“What the hell happened to you?” Payton exclaimed as she saw the face of her mate. They had decided to come back to the apartment Kylee and Payton shared for a coffee. It was Friday, and no one had to be at work tomorrow. So, after the third lemon sour and the fourth rendition of Let it Go, they decided tonight was better spent curled on the sofa watching chick flicks and eating bad food.
V was waiting on the steps leading up the apartment building. He had keys, of course, but out of respect to Kylee, they were for emergency purposes only. He stood up, running his hand very softly over his chin, moving his jaw ever so tenderly. It had begun to turn a deep shade of purple around the swelling.
His eyes flicked from Payton to the other ladies who were wide-eyed and waiting for an explanation as colorful as his chin was turning. “Nothing,” he said quietly.
“Don’t you just hate it when nothing comes up and smacks you in the face?” Taryn smirked “It’s been happening more and more lately. I don’t know what this world is coming to.”
Payton flicked a look at her friend, and Taryn received the silent message clearly, as she took a step back. “Attor?” she asked with a sigh.
Attor had been on edge lately. It was as if he felt he had to be ready for an attack around every corner, and he wasn’t able to relax. Every day his anxiety seemed to crank up a notch in its intensity. V nodded to her question.
Payton lifted her palm and cupped his chin softly. She took a step or two up and leaned down to place a soft kiss on his heavily bruised face. Her fingers lightly tracing the injury as he closed his eyes and leaned into her touch. “Did you have to hurt him?” she asked softly. Payton knew her mate hated to fight his brothers, and would only do it when no option was left to choose.
“I’m sure he’s feeling remorseful,” V replied.
“Oh… my… God…” Kylee laughed as she held her cell to her face, her giggles were bubbling up fast, causing tears to form in the corner of her eyes. “He’s fucking hilarious.”
“Who?” Taryn looked over Kylee’s shoulder and gasped. “Is that Payton’s man?”
“What?” V turned his head to see the two ladies both staring at a cell screen in various degrees of shock and hilarity.
Kylee turned the phone to face V and Payton, as she tried unsuccessfully to stifle more laughter.
Payton grabbed the phone and watched in disbelief as Volos pinned Attor to the mat, he was squirming in obvious agony at having V pin him down with his knee. The crescendo being when Attor’s face looked up from the floor, sweat pouring off his brow and pure hatred leaking from his eyes as he spat, Spank me, Daddy for the viewing public’s pleasure.
“Where is that from?” V barely got the words out coherently.
“YouTube, babe. It’s by some guy named ScaleyJo,” Kylee said.
“Jo has a YouTube channel?” Payton turned with a questionable look to V.
“In order for us to stay in touch with…” He flicked a look at the two women watching their conversation, reminding himself they were naive humans. While they seemed lovely, he preferred them unenlightened to the existence of the clan. V chose his words carefully as he continued, “Social media’s a way of the future. For more reasons than one,” V said to his mate. “Jo has taken to the workings of the web like a fish to water.”
Spank me, Daddy.
The words were on auto-replay and started to linger on the late-night breeze currently winding its way past the building. Payton watched the view clicks begin to climb as the video threatened to go viral. “This isn’t a good thing, V,” she said. “You have to stop this.”
Volos pulled out his cell and dialed the number for his brother. Taking a couple steps away from the girls, he waiting for Jo to pick up.
“Take it down, now,” he said without any greetings.
“I don’t give a fuck if you think it’s funny,” he paused obviously listening to the other end.
“Jo… Jo…” V tried to interrupt. “Jo…” he shouted, flicking a look to Payton’s shocked face. He swallowed and reigned in his temper. “For fuck’s sake, man, take down the fucking video.” V’s last words were spoken through a tense jaw that looked like it was painful enough without the shouting as well.
“Ah... Volos...” Kylee said tentatively. “I don’t know who this Jo is, but it just hit a million views. There’s no stopping it now.” She gave a half smile. “Congratulations! You and Attor are now viral superstars.”
Ending the call he slid the phone into his jacket. “I swear to God, he’s going to need more than a yield word when I get hold of him,” V groaned as he ran his hands through his hair.
“Let’s go upstairs. We are gathering some nosey neighbors,” Kylee said, as her key slid into the lock and she released the main door to the apartments and led the way inside.
Payton and V looked up to see some outside lights being turned on as people came to see what all the commotion was about. “Good idea, don’t want anyone to see me,” V mocked with a distinct lack of humor as he followed the ladies upstairs and into the waiting elevator.
