Chapter 15
Chapter Fifteen
Adeline
The phone rings, but he doesn’t pick up.
It is late. Maybe this can wait till tomorrow.
Yet I find myself driving in the direction of their office, trying to remember the address where they live.
Giving up, I decide to turn around and head home when my phone rings.
Cyrus’s number pops up on my stereo screen.
“Where are you?” I ask, not even bothering to say hello. I need answers, and they are going to give them to me.
“At home. Are you okay?” he asks, and I can hear the concern in his voice before hearing Eli in the background.
“She alright?” Eli asks, his voice just a soft murmur in the background.
“We are on our way,” Cyrus says when I haven’t said anything.
“No, I will come to you. What’s your address?” I ask, chewing on my nail while I wait on the side of the road.
“Everything okay, Addie? You sound upset.”
“I’m fine. What’s your address?”
“470 Langcliff Road. Are you sure you are—”
I hang up, not giving him a chance to finish and instead hitting the highway.
They live just outside of town. I pull off the highway before driving onto a dirt road among the trees.
What is with them living so secluded? Driving down the dirt road, I follow the twists and turns of the road before seeing a house in the distance.
The lights are on, and I pull up on the long driveway to see them walk out onto the porch.
Now that I am here, I am suddenly nervous.
Sam’s words are on repeat in my head: Ask your bosses.
Yet I only have partial memory, and they aren’t part of it, so how can they have the answers I am looking for?
I park the car. Cyrus and Eli step onto the long veranda that wraps around the entire house. They walk down the three steps, and my heart comes to a stop when Eli opens the car door.
“Why did you hang up on Cyrus?” he asks, and I can tell that action has annoyed him more than it should.
“Phone cut out,” I lie, and he raises an eyebrow at me like he doesn’t believe me.
“What’s wrong?” Cyrus asks, and I know they find it weird that I’m seeking them out instead of the other way around. Now faced with them right in front of me, I don’t even know how to broach the topic.
“Why are you nervous?” Eli asks, cocking his head to the side, my eyes running down the length of his body and the hard lines of muscles.
His body is just as gorgeous as Cyrus’s. Perfect. Though he has scars and lots of them, they make him look more handsome. I shake my head, tearing my eyes from him and looking at Cyrus, who has a lazy smile on his lips at me checking out his husband.
“I… I… um…” I can’t form a coherent thought now. I am going to look insane. Like, what exactly am I accusing them of? I don’t even know what I want to ask them myself.
Cyrus reaches for me, and I step back, my heart hammering in my chest.
I watch, horrified, as his eyes flicker oddly under the lights. My stomach is in knots as fear wraps over me, consuming me. How have I never really noticed how strange that is? I’ve always put their changing eyes down to poor lighting.
“I should go. I shouldn’t have come here,” I tell them, turning back to my car and reaching for the handle when I feel his warm chest press against my back. I gulp, fear paralyzing me as I stand frozen with my hand on the door handle.
“Now, why would you want to do that?” Eli asks, his breath fanning the side of my neck before he runs his nose from my ear lobe to the crook of my neck. I shiver, my hands trembling slightly.
His arm snakes around my waist, pulling me closer.
“You came here for a reason, and now I want to hear what it is,” he says, his hand moving under my top and brushing against my stomach.
I gasp as sparks rush everywhere. His hand moves, my skin igniting at the pleasurable feel of his hands on my body, yet that doesn’t make me fear them any less. Something in my gut is telling me something is seriously off.
“I spoke to Sam,” I whisper so low I don’t think they’ve heard me.
Eli steps back, his hands leaving my body, and I turn around to face them.
“And what did Sam have to say?” Cyrus asks, stepping closer, and I flinch away from the venom in his words.
“That you did something, that you were there…”
Shit, I have no idea what I am asking, but by the look on their faces, they know something. Though I don’t understand the distaste and anger they hod for Sam; it makes no sense. I know they like me, they’ve made that extremely clear, but their possessiveness makes me squirm.
Cyrus looks to Eli before muttering something under his breath, too low for me to hear.
“We will explain when we get to Soya City,” Eli says.
I shake my head. I still have no intentions of leaving with them.
“I’m not going to Soya City with you. One of you did something, one of you bit me. I want to know what happened. Why Sam won’t talk to me anymore,” I tell them.
