Brother?
My eyes open wide and my hands turn clammy.
I…… I fucked my husband’s brother?The room threatens to spin as I think of it but I keep a tight hold of my sanity.
No, that.. can’t be.
I heard that the old Alpha of the Spineridge pack had two sons.
One of them is Ulric, the son the Alpha had with his Luna,
But there was another child… a boy the Alpha had with an Omega.
I know the boy was accused of stealing something from the pack, something valuable that made the Spineridge Alpha kick him out, but I don't know more than that.
I didn’t dive too deep into my investigation because I felt it would be disrespectful to do that, both to my husband and to his family.
My chest seems to become tighter the more I continue thinking of it because hells…. I had a one-night stand with him.
My husband’s brother?!
“I said, what the fuck are you doing here!”
Ulric’s snarl ripples through the room and snaps me out of my thoughts immediately. I see his brother chuckle and move the chair I just stood up from to the side.
He’s taller than Ulric.
I unconsciously noted that last night but right now, with two of them present, the difference is more than clear.
Ulric is handsome, but… this man takes the word to a whole new level.
I slap myself immediately because am I really thinking about that now?
“I said, WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE CAELUM!”
Ulric is finally given a reply this time, the deep raspy voice carrying a hint of mock niceness as he responds.
“I only dropped by to see you, brother.” The sneer in his tone is more than evident. His handsome face is in a mocking sneer as he stares at Ulric, “Won’t you welcome me back properly?”
Ulric looks like he’d do anything but. He growls.
“Get out.”
The word is so direct that I'm a bit surprised but his brother’s dark chuckle has my stomach clenching in trepidation. He asks calmly, “Repeat that will, you?”
Ulric looks away, a hard clench to his jaw. He calmly grits out instead.
“You don’t have any business here, Caelum. Not in this company and not in the pack, so leave. My father kicked you out a long time ago because you were a thief, you stole from him and you’re not even a Spineridge full blood!”
“We both know what happened that night, Ulric!”
Ulric’s mouth snaps shut immediately and I see the trepidation that enters in his eyes. He tries to hide it, but eight years with him has taught me how to spot things like this.
Ulric’s brother asks, ever calm yet menacing in a way that screams danger.
“Do you want us to bring back old issues Ulric, or are you going to be sensible and ask why I'm here?”
I hate the way my mind immediately tells me to butt in and inquire why but my heart backs out of it.
I can’t say anything even if I want to.
I slept with him.
He’s my mate.
My second chance mate and the brother to my husband! How does something so vile and awkward happen to me of all people? He could expose me.
He could use me as an opportunity to get back at Ulric. That’s probably what he’s already done. He slept with the wife of his brother and now he’s here to gloat.
I slip out of the office quietly.
If any of them see me they don’t say a word about it. I couldn't care less about Spineridege affairs and Ulric’s family problems if they didn’t happen like this. I don’t stop walking until I am out the door of the company building and in the car park.
Otsana whines in my head, urging me to go back up and continue staring at our second chance but I suppress her and slip into the car instead.
I send the driver out and panic when I'm alone.
Shit!
I hit my head against the steering wheel.
Shit, shit, shit!
Why?
Just why?
Is life trying to play a joke on me?
Ulric’s brother! I let him do all those filthy things to me yesterday!
I pick up my phone and speed-dial my private investigator, he picks up immediately. chuckling jovially as he responds.
“Sophia! Long time no see, how’ve you been?”
I ignore the sultry notes to the tone of his voice and ramble off the only thing that comes to mind.
“Ulric.” My voice sounds breathy and panicked so I try to calm down as I go on,
“Ulric has a brother, I need to know who he is. Get me things on him, where he’s been living, if he’s been in jail… his phone number. Just get me anything.”
Eras must hear the panic in my voice because his tone turns concerned immediately as he asks, “Are you okay, Sophia? What’s wrong?”
I ignore his questions and cut the call, breathing heavily instead as I try to calm down. He’s right, I am not okay.
I and Ulric haven’t even been properly divorced, yet this is happening. I’m meant to resolve the company issue tomorrow. This could ruin all of that.
Otsana whines again, this time in response to my panic and I feel her send notes of calm through me. I let it flow heavily and I tell myself it’s okay.
It’s okay.
This is the 21st century. Sex is just sex.
No one prefers their fated mates anymore. They all prefer their chosen mates so this doesn’t change anything.
He and I are still strangers. Strangers who had a one-night stand… but still strangers.
All I have to do is call him so I can make sure he understands this too.
I nod as I settle on that.
