Chapter 8
Chapter Eight
Adeline
I fall asleep on the plane, exhaustion taking over, or maybe it is the sedative.
Eli wakes me as we land, and I sit up, yawning.
The wind is hot as I walk to the door of the cabin.
I walk down the stairs to see a woman who looks around my age, her hair cut into a pixie cut, yet I can see a slight resemblance to Eli, with the same dark hair and eye color.
She has nice full lips and creamy-colored skin.
She is dressed very well and looks like she could walk on a runaway with her slim build and petite facial features.
She smiles as she looks up as we walk down the stairs, removing her glasses and looking at us.
“Emery,” Cyrus says as he steps off the steps.
She throws her arms around him, hugging him, before he kisses her cheek and lets her go. She then hugs Eli, and he kisses the top of her head.
“Gosh, I missed you. Not the same, only speaking on the phone,” she says, and he drapes his arm across her shoulders, giving her a side hug.
“This must be Adeline, your mate,” she says before stepping toward me.
She hugs me gently, and I hug her back before she holds me at arm’s length. Though she is gentle, I can feel how lethal she is, her eyes flickering black as she stares at me before returning to their normal color.
“Hmm, she does smell nice,” Emery says, letting my arms go.
“Hands off, Emery. She is our mate,” Eli tells her.
“I know, I know,” she says, and I raise an eyebrow at her.
“Don’t mind them. Eli always thinks I am stealing his mates from him.” She chuckles, and Eli scoffs before glaring at Cyrus.
Cyrus rolls his eyes at Eli, and I look at him, wondering why Eli is glaring daggers at him.
“Ignore him. Eli is good at holding a grudge, refusing to let the past be. Not my fault I met Cyrus before him,” Emery says, making me look at Cyrus, who is looking at the sky.
“You slept with Eli’s sister?” I ask with a chuckle, putting the pieces together.
“Well, I hadn’t met him, and how was I supposed to know she was his sister?” Cyrus says.
Eli growls at him, but Cyrus just shrugs.
“Cyrus was staying at the saloon I was working at. That’s how I met him. All good, no hard feelings even if he left me for my brother.” She chuckles.
I just feel weirded out meeting someone Cyrus was intimate with, so I can’t imagine how Eli must feel, knowing Cyrus slept with his sister. Or how strange it must have been for Emery to be ditched for her brother. I shake my head, trying to wrap my head around it.
“Well, should we go? I need to get to the new packhouse. Only twelve floors are still occupied. The bottom seven are empty, but you want the penthouse, right?” she asks Eli.
“Safest with no entry to that floor without the passcode,” Eli tells her.
“I can have some of my men keep an eye out and make sure there are people stationed on the bottom floor entry,” Emery tells him.
Eli nods and grabs a suitcase along with Cyrus.
“I sent my Beta to get her clothes from your house here, too. She didn’t have much, so I sent some of mine over to the penthouse for her.
She should have plenty of clothes till you figure out what you’re doing.
I also had the maid restock the pantry and fridge for you and told her to stay away.
This way,” she says, motioning for me to follow her to her car.
I climb in the back, and she gets in on the passenger’s side. A huge burly-looking man is in the driver’s seat. He has black hair to his shoulders, and I can just make out a scar that goes from his eyebrow to his lip. Cyrus and Eli both climb in beside me.
Eli claps the man’s shoulder. “Calum.”
“Addie, this is Calum, my third in command, and he will be staying on the floor below yours. Sam won’t be able to get into my building, and Eli has filled me in on what happened. I can assure you, you will be safe with us,” Emery tells me.
I nod, not knowing what to think. I could tell his sister is a tough woman, one not to be messed with. Yet the way Calum keeps glancing over at her, I wonder if there is something more going on between them.
The drive through the city takes about twenty minutes before we pull up at a luxurious building that looks more like a fancy hotel than an apartment building. Calum drives down through the underground parking lot, pulling into an empty space.
“I have also told all unmated males to steer clear of the top floors, given she is still in heat. Are you still going to be changing her? What’s going on with that because the pheromones she is putting out will send my men mad after a while,” she says, looking at Eli, who growls.
“Just asking, brother. Just need to prepare my warriors. Most are unmated,” she says before opening her door.
Pheromones? I wonder what she is talking about though Calum’s blue eyes go to mine in the rearview mirror.
Eli doesn’t answer and instead hops out, and I am quick to follow after them.
Calum and Cyrus grab the bags from the car while Eli grabs my hand, walking toward the elevator.
Emery slides a card into the slot on the panel.
The elevator doors open, and we stepped inside.
The elevator has a keypad. Emery slides the card into the panel and punches a code before the elevator starts climbing through the levels, heading toward the top floor before stopping and opening into the penthouse overlooking the city.
The penthouse is huge and looks more like something you would see on the cover of one of those home magazines.
Over half the place is glass windows overlooking the city.
Huge open areas for the kitchen, dining, and living room, and a balcony off the living room.
It also has three bedrooms. Emery, however, doesn’t stay long.
* * *
For three days now, I have refused to leave the apartment.
