Pulse & Promise (The Bouchers #4)

1. Chance

Chance

“What’s her name?” I asked, picking at the blood that had dried in the corners of my nail beds.

“Rena,” my sister-in-law answered quietly. “Irena Rossi.”

“That fits.” I nodded absentmindedly as I watched the steady rise and fall of my mate’s chest.

My mate. The woman who I’d waited my entire life for. The other half of my soul. The reason I woke up in the morning. The dream that I’d chased since I was old enough to know she was out there somewhere.

After watching each of my brothers find their own mates, I’d finally found my own…broken and bleeding in a mangled BMW on the side of the road.

I hadn’t even been sure she was alive when I’d dragged her out of the wreckage.

Now, I couldn’t help but wonder if this was my punishment for years of doing whatever the hell I wanted, saying whatever the hell that popped into my head, and generally living like there were no consequences in this life.

She was hanging on, thanks to my Aunt Alice’s medical skills, her own stubborn refusal to go into the light—or whatever happened when you died—and the selfishness that made me leave the house that morning instead of sticking around for Reese’s bridal shower.

Who knows how long she would’ve been trapped in that car if I hadn’t found her when I did.

“She’s almost twenty-nine years old,” Reese continued. “We’ve been best friends for half our lives now. She owns her own marketing and PR business. Mostly online stuff, you know? Social media. That kind of thing.”

I probably should’ve cared, but I didn’t. Not then.

“Her grandparents were Vampires,” Reese said, running her fingers through my mate’s hair. “Or, you know what I mean. A Vampire and his mate. Did Beau tell you?”

I shook my head and reached out to run my forefinger over the back of Rena’s hand, tracing around the tape that held the IV in place. “How’s that possible?” Vampires only produced boys. There hadn’t ever been a recorded female birth.

“Her mom was already born when Irene and Joe found each other.”

“Rossi,” I mumbled, jerking my head up. “She’s Joe and Irene Rossi’s granddaughter?”

Reese smiled and rolled her eyes. “Yes.”

“Damn.” I remembered when Irene and Joe had died in a plane crash twenty-five years before.

It had rocked the Vampire community. Because of our long lives and the immortality that locked into place when a Vampire completed the mating bond, the loss of a mated Vampire or that Vampire’s human mate was really fucking rare and nearly unheard of until the last few years. “What about her parents?”

“Her mom died when she was ten,” Reese said with a sigh. “She never knew her dad.”

“No other family?”

“Nope. Just me. Mr. Miranda and Noah too, but she isn’t as close to them as I am.”

“No one’s as close to their old teachers as you are,” I huffed.

“You just say that because yours have been dead for like a hundred years.”

“Yeah, yeah,” I countered weakly. I didn’t have it in me to spar with Reese, even though I usually liked to give my sisters-in-law shit.

Rena’s fingernails were fake, long, and painted a dark red with little swirls of silver and black. I ran my finger over the edges, checking the sharpness.

“Alice says she’ll be okay,” Reese reminded me for the tenth time in less than an hour. “Why don’t you take a break. Go change your clothes.”

Glancing down at the blood that had dried in large patches on the front of my shirt, I contemplated it for less than a second before shaking my head.

I couldn’t leave her.

After giving my brothers so much shit about their inability to do anything without their mates, I was realizing what an ass I’d been. The thought of leaving the room made my lungs feel tight. I couldn’t imagine even crossing the house to get to my room.

“Now would be a good time,” Reese said gently. “She won’t wake up for a while.” She paused. “Do you really want to resemble a serial killer when she gets her first look at you?”

She had a point.

My hair was a mess, and my clothes were crusted in dried mud and blood. I hadn’t gotten a glimpse in the mirror since I’d carried Rena frantically into the house’s medical room, but I could feel dirt or something on my face, and my eyes felt like I’d rubbed them with sandpaper.

“Hey, Danny?” I called.

Everyone had left Reese and me alone in the room after Alice and Ambrose had finished patching Rena up, but I had a feeling my brothers hadn’t gone far.

“What’s up?” Danny asked, his head appearing around the doorframe.

“Can you go grab me a clean set of clothes?”

“Skin out?”

I shifted in the chair. “Yeah. Get me everything.”

“Will do.”

“Problem solved,” I told Reese as my brother Beau walked into the room.

“Please tell Chance to shower,” she told him, lifting her face for a kiss as he reached her side. “Clean clothes aren’t going to cut it.”

“I’ll clean off in the sink,” I said stubbornly, lacing my fingers through Rena’s. She wore a large opal ring on her middle finger. It was cool against my skin.

“Better than the alternative,” Beau said with a shrug. “I’m surprised he’ll walk all the way to the sink.”

“Shut up.”

