Imprinted Tattoos (The Lost One's Book 1) Page 10

  At a loss for what to do I start humming the triplet’s lullaby and thankfully, slowly his breathing returns to normal. Once his breathing is steady again, I continue.

  "Fortunately I never told him where I lived, I didn't want to expose him to my mother" I snort, "I've avoided going back to the club as much as possible and tonight was the first time I've run into him, apparently he wants me back" I roll my eyes.

  The guys once again share a look of worsening dread.

  "What's his name Titch?" Maverick questions.

  "Brent."

  "Son of a mother fucking cock faced bitch!" Kai explodes, causing me to jump. “Sorry Beautiful Girl." He apologises, wincing.

  "Why were you all there?" I question.

  They all look to Levi as if to gage how much they can tell me.

  "To explain that, we will have to explain what we are really doing here and our jobs. Please understand that it is of the upmost importance that you keep what you are about to hear to yourself."

  I nod in agreement.

  "We aren't actually high school students. We are here undercover to try to get evidence of the arms and drug deals going on between the students at your school and Brent."

  He pauses to let what he's said sink in.

  "I knew he was a bit shady but guns and drugs? Are you sure?" I ask, knowing deep down that it's true but feeling the need to confirm it anyway.

  Levi nods.

  "Tonight, we were staking out the club to see if we could gather any information. In particular, information on his ex-girlfriend who we thought might be willing to help us."

  "I don't know anything really but if I can help I will."

  "It might just be something as simple as recognising one of his associates."

  I nod in understanding before yawning.

  "I think for now we've had enough we all know the basics and can talk more in the morning. It's late and we all need to relax for a bit."

  "Will you stay here beautiful?" Kai asks hopefully.

  We dropped off a couple of bottles of liquor to my mother earlier and that should last her till morning and distract her enough that she won’t look for me.

  "Would that be ok?" I glance around at the others. I want to make sure that none of the other guys mind me crashing the night.

  "Of course, Sweetheart" Hunter smiles.

  "I'll set the guest room up for you Little Star" Jax gently moves my legs off his lap. He catches my eye as he starts to get up and I can't help but get sucked into his stunning sapphire blue eyes. For a moment, the rest of the world falls away, silence envelopes me.

  A sense of pure peace and happiness flows through me. Jax's eyes sparkle at me with a warmth that I've only recently noticed being directed towards me. I watch transfixed as he slowly lifts his hand up to my cheek. My heart starts to pound in a excitement.

  As soon as his strong hand is a centimetre away from me, the Sparks start dancing through my body causing me to inhale sharply. Jax's eyes darken turning his gem coloured blue eyes into a deep navy. His warm hand gently cups my cheek causing the Sparks to leap to attention. They immediately rush towards my sternum yet again.

  Just like with Kai the feelings have increased exponentially.

  Jax brings his other hand up to my cheek and I wrap my arms around his neck, suddenly realising that I've somehow made it onto his lap and off of Kai’s, my legs either side of his thighs. I have no idea how I managed to get here but I find myself uncaring as Jax removes one of his hands from my face causing me to make a small noise of protest, that under normal circumstances would make me incredibly embarrassed.

  My protest is cut short as soon as he wraps one of his strong arms around my waist pulling my chest flush with his. Once again, the Sparks, that had become a pleasant hum in the background suddenly ignite stronger than ever. In unison Jax and I sharply inhale, my hips involuntarily buck forward causing him to bury his head into my neck, his breathing ragged.

  Without any warning he starts peppering kisses from my collarbone to just behind my ear sending a toe-curling shudder through me. I pull his head away from my neck making him growl deeply in his chest as I tug his hair. I lean forward, frustrated that the only place I can reach is the underside of his lightly stubbled jaw. I slowly place light kisses along his strong jaw line, loving the fact that this act alone can cause his breathing to become even more ragged.