Taryn followed, still holding the paper bag of snack foods they had stopped and grabbed on their way home. She stepped into the elevator and looked up to V. “So, you have a brother, huh?”
The ding of the doors opening on the fifth floor signaled them all to get off. Turning toward the left, they followed Kylee down to the last door on the right which was apartment 505.
“There are five of them.” Payton smiled as she looked back at her friend.
“Five?” Taryn’s eyebrows rose with surprise. “Are they all as… um…” struggling to find the least offensive word she could, “… big as you?”
“Right!” Kylee laughed as she turned the key and opened up the door. As she walked in, she threw the keys in a small silver dish which sat on a tall, dark oak table which was positioned to the left of the door. It held keys, small change, and other knick-knacks that people empty from their pockets. “I haven’t met them all. But fuck me… the couple I have met are ginormous walls of lickable muscle.”
“Really?” Payton shook her head at Kylee’s description of her life partner and his brothers. The door clicked behind them, as the four of them began to remove coats and shoes, and take a seat in the living room.
“Yes, really.” Kylee laughed. “I mean… honestly… Volos…” Kylee tilted her head to the large man standing in the middle of the room, “… is fucking huge. I can only imagine what it’s like to climb that tree.”
“Kylee!” Payton laughed with a frown. “Enough talking about my man’s tree. That’s one trunk that is marked for my climbing only.” Flopping down on the sofa next to him, she snuggled under his waiting arm. “Right, babe?”
V nodded and placed a kiss to Payton’s head. “Correct.”
“Have you met the other trees? Err…” Taryn snorted. “Brothers?”
“Yes,” Payton said.
“No,” replied Kylee. “I have only met V and Attor.”
“The other one in the video?” Taryn inquired.
Kylee nodded. “He’s the friendlier one of the two.”
“He didn’t look friendly.” Taryn laughed.
“He just has a lot on his mind. Makes him cranky,” V dismissed the comment.
“They’re all amazing brothers. All five of them. Even Jo, the one who put up the video.” Payton smiled lovingly as she ran her hand gently down V’s thigh, causing a growl to rumble up from his belly. “Shall we start the binge, ladies?” Payton was eager to change the subject away from the brothers.
“Jo is a brother? Fuck me! He’s one hawt, inked-up god of deliciousness.” Kylee’s eyes went wide. “His videos are a riot. He doesn’t look like you, though.” She tilted her head.
“He is… um... unique,” V said.
“Netflix?” Payton interrupted again. She could feel the tension rising in her mate’s energy.
“Oh, yeah, what’s the flavor for tonight?” Kylee asked as she grabbed the control and flicked on the Netflix channel.
“You have Netflix now?” Taryn asked with astonishment.
“For a few weeks,” Payton laughed. “Wyvern came and worked his magic. Something about using a DNS to unlock the American channel.” She shrugged. “I didn’t ask the details, sometimes it’s better to not know, just to enjoy the results.”
“Wyvern?” Taryn asked.
“Brother,” Volos said quietly. “The youngest of the five.”
“I thought you said you had only met two of them?” Taryn turned to Kylee.
“And I never knew Jo was a brother either. Besides, following a YouTube channel hardly equates to meeting someone.” Kylee laughed.
Payton’s eyebrows went up with curiosity for the second time tonight with her friend. She glanced at V, who by the look on his face was thinking a similar thought. This girl never forgot anything, every detail, small or otherwise, was being heard and stored by her. “Kylee wasn’t here, Wyvern was in and out within an hour,” she said slowly. “The brothers value their privacy very highly.”
“Was that before or after the YouTube video currently going viral?” Taryn laughed.
“Before obviously,” V snapped, a little harsher than he intended. He didn’t like snoopy people. Questions always made him nervous and having Payton friends with a human, who seems to have a photographic memory, was beginning to cause him a great deal of anxiety.
Kylee coughed loudly. “Okay…” she smiled sweetly, “… Netflix time. Taryn if you want to get the snacks, I’ll find the latest season of Supernatural and we can get lost with the Winchester boys.”
“Sam is mine,” Taryn squealed as she jumped up and went to the kitchen for some plates and bowls. “That man is hawwt.”
V took advantage of the distraction to lower his lips in line with Payton’s ear and whispered, “We need to be cautious around her? Really cautious?” His voice was so low only she could hear him. “Too many questions. It’s odd.”
Payton nodded, “Agreed.”