by Honor James
“Fuck you very much, Aiden,” Jackie replied with a frown. “I will let you in on a small fucking secret with me.” She stood toe-to-toe with him. “I shorten the names of very, very goddamn few people in my life. You see it as disrespect, but it’s not,” she murmured. “It’s my way of accepting you, of giving myself a fucking place in your life, but that’s really good with me, Aiden,” she stated pointedly. “I will keep in mind your fucking preference,” she added and slammed the door in his face. She only shortened the names of the people in her life she considered family. Her brothers, Allister, and she had tried with that man but failed, just as she had with Allister. “Right, thanks for the reminder.” Fearful of a relationship, she thought to herself that it was the world’s way of telling her that she and Allister didn’t belong. Picking up the phone, she dialed her father. “I want to come home, Daddy,” she stated simply. “Have your guards ready. I will be down in five.”
Walking back to the room with the clothing he’d purchased for her, Allister stopped dead in the hall at the mass of panic going on. With a sinking, sickening feeling in his gut, he moved closer. “What’s wrong? What happened?” he demanded and saw the grim, very unhappy looks on too many faces.
“She ditched us all,” Aiden said flat out. “She slipped out a side door that was supposedly guarded by a marine, but it was all a fucking ruse. She left with her father,” his brother told him plainly.
“She left?” Allister asked, not believing it until each and every man gave a stiff, unhappy nod. Swallowing, he nodded. “All right,” he murmured and passed the bag off to a passing nurse. “See if someone can use those,” he told her. “If you’ll excuse me,” he said to the group and then left.
“Aiden?” Mac said, looking to him, “What the hell just happened?”
Staring after his brother, Aiden wanted blood. “She broke him,” he told his friend and knew the Dragon was in his face when everyone took a step back. “That bitch broke him,” he snarled and had to fight to get his other side under control. She would pay for that, dearly.
Chapter Eight
A week later
“No, Daddy.” Jackie repeated the same things she had said for the first long bit of forever. “I don’t want to talk about it. I’m perfectly fine, and yes, I am going back to work. I’m your daughter and I love you, Daddy, and I even love the brothers that are seriously driving me up the freaking wall, but I’m going back to work.” So that she could hopefully, hopefully get over the heartbreak she was feeling.
She had walked out on the one and only man she could have ever loved. She knew it. She wasn’t so blind as to not see it, but really what point was there? It had been made abundantly clear to her by his twin, reverberating and repeating the words that Allister had given her himself. They couldn’t deal with her way of things, and she knew nothing about them. She might have fallen in love, but she fell in love with a being she didn’t even know. She fell in love with a dream.
“Honey, there is so much that you don’t know,” Jackson said to his daughter, frustration burning him deeply. He wanted to tell her all about bond-mates, but he couldn’t. Bond-mates were sacred, and the fact that she had walked away from hers had him fucking spinning. “What happened, baby? Don’t tell me ‘nothing’ again.”
“Nothing, Daddy. It was just made very clear to me that I didn’t fit. I didn’t belong because I evidently had a great deal of a lack of respect.”
“What? Who the fuck said that?” Jackson demanded.
“Let it go, Daddy,” she told him softly. “Now, if you will excuse me.” She checked the magazine of her weapon, chambered a round, and flipped on the safety before putting one in the shoulder holster and another in her back holster.
“What is the job?” the general demanded.
“None of your business, Daddy. You do your job. Let me do mine,” she said and then, “Bye, Daddy. I love you.” Had to or she would cry again. She was so over crying. She had spent the last week sobbing her heart out and nothing came of it but more headache and more realization that she was obviously “not good enough” for Allister. He deserved someone that could, what was it Aiden had said, “respect his heritage,” and that was obviously something that Jackie so couldn’t do because she dared shorten a name, giving it teasingly in friendship, in familial love. Yep, she needed to go back to work. Maybe this time the bad guys would actually fulfill her death wish, fucking asshat criminals.
