CASSIUS 17

 

We arrived in Cape Town two days ago and still no leads, my patience is growing thin. I’m sure that if it wasn’t for having my woman next to me I would have killed someone already.  Knowing that Scarlett has a ticking bomb in her body is not helping me calm down either.

Brandr phoned Draco this morning and let him know that the women tried to pin point where the Keres are staying here in Cape Town with no success. The only thing they managed to see was a green wall. The problem is that most of the houses are behind high walls therefore we can’t even see if any of them have a green wall.

We have been combing the streets since we arrived, Tor has all his men scouting for these Keres but there’s no energy spikes where we’ve been. I arrived back at the compound about two hours ago because Scarlett needed to rest, if it was only me I’d still be out there but Draco insists that I rest.

Tonight, they are organizing a party, it’s the last thing I want now. Scarlett is excited as she’s never been to one of our parties, I’m not sure if I like the idea of her first party being here at Tor’s compound. The guys are wilder than at our compound and I don’t have a kutte for Scarlett yet, not that it will be a problem as I’m not planning on having her out of my sight.

I hear her sigh as she moves her leg over mine making me groan. I look down at her head that is laying on my chest and smile, when we got back to the compound I told her she needed to rest so she could be awake later for the party, she took it literary, pulling at my hand and bringing me to our room for a nap. I don’t remember the last time I slept during the day, but she convinced me when she started to undress. As soon as I grabbed her hips, she forgot all about the nap until I had exhausted her. She’s now resting peacefully against me while I’m agonizing about not finding those fuckers.

If it is Leif that we’re looking for it will be difficult to pin point him, but not impossible. Celmund hasn’t slept in the two days that we’ve been here, his obsessed with finding Leif. I have confidence in Celmund’s hacking abilities, that is why Leif has such hate for him, because he doesn’t want to be second best.

He’s been running every possible code he can think about through the frequency the doctor gave us to see if somehow, he can find a pattern, but up to now there’s been nothing.  I know he’s feeling responsible, because if Leif is alive he failed by not killing him. Therefore, allowing for these devices to be programmed by him.

We also need to figure out how the FBI is involved in all of this. Agent Santra is the highest-ranking agent here in South Africa, if orders are coming from him, no wonder we’ve been having so many problems with them.

“You’re not relaxing.” Scarlett murmurs in a sleepy voice, as she raises her head to look at me. Her honey coloured hair is falling around her, covering half her face.  Her sleepy eyes looking up at me in query. I can feel my cock hardening at my woman’s movements against me, her breasts stroking against my chest. “Relax, I want you to last a long time not have a heart attack before we’ve even had time to enjoy each other.”

“Baby, we don’t have heart attacks.” I murmur as I place my hands under her arms and pull her up my body until her face is in line with mine. “If you’re not careful I’m going to start thinking that you care about me.” I tease.

I see her eyes widen in surprise, “I do care about you. You make me feel alive for the first time in my life and I know this is quick, but I know that I love you.” She whispers as she looks into my eyes. I feel my heart thud at her words, I never realized how much I wanted to hear those words from her until she finally said them.

I know that she deserves so much better than me, but I promise to do everything in my power to keep her safe and healthy by my side. These fuckers will not win, now that I have finally found a sliver of light in my life I will not let anyone take it away. Placing my hand around the back of her neck I bring her closer until my lips are a breath away from hers. “I love you too baby.” I say before kissing her with all the passion and love in my soul.

Before we can get carried away there is a knock on the door of our room, “Who is it?” I call out irritated at the interruption.

“I have clothes for Scarlett.” A woman’s voice says from the other side.

“Fuck,” I grunt making Scarlett laugh as I slip out of the bed and stand, “cover yourself” I say as I look back at her. She looks around and then pulls the sheet up to cover her nakedness, I’m not taking the chance of any of these fuckers to be walking past and looking at my woman.

