Broken Pieces

by Toni Aleo

  Almost like a crown.

  People oohed and aahed as she passed, bowing to her and her beauty. I was at the end of the hall but I saw her clearly, and I knew my mouth was hanging open. Not that I cared. She was magnificent. I watched as her father took her hand, kissing the back of it before turning her and showing her off to the rest of the clan. Everyone cheered, hooted, and hollered for her, but I stood there, completely engrossed in her.

  I don’t know if she saw me or felt me staring, but as they turned for my side of the room to cheer for her, her eyes locked with mine and I couldn’t move. Couldn’t form a word. Couldn’t make myself smile, nothing. I stood there as she drank me in, her eyes darkening before she turned to her father, kissing his cheek, and he started his speech.

  But I didn’t hear a word, not when her eyes met mine again.

  It was like seeing each other for the very first time.

  Breathing wasn’t an option, but when she started for me, only to be stopped by a person I assumed was an admirer or whatever, I realized she probably hadn’t even been looking at me. Though it had felt like she was, why would she? This was her world, the wolves and their traditions. Not only was I not a part of it, being an outsider, but I knew what the rules were.

  And she couldn’t be mine.

  No matter how much I wanted her.

  Deflated and maybe even a little broken, I decided it was time to leave.

  I turned, ready to leave and never look back, but glad I was able to get my last look. My last memory of the beautiful Taegan Conner. But then a hand slid into mine, a soft one with fingers that laced with mine, stopping me. Looking over my shoulder, I met the bear head since I was so tall, but when I looked down, Taegan was grinning up at me.

  “Still stalking me I see, von Stein?”

  “Me? Never,” I said, trying to play it off. But maybe I had become a stalker. And what a beautiful creature to stalk. “Why? Was there an opening for the job?”

  Her lips quirked. “Unfortunately, no. But there is an opening for the first dance.”

  My heart stopped. Everything did. All I saw was her. “Are you asking?”

  She scoffed. “This is my party, ya see, and I’m the big deal around here.”

  “I did see that. Mighty fine kill you have there.”

  She grinned proudly, running her hands down the front of her fur. I took notice that there was no ring on her finger, nothing binding her to another. “My Herb? Yes, he was an awesome grizzly, ya see. Took me almost an hour to take him down. I got an awesome bite on my belly from him.”

  I wanted to kill the bear ten times over for hurting her. “I’d love to see that sometime.”

  Her lips pursed. “I’m sure you would, which is why you should ask me to dance. Never know what can happen by the end of the night.”

  I almost choked on my tongue. “It would be a pleasure to have the first dance with you, Taegan Conner. If you’ll have me.”

  Her eyes fell shut a bit as our hands locked. I wasn’t even sure how or when I moved, but I knew I had with the way her lips curved. “I’d love to have you, Oceanus von Stein.”

  While she may have meant to sound innocent—and truly, her words weren’t even suggestive—her eyes were seductive. Breathless, I smiled. “You can have me any way you’d like me.”

  Leaning in, her brows waggled a bit. “Promise?”

  “I promise.”

  That’s when it started. We danced. All night. We laughed. We drank. We kissed under the night sky, her body pressed against mine and my heart becoming even more hers.

  Her father didn’t say anything, but when my father found out, he said enough for both of them. He forbade it, told me it wasn’t worth it, that I was wasting my time.

  It is against the code, Oceanus. Don’t disappoint me.

  I want to say I complied. That I did what was expected of me, that I respected my family and my father, but I didn’t. Instead, we met in secret. We made love anywhere we could. I told her I loved her, and she told me the same. I knew I was playing with fire, that it could end badly for me, but it didn’t. We’ve made it work these last four years, and I just know my time is coming.

  She’ll be my queen.

  As our laughter subsides, I cuddle her closer, moving my nose against hers…until she stops all of a sudden. I watch as her nose twitches, then her eyes darken, before she sits up quickly, her arm coming across to hold her breasts. “Jonas is at the door.”

  I grin, amazed by her talents, before I look toward the door as a knock comes.

