Undeniable (Undeniable series) (10 page)

I end up spending the rest of the night with Riley. After I held him to me for longer then I imagined, he lifted me up laying me on top of his bed. Every time I tried to move he would hold me just that much closer to him making it so that now it has become physically uncomfortable. We haven’t spoken since and he has made no moves on me except just holding me to him with my back to his chest. Whenever it seems that he is finally asleep I try to wiggle out of his grasp just to have him wake every time. I can feel every breath he takes in and out as the warmth of it hits my neck. His arms are wrapped fully around me while one his legs drapes over mine. Exhaustion from the day hits me hard and I have to fight with my own eyes as I let go.

~*~

The most annoying alarm clock ever screeches filling me with panic making me toss the sweaty arm off me. “Shit Gemma.” Riley voice rasps as he rolls over onto his back slapping his alarm clock in the movement. I know that at this moment my eyes must be huge and my face is drained of all color. I’m in Riley’s room, in his bed, with both is chest and arms on me. Without thinking I pat myself down for my clothes and relief floods me. I know I was desperate last night and I can feel that part of that has still lingered on to this morning.

Riley rolls back onto his side and lets his hot arm wrap back around my waist. “You can stay here if you want, you have the day off
.” He says starting to rub circles into my hip bone then adding gentle pressure.

“You trust me not to go through your stuff?” I say laughing a little.

“I trust you more then you know and with the thing I value most.”

“And what is the thing you value most and you better not say-”

He cuts me off taking my hand and placing it over his heart that beats gently under my palm. “My heart, I trust it with no other,” he says kissing my cheek then rolling out of the bed.

Crap! I feel for him. It’s not like how I feel for Beau
, but I feel for him. Maybe that isn’t such a bad thing. I could never truly be with Beau without hurting him and others like my brother. Riley is the safe choice, the logical choice.

Unable to do anything more than just stare at his back as he walks into his bathroom. Once he shuts the door behind him I look over to the clock and I’m surprised at what time it is.

Riley comes out of the bathroom after a few minutes all clean up and ready for the day. “Why do you wake up so early?” I say pointing the clock.

He turns on a side lamp letting a little bit of light into the dark room. I can see
him look at the clock as if it is going to magically give him the answers he wants. “Well?” I push.

“I… sometimes I…” he stutter
s and his cheeks begin to turn pink then soon after red. Smiling I know it has to be something embarrassing and move closer to him. “Does it really matter?” He swallows still looking over at the time.

I wait for a few more awkward moments for him then say
, “I guess not,” and his shoulders visibly relax. One of these days I would make him tell me when I have the upper hand.

Sitting onto the bed he reaches for my hand. “It’s nice having you back home
,” he says not answering my question.

“I like being home, its better then-” and I just remember Shiloh
. I involuntary shiver at the thought of him.

“What’s wrong?”

“I’m fine,” I say moving my hand away from him and also moving towards the other side of the bed. “I should really get going.” I say placing my feet onto the freezing floor I don’t remember taking off my shoes. “I’m probably throwing your routine off. I will see you later okay.” I smile not really looking at him, but facing him.

“I know your lying
, you always use fine when you’re lying.” Riley says moving off his beds as well and clutches my arm tightly.

“No, really
everything is good.” I say moving my arm so it won’t hurt.

“Gemma
,” he snarls. “I hate it when you do that, push me away. If I didn’t want to know or didn’t care about you so damn much believe me I wouldn’t even bother,” he says a little disgusted. Looking away from him, I fold my arms over my chest angry with myself for not having a comeback for that. “What happened over there that I don’t know about?” And I can think of many things with Shiloh being one of the lowest priorities.

“Alright
,” I huff taking a seat back onto his bed and he follows sitting next to me and taking my hand. “Shiloh, he was a problem when we first meet him. Everything was strange, but alright until Marcus and I didn’t want to do things his way. After that it was pretty clear he didn’t like us and wanted us out of there.” I say but in all honesty it doesn’t really bother me or at least that part. I didn’t say this to Marcus, but Shiloh’s actions towards me had shaken me.

