by Becca Van
First thing tomorrow, he and his brothers needed to sit down with Sierra and tell her what they were and what she was to them. That way if his and his brothers’ hostilities got ahold of them, maybe, just maybe, she wouldn’t be terrified of them.
* * * *
Sierra turned and peered into the dark after hearing a noise, but when she couldn’t see anything, she hurried her pace across the parking lot toward the street and the bus stop, but she didn’t make it.
He appeared in front of her from out of nowhere, and before she knew it she was on the ground and he was sitting on top of her. She stared into his cold eyes while trying to fight him off, but he was too big and too strong. She only caught a glimpse of steel before it was plunged into her shoulder, and she screamed in agony.
She kicked, scratched, slapped, and punched but nothing she did seemed to make a difference. A deep guttural moan escaped from between her parted lips as he tugged the knife from her flesh. Tears ran down her face and into her hair, and she screamed again when he stabbed her right arm deep into her bicep.
Nausea roiled and she had to fight the urge to vomit from the excruciating agony in her shoulder searing her to the bone and in her arm.
When she heard a soft clunk, she realized he’d dropped the knife. Even though it hurt badly to move, she pushed the pain to the back of her mind as much as she could, curled her fingers into claws, and aimed for his eyes.
But he was faster and stronger. He grasped both of her wrists brought them together and held them in one hand before pinning them above her head. She cried out as agony ripped through her in hot, searing waves.
He shifted on his knees until he was sitting on her lower legs, pinning them to the hard concrete. Stones dug into her back and ass, but they were the least of her worries. She bucked and squirmed, pulling at her wrists, trying to pit her pitiful strength against his as she tried to get out of his hold, but her efforts were worthless.
Sierra didn’t see the knife coming this time, but she felt the torturous pain as he speared the blade into her thigh almost all the way up to the handle. Her scream was deep and tormented, and she hurt in so many places she lost count. A flash of light caught her gaze, but she had no idea where it had come from.
Suddenly, he was on his feet no longer pinning her down. His was dressed all in black as if he’d been trying to blend into the shadows and he’d succeeded. Even his face was covered in a black balaclava hiding his features from her gaze.
“You’re going to pay for what you’ve done, you fucking bitch. You can run, but you can’t hide forever. I’m going to find you, and when I do I’ll rape you, torture you, and take your life. Your death isn’t going to be easy. You’re going to be begging me to kill you.”
Sierra sobbed with pain and fear. He was gone, and she hadn’t even seen him leave.
She had to get help. She was bleeding badly from the wound in her shoulder and the one in her thigh. If she didn’t find help soon, she was scared she was going to bleed out and die.
“Help me,” she screamed as loudly as she could hoping someone would hear her call. “Somebody, please help me!”
* * * *
Rhys was on his feet and running toward the bedroom at the end of the hall before he even thought about moving. Adrenaline coursed through his body, pumping up his muscles as his fighting instincts kicked in.
Seconds later, Justice and Weldon were behind him. The tortured sounds coming from his mate broke his heart but also angered him. Someone was hurting his woman.
He burst into her bedroom, scenting the air for the intruder as he scanned the room, but it was empty other than Sierra. She was in bed tossing and turning as if trying to fight off an invisible enemy, but she was also crying. The deep, gut-wrenching sobs made his heart hurt, and without thinking about what he was doing, he climbed up onto the bed and lifted her into his arms.
She flailed her arms and kicked her legs still lost in her bad dream. Justice sat on one side of them and Weldon on the other. Justice grasped her wrist as she punched toward his face, stopping Sierra from hurting herself. Weldon slipped from the bed onto his knees and clasped her ankles after she kicked out at her imaginary nemesis.
“Wake up, love,” Rhys crooned to her, then a bit louder when she bucked and writhed trying to escape their hold. “Sierra, wake up!”