Caelum’s pov. Memories flood through my mind as I take slow sips of my drink and stare at the seat she occupied last night. Her. She’s his wife. An incredulous scoff finds its way from my throat as I think about that. It was late last night, so late. Yet all she wanted to do was drink herself to a stupor. I came out hoping to send whoever it was off peacefully, yet I found his wife sitting on the stool. Ulric fucking Highrise. A hot feeling floods my bones as memories come rushing back. I hear the pleas of my mother as she begs for me not to be sent away, as she pleads with the man who fathered me that I was innocent. I hear the way she was laughed at, the sound of the whip as it lashed and lashed. The humiliation I had to endure at the hands of that bastard and his father, still fresh in my mind. I remember the suffering my mother went through at the hands of his mum. All of it has been quickly forgotten and now he has the gall to ask me what I want. I swirl the liquid
Sophia’s pov. I couldn’t get his phone number. The thought of that keeps me awake and gives me a sleepless night. I couldn’t get his freaking number! Doubts begin to voice their thoughts in my head like demons out for blood. Is all that Violet said true? Have I become a shadow of the woman I once was? I should have been able to get more than his phone number. He’s the illegitimate son of the Spineridge Alpha, there should be something on him. Something I can use. Something I should have gotten my hands on so I could contact him yet my investigations only turned up futile. Even the bar… I got someone to investigate the bar yet the owner isn’t Caelum Highrise. It’s someone else. The sun peeks through the curtains with me wondering what path my life will take from this moment onward, but I decide I'll handle that as it comes. Today’s the day of the press conference. Everything’s already being set up, I have to mentally prepare for it. Sorren looks at me strangely when we cross
“Luna Sophia! Luna Sophia! I’m from Highrise Daily. We’re finding it hard to believe the authenticity of your words. Can we get some added reassurance you’re not covering up for the Alpha?” I walk. “Luna Sophia! Luna Sophia! We all know your marriage with Alpha Ulric has been riddled with complications, Is this yet another one you’re trying to hide?” I walk even faster. “Luna Sophia! Luna Sophia!...” The voices of the reporters echo in my head and they slam with the force of a headache. I signal to my guards because my chest is heaving, my breath is shuddering, I feel so suffocated right now I think I could pass out. My walk morphs into a near run when a report flows into my head from the head guard. More reporters are on their way. Ulric is behind me, his steps relaxed and casual as he smiles. He turns back frequently to look at the reporters, almost like he wants to gloat at them because he knows he’s free now. His cheating claims have been cleared. “Luna Sophia! David from
I pause. I pause and I blink so hard it’s like I got picked up and slammed back into my body because “What?” Ulric’s brother is staring me down when I turn to look at him and anger churns in my heart as I ask. “Are you threatening to expose me to your brother? To tell him we had sex? Seductive baby blue eyes stare back at mine with an unreadable look in them and I feel the heat in me turn to something else. My desire goes cold immediately and I scoff. He must think I'm foolish. If not foolish, then something close to that if he believes I'm going to succumb to his threat. I chuckle and turn back to face him fully, leaving the door handle and wearing a slight smile on my face as I ask, “If I'm hearing you right, what you mean to say is that you will tell on me, to my husband, Ulric, who has been cheating on me for almost eight years now? That’s who you want to report me to?” I can feel the anger trying to leak into my voice but I decide I won't let it. If he’s going to report m
Sophia’s pov.“That was brilliant Sophia!That was absolutely brilliant.”Ulric’s voice is like a low whisper in the car but I can hear the excitement in it. The open joy and glee at the fact that we’ve successfully deceived the public again.He glances at me, the smile on his face almost blinding, before dulling down into something more self-aware, something more sober about his faults and what exactly he’s happy about.He asks, slowly, testily, “Are…. are you okay Sophia?”I chuckle and look away because he really doesn’t want to know the answer to that. I give him the response I know he wants to hear, just rephrased and with something extra.“I’m just glad we were both able to keep to our parts of the agreement.”Ulric’s voice floats into my ears almost a minute later.“You still have to stay with me for some time though… you know that, right Sophia?”I want to nod and tell him I understand.The media will be on the hunt for something, anything they can use in generating controvers
I get down from the bus on my way to the small apartment I have rented online.Guards tail me from a distance but I'm not afraid because they’re mine. I asked them to tail me.They can keep the reporters away, since that’s the only thing Ulric seems to care about. I feel my anger rise now at the mere thought of it.How dare he!How dare he take the fragments of my heart and dash it into even more miserable pieces by raising his batshit voice at me! I could have ruined him today!I…. I could have told the whole world that my husband is a horrible man, and he’s a bastard who hit a woman for taking a picture of him, a woman who was hired by his betrayal of a mistress by the way.I open the door to the rundown complex of apartments and take the stairs up. I only have my duffel bag with me, I changed into jeans and a shirt on my way here, and I got myself a face cap from an elderly woman selling some by the roadside.The thoughts I try to keep at the surface, those thoughts tell me that fo
