A Mating Dance (Ashwood Falls)

by Davis, Lia;

  As if sensing his shift in mood, Blaine broke the kiss and motioned him over with a jerk of the head. Graham walked over and gave the male a crooked grin. “So, what did you do to warrant Cam’s bullet?” he teased, hoping like hell it was an accident.

  He couldn’t imagine Cameron shooting her mate on purpose. Yeah, she could kill; he didn’t doubt that. She was an enforcer and, from what he’d heard, a kick-ass-take-no-names enforcer. But he had seen her soft side, her maternal side, and the love she gave her friends and family.

  Cameron leaned into Graham, pressing her shoulder into his bicep. The warmth from her body relaxed him a little, and her sweet jasmine scent made him want to take her, again.

  Blaine sucked in a breath. Graham peered at Dani next to him. She had placed her hand over the wound and a soft glow bled through her fingers as she pushed her healing powers into him. After what seemed like minutes, she raised her hand to reveal the hole completely closed up. The skin around it was still red and angry.

  Blaine moved his leg to hang it off the bed and clasped Graham on the shoulder. “Our mate thought shooting me would save my life.”

  Graham felt his lips twitch. Amusement filled him at Blaine’s teasing tone, washing out the tension he’d had when Dani said Blaine had been shot. Cameron looked up at Graham from where she stood between them and rolled her eyes. “He’s alive, isn’t he?”

  Graham let out a laugh. “Yes, but he still has that big ego.”

  Cameron snorted. “You are so right.”

  Blaine scowled and hopped off the bed, wincing when he put weight on his injured leg. Graham reached out, but Blaine shook his head and waved him and Cameron off. The male was stubborn, but Graham already knew that.

  Cameron wrapped an arm around Blaine’s waist, ignoring the low growl he gave her. “I’m taking grumpy home to rest.”

  Graham dipped his head to hide the grin that wouldn’t leave. These two shifters did that to him. Made him smile and laugh. Something he’d rarely done since Isaac left. Shaking off the depressing thoughts before they could take root, he said, “I’m heading over to Jared’s office. Do you mind if I stop by your place after? I found something in the journal.”

  Blaine bobbed his head as he gave up fighting Cam off and leaned on her. “Sounds great. Cam can cook us dinner tonight.”

  She rolled her eyes again but smiled. “Sure, why not? You like cereal?”

  It was Blaine’s turn to laugh. “Now you are just being difficult, female.” He winked at Graham and said, “She’s a great cook.”

  Without a clear thought, Graham leaned in and pressed a kiss to Cameron’s lips. She let out a low purr as she kissed him back. Pulling back, he peered at Blaine, whose gray eyes glowed with desire. But, before he stepped away, Blaine cupped the back of Graham’s neck and pulled him in for a quick kiss on the mouth.

  Graham’s heart raced, pumping blood through his veins much too fast and hot. Damn. It was going to be hard as hell to walk away from them if this didn’t work.

  He turned and froze at the sight of Dani cleaning up and trying to act as though she hadn’t seen anything. He knew her hearing worked perfectly. He cleared his throat and walked over to stand next to her. Cameron and Blaine left, the leopard male still teasing Cam about being shot.

  “Do you mind watching the kids?”

  She turned to him with a smile on her face. “No. Nevan wanted to sit down with Max tonight anyway. You know. Empath to empath.”

  Graham nodded. “That would be great.”

  Dani touched his forearm. “Don’t worry about the kids. Get to know your mates.”

  He kissed his sister-in-law on the cheek. “Thanks.”

  ***

  “So, you found him?”

  Jared drew in a slow, calming breath before he growled out the answer to Luna’s question. Anger boiled his blood and set his jaguar on a lethal edge. “Not yet, but I’m close. The female has hidden my son well.”

  He heard her stand up, and he cast a glance over his shoulder. At five feet five, the wolf Alpha looked delicate and small, but he knew better. Luna was just as fierce, if not more so, than any male Alpha he’d ever met. Her round face framed with curly red hair only added to the deception. She could lure the enemy in with a smile then kill them before they knew what happened.

