The Marked and the Broken

by Ivy Asher

  I freeze just outside of the doorway, and Torrez slams into me. “Shit,” Torrez swears as he grabs my waist and keeps me from tumbling down the front stairs. “You can’t just stop…” he starts to tell me, and then he stops talking as he sees what I’m seeing. A couple of female shifters and a handful of males all straighten up as we stumble out of the door. All of them sniff at the air, and I watch as each of their faces fall, and a couple of them make irritated noises before walking away.

  “Um, what the fuck was that?” I ask Torrez, who moves to stand shoulder to shoulder with me.

  “Those were the members of the pack who were hoping to give challenge, just in case your mating wasn’t sealed,” Manya explains as she and Fedor walk toward us from the surrounding trees. “But it looks, and smells, like everything is in order. Congratulations, you two,” she exclaims, opening her arms and pulling Torrez and me in for a hug.

  “She’s no Brun, but she’s stronger than she looks,” Fedor tells Torrez, with some hard slaps to his back, like he needs the words of encouragement or consolation.

  Torrez looks down at me, and I can just tell he’s silently warning me not to nut punch the alpha. “She’s no Brun,” I mock in my head and then jump when Torrez sneakily drops his hand from around my waist and pinches my ass. “Don’t do it, TGV,” he warns me casually.

  I choke on a laugh at the abbreviation of my horrible superhero name as Torrez leads me away from the alpha couple.

  Yep, I should never be allowed to choose names for anything…ever.

  14

  My phone vibrates, pulling me out of that in-between gray world that exists when you’re trying to sleep, but you’re not, and yet you’re not completely awake either. I look at the incoming text and smile, quickly gauging how difficult it will be to sneak out of here without waking anyone up. Bastien’s hand is resting on my hip, and I gingerly lift it and set it on the mattress next to his warm body. Then I untangle my legs from Ryker’s and have to unthread Knox’s fingers from out of my hair. Sabin, one bookend to this little cuddle party, has his back to me. While Valen, who’s on the other end, is holding the corner of my long pillow with an outstretched hand. The room is filled with the slow, deep breaths of sleep, and I tiptoe my way out of the room, trying not to jostle anyone too much.

  I discovered one night when I had to get up to pee, that Torrez likes to run as a wolf at night. So I’m not overly surprised that he’s not fast asleep like the others. I don’t know how he’s not a walking zombie all the time, between training all day and running at night. He’s been pushing hard to catch up with the rest of my Chosen since he got all of his Sentinel runes, and I figured he’d crash at the end of the day like the rest of us. I guess there’s no hitting the snooze button when it’s time to feed the beast, as Torrez likes to call it.

  I make my way out the front door and circle to the back of the house. My phone lights up when I unlock it, and I click on the text message that brought me out here in the first place. I send a quick reply as I move toward the trunk of a fallen tree just inside the tree line behind the house. I click on the contact and press the green phone button, bringing my phone up to my ear.

  “Hey, Vin, did I wake you up?”

  “Na, I was pretty much up but trying to convince my brain not to be. What are you up to? It’s getting kind of late there, isn’t it?”

  “It’s only nine thirty, and I’ll go to bed soon. I was just working through the last video you sent, and I had a question.”

  “What’s up?” I ask as I settle against the big log.

  “Okay, so you talk about combos and then show me a couple of different ways I can hit someone multiple times without giving them a chance to hit me. But in the fourth combo you do, would it work if, when I spin, I throw an elbow into their side and then deliver the kick, or would that mess with my momentum or something?”

  I chuckle. Who knew Captain Cockblock had such a kickass little sister? Cyndol and I have been texting back and forth since I met her. She’s filled me in on her mean girl problem, and I’ve been talking to her about self-defense and radiating don’t fuck with me vibes. When the guys and I started training here, I saw the perfect opportunity to send her some visuals. I’m pretty sure the guys think I’m crazy when I force them to practice the basics at the beginning of every training session we do. I always spout some bullshit about how brushing up on the basics makes us better at everything else, and they just go with it.

