by Anya Nowlan
“What murder? They’re never going to find your body,” Miles jeered, smirking at her.
“I was afraid you’d say something like that,” Lily sighed, clutching a small rock she’d found in her hand.
“Sorry, Lily,” Wyatt shrugged, sounding entirely insincere. “I’ve got to look out for number one.”
“Now get up,” Miles ordered, coming over and grabbing her arm.
Lily let herself be yanked up, waiting for the perfect time to strike. As soon as she got to her feet, she swung her arm back and smashed the rock into Miles’ temple. A savage scream tore out of her throat as she put all the strength she had left into the blow. Miles wavered, Wyatt snarled, and time seemed to stand still.
Knowing Miles probably wouldn’t be down for long and that she couldn’t try the same trick the second time with Wyatt, she did the only thing she could. She turned around and ran, not even looking back as she pushed herself into the maze of trees.
Her breath sounded loud as she put her all into going forward as fast as she could without slamming into trees in the surrounding darkness. She could only hope she was going in the right direction, back to the house, where she could get help. But she couldn’t be sure.
I just have to get there, she spurred herself on, feeling her lungs starting to burn as she gasped in cold air.
As she was beginning to let herself hope that maybe, just maybe, she’d be able to make it, she heard footsteps behind her. Or something similar to footsteps. The cadence was odd, somehow. Terror crawled up her spine as she realized what was going on.
Hair whipping in her face, she dared to glance back to see two huge orange figures dash towards her on all fours, their growls ripping through the air.
Shit. They shifted.
Lily continued running, even though she knew it was useless. There was no way she was going to outrun two tigers, and she knew it. Yet she couldn’t, wouldn’t stop. Even when she could feel them get closer and closer, their snarls right behind her, their presence nipping at her feet.
She wasn’t just going to quit, stop and make it easy for them, even though there was only one thought hammering through her head.
There’s no way I’m getting out of this alive.
Forty-One
Connor
“Do you hear that?” Crash asked.
They had tracked the trail of scents and footsteps into the forest behind the house. The deeper they got, the more worried they had become. Somewhere down the line, three sets of footprints turned into two. By the size of the tracks, it was Lily’s footprints that suddenly disappeared. Which meant she was no longer in a condition to walk by herself.
Fucking Wyatt and Miles. What have you done with her? Connor growled to himself, his hands balling into fists at his sides.
“I can smell it, too. Tigers,” Connor replied.
“And someone else. Sounds like they’re chasing her,” Crash said, just as tense as Connor was.
The thudding of heavy paws made it clear that Wyatt and Miles had shifted. And the sound of footsteps meant Lily was back on her feet, and most likely running for her life. Crash and Connor didn’t have to say a thing to each other as they both let their bears take over, falling on all fours on the dirt.
With his body realigning and morphing, Connor could feel his bones moving beneath his skin, now covered in thick, brown fur. The transition was smooth and natural to him, like it always was, except now there was a sense of urgency to it.
Connor was getting ready to protect his mate, and his grizzly was acutely aware of that. For a moment, his body felt too small and constricting. But a second later, he was roaring as his huge paws dug into the ground, the fur on his back bristling. With his muzzle pulled back to reveal sharp teeth, Connor charged forward with Crash right by his side.
An eerie calm rolled over him as he thought of nothing but ripping the two tigers to shreds. No one was going to hurt Lily and get away with it, not when he and Crash were still breathing. Training his black eyes on the forest in front of him, it wasn’t long until he caught a glimpse of color, moving right at him.
Lily’s auburn hair and blue jeans caught his attention first. But it soon moved to the two black and orange figures chasing after her, only a sprint away from catching up. One of the tigers had some blood matted into the fur on the left side of his head. When Connor sniffed the air, he could tell the injured animal was Miles, and the other tiger Wyatt.
Lily’s eyes widened when she saw the bears race towards her, but she didn’t let the sight of them make her falter. She kept running, until she passed by right between the brothers. Connor could hear her skid to a halt behind them, panting and gasping for air.
The smell of her blood hung heavy in the air, only feeding into his grizzly’s rage. Without missing a step, he charged right into Wyatt, at the same time Crash smashed into Miles. All four of them went rolling to the ground, claws swiping and teeth gnashing at each other’s flesh.
Connor had to pull back when Wyatt sank is teeth into his leg and shook his head, tearing at the muscle of his calf. Connor howled, swiping at the tiger’s head so that Wyatt would let go. Deep gashes erupted with crimson on the shiny fur on Wyatt’s neck, but that didn’t mean the tiger was ready to give up.
Fangs bared, Wyatt circled back, looking for an opportunity to pounce. The anger and hatred was clear in his yellow eyes, shining in the dark. Connor had no idea why Wyatt would do this.
He had always considered the man a friend. But obviously he was not. Clearly he had been the traitor all along, or he wouldn’t be trying to maul Lily in the middle of the woods, in the dead of night.
A mistake you won’t make again, he growled, ignoring the pain in his back paw and getting on his hind legs.
Wyatt tried to charge at his soft underbelly, now exposed, but Connor saw that coming. He swung his paw back as soon as Wyatt leapt into the air, and brought it crashing down on the tiger’s midsection. The animal went flying backwards with a pained yelp, and landed in a heap near one of the trees, unmoving.
