Death eBook 9.8.16 (5 page)

Falcone snorted. “You were never a Scout.”

Connor rolled his eyes. “Semantics.”

“Go and pack. Get back to her,” I ordered.

With a chin lift from Connor and a nod from Falcone, they fled to their rooms. My heart beat fast in my chest while my head thumped with a headache. I wanted it to be me. I wanted to go to her. I wanted to hold her, to scent her… to claim her as mine.

But fucking business came first.

I understood that. I did.

Still, it didn’t mean I had to like it one bit.

“When they go, so will we,” Warren started. “We’ll comb the site and the streets close to it. We need to see if anyone saw anything. You can talk to the departed around that area.” He stopped, ran a hand over his face, and then said, “I hate that I put this pressure on you, Dean. I want more than anything for you to be happy… with your mate, if she is your mate—” I growled, causing him to sigh. “But we need to detain Decay first. Do you remember the last time he was let loose? So much death, so much destruction. We can’t let that happen, Dean.”

“I know this,
brother
. I do. However, it doesn’t make what I’m feeling any easier. Right now, I want more than anything to go to her.”

“And you will.”

Snorting, I said, “Yeah, just not now when my body, my heart, and my soul want to. Do you know how hard that is?” Everything in me was fighting to take those steps out the door. My hands shook with restraint, my heart beating wildly. All of it was new, exciting yet scary. My stomach didn’t know what it was doing. One second it had butterflies and then next it was dipping in fear, because what if she didn’t want me. What if she didn’t accept our fate?

He winced and shook his head. “No.”

Laughing without humor, I said, “I can’t wait for you to find out.”

Connor entered the room first and then Falcone, but it was Connor, of course, who said, “I’m feeling that a tense moment was just had.” His arms went wide before he asked, “Does anyone need a hug?”

Shit. The dick always knew how to lighten the mood.

“Just get the fuck out of here,” Warren barked.

“Oh, Warren.” Connor sighed, then his lips twitched. “I think it’s you who needs a hug.” He started for our impassive brother.

“One step closer and I will take your head off your shoulders,” Warren growled roughly.

“It’d grow back on anyway.” Connor snorted, and yet he stopped. Smart man. Sometimes. Though, he knew what we did. Growing back body parts hurt like a motherfucker. “Pity the woman who becomes your mate. You do realize that you can’t be all broody, assholery—yes, it’s a word—and mean when that happens,” Connor taunted.

“Women could get off on it,” Falcone added. We all turned to stare at him. He was always the quiet one and comments like that were rare, so we took notice. Connor laughed first, then I. Warren smirked at him.
      

“Get out, wankers,” Warren said.

They started for the door.

“Wait,” I called. Both looked over their shoulders. “Um… I just…. What does she look like?”

Connor grinned.

Falcone smiled and before they both left said, “Amber eyes, shoulder-length light auburn hair. She’s small in height, but cute, and she knew not to take Connor’s crap.”

A smile touched my lips.

Julie Michaels sounds perfect.

A goddamn girly flutter started low in my stomach and drew down to my dick, hardening it. Shit, with a reaction like that from hearing about her appearance, I wondered what I’d be like when I could actually lay eyes on her.

All I had to do was get through one night before I could see her, meet her, and finally claim her.

Chapter Four

JULIE

Wow, that has to be the most adorable little girl I have ever seen.

Sitting in the train car across from me is a little girl of five or six with her mother. She has golden-blonde ringlets tied up in pigtails, moss-green eyes, and rosy red cheeks that could make a chubby little cherub cry. She’s been sitting quietly playing with her baby doll since I found my seat for the ride home.

See, most adorable kid
ever!
And on that thought, she lifts her sweet gaze to me and smiles.

Dimples. She has dimples.

Before I can commence Operation: Kidnap Super Cute Kid, the train shudders and the lights blink out. As the lights flicker back on, the little girl releases a horrific ear-piercing scream. I glance over, assuming the sweet child is just afraid of the dark. As Oscar Wilde once said, “When you assume, you make an ass out of u and me.” He could not have been more right. If her scream didn’t curdle my blood, then the fact her face was melting off definitely did. In a matter of seconds, I look on in terror as skin, tissue, and muscle quickly separate. Layer by layer it dissolves into a fluid dripping down onto the floor.

