8. ~Mason~

8

~Mason~

The air moved.

I felt it before it connected.

A palm struck my cheek, a stinging pain radiating across my skin, the force of the blow making my head snap to the side.

I staggered from the surprise of it, then swung my head toward Lev. "Did you just fucking bitch-slap me?"

"You're lucky. The way I'm feeling right now, anything more hardcore and I wouldn't be able to stop with how unbelievably pissed I am at you."

"I told you I had to act quickly."

"Not like this!" he roared, getting in my face.

Colt was there just in time, throwing out his hands either side, one to each of us. "Take it down and talk it out. Lev, you were right the first time, anything more hardcore and you won't be able to stop."

This time, Lev didn't simply back down because Colt was there between us.

"You kidnapped a former kidnapping victim! Somebody who's still traumatized by it! Are you fucking serious? What the motherfucking hell was going through your head when you made that decision?"

"The situation was too hot, we needed to get her out of there. And because of what you did, she wasn't speaking to us, so I had to use other methods."

He shoved Colt out of the way, then ran me into one of the many trees lining the driveway of the mountain lodge. "You've hurt her by doing this! You don't get to make the final decision when it comes to her! You don't, Mason! You fucking don't!"

I choked as he wrenched me by my pale-blue Henley shirt and slammed me back against the tree over and over again. "You told me," I rasped. "You told me to make sure I did whatever it took. This was it."

He stilled, his fingers fisted in my shirt.

And then he shocked me as he abruptly released me and staggered back, letting out an awful pained cry that echoed hauntingly through the night.

He collapsed to his knees and hung his head, burying his face in his hands.

"It's ruined… it's all ruined."

Colt and I exchanged an incredulous look.

Levi didn't break down.

Ever.

Even when he was upset or hurt, it came through in rage and reckless actions.

Not… this.

As Colt ran to him and knelt down beside him, emotion clogged my throat at seeing Lev like this.

"It's not ruined," Colt was telling him, as I pushed off the wall, adjusted my shirt, then walked to them.

"It is," Levi uttered, in a broken voice we hadn't heard from him since that day we'd come to see him in the hospital after Roman and his team had rescued him six years ago. But Bree… she brought emotion out in Levi that we'd thought had been long lost. She was doing the same to me as well, she was focusing Colt with the duet, and he'd kept that up with altering the makeup of Mythic Cry and songwriting non-stop.

She was changing everything.

But with everything good, there was usually an element of bad to balance it out.

And this pain because he was feeling things again that weren't just rage and recklessness of his adrenaline junkie ways was the bad side for him.

"You don't understand," he was murmuring as I reached them and stood there as Colt stroked his back, trying to comfort him. "It took so long and everything I had to bring Brianna to me, to draw her close, to get her to trust me. Then with Chloe's revelation that was jeopardized. Now my actions bringing Royce right to our doors. Not telling her that they're even alive, let alone that I was pursuing them this entire time… now Mason doing this and actually kidnapping her… it's fucking destroyed."

I reached down and stroked his hair. "Levi, I won't allow it to be over. I'll fix this. I'll take the blame that's due me and I'll spare you. The rest we can work out."

He looked up at me with pained eyes swimming with emotion. "Why?"

"Why what?"

"Why would you do that?"

"Because you're correct. I shouldn't have made a unilateral decision. Colt was right on. I shouldn't have. I just… the idea of them coming at her and succeeding this time… I panicked."

"You panicked? You? " Colt asked, as shocked as Lev clearly was.

"I did," I confirmed. "I was wrong. I was so fucking wrong. And I'm sorry. Lately… I'm fucking up everywhere. With you coming back, Lev, and starting up Hex again, I saw hope for the first time that I could do it this time, that I could take my father. And it's clouded everything, it's twisted me… that desperation."

"Mason," Colt said, reaching out to me as well and rubbing my shoulder. "You're not infallible, not superhuman, we get it. We'll work on it. Together. "

I nodded sadly and told Levi, "I'm so sorry. I love you, brother."