  What they don’t know is I record our back to basics sessions and send them to Cyndol every afternoon so she can practice. Sabin’s going to go mental when he finds out about this, but I figure by then, Cyndol will be able to take him, so it’s all good.

  “So combos can be tailored to what feels right for you. It’s important to follow your instincts when you’re practicing and getting a feel for the flow of the hits, because what may feel natural to me will be different for someone bigger and stronger than me or someone smaller than me,” I tell her.

  “Okay, that makes sense. I just wish I knew how it feels to actually hit something. I mean, just practicing the movement is good, but how will I know if an elbow will work without actually throwing an elbow to see if it messes with my balance or momentum?”

  I beam at her question and send her a mental hug through the phone. If only I could get my Chosen to think the way Cyndol does.

  “That’s why I ordered you a combat dummy,” I tell her, and I’m so fucking excited about it that you’d think I was the one getting a present.

  “No way! Are you serious? Oh my heck, you are the freakin’ best, Vin. I can’t wait!” I can hear Cyndol jumping up and down and squealing excitedly as she does. It makes my heart so fucking happy that I’m resisting the urge to jump up and down myself.

  “It should be arriving at my house in the next couple of days,” I tell her, and we both squeal again. “I already talked with the sisters, and they’re going to call you and arrange a time to sneak it into your room. So keep an eye out for their call, okay?”

  “Crap, I think my screaming woke up one of my dads. I gotta go. I’ll text you later, you’re the freaking best, Vin, love ya!”

  “Night, Cyn, love you too!”

  The call ends, and I stare at it, smiling for a couple of seconds before pulling up another number and calling that.

  “You okay?” Mave croaks, and I chuckle.

  “What are you doing in bed? It’s not even ten there,” I ask as I pick at the bark on the tree I’m sitting on.

  “It’s been a long couple of days. I miss you. When are you coming back?” she asks me.

  I sigh. “I don’t know. Training is coming along pretty well actually, which is a massive relief, but the paladin are still tracking the lamia and trying to figure out where Lachlan and Keegan might be. So far, they’ve got nothing, and the rest of us are just waiting.”

  I look out toward the barn, and surprisingly, I can see a light on inside through the trees. Aydin, Evrin and Silva must have gotten home after we went to bed.

  “Are they still trying to rip each other apart?” Mave asks.

  I look back toward the houses. “It comes and goes. They’ll be good for a couple days, and then something will set one of them off.” I shrug and then realize that Mave can’t see it. “Oh by the way, you’re fired from Best Friend status,” I tell her casually.

  “What? No, what did I do?”

  “How the hell did you not tell me that Torrez was going to bite the shit out of me when we mated? As a shifter and my bestie, you should have fucking warned me or something,” I scold.

  Mave screams with excitement, and I can’t help but laugh. “You finally mated Torrez! I need details! Was it good? What am I saying, of course it was good, have you seen that body? What did your harem say? Any Bitter Bettys about it?”

  I laugh even harder as she shoots one question after another at me. “No Bitter Bettys, they were actually encouraging it, believe it or not.” I chuckle, and Mave releases a dreamy sigh.


  “Man, you’re one lucky girl, Vin. If I didn’t like you so much, I’d have to hate you on principle. So…how many times, what orifices were explored, are you covered in bites?”

  I sputter out a laugh and clench my thighs against the heat building at their apex. “Please, you think I’m going to tell you shit when I’m still waiting for you to spill the tea about Pebble?”

  Mave groans, and I can hear her throw herself back onto her pillow in exasperation. “That is complicated.”

  “How so?”

  “Well, you sleep with a dude once and they think they own you. It’s like sorry, bro, but a couple orgasms does not a mate make.”

  “Oh, only a couple orgasms?” a gravelly male voice asks on her end of the phone.

  My smile turns into an open-mouthed O of shock.

  “Mave, are you in bed with Pebble right now?” I whisper shout, my voice getting all kinds of high-pitched and squeaky.