“What about you?” she asks just before I open the door. Stretching out my hand I wait for a surprised Jezebel to hand me the clothes.

“Well now, aren’t you a sight for hungry eyes.” The woman murmurs as her eyes rove over my body.

“I will close them for you if you don’t stop looking at him like that.” Scarlett says angrily, before the Jezebel can answer I take the bag from her hand and shut the door in her face. “You think it’s okay to be parading naked for all the women?” 

“It’s not a problem baby, it’s not as if I’m going to touch her.” I appease, but as soon as the words are out of my lips I can see that that was the wrong thing to say.

Her body is tense, and her eyes are flashing in anger. “Oh, is that so? You should have said so earlier, seeing as you don’t mind that I open the door when I’m naked to the guys.” At her words my muscles tense and my anger rise at her words. There is no way in hell any of my brothers is seeing my woman naked.

“If you want them to die.” I rasp

“Oh, why’s that? It’s not as if I’m going to touch them.” She snaps back. I scowl at her, realizing what she’s saying.

“Noted, no more showing my goods to anyone.” I growl, I’ve never been one to worry about my nakedness, but now that she’s put it that way I realize that as much as I won’t allow for anyone to see her naked except for me, she has every right to want the same.

Fuck, this mating business is complicated. Huffing she stands from the bed and makes her way to the bathroom, a few minutes later I hear the shower running. Why the fuck is she still upset? Striding into the bathroom I hear her muttering to herself. When I hear what she’s muttering about I hold back my chuckle because I’m sure she will be more upset if she catches me laughing.

“She’ll be needing glasses if I get hold of her.” She continues to mutter as she angrily shampoo’s her hair. I’m about to join her when I hear the beep of an incoming message, walking out of the bathroom I pick up my phone and see a message from Draco. I sigh when I read that they might have found something, this business with the women has messed with all of us.

Even though some of the brothers aren’t mated they’re just as angry as the rest of us.  They’ve all grown attached to the women at our compound and the idea of them being in danger is unexpectable to us. After replying to Draco, I’m placing my phone back down when Scarlett walks out wrapped in her towel. She doesn’t look at me as she walks towards where I placed the bag with the clothes. I shake my head in frustration as I go and take a shower.

As I’m switching off the shower I hear a knock on the door, “Hey sweetheart, you’re looking good.” I hear Celmund compliment.

“Thank you, you don’t look bad yourself.” At her reply I scowl as I wrap the towel around my waist and walk out of the steamy bathroom.

“Celmund?” at my voice Celmund turns to face me, a smile on his face.

“Did you get Draco’s message?” he asks with a raised brow.

“Yeah, do you know what it is?”

“They picked up on an energy spike, they don’t want to get too close in case they are monitoring the area. Draco asked that I place sensors and cameras around the area so that we can pin point the correct location before advancing.” Finally, a breakthrough.

“Need help?” I ask as I pull on my black jeans, only then glancing at Scarlett. “Oh, fuck no!” I growl as I see the clothes she’s wearing. The skimpy black and silver shirt she’s got on barely covers her breasts, the short little skirt that they gave her shows off her ass and her shapely legs.

“What?” she asks as she places her hands on her waist, and I nearly jump towards her when I suspect that her breasts are going to jump out of that piece of fabric that she’s wearing.

“Why the fuck would they give you clothes like that?” I growl and see Celmund grinning from the corner of my eye. “What the hell are you grinning at?” I snap.

“I think she looks great.” He quips, making me snap my head around and glare at him. He starts to chuckle as he lifts his hands in the air and retreats towards the door. “I’ll meet you at the bar.” He says before he leaves.

“What’s wrong with these clothes?” she asks with a frown as she looks in the mirror.

“That’s the problem, there is hardly any clothes.” I rasp

“There’s more than what you were wearing when you opened the door.” She snaps, “besides, I think it fits fine, a bit short but it’s doable.”

