Calling on the Reaper (The Reapers #1)

by Haley Tyler

“No,” she said stubbornly. “As your best friend, it’s my job to tell you when you’re being a fucking idiot and risking your life needlessly. And guess what, bitch? You’re being a fucking idiot and risking your life needlessly!”

I wanted to make it all better, take her pain away, kill whoever made her feel like this. It was fucking ridiculous.

Grim? That’s what she called me? Hmm. I think I liked it. I hated when mortals called me The Grim Reaper, but her calling me Grim, like she knew who I was, like it was my name? I liked it. Fuck.

Grim was my stalker.

Not so I didn’t scare her again, but because it was freaking me the fuck out that she knew I was around. That she sensed me.

Her dark hair shifted to the side, exposing her pale back and showing off the scythe tattooed down her spine. I inhaled sharply, my eyes trailing down the intricate design. Fuck. She was killing me.

“It was because she’s your soulmate.” “Wesley.” I squeezed my eyes shut. “That’s fucking ridiculous.” I took a few steps away from him. “I might feel something toward her, but that’s only because I saved her and—” “You saved her because your souls are connected,” he said, nodding.

I’ve been with you every day for the last six months. I know you, Raven. I fucking know you. The only thing you need to know about me is that I’m fucking obsessed with you. I live and breathe to be around you. I survive to be with you. I haven’t found a way to end my fucking existence because of you, because you’re my fucking soul. The little shreds of it I have left,” he rubbed his chest, “they’re yours. My sole reason to exist is you.”

“Because their souls weren’t tied to mine,” he answered. “They were just another soul to me. You’re not. You’re something more.” I stared at him, my heart racing. I wrapped my hands around his giant ones, and he squeezed them tight. “Because none of them were my soulmate.”

Resting my hand on her chest, I closed my eyes and let myself feel the steadiness of her heart beating under my palm. Mindlessly, she put her hand over mine, almost reflexively. It grounded something inside me, some anxiety I didn’t know I had.

“Soulmate,” she said slowly, drawing the word out. “You think your soulmate is The Grim Reaper.” “He’s not The Grim Reaper,” I grumbled. “He’s a Reaper.”

“I was selfish because I want you. I need you. I couldn’t give you up. I couldn’t let you go.”

I love you.” He inhaled sharply and moved his hands to my hips. “You love me?” He sounded genuinely shocked. I pulled away to look at him, a soft smile on my face. “We’re soulmates;

“Is this your way of proposing?” I narrowed my eyes at him. “If it is?” “I’ll say no,” I said, leaning away from him. He laughed, a giant smile spreading across his face. “Why?” “This was the shittiest proposal in the world,” I scoffed. “Do better.”

All that was left was Grim—Mason—and me.

“A ring doesn’t mean shit,” I started, then winced; not the best opening for a proposal. “A ring can’t show all that I feel for you. It doesn’t show how you make me feel.” I paused. I wasn’t doing this right. There weren’t enough words to tell her all I wanted to.

“You’re cute when you’re all growly and possessive,” she teased. I growled, mostly to make her laugh again.