Chapter 3
He was losing his fucking mind, Shayne thought as he sat there, unable to look away from the woman who’d been haunting his dreams since the moment he met her.
The only problem?
He had no idea that he’d been dreaming about her.
For the past month, he’d dreamed of a beautiful blonde woman with warm brown eyes, a smile that could bring him to his fucking knees, and a body that he would have happily worshiped for the rest of his very unnatural life.
Every night, he dreamed about touching her, kissing her, and sinking deep inside of her while she alternated between moaning his name and begging him to fuck her harder.
He’d taken her in every position, kissed and licked every inch of her body, groaned when he kissed the soft lips between her legs and nearly lost his fucking mind when he got his first taste of her.
He could never get enough of her. Every dream left him desperate for more, desperate to feel her body wrapped around his, squeezing him just right while he fucked her.
Christ, she felt so real...
He swore that he could still feel her wrapped around him, milking his cock when he woke up in the morning, leaving him with no choice but to wrap his hand around his aching cock while he thought about her.
She not only haunted his dreams but his every waking minute, making him wonder if he was losing his fucking mind.
Every day, he struggled against the urge to go to her, and every day, he had to remind himself that she wasn’t his. It left him wondering why he was dreaming about her when the curse had bound him to a very different woman than the one currently pretending that she wasn’t watching his every move.
He ignored whatever Ashlyn was talking about with Tristan as he ran his eyes over her, taking in all the changes, he couldn’t help but think about the last time he saw her.
The short black hair that gave her that “I don’t give a fuck,” vibe was gone, replaced by long blonde hair the color of honey that looked like it was made from silk.
The cold blue eyes that didn’t miss a single fucking detail were replaced by warm brown eyes.
The piercings and tattoos that covered her neck and arms were all gone, leaving behind warm, sun-kissed skin that looked so fucking inviting.
And those curves...
They made him wonder who this woman really was. His gaze flickered to Aidan to find his brother watching him, looking really fucking amused at the moment. When the little bastard released a heartfelt sigh, Shayne narrowed his eyes until his brother took the fucking hint and started talking.
“Oh, now yer curious about the lass?” Aidan asked, shaking his head in disgust. “If ye’d asked a month ago when I started watching over the lass, I could have told ye that she was wearing a disguise.”
“He’s always been a difficult bastard,” Quinn said around a heartfelt sigh that had the rest of the little bastards murmuring in agreement.
“And a dumb one, at that,” Declean said as he dropped down on the couch next to Marty.
“Aye, that he has,” Liam murmured in agreement while Shayne sat there, struggling against the overwhelming urge to flip the little bastards off.
“Do ye think she still believes that he’s a mental patient?” Finn asked before disappearing only to reappear a few seconds later behind the couch so that he could read over Marty’s shoulder.
“With the way she’s keeping him in her sight?” Quinn asked, leaning down next to Ashlyn so that their faces were only a few inches apart. “Aye, I’d say there’s a fair chance that she thinks the lad’s not all there.”
“I think it’s something we’ve all been concerned with over the years,” Liam said, making Marty’s lips twitch.
“Do ye remember the times he used to hang in trees talking ta himself?” Quinn asked with a sad shake of his head as though he had nothing to do with dragging Shayne up that tree and hanging him by his feet for shits and giggles while he screamed his ass off for them to get him down, forcing him to grind his teeth so that he didn’t give his unwanted soulmate another reason to think he was crazy.
“Aye, that was concerning,” Liam, the one who came up with the idea in the first place, said, nodding solemnly.
“And the time he ran through the village naked, screaming our names?” Aidan asked, forcing Shayne to grab hold of the armrest when all he wanted to do was beat the shit out of the little bastard that stole his clothes while the rest of his brothers dragged his naked ass out of the lake and threw him in a patch of stinging nettles, leaving him covered in hives.
“I felt there was something off about him even back then,” Declean said with a long-suffering sigh as though the admission pained him.
“Aye, we all did,” Liam said, looking really fucking pleased as he watched him. When Shayne shifted his glare to Aidan, he gave his brother a look that told him exactly what he would do to him if he didn’t start talking.
“I may have found a few things out about the lass that I might be willing ta share,” Aidan murmured as he made a show of studying his nails before adding, “for a price.”
When Shayne narrowed his eyes on the little bastard, he continued. “I want yer room when it’s my turn ta break the curse.”
His fingernails dug into the soft leather as his gaze found its way back to Ashlyn and he found himself wondering about her, something that he hadn’t allowed himself to do since he realized that they were all cursed.
Tadgh had remained after he’d taken his last breath and watched as Macha took hers.
Then, one by one, each of his brothers was summoned to the moment their soulmates died, letting them know exactly who they were meant to spend the rest of their lives with.
Except for him.
When Tadgh felt that first pull back to Macha, he didn’t hesitate.
He happily returned to her and Shayne followed, not knowing what to expect only to find himself standing in a field watching a young woman as she finished getting sick by the river.
