip of his coffee.

"So, why were those three afraid of you?" I asked.

"Let's just say I can get them in big trouble." He said with a smile as he cut a piece of pancake covered in syrup and pushed a fork of it into his mouth.

Refusing to focus on his sexy thin lips that were stained with vanilla syrup and reminded me so much of Caden's, I focused on my matcha tea again. "Why are you eating here instead of going home to eat?"

In a smooth movement, he dropped his fork, dabbed his lips elegantly with a napkin, chewed all the food in his mouth, and swallowed before leaning closer to me. "Is there a reason you're interrogating me? Interested in me?"

I looked away to avoid his gaze and my eyes landed on his exposed arms on the table and the bulging veins on them as he used them to hold his face closer to mine, overpowering my senses with his mouth-watering passion fruit scent.

I moved my head back, blushing, and shifting into the booth so that I wasn't sitting directly opposite him while recognizing that I might have been too obvious with my intrusive questions. "No, no. I just wanted to learn more about you. You look like someone I know." I said those words as an excuse, but when I stared at him closely, I couldn't help but notice how much he resembled Caden.

They shared similar deep-set coffee-brown eyes and thin lips. However, while Caden's diamond-shaped face was full of well-defined chiseled angles, Aiden's square face wasn't as chiseled and was much more androgynous.

"Oh, a lover?" He asked, still leaning close to me such that I couldn't help but look into and drown in his coffee-brown eyes with flecks of amber hidden in them.

"No . . . Maybe. Does a one-night stand count as a lover?" I covered my mouth as soon as I spoke, realizing as Aiden sat back in his chair staring at me with a smug smile that he'd somehow made me share something I wouldn't have shared with a total stranger.

"How did you do that?" I asked in a whisper, refusing to look into his eyes again as I gulped down my matcha.

"Never mind that. That's a family secret. Let's talk about this guy who looks like me that you seem to like—" He said.

"I don't like him. I never said I liked him." I protested.

"Okay, okay. If you say so. You know, I could totally replace him. We could even try being in a relationship." He suggested with a wink, as though what he was saying was even remotely sensible.

I coughed as the tea went down the wrong way because I had to swallow it to avoid spitting it out in shock.

After patting my back and helping me get some water, he finally sighed and started eating again.

"I don't know why you are so shocked that I'm interested in you." He said, putting a fork of pancake in his mouth.

I stared at his pancake covered in maple syrup.

"I just . . . didn't expect you to suggest a relationship with a total stranger," I said.

"Why? I like you, so I asked you out. Simple. You're single, right? Why don't you go out with me?" Holding his fork, he focused on me with his compelling coffee-brown eyes.

It was a struggle to look away from his eyes, but I did so anyway. "Um, I'm single, but I'm really not considering a relationship now. I have a . . . few complicated . . . bonds that I need to deal with before I can get into a relationship with anyone."

He stared fixedly at me for a moment, making me nervously push my hair back, before saying. "Fine. It's okay. You have six months to stay here and I'll change your mind."

Afterward, I waited for him to finish his breakfast because he insisted on driving me to the Davis' home.

On the drive there, I tried to ask him questions covertly and realized that while he seemed open and friendly, Aiden was just as tight-lipped about himself as Levi, so finding out what made him neutral to my abilities was impossible.

When we got to the Davis' home and he parked in their driveway, I saw the curtains of Alice's room move and knew she was watching us.

Before I could get out of the car, Aiden grabbed my arm, pulling me back into my seat.

"What?" I asked, turning to stare at him, still uncomfortable being touched by him even though he was neutral to my instinctual magic.

"Hey . . . um, don't listen to what others say about me, okay? Although there was a time that I was going through girls and sleeping around a lot, I'm over that and I pulled myself back together a long time ago, okay?" He said, showing his nervousness in the way he was pulling at the silver-dyed tips of his blonde hair.

However, I could tell with all the profiling experience that I'd garnered in the Supernatural Council's Intelligence Department that he was telling the truth. So I eyed him for a second and smiled. "Sure."

Then I got out of his car, waved at him, and politely waited for him to drive away before walking into the Davis' two-storey home.

"Was that Aiden Crawford?" Alice asked as soon as I stepped into the hallway in front of the door.

I looked up at her where she was standing, several steps above me on the middle parts of the staircase.

"Do you know who he is?" She asked, staring down at me with an unidentifiable emotion in her eyes.

"A Crawford University student?" I answered tentatively, wondering why she was being gloomy again when we'd talked and even become friends the night before.

"He's the Crawford Alpha's son." She said, biting her lips.

I pulled off my soiled running shoes and nodded. "Okay . . . ?"

I'd guessed as much with the obvious surname, so her words meant nothing to me.

"He likes to play around with girls like you. Do you really want to be like those girls who fall in love with him, only to be dumped by him?" There was something dark in her eyes when I locked gazes with her as I rose to my fullest height after pulling off my running shoes.

I took a deep breath to avoid getting angry at the threat I could hear in her voice. "Girls like me?"

"You know, nobodies who don't belong to our pack. He doesn't date pack members. Only girls like you; pack omegas or exchange students who crop up out of nowhere and leave after a while." She said, looking down at me from the middle steps of the staircase like I was nothing but trash.

I stared at her for a beat or two, realizing that Alice was not friend material. She seemed to be unnecessarily confrontational. And while she didn't hide her feelings or lie about them like Charlotte, I didn't want to be friends with someone like her who was always changing moods like a traffic light. So I walked past her, making sure that my clothed shoulders hit hers as I walked up the stairs to my room, locking it behind me.