by Eden Glenn
Ethan’s meltdown wasn’t much of a surprise. The vein throbbing above his clenched jaw kept time to his agitation. “That’d be a sucker bet. As much as I want to get my hands on him, our first priority is getting those two back to a secure location.”
“She took off on her own. Unbelievable.” Ethan frowned at his twin, speaking in the old language was much easier than English. The words flowed between them in a rush.
“She’s pretty determined. I don’t think we could have stopped her without a fight. She’s fierce.”
“Someone is determined to hurt her and you condone her lack of regard for personal safety.” Ethan hung onto the blame theme.
Caleb shrugged.
“I’m going to go and bring her back.” Ethan moved to open the truck door.
Caleb blocked him. “Hold on, she’s used to being independent and won’t like you going all, ‘I’m the boss, on her’.”
Ethan’s scowl deepened and the throbbing in his jaw sped up. “She’s our responsibility and she’ll not leave us.” He grabbed Caleb by the shoulders.
“She didn’t leave us, we left her.” A worried itchiness was grating on his nerves as well. Maliciousness stalked her “Now, you need to fucking calm down.”
“The plan was for her to stay at Salynne’s, not run off without any preparation for her safety.”
Caleb wondered how much time he had before Ethan refused to be placated. “She just needed a little time to herself. Even with him watching, it’s very unlikely that she’ll come to any harm out in public.”
The times Caleb had tried to stand between his brother and something he’d wanted hadn’t ended well. The cab of their truck was not the place to have a brawl.
However, his twin wasn’t listening to reason. If Caleb didn’t think of something fast they would come to blows. “What does prey do when you chase it?”
Ethan snorted dropping his hands. “You know it runs.”
“Yes, it runs harder.” Caleb nodded hoping his brother would make the connection. Ethan was going to have to learn to lighten up. His rigid perception of the world blocked him.
The frown and throbbing vein were back. “Right, I will have to get hold of her before she sees me.”
Something was bringing out Ethan’s most primitive instincts. “No bro, I don’t think that is such a good idea. You know there are laws in this world that prevent that kind of stuff. Besides if you go caveman on her ass, she will really get mad. Trust me that isn’t going to work.”
Caleb had to shake his head. For a moment the Neanderthal plan seemed like a good one. Part of him wanted to agree. Damn straight. Let’s give her a psychic call, Wren-- Nothing. I don’t think she can hear me. There’s too much distance. We’ll have to go get her.
“Wait Ethan something is not right in the way she’s affecting us.”
Ethan turned toward him a mixture of emotions marching through his expressions.
“Tell me you don’t feel it too.” Caleb tried his most persuasive voice.
“The blood.” Ethan slammed his hand against the steering wheel, looking up with a punched exhale.
“Her blood.” Caleb examined the tension riding up his spine. “Our skin absorbed the stuff. I’ve never heard of such a thing. I don’t know what that might be causing under our hood.”
“Neither do I. We can’t let our guard down. That necklace contains both queen stones to open portals to and from our dimension. We have to keep her distracted while we figure it out.”
“We don’t know what she is or what her motives are. I don’t think she even knows.”
Ethan grabbed for the door knob.
“Look, Isobeau knows something is up. They’re headed toward the parking lot. If he’s going to make a move, now would be the time.”
“Stay sharp.” Ethan started the truck, watching to ease onto the street.
≽∞≼
The guys were not at the shop waiting when Wren returned from the great, but thwarted, coffee escape. Then, Ethan’s dilapidated truck slid into the side parking place right next to Wren.
“Upstairs, Now.” He ordered.
Wren wanted to argue but Izzy still wore a worried expression so Wren decided to head up the stairs. She didn’t miss Izzy’s attentive scan of the alley and the way she struggled to keep her body between Wren and any open spaces. Wren’s friend, Izzy the gypsy, had become Isobeau the ninja.
