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"You do not get to touch her unless she asks you to," Trenton growled at Quinton.
Quinton stiffened in front of me and I placed my hand on the small of his back, rubbing up and down soothingly. I watched the brothers over Quinton's broad shoulder, hoping they stayed where they were and didn't start a fight here in the middle of the store.
"I don't know who you are," Quinton rumbled in a dangerous voice, "but I want to advise you against concerning yourself with her well-being. She's a member ofmycoven, and I take care of what's mine."
See what I was saying earlier about Quinton's possessiveness? Right there it was in all its glory. And I think only a small part of it had to do with him being one of my boyfriends, and mostly to do with the fact I was a member of his coven and I think he might have been just that possessive of us all.
"She's ours to protect," Simon, very unwisely in my opinion, stated.
"Excuse me?" Damien sneered in all his haughty glory. "She's nothing to you and will remain that way."
Julian and Damien closed ranks, getting closer to Quinton's sides. They were a formidable wall standing before me and what they thought was a threat to me.
My heart warmed in appreciation at the same time I wanted to tell them to stand down, because I really thought there was nothing to worry about when it came to the brothers. Except for maybe some type of strange worship on their parts.
I put my free hand on the small of Damien's back, along his spine. He shifted to the side, moving into Quinton until their arms brushed up against each other. The move made me invisible from my head down to the people who were facing us.
Quickly, so as to stop this from escalating into a fight, I told them about what had happened before they got here, explaining what the brothers had told me about their magical tattoos and wanting to protect me. I left out Adrian's glee and how happy he seemed by these new developments.
Both Quinton and Damien's bodies tensed tighter and tighter with each word out of my mouth until I feared they might snap apart and break.
"I thought that practice died out over the years when females stopped being born to us with magic," Quinton whispered in a shocked voice. "Why does no one know about them?"
Adrian crossed his arms over his chest as he arrogantly cocked an eyebrow at Quinton. "You just said it yourself, the practice died out over the years when females stopped being born to us with magic. There are all but two left who've devoted their lives to protecting the female race, and they're standing in front of you now. Their magic recognized her, it flared to life before leaving them for good. They are tied to her now in a way that will hurt them if you make them stay away from her. They'll be without a coven and will wither away with no purpose in life. You don't want to be responsible for that being someone's life, do you, young Alexander? You're a great deal softer than your father who wouldn't have hesitated to send them away if it served his purpose."
My stomach dropped at the mention of Quinton's father, and it had already been sinking close to rock bottom as I listened to Adrian talk about what Trenton and Simon's lives would be like without me in it.
"It used to be considered quite the honor to have a guard devote their lives to you," Adrian sneered at Quinton. "What makes you think you're so good, your coven so much better than the rest of us, that you can turn your nose up at not one guard, buttwoof them?"
The thing was, I was incredibly uncomfortable with the thought of having two bodyguards or anyone be so focused on me. It felt like a lot of responsibility and a burden I didn't want placed on my shoulders. Then I felt bad for thinking of them as a burden when they clearly didn't see me that way at all.
"How long have they been with the Council?" Julian asked what I thought was a very good question.
I didn't want them hanging around me, but Ireallydidn't want it if they were spies for the Council or had been brainwashed by them.
"They showed up a few months ago," Adrian shared readily. "They claimed to be dreaming about a girl and their father had told them that meant they needed to start looking for her. Apparently, their father died a long time ago and they've been alone in the world since."
Adrian shook his head in what appeared to be genuine sadness. "I don't know when everyone decided the Council was their enemy, but I'll be damned if I'm not going to right that wrong in my lifetime."
I shivered, hoping he was wrong but having a really, really bad feeling that something was coming due to the vow that threaded his tone.
I didn't want him to try and fix anything while I was around, because his version of pretty much everything seemed so very wrong to me.
Adrian locked eyes with me and I felt a shiver for an entirely different reason. The way he looked at me, the heat and lust in his eyes, filled me to the brim with revulsion. He didn't care who I was, what I looked like, or whether or not I was a good person. No, the only thing Adrian really gave a shit about was the fact I had magic and a vagina instead of a dick between my legs. And he wanted me because of it.
Tearing my eyes away from the horrible look in his, I took in Trenton and his younger brother, Simon. Both were older than me and both were strangers to me. There was a naked vulnerability there, and yet a need so strong, it took my breath away. They had no one in this world outside of each other, and they needed me.
I was a sucker for that vulnerability and need. It reminded me a lot of how I had first looked when I had met Tyson for the first time. Man, I'd come a long way since then.
If, as crazy as it sounded, I accepted what they were offering me, by no means did that mean it would have to be anything more than what they had promised. They wanted to guard me, to protect me.
I touched my cheek. My fingertips trailing against my scar. I thought about the cigarettes that one of Vivian's boyfriends put out on my skin like I had been their personal ashtray. The broken bones I'd suffered at Vivian's hands.
All the horrors of my life were suddenly flashing before my eyes in a vibrant display of violence and abuse no one should have been forced to suffer through.
Finding my place in my coven had changed my entire world, for the better, without a doubt.
Could we afford to do the same thing for someone else? We were, after all, a band of abused, messed-up misfits. We fit, we worked, and we loved our family.