  He’d seen it first-hand.

  “We’ll find him, Jared, and bring him home.” She moved closer to him.

  He tensed, not wanting to be this close to her in the mood he was in. He was too wired, too on edge. Fifteen years without sex would do that to a male.

  It wasn’t that he had a problem finding a female to bed. He got offers all the time from the unmated females in the Pack, both wolves and felines. However, he couldn’t find release with any of them. Not with his fated mate still alive.

  Fuck. He had to find Sable and kill her.

  “My son is my concern for now, Luna. Lord knows you and Keegan have enough on your plates.”

  She let out a growl and released her Alpha power into the room. A warning for him to not forget who she was. “You are Pack. Your concerns are ours.” She turned and walked toward the door. Before she left, she added, “I don’t care if you have to fuck the enemy, just do something to calm your cat.”

  Jared growled in frustration and whirled around. Luna was gone. In her place stood Graham Griffin, Nevan’s stepbrother.

  Shit. Could Jared be any more of an ass?

  Taking a deep breath, Jared sat behind his desk and motioned Graham to have a seat while he studied the male. He smelled like Cameron, and that made Jared’s jaguar bare his teeth. He could also smell Blaine on him as well.

  He smirked. His little sis hadn’t said anything about Blaine in their brief conversation earlier. He hadn’t even seen Blaine in a couple of days. Jared had been too busy tracking down his son and coming up empty. Again.

  Jared sat back in his chair and crossed his arms over his chest. “A triad?”

  Graham narrowed his eyes but nodded. “It seems so.”

  Well, hell. He’d always thought his sister was too aggressive for one male. But that was really none of his business. Cameron was grown and no longer needed him interfering in her life. The truth was, he fully trusted and respected Blaine.

  Jared picked up a file folder from the stack on the corner of his desk and opened it. “I looked over Isaac’s will that Keegan dropped off yesterday.” He pulled a sheet of paper from the folder and slid it toward Graham. “I just need your signature, and the kids are yours.”

  A flash of silver rippled through Graham’s irises. Jared was glad he wasn’t empathic. The emotions running through Graham right now would have done serious damage to his careful control. “You live with your brother with those emotions?” Jared asked, trying to ease the tension in the room.

  Graham lifted his gaze to his, and after a few moments, the male smiled weakly. “Nevan doesn’t hesitate to tell me to take a walk when it’s too much.”

  “That human still owes me a Hunt.”

  Graham laughed and plucked a pen from the cup at the edge of the desk. “I’ll let him know.” He signed the guardianship papers and laid the pen down.

  The tension that had sat heavily on his shoulders since Luna’s visit eased, and Jared found that he liked the mountain lion in front of him. He replaced the signed paper in the folder and closed it. “I have to read your memories now. Has Keegan explained that?”

  “Yes. As Justice, you have to verify I’m not a threat to the Pack.”

  As a Justice, the formal Pack title for what he was, Jared wasn’t telepathic to the extent Keegan was, but he did possess the ability to take memories from one’s past in order to pass judgment and share the intel with the Marshals and Alphas of the Pack.

  Graham laid his right hand on the desk, palm up. Jared hovered his hand over the male’s palm and closed his eyes. Visions of Graham’s past flooded his mind. Fast at first, then slower as Jared separated the happy ones from the darker ones, which contain
ed heartache at the lost of Isaac and a few minor offensives as a child.

  Jared broke the connection and opened his eyes. He felt the side of his mouth rise in a crooked grin. “Does your mom know you stole cigarettes when you were sixteen?”

  Graham laughed. “No, but Cale nearly beat the shit out of me.”

  Jared chuckled. He’d met Cale, Graham and Nevan’s oldest brother, a couple of weeks ago when the whole family had come to visit with Nevan and Dani. The male was definitely Alpha material and no doubt the one to take control over the shifter males of the family when they stepped out of line.

  Standing, Jared offered his hand to Graham. “Welcome to the Pack.”

