Her Brother, Her Mate

Flashback: the day prior…..

Safarah POV

“You knew. You f*****g knew, you ungrateful b***h! You knew she was going to run away and you didn’t do anything to stop her!” Fadel kicks my ribs, my face, then grips my neck and lifts me into the air, cutting off my airway. “I showed you mercy, and this is how you thank me for it? This is how you repay my kindness?”

“I don’t know where she is,” I cried, “I didn’t know,” I tried to say, but Fadel, knowing it was a lie, that I did know she was going to run away, squeezes tighter, choking me to the point I can no longer speak.

“You did know, and you helped. You whored yourself out to distract our men. Did you think we wouldn’t find out? They said that was the most willing you have ever been. They knew something was up. You have never freely given yourself to those men like that. You are just a w***e, using your body to carry out your own f*****g agenda. Lucky for you, Zachary still wants you or I would kill you right now for your disloyalty.”

I whimper, unable to do much else. I don’t know how he found out, but from the power radiating from his dark eyes, I have a feeling he sacrificed a lot to get that information. He only has this much power after taking a life. I wonder who had to die for this man to find out the truth.

“Father, you are going to kill her,” Zeki mutters in a bored tone, watching us while leaning against the window overlooking Central Park.

Fadel squeezes one last time, and I know I will have his fingerprints embedded in my skin for a long time after this. A long-term reminder of the consequences of going against him. He tosses me away, and I fall to the ground in a heap, panting and sucking in much needed air.

“Zachary,” he looks at my husband, who is watching me as I struggle on the ground. His hands are flexed and his whole body is rigged, as if he actually was struggling to watch his master abuse me. He doesn’t care. He has never truly cared for me. The only thing he cares about is power, the same as the rest of them. “You will retrieve your daughter for my son. You should have known something was amiss when your wife willingly spread her legs like a w***e. Bring me your daughter or I will kill Safarah.”

Zachary’s jaw tightened, “Hadley won’t willingly come with me. If you let me bring my wife, she will be much more willing.”

“Fine. Use her, though. Threaten Hadley with this woman if you have to. Just bring the girl back to me. You have 48 hours or I will kill Safarah and drag Hadley back here myself. You don’t want me to do that, Zachary. I will ensure the girl can never run again.”

My husband gulps, fear in his eyes. Fear for himself, clearly. He has never truly cared what happened to me or his daughter. We were just pawns to him to grow closer to Fadel.

Zachary comes to help me off the ground, but I jerk out of his hold, struggling to make it to my feet on my own. I don’t want his help. I don’t need it. All my sacrifices are going to be for nothing if these men get their hands on my daughter. I can only pray that Micah is strong enough to keep her safe, because I have no more strength left in me.

~End flashback~

“I have no idea how they came to find out Hadley was here in Miami. I know that they were working with dark magic, sacrificing innocent virgins. Zeki was bringing them to the basement at the hotel every night.”

Micah has a look of disgust on his face, “Killing Sabrina left him with no other choice if he wanted to harness enough power to wield that kind of magic. I even have a hard time using location spells when my reserves are at their max.”

I nodded. Fadel always regretted killing my sister. “He did it out of anger. Sabrina killed his wife when she escaped. Poisoned her. He loved his wife. After her death, he started dealing in the darker arts. He used those of us born without magic to grow and develop his and his follower’s own power. I was one of the luckier ones being given to Zachary. He is a fool, but he never purposefully harmed me. Not with his hands, anyway. He was still told to allow his men assigned to guard Hadley and our home to use me to maintain themselves.”

Micah took a deep, shuddering breath, “I’m sorry I left you all to that fate. I had no idea it would be that bad. I couldn’t leave Vivian, though. She is my mate. My everything. I wish I could have done more to protect our coven before I left.”

