by R. A. Boyd
“Do you want to tell them?” Cass muttered, nodding her head toward Audra who was curled up in her mate’s lap.
His sister shook her head and buried her face back in Zeke’s neck.
“Okay,” Cass said.
She cleared her throat and held her hands out as if searching for the right words as everyone settled at different places in the family area. He wished like hell she would just spit it out.
Cass cleared her throat again and rubbed the nape of her neck. “Umm, a man came into the bar. Said he was in charge of the Rogue clan now and that he was going to make sure they followed through what Samiyah had planned. I have never seen him before, but Willow and Audra recognized him.” She took in a shuddering breath and looked between her mates. “It was your brother. Ronin. He fed us the same crap Samiyah did. You were an abomination who was stronger than you needed to be. I was able to keep him down with an alpha order, so there is that,” she said, a bit of hope in her words. “But it only lasted while I kept eye contact with him. Once I looked away, he said something and the lights flickered out. Not that I’m an expert, but I think he used magic. I went for him as soon as everything went dark.”
An icy pit started in Simon’s chest and swam through the rest of his body, leaving his stomach tied up in the most unfamiliar bulges he’d ever felt. This was new. He couldn’t put a name to the emotion he was experiencing, but Simon knew for damn sure he didn’t like it. If he could take a knife and carve it out of himself, he would gladly do it right now.
If it really was Ronin, the only thing that kept him from running out of this building, hunting down his brother, and making him pay for what he had put his family through was Charlie’s touch. Warmth spread from her to him, slowly eating away at the freezing pit in his middle.
This was impossible. Impossible. Ronin couldn’t be awake. His insane ass still had thirty years to sleep. Maybe it was forty? None of the coven would have woken him up. Didn’t they know the destruction he could bring?
“Did Ronin hurt you?” Jax asked as he held Cass’s hand in his. His words were level, but the bulky feel of dominance had started to fill the room.
Cass bit her bottom lip and let out a soft laugh. “I don’t think he meant to. I think, and I’m pretty sure I’m right, he was trying to get me off of him.” She shook her head, and a lazy smile breezed across her lips. “I don’t know why I attacked him. The lights went off and I just lunged. He was heading for the door, but I was trying to keep him there. And he said something that was really off. Did you hear him?” she asked, looking at Riley.
Riley shook her head. “We were outside by the time the lights shut off. It happened so fast. What did he say?”
Cass scoffed and shrugged. “Don’t hurt her. Please don’t hurt her. I don’t know who he was talking to, but his words were true. I could hear the insistence in his voice. He really didn’t want to hurt me. I don’t know.”
“It could have been his beast,” Audra mumbled, her face still in the bend of Zeke’s neck. “That’s how it is when your beast takes over. It talks to you. Tells you to do horrible things. I mean, aside from killing all those people that’s why he was put down. His beast had been awake. Maybe he’s still fighting.”
Willow splayed her hands on the table, the clang of her bracelets bagging on the old carved wood. “As true as that may be, he’s still awake. And I did not clear it. That’s something that should have been put by me. Sariel may be in charge while I’m gone, but she knows that everything has to go through me.”
“Are you two on good terms?” Riley asked. “Would she have sided with Samiyah and turned against you? Freed their brother to help make sure the Rogue’s succeed?”
“That—,” Willow said, anger laced through her voice, “—is the problem.” She picked up her phone. “I usually talk to her every other day or so. It’s almost been a week. I didn’t think anything of it. It’s normal to be unreachable on assignment. Especially if it a bad one. But she didn’t mention it the last time we talked. Besides, it’s not her. I trust her implicitly. Which is why I have to go. She could be in trouble.”
Charlie sat up from Simon’s lap and ran her hands through her hair. She looked tired. “Which is why you can’t go. This could be a trap. They could be keeping your buddy quiet and waiting for you to come and find out what’s going on. You can’t go.”
Willow’s eyes softened. “I have to. It could be a set-up. But there are those in the coven who would die to protect me, and I for them. I can’t abandon them.”
