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  “Right, yeah. Calm, man,” Wei said.

  Abel scowled at him, then I watched him take in a deep breath.

  His eyes came to me. “No one touches you, Lilah. You got that?”

  “I…uh…” I stared at him, noting his seriousness was serious, completely forgot about his vow never to harm me, then finished, “Yeah.”

  “Right,” he muttered irately, looked through his brothers and ordered, “Go.”

  Apparently unperturbed by Abel’s insanely protective behavior, Chen said, “Ma wants a family lunch in the private room upstairs.”

  “She’ll get it, but seein’ as it’s near-on eleven o’clock, I don’t get my ass out to pick up the shit, it might turn into dinner,” Abel replied.

  It was nearly eleven o’clock?

  Well, I guessed after the last night’s late night, I’d slept in.

  “Hi-ho, off we go,” Chen muttered, grinning at me and making me feel slightly better after the latest weirdness that had occurred.

  I had never really considered what I wanted in a man. It was strange for a chick not to do this, but I didn’t.

  And I didn’t for a number of reasons.

  One being that my mom and dad had not had a good relationship, not when they were together in the time I remembered them together, and definitely not after. They fought. They hated each other. And they both let me know that in a way, in and of itself, it was enough to make a girl cautious about deciding to let a man in her life.

  Two being that I had other concerns. Getting a job. Setting up an apartment. Buying shit for it. Having fun with my friends. And trying to forget there was something I was missing in my life that I feared I’d never find, and, further, that maybe my mom was right and I was whacked in the head.

  The last being I was twenty-nine, and although I was getting to an age where I should think about sorting myself out (seeing as I wanted kids, I just wasn’t sure I wanted a relationship to go with them), I was still young. Mom and Dad got together really early. Dad said straight up that was the biggest mistake of his life, and the only reason he didn’t regret it in a way that would make him bitter forever, was that he got me out of it. He’d told me time and again to live my life, enjoy it, figure out who I was and what I wanted, and only then go out and find it. And when I did, not to settle for anything less.

  But if I did consider what I wanted in a man, protectiveness would be one thing that would be high up on the necessary side. My dad was protective. His boys were protective. Even when Mom had custody of me, I had that when I was with my dad as well as when I wasn’t. It was all I knew and that was definitely going to be a part of not settling for anything less.

  Though, rabid protectiveness to the point a man wouldn’t even let his brother take my hand was totally OTT.

  I thought it best at that juncture to get my ass out of there, so I walked to the door. Chen moved aside as I came his way. I felt Wei and Xun moving in behind me.

  Then I heard Abel speak.

  “Lilah.”

  I stopped and looked his way.

  “Later,” he finished.

  “Yeah. Later, Abel.”

  He held my eyes.

  I swallowed and left the room.

  The boys and I walked down the hall, up the stairs, and into the alley. This was not something I relished because none of this was welcoming—it was dark and damp, even in the daylight—and also because I was only wearing Abel’s tee and had no shoes on.

  I didn’t complain. It was Abel’s space. It suited him in a weird way, but I was glad to be out of the “dungeon.”

  We were in the back door of the restaurant, the kitchen bustling with activity, when Chen turned right.

  He opened a door and I followed him through and up some stairs, feeling and hearing Wei and Xun behind me.

  At the top, Chen dug in his track pants, pulled out a key ring, opened the door, and let us in.

  I didn’t have the chance to look around before Chen spoke.

  “He’s different.”

  I looked to him, knowing exactly what he meant. “I know.”

  “He can get intense,” Chen went on.

  Boy, was he not wrong about that.

  “I’ve noticed,” I replied.

  Chen moved toward me, dipping his chin to keep my eyes, but stopping several feet away. “He loves with a love that’s bigger than anything you’ll know. He’s loyal beyond reason. He’d die for any of us, endure the worst kind of torture and die. He’d kill for any of us. If we were hurt, he’d avenge us and he would make that painful and messy beyond anything you can imagine. He’s the best kind of man you could know…the best son, the best brother…times about fifty thousand. Knowin’ that, you understand his intensity. Knowin’ that, you’ll eventually understand everything.”

