Chapter 4
Istared at the three Alphas in the room, trying desperately to pick my jaw off the floor. What were my mates doing here?
There were people after me—men sent by Ace. So how was his brother lounging on the couch in Bluff, head cocked like he didn’t have a worry in the world—despite the gun I was levelling at him?
Zed Maverick was everything I remembered: lean, with shaggy silver hair and an obscene amount of tattoos across his body. He was pack lead, and as stubborn as I was, with a vengeful streak, and petty as fuck when pushed. Kyan perched on the couch arm, while Knight had frozen on Zed’s other side, a drink halfway to his lips.
I stared between them, pulse erratic as I tried to understand what was going on.
“You… brought them here?” I asked.
I realised how stupid the question was the moment it came out of my mouth.
“Brought who here?” Knight asked.
My gaze slid to him. His brow was cocked, head tilted as he watched me.
How were they more beautiful than I remembered?
Knight was a bear of a man, over a foot taller than me and made of solid muscle. He wore the same locs I’d always loved, and they reached just above his waist now. He had rich, dark skin, a strong nose, and a devastating jawline. His intense midnight eyes still had a way of making me feel like we were the only ones left in the universe when they were fixed on me.
Used to.
Now they were cold, as if I was the last person he wanted to be looking at.
“I…” I shook myself.
They didn’t know? How could they not know?
This had to be a trick. But they were exiled—completely and irrevocably exiled from the Brotherhood. I had seen to that.
But that meant their presence here the same night Ace’s Brotherhood thugs were looking for them, left them in dire danger.
Kyan was the first to his feet, his jade eyes drinking me in like he couldn’t get enough. He crossed to me as if there wasn’t a gun pointing in his direction at all.
“Don’t.” I lifted it.
I couldn’t do this. Not now.
But he didn’t stop. He was… well. The one I’d fallen for first and hardest, with the scent of a lightning storm that had turned my world upside down. Equal parts passionate and mad, saying Kyan was my weak spot would be an understatement.
I loved him. More, now that I was looking at him again, with the same snake tattoos winding around his wrists, and accompanied by a few beaded bracelets. The same wild, dark hair tied up in a ponytail with an undercut, and a few strands that were flying loose. He wore a thick chain necklace made of gold that complimented his rich, tan skin. And his smile was as wild as I remembered, boyish and wide, with pointed canines. From the first second I’d caught his scent like a summer storm, I’d known he was mine.
Mine…?
Nothing is yours. You gave them up.
I swallowed as Kyan reached me, unable to break his gaze. Meeting those beautiful eyes as I hadn’t been able to do the day I rejected him. Zed and Knight, I’d met their eyes and seen their hatred, but Kyan… I hadn’t thought I would see hatred if I looked at him, and that was worse.
He had changed, though. There had always been a spark of mania in his eyes, but that spark had lit to an inferno. A flame his father had fanned, no matter how it destroyed the boy I’d once fallen for. Exile had come too little too late for my mate. That madness was a vicious torrent, drowning everything else that he’d once been.
He stepped right up to the gun levelled at his chest, ignoring it completely. My lungs were tight as he moved closer still, staring down. I jumped as his touch found my waist. It was hard to suppress the low whine that desperately wanted to escape. Not just the touch of an Alpha to my damaged body, but his. Static and lightning, a promise of safety like nothing else in this world.
“My Oasis,” he whispered.
Tombs of stone built from years of fear cracked. The snake that had been slowly constricting my heart with every day that had passed without them slackened for the first time in memory. My grip weakened on the gun, and I couldn’t take my eyes from his.
My mate.
I was in danger, and he was here, just like he always promised to be. Everything was as it should be. I almost closed the gap between us, dropping the gun and letting his touch veil this world in darkness.
In the safety of the scent of a lightning storm.
Almost.
“Double or nothing. That’s the deal.”
Ace’s voice in my head was enough for me to return my conviction. I shoved the gun harder into his chest, choking down my spike of fear. Kyan’s grin widened, and he sidestepped the gun, slipping behind me before I could react. He didn’t let go of my waist, and I could feel the heat of his body against mine, chest against my back with a closeness still begging me to melt against him.
I’d been touch starved for too long…
“I… have to go,” I stammered.
