Chapter 1
Alexander
“Atlas! Wake up!”
He opens his eyes, instantly confused. It's after two a.m. and I am in his room with his brothers waking him up. I put my fingers to my mouth telling him to be quiet. Pulling the covers back I tell him to get up. I go to the window and open it, looking out to make sure the coast is clear. I call my sons over to the window and kneel down in front of Atlas, my oldest son, and tell him to take his brothers down to their aunt and uncle’s house.
“Atlas, stay out of sight and make sure you get your brothers to your Aunt Bria and Uncle Hemi’s house,” I say.
“OK dad,” Atlas says.
“Do not come back here Atlas, go straight to your uncle’s house, promise me..”I say to him.
“I promise dad,” he says.
Atlas is the first one dropped out of the window followed by my other three sons. I look at my little boys knowing full well this may be the last time I see them. They stand there looking at me scared, confused, and cold. There was no time to grab their coats for them, I run back over to the bed and grab the comforter thankful that Atlas’s favorite color is navy blue, it’s dark so it won’t be easy to see, and drop it out of the window. “Hurry” and go I say to them, “I love you.”.
“We love you too daddy,” they say and start for their uncle’s house.
I watch them run until they disappear into the shadows. The noises are getting closer. I close the window back, pull the curtains together, and make Atlas’s bed just like with my other son’s beds to make it look like they were never there and walk out of the room.
Atlas
I wake with a start, tangled in sweat-soaked sheets and shaking hands. Getting up I head to the bathroom to take a shower and get ready for my day. I have been having the same dream for the past thirty-eight years and I always wake up before I can finish it. I wake up at various points of the dream, but no matter what I never get to the end of it. I do not have to dream the dream to remember what happened, I was there and will never forget it. Throwing on a pair of jeans, long sleeve white shirt, and my wheat work boots, I head out into the main house. I am sure Jaasiel has made breakfast, the man is a genius in the kitchen. If he felt like becoming a bonafide chef he could, he’s that good.
I leave my wing of the mansion my brothers and I share, and I can hear the family talking and laughing as I stride toward the kitchen. Just like I imagined, there is Jaasiel at the stove, and a buffet is set up on our twelve foot island. Yeah I know it may sound like that is unnecessarily long but we are pretty big guys. I am six feet nine inches tall and three hundred and thirty-five pounds, only my brother Joshua is bigger at seven feet tall and three hundred and fifty pounds. Joseph comes in right after me and our youngest brother Jabarri comes in at six feet four inches tall and two hundred and thirty-five pounds; and there are eight of us. So the island is
the perfect size for us. I should’ve said nine of us. I see my sister sitting at the island eating; she is not our blood sister she is married to Joshua or Jag as she calls him. I am so happy he found someone to love him and who he could love. He became another father to us even after he left to go into the service.
I walk up behind Savvy and pluck her up off the stool she was sitting on. She screeches as I take her by surprise.
“Atlas!” she yells, “put me down!”
I know it’s only going to be a matter of seconds before her husband comes to investigate who is bothering his wife. Five, four, three, two, one……
”Savvy!” His voice booms from their wing of the house, he is rushing out to find out what caused her to scream.
As soon as I am in his sights he thunders, “Atlas! I promise you I am going to fuck you up if you don’t put my wife down.”
“This wife?” I ask him innocently as I throw Savvy over my shoulder fireman style, and begin backing away.
“I am going to kick your ass when I finally get down,” she shrieks.
I reach over on her plate and steal a piece of bacon as I keep some distance between me and Joshua. All the other brothers get out of the way as Joshua charges me and I take off running with Savannah bouncing on my shoulder.
“I got twenty on Atlas,” Jabarri says.
“I got fifty on Josh,” Anson says.
“I got one hundred on Savvy,” Joseph says.
We are running around the island until Savvy says “I think I’m gonna be sick.”
I stop running immediately and stand her on her feet. “I’m sorry Savvy are you ok?” I ask her.
She leans over the island and I move closer to see if I can help her. Before I can register what she is doing, she grabs the pitcher of ice water and dumps it over my head, then runs behind Josh laughing her ass off.
This is one reason why I love my sister-in-law, from the moment she met me she did not look at me with pity or horror. She did not care that I am an ornery bastard, she showed me the same love she did with the rest of her new brothers. It’s not that I cannot form attachments with others or be in a relationship, I choose not to. When I look over to her with her arms around my brother laughing and wiping tears from her eyes while the rest of my brothers laugh at me, a strong desire surges through me for a wife and mate too. I shake that shit off cause there is no woman who can love my mean ass, plus I still have a promise to fulfill. It has taken me longer than I anticipated to fulfill my promise but I do not care if it takes me to the last day I draw breath on this Earth, I will see it to completion.