Genesis Lost - Books 1 - 6 Read online

  “Got me all figured out, huh?” I rolled the window down and let in the summer breeze, along with the scent of freshly trimmed grass. “Nah. They want to crack down on me, and that’s easier done when I’m alone.”

  “You better watch out, or they’ll brainwash you the way they did with everyone else in there.”

  I opened the straps on my holster and slipped out of it, letting my gun disappear inside the glove compartment. “Why would I give up my chance of being with a woman, now that it’s finally in reach?”

  Ben answered with a sigh. “Lucky asshole.”

  He pointed through the windshield and toward a small assembly of people standing in front of two black vans. One guy, two women. That was more women than a guy like Ben would see all year — his mother included.

  Ben brought his truck to a stop right beside them, whirling up dust underneath the hot rubber. Then he threw his hand into my neck and gave a squeeze. “We all know you’re gonna fight for the things we stand for. Now go show them how we really are.”

  “Handsome and irresistible?”

  Another laugh shattered from his throat, but this one died down quickly, and he turned to look straight at me. “Remember we’re nothing but savages in their eyes. Prove ’em wrong. But by all means, go for handsome and irresistible if all else fails.”

  He waved me goodbye with a cunning wink. I got out of the truck, slammed the door shut, and greeted everyone with a sharp nod, grabbing for my duffle in the flat-bed while they eyed my every movement.

  “Phoenix?” the guy asked and stepped up next to me, his wimpy arms folded in front of his chest and a strained smile sitting on his shaved face.

  I shouldered my stuff and reached my hand out. “Call me Nix.”

  He glanced over his shoulder to the others first. A second later, he grabbed my hand and gave it a lose shake. “We’re sorry about what happened to your brother. An ugly thought… being mauled by a bear. But he assured us you were up for the task ahead.”

  The pitch of his voice had climbed at the end of his speech, turning his words into that question he wanted to ask, throwing an invisible punch against my ribcage. Was I up to the task?

  Fuck no I wasn’t.

  I gave a knock against Ben’s cabin, and his truck set back into motion. Each spin of his tires drove up my pulse, letting the truth settle down on me with suffocating weight: I was alone now. The future chieftain who had never been raised to be one, out to bring about a merge he didn’t want.

  “I’m Oliver, one of the council members.” He let his hand fan-out toward the two women, who stood with their bodies angled away from me. “These two lovely ladies are councilwoman Beth and councilwoman Makena. They both agreed to come with me here today, but I will be the one guiding this meeting, and the negotiations.”

  I took a few steps in their direction and reached my hand out once more. “It’s a pleasure to meet …” One scurried back like deer, her eyes wide as if I was a wolf or a lynx. Not sure what pissed me off more. Her reaction, or the thought that at some point in her past, a guy like me might have been just that: a predator.

  I immediately dropped my arm by my side and shifted my weight back, settling on a quick nod with the softest smile I could manage onto my lips. “Nice to meet you. I’m Nix.”

  “I’m Makena,” said the other woman, and took my hand into hers, “and I hope you understand Beth’s reaction didn’t mean to offend you. It was merely a reflex, based on her personal experience. We, um…” She exchanged a quick glance with Oliver before she continued. “We decided to keep this first meeting small and out of the public eye, and we would appreciate if you kept your identity to yourself.”

  “Are you saying nobody can know I’m a clansman?”

  “The merge is a delicate subject. Spending two months at the Districts will be a lot easier for you if the people you meet are… impartial.”

  “Impartial, huh…” No word ever tasted fouler.

  Oliver walked over to one of the black vans, opened the door, and pointed at the backseats. “Why don’t we discuss the details on our way to the community home?”

  “Community home? I thought you would board me with a family.”

  He didn’t answer. Just pointed at the row in the back once more, a thoughtful expression lining his freckled face.

