Tangled Hearts: A Menage Collection

by Various

  This woman was nothing like her sister. “Yes, ma’am. Private detectives. Working for our client. I’m sorry if you misunderstood.”

  She sat back. “Misunderstood. More like ‘misled.’ Do you have any other questions?”

  “About Mariann Waverly?”

  She took a breath. “I remember the name. I think she was in the pack a long time ago, but she left. If that’s the case, then my father would have known her.”

  Just as he’d thought. He asked a few more questions, making notes on his tablet, then switched it off. “We’re done. Now for the private matter.” He leaned forward. “We met your sister Bridget for lunch. We were going to ask her the same questions we asked you.”

  “But she walked out on you,” Deirdre said.

  “Yes, and we want to know why,” Gavin said.

  Liam sat up. “We’re her mates.”

  ***

  Deirdre looked stunned. “I take it you just discovered this?”

  “Yes,” Liam said. “At lunch. Bridget wasn’t happy. Why? Has someone hurt her?”

  “No,” Deirdre said. “No, nothing like that.”

  Liam felt his muscles unkink, just a little. “Then what?”

  “Once or twice, she’s talked about not wanting mates. Said she was happy for Maeve and me, but glad fate had passed her by. But she never really said why. I guess I thought if she found her mates one day that she’d come around. See the light, all that.”

  Gavin sat back in his chair, almost looking relaxed, except for the arms crossed over his chest and the tightness in his face.

  “She said something about not wanting to be owned,” Liam said.

  “Owned.” Deirdre pressed her lips into a line. “I’m sorry. I don’t know what to tell you. She’s never mentioned anything about mates owning her before.”

  “Can you help us?” Liam leaned forward. “Just convince her to get to know us. We’re not bad guys.”

  “We would never want to own her,” Gavin said.

  Deirdre scowled. “Yes, I’ll help you. Bridget should know better, after what happened with Maeve. I guess we really can’t learn from others’ mistakes.”

  “What happened with Maeve?” Liam said.

  “A tale for another time.” Deirdre smiled. “And there will be plenty of time for that once you’re part of the family. First, how about dinner? I can’t invite you to our place, but we could go to a restaurant in neutral territory. I’ll make sure Bridget’s there. And my mates, and our sister and her mates. We’ll trap Bridget on the inside of a booth if we have to.”

  Liam chuckled. “It sounds good to me.”

  “Yeah, we can stay over in Marysburg tonight,” Gavin said.

  “Where do you live?”

  “I live up in Alexandria,” Gavin said.

  “I’m sort of between packs at the moment,” Liam said. “I just got out of the Army.”

  Her eyes narrowed. “You said you were a detective.”

  Gavin put his hand on Liam’s knee, just for a few seconds. “He’s a detective in training.”

  It felt sort of funny to have another man touch him like that, especially in public. At the same time, it felt really right. For her part, Deirdre didn’t even blink. She probably saw stuff like that all the time with her two mates.

  No matter whether a wolf was gay or straight to start out with, their latent bisexuality came to the fore when they found their mates. Straight men, like Liam, suddenly wanted their male mate. Gay men suddenly were interested in their female mate. So while it was all new to Liam, he’d always known that if he got lucky enough to find his mates, he’d have as much a relationship with his male mate as with his female mate.

  “Give me your contact info, and I’ll let you know when dinner is set up,” Deirdre said.

  At least someone was open to their joining the family. Now if they could only convince Bridget to feel the same way.

  ***

  Bridget parked her car at the mall and walked inside. All she really wanted to do was go home and curl up in bed. The mating urge had gotten worse all day and it was all she could do to keep from touching herself. Or tracking down her mates and ravishing them.

  Instead, Deirdre had insisted she meet them at Trattoria Italiana at the mall. When Bridget had tried to get out of it, Deirdre had told her Jake would order her if he had to. What the hell.

