The Awakening Aidan - By Abby Niles Page 0,69

had kept her from asking again.

Now they’d run out of options.

Aidan was stuck in animal form. No, he was worse than stuck. He was an animal.

And it was all her fault.

“He’s never coming back, Pam. I’m going to have to live with knowing what I did to him for the rest of my life.”

Live with knowing she’d had her mate in her grasp, and had refused them both an eternity of happiness.

…

Liam stood behind the chalk mark with his hands on hips studying his friend, who paced the confines with his teeth bared. Pam had finally convinced Jaylin to leave the room and at least change clothes. Not that the woman was willing to go far. Just down the hall to another room to clean up.

Her constant vigilance over Aidan was starting to annoy the shit out of him.

He wanted to spend some time alone with him too, but she was always in the way, watching, offering suggestions…just pissing him off.

Thank God Trevor had barred her from the experiments after the first day. He didn’t like the effect Jaylin had on the cougar. Not that it was any tamer when it was dealing with anyone else, but it was out of control when she was around. Even with her denied access, she waited outside the door, pacing back and forth, each step making him angrier and angrier. As soon as the men filed out of the room, she marched right back in and sat down on the chair.

Never. Leaving.

He wasn’t sure what motivated her. Guilty conscience, maybe?

She should feel more than guilt. This was all her fault, and the only thing that kept him from saying so was knowing Aidan would’ve killed him for uttering a single harsh word to his precious mate.

The bitch needed some harsh words spoken to her, and he worried that he wouldn’t be able to hold his tongue much longer. Every day that passed, his fury with her grew. It didn’t help that he was just as useless as she was, which only infuriated him more.

He’d tried his damnedest to get his beast to respond, knowing Brit was incapable of doing so. Liam had been their one hope at somehow reaching Aidan on a personal shifter level. And he’d failed. Those animal eyes staring up at him, as if they accused him of being weak on a daily basis, didn’t help either.

He leaned closer. “Are you even in there, aware of what’s going on?”

He didn’t think so. He knew Aidan. His friend would find some way to let them know he was there. But there’d been no sign of a human residing inside the cougar at all. But still Liam searched for it.

He owed Aidan that.

Hell, he owed Aidan his life. More so now than ever.

He was the reason Aidan had met his downfall. If Liam hadn’t been weak, his friend wouldn’t have called that woman in the first place. Aidan would be fine. Still smiling, relaxed, and happy Aidan. The man he’d worked so hard to become.

Now look at you.

Fucking Drall…fucking women. They fucked everything up.

But that wasn’t the worst.

Knowing deep down that he’d still want Aidan to make that phone call anyway was the worst.

Here was his friend—an animal with no way of reaching his human side—and a part of Liam was just thankful that he wasn’t sitting in a stupor completely oblivious to everything around him but Ava. What kind of friend did that make him?

A sucky one for sure.

“Come on, man. You’ve got to be in there somewhere.”

A hiss was the cougar’s reply. Liam sighed, then stiffened as he heard her footsteps coming up the hall. What’d the bitch give him? Two minutes alone?

He wasn’t leaving this time. He wouldn’t leave anymore because of her.

Liam kept his eyes trained on the cougar, refusing to give that woman the time of day. If she wanted to interrupt his time with Aidan, he’d just pretend she didn’t exist. When Jaylin came to stand beside him, the cougar’s ears twitched as another growl vibrated through it.

Liam narrowed his eyes. If he didn’t know better…

He inched closer to Jaylin.

No fucking way.

He couldn’t be imagining it, could he? Wishful thinking?

“Leave the room.”

Jaylin’s head swung toward him. “What…why?”

“Just leave and come back in.”

When she didn’t move, he leaned in her face and said, “Go” real slow and harsh. Her color dropped a couple of shades, but she at least left.

Stubborn-ass woman. If she’d only been that stubborn in actually loving Aidan then none of this would’ve happened.

He