Simon could feel the pain in Charlie’s heart. She’d only just met these women, his family, but she’d already bonded to them. And they’d bonded to her.
His brothers and sisters sitting in this room right now were the only things that had kept him sane. Even without his soul, they’d been able to keep him level. He could have given up like the other Ghosts that chose to live apart from everyone else, but Simon knew them for who they really were. They were cold, dismissive, and unfeeling. If he’d gone and stayed with them, they would have killed him by now.
But not this small group. They fought for him. They wanted him to live. They supported him even when he had given up on himself. And now, they accepted Charlie with no question. And she had accepted them. As screwed up as he used to think this curse was, it was the complete opposite. It had brought him supreme joy. His mate. And the freedom of choice.
“I’ll go with you.” Paige’s quiet voice broke the silence. “You can’t go alone. I may not be as powerful as you, but I’ve been working really hard on the spells you’re teaching me. So I’ll go.”
Aiden leaned over and kissed Paige’s temple. “We’ll go.”
Willow’s incredulous eyes scanned the table. “I can’t ask you to do that. You have so much going on here and you need to keep watch.”
“You already know I’m coming,” Zeke said before he lifted his cup and took a sip from his coffee. “Some of them are self-righteous ass-hats who treated me like shit. Maybe it’s them. Or maybe not. Whatever. I’m coming.”
“And wither he goes, so do I.” Audra pulled herself away from Zeke and took his cup from his hand. She sipped, grimaced, and then drank down the entire cup of coffee.
Willow shook her head and looked about as pissed off as a five foot nothing fallen angel could be. She narrowed her eyes and said, “No. No. I will not allow you to put yourselves in danger. You have no idea how bad this could be.”
Paige reached over and took Willow’s hand. “And that’s why you need us with you. We’re not letting you go alone.”
“You’re one of us,” Jax said. He looked utterly reserved, but the anger growing in him was enough to bring a heavy feeling over Simon’s shoulders.
Willow’s voice was helpless as she shrank back in her chair. “But I’m not.” She looked down at her hands like she was afraid to meet their stares. “You get mates. You get people to love. You have each other. I’m a member of the Coven of the Fallen, and I have a duty to them. I can’t get you involved, and no matter how angry and dominant you are Jax, you can’t make me. I— I care too much about all of you to get you involved. I’m protecting you.” In a show of nervousness, she jerked her leg up and down under the table. It made it look like she was dancing in her chair. She was scared.
“Willow,” Paige said, sitting up and putting her elbows on the table. “You're being a dummy right now. You are one of us. Just a few hours ago you said that you were staying, and you know what? That’s your choice. We’ll go together and find out what’s happening.”
“And then you’ll come back home,” Cass said. She stood from between her mates and walked around the table to Willow. She gently moved the woman over and sat in the chair with her, eliciting a low chuckle from them both. “This is home for you. You’re one of us. How can you not know that?”
Tears gleamed in Willow’s eyes, and when she blinked two drops of water slid down her cheeks. “But I’m not mated. You’ve been together since the beginning.”
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Simon didn’t know if it would help, but he chimed in with his two cents. “But you’re here now. You made the fall, so you have a choice. Who says you have to stay with them and can’t find someone to be yours? Fuck whoever told you that lie.” Willow began to say something but Simon held up his hand to her. “And don’t say any nice shit to me. I’ll probably go home and vomit from all this sweet stuff coming out of my mouth. Just accept it and leave me alone about it.”
That was twice in one night he’d taken one for the team. He was kind to Jace, and then he’d been kind to Willow. He was losing his edge. Maybe he’d go piss on that dumb ass garden gnome Willow had put in the front yard. That’ll teach them all.
Willow frowned and ran her hand through her dark hair. “Do you really think your brother would do this to you? I don’t understand why he would. I met him the night we took him down. Something in him was sorry for what he’d done. It doesn’t make sense.”
