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TWELVE

FIRE

How the fuck is any of this possible? Heat isn’t one that would lie about something like this. I know it, but it still doesn’t make it easy to swallow.

The fact that my back wasn’t throbbing with the pain I’d been feeling while he dealt out each lash is fucking with my head. I expected to feel the pain for days on end. I’ve always been a quick healer, but it’s never been anything like this. My back was completely healed within minutes.

It’s fucking with my head more so because all my life, I thought the woman who birthed me was my mom. A fucking junkie who bailed on me. How fucked-up is that? I figured the best thing she could do for me was what she did in allowing my uncle to raise me. I don’t even know who my birth father is and never questioned it until now. My uncle had been the only figure I needed. He wasn’t coddling, but he taught me to be who I am.

“Brother, you gonna be okay?” Pyro asks, speaking up for the first time since he and our brothers followed me from the campsite.

Stopping off to the side near a pop-up canopy, grills already going, I look at him. “Does it look like I’m okay?”

“Nope,” Hotshot answers, drawing out the lone word.

“Looks like you’re freaked the fuck out,” Flame grunts.

“Wouldn’t you be?” I demand, looking between the three of them. “You find out this shit about yourself. How do you think you’d take it?”

“Fire,” Pyro grins, “I’m a fuckin’ dragon, there’s not much I let get to me.”

“Brother, I get you.” Hotshot smirks. “Being a lowly human and all, I get you. But think about this shit. You don’t need me anymore to fix up your back when shit happens.”

“Fuck off, Hotshot.” I chuckle.

Hotshot is able to get me to chuckle, which is something he’s always been good at. He’s not just the medic for our club, and he ain’t just a lowly human as he claims. He might be human, but he’s got a gift for healing he learned from his ancestors.

“Well, he’s got a point,” Flame remarks, “You won’t need to be healed after fights and shit that go too damn far.”

They’ve both got a point.

Still, it doesn’t change the fact that I had to learn this shit now.

“Just think about this, your real mom wasn’t a junkie,” Pyro states, though it’s not something he needs to remind me about.

“Yeah, I know, instead, she’s just a Goddess that didn’t want me.” My anger is growing, for some reason, that thought pisses me off. Makes me question who the hell I really am and why this Goddess cast me away.

More importantly, makes me question what the hell I am.

“I don’t think that’s it,” Pyro grunts. “Wait until Herja gets here, she’ll hopefully give you the answers you deserve to have.”

Yeah. I’m not going to be able to do anything about any of this until she gets here. Herja could be here in a flash of a second if she wanted, so why the fuck can’t she show her ass until tonight?

“You gonna be able to cool it now? Get back to the RV and see to the other situation you’ve got going on?” Flame asks brow cocked. “Fucked up you with Evelin, but we all saw it coming.”

“Fuck,” I snarl. When I do, sparks fly from my fingers to the haystack next to us, starting a fire. “Oh shit.”

“Water. We need some fuckin’ water over here,” a member from another club shouts.

Before the guy can get water, someone else handles it, and how they do so is just how I started the damn fire. Though, instead, of sparks, it’s water. How the fuck . . .

I lift my gaze from the smoke coming up from the haystack to the guy who’d taken care of the fire, only to end up looking in the mirror. Holy fuck.

“What the fuck?” the other guy says, looking confused as I’m feeling.

“How in the hell do you two . . .”

I’ve got to talk to Herja now, instead of saying a word to my brothers or even the other me. I stalk back in the direction I came from, more than ready for answers.

I need to know what the hell is going on with me, and I need those answers now. Not later.

“Where the hell are you going?” I hear coming from behind me.

“To get answers,” I call out, not paying attention to who I’m talking to, just that I’m telling them while still going after what I want to know.

It doesn’t take long for my brothers and me to get back to our campsite. I go straight to the RV I’m staying in, knowing that’s exactly where I’ll find Heat and my woman.

Right now, more than ever, I feel the draw to her and need to set eyes on her. I need her just as much as I need the damn answers only her mother can give me.

I throw the door open, but before I can speak a word, Pyro beats me to it. “Prez, you know Fire’s got a twin brother that looks exactly like him and can put out fires. A fire that Fire here started with just a touch of his finger.”

“What are you talking about?” Heat demands.

“What he’s talking about is, sparks flew from my fingers and started a fire. That said fire was put out in the same manner by a dude that looks just like me. Swear to fuck lookin’ in the mirror, and the fucker is me.”

“Hey, asshole, I’m standing right here,” my twin says.

Heat moves quickly, his feet bringing him down the steps of the RV to look at the man who looks just like me and curses. “Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. What the hell is going on here?”

“That’s what I’d like to know.”

“Yo, Dexter, you good over here?”

“Just finding out what the hell’s goin’ on,” Dexter, my twin, says, voice filled with annoyance.

“Think we’d all like to know what the hell’s going on,” Pyro mutters.

“What is . . .” Evelin starts but stops when she sees Dexter. “Oh my god.”

“Evelin,” I growl. Without a word, she moves to my side and allows me to curl an arm around her.

The two of us still have a lot to talk about, but right now, it’s all gotta be on the back burner until I get to know what is going on with me. Sounds selfish as fuck. It’s just how it’s gotta be right now. Once I know what the deal is, I’ll go from there. Figure out the rest. Still, while all this is going on, Evelin isn’t leaving my side. Not when she’s got danger waiting for a moment to snatch her up. I won’t let that happen. I just claimed her.

Fuck.

I claimed her, and she’s mine. I did it at a fuckin’ rally where since we got here, everything has been fucked-up. I should’ve waited. I don’t know what the hell I was thinking. I wasn’t. That’s the problem. I wasn’t thinking about what happened between us. Just that I wanted her. I didn’t want to wait.

“Herja, we need you here now, not tonight. Something else has happened, and answers are needed.” Heat’s voice pulls me out of my thoughts, and I tighten my arm around Evelin. “Yeah, Mom, it’s urgent.”

A moment later, Herja pops out of thin air, a phone still held to her ear. “What is so urgent?” she demands, her face filled with annoyance. “I was in the middle of something very important . . .” Her voice trails off as she looks between Evelin and me then past me. “Oh no. No. No. No. Freyja is going to lose her mind.”

“Speaking of Freyja, you want to explain to me?—”

“Hold on,” Herja states, speaking over me while closing her eyes.

I want to bite her head off, however, I end up gritting my teeth instead. She’s my woman’s mother. The woman I saw as a mother figure for all these years. Still, the way she’s acting right now more than pisses me off.

“Look, I don’t know what the hell’s going on here?—”

“Shush,” Herja snaps, not opening her eyes. “Freyja,” she finally whispers.

For some reason, I feel compelled to laugh because all of this is bullshit. Like Freyja is going to be the one to come down here and answer the questions that I have. That I’m sure my look alike, Dexter, is wondering himself.