“How’s it feel, asshole? Big man beating on a woman,” Jase had his face pressed next to the man’s throat, scraping it with his canines.
“Take the fucking reward, bastard! She’s not worth….”
“She’s worth more to me than you can ever imagine,” Jase lifted him in the air with one arm. “Come near her again and you won’t get up to walk,” he pulled his arm back and flung the man far into the shrubs and trees, the obvious sounds of crashing and screaming ignored.
Jase hung his head, closed his eyes and willed the fury to simmer before he turned to face Brea.
She’d dropped to her knees, leaning against one of the large pine trees.
“Brea….” Jase moved carefully toward her, his hands out to lift her against him.
“Let’s get you home.”
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“That man…..there were others, Jase….” Her head fell against his shoulder, his arm around her waist and supporting her as they walked.
“I know. I saw them, Brea. The two in town ran once they were able to move,” Jase said cautiously, his hand reaching for her palm. He swore softly. Ice. As if she’d used almost every cell of heat she had in her body to defend herself against the two in the alley. Odds were she needed some training on how to gauge it and limit how much she used. “Had you ever done that before, Brea?”
“In the dream….it was just like the dream, Jase….so cold,” she whispered, stumbling and taking a grip on his belt. “I’m sorry. I wanted to….I don’t want them hurting you…hurting Nick….I couldn’t handle losing someone else right now. I just know I couldn’t….”
“Baby, I promise you, that won’t happen,” he knew the soft laughter was pure stress but it was enough to make her smile. “You know I need you to keep that idiot off my coffee.”
“I’m so cold, Jase,” her words stammered, her feet stumbling as they made it to the pavement.
His gaze swept the area and found what he wanted. He took her to the small shop and pushed her into a chair. He dropped to his knees in front of her, his hands wrapping around both her palms and he rubbed briskly.
“Do you drink tea or coffee?”
“Tea….p..plain…please,” she watched him slide his jacket down his arms, pulling his phone from a pocket before wrapping her in the thick leather.
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“I’ll be right here and right back,” he promised, his lips brushing her forehead as she leaned against the window and buried her face against the warmth of his jacket, her hands holding the sides together with a small shiver. He opened the phone and placed his order with the young girl behind the counter, buying Brea a tall cup of steaming fruit tea. He’d smelled the tea the last few days so knew it would work. Even if she just held the cup in her hands.
Her eyes were closed when he set the cup on the table and he stepped outside, letting the door close but his eyes remained on her.
“Nick….I got her,” Jase knew he sounded tense. Knew he was barely containing the raging emotions inside him.
“She alright?”
Jase pushed a thick sigh between his lips. “Demons. Two tried to grab her in the alley that leads behind the shops,” he shook his head, trying to put what he’d seen into words. “Kids….barely twenty. I….her reaction seemed…instinctive. I’ve never seen the kind of power that poured from her, Nick. She held her hands in front of her and…..shit…the idiots flew against the building almost twenty feet from her. They didn’t get up right away. Before I could grab her, she ran.”
“She was freezing last night after that dream.” Nick recalled, the quiet in his voice not hiding his anger. “Did she say why she was in town?”
“She’s cold now….I have her in that other coffee place in town with a big cup of tea, but she seems……drained. As if the heat is just gone from her,” he said after searching for the right word. “She tried hitting the path through the park out of town, 116
said she couldn’t handle it if we were hurt because of her.” He listened to a low, hard laugh and nodded to himself. “I got a name, Nick. She ran into another bastard who said someone named Sullivan was paying a reward for her…..and he didn’t care if she was damaged when he brought her in.”
“Is he still alive?” Came the dry inquiry.
“Enough to carry the message to his boss that Brea isn’t on her own.” He looked into the large plate glass window, relieved to see her hands wrapped around the large cup and it was up by her lips. “I’m heading back. I think she’s okay now….she’s drinking the tea.”
“I’ll get the motion sensors online,” Nick answered, breaking off the call and tossing his headset to the desk. Demons. Fae. Sullivan. He went to work on the computer security system.
Brea watched him come back inside the shop. And most of the females were watching him, too.
That made her frown. And then frown again.
What’s wrong with you, she shouted in her head. He doesn’t belong to you! No matter what some talking winged bee thing told you.
Oh, god, she was going insane.
“Babe….you alright?” Jase dropped to his heels in front of her, the fierce look on her face shifting to slight shock and then to dismay. All within a few seconds. “That must have been some train of thought you just went through, Brea.” 117
“They like you.”
“They being….” His head swiveled, following her gaze around the room to various women looking at them. “Alright. And I see a few guys eyeing you with more than brotherly interest. They can all look as long as they don’t touch,” he said firmly, meeting the puzzled expression with a half grin. “You alright to drive home? Nick was worried….I called and told him you’re alright.” His palm went beneath her chin when she tried looking away. “No guilt, Brea. This isn’t your fault. None of it and we’ll fix it together. Trust us….please.”
