Free Web NovelChapter 111: Chapter 110 : The Brothers Jealousy
The master bedroom was quiet except for Eve’s steady breathing and the subtle crackle of tension in the air.
Damian entered first, his movements controlled but his energy anything but calm. His eyes immediately found Eve....still unconscious, cradled against Silas’s chest, her face peaceful in sleep despite everything that had just happened. The sight should have calmed him. Should have reassured him that she was safe, protected, exactly where she belonged.
Instead, it made his jaw clench with frustration and barely suppressed rage.
Because she shouldn’t need protecting from an assassin who’d infiltrated their estate. Shouldn’t need some stranger....uncle or not.....to stabilize her powers when her own mates should have been able to help her. Shouldn’t be lying there unconscious and burning with fever while they stood around feeling fucking useless.
Damon followed his brother into the room, closing the door quietly behind them. He moved immediately to the chair positioned near the bed.....Silas’s usual watching spot.....and dropped into it with a heaviness that spoke of exhaustion and frustration in equal measure.
For a long moment, none of them spoke. Just sat there in the dim lighting, watching Eve breathe, listening to the silence that felt heavier than it should.
Finally, Damian broke it. He sat on the edge of the bed, careful not to jostle Eve, and looked at Silas. "How is she?"
"She’s fine," Silas answered quietly, his hand still stroking Eve’s hair in soothing repetition. "I can feel it through the bond. She’s okay. Just sleeping. Her body shut down to process everything...the knowledge from her parents, the power from killing that assassin. She needs rest, and when she wakes up, she’ll be stronger for it."
Damian nodded, but his expression remained tight. "We need to talk about this stranger who shows up claiming to be her uncle." freewёbnoνel.com
"He is her uncle," Silas said simply, like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"And you know this how?" Damian challenged, his voice sharp. "Because some impossibly beautiful male walks onto our territory, radiating enough sexual energy to make half our pack moan like they’re in heat, and says ’oh by the way, I’m family’? That’s supposed to be enough for us to just trust him?"
"Don’t you remember what Margaret told us?" Silas asked patiently. "During her deathbed confession? She mentioned the shadow that had been protecting Eve since she was a baby. The watcher in the darkness who kept her safe from threats she never knew existed. That’s him. That’s Raphael."
"And you expect me to believe that?" Damian shot back, his control fracturing slightly. His hands clenched into fists on his thighs. "He looks too young to be her uncle. How old could he possibly be? He could literally pass as her brother.....hell, he could pass as her lover with how beautiful he is. And he had the audacity to tell me to hand my mate over to him. How fucking ridiculous is that?"
Damon made a sound of agreement from the chair. "They are succubi, Damian. Incubi, technically, in his case. They naturally look young and....." His face twisted with something between disgust and grudging acknowledgment. ".....irritatingly handsome. It’s part of what they are. Doesn’t mean we have to like it."
He leaned forward, his elbows on his knees, his expression dark. "I don’t like him near Eve. Don’t like the way he looked at her. Don’t like the energy he radiates. Don’t like that he’s here at all." freeweɓnovēl.coɱ
"Are you seriously jealous of her own uncle right now?" Silas asked, looking between his brothers with disbelief.
"He is still a male," Damon said flatly, his eyes flashing with Rex’s gold. "And according to what I know of their kind, they are allowed to bond or mate with whoever they choose. There are no restrictions on relationships like there are in wolf packs. Which means biologically, genetically, he could see her as a potential mate rather than family."
His voice dropped to a growl. "And he looks too damn much of a threat to me. Too beautiful, too powerful, too comfortable touching our mate. Uncle or not, I don’t trust him."
Silas looked at his elder brothers.....both of them radiating territorial aggression, both clearly working themselves into a possessive fury over a man who’d done nothing but help.....and shook his head in exasperation.
"What are you guys even saying?" he demanded. "She is our mate. She belongs to us the same way we belong to her. Haven’t you seen the way she is connected to us? The way she feeds from us like we’re her means of survival? The way she looks at us like we’re her entire world?"
He adjusted Eve carefully, making sure she was comfortable against his chest before continuing. "The bond we share with her isn’t something that can be threatened by her uncle showing up. It’s soul-deep. Permanent. Unbreakable. You’re both being ridiculous."
"That was until an incubus walked in and claimed to be her relative," Damian countered, his voice hard. "And not just any relative.....her last living relative. You know how big Eve is when it comes to family. She grieved for days over losing Margaret. Sacrificed everything to save her. What do you think she’ll do when she wakes up and discovers she has actual blood family still alive?"
