Carl: Caveman Instinct series 2.5 (12 page)

Ryder

This day couldn’t get any fucking worse. My cousin Richard rang me this morning to tell me that Bailey, his soul mate and wife was in labor. That meant Aunt Gillian would be in a mood making sure everything went perfectly for her daughter-in law. If any of us Silvermans had a choice, we would stay away from the maternity ward until the baby was born, but we didn’t. We all would go and show our support. My mother would be the one who had to help deal and listen to Gillian complain why even the tiniest thing didn’t go as planned or she wanted.

The second thing to go wrong with my day was that I was called into work because three people had overdosed and died all in one night and in different places in the city, but all from what looked to be the same drug. My boss thought I’d be perfect for the case as I’d helped Richard, who had had the problem of people OD’ing in his clubs.

Now instead of waiting in maternity with the rest of my family, I was standing out the front of the emergency doors at Brisbane hospital with my brother Oakley and cousin Andrew.

Glaring at my brother and cousin, I slowly counted backwards from ten to calm myself before speaking to the two idiots before me. “Tell me again why the fuck I’m taking you two to the emergency room and not calling mum and Aunty Gillian?”

Oakley, my brother winced at my demanding tone, and my cousin Andrew stepped back before we stepped into the emergency department. “He’s in there bro, and the kid is fucking crazy. I mean look what he did to us.”

I was looking, and I was finding it hard not to have a little respect for this kid that they were talking about. My brother had a black eye, he was limping and I’d have bet my next pay check his arm was broken. Andrew didn’t look like he’d fared much better than Oakley. He may even look worse with two black eyes. My brother and cousin had training too, so I knew they were no lightweights. I’d spoken to Philip, their security, on the drive to the hospital and asked why he didn’t step in and help my brother and cousin. He’d told me the guy who’d fought them was just a seventeen year old kid, a boy the same age as them. Philip hadn’t said why this kid had beat the shit out of my brother and cousin and that alone had me suspicious.

“I can see what he’s done. Why the hell do you need me with you and not dad?”

Oakley gazed into the emergency room and mumbled, “Philip is pissed at me and I um…I don’t want mum or dad involved in this, epically now Bailey’s in labor.”

“Yeah,” Andrew added. “Can you imagine if I called my mother or even dad right now? Dad needs to be with mum or Richard will strangle mum.”

Groaning because I could just imagine how upset Aunty Gillian would be if for any reason she had to leave Bailey. And if something went wrong she would be unbearable. Aunt Gillian was a handful at the best of times, but I knew right now she would be beyond crazy.

Soulmates, ha. I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. I didn’t believe in the Silverman gypsies’ curse. Well, I hadn’t until it happened to Uncle Carl too. The tale went in the old country, we helped a group of gypsies flee, and for helping them, they gifted us with the ability to know our soulmate. There are supposed draw backs that they forgot to mention. Like the fact we Silvermans turned into controlling, possessive, domineering men. Basically cavemen. My parents and two uncles had fallen to the curse and this last year my young cousin Stephan and Richard too, but the shock was my uncle Carl. I didn’t believe in the curse either until my family started dropping like flies. My uncle Carl, who had avoided it to the ripe old age of forty-five, in the last ten months had found his soulmate, gotten married and had twins. One of which was a girl. Silvermans didn’t have female children.

Thinking of the supposed curse always pissed me off. I tried not to believe, and I told myself I didn’t, but I couldn’t ever stay with a woman because the stupid ‘curse’ was always there like a frigging whispering temptation, telling me the grass is, and will be greener on the other side, once I’ve found my soulmate.

Stomach churning at my thoughts, I returned my focus to the problem before me, my brother and cousin. “Fuck.” I ran my fingers over my head. Not many people messed with a Silverman. We had way too much money and a lot of connections. So my brother and cousin must have done something bad for this kid to do what he’d done. “God damn it, Oakley, what the fuck did you do?”

He avoided my gaze. “I may have taken a picture of his sister and photo shopped images of what I wanted to do to her and mouthed off,” he rushed out.

Reaching over I whacked him upside the head. “You damn idiot.”

“It was just a bit of fun and his sister is hot,” mumbled Andrew.

I turned and whacked Andrew, too. “Get your arses in there now. And delete that shit off all your devices because what you fuckwits did is illegal.” Grabbing the scruff of both their shirts I dragged them through emergency and over to the nurses’ triage.

Before we even got to wait in line for the nurse, I heard the sexiest voice I’d ever heard yell, “God damn it Arron, sit your arse down now. Leave the dickheads alone.”

Spinning, I searched for that voice and saw a woman with jet black hair falling to her arse. And what a nice round shapely arse it was. She had her hands on the chest of a tall teenager, who was currently staring daggers over my way.

“That the kid that did this to you two?” Both my brother and cousin nodded, but I noticed their gazes didn’t leave the woman’s arse. An urge to beat both of them washed over me at the sight of them staring at what only moments ago I had been staring at. Huh, that was weird. Mentally shaking off the feeling, I gave a glare to both Oakley and Andrew. “Stay in line. I’m going to go over and see if I can smooth things over.”

