Chapter 17

SEVENTEEN

Braxton

It’s been two days. Two days of doing paperwork and learning that being an Enforcer isn’t all that different from being a cop, and two days of watching Asha battle her inner demons. It’s been painful, to say the least, because I know that look. I understand the way she doesn’t eat unless we tell her to, doesn’t shower unless we remind her to, and doesn’t lay down until we suggest it. The one good thing is that Trouble has been all over her, sensing that she needs him more than I do. So, I took advantage of the connection.

I asked Asha to take him out when he needs to go. I’ve had her come with me to walk him, and even found a nice dog park for her to throw the ball back and forth with him. She doesn’t seem happy when she does it, still looking like a lost child, but at least she seems to come back to us a little. And when Trouble lays with us at night, because she’s still sharing my bed, she often buries her face in his fur and cries.

She doesn’t want us to know she’s crying, so we try to pretend we don’t hear her, no matter how much it breaks both of our hearts. And it definitely breaks both of our hearts. At some point, Max and I will have to discuss her feeding on us, our connection, and figure out what the hell to do about it. But not now. Not when she’s barely functioning.

Rain falls outside. It’s still early but Max and I are dressed and ready, while Asha is still sleeping with Trouble wrapped around her. Max sits at his laptop going over reports. Trying to see if there’s been anything else that might indicate the presence of another Blood Mage. I think in his own way he’s trying to help. Trying to find a pack member to give Asha hope and bring her back.

I don’t know if I should tell him she’ll need more than that.

Max’s phone rings softly, and he instantly silences it and steps outside. But I follow him, and while he casts me a look, he doesn’t tell me to go back inside. We stand under the roof cover, staring out at a rainy parking lot as he answers. “Hello, Max here.”

I can just barely hear a gruff man’s voice on the other line. “He’s ready to join the team. We’ll be sending him out to meet you soon. Did you get his file?”

Max looks irritated. “I got his file and I have no idea why this man would be a good fit for my team. Hell, for any team.”

“Yes, you do. You see his strengths. I’m not asking you to ignore the obvious difficulties you’ll face with him; I’m asking you to carve those strengths into something that will help the Enforcers.”

“Sir, with all due respect–”

“This was me updating you. Not me asking your opinion. Make this team of misfits into the best fucking group of Enforcers. Got it?” The line goes dead, and Max sighs and shoves his phone into his pocket.

“Another team member you didn’t want?” I ask him jokingly.

He looks at me with annoyance. “I never said I didn’t want you on my team. I specifically accepted you on my team, actually.”

“But you didn’t want me here.” It’s not a question, just a statement, because we both know it’s true.

He shakes his head, clearly frustrated. “Braxton, this job is hard. It’s dangerous. I’ve seen a lot of death. I’ve seen small mistakes causing a world of pain and suffering for people. This isn’t what I want for you. This isn’t what I want for anyone under my care.”

And it hits me, the most obvious fucking thing that I’m mad I didn’t realize it before. “And you don’t want anyone under your care to get hurt.” His shocked gaze meets mine. “Like with mom and dad.”

“Fuck,” he mutters, and when he runs his hand through his hair he looks really upset. “I don’t want to talk about that.”

Of course he doesn’t. He was the one who found them. He was the one who saw everything and tried to protect me from it. I was just the one who should’ve been there in the first place. The one who was supposed to come home straight after school. And had I been there… maybe my parents wouldn’t have been attacked. Or maybe between the three of us, we would have been able to fight them back.

Max? Max had been working after school like he was supposed to. So, not only was he doing the right thing and then had to be the one who came home to that, but he blamed himself for not being home earlier. Not walking faster.

He never blamed me. Never. Even though he should have.

“None of that was your fault,” I say.

Max does this half-head-shaking thing he used to do when we were kids, like he’s trying to shake away an idea. “It doesn’t matter. We were luckier than most. We had an aunt and uncle willing to take us in. Our lives continued.”

“It didn’t make it any easier,” I tell him, then decide the hell with it. “And then you lost the Oracle. The woman you spent time guarding. The one you said was like your grandmother.”

Max’s gaze meets mine, and the pain in his eyes hurts my heart. “Why are you talking about all of this? I don’t need to hear it. I’m desperately trying to find another pack member, to give Asha purpose and keep her on the right path. I have to figure out how the hell to bring another Enforcer into this mess and conceal what’s happening with Asha, and I have to figure out my feelings…”

Ah, and that’s another part of it. “You like her.” Max doesn’t respond, but he doesn’t have to. “And I do too.”