She tensed and froze on his lap, and then she slumped against him. Her whole body trembled and shook as she continued to cry. “I’m sorry,” she sobbed. “So sorry.”
Justice let go of her wrist and caressed his hand over her shoulder and up and down her arm. Weldon smoothed his hands up and down her shins, over her knees, higher on her thighs before skimming his palms down again.
“You’re safe, love. We’ve got you.” Rhys’s heart was aching as she continued crying. There was so much pain in her tears, he couldn’t stand it. When Justice stilled and tensed beside him, he glanced at his brother. The anger and scowl on Justice’s face had Rhys gut knotting up. He followed his brother’s train of sight and blanched when he saw the scar on Sierra’s arm, then he eyed the rest of her body over and fury had him grinding his teeth together.
Sierra was wearing a large shirt to sleep in, but it was way too big for her small body. The shoulders of the garment had slid down her arms, revealing what looked like stab and knife wounds marring her beautiful soft skin. Her breasts were still mostly covered except for the upper slopes of the creamy looking mounds.
His first instinct was to ask her who the fuck had hurt her, but right now, he and his brothers needed to calm her down. If she didn’t stop crying soon, she was going to make herself sick.
“You’re safe, baby,” Justice stated quietly over and over again.
Finally after what felt like hours, Sierra’s tears slowed and she gasped for breath. She wiped the tears from her face and sniffed a couple of times. “Do you want me to get you a tissue, darlin’?” Weldon asked.
Sierra nodded.
Weldon shoved to his feet and hurried into the bathroom. He was back moments later and handed her a wad of clean tissues.
“Thanks,” she rasped out, took the tissues, blotted her face, and blew her nose.
“Do you want to talk about the nightmare, baby?” Justice asked.
Sierra shook her head, drew in another ragged breath, and closed her eyes.
“It might help if you did,” Rhys suggested. “We learned the hard way that keeping things bottled up isn’t healthy. We’ve seen some terrible shit in our lives while being soldiers. We had and still have nightmares and the occasional flashback. It took us a few months to come to terms with some of the things we saw and had to do while in the Marines. We all actually started fighting each other, came to blows and beat the shit out of each other. After we cleared the air and started talking about our experiences, we started getting better.”
“Rhys is right, darlin’,” Weldon said. “You need to talk to someone. If not us, then maybe a professional.”
She frowned up at his brothers before gazing up at him. She opened her mouth as if she was about to say something, but just licked her lips and remained silent.
“Do you want a drink of water, baby?” Justice asked.
“Please,” she answered.
Justice rushed from the room to get their woman some water.
Rhys inhaled her amazing fragrance and tried to get his hard cock to stand down, but he had no control over that part of his body when he was around his mate. Having her in his arms, on his lap, was testing every ounce of his dominance over himself and his wolf. He pushed his lust to the back of his mind as much as he could.
Rhys sighed with frustration. He hated that she wasn’t willing to open up with them and tell them what she’d dreamt about that had frightened her so much, even if he understood it. She barely knew them and was wary. He and his brothers were going to have to be patient. They needed to give Sierra more time until she relaxed around them. Hopefully, it wouldn’t take her too long, because he wasn’t sure ho
But there was no way in fucking hell he was going to lose control of his beast, because if he did, Sierra was likely to freak out and leave town as soon as possible.
Chapter Four
“Fucking bitch,” he seethed. He’d been hanging about the shelter, hiding behind parked cars hoping to overhear conversations from her work colleagues about where she’d gone, but he hadn’t heard anything useful.
The cunt had destroyed his life, and she needed to pay for what she’d done.
She’d talked his wife into leaving him and taking his kid with her, and they seemed to have disappeared from the face of the earth. The only way his slut of a wife would be able to hide from him was if she’d had help. This shelter was the closest place to where he and his family had lived, and now his son and wife were gone.
He’d done everything he could to find his family, but he had nada.
It was time to up his game. He had connections and wasn’t afraid to use them to get what he wanted.