Ethan and Caleb flanked the two of them in a second layer of buffer. Whatever they’d been up to had left them agitated. She wasn’t too appreciative of their testosterone dump on her. They were going to have to get a grip. She put the pizza and soda on the table, adding a stack of paper plates and napkins.
Ethan could have passed for a thunder cloud as he entered the room.
Those faded jeans and the tight black t-shirt she’d given him to wear-- lust hit her with a packed double punch. A girl had to be true to that inner compass and she wanted hot sweaty mind-blowing sex between the two sun browned hunks and she wanted it now. All emotions totally out of character for her usually practical grounded self.
Caleb’s mental voice whispered in her mind talking with Ethan. We have to tell her about following the trail from Izzy’s to the coffee shop. She has no idea what she’s in for.
We have no idea what we’re in for, Ethan countered.
His voice soothed her as nothing else ever had. “You’re safe, good. You shouldn’t have left. We got one step closer to identifying your attacker. The reason we left so quickly, our talent took us to Izzy’s and discovered someone we couldn’t find or identify was watching her.
“He forced us off the road. He was there watching you at the coffee shop but we again couldn’t find him, too many energy signatures and not enough time. We concentrated on being ready to intervene if he made a move on you two there. We will know his feel if we run across it again.”
Izzy nodded. “We both felt someone watching. That’s why we hurried back here. Hoping you had returned.”
Wren had to shrug. Yes, she’d felt something. She didn’t want to be frightened but the idea that someone was stalking her creeped her out and she was thankful for the guys being around.
As urgently as she had needed to leave before, she needed to touch, to reassure herself and to have her hands on their satiny tanned skin. She fought the need, refusing to give in to her fantasy. Clenching and unclenching her fingers was the only clue to her inner anxiety.
“Hello Watcher. How about you tell me why you’re involved.”
“Brother. You always underestimate me. If you must know, she’s my friend.”
Wren gasped at Izzy’s response to his strange formal greeting. She’d said the men were her brothers. What was a Watcher? Looking back and forth between the two, she saw the family resemblance for the first time. Also, the nagging familiarity of the men’s accent hit, of course they were Izzy’s brothers.
“These two clods you’ve attached yourself to are my older brothers.”
CHAPTER TWELVE
Wren had to throw the breaks on these shenanigans. “I haven’t attached myself to anyone and I’m not going to.” Wren denied.
Ethan put his arm around Wren, moving his body between her and Izzy.
“Watcher, there’s nothing for you to report.”
Izzy stood her hands on her hips in front of Ethan. Wren felt Caleb’s psychic presence. His energy permeated the room, the air crackled with brittle tension. Izzy met her brother toe to toe, her eyes reflecting his same aggressive wildness.
He asked. “What do you want with her?” His tone communicated that Izzy should start explaining.
“I have kept the rogue from her and protected her, hoping for a way to figure out her heritage. There is no record of her grandmother here prior to thirty years ago. Maxwell, the chairman, prohibited me from doing more.” She spat the words like verbalizing her censure left a bad taste in her mouth. “I couldn’t determine what she was. He counseled me for interfering and said I should be more ab
out our business of integrating those who’ve escaped and hiding them from you.”
“You’ve been digging into my family history. Izzy, I thought you were my friend. Now you’re telling me you’ve only acted that way to keep an eye on me, spy on me and what, control me?” Mention of Wren’s grandmother reminded her of just how alone in the world she was. Wren clung to Ethan, not believing Izzy could betray her this way.
“Sit, eat your pizza.” Izzy pointed to the unopened box on the table.
Ethan nodded and released her. Wren pulled out a chair across from Izzy and sat. Her stomach protested any thoughts of putting food in it. Caleb and Ethan pulled out chairs flanking the other ends of the table.
Izzy continued. “I am your friend, more than you know. I don’t have the gift my ornery brothers do but I know you are important to our people. I’ve tried to keep you safe while I’ve poured through every book in the Watcher library I can find, trying to figure out just how it all fits together and who you are.”
