Chapter 16
I awoke alone and wondered where Carter was, but I could hear the shower running. I laid there dreading the day. Bryce was wrong about separating Chase from everyone else; he needed his friends. I just couldn’t see Alexis taking care of him, so he would need the other four. I needed to be the one to leave, so they could all be together. Knowing what I had to do filled me with sadness. I would miss my guys. Chase was truly a wonderful guy, once you got past the grumpiness to his huge heart. Bryce took care of the group and wanted everyone to be happy. Carter was the sweet one, shy around others, but had a sexy confidence when we were alone. Harrison was still my scary biker guy, but the best cook and kisser in the world. And Mason, I hadn’t spent as much time with him as the others and I regretted that, but I saw him, too. He was funny and sweet and when he looked at me with those ice-blue eyes, I felt like the most precious thing in the world.
I heard the water shut off and got up to find clothes for the day. As I walked to the closet, I saw Carter walk out of the bathroom with only a towel around his waist. There was steam coming off of him and his hair was dripping onto his face and shoulders. I froze. All I wanted to do was walk over to him and lick that water off of him. I stared for longer than appropriate. “Again, like what you see?”
I blushed again, and turned to the closet to find clothes. I looked, but didn’t recognize any of them. Carter walked in and turned me around, “This is your side, Bre. You were looking through my clothes. I doubt any of them would fit you.”
Embarrassed, I meekly said, “Thanks.” I just knew my entire face was red. Oh well, he was hot as hell and I couldn’t help it.
After my shower, Carter and I went downstairs. As usual, Harrison was cooking breakfast. This time, it was a breakfast casserole with sausage, egg, and cheese. Yum! Everyone, including Amazon Bitch, eventually came down and ate. After we were done cleaning up, I started toward Carter’s room to get my backpack for school when Alexis stopped me. “Can we talk? I want to apologize for my behavior.”
Not believing what my ears were hearing, I narrowed my eyes at her. “I guess.” She led the way outside through the door in the family room and I followed. I followed her to the large rock at the back of the property. “Okay, what do you want to say?”
“I just wanted to tell you that I am leaving this morning, and I’m sorry for how I acted toward you. I have known the guys since we were kids. I am protective of them and saw you as a threat. I now see that they care for you and I was wrong.”
Sadness enveloped me over the loss of Chase. If she was leaving, he would obviously go with her. There was no way he would let his bonded leave without him. I needed to talk to Bryce. Chase couldn’t leave, he needed to stay here with his family; I needed to leave. I knew it was going to happen and I needed to be strong for Chase. Who knows, maybe once they completely bonded, she would love him and treat him the way he deserves. I had to believe that. Otherwise, my pain would be for nothing. I looked up at Alexis to tell her I would be the one leaving, but she was smiling in an eerie way. I would never understand how fate could put him with this horror of a woman. Then I felt it, darkness and evil overwhelmed me and I turned to find where it was coming from. There were now five demons surrounding us. “Alexis, we need to get back to the house, now!”
“No, sweetie. I do. They are here for you. Bon appetit, boys. Goodbye, Breanna. I’ll make sure to take care of the guys in your absence. I am sure I can handle all five of them just fine,” Alexis said while walking back toward the house.
That bitch! I knew she was evil, but I never thought she would deliver me to my death. I may have been training and was a lot stronger than I had been when I faced lizard man, but there were five demons here and I didn’t stand a chance. One of them looked human, but a darkness of pure evil rolled off of him in waves. That must have been what Bryce was talking about when he said he could tell I wasn’t a demon, the hatred coming from him was so thick in the air, it was stifling. The other four were definitely not human; a couple of them looked like lizard man, but the other two were bigger, with a thin, gray skin covering their ribs, arms, and legs. They also had orange eyes on the sides of a ram-looking head, complete with horns. Their hands had sharp claws that were at least five inches long.
Concentrate, Bre. If you want to have a chance of surviving, you must use everything you have. I couldn’t die here, because I had to let Chase know what he was bonding to. I immediately connected with my panther gift and took a solid stance, feet shoulder-width apart. I also brought fire to my hands and had air and earth at the ready.