  When he finished his speech, I wasn’t sure if I felt better or more weirded out.

  So I just said, “Okay.”

  “I hope to God there will be a bunch of days in my life I’ll never forget,” Chen continued. “When I find the woman for me. When I make her mine. When she gives me kids. But I know one thing deep in my heart. I will never forget yesterday, when my brother found what he needed to take away his pain.”

  I swallowed again, feeling my eyes sting, and I nodded.

  Now that made me feel better.

  “He’s protective of us. He’s protective of Ma…to extremes,” Chen went on. “It is not a surprise to any of us that that’s ten notches higher with you.”

  “Okay,” I repeated.

  “So don’t let that shit freak you,” Chen finished.

  I nodded again.

  Chen held my eyes for a while before he nodded back and stepped away.

  I looked to Xun and Wei and saw their eyes on me. They were watching me intently, their faces void.

  And I knew they thought this was a test.

  A test I had to pass.

  I had to accept their brother as he was, cut him some slack, get to know him, get to understand him.

  And I could do that, because, as my father had said, when I found what I needed, I’d win it no matter how I had to do that, including making these three loyal brothers believe I could.

  “Yeesh, dudes, give me a break,” I said. “Found the man I’ve been waiting for all my life and he’s an overprotective werewolf vampire who drinks bagged blood for breakfast, has the strength of ten men, the speed of a superhero, not to mention we have people who want us dead. This is not something a girl takes in stride. At least give me to lunch.”

  This got me three smiles and a room with a lot less tension threading through it.

  “I’ll take your crap to the bathroom,” Xun muttered.

  “I’ll go tell Ma you’re up here,” Wei stated before turning and using the door.

  “I’ll park my ass in front of the TV,” Chen said, moving to the couch.

  That was when I took in the space, and at the same time, took in a breath, for the apartment above a restaurant did not look like an apartment above a restaurant but an Asian décor showplace (and a posh one at that).

  It was beautiful. Rich woods. Richer materials. Lacquer. Inlays. Intricate carvings. Strikingly formed hinges and handles. Amazing curios—jade, cloisonné, and polished wood statues of foo dogs, dragons, and elephants. Wall hangings, pictures, and a four-paneled freestanding screen in one corner, all of these last depicting delicate birds and flowers.

  It was not cluttered, stuffy, and overdone. It was elegant and refined.

  I loved it.

  “Wowza, your mom could be an interior designer,” I told Chen.

  “Yeah, makes every place we go awesome,” Chen answered, clicking on the TV. “But you haven’t tasted her food yet.” He looked over the couch that appeared to be covered in red silk Damask, with dark, woven material at the sides and back. It had carved wood for feet and ornamentation. It was a couch I would not park my ass on to kick back and watch TV. It was a couch I’d probably be afraid to eat on for fear of ruining
it. “When you do, you’ll know where her talents really lie.”

  That meant I was suddenly seriously looking forward to lunch.

  “I’m gone,” Xun stated, coming back into the room from the hall.

  “North?” Chen asked mysteriously.

  “Yeah. I’ll send Wei south.”

  “Won’t be south, brother,” Chen told him. “A man comes out of the bay buck naked, a biker will give him a pair of jeans and a bottle of Jack and ask no questions. He does that shit down south, they’d call the police.”

  This was something I knew about Serpentine Bay. As much of a biker mecca as it was, it was also an old northwest coastal town, a beautiful one at that, so it had its ritzy side. But the ritzy side and the uppity folk who lived in it kept well to their areas of fancy restaurants, boutique shops, and cliffside mansions down south, while the bikers and their hangers-on did their thing in the bars, pool halls, and poker rooms up north.

  “You’re still going after him?” I asked, knowing from their words that they were going to keep searching for the werewolf.

