Total pages in book: 94
Estimated words: 92941 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 465(@200wpm)___ 372(@250wpm)___ 310(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 92941 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 465(@200wpm)___ 372(@250wpm)___ 310(@300wpm)
“They were not his brothers,” our mother shouted. “His brothers would’ve never allowed him to be captured in the first place!”
She entered the living room almost at a run and stopped short when she realized that all of us were in the room. Chance and Ambrose were in a couple of chairs by the unlit fireplace. Danny and I were on the couch. All of us were silent.
“You’re not going back,” she ordered, her hand shaking as she pointed at us. “Not a single one of you.”
“Matilda,” my father said, walking in behind her. “You know they don’t have a choice. What are you doing, my love?” His hand slid around her waist, and for the first time in my life, she didn’t relax against his chest. “Ordering them not to fulfill their commitment will only make them feel disloyal to their mother when they do.”
“Find your mates,” my mother hissed, her voice breaking. “Find your mates so we can be done with this.”
“We’re trying,” Ambrose replied quietly. “You know that we are.”
“Well, try harder.” With a shuddering breath, Mom finally rested back against our father, her shoulders curling forward as she hung her head.
I curled my hands into fists, the weight of her words like an anvil in my gut. The order hadn’t been directed at me specifically, but everyone in the room knew that the chance of me finding my mate again was staggeringly low. It was more likely that I’d spend another hundred years or more in command. I just hoped that my brothers would be lucky enough to find their own mates so they could be done being whored out to the human forces.
Our baby brother’s body arrived just as the sun began to set. Ignoring the pilot and co-pilot, we unloaded his plain wooden casket in silence and carried it to the clearing behind the house. There had been few Vampire funerals during my lifetime, and I’d never attended one, but we all understood the steps to take. We didn’t celebrate the way humans did. There was no one but family in the half circle around Zeke’s coffin. No music or words to commemorate my brother’s life. Each of us was silent as we set the coffin on the pyre our father had built that afternoon.
We were silent as my mother lit the fire. We were silent as it licked up the sides of the coffin. We were silent as ash floated into the air and tears rolled down our cheeks.
We burned the youngest of us, my baby brother, Ezekiel Boucher, as twilight filled the trees.
Chapter 1
Reese
“I know you stole it, Kenny,” I yelled, flipping him off as I rushed down the stairs. “Fucking find it, or we’re going to have issues.”
“I didn’t steal your stupid hair dryer!”
“I let you borrow it, and you never gave it back.”
“I did, too!” he called, leaning over the railing. “I gave it back that night that Salmon and I came over for cocktails.”
“No, you didn’t.” I shoved the strap of my backpack higher on my shoulder. “Salmon probably took it home with her the next morning. Who the hell names their kid after a fish anyway? That should’ve given you a pretty good indication of what you were dealing with.”
“Salmon was nice,” he argued, yelling as I crossed the parking lot.
“Salmon was a raging bitch who gave you gonorrhea,” I screamed back. “Find my fucking hair dryer!”
“I’ll buy you a new one!”
“Sure, you will,” I muttered as I raced down the sidewalk. We’d had the same argument at least five times, and I still hadn’t seen a new hair dryer on my doorstep. Leaving the house with damp hair was getting really freaking old, especially now that the weather was cooling down.
It took me fifteen minutes to walk to work, and I’d spent so much time trying to find a hat that I now only had five minutes to get there before I was late. I hadn’t even found the one I was looking for, and I was currently jogging down the side of the road wearing a blue hedgehog beanie with spikes on it that I’d bought for a Halloween costume. I probably looked deranged.
Groaning as my backpack thumped against my lower back with every step, I slowed to a brisk walk just as my phone rang.
“What?” I barked, lifting it to my ear.
“Hello to you, too.”
“Sorry, best friend.”
“Why do you sound out of breath?” Rena asked suspiciously. “Are you in the middle of something?”
“Yeah, in the middle of running to work. What’s up?”
“You have to stop leaving so late.”
“It couldn’t be helped. I had a hat issue.”
“Please tell me you’re not wearing the hedgehog hat.”
“Fuck off.”
“You are.”
“Why are you calling me at eight in the morning?”
“Because I went on that date last night.”
“With the dude bro?”
“He was really nice, actually.”