  When she walked into the restaurant, she couldn’t miss her family, who had already appropriated a long table and waved her over as soon as she appeared. Everyone was there—her two sisters and all four of their mates. She’d just had time to take off her coat when Deirdre hustled her into a chair against the wall, in the middle of the long table, telling her exactly where to sit.

  “What’s going on?” Bridget said.

  Then she smelled them. She rose to her feet from the force of the need crashing over her body. Liam and Gavin stepped through the door and headed her way.

  Deirdre waved happily at them.

  “You know them?” Bridget grabbed Deirdre’s arm. “How do you know them?”

  “They came to see me today after you wouldn’t talk to them.”

  “That’s what tonight is about? You set me up?” Bridget tried to leave but before she’d taken two steps, Gavin boxed her in. She couldn’t get around the table through him, so she turned around…and ran right into Liam, who steadied her with hands on both her arms. She felt his touch as it seared through her shirt and branded her skin.

  He must have seen something in her face, because he leaned closer and said, “You feel this too. Why are you fighting it?”

  “I told you.” She pulled away from him but couldn’t even turn around. Gavin herded her to her seat and the two men sat on either side of her.

  Her family sat down all around them and immediately after that, the waitress appeared. The food was all family style, so Bridget let the others order. She’d like pretty much anything they chose.

  Which was good, because she could barely think. On the one hand, she felt scared. But at this point, the arousal nearly drowned it out. She fought to keep from reaching on either side of her and touching whatever she could find—a hand, a leg, a chest. She didn’t care.

  Most of her family was busy figuring out what food to order, but Nate, one of Maeve’s mates, stared at her from down the table. When he caught her eye, he shook his head at her.

  Oh, God, she hadn’t even thought about Maeve and her mates. Nate had every reason to judge her, for trying to do to her mates what he’d suffered through for so many years. She hung her head.

  Liam leaned over and whispered in her ear, his breath warming her skin. “Is he bothering you?”

  When she turned her head to look at him, their lips were only inches apart. “No. He’s reminding me.”

  “Of?”

  “Nothing,” she said.

  He leaned closer, frustration written on his face. “Talk to me, Bridget. Tell me what’s wrong. I just want you to be happy. For us to be happy together.”

  Bridget felt the fear well up again and pulled back. She hurriedly took a sip of water. Yes, she felt bad about Nate and Damian. And she didn’t want to do the same thing to her mates. But at the same time, she’d never wanted mates. Why should she have to have mates when she’d never wanted them?

  Jake, the Alpha of Stonewall pack and Deirdre’s mate, raised his glass. “To Gavin and Liam. Welcome to the family.”

  “Hey!” He shouldn’t be welcoming them to the family when she didn’t even want them. As mates.

  Her Alpha speared her with his gaze. “I trust that you’re all going to work this out. So there’s no reason not to go ahead and welcome them.”

  She wanted to walk out. Even if Jake would let her—doubtful—she couldn’t get past Gavin and Liam. So she stayed put.

  Jake raised his glass. “Again, welcome!”

  This time, Bridget stayed quiet, and everyone drank. She felt like a heel, so she also took a sip. She didn’t want to hurt her mates. She ju
st didn’t want to be mated to them.

  Gavin reached over and put his hand on her leg. The warmth sank through her pants and seared her thigh.

  She should make him stop. She should push his hand away. But God, it felt good.

  When she didn’t push Gavin away, Liam reached over and put his hand on her other thigh, squeezing it and rubbing it with his thumb.

  Torture. How was she supposed to stay away from them when all she wanted was to rip their clothes off?

  She put her hands over theirs, fully intending to push them away, but found herself twining her fingers with theirs instead. Both men looked at her, Gavin with a wary look on his face, and Liam with a smile.

  Damian broke in. “So Deirdre tells us you’re detectives?”

  Tearing his gaze away from her, Gavin said, “I’m the detective. Liam’s been shadowing me the past few weeks to see if he wants to become one himself.”

  “I just got out of the Army.” Liam squeezed her leg again. “I need a job but I have a little cushion, so I’m looking at my options. Being a PI seems like a pretty good one.”

