“This is your ball game. We will fight for you, no matter what, but we can’t fight everyone at once,” I said, sliding my hand to the top of her bouncing thigh. “Breathe, my love.”
“It’s going to get worse before it gets better,” she whispered.
I nodded. “Much.”
Chapter 25
TRAVIS
I went through the front door, stepped to the side, then sank onto one of the rockers facing the road in front of the lodge. Slipping the special cell phone I’d been given—courtesy of the Sanctuary witches, Meredith and Hannah—out of my pocket, I dialed the number at the top of my address book and waited as the phone rang.
“Hello?” Brogan’s thick Irish accent rolled through the speaker. “What are you callin’ me for? Didn’t you marry that Mason woman today? Shouldn’t you be in a bed somewhere making her scream for you? Or is yer brother doing it for you? Do you take turns?”
“Fuck off, asshole,” I spit at the phone as a grin split my face. Leave it to Brogan to distract me from all the shit hovering above my head waiting to drop.
“I’m trying, but you called me, remember?” His laugh rolled through the speaker, and even Crawley was having a hard time not smiling. Brogan was a tough-as-nails sonofabitch and a giant among our kind, but he had a gift for raising spirits no matter the situation.
“Tell the girl she’ll have to wait a minute.”
“Who said it was just the one?” Brogan growled. A female giggled in the background of his phone call, and I shook my head. He really did have a woman with him.
“You know it’s not noon yet,” I said.
“Well, it’s good I started early since you called and prolly want somethin’ from me and the other guys. Rose said you were settling into a snake pit up there.”
My eyes rolled. Of course Rose had known the second she stepped in the door. The woman claimed not to be psychic, but I assumed that, with thousands of years of history under her belt, she just knew. People hadn’t changed much over the years, mostly just their wrapping.
“Have you heard from her lately? It’s been a few days.”
“Nope,” Brogan answered. “But it’s not like she’d call me personally. Still, Riley or the pixies would be talking about it if she had. The vampires never share anything, except that new one. Sweet little Bailey will crack like a ripe pecan if you ask nice enough.”
“You better be careful. Erick is more than a little territorial. I’d hate to hear one of my favorite guys lost his arms to a Protector because he was cuddling up to a vampire’s mate. I worked hard on those sleeves of yours. It would be such a waste.”
Another bark of laughter cut through the quiet afternoon air. “Do you need me to come pull off some arms, Travis?”
“Maybe,” I answered, shaking my head at Crawley’s wide-eyed speculation. “Mostly I just need more eyes and ears so they don’t catch us unaware again. They’ve tried to kill her twice. And her uncle is working with an emissary from Xerxes. A squad attacked the lodge once already. The emissary claims they aren’t with him, but that’s a load of shit.”
“How many do you need?”
“As many as you can stuff in that truck of yours,” I answered.
Movement on the front lawn caught my attention. Victor was approaching on the sidewalk leading to the front door. Where he’d come from, I hadn’t noticed.
“Get here quick, Brogan.”
“Will do.” The call ended with a beep.
Victor climbed the stairs, an ugly sneer spread across his face. “She was right not to trust you. You don’t care about this pack. You’re bringing your friends here to take over.” He shoved past Crawley, knocking the slightly smaller man to the side and stomped through the front door.
Shit.
“Family, you’ve been waiting for them to show their true colors,” Victor shouted into the living room full of eating people. “I just heard him calling in the cavalry. Their lackeys will be here shortly, and you can kiss the Mason pack goodbye as they shape it into what they want it to be. Charlie be damned as well. They won’t respect her or us. How dare they bring in outsiders!”
Several shouts echoed his. Crawley and I shoved our way through the angry crowd to stand beside Garrett and Charlie.
“It’s not what you think. He’s lying to you,” Charlie said, standing her ground.