"I love you too. Both of you." He reached out and took my hand. "But I can't bring it back from this with Brianna. And I just… I can't go back to how it was when I was trying to win her over, before she was in our lives, before I finally had her as mine. I can't return to that emptiness. I should've told her much sooner. I didn't want to hurt her and I didn't think she was ready. But my dad told me that it's not my call to make. I get that now, but it's… it's too fucking late."

"It's not," Colt and I said in unison.

"We'll sort it all out," Colt added.

"No," Lev said, shaking his head. "She'll never forgive me for this."

A shadow fell over the area and a sweet voice rang out.

"It seems like you've already learned your lesson, lovely."

I took her in, her silky, long black hair all disheveled in a sexy, bedhead way, contrasting sharply with the bubblegum-pink robe Colt had wrapped her in as we'd put her to bed in the master suite upstairs when we'd arrived up here a couple of hours ago after I'd gotten that call from Roman Knight telling me that he was on board and reinforcing that we needed to head to Boreas ASAP, that Levi would be sent along too.

I stepped back as she went to Levi and smiled at Colt who rose to his feet to give her some room.

She leaned in and sank her fingers into Levi's hair, then planted a soft kiss on the top of his head. "Nothing is ruined. I'm not happy about what you did, but we'll talk it out."

Levi looked stunned as she helped ease him back to his feet.

He was throwing his arms around her in the next moment and holding her tightly.

I walked away and leaned against the tree Lev had run me into earlier, letting them have their moment that Levi desperately needed.

Colt looked on smiling with relief for him. Always such a sweetheart, no matter what.

After a few moments, they eased apart, and then Bree was glaring at me.

I tensed, ready for her to lay into me.

The way it happened wasn't what I'd been expecting at all, though, as in the next second, the glint of something caught my eye, a moment before she tossed a blade through the air.

It tore into the left sleeve of my shirt and drove into the trunk of the tree.

I jolted and looked to see that it hadn't even scraped the skin of my arm, not even a little.

I didn't get to register much more than that when she stormed toward me, then threw one hell of a punch that had me grunting, my head snapping to the side.

She grasped my jaw. Hard.

"When you wake up for the next few days and see a black eye staring back at you in the mirror, you'll remember your mistake, your fucked-up decision to kidnap me like that. It will sink in, just like it will every time you put on this shirt going forward and find that knife tear in it. Repetition is the key to imprinting on your memory." She yanked the knife free and stepped back, spinning it expertly in her hand. "Don't do anything like that again."

"Jesus," I heard Colt utter.

She caught Levi's eye and nodded. "Yes, this is my dark side. A glimpse into it, anyway." She looked back at me. "You came close to bringing it to the surface when you marked me and I had to retaliate. But kidnapping me, of all fucking things, that really did it." Her attention turned to all of us, eyeing us in turn. "Good thing, huh? Considering what the fuck has happened?"

Before we could get a word out, she called to Colt, "Mind showing me around?"

"Sure," he said, walking to her in a stunned state that matched mine.

"Thanks." She looked out at me, glaring again. "I need time to calm down, then we'll talk."

With that, she took off with Colt at her side, already starting to talk her ear off about the history of the place, and the amenities we had here.

"Jesus," I breathed, slumping back against the tree.

Levi came to me and inspected my shirt. "Damn, her accuracy is on point. Pun intended." He eyed me curiously. "Didn't know she had that in her, did you?"

"And you did," I realized from his tampered down reaction to it. "You seriously didn't think to tell me that the woman we're falling for is a human weapon?"

"I figured you wouldn't take it so well. You know, pretty much the way you're taking it now?"

I scrubbed my hand over my face. "Actually, with what we're up against, her unleashing this part of her couldn't have come at a better time."

Levi wrapped his arm around me. "Come. Let's get you some ice for that eye."

"Lev—"

"We'll figure it out, brother. It's okay. Like you told me, it'll all be okay."

Things had shifted.

Because of her.

Because of us coming together.

And as antagonistic as they currently were because of certain decisions made, I still actually believed that for the first time in so long that things actually would be okay.