He shook his head as a scream erupted in his mind but stayed firmly locked behind his teeth. Once again, he acknowledged he was broken. What male went after a brother even one that left him when he was a baby unless he was broken?
“Do you wish to land on the earth or should we join the traffic in the air?”
He wanted to kill his brother and allow himself to meet Brie, but the land was calling his name, and he couldn’t ignore it. They landed in what was a big open field. They stood looking out the view screen that had been uncovered to make seeing easier.
“It’s green,” Akron said the words that seemed to be laced with a bit of awe.
It was much different from any planet they had visited before including the one they were born on. They left the ship allowing their feet to touch the ground. Phoenix went to his knees allowing his hand to play in the grass.
“It’s soft.”
Slade looked around and tried to shake off the unknown feeling that was wrapping itself around him. This was not how they acted on a planet. They had seen a number of different planets and never had any of them been overwhelmed, but this was different.
For a minute or maybe it was only for a moment, he had the feeling that he was coming home. How was that possible? His home had been Brie’s arms, he would never know that sensation again.
“Are we staying here?” Mekhi asked.
He shook his head why would they stay some place that did this to them?
“We need to find my brother dispose of him and then leave.”
Every movement around him stopped, and he knew his mistake as soon as he said it. They knew he was going after his twin, but none of them knew he planned to kill him. Their eyes pierced him condemning him without saying a word.
How could they understand, each of them had been part of a family unit at one time. They didn’t understand the feeling of thinking you were the only one to find out in the end that you were the unwanted one. The one that wasn’t worthy of being included in the group.
“Is that what you really think? That you weren’t worthy, so you were left behind. Is it not reasonable to think that your destiny lies in a different direction?”
He spun around looking for the voice he felt in his head to only be met by the eyes of his brothers.
“When you’re done fighting, you can find him here.”
Coordinates poured into his head even as he roared his fury shaking the earth around his feet, he dropped to his knees as his beast tore free of his skin. His brothers dropped at his roar of dominance and the urge to fight bringing their beasts to the surface.
Broken was the thought that possessed him as he ran at Phoenix. None of them were the beautiful beasts they were at one time. They were scarred physically as well as mentally.
Phoenix picked him up and threw him at Akron who placed his arm around his neck trying to choke him. Jabari took his claws and dug into his back.
He roared breaking free of their hold. The scent of his blood mingled with the thoughts of death. He reached for a weapon and went after Jabari the long knife aimed at his heart. At the last-minute, Jabari stopped moving and opened his arms wide.
Slade’s arm carried through stopping just as the knife pierced his chest. He backed away letting it hit the ground.
Mekhi roared before he took his humanoid form. “That’s what it means to kill your brother.”
Chapter Five
They were sitting in their shuttle that was parked in front of a gallery. These were the coordinates the strange voice in his head provided them with. Each of them had been quiet since the incident in the field. Not one word had been spoken.
The picture of Jabari dead at his feet was already haunting him. He could have killed him, a shudder took his body. Mekhi’s words ‘This is what it means to kill your brother’ continued to pass through his mind. A decision needed to be made, one he didn’t want to think about but one that sat on his shoulders none the less. It was different when all he had to do was take care of himself, or just Brie and him. It was different now. Was this what having brothers meant and if it were should he be upset that he missed out on it for all these centuries?
Akron released the door, and the others got up and left one after the other leaving him to brood or follow them. He sighed. He had a feeling he was going to sigh a lot in the future. He followed them out it was time to face his brother, his twin, but none of his questions had been answered, and he wasn’t sure that he still didn’t want to kill him.
It turned out the Galleria was a place where you could buy anything. They broke apart looking for a male that looked just like Slade. He walked along letting his eyes take in all the different merchandise for sale. A lingerie store caught his attention showing a bronze barely their top and bottom set. He managed to swallow as thoughts of Brie modeling that for him pierced his heart.
He dragged his eyes away from the window and tried to make his feet walk when he found himself tangled up in another problem. Walking down the hallway far enough away from where he was that they didn’t see him but close enough that he could hear them were three females. One was tall compared to Earth standards. The other was smaller in both height and body, he immediately dismissed her. The last one was younger. He didn’t know how he knew she was younger she just didn’t have an air of maturity around her like the others.
His eyes followed the first one. He waited until they passed him before he stepped out into the open to follow them. He found her hypnotic even as he cursed himself. He was not a cheater, and there was no way he was over Brie. He didn’t want to sleep with her, he doubted he even wanted to talk to her but there was a pheromone, or maybe she wore some type of perfume that affected his senses. Whatever it was made his feet, the traitors follow her.
“Should we eat or wait for our guys?”
“Let’s wait, Dee. You know they’ll be hungry and disappointed that we didn’t wait.”
