Keela (Slater Brothers #2.5) (2 page)

“Stop
who
?” I screamed. 

The figure faded away to nothing and I once again had a view of the darkened room, only it wasn't dark anymore. It was lit up, and Alec was in the middle of the room on his knees reaching out for me, but his head was bowed. I blinked and when I focused my eyes the shadow figure re-appeared, but it was now standing behind Alec.

“Stop her, Keela!” the female voice screamed at me from every direction. “Fight to save him!”

I gasped when the figure lifted its arm and pointed the object in its hand at Alec's bowed head. I squinted my eyes to see what it was and when the silver barrel of a gun caught my eye I jumped to my feet. I screamed for Alec to watch out as I ran towards him. This time when I ran towards the room it got closer, but even at my fastest sprint I still wasn't quick enough.

“Alec!” I screamed when a loud noise ripped through the hallway and rang in my ears.

The gun went off and Alec's body fell limp to the floor at the same time the door of the room slammed shut. I reached the door a second later and crashed into it. I felt no physical pain as I bounced off the door and fell back onto the floor. I could feel nothing over the gripping pain in my chest, and the tears streaming down my face.

I got back to my feet and tried to open the door, but the doorknob wouldn't turn. I slapped on the door with both of my hands and kicked it with my feet, but to no avail. It was locked tight.

“Keela?” another familiar voice spoke to me from behind.

I turned around and gasped.

Nico, Ryder, Damien, and Kane were stood before me.

“You have to help—”

“Why didn't you save our brother, Keela?” Damien cut me off.

I blinked. “I tried—”

“You let Alec die. You let our brother die,” Nico cut me off as he glared at me.

I began to pant as I took a small step backwards, however I bumped into the door I'd ruthlessly tried to open only seconds before.

“I ran. I tried to—”

“You let him die because you don't want him, you don't want his life,” Ryder cut me off.

His voice was a growl.

“No!” I began to whimper. “I love Alec, I want him. Please, help me help him.”

Kane clicked his tongue at me. “He loved you, Keela. He wanted to marry you, and you let him die. Why?”

I closed my eyes.

“Why didn't you want our brother?”

“Why didn't you save him?”

“Why didn't you love him?”

“Why, Keela?”

I placed my hands over my ears and screamed to block out the voices of the Slater brothers, but I heard each of them clearly in my head.

Why? Why? Why? Why?

I opened my eyes and screamed even louder when the four brothers rushed at me with extended arms. I dropped to my knees and bowed my head and waited for the pain of their attack to come, but it never did. I hesitantly looked up and cried out when the hallways dropped away along with the brothers. Everything had been replaced by a large room with a huge circular platform in the centre. Two faceless males were fighting up on it, and crowds of people surrounded the platform screaming and cheering them on.

I got to my feet as I looked around the room and took everything in. The platform, the people, the dance floor, the booths, the bar... I knew where I was… I was in Darkness.

“Keela? Come here, darlin'.”

I spun around and stared at my uncle Brandon.

“Why?... How?...”

“Shhh,” my uncle Brandon murmured as he walked over to me. “It's all goin' to be okay. I’ll make everythin’ better.”

I turned to him and hugged him, but pulled back when his hands pressed against my back and the feeling of wetness struck me. I stepped away from my grinning uncle and placed my hands on my back. I brought my hands back around to my front and stared down at them.

They were stained with a thick red liquid.

I whimpered when the metallic twang of blood filled my nose. I looked back up to my uncle, but screamed and stumbled backwards when the person in front of me was not my uncle. It was the ghost of a devil from my past.

“Marco,” I whimpered.

Marco Miles evilly smiled at me, and looked down to his hands.

His
blood
covered hands.

He clicked his tongue and lifted his gaze to meet mine.

“Well... isn't this interesting?”

I tried to back away from him, but multiple hands clamped down on my body and forced me down to my knees. I looked up, then to my left and right and wailed.

Nico and Damien held me down on my right, and Ryder and Kane held me down on my left.

“Now,” Nico growled. “Make her pay for hurting Alec.”

