by Olivia Myers
Drake could understand the conflicting feelings, no matter how much he wanted the brothers not to think twice about what had happened. It was their brother, their identical brother. They were already showing Drake more loyalty than he should hope for.
The hours sitting in the waiting room were mind-numbing to say the least. The only thing Drake could do was sit there and think. He felt like he should be doing something, but his hands were tied.
There were whispers in his mind of wishing that he had never met Isaac. It was hard to think about letting go of everything he had known his mate to be. Drake wished that he had left the hospital that first time without Isaac and simply escaped by himself. There was a good chance that Isaac would’ve survived. And then Isaac would be without all of the other trauma he had endured since he’d met Drake.
But it wasn’t true. As much as Drake wanted to believe he would change things if he could go back in time and do it over, he wouldn’t. Drake would’ve never been able to leave his mate in danger. Even though he had still gotten hurt. There was no way Drake would’ve given up Isaac.
It had been an hour after Drake had seen Isaac. Raider and Rivers had traded off and a blond woman ran through the entrance. She rushed past Drake, and something about her scent was familiar. The woman rushed up to the desk that wasn’t too far from where Drake and Raider were sitting. Drake could hear her asking about Isaac.
Was this the sister Isaac had talked about?
People passing by muffled out the noise of the nurse’s answer, but the blond woman was pointed toward the men. The woman looked over her shoulder in confusion before she rushed over to where they were sitting.
“Who are you?” she asked.
Normally, people were afraid to approach Drake, as he was an intimidating man. This woman, however, was not afraid of him at all as she stood in front of him with her hand cocked on her hip.
“I’m Isaac’s boyfriend,” Drake said. The answer was simple and honest enough.
Her arms shifted from her hip to crossed across her chest. “He never told me that he had a boyfriend.”
Drake shrugged. “We were keeping it quiet.”
The woman’s glare shifted to Raider, who was sitting next to him. “And who are you?”
Raider narrowed his eyes slightly at the woman. “I’m a friend of theirs. I live with Drake.”
Once the men had answered their questions, Isaac’s sister seemed slightly less suspicious of them.
“Well, who is in the room with Isaac? They told me that I couldn’t go and see him because he had a visitor already,” she said.
“My brother is visiting with him now, but I believe he’s almost finished,” Raider said.
Isaac’s sister sighed as she lowered herself in the chair in front of them. “What even happened?”
Drake and Raider glanced at each other simultaneously. What were they supposed to tell a human sister? This was a complicated situation that had no easy answer. What could they tell her that was close enough to the truth, but not too close?
Luckily, Rivers came back into the waiting room. He looked shocked when he saw a woman sitting across from his brother and Drake. He approached slowly.
Isaac’s sister forgot about her question when she realized that it was her turn to see her brother. She stood and went down the hallway without a word.
Rivers took the woman’s chair and looked at the men. “Who was that?”
“Isaac’s sister,” Drake answered.
“That’s awkward,” he muttered. “Who did you tell her we were?”
“I just told her that I was Isaac’s boyfriend and Raider said you two were friends who lived with me,” he said.
“Well, that’s true, I guess,” Rivers mused. “Did she ask anything else?”
Raider nodded, “You came at the right time, because she also asked us what happened and we didn’t know what to say to her.”
Drake clenched his fists. “What I don’t understand, is why did Rowan do it?”
“He loved you,” Rivers said. “I looked through his stuff before the fight behind our house. He was…obsessed. First he just wanted to stop you from wasting your life going after the people who killed our families. And then when Isaac showed up in your life, it pushed him over the edge.”
Drake closed his eyes and rested his head in his hands. “I didn’t see it.”
“None of us did,” Raider said. “None of us did.”
The men fell back into their comfortable silence. Isaac’s sister didn’t come back into the waiting room until visiting hours were over. The men decided to return home for the night and come back in the morning.
The next day Drake, Raider, and Rivers arrived at the hospital thirty minutes before visiting hours started. Isaac’s sister was already in the waiting room. Drake slowly approached the woman, who was typing on her phone. She didn’t look up until Drake was standing directly in front of her.
She didn’t say anything, she simply rose her eyebrows in expectation.
Drake cleared his throat before he spoke to her. “I never did ask what your name was yesterday.”
“Ashley,” she said. “I didn’t ask what yours was either.”
“Drake. And this is Raider and Rivers,” he answered as he gestured to the men behind him respectively.
Ashley gave a collective nod to the group, “Nice to meet you all, I guess. I would’ve preferred it to be under different circumstances.”
Drake nodded. “I would have to agree with you.”
He sat down in the chair that was directly in front of Ashley. Raider and Rivers took a seat on either side of him.
“You also never told me what happened,” Ashley said.
“He was shot,” Drake said. He truly didn’t know what to say to the woman. He wasn’t sure how to give her the answers she needed without revealing too much.
She rolled her eyes at his answer. “I already knew that. How did he get shot?”
The air around them filled with tension. None of the men wanted to offer any more information on the sensitive subject.
“I think it would be best if you wait for your brother to explain the situation to you,” Drake said.