“Where are they it’s not like them not to have found us yet?”
“Alexei wants a new hover and his dad and uncle Niko wanted to make sure he got the best model.”
“Awe, that’s what they weren’t telling me earlier. Aran knows I think they have enough vehicles.” She turned her head.
A grin spread across her face as she broke off and walked back towards him. She threw her arms around him.
“Aran, why are you following us? Where are the others? Aran?”
Slade’s arms wrapped around her even as he told himself to move in the opposite direction Who was this Aran she spoke of? Who was she? He sniffed her, she almost smelled right, but something was off with her scent His head was lightheaded.
“Aran, what’s wrong with you?”
“Rena, where are you?”
“I’m hugging you.”
A roar went up in the Galleria that made all patrons stop as if they were frozen. Alexei came running down the hallway.
“That’s not dad, mom, move away.”
The male had already shoved her behind him baring his fangs. Aran came from a different direction ready to shred him apart. The two came face to face stopping as they stared into a face that was a direct replica of the one they saw in the mirror every day.
“You are standing in front of my mate.”
Slade moved. Of course, his brother had a mate not just a love of his life. He looked at the other male who looked like he wanted to take him apart. He also had a son, the one thing Brie wanted to give him but couldn’t.
“I came here to kill you.”
“I expected you to show up one day.”
Pain ripped him through his heart. “So, you did know about me.”
“No, I never knew you existed until Yaksim told me.”
“Yaksim is here?”
“I killed him.”
“He deserved to die. Why didn’t you look for me?”
“I did, no matter what I tried I couldn’t find you. I took my family on a fifty-year walk through the galaxies and still I couldn’t find you.”
“Shouldn’t we be able to feel each other? We are twins no denying that.”
“We should. You have a whole family you don’t know about. I want you to meet the rest of your family.”
His eyes flicked behind him to look at the five males that followed him here.
“I—.”
“He wants to meet them, but he can’t stay.”
“You.”
“Me. I told you we would meet again. You can call me Dante, we’ll be seeing a lot of each other.”
“Care to explain?”
“Not really but there are some things you should know.”
“When you were born, Slade was the second. He should have been killed but Brie the female Yaksim was obsessed with saved his life. Slade was never meant to spend his life with the Dare’s. He has always had a different path to walk. He ended the bloodbath the Scientists started without him many of our brothers would have died. He has created in his life that needed him.”
Slade turned and looked at his brothers. How could they need him when they couldn’t even hear him? They called themselves brothers but didn’t even have the most rudimentary connection.
“I’m sorry if I scared you. I should have ever placed my arms around you. Brie would have been appalled.”
“Where is she?”
The look of pain on his face was all she needed to see. Rena walked up to him and hugged him close ignoring Aran’s growl.
“I’m sorry for your loss. Did you come to see your brother because he was the only thing you had left?”
His eyes flew up to meet hers.
“I lost my sister, I understand.”
“I should leave now.”
“No, you shouldn’t. You and your friends should follow us home we’re having a big cookout, and I want everyone to be there.
“Mother,” Alexei hissed.
The look his father threw him quieted him down.
“Rena is right we want you to come.”
He looked behind him at his brothers and the nodded yes.
Aran walked up to him and engulfed him a brotherly hug.
“I’m Aran, your big brother.”
“I’m Slade.”
“Come with me Slade tell me all about your life, and I’ll tell you about mine.”
Nico walked out the shadows and pulled Dee into his arms.
“How are we going to fix this?” He asked Dante.
“You’re assuming it’s broken.”
*~*~*~*
He was sitting down in Aran’s house. He had met all of his brothers as well as their mates and their children. There was only one conclusion he could come to, he didn’t belong here.
“May I sit with you?”
His name was Ash he remembered because it was ironic that his hair and name kind of matched. He waved a hand indicating the seat across from him.
“I found my mate last. You’re wondering what this has to do with you. It was roughly three hundred years later that I found her. There’s a more complicated story, but I’ll let that go. Three hundred years of watching your brothers with their mates and their children. It’s lonely even when they do everything in their power to make sure that you’re included.”
“I wondered as I grew why there was no voice of a brother in my head. I wondered why I was alone. No one told me, Brie didn’t tell me. I understand she was protecting my life. I didn’t have brothers to be envious of like you did.”
“I understand.” He turned to look at Brook before he turned back to Slade. “I didn’t live your story, but I understand it.”
He went to rise.
“Ash, thank you.”
“Here’s the thing Slade whether you go or stay you’re now a brother.” He walked away.
“That’s the real question, are you going or staying?” Dante sat in the chair Ash vacated.
He got up and walked away leaving the male sitting alone. It was easy to slip into Aran’s house, he headed toward what Aran called his game room. It was large and wide he found himself pacing from one end to the other.