  “Yeah?”

  My brother pauses and then asks, “Osh, are you coming down for dinner?”

  Bringing Taegan down to me, I wrap my arms around her and kiss her forehead. “Not hungry for food.”

  She laughs quietly against my neck as Jonas says, “Rebekah is asking for you.”

  I stiffen against Taegan as she looks up at me, her voice a whisper. “I have to go anyway.”

  I swallowed hard and then nod. “Yeah, I’m coming.”

  But I don’t move.

  “How is Rebekah? Her surgery go well?”

  I suck in a breath as I nod, heavy with worry for my sister who has just been given brand-new legs. Not at her request, though. Father said she needed new ones, and while I didn’t agree, Rebekah got her new legs. “Her legs are working, thank God, but I don’t know how much more she’ll take.”

  “Yeah?”

  “Yeah, she’s getting fed up with it all.”

  “Poor thing,” she whispers, and I know she means it.

  She knows the truth about Rebekah, even though no one is to know. But Taegan is my love, and I trust her with my life. Tipping her head back, I kiss her earnestly, our legs tangling together as her hands come up to hold my face. “I don’t want you to leave,” I whisper against her lips.

  “Do ya ever?”

  I smile against her lips, her nose pressing into mine. “Never.”

  “One day, I won’t have to,” she says, patting my chest before kissing me once more. As our lips move together, I can’t wait for that day to come. I’m pretty sure I’d never leave our bedroom. I’d be with her every second.

  “That day can’t come fast enough.”

  “That’s the darn truth,” she laughs, pulling back. “But I’ll wait.”

  “For me?”

  Coming back to me, she straddles my body and wraps her arms around my neck, almost choking me. “Only you.”

  “It might be a bit longer. My father is resistant to letting me be in control.”

  “Hasn’t he always been? But it’s fine, our day is coming,” she whispers against my lips.

  “I hope so.”

  “No hope, it will. I won’t agree to marriage with anyone because I want to marry you.”

  A rueful look covers my face. “Only because your sisters married the last two. Someone will come, Tae, and your father will force you.”

  “I’ll tell them to fuck off. I am Taegan Conner, the princess of Clan Conner, I don’t marry but for love. I’m not like Colin, I’m not betrothed, and my father won’t force me. He loves me too much, wants me to be happy. So, no worries.”

  I laugh. “I worry all the time.”

  Leaning down, she kisses my nose. “I’m yours, Osh.”

  Holding her face, I kiss her nose right back. My time is running out, and I’m aware of this. I have to stay on my father. I have to get control so that I can marry this beautiful and stunning creature. “I don’t deserve you, my love.”

  “Well, you only get me,” she says simply, tapping my chest again before rolling off the bed and pulling her hair up, her naked body glowing with marks of our lovemaking. The bear bite she had spoken of that night taunts me from her side. The scar is jagged and, to some, horrid, but I am made of scars, so it doesn’t bother me at all.

  I think she is lovely.

  “I only want you,” I call to her, and she grins back to me.

  “Good,” she says. And then, without much warning, she
transforms right before my eyes into a wolf. Now, I know it’s crazy to say that my girlfriend is by far the prettiest wolf I’ve ever seen, but she is. Her fur is such a gorgeous shade of blond with a light red tint. Then she has those ice-blue eyes that always pierce my soul.

  She comes to the bed, and I sit up as she nuzzles my hands. I kiss her head as she whines in my hold. “Be safe, my love.” Looking up at me, she licks my jaw. “I love you.”

  Another lick to my jaw and then she’s gone, out the window.

  When I hear her howl, though, I can’t help but grin.

  She makes me nervous.

  She isn’t the little infant I remember holding. Or even the toddler or young child who chased me around, begging to play with my knife. No, she’s an adult now. She is beautiful, with long, dark hair that she wears pulled back or in a knot on top of her head. Today, it’s in that knot. Her eyes—one blue, one green—are dark, a determined look on her face, and her brows are pulled together as her top lip curls a bit. She’s out for blood.