Nowhere feels safe except here. Eli and Cyrus try to coax me into leaving the place, yet I can’t bring myself to do it, not knowing where he is.
I just keep waiting for Sam to jump out of the shadows.
I feel safer in this bubble I am living in, safe in the confines of the penthouse, knowing there is only one way in.
The only good thing since coming here is my heat has died down; it hasn’t left, but here I am still breathing, despite them thinking I should be dead.
That thought doesn’t sit well with Cyrus; he wants to change me.
He said it should be completely gone by now.
His paranoia is becoming worse than my paranoia of Sam.
Cyrus is worse at night. Even though he can still hear me breathing, he would jostle me awake to make sure I am alive. I shake my head at the thought and the exhaustion that comes with being woken every few hours.
I have just woken up, and I toss my leg over Cyrus. It is hot in here even with the air conditioning going and blinds closed, or maybe it is just this incessant heat that refuses to leave. A hand runs up my thigh, pulling my leg higher and away from his erection.
Goosebumps rise on my skin at his touch, tilting my head on his hard chest, my eyes coming in contact with Cyrus’s blood-red ones. I am startled at the sight as he peers back at me. His fangs protrude from his upper lip. His arm behind my back pulls me closer to him as his lips press to mine.
“Go back to sleep, Addie,” he whispers.
“Where is Eli?” I ask, worried about his sudden bloodlust.
I can feel it, urging him to feed as he fights his instincts to feed on me. Realizing that is what has woken me and recognizing it for what it is has me wide awake as I lift my head to look for Eli.
“Helping Emery with something. I am fine,” Cyrus says, pulling my head back down on his chest.
“You can feed on me,” I tell him, propping my arms on his chest and looking down at him, his face so close we are nose to nose. He brushes his nose on mine.
“I can wait till Eli gets back. Just go back to sleep, Addie. It’s late or early, whichever way you want to put it.”
“Then why are you awake?” I ask him when he grabs my knee, pressing it down on his crotch.
“Your heat woke me,” he says before rolling on his side and pressing his face to my neck. His fangs graze my ear as he inhales my scent.
“Go back to sleep.”
“I can’t, knowing you want to feed on me,” I tell him, and he moves, lying on his back with a sigh.
“I would never attack you,” he mutters.
“I didn’t say you would, but I can feel your urges. I think that’s what woke me,” I tell him, and his head whips toward me.
“You can feel it?”
“Well, yeah, we have a bond,” I tell him.
“Yes, we do. You should be able to feel my needs but not my actual urge to feed on you in particular, Addie.”
“So, you do want to feed on me,” I chuckle.
“Just go to sleep,” he says, tugging me against him.
“Why? Don’t you want to feed on me?” I ask him.
“Because you have been in heat, and my urges to change you are strong enough without me accidentally killing you. While I feed on you, you have our blood in your system, Addie. I drain you, you change.”
A shiver runs up my spine at his words, bone-chillingly cold. I know he wants to feed on me but don’t realize he has the urge to kill me, too.
He chuckles. “The urge to kill comes with it.”
Wait, did he just read my thoughts?
Cyrus’s body grows tense behind me before he shoots off the bed, staring at me as he stands on the side of the bed.
“Wait, you didn’t say that?” he asks, eyeing me.
I roll on my back, looking up at him. “No, I thought it,” I tell him, and he starts pacing.
“I shouldn’t be able to hear you. I don’t hear Eli. Why can I hear you now? I couldn’t before,” he starts rambling.
“What are you talking about?” I ask him, wondering why he is suddenly freaking out.
“I can hear your thoughts, Addie. That’s why.”
“That’s a bad thing?”
I am not even aware he can hear other people’s thoughts. I am so glad he couldn’t before, especially with some of the dirty thoughts I had when meeting them.
Shit, don’t think that. Did he hear that?
Cyrus chuckles. “Well, I know them now,” he says, shaking his head with laughter.
My face flushes. “Wait. If you can hear everyone’s thoughts, how hasn’t that sent you mad?” My inner monologue s enough to drive me crazy, let alone listen to everyone else’s.
“I block it out. I always block it out. I don’t need to block anything around you and Eli because I normally can’t hear either of you. You’re immune to it because we are mates,” he says before pausing and looking at me.
“I need to leave. I need to figure this out,” he says, looking at me worriedly.
He suddenly rushes over, putting his hand on my head. I moan at his touch, the heat coming back.
“Well, the bond is still working. I shouldn’t be able to hear you,” he mutters. “Do you feel different?”
I raise an eyebrow at him. “Nope, feel the same as yesterday,” I tell him, and he rubs his chin.
“Something isn’t right. This isn’t right.”
“I just don’t see why it is a bad thing. If anything, it’s embarrassing for me, knowing you can hear me, but I don’t think it’s actually a bad thing. Unless I was planning against you or trying to leave because that would go out the window now.” I laugh.
Cyrus doesn’t laugh; instead, he just stares at me. “You’re going to leave?”
“What, no. I was just saying if I was, you would know. Besides, I haven’t left the apartment in three days. What makes you think that is going to change? I am not leaving until Sam is found.”