“You are because you don’t have a choice. And secondly, Eli didn’t bite you. He marked you. There is a difference.”
“If it involves teeth, it’s biting,” I spit back sarcastically.
“No, Addie, there is a very big difference, one we can’t explain right now. So, come inside.”
“I am not going anywhere with you,” I tell them, turning back to my car when I find my feet leaving the ground as arms wrap around my waist, tugging me back. I scream, thrashing around, trying to escape them, every cell in my body telling me to run.
I should never have come here, I think to myself.
“Calm down. We won’t hurt you, Addie,” Cyrus says, grabbing my face.
His words wash over me, suddenly feeling rational before I see his eyes turn red, and I feel my heart rate pick up so fast I am surprised it doesn’t leap from my chest. I kick him away, and he growls.
Wait, he just growled… growled like a predator.
I scream, adrenaline kicking in. I have no idea what is going on, but one thing I do know is they aren’t like me; no, they are monsters. Goosebumps rise on my skin as fear makes me lash out. I throw my head back, Eli grunting as my head connects with his face.
His arms slip from my waist as I hit the ground before getting up and running from them, heading for the road.
Cyrus suddenly materializes in front of me, making me skid on the dirt road as I come to a halt.
I hear the most horrendous noise, like flesh tearing and bones breaking, making me scream as I look back toward the car only to see a monster of a wolf, its teeth gleaming under the moonlight, sharp and pointy, threatening to rip my flesh to pieces.
Cyrus has his arms out, like he is trying to herd me, and I dart off in the other direction only to be knocked to the ground from behind, knocking the air from my lungs as I hit the ground with an oomph.
I freeze, my blood running cold, as I see paws on either side of my face.
As I try to get up, a wet nose sniffs the back of my neck as it growls, making my hair stand on end, freezing me on the spot.
I feel its tongue roll over my neck, and I spin, rolling on my back, wishing I remained on my stomach so I wouldn’t see it as it kills me.
Only it doesn’t attack, instead dropping, resting its body on mine and pressing its nose to my chin and sniffing me. Its black eyes are watching my face when Cyrus moves to stand above me. He pats the wolf, and it licks his wrist.
“Eli lets you up, you don’t run,” Cyrus says, watching me.
My eyes snap to the wolf in confusion, my eyebrows furrowing as it whines at me, nudging my cheek with its nose.
“The wolf is Eli, Addie. He is a werewolf,” Cyrus says.
My brain is trying to function, trying to grasp the words that have just spewed from his mouth. Werewolf? My mind drifts back to every horror movie I’ve ever watched, and panic sets in.
“Addie?” Cyrus asks.
I feel my blood pressure spike, black dots dancing before my vision, threatening to engulf me in darkness.
The wolf moves, nudging my hand with its nose, lifting it. My hand becomes frozen in the air as he rubs his face in my palm, purring softly. His fur is soft and thick and so dark it almost looks blue under the moon’s light.
“He won’t hurt you,” Cyrus says, looking down at me before kneeling.
He brushes the wolf’s fur again before reaching for my hand, and I pull it back before he grips it gently. Sparks move over my hand before he places it on the wolf’s neck, rubbing it up to his face.
“See? He won’t harm you. We won’t harm you,” Cyrus whispers.
I feel his fur, the wolf leaning into my touch, when I hear that horrid sound again, my eyes snapping shut and my teeth aching from the noise before I feel the wolf moving above me. Only when I open my eyes, Eli is staring down at me, my hand shaking as he grabs it, kissing my knuckles.
“I won’t hurt you, Addie. You are ours,” he says softly before kissing my lips, his hard body pressed to mine.
Yet I don’t respond, my entire body tense at what I have just witnessed. Maybe this is a dream. Yet it feels so real, and the sound of my pulse beating in my ear makes that not plausible.
“I want to go home,” I tell them. My voice sounds meek even to my own ears.
“We can’t let you do that. Not now that you know,” Eli whispers, pulling back.
“No, I won’t say anything. Just let me leave. You don’t have to kill me. I will forget it ever happened.”
Cyrus chuckles, making me look up at him. “I know you won’t tell, Addie, but it doesn’t change anything. We won’t be letting you go. You belong to us. That’s why Eli marked you. You were destined to be with us. Even if you don’t feel it now, you will.”
“What?” I ask, the only thing I can conjure up with my mind in shambles.