“I do trust you. You’ve both been nothing but….nice….gentlemen….but those people….I don’t know what they want! I don’t know why….” Her voice dropped to a hoarse whisper. “I….I did something, Jase! I….it was like the dream and two guys went flying away from me! And….and….”
“Do not even feel sorry for those bastards, Brea,” he told her, taking the empty cup and tossing it to the trash. “Let’s go home. Nick’s worried about you and his jag.”
“It’s really fun to drive,” she said with a crooked. sexy grin.
“Do us both a favor and don’t tell him that with that look on your face,” he said with a laugh, his arm around her shoulders once they were on the street and walking toward where the bike and sports car were parked. “Give him a little time to adjust to sharing his baby with you.”
“I don’t know anyone named Sullivan, Jase,” she finally said as they approached the parked vehicles.
“I know. But whoever he is, he seems to know you. We just have to figure out 118
how, Brea. We’ve got a few discrete inquiries out,” Jase opened the door and handed her the keys, framing her against himself and the car after taking his jacket back.
“Don’t run from us, Brea. Please. Give us a chance. Just talk to us. I swear, we can work it through, whatever it is.”
He waited only long enough for her to nod before he leaned in and kissed her.
Neither tentative or hesitant, his mouth covered hers, hungrily tasting the tea and Brea, the soft stroking of her tongue sending his blood boiling. When her fingers tangled in his hair, he gave up the long, low groan, growling softly and backing up a step.
“In public….” He breathed heavily and closed his eyes. “Do a U-turn, Brea and head home. I’ll be behind you as soon as I can get my jeans to bend and I can get on the bike,” he raised a brow at the little giggle she let free before sinking into the sports car.
Jase watched her pull out and opened his phone.
“She’s on the way home.”
He snapped it closed and shrugged into his jacket, zipping it up before reaching for the helmet. With a surge of power, he hit the accele
rator and roared off down the road toward the house, keeping his eyes on vehicles around him and around her ahead of him.
Jase pushed a long breath between his lips.
She did like her speed, he thought, watching her hug the curves on the inside and ease into the straight-away without hesitating. Just like his partner.
He had to admit, while Nick turned a little pale at the thought, he was surprised 119
Nick wasn’t up and on the bike to follow her. Jase laughed and cruised behind her up the driveway. She had the car inside the garage by the time Nick came to the kitchen porch, hands in his pockets, just watching her.
Brea knew her feet were dragging. Just a little. She swallowed, feeling Jase coming up behind her as she approached the porch and the dark eyed man watching them both.
“Are you going to yell at me?” She expected it. A part of her knew she might even deserve it. But letting people….strangers….possibly get hurt because of her wasn’t acceptable. How did she make them understand her fears?
Yet they didn’t feel like strangers. She blinked, swallowed hard and watched Jase stop with one booted foot on the lowest step.
“Do we come across like the yelling types?” Nick asked calmly.
Brea peeked up at him through her lashes. “How’s your ear?”
“That was justified yelling,” he returned, his fingers up and gingerly touching the spot. He saw her lips twitch, just a little, before her palm covered her mouth and she was shaking her head, eyes squeezed tightly closed.
“Don’t…..please don’t make me laugh,” she inhaled slowly. “Right now it’s just around the corner from a total melt down and I don’t want to do that to you,” she whispered, running up the stairs and into the house without looking back.
Jase dropped to the top step, his head back and eyes closed.
“He called me a shifter. I don’t know if she heard it or not.” Nick leaned against the railing. “We shouldn’t leave her alone.” 120
Jase opened one eye to look at him. “Why do you make it sound like I should have an answer?”
“Hell, you’ve always been the Alpha.”
“Unless you feel like fucking with me,” he threw back, pushing to his feet and striding up the stairs and into the house.
“Yeah, well, there is that,” Nick locked the back screen.
“What we know about this kind of permanent is what we’ve seen or what we’d like out of it,” Jase said quietly. “Our parents….friends….we’re lucky to have the wolf know what we need even when we’re too stupid to realize it.”
“Then we can’t leave her alone,” Nick concluded and both of them continued down the hall to her bedroom. Both of them realized the importance of the fact that her door wasn’t closed to them. The doors in the house had always all been left open.
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Chapter 13
Brea had shed her shoes and was sitting cross-legged in the center of the bed, facing the window and just staring. She really didn’t want to think. Her lashes closed, the soft sounds of shoes hitting the floor behind her told her they were there before they each took up a position across the bed.
Jase went for the headboard, leaning against it and watching her. Nick went to her other side, stretched out on his side and leaning up on one elbow.
“You two like to live dangerously,” Brea whispered softly. “I wouldn’t wish me on anyone right now.”
“I have an answer to that, but I’m not sure you’re ready to hear it yet, Brea,” Nick tugged on a brightly polished toe.
“Sometimes the universe throws things at you whether you’re ready or not,” she countered with a little shrug. “You adjust. Adapt. I’m fairly certain nothing could have prepared me for you two.”
“You’re handling an awful lot right now,” Jase agreed carefully.
“I hurt people.” Came the soft, regret filled words edged in tears.