Watching as Jackie left home, Aiden tapped the comms. “She’s heading out and she’s packing,” he said to the others that were scattered around the neighborhood waiting for her departure.
“Dude, I love your brother, too, but are we seriously going to do this?” Trey asked him over the open channel.
“He doesn’t eat. He can barely function. Hell, I caught him sitting in a chair staring at the wall with a stain on his shirt. I asked about it and he just gave me this blank look. It’s like he’s already dead inside, damn it.” Aiden breathed out and had to crack a window to clear the fog he’d just created. “Yes, we’re damn well doing this. Let her get out of the neighborhood and then we grab her. Smooth, no injuries, and for the love of the Gods don’t bruise her.” That would be his task if she didn’t get her fucking head out of her ass and fix his twin.
“Copy that,” Mac said. “Going mobile and falling into primary tail position,” he said as he casually pulled out of a spot a few seconds after she passed him in her vehicle. Waiting until they turned a corner, the rest of them all tore off in various directions to get into place.
“Detour is set up,” Sully said from his spot at a faux accident scene with a couple other Team members acting as cops rerouting the limited traffic a different way.
“She’s about a minute from visual of the scene,” Mac reported from his spot and, when she reached the scene and got directed by Omega to turn, he cut across a side street. “Off the tail.”
“On her tail,” Trey said as he slid in behind her two cars back. “Approaching four way stop. We will be a go in ten, nine, eight…” He continued to count down as the rest of the team got ready for the grab as soon as she was stopped. “Two and one,” he called out as she came to a full stop and had to wait for the three prearranged cars to take their turn going through the intersection.
Slipping into the car, Aiden looked at her and smiled. “You really shouldn’t have broken my brother’s heart, darling,” he told her, pointing the gun at her face. “By the way, you have the right-of-way to pull through now. Please do so in a calm and timely manner.”
Looking at him, she frowned. “I am not your fucking darling, Aiden.” She ensured that she used his whole fucking name this time. “And fuck you and calm and timely,” she said as she pushed down on the gas. She didn’t believe for a moment that Allister’s heart was broken. He was far too beautiful, too strong to be broken. She, on the other hand, well, she had been tempting fate, and it looked like now she was going to take killing herself into her own hands. “How about we see just how fast we can go, shall we?” she asked sweetly and pushed down on the gas, taking the turns roughly but not giving a good hot damn. Clicking her seat belt, she looked at him and smiled sweetly. “You might wanna buckle up unless you can fly, Aiden.” Again drawing out his name. “’Cause I’m thinking we should try, don’t you?” she asked and made another turn as she did so.
“Oh, you really don’t want to do that,” he said and let the Dragon out enough to freak her into slamming on the breaks. Pressing a hand to the dash, he kept the gun perfectly steady on her head and grinned through the much larger teeth as she stared at him in horror. Letting go of the Dragon, he lifted a brow. “I can fly. Can you?” he asked softly.
She gulped and shook her head. “No, but I don’t wanna live. Do you?” she shot back to him quickly. “You point the gun at me as if it should scare me, but it doesn’t.” She tugged her weapon free and passed it over. “Check the bullets.” Blanks. “I have no desire to live, none. But you know what, that’s none of your f
ucking business.” She couldn’t fucking believe she was so calm, but honestly, maybe she had been the one to break, because she sure as hell felt as if she were in an alternate reality.
“Actually it is my business,” he told her, tossing her gun into the back of the vehicle without even looking at it. “Because you fucked with my brother, my baby brother, I should mention. Nobody messes with my family and gets away unscathed, lady. Now, do you feel like explaining to me what the fuck you thought you were doing just walking away from him and breaking his heart? And yes,” he snapped at her, “you broke him, in half. All he does is sit in a room staring at nothing because he has no future without you. You, who should have been his other half, his perfect mate, the person he’s waited his entire very long life for, walked away as if he were nothing and broke him. So you are going to explain to me just what the hell crawled up your ass and died, or I will take you out of the equation and pray to Gaia that she blesses him with someone that actually has a fucking spine and a heart.”
