Page 49 of Devotion

Thorne rested his palm on my shoulder and gave it a squeeze, drawing me back to the present. “Fall apart later. Sunday needs us now.”

I hadn’t realized my emotions were so unchecked. My control was slipping, and that was the last thing Sunday needed.

“She’s alive. I can sense her from here,” I muttered, staring at the cabin with murderous intent. But even that caused my mind to reel because if this was my brother, how could I kill him?

I’d spent so many years grieving for him, the mere possibility of finding him only to immediately lose him wasuntenable. But if he hurt Sunday, how could I allow him to walk away unscathed? It was an impossible situation. One I wasn’t remotely prepared for.

“What are we waiting for? Let’s bust in there and take the asshole down.” Kingston’s voice was all wolf, his body trembling with the need to fight.

Before we could launch our attack, the front door swung open, and a man I never thought I’d see walked out. I knew it instantly. They’d been right. Callum, my twin, the brother I’d lost so long ago, was standing feet away. But instead of it being a heartfelt reunion, all I saw was hatred burning in his eyes.

“No need to knock, lads. I’ve been waiting for you.” Then he grinned and my blood ran cold. “So good to see you again, brother. I have to admit, I’ve been looking forward to it, though I doubt by the time I’m done with you, you’ll feel the same.”

“Callum? Is that really you?” I spluttered.

“Of course it is. Who else would it be? Are you really that self-important you’d think anyone would go to the trouble of making themselves look like this just to take your whore from you?”

Kingston and Alek both snarled at the insult.

“Careful,” Thorne threatened, his voice silky smooth but no less deadly. “You might wear his face, but we’re not that fond of it. We’d be more than happy to rip it off you.”

“Yeah, one Caleb is plenty.” Kingston meant it as a compliment, but it didn’t land the way he’d intended.

“Give us one reason not to kill you here and now,” Alek said, stepping forward, his body already swelling as his Berserker took hold.

Callum simply smirked and folded his arms across his chest. “For starters, I have your mate. She’s alive at present,but I can change that with a flick of my wrist. I’m very fast, you see.”

“You will not harm a single hair on her head,” I growled, body poised to charge.

Callum winced. “I won’t? Oops, guess I didn’t get the memo. You see, my time spent with Aisling taught me a thing or two, and restraint wasn’t one of them. Patience, however... Well, that I have in spades.”

My blood went icy at Aisling’s name. “What do you mean, Aisling? She’s nothing but ashes.”

“Are we really just going to stand around and talk?” Alek growled, fury deepening his voice.

“He’s got Sunday. We can’t just rush in there and risk her safety,” Thorne answered.

No one bothered to lower their voice. With vampires around, it didn’t make a difference.

In the blink of an eye, Callum was gone and then back, but now he held a bound and gagged Sunday in front of him, a wickedly sharp blade poised right over her womb. “No, you lot can’t risk that, can you? Don’t get any bright ideas. I won’t hesitate to take everything from you with one slash.” He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, his lips at her ear. “Mmm, I can smell your fear, Sunday. I can hear your heartbeat racing, and the little one’s too. Do you think your darling husbands will save you? Caleb let me be taken off that beach. He let me live decades as Aisling’s plaything until I grew into a man and was ready to be one of her army. Then she turned me before abandoning me forhim.

“Perhaps that’s what I’ll do to you. Take you away, keep you locked up until I can change you and send you after him.”

Sunday squirmed in his hold, her throat bobbing as she tried unsuccessfully to respond.

Knowing how fierce my wife was, I could only imagine how colorful and inventive her threats would be.

“Callum, you’re clearly upset with me. So let her go. Let’s deal with this, just the two of us. No one else needs to get hurt.”

Callum chuckled, a dark, low sound that had the hair on the back of my neck standing on end. “But where’s the fun in that? I’ve had decades to imagine this moment, brother. I don’t intend to ruin it by cutting it short early. Don’t you get it, Caleb? I want you to suffer for eternity, just as I did.”

“If it’s suffering you want, you got it the day I lost you. You think I didn’t mourn you, that I don’t still?”

Callum’s lip lifted in a snarl. “You think grief comes anywhere close to what I experienced at her hand? I was tortured for years. Groomed to be her toy and then molded into her soldier. She was everything to me until she decided one was no longer enough. She needed the matching set.”

“Aisling was a sick and twisted monster, Callum. She ruined countless lives. Your vengeance is misplaced. She’s dead and gone.” I thought back to when I learned for myself that the vampire who’d upended my existence was gone. When Rosie recounted the moments that led to her death and subsequent rebirth as a vampire. All the pieces snapped into place. Aisling had terrorized so many of us, all for the sake of power. But she was dead thanks to Ben Mercer, and when I found out, all I felt was relief.

“Yes. I’m well aware. How do you think I escaped? The instant she died, I was able to free myself. That’s when I began putting my plan in motion. You act like you didn’t know I was in her clutches, but that’s a lie, isn’t it, brother? You wanted this life for yourself and the last thing you’dallow to interfere was the one person you used to share everything with.”

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