  I'm suddenly plucked off of Jax’s lap, a quick glance behind me shows that I've been moved by Maverick. Jax instantly stands, fists clenched ready to do anything to get me back in his arms. Before he can launch himself at Maverick, who is still having to hold me as I strain to get back to Jax, Kai and Hunter each grab hold of an arm.

  The only way I can describe this incredible need is as an unrelenting thirst that won't be quenched until he is touching me once again.

  Just like with Kai, it's almost painful.

  Kai lets go of Jax’s arm waiting until Levi takes his place and then places himself in front of Jax blocking his view of me. Maverick turns me around so he's cradling me to his chest. Later without all the heightened emotions I will realise that he was incredibly careful not to touch my skin with his. I can feel the others standing around us, tense but trusting Kai to know how to deal with it. The faith these men have in each other always astounds me.

  "I know how you feel! Trust me I know. You need to try and think logically, you are about to attack your brother. Take a deep breath and walk away" Kai explains sternly.

  I hear Jax do as Kai suggests and take a deep breath, murmur a quiet apology to Maverick, who I feel nod just above my head and then walk off. The room seems to simultaneously release a sigh of relief.

  "Come on Titch, let's get you to bed. You can borrow one of my shirts to sleep in."

  The others all mutter quiet good nights giving me brief hugs and smiles. I try to smile back as convincingly as I can but I'm not sure they buy it, Kai in particular gives me a questioning look but I can't look at any of them for too long, too scared to see any jealousy or repulsed looks. How can I like, not just one but all of them equally and worse how could I lose myself and practically dry hump two of them on two separate occasions in front of the other men I am falling for?

  I'm a terrible person, they must hate me!

  I know I'm on the verge of breaking down, I just need to make it to my room where I can be alone then I can breakdown in solitude.

  Maverick leads me down the hall in silence, self-imposed by me. We stop briefly at his room and as much as I want to look around and see what his personal space is like, I keep my eyes trained on the floor too ashamed of my actions to indulge in my curiosity. It's hardly going to matter; they'll be thinking of ways to gently distance themselves from me as soon as I'm out of hearing range. He comes back out and hands me a soft faded grey t-shirt. I have the sudden urge to bring it to my nose and inhale deeply. I catch myself just as my hands are lifting.

  As we arrive at my room for the night Maverick wraps me in a tight bear hug.

  "Sweet dreams Titch. See you in the morning."

  I nod slightly and give him a tiny smile. As I’m closing the door, I see a worried expression adorn his features, almost as if he can read my spiralling thoughts.

  I wait until I hear his footsteps fade down the hallway and back towards the living room before I quickly strip off my workout clothes, walking past the bed and pulling open one of the doors on the opposite side of them. I get it right the first time and without taking any details in, I stumble towards the shower and turn it up to almost too hot. I step under the spray and start to wash the stress of the last few hours away. Within minutes my tears are mixing in with the water cascading down the drain.

  The years of living with my mother have taught me how to cry silently, and in this moment I’m grateful for that, I don’t want the guys to hear me. With the tears still slowly making tracks down my cheeks, I dry myself carelessly before slipping on Maverick's shirt, inhaling the scent of him. The comfort I feel from th
e scent of his shirt, makes the guilt churning in my stomach bubble up and a fresh wave of tears overtakes me.

  I climb into the large bed, barely able to appreciate the sheer luxuriousness of it compared to my own. My thoughts torture and drown me. My last thought before a nightmare riddled sleep finally takes me, is that I simply can't lose my men.

  I wouldn't survive it.

  Maverick

  Leaving Titch in her room I'm consumed by a sense of foreboding.

  Something is incredibly wrong with our Sage.

  Walking back into the living room, all of the guys are sitting around in what would to an outsider appear to be, completely at ease postures. However, I know these men as well as I know myself and it’s easy to tell they're all tense from the small indicators, only someone who really knows them would notice.

  Levi’s eyes are tight at the edges, on his otherwise relaxed face.