  I climbed into the van and shoved my ass across the bench, making room for Oliver who sat down and buckled up beside me. “The council wanted to put you up with the mediator’s family. We figured it would give you a better insight into the way we live. Unfortunately, an issue came up just this morning.”

  “Let me guess, they figured out I was a clansman, and I wasn’t welcome anymore?”

  “Oh, they knew what you are.” The driver slammed the door shut and got back behind the wheel. Through the rearview mirror, he threw me the kind of stare that could leave a man bruised. Then he stepped on the gas.

  Oliver rolled up the shaded window at the push of a button and continued. “Anyway, their home isn’t an option anymore since they had to move unexpectedly, and neither is the mediator. But we think we might have found someone to replace her.”

  My stomach spiraled. “Wait. Are you telling me the mediator you had assigned to me was a woman?”

  Oliver sucked in his lips and let his fingers tap a beat against the window, his eyes narrowed into thin slits. “Would that have been a problem?”

  “Of course not,” I blurted, my pulse pounding away inside my ear. Ten minutes inside the Districts, and I already had their suspicion against me. Way to go, Nix. “I mean… I guess I’m just surprised you convinced a woman to be my mediator. Everyone knows clansmen don’t have the best… reputation.”

  He let out a scoff. “Just tell me you won’t live up to that reputation. Blake assured us that —”

  “I won’t,” I said sharply, making him shift his weight closer toward the door.

  “Good.” He gave me a smile too quick to be anything else but polite, then gazed out the window. “We’ll supply you with regular water from one of the old wells. For now, the idea is to give you one of the empty apartments at a community home. It’s a small building. People mostly keep to themselves, which should help you stay out of the spotlight.”

  “And the mediator?”

  “That’s something we’ll figure out right now.”

  The van came to a stop in front of a two-level building. Blue letters spelled community-home seven on a pillar of concrete right in front, but the rusty outline of the previous metal letters had remained below: Nester & Nester. Sounded like lawyers to me.

  Oliver waved me over to him, and we walked up the flight of stone steps, a chemical whiff of freshly mopped tiles hitting my face the moment we stepped inside.

  He led me up another set of stairs to the first level. “If someone asks where you’re from, tell them from one of the new districts. You’re here as a consultant to the council on a classified matter.”

  We walked along a hallway, lined with pictures they must have scavenged from an old Motel One. Between them, numbered doors muffled the occasional voice from behind, each one set with a keypad right below the handle.

  I followed him into a small corner where he pointed at a red couch, backed by a wall of floor-to-ceiling windows. A tiny cabinet stood at the wall beside, wrapped in flaking black paint, with a coffee maker on top that had more gadgets than my truck. I flung my duffel into the corner.

  “You wait here while I try to track down your mediator. I made a few calls, and they said she’s supposed to be here.”

  She. Funny how such a short word could have such an impact on my heartbeat, which now bounced off my ribs.

  I flung myself onto the couch not built for a guy my size, feeling like GI Joe inside a dollhouse. “I said from the beginning I can defend my standpoints just fine. There’s no need for a mediator trying to brainwash me.”

  “A mediator should be neutral.” He leaned over the water fountain, the splashing of whatever didn’t end inside his mouth, turning mine dry. His sleeves wiped across his buttery-soft skin and he went on. “Besides, the council doesn’t feel comfortable with you exploring on your own.”

  “So, the mediator is pretty much a glorified chaperone, trying to make sure I don’t pull one of your women into a dark corner to rape her.” I tried to swallow, but my throat muscles had turned numb. “This is an insult to my family and me.”

  Or maybe to my family, and not much to me?

  “And your presence is an insult to all of us. Guess we’re even.”

  I ignored the tension along my arms and watched how he walked away. Not sure what I expected from this place, but it sure wasn’t this kind of hostility slapped right in my fucking face the moment I arrived. Maybe I thought I’d deserve some slack here because I had never touched a woman. Ever.

  I rose and walked over to the bulletin board above the coffee maker, staring at the photographs pinned against the cork. The odd thing about them? There were only women in them. Except for that one guy, but I could easily ignore him.