  “I told you—I like your dick, not you,” she chastises Pebble, ignoring me.

  “Anyway,” Mave redirects. “So that means you have four mates down and two to go, right?”

  “Um,” I giggle. “No more to go; I’m officially six for six, but if you think I’m going to be distracted that easily, then you have another thing coming, young lady.”

  “By the moons, Vinna, you’re not wasting any time with those boys, are you? I’m seriously so fucking proud of you right now. Makes me want to go out there and find my own harem.” Mave yells out an objection, and I hear noise over the phone that tells me someone has taken it away.

  “Vinna,” Pebble’s clear voice rings out over the line. “You’re a bad influence. Now Mave needs to go and be reminded of why one mate is plenty for her.”

  I can hear Mave fighting for the phone in the background, and then a feminine moan reaches me through the phone. I snicker.

  “Mave, you follow your harem hunting heart,” I yell through the phone.

  She laughs. “I’ll call you later, Vin, miss you and love you!” She squeals, and the line disconnects. I shake my head, smiling, and push off of the tree trunk to head back inside. I jump when, out of nowhere, Enoch steps out of the darkness between the trees across from me.

  “Fuck, you scared me,” I accuse, and I slam a palm over my chest and try to slow my rapidly beating heart.

  Enoch chuckles and starts walking toward me. “Sorry. Try yelling about harem hunting a little quieter next time, and you’ll hear me coming,” he teases.

  I snort and shake my head. It’s annoying, but he’s right, I should have been more on guard and alert than I just was.

  “What are you doing out here?” I ask, looking around to see if there’s anyone else with him.

  “Same thing as you,” he tells me, holding up his phone. “I check in with my dad every couple of days.”

  I almost spit out an “of course you do,” but I manage to swallow it down before it can escape.

  “No watch dogs?” Enoch asks, looking around me for any of the guys.

  I jerk my chin to the house. “No, they’re all sleeping. Well, everyone except for Torrez, who’s probably out peeing on shit and hunting rabbits or whatever it is his wolf likes to do out here every night.”

  Enoch chuckles and brushes a hand through his light blond hair. I study him for probably the first time since he and his coven were marked and showed up at my house. He looks fucking exhausted. There are no bags or dark circles under his eyes to make his fatigue more obvious, but it’s in the pull of the corners of his mouth, his anxious blue eyes, and the sigh I can practically feel on the tip of his tongue.

  “How are you guys doing?” I ask lamely, turning to face him on the log and giving him my undivided attention.

  He looks at me for a minute, like he’s trying to gauge if I really care, and then releases that sigh I knew he was holding in his mouth. “We’re okay. All of this has just been a lot,” he confesses, and I wait patiently for him to say more. “My coven and I weren’t exactly doing great before the runes, not since I dropped the Sentinel bomb. Nash knew, but they didn’t, and that didn’t sit well with Kallan and Becket. Next thing you know, this happened.” He gestures to the runes on his middle finger. “Then the shit with Becket’s dad, and now we’re here where we’re barely allowed to breathe, let alone get too close to you, without triggering some bullshit caveman response from someone.”

  I chuckle, but it’s hollow. “Yeah, a lot is probably an understatement for everything that’s happening,” I admit. “For what it’s worth, I’m really fucking sorry that you guys have been dragged into all of this. It’s not easy by any stretch of the imagination.”

  Enoch reaches out and sets his hand on mine. “Don’t. Don’t be sorry. We’re glad we’re here. I’m glad we’re whatever we are to you; it’s just hard to be in the dark about everything.”

  I turn my hand over from where it was sitting on the log and trace my finger over the mystery runes before I take his hand in mine. “Tell me about it. That’s been the story of my fucking life up until now. I wish I had answers for everyone. I have about a billion questions in my mind that I’d love the answers to, but the reality is we’re probably never going to get them. It fucking sucks, but there’s nothing we can do to change that,” I tell him, and I give his hand a comforting squeeze.

