Page 83 of Act of Brotherhood
Vaguely, Garth heard someone speaking to him, but he paid them little mind as he continued to stare at the photo on the computer tablet. It took Garth a moment to realize all the men on the private jet were staring at him.
Boomer lifted a dark brow. “Are you all right? You’re kind of freaking out about Landros’s niece.”
“Landros’s niece? What do you mean? This is Nicolette and her roommate, Clara,” said Garth, still holding the tablet tight. “Nicolette is the woman I was with.”
Edee stood fast. “Garth, are you telling me that your woman and Landros’s niece are the same person?”
He began to shake his head but stopped as he thought about what Nicolette had told him. Her uncle had raised her when her parents died. “No. They can’t be the same. She wasn’t a supernatural. I’d have known. It would have meant my claim on her was true and legit, not something caused by the fucking serum Auberi tampered with!”
Striker stood too. “Fuck. Did you just say you claimed the lass?”
Auberi stared at him, looking lethal. “What do you mean, tampered with? I did nothing to the injection. Well, I did ram the shot into your arm harder than need be, but other than that, I did nothing.”
Garth let the vampire’s words bounce around in his head a second before he felt weak in the knees. Auberi hadn’t screwed with him?
That meant he’d acted out because nature demanded it. Not a serum.
He’d laid claim to Nicolette because it was meant to be. And that meant she wasn’t human. His eyes widened.
Striker grunted. “No one had better ever give me that suppression shite again. That is two alphas it’s taken down in nearly the same manner. That shite should be outlawed, burned, and the recipe destroyed!”
Edee cast him an annoyed look. “Oh, do shut up.”
He closed his mouth for a second, and then looked her up and down seductively.
“Not on your life, buddy,” she said with a haughty look.
Striker grinned more as if he enjoyed the challenge she presented.
Garth lifted the tablet and stared down at Nicolette’s picture. “I didn’t smell Landros on her at all. She should have smelled like him.”
Boomer stiffened. “Garth, James was worried about you when you left. He wondered if there would be side effects that were similar to what Malik suffered years ago. That shit James had you test may very well have blocked your ability to fully sense everything about the woman.”
“Nicolette,” he said softly. “Her name is Nicolette, and the woman next to her is Clara. They’re close. Like sisters.”
Edee’s phone dinged and she withdrew it. “Brooke sent the medical records.”
Rurik raised his hand. “Captain, can we revisit the part about you claiming her? You never mentioned that before.”
Duke eyed him. “No. You left that bit off.”
Auberi snarled. “He better not have claimed her!”
Boomer sighed. “We should have really tied you both to your seats before we took off.”
Edee leaned forward, something he was sure took all of her willpower to do, considering what his twin had put her through. She touched the edge of the tablet in his hand. “She’s very pretty.”
“No,” said Garth straightaway. “She is the single-most exquisite creature I have ever seen in all my years. She is like a Valkyrie on the back of a winged horse, sent from Odin to collect my soul. Being with her was like dying and going to Valhalla. I never wanted to leave her body, or her. I wanted to remain forever there with her.”
Edee offered a sympathetic smile. “Who knew there was a romantic under all that hair and all those weapons I know you have hidden on you?”
He did have a fair number of weapons on him. He always did. At the mention of being romantic, Garth paused. That wasn’t a word that had ever been used in reference to him. He wasn’t sure how he felt about it.
A snarl caught his attention from the other end of the jet. He glanced up to find Auberi being held back by Boomer and Striker.
Malik appeared from the restroom and glanced at Auberi and then Garth.
“What did you do?” he asked of Garth.
