Chapter 51

Inever thought I would fall in love.

It’s not like I didn’t want to—I did—but I just didn’t believe that love was for me. Who could possibly care about someone as twisted and fucked up as me?

Yeah, I know how to smile—and I have a pretty damn good one, if I do say so myself—but that doesn’t mean I’m happy. That smile obscures a darkness and pain lurking beneath the surface. I’m a perfectly wrapped gift of barbed wire and explosives. One wrong move and boom. We’re both dead.

But then fucking Nina came into my life like a burst of sunlight. Her presence was impossible to ignore, impossible to resist. After living in darkness for so long, I craved the light.

Somehow, the beautiful girl was able to crawl not only under my skin, but my brother’s as well. She saw the demons in both of us, but instead of fighting them, she wrapped them in a comforting, warm embrace.

“How was it?” I ask now, lazily taking a drag of a cigarette. I pass it to Cain, and bliss contorts his features as he breathes in deeply.

We’re sitting in the throne room, a cold draft blowing in from the propped opened doors. Nina is currently with Damien, and Bronson is still with his family. I have no idea where Kai and Rion are—probably stabbing people, those deranged shits.

“Fucking amazing,” he declares, a dopey fucking smile on his face. “She was everything I imagined and more.”

“I’m kind of jealous, you know,” I admit, taking the cigarette back from him. “I always thought I would be the first twin to make love to Bambi. Not your ugly ass.”

“Make love.” Cain snorts, but once again, a dreamy, wistful smile erupts on his face. “We’ve turned into lovesick fools.”

“So, you do?” When he turns towards me, I crush the butt of the cigarette out on the cement. “Love her, I mean.”

I thought that realization would hurt me, gut me, but I only feel at peace. All I have ever wanted was for my brother to find love and be loved in return. If it just so happens to be with the same girl as me? No problem. Nina is more than capable of loving both of us equally, unconditionally. Her love has no bounds.

“That’s actually what I came to talk to you about,” he admits, scrubbing a hand across the top of his disheveled blond hair. I eye him curiously, waiting for him to gather his thoughts. “I love her, but I know you do too. And I suspect she loves both of us—as well as the others—equally.” He takes a deep breath, eyes closing, before he drops his head back against the wall with a thunk. “What the fuck are we doing, Abel? Are we okay with this? Sharing her?”

I remain silent as I think through his words. It’s what I always do, despite people’s preconceived notions concerning me.

“Can you imagine life without her?” I ask Cain at last. There’s no judgment in my tone, just curiosity. His eyes snap open, the green so similar to my own peering back at me like jade gemstones.

“What?” His voice is raspy, hoarse, and he has to clear his throat before he can speak again. “What do you mean?”

“I mean”—I tap my fingers against my leg—“that I can’t imagine a life without her in it. I love her, and I accept all the parts of her, even the parts that love other men. But that’s my decision and mine alone. I don’t expect you to as well. So, I want you to ask yourself: can you imagine life without her? Would you rather have a piece of her, a piece of her heart, or nothing at all?”

Cain gapes at me wordlessly before his mouth snaps closed. He turns his attention towards his hands in his lap.

I dread his answer. Can I still be with Nina, knowing my brother loves her and can’t have her? Would that make me selfish? I know the answer to that thought even before it formulates completely.

Yes.

I can’t give Nina up.

All I know for certain is that a part of me will die if my brother chooses to leave her.

Cain releases a heavy breath, lifting his eyes once more. He pierces me with a look amassed with so much wisdom and longing, I feel the ache physically in my chest.

“Yes. I love her. I don’t care that she loves you and the other assholes as well. I want to be with her and only her, for as long as she’ll have me.”

The tension in the room lessens infinitesimally at his declaration. It’s like we’re both finally able to breathe again.

“How about we steal her from Damien and prove our devotion to her?” I suggest with a waggle of my eyebrows. It’s not often that Cain and I share girls. Hell, the last time it happened was back at the sex club. But now, I can’t think about anything else but enjoying our girl together. Seeing her flushed cheeks, demure smile, and cloudy eyes. Hearing her whimpers and moans of pleasure…

My cock jumps in my pants, instantly hardening. Fuck, just the thought of Bambi has me hard as rock.

“I call back!” Cain says instantly, and I curse.

“Dammit! Rock, paper, scissors for it,” I plead, placing my fist on my hand and holding them both out.

“Nope. I called it first.” Cain tilts his chin up stubbornly, a wicked glint in his mossy eyes.

“You suck.”