“No need to be hostile, little one,” the human-looking one said. His darkness surrounded me, making it hard to breathe. I tried to push it back, but it stayed all around me, pushing against me like it was trying to get inside of me. “You will not make it out of here alive, so let’s not make this harder than it has to be. My guys here are itching for a fight. ”
“No, I think I’m good. Your two lizards and rams look like they need a good ass kicking,” I said with fake confidence.
“Ha ha! You are a little pistol, aren’t you? It’s too bad you will die here today. I might have liked to have you around for a while. But from what I was told, you are the one I have been looking for,” he said.
I didn’t have time to think about that, because the two lizard men stalked toward me. I hit each of them with a fireball and they flew backwards, hitting the ground hard. The two horned demons then came at me and I did the same to them. “That all you got, big boys?” I taunted. Better to go out as myself than a whimpering little girl.
All four of them got off the ground and surrounded me, so I didn’t know which one was going to attack. They closed in at the same time, but I didn’t wait for them to attack. I stepped toward the biggest horned one and punched him with my clawed hand, plus some extra air power. As he flew backwards, I was grabbed from behind by a lizard man and the other horned demon punched me in the face. My head whipped to the side and I spat out blood. I struggled to release myself from his grasp and used air to create a buffer in between us. It only pushed him back a couple of steps, but it was enough for him to release me. Before I had time to react, the second lizard backhanded me and I dropped to the ground. I was a bit stunned, so it took me a second to recover. That gave one of the horned demons time to kick me in the head and knock me out.
My head was pounding. I felt like someone kicked me in the head, then remembered they did. I recovered my wits and found my guys fighting the five demons who attacked me. Bryce was facing off with one of the lizards and so was Carter, who had his talons out and had just sliced open its stomach. Yay, Carter! Mason and Chase were each battling a horned demon, while Harrison was in a fire fight with the human-looking one. I didn’t know which direction to go first, but I wanted to help them. I looked to Mason in time to see the horned demon drive his claws right into Mason’s stomach. Mason fell onto his back and blood was pouring out of his wound. I could see blood coming out of his mouth at the same time. Panic engulfed me; I couldn’t lose him. We hadn’t had a chance to really get to know each other yet. The panic was replaced with anger and rage at what was done to him. I screamed, “Noooo!” Suddenly, the white light that had already saved me a couple of times before poured out of me. The force of it pulled my chest forward and my arms out to each side. The white power pulsed out of me, surrounding me in a circle about thirty feet wide. It immediately decimated all five of the demons. I dropped my arms and the white power disappeared.
I ran to Mason and placed my hands on his wound. Tears were streaming down my face as I applied pressure to the hole in his stomach. “Don’t you dare die on me, Mason! We need to spend more time together. We haven’t had enough time! We need you. I need you. Please, Mason.” I looked into his beautiful ice-blue eyes and saw tears forming. He knew he was dying. The guys surrounded us, crouched down, and placed their hands on each other’s shoulders and mine. We looked like we were kneeling in a football team huddle. Their love for Mason poured out of them; it was so powerful, I could almost see it. Each of them had a grim look on their face. They knew he was dying, too.
“Sweet girl, you are the best thing that has ever happened to us. I don’t want to leave you. I want to spend more time with you, too. You’re right, we didn’t have enough time. I’m sorry. Please take care of them for me. They need you more than you know,” Mason said to me and then looked to each of the guys before closing his eyes.
I collapsed on top of him and wailed. “Nooo! This can’t be happening, Mason!”
All of a sudden, my hands started to glow with my white light and I tried to pull away. I didn’t want it hurting Mason, but my hands stuck to him like glue. I looked down and noticed the blood had stopped flowing. I tried again to lift my hands a little and was finally able to. His stomach was glowing white and it looked like it was stitching itself back together. Slowly, the wound closed completely and even the redness disappeared. I looked at his stomach and it was perfectly normal, no hint of any wound. I looked into his eyes that had opened back up and saw that sparkle that I loved. “Mason?” Mason tried to sit up, but I pushed him back down. “What are you doing? You need to lie back.”
