Claimed by the Devils

Chapter 25

Elliot POV

Lucian had texted me to meet him at the back of the bleachers on the field. I arrived at the same time Sebastian and Rowan did. I didn’t know where they went after witnessing Aria and Lucian’s argument.

“Any sign of him?” I asked.

“Nope. Let’s hope Aria hasn’t gutted him,” Rowan said.

I hadn’t thought of Aria killing him.

“He deserved it.”

“Nice to know you’ve got faith in me,” Lucian said.

I turned as he approached. His hands were shoved in his pockets.

“Is Aria alive?”

“And asleep,” he said.

“What did you guys figure out?” Sebastian asked.

“We have a deal. So long as Heather is taken care of and a few other minor details are worked through, she’s ours.”

Rowan and Sebastian each fist-bumped him, but I wasn’t buying it.

“What did you do?” I asked.

“Come on, dude. This is a good day. Problem one solved,” Rowan said.

“Yeah, problem one solved, but what do we have to pay for it? Aria’s not the kind of girl to submit willingly. You promised her something. I want to know if we’re going to be able to deliver it or not.”

“Can’t we worry about that when it comes?” Lucian asked.

“What did you do?”

“Why can’t we just have a day where we can celebrate?” Sebastian asked.

Lucian spoke up.

“We can. We don’t have to worry about anything else.”

Rowan sighed.

“Yeah, we do. There’s no way I can carry on without knowing what you did. What did you agree to?”

Sebastian was the same.

Aria had been against us from the start. There was no way she’d cave so easily. Whatever Lucian offered, I knew it was going to be a big f*****g stretch to give her.

When he told us, I wanted to pummel his ass. He finished speaking and I stared at him.

“What?” Sebastian asked.

“We’ll deal with that problem when we get to it.”

I couldn’t help it. Putting a hand on my stomach, I laughed, and kept on laughing. I couldn’t stop. This was just priceless.

I reached up to rest one of my hands on the bleachers.

“This is … wow, fuck.”

“You can laugh now. We’ll deal with that problem when it comes.”

“When will it comes? Lucian, we don’t have that kind of power. You know the rules. She’s ours, and we tell her what to do. She belongs to us. She is Vales!”

“So, Sebastian has an entire media empire. He’s got a couple of book publishers there. We can make this work.”

“Guys, I hate to throw another wrench in the works, but Aria’s mom was our dads’ selected,” Sebastian said.

This made me turn to Sebastian.

“What? How the f**k did you find that out?”

My dad had told me about the selection in graphic detail. Some of the s**t they did was extreme.

“I’ve got a guy who can find this stuff out, and no, I’m not saying anything. The less we all know, the better.”

“Aria’s mom,” Rowan said.

“Is that why she was chosen for us? If so, then that means from the moment Aria was born, she was meant to be ours, right?”

We all looked at each other, none of us having the answers.

“When you’re born into The Society, there is no way out,” I said.

It was a statement my father had told me many times. It came out as more of a warning.

Rowan spread his arms out.

“Wait, whoa, hold up. Now, please tell me I’m following, but if Aria’s mom was our dads’, who the f**k fathered her? I’m not banging a sister here. That s**t is messed up.”

“A guy named Alexander,” Sebastian said.

“And he has pretty close ties with our folks as well.”

“I’ve never heard of him,” I said.

“No, but you would recognize him. He’s our dads’ lawyer,” Sebastian said.

“He’s the one who draws up all the documents.”

“Wait, so let me get this straight. Our dads have an instant shot at The Society, their chosen one is Aria’s mom, and then they marry her off to their friend?” I asked, frowning.

“Why their daughter for us?”

“To keep it all in line,” Lucian said.

This was the first time he’d spoken up since Sebastian had dropped that little piece of information.

“Isn’t it?” Lucian asked.

“I don’t have a reason for it,” Sebastian said.

“All I know is something is going on, and I don’t like it. I haven’t found out everything, but they hide the selection.”

“Of course, they do. It’s why it’s top secret,” I said.

“Aria’s mom forced her to do this,” Rowan said.

“And she knew what it entailed.”

“And my dad is not above using force,” Lucian said.

“I’m not liking this,” Sebastian said.

“I’m not liking this one f*****g bit.”

“We’re in too deep,” Lucian said.

“So we use her?” Sebastian asked.

“What choice do we have?”

“Let’s be real right now. The only thing keeping Aria in line is the threat to Heather. Why did she turn up all of a sudden? Is she part of the play?” I asked.

I had considered Heather to be a civilian, but I couldn’t help but be a little paranoid.

“Do you think she was placed here on purpose to keep Aria in line?”

“From the moment she was born to three years ago, Aria’s life is a total blank. I’ve got my guy on it, but so far, it’s all been a bust. We don’t know anything, not even the school she went to.”

“River High,” Rowan said.

“She told us.”

Sebastian pulled his cell phone out.

I noticed immediately it wasn’t a regular phone, and I couldn’t help but think about how f****d up our life was. What kind of teenage boys had burner cell phones and lived this life? We’d never been given the luxury of being teenagers.

Children born to serve The Society didn’t get that life. We were duty bound to follow the rules. To fit in. If we didn’t, there were always consequences, and we wouldn’t like them. Most of the time, they were idle threats, but I had heard of other kids being cast out to fend for themselves. I couldn’t do that. I wanted to control the empire I came from. If that meant I had to pass a few party tricks along the way, so be it.

Sebastian hung up.

“He’s on it. I don’t know why we wouldn’t have been able to find out about her. That school isn’t too far from here. It makes no sense.”

“Unless someone wanted her identity to stay hidden?” Rowan asked.

We all turned to look at him.

Rowan held his hands up in surrender.

“Come on, you guys haven’t figured it out yet that what we’re all attached to isn’t some scary f*****g s**t? Think about it. People who try to take on The Society end up dead or they disappear. I don’t want to have any of those things happen to me, so I’m quite happy to just play this role, thank you very much.”

I couldn’t blame him.

Not that I knew much about The Society. My dad believed in giving me some information in very small doses, and by small, I meant what he considered suitable for me to know, nothing else.

Blowing out a breath, I looked around the bleachers.

“We’ve got to be heading back.”

“I don’t like this,” Sebastian said.

“Do you expect us to lie to her?”

“I expect you to do whatever is necessary for the good of all of us,” Lucian said.

“You know how this works. If you’re willing to risk the wrath of our fathers and the whole … society, then tell her the truth, or follow my lead and maybe we can all make it out of this alive.”

There had to be another option, there just had to be. I don’t want to lie to Aria, nor did I want to put her at risk.

I was so f*****g tired of playing all these games. None of them make sense. For the last couple of months, I felt like I’d been playing catch-up.

We all headed back to school, without a plan, or with any way of truly knowing what the hell to do. This was all bullshit. It was only a matter of time before all of this blew up in our faces.