  “Could be he’s gone by now,” Chen said. “But we gotta try.”

  “That’s cool,” I murmured.

  “That’s brotherhood,” Xun said, and I turned back to him.

  “Thanks,” I replied.

  “You come with Abel. Anything for him, now anything for you,” Xun told me. Then he walked out the door before I could express my further gratitude for the warmth that filled my heart at his words.

  “Go, get in something other than my brother’s tee,” Chen told me, and my eyes went again to him to see him grinning. “You don’t, I’ll start havin’ impure thoughts that may lead to me becoming a victim of fratricide.”

  “We wouldn’t want that,” I noted.

  “No, we would not,” Chen agreed.

  I smiled at him.

  He smiled back, then jerked his head toward the hall.

  I took his direction and headed that way.

  Chapter Five

  The Miracle and The Monster

  Abel

  Abel heard him long before he got to the door and knew by the familiarity of the sound who was coming.

  So he didn’t stop drilling the screw into the hinge that would eventually be attached to a door to the toilet as the footsteps approached and the steel door opened.

  “Yo!” Wei called over the drill. “Soup’s on and Ma wants your ass upstairs.”

  Abel stopped drilling and looked to his brother. “Gonna get this done.”

  Wei looked to the hinge, then back to Abel. “You can finish it after. Food’s on the table and Ma’s getting shitty.”

  “I’ll be up when this is done,” Abel reiterated.

  Wei’s brows went up. “You gonna court the wrath of Jian-Li?”

  Normally, he would not do this. He was older than her, helped raise her, was stronger than her by far, but the woman had a temper. She was also the matriarch, a matriarch with four sons, all of whom were unruly in one way or another (including him). So no matter that Abel had one hundred and forty years on her; when needed, Jian-Li had an iron fist, even with Abel.

  Still, he was not dragging his ass up there.

  Not until he had a handle on it.

  And knowing Delilah was up there, he was not close to having a handle on it. Not after he woke up hearing her make noises in her sleep that told him exactly what she was dreaming. Not after hearing her say “Abel, baby” like she was just about ready to come.

  It had nearly torn him out of his skin, staying seated in that chair and not going to the bed, positioning her and mounting her, even in her sleep.

  But it was definitely more. Something in him he didn’t understand was driving him to connect with Delilah in such a way, he was losing the struggle to fight it. In a way so powerful, he feared he’d harm her while doing it. But if he did, he knew at the very least he’d scare the shit out of her.

  She told him she was hanging on by a thread and he got that. The shit she was learning, seeing, and experiencing—he was shocked as hell (and pleased as fuck) she was handling it as well as she was. And he was even more pleased that the destiny he knew was his, which included her in it, she clearly felt as well.

  But he needed to make her feel safer, to guide her to trust him, trust his family, allow her time to get to know all of them, primarily him; not attack her, force himself on her, possibly hurt her, and, in doing any of that, destroy any chance of ever gaining her trust.

  So he had to get his shit together before he saw her again.

  He just didn’t know how.

  “She’s cool with it,” Wei stated, taking Abel out of his thoughts.

  “What?”

  “You goin’ gonzo about me touching her. Chen explained you were intense. She told us she’d already noticed that, then made a joke. She’s cool with it.”

  At least that was something.

  “She’s just cool,” Wei said, getting closer. “She’s up in the private room with Ma, Chen, and Xun, crackin’ jokes about all that went down last night and tellin’ us about her dad comin’ tomorrow. A dad who sounds like a fuckin’ lunatic.” He stopped close to Abel, smiling his approval of Delilah’s “fucking lunatic” father, but his smile died as he finished quietly. “She’s settling in, man, a lot easier than any of us would have expected. You don’t have to worry.”

  Even if all that was excellent news, Abel stared into his brother’s eyes and laid it out.

  “I need to fuck her.”

  Wei grinned. “I see that. Don’t rip my head off, literally, when I say it’s good to see your fated woman is seriously hot.”

