Watcher Compelled: Dark Angels Paranormal Romance (Watchers of the Gray Book 6)

by JL Madore

  The tears were from the wind. Seriously.

  Bo filed into the war room with his brothers, antsy and restless, his beast pacing more than usual. Why was it so hard for him to lock his inner shit down these days? He’d given up even trying to understand.

  Zander rounded his desk and flopped into the oversized desk chair. The thing creaked under his weight, but with the mood the Sumerian was in, seemed to know better than to give way. Kyrian stood behind him, holding up the wall.

  The Egyptian twins peeled off their matching red leather jackets and hopped up to sit on the slate pool table.

  Danel stepped over the back of the club chair and sat with his feet on the seat and his tablet in hand.

  Hark and Ringo grabbed the couch, and Tanek ghosted in and leaned against the closed door.

  “Where the fuck is Brennus?”

  “Here, sorry,” the Celt said, swinging the door through Tanek and wincing as the two occupied the same space. “Sorry, my brother.”

  The Celt sauntered in and took up position on the far side of the room. The distance wouldn’t hide the scent of male sex on his skin and Bo wondered who the guy had gotten busy with in the ten minutes since they’d seen him at the club.

  Who knew? It had been a weird night all around.

  “Brennus, get the drinks flowing. Danel, tell me what the fuck went down tonight.”

  Danel ran a rough hand over his mouth and sighed. “Simple. We let them walk right in. The override locks were disengaged. The door codes were entered. Aaaand the elevators were shut down with our own command codes.”

  “Bullshit,” Bo said, a sick feeling cramping in his bowels. “I checked and double-checked. Physically and with my gift. We were locked down and sealed tight.”

  Danel held out the tablet for him to take. “Apologies, my brother. There’s no easy way to say this. You were the break in security. You opened things up.”

  Danel accusing him of such a thing had his beast rearing. “I would never put you or anyone at that meeting at risk. Fuck you, Persian, for even suggesting it.”

  Brennus played the part of their server, and the bouncing glances were about more than waiting their turn for the bottle.

  The headache he’d been suffering through the past weeks got its groove on. “What? Do you believe him? You think I’m inept at my job or worse, some kind of a fucking traitor?”

  “No one thinks that,” Zander said, swigging back his tumbler and holding it up for a refill. “But something, sure as shit, ain’t right here. You were taken and then popped back up a few hours later.”

  “I told you, I fought my way out and escaped.”

  “But foggy on who took you and where you were held?”

  “I was rammed off a fucking overpass and landed on my head. Can I get a fucking break?”

  “You didn’t have your dagger.”

  Bo stopped and shook his head. “Yes, I did. That’s what I used to fight my way free.”

  “No,” Zander said, and the rest of the guys backed him up. “Colt found your dagger in the wreckage of the Navigator. He returned it to us at the scene, and Kyrian returned it to you at the clinic.”

  That made no sense. Bo thought long and hard about the sequence of events the night of the accident. “I absolutely remember having my dagger and fighting my way free.”

  “Like you remember locking us up tight tonight?” Seth said, looking pissed. “I gotta say, Viking, if you’re glitching, that sucks and I’m sorry, my brother, but you put my mate at risk. That can’t, and won’t, happen again.”

  “Fuck you, Seth. I would never put Thea at risk.”

  “You sure about that?”

  “Yeah, I am, asshole. I was her friend when you were still jacking off in your apartment, denying her and your kid even existed.”

  Seth launched off the table and across the room.

  Bo was ready. Male voices broke out as they met. Bo got a solid right cross off before hands flew and people started yanking him back.

  Seth dragged his twin and Kyrian forward as he fought the lockdown.

  “Both of you, enough!” Zander yelled, forcing his way between them. He pointed, and Phoenix and Kyrian regained their holds and pulled the brother back. Hark pulled Bo across the room to give them some space. “No one in this room believes you to be incompetent or a traitor. That’s not where we’re going. I think you’re compromised.”

