Fated To The Lycan Brothers
Chapter 83

Suri Nightingale

My alarm clock went off, the sound making me want to throw it into the pacific ocean and never have to wake up again.

I was dreading having to face reality all over again, and by that, I mean going to work and the academy right after. Mostly, going to the academy, because I know vultures will be everywhere. Specifically, whoever took that picture and exposed it to everyone. I slept all day yesterday trying to avoid it, ignoring calls and messages from everyone. I felt bad, especially when the brothers were super caring and attentive, telling me that everything was going to be okay, but I just didn't want to deal with anything. I don't know why, but I just got tired, and sleeping the whole day sounded better than anything else.

Unfortunately, I am not Sleeping Beauty, and I need to get my a*s up from this bed before I disappoint Maria. She's been so excited for me to get back to work after my four-day leave, telling me that she's got a new recipe for me to try, but I think that's just her bribing me to tell me all about the weekend I had.

I grumpily get out of bed and drag myself to the shower, cranking it so cold I might get hypothermia, but I need this to wake up.

Once done, I put on an off-shoulder crop top and ripped denim jeans, paired with my white sneakers and inserted my folded uniform in my bag that I needed to change into after my shift.

I've just halfway opened the door when Atlas suddenly appears and he doesn't say anything, he just grabs me by my waist and swoops down to give me a kiss.

It was sweet, slow, and gentle, like he was trying to say he'd missed me and he'd been waiting the entire day since yesterday to do this.

My cheeks blushed like crazy when he pulled away and I was still blinking at him, surprised but pleasantly.

"Good morning, sleepyhead. It took you long enough to get out of your room." He said with a teasing grin.

I tsked at him before lightly pushing him aside. I may have been taken aback by his kiss-and liked it-but I will not give him the satisfaction of knowing that!

"I like your outfit. It makes your neck much easier to kiss," Atlas commented as he followed me from behind.

Damn it. Why do they have to be so good with words?

"Why are you still here? Don't you have training?" I asked without turning around, continuing my walk to get downstairs.

"I do, but I have time. I'll drop you off at work first." Atlas says and that makes me turn to him.

He stops walking just as I do.

"Who says you were dropping me off? Benjamin can drive me." I tell him with narrowed eyes.

"Nope, Keith's got him. They've got an out of town thing, so I told him at dinner last night that he doesn't have to worry. If you went down for dinner, you would have known this. Or at least, checked your phone." He tells me and I grab my phone from my back pocket and turn it on.

It's been turned off since yesterday, since I was in my whole 'I don't want to exist in the world' mood.

"We've taken care of it, by the way. It's gone like it never even existed in the first place," he exclaimed, and when my phone came back to life, I instantly got his messages.

As well as Wes and Dev's, but the first thing I do is go to that stupid site, and just as Atlas said, it's gone. Disappeared from the face of the earth.

I felt some weight lift off of my chest and I looked up at Atlas with a small smile. "Thanks..."

His smile grew wider as he took one step forward and in one quick movement, he pulled me to his chest and wrapped me around his arms.

"I told you, baby. Just trust me. Trust us." He says in a low hum that travels in my bones and I feel completely at ease.

There's something about being pressed against his body, safely tucked into him, that slows everything down and makes me feel that nothing or no one can hurt us.

I let myself melt into his embrace for a few more seconds, getting that extra boost of energy and motivation I need to face what today might bring for me, and then he places a soft kiss at the top of my head and we hold hands going to his car. It's a good thing Keith isn't home.

Atlas and I listen to his playlist during the entire fifteen minute car ride that feels a little shorter than usual, and I force him to listen to more mellow music and not just all hip hop and rap type of stuff.

"Persuade me with a good song and I'll think about it."

I am challenged and I put on the first song I can think of, which I know, at some point, every person on this earth has heard of.

The first tune begins to play and Atlas looks at me intrigued. "What the hell is this?"

I nod my head to the beat while smiling at him widely. "Oh you know what it is, you just need a bit of memory refresh."

Coming out of my cage and I've been doing just fine

Gotta, gotta be down because I want it all

It started out with a kiss, how did it end up like this?

It was only a kiss, it was only a kiss

I'm grinning at Atlas, waiting for him to realize what song it is, but he's taking way too long to remember it. Does he seriously not know this song? Mr. Brightside is a freaking classic!

We get to the parking lot and Atlas still hasn't figured it out.

"I just can't look, it's killing meeee," I start to sing with the lyrics, staring at Atlas wide-eyed, waiting for it to click.

He just looks at me like I'm talking in an alien language.

"And taking controoool," I continued, bopping my head to the beat and when the pre-chorus drums started I'm banging my hands in the air, pretending to be drumming.

Atlas is laughing at me in an amused way, and watching him smile and hearing him laugh because of me has butterflies all over my stomach.

And then finally, finally, he recognizes the last tune before the chorus starts.

"Jeaaaalousy, turning saints into the seaaaa," he started singing and I squeal because he got the words right and hearing Atlas sing for the first time is magical.

His voice is smooth and deep and he sounds like a freaking angel, oh my god. I would even go as far as saying he sounds better than the vocalist of The Killers and seriously, I'm in love. I could listen to him sing for hours. "Destiny is calling meeee," I joined in and we had a full blown concert in his car at the parking lot.

