by Maia Dylan
With a bark of laughter down their bond, Brendan pulled back from Lucy and couldn’t help the smug-ass grin that spread across his face at the look on her face. Her eyes were still closed, and her face flushed. She ran her tongue across her bottom lip and pulled it into her mouth as if still tasting him. When her eyes flickered open, he winked at her and spun her gently around so she was facing his brother. Then Cody pounced.
Brenden knew that there were a lot of ways people lived in the world and that not everyone would accept their way of life, just as there were ways that others lived that he would never accept. But he could not imagine his future without the two people who were wrapped around each other in front of him. He maintained contact with their mate, keeping his hands on her hips. She had her arms wrapped around Cody’s neck and was hanging on for dear life as her feet dangled a foot from the ground. From the sounds of lust and desire coming from both of them, they were definitely enjoying the moment.
After a few more moments, Cody slowly lowered Lucille to her feet and pulled back. Breathing had obviously become necessary. As soon as Brendan sensed she had her equilibrium back a little, he stepped up to press himself against her back, groaning at the feel of his erection pushing against the top of her lush ass. Lucille must have liked it, too, because she pushed back a little against him with a small roll of her hips. Brendan moaned at the feeling then pressed his lips to her neck, nibbling on the soft skin between her neck and shoulder.
“Christ Almighty, Lucille, you know how rock a man’s world,” Cody rasped as he stood in front of their mate.
Brendan could feel her shiver a little and thanked God that their mate was so responsive that just their voices had her shivering.
“I, um, seem to have lost the feeling in my legs.” Lucille sounded a little out of it and Brendan and Cody laughed softly. She took a few deep breaths that Brendan appreciated as it thrust her perfect breasts out a little. Then she stepped out from between them and crossed the room. Brendan could sense confusion on the link that led to her. Since the bond had formed, there had been a very distinct barrier between them and her, but she projected so strongly that they were often able to ascertain what she was feeling even with the barrier in place. He and Cody knew she was processing the last few minutes so stood waiting for her to turn back and face them.
“Do you think it was too much too soon?” Brendan sent down the link to his brother.
“I’m not too sure, B. I sure as hell hope not, but it certainly felt like it was the right thing to do.”
“That kiss was the hottest damn thing that’s ever happened to me, bar none,” Brendan admitted.
Lucille seemed to square her shoulders, then turned to face them. Her face was expressionless. Her vibe had changed, and Brendan had a feeling it wasn’t going to be in a good way. His wolf must have sensed the same thing because he suddenly sat forward, alerting to the increased tension in the room.
“I thank you for your very kind offer to put me up for a while.” Lucille’s voice was flat, and she sounded lost. “It’s very kind of you. But I think it would be best for everyone concerned if I just left Grey River.”
“Why? We want you to stay, Luce. We think we have something together. Something worth holding onto and building a future with.” Brendan heard the pleading note in his own voice, but damn it, he was fighting for his life here, male pride be damned!
“You guys deserve someone worthy of being your third. Faith told me about how things are here.” Lucille dropped her gaze to the floor and started wringing her hands, a sign that she was nervous and scared perhaps? “And you need someone who can complete you, not someone who can ultimately break you.”
“What the fuck does that mean, Lucille?” Cody snapped, dragging his fingers through his hair.
Brendan recognized his frustration because he shared it. Damn it, five minutes ago they had her wrapped up in their arms and the future was right there, stretched out before them just waiting for them to start that journey. Now? Not so much.
“It means that I need to leave!” Lucille yelled, her desperation clear in her voice and in the tears shimmering in her eyes.
What the ever-loving fuck was going on here?
“I’ve been here too long. I haven’t wanted to leave, and you two have been, you know, all sweet and fantastic and making it so very hard for me to do what I know needs to be done. Gosh, if I could make it so I didn’t have to leave then I would, but I can’t!”
“What is it, Lucille?” Brendan fought his first reaction which was to roar at her, but remembering Ty and Trent’s advice, and given what she had been through recently, he needed to be patient with their mate. “What has you so damn scared that you would rather turn tail and run from us, all the people here who care for you, than stay and fight? I don’t understand.” He heard his voice rising, so he took a deep calming breath. “Please, help me to understand. We have waited all week for you to tell us what happened to you, who did this to you, and how we can help you, but you’ve given us nothing, not even your real goddamn name!” Brendan knew he was on the verge of yelling at the end of that, but he still patted himself on the back from not simply yelling from the beginning.
The door to the room whooshed open, and Chris stood in the doorway, looking curiously between the three of them. “Everything okay in here, guys? I only ask because you’ve woken up the two guys who were in a coma downstairs and their complaining about the noise?”
Chris’s joke fell flat and the room fell into silence, not just because it was a shitty joke but also because there was no room for anything but answers anymore. Brendan and Cody refused to take their eyes of Lucille and she them.
“Okay, then, I’m going to leave you guys alone. Let me know if you need anything, but try to keep it to a dull roar?” Chris quietly closed the door.
“Damn it, B, I feel like we’re fighting something we can’t see here, and I’m not sure we’re winning,” Cody said down their link.