I woke screaming as the horror of the dream played on a loop in my head with the nauseating smell of lilies surrounding me. I tried to breathe through the cloyingly sweet scent, making my screams muted as I gasped. An all-encompassing fear consumed me, scary in its familiarity, and yet, I couldn't recall ever feeling it before.
My stomach rolled. I laid my hand over my heart, trying to calm the rapid ride it was taking.

Relief settled into my veins as Falcone banged into the room, bringing with him a much-needed burst of fresh air. It drove away the overwhelming aroma. He didn’t pause. After closing the door, he immediately picked me up and placed me on his lap. He held me together as I fell apart, providing a breath of comfort.

I broke in his arms.

I cried for the imaginary little girl from the gruesome dream.

I cried for the fact my life was supposed to be making a fresh start, and yet there I was, with no memory of the stupid accident. Now my apparently slightly demented mind was making up disturbing crap to fill in the gaps.

I sobbed at my own weakness. Breaking down was something I never allowed myself to do. I’d learned at an early age tears would get me nowhere. I only had my mother, and she never did anything for anyone unless it benefitted her. The only time she did show affection was when others were nearby to witness. But lying in the lap of a complete stranger, feeling more protected, calm, and comforted than I had in my entire miserable childhood, I had an overwhelming desire for this feeling to never go away.

That only meant it was time to come back to reality and pull myself together.

“Fish sticks,” I proclaimed as I pushed myself to sit again. “I totally just ruined your street cred. All my tears made it look like you wet your pants when I screamed.”

Falcone gave me a relieved grin. “I think I will survive. Can I ask what caused the deluge to start with?”

With a sigh, I explained the dream, the little girl, and the dreadful way it ended. I would have stopped with that, but the compassion and understanding look on his face compelled me to tell him about the strange lily smell. For a second, his body tensed, then he relaxed as if he willed himself to do it for my sake.

“I honestly think the dream scared me enough to let my guard down, and the last couple of days caught up to me all at once. Sorry I unloaded like that on you. I’m not normally a basket case. But since you and Connor arrived yesterday afternoon, you’ve helped put my fear at ease.”

“No problem. That dream alone would scare the bejesus out of me. I can’t imagine how unsettling it must also be to be missing hours of your day, wake in a hospital, and have no one tell you why or what happened. I’m surprised you’re not, as Connor would say, cuckoo for Coco Puffs by now.”

I snorted. “Thanks. I’m sorry I woke you, but I’m really glad you’re here,” I said, squeezing his waist.

After a second and a reassuring squeeze back, he informed me, as he gave me a cheeky grin and a wiggle of his eyebrows, “Anything for a damsel in distress.”

We both jumped at the crash that came from the living room. Falcone quickly chuckled and shook his head. “What fresh hell is Connor up to now?” he asked with a sigh of exasperation.

I couldn’t help it, with all that had just happened and the fact that whatever was on the other side of my bedroom door didn’t seem to worry Falcone, I relaxed and let out a girly giggle.

* * * *

DEAN

I was halfway down an alleyway talking to a frightened spirit when it happened, and when it did, I was brought to my knees by the force. Warren was at my side in seconds, calling my name, but I couldn’t answer him.

All I could do was feel.

And what I felt was something I never wished to.

Utter, raw panic.

Fright consumed my mind.

It was then I knew it wasn’t my own.

With pain-filled eyes, I looked up to my brother and bit out through clenched teeth, “I have to get to her.”

He nodded stiffly and helped me stand. He said over his shoulder as we walked back down the alleyway, “We will return to you.”

The meek reply from the female ghost was “Okay.”

The emotional torment started to fade as we made our way to the Jag. Still, it left me feeling uneasy, clenching my stomach and causing my body to tense because what I felt next pissed me right the fuck off. Julie felt safe, protected and… goddamn desire.

It wasn’t me giving her those feelings.

So who in the fuck was it?

“Dean, talk to me,” Warren ordered. I saw him look over at me in the passenger seat, from my clenched jaw and down to my tightly fisted hands.