  “Bullshit,” Bo snapped. He needed to come up with another explanation, but his world was circling the drain. “I think I’d be aware if I’ve gone squirrely.”

  Danel frowned. “You told me last week you were off, my brother. The headaches. The edginess. We talked about the possibility of you bonding during Shayton’s shindig, but maybe something else happened down there. Maybe someone got inside your head.”

  Fragmented images of the days and weeks of unguarded consumption bombarded. He’d been out of his mind most of the time but didn’t think anyone fucked with anything other than his body.

  An image of a raven-haired vixen with killer green eyes flashed into his head. He cursed as a knife-pain shot through his temple. It took everything he had not to react, not to give his brothers a reason to think he’d been mindfucked.

  “There’s no denying you froze tonight,” Kyrian said, shaking a hand-rolled smoke from his fancy cigarette case. “The world erupted, and you stood there, taking in the show. I’ve never seen you glaze over at crunch time before.”

  Bo saw the worry and pity growing in his brothers’ eyes and it cleaved him in two, as sure as if they’d carved him in half with a Crystalline dagger.

  “Kid,” he said, pegging Ringo with a hopeful gaze. “Have you seen anything? Have you been drawing me?”

  Ringo shook his head. “No, nothing.”

  Thank the goddess. “That’s gotta be good, right? Ringo gets creative at the drop of a hat.”

  Zander sighed, running his skull-ringed fingers through his long hair. “Not necessarily. We can’t take that as a sign that this is nothing.”

  “So, what then? You don’t trust me? I’m tainted?

  “Fuck, Viking,” Zander said, reaching up to grip his shoulder. “If we were talking about you before these events started piling up there’s no question of trust.”

  “But,” he said, meeting his commander eye-to-eye.

  “Until we know for sure . . .”

  “You want me out of the house.” Bo clutched his chest as the pain shot from his head down to his heart. They thought he was a danger. Shit, he’d never risk the safety of the ladies or Zane and Nio, or Ringo, for that matter. “Fine, consider me gone. I’ll pack a bag, and I’m outtie.”

  Zander cursed. “Phoenix will escort you to Drina for a once-over, then he can stay with you at his old apartment. We’ll figure this out, my brother. I swear it. Then you’ll be home where you belong.”

  Bo cast a backwards glance at his brothers—shipping him off, casting him out. His hurt rooted so deep in his soul he didn’t think the pain would ever ease.

  So be it.

  Taking the stairs three at a time, he got the hell gone.

  CHAPTER NINE

  Bo wasn’t sure what Zander expected Drina to find, so when their Reaper surgeon found nothing, he didn’t know if he should be disappointed. He mulled over every detail of the past weeks and the weeks before that. Now, holed up in the Egyptian’s apartment, he was at a loss. “So, what? I’m benched until my brain barfs up something to go on?”

  Phoenix shrugged, turning from the kitchen counter where he’d laid out all the necessities to make them both warrior-sized turkey sandwiches. Double cheese?

  “Yeah, that’s good.”

  Phoenix went back to construction, and Bo took a stroll around the Egyptian’s apartment. It killed him to be kicked out of the ranch. To not see the girls and the babies. To not be welcome in what had quickly become his home. To be suspected of posing a danger to his family.

  After only a year and a half, they were a family.
<
br />   Dysfunctional, no question, but a family all the same.

  He stared down at the early-morning traffic on the streets below. The world turned as if none of this mattered. As if his life wasn’t a massive clusterfuck. He should give it up for today and go to bed. Nephilim worked the streets at night and slept through the daylight. That was the way of things.

  He was exhausted enough to sleep, yet he doubted the impulse would hold if he laid down and closed his eyes.

  His mind’s eye flashed him the female with the jet-black hair tipped in emerald green. Something in his head unlocked and he headed for the door. He knew what he needed to do.

  His beast roared, and his cells ignited.

  Something caught his shoulder and spun him around. Where are you going?

  “I gotta go.” He turned and reached for the knob.

  The mountain of a male slid into his path and snapped his fingers in front of his face. Where are you right now, Viking?