That gave her pause. “And will she?” she asked now. “Tell me, Aiden, will this ‘Gaia’ give him someone that will be able to respect his heritage and be the good little what-the-fuck-ever it is that he needs? Because you made that really, really fucking clear that it wasn’t me,” she said softly.
Staring at her, he lowered the gun and shook his head. “You have got to be kidding me,” he said holstering the weapon. “That’s what you got out of that conversation? You really aren’t for him, are you?” he asked. “I said, and I quote, because I actually have a functioning mind and memory unlike some individuals, that shortening our names was unnecessary and an insult to our heritage.” Sighing, he got out of the vehicle. “Our father died the day after we were born, the day of our naming. Before he did, he and our mother chose our names. We honor his memory by never using a nickname and we request others respect that same memory by doing the same. Whatever you and Allister decided between you is between you, but I made the request you not use a nickname. Who’s the idiot on this one, Jackie?” he asked her quietly. “It sure isn’t me. But then you were so hot to get away from him you didn’t feel the need to ask him for any explanation, did you? On anything.” Looking away, he tossed a piece of paper on the front seat. “I still say I should take my chances on Gaia being a bigger person and giving him someone worthy of his heart, but I guess I’m going to play the idiot for the moment. His address is on there. If you think you can get over your pissy attitude, at least go and tell him why you dumped him, and maybe he’ll get back to living again.” Slamming her car door, he stalked off. He couldn’t look at her and not want to kill her, fucking bitch.
Jackie had listened. She had listened carefully but she still wasn’t sure. Taking a breath though, she sighed and decided that she had to check. She had to be sure that Allister was truly all right. Grabbing the paper, she keyed up her nav system and started her way there.
Parking outside of the large home, Jackie pulled off her shoulder holster and tossed it onto the floorboard, locking the weapons in the glove box even though they were only filled with blanks. Taking a moment to breathe, she walked up to the door. She didn’t know why she was doing this, why it was that she was coming to him. If he really loved her wouldn’t he have come for her? Come to her and asked her just what the fuck her deal was?
Lifting her hand, she knocked on the door, waiting for an answer so that she could find out why he didn’t come to her if he really was heartbroken. If he really cared he would have come for her, to at least find out why, right?
Cursing Aiden for not using the key he’d stolen, Allister shuffled to the door and pulled it open. “Shouldn’t you be…” His tone was bored. As he stopped he just stared dully at her. “Come to twist the knife finally, have you?” he asked, still in an uninterested tone. “Go away,” he muttered, pushing the door shut even as he walked away, not caring if she did leave. She’d left before. He was sure she’d do it again.
“You know,” she said and leaned against the door to watch him, “I know that I’m nowhere near good enough for you, but I have to know.” She paused. “Why?” she asked quietly. “Why didn’t you come for me, at least to ask me what the hell happened? You knew very good and well where I was because Daddy had kept Talon in the loop, so why? Am I really not good enough? Is it because I tried to tease you and accept you and your brother into my life by teasing and giving nicknames that you both got together and decided that I just wasn’t good enough for you?”
“Why come for someone that obviously felt nothing for me?” he said, still moving deeper into the house. “I gave you everything and you walked out on me. Pretty clear that I’m not important or worthy of being loved by anyone not blood to me. Hell, not even sure most days why Aiden can even look at me, let alone love me,” he muttered. Reaching the den, he sat in the chair and stared up at the one and only portrait he had of both his parents, his father having died on their naming day.
She nodded dumbly and just stood there. “Obviously I was mistaken,” she whispered, pain lacing each word she spoke. He gave her nothing. He hadn’t even trusted her enough to come to her, to try to find out, so it was clear he hadn’t given an inch and wouldn’t now. “I will pray to Gaia that she gives you someone who would be more suitable as mate to someone that’s clearly far more than a mere human. I hope she’s all that you could ever dream of and more.” She was broken. Aiden might say that Allister was, but in the end it was Jackie that was broken. “Good luck to you, Allister. May the Goddess bless you with someone who is clearly better for you,” she murmured and turned to walk out. She walked past her car, past everything, just walked blindly because one way or another she would free him from her obviously less-than-deserving self.
