by Gower, Hazel
Caveman Instinct Book Three
By Hazel Gower
© 2015 Hazel Gower
All Rights Reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced, copied or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system without written expressed permission from the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination and are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales is purely coincidental.
Edited by Diana Stager Thomas
Cover Design: Sinfully Sweet Designs - https://www.facebook.com/SinfullySweetGraphicDesigns/
Formatting: SK Designs-http://sexykittendesigns.com/
The use of actors, artists, movies, TV shows, and song titles/lyrics throughout this book are done so for storytelling purposes and should in no way be seen as advertisement. Trademark names are used in an editorial fashion with no intention of infringement of the respective owner’s trademark.
This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment. This book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or if it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return it to the seller and please purchase your own copy.
All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior express, written consent of the author.
This book is intended for mature adults only. Contains sexual content and language that may offend some. Suggested reading audience is 18 years or older. I consider this book as Adult Romance. If this isn’t your type of book, then please don’t purchase it.
Thanks to the supposed gypsies, the men in my family become caveman when they find their soulmates. Over the past few years, I’ve watched my cousin’s and uncle drop like flies and make fools of themselves. From observing their stupidity with their women, I thought I would know how to woo and get the love of my life to fall for me when the time came. If the time came. I’d given up on ever finding my “one” until my brother and cousin messed up and I came face to face with my destiny, Divinity Stamon. She is different than anyone I’ve ever met before, so allowing her to do this at her pace and not mine seemed like the perfect plan. But the “caveman” in me isn’t happy with this choice. It is only a matter of time before he takes over and claims her.
It’s hard looking after my younger brother while my dad is deployed. Especially when I get called to the Emergency Department because he’s been in a fight. I never dreamed that our trip to the hospital would bring me face to face with the hottest guy I’d ever seen. If first impressions were anything to go on, I wasn’t impressed with Ryder Silverman. The second meeting wasn’t any better. He is the most annoying and obnoxious man I’ve ever met, and being around alpha military men my whole life, I know annoying men. He thinks he can come into my life and take over. I’m not having it. But his persistence, patience, and his attention to my every – need, is paying off. Maybe cavemen aren’t as bad as I thought.
TITLE PAGE
COPYRIGHT
BLURB
TABLE OF CONTENTS
DEDICATION
FAMILY TREE
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
EPILOGUE
BONUS CHAPTER
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
MORE BOOKS BY HAZEL
EXCEPRT FROM S. VAN HORNE
To all those who serve their country, thank you.
This book is set in Australia. In Australia the legal age to drink, vote, get married and so on is eighteen. The characters speak English Australian, so if you see the word ‘Arse’ instead of ‘Ass’ it is because that’s how we say it in Australia where the book is set. If you find a word you haven’t heard before, look it up or message me I’d be happy to talk to you.
Also, the graphic used for the breaks in the story (see image below) is the gypsy symbol for love.
Thanks for looking and I hope you enjoy reading my book.
Hazel Gower
CLOSING MY EYES, I TOOK a deep breath in and slowly let it out as I told myself not to whack my idiot brother upside that empty damn head of his. “You couldn’t for once in your life just keep your frigging mouth shut?” I grumbled.
Arron shrank down in the emergency room chair, holding the icepack over his broken nose, as I held the other icepack over what I was sure would be a broken wrist.
“I promised Dad I could look after you this time. You’re seventeen years old. He shouldn’t have to hire a bloody nanny to keep you in check while he’s on deployment.”
“I don’t fucking need a nanny, or my sister who’s only four damn years older, to babysit me.” Arron’s fierce dark brown eyes that almost looked black glared at me.
“Ha! Well right now you just shit all over that, because I, your sister, who is only four damn years older than you, had to leave my new job so I could pick my brother up from school, and take him to the emergency room, because he got in a fight at school, with not one guy, but two.” Arron’s cheeks tinged with red. I sighed. Arron wasn’t one to fight people for no reason. He was a good kid and even though he used to hang out with the wrong crowd, he wasn’t one to start fights. “What did you get in a fight over anyway? We haven’t even been here for three months.”
“I hate it here. Why did we have to move again? You could have stayed in Darwin. You’re old enough to be on your own. You finished technical and further education (TAFE) and had your apprenticeship. I would have happily stayed there with you. Do you know how much it sucks to start a new school senior year? Not even the start of the year but with only a couple of months left before you do the High school certificate (HSC)?”
I could have stayed, but my dad needed me. Arron needed me, even though he thought he didn’t. We’d lived in Darwin for five years. The base was a big one and my dad went where the Army told him. I’d finished high school in Darwin and had made some great friends. When Dad told me he was being transferred, he said I could stay and finish my apprenticeship, but I knew he needed me and there were a lot of job options for me in Brisbane. Arron hadn’t wanted to leave and had begged to stay. The transfer, my dad said, couldn’t come at a better time. He hated my brother’s friends. So three months ago, we moved to Brisbane, Queensland. I loved it here straight away. I even had friends who had moved down here to go to Uni or get jobs. There wasn’t much to do in Darwin and there were so many more options here. I’d gotten a job at a hairdresser’s soon after we moved.