Without waiting for their reply I made my way over to the couple. The woman was now quietly talking to the teenager who still hadn’t stopped staring my way. The closer I got the stronger my sense that something wasn’t right, that I wanted to beat the shit out of my brother and cousin for treating the woman the way they had. I was thirty two years old, too old to want to fight my brother and cousin. And I’d long since given up on finding my mate.

“I promise if you ignore the dipshits, I’ll move you to a new school if you want. One without rich little pricks.”

I stopped just out of reach from them. I was close enough now that a vanilla scent surrounded me instead of the hospital disinfectant. I took in a deep breath of the heavenly scent and almost moaned as my whole body hardened.

“What the fuck do you want?” The teenager snarled.

The woman who the vanilla was wafting off of, spun around to face me and I took a step towards her. Damn, she was not just beautiful, she was stunning. Super long black lashes blinked revealing dark brown eyes that looked almost black enough to match her hair. Her nose was straight and perfect with a slight point. Her lips weren’t too full, but they weren’t thin. They were perfect, just like the rest of her. She was a tiny thing, I bet barely five feet tall, with light olive skin and a body to die for. Damn. My heart beat faster than I’d ever felt it beat before. I opened my mouth to reply to the kid, but nothing intelligent came out. “Mine. You’re mine.”

“What! What the hell kind of answer is that?” the kid growled.

My mate, my soulmate, who I’d given up hope of ever finding groaned and her gaze went from her brother to me and back before she mumbled, “Men.” She stepped in front of her brother and narrowed her gaze on me. “Look, I’m sorry my brother kicked your um…brothers?”

I nodded. I knew if I spoke it wouldn’t be anything but caveman talk.

“Arses, but they were being douches. Arron was just protecting me. Can we just forget about it and put it all behind us? No one will press charges.”

Oh, she was using the threat of pressing charges to keep everything quiet. I couldn’t help the smirk that spread over my face. I crossed my arms over my chest and stared down at my one, my soul mate. “Really?”

Her relaxed stance changed. She straightened herself up and eyed me up and down, a smirk of her own spreading across her beautiful face. “Yes. Really. Now,” she nodded her head in the direction of my brother and cousin. “It looks like they found a nurse and you’re going in instead of waiting with us ‘normal people.’” She raised her hands in air quotes.

Huh, what? What did she mean by normal people? I looked over my shoulder and sure enough, a nurse was guiding my brother and cousin through to the rooms. Sighing, because I knew the Silverman name had gotten us priority, I looked back at my mate, whose name I didn’t even know, and debated what I should do. Did I follow my brother and cousin, who were still under age at seventeen, or did I wait and get to know my mate?

The choice was taken from me when a nurse walked over to me. “Mr. Silverman, if you could please come with me as your brother and cousin are both minors and need an adult or guardian with them.”

My mate turned her back on me and I fought the urge to spin her around, throw her over my shoulder and take off with her. Without saying a word though, I followed the nurse. I’d find my soul mate again, and soon.

OTHER BOOKS BY HAZEL GOWER

SELF-PUBLISHED

Gordon’s Dawn

A Mate’s Escape

Caveman Instincts

Stephan

Richard

The MacLeod Clan

The Laird’s Future Bride

Peacekeepers

Her Keepers

~ ~ ~

PUBLISHED WITH BEACHWALK PRESS

Armageddon Mates

Kane’s Mate

Rane’s Mate

Ava’s Mate

Arden’s Mate

The Protectors

Volume 1

Finding Love

Winning Her Love

Earning Her Love – Coming Soon

~ ~ ~

PUBLISHED WITH LIQUID SILVER BOOKS

The Price of Fame

~ ~ ~

PUBLISHED WITH EVERNIGHT PUBLISHING

The Bears

Theirs

Ours

Hers

The Inteli

Savior

Sin City Shifters

Sasha’s Lion

Jezebel’s Lion

Merpeople

A Merman of her Own

A Merman Uncovered

Mount View Treaty

Claimed By Her Panthers

(Co-authored with Jess Buffett)

Scandal’s

Dillon

Stand Alone Books

Always and Forever

Letters to her Soldier

~ ~ ~

PUBLISHED WITH ALL ROMANCE EBOOKS

Her Big Bad Mistake

Lucian’s Soul

CONTACT THE AUTHOR

I would love to hear from you!

WEBSITE: www.hazelgower.com

EMAIL: [email protected]

FACEBOOK: www.facebook.com/HazelGowerAuthor

TWITTER: @HazelGower1

ABOUT HAZEL GOWER

A mother of four, Hazel spends her spare time, the little she has, writing and taking off into her own worlds.

As a child, she spent a lot of time in her own dream world and even had an imaginary friend. In primary school, she would constantly make up stories, which got her into lots of trouble. Her mother said she always had an overactive imagination and would be the perfect writer.

Hazel started writing down her story ideas in high school and never really stopped. Writing is salvation.

After she’s cleaned up and gotten all the kids in bed, Hazel sits at her computer—or sometimes a notebook with a pencil—to relax, write, and escape.

Hazel loves to hear from any of her readers, so feel free to send her an email and ‘like’ her on Facebook.