15. Soren

My brother chose her over me. Ok, I was being a little dramatic, but he defended her. The woman who captured him, tied him up and god knows what else. Was he smitten with her? He had been acting strangely ever since I rescued him.

I expected him to be mad, livid that he had been taken captive, but Gray was solemn, thoughtful and talked about Blondie like he felt sorry for her or worse, cared. My twin was usually quiet, grumpy and had an endearing hatred towards new people.

Our personalities were day and night. While I was a people person, who loved going out and bringing home a woman or two, Gray was the complete opposite, loathing going out and random hookups. In the almost hundred years we had been alive, I could count how many women he had been with on one hand.

It's one of the reasons my parents treated us so differently and why they put all of their time and effort grooming me to take over the family business. I was more personable, more outgoing and I was quick witted. I was awful at business though and if they had groomed both of us, we would have dominated the business, but my parents didn't like that he wasn"t like me, like us.

Our family was charismatic, we could schmooze the room if we needed to and we were well liked. My family saw Gray as abnormal especially after our 8th birthday when he vehemently disagreed with an obnoxious party they wanted to throw us. He told my parents he didn't want to be a show pony and while I agreed with him, I kept my mouth shut like the good, scared son I was.

It wasn't until I had gotten older that I realized how badly they had treated my twin. The snide comments, the lack of attention they gave him and how they only praised my sister and me. It wasn't until my marriage that I grew sick and tired of them. I wasn't allowed to have my brother as my best man.

To say I was furious was an understatement and when they told me Gray was to stay hidden during the festivities, I had had enough. Thankfully, Gray didn't have to hear about anything since he had left with Ryder to join his band of thievery. They didn't even care that he wasn't at the mansion anymore.

I loved Gray and choosing between our family and him was an easy choice, but the ramifications of my actions still haunted me now. Being ostracized from my family hurt more than I let on. Gray constantly told me to go back, that he was fine, but I wasn't fine without him, and I had always envied his ability to let me go so easily.

Like, right now, he just chose a complete stranger over me. Granted, she was the beautiful stranger I had encountered when I passed through the illusion, and I may or may not have been also enamored by her. I gritted my teeth against the annoyance that threatened to bubble over as he walked away with Blondie. Why would he choose her? Why would he protect her?

Why didn't she choose me?

She smelled delectable and having her pressed up against me made me feel things that I shouldn"t be feeling. Her body was delicious. It made me want to sink my cock into her and have her call out my name. It wasn't the usual reaction I had to women, but it had also been a while since I had gotten laid.

I was horny, that"s why I was having this reaction.

Was Gray pussy-whipped? Did he have Stockholm Syndrome? Did she cast a spell on him? That had to be it.

She was manipulating him. I ran after them hoping to put this nonsense to an end. My strength and speed were slowly coming back, and I was able to climb quickly. I stopped by my bag, and grabbed a few things before heading up the last flight of stairs. A loud growl from that fucking cat was the only indication that I had arrived, and I was grateful to have surprised both of them.

"Remove whatever spell you have on him," I sneered, coming into the room, seeing Gray squatting in front of her.

"Spell?" Gray looked over his shoulder at me.

"She has you under some spell," I snapped, pointing at her, not trusting myself if I looked at her.

"What, you've got to be kidding me," Blondie snapped, I could feel her heated gaze on me.

"Soren." Gray's tone held a hint of anger.

"Don't Soren me," I said, moving toward them.

"Hey, don't do this," Gray said, standing in front of the girl.

"Well, I don't trust her," I snarled.

"I know, but…"

"Nothing after the word but is worth saying," I snapped.

"Soren," he chastised me. "Let's talk about this privately."

"No, she needs to admit and tell us everything," I said, feeling like I was on the edge of losing it.

"Hey, I think we need to take a break," Gray said, looking worried.

"Fine," I said, looking over his shoulder to see hazel eyes staring at me. "But not until she's secured."

"No," Gray snapped, when I reached for her hand, snapping on a cuff and attaching it to the wall with a few words that activated the spell.

"What the hell!" she yelled immediately, grabbing the cuff. trying to pull it off her wrist when she screamed.

The cuff was designed to shock its captive if they tried to take it off.

"Seriously, Soren?" Gray snarled. "Don't touch it, Sunshine. It will hurt you every time you try to take it off."

"Now she can't run," I said, feeling better about her trying to escape and now I felt a little more in control.

"I can't fucking leave, asshole," she snarled at me, lunging at me like she was going to hit me, but the chain wasn't long enough to reach.

"Goddess, what the fuck, Soren?" Gray grabbed my arm pulling me out of the room.

He dragged me down the stairs while I just followed.

"What the fuck is your problem?"