“I’m sorry. I know it’s hard to start later in the year and so close to your HSC, but Arron you know why you couldn’t stay.” Arron had been pissed when Dad said we were moving because he didn’t like the choices Arron was making. “Dad wouldn’t have let you stay with me in Darwin anyway. He wants you with him.”
“He’s not even around to care.”
I winced at the
pain and truth in his voice. “He’s only away for four more weeks. Then he’s back for at least six.” Leaning over, I hugged my brother. I loved Arron. He was all I had besides my father. Our parents had been foster children and met at a group home event. When my mother died eight years ago from a brain tumor, my dad fell apart and sank all his energy into his work, rising in the Army ranks and taking any deployment they offered. We had a nanny until I turned eighteen. Then I took over and it became just me and Arron most of the time. “He cares. I care.” I kissed his forehead. “Wanna tell me now why you got into a fight?”
Arron’s face turned bright red and he groaned. “I can’t stand these rich kids. There’s these two Silverman guys, who think their shit doesn’t stink.” His shoulders dropped. “I ignore them most of the time, but um…er… fuck, they saw you this morning when you dropped me off to school and I forgot my bag and you came back and got out of the car. One of them took a frigging photo of you, and well, let’s just say he wasn’t being very respectful.”
Reaching over, I hugged my brother again. “I love you Arron. Thanks for being protective, but I’m a big girl. I can handle a little boy.” I winked at him. “I’m my father’s daughter after all.” Our dad had drilled into us from an early age that we needed to learn how to protect ourselves. I’d taken self-defense class every year from age eight and Arron was an awesome boxer, but he’d never used his skills outside of the ring until today. I even did some boxing classes myself and loved it. Boxing was my relax time. It was also something that helped me to meet and make new friends wherever we moved.
Arron laughed and relaxed back against the chair. “Do you think if Dad hears about this he’ll stop Micky teaching me? He’s one of the things I actually like about moving down here. He reckons I should enter some comps. Says I have a killer right hook.”
Even though my brother held an icepack over his nose, I could see the smile on his face as he talked of his new boxing coach Mitchel, Micky. Arron’s old coach had referred him to Micky and I couldn’t deny that Arron loved his new coach and had improved in leaps and bounds.
“Nah, I won’t tell him. I’d be more worried about Micky finding out you got into a fight. You know his rule. No fighting unless it’s in the ring.”
Arron went white, his eyes went wide and I saw fear. “You don’t think he’d stop training me?”
I shook my head. “Nah. Don’t worry I’ll talk to him.” Arron visibly relaxed. I’d do anything for my brother and he knew he could always count on me. If boxing made Arron happy, I’d do anything to make sure Micky understood what had happened and didn’t kick him out of his program.
Getting comfortable in the chair for what, by the looks of the packed emergency room, was going to be a long wait, I grabbed my iPad, opened my Kindle app, and started reading.
The day couldn’t get any fucking worse. My cousin Richard rang me in the morning to tell me that Bailey, his soul mate and wife, was in labor. That meant Aunt Gillian would be in a mood making sure everything went perfectly for her daughter-in law. If any of us Silvermans had a choice, we would stay away from the maternity ward until the baby was born, but we didn’t. We would all go and show our support. My mother would be the one who had to help deal and listen to Gillian complain when even the tiniest thing didn’t go as planned or she wanted.
The second thing to go wrong with my day was that I was called into the precinct because three people had overdosed and died all in one night and in different places in the city, but all from what looked to be the same drug. My Captain thought I’d be the perfect detective for the case as I’d helped Richard, who had had the problem of people overdosing in his clubs.
But instead of waiting in maternity with the rest of my family, I was standing out the front of the emergency doors at Brisbane hospital with my brother Oakley and cousin Andrew.
Glaring, I slowly counted backwards from ten to calm myself before speaking to the two idiots before me. “Tell me again why the fuck I’m taking you two to the emergency room and not calling mum and Aunty Gillian?”
Oakley winced at my demanding tone, and Andrew stopped before we could go into the emergency department. “He’s in there bro, and the kid is fucking crazy. I mean look what he did to us.”
I was looking, and I was finding it hard not to have a little respect for this kid that they were talking about. My brother had a black eye, he was limping and I’d have bet my next pay check his arm was broken. Andrew didn’t look like he’d fared much better than Oakley. He may even look worse with two black eyes. My brother and cousin had training too, so I knew they were no lightweights. I’d spoken to Philip, their security, on the drive to the hospital and asked why he didn’t step in and help my brother and cousin. He’d told me the guy who’d fought them was just a seventeen-year-old kid, a boy the same age as them. Philip hadn’t said why this kid had beat the shit out of my brother and cousin and that alone had me suspicious.
