Chapter 27: Chapter 26

Reily had my whole mind in a knotted twist, not just the kind that existed in my hair. At night I was tossing and turning not knowing what to do. How could he suddenly be turning a corner like this? His face showed a soft tenderness, but a wariness existed and made me side step him at every opportunity. I wanted nothing and everything to do with him all at the same time. I found a small amount of reprieve at the country house and Thelma had the patience to sit and listen to all my grief and turmoil.

“I don’t get it. How can someone be such a butt crack and then want to jump me. Or worse yet Thelma I be okay with it. I can’t get away from him. He’s got these cute little puppy dog eyes and I feel my body wanting to melt into him like its the most natural thing in the world. I hate it. I wish I had Dane to distract me with some extra chores, but he’s not giving me any right now. What’s wrong with him as well?” I raised my hands up in the air. “What gives?”

Thelma poked out her bottom lip and raised her hands upwards as well. “I have no idea. It’s one of those things. Mates bring their own sets of problems. What can you do?”

I cut my eyes at Thelma. “You are not helping my friend. I want solid answers to my questions. Give me some clues of what to do.”

“If you’re asking me here’s what I would do.” Thelma and I were sitting in the front room with the sun streaming onto our faces as we ate granola and I told her of my woes with my new mate. It was a rare moment of freedom because normally I would have to dash out of the kitchen without being noticed and race over to the barracks in time to finish my chores. Not this morning Dane was out on some sort of business meetings to secure new warehouses for the pack and looking into expansive opportunities in new regions.

My spoon clinked into my milk as Thelma leaned forward onto her knees with serious eyes. I thought I was about to get some exciting information from her so I leaned forward to mirroring her actions. “You let him think you’re about to kiss him and then you elbow him in the back of the head, matter of fact right here.” She half turned to show me cervical nerve point. “Right here. You hit him here in this spot, it break down his nervous system and leave him close to paralysed. Once you’ve done that you hogtie the little wolf bitch and we put him in the basement. The exact same basement he put you in and then leave him there to rot. We tell the rest of the Mount Hunter pack that he went missing.” She made air quotation marks with a hard glint in her eyes as she rubbed her hands together and her shoulders folded in. “After that we farewell the sucker to wolf heaven as he starves to death and we bury him with the bones he and the Mount Hunter pack left at the border with your parents. Maybe they can torture him there.

“What the hell is wrong with you Thelma? You are sadistic! Where did that come from?”

“Hey! What do you expect? I’m defending you and also I’m a trained assassin, you have to work with me here. Did you think I was going to give you a fluffy answer for that pricko? What happened to Gina? Why doesn’t he go off with her?” Thelma sat back in her chair in a huff as a wry grin shifted over my lips. I should have known she would be no help.

“Forget it. I shouldn’t have talked to you about it. I know you don’t approve. I’m just - just struggling with these feelings and stuff.” I was ashamed I felt like shedding all my clothes when Reily came close to me.

She rolled her eyes as she stood up. “I can’t listen to this, but know I love you sweet pea. I have go do soldier business. Hopefully I have Reily in hand to hand combat today and I accidently slice his neck open. That will end all of this lovey dovey talk. You’re grossing me out.” She gave me a backward wave as I laughed, not because of what she said, but her delivery.

Once I came back to reality and dropped my bowl in the sink I locked up and headed over to the barracks ready to face the day and Reily’s constant advances.

I got the shock of my life as I dropped into fight mode with one foot forward and the other behind with my legs a space apart. “Who wants it?” I growled as Reily emerged from the bushes with a sheepish look on his face. I exhaled with pain in my voice as a handsome Reily stared at me.

“Hey, don’t strike. It’s me. I wanted to walk you to the barracks. I hope you don’t mind and I brought you some persimmon from my tree. They’re ripe right now.” Reily held up a firm, orange colored fruit with starry eyes and handed it to me.

“Thank you, that’s sweet of you Reily. I appreciate it. I do. You didn’t have to come all this way to walk me to work. I could have seen you there.”

“No, I wanted to see you. I couldn’t wait.” A whirring vortex is what I was caught up in as Reily stopped me from walking and we stared at one another. I never noticed that one of his eyes was darker than the other. How did that happen I wondered? I was having a hard time to stand rooted in the same spot. My face was starting to drift. It was so close... I tried to pull my head back I did, but I swear it didn’t work and the morning gust did what it did as our lips magnetized together and I saw his hand slip around the small of my back and draw me in.

Reily’s heart was racing and it was loud. So loud I could hear the beat in my ears. I wanted to slow down the pace of things so I put a barrier between us placing my hand on his chest.

“Step back Reily. Give it a rest. Please. You’re moving too fast and I’m not ready for all this.”

Reily tinkled his fingers in a circle in the middle of my back as my core pulled tight and lit on fire. I had to close my eyes and not look at him to contain it. Reily’s gaze darkened as he tilted my chin up to face him. “Don’t back away from me, Vera. I want you, I want us. I want to make it work with you. I do.” His voice had a hoarseness grifted together with a silkiness that sounded like honey to my ears. The heat of his lips so close to my ear drove me to brink and it was a miracle I didn’t strip bare in the middle of the forest for him.

“I’m scared Reily, are you telling me the truth, seriously?” My eyes fluttered underneath my lashes as he pressed his temple to mine as he cupped my face in his hot hands.

“Me too, but I like this feeling. It’s like nothing I’ve ever known before. It’s so real and we are real. Vera.. please don’t deny me.” His voice cracked as his hair touched my forehead and I could bear it no longer. I puckered my lips a little as he nipped at my bottom lip and tugged at it. A fireshot of pure lustful attraction surged through my body as I moaned lightly in his mouth. This seemed to ignite the fire within him as if more was needed. If there was any more we would have ended up combusting. Reily’s scent was clean and his aftershave had a wooden smell to it intermingled with an intoxicating musk.