  “Marysburg is a decent sized city,” Damian said. “I’ll bet there’s plenty of need for detectives here.”

  Bridget could kick him. This dinner was like all her worst nightmares of matchmaking relatives combined into one.

  “That’s certainly something to consider,” Gavin said. “At the same time, I have an already established practice in Alexandria, and I’m second in my pack. There are a lot of things for the three of us to think about when deciding where to live.”

  And with that, Bridget no longer felt like holding their hands. Take her away from her family? Push her around? This is exactly what she didn’t want. She pushed their hands off her legs and released them.

  Liam made a small sound of protest, so soft she was sure only she heard it.

  On her other side, Gavin leaned in and put his mouth next to her ear, so close she could almost feel his lips brushing her skin. “We’ll make the decision together. The three of us, as a team. I don’t own you, and I don’t want to.”

  She shivered.

  When he sat back, he put his arm along the back of her chair. His fingers brushed very lightly against the bare skin at the nape of her neck, sending fire streaking through her body. Insufferable man.

  Her family, bless them, had moved on to other topics, studiously avoiding looking at the three of them. But of course it couldn’t last. Jake, who was not only her brother-in-law but also her Alpha, turned his attention on Gavin.

  “Second in your pack. That’s a pretty high rank.”

  “I do all right,” Gavin said.

  And there it was again, his low-key, I’m-not-an-alpha kind of attitude that warred with the glimpses she’d seen of power nearly equal to Jake’s.

  “I’ve heard the pack up there is almost all men,” Jake said.

  Gavin shifted in his seat but didn’t remove his arm from her chair. “All male. Our Alpha prides himself on it. When a pack member finds his mates, he usually joins one of the other D.C. area packs.”

  Jake nodded, his gaze on Gavin. “So you’d have to do that, too. Second is great, but you’ll have to start all over in a new pack, no matter what. And where’s your practice?”

  Gavin stiffened.

  ***

  Gavin knew what Bridget’s Alpha was hinting at. Gavin was going to get kicked out of his pack anyway, and if his office was in pack territory, he’d have to start over. In which case, he might as well move to Marysburg and start over there. They sure didn’t want to let Bridget go.

  Not that he could blame them. Getting to spend time with her, just sitting beside her and breathing her scent, he didn’t want to go a day without her.

  But that didn’t mean he had to move here. “My office is in neutral territory. I do quite a bit of work for werewolves, whether in my pack or not, so I needed a place where they could come to see me.”

  “No reason you couldn’t open a branch in Marysburg,” Jake’s mate, Sam, said.

  Gavin speared him with a look, feeling his hackles rising. He wasn’t certain he was stronger than Jake, but he knew for damn sure he was more alpha than Sam.

  Liam leaned forward. “I think this is something the three of us need to discuss on our own. It’s probably going to take a lot of brainstorming and compromise to work out something that will make us all happy, but we’ll do our best.”

  And with that, everyone backed off. Gavin would have to remember that Liam could be diplomatic like that. It might help keep Gavin out of dominance fights in the future. At least, dominance fights that he didn’t want to take on. The ones where he could actually gain some rank in the pack were worth fighting.

  The dinner continued. Bridget’s family lay off of them after that, leaving their major problem still intact—Bridget. They might have lain off Gavin and Liam, but they still made subtle comments toward Bridget all evening. He could feel her getting tenser and tenser. He wanted to soothe her, yet he was the source of her tension. That wasn’t how it should be.

  Nevertheless, he left his arm on her chair until the food arrived, and graduated from brushing her neck with his fingers to putting his hand on her shoulder and rubbing. It was meant to soothe…and maybe to arouse. He was almost disappointed when the food came. Who knew when she’d let him touch her again?

  Then again, she was the one who had grabbed their hands before. Maybe all was not lost.

  Midway through eating, Jake lobbed another grenade in Gavin’s lap. “So you originally came here because of a case, something involving Deirdre’s family. Can you tell us anything about it?”