“I didn't hurt him! It wasn't me!” I screamed. “It was the shadow!”

The familiar click of a gun being cocked infiltrated my mind.

I felt the shock of a cold metal object being pressed against my forehead. I was hyperventilating with sobs as I lifted my head and stared down the barrel of a handgun. I screamed in terror when the culprit holding the gun wasn't Marco, but the shadow figure.

“You!” I bellowed as tears flowed down my cheeks. “Why are you doin' this?”

The shadow figure solidified and became a person. The person was dressed in a long black cloak with a large hood covering their face.

“Answer me,” I screamed and struggled against the brothers’ hold on me.

The shadow person lifted their free hand and tugged back the hood.

I froze as I stared at my own reflection.

It was me.

I
was the shadow figure.

“You don't deserve him,” the shadow version of me said and pulled the trigger.

I awoke with a jolt, panting and covered in sweat. I needed to sit up so I could breathe, but I couldn't.

I was being crushed.

Crushed to death by a muscular sixteen stone male.

It wasn't Storm either.

My fiancé, the bear who was crushing the life out of me, easily had seventy percent of his large body spread out over me, pinning me to my mattress. I was used to this—Alec rarely let go of me when we slept, but at times when I had to wee so bad I could have cried, it was horrible.

Right now was one of those times.

I didn't want to wake Alec because he needed his full eight hours of sleep, otherwise he reverted back to a grumpy toddler. I also didn't want him to see me in my current state.

I was always a wreck after having the nightmare.

I tried to press myself back into my mattress to create a dent for some space so it would make slipping out of the bed easier. When I moved though, Alec's arm only tightened around my body.

Oh, for fuck's sake.

I had to get up.

“Alec,” I grunted.

Nothing.

“Alec.”

Not a bloody peep.

“ALEC!”

Alec jolted awake, jumped upright and brought my duvet with him in his panic. Now that I was free from his crushing weight I quickly rolled to my left and stood up off my bed and onto the floor. I rolled my neck on my shoulders and stretched my arms and legs out.

That felt better,
much
better.

“Are you okay? What's wrong?” Alec asked as he crawled over the bed to me in a blind panic.

He kneeled on our mattress and placed his hands on my shoulders. It was dark in our room, but the light from the hallway shone in and helped me see Alec's handsome face. I watched as his eyes squinted and scanned over my face through the darkness. He pushed me out to arms length and looked down my body, his eyes scrutinising every inch of me. He let me go after a moment and sat back on his heels with a frown on his tired face.

“You look okay,” he muttered.

I couldn't help but smile. “I
am
okay.”

That was the furthest thing from the truth.

Alec stared at me for a long moment before he growled, “Why did you shout my name then?”

Because you were crushing me to death.

I shrugged. “I needed to use the toilet and you were pinnin' me to the bed so I called your name to wake you up,” I lied.

Alec deadpanned, “You didn't just 'Call my name', you shouted it like you were being murdered.”

An image of the gun going off in my nightmare struck me, but I shook it off.

“I would have screeched or at the very least given a high-pitched white-woman scream if I was being murdered. I wouldn't have shouted at all if I knew it would have upset you this much.”

Alec looked exhausted as he rubbed his hand over his gorgeous face. “Why a white-woman?”

I shrugged, again. “It's usually the white ones who scream the loudest that get killed in the slasher films.”

Alec blinked his tired eyes then turned away from me and fell back down onto his side of the bed.

Nice talk
.

I turned and scurried out of the bedroom, down the hallway, and into the bathroom. I relieved myself and sighed in delight while doing so. After I finished my business I moved to the sink and washed my hands. I splashed some water on my face and stared into the mirror.

“It was only a dream,” I told myself.

When I emerged from the bathroom, I turned my head in the direction of the kitchen and sitting room and listened. I relaxed and went back to my bedroom when I heard Storm's reassuring snores.

I was like a mama bear when it came to him, even more so after he was hurt last year. Every time I used the toilet at night I always listened out to make sure I heard his snores so I knew he was still breathing. It relaxed me knowing he was okay.