“You did that on purpose,” I said out loud as he paused briefly to kiss the top of my eyelids.

“What did I do on purpose my love?” he asked as he dripped more syrupy love onto me. If I was in my right mind I would have pushed him off me, but I was under a spell and taken over by it.

“You wore that aftershave. You did that on purpose.” I sounded drunk as the words drifted through the air to him. He chuckled as he licked the top of my ear sending tingles down my spine.

“You like it? I’ll make sure I keep wearing it especially if this is the reaction I get.” Him whispering sweet nothings in my ear was turning me all the way on and we were only minutes from the main house. I became appear that others might be watching us, but Reily could have cared less.

“I do like it,” I gave him a pass as I let the confession slip from my lips. I wanted to keep it hidden, but it came out of me so effortlessly. Reily wasted no time as his pupils dilated and he shifted back to fluttering light kisses on my swollen lips. I embraced the moment and wound my arms around his neck as I parted my lips and he probed further with a low, primitive growl.

I could feel his length along my upper thigh and fierce passion rumbled through my veins wanting him to take me in the middle of the oval. Inhaling and gathering my scattered senses I placed my two hands on the top of his shoulders to push him back. “Reily, come on, let’s walk. I have to get to work. Don’t you have training this morning,” I enquired in a rushed tone.

“I do, but spending time with my wonderful, sexy mate is more important to me right now.”

I had to admit if Reily was lying right now he was doing a damn good job of it.

“Thank you,” I said.

“You don’t have to be shy with me Vera. You are sexy.” Reily interweaved his fingers into mine as he turned and walked to the barracks. I found I enjoyed the conversation with him as he talked to me about his life growing up. I even laughed at some of the jokes he made. Had I lost the plot? Surely I had, this was Reily, my arch nemesis.

Before we got to the barracks I dropped his hand embarrassed that others might see us together. I barely knew how to handle the attention on the training ground with everyone ogling us, let alone us walking into the barracks together locked hand in hand. What would Dane say when he saw us? That was another story altogether and I was glad he wasn’t around to see it.

“Hey, umm. I guess I will see you later. I have to go help Clive with some training preparation today for an obstacle course. I guess I’ll see you later on.”

A dim smile was what I received back. “Ah, you’re helping Clive. That’s good of you.” There was a bitterness in his tone I detected so I asked him about it.

“What’s going on with you two. Do you have a problem?” I knew they did, because Clive was a protector to me and a trusted ally along with Archer who’d been MIA the last few days.

“Umm, not so much, he just likes to boss me around, and I don’t think he’s qualified to do that. He’s been a schmuck lately.”

“Sibling rivalry?” I offered as I observed the disdain on Reily’s face.

“More like he’s a nasty thorn in my side. He’s my older brother so there’s not much I can do about it. Speaking of the prickly one, he’s on his way now. I guess I better leave you guys to it. Walk you home Vera?”

I had no choice but to say yes. I didn’t want to hurt his feelings and all the anger I fostered at his beatings seemed to be non-existent, it had been replaced with some gooey weird trance bubble that I wanted to burst, but couldn’t.

Clive walked in with an authorative presence and Reily brushed past him without so much as a hello. Clive stared after him for a long minute before addressing me as I closed up my locker.

“What was that about?” He thumbed back at his brother as his top lip curled.

“You should tell me about it. You two have something going on?” I swept my hair up into a tight bun. I didn’t want its length distracting me as I laid out the cones and did other stuff on ground.

“No. He is a troublemaker Vera, don’t let this mate attachment thing take you over. He’s a fraud and he’s given you multiple broken bones so many times over you can’t be falling for this guy. Please tell me you’re not falling for him.” Clive shot me a warning glance as I followed him to the equipment storage to get ready.

“I don’t know what to do Clive. I feel fucked up. The feelings are so real and he seems genuine. Maybe he does really love me and want to give it a try you know. I don’t get how to overcome everything, but what if he’s my mate?”

I let all my rambling thoughts tumble out not knowing what I was saying. Clive grabbed me by the wrist in a shock move as he made me speed up my pace. “Listen,” he spat out. “He’s up to something and ain’t good. Trust me when I tell you that him and Gina are plotting against you. I don’t care if he’s putting on the best show on earth, his mask is going to fall away soon enough. Things will be revealed all in due course.”

“Are you sure you’re not jealous Clive?” I approached the question with hesitation, but maybe he was. I still had feelings for Clive but the pull I felt towards him was nowhere near the exasperated feeling I had when Reily entered the room. What a 360.

“Jealous? You have to be out of your mind Vera! I don’t have a jealous bone in this athletic body. I can hold my own. Reily has no attributes I want. He’s my kid brother and right now he’s being a royal pain in the ass.” Spit flew from Clive’s mouth as we opened the equipment closet and a few of the orange cones fell forward and reached out to stop them. Clive had the same idea and wrapped his hands around the cones touching my fingers. A slow burn of fire ran all over my body as I smiled up at him. His mouth was equally as tasty as Reily’s except fuller. Everything about Clive was fuller, he was broader than Reily with more bulk, and his face had more angled structures to it. His liquid brown eyes hit mine, but as quickly as they sought out mine is as quickly as his darted free from the eye contact.

“I got the cones,” he said gruffly as I let go with a solemn line forming on my lips. Things were getting tense and not in a good way. I seemed to leave my own brand of trouble in my wake when it came to men. Archer, Reily and Clive, an unlikely triage of love and lust. Which one would I choose?