  “One, two, three, four, five, six,” I counted out loud, tapping each of their beautiful faces. Six women. There were almost as many women in this building as my Clan had in total back home.

  “Seven,” a voice sounded from behind me, the way it spiked my pulse leaving no doubt it belonged to a woman. I didn’t dare to turn, secretly hoping she was a granny though her voice left little hope.

  “Pardon me?”

  She stepped up beside me, smelling like old-fashioned soap and vanilla, her slender outline brushing the corners of my eyes. Then she tapped her finger against the photograph. “There are seven people in this community home. Six women and one man. I guess you’re here to see the empty apartment?”

  Her question sucked the blood from my cheeks. Not because of the content, but because now I had to look at her and come up with an answer.

  I turned around, readying my eyes for long strands of hair and plump lips I reminded myself I couldn’t stare at. Instead, I found a young woman with hair shorter than mine, her light-brown wisps tousled in all directions. “Yeah… the apartment.”

  She nodded, but the expression on her face tightened, and her eyes wandered all over me. “You’re not from around here, are you?”

  “Ehh… I’m from… one of the new districts?”

  “Hm,” was all she said. Then she grabbed a chipped mug from the cabinet and placed it underneath the coffee maker, which gulped and steamed at the push of a button. “Want me to show you while you wait for the building manager? The apartment? The guy who moved out was a good friend of mine, and I have the code.”

  The smell of fresh-ground coffee beans filled the little corner, and she busied herself over sugar and powdered creamer. She wasn’t very tall. Probably wouldn’t even have reached my chest. But she was all woman from her dainty feet, over her slim waist and all the way up to her delicate neck which looked so exposed and vulnerable without any hair to cover it.

  “So?”

  I dropped my stare down to the patterned carpet, worn down in front of the cabinet and faded in all other spots. “I should probably stay put until —”

  “They won’t mind.” She grabbed my hand and pulled me behind her, her soft skin against mine lighting my nerve-ends on fire. Clanswomen usually avoided coming too close to a man, fearing it might invite unwanted attention. But this girl wasn’t a clanswoman — and to her, I wasn’t a clansman.

  “But what about your coffee?”

  “They have renovated some apartments,” she said and continued to pull me behind her, across the hallway and around the corner. “But not this one and mine neither, which is right beside it by the way. So we have to use the community bathroom at the end of the hall. It’s small, but the showers get hot quickly, and I take that as a plus.”

  She stopped in front of room four.

  Beep, beep, beeeeep.

  A click came from the lock, and she pushed the handle down, guiding me into the apartment and closing the door behind us. She let go of my hand and walked through a short, narrow hallway, one door to the left, and an open area just ahead.

  I followed her into what must have been the living room, with large windows facing an even larger park, and a small kitchen right beside it.

  “A fair word of warning: the walls are paper-thin. But I’m a quiet neighbor, so you won’t have to worry about that.”

  She stared over the room.

  I stared over her.

  Fuck. Staying here for two months would take more than political strength and the pride of a clansman. It would take restraint — and lots of it. Because none of these women had any idea who I was. What I was. But most of all, they had no clue what they fucking did to me and everything below my waist.

  “Why are you doing that?”

  Her words ripped me out of my thoughts. “Doing what?”

  “You’re staring at me.”

  She crossed her arms in front of her chest and looked at me from beneath squished eyebrows, making shame wash over me in several small waves. If I wanted to keep my identity a secret, I had to do a lot better than that.

  “Sorry, it’s just that…” I gave a shrug and pointed at her shirt. “You’ve got something stuck at the back of your shirt.”

  “I do?” She twisted her upper body, first left then right, gazing over her shoulder and tugging on the hem of the fabric. “Where? I can’t see anything.”

  “It’s small, like a piece of thread or something.”

  She turned and twisted once more, then let out a sigh and walked up to me. “Please take it off.”

