Aelin just covered herself with a towel when she heard footsteps going upstairs. Aedion left for his shift at the bar where he works, and she made sure the front door was locked before taking a shower upstairs in her room. And she's definitely not expecting some visitor tonight. She slowly crept to her bedroom door and strained to hear who was it, it couldn't have been Aedion, because Aedion would have stomped on every step he made. The intruder walked now in the hallway with careful and controlled steps, her bedroom was the first bedroom after the stairs so she knew the intruder will enter it first, Shit, Aelin thought, the footsteps are in front of her door now, she quickly grabbed the baseball bat Aedion gave her for situations like this and braced herself for the attack.

The doorknob turned and just before the intruder can fully enter her door she screamed and hit the door with the bat, the intruder or rather, the guy tried to move out of her swings, but Aelin kept on attacking.

"Ow! shit!" the guy said "what the fuck?!" he shouted with his deep voice. The guy grabbed hold of Aelin's bat and took it from her just like that with his strength.

"Get out of my house! who are you?! I'm calling the police!" Aelin said.

The guy threw the bat on the floor and said "Shit, don't call the police, I'm here to check out place, I'm not here to steal something. Shit." He's doubled over and nursing his torso from Aelin's attack so she can't see his face yet, she can see his tattooed arm, and the built of the guy, which is impressive.

"What do you mean checking out the place?" Aelin said, still suspicious and quite breathless herself.

"Aedion said—" The guy stood up and looked at Aelin now, his face is handsome but harsh, maybe it was the tattoo that stretched from his arms to his temple, but his eyes are a lovely shade of green, which Aelin adored as soon as she set her eyes on his. Those same eyes went a little wide, Aelin wondered what made him react like that until she felt cold wind around her body.

Her naked body.

She looked down at her own body and looked at the guy, who's still gaping at her nakedness. She quickly grabbed her towel that must've fell off while she was attacking him. Once she was covered again, the guy looked at her face again with a hint of a smile on his face, Aelin's embrassasment turned into anger, pure hatred with this brute in front of her. "Get out of my room." The guy turned to leave with nothing more than a snort.

I'm going to strangle Aedion this thought is running in Aelin's mind while getting dressed, she didn't know if the tattooed guy is still in the house. She tried to call Aedion and ask him why he forgot to tell her this but she knew it was useless since her cousin will be busy working, so she left him a message instead. And besides he'll be home soon enough, then she can truly strangle her cousin, she doesn't care how big Aedion is. Just thinking about how that guy saw her, all of her naked body just puts her temper on a high again, she doesn't even know that guy's name.

After an hour or so, she heard Aedion's truck pulled in front of their house and she came downstairs, hands clenched. Before she can reach the door, Aedion is already inside, smiled at her and said "Hey cuz!"

"Hey cuz your face Aedion, forgot to tell me something?" Aelin said with lethal calm.

"Oh yeah, forgot about that, sorry. But I believe you've met Rowan." As if on cue, Rowan entered the kitchen, beer in hand. "Hey man," Aedion fist bumped Rowan's free hand.

Aelin's eyebrows rose and said "You're still here?" with such disdain for this handsome but unbelievably irritating male near her. "Why are you still here?" She had a good chance to look at Rowan this time, he looks like he spends a decent amount of time in the gym, his silver hair is tied up into a man-bun, his skin tanned just right, and by the gods, he really is strikingly handsome.

"He told me to wait for him." he shrugged as if she didn't attack him earlier, but he doesn't seem to care about Aelin's hatred for him, or Aelin in general. He turned to Aedion. "Your cousin by the way, almost killed me with a baseball bat."

Aedion chuckled. Chuckled! How dare him chuckle! Aelin thought giving his cousin and Rowan death glares. "But I trust you've seen enough of the house?" Aedion asked Rowan.

Rowan simply answered "More than enough." his eyes slowly turning to Aelin.

She could feel her temper rising again, her nose flaring. "Can I talk to you Aedion?" She turned to Rowan, who seemed unfazed by her temper, which made her even more mad at him. "In private." she added.

"I don't want him here." Aelin spat.

"Okay, why?" Aedion asked calmly, as if this has happened a hundred times before.

"Because…" Aelin started and failing to find a reasonable excuse to give her cousin, and she will definitely not tell Aedion about what happened earlier "…I don't like him. Can we just find another room mate?"

"No Aelin, Rowan's willing to pay for almost half of the rent and we both know we need that. Plus, it's been hard enough to look for renters, especially with your temper." Aedion said. "Rowan's a cool guy, we've had classes together, and he said he's not home almost all the time. Wait, what did the guy ever do to you? It's not as if he walked in on you naked or anything. I forgot to mention that he'll be coming to check out the place, so sorry about that, but I think he's our best bet here."

Aelin is thankful for the darkness of the backyard, her face grew hotter on the mention of Rowan seeing her naked. Whatever irritation Aelin has with this idea, Aedion is right. They could use help with the rent, it's a good thing they are both on scholarship program, but it's still not easy being on their own. She would always choose this over staying at their foster father's house. She sighed and answered "Fine, just tell him to stay out of my way."

"Good, because he might also tell you that." was all Aedion's answer.