“My mate. I felt her emotions. She was scared, panicked, and it hit me all at once.”

“And now?”

“Now,” I clipped out low, “she feels protected, safe, and motherfucking desire.”

“Christ,” Warren snapped. “Whatever you do, regain control over your emotions before you go in there and kill a brother.”

“I’ll try,” I gritted out as Warren sped down the busy streets, weaving in and out of cars. “How do you know where to go?”

“Falcone called it in. Do
you
know where?”

A tight shake of my head. “Not exactly, not until we’re near… but I feel we’re approaching closer to
my
mate.”

“Right.” He nodded.

We turned down a quiet suburban street, and I knew it was where her home was. My legs bounced up and down as I ran my hands through my hair and over my face. Fuck, I felt like a druggie waiting for my next hit and that
hit
was seeing my mate for the first time, seeing her, feeling her, scenting her.

When Warren slowed the car, I couldn’t wait any longer. I was out and running even before the car came to a full stop. My brother yelled my name.
c
Still I didn’t stop. Hell, I couldn’t stop. A scent of lilac and forest filled my senses. Christ, it caused me to stumble as I ran to the front door. I needed to take more of the scent in, overdose on it. A growl left my mouth when I found the front door locked.

Fuck.

“Whoa, man, what in the hell are you doing here?” Connor asked as he appeared at my side from somewhere.

It wasn’t him she felt desire for.

That left one brother.

Christ.

Falcone.

He was the one I wanted to harm least out of my brothers and the one I had trusted most.

“Dean,” Connor said.

Ignoring him, I lifted my foot to the door and kicked it in. I flashed through the house, scenting the air as I went; the strongest scent was coming from behind another closed door. A closed door where
my
mate and my brother lay on the other side.

A snarl left me.

“Dean, don’t do it,” Warren warned me as he strode down the hall.

The problem was, it was too late, and all control I had slipped when I heard a musical giggle behind the door. With a raised foot, I kicked it in. It splintered and crashed to the floor. She screamed. Immediately my eyes landed on her, in her bed, in the arms of my brother. A deep, vicious growl filled my lungs and ripped out of my mouth.

With speed not known to mankind, I was at the bed, punching my brother in the face and tugging his hands away from my woman, who was struggling and whimpering. I ignored her reaction, because all I could think was to get her away from the other male. Once I had her clear and my brother released her, I leaped to the other side of the room with my mate securely behind me.

“Holy moly,” my mate uttered. I sensed she was scared out of her mind, but my actions hadn’t been 100 percent my own. Fuck, okay, they had been, but all I’d seen was red, and now I regretted I’d scared her.

“Dean,” Falcone began, but he shut the fuck up once I shot him a glare.

“No one moves,” I hissed. My body was stiff, tense, ready to fight. The only part of me rapidly moving was my chest; it rose and fell at a quick pace.

Crap.

My body hummed when I felt a light touch to my back, just below my ribs. Turning my head, I glanced over my shoulder. Goddamn, she was so small compared to me. The top of her head just hit my shoulder; her gorgeous amber eyes peered up at me with fear.

“He won’t do anything to you, Julie,” Falcone called.

Spinning my head back to my brother, another dark, deep rumble fell from my lips. He shouldn’t be reassuring her. He shouldn’t be talking to her, touching her as he had been.

“Dean!” Warren shouted. “You need to calm the fuck down.”

Shit. I did. I knew I did, but I was finding it hard.

There were so many things I didn’t like, that made me want to rip my mate out of there and run with her until she was safe.

“She is safe,” Connor calmly said, hearing thoughts I’d obviously pushed through the link.

“Um, excuse me. But what in the fried fish is going on?” a sweet voice asked behind me. When her breath touched my arm below my sleeve, a shudder raked over my body. I glanced over my shoulder; fear seemed to have left her as her sweet mouth thinned and her brows rose in annoyance. Was she feeling anything around me?

“Nothing,” I replied, meeting her widening eyes. A smug smile lifted my lips when I witnessed her shudder.

That was when my smiled widened; she was feeling something. A chuckle escaped me when I heard her reaction to my smile, her sedated, happy sigh and then there was the fact her eyes dipped to my mouth.