  Her body turned around, and she presented her backside once more, each breath she took making her shoulders rise and fall less than a foot away from me. Closer than any woman had ever been to me.

  I traced my fingers across her white, ribbed tank top, barely touching the fabric yet sensing the warmth emanating from her body. My hands started to sweat.

  Forcing myself on a woman would never have been easier. One hand on her beautiful, soft lips would have muffled all screams. The door was locked behind us with a keypad on the handle.

  Get a fucking grip, Nix!

  I might not have been a true chieftain, but I sure as hell was raised by one. The whole point of me being here was to show the Districts we weren’t all like that. My entire life dad had drilled it into me. It was my job to protect the women. Even from myself. Fuck. Especially from myself.

  I brushed my fingertip across her shirt. “It’s gone.”

  Then I took a generous step away from her. Away from the temptation.

  She turned around and gazed up at me, carrying a sincere smile on her face. “Thanks! I think you should take the apartment. I have a feeling we’d get along great, and you could tell me all about the new districts.”

  “Well, —”

  The beep of the keypad made us both turn.

  “I was looking for you,” Oliver snarled and stepped inside, one brow arched and concern clinging to the hard edges along his jaw. “Both of you. Didn’t I ask you to wait for me?”

  The girl took a step toward him. “That was my fault. Thought he might want to see the apartment instead of waiting around for the manager.”

  “Did he tell you who he is? Or what he is?” Oliver stepped up beside me and parked his hands by his hips, squaring his chest as if she needed his protection and… fucking shit… as if he would actually stand a chance against me. “His name is Nix. Short for Phoenix, future chieftain of the Clan of the Woodlands.”

  She scrambled away from me. Her chest heaved. A veil of that familiar old pain I had seen in many faces settled on hers. And I knew that I wouldn’t have to be concerned about her coming too close to me. Ever. Again.

  Chapter 5

  Kenya

  Something squeezed my lungs, but I didn’t let that stop me from taking a deep breath. “You’re a fucking liar!”

  The clansman’s lips parted and shut several times. “No, I’m not!”

  “You said you came from one of the new districts.”

  He swung his arms up and pointed at councilman Oliver. “Because this guy told me to say just that if anybody asked. I never intended to lie or upset —

  “Well, but you did. What are you doing here, anyway?” Breath burst in and out of me quicker than I could draw it in, my throat clogged up by anger and memories. But mostly memories. I turned back to Oliver. “Why is he here? He was supposed to be with Esther. What is this savage doing next to my place?”

  “Calm down, Kenya.” Oliver placed his hand onto my shoulder and gave it a gentle tug. “I understand you’re upset and confused, but that doesn’t mean you have to degrade yourself to his level of communication.”

  The clansman cocked his head. “The fuck’s that supposed to mean?”

  “It’s a misunderstanding, okay?” Oliver continued, his voice so calm and collected it made bile push up from the rapid swirl inside my stomach. “There’s been an issue. Esther won’t be able to act as a mediator.”

  “That explains why he’s not there, but it doesn’t explain why he’s here!”

  “Kenya…” Oliver’s vocal cords now had something soothing to it. As if they had to fluff me up to soften a blow. “You placed second on the tests, and we figured we’d ask if you might —”

  “Never! I don’t ever want to see this guy again, nor any other clansman. Find another idiot for this job because I’m out.”

  I pulled away from Oliver’s grip, made a bee-line around the brute and hurried back to my own apartment. My footsteps tap-tap-tapped across the floor, but they still couldn’t match the way my heart shuddered away inside my ears.

  I should have known better. That guy was the size of a door. Too rugged and too hairy to be from the Districts. The thought that I had been alone with him in a room turned me near-dizzy.

  I hurried over to my kitchen and gulped down a glass of water. After the third glass, the pictures of my mom crouching over dad still wouldn’t quit playing.

  “Kenya?” Oliver poked his head from the dark hallway. “You forgot to close your door and I… we need to talk.”