Mick (The A'rouk Brothers Book 1)

by Serena Simpson

  “Come look at Mick.” They followed Damon across the room and gasped as they saw him.

  “He has skin,” Brook said in shock. Damon would only let them come once a week; he said Brook didn’t need any more exposure than that. Last week it looked like his skin would never come back. Actually, it looked like his muscle would never regenerate. They both came far in a week’s time.

  “How did it happen so fast?” Ash asked, staring at Mick.

  “It seems fast when you compare it to last week, but remember they’ve been in there over a month. The basic repairs are finally made and now the medbed can do what I call the finishing touches. They will be out of there in a week may be less time.

  Brook threw her arms around him. “Thank you, thank you, thank you.”

  “You’re welcome, Brook. I would do anything for them. For all of you. You are my family. Speaking of family, Ash, do you know when Aran is arriving?”

  “He said it was going to take them a few months. A delay occurred on a planet they were on. Someone with a death wish tried to claim that Rena was his mate. I think Aran stopped to clean up the corruption on the planet.”

  “Normally I’d say he has all the fun, but right now I can go for boring.” Damon gave them a smile before he shooed them away.

  *~*~*~*

  “Are you ready?” Dante asked as he looked into Mick’s medbed.

  “I’m ready. I’ve already turned off the internal oxygen, and he’s breathing on his own. Damon moved over to the medbed his fingers flying over the keys programming in different sequences. He stepped back, and the medbed opened.

  They stood there and waited, but nothing happened. Damon took a step towards the medbed and Dante caught him and pulled him back.

  “I know you’re awake, open your eyes.”

  They waited for a response from Mick.

  “No, this is a dream because you’re dead, and The Darkness wants to use my memories of you to get to me,” Mick whispered.

  “Do you think you’d be lucky enough to get rid of me that easily? I know you’ve wanted to lead since you’ve been a boy, but you have to do a real fight for that privilege.”

  A smile lifted the corners of Mick’s mouth, and he opened his eyes. He never wanted to lead, and Dante knew that, but he always teased him saying he wanted to be in charge.

  “You’re alive. If you ever pretend to be dead again, I will kill you myself. As far as your job, please take it back. I don’t know how you deal with all of the—”

  Dante’s laughter cut him off. Mick instantly realized if he wanted their brothers to know what it was like to deal with what he dealt with he would have told them centuries ago. His respect for his brother increased.

  “Damon, I want you to know I love these yellow walls. How did I get here? The last thing I remember was being held by The Darkness. Jaz! Where is she?” Damon caught him keeping him from falling on the floor.

  “She’s in the other medbed. You have to be careful I just put you back together.”

  “How long did that take?”

  “About a month and a half. Now do you want to try standing?”

  He nodded. Damon helped him to his feet and his knees buckled. Dante caught him on the other side, and they held him up for close to ten minutes before he was able to put all his weight down and stand.

  “Walking ought to be a treat,” Mick muttered.

  “Who said you were walking. You’re going right to that nice wide bed I have against the wall and lie down.”

  “No, I have to see Jaz.”

  “And you will after I wake her up. She’ll be joining you in that nice wide bed. Why? I could say because I’m a good brother, but the truth is one of you will ruin the work I did trying to get to the other, so I am giving in before it starts. You are lying down again.”

  Damon and Dante led him to the bed and helped him to lie down. Mick kept his mouth shut because he didn’t want to mention that he was as weak as a baby.

  Damon walked over to the medbed Jaz was in and allowed his fingers to fly over the keys until the medbed began to open. She lay there with her eyes closed not moving.

  “What’s wrong with her?” Mick’s worried voice called out. There was no movement, and Damon wasn’t reaching in to help her up. “Jaz, wake up. Jaz mine, wake up.”

  “Mick, are you real or just a dream. I tried to touch you, but you kept fading away.”

  “I’m real Jaz.”

  She opened her eyes. “I hear you, but I don’t see you.”

  “I’m across from you lying in bed. Damon and Dante refused to let me come to your medbed.”

  “He blames us and neglects to mention he’s as weak as a newborn. It’s your turn now. Dante and I are going to help you up and hold you until you can stand on your own. Then we are going to take you to the bed with Mick, and you’re going to lie still and recover the good old fashioned way,” Damon said as he reached down and helped her to sit up.

  “Dante, you’re not dead.”

  “I would never die on you and leave the two of you to deal with The Darkness alone. Your mate simply needed a push.”

  “What do you mean?” She stood with Damon and Dante holding most of her weight. The desire to touch her face was there, but she was also scared of what she might find.

  “The Darkness is insidious. It was playing mind games with Mick. Trying to destroy him. He needed to remember who he was and what he was fighting for. I needed a brief vacation. It worked out for everyone.” He gave her his classic lopsided smile. The one that said he was harmless and helped her over to Mick.

  Once she lay down, she laughed until she thought she might cry. There was nothing harmless about Dante. Damon pulled out his handheld mini scanner, running it over them one last time.

  “You need sleep the kind that’s not induced by the medbed. The family wants to see the both of you, but I am telling them they have to wait. First, sleep then a real meal, not the stuff the medbed feeds you.”

  “Damon, I love the color of the walls.”

  He chuckled and walked out, Dante on his heels.

  Once they left the room, she finally turned her head so she could see Mick. Her heart beat fast afraid this was just another dream.

  “Mick?” Her hand moved out to touch him as a tear slipped down her cheek.

  “You’re real and alive.”

  “I’m here, Jaz mine, we made it.”