He hated to say the words, because none of them were sure that Isaac was going to make it out of this mess alive. Drake wasn’t sure if Isaac would ever get the chance to explain to his sister what had happened.
Drake pushed the rage down his throat, and it felt like a pill too hard to swallow. He needed to accept that he had done all he could at the point. Drake knew he needed to be calm and collected.
Ashley looked as if she wanted to argue with Drake, but she didn’t know how. She shifted in her seat. “Would you mind if I visited him first?”
Drake shook his head, “Of course not. Take as much time as you need.”
“Thank you,” she whispered as she got out of her seat and left for Isaac’s room.
Ashley spent half of the day with her brother. Drake had taken to pacing around the room to keep him docile. There was nothing he wanted to do more than to rip down the walls until he could see his mate. Still, this was a world where they didn’t understand the bond that Drake had with his mate.
Before Ashley left, she stopped to talk to Drake again.
“He’s awake,” she said with a soft smile.
Drake nodded. “Thank you.”
Drake glanced at the other two men briefly before he left the waiting room. No one else was going to stop Drake from seeing his mate. Drake’s inability to sit still was driving both of them crazy. He walked as fast as his feet would take him without being suspicious.
Isaac was awake.
Did that mean he was going to be okay?
Their eyes met as soon as Drake was in the doorway. Isaac’s eyes welled as soon as he saw Drake.
“Hi,” he whispered.
Drake was instantly at his mate’s bedside. Tears filled his own eyes as he said, “I’m so sorry for what happened, Isaac.”
Isaac was ins
tantly shaking his head. “You have nothing to be sorry for.”
“That’s not true,” Drake said. “I should’ve never brought you into my dangerous world.”
“Then I wouldn’t have you.”
The men didn’t say nothing for most of an hour. They simply held onto each other, lost in their own thoughts.
Eventually, Drake looked up at his mate and said, “By the way, I love you too.”
Isaac gave Drake a loopy grin. “Do you? Or are you just saying that because I almost died?”
Drake shook his head. “No, I truly do love you, Isaac Dylan Bradford.”
“As I love you, Drake Tal Avivender.”
Chapter Twelve
It had been a year since Isaac was shot. The year hadn’t been easy, but Isaac could honestly say that it had been the best year of his life. Luckily, he hadn’t been shot again and everything had been relatively stable.
Drake hadn’t forgiven himself for letting Isaac get shot. Even though in Isaac’s opinion, there was nothing that Drake could’ve done to prevent it. Any time Isaac said that, however, Drake spent the next hour listing every way he thought he could’ve prevented the accident. Isaac had decided to simply let Drake come to his own conclusions. There was no use in arguing. They had spent enough of their time pulling apart rather than coming together.
One morning, Isaac got out of the shower to see Drake waiting for him on the couch. Normally by this hour, Drake was eating breakfast in his office.
“How come you’re not working yet?” Isaac asked as he walked to the closet.
Drake looked over his shoulder and smirked when he saw Isaac was in nothing but a towel. “I just wanted to spend a little extra time with you today.”
This was something new for the two of them. Drake always made time in the evenings and some afternoons for Isaac. Every morning had been the same in the past year.
“I’m sure you did,” Isaac rolled his eyes as he made his way to the closet. However, before he could reach the door, a hand stopped him. Isaac knew by the electricity that flowed from the touch that it was Drake.
“Where are you going?” Drake asked.
“To put clothes on,” Isaac said simply.
Isaac turned around just in time to see Drake give him a devilish smile. “I don’t think so.”
Isaac raised an eyebrow. “And why is that? I have work to do too, you know.”
Drake shrugged. “I think you need to be put in a better mood before you go anywhere.”
Isaac couldn’t help but to laugh. “I think I’m in a good enough mood already. Thank you, though.”
He had made a move for the closet again, but Drake stopped him. The shifter grabbed Isaac around the waist with a growl. He lifted Isaac off of the ground and threw him onto the bed. Isaac laughed at Drake’s antics. It seemed like he really wasn’t going to let him out of the room without pleasuring Isaac first.
As soon as Isaac’s back hit the bed, Drake was on top of him. He kissed along Isaac’s neck and jaw.
Isaac moaned at the feeling and Drake smirked up at him.
“C’mon, let me make you feel good,” he said. Isaac sighed, but the more Drake kept talking, the more reasonable it sounded. “I promise it’ll be quick.”
As soon as Isaac nodded his consent, Drake ripped the towel off of Isaac’s body. The cold morning air nipped at his exposed skin. Drake’s kisses moved lower until his mouth was on Isaac’s cock.
Isaac gasped as he felt Drake’s tongue to dart out and lick the head. Drake’s mouth began working over him. And the shifter was right, it didn’t last long.
After Drake sucked Isaac, it took Isaac a moment to get out of bed and get clothes on for real this time. He would be slightly late for work, but he was his own boss now.
As soon as Isaac stepped into the hallway, Ashley did too.
They started walking together as Ashley smiled up at him. “Good morning.”
Isaac smiled down at his sister. “Good morning. Do you have class today?”
She nodded as they reached the bottom of the stairs.