“Does to me,” Audra said. “Well, kind of. When my beast was getting to me, all I could think of was being put down. Yeah, I wanted my mate to return my grace and save me, but I also wanted to save everyone else from me. What if that’s what he’s trying to do? What if he’s afraid we’ll all go crazy and do what he did?”
This was too much. Too many unanswered questions.
“I know him,” Paige whispered. “Well, I know his face. Samiyah had pictures of him. Some of the stuff that happened before he put that spell on me to make me forget is still a blur. But I remember his face. I just… I don’t know. Maybe Samiyah was hoping he would hate himself enough for what he’d done all those years ago to bring him over to the side of the Rogues. If that was his plan, it worked.”
Simon draped his arm over Charlie’s shoulder. This was enough. They were talking in circles and going nowhere. They needed time to think.
“I’m going to take Charlie home,” Simon said, standing from the chair and reaching down to take his mate’s hand. “She’s fighting like hell against the alcohol to stay awake.”
“Nuh-uh,” she said with a yawn. “Okay, I am. I don’t have shifter or fallen angel metabolism. The tequila is kicking my butt.”
Light laughs surrounded the family area as everyone started to get up. It was getting late. Simon wanted to get Charlie home, but he knew the others were waiting for some kind of release. There was nothing any of them could do right now. They had to wait and see what happened. Wait to see what Willow could find out. Wait and see if Ronin would come to them. Deep down inside, Simon wished like hell that Ronin would come home and talk to them. Maybe seeing what their lives had become since they’d begun to find their mates would change him.
Probably not. Ronin had always been stubborn. Hatred had taken him over in his last days. Simon loved his brother, but in the end, he had become horrible to be around. Fighting them would have been easy. Them bleeding each other would have been easy. But that hadn’t been Ronin’s way. He sat around snarling and talking to himself, becoming an empty hole of sadness and hatred. They had all wanted to help, but he’d gotten to a point where there was nothing any of them could do. Jax and Damon had brought it to the clan to put Ronin under before he went on a killing spree.
But they were too late.
Now, here he was in New Rose. Hiding. Waiting. What the hell were they going to do?
“Willow. Where is your coven house, exactly?” Damon asked as he walked toward the door with Cass behind him. “Could a flight shifter go and observe? Find out what’s happening before you all walk into a trap?”
Nodding his head, Simon grunted and stopped walking. That was a good idea.
Willow puffed out her cheeks and gave a sideways smile. “Roadwin, Pennsylvania. That makes sense. Do you think one of the ravens will go?”
“We could always ask,” Damon replied.
They had a plan. It may not be an answer, but it was a start. There was a shift in the atmosphere from apprehension to hopeful. It was all they needed to make things a little lighter among them.
He had missed all of this. Without his soul, he’d been void of all the emotions that filled him right now. The proximity of Charlie with his grace living inside her was enough for him. For now. She deserved to be loved with every part of his existence. His family merited more than what he’d been able to give them since he’d handed over his soul. He was happy to give it to them. It still made him want to vomit, but Simon knew they were worth it.
He smiled inwardly and pulled Charlie closer to him. She melted into his side and rested her head on his chest. Nothing but warmth radiated from her. It filled him, satiated him. He kissed the top of her head, inhaling the sweet scent of whatever she used in her hair. She smelled like a syrup-drenched stack of sexy as fuck pancakes.
“Want me to pick you up?” he asked, grinning down at her.
“Um, well yeah.”
He reached to pick her up and hold her close, but she had other ideas. She skittered around him and jumped on his back, making a funny grunting noise as she scaled him.
“I’m a koala and you’re my tree,” she said in his ear. The sweet warmth of her breath wafted along his ear and neck, hardening his cock.
Simon aimed to make New Rose safe for his mate again. Even if it meant he had to maim his brother in the process to keep Charlie safe, he would gladly do it.