“Seriously, do I have to do every-fucking-thing myself?” Waiting just outside of the house, Aiden scooped her up over his shoulder and marched back to Allister’s house. “I swear to the Gods you two are giving me a fucking ulcer. Dragons don’t get ulcers, but you two are driving me to one.” Slamming the door, he walked into the den and dropped her on her feet, a hand on her head to steady her. “Jackie, you love Allister and were an idiot to walk out on him,” he said and threw her a dark look. “Shut your mouth,” he said softly with menace. “Allister.” He looked at his twin. “She was an idiot and broke your heart. But you love her and she loves you. For the ever-loving fucking Gods, kiss and make up, you two. And remember to name your firstborn after me, damn it.” Turning, he left the room and slammed the door to the room shut and then stood there, holding it. They’d either work shit out or kill each other. Either way, neither of them was leaving that room until some sort of resolution came about.
Jackie just looked at Allister. “I seriously want to beat your brother. He is right about one singular thing he said though,” she muttered and ran a hand through her hair, hair that was now shoulder length because she couldn’t stand to look at the long length of it and recall Allister combing and braiding it. “I do love you. Might have been an idiot, but I’m so not admitting it, because I’m just that ornery,” she grumbled.
Staring at her, he blinked slowly, his eyes focusing on her and narrowing. Pushing up, he stalked toward her, backing her to a wall. Caging her in with his arms, he stared down at her. “Say it again,” he demanded quietly. He was nearly sure he hadn’t heard what he thought he had. He likely made it up since it was all he’d wanted to hear her say in the too-long days since she’d abandoned him.
Jackie looked up at him and frowned. “What, that I want to beat your brother?” She lifted her hands though and cupped his cheeks. “I love you, Allister, but you have to know that I will call you Al from time to time because it’s my way of showing someone that I love them. Giving them my own personal pet names. I’ve only given them to the men in my family, you, and I tried with Aiden and got bitch slapped for it. I love you, but you have to understand that I’m not trying to be offensive to your heritage. It’s just my way of showing you that you are mine.”
Frowning, he eyed her up and down but saw not a mark on her. Her hair, on the other hand, that he’d deal with soon enough. Leaning in, he brushed his lips to hers. “I love you, too, Jackie,” he whispered quietly, feeling he had to say the most important stuff first. “You may use a nickname with me but don’t with Aiden,” he murmured. “He’s always had issue with it. You are not the first that’s tried and been, as you put it, bitch slapped for it.” Lifting a hand from the wall, he touched her hair. “Why?” he asked softly, tugging on the too-short strands.
“Because looking at it reminded me of what I could never have. The way that you touched me, the way that you brushed it and braided it for me. I’ve been on a path of self-destruction since I left you,” she admitted to him. Looking up, she whispered, “You love me?” she asked and swallowed hard. “Are you sure? I will only use a nickname with you when I want to give you a grin. How does that sound?”
“Of course I’m sure I love you,” he said softly, cupping her cheek. “You are my bond-mate, Jackie,” he whispered against her lips. “You are my everything and so much more I can’t explain. When I found out you’d left the hospital without even a word”—Allister closed his eyes against the pain that exploded in his chest—“it felt like you’d cut out my heart. My entire world narrowed to a single point and then even that was snuffed out. There was no more reason to continue to work, to live, to eat, and, if I could have stopped it, to breathe without you there.”
“What is a bond-mate?” she asked. “I really would like to know please. I would also like to know what the hell you and Aiden are,” she demanded. “Talk to me, Allister. Tell me what it is that a bond-mate is. Is that why I feel so very much for you? Why I love you so much after only a short time?”
