“You can’t take any more today, Belle.” It irks me that my dad and brothers think I can’t handle anything let alone my own visions!
“I know what I’m doing Cassius––.” Jess groans and snags my attention as she throws her arms in the air, I furrow my brow in confusion.
“Why does everyone I know have a cool name, and my mother decides to name me plain oldJessica.” I can’t help but chuckle, the others except for my brothers do the same. “Please tell me the rest of you have boring names likeTimorJoe?” Hunter laughs and shakes his head.
“I’m Hunter, and this is Blake and Cassius.” He motions to each of our brothers, he steps aside allowing me room to slip past Cass without touching him. “And this is our baby sis Gabrielle.” Jess groans and throws her head back.
“Why couldn’t you have stink names!”
“Your name is hot babe.” She snaps her gaze to the side of us and a huge smile splits her face as she takes off running toward Cole, her mate snickers and growls as she throws herself at his kid brother. We heard everything that was said while we were in the car, joys of my brothers being shifters.
“I missed you!”
“I missed you to babe, divorce that asshole brother of mine and mate with me instead.” Jess chuckles at Cole’s joke but her mate isn’t having any of it.
“Say that one more time and mom will be burying her youngest son tomorrow morning. Princess, step away from the mongrel before Corbin kills him.” Jess shakes her head and steps out of Cole’s embrace only to be engulfed in another hug from Callie, the three of them make their way back over to us, Jess finally greets Sky, and even hugs her brother, but when she stands in front of the other guy Zeke, the tension in the air skyrockets.
“Hey Z.” The guy’s shoulders droop and a sad smile crosses his face.
“Hello Jess.” She sighs then turns to face us with a small smile on her face.
“Okay well this is awkward; do you want to come inside and get warm because I’m freezing, plus I have to put my son to bed.” I look to each of my brothers waiting for their decision, but a throat clearing has my gaze snapping back to Cairo. Yeah, of course, we don’t exactly have a choice in the matter do we?
My brothers and I stand in the corner of the huge lounge room, the house is freaking incredible! It has a rustic old vibe to it, you can tell everything is new, I can’t stop staring, whoever made this cabin is so talented. I watch as Cairo, Sky, Zeke and Cole huddle to the other side of the room talking in low tones, so we are unable to hear them. Creed and Callie sit on one of the couches sharing stories of their time apart, the tension returned as soon as Jess left to put her son to bed. I envy her strength; I wish to one day be as bold and courageous as her. How she stood up to her mate and to Cairo is awe inspiring, I have never seen a female shifter hold her own like that against a male alpha.
“We need to find a way out of this.” I shake my head and focus on my brothers; we speak low enough that the others can’t hear, even with their shifter hearing. “We can’t let our guard down Belle, do you know what they want?”
“It has something to do with Sky, that’s all I know Blake.”
“There has to be more, it can’t just be about some chick he wants to fuck.” I flinch at his crass words, Blake is wrong. I’ve been having visions about Cairo for months, and never once have I felt or seen him be untoward Sky. Plus, she is mated to a female, that has to mean something right?
“We wait till they are asleep, and then we make our move.”
“And go where Hunter? We are in the most secluded pack in the whole country and the fucker still found us, we can’t go home!” I hate to say it, but Cass is right, Cairo will hunt me down again and next time I don’t think he will be as…accommodating.
“We can’t just wait around and see what happens Cassius.”
“I know Hunt, but we have to play this smart and think about each move, because Cairo doesn’t seem like a guy who leaves anything to chance. He has a plan for Belle, and we have to figure out what said plan is.” Cass snaps his mouth closed when we hear the sound of footsteps coming down the stairs, we all turn to face Jess as she enters the room. Her eyes dart around, and a frown begins to form on her face.
“Are we in freaking high school?” She grits out.
“What do you mean?” Callie asks.
“Why the hell are you all divided, did any of you offer them a drink? Food? Show them where the bathroom is?” They all avoid Jess’s angry stare; she growls loudly, and her mate is on his feet within a second standing in front of her.
“Princess––.”
“Don’t you dareprincessme; I know who she is Credence, I was just waiting for one of you assholes to fess up and admit the truth!” I hear the venom that laces each of her words, the six, no make that five because Cairo just looks uninterested, at least the others have the decency to look sheepish. She brushes past Creed and moves toward us; my brothers tense automatically, and she scoffs. “If we were going to hurt you, I’d never have invited you into my home while my son is asleep upstairs.” She sticks her hand out toward Cass and speaks. “I’m Jess.” Cass eyes her hand for a beat before putting his much larger hand in hers.
“Cassius.”
“Nice to meet you, I know you told me your names outside, so I thought the polite thing to do is re-introduce myself officially.” She smiles sweetly at my brother, and he laughs, like actually throws his head back and laughs. Seeing my brother laugh warms me, he never smiles or laughs anymore, and I don’t know why. He used to be happy and carefree growing up but now he is this walled off detached guy that won’t let anyone get close to him. Jess moves along the line and does the same to my other brothers, but she stops in front of me, my breath hitches when she extends her hand. I can feel my brothers’ gazes on me but the one that burns the most is Cairo’s, I can feel his eyes burning into the side of my head waiting, watching to see what I will do. I take a deep breath and slowly lift my hand to place it in hers, I hate that normal contact scares the shit out of me. I don’t over think it, I place my hand in hers and then scream.
I stare in horror as I watch Jess being beaten in a cage, both men and women are punching and kicking her. I scream out for them to stop but I know it’s useless, they can’t hear or see me. I round the cage but come to a stop when I see a man standing there, watching but he does nothing to stop them from hurting Jess, even as she screams for someone to help her.
I move so I am standing in front of him, his rancid breath hits me, and I fight the reflex to gag, his teeth are crooked and yellow, and he wears an ill fitted suit, but as I lift my gaze to inspect the rest of his face, thanks to the darkness, I can’t see anything else. Something about this man doesn’t sit right with me, Jess lets out a blood curdling scream, and I watch as a satisfied smile stretches across his face. As he slinks back into the darkness, I follow, I stumble up the stairs after him, when he opens the door. Light assaults me, I blink rapidly so I don’t lose sight of the man, he pauses to speak to someone, but their backs are to me, when I see his eyes, a shiver runs down my spine. They are a soulless pit; this man is pure evil.
“Phillip.” I turn to see another man enter the room, something about him seems so familiar.