  “I gotta go.” He reached for the knob a second time. When the male grabbed him, he throat-punched the mountain and knocked him back.

  Door open, he stepped into the hall.

  He had to go. She was waiting for him.

  A right cross knocked him on his ass. The hall was narrow, his way to his destination blocked by a second hulking warrior. “I gotta go.”

  “Sorry, my brother,” the second male said, grabbing him around the shoulders and hauling him back into the apartment. “You aren’t going anywhere.”

  Austin found Zander in his office hours after she’d expected him upstairs. Kyrian told her what happened and said they were all wrecked by the look of betrayal and rejection Bo flashed them as he took his leave. It hurt her heart to think of her angelman having to send one of his brothers away, even temporarily. Zander fought with unmatched brutality and loved with that same depth of ferocity.

  In a world of darkness, he was her light. Since he brought her back from the dead, her strange Otherworld synesthesia had morphed to allow her to see any members of the Otherworld. Because of his gift and sacrifice, she saw her family for the first time since she plunged into darkness at the age of fifteen. It didn’t matter that she didn’t see chairs or dishes or trees in the yard. She’d mastered the nonsighted world years ago. Anything beyond that was a gift.

  “Hey, angelman, you planning on coming to bed?”

  Zander blinked, his eyes heavy. He swiveled his chair to greet her. “I’m sorry, cowgirl. The time got away on me.”

  She padded across the office and knelt on the ground before him. Leaning into the chair, she hugged him around the waist. “You’ll figure it out and make it right. Then, you’ll bring him home. He’ll understand.”

  “I hope you’re right, cowgirl. I hate that Bo thinks he doesn’t belong here—that we don’t trust him to be here.”

  He was too tired.

  Austin heard the exhaustion in his voice and knew when he got like this, there was no consoling him. There was, however, comforting him. Straightening on her knees, she reached into his lap and found the buckle of his belt. “How about we shut off your mind for a while and let another part of your body take the reins.”

  The soft chuckle warmed her heart. No matter what was happening, what chaos was closing in on him, Zander had never turned her down. That worked in her favor because this was for him. “Are you seducing me, Lady Ambrose?”

  “I am,” she said, finishing with the fly of his jeans and urging him to raise his hips. Sliding the denim down the cut muscles of his thighs, she pushed the gathered fabric to the floor. The rattle of his pocket chain seemed alarmingly loud in the silence of the sleeping house. “I want you to close your eyes and relax.”

  After freeing his ankles, she pulled off his socks and piled them with his jeans. Kneading the ball of his foot, she made her way up his calf and to the definition of his thighs. It never ceased to amaze her how fit he was.

  It was unreal. Which, from a human perspective, was accurate. Zander was the son of the Archangel, Michael. He had the blood of angels running in his veins. He was a long-haired, tough-guy biker Adonis in leather, and he was all hers.

  “It’s been too long since I rubbed you down.”

  The deep timber of his growl hung thick in the air and gave her a sexy shiver. “Is this a happy-ending massage then? That’s my favorite kind.”

  “Good things come to those who wait.”

  He chuckled again, running his fingers through her hair. “For you, I can be patient. Only for you.”

  Finishing with the one leg, she started again with the foot of the other. “You need to lean on me more, angelman. I don’t need to be in your business, but you need to come to me when you’re this tired or this wound up.”

  “I do, my love.”

  “Not enough.” She crested the rise of his knee and fit herself between his legs. Running rough hands over his thighs and hips and abs, she activated all his nerve endings, giving his erection and sac a wide berth. “I want to be a true partner with you. I can’t do that if you shield me from the heaviest parts of your heart.”

  He groaned, his sex fully-hard and awaiting attention. “Nio needs you. You care for her and the others. You do too much already.”

  “Have I neglected you?”

  He straightened and bent over to cup her face in his callused palms. “Never, love. Not once have I ever felt passed over. It’s the opposite. If I let you take care of me too, you’ll be the one exhausted.”