Chapter 10
A cool breeze blowing across Charlie’s exposed shoulder woke her up. She thought Simon was blowing air across her skin like he had last night, but unfortunately, he wasn’t. That man was dangerous with crushed ice in his mouth and a hunger for her orgasm. Even thinking about it made her pussy clench to feel his fingers, or one of her toys, inside her as he worked her toward release. He’d brought at least five from her writhing body before sunrise, pleasing her with his tongue and fingers and teeth. The last orgasm almost broke her into millions of tiny pieces.
She turned over and brought the blanket up to her chin. The window sat cracked open and let in the fragrant scent of early spring. Cut grass, blooming flowers, and a late night rain filled her senses. It was still chilly outside, but the birds were singing their songs to whoever had ears to listen this morning. The sun shined through the open curtains, blinding her when she turned her head just right to catch a ray of sunlight blasting into her eyeballs.
“Can I keep you to myself this morning?” Simon’s voice was a whisper.
Charlie turned and looked to where his voice came from. With only a pair of boxer briefs on, Simon sat reclined in a large black chair in the corner of the bedroom. He was freaking delicious. Corded, defined muscles lined his entire body. His nipples were tight, and all Charlie wanted to do was wrap her tongue around them and listen to that sexy growl of his. His six pack abs moved as he breathed, and the rise and fall of his hardened pecs made her heart skip in her chest. His hair was mused, probably from her trying to hold on to it for dear life last night.
She tried and failed, to smooth her tight curly hair back away from her ears. Her hair must look terrible. “What do you mean if you can keep me?” Her voice was still groggy from just waking up. She stretched out in the large bed like a starfish and filled her lungs. The smell of bacon perked her up a bit more.
With the grace of a panther, or saber-tooth cat, Simon stood from his chair and walked toward the bed. He leaned down on the soft pillow top and prowled over to her, wide shoulders rolling as he came closer. Once he hovered above her, he raised one hand and brushed his fingertips along her jawline. “Just me and you. I know it’s a lot going on right now, and I’m sorry for bringing you into this, but I just want to spend time with you and only you.” He inhaled deeply, and when he opened his eyes, they glowed with an amber ring around his iris. He looked feral and beautiful.
She raised an eyebrow and leaned up, pushing her lips against his until he opened and let her slide her tongue against his. She moaned and then pulled away before he tried to take it any further. “You’re silly. Of course, you can. I’m with you. I’m not going
anywhere,” she said, slowly shaking her head.
If he wanted them to spend time together alone, she would happily do it. He didn’t seem like the type to open up and talk about his feelings. He’d even said as much. But with her, he was open and loving and so affectionate it brought butterflies to her chest every time she thought of him.
He smiled at her and winked. “How do you like your eggs?”
“Scrambled really hard with cheese,” she said, running her short nails over his chest. “Do you have cheddar?”
He nodded and pressed a kiss to her temple. “That’s my second favorite way to eat eggs. Come on. Let’s eat.” He jumped off the bed and walked toward the door.
“I’m going to take a shower and then I’ll be down.”
Just as he had, but way less agile, Charlie jumped off the bed and marched to her suitcase sitting in the corner beside his closet. She pulled out a pair of lime green sweatpants, a black tank top, and her extra set of slippers. The other ones must be downstairs somewhere.
Simon had been hinting at her putting her stuff away in his closet. Her first night here, she had taken her small suitcase and left it in one of his spare bedrooms, but when she woke up from her first orgasm induced coma, he had moved it to his bedroom. Last night she was surprised to see it waiting for her between the door of his room and his chest of drawers. Now it sat in the corner by his closet.
Maybe he was trying to give her a hint.
She chuckled and went to the bathroom to brush her teeth and take a shower. A giggle bubbled up from deep in her belly at what she saw. Simon had taken all of her toiletries from her cosmetic bag and placed them on the shelves along with his stuff. Her shampoo and conditioner sat on the little cubby against the shower wall next to his shower stuff. Her deodorant was in the medicine cabinet next to his. He’d left it open for her to see. All of her bathroom things were neatly waiting for her next to the items he used.