“I just heard the phone call with my own ears,” Victor said, snarling and snapping his teeth, showing his descended fangs. “He told him to bring as many as would fit in his truck. Or are you going to say I’m deaf, too?” The asshole held my gaze and grinned, flecks of yellow flashed in his irises.
“Two of this pack tried to murder Charlie. Kill her in cold blood. If it was your mate who’d almost died in front of you twice, wouldn’t you do anything to protect them?” I raised my voice just slightly; the power that came with being alpha hit them like an ax to a tree.
The mumblings and growls were silenced, and even Victor was having trouble mouthing back after my show of authority. He may want to be alpha and have most of the pack following his lead, but he was not their alpha yet. The magick bonding the pack together hadn’t abandoned the three of us. I could feel it coursing strongly through me.
I hated them for being disloyal and working against my brother and mate, I would fight and give my life to protect them and make sure they had the best chance at survival. Such was the mantle of pack alpha. Garrett and Charlie would feel the same, but as the oldest male in our triad, I wore the heaviest burden of responsibility as well as the strongest ability to wield our power.
“Fate matched us with your alpha female. We knew she was meant to be ours from the first moment we laid eyes on her. You test the will of the goddesses with your disloyalty. And because this pack is broken, I have called in help to manage the problem. Two attempts on the life of mine and my brother’s mate are two too many. Until this pack gets its shit together or comes apart completely, I will do everything in my power to protect what is mine.”
Charlie slipped her hand into mine. “He asked and I gave permission. You are my family. But I can’t trust you. I don’t deserve this, and neither do my mates. This behavior will not stand, and my parents would be ashamed if they could see what you’ve become. What you’ve let Victor turn you into.”
“You led our family to their deaths!” shouted a voice from across the room.
Before she could answer, I thundered a reply, shaking the room with my anger. How dare they blame her for something out of her control? “You think she would willingly lead her family to their deaths? She watched Xerxes cut her parents to pieces in front of her. The only reason she is alive today is because the woman who betrayed her in the first place had a change of heart and helped her escape with the few people Xerxes hadn’t had time to kill yet.”
“You think Victor has your best interests at heart? He’s trying to get you to surrender to the very person who stole everything from you. Why can’t you see that?” Garrett added.
Victor scoffed and stepped forward. “It’s all words. You don’t know what really happened, and I have the emissary’s word that Xerxes wants all of us to live. We just have to stop fighting him. He’s not the enemy the Masons made him out to be. All these years he’s been trying to find a way to give us the upper hand over the humans. Aren’t you tired of being a second-class citizen in their eyes? It’s time they recognized us for the powerful race we are and respected us for it.”
Fists lifted around the room. He’d won them over again. It would never stop. He would never stop. Until the pack was all dead. Or Victor was. Hopefully Brogan and some of the other guys from Sanctuary would show up before a mini war started tearing this place apart.
“Get out!” Charlie raised her voice, using some of our alpha magick to get the point across to Victor. The room vibrated with our power, and voices quieted instantly. “You have finally worn down all of my patience, Uncle Victor. Since the formal challenge and fight wasn’t enough to satisfy your ha
tred of me, I will leave. If you want Victor, you can have him. Leave me and mine in peace while we pack.”
No one spoke another word or moved, except Victor, who backed away slowly and then slammed the door behind him as he went. No one followed him. The ones who’d rallied behind him moments ago–gone.
I glanced over at my brother and he nodded, following my gaze to the back door Victor had exited through. We both wanted to know where he was going and who he was meeting.
Chapter 26
CHARLIE
I stared down at the rug on my bedroom floor. I couldn’t believe I’d just told my pack I’d leave. Every bone in my body screamed out it was wrong. I couldn’t abandon them to the fate Xerxes would dole out. Either he’d kill them all slowly or kill them quickly. The outcome would be the same.
Death.
As alpha, they were my responsibility. Hell, they’d been my responsibility, along with my parents’, for years. I’d been groomed to take over in case my parents were captured and killed. But when it’d actually happened, though we’d talked about it, I wasn’t ready. I wasn’t prepared to see them tortured and humiliated and brutally murdered in front of me.