  “No, Wei,” Abel said slowly, “I need to fuck her.”

  Wei stared at him, the humor shifting out of his face.

  “Consumed with it, brother,” Abel whispered.

  “Shit,” Wei muttered.

  “You touched her, honest to Christ, nearly did you harm. You. Almost couldn’t control the urge,” Abel admitted.

  “Wolf,” Wei stated, and Abel nodded.

  “I’m thinkin’…yeah. Pack traits, alpha male on female. That connects.”

  “We’ll all be careful,” Wei promised.

  “Know you will. But I gotta calm my shit before I’m with her again.”

  Wei tipped his head to the side. “That bad?”

  Abel turned fully to him, keeping the drill in his hand even as he crossed his arms on his chest. “That bad. I do not want to make love with her. I don’t wanna kiss her. I don’t want my hands on her. I wanna fuck her, brother. Hard. Take her. Claim her. She’s known me less than a day and shit has not been good, not by a long shot, so I cannot do that. I gotta give her time. I gotta give her me, and not in that way. And I don’t know what this is…wolf, vampire, both…but I made breakfast with her, ate breakfast with her, talkin’ about important shit, shit that matters, shit she had to know, shit she told me about her I wanted to know, and I did it the whole time struggling with the urge to bend her over my table.”

  “Fuck,” Wei whispered.

  “Yeah,” Abel agreed.

  “So you need to put up the door,” Wei stated.

  “Yeah, and find a way to be with her and give her what she needs without takin’ from her what I need, takin’ her away. Because I go in the way I need to go in, she’ll be lost to me.”

  “You gotta get your mind off it,” Wei advised.

  He’d tried that, doing it by jacking off in the shower before taking off to get the shit he needed to make things more comfortable in his space for Delilah.

  His self-induced orgasm was a piss-poor idea. He’d obviously done it visualizing her and it only made it worse.

  Hanging the rod and curtain and installing the door wasn’t helping either, mostly because all he could think about was her naked in the shower, him with her, and what he’d do if he was.

  “Didn’t find that wolf,” Wei said, and Abel focused on him again.

  “What?”

  “Xun and m
e went around, did some asking, on the down low got folks on the lookout, and Chen made calls. So far nothing. He’s vapor.”

  When they moved from one location to the next, there was a reason why they did it the way they did. Understandably, Jian-Li had to come first to find and set up the space she needed for her restaurant and where she wanted to live. She did this always of a mind that Abel would need his space close to her, and she found all of that with Chen helping.

  Chen was friendly, social, and—even built and able to take care of himself in a serious way that anyone could see from just looking at him—he could come off nonthreatening. They never went anywhere without setting up their network, and it was Chen who started that job so they knew everything about their location. Looked into the local politicians and business owners, researched crime rates and who was committing them, and made connections on both sides of the law.

  Xun and Wei came later, laying more groundwork. This was mostly making themselves available, offering services, providing favors, establishing trust, proving themselves capable at a variety of shit, and amassing a fuckload of markers.

  Abel followed last, never the face of anything they did, connecting with humans very minimally. He received his briefings prior to coming but got fully briefed after he arrived.

  But he did the quiet work. The work that needed to get done that no one could see.

  And he did it well.

  All of this was done because he knew that something would happen eventually and they needed to be prepared in any way they could when it did.

  Something had happened, and luckily, they were prepared when it did.

  “After lunch, we’ll all go back out,” Abel declared.

  “You sure that’s a good idea?” Wei asked. “You goin’ with us, I mean. You said you sensed more vamps. If they got your skills, Abel, they can get a lock on you too.”

  “I’ll be careful.”

  “Gets you away from Delilah,” he guessed.

  “And hopefully turns my mind.”

  Wei nodded just as his phone rang.

  But his phone rang at the same time Abel’s phone rang.

  They both tensed, looking into each other’s eyes while grabbing their phones.