“Did he hurt you?” Riley ask standing before I even finished telling him.

“No, but I did hit him,” I say low and Riley spins around looking down at me in surprise.

“You hit him?”
He says and the surprised look leave his face while a blank one replaces it.

Crap
. “I’m going to be in trouble for that?” I ask.

He looks around his room and back at me. “No, but I know something must have happened in order for you to hit h
im. I know he had to have done something,” he says now placing a hand on my shoulder like he’s trying to comfort me.

“I just don’t want to discuss this right now, but I promise I will
, just not today,” I say and he smiles down at me.

“Okay then I can wait
.” He moves in closer to me and then presses a soft kiss to the side of my head before he leaves.

Well he took that better than I thought he w
ould, but if I’m really honest with myself I shouldn’t have said anything. I take a moment to look around his room deciding to make the bed to ‘accidently’ find something under his mattress but there’s nothing there. Glancing over to his clock I notice I still have twenty minutes to burn before I know the halls will be cleared. Walking over to his desk I look through some of the paper work that he has in the top drawer. The top few papers are just basic paper work so I just briefly scan it and go on from there. Next is a bunch of notebook paper from a class he is taking and I notice that he likes to draw. They are incredible, like nothing I’ve ever seen before and when I get to the last sheet my heart drops. He is almost done sketching a picture of me. I’m in our woods with my naked back turned and my face looking over my shoulder.

Placing
all the paper work down onto his desk I fall back into his desk chair. My eyes never leave the drawing until a loud knock on the door brings me back to reality. Quickly I set the paper back into his desk drawer and open the door.

“Hey
,” I say opening the door for Marcus to come in.

“Well, well,
look what I have found.” He smiles as though he uncovered the world’s biggest secret. “Want to know how my day has gone so far?”

“Not really
, but I’m sure you’re going to fill me in,” I say sitting back onto the desk chair. In his hands is a vanilla folder which I’m sure holds our next mission.

“
I was going to be a good brother today and instead of sleeping all day, like I planned, I decided to eat breakfast with my only sister,” he says like I never said what I said. “You see my sister has no friends, tragic I know,” he faints heartbreak gripping his shirt over his heart. “When I get there, to my shock, she is not there and Riley has this glow to him leading me right here.” He points to the floor he is standing on. I can’t help but smile back at him at the way he masterfully played that out.

“What can I say
,” I smirk bringing my hand up as if I surrendered. “What do you have for me?”

“Another mission
,” he says tossing me the folder then plopping onto Riley’s bed.

Beau

The last few weeks have been, let me just say, a test of restraint. She doesn’t know it but she is constantly calling for me. Not by phone, but with her mind. Are minds have begun to link together and she’s very unaware of it. It’s not strong yet, but I can feel it when she misses me. A few times during the day, but always at night, making me want to do anything to get to her. 

I’m still
clueless when it comes to what to do from here and I know her situation better then she even does. I know what will happen if we are together and I’m getting to the point where I don’t care anymore. I can’t even organize my options to make at least one coherent thought.

Death for both of us if I
succumb to my needs. I have to remind myself of this often. There’s this delicate balance that I must contend with.

Gemma’
s death will be worst then my own because she will be forced out of the pack taking her brother with her and therefore also killing him. While I will suffer only a quick death.

I know more
about her then she knows about herself. From the moment I tasted her blood I knew that she was different, something that should have never occurred. I couldn’t place it at first since I had never experienced anything like it before. Never in my life have I seen or heard of a successful mixing of two different breeds. There has been mixing of a sort, an under the table kind of thing, but never does a child come for it proving how it’s unnatural.

A shifter and
a hunter. Someone must know of her secret as well for her and her brother to have lived this long. Neither she nor her brother are aware of what they are making it hard for me to know what to do. How could I tell her that the people she despise so much are her own kind? I have no idea who her father is, but I know he is or was a full blooded hunter. It makes me wonder if he knows of their existence or if he has been looking for them.