Sometimes I could hear my mother’s screams as he gutted her and my father’s pleas before the animal slit her throat. It had been pleasurable to him. He’d enjoyed killing for killing’s sake. Their pain, their screams. It was sick, but that’s what he seemed to like the most.
I’d heard the term psychopath tossed around from time to time in conversation, but he was the only one I’d ever seen in real life. Witnessed the pain he spread. I could hear his dark voice slithering through my soul, tendrils of evil waiting to snuff out any light they could find.
A hand fell on my shoulder, and I screeched, nearly jumping out of my skin.
“It’s just me, love,” Garrett said, keeping his voice low and soft. I turned into him and buried my face in his chest. Inhaling his scent, I released the breath I’d been holding since he startled me. That triggered an epic meltdown. Tears poured from my eyes, and my knees sagged.
Travis approached my back and leaned forward, pinning me between them. A safe sandwich of sexy Lycan that smelled good enough to lick from head to toe.
Here I was crying my eyes out, worried about the end of the pack and lodge I’d called home for eighty years, and my mind drifted to sex. What was wrong with me?
Even if I didn’t get sex, I just wanted them to hold me. Wrapping my arms around Garrett’s neck, I pulled myself up his body. He met me halfway, and our lips collided. My tongue danced with his, fighting to taste every inch of his mouth. His did the same, making long sweeps between my lips and pulling my lips, one at a time, into his mouth.
My panties were wet, and I moaned, rubbing against the hard-on Garrett had pressed tightly against my belly. Travis’ hard cock nestled against my ass, and I couldn’t help but rock back and forth between them, enjoying the pressure from both sides.
“You’re not going to be mad at me this time, are you?” I whispered against Garrett’s mouth before turning my head to meet Travis’ lips where they’d been nibbling on my earlobe.
“No, sweetheart. Tonight is about new beginnings and embracing the choices and commitments we all made publicly today.”
“I especially liked the choice you made to allow our bond to settle. I can’t tell you how happy that makes me, Charlotte,” Garrett murmured into my ear as I kissed Travis over my shoulder.
Their hands were everywhere. My breasts. My hips. Inside my pants. Then fingers were inside me, coaxing out an orgasm that no doubt would be one of many tonight.
I shuddered and gasped, letting the mini-quake spread from my belly outward until my fingers dug into Garrett’s neck and my toes curled in the fibers of the carpet.
Travis dragged his body down my back, catching the hem of my pants with his fingers and pulled until they dropped to the floor along with my panties in a pool of fabric around my bare feet. Then his mouth kissed up the back side of one thigh and down the other.
I was shaking by the time he finished.
Garrett had skillfully relieved me of my shirt and bra, so I stood naked between them… while they were still fully dressed. Totally not fair.
Yanking at Garrett’s shirt, I tried to pull it up a little, but he pushed away my hand and lowered his mouth to one of my bare breasts. His tongue swirled around the nipple until it turned to steel. Then he did the same to the other breast. Both throbbed from the attention, and I moaned when his mouth moved lower, trailing down my torso toward my slick pussy. All thoughts of his shirt vanished.
I wanted his mouth on me. And Travis. Where was Travis? The heat from his body was gone from my back, but I saw him a few seconds later, emerging from the bathroom with something black in his hands. I couldn’t quite make out the item before he hid it behind his back with a mischievous smile.
Garrett’s mouth reached my slit, and I nearly fell on top of him. His arms slipped beneath my thighs and gripped my hips, lifting and moving us to the bed. For a second, his mouth left me, and I moaned again, needing to feel his tongue against my clit and thrusting inside me until he was ready to thrust that hard cock of his inside instead.