  From one topic he didn’t want to talk about to another. “Unfortunately, there’s not much I can tell you until my client gives me the okay.”

  “And yet it has something to do with our family,” Jake continued. “Seems like we have the right to know.”

  “He can’t,” Liam said, voice clipped.

  Liam was a good friend of Fiona’s. Gavin might protect her out of loyalty to his client, but Liam protected her out of love.

  Jake’s eyes moved between the two of them. “Should I be worried?”

  Chapter 3

  “No, I don’t think there’s anything to worry about,” Gavin said. “Just hold tight.”

  “I want to know soon,” Jake said. “Talk to your client.”

  There was no doubt Jake thought he was top wolf. Unfortunately for Jake, Gavin might be as strong—no way to know without a fight—and he didn’t like being ordered around by a man who had no authority over him. But Jake was his new brother-in-law. So he had to keep his temper.

  Apparently his long pause was enough to let Jake know how he felt about the order. And after all, Gavin was Jake’s new brother-in-law, too. “Please,” Jake bit out.

  Gavin met him halfway. “I will.” He’d call Fiona tonight.

  ***

  When the meal ended, Liam was ready. Bridget would try to bolt, and he and Gavin needed to stop her. Not to trap her or anything. Just to get her to talk to them for a few minutes.

  Everyone rose and put on their coats. Everyone except the three of them. When Bridget tried to rise, Liam put his hand on her thigh and Gavin put his arm across the back of her chair.

  “Wait a few minutes,” Liam said.

  Her lips parted slightly as she looked at him. “I don’t see how we can figure this out.”

  Liam squeezed her leg. “We can at least give it a try.”

  They didn’t say anything else until her family had not only cleared the restaurant doorway, but also couldn’t be heard—meaning her family couldn’t hear them either.

  Gavin shifted in his chair so he faced her, his arm still on her chair. “Tell us what it is you’re afraid of. Whatever it is, we’ll fix it.”

  She gave him a disgusted look. “Typical man, thinking everything can be ‘fixed.’ What if you can’t fix it?”

  “Tell us what it is,” Liam said.

  She rounded on
him, enunciating every word. “I don’t know what it is.”

  Liam sat back in his chair. “Then what—”

  She stood, the chair legs screeching, and made a cutting motion with her hands. “I just feel scared, okay? You’re both more dominant than me. Everyone’s more dominant than me. You’re going to steamroll right over me until nothing’s left.” Her face turned angry. “And that’s if you don’t turn mean after we’ve mated and start beating me.”

  “Beating you,” Gavin echoed, his voice hollow.

  It didn’t make sense. “What makes you think male mates beat their female mates?” Liam said. He’d never heard of such a thing. Females were to be cherished and protected.

  “I don’t know,” she whispered. “I just know it happens.”

  Gavin sat forward. “Did you see it?”

  “I don’t know.” She sat down again, not looking at either of them. “I’ve always felt this way.”

  Liam met Gavin’s eyes, and immediately knew what he was thinking. There was a story here. A mystery. And who better than two PIs to figure it out. She might think they couldn’t fix it, but she was wrong.

  In the meantime, there were other approaches they could take. “What if you get to know us before we take things further?” Liam said. “If you find out we’re good guys, will that make a difference?”

  “Maybe,” she said softly.

  “Then give us a chance.” Liam slipped his hand into hers. “Date us. In public, with plenty of people around. Let us show you.”

  She squeezed his hand. “Okay.” She let out a little huff of breath. “I feel so scared. At the same time, I feel like…”

  “Like you trust us?” Gavin said.

  Her tongue darted out to wet her lips. “Like I want to lick every inch of your bodies.”

  Gavin made a choking sound, and Liam could barely keep from jumping her. As it was, his hand spasmed around hers. And she squeezed right back.

  “It’s awful,” she said.

  “Sounds pretty damn good to me.” Gavin leaned forward. “And I bet we can arrange it pretty damn fast.”

  Bridget blushed. It was the prettiest thing Liam had ever seen.