Stronger as One (#1, Completed)

27. Such a weird night

AIDEN

Talk about a shocking revelation- Riley Moreau was actually Aurelie Moreau and she was a gorgeous firecracker. Definitely neither Rafe nor I saw this coming. I wondered how she was related to Alpha Moreau- his cousin maybe? He didn't have any siblings, no living ones at least. Rumour had it that he lost his family, including his younger sister in a car crash under suspicious circumstances over two decades ago. Despite our clan being relatively new to the area by shifter standards, the Moreaus, just like the Macalisters, was an old, well-known shifter family in the UK and my family, which itself was somewhat of nobility in the dragon world, had dealings with Lucien's ancestors over the years. On top of that, stories were still being told in Scotland of the legendary Alpha Margot Moreau who was a force to be reckoned with, from what I have heard. It was fair to say that the death of Lucien's parents and his sibling were certainly felt in the shifter community in the UK and Scotland at the time.

Before we could react though, Natalia showed up and she brought all the excitement in the world with her just because of Aurelie. Nat was such a pure soul that it was impossible to feel anything but joy around her, yet it seemed like Aurelie brought out her happy, excited side of even more. I could see that even Rafe noticed the effect that the intriguing beauty in front us had on his sister, despite trying to act like a prick.

As Natalia dragged Riley away from our table, I couldn't help but feel my dragon's dissatisfaction, similar to when we drove away from the young woman on the road the week before. The more I thought about it though, the more I was starting to believe that perhaps my mind had been captivated by the same woman on both occasions, despite the different hair colours.

I was also perplexed by the fact that Riley obviously had her scent covered up. She was hiding something, that much was clear, but I had not figured out yet what. As she walked away, she turned around to look back at us, first locking eyes with Rafe and then with me. The moment her eyes fell on mine, I could feel a fire being lit inside of me again, just like it had moments earlier when my lips touched her soft skin. There was definitely something about this woman that brought my dragon to life but I knew she was not my mate as she was no dragon. The Moreau family were wolf shifters and shifters did not mix with other kinds when it came to mating.

"Well, you sure know how to make a good impression!" I said to Rafe as we finally sat back down.

"Fuck off, Aiden! It's not like I need to impress her. And either way, not my fault that she gets all fired up over the smallest thing," my best friend replied, trying to sound all cool about the whole story but I knew him well enough to know that Riley got under his skin.

"Mate, I know that most women throw themselves in your feet and pose no challenge for you. I get it, you are out of practice! Don't worry, Rafe- I will be happy to give you a lesson or two whenever you want me to. Who knows, maybe one day you will end up somehow convincing some poor girl that you actually have manners and charm." I was teasing him now but sometimes I did wonder whether Rafe and I would just live our lives as ageing bachelors. Me because I did not have the possibility to find my mate; Rafe- because he didn't want one and didn't know how to handle having one.

"For fuck sake, Aiden, are women all you think about? I'm sorry that I don't promise the stars to every woman that comes my way, although not like any of them are even interested in that anyway. But there are more important things we should be focusing on, like finding the damn people that hurt my sister, and we are not any closer to achieving that!" I could see his facial expression change from annoyance to anger.

"Alright, alright. You want to change the topic. Fine! And stop being like this- not like we will find these guys tonight. You know I want to find them for what they did to Nat as much as you do. But let's just enjoy the evening, okay? Come on, the pompous speeches are about to start!"