That was a great way to put it. He and Cody were fighters, but they needed to know who and what they were fighting. Otherwise, they were simply swinging punches in the dark, hoping that they might actually hit something.
“Do you not feel anything for us, kitten?” Brendan’s heart clenched at the thought. “Because as much as it would hurt, if that’s the reason you want to leave then, so be it.”
“Please understand,” Lucille whispered, her pain radiating in her voice. “This has nothing to do with how I may or may not feel about you two or the people I have met here. I would love to be in a position to stay, but I just need to leave, and it would better for everyone if I just took a taxi to the bus stop and you let me leave. Safer for everyone.”
The last three words were whispered, and if they hadn’t been shifters, they might not have caught them. Brendan’s wolf pushed forward as he thought about her leaving and being in danger. Cody had tensed so much that Brendan knew he was battling his wolf as well.
At that moment, Brendan forgot about being the caring, welcoming, romantic hopeful that he had been since he first met their mate. He reached for his dominance and let it lose a little. He smiled as Lucille looked around as if sensing the power in the room. He felt his brother’s wolf in the room, too, and knew they were both on the same page. Their mate wanted to stay, but that felt she had to leave them despite knowing that they wanted her to stay, too, and that they wanted a future with her. Not because she didn’t want them, but because she thought it would be safer? Oh hell no!
Lucy felt something in the room, a presence that swept through her giving her goose bumps and chills. When she looked at the brothers, it appeared that they had suddenly grown taller, more muscular, and a whole load more yummy, which until this moment she would have thought impossible! She wasn’t sure why, but she suddenly felt like she was standing in front of two predators. Their eyes were doing that crazy flashy blue thing that had her girly parts swelling and tingling. She gulped as she worked out that if they were the predators, then tha
t made her the prey!
“Okay, kitten,” Brendan said, “here’s how this is going to go.”
Lucy felt her body clench at the tone and timbre of his voice. Her nipples peaked hard and her pussy gushed. Hot holy tomatoes there was something in his voice that had never been there before. “You’ve just admitted that you don’t want to leave Grey River so we are going to get you out of this damn hospital. We are then taking you back to our place. There will be no bus stops, there sure as fuck won’t be any more hitch hiking, and then you are going to tell us what happened to you and what has you so damn scared.”
She shook her head slowly, but before she could open her mouth Cody stepped toward her.
“Shake that beautiful head of yours as much as you like, pet. We know you’re in trouble. We have been so patient waiting for you to tell us, but we have come to end of that patience.”
Cody’s voice rang with a strength that had her body releasing another gush of cream into her panties.
“Unless you tell us right here and now that there is nothing in you that craves us as much as we do you? That there is nothing in your heart leading you right into our arms? Then we are going to do exactly as Brendan has said.” Cody suddenly crossed his arms and the cockiest grin fall across his face.
“But you should know, pet, we’ll know if you’re lying. Your body is screaming out loud and clear to us that you want us as much as we want you. Hell, we can smell your pussy creaming and preparing for us from here.”
Lucy’s jaw dropped and she felt the color rise in her face. “Cody! You shouldn’t say things about my, my…girl parts!”
“Why the hell not? I have a feeling your girl parts are going to be one of my most favorite things in the world, so why wouldn’t I talk about them?”
Cody looked at her as she was the one talking crazy. She looked to Brendan for some semblance of sanity and he was nodding in full agreement. Oh, for the love of peanut butter cups! Closing her eyes in exasperation, she took a deep calming breath. “We seem to have gone off topic here.” She opened eyes and all thoughts on what she was going to say next evaporated. Somehow they had crossed the room in complete silence and were standing so close to her. Their scents filled her head and clouded her thoughts.
“I don’t know about that, kitten. I think I like the current topic way more than the last one.”
Brendan’s throaty, raspy voice had turned her into the I’d-do-anything-for-you Lucy. Golly, they didn’t fight fair.
“Lucille, we know you want us. The smell of your pussy getting all wet, slick, and hot for us, makes me so hot, horny and hard it physically hurts. You are not alone in the attraction stakes here. If you put yourself in our hands we will protect you, keep you safe, and do everything in our power to make you happy.”
“You happiness will be our life’s work, pet.”
Cody stepped forward and lifted his hand to cup her cheek. His eyes bored into hers, and she started trembling, wanting to simply give them everything she had and everything she was, for just one moment of actually belonging to them. “All you have to do is say yes, Lucille. Let us help you to shoulder whatever it is troubling you and let us love on you until you know where you are meant to be.”
Brendan stepped up to her other side and slid his arm around her back, settling his hand on her hip. “We’re here for you, Lucille, and unless you tell us there is no chance in hell that you could ever feel for us what we are starting to feel for you then we have no intention of leaving you or allowing you to leave us. Take a chance, kitten. Say yes, Lucille.”
Lucy started to tremble at the thought of taking that risk. It wasn’t a matter of trust. She knew she could trust these men to see to her safety, but she knew what was coming. She knew who was coming. And she knew without a doubt that if it were just her facing Mani and his men on her own, there would be no chance of winning. She would be signing her own death warrant.