Once back inside my bedroom I crawled into my bed and snuggled into my pillow. I covered myself with my duvet and closed my eyes on a relaxed sigh. I opened them not a second later when I felt something graze against my behind.

I instantly narrowed my eyes. “Don't even think about it.”

Silence.

I didn't move my body, but I did open my eyes and concentrated as I listened for Alec's movements. I heard nothing but his breathing and frowned.

Maybe it
was
the duvet that touched—“Alec!” I shouted, interrupting my thoughts.

Alec chuckled like a youngster as he wrapped his arms around my body and pulled me backwards until my back was moulded into his front. He rolled his pelvis into my behind and as soon as I felt the hardness of his length I knew sleeping was out of the question. I allowed him to turn me onto my back, and I could sense his smile when I turned my head and kissed the closest part of his body my mouth could reach, which turned out to be his collarbone.

“I knew it was you who touched me,” I murmured.

Alec leaned down and brushed his nose against mine. “Whenever something touches a part of your body when we're in bed, it's a ninety-nine-point-nine percent chance it's me, not Storm, looking to cop a feel.”

I lightly snickered. “I can never be sure, a few times Storm has come into the room and nudged me as he snuck up onto the bed.”

Alec scoffed. “An overweight German Shepherd shouldn't be able to sneak anywhere. I'm serious about setting up cameras to see how he's so stealthy when he's creeping around.”

Joy filled me as Alec's antics pushed away the worry and nagging fear leftover from my nightmare.

I grinned. “He is a ninja dog.”

My new codename for Storm grated on Alec's nerves.

“Ninja dog, please. More like suspicious dog. I swear he was a human in his past life.”

I laughed then and flung my hand over my mouth to keep quiet.

“Why are you being quiet?” Alec asked. “It's only us here.”

I nodded in the direction of the hallway. “Storm's asleep.”

Alec hated when I was quiet in our bedroom.

He groaned. “A man shouldn't have to worry about keeping his woman quiet in the bedroom, he should worry if she's not loud enough.”

I smiled, but remained quiet.

“Are you going to spread your legs and give yourself to me... or are you going to make me beg?”

I pretended to think on it.

“Come on, Kitten, I only have God knows how long before we have kids and sex is nothing but a fond memory in the back of my mind.”

I bit down on my lower lip as I reached out and placed my hand on Alec's bicep. I ran it all the way up to his shoulder then curved it around the back of his neck and pulled his head down to mine.

I gave him a whisper soft kiss then murmured, “Do you think you can make me scream, Playboy?”

“I fucking know I can,” Alec growled.

Then, like a snap of my fingers, he was between my legs.

I licked my lips and lifted my pelvis up so Alec could slide my underwear from my body.

“I don't understand why you even bother to wear these to bed,” Alec muttered to himself as he flung my knickers over his shoulder.

I rid myself of my tank top and tossed it somewhere in the room. I was naked, and spread wide as I waited for Alec. He reached over and flipped on the lamp on his bedside locker so he could see me. He squinted for a moment then smiled down at me with his big blue eyes when he could see me clearly.

“There's my pretty Kitten.”

I flushed.

Alec then scooted back a little and lowered his head to my pooch aka my stomach.

I groaned when he kissed the spot above my belly button. “Why is it always me belly you kiss first? The one part of me body I hate and you—”

“Show you that I love it just the way it is.”

Silence.

Damn him for being so bloody cute.

“It's fat.
I'm
fat.”

Alec looked up at me with pained eyes then moved up my body until he was resting on his elbows as he hovered over me. “Are we going to have this talk
again
?”

Yes.

I shrugged. “I've gained a stone since we started datin', don't try and tell me I haven't gotten bigger. I
know
I have, me favourite pair of jeans not buttonin' up anymore is a clear sign.”

Alec leaned his face down and brushed his nose over mine. “You aren't fat, you gained some weight, but not enough to even border on being fat. You look healthy.”

I scoffed and gripped my belly pooch.

“Explain this?”

Alec looked down and rolled his eyes. “That is just some excess skin from when you were heavier a few years ago. Not everyone's skin snaps back when they lose weight, you know?”