  The lion stood and clasped his hand in a firm shake. “Thanks. I’m happy to be here.”

  Chapter 11

  Cameron had just pulled the lasagna from the oven when the doorbell rang. Her heart did a little flip inside her chest. She could sense Graham before she smelled his sexy earthy-sage scent as Blaine opened the door to let him in.

  Call her crazy, but she wanted this triad. She didn’t know Graham that well, yet she felt so comfortable around him. Her jaguar even calmed in his presence. For the first time in her life, she felt balanced, like her dominant half and her maternal half had finally found something for each of them.

  Great. She’d just admitted to having a split personality. Nevan would have fun with that little tidbit.

  Her males walked into the kitchen. Blaine kissed her check and plucked some cheese off the top of the lasagna, dodging her hand when she swatted at him. Graham set a bottle of red wine on the counter and offered a gentle smile. She scowled, not liking how he still held himself apart from her and Blaine.

  Was he having second thoughts? No, she couldn’t let him do that. Not now that she was starting to allow him into her life. She walked over to him and kissed his cheek. When she pulled back, she saw the spark of desire in his blue eyes. Heat pooled in her abdomen, and her heart sped up. Damn, this male was hot. Without thinking, she took his face in her hands and drew him in so she could capture his lips with hers.

  Graham wrapped his arms around her waist and squeezed her against his hard, lean body. She moaned and thrust her tongue inside his mouth, finding his. He broke the kiss much too soon for her liking and pressed his forehead to hers. “Hi.”

  She laughed. “Hi.”

  He looked past her and chuckled. “Blaine is starting without us.”

  “Huh?” She turned around and saw Blaine fixing his plate.

  He looked at them and smirked. “You two continue. I’m eating before it gets cold.” Cameron saw the teasing in his eyes as he walked over, stopped next to Graham, and kissed him.

  Cam shook her head and fixed her and Graham’s plates. They were getting together tonight to go through the journal and strategize. So she had to get a grip on her hormones.

  About twenty minutes later, Cameron flipped through the leather-bound book Isaac not only kept as a personal journal but as a record of the development of a mutant virus. She was sure that’s what it was. “Did you let Dani see this?”

  Graham nodded. “I made copies for her before coming over. She was going to load them in the Network.”

  Cameron relaxed, a little. The Network was an online shifter community where other Packs around the country shared information and reached out to help one another. The online community was also governed by Dane and several other computer geeks from other Packs that worked in shifts to keep the Onyx out. However, nothing was full proof and moles did exist. So all info shared on the Network was encrypted and password protected. “Good. Hopefully someone will know what it means.”

  “Considering Isaac was a bio-chemist and Onyx had his kids locked up, that pretty much confirms it for me,” Blaine said.

  Cameron couldn’t agree more with his logic. “But, we need to know if this is the original or a new and improved strand.” She turned another page, and a small slip of paper slid out. She picked it up and frowned. Handing it to Blaine, she asked, “Could these be coordinates?”

  While Blaine looked at the numbers on the paper, she went to her room to grab her laptop. Coming back to the living room, she set the computer on the coffee table and powered it up.

  “I think that’s exactly what they are,” Blaine said with a little too much excitement in his tone.

  Cameron knew that tone and the recognized the thrill in his eyes. She took the slip of paper from him and typed the numbers into the Pack GPS software. Within a few seconds, a map popped up. The marker pointed to a heavy wooded area about ten miles from where they’d found the children. Her heart hammered in her chest. She turned the computer around to show Blaine.

  “What the fuck? There’s nothing there.”

  Graham shifted closer to Blaine and peered at the screen. “Would they have something that disrupted the satellite image?”

  Blaine grinned. “Yes they would.”

  It took all of her control to stay rooted to the couch. Cameron felt the pull to hunt, to search the area. And she wanted to go now. She met Blaine’s eyes and knew he wanted the same. He gave a shake of the head and said, “I’ll send Travis out to check the area.”

  She let out a sigh and nodded. “Okay, but we need to plan our attack in case this is their hideout.”

