Pieces (Patchwork #1)

by T. Aleo

  “Nothing to tell,” I say, moving past him and reaching for a water. “Just how it is.”

  “And you don’t question it?”

  “Nope,” I lie with another shrug. “I respect my family.”

  Another lie.

  “Ha, liar,” he teases, moving near me and towering over me as his eyes burn into mine. “I bet you fight tooth and nail, wanting your freedom. I bet everyone in that house cringes the moment you step into the room or open your mouth because the fight is coming.”

  Breathless, I am leaning into him, my eyes locked with his. “How do you know that?”

  “Because no one with as much sass as you have, princess, is quiet about their needs. I can only imagine what it’s like to be with you behind closed doors.”

  His eyes are so sexy, his smirk sinful, and the way he said imagine was downright wrong. He does this a lot. Little one-liners that have my heart reeling. “Are you implying something, Killian?”

  He winks.

  I beg myself to keep it together.

  “Me? Never,” he says innocently. “But I bet you’re a screamer.”

  “You dog!” I say, smacking him, and he laughs.

  “While I may—” He stops abruptly and laughs once more. “Don’t act like you don’t like it. I bet all kinds of guys are trying to get with the princess of the von Steins.”

  Looking away, he runs his hand down his face before reaching for the glass of bourbon I’d seen him pour earlier. He says my last name like it’s dirty. Almost like it’s disgusting in his mouth. It’s odd.

  “Do you not like my family?”

  He looks back at me, and I’m surprised I asked. “What gives you that impression?”

  “The way you say von Stein.”

  He shrugs. “Do you even like your family?”

  What a crazy thing to ask! “Of course. I love them.”

  His eyes narrow, his grip on the bar tightening as he looks over at me. “So you like that they steal humans, take their parts for themselves. Hold the formula away from people who need it? Run the Works with their rules, telling everyone what they can and cannot do?” His eyes are dark, not with want or yearning, but with fire. He’s pissed, and I don’t understand.

  Taken aback, I eye him. “What in the hell—”

  Holding his hand up, he sucks in a breath. “Princess, I’m sorry. Got a little carried away there.”

  Swallowing hard, I don’t move. “Why do you care about the humans? If we didn’t steal the blood from them, your family wouldn’t survive.”

  Looking away, he nods. “You’re right,” he says roughly, but even I know he doesn’t believe his words. “But they deserve to live, not to be wasted by your family.”

  “They are not wasted. We only take the ones who are dying—for their parts. Don’t make us seem worse than your family. You guys used to kill your victims, no matter who they were. Without my father’s rules, you’d all be eliminated. He helps.” Holding my gaze, he swallows hard. I don’t understand why I am arguing with him, why this has happened. We were flirting, having a grand ol’ time, but now… Now I’m pissed. “My family does a lot for the community. It wouldn’t be anything without what my father and Samuel have built.”

  His body is tense, his eyes on mine as he towers over me. “Yet, they hold the formula.”

  “What in the hell are you worried about the formula for? You’re immortal!” I finally yell, and I don’t understand why I am so upset. This guy’s opinion doesn’t matter. He’s just some vampire. A sexy, naughty vampire, but he is nothing to me. Why is he riling me up so much?

  Something changes then, and he swallows a breath before looking over at me. Taking a step toward me, his lips curve, his little fangs peeking from under his lips. “Told ya.”

  Bristling with anger, I glare. “Told me what?”

  “That you’re a fighter,” he says as he backs away, sending me a sinful wink.

  “You son of a—”

  “Rebekah.”

  Turning to my right, I see Taegan is there, her eyes full of tears as she leans on the bar. Surprised, I go to her, my eyes wide as I look up at her. “Taegan?”

  With a hushed voice, she leans into me. “Please tell me Oceanus is not coming to the wedding. Please tell me your father is not that cruel.”

  Sucking in a quick breath, I hold her gaze as I shake my head slowly. I hadn’t expected to see her, but I should have known word would get around. Only my father would think this is okay.

  “No, I’m sorry—”

  “Taegan.”