The implication hung heavy in the air. Eve would cling to Raphael. Would want to spend time with him, learn from him, build a relationship with the uncle she’d thought was dead. And while that was completely understandable and reasonable, the territorial part of the brothers....the wolf part....hated the idea of sharing her attention with anyone.
"We are her family," Silas said firmly. "We are her mates, her pack, her home. That doesn’t change just because her uncle showed up."
Damian couldn’t argue with that logic. Didn’t want to admit that Silas was probably right. So he just sat there, jaw clenched, hands fisted, trying to wrestle his possessive instincts into submission.
After a long moment of tense silence, he spoke again. "I want him far away from Eve. As far as possible. At least unless Eve specifically demands to see him. He can stay in the guest suite in the east wing. He doesn’t come to this wing without explicit permission from one of us. He doesn’t approach Eve without supervision. And he sure as hell doesn’t touch her again without all three of us present."
"I agree with that," Damon said immediately, his expression fierce. "We let him stay.....for Eve’s sake, because she’ll want to know her uncle. But we establish boundaries. Clear, explicit boundaries that he doesn’t cross without consequences."
Silas looked at his brothers, saw the genuine concern beneath the territorial posturing, and sighed. "Fine. We can establish boundaries. But you two need to be reasonable about this. He’s not a threat to our bond with Eve. He’s family. And she’s going to need him.....need someone who understands the succubus side of her nature in ways we never can."
"We’ll see about that," Damian muttered, clearly not convinced.
Damon shifted in the chair, a new thought occurring to him. "He is an incubus. Don’t they need to feed? At least we know that we have to feed Eve regularly or she gets weak. Doesn’t the same apply to him?"
Damian’s head snapped around to look at his brother, and slowly.....very slowly.....a wicked smile spread across his face. Like he’d just discovered the perfect solution to a complex problem.
"Come to think of it," he said, his voice taking on a calculating tone, "that’s actually true. Incubi need sexual energy to survive, just like succubi. And he’s been traveling for three days, using power to bypass our wards, stabilizing Eve’s power surge. He must be running on fumes right now."
The smile widened, becoming sharp and dangerous. "Let’s keep him fed, then. We have a lot of female pack members he can fuck his way through. Keep him so busy, so satisfied, so exhausted from feeding that he won’t even remember Eve exists."
"That’s actually brilliant," Damon said, his own expression lighting with malicious satisfaction. "We frame it as hospitality.....’Oh, you must be hungry after your journey, let us provide willing partners for you to feed from.’ He can’t refuse without seeming ungrateful. And while he’s busy draining half our unmated females, he’s not anywhere near our mate."
"Exactly," Damian agreed, clearly pleased with this plan. "We kill two birds with one stone. He gets fed and stays strong.....which Eve will appreciate, so we look considerate. And he’s kept far away from her with plenty of distractions. Everyone wins."
Silas stared at his brothers as they plotted to basically pimp out their pack members to Eve’s uncle, all to keep him away from her. He looked down at Eve sleeping peacefully against his chest, then back at his brothers making elaborate plans to eliminate a perceived threat who had literally been in their territory for less than two hours.
"You guys are being unreasonable," he said flatly.
Damon’s head swiveled toward him, his expression hardening. "We can’t be careless when it comes to Eve. She is our mate, which means she belongs to us. To us, brother. And other males....be it uncle or not....are not allowed to have any thoughts about her. Any desire for her. Any claim on her attention that might diminish what she gives to us."
His voice dropped to a possessive growl. "I don’t care if he’s her uncle, her cousin, her long-lost brother. He’s still a male. Still capable of seeing her as desirable. Still radiating sexual energy that affects everyone around him. And that makes him a threat until proven otherwise."
Silas looked at them both.....saw the genuine territorial fear beneath the aggressive posturing, the vulnerability they’d never admit to feeling.....and softened slightly.
"Don’t forget," he said quietly, looking down at Eve’s peaceful face, "she still has scores to settle with both of you. Don’t add to it by doing something stupid with her uncle that she’ll be furious about when she wakes up."
Damian’s expression shifted, a smile playing at his lips as he clearly replayed a particularly satisfying memory. "I bet she loved every minute of it," he said, his voice dropping to that dark, satisfied tone he got when thinking about sex. "The punishment fucking. The way we made her scream and cry and beg. She might have fainted at the end, but her body came more times than I could count."
"She did," Damon agreed, his own smile turning wicked. "Even when she was sobbing and saying she couldn’t take anymore, her pussy was clenching around our cocks like she never wanted us to stop. Her words said ’no more’ but her body said ’give me everything.’"
"And that’s exactly what we gave her," Damian finished. "Everything. Until she literally couldn’t take anymore and passed out from the intensity."