It’s not supposed to be like this, love. I always thought it was easy once you found that one person you can’t live without. That somehow everything would become tranquil almost euphoric and the world wouldn’t seem so grim and frantic. When she’s in my arms it seems that way
, but now it feels like she’s the eye of the storm and when she’s gone the shit begins to fly.    

I find myself camping near the edge of her packs land. If someone w
as to go by they would definitely notice me here, but I’m past the point of caring. Every time I move back farther away from her the closer I get to her pack. It makes me question everything of my life, something I have never done before. I have always been the man who I thought was the perfect soldier. Maybe it was because I didn’t have anything to lose, but now I know it was just because I didn’t have anything to fight for.

Just having her with me for that moment was enough to light a fire in me that I never had before. I care for someone outside myself, more
than myself. Even at this moment I can feel her lips on my skin still. Its mocking me with memories that I rather be living then had lived. I can still remember the warmth of her body against me, the way she responded to my touch, and the steady beat of her heart.

I have to shake my head to erase what those memories lead to. I’m already to close
, but I’m near my breaking point. “Well look at what we have here.”  A male voice says behind me. I turn to see Chrome looking me over with a triumphant grin plastered across his lips.

“What do you want Chrom
e?” I ask turning my back to him looking onto Gemma’s packs land. The trees really make it almost seem peaceful, but then debris of old walls reminds me that it is anything but.

“I was just going to ask what you are doing
here. It’s a little out of your way isn’t it?” He ask coming over to my side.

Chrom
e and I use to be best friends for hundreds of years. He was my constant in a world always changing.

That all changed when I was promoted about two hundred years ago. It was always our goal to get to where
I’m now, but I never wanted it as much as he did.

When it was offered to me I was so pleased thinking that I have finally complete
d a goal that had taken me over a thousand years. The first thing I did was go to Chrome asking him if he had received good news as well, but he hadn’t. I went back to my elder begging him to promote Chrome, even asking him to give my promotion to him, but he wouldn’t hear of it. His decision was final, adding that Chrome wasn’t a man who could be trusted. I knew that wasn’t true that Chrome would never betray us.

I went back
empty handed to find Chrome on a feeding spree. He had heard of my news and promised he wasn’t mad, just disappointed that again he was turned down. I did the best I could covering up his messes, but he was pulling away from me. I was alone for the very first time and I hated the feeling. Our mother had made us promise when she was dying that we would always remember family. That we would stick together, brothers forever, but I failed her. He is my brother and I let the last piece of family I had go.

“Just received a tip and checking it out.” I shrug turni
ng to look at him as his eyes regard our surroundings.

“Come now brother we both know
that is a lie,” he says still grinning at me. “It’s that girl, isn’t it?”

“I don’t know what you are talking about. What have you been up to lately? I haven’t see
n you in years.” I change the subject knowing that Chrome is very good at reading people.

Chrom
e use to have the same eyes as me but they have changed to a much darker color. It was the only thing we had in common and now we look like complete opposites. He runs his hands through his thick blonde hair he got from our mother, disheveling it. Taking a deep breath he sighs, “Observing I guess.”

I’m not sure what he means by that
, but it doesn’t sit right with me. Its then I notice that we are not alone. “What have you done?” I ask detecting that it’s not only vampires that surround us but hunters, witches, and shifters.

“What need
ed to be done.” He huffs like that question was beneath him. “Times are changing again my brother and it is you who is behind this round,” he says as a group of witches’ begin to chant. There is nothing I can do and my thoughts go to Gemma.  

My knees buckle first, then the rest of my body hits the hard ground. Chrom
e bends down next to me watching as my body struggles to breathe. He moves the hair out of my face. “Don’t worry about your young shifter brother,” he says watching my response.

My eyes go
to his face, “Don’t you touch her,” I wheeze out. 

Chrom
e laughs. “Oh I plan to do a lot more then touch your little Gem,” he says leaning down a little closer. “You took from me and it is only fair that I take from you.” Rage boils in my blood, but darkness comes just as swift.