Wild and Free by Kristen Ashley
It should have made him feel better. In any other circumstance, his mate’s silent support would have made him feel better.
Staring at his blood brother, he didn’t feel better.
The others prowled the room, keeping a distance, remaining wolves.
He felt Delilah move, staying close, which was the only way he’d let her move, and he knew she’d nabbed his thermal Henley when she pressed it into his hand.
He kept eye contact with his brother, losing it only when he pulled the shirt over his head.
Even when he tugged it down his stomach, he still said nothing.
“You wanna start?” the vison of him asked. “Or you want me to do it?”
“You,” he grunted, and Delilah pressed even closer.
“This is Teona,” he stated, curling the woman in the curve of his arm closer. “My mate. My witch.”
He saw in his peripheral vision that she waved a hand in a half circle in front of her. “Hey.”
Abel didn’t take his eyes off his brother. “You?”
He watched the man tense.
“I’m Cain.”
Abel stared.
“Seriously?” Delilah whispered.
“Abel, is everything all right?” Lucien asked from behind them. He knew the vampire had been standing in the door since the wolves came in, but Delilah jumped against him when she heard Lucien speak.
“Meet my brother, Luce,” Abel invited. “This is fuckin’ Cain.”
He felt Lucien approach and stop at his side, though he did it partially to Abel’s back.
Not aggressive.
This was Abel’s play.
“It would appear your parents have an unusual sense of humor,” Lucien remarked.
Abel didn’t reply.
“You wanna call off your wolves?” Teona requested.
He felt Callum’s canine eyes on him.
“Go,” Abel said and finished, “But come back.”
The wolves whirled and exited the room.
He watched his brother’s gaze move to Abel’s mate.
“Delilah,” he said softly.
“Eyes to me,” Abel barked, and his brother cut his gaze back to him.
“I have a mate, Abel. I know you two are new, but you’ve got to know that I’m no threat,” he stated.
“So you know,” Abel returned, and Cain shook his head with apparent confusion.
“I know?” he asked.
“You know that wolves are protective of their mates. Fiercely protective,” Abel explained.
Teona shifted uncomfortably, doing this pressing closer to her man.
Cain held his brother’s eyes.
“I know,” he said softly.
“How?” Abel asked.
That was when his brother, who he’d known for less than five minutes, gutted him.
“Pop taught me.”
They’d left Abel in an alley.
But they’d kept Cain.
Instantly, Delilah slid to his front, doing it keeping herself plastered to him along the way. When she got there, she put her hands to his abs and started pushing at him gently.
She did this speaking.
“Lucien, can you see to it Cain and Teona are made comfortable? Abel and I have to have a chat.”
“Of course,” Lucien agreed.
“We’ll be back,” she went on, but seeing as he didn’t take his eyes from his brother, he only assumed she was speaking to Cain and his woman.
She kept pushing.
He didn’t budge.
“Baby, in the hall,” she urged softly.
“You knew our parents?” Abel asked his brother.
She pushed harder and was louder when she said, “Please, Abel honey, in the hall.” He opened his mouth to say something else to his brother, but Delilah fisted her hands in his shirt and her voice was ragged when she begged, “Please.”
It was her tone that got to him. He tore his eyes from his brother and looked down at his mate and saw it immediately.
This wasn’t about her pushing him to do something she wanted him to do when he wasn’t ready to do it.
This was something else.
She was suffering.
For him.
Therefore, without hesitation, he clamped an arm around her and pulled her into the hall and down to living room five. There, he walked them in and shut the door.
The instant he did, she wrapped her arms around him, pressed close, and held on tight.
“Just hold on,” she whispered into his chest.
He folded his arms around her, dropped his mouth to the top of her head, and did as told.
It took a while, but the feel of her, the smell of her, what he knew she wished desperately to give to him penetrated, and the numbness, which had invaded in order to control the fury, slid away to a stillness that he knew was fighting the fury.
“I love you,” she whispered, and the stillness became warmth that wasn’t the blaze of anger but a soothing balm so beautiful, in centuries, he’d never experienced anything like it.
He knew she loved him. She’d mostly said it.
But not straight out.
Not like that.
But she wasn’t done.
“I love the way you love your family. I love how protective you are, of me and of everyone you love. I love how into me you are. I love how you seem to be able to give me everything I need before I even know I need it. I love that you say you’re sorry straight up when you feel those words. I love that you’re beautiful to look at. I love that that beauty runs so deep, even when I have it for eternity, I know I’ll never find the end. I love the way you touch me. I love the way you smell. I love the way you dress. I love the feel of your hair. I love the sound of your laugh. I love that you’re smart. I love that you’re fierce. I love that I know I have thousands of more things I love about you, and I love that you’d stand there, holding me and listening to me, even if it took a year for me to say them.”
“Yeah, ’cause you’re tellin’ me how awesome I am,” he replied, his voice gruff, and lifted his head when hers tipped back. He caught her eyes. “Any guy would stand here for a year and listen to that.”