His hands curl into fists. “None of this really matters, because she’ll never have either of us. And as Enforcers on a team, we shouldn’t start a relationship. It’s just stupid.”

“It’s still a problem,” I say with a shrug. “But if you want to just give me the green light with her, that’s fine.”

He glares at me.

I lift a brow. “Is that a no?”

“I don’t want to talk about this,” he says stubbornly.

“It’s got to be talked about at some point, and it’s probably better we figure it out than confuse Asha anymore. Because with everything she’s going through, I think she needs an anchor in this storm.”

He draws his shoulders back. “And you think you’re that anchor?”

I go for it. “Maybe. Especially if you don’t even want to be considered for the position.”

He snorts, starts to walk away from me, then comes back. “You know what, I like her, okay? Now what?”

Wow. I probably shouldn’t have played this game of chicken if I didn’t know how it would end, because I really didn’t expect that. I mean, I suspected he liked her. Hell, I knew he did. But that doesn’t mean I can give her up either… something I wasn’t aware of until this moment.

“I like her too,” I say, and we just stare each other down for an awkward moment.

Fighting with other men over a woman? No problem. Fighting my brother over a woman? Problem. I owe this annoying fucker everything. My aunt and uncle weren’t bad people, but they’d chosen to be childfree and only took us in because we had no one else. They gave us a roof over our heads, food, and clothes, but not love. Not the extra things a parent gives their child… but Max gave that to me. He cheered for me at every basketball game, worked harder to make sure I had money for hobbies and friends, and kicked the crap out of anyone who bothered me in school.

He was like my second dad.

I look out at the rain, coming to a decision. “There’s nothing more important than you, Max. You’re the reason I’m here. The reason for everything. The only person I thought about in my dark days, my reason for waking up, for continuing to breathe when I didn’t want to anymore. If you want Asha, you can have her. Not that she’s a thing, but, I mean, I’ll step back. If she wants you, and I think she does, I won’t get in the way.”

“You don’t owe me anything,” Max says, and no one has ever been more wrong than him.

I turn and hit him. I don’t know why, but it catches him off-guard. He hits the ground and stares up at me in shock as he rubs his cheek. My words come out angrier than I ever imagined they could when talking to Max. “I owe you everything, and don’t you forget it you stubborn, noble idiot.”

Max sits up, rubbing his cheek. “I’m not being noble. I never did anything for you I didn’t want to do.”

Reaching my hand down, I help him up, but I pull him so we’re closer. Nose-to-nose. “I like Asha. I feel a connection to her. But I will not take a woman from you. I will not be your opponent with any woman, even her. But you sure as shit better get it together and pursue her, or I’ll hit you again, I swear it.”

Max’s gaze holds mine. “You honestly think I’d take a woman from you either?”

I try to say something, I don’t know what, but it sounds like a fumble of words. “I-I, no, you wouldn’t.”

“Then what do we do?” And he sounds lost. “I mean, if she even wants us.”

Stepping away from him, I frown at the rain. “Pack members often share women. It’s not usually brothers, but sometimes it is.”

Silence. Utter silence.

I turn and look at him, feeling nervous. Honestly, I have no idea if I could form a relationship like this with my brother and a mate, but it’s either this or we both lose her, and that idea makes me feel like someone’s trying to rip my heart out of my chest.

Max looks at me again. “Let’s think about it.”

Okay, not a no. That’s a good thing. I just wish that was the most complicated thing about our blossoming relationship.

“And, she’s the one who slaughtered that guy, right?”

Max’s expression twists. “What do you think?”

“Is she going to keep killing people?”

He shrugs. “Maybe murderers who torture innocent people and keep them imprisoned.”

Hum. Interesting. “I think I could be okay with that.”

“As long as those are her only targets,” Max says, a note of warning in his voice.

“Agreed.”

Then, he sighs. “And we’re going to have to work to make sure the new teammates don’t find out.”

“Teammates? I thought there was just one?” I ask, feeling frustrated.

“Two, but one more for now since he was just released from prison.”

“ Prison ?” I ask, shocked.

He’s about to answer when his phone rings again. Sliding it out of his pocket, he answers, “Hello, Max here.”

The same voice is on the other end. “There’s another sighting of a Blood Mage, and this one is bad…”

Well, fuck. If the other one wasn’t bad, then what are we about to face?