“Who I am? I’m no one special, just a girl trying to make something out of the inheritance of her grandmother’s business. I work, I think about work. I always follow my Gram’s advice to wear clean underwear when I go out.
“God forbid there might be a hole in them or a stain and I get hit by a car. I won’t even take lead on a project for the Chamber of Commerce. I rarely watch TV or keep up with current events. I even enjoy reading navel contemplating literary fiction. I lead a boring invisible life and I like it.
“Why would you think I’m important to your people? And even more, why would anything about me be in books from your… country?” Wren set aside the strange feeling that Izzy might not be her friend at all but just someone who’d violated her privacy. Curiosity to understand what Izzy was talking about imposed.
“You draw our people to you, somehow. Your necklace is old and I believe it a relic of our culture.”
Wren touched her throat; she had no idea what Izzy meant. “This is only an heirloom from my grandmother.”
Izzy glanced between the two brothers. “We must tell her.”
“You would have us reveal ourselves for wishful hopes and half known truths.” Caleb said, more statement than question as he leaned into his hands, fingers spread on the table.
Izzy looked at her own hands while she twisted a napkin to channel her agitation and whispered, sounding on the verge of tears. “Yet, our people cry out in their need for strong leadership. When is the time to do something besides idly stand by and watch our people destroyed by our mother the tyrant?” Izzy demanded.
“Iz, I know you’ve suffered. We couldn’t save you. We could barely save ourselves when the time came. That doesn’t mean we don’t love you.” Wren saw her nod and exhale a shaky sigh. Wren wasn’t sure what Ethan meant. They were Kings of their country and had left Izzy to suffer at the hands of their mother, the current ruler?
Caleb added. “It doesn’t mean we didn’t want to either. Once the Watchers got you out we decided to stay away.”
“I know. I was angry but I think I always knew that. Then time passed and I didn’t know what to believe anymore. When will you make our people accept you both as our destiny?”
Ethan spoke in an exacting way as if struggling with his emotions. “It’s not yet time for our ascension. Goddess hasn’t seen fit to announce that yet. Our people will also need a Queen. She who is on high has not revealed that either.”
Izzy dropped her shoulder in defeat, hands clasping the back of the chair in front of her before turning to look thoughtfully at Wren.
Wren felt sick, the cream latte didn’t seem to be sitting too well in her stomach. “Izzy, we’ve been friends for a couple years, are you telling me…what are you telling me?”
Izzy sat down at the table. “In our…country, the rule of lineage is that the crown passes through the matriarchal line to the eldest born. If that issue is female, like our mother was, the line flows directly to her. We’ve had multiple generations of first born females.
“I think they had to look up the rule when Ethan and Caleb were born. If the offspring is male,” She looked from Wren to her two brothers. “…then it diverts to his bonded mate. Bonded is a term for the Goddess’ sanction of a joining and a little known qualification that’s been subtly eroded from our history by our current Queen.
“The research I’ve done revealed the process wherein the Goddess recognizes mated couples. So many years have passed since she’s done so, the knowledge has faded or more likely been purposely obscured. Bonding increases power and I don’t think our current Queen wants citizens to realize that. Especially since that kind of power isn’t in her reach.”
“What has any of this got to do with me?”
Wren watched Izzy pause. She looked at Wren with an unreadable expression.
“Perhaps you are the destiny.” Izzy’s voice frightened Wren.
“What are you saying? You think I’m destined to be your country’s Queen?” Shock and disbelief went to war with the former sense of violation Wren had been grappling with.
Izzy checked off on her fingers as she listed reasons. “Our people are drawn to you. You have no idea the number of your customers who are refugee’s from our world, er country. These two, the prince heirs to the throne arrived here this morning. You tell me you hear their thoughts and they hear yours.
“You have an almost irresistible attraction to each other. You’ve clothed them and are about to feed, both symbolic acts but significant none the less. Granted, a polyamorous union is somewhat unusual…” she smiled “But, my brothers are anything but typical. The only thing missing is a merging of mind memories in claiming and a blood exchange between the three of you and then marks for confirmation. If your mating is recognized you become the current Queen’s heir. They are the Mane’tung. You’ll have to organize a staff for advisors. . .”