  It was slow progress, but he managed to pull her into his arms as she snuggled against his chest.

  “Alone at last, now I can have my wicked way with you,” Mick said to her, smiling.

  “I hope it’s not too wicked because all I can do right now is lie still and breathe,” she whispered, wishing she could get even closer. She got real quiet not saying anything.

  “What’s wrong, Jaz?”

  “He broke all the bones in my face. I remember because it hurt so bad. My face swelled up.” She wasn’t vain, but she wanted to look good for Mick. What if he thought he was stuck with the consolation prize?

  “I saw you, Jaz. I saw your face, and I couldn’t think of one person more beautiful than you.”

  He loved her; he had to, and she relaxed knowing he would love her no matter how she looked.

  “Well, let’s hope I’m not butt ugly.” She gave a small nervous laugh.

  “You’re not. I saw you clearly when you were standing. Your face is healed and looks beautiful. Jaz, if Damon weren’t able to heal me fully, would you leave me?”

  “Never!”

  “That’s how I feel about you, Jaz mine. Whatever happens, we’ll take the good with the bad.”

  He lifted his hand and stroked her hair, proud that he could do so much.”

  “You’re amazing,” she whispered. “I’m in awe of what you can do.”

  “When I get a little stronger, I’m going to lift my head and kiss you.”

  “I can’t wait,” her voice was drowsy. “Mick, how did we do it? How did we survive?”

  “We
bonded, Jaz. I heard Elandra say that half of your soul is in my body and half of my soul is in your body. I don’t know how we did it, but it means I can never fall to The Darkness.”

  “I love you, Mick.”

  “I love you, Jaz mine. I never want to see you die again. It tore me apart.”

  “I’m so sorry.”

  “That time has passed; now it’s you and me making a real life for ourselves.”

  “I want to make some changes in our house.” She smiled against his chest.

  He closed his eyes with a smile on his face. It was perfect. His half-brothers said you always knew when your mate was planning to stay because she started changing things. He fell asleep content.

  Jaz sent up a silent thank you to whatever deity was watching over her. She couldn’t be more grateful for her mate.

  Epilogue

  She was walking on the beach alone. Well, kind of alone. If she looked behind her, she could see her mate as well as her brothers all walking. None of them would walk with her because they wanted her to see her footprints in the sand alone.

  The more she walked, the more she knew she wasn’t interested in that dream anymore. She stopped to wait for them to catch up with her. Recovery had been slow; it took them two months before Damon would let them move out of the medical wing. She still thought it was Mick’s threat to make constant love to her and not care who walked in that did it. And then he only approved them to move into a private room in his house so he could watch them. Now, a month later, they finally had a clean bill of health.

  Mick immediately made plans to take her to the beach. His brothers found out because they know nothing about boundaries but she could live with it. So now they were all at the beach and it was beautiful.

  The sand was pristine, and the water was the blue of Mick’s eyes. She was wearing something long and gauzy because Brook declared that’s what you wore to the beach. She had on a straw hat that she had to hold on her head to keep it from flying off. Tearing it off her head, she decided to give it to Mick when he caught up with her.

  “Why’d you stop?” Mick walked over to her pulling her into his arms and kissed her.

  “I realized walking on the beach wasn’t fun without all of you.” She handed him the hat which he made disappear.

  “All right gather round,” she said with laughter. Once they were all positioned, she said “Step.” And there it was, all of their footprints together.

  They started to run, playing in the sand.

  “Mick, we should get in the water.” She let her gauzy dress drop, and Mick's eyes grew large.

  “What are you wearing?”

  “Brook calls it a bikini. She said if you’re coming to the beach you have to wear one.”

  “Jaz,” he called as she ran towards the waves. With a shake of his head and laughter, he chased after her.

  “Are you wearing a bikini?” Ash asked Brook.

  “Maybe.”

  He grabbed her hand and started moving her off to a private strip of the beach. Laughter rang over the beach rising into the air until it reached the two sitting up there watching.

  “I like your family,” the woman with the lustrous red hair and the grass-green eyes said.

  “They grow on you,” Dante said, watching them play in the waves.

  “You did it. You brought them together.”

  “They brought themselves together, I just introduced them.”

  She looked at Jaz and smiled. “She is beautiful.”

  “Like her mother,” Dante said, giving the female a genuine compliment. “Do you plan to tell her she’s not a clone?”

  “No. I don’t think it matters to her anymore. Eventually, she will find out and then I’ll explain everything. For now, I’m just amazed at what she has accomplished. She’s taken up the fight for the clones. The old Clone Council has been disbanded and a new one put in place, and she made sure there were clones on it. I’m proud of her.”

  “I agree she will make a good mate for Mick and a perfect protector of the Earth.”

  She turned to look at him. “This is all I can do, Dante. I can’t do anymore.”

  “You don’t have to.”

  She nodded and turned to leave. “Thank you. I was scared I would let my planet down because I could no longer stay. You gave me a way to protect it with my daughter.” Her body spread out becoming noncorporal before she drifted away.

  Dante rolled his shoulders and looked down at the footsteps in the sand. The laughter surrounded him bringing a smile to his face.

  Want more of these characters?

  The A’rouk Brothers can be read as a stand-alone series. Mick and his brothers first appeared in the Love Me Harder Series, starting with Aran.

  Love Me Harder Series

  Aran Book 1

  Niko Book 2

  Sergey Book 3

  Nicolas Book 4

  Hale Book 5

  Alexei Book 6

  Ash Book 7

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