  He squeezes back, and it makes me smile. I used to be so awkward about physical affection, and in this moment, I’m proud that I can offer comfort and not feel weird about it. It feels natural.

  “So what do we do?” Enoch asks, his eyes searching mine. “Do we just leave things as they are, open-ended and unsure? Or do we try to find what answers we can?”

  “What do you mean?” I ask, confused.

  “We have some of your runes, but not all,” he recaps, and I nod. “None of us know what that means, but there is a way that we could find out whether or not Nash, Kallan, Becket and I are in fact Chosen. Torrez had runes that you guys didn’t have until you completed the bond.”

  I stare at him for a beat as his words circle around my mind. I pull my hand back, and Enoch furrows his brow in frustration.

  “You want to fuck?” I ask, making sure I’m clear about what he’s saying.

  “I’m not saying right here and right now. All I’m saying is that we all want answers, and whether the others like it or not, there is a way to find out if somehow we have a partial connection that would be completed if we mated. We would know for sure if we were Chosen or somehow something else to you.”

  I run my gaze over his face and try to think through how I feel about what he’s saying. I study his lips and try to picture what it would be like to kiss him, to have his body pressed into mine, moving in and out of me. He’s attractive, there’s no denying that, but is that enough?

  I pull my eyes from his mouth and move them up to meet his stormy gaze. “And if I said okay, let’s see what happens right here and right now, what would you say?”

  Enoch leans into me slightly, and he searches my face for something, his eyes bouncing from my sea-green gaze to my parted lips and back up again. “I would say yes,” he tells me, and then he moves to close the distance between our lips.

  I put my hand on his chest as he leans into me and press him back gently, stopping him. “See, that’s the problem, Enoch.” His eyes fill with confusion. “We could fuck out here in the dark, test whatever connection we may or may not have, but then what happens?”

  “We would know,” Enoch counters.

  “Yeah, but at what cost?” I implore. “Let’s give your theory the benefit of the doubt. We fuck, somehow seal the bond, and you are in fact Chosen. What happens tomorrow when you walk out to train with your Sentinel runes? You think just those markings alone will make my other Chosen accept you?” I shake my head. “It would fracture us. They would continue to think you’re untrustworthy, and they would turn those same eyes on to me too.”

  “They accepted Torrez,” he argues.

  “Torrez was very differe
nt.”

  “How?” he challenges.

  “Torrez came to them first. He told them that he wanted to be a mate, and then he backed off and waited for a decision. They didn’t object to him like they do to you. Maybe that’s not fair in your eyes, but it is what it is. I didn’t know how I felt about Torrez until I had to look at a future without him in it.”

  “But you say you don’t know how you feel about us too,” Enoch points out.

  “No, I say that the bond with you, Kallan, and Nash doesn’t feel the same as my bonds with my Chosen. It feels different to me.”

  “Yeah, but you felt different about Torrez, too. You rejected him in the beginning just like you’re rejecting us now.”

  “No, Enoch, it’s not the same.” I run my fingers through my hair and try to select the words that will help put all the pieces in place for him and for me. “Torrez and I had a connection from the very beginning, but I didn’t know myself well enough then to identify what that meant. I know myself better now, and what I wanted from Torrez was different from what I want from you, Kallan, and Nash.”

  Enoch turns his head away from me to stare off into the dark, and I put a hand on his cheek and move his eyes back to mine. “I feel a connection with you, Enoch. We train well together, we think similarly in how we fight, our drive to win is the same. You push me to be better, and then you show me how to achieve that. I’m comfortable around you, it’s easy to be in your presence, and I trust you. You feel…I don’t know…like family maybe, like we’ll always be friends, always watch each other’s backs,” I explain, my eyes begging his to understand.

  He sighs. “So I’ve been friend-zoned,” he quips, and I roll my eyes.

  “Honestly, Enoch, I think if you really look inside your soul and study the truth there, you’d realize that you don’t actually want me. You want these.” I point to the runes on my arms and hands.

  Enoch’s blue eyes frost over, and he opens his mouth to argue.