While she’d splashed water on her face, he’d searched for Tristan only to realize that he was sensing his brother on the young woman.
Curious, he’d followed her back to her village only to sense something else.
He’d focused on that sensation and flashed to it, finding himself standing over a woman struggling to keep the porridge she’d just eaten down.
It didn’t take him long to realize that he could sense Macha and that they were getting a second chance.
When he felt the pull to bring him to his soulmate, Shayne ignored it, determined to do what he failed to do the first time around and protect his brother.
So, he’d stayed and watched over the women, noting that every day his brother and Macha’s presence grew stronger as the swell of their mother’s bellies grew bigger.
When Tadgh’s new mother woke up screaming in the middle of the night, Shayne was there waiting for his brother to return and so were several ghosts that had been drawn to his birth.
He’d kept them away from his brother, watched over him and protected him, determined to make sure that his brother got the second chance that he deserved.
He’d watched as Tadgh and Macha found each other only to fall in love all over again.
He watched over them as they grew up, got married and found out that they had a baby on the way only to watch his brother die from an infection within days of cutting himself on a knife.
That was the first time that he’d watched Macha die from a broken heart, but it wasn’t the last.
Every time his brother followed after Macha, hoping to break the curse, Shayne was there, keeping his brother safe even after he’d begged his brother to let her go. He kept his brother safe until the moment that it was taken out of his hands and then...
He did it all over again.
When his brothers came up with a plan to have everyone give in to the pull the next time they felt it, hoping that having them all reborn again at the same time was the key to breaking the curse, Shayne agreed.
Hell, he would have agreed to anything at that point if it meant that he didn’t have to watch his little brother die one more fucking time.
When it failed, he swore that he would never do it again, not after he was forced to watch her take her last-
Slowly exhaling, Shayne gave Aidan a barely-there nod, but it was enough to have his brother’s lips pull up into a shit-eating grin.
He walked over to the couch, grabbed Declean by the back of his neck and shoved him off the couch before dropping down on the freshly vacated seat with a satisfied sigh.
“The lass was born ta Elizabeth White and David Cambridge, who disappeared shortly after she was born. Her mother managed ta finish college, owned a small bookstore, and from all accounts, was a wonderful mother until she disappeared when Ashlyn was six,” Aidan began as Shayne found himself once again watching Ashlyn, barely aware of what she was saying as he listened to his brother.
“From what I found, it looked like her mother lost control of the car during a snowstorm and drove straight into a tree.”
“They found the lass curled up in the backseat with a broken arm and a head injury. They almost lost her on the way ta the hospital, but were able ta get her back. She stayed in the hospital for a few weeks before she was released ta her uncle, who by all accounts, is an asshole. She only lasted a few days there before he turned her over ta foster care.”
“From there, she bounced around foster homes and group homes until she was arrested at fifteen for breaking and entering and sent ta juvenile hall. She was released back ta her uncle at sixteen, ran away when she was seventeen, got a job with a private investigator at eighteen, where she excelled at blending in. She quickly built a reputation, found herself in high demand and at twenty-two went into business for herself.”
“She excels at putting herself in dangerous situations, gathering information, and pissing people off,” Aidan said as Shayne sat there, glaring at the small woman who was proving to be a pain in the ass in this lifetime as well.
“We talked about the staring,” Ashlyn reminded him as he watched two men stumble through the wall into the living room while three men stumbled through the living room wall, and another five stumbled through the wall to his right.
“I told you this was the house,” the frat boy with an iron post sticking out of his stomach said with a satisfied sigh as his gaze locked on Marty.
“You also told us that holding a keg party on the roof was a good fucking idea!” the frat boy with a broken neck and half his arm missing snapped.
Before anyone could react, one of the men managed to stumble past Quinn and moved to grab Ashlyn’s arm only to get tackled by Liam, causing the man to brush his fingertips against her skin and-
Aw, fuck...
She felt it, Shayne realized as his gaze shot to Tristan as they were forced to sit there, pretending that the living room hadn’t suddenly been invaded by a group of dead frat boys while their brothers tried to catch them.
When one of the ghosts tried shoving past Declean to get to Ashlyn, Shayne moved to grab him only to force himself to stay where he was when Tristan discreetly shook his head, reminding him that wasn’t an option.
Ashlyn had no idea about the curse and if they were going to have a chance at breaking it, they needed to do this carefully.
“Hold still, ye little bastard!” Finn snapped, drawing their attention in time to watch as their brother grabbed one of the frat boys just before he managed to touch Ashlyn, somehow drawing her attention and-
“I’ll tell you everything that I know on one condition,” Tristan suddenly said as he discreetly reached over and grabbed hold of one of the frat boy’s arms when the little bastard reached for Marty.
“And what’s that?” Ashlyn murmured absently as she glanced over her shoulder and-
“That you work with my brother,” Tristan said just as two sets of ice-cold hands grabbed hold of Shayne.