When she had taken off that night, it had been in a desperate attempt to save her life. But she had known it was going to be short-lived, that she didn’t have the strength, skills, or resources to survive on her own. Mani was too powerful, too rich, and too desperate for her to disappear. And she had resigned herself to that to a certain degree. Not that she had a death wish or anything, it’s just she was a realist.
Now? She wanted to live! She wanted the chance to stay in Grey River and become someone who might actually be worthy of these two men, men she knew were strong enough to help her, but were they strong enough to take on Mani and his men? The question she really needed to answer for herself was if her fear that staying could bring trouble to their door was stronger than her desire for a future with Brendan and Cody.
And the answer was no.
Well, hello there epiphany! It was really quite simple. Nothing was stronger than her desire for a future with Brendan and Cody. For that she could face anything and anyone. She must have stood there having her epiphany in silence because both men frowned.
“Lucille?” Cody asked quietly.
“Lucy.” She couldn’t help smiling as their frowns deepened.
“What?” Brendan said.
Her smile widened and she felt a weight suddenly lift from her spirit. “Lucy, my name is Lucy Blake, and my answer is yes.”
* * * *
“We found the truck, jefe.”
“Excelente! Where?”
“A place called Grey River, we have confirmation she got off there on the surveillance videos of the truck stop. She looked hurt.”
“Good. Find her then call me. I want to be the one that makes her look dead.”
Chapter 4
As far as Lucy was concerned, never in the history of the entire world had one word brought about such swift action, an action that still had her head spinning. No more than thirty minutes after she had said yes, she had been released from the hospital, packed into Brendan’s truck, and ferried out to their property at the edge of town.
It was a huge house built at the top of a slight rise with a river on one side and deep forest on the other. A wide veranda stretched around the entire house and just begged for a hammock to be strung up and lounged in. She had never really had anywhere that she considered to be home. A place where she felt a reasonable sense of safety was all she had ever really hoped for.
Looking at Cody and Brendan’s house, she knew that if she had ever been asked to describe what she thought a home would look like, she would never have been able to imagine such a beautiful home. They led her to her room, and despite her arguments they insisted on giving her the master bedroom. It was larger than the apartment she had shared with Seth for goodness sake!
The tone of the relationship between Cody, Brendan, and her had changed, too. Where once there were shy glances, lingering touches and warm hugs, there were now long, heated looks; continual touches that sent shivers of awareness through her; and more than a couple of kisses. Some soft and lingering, others heated, all of them tremor-inducing, and, if Lucy were honest, hotter than a hot, fried jalapeno tortilla with hot sauce on it.
Knowing that Ty was on his way, they sat at the kitchen table sipping coffee and waiting. Lucy had decided if she was going to finally tell them her story, and then she was only going to do it once. The brothers suddenly laughed aloud, startling Lucy. Before she had time to ask what the joke was, she saw a vehicle slide to a halt outside the house through the bay windows.
Faster than she thought possible, Ty entered the kitchen, a look of thunder on his face. “It’s not fucking funny, assholes!” Ty grumbled as he walked over to the fridge helping himself to a beer. “Faith is insisting on me being all romantic and shit, and I fucking blame you two! She is absolutely serious about Trent and I learning to make her melt. Just with fucking words, for Christ’s sake! What’s wrong with making your mate melt with the things the good Lord gave a man to please a woman? Nothing! That’s what. Then your dumb-as-shit cousins AJ and Sam offer to hold classes at the Country Blue for us and all the other males in
Grey River! What the ever loving hell is up with that!”
Still grumbling about it not being alpha to quote poetry and be in touch with your feminine side, Ty threw himself down in the chair across from Lucy with a grunt, and then turned his gaze to her. “So, Lucy—” Ty said to her and grinned, which changed his demeanor completely, giving him a boyish look, full of mischief—“that suits you much better by the way, you’ve decided to share your story, huh?”
“Yeah, I’ve been convinced that maybe y’all can help me out of a situation I find myself in.” Lucy sat back and looked around at the expectant faces of the men at the table. “You need to know that this was not a situation of my own making.” She winced as she thought about that for a minute. “Well, mostly not of my own making. You see, I have the worst luck. If anything is going to go wrong it will more than likely go wrong for me. And let’s just say my life couldn’t have gone more wrong than it did!”
She took a few moments for herself before she started her story, not sure of exactly where she should start. Taking a deep breath she dove in and started at the beginning, hoping by the end of her story the two men who flanked her at the table wouldn’t think any less of her. But she wasn’t holding her breath. Her luck just wasn’t that good.
Cody couldn’t believe the progress he and Brendan had made with their mate in such a short while. When he had witnessed Brendan fold under the sexual heat of their mate and not follow through on the plan that he had painstakingly driven home to Cody every damn chance he got over the past week, his wolf had almost danced a jig. It would have been torture to have their mate in their home and take it slow. Now, knowing how passionate and how damn responsive she was, there wasn’t a damn thing in this world that was going to stop them from claiming their mate and soon. The sooner, the better as far as he was concerned.
Hearing Lucy talk about everything in her life going wrong made his wolf stop the happy prancing and stand alert. He had a horrible feeling that their list of people to kill for daring to harm their mate was about to get longer. Starting with her mother!