Travis caressed my breasts again, one at a time, bringing each nipple to a hard peak for a second time. Then he slipped the black thing I’d seen him with—a scarf of mine—over my eyes and tied it gently around my head. Losing sight of them made me focus even harder on my sense of touch, smell, and every sound they made.
“Please,” I moaned. My body burned for both of them.
“Yes, love,” Travis said, his voice softer than I’d heard it all day. He rolled me to my side, facing me away from him and lifted my leg. He rubbed his fingers, covered in a cooling gel, along my slit and up between the cheeks of my ass, being especially careful to spread the lubricant around the tight rosebud of muscles he wanted to fuck. At least I hoped that was his plan.
Garrett’s scent drifted to my nostrils, and the bed dipped as he lay down in front of me. My hands flew to his now naked chest, and a shiver of delight ran down my body. I slid my hand lower and lower, following the lines of his body, stopping to pause at the giant erection meant just for me.
Gods, I wanted him. Wrapping my fingers around his hard shaft, I pulled gently, drawing the tip of his cock back and forth across my trembling belly. He groaned, his chest vibrating with a carnal growl that made my pussy weep.
“Now,” I demanded, a little more forcefully.
Garrett hooked a heel around my leg, and his arm snaked around my waist. A second later, he rolled me into position on top of him and had moved us down the bed closer to the edge. My knees on either side of him were still on the mattress, but my feet were hanging off into the air.
I lifted my body, felt for his cock, and guided it to my pussy, sinking down and taking him in with one thrust. His hands locked around my hips and held me for a few seconds before letting me rock against him.
My vision was gone, but I could hear both their hearts pounding. Travis placed a hand on my back and pushed until I was lying flat against Garrett’s chest.
More gel cooled between the cheeks of my ass, and then the tip of his cock pressed ever so gently at first. He put a foot up on the bed next to my thigh and pressed again, this time entering and sending me spiraling into oblivion as another orgasm rocked my body.
“That’s it, love,” Travis said, sliding even deeper.
Garrett thrust in and out slowly as Travis continued to push deeper. My body flexed and trembled. The orgasm had faded, but another was already curling in my belly as both my mates filled me completely.
I liked the blindfold. It let me focus completely on every touch, kiss, and thrust. They slowly increased their speed, and I moaned, pleasure filling me with bliss as it washed away my worry and frustrations. The problems with the pack disappeared, and I was able to just be with my mates. Problems would always need to be solved, but this bond we had with each other would never fade.
I bit into Garrett’s shoulder and screamed as yet another orgasm slammed through me; were it not for them holding me up, I would’ve collapsed into a boneless mound. Both men groaned as well, following my climax with their own.
Travis pulled away first and, from the sound of his footsteps, headed for my bathroom. Garrett lifted me by my hips, and I moaned. Every muscle in my body was tired and content at the same time. Moving was not necessary, yet he continued to lift my body, setting me gently in the center of the bed. He tugged the blindfold free from my head, and I smiled, meeting his contented gaze.
Travis returned, and they cleaned me and then themselves before climbing back into bed with me and snuggling on both sides. They had my back—and my front. But mostly, I knew for sure they would support me no matter what.
Chapter 27
CHARLIE
We made love several more times that evening, slowly then fiercely then slowly again. When the sun rose that morning and peeked through the curtains on my window, I could honestly say I only wanted to snuggle closer to the two men on either side of me and pretend morning hadn’t arrived.
But we were all awake. I heard the shift in both their heart rates only seconds after I opened my eyes.
“We could just stay here. In bed.”
“We could,” Garrett said, his voice as soft as crushed velvet.
“But?” I asked. There would be a “but.” I could hear it coming.
“We need to get out and look for those soldiers. They could return at any time. No matter what the pack votes about us, we need to be prepared.” Travis ran his fingertips along the curve of my bare hip, making my body twitch when he hit a ticklish nerve.
“I don’t want you to leave without me.”
Sanctuary, Texas Complete Series Box Set Page 85