He had a lot of friends in law enforcement. After he thought up a reason for one of his cop friends to do a search on her, he was going to go after that bitch and make her pay for ruining his life.
The guys he worked with had been giving him looks of anger and wariness, so he knew that they had to have heard something about him, but he didn’t really give a fuck. All that mattered right now was exacting revenge and making sure that do-gooding cunt paid for sticking her nose in where it wasn’t wanted.
Once he found the slut and tortured what he wanted to know out of her, he’d end her life.
His son and his wife were going to be back where they belonged before the year was out.
They would be under his control again real soon.
* * * *
Sierra couldn’t believe she hadn’t noticed that the three men were only in their underwear. They were wearing boxer briefs, and though she tried to stop herself from looking over all their sexy muscles and manly physiques, she didn’t seem to have any will power.
When Justice entered the room carrying a glass of water, she perused his sexy body from beneath her lowered eyelashes. The man was so cut with definition, and he was huge compared to her five-four stature. He had to be around six-five or so, and his shoulders were so broad. Even though he and his brothers all had blonde hair and blue eyes, they were sporting bronzed tans, and she wondered if they went about the place with their shirts off.
Justice sat beside her and handed her the glass of water. “Thanks,” she said, then took a deep gulp. The water splashed out of the glass and up her nose, making her cough and splutter.
Weldon took the glass from her as she wiped water from her face and coughed again. Rhys patted her back, and when she’d stopped choking Justice brushed her hair back from her face. “Are you okay, baby?” he asked.
Her face heated as she blushed over making a fool of herself. She hadn’t noticed her hand was shaking as she’d lifted the glass to her mouth until it was too late. “I’m fine,” she replied. “Embarrassed but fine.”
Rhys grasped her chin in his hand, turning her face until she met his eyes. “You have nothing to be embarrassed about, honey. These things happen.”
“Are you feeling calmer now, darlin’?” Weldon asked.
She gazed toward him and gaped when she noticed his eyes had an ethereal yellow glow behind the blue. She’d never seen anything like it in her life. At first she tried to put the strangeness down to the light, but it wasn’t even on. The only light in the room was from the bedside table a few yards to Weldon’s left, and since he was side on to the lamp there was no way the light was causing that weird glow.
Sierra tried to push that anomaly from her mind as she looked at Justice as he moved beside her and she gnawed on her lower lip. She had taken his big body in as he’d walked close to her, and she’d gotten an eyeful. Her heart was pounding, and she was finding it harder and harder to breathe normally. Justice had an erection, and from what she’d seen, it was huge. The pole she’d seen pushing against the front of his boxers was too large to miss, and though she tried to stop her mind from wandering into the gutter, she couldn’t seem to help herself.
And then she remembered that she didn’t have much on, either. Being in a room with three men who were almost naked and practically strangers made her uncomfortable. Especially when she wasn’t even dressed, and one of them had a boner. She was covered, but she’d never felt so vulnerable, so exposed in her life, except that wasn’t all she was feeling.
Sierra was turned on, and no matter how hard she tried to tamp her lust down, it just seemed to get hotter.
All three of the Channing men smelled amazing. Justice had a manly spicy scent. Weldon’s fragrance was a tantalizing sandalwood, and Rhys’s aroma reminded her of the couple of times she’d gone walking in the woods while on vacation.
Each time she inhaled their combined colognes she wanted to sniff them more and more. For the first time in a hell of a long time, Sierra was aroused, but she wasn’t about to let on how hot the three brothers made her.
From her one and only experience with the opposite sex other than the most recent one, guys were only after one thing, and that was to get into a woman’s panties. Was that why they’d offered to let her stay in their home, so they could try and coerce her into their bed?
She jolted back to the present when Justice spoke. “Do you want more water, Sierra?”
