Page 26 of Ensnaring Their Rabbit

“Oh.”Good job, Brynn. Oh.

But the brothers just smirked.

Reeve chucked and bit off a hunk of jerky. “Yeah, oh. We grew up on the predator side of the city and lived primarily in the Becke housing projects, you heard of it?”

I whistled. Of course I’d heard of it. It was one of the government run housing projects that the majority of the shifters lived in. The nice parts were all regulated for the humans, and they packed us in the slums. Becke was infamous for being extremely violent, especially since it was almost exclusively predator shifters that lived there. It was dangerous as fuck and was overrun by gangs. One of the first lessons my mom taught me was to stay well away from the community.

I gave a quick nod, and Reeve continued. “Anyway, our sister Rella started running with one of the sons of the Obsidian pack,” I sucked in a breath. They called themselves a pack, but Obsidian was one of the largest and most dangerous gangs in Ashbrook. Nothing good ever came out of an association with them. “We tried to keep her away from that bullshit,” Reeve went on, “but, teenagers are teenagers and doing the exact opposite of what your older brothers told you was fun.”

Reeve blew out a burst of air, “Anyway, it didn’t take long for us to realize he was knocking her around. She denied it of course, but the signs were there. We knew we had to get her the fuck outta there but getting away from the Obsidian isn’t fucking easy.”

No shit. Especially if your home is in Becke. They ran that place.

“That’s when we got the idea of getting that property away from this fucking place. Our uncle got some connections, and he had been estranged from our family for a while, so no one realized we were in contact with him. We were going to tell Rella we were leaving that week.”

He paused, and I couldn’t help myself, I put down my snacks and crawled into Reeve’s lap. Maybe I should be scared. He was telling me the story of how he killed someone, but I was safe with the twins. He froze in shock before relaxing and wrapping his arms around me. I held out my arms to Riven. “You too.”

He flashed me a crooked smile and joined our cuddle pile, leaning against his brother. Reeve wrapped his other arm around Riven and I squeezed his hand. Whatever they were going to tell me wasn’t gonna change a thing about how I felt about them. That ship had long since sailed.

“What happened?” I prompted when I realized Reeve wasn’t going to speak back up.

“We, um, got a call from Rella. We were both at a job. She was crying, could barely breathe. Her boyfriend attacked her, and I guess it got really bad. She was locked in a bathroom, and I could hear him banging down the door. Thank Goddess he was too fucking high to shift, otherwise we may not have gotten there in time.”

“Riven and I left the job, shifted right in the middle of the fucking street and ran back to our apartment.”

Reeve paused, his voice catching. Riven leaned his head against his brother and picked up the story. “The apartment was completely trashed when we got there, and we…there was blood. A lot of it. The boyfriend, he heard us and turned around. He had a fucking knife in his hand. One that already had Rella’s blood on it, and we lost it. We killed the fucker. Ripped him to fucking shreds. Turned out he found out Rella was pregnant and was going to try and kill her and the baby.”

Goddess. I squeezed both their hands letting them know I was still here. I wasn’t scared. I wasn’t running. “That sounds like self-defense though. How did you end up getting so much time, and at Western?”

Reeve grunted. Clearly this was more of a sensitive subject than the actual murder. “Rella. Her boyfriend’s family has a lot of influence. I don’t know what they said to her, what they threatened her with, but she got on the stand and said that we were the ones attacking her and that her boyfriend was trying to protect her, and we killed him.”

I could hear the sadness and resignation in Reeve’s tone when he talked about it, but it only fueled my anger more. How dare she! They did everything to protect her, and she turned on them like that.

Riven buried his face in my neck and bit down, without fangs. It still settled me, at least a little.

Reeve chuckled, “Our feisty little rabbit. Ready to go to war on our behalf.”

“Well yeah,” I snapped, not loving being teased, “That’s so fucked up. Have you spoken to her at all? Did she ever tell you why?”

“No. But we’re not angry with her anymore. She had to do what was right to protect her baby, sweetness. Even if we got self-defense, we would’ve been locked up for some time. She was on her own. Eighteen years old with a baby on the way. If they threatened her, or offered her protection to lie, I don’t blame her.”

I mean…I could see where they were coming from. I pressed my hand against my stomach. I didn’t feel pregnant, but I was well aware that I could be. What would I do to protect my litter? Pretty much anything.

I still didn’t have to like it, and if I ever met her, I’d likely have some words. Even though my mates could feel my anger through the bond, it was probably best not to bring attention to it. “I’m sorry you went through that.” It wasn’t enough, but it was all I could think of to say.

“Thank you, sweetness. It wasn’t easy but we came to terms with it a while ago.”

I guess they would have to. I couldn’t imagine living with that kind of thing no matter the circumstances.

“So I guess by your reaction you’re not afraid of us?” Riven asked almost sheepishly.

I glanced at him surprised. “What? Of course not. Don’t get me wrong, I know you’re both dangerous fuckers, but you don’t scare me. Besides, if it did happen it would’ve been when you killed that guard during the hunt.” I wasn’t scared then, and I’m definitely not now.

“Fuck, you’re perfect for us, Brynn. Thank you for believing in us.”

Reeve’s words left me a little choked up, so I just buried my face in his chest, hoping they could make sense of the swarm of emotions that I was feeling that was likely overwhelming our brand new bond.

Riven’s arms joined Reeve’s and even with how awful the whole situation was, I felt hope. I was putting my faith in these men, and for the first time in my life I felt I could actually trust someone other than myself.

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