“Fuck, are you still upset about that?” I growl and see her shrug as she looks down at her clothes. I walk behind her and place my arms around her midriff as I lower my head to her shoulder. “Baby, you’re the only woman to see me naked from now on, okay?”

She nods as she leans her head back displaying her neck to my lips, looking down I can see her breasts encased in a black lacy bra. “But baby, if you don’t want me to be fighting my brothers tonight, please change clothes.” I plead, I see her grin as she looks sideways at me and then kisses my lips before stepping away.

“I was going to put my jeans on anyway.” She murmurs with a twinkle in her eye.

“What about the top?” I ask as she removes the short skirt and starts to wiggle into her tight low waisted indigo blue jeans. Her ass teasing me as it wiggles from side to side making me harden immediately.

“I’m afraid you will have to live with this, my t-shirt is dirty.” Fuck, looking around I see my clean t-shirt that I was about to put on. Grabbing it off the bed I hand it to her.

“Here, you can wear my t-shirt” I say in relief until she starts to shake her head.

“I can’t wear your t-shirt, it reaches me to my thighs. Besides you need it.” She mumbles, “This is fine for a few hours.”

“This isn’t going to end well.” I warn as I pull my t-shirt over my head and down my body. When we’re both ready I take her hand and stride out of the room with her following me. “Keep close to me.” I grunt as we enter the bar, music is already blaring and the Jezebels are dancing provocatively for the guys that are already here.

“There you are, I thought you two had changed your mind.” Celmund teases as he hands me a beer and Scarlett a coke.

“Thanks, are the others here yet?” I ask as I look around and don’t see them.

“They came in a few minutes ago, went to freshen up and should be out soon.” He says as he winks at a Jezebel that is dancing a few feet away from us.

“Who’s the guys by the door?” I ask as I see a table with five guys that I don’t recognize but can tell they’re not Elemental’s. They look like fighters, and even though they’re not Elementals I’m sure they can hold themselves in a fight.

“They the street gang that Tor has looking into the trawlers that smuggle the women that are being kidnapped.” Celmund says as he inclines his head, “The one with the blue headband is their leader, the guy with the skull tattoos is his second in command.”

“Why would Tor invite them here?” we don’t usually invite outsiders to our compounds, a party is for the guys to relax and let go. If there are outsiders around the men can never relax. I see Celmund shrug as he looks back at me.

I had pulled Scarlett between Celmund and myself when we got here, now I look down at her to see her sipping at her cola and wiggling her sexy little figure in time to the music. I just knew this was going to be a long party, I already want to drag her back to our room and indulge in all her curves, but I know she was looking forward to this therefore I will smile and bear it.

I see her tense as her eyes snap up to mine, she inclines the top of her cola bottle to her right and yells above the music. “There’s your friend.” Looking over I see that it’s the Jezebel that dropped off our clothes. Celmund looks over his shoulder to see who she’s referring too and then I see him grin as he looks back at us. Taking her wrist in my hand I pull her against my body as my lips lower to her lips. I kiss her until we’re both breathless and have forgotten why I started to kiss her in the first place.

“Finally, I was thinking of getting some water and throwing it on you guys to cool down.” I hear Burkhart tease as he joins us. “Hey sweetheart, you’re looking particularly ravishing tonight.” I grunt in irritation which makes his grin widen.

“Cassius!” I hear, “I didn’t know you were here with these fuckers.” Glancing behind Burkhart I see Eirik, one of the brothers from Tor’s men. Eirik is the Sargent at Arms for the Cape Town chapter, a big son of a bitch, not as big as Bjarni but nearly. Eirik and I have had some good times in the past, hopefully he won’t go into retelling some of our stories.

Eirik was married once, many centuries ago. The daughter of one of the stable men at the time was ill and he knowing what Eirik was, begged him to take her to wife and keep her alive. Even though she wasn’t his mate, Eirik gave her small portions of his blood trying to maintain her healthy but in the end she died. Eirik never loved her but he was fond of her and her death devastated him, making him promise himself never to look for his mate.