  My brother’s voice is low, but we both hear him. I turn to look at the end of the bar where I hadn’t realized he was sitting with JJ. Rising slowly, he comes toward us in a stride I’m jealous of. Within seconds, he is in front of her, his eyes on her, his back to me. “It’s fine.”

  “No. It’s not.”

  Taking hold of her arm, he pulls her away and out of earshot.

  Unfortunately.

  As I let my shoulders fall, I think about how much I hate all of this. I watch as they speak in hushed tones. Their bodies are drawn together, their eyes so dark and intense and only on each other. They love each other so damn much, and it’s just not fair. Will they ever feel what they feel now with another? How can they walk away from that?

  I don’t think I could.

  Looking away, I suck in a breath. My heart is still pounding because of that stunt Killian pulled. And my brother…he just has my gut in knots. When I glance out to the bar, I see that a group of wolves has just entered.

  Colin is with them.

  With his girlfriend.

  Well, isn’t that just grand.

  His arm is draped over her shoulders, and she…she is gorgeous. Flawless skin, tall, blond hair, and huge blue eyes.

  She’s everything I’m not.

  I swallow hard as his gaze catches mine. I smile, unwilling to allow him to see that it wrecks my heart to see him with her. When his lips curve, I wave awkwardly before looking away, my gaze falling on Killian’s.

  “Mad at me, princess?”

  No. “Yes.”

  He smirks. “Liar.” I glare and he just grins, which of course, makes me grin. “You okay? Drama in the clan?”

  I shrug. “Nothing my perfect brother can’t handle.”

  “Ah, true. Didn’t he date Christiana Kelley for a hot second?”

  I pause. “Did he?”

  He shrugs. “That’s what I heard.”

  Wow, that’s some news. “I’ve only known about Taegan.”

  “Yeah, but before her was Christiana.”

  I eye him. “How do you know that?”

  He looks away, shrugging. “I went to school with them.”

  Oh. Well, that makes sense, I guess. Funny, I hadn’t even known that. If it was even true. How scandalous! My brother’s love for a wolf was one thing, but to be involved with a Kelley? That’s blasphemy. Glancing over to where he stands with his love, I shake my head.

  “So what’s the deal? He can’t be with her because she isn’t his ‘kind’?”

  I go to look over at Killian, not realizing he is beside me. When he leans into me, his arm brushing mine, I want to say that I feel nothing, but that would be the lie of the century.

  “Yes,” I whisper, my body catching fire. “And she is marrying another wolf.”

  He cringes. “Jesus, that is some The Young and the Restless type shit.”

  Confused, I look up at him. “Young and Restless?”

  He waves me off. “Don’t judge me. It’s a soap opera.”

  I giggle. “That’s sad.”

  “Shh, you,” he demands, pointing to the couple. When I glance back at them, I find Taegan is crying. “Why don’t they just run?”

  “Oceanus won’t. He loves my family too much.”

  He shakes his head. “I guess I get it. You’re nothing without family.”

  I don’t know that I agree with that statement, but that’s probably because I’m jaded. My family
isn’t like his, or even Taegan and Colin’s. My family is all about power. And some love.

  “So what’s the deal with the other wolf, Colin? He keeps looking over here.”

  I glance to where Killian is indicating and find he’s right, Colin is staring at me. “We dated for a while.”

  “Ah, did you now?”

  I look over at him, and I’m stunned by the look he’s giving me. Almost as if I slapped him. “Yeah?”

  “And you broke his wee heart, then, by the looks of it.”

  Making a face, I turn to him fully to find him grinning, his earlier hurt look gone. “Wee?”

  “Aren’t they Scottish?” he defends and I giggle.

  “Yeah.”

  “Okay, then. His wee little heart, ya broke it, I’m sure.”

  “You are a little too good at that,” I tease and he smiles. Or better yet, he wrecks me. Those smiles, man, they are lethal. I bet his lips are heaven. Clearing my throat, I look away before I do something stupid. “But, no, I didn’t. My father sent him away.”

  “Aw, that’s so sad,” he says, and I glare up at him.

  “Are you teasing me?”

  “Me?” he asks innocently. “Never.”

  “Rebekah!”