  Hunter’s fists are occasionally tightening before relaxing.

  There’s a tightness around Jax's mouth.

  Kai's fingers are tapping lightly against his thigh.

  "Something is seriously wrong with Titch" I tell them siting down next to Kai.

  "What? Why?" Hunter questions worriedly sitting forward.

  "I know why" Kai states.

  We all look at him expectantly waiting for him to explain.

  "Think about it, guys" he looks at us waiting for us to catch on, "she doesn't know what we know.”

  “She doesn't know that we’re ok with her having feelings for all of us" I continue on from him, sitting forward in my seat, "from her point of view she's just gotten intimate with two guys from our group in front of the others." I say taking a deep breath. "As far as she's concerned, she's expecting us to be jealous of each other and angry with her. She's probably got the worst scenarios running through her mind at the moment." I scrub my hand down my face hating the kind of things she must be thinking and wanting to fix if immediately.

  "How do we fix it? I mean I'm not over the moon to be witnessing her like that with one of you but I'm not angry, jealous or anything similar" Hunter explains, and we all nod in agreement.

  "The only thing that will fix it, is if we tell her everything. Everything about the book and Soulmates. We could be wrong; she might not have the tattoo and we might just all have feelings for her. Either way I want to move forward, to pursue a relationship with her. We all need to be in agreement though. Are we?" Levi asks, his gaze landing on each of us to judge our reactions to his words for himself.

  We all glance around at each other and voice our agreement. Either way she means the world to each of us and we will not lose her now.

  "Good, we will tell her tomorrow morning after breakfast. We need to tell her soon or she's going to run before we can explain it to her." Levi adds as soon as we’ve agreed.

  A sombre mood permeates the living room. The thought of losing her causes an actual physical pain in my chest right over my heart. From the way the others are grasping at their chests they can feel it too. Although I feel better knowing that we can tell her soon, that she will soon understand everything that has been going on and why we feel like we do or at least why we think, we feel like we do. I still have a foreboding feeling, like something bad is going to happen and I can’t for the life of me figure out what it is.

  Suddenly an ear-piercing scream rings out throughout the house. Immediately all of us have our guns out and are racing on silent feet towards Sage's room. Our training kicks in and with Levi in the lead using hand signals to direct us, we silently enter the room all of us expecting the worst. As soon as we enter, we secure the room and I'm thankful that there's isn't an intruder, but my relief instantly evaporates as my eyes land on Sage crying and thrashing around in the bed.

  I rush forward.

  "She's having a nightmare we can't wake her, it's dangerous but we can try to comfort her" Levi explains.

  I lie down next to her on top of the covers. Levi does the same on her other side. Kai, Hunter and Jax all crowd around the bottom of the bed and on the large, padded bench that's placed there and lay their hands-on Sage through the covers. As soon as we are all touching her, even through the covers, she calms down completely.

  "Don't leave me, don't make me go. Mine." she whispers brokenly.

  "We won't, Darling" Levi replies settling her further, obviously correctly guessing what she is muttering about.

  Once she seems to have settled down, we each start to move away but as soon as Levi lifts his hand she starts whimpering again until he puts it back. We all exchange a look.

  "Looks like we aren't going anywhere." Hunter chuckles lightly.

  We all settle in for the night and I fall asleep more quickly and more settled than I ever have before. With our woman in my arms.

  I awake feeling too hot and . . . Heavy? That doesn't make much sense. Awakening a bit more I realise the reason I feel weighed down is because I have two sets of arms wrapped around my waist and legs intertwined with mine. I don't have a second of doubt about whether it's my men holding me or not. The pleasant thrum of Sparks comforts me and lets me know that I am surrounded by all five of them.

  With my eyes still closed, I challenge myself to guess where each one of my guys are in the room to see if my new instinct from last night is still working. I take a deep breath and focus on thoughts of my guys; I can easily discern that Levi is snuggled up behind me and Maverick is in front of me. I know that the other three are by my feet but figuring out who is whom is slightly more difficult. I concentrate harder and without fully understanding why, I concentrate on the new Imprint tattoo on my sternum.