He touched my hand and then intertwined our fingers, “Bre, you saved me. I feel fine. Look, the wound is completely closed. Aside from the drying blood, you would never know I was just gutted. You healed me!” He tried to sit up again and I let him this time.
“So you’re okay? You don’t hurt anywhere?” I asked.
“Yes, sweet girl, I’m fine. Nothing hurts at all.” Out of nowhere, he slammed his lips to mine and kissed me hard. I wrapped my arms around him and sank into the kiss. I forgot that the others were there until I heard chuckling.
“Looks like he recovered quickly.”
“Dang, man, let her breathe.”
Mason released me and I was dazed from the amazing kiss. “Thank you for saving me. I owe you my life.”
My head was still swimming, but I was able to answer, “You’re welcome.”
“Come on, guys. Let’s get Mason inside to get cleaned up. We have a lot to talk about,” Bryce said.
I walked arm-in-arm with Mason back to the house. I wasn’t ready to let go of him yet. I couldn’t believe I had almost lost him. After Mason showered, we all met in the family room. Bryce was standing in front of the giant rock fireplace, waiting for everyone to sit. I sat with Mason and intertwined our arms while leaning on him a little. I whispered to him, “Are you really okay?”
He turned to me and brushes a lock of hair out of my eyes. “Thanks to you, I am. You are my personal angel.” He leaned over and kissed me on the forehead. My entire body tingled with delight. My guys were all here, safe and bitch-free. I smiled and took it all in.
Bryce cleared his throat to get everyone’s attention, “So we have a lot to talk about. First of all, Bre, what were you doing that far from the house alone?”
My heart dropped and I looked at Chase. I didn’t want him to know what his bonded did, but the guys needed to know not to trust her, so I told them, “I’m sorry, Chase, but it was Alexis. She asked me to walk with her this morning, because she wanted to apologize for being a bitch to me. I felt I owed it to you to hear her out. She led me down to the big rock by the woods and started apologizing, but that’s when the five demons came out of the woods. I told her we needed to run, but she just stood there, not scared at all. She said they were not there for her, but for me. She even had the gall to tell them to enjoy killing me! Then, she walked back to the house and left me there alone. The human-looking one seemed to be the leader of the group and just watched while his goons attacked me. I held them off for a little while, but between the four of them, they were able to knock me out. I awoke to see you guys battling them and then saw Mason get stabbed with horny guy’s claws. You know the rest. I’m sorry, Chase, but she did it on purpose.”
“Why are you apologizing to me for her? I can’t stand that girl and now that I know what she tried to do to you, I will kill her,” Chase said through gritted teeth.
“Chase, she is your bonded. There is nothing you can do about that, is there?” I asked no one in particular.
Chase started to speak, but Bryce beat him to it. “Bre, we figured it out. Chase is not bonded to Alex.”
“What? Oh.” I felt a little better that he was not bonded to that horrible person, but he was still bonded; otherwise, he wouldn’t be able to use fire. That meant he had been intimate with someone else, so my heart still hurt. Maybe his real bonded was a better person than Alexis, though, and maybe she and I could be civil, meaning Chase could still be in my life, at least a little. “So who is he bonded to?” I asked in almost a whisper and looked down at my lap.
“You, you crazy girl! You!” Chase all but yelled.
My head popped up and I looked at him, “What?!”
“Don’t you remember me kissing you in the library after you tried to kill Alexis? Maybe I should have let you kill her now that I think about it, but that’s beside the point. Was the kiss that forgettable?” Chase looked at me with a little bit of fear and vulnerability. I had never seen him vulnerable; it was kind of endearing. It made me want to jump up and lavish him with kisses to show him how much I loved kissing him.
“Really?” I asked.
“Yes, really,” he said.
I looked to Bryce for confirmation and he nodded. “But how? I would think that you would have all my gifts if we were bonded. Have you tried to use Earth or Water or have you tried to connect to the animals? And by the way, I could never forget my first kiss, especially since it was with you.” Chase beamed at my last statement.