She kept whispering, her heart in her eyes, her love for him etched in her expression, and it was the most beautiful thing he’d seen in two hundred years.
And he knew right to his gut that it would be the most beautiful thing he’d see for eternity.
“And I love it when you’re a smartass.”
He’d had enough. More than he could take. He’d never known beauty needed limits, but he now knew that if you took in too much, like all Delilah was giving him, you might explode.
So he had to stop her.
He did that by slanting his head and dropping his mouth to hers, drinking deep, taking all he could get.
And as usual, Delilah, his temptress, his mate, his woman, the love of his life, the only love he’d had, the only love he’d ever have, held on tight and gave him everything she had.
When he broke the kiss, he didn’t move away.
He stayed close, looking in her milky-green eyes, eyes he hoped like fuck he’d be able to look into for eternity, and it was him who was whispering.
“I love you too, bao bei, with everything I am, and I’ll do it until the sun falls from the sky.”
He saw tears glisten in her eyes so he slid a hand up her spine, curled it around the back of her head, and shoved her face in his chest.
They held on to each other and they did it a long time.
And as they did it, it hit Abel that, with what had just happened, like she said he gave to her, before he knew what he needed, she’d given him exactly that.
An anchor.
A safe harbor.
A sense of belonging.
The certainties of his world, love and life, all this inextricably mingled with loss, took new meaning.
It became nothing but a journey, a journey filled with beauty and pain.
A journey that l
A journey that would never end, but now one thing would remain constant.
She’d be at his side.
He closed his eyes against the stinging he felt in them and bent his neck, pressing his lips to the top of her head.
He took in a deep breath, taking in more of her scent, letting the feel of her in his arms, the feel of being in hers, soak in deep.
Then he said into her hair, “I’m good to go back now.”
He again lifted his head when she tipped hers back. “You sure?”
He nodded.
She studied him for a moment before he felt her hands fist in his shirt at his back.
“He’s your twin,” she noted quietly.
“Yep,” he replied.
Her lips tipped up. “You’re hotter.”
That was when it happened. Something he couldn’t imagine happening so soon after he came face-to-face with the brother who, for centuries, he hadn’t known he’d had. Something he could imagine happening so soon after Delilah shared the depths of her love.
He threw his head back and burst out laughing.
“It’s true,” she said through his laughter, giving his shirt a tug.
His body was shaking and he was still laughing when he dipped his chin to again catch her eyes, and when he did, he caught her grinning.
“He looks just like me.”
“A mate can tell the difference. And anyway, every girl knows that scars are hot.”
“Right,” he said through his continuing chuckles.
“Though, I’d bet the farm she’s a biker bitch. That outfit, which, by the way, when this is done, I’m getting one just like that, screams biker.” She pressed into him. “She’s something.”
“You’re hotter.”
Her grin remained in place, but her eyes warmed, and seeing as they were already warm, the affection in them now was amazing to behold.
But she didn’t reply to what he said. She rolled up on her toes and kissed his throat.
When she rolled back, the warmth was still there, but the grin was only lingering.
“We should go back.”
He nodded.
She gave him a squeeze before she let him go with one arm, keeping the other around his waist. He did the same but with an arm around her shoulders.
Holding each other, they walked back to where they’d been.
When they arrived in the room, everyone was there. Callum and Sonia. Lucien and Leah. Jian-Li, Xun, Wei, and Chen. Hook, Poncho, Moose, and Jabber. Yuri and Aurora. Barb, Ruby, Jezza, and Flo. And Gregor.
All eyes came to him and he immediately felt overwhelmed. Overwhelmed by the wave of loyalty and tenderness that swept over him, nearly taking him back on a foot, definitely settling firm in his soul in a way that felt like it’d be there forever.
He gladly took that feeling and turned his attention to his brother and his woman.
Cain didn’t look comfortable.
Teona didn’t look happy.
It was Teona who spoke.
“You think we could do this a bit more private?”
“This is my family,” Abel declared. “And when something important is happening, I keep my family close.”
He felt Delilah move and looked down at her to see her exchanging glances with Jian-Li. And if Delilah’s look mirrored Jian-Li’s, it was filled with pride.
Abel felt his back get straighter and he threw out an arm.
“You wanna take a seat?” he offered.
“Good standing,” Cain muttered.
Abel nodded and then got right down to it.
“You grew up with our parents.”
Cain watched him warily and nodded.
“Why didn’t I?”
“We’re twins,” Cain stated.
“Got that,” Abel returned.
“We’re anomalies,” Cain told him.
“Got that too, though, found out when I was two hundred and five when you were lucky enough to have your parents share that info with you,” Abel replied.
Cain took that hit with a subtle wince but powered through it.
“They knew of The Prophesies.”
“And how’s that?” Abel asked.
“Pop knew King McDonagh,” Cain answered. “When we were born, the king explained.”
Abel said nothing, but he felt Callum become even more alert.
“Through The Prophesies, they knew it would be you,” Cain went on.