The others were watching from where they sat. Zed’s expression was stiff. “Who did you think we were?” His gaze was fixed on the gun.
I couldn’t answer that.
“It doesn’t matter.” I’d figure this out… somehow. But not like this.
I tried to step away from Kyan, but Zed’s eyes flashed, and Kyan’s grip turned to iron. “Who did you think we were?” Zed asked again.
“I don’t have time for this.” They didn’t understand, and I couldn’t explain it to them.
There was a nasty sneer on Zed’s face as he leaned back. “Haven’t changed one bit—our charming little scent match. We didn’t come here so you could blow us off again.”
“Why did you come?” I asked, and I saw Knight’s gaze slide to Zed for a moment, as if wondering what he would say.
“You aren’t going anywhere until you answer. We have all evening,” he said, ignoring my question completely. “Do you?”
The gun might as well have been a prop for all the fucks they seemed to give about it. No matter what had changed, no one in this room believed I would actually use it.
“Let me go. Stay up here, and I’ll be out of your hair.” This time I’d have to be better at hiding. I don’t know if I could even stay in the country.
“You expect us to hang out up here, when we’ve just found out what a damsel in distress our own scent match is?”
Fuck him.
“That isn’t what’s happening here.”
“You certainly seem a little… distressed.” I jumped as Kyan’s teeth grazed my ear.
Lord help me.
With a growl, I spun, unsheathing the blade from beneath my dress hem. In seconds, the gun was jammed against his rib cage and the blade against his throat.
Instead of flinching, Kyan Quinn Beaumont gave me the wickedest grin.
His pupils blew, and I saw, at last, a true echo of everything I remembered. When he tugged me closer, a pinprick of blood beaded on the edge of my knife as it cut his skin.
And… shit.
The faintest rattle of a purr rumbled to life in his chest. Vibrations that unwound that coiled serpent in my chest just a little more.
I gritted my teeth.
“That’s enough. I’m leaving. You’re going to stay here and pretend you didn’t see me. Wait a few hours if you know what’s best for you.” I scowled as I heard one of them stand behind me. I made to shift, but Kyan wouldn’t let me go.
I’d hoped, rather stupidly, that the knife might help convince them I was serious.
My heart rate climbed to hummingbird speed as I caught the deadly cool of Zed’s snow santal behind me. I couldn’t let him get this close. I could barely handle being this close to Kyan, but he was holding me too tightly. With any more force, I’d slit his throat.
Another whimper almost destroyed the last of my composure as Zed’s fingers curled around my neck.
These fucking touch-starved, over-drugged goddamned hormones.
I was trapped between them. This wasn’t the faintest whisper of a memory like shuffling my old cards brought.
This was real.
They were right here.
The only men I’d ever loved.
“If the plan was to leave,” Zed growled. “You shouldn’t be flirting with Kyan like that.”
His grip might be impossible to fight, but I did manage to shift my gun hand enough that I could jam the barrel up against his jaw. “You aren’t taking me seriously.”
“You don’t believe my offer was serious?” he asked. “I didn’t come here for a corpse.”
Why had he come here? Was this truly a coincidence? Worst coincidence of my life, if so.
“Let me go.”
There was a long pause, and then, to my surprise, he did. His touch was gone, along with the toxic proximity of his snow santal.
“You can’t be fucking?—”
“Kyan.” Zed cut him off.
There was a long pause, and the air felt like static with the tension in it, but finally, Kyan let me go.
It might have been the hardest thing I’d ever done, stepping away from him. I took a breath, glancing back up at Zed. I could see the frigid viciousness in his eyes. I needed that from him. Again, like the coward I was, I didn’t look at Kyan. I couldn’t even manage Knight.
I had to go now and never look back. Seeing them—even once—it was never supposed to happen.
I forced myself toward the door, tucking my knife away, but keeping hold of my gun. I’d barely opened it for a second before I was tugging it closed but for a crack, stifling a curse.
There was a man in a black suit in the hallway beyond.
He fit in at the High Roller and could even be a bouncer for the way he was standing, palm clasped over wrist by the stairs. But we didn’t have security that waited there like that. He wasn’t facing in my direction, and I watched as he adjusted his cuff absently. Beneath the sleeve was a flash of black.
I couldn’t see the details from here, but I knew what it was all the same.
The slender tattoo of a rose.