The conversation had taken a turn for weirdness. Joining of minds, exchange of blood? What kind of people did stuff like that?
Isobeau stopped, noticing both her brothers staring intently across the table at Wren.
“What? You two didn’t know? It seems like you’d have at least studied up on the subject of your path toward the throne.”
Caleb crossed his arms over his chest. “You’re the one sitting on the Watcher’s library. We’re not much welcomed there or able to research at home. You might have given us a heads up for what we were dealing with here. We’re freaks remember. We’re here to enforce the barrier between our worlds, and to identify and return citizens who’d immigrated without authority.”
Caleb watched Wren for her reaction to what he was saying. She guarded herself and fought to not show him any response. “Once they‘re back in Wyrmarach they are basically sold into slavery. We refuse to participate in the skin trade so we’ve been identifying and keeping track of them ourselves from this side. We’ve only returned those that we’ve identified as disruptive to the peace of the colonies or a threat to local citizens.”
Izzy interrupted. “I was told that you profited from returning people…like me…back to Wyrmarach. The Watchers made you out to be the enemy.” Wren wasn’t sure what Izzy had started to say before she substituted like me.
Caleb couldn’t hide the sadness in his voice. “Yeah everyone needs a boogie man. As Enforcers, we’re the only candidate they’ve got. If they only knew the extent of the bad out there, we’ve come across the worst of the worst. Actually our goals and those of the Watchers aren’t that different.”
A question jumped to Wren’s lips before she could stop it. “Why are you working as the glorified border patrol if you’re Royal in your country?”
Ethan spoke up to answer her. “We have different views than the reigning Queen. We are considered somewhat of an oddity. For now you’ll have to take our word for that. Our twin birth is unusual enough. It’s not customary for both twins to survive.”
He looked away as if there was more he wasn’t saying. “Then, for us to be male
was out of pattern. As we grew we discovered our people aren’t able to harness their psi-energy like Caleb and I do. We were assigned here to exile by the Queen.”
Then she remembered the blood.
“What’s this about a blood swap?”
Caleb tried. “You heard what Izzy said. A blood exchange is a typical part of the bonding evidently, perhaps ceremonial.”
Ethan interrupted. “Our skin absorbed her blood earlier like an industrial sponge.”
Wren was unable to focus on Izzy but thought she might be smiling and nodding. Wren threw her hands up between them warding off their words, fighting for how she could call a halt to the crazy talk, their skin absorbed her blood. There was a distinct possibility Wren was on the verge of a panic attack. Her heart pounded in her chest with an aching boom.
Caleb tried to soothe her. “When your blood soaked into our skin it wasn’t in the usual order of events, the result is unpredictable. Getting your blood on us, apparently forced Ethan and I to begin the process… without you. It wouldn’t have happened with just anyone who bled on us. You must have been foreordained as a potential mate by the Goddess. You have a choice. Think of it as a possible destiny.”
The look Izzy gave him clearly disagreed. She started to say something but Ethan cut her off with a twitch of his fingers. So they weren’t being totally honest here.
“So you’re like doing this bonding thing with me while I’m not?”
Ethan clarified. “We don’t even know all the appropriate steps or what to expect other than what Izzy just told us. We are apparently stuck somewhere in the beginning. Like she said, there hasn’t been a Goddess honored mating in many years. You may pick up some of the over flow of psi-energy from us in the process, kind of an empathetic reaction.”
He shrugged. “We should’ve done a claiming with the full mental merge, then a blood exchange which would be followed by transformation. We’ve accidently had a one sided blood exchange. I know this sounds pretty strange to you. Our customs are somewhat peculiar. Obviously we need to do some research.”
Wren had often felt out of step with the world. She heard the same longing to be accepted from the guys. It tweaked her heart a little that they might have found that acceptance together.