  Looking toward Colin, I’m surprised to find him on the couch. He’s drunk, I know from the way he is wobbling, and the group he’s with is no better. All drunk, having a blast, laughing at their brother. “Rebekah, I love you!”

  I laugh. “Colin, hush. Sit down,” I call, but he shakes his head, coming toward me in six big strides. He takes my hands, and I laugh. “Colin, stop. You’re drunk.”

  I see JJ get up at the end of the bar. Even Oceanus is watching now. “But I love you, Rebekah. Tell me you love me too.”

  “Mate, isn’t that your girlfriend?” Killian asks, and Colin nods.

  “Yes, but I love her,” he stresses, his eyes on me, or maybe he’s falling asleep. I’m not sure. “Please, let’s run away together.”

  I laugh. “All right, Colin. Taegan, come get your brother.”

  “No!” he complains, taking my hands and kissing my palms. “Let’s run away, me and you, forever.”

  “You have a girlfriend, you big idiot,” I laugh, but inside I’m freaking out. How much I wish someone would say that to me and mean it. Take me away from this world and love me, but I know that isn’t the case with Colin. He’s just drunk. He may love me, but he wouldn’t disrespect his family or his name for me.

  “She knows I love ya!” he insists, and I roll my eyes.

  “That’s fine, but JJ, he’ll kill you,” I remind him.

  All of us turn then, looking to JJ, who is nodding slowly. “I will.”

  Colin drops my hands and backs away. “Ya break me heart, Rebekah von Stein. I’ll never love again.”

  I smile, breathless. How I wish that were true. “I’m sorry?”

  “You are a temptress, a tease, a stealer of hearts,” he proclaims as Oceanus grabs him, Taegan taking the other side.

  “All right, friend, let’s go,” Oceanus says, and as they drag him out, I find his girlfriend hasn’t moved.

  Nope, she’s glaring at me.

  “Great, now I have an angry girlfriend staring me down,” I mutter and Killian laughs.

  “Good thing you can take her,” he says with a nod before moving to clean the bar. Letting out a long breath, I can’t believe Colin did that. He’s usually not that dumb; he must have had a lot to drink. I just hate that I wish everything he said were true. That I meant that much to him. To anyone.

  “Hey, don’t let that dude get you down.”

  Glancing up from the sink, I meet Killian’s gaze. “Huh?”

  “I see your face, you’re bummed. But tell me this, did he ever say that stuff to you when he was sober?”

  I shrug. He didn’t, but I’m not admitting that. “We weren’t like that.”

  “Like that?” he scoffs and then laughs. “In other words, no.”

  I hate his smug look. “Whatever.”

  “No, no whatever,” he says, stopping me as I try to pass by him. “Because a smart man, a good man, wouldn’t let you go a day without knowing that he loves you, or that he wants to run away with you. Don’t forget that.”

  His eyes are locked on mine, and my heart is pounding in my chest as he slowly moves backward. “You’re better than that,” he says, his lips curving. “At least, I think so.”

  As I watch him move away, that grin on his face, my stomach does a flip and then a flop before I have to look away.

  To hide my own grin.

  “So you’re a know-it-all, then?” I ask, and Killian looks over his shoulder at me, a smirk on his face. The grin is still on my lips. I can’t hide it. I don’t get it. I really don’t. I know he is untouchable, yet I don’t care one bit.

  Leaning on his forearms, he shrugs. “Not a know-it-all per se, but I know stuff.”

  “Oh, yeah?”

  He grins, his little fangs peeking out at me. Is that it? The unknown of being with a vampire that has me in all kinds of knots?

  “Yeah, you know when you’ve traveled like me, seen the world, you learn a lot.”

  It’s a dig, but I won’t give him the satisfaction of knowing it bothered me. He doesn’t know how much I want to travel, how much I want to blow this popsicle stand, and while I think he’s hot and I may want to sleep with him, I refuse to let him know that. So I roll my eyes. “You don’t know everything. Especially anything about what’s between me and Colin.”

  His eyes are challenging as he leans his hip into the bar. “Your little puppy-dog lover?” he teases and I glare. “Please, I can call that a mile away.”