  But that’s my sister, Rebekah von Stein, always out for blood.

  My sister isn’t for the faint of heart, but I couldn’t love her any more than I do. As she watches me, I stand on guard. She may be a good foot shorter than me, she may even weigh a hundred pounds less, but my dear sister is strong. Very strong. She isn’t a regular girl, and just like my brothers and me, she is made with all the parts that make her stronger. Her new addition is a pair of legs from a award-winning triathlete who had passed in drowning accident. Or at least, that’s what we were told.

  Not that she asked. No, my sister is very kindhearted. While she can kick the hell out of any man, she doesn’t like that we use humans for parts. I know it’s a way to live for my family, that it keeps us strong, that we need their parts to survive for years to come, but it bothers Rebekah. Which I find to be a very sweet trait in my sister.

  Not that I’d ever tell her that.

  As I watch her, I see that she is still a little weak on her legs, which I will use to my advantage. She’s not at full strength, she probably shouldn’t even be sparring with us, but you don’t tell Rebekah no. She’ll bitch you to death and do what she wants anyway. It annoys my brothers, even her guard, JJ, and definitely my father, but I sort of understand it.

  While we all can go and do what we please, Rebekah can’t. She isn’t allowed to leave, isn’t allowed to be a regular girl, because she is on lockdown. She is constantly watched, always has a guard. I know she hates it, but it’s to protect her. So are the countless experiments she undergoes and hates. She has to, to stay alive. She could be killed at any moment because, unlike the rest of the family, the formula for immortality didn’t work on her. It scares me. I know she can die at any moment, and I can’t imagine that happening. She is my little sister, my responsibility, but I understand her hostility, her anger. Because if I were a pincushion to my father, along with the fact I couldn’t get laid when I wanted, I’d be pissed too. But she has no choice.

  It’s that or death.

  It scares me, though, that one day, if my father doesn’t find a formula that works with her body, she’ll choose death.

  And that just can’t happen. So I’ll listen, I’ll be patient, and above all, I’ll love her.

  “Nice legs, Rebekah,” my brother Jonas teases. He and our younger brother, Cyrus, stand together, both their arms crossed over their bare chests, their brown hair wildly askew. They almost look like twins, but they are almost two years apart.

  Cyrus scoffs as Rebekah glares, her eyes never leaving mine.

  “Fuck off, Jo,” she seethes, her hands out as we circle each other. She’s sensitive about her legs, hates them, and I get it.

  Who wants man legs as a chick?

  Grinning at her, I say, “I’ll go easy, Rebekah.”

  Her eyes flicker with anger, but I know she knows I’m just kidding. I won’t go easy. I’ll give her all I’ve got, and I know she’ll do the same.

  She stretches her neck, and her eyes are full of fortitude as she says, “Don’t need to. I’ve been training.”

  “What? You were supposed to take it easy,” Cyrus complains from the side, and that’s because she can kick his ass with her pinkie. My little brother isn’t much of a fighter—a lover, yes, since he’d rather sit on his ass and smoke the wacky tobacky than train to protect his family. In a way, I guess he doesn’t need to. With Jonas and me, both of us strong and big presences, he’s fine being in the background. He’ll also never be king. We are too close together in age for him ever to need to reign. No, he’ll be expected to marry, make some babies, and work at whatever pleases him. So his laziness isn’t surprising to me. Jonas, though, there isn’t a lazy bone in his body. He wants to be the king, not enough so to kill me off, but enough that he is wooing every leader’s daughter in other Patchwork clans all over the world for the chance to rule that clan. He’ll leave us one day, against my father’s will.

  If Father had his way, his children would never leave.

  “When am I ever still?” she asks innocently, stealing my attention back, and I shake my head. Glancing to her guard, our friend JJ, he too is shaking his head in frustration. She drives us all insane. She was under strict orders to take it easy until she was healed, but I don’t know what I really expected. Like she said, she can’t sit still, she has to be moving, and if someone tells her to sit, she’s up and running. A rebel, my sister is, and it scares me. One day, she’ll be sick of it all, and I don’t know what will happen. She can’t run, they’ll catch her, so that leaves killing herself. That alone has my stomach dropping to the floor. No, that can’t be an option. Father is working on a formula; she’ll be fine, and then she can live the way she wants.