When Ashley heard that Isaac was in the hospital, she had rushed to his side just like Drake, Raider, and Rivers had. The only person who didn’t come was their mom. Ashley had never met the three men, but she shared visiting time with them without asking any questions. As soon as Isaac was conscious once again, he heard every question she had been holding in. He’d explained everything, except them being shifters. Ashley didn’t find out that piece of information until she was already living in the house with Drake, Isaac, Rivers, and Raider.
She had admitted after Isaac’s confession that she had known something was going on, just not what. Isaac gave her as much of the truth of how he got shot. He didn’t want to hide anything from his sister, but he knew she wouldn’t understand at the moment.
The day that Isaac was released, he had to tell Ashley about his decision to move out. He had spoken to Drake the night before about his conflict, and Drake had immediately insisted that Ashley come to live at the compound with them. As soon as Isaac asked her, she agreed.
Later, when Isaac asked Drake about the decision, Drake simply said that he wanted to see Isaac happy and they needed someone like Ashley in the house.
Ashley had helped everyone in the house heal one way or another. It was like a magical effect she had on everyone she was around.
The two of them ate breakfast and chatted just as they used to back in Isaac’s old apartment. The time came when they both got into their cars and drive to their different destinations.
Isaac had opened his own cancer research clinic, with the help of Drake of course. After everything that had happened, Drake wanted Isaac to quit his job and stay home. Isaac had instantly declined. There was no way that Isaac was ever going to quit his job; his cancer research was too important.
After a lot of discussion and a few fights, the two of them had reached a compromise. As much as Isaac hated to take Drake’s money, the man had insisted it was the only way for them both to be happy.
“Plus,” Drake had said, “it keeps you close to me while you do something that you love.”
Isaac couldn’t say no after that. So they made plans for the perfect research clinic and had it built. Isaac had hired all of his friends who needed a change as well. In the short couple of months that they had been open they had produced results.
That night, Isaac made it home in just enough time to get ready for family dinner with Drake. This was a time that they always reserved for each other. They talked about their day as they prepared to spend the evening with their family.
Every night Isaac was proud to walk down to dinner on Drake’s arm. It was the favorite part of his day. Drake was a king who wasn’t complete without Isaac and he made sure everyone knew it.
Family dinners had started off awkwardly at first. Especially considering that Ashley sat on Isaac’s left, the spot Rowan had sat in since Isaac had come to the house. The first week that Isaac had returned home, not a word was said during dinner. It was awkward, and somehow it had made Isaac feel guilty.
Raider and Rivers hadn’t been sure how to react to Ashley replacing their brother. It wasn’t too long before she won them over, though, just like every other person she had met in her life.
Now dinners were filled with conversation and laughter just as they were always meant to be. Rarely did the group ever feel awkward anymore.
“So, Isaac,” Ashley said as she stuffed her face with tonight’s chicken. “Are you going to give me a summer internship at your fancy research clinic?”
Isaac looked down at his plate and pushed around some of the broccoli before looking up to meet her gaze. “If you are a top applicant, then yes.”
Ashley looked at her brother in shock at the other men around the table laughed at the exchange.
“What do you mean? I’m your sister,” Ashley exclaimed.
Drake spoke up from the head of the table. “If he won’t give you the job, then I will
.”
Isaac turned his eyes upon his mate. “I want her to work for it, not get it handed to her.”
“We all know she’s going to get the job no matter what,” Drake said with a shrug.
Isaac narrowed his eyes. “That’s not the point. Life has no guarantees. I want her to work for the opportunity.”
A smirk appeared on Drake’s face and it was obvious that he was thinking of something else entirely now. “We can have a business meeting later if you would like.”
Isaac rolled his eyes, but he didn’t say anything. Anything he would have said would simply make the situation worse.
After dinner, Drake and Isaac walked back up to their room together. Sometimes Ashley would travel upstairs with them, but today she claimed to have studying to do and decided to head to the library instead.
Once the door was shut behind them, Drake turned to give Isaac a heated look. Isaac knew exactly what was on Drake’s mind.
“Are you going to hire your sister?” Drake asked.
Isaac narrowed his eyes at his mate, “Like I said at dinner, I want her to work for it. It’ll make her a better doctor in the end.”
“I’m pretty sure that you have to listen to me,” Drake mused as he tapped a finger on his chin.
“I’m pretty sure that you can’t make me.”
Drake saw Isaac’s words as some sort of challenge. He quickly strutted forward until their bodies were flush against one another.
“Are you sure about that?” Drake asked.
Before Isaac could think of an answer, Drake quickly captured his lips. The kiss was hot and heavy. Their tongues were soon exploring each other’s mouths and battling for dominance. Drake gathered Isaac into his arms, holding him close.
Without breaking their lip-lock, Drake stripped Isaac of his clothes. Their lips were torn apart as Isaac returned the favor. They stood there, naked, kissing, touching. It was absolute bliss. Isaac wasn’t sure how he had ever survived not having Drake doing devious things to his body, but there was no going back now.
They still didn’t break their embrace as they started to make their way to the bed. Isaac could feel Drake’s excitement pressing against his stomach. He sighed into his mate’s mouth. This was only met with more enthusiasm from Drake at his noise of pleasure.