“There were two of us. How’d they know that?” Abel asked.
Cain shook his head. “I’ve no idea. But I’ve not fathered a child. I have no idea what parents know and what they don’t. They just knew, and turns out they were right.”
Abel couldn’t argue that.
“I’m your keeper,” Cain said quietly and with total seriousness, regardless of his words. “What our parents did was necessary.”
They’d get into that in a second.
“Are they alive?” Abel asked and braced when he felt what was coming from Cain and Teona.
“No. Pop died when we were attacked when I was forty-seven human years, about nine wolf. But he gave Ma and me time to run. We got away. She was killed fifty-two years ago. She died protecting me. They took her head, but she succeeded in her goal. I got away.”
His words were terse and he didn’t hide the burn in his eyes.
Abel got that.
The first, their father, with Cain that young, he’d had no choice but to run.
The second had to kill.
“I’m sorry,” Abel murmured and felt Delilah put her hand, light and soothing, on his abs.
Cain lifted his chin. “Pop was wolf. Ma was vampire.”
“They found Hui for me, didn’t they?” Abel guessed and got a short nod.
“Ma told me she was always feeding stray dogs and cats. Giving them scraps,” Cain confirmed. “A puppy, she’d take in. She took you in. Ma told me Pop watched and waited. Made sure she looked after you. They stayed close as long as they could. Then they were after us so we couldn’t.”
Somehow, from somewhere he didn’t get, Abel understood.
And he whispered, not bothering to hide his shock, “They used you as a decoy.”
Cain’s mouth tightened. “The immortals after us didn’t know there was another.”
“Oh my God,” Delilah breathed even as he felt the spike of tension hit the room.
“Ma found Teona for me,” Cain went on. “Teona masked me so you’d never scent me. That way, I could get close, keep watch, you wouldn’t know. She also cloaked me so no one else could find me. Took Teona and me about a minute after we met to realize we were lifemates. She’s been at my side for decades.”
“You were always close,” Abel said. “To me,” he finished.
Cain nodded again. “So was Ma, as close as she could get without you feeling her when you were old enough to understand what you might be sensing. Best day of her life was when I could go out on my own. Look after you. And by then, cameras had been invented. Made me take any shot I could get. In the end, she must have had thousands of pictures of you.”
Delilah’s hand pressed deep as everything about Abel strung tight to fight the feelings his brother’s words caused.
His mother had had pictures of him. His family stuck close. They’d had to let him go to keep him safe, but they’d stuck close.
For centuries.
He knew that had to kill too.
It was almost too much to fight, but in an effort to do that, he said, “You saved me in Dallas.”
Cain’s eyes slid to Jian-Li before looking back to Abel. “That witch located you. Don’t know how. Only one who did until you hit Serpentine Bay. With the Bay, my guess is, you and I were so far off the grid, they’d had no shot at finding either of us. So they somehow sniffed out Delilah. Followed her. Put her in danger to draw you out. Figure this since the witches did that before.”
Abel’s body got tighter at the glance to Jian-Li, which kept happening as hi
But he knew that glance meant they’d also taken out Jian-Li’s husband, his brothers’ father, Ming. He also knew when Cain said the witches had done that before, they’d made the attack on Ming in a failed effort to do the same thing.
Ming had died for Abel. Senselessly.
He fought the burn as he fought looking at Jian-Li, at Xun or Wei or Chen. He wasn’t going to explain about Ming to them. Not now.
“Any clue why the witches got mixed up in this?” Abel asked.
Cain shook his head. “No, just know they weren’t working with immortals. Their activities in Texas were theirs alone. You took off after what happened to you, they lost you. But whatever they were up to, that witch wasn’t going to kill you. It was about capture, not kill. Witches have a hybrid at their command, they got power. At least that’s what Teona believes. History bears this to be true. Not the first time witches tried to leash immortals. But if they got one of the three immortals who are noted in The Prophesies, it’d put them at the upper hand with all immortals. Something they’d want after all they went through. Especially that coven. They’d been harboring ill will for a very long time.”
This made sense. It was clear that the witches held great amounts of anger. Vengeance wasn’t a far path to stray when you held that kind of anger for that long. Witches with one of The Three at their command would have both sides of the immortals at their mercy.
Since that made sense, Abel let it go and pointed out, “It was vampires and wolves who went after Delilah in Serpentine Bay.”
“Yes.” Cain nodded.
“Any idea about that?” Abel pressed.
“No clue, except it was clear the other two of The Sacred Triumvirate had been identified,” Cain told him. “Which meant The Prophesies were unfolding and the Noble War almost upon us. The existence of magic has been hidden for centuries, but obviously, it’s out there. Witches. Seers. These rebels, they’ll do anything, as they’ve proved, including finding someone to force into guiding their way.”
That made sense too.
“So you, our mother, and our father lived your lives hunted because they thought you were me, but at the same time you stuck close to make certain they couldn’t actually find me,” Abel summed it up.