Beau smirked, but it was halfhearted.

I knew every one of my brothers had been reliving the moments they’d feared for their own mates since I’d carried Rena into the house.

Beau and Reese had been ambushed at Reese’s apartment and later at our home.

Ambrose had found Lucy unconscious and bleeding after our home was attacked.

Danny’s mate, Rosemary, had been shot multiple times during a firefight at her godparents’ house.

We were barely able to catch our breath before a new catastrophe hit.

Rena’s accident didn’t have anything to do with the battle we’d been fighting, thank the Gods.

I cursed as I remembered what I’d found that morning before everything went to hell.

“Where’s Ambrose?” I asked Beau. “And Dad?” I held up my hand as I recalled that when I’d gone into the medical room, our house had been full of guests. “Is everyone still here?”

“Pete and Noah went home once they knew Rena would be okay. They’ll be back in the morning. Alice and Sven are staying. Mordecai and Helen too. Why?”

“Got your clothes,” Danny said. “I figured sweats?”

“That’s fine,” I answered, slowly pulling my hand away from Rena’s.

Rena. Irena. I wanted to say it out loud so I could feel it in my mouth.

“Go get Dad, Sven, Mordecai, and Ambrose,” I ordered Danny as I rose to my feet. “I need to tell them what I found this morning.”

“Shit,” he said as he shoved the clothes into my hands. “I fucking forgot.”

I’d let Danny know what I’d found before I left the house that morning. It felt like a hundred years ago.

“We’ve been a little busy.” As soon as I’d set the clothes down, I reached for my shirt. “Unless you’re paying, Reese, you should leave.”

“Ew,” Reese said, covering her eyes with her hand. “You’re going to change right here?”

“Planning on it, yeah,” I said as I dropped my shirt on the floor and reached for the button on my jeans.

“Call me when you’re done,” she grumbled, striding out of the room.

“You could’ve just asked her to go,” Beau said quietly as he sat down next to my mate, his hands in his lap.

“She wouldn’t have,” I countered as I finished stripping. I pulled on the clean pair of boxers and padded barefoot over to the sink in the corner to wash up.

“I can’t believe Rena’s your mate,” Beau said as I washed.

“Why’s that?” I asked, scrubbing at my face.

“Because I know her,” he replied. “I mean, I met her right after I met Reese. She’s been here at the house before. It’s just hard to believe that you two have been so close for months.”

“Never crossed paths,” I replied, sluicing the water over my face.

“You could’ve met her before we ever found Charlie and Lucy,” Beau continued. “Before Danny found Rosemary.”

Charlie was our brother Zeke’s mate. We’d searched for him after Zeke died, and when we found him and Lucy, Ambrose realized that Charlie’s little sister was his mate.

“I know it’s hard to believe, but I don’t care that all of you found your mates before I did.”

“That’s not what I meant,” Beau replied with a scoff.

“I’m glad we didn’t meet before,” I told him as I used a towel to dry off. “If I’d met Rena when you met Reese, I wouldn’t have been able to help look for Lucy and Charles. Rena would’ve been here during the attack on the house…”

Beau grimaced.

“And I would’ve been too distracted—” I paused as Danny led the others quietly into the room. “So I probably wouldn’t have been able to trace Hermann’s money until I found the two properties he owns.”

“You got him,” my dad said proudly.

“This morning,” I confirmed as I walked back over to my clothes. “A house in Missouri and a warehouse in Arizona. Someone’s living in the house—not sure if it’s Hermann. Couldn’t find out much about the warehouse, but the utility records indicate that it’s being used for something.”

“When are we leaving?” Mordecai asked. “I’ll need to update my boys.”

“Thought we’d go in the morning, but…” I looked down at my mate and jolted when I realized she was awake and staring at me.

“Everyone out,” I ordered softly. “Get Reese.”

We stared at each other while everyone but Beau left the room.

“What happened?” Rena asked, her eyes never leaving mine. “Who the hell are you?”

Her voice was low and raspy. I couldn’t catch my breath.

“My brother, Chance,” Beau replied when I couldn’t seem to form a coherent thought.

“Flu?” she asked, turning her head toward Beau.

“That nickname isn’t as funny as you think it is,” he replied, smiling.

“Who said it was supposed to be funny?” she said, her voice wobbling a little. “What happened? Where am I?”

“You got in a wreck,” Beau replied. I wanted her attention back on me, but I couldn’t figure out what the hell to say. “Do you remember that?”

“I remember driving to your house,” she said.

“Rena?” Reese called as she hurried in. “You’re awake.”

“What’s going on?” Rena asked, starting to sound a little panicked.

“You’re fine,” Reese replied. “You’re going to be fine. You wrecked on your way here, and Chance found you.”