He confided in me once that if he ever had to lose his mate he was sure he would lose his mind before anyone could do away with him. Therefore, he would rather not find her and spare everyone the pain.

“Eirik” I greet as he clasps my forearm in greeting a wide smile on his tanned face. I see him glance at Scarlett as he lets go. “Well now, look at this sweet morsel that you are hiding.” He says with a wink at her. I see Scarlett blush at his attention and my anger rises even though I know that he doesn’t know she’s my mate.

“Scarlett, this is Eirik a friend and brother.” I introduce, “Eirik, my mate.” I see his surprised look before he hides it behind a smile.

“Well, well. Never thought you would get caught, but she’s a beauty.” He says as he takes her hand and kisses it. “Take care of my friend here Scarlett.”

“I plan to Eirik,” my woman says with a smile.

“Eirik, where have you been hiding, I haven’t seen you since we arrived?” Draco says as he joins us, followed by Tor.

“He’s been following up on the trawlers.” Tor replies from next to Draco. “Hello, their pretty lady, we haven’t been introduced yet.” He says with one of his smiles.

“She’s mine Tor.” I state before he can start having any ideas.

“Oh, I know. Don’t worry I don’t steal brothers woman.” He teases with a wink at Scarlett, “Doesn’t mean the woman aren’t tempted.” Tor was a Viking many centuries ago and he still thinks like one many times. He also fights like one, if he or his men are threatened his berserker comes out. I was around once when that happened, and I can say that it’s quite a sight, I was impressed.

From the corner of my eye I see one of the Jezebels slide up to Celmund and whisper in his ear as she places her hand on his chest. He smiles and places an arm around her shoulders but doesn’t do anything else. Now that I have Scarlett I can’t imagine having sex with any other women. I had always felt empty and distant even when in the act, with Scarlett its fire and all consuming.

Looking up I see Caelius enter from outside, a frown on his face as he approaches. Draco looks over at him and lifts his chin in enquiry. “Aria’s in labour.” He grunts, Burkhart that is talking to one of the Jezebels a few steps away snaps around.

“Is she okay?” he grunts, Burkhart has become very protective of Aria because of his close relationship with Brandr, I can see the worry by the tense set of his body.

“Yeah, sounds like she’s fine but Brandr is taking it hard worried about the chemicals in the device leaking with the pressure her body is under.” Caelius grunts, I hadn’t thought about that before but it’s possible that that could happen.

“Draco” Burkhart asks as he looks at him, it’s understandable that Burkhart would want to be by Brandr and Aria when they need him.

Draco nods, “Caelius take him, when it’s all over come back. Don’t forget to keep us informed.”

“Let’s go” Burkhart grunts as he starts to make his way outside Caelius following close behind. Fuck, I need to make sure not to get Scarlett pregnant, there is no way I will take the risk while she still has that crap in her. I feel her hand on my forehead as she starts to stroke the frown away.

“Don’t worry, she will be fine. Women have been having babies since the beginning of time and I’m sure the device won’t erupt that easily.” I place my hands on her hips and pull her flush against me.

“Do you want kids?” I ask and see her eyes widen in question.

“Well, umm . . . a bit late for you to be asking me that question isn’t it?” I see the flush on her cheeks as she looks around at the others quickly. I bring up my hand and place it around the back of her neck as my thumb pulls her chin up so that she’s looking at me. “Yeah, but not necessarily now.” She murmurs.

If she’s not already carrying my child I need to make sure to protect her from getting pregnant. “What’s wrong?” she asks with a frown, “Don’t you want kids?”

“I do, but not when it will put you in danger.”

“Everything will be fine, don’t worry about it. You will see, soon you will find a way to get this thing out of me.” She persuades, I lower my head and kiss her gently on the lips.