  At least, I hope so.

  “Plus, I gotta stay strong to whoop your asses.”

  I groan. She’s never kicked my ass and she knows it, but she’s a cocky little shit. Guess growing up with three older brothers, she was bound to be.

  As she hops on the balls of her feet, I can’t help but smile. While she is strong and maybe to some scary, she’s just adorable to me. I want to let her win, but that’s not how I roll. Have to take down my sister once again.

  “Well, bring it, Rebekah. Don’t leave me waiting,” I tease her, and she grins. An evil grin that should scare a man, but it only makes me laugh.

  “All right, Osh. Let’s go.”

  She takes a step just as I do, my hands coming out for her. But unfortunately, she’s faster, batting my hands away and swinging her leg into my ribs. I don’t even feel it, though. Her hits are like nothing more than an itch, and I know that frustrates her. She wants to take me down, she wants me to feel the pain she does when I hit her, but I don’t—and I won’t.

  The joys of not really being able to feel much of your body, since a lot of it isn’t even mine.

  We dance for a second, and when she gets too close, I see my chance, backhanding her. She doesn’t even flinch, throwing her leg into my ribs, and I know she wants me to grab it. She wants an easy takedown, but I won’t give it to her. Instead, I swing at her, but she dodges me, slamming her fist into my chest and then my jaw. Quick little shit, and while I want to laugh, I can’t because soon we are battling. While I’m fast, she’s faster, using her size as an advantage. But when my fist lands another hit to her face, I see the tears and then she is backing away.

  I know if I coddle her, she’ll kick me in the balls, so I laugh. “Aw, did that hurt?”

  I kind of wish I had coddled her because within seconds, her face turns red and then she is running at me, her foot coming toward my face. Reaching out, I take her foot, ready to flip her upside down, but she quickly flips up, wrapping her other leg around my neck. Panicking because I see the takedown coming, I let go of her leg to throw her off me, but she wraps the other one around me quickly, using the force of her upper body to flip me over onto the mat. Next thing I know, I’m landing hard against the mat as my brothers and JJ holler out in surprise.
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  I would say I’m impressed, but that will have to be later. Now, I have to show this girl who is boss. I take her by the ankles, knowing she isn’t strong enough to hold them together tightly, and I easily separate them as I sit up and her eyes widen in shock. She thought she had me. Throwing her body to the mat, I dig my knee into her throat. Breathless, I say, “Done.”

  “No!” she yells defiantly as she swings at me, unable to reach me. Her face is turning red, and I want her to give in, but I won’t.

  Out of the corner of my eye, I see JJ come off the wall, his voice filling the room. “Oceanus, that’s enough.”

  I don’t let up, though. I wait, my eyes pleading with her as her face starts to turn redder and redder. Finally, she taps my knee, and I go up to my feet with ease before lifting her up. Kissing her temple, I say, “Almost had me. Surprised me, for sure.”

  She’s pouting as she gasps for breath, but she does smile a little. “I wanted to beat you.”

  “Yeah, but you won’t,” I remind her and she rolls her eyes. “But you could easily take out Jonas and Cyrus.”

  “Hey!” they complain, and I just smile, kissing her once more.

  “Proud of you.”

  She beams up at me, and I can tell that made her happy. She hates losing to me, but knowing I’m proud keeps her coming at me. I love that about her. Before she can speak, though, our father’s voice fills the room.

  “Your legs are still weak. Give it time, and you can take him down. But those hits are lacking. Maybe we should look into a new pair of arms? Bigger ones. Like Oceanus or Jonas.”

  All four of us turn, and I hear Rebekah sigh in annoyance as Cyrus complains, “Or better yet, can I get some arms since I’m so weak and all?”