  As soon as I've done so, It’s like a switch has been flipped and I can tell that sat on the bench by my feet is Hunter, Jax and Kai in that order. Still in my fog of sleep I open my eyes to see if I'm right and grin widely when I see I am.

  "That's a beautiful sight to wake up to Titch" Maverick says his voice gravelly with sleep.

  My mood suddenly plummets as I recall what happened last night.

  “Why are you all in here with me?” I ask shakily barely daring to hope it’s because they still want me around them.

  “You had a bad dream Sweetheart. We didn’t want to leave you” Hunter replies, from down by my feet.

  I wriggle myself out of the grip Levi and Maverick have on me and hug my knees to my chest. It doesn’t make much sense. I was sure they wouldn’t want anything to do with me after the display I put on with Jax. I glance at the end of the bed and find Jax already smiling reassuringly at me.

  “I can see you overthinking Darling, coffee first and then we have a few things we need to talk to you about” Levi says gently.

  “It’s nothing bad Beautiful, promise” Kai tries to reassure me.

  I give him a small smile in return and wait as the guys all exit the room to go to the kitchen before following quietly behind. My feet sink into the plush carpet as I follow them down the wide staircase.

  My mind is whirring with all the possibilities of what they could want to talk to me about, none of them good. Kai wouldn’t lie to me though and he said there was nothing to worry about. Of course, their version of nothing to worry about and my version could be completely different. Suddenly a cup of coffee appears in my hands. I’d been so lost in thought, I hadn’t even realised that I had made it to the kitchen. I glance around and can’t help but admire the guys in their sleep mussed state. As soon as we all have mugs of coffee, Jax turns to me.

  “Come on Little Star it’s time we explained some things, just try to keep an open mind. Please?” Jax pleads with me, his sapphire blue eyes worried.

  I nod my head in agreement feeling even more confused than I did before, as Jax leads me to the huge dark wood dining table we ate dinner at last time I was here, and we take a seat joining the rest of the guys. I take a moment to study their postures and I feel a small modicum of relief that they all seem relaxed.

  Except on closer inspection I can see Hunters hands cle
nching and unclenching, a tightness around Levi’s eyes and Jax’s mouth, Kai tapping his fingers repeatedly and Maverick rubbing the back of his neck every now and then. My men are worried about whatever they are about to tell me and that immediately causes me to tense back up.

  “Before explaining anything I need to ask you a personal question that might help us to explain. Is that ok?” Levi ask sincerely.

  I simply nod too nervous to talk.

  “Do you have any Imprint Tattoos?”

  I look around at them all, confused and slightly nervous. I’m not ready to get into the story behind my Imprint Tattoos at the moment. I shared a big part of past with them last night and I still feel raw, my nerves frazzled.

  “Beautiful, you don’t have to explain what they mean if you do have them. It would just help us to explain and you understand if you do” Kai explains to me instantly putting me at ease.

  “Yes, I do” I say simply.

  “That will hopefully make this easier then” Maverick smiles reassuringly at me his posture relaxing slightly.

  “Around a thousand years ago Soulmates existed, they were not common, but they were not so uncommon that they didn’t have a decent amount of numbers around the world. The book says that there were about seventy-five percent more regular humans/Imprint Tattoo humans. The Soulmates were a significant part of a ruling council due to the amount of power they had.

  There was a war, the humans with Imprint Tattoos, joined forces with regular humans and fought against the Soulmates. They called themselves Ordo de Libera, the order of the free and claimed that the Soulmates were too powerful. Although in the book we found the information in there was no mention as to why they were thought to be too powerful. This war wiped out most of the Soulmates. The surviving ones were thought to have gone underground. No Soulmates have been found in the future generations since the war.” Levi explains to me.