  I hold his rebellious gaze, hoping that I match it as I stare him down. Clearing his throat, he laughs a little before saying, “I know it probably felt special, and it made your heart gallop and skip and all that other romantic shit, but I can promise you, it wasn’t even kinda real.”

  What in the world? With my face twisted in complete disbelief, I shriek, “How do you know?”

  “Because he’s a moron.”

  “You don’t even know him!”

  “Doesn’t matter. Anyone who screams he loves you while his girl is sitting there isn’t even a man. Probably used you for the hot sex and to get ahead. He’s a dog… Ha, he really is.”

  Well, isn’t he hilarious?

  And whoa, did he say hot sex?

  Breathless, I shake my head. I must have heard him wrong. “You know nothing.”

  So sure of himself, his grin widens, showing all of his fangs and sending shocks between my legs. “Oh, princess, I know a lot.”

  I am losing it, and I don’t lose it. “Stop calling me that,” I spit at him and he laughs.

  “Why? It’s cute and so are you.” His French drawl is as thick as honey as his eyes bore into mine. My heart…it’s pounding in my chest, and I hate how cocky he is. Like he knows everything.

  “Whatever.”

  “Whoa, way to hit me with the comeback. What are you, twelve?”

  “Shut it.”

  He grins. “Don’t get mad because I’m telling you the truth.”

  Why am I attracted to this guy? “For me to be mad would mean your opinion matters, which it doesn’t.” He hasn’t stopped smiling, and I’m sure it’s because he knows I’m lying through my teeth. “And I think it’s funny, you commenting on my life, yet you won’t give me the option to do the same because, oh, yeah, I know nothing.”

  He looks away, that grin still on those naughty lips of his. I want to be annoyed with him. I want to think of him as a jackass.

  But I don’t.

  Shaking his head, he looks up at me through his dark lashes. “Nothing to know.”

  He is all bad boy with a wall firmly in place and no way around. I shouldn’t want to take a bulldozer to the wall. No, I shouldn’t.

  “I beg to differ,” I challenge as I drink in his profile. He really is magnificent. So dark and oh, so sexy. I
almost can’t stare at him for long. He’s like the sun; he starts to make you burn.

  Okay, moving on.

  Swallowing hard, I say, “How do you even know about love? I highly doubt you’ve been in love.”

  He pauses, his eyes boring into mine. “Well, princess, despite your doubts, I have been in love. A long time ago.”

  I bite out, “And?”

  “And I got my heart broken because I had to leave her.”

  I pause. I hadn’t expected him to say that. I thought maybe he was just some player like most of his clan is. The vampires aren’t known for their fidelity, for sure. His comment has thrown me off my game, but I won’t let him know that. If anything, all the sparring I’ve done with my brothers has taught me to always be on the offense, so I’ve got this. “I read you wrong.”

  “Happens.”

  “Probably since you don’t give me much to work with.”

  He has a naughty glint in his eyes. “I mean, princess, if you want something to work with, I can give you something.”

  Ignoring his teasing tone, though it does make my stomach clench, I ask the question that has been bothering me since he brought up Oceanus and Christiana being together. “You say you went to school with my brother, but he doesn’t know you. Or at least he didn’t act like it when we first met you.”

  “I didn’t hang with the cool kids, princess. I was an off in the distance kind of guy,” he says before glancing over at me. “A loner.”

  I find that hard to believe. First, he is gorgeous, and second, he is a vampire. His clan is in your face, wanting everyone to see them. No, he’s lying. But before I can ask anything else, he crosses his arms, his eyes questioning. “Why do you spar with your brothers so much? For your family always wanting peace, seems like they are raising you and your brothers to be warriors.”

  I make a face. Where the hell did that come from? “What?”

  “Oh.” He pauses. “I thought we were trading questions here.”

  “No way.”

  He shrugs. “Oh well, tell me anyway.”

  “There is nothing to tell. We spar because we like to. It’s good for my body, to keep me in shape.”

  He has a deadpan expression. “While, yes, you have a banging body, I’d really like to see those legs uncovered. I find it hard to believe your brothers like beating you up.”