My twin glared at me with so much fury, I wasn't used to being on this side of his anger.

"You have Stockholm's," I replied. "You've clearly developed feelings for her or she has cast a spell on you."

"You really think that?" He looked at me with wide eyes.

"You sided with her. You've been weird about this entire situation," I huffed. "Why aren't you mad?"

"I don't know," he said thoughtfully. "I just have a feeling that?—"

"That you want to stick your dick in her?" I finished his sentence.

He looked at me like I was stupid, but he didn't deny the statement I made.

"So, you're buttering her up so you can fuck her before we leave?" I pulled my arm away from him.

He made a face that implied he was disgusted with my assumption.

"Look, I just think there is more to this situation than you're giving this credit," he said, walking away to sit on a sofa. "I think that she's naive, don't you feel it?"

"What could?—"

The sound of the door opening downstairs made us both silent. Loud stomping traveled up the stairs as Gray and I made ourselves invisible. This was not good and this was exactly why I was worried and wanted to question her. For all we knew, an entire army was on their way back, hell, the powerful witch was probably with them.

Gray disappeared from my view as I used an invisibility charm on myself, standing up against the wall waiting to see who came up those steps. They were slow in their climb, grumbling about being sent on this bullshit run and how maybe they might make it worth their while. They stopped at the level below us, saying they needed to secure Oria before they looked around.

My mind was running, wondering where else in this tower Oria was. The moment they stepped onto the floor I realized it was two of the men we saw leaving the other night. One was a tall blond man with long hair and the other had long dark hair. They walked over to the fridge, opening it like they lived here. They were conversing as to why no one was here to greet them and where the hell was Ria.

They looked like pirates, and smelled disgusting like pirates too, but they didn't seem familiar as the ones I had met because of Merrick.

"Ria!" one of them yelled.

"Where the hell is she?" The dark-haired one walked around the kitchen island to look up the set of stairs that led to the bedrooms. "You don't think she left?"

"That bitch is tied to here, plus without her, that witch has nothing," the blond sneered.

I didn't have to look at my brother to know he was angry at how they were speaking about the girl. I could feel it and it made me angry too.

"That lazy bitch is probably in her bed with that ugly-ass cat," the blond spoke again.

"Maybe we can give her a proper good morning then," the dark-haired one laughed, climbing up the steps.

My instinct was to run after them and I knew Gray was foaming at the mouth to go to this girl, but we couldn't risk losing the upper hand. I saw him moving before the blond climbed the steps and thankfully I intercepted him before he could make a mistake.

"Don't be stupid," I whispered, holding him back.

I could feel his rage boiling and for once he was the illogical one and I was logical. What the fuck was happening?

"Demetri, get the hell out of my room," the girl growled, and I knew it was over.

He ran out of my hold just as we heard her scream. I even grew angry as I shot up the stairs towards Ria.

"You don't know shit," she snapped. "And if you lay one hand on me, I'm fucking telling Tay."

"He wouldn't care," one of them laughed as Gray charged at the man outside of the room. "You think he would care about you?"

My brother was a decent fighter, could usually hold his own, but right now he was a beast, snapping the guy's neck before I could reach the door.

"Fuck you, leave Loki alone," Ria snarled as I entered the room, seeing him crowd her, grabbing her by the throat.

I quickly pulled his hands off of her, twisting to break his arm, before I kicked his legs out from under him. He fell to the ground and the girl was instantly punching him in the face.

"Son of a bitch!" she yelled, pulling her hand against her chest looking up like she wanted to cry.

The guy groaned from the punch she managed to land right on his nose, and I hit him again to knock him out. Since Gray managed to kill the other guy, it might have been a good idea to keep this one alive.

"Are you ok, Sunshine?" Gray rushed into the room, looking over her as she bent down to lift her cat into her arms.

Sunshine? He was giving her a pet name already? I mean she did look like Sunshine and she smiled like it too. She was like a warm fucking summer's day, so it wasn't that the nickname wasn't fitting. A pet name just felt too intimate.

"How the hell did they get in?" She looked down at the man.

"I don't know, we were in the living room," Gray said, sneering at the man on the floor.

"This is bad," she said, looking worried. "Was he the only one?"

"No, there was another man with him," I said.

"Is he knocked out too?" She looked frantic. "He can't get away; something is not right."

"I killed him," Gray said, looking sheepish.

"Shit," she said, stepping back and sitting on a bench at the foot of her bed.

"What's going on, Ria?" I asked, feeling more unsettled.

She looked up at me quickly, then at my twin.

"When those men don't report back to Tay, he's going to either come himself or Mother will return," she said, with a hint of fear in her voice.

I didn't know if that was a threat. or she was warning us of what was to come.