Connor swung around, looking for his brother. He found the huge grizzly standing over Miles, a paw pressed against the tiger’s throat. Miles squirmed under Crash’s weight, whimpering and kicking out with his hind legs, but it was of no use.
He wasn’t going anywhere.
As a last resort, Miles shifted back. The tiger pulled away, disappearing as the man returned, bloody and panting. There was a pained expression on Miles’ face as his joints snapped back into place and his skin stretched over his now human form.
When he looked up at Crash, his arms spread out on either sides. Connor could tell the man was trying to speak, but Crash’s huge paw on his throat was making that rather difficult. Connor had no qualms about watching the man suffer, but Lily, even after all she had been through, stepped forward, looking worried.
She slowly approached Crash and placed a hand on his fur, gently patting the grizzly’s back. The way she fearlessly approached Crash, growling and snarling as he towered over Miles, made Connor snap out of his state of bloodlust.
Maybe she trusts us more than I thought…
Letting the shift roll over him again, Connor could feel the skin on his right leg stretching painfully as his body switched between animal and man. All in all, he came out of the fight relatively unharmed, except for the bite on his leg and some scratches on his hands and back.
“Come on, it’s alright. It’s over now. We can let the authorities deal with them now,” he heard Lily say when he stepped closer to her and Crash.
Crash let out a low growl before ever so slowly lifting his paw from Miles’ neck. The man’s body went limp in relief before he cradled his left side, marked by deep claw marks.
Looking towards the trees a couple feet farther back, Connor could see Wyatt had already shifted back as well, wincing as he tried to get on his feet and subsequently failed.
“Don’t you move a muscle, Wyatt,” Connor called out, just in case the man was somehow able
to get himself up and was thinking of slipping away.
Crash growled and shook his head as the grizzly released him. His form rippled and twisted as he got back on two feet, fur giving way to flesh once more. There were gashes all over his body, but they seemed to be mostly superficial.
What worried Connor most was he bite on his shoulder, but Crash didn’t seem to be giving it much attention.
In fact, they both turned their focus to Lily, whose eyes were sweeping over the scene in front of her. There was a split in her lower lip, and some blood trickling down from her scalp, but those seemed to be her only injuries.
Still, just the sight of her harmed made Connor’s bear want to come back out in full force. Registering the growls coming from both him and Crash, Lily looked from one brother to the next while pointing a finger at them.
“That’s enough of that,” she warned. “I’m okay, really,” she added, catching them staring at her injuries. “Just a little bump on the head. These guys are in much worse shape,” she said, looking over at Miles and Wyatt.
“As they should be,” Crash snarled.
“They’re a problem for the police, now,” Lily said softly. “They might not have a problem with murder, but you’re better than that. So much better. You’re pretty great, actually,” she smiled, her eyes suddenly shiny with tears.
“Hey, hey…” Crash murmured, stepping closer.
“We’re all okay,” Connor said, wrapping an arm around her.
They stood there for a while, him and Crash on either side of her, warming her up as she began to shiver.
“You were right,” she finally whispered. “It wasn’t any of your teammates. It was Wyatt and Miles all along.”
“You were right,” Connor replied. “Wyatt is… was as much a part of the team as any of the players. We were wrong not to believe you.”
“Can we agree we were all a bunch of idiots and move on to admitting we’re the perfect idiots for each other?” Crash chimed in, making both Connor and Lily laugh.
“Crash’s right. We’ve been letting stupid stuff get between us and that’s not what I want. I want us to move on from this together,” Connor added, tilting up Lily’s chin and staring into her clear gray eyes.
“Besides, I think we might be in the market for a great private investigator,” Crash added, wrapping an arm around her waist. “You see, we’re being blackmailed…” he trailed off with a grin.
“You can count on me. I think you won’t be getting rid of me anytime soon,” Lily smiled, looking up at them.
“Good. Because we won’t be letting you out of our sight,” Crash replied.
“Thank you. For saving my life,” she said quietly.
“Anytime,” the twins replied, two voices mixing into one.
Forty-Two
Lily
The lights of a police car painted the walls a mixture of blue and red as Lily stood in the middle of the living room, wrapped in a blanket.
The paramedics had already carried Wyatt and Miles out from the woods, and given Lily a once-over. Luckily, the head wound wasn’t deep, it just bled a lot, as head wounds tended to do.
Despite their objections and insistence that they were fine, Connor and Crash got their gashes and scratches tended to as well. But oddly, by the time they got bandaged up, they weren’t even bleeding anymore.
Probably more shifter-stuff I need to get acquainted with, Lily mused, surprised at how blasé she was being about all of this.
With all she had been through, both with the investigation and with her relationship with the twins, some magical healing wasn’t all that big of a deal. Hadn’t the men now walking over to her been bears not long ago, after all?
“You doing okay?” Connor asked, gently wrapping an arm around her shoulders.
“Is there anything we can do?” Crash added, taking her hand in his and squeezing it tight.
“I’m just tired,” Lily shook her head. “All I want is to crawl into bed.”