“I can see what he’s done. Why the hell do you need me with you and not Dad?”
Oakley gazed into the emergency room and mumbled, “Philip is pissed at me and I um…I don’t want Mum or Dad involved in this, especially now Bailey’s in labor.”
“Yeah,” Andrew added. “Can you imagine if I called my mother or even Dad right now? Dad needs to be with Mum or Richard will strangle Mum.”
I groaned because I could just imagine how upset Aunty Gillian would be if for any reason she had to leave Bailey. And if something went wrong she would be unbearable. Aunt Gillian was a handful at the best of times, but I knew right now she would be beyond crazy.
Soulmates, ha. I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. I didn’t believe in the Silverman gypsies’ curse. Well, I hadn’t until it happened to Uncle Carl too. The tale went in the old country, we helped a group of gypsies flee, and for helping them, they gifted us with the ability to know our soulmate. But there are draw backs that they forgot to mention. Like the fact we Silvermans turned into controlling, possessive, domineering men. Basically cavemen. My parents and two uncles had fallen to the curse and this last year my young cousin Stephan and Richard too, but the shock was my uncle Carl. I didn’t believe in the curse either until my family started dropping like flies. My uncle Carl, who had avoided it to the ripe old age of forty-five, in the last ten months had found his soulmate, gotten married and had twins. One of which was a girl. Silvermans didn’t have female children.
Thinking of the supposed curse always pissed me off. I tried not to believe, and I told myself I didn’t, but I couldn’t ever stay with a woman because the stupid ‘curse’ was always there like a frigging whispering temptation telling me the grass is and will be greener on the other side, or once I’ve found my soulmate.
Stomach churning at my thoughts, I returned my focus to the problem before me, my brother and cousin. “Fuck.” I ran my fingers over my head. Not many people messed with a Silverman. We had way too much money and a lot of connections. So my brother and cousin must have done something bad for this kid to do what he’d done. “God damn it, Oakley, what the fuck did you do?”
He avoided my gaze. “I may have taken a picture of his sister and photo shopped images of what I wanted to do to her and mouthed off,” he rushed out.
Reaching over I whacked him upside the head. “You damn idiot.”
“It was just a bit of fun and his sister is hot,” mumbled Andrew.
I turned and whacked Andrew, too. “Get your arses in there now. And delete that shit off all your devices because what you fuckwits did is illegal.” Grabbing the scruff of both their shirts I dragged them through emergency and over to the nurses’ triage.
Before we even got to wait in line for the nurse, I heard the sexiest voice I’d ever heard yell, “Goddamn it Arron, sit your arse down now. Leave the dickheads alone.”
Spinning, I searched for that voice and saw a woman with jet black hair falling to her arse. And what a nice round shapely arse it was. She had her hands on the chest of a tall teenager, who was current
ly staring daggers over my way.
“That the kid that did this to you two?” Both my brother and cousin nodded, but I noticed their gazes didn’t leave the woman’s arse. An urge to beat both of them washed over me at the sight of them staring at what only moments ago I had been staring at. Huh, that was weird. Mentally shaking off the feeling, I gave a glare to both Oakley and Andrew. “Stay in line. I’m going to go over and see if I can smooth things over.”
Without waiting for their reply, I made my way over to the couple. The woman was now quietly talking to the teenager who still hadn’t stopped staring my way. The closer I got the stronger my sense that something wasn’t right, that I wanted to beat the shit out of my brother and cousin for treating the woman the way they had. At thirty-two years old, I knew the need to beat my brother and cousin was stupid. However, the feeling that was running through my veins wasn’t one I had ever had. After taking a few deep breaths, I pushed the feeling aside knowing that I would have to examine it after I finished with this situation.
“I promise if you ignore the dipshits, even though you only have a month or so until HSC, I’ll move you to a new school if you want. One without rich little pricks.”
I stopped just out of reach from them. I was close enough now that a vanilla scent surrounded me instead of the hospital disinfectant. I took in a deep breath of the heavenly scent and almost moaned as my whole body hardened.
“What the fuck do you want?” the teenager snarled.
The vanilla-scented woman spun around to face me and I took a step towards her. Damn, she wasn’t just beautiful, she was stunning. Super long black lashes fluttered, revealing dark brown eyes that looked almost black enough to match her hair. Her nose was straight and perfect with a slight point. Her lips weren’t too full, but they weren’t thin. They were perfect, just like the rest of her. She was a tiny thing, I bet barely five feet tall, with light olive skin and a body to die for. Damn. My heart beat faster than I’d ever felt it beat before. I opened my mouth to reply to the kid, but nothing intelligent came out. “Mine. You’re mine.”