“Yeah, her clit?—”

Whatever foul-mouthed thing Cain was going to say is interrupted by Bronson’s appearance in the entrance of the throne room. His eyes are wild, feral, flickering from one face to another but never sticking. A dusting of goose bumps erupts on my flesh.

“Everything okay, Wolf-man?” I ask just as Cain demands, “Where’s Nina?”

Ignoring us both, he turns towards the empty throne situated in the center of the room. His brows furrow. “Where’s Kai? I need to speak to him immediately.”

“You’re acting kind of weird, Bron Bron.” I hesitantly take a step closer to him. You have to be careful when approaching an out-of-control wolf; you never know when they might bite.

“Seriously, what’s going on?” Cain jumps to his feet and crosses his arms over his chest. Unlike me, he has no problem confronting the growly shadow wolf.

“Nina with Damien?” Bronson rumbles.

My brother and I exchange a long, eloquent look. A twin look. You know the type.

“Is this about Nina?” Cain asks slowly, warily.

Bronson growls sharply but grabs a folder out from under his shirt.

Exchanging another look with my brother, I grab the proffered folder and begin to flip through it. A lot of medical gibberish and terminology glares back at me. I do recognize Nina’s name on the top of the form: Nina Doe, the name the court gave her when she revealed she didn’t have a last name.

“I don’t know what I’m looking at,” I admit, feeling like an idiot. School and I never really went together. However, Cain had been training to be a doctor before Boris and his thugs took us. He had been able to skip three grades, graduating high school at only fifteen. He completed nursing school when he was seventeen, the same year Boris…

I sweep those thoughts beneath the metaphorical rug.

Not today, Satan. Not today.

I hand the papers to my brother and watch as his eyes change and harden the longer he stares at them. Horror douses his serene expression like a bucket of frigid water. His hands tremble slightly.

“Are you sure?” he whispers to Bronson.

The shadow wolf nods once. “My sister was able to hack the hospital records.”

“Somebody better tell me what the fuck is going on before I get ragey. You really don’t want to see me like that,” I say somewhat petulantly. I hate being left in the dark, especially about the people I love.

“It’s Nina’s testing from the hospital, after she escaped the Compound,” Cain states shakily.

“Someone tried to have these sealed,” Bronson adds. “I have no doubt that everyone involved with her case had a mysterious, life-threatening accident shortly after she was discharged.”

My head swarms like a nest of bees have been released, the incessant buzzing causing a headache to form behind my eyes. What the hell are they going on about?

Noticing my rising anger, Cain hurries to elaborate. “The paperwork shows tests from the hospital. Including blood tests.” He takes another deep breath. “They found angel blood in her body.”

“Angel blood?” I ask, not understanding the issue. Shouldn’t they be thrilled? “So, she’s an angel?”

Damien will get a kick out of this.

Now that I think of it, I can totally see Nina with a halo and white, fluffy wings. Her mannerisms are certainly angelic.

I wonder if it hurt…when she fell from heaven.

Yeah, I have a whole arsenal of cheesy angel jokes at my disposal.

I can’t help but smile softly. For her entire life, Nina hasn’t known who or what she is. Now, she finally has answers. There are other angels in the prison, people we can reach out to and ask to train her?—

Cain’s and Bronson’s somber expressions cut my thoughts off mid-rant.

“What?” I volley my gaze from one to the other.

“They found something else as well, something they didn’t understand,” Cain begins. “Demon blood.”

“Demon blood,” I repeat slowly, carefully. “So, she’s a hybrid?”

Hybrids were uncommon in our world, but not unheard of. It still doesn’t explain their reactions.

“A mage tested her blood. A special test, one that most people wouldn’t normally think to do,” Bronson takes over. The burly shifter sounds more scared than I’ve ever heard before. That immediately puts me on edge. If Tall, Large, and Scary is anxious, then I should probably prepare to shit my pants. “Apparently, the demon blood has been added. It’s not natural.”

“Not natural…” There’s a strange roaring in my ears, drowning out their words. All I can see is Nina’s heart-shaped face, shy smile, and fluttery lashes.

Not natural.

Not natural.

Not natural.

“Someone added the demon blood to her over time…sort of like a transfusion. The mage also found alternations to her DNA,” Cain recites expressionlessly.

Vomit churns in my stomach. “Are you saying what I think you’re saying?”

I’m gonna be sick.

“Someone fucked with Nina’s genetic makeup,” Bronson growls, eyes flashing amber. “They modified her blood to make her into a hybrid.” Another growl reverberates through his body as he struggles to hold on to his wolf’s leash. “The Compound isn’t just a prison, but a lab. A fucking lab.”

I barely make it to the trash can before I vomit up my breakfast.