“You defended yourself,” Nick returned flatly. Now and this topic was something she had to get past to survive. “Do you think they would have been nice and sweet if they’d had their way?”
Jase arched a brow and shook his head with a long sigh. “Subtle.”
“Screw subtle. If someone attacked your parents and you could have stopped 122
them, would you?”
Instantly anger filled eyes swung on him and he watched a flash of gold around the edges of those too beautiful eyes. And he caught the sudden look on Jase’s face, his eyes gesturing down at the surface of the bed.
Which was now about four feet below the three of them.
Nick swallowed hard and tried again.
“Brea….if people….or things….are hurt because you chose to live and fight, it’s their fault, not yours,” Nick searched frantically for the right words and the abrupt urge to flail like a girl. “Did your parents teach you self-defense?” Brea sighed and returned to staring out the window.
“They tried.”
“Close your eyes for me, babe,” Jase decided it was his turn before panic set into the big bad shifters now floating five feet off the bed. “No one has the right to hurt you.
And I know if someone came after me, and you could stop it, you would.”
“I don’t know what I did, Jase,” she answered weakly. “It….I just knew they had to leave me alone. I don’t know who they are or why they want to hurt me. I just don’t know and I feel stupid and I don’t want to feel helpless, hiding behind your doors and your kindness! And I feel the anger and it’s like a thin stream of red lava just under my skin and someone like those guys in the alley happen….and…..augh!” she fell forward, almost tucked into a ball.
Jase was glad they were back on the surface of the bed.
Nick was fascinated at how limber the woman was.
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“What kind of self-defense did they try and teach you?” Jase asked, grinning at the muffled answer.
“All the martial arts stuff. Dad is…was….a big believer and had black belts in a few things. I was terrible. It was so embarrassing. Finally, mom just handed me a baseball bat and said never leave home without it,” Brea sighed and sat upright. “He even tried boxing…I was twelve…..” her head shook, eyes rolling back slightly. “We spent three hours trying to get his nose to stop bleeding and mom to stop laughing.” She looked up, sighing and listening to their laughter.
“Brea….no one starts their day believing they’re going to hurt someone,” Jase said when he stopped laughing. “There’s nothing wrong with having a kind heart as long as it doesn’t stop you from living your life. No one has the right to hurt you.”
“I know that. But that means the only way to deal with violence is violence….I think it’s the one lesson my parents never got through to me,” she said regretfully. She straightened up slowly, weighing one of the many questions inside her. “Is this a game to you? Me….am I a game?”
“No.”
Brea looked immediately from one to the other as the single word had come out as if spoken by one, yet she heard them both say it and say it adamantly.
“But you’ve done it before,” was the quiet statement.
“We’ve never wanted a woman to live with us, Brea. And we’ve never brought anyone to our home and we’ve lived here a little over four years,” Jase answered honestly.
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“Why are you letting me stay then?” She couldn’t look at them. Couldn’t honestly even tell herself the answer she was looking for in an attempt to understand too many things at once.
“I’m not sure you’re ready for the answer,” Nick spoke softly, watching as she basically unfurled, long legs stretching out behind her before she rolled to her back and stared up at the ceiling. Which was, thankfully, back where it belonged, he thought.
“I’m thirty. This morning I had two men ready to….and you’re both telling me on more than one topic, that I’m not ready for the answers,” she closed her eyes.
“Alright. You’re right. Answers,” Jase said with a long
breath. “You asked why we came in here….knowing you weren’t in a good mood. Because you don’t abandon your mate because she needs something to strike out at. You talk until it’s worked out between you and if she needs to hit something, you hold her until it passes. And you’re here with us because we want you in our life.” Both men watched her pull her lip between her teeth, her eyes still closed.
“You’ve done this before.” She repeated softly.
“We’ve never taken a mate, no. If you believe the…..mythology….there is only one per lifetime,” Nick answered gently.
“I don’t think I’m human,” she whispered painfully. “I don’t know what I am.
How can you sound so certain….both of you….”
“We trust our instincts,” Jase said with a shrug. “I don’t have a better answer than that.”
“And you believe I’m your mate….to both of you….at the same time?” Brea 125
worked to stop her voice but it rose a little higher than normal on its own.
“You didn’t seem to mind this morning,” Nick teased.
“I thought I was dreaming,” was the really quiet answer.
“I don’t think you would have responded as you did if you didn’t feel something for us, Brea,” Nick brushed the loose strands from her face, frowning when she winced.
“What’s wrong?”
“My shoulder….that guy kind of twisted me wrong, I think,” she rolled to her stomach and flexed her shoulder, her hand up and rubbing her scalp. “I’m sure he pulled out some hairs, too.”
“What happened out there?” Nick was up, reaching for the hem of her shirt, his hands stopping when she slapped at him. “Let me see it,” came the low growl.
“I didn’t get there in time,” Jase pushed the words through his teeth, clearly blaming himself. “She stumbled and hit the ground. He yanked her up by the braid and twisted her arm up behind her back. Then he hit a tree. A couple times.”
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