“It’s not entirely your fault,” I smiled softly at the man who was once destined to be my brother-in-law and take charge as head of our people. “Fadel made his own choices. You should not be held responsible for those.” I looked at Hadley, nestled in the arms of her two very amiable lovers. Mates is what they called themselves, just like Micah addressed his wife. If Micah had taken and given in to my sister back then, these children would have had a harder time coming together as they are. I miss my sister, but I’m happy for her daughter and the happiness she is now experiencing in her freedom. Our sacrifices were not for nothing.

Hadley POV

Vivian put my Mama in her own suite, and Amanda decided to move to the resort for the time being to stay with her. Just as a precaution. I wanted to spend more time with her, but she was exhausted and needed sleep. The trip here, combined with all the abuse and exertion she experienced the last several days, did her in.

Mitchel and Mark have been all over me since they came back home from their errand. I still had work to do, but instead of allowing me to go back down to my office, Mitchel took me up to our suite, and Mark ran down to retrieve my laptop and folder for me.

I’m now sitting between them in bed, snacking on frozen yogurt and allowing Mitchel to respond back to my emails for me, while Mark makes phone calls from the list I had of things I needed to do. He is currently on the phone with Simone’s company, booking a booze cruise for a bachelor party. He even went the extra mile and hired a couple of dancers to attend the party too, which I was only slightly upset about. In my notes, I had said that the best man wanted to hire strippers, so that wasn’t the issue. The woman who answered his call knew Mark personally, and that’s what I found to be annoying.Property of Nô)(velDr(a)ma.Org.

He was clearly ashamed and embarrassed, so I let it go.

Mitch finishes off the last reply in my inbox, then sets my laptop on the nightstand beside him. “Can we show her now?” he asks his brother, who is scanning my notes for the next item on my agenda.

“Oh, yeah. I almost forgot. The surprise.”

“Forgot what? What surprise?” I asked, furrowing my brows. I never know what to expect from their surprises. It could be something sweet, like bringing me home 4 different kinds of frozen yogurt because they wanted to make sure they got one I liked, or it could be something exasperating, like when they brought me a box full of b**m toys, lots of gag balls, whips, restraints, butt plugs and n****e clamps, all sorts of devices that did not appeal to me at all. I told them if they wanted to use those, then to use them on each other. They got rid of it super fast.

Both brothers shuffle on the bed, taking off their shirts and then flexing their left arms at me. I thought for a moment they were trying to show off their muscles, which were a treat in and of themselves, but then I noticed the saran wrap circling their biceps.

Mark removed his first, then helped Mitchel with his as he was struggling to find the end piece. I examined the design underneath, a smile spreading across my face.

“You got my name tattooed on you?” I softly traced the intricate flower stems, woven together, my name and a heart taking shape in the pattern.

“Do you like it?” Mitch asked, biting his l*p.

“I love it! It’s so pretty.” My fingers traced over the bees on either side of my name, “What are the bees for?”

Mitchel laughs as Mark answers, “That’s us, always buzzing and pestering you, our honey-scented queen.”

“That is so sweet you guys,” I gushed, leaning forward to give both of them a k**s. “What prompted this surprise?”

“Well,” Mark looked at his brother, then back at me, “I know you didn’t like the fact that you couldn’t mark us, so I thought this could be like your mark claiming us. Now there will be a visual reminder to everyone of who we belong to.”

“After we make you our wife, there will be rings on our fingers too. And yours,” Mitchel added with a wiggle of his brows.

“You are asking me to marry you right now?” I laughed.

“Oh, not yet. We’re telling you. You are going to be our wife, but we will still find some mind-blowing way to ask you later,” Mark kissed his mark on my neck.

“You’re ours, baby girl,” Mitchel starts kissing the other side over his own mark, his teeth grazing it, making shivers travel down my spine.

“Prove it,” I whispered in challenge.

They laughed against my skin, the vibrations making my eyes roll to the back of my head and a needy m**n leaving my lips.

“It will be our pleasure.”

True to their words, they proved it to me, over and over again.