Her Brother, Her Mate

2 days later….

Zeki POV

Getting off the plane in this horrible state yesterday, too green and too wet, my anger boiled in the balmy, sticky heat. How can the air possibly hold this much moisture? It’s like breathing in water, almost suffocating. I feel like I’m drowning from the humidity.

This is all getting a bit tiring. I knew she didn’t like me, but that never mattered. Her likes and her interests were never my concern. She was property. Made for nothing but breeding and f*****g, and to grow my magic so I could one day take my father’s place as the head of our coven.

When Zachary called to inform us that Micah Meyers was the one protecting Hadley, my father booked us on the next flight out, knowing Zachary would never be any match for Micah. Father hated Micah. He had a grudge against the man for decades due to his own inferiority. Everything my father wanted had always come so easy for his rival.

When father took over the coven in Micah’s place, he was given Sabrina, Hadley’s mother, to help him grow and be the strongest leader he could be. Sabrina was still pining after her lost fiance, though, and gave my father a hard time. It made Father’s hate for Micah grow exponentially until the day that she killed my mother and ran away; running back to the man who had abandoned her years prior.

She owed us her daughter. She took my mother. Her daughter’s life was owed to me. A life for a life. If her daughter was the reason she took my mother from me, from my father, then giving us Hadley was the only fair compensation.

Zachary, the fool, still cherished his daughter in his own way. I should have taken Hadley from him years ago, but it was out of consideration to him that my father allowed her to wait. He even tried to warm her up to the idea, not wanting her to run the way her mother did. Not having his seer weakened my father considerably. He had to resort to darker means to acquire the power it took to stay at the top. I didn’t mind getting power this way. It suited me.

Virgin girls, with their vitality and innocence, were delicious to devour when I needed a boost. It pissed me off to think about Hadley giving hers to a couple of werewolves. That was a pleasure meant for me. We have been scoping the resort where she is now living and working at for the last 24 hours, and the two dogs are always all over her, never giving her a moment without one of them. Never leaving her vulnerable.

That’s okay, I’ve come up with other ways to get her on her own. I just need the bait.

I watch from my car as the cute little front desk girl Hadley always stops and talks to, exits the building, staring down at her phone. I see the way the young girl stares at all the younger male patrons of the establishment. She will be an easy target, but an effective one.

I circle the block, parking far down the street, then exit my car, unbutton the top few buttons of my fitted dress shirt, placing my sunglasses on before tucking my hand into my pant pocket. This will be a piece of cake.

I stride down the sidewalk, acting uninterested as women around start to check me out and openly gawk. I love this superior feeling I have over weak women like them. I’m coming from the opposite way of the girl, walking straight towards her as she stares down at her phone, shoving my shoulder into hers and knocking her down.

“Oh, my. I’m so, so sorry,” I fawned over her, picking her up and righting her clothes, dusting her off, making sure to accidentally let my fingers brush over areas I know will make her more sensitive. “I don’t know how I didn’t see such a beautiful woman as yourself coming towards me,” I offered her my best crooked smile, hooking her in.

The girl is not as cute close up as she is from far away, but that doesn’t matter. I don’t actually want to sleep with her. I mean, if it happens, oh well, but I just need to get her alone for now.

She is stunned for a few seconds, staring back at me, then shakes her head and starts apologizing to me. “I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have been staring down at my phone while walking. I was on my way to the bus stop and was just mechanically walking,” she sputters out words at an alarmingly fast rate. Great. I’m kidnapping a chatty one. I’m going to have to knock her out quickly once I get her alone.

I put my hand to her mouth, cutting off her words, causing her to look up at me, l**t clearly on her face as my fingers brushed against her lips. She probably thinks this is some love story or soap opera bullshit. Girls eat this s**t up thanks to movies and reels on social media. I’m the walking embodiment of s*x and desire, and I’m channeling all of that into this one unworthy girl right now. She would not be able to resist.

“Instead of the bus, could I offer you a ride to apologize for my rude behavior? Maybe dinner?” I made sure to brush her lips one final time with my thumb before moving my sunglasses down my nose, looking at her from over the lenses. She whimpers, clutching her phone to her chest, nodding her head enthusiastically.