We're bopping our heads and while I'm on drums, he's brought out his air guitar.

"Open up my eaaaager eyes, 'cause I'm-"

We turned to each other and with wide smiles, we shouted the lyrics.

"Mr. Brightsiiiiiide!"

Atlas and I are laughing like crazy that my cheeks and stomach are starting to hurt, but we can't stop, and I wish we don't have to, and if there was a way to stop time at this exact moment, I would do it in a heartbeat.

When the song is finished, Atlas is just looking at me, staring at me with a heartwarming smile. Those gorgeous gray eyes of his traveling all over my face, dipping over my eyes, cheeks, and then lingering for a second longer on my lips.

And before I know it, he's closing the gap between us, his head leaning closer to mine and his hands coming up to my face.

Then with a deep and hoarse voice, he says, "If I was Mr. Brightside, I'd have stolen you away from that other guy in the song."

"Oh yeah? What makes you think I'll go with you?" I teased, but deep down my heart was hammering in my chest, and with our lips so close to each other, all I could think about was kissing him.

A grin curved up his lips and made him even more devastatingly handsome.

"Because, baby..." He licked his lips and my heart skipped.

"You want me just as much as I want you."

I don't get to say anything else before his lips meet mine, and I quickly melt in our kisses.

His hands tightened on the sides of my face and our kiss went from tamed to absolutely scalding hot.

His head tilted and he angled it so that he could kiss me deeper, taking me by his lips the way I know only Atlas could - wild, sweet, and absolutely overconfident like he knows exactly what he's doing to me.

I loved the way he kissed me, loved the way that I know he forgets everything else around us because nothing else matters, but this, but us.

And he's right.

He is so, so right because I want him so fucking much, maybe even more than he wants me. But I'll never admit that to him.

He's cocky enough as it is.

Atlas manages to pull me closer to him, so much so that we were chest to chest, and for a second I imagined doing it here, in the middle of the parking lot, at five in the freaking morning, because fuck, the desperation to feel more of him is taking control of me. I wanted to stand up, maneuver my body to sit on his waist, wrap my legs around him, and let him do whatever he wanted with me.

It wasn't until I heard him whisper my name-the sound melting into our moans-for I don't know, the fifth time, that I was brought back to the present.

"Suri," he said and I felt tingles all over my skin.

When I pulled away and blinked, I realized I'm so close to his handsome face that it makes him look completely unreal.

"Wha- what?"

He cleared his throat and moved his hands from my face to my back, caressing it up and down.

"As much as I want to keep going, we're going to be late, baby." He says as his eyes look back down at my lips and I can sense his self-control. He's also trying to stop himself.

"Right... right..." I chuckled awkwardly before running my hand through my hair and sitting back down on my side of the car.

Atlas gives me a half smile before his hand comes up to my face and he gently touches the right side.

"Later, baby. I'll see you at the academy. Plus, I'll have a surprise for you then." His lips turned into a full grin.

"Surprise?" My brows furrowed.

"Don't worry, it's a good one. You'll love it. Now go to work before I end up fucking you on my backseat, then Maria will surely kill me for keeping you away from her." Atlas says before planting a sweet kiss on my forehead, and I rush out of there before he sees my face turn tomato red.

Atlas makes sure I get inside the café before he drives off, and when I'm inside, Maria is rushing out of the counter.

"Maria? Are you leaving?"

When she sees me, her face lights up and she rushes to me. "Suri! You're here! Just right on time, I need to get going for an emergency meeting with a supplier. I've called in back up and he'll be here in a few minutes. I'll be back in a few hours just before your morning shift ends."

"Oh, okay." I'm a bit confused at the suddenness, but it's not like I can do much.

Besides, it was nice of her to ask for reinforcement. Tuesdays are buy one take one breakfast muffins so an influx of customers is to be expected.

"Do I know who the person coming in is?" I asked Maria as I helped gather her papers and give it to her.

There's a glimmer in her eyes when she gives me an amused smile. "You know him very well."

Wait, what? Who could it-

"What's up, sweet cheeks? Ready for an awesome work day with Chef Wes?"

Oh my god. There was no way!

But there is, and by the way Maria and him are giggling at each other, this was absolutely planned.

"Be good, you two!" Maria says as she waves goodbye in her car.

"We will, Maria. We'll be very good," Wes answered behind me and I felt his arm grip my waist.

I hiccuped at the surprise and my cheeks blushed as his grip tightened.

The second Maria is gone, Wes pulls me back into the café, closes the door, and cages me in between his arms with my back against the door.

His electric blue eyes sent tingles all over my body as they looked at me intently.

"I heard Dev did eleven," he said, breaking the silence.

It takes me a second to realize what he's talking about and after I do, Wes is giving me a full on wolfish grin now.

"Did you think I was kidding, angel? I said I would double it, and it looks to me like we've got enough time before opening."

Is he being serious?!

Wes leaned forward before whispering into my ear, just as he pressed his body on mine and I felt his bulge strained in his pants.

"I'll see you at the employee lounge. They don't have security cameras there."

My body shuddered at him nibbling at my ear just before he turned around and walked away.

Jesus take the wheel, he is serious.