  “Agreed.” Blaine pulled out his phone and sent a text.

  Cameron knew without asking that he’d sent Keegan the coordinates and filled the Alpha in on the situation. It was one of the perks of being a senior enforcer and mating the Marshal. She got all the juicy details before the others.

  ***

  Graham spent the next hour or so bouncing ideas around with Blaine and Cameron as they ran through more of the journal. When he flipped to the last page, Cameron had noticed the corner of the lining had been removed and glued back down. He pulled out his pocketknife and cut along the edge. Under the lining was a message written in Isaac’s handwriting.

  He read it over and over, not wanting to believe the confession his ex-lover had written. Isaac had made a new string of the mutant virus and wanted Graham to destroy it. The message also confirmed the location of the lab. Just as they’d suspected, the coordinates brought them about fifty feet from the rogues’ back door.

  “Dane and Alec will be able to attack the computer system, but they’d have to be inside to do it, or at least within ten feet of the main server,” Blaine said as he closed his phone. “But they need at least twenty-four hours to create the computer virus.”

  Cameron kicked off her boots then folded her legs underneath her where she sat next to Graham on the couch. “So, we roll out tomorrow night?”

  Blaine’s lips twitched, and he gave a short nod. “About thirty minutes before sunset.”

  “Nice.” Cameron smiled and peered at Graham then at Blaine. “What will we do until morning?” she purred and ran her hand through Graham’s short blond hair, loving the feel of the soft strands against her fingers.

  Graham closed his eyes and leaned into her touch. Butterflies fluttered in her belly at how at ease she felt with this male. Blaine moved to stand in front of them, then leaned in to cage Graham with his arms braced on the back of the couch. The males locked gazes and studied each other with cautiously.

  Cameron hadn’t realized until now that they, too, still weren’t sure about each other. Of course, they could be waging a battle for dominance. Males. It amused her that they always wanted control. Then again Blaine’s dominance is what had drawn her to him.

  However, the attraction to Graham was the opposite. He was like a beta in terms of power and strength and just went with the flow. Sure, he was a strong male, but he didn’t possess the will to control and dominate everything or everyone around him. With Graham, Cameron felt more at ease to release her softer side, her girlie side that Blaine lovingly teased her about.

  She peered back at Blaine, whose eyes lit up with desire. Her heart fluttered, and she lifted her free hand to run her fingers through Blaine’s brown
hair, letting her nails rake over his scalp. A low growl rose from his throat, and he closed his eyes.

  Graham leaned forward, clasped the back of Blaine’s neck, and drew him in for a hard kiss. And, dear God, did she ever find that to be the hottest thing. It did something to her that the two males who had become a huge part of her life, could share such an intimate connection. In a way it made her feel…almost whole, like the piece she’d been missing had suddenly slipped into place.

  Blaine broke the kiss and rested his forehead against Graham’s then looped an arm around Cameron and dragged her into Graham’s lap so she sat between them. Blaine kissed her quickly on the mouth and pulled away.

  When he stood, Cameron reached for him. “Where are you going?”

  One corner of his mouth lifted. “I need to talk to my father and Luna.” He turned and left before she could call him out on his bullshit. She knew good and well that he could wait until the morning to talk to the Alphas. But she let it go and watched him walk out the door.

  She stiffened when Graham’s lips touched her ear. “I think he’s giving us some time alone.”

  Her heart beat franticly, and her skin heated. His intense blue gaze held her as he dipped his head to capture her lips. She opened for him, meeting each thrust of his tongue. His sage scent filled her and intensified the need to possess this male.

  Breaking the kiss, she slid from his lap to kneel in front of him. She ran her hands up his thighs, drawing a hiss from him. Smiling, she continued to travel her fingers up to the top of his jeans and unbuttoned them then slowly lowered the zipper. She groaned in pleasure as his cock sprang free.

  Tingles covered her skin, and her stomach did flips. She didn’t know why she felt so giddy around him. It was almost disturbing and reminded her of when she and Blaine first started going out.