“Yeah, she is to you, but she’s special to me. I love her, and I know that sounds crazy, but I also need her to free my mom. I’m powerful, but I’m not that powerful. I need her to protect my family. I made a risky call and I’m sorry. I didn’t grow up in Beverly Hills, with golden sunrays filtering through the breakfast window every morning, as we sat around and talked about angels. I’m from the hood, Lincoln!” I screamed, my hands shaking. “In the hood, we learn to survive at all costs. We take risks because they present themselves every day, and in my life? Family. Comes. First.”
I swear to God, if he challenged me, I would somehow breathe fire into his face, I was that livid.
His face fell. “What about me? Am I your family?”
And just like that, the wind fell from my sails and I was falling. Tears pricked my vision as I stepped closer to him. “Of course you are. You’re… I love you so much it hurts,” I told him.
He looked off at a blank wall. “And if you had gone into Hell tonight and hadn’t come back, do you know what that would have done to me? Knowing I couldn’t go after you? It would have killed me. I’d be dead.”
A huge gaping hole opened in my chest as his words slammed into me. I was his family. His only family.
“I’m sorry.” Okay, fine, I probably should have started with that.
He nodded and pulled me into his arms. His chin came over the top of my head, and I felt his warm breath coat my hair. “I can’t go through loss again. You understand?”
I did. I did it once with my father and I couldn’t do it again either.
I nodded. “I’m exhausted.” Pulling back, I met his eyes.
He glanced at the couch. “I’m just gonna watch some TV and crash out here. I need to shake this off.”
With a frown, I shook my head and shuffled into the bedroom to run a bath. Careful not to get my healing skin wet, I washed up quickly and brushed my teeth, slipping into bed. Lying there, lonely and unsure, I couldn’t fall asleep until 12:36 am. That was the moment Lincoln crept in, and slipped beside me, tucking me into his body.
The second my back rested against his warm chest, a contented sigh escaped me.
“I have plans for us, Brielle, and in order to enjoy them, you need to be alive,” he whispered into my hair.
I was too tired to respond, so I just nodded and drifted off into sleep.
Once I picked up my mother from Demon City, I drove us both out to Clark’s land. It was far, like almost into the war zone far, but still within Angel City. We’d been instructed to wear bright-colored clothing, and stay in our vehicle until Clark came out to greet us. I didn’t want to know why, I just wanted to see my brother. We’d also been instructed not to hug or touch Mikey unless he initiated physical contact. He was still fighting his urge to hunt, apparently. Another thing I really didn’t want to know about.
“My poor baby, living out in the woods like an animal,” my mother bemoaned as I drove up the long dirt driveway to Clark’s property.
“Well, he is an animal, Mom, and Clark was able to help him, so I think this is the best place for him,” I told her.
My brother was a wolf, my mom raised the dead, and I was Lucifer’s abomination. My family was messed up, but I’d just learned to accept it—unlike my mother.
She sighed. “Don’t hug him. That alpha man said not to hug my own son!”
That ‘alpha man’ is trying to save you from getting your head chewed off, I wanted to say, but thought better of it.
“It’s temporary, Mom. Once he gets full control, he’ll be at school with me, and then recruited into the army, making a good living.”
She nodded but was rubbing her palms against her jeans, which was her nervous gesture.
We passed a thicket of trees and then a house came into view. A group of houses, actually, all a mere ten feet apart.
“They live like a little cult,” my mom said, already judging the place.
I rolled my eyes. “Mom,” I warned in my big girl voice.
She shooed me away with one hand. “Fine. I’ll be open-minded.”
I nodded. That was all I’d asked of her before embarking on this trip.
I pulled up to the biggest house, assuming the alpha would take that, and put the car in park. Within seconds, the front door opened and Clark walked out, my brother was right behind him, next to some pretty black-haired girl. She looked my age but had a maturity about her.
As my brother came closer, I noticed he looked like he’d been on steroids or something. He was a beefcake now, and I really wanted to tease him about it but wouldn’t. At least not right away.