The rest of the team had already made the rounds, doting over her and expressing their horror at Wyatt turning out to be such a two-faced asshole. Even when she awkwardly explained that she wasn’t an assistant at all, and that she had been sent here on a mission to find a traitor, the men all but patted her on the head and told her to get some rest.
Maybe it was the blood in my hair that made them extra-sympathetic and willing to forget I had basically been lying to them? Or was it gratitude at revealing Wyatt’s true nature?
Whatever the case, she was glad her newfound friends still seemed to be her friends. If anything, they had seemed more surprised at how Connor and Crash were openly holding her hand and kissing her forehead than at her being a private investigator.
If Sal thought he had been slick with giving the twins a thumbs up behind her back, she would have to seriously consider giving the whole team some lessons in subtlety.
“We’ll tuck you in then,” Connor smiled at her, as both brothers guided her up the stairs.
When the door to her bedroom fell shut, Lily couldn’t help but whirl around and throw her arms around both men. It seemed that in all the chaos that erupted after Wyatt and Miles got their asses handed to them, she hadn’t even gotten the chance to express how relieved she was that both Connor and Crash were okay, and not seriously harmed.
“Whoa, there,” Crash chuckled, as she squeezed him and Connor tightly.
“Things could have turned out so differently, out there in the woods… I’m so glad they didn’t,” she said, pulling back.
“I know what you mean,” Connor replied. “I think there are some things we need to talk about.”
“I know, I shouldn’t have rushed off…” Lily waved a hand, plopping to sit down on her bed. “I should have come to you when I saw Wyatt and Miles sneak off together, but I was too proud and angry.”
“That’s not what I wanted to talk about,” Connor shook his head. “Not exactly,” he added, exchanging a meaningful look with Crash that left Lily wondering what the brothers were going to surprise her with now.
“All of us kept secrets we shouldn’t have. Whatever the reasons, or how we thought it was right at the time… I think we can all agree, we could have saved ourselves a lot of trouble by being more open and truthful,” Crash said.
Lily fell quiet at that, not having expected such a serious discussion. Her heart thudded as she tried to predict where this conversation was going. If it was headed where she thought it was headed…
“We didn’t know any better, but we do, now,” she agreed. “You were still hurting because of Alison, and I was scared to put my trust in someone, fearing disappointment. I see that now.”
Connor smiled at her, walking over to sit by her side. His large, wide palm came to rest on her thigh, and whatever cold she had still been carrying in her bones from freezing her ass off in the forest disappeared.
“So we were all idiots. Never mind that now. I’m much more interested in the future,” he said.
Crash sat down on the other side of her, his shoulder bumping against her.
“Remember when we told you about mates?” he asked, searching her eyes.
“Yes,” Lily replied, her heart really beating fast, now.
“Well, it’s said that you know when you find the one,” Crash explained, looking over at his brother. “And we’ve known since we first laid eyes on you. You’re our mate, Lily. This must be a lot to take in right now, but we needed you to know.”
“I don’t know what to say,” Lily replied, feeling tongue-tied all of the sudden.
From what little she knew about it all, finding your mate was a big deal among shifters, and a commitment not to be taken lightly. The fact that she found herself more than ready to jump into a relationship with Connor and Crash was scary, yet thrilling.
Her phobia of commitment was suddenly nowhere to be seen, not when it came to these two, at least. If the last few days had taught her anything, it was that she needed to trust her instincts. A
nd her instincts were giving her a big ‘YES!’ when it came to the twins.
“You don’t have to say anything right away,” Connor said. “I think it’s enough if we agree that we should see where this goes. No more lies, no more secrets, just us. The connection between us has always been so strong, we’ve just managed to make things unnecessarily complicated.”
“Then let’s make it simple,” Lily replied, feeling her chest swell with emotion. “You two make me happy, in a way I’ve never felt before. It just feels… right. I want to be yours.”
She had barely gotten the words out when Connor’s lips found hers, in a soft, yet forceful kiss.
“That’s what we wanted to hear,” Crash commented, squeezing her thigh as Connor pulled away.
The flood of emotions washing over Lily made her forget all about nearly being murdered in the woods. The giddy feeling of finally being open with the men and recognizing just how strong the pull she felt towards them sparked something deep inside her.
“Come closer,” she whispered, even though she was already pressed tightly between them.
Crash and Connor wrapped her in their arms until she was enveloped by their warm bodies, and she still couldn’t get enough. She wanted to share all of her with them, right then and there. Life was too short to not go after what you wanted, and Lily wanted to be claimed by her two lovers, to be shared and made whole at the same time.
Connor nuzzled her neck as Crash’s hand on her thigh slid higher and higher, until his thumb was brushing against her pussy. The light touch sent shivers down her spine, and a slow throb started at her center.
“Are you sure you want to do this now?” Connor murmured. “You said you were tired…”
“I can sleep when I’m dead,” Lily blurted out, earning a chuckle from Crash. “Make me yours. Fuck me until there’s nothing left in the world but us three and how we make each other feel.”
“Naughty,” Crash clucked his tongue, his fingers easily finding her clit, even through the thick fabric of her jeans.