  Such a bighearted softy. She rose to her feet. Fishing under her silk nightie, she grabbed her panties and pushed them down her legs. Climbing onto his lap, Austin straddled his wide hips. “So, here’s what we’ll do. On days when I’ve had my fill, I’ll tell you, and you can wash my hair and put me to bed. On days when you’re overwhelmed, you’ll let me ease you.”

  Reaching between them, she clasped her hand around his length. It kicked in her hand, and his beast growled. Lining his crown up with her damp core, she eased herself down inch by stretching inch, until he impaled her completely. Once she was fully seated and started to move, he straightened and caged her in his arms.

  “Patience, remember?” She pushed him against the back of the chair and wriggled her hips. “I’m easing you. Let your cowgirl go for a ride on her wild stallion.”

  Zander swallowed, his Mark bursting into the vibrant neon blue that signaled his beast was now fully engaged.

  “Sit back and enjoy.”

  Austin undid the tie of her wrap and let it flutter to the floor behind her. Normally, she’d take off her nightie, but she hadn’t thought to close the door. Though the house was quiet, if anyone saw her naked and riding Zander, his beast’s alter ego, Jackson, would take over.

  This was safer. Besides, sometimes sexy wasn’t what you saw, but what you felt and imagined.

  Zander’s love terrified him at times. This was one of those times. Austin owned him—heart and soul. That wasn’t news, but there were moments, as sharp as a knife piercing his chest, when the certainty cut him to the core that she was his everything. His life. His breath. His soul.

  He’d sat here, worn and too tired to face the stairs up to their suite, and then she found him in the darkness.

  She always found him.

  Sitting back in his stupid executive desk chair, he kept the two of them balanced as Austin gave him the gift of her body. She ground on him, hot and tight, her hips rising and falling over his cock in an agonizingly slow seduction.

  He wished they were somewhere private. He would rather be sprawled out beneath her and not worried they would crash to the floor and bring the house running.

  Fuck, the door wasn’t even— He spotted Tanek reaching in for the knob and gave his brother a nod. Once T closed things up for them, Zander reached out with his powers and flipped the lock. Yeah, he felt a shit-ton more relaxed now. He’d hate to kill one of his brothers for getting an eyeful.

  With the privacy issue solved, he gave Austin his undivided attention. ”I love
how wet you are, cowgirl.”

  She bit her lip and smiled. “Maybe this isn’t all for you.”

  He laughed, and they nearly went over. Catching their balance, he made a decision to move them to the floor. Wrapping his arms around her, he rounded the desk and got them re-situated on the Aubusson rug. He sprawled out on his back and left her to her first impulse.

  Having a solid surface beneath her shins, and not tilting to and fro, did wonders for both of them. Each time she withdrew and her lips paused at the end of his shaft, a shudder racked through him, stealing a little more of his sanity.

  These were the moments he lived for.

  Watching the hollow of her throat as she swallowed. Her breath catching when his cock hit something inside her. The reward of Lady Divinity giving them a love like this was worth any price he had to pay.

  The daylight creeping in from the crack in the drapes made the sheen of her nightie glisten. He caressed her breasts through the blue silk and played with the peaks of her nipples when they came out to say hello.

  Yeah, she was right. It had been too long since he’d let her take the lead so he could simply absorb the sensations. The greedy pull of her sucking his cock inside her, the look on her face as he filled her to stretching, how strands of chestnut hair stuck to the delicate bead of sweat on her brow.

  “So beautiful,” he said, his voice more beast than man, which was the norm when they made love. She united his two sides and kept his dark and violent side in check. Since unleashing his tether on the darkest part of himself, he felt the possessiveness of his other half at all times. It was primal and primitive.

  And it focused on one thing. Only. Ever.

  Austin was his.

  His beast would destroy anyone who ever tried to take her from him. ”Mine.” He growled. “My female.”

  “Oh yes,” she gasped, her inner muscles gripping him in greedy pulls. “I’m yours forever.”

  It shamed him how badly he wanted to possess her. The ways he wanted to fuck her. The things he imagined them doing in the darkest recesses of his imagination. She did that to him. She brought out the beast.