What did he want to do? He understood what Dante was saying, there was a choice to be made. He couldn’t have two sets of brothers he needed to pick one. Neither set was demanding he chose them, but they both knew he could only have one set of them. Once again, he felt that life was conspiring against him. Feast or famine and he’d give them all up for one more day with Brie.
The broken needed him. A laugh came from the cracks in his heart and his soul. No one needed him, someone please help them if any of them thought they needed him.
Aran definitely didn’t need him. He and his brothers were a well-oiled machine that worked seamlessly. The more he thought, the more he paced. How could they both be on this small planet? Would his anger and resentment grow if he casually bumped into them? Would seeing the connection between them twist the bitterness in his heart sending him down a road he would never come back from?
“I do that too when I have important decisions to make. I pace like you’re doing.” He walked over to him and started pacing with him they were in perfect symmetry.
A smile cracked both their lips.
“Let me help you?”
“Why?”
“Because I didn’t have the privilege of being there for you before. I couldn’t help you when you were alone and lonely. I couldn’t reassure you that you were loved as my brother that you had a family.”
“I had Brie growing up. I didn’t know that one day I would love her, but I knew from the beginning that she loved me. I spent a lot of time dwelling on what I didn’t have when I was younger, then one day I stopped and began thinking about what I had. My life wasn’t bad, it was probably better than yours because the Scientists knew that to touch me meant encountering Brie’s wrath.”
“I think I got what was meant for you. I’m glad that I could be there in that little way.”
“You don’t need me Aran.”
“You’re my twin I need you.”
“I planned to kill you, maybe kill both of us. That’s how much rage dwells inside of me.”
“I know about rage, but in the end, I was able to vent some of mine on Yaksim.”
“The path you were meant to walk.”
“You saved the lives of our brethren, I wouldn’t ignore the path you have walked.”
“And I was loved by Brie. She wants me to find my mate. How can I do that?”
“You can’t.” They both nodded.
“The broken need me.”
They continued to pace both lost in their own thoughts.
“Do you need them?”
That was a question he never asked himself. It seemed like he would be with them and what he wanted or needed didn’t really have anything to do with what would happen now. His brother, his big brother knew. He understood, and they hadn’t known each for a full day.
“We’ll always be brothers?”
“You call me, and I’ll be there.”
Slade knew he was telling the truth. This wasn’t closure it wasn’t even goodbye forever, but he needed the broken just like they needed him. This wasn’t a desire to be first or command them. Within him was a desire to be to them what he always wanted for himself, a brother.
Aran pulled him into his arms and held him tight. Sometimes it was the only way to show your brother how much you loved him.
Chapter Six
“I’m not sure what to do next.”
Aran turned him around to see Dante sitting in a chair watching them.
“I’m sure he knows.”
“You’ve made your decision?”
When had he entered the room? His eyes narrowed a little before he took a deep breath. Dante wasn’t his concern. “I have.”
“Then say goodbye to your brothers and collect your new brothers and meet me on your ship.”
He walked away.
“Did he mean on the shuttle we brought down?”
“Nope, he meant ship. None of you can leave until you
eat. Spend a little more time.”
He nodded. There was no telling when they would see each other again, and he wanted to stay as long as possible.
“Come eat,” Rena called to them as they came out the back door.
He went over and made a plate sitting down with the broken as each brother took turns telling them about their lives and their mates.
“How did you know you were meant to find your mates?” Mekhi’s voice was soft as he asked.
“We didn’t. Finding a mate feels like something you don’t deserve so when they come along it’s a shock.”
He nodded his head and stood.
“Mekhi?”
“Sometimes you really don’t deserve a mate.” He walked away.
“I think it’s time for us to say goodbye.” Slade stood and made his way around the table saying goodbye to the males that were his family before he said goodbye to the females.
Aran stood and walked out with him.
“I thought when I met you that maybe the connection we should share would kick in.”
“I thought so too.”
“How?”
“Our connections is different because we’re twins. Remember if you ever need me.”
“I’ll remember, and I extend the same offer. If you ever need me.”
He walked away because if he stayed any longer, he wasn’t sure he would be able to walk away.
“You didn’t have to choose us.” They were docking their shuttle in the hangar.
“I won’t if you ever open yourself up for death like that again.” He was angry, but he hadn’t realized it earlier since it was rolling around with all the other anger and rage he felt.
They made their way up to the command deck to find Dante sitting in the captain’s chair.
“Just keeping my word.” He smiled when they all stopped to look at him.
“What next?” Slade moved to step in front of him.
“Next, I want all of you to decide if this is where you want to be. Are you with your brothers or are you waiting for something better to come along so you can jump ship?”
Lucca (The A'rouk Brothers Book 3) Page 20