“It’s not poisoned. I promise.”Her name is Alora.She’s an employee at Juniper News station, a low-ranking reporter who has had it a bit tough in the industry.“I know it’s not poisoned. I’d have smelt it.”Alora’s eyes widen when I say that and she moves closer slightly, my mind wondering how she slides so easily while seated on a heap of clothes, “So it’s true then.”A slight pause ensues but she continues the next moment. “You really did smell the poison at the Moonfall Lagoon, even when all the other men there didn’t?”A smile creeps onto my face involuntarily at that because it’s a memory I'd almost forgotten. Ulric took the praise for that.I nod subtly and take my first sip of her tea as I respond,“It was simple to pick out, and I'm sure anyone else could have done it. They were all just, occupied.”This happened four years ago.“That’s so cool.”Alora moves back to her space, letting out a wonder-filled breath as she sips her tea. I sip mine too and the rich taste of the st
Caelum’s pov.I tug on my tie as I pick up my phone and ask,“What’s she been up to lately?”Ragnar growls lowly in my mind from the irritation of knowing our mate is the one being spoken of but the annoyance in me makes him calm down soon enough.The darned wolf has been nagging at me all day.“There’s still no sign of her Master Maximoff. My sources say she left the Highrise mansion before noon two days ago.”Right as they arrived from the conference then.I feel something hot running through my blood at the thought of her, and the need to do something with my hands, anything at all with them, overcomes me.I imagine digging them into her hair again and a low husk of a sound leaves my lips.“Mr Maxim?”I cut the call and groan because what the hell!What, the actual hell?~It’s the mate bond dummy.~I snarl back a response at my wolf, “Of course I know it’s the mate bond.”~Then go find your mate.~I can hear the impatience in Ragnar’s tone and in my mind’s eye he gives me a look he
Kellen isn’t in the room anymore when I enter so I go out into the garden to look for him. I can already see the presence of him in my mind, can already feel the residue he left there, and once again I meet him lying on the bench and staring at the clouds overhead. It’s almost noon now so the sky is a patchwork of colors, a gentle artist’s creation as he drags his paintbrush across the canvas. I ask in a deadpan tone, “Am I to assume you left that nagging at the back of my mind so I could find you or were you waiting for someone already?” I ask because, from the look on his face, I get the feeling that he already knew I would be making my way down here. His response is sullen, “Who would the blind grown male possibly be waiting for?” Again, he sounds moody, and this time I do not let it bother me as much as it would have this afternoon because I have something bothering me too. Something he’s caused to bother me, and which he’s now responsible for explaining. “What did you mean b
Sophia’s pov.For some reason, Caelum is concerned about the smear campaign going on about me online, and it takes me a moment to come to terms with it.Because it isn’t so bad to me. It’s Violet making her first move and that’s okay. She can’t hurt me directly anymore. The only thing she can do is hold onto Ulric and do his bidding, and I am way past the point where I consider that to be something valuable, or where I consider it to be something she’s taken from me.Right now, I feel nothing about it.I want to feel sorry for her, and I do, but not enough to care. She can fund a million more articles calling me every name imaginable, I wouldn't bat an eyelid to any of them.Yet Caelum though….“I’ll get it pulled down first.”His voice sounds calm and resigned as he begins, “Then block every other avenue they will have to put more out there.”That sounds like a simple statement. It sounds like an exceedingly simple statement, except I know how much it would take to get half the new
Caelum’s pov.I watch the look on Sophia’s face.I watch how it morphs and changes from a look of blank neutrality, to one of light worry, and then back to her blank neutrality.The emotions her’s elicits in me are cool and calm for now, but I can feel the annoyance the worry she feels brings out in me. I can feel myself waiting for her to just show me an inkling of how much this hurts her, and give me the excuse to do what I've wanted to do for a while now.Murder my half-brother with my bare hands.“I can see Violet’s handiwork all over this.”Sophia’s response isn’t the one I’d been hoping for, and I chuckle internally at that while I feel a smile line my lips, because trust her to always surprise me. I ask more silently, like we’re the only people in the room,“Do you want to see what the public response is?”She saddles closer to me and nods, and suddenly I want to do nothing more than have her in my arms, her laps straddling me, my hands on her hips, and my mouth on hers, bringi