Done deal.

Hadley POV

The next day….

“Hey, have you talked to Jenny lately?” Ralph pops his head into my office to ask, making a face when he sees Mitchel is stubbornly holding me in his lap while I work. I have tried to move about 10 times already, but the big baby pouts every time I start to, and it is so hard saying no to his puppy dog stare.

I shook my head at Ralph, feeling my cheeks heat in embarrassment. This is so unprofessional.

“Her mom keeps calling. She never made it home yesterday and she hasn’t showed up today for work. Everyone is starting to worry.”

“Did you try calling her?” Mitchel asked, making both me and Ralph roll our eyes.

“Golly gee, how did that thought never occur to me, or any of us?” Ralph huffs, turning to leave. “Let me know if you hear anything,” he calls back to me.

“How rude,” Mitchel scrunches his face, a small smirk playing on his lips before he begins pouting again, burying his face against my shoulder, “He was mean to me. My feelings are so hurt.”

“You’re fine.” My voice is flat, not playing his little game.

“No one loves me,” he jutted his l*p out, nuzzling into my neck.

“That sucks,” I mutter, looking over the event schedule in front of me, jotting down notes of who I have left to call for the ones coming up this weekend.

“So cold. So, so cold,” Mitchel sighs.

“Speaking of cold, I could use a cold brew,” I set my notepad down, “Want to go get a coffee with me?”Ccontent © exclusive by Nô/vel(D)ra/ma.Org.

“Yes! Goddess, yes. I’m so f*****g bored of this office.”

“Hey, you could have gone with Mark to that warrior training thing. You chose to stay.”

“One of us had to. You know that.”

“I would have been fine. Your dad and Amanda are here, and you said your brother offered to send a couple of warriors to help out with security.”

“He’s still going to. Mark is bringing them back with him. It sounds like you wanted to get rid of me, though. Do you really not love me? Do you not like spending time with me?”

“I like working,” I boop him on the nose, “And I don’t get much work done when I’m with you.”

He playfully bites my finger, making me giggle as we walk out of the lobby towards the coffee shop. My work phone starts ringing right before we enter. Mitchel k****s my head, telling me he will get my coffee while I answer it.

“Hello?” I answered as he got in the line. I turned to sit in one of the chairs outside the shop to wait for him.

“Hadley?” A shaky woman’s voice responds, “Hadley, is this you?”

“Who?…. Jenny? Jenny, is that you?”

She starts crying, then the line fills with her faint scream, like she is being gagged. “Jenny? Jenny?”

“Hello my dear fiance,” Zeki’s sickeningly silky voice cuts through the receiver, “Oh, how I have missed you. Well, not really missed. Your pain in the a*s escape has been a headache to deal with.”

“Why do you have Jenny? Where are you?” I asked. He has Jenny. That is why she never went home or came into work. He’s in Miami. He’s here to try and get me back.

“Is that dog of yours still distracted at the coffee shop?”

“How did you-”

“Don’t worry about that now. Is he?”

I turned to look, and he was. He was looking at the barista as she took his order. “Yes.”

“Good. You better hurry, Hadley. Exit the resort now and get into the car parked right outside the doors. The silver Lexus with dark tinted windows. It will be pulling up in 10 seconds. You have that long to get in the vehicle, or this girl’s b***d will be on your hands.”

“But, Zeki I-”

“9…8…7…”

Jenny’s strangled screams filled the line again, my body jerking into action before I made the conscious decision to comply with his demands, my legs carrying me towards the front doors.

“You won’t get me, Zeki. Even if I get in that car, my mates-”

“4…3….2….”

The silver Lexus comes to an abrupt stop right when I reach the sidewalk’s edge, the back door opening, and hands reaching out and gripping mine, pulling me into the vehicle.

“One,” Zeki smiles wickedly at me, inserting a needle into my neck as the driver tosses Jenny’s restrained body into the busy street. My world turns black. My last thoughts are calling out to my mates to save me.