“Not right now, thanks.” She slid from Rhys’s lap to her feet and paced away from the three men, fixing the T-shirt, pulling it back up over her shoulders. She crossed her arms over her chest before turning to face them all. “I’m sorry I woke you all. I’ll be fine now.” Sierra lifted her chin and met each of their gazes, not letting her eyes wander over their hard, almost bare bodies even though she wanted to.
Rhys sighed as he stood. “We’re here if you need us, Sierra.”
She nodded her thanks and took a couple of steps back until her ass and upper back bumped into the wall behind her. Rhys eyed her body over, scrubbed a hand over his face, and walked out of the room.
Weldon frowned at her as if he was trying to figure her out and shook his head with puzzlement before he, too, turned and walked out.
She quirked a brow at Justice expectantly, but he just continued to hold her stare. When his gaze dropped to her now covered arm and shoulder and he scowled, she realized he and his brothers had probably seen the healed knife wounds on her body, but she was too tired to deal with any of this right now.
All she wanted to do was crawl back into bed and go to sleep. This time, she hoped that the nightmare wouldn’t return since she’d already relived the hateful, painful night in her dreams.
Sierra felt as if the three Channing brothers could see right through her calm demeanor and the determined façade she was trying to portray. While she knew that wasn’t possible, she felt as if all her secrets were out in the open. She didn’t like feeling so defenseless and helpless and wondered if she’d made the right decision by accepting their invitation to stay in their spare bedroom.
First thing tomorrow, she was going to find out if there was anywhere else she could stay.
The Channing men were a threat to her hard-won composure and inner strength. She might have PTSD after being attacked and stabbed, but she was so used to dealing with things on her own and didn’t like the idea of anyone else knowing her private business.
Sierra didn’t ever want to feel weak or threatened again.
She’d faced death and fear, and while she’d tried to shore up her defenses and make herself impervious to her inner terror, she had a feeling that Justice, Rhys, and Weldon were a threat to her in more ways than one.
So why the hell wasn’t she terrified of them?
* * * *
“Did you see those fucking scars?” Weldon asked angrily as soon as his brothers joined him in the kitchen. Even though it was late—or should that be early since it was 4:00 a.m.—Weldon had gone to his bedroom, pulled his jeans and a T-shirt on, and headed to the kitchen after helping Justice and Rhys settle Sierra down after her nightmare.
He slugged down half a bottle of beer before his brothers even entered the room. He and his animal half were livid, and he knew there was no point in going back to bed and trying to sleep.
“We saw them,” Rhys snarled.
“I’m so fucking furious right now.” Justice paced the room, stopping only briefly when Weldon handed each of his brothers a beer. They, too, had gone to their rooms and pulled on jeans and shirts. It wasn’t cold since they were heading into summer. Plus, he and his brothers didn’t feel the cold as much as a human would. Their inner wolves were almost impervious to low temperatures. Of course in winter they felt chilled on occasion when it was well below freezing, but they didn’t need to rug up with lots of layers like the average human did.
“Do you think she’s in trouble?” Weldon asked, although he felt as if he already knew the answer. His animal was pacing and raking his claws down his insides in an effort to get free, but he ignored his wolf as much as he could. He brought the nearly empty bottle of beer up toward his mouth and inhaled deeply, trying to get the sickly-sweet stench of Sierra’s fear out of his nostrils, but he had a feeling he’d never forget that horrible stench. Not because the aroma was bad, but because he hated that Sierra felt so terrified.
While his human half and his wolf had smelled her warm, womanly perfume, the fragrance of her fear seemed to have entrenched deep into his nose and lungs and for some reason he couldn’t shake it.
“You have to get a tighter handle on your wolf, Weldon.” Rhys poked him in the chest. “She saw your fucking eyes glowing.”
Although he knew Rhys was right, he was feeling antsy and argumentative. “Fuck you, Rhys. Not all of us had the privilege of holding our mate in our arms. My wolf and I are so jealous of you right now. I could tear your fucking throat out.”
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