Everyone goes back in when they’re dirty and soiled enough, and soon it’s only me and my garden. I’d always wanted to grow a garden. I just didn’t have the chance to really do that in Ulric’s mansion, but now that I can, I want to do it here.I’m halfway through rearranging and reconstructing the mounds of soil my little gardeners did when I feel a presence at the entrance to the backyard.I dart my eyes over to see who it is, because it’s not Caelum, I'd have felt it if it was him, and I'm right.It isn’t him.It’s Sebastian instead.I really can’t help the memory flash that comes, and I let it because he’s essentially the first person I knew from this world.He was the bartender who saw me at my worst. Who saw me smiling through alcohol and pain, who saw me whistling along to the sound of my favorite band coming from the speakers in the bar, and who I blatantly told I wouldn't stop drinking, not even if he forced me.I haven’t gone near another bottle of alcohol since then, and that
Alora is snickering by the side of the wall and Ophelia is drawing with a light smile on her face, while I watch Dimitri… wreck the gardening mounds as he heaves and throws and just…“You could always ask him to stop y’know.”Kellen’s voice floats over from the bench he’s lain on, back against the stone, eyes to the skies, and voice oddly unfeeling as he makes that comment,He sounds calm, and he’s right, I could always ask Dimitri to stop, But so far, he’s the only one who’s offered to help me and he doesn’t seem to care that the others are saying he’s terrible at it, he’s doing what he’s doing regardless.I really want to ask him who taught him how to garden, but then I remember where they both were just a few days ago, and I keep my mouth shut.If Dimitri wants to ruin my garden to process his emotions, then he can. I’ll do my best to salvage what I can later.He seems really interested in actually doing the gardening, he’s doggedly adamant about planting the seeds, and playing wit
Caelum chuckles, and it’s a laughing kind of chuckle because I enjoy it. I hear his laughter, I hear the sound of it and I enjoy its raspy timbre. I enjoy how he sounds like he just can’t believe his ears. And I enjoy how his eyes seem to gleam a bit, whether with remorse or happiness - I don't know - as he asks, “How is my reason for killing more noble than yours?”Caelum asks a simple question, but it strikes me as hard because I would have to be honest with him on this, and I don't think I have been honest with anyone about this in a long time now.I don’t think anyone really cared to know, so I've never told them. Not Violet, or Ulric, or any of the people I considered family.I feel comfortable when I tell Caelum, “My reason for killing him was anger.”Something primal gleams behind Caelum’s eyes and I suddenly feel so small when he places his gaze on me.Like he could swallow me up with the intensity of that gaze, and I'd let him. Light goosebumps trail up my skin as I clear my
I do not ask Caelum for permission to go out anymore.My mind has already brought up another way of getting what I need to do, done, and though it wouldn’t be the most conventional way, I still accept it as a way because it is… and asking for permission to go out, would mean I’d have to go out if he agrees, and i don’t want to because that would entail me leaving his side,And I don't want to.I realized it as soon as Caelum started speaking to me and I started seeing him smile from some of the responses I gave him. His voice is filled with light wonder as he peers down at me from where he’s seated and asks,“You’re really the daughter of an Alpha?”I nod, not feeling offended at the fact that he’s making that statement, or that he seems to find the need to ask that question. Not many people know I am the daughter of an Alpha, but it seems like an important thing for my mate to know, and he did say he wanted to understand me.To understand me, he has to understand my background, and h
“You know half the city is looking for you right now, right?”I only catch a sliver of Sebastien’s statement before I leave the room, yet I can already tell what he’s speaking about, who he’s speaking of, and what the implications of his words are. A short thrill of fear shoots up my spine because though Caelum acts all cool and composed, I can tell what the implications of that video will be now that we’ve decided to keep it up.Caelum showed off weapons with the ability to level the greatest mansion in the history of the past ten years, along with that, he killed the aged leaders of a prestigious pack. No one would believe that would have happened if you told them, yet it did, and all the world will care to know is that those weapons are still in his care and they should not be.They’ll try to attack Caelum from all sides. They’ll try to come at him with lawsuits for lack of a license to handle such weapons, try to label him a national enemy, of course, the real consequences of Ca
Caelum’s face is scrunched in a light frown when he watches the video, but I notice there’s nothing foul about the frown.He looks conflicted, like he’s trying to decide on something and he can’t, so he’s keeping quiet about it. Mulling over it again and again in his thoughts.I feel a surge of worry and concern go through me and I speak without thinking about it any longer, “If you’re worried about the weapons and your identity, I'm sure we can find a way to get the video pulled down.I can.I can find a way to help with that. This video is only up because you came to save me, and I don't want that to affect you.” I realize how sappy I sound and some rebellious spirit in me lets out a barf sound, nope, it’s Alora. I shoot her a glare, and she looks away as she chuckles, but I feel Caelum’s gaze accurately on me. I feel the intensity of it, the moment it alights on me, and I feel the emotion that courses through it, his gaze bathes me in a subtle heat, like sunlight.And through it,