Harrison chimed in, “We figured out he has fire now, because you kissed me, too. And I have air and would assume water any moment now that you kissed Mason.”
“I’m confused,” I said.
“Well, you kissed Chase, then Harrison. When you kissed Harrison was when Chase caught the kitchen on fire. Harrison was lifting weights last night and accidently used air. We have to replace the entire ceiling now and not just a patch from your murder of the punching bag,” Bryce spelled out for me.
I blushed when he talked about me kissing the three of them, but I was glad it was out there. I was glad everyone knew and we could figure it out together. “So you are saying that I started bonding with Chase when he kissed me, then I started bonding with Harrison when we kissed, and now I am bonding with Mason since he kissed me?”
“Yes, that is exactly what we think. We suspected it when you became so jealous of Alexis. When you meet your bonded, you have a hard time seeing them with other people. We can find out for sure right now if the three of them have all three powers,” Bryce said with a little sadness in his voice.
I was pumped that I might be bonded to the three of them, but what about Bryce and Carter? It didn’t feel right that it wasn’t all of us in this together. I looked at Carter and he looked sad and disappointed. I knew right then and there what I wanted to do. I didn’t give a crap about normal anymore. Hell, I’d never been normal anyway. These were my guys and I was going to be with all of them. I was special with all five gifts, and I needed my five guys with me to face what was to come. That was what Mea said and I knew in my heart that she was right. I released Mason’s arm, stood up, and strode over to Carter. He gave me a puzzled look from the chair he was sitting in, but I didn’t hesitate. I sat in his lap, straddling his legs, and kissed him with everything I had. He wrapped his arms around me and squeezed tight. Lightening shot through my body and I felt like I would explode from it. I had been waiting for this since the moment we spoke to the animals together. He was mine and I was claiming him. After a few fake coughs from the other guys, we lifted our heads away from each other. I pressed my forehead to his and said, “I’ve been wanting to do that for a while now and it was worth the wait.” Carter smiled up at me with the biggest smile I have ever seen from him. He was simply beautiful.
I gave him a small peck on the lips and got up from his lap. I walked straight over to Bryce and jumped into his arms, straddling his waist, and kissed him, too. Bryce froze for just a second, but then kissed me like a dying man would. He held me under my butt with both hands to support my weight, and kissed me back. As he kissed me, he squeezed by butt and fire spread through my body. I wrapped my legs tighter around his waist, pressing myself against him. I was getting hotter and hotter. Again, fake coughing brought us out of our lust-filled kiss. Wow, I tend to forget anyone else is around when I kiss one of my guys. I might need to work on that – or not. Bryce slowly lowered me to my feet and I pressed against him the entire way down. I looked up at his beautiful face and saw the dimples that I loved so much.
“Wow! That was hot. Can I get one of those?” Harrison kind of jokingly said. I blushed as everyone laughed.
Hell, I just kissed two guys back to back in front of the other three I kissed just recently, why not continue with my boldness? I walked over to Harrison and ran my hand down his huge bicep and looked up at him from under my lashes, “If you’re lucky, you just might.” I then walked over to the sofa and sat back down beside Mason. I looked at a stunned Harrison and winked.
The entire room burst out laughing, even Harrison. After laughing and struggling to breathe, Bryce took a slow, deep breath and said, “Bre, I told you the first day you came here, I don’t ever want you to leave and I still feel that way. You are our girl and the heart of our family. Even if you don’t bond with one or more of us, you are ours, all five of ours.”
A chorus of agreements rang out,
“Exactly.”
“Couldn’t have said it better myself.”
“You are ours, no matter what.”
“This is our family forever.”
My heart was so full, it felt like it might explode. I had never felt this loved or cherished. My guys, all five of them were my family. I loved each of them in a different, but just as powerful, way. No matter what happened next, we were in this together. And I knew deep in my heart that I was bonding to all of them. They would soon be as powerful as I was and no one would be able to tear us apart.