This man just captured something inside me I didn’t know a man could have. I didn’t know falling happened this fast. I didn’t know rules vanish with this warm rush of feelings. I didn’t know it’d feel this terrifying and tender.
By the time we’re back at our cabins, covered in leaves and laughing, I don’t want to say good night.
But we do.
CHAPTER FIVE
LOCH
“Fuck!”I fall onto my bed, shouting to my ceiling. “I’m falling so fucking in love!”
Mutt jumps on the bed beside me; I don’t give a shit if his paws are dirty. I love my dog, but he can’t talk me off this ledge. There’s only one person who can. Plucking my phone from my back pocket, I call my oldest brother.
“Yeah, man?” Sire answers.
“Got a minute? Or are you praying and shit?”
“I’m conjuring the Lord, yes.” He sounds entertained. “We got a captive in the bunker. Axel wants to cut and salt him; I want his head. What’s your vote?”
I’m unfazed. “You alone?”
“Gimme a minute.”
I hear tortured shouts and clanging metal doors before Sire proclaims, “Alright. Axel’s inside, playing with knives, and I’m out here. What’s going on?”
“I need my brother the priest, not the Bratva prince.”
“Pastor,” he corrects.
“Yeah, yeah, you’re allowed to fuck. I get it, but I need to confess, and you can’t say shit.”
“Oh, this’ll be good.”
“Good? No. I’m in love.”
Sire laughs. “With Alena.”
I jolt up. “How’d you know?”
“Uh, one, because she’s hot. Don’t tell Nash. Two, she’s perfect for you. You both love nature and shit. And three, you’re not supposed to love her, so of course, you do. Forbidden love is in our DNA.”
I scrub my face. “Nash will kill me if I touch her.”
“Yup.”
“Then Axel. Then Mom.”
“Yup, and yup. Mom I’d fear the most.”
“Not helping.”
“Lienotto one another,” Sire quotes scripture, and I roll my eyes. “Or like Mom would say, ‘Don’t piss on my leg and tell me it’s raining.’”
I stress, “Alena’s like a daughter to her. She practically helped Nash raise her after her mom died.”
“Yeah, all of our queens will be like Mom’s daughters. She’s kinda overdue for some. She’s been putting up with our dumb dicks for far too long.”
With six boys in tow, our mom narrowly escaped Russia.
