He had no idea that he’d been dreaming about her.
For the past month, he’d dreamed of a beautiful blonde woman with warm brown eyes, a smile that could bring him to his fucking knees, and a body that he would have happily worshiped for the rest of his very unnatural life. Every night, he dreamed about touching her, kissing her, and sinking deep inside of her while she alternated between moaning his name and begging him to fuck her harder.
He’d taken her in every position, kissed and licked every inch of her body, groaned when he kissed the soft lips between her legs and nearly lost his fucking mind when he got his first taste of her. He could never get enough of her. Every dream left him desperate for more, desperate to feel her body wrapped around his, squeezing him just right while he fucked her.
Christ, she felt so real...
He swore that he could still feel her wrapped around him, milking his cock when he woke up in the morning, leaving him with no choice but to wrap his hand around his aching cock while he thought about her. She not only haunted his dreams but his every waking minute, making him wonder if he was losing his fucking mind.
Every day, he struggled against the urge to go to her, and every day, he had to remind himself that she wasn’t his. It left him wondering why he was dreaming about her when the curse had bound him to a very different woman than the one currently pretending that she wasn’t watching his every move.
He ignored whatever Ashlyn was talking about with Tristan as he ran his eyes over her, taking in all the changes, he couldn’t help but think about the last time he saw her. The short black hair that gave her that “I don’t give a fuck,” vibe was gone, replaced by long blonde hair the color of honey that looked like it was made from silk. The cold blue eyes that didn’t miss a single fucking detail were replaced by warm brown eyes. The piercings and tattoos that covered her neck and arms were all gone, leaving behind warm, sun-kissed skin that looked so fucking inviting.
And those curves...
They made him wonder who this woman really was. His gaze flickered to Aidan to find his brother watching him, looking really fucking amused at the moment. When the little bastard released a heartfelt sigh, Shayne narrowed his eyes until his brother took the fucking hint and started talking.
“Oh, now yer curious about the lass?” Aidan asked, shaking his head in disgust. “If ye’d asked a month ago when I started watching over the lass, I could have told ye that she was wearing a disguise.”
“He’s always been a difficult bastard,” Quinn said around a heartfelt sigh that had the rest of the little bastards murmuring in agreement.
“And a dumb one, at that,” Declean said as he dropped down on the couch next to Marty.
“Aye, that he has,” Liam murmured in agreement while Shayne sat there, struggling against the overwhelming urge to flip the little bastards off.
“Do ye think she still believes that he’s a mental patient?” Finn asked before disappearing only to reappear a few seconds later behind the couch so that he could read over Marty’s shoulder.
“With the way she’s keeping him in her sight?” Quinn asked, leaning down next to Ashlyn so that their faces were only a few inches apart. “Aye, I’d say there’s a fair chance that she thinks the lad’s not all there.”
“I think it’s something we’ve all been concerned with over the years,” Liam said, making Marty’s lips twitch.
“Do ye remember the times he used to hang in trees talking ta himself?” Quinn asked with a sad shake of his head as though he had nothing to do with dragging Shayne up that tree and hanging him by his feet for shits and giggles while he screamed his ass off for them to get him down, forcing him to grind his teeth so that he didn’t give his unwanted soulmate another reason to think he was crazy.
“Aye, that was concerning,” Liam, the one who came up with the idea in the first place, said, nodding solemnly.
“And the time he ran through the village naked, screaming our names?” Aidan asked, forcing Shayne to grab hold of the armrest when all he wanted to do was beat the shit out of the little bastard that stole his clothes while the rest of his brothers dragged his naked ass out of the lake and threw him in a patch of stinging nettles, leaving him covered in hives.
“I felt there was something off about him even back then,” Declean said with a long-suffering sigh as though the admission pained him.
“Aye, we all did,” Liam said, looking really fucking pleased as he watched him. When Shayne shifted his glare to Aidan, he gave his brother a look that told him exactly what he would do to him if he didn’t start talking.
“I may have found a few things out about the lass that I might be willing ta share,” Aidan murmured as he made a show of studying his nails before adding, “for a price.”
When Shayne narrowed his eyes on the little bastard, he continued. “I want yer room when it’s my turn ta break the curse.”
His fingernails dug into the soft leather as his gaze found its way back to Ashlyn and he found himself wondering about her, something that he hadn’t allowed himself to do since he realized that they were all cursed. Tadgh had remained after he’d taken his last breath and watched as Macha took hers. Then, one by one, each of his brothers was summoned to the moment their soulmates died, letting them know exactly who they were meant to spend the rest of their lives with.
Except for him.
When Tadgh felt that first pull back to Macha, he didn’t hesitate. He happily returned to her and Shayne followed, not knowing what to expect only to find himself standing in a field watching a young woman as she finished getting sick by the river. While she’d splashed water on her face, he’d searched for Tristan only to realize that he was sensing his brother on the young woman.
Curious, he’d followed her back to her village only to sense something else. He’d focused on that sensation and flashed to it, finding himself standing over a woman struggling to keep the porridge she’d just eaten down. It didn’t take him long to realizethat he could sense Macha and that they were getting a second chance.
When he felt the pull to bring him to his soulmate, Shayne ignored it, determined to do what he failed to do the first time around and protect his brother. So, he’d stayed and watched over the women, noting that every day his brother and Macha’s presence grew stronger as the swell of their mother’s bellies grew bigger.
When Tadgh’s new mother woke up screaming in the middle of the night, Shayne was there waiting for his brother to return and so were several ghosts that had been drawn to his birth. He’d kept them away from his brother, watched over him and protected him, determined to make sure that his brother got the second chance that he deserved.
He’d watched as Tadgh and Macha found each other only to fall in love all over again. He watched over them as they grew up, got married and found out that they had a baby on the way only to watch his brother die from an infection within days of cutting himself on a knife. That was the first time that he’d watched Macha die from a broken heart, but it wasn’t the last.
