by Lori King
When he finally reached his brother’s side, Rafe was stunned to find a beautiful golden-colored female wolf on the ground. She carried no familiar pack scent, so she had to be a rogue, but Rafe had never even heard of a rogue female werewolf. Females were generally protected by the pack and cherished for their life-giving abilities.
“Well?” Rafe said, as he slowed his breathing and forced his wolf back inside until he stood on two feet.
Ryley and Henley were both hovering over the prone body with tense looks on their faces, heedless of their own nudity.
“She’s breathing, and the bleeding has stopped. I think the wound is starting to knit together,” Henley said running his hand over the wolf’s blood-soaked fur.
“What the hell bit her?” Ryley’s body was tense with rage, and Rafe put a hand on his shoulder, trying to soothe him. None of them liked the idea of something out there that was attacking wolves, but they had to think about this logically.
“I’m pretty sure it was a wolf,” Henley said with a frustrated huff.
Rafe was sure that his own expression mirrored Ryley’s look of shock. That explained the other strange scents, but why would two strange wolves be running around their woods? Even stranger, why would the two wolves be enemies?
“Did you pick up on a pack?” Rafe asked Henley.
Shaking his head in the negative, Henley stroked his fingers over the wolf’s head. The rise and fall of her rib cage assured Rafe that she was breathing at a steady pace. Werewolves naturally healed very quickly, and even hurt this severely she should be up moving within a few hours.
“Devin’s on his way with Cash and Owen. They should be here anytime,” Ryley said, starting to stand. “One of us needs to get back to Shandi and let her know everything is okay.”
“No need. I can see that perfectly well.” Her soft melodious voice carried on the breeze from directly behind him, and Rafe stiffened in horror.
This was absolutely the worst way for her to find out that they were werewolves, and she wasn’t even ready to accept them into her life yet. It was going to be a disaster of epic proportions. Gritting his teeth in frustration, he spun around to face her, blocking her view of Henley and the injured wolf. As she perused him from head to toe, he remembered he was naked, and his hands went over his groin instinctively.
“It’s a little late for modesty, Rafe. And, as nice as the view of you three is, you should probably slip on some pants before the cavalry arrives.” She smirked, as she tossed a large armful of clothing onto the grass next to Rafe’s feet. Behind him, Rafe could hear Ryley curse, and Henley snicker his amusement.
“Shandi! Why the hell aren’t you in the truck?” he snarled, and her eyes widened in surprise before narrowing in anger.
“Because I don’t want to be,” she said icily, staring him down. A growl escaped his throat, and she cocked her head to look at him more carefully. “I have a few more questions for you boys all of a sudden.”
“I just bet,” Ryley said under his breath.
Rafe reached for his jeans, and pulled them on as he kept his eyes on Shandi. She didn’t break his gaze once. Not even to glance over at Ryley as he dressed, or Henley, who was also pulling pants back on. There was confusion, hurt, and even anger in her amethyst eyes, and Rafe felt like a complete shit. They shouldn’t have brought her to the den until she knew the truth.
“Would you guys like to explain why you ran naked through the woods to find an injured wolf?” she asked once they were all dressed.
Rafe met Ryley’s nervous eyes, and they silently agreed she had to know now. It wasn’t the time to lie when she was obviously in the middle of it all, and she would have to know eventually anyways.
Just as Rafe took a step toward her, intending on holding her still while he explained, the scent of wolves hit him. His pack Alpha and adopted cousins barreled out of the trees, ruining his opportunity.
When she saw the three oversized wolves running at full speed, snarling and growling to indicate they were prepared to fight if they ran into trouble, Shandi screamed. Jumping backward, she slammed her back into the trunk of a tree and whimpered in pain.
Rafe and Ryley were both at her side in a heartbeat, sandwiching her between their large bodies and shielding her from the view of the three new wolves and Henley.
“Shit, baby girl. You should have stayed in the damn truck. Are you okay?” Ryley said, running his hands over the back of her head, looking for injuries. When they didn’t find any, both brothers relaxed, but kept her firmly in their arms. She was ready to run, and the next few moments would be a turning point for the three of them.
“Let me go! We need to get out of here! What if they try to eat us next?” she cried hysterically. Rafe could smell the tears dripping from her eyes as her emotions got the best of her, and his stomach tightened.
Rafe tried to shield her view of his pack mates, thinking it was too bad they hadn’t shifted back before they came charging into view. He groaned as Shandi’s body froze in his arms at the sight of the three wolves transforming into naked humans. Surprisingly, she stayed silent, gaping at the newcomers.
“Like hell! I wouldn’t eat those two if someone paid me, but you, sweetheart…I might consider taking a bite of,” Cash spouted off, and Rafe threw him an angry glance. Cash shot him a wicked grin, before turning back to the scene at hand.
All three men carried their jeans looped around their necks. If they shifted while dressed it ruined way too many clothes, but it was awkward to get caught naked after a midnight run, too. So the only solution was to carry clothes with them, or stash them in various hiding places in the woods.
“Who is it, Henley?” Devin asked, not even sparing a glance at the three of them, as he strode over to kneel next to the unconscious animal.
“I don’t know, Devin, but she was bitten by another wolf. The stranger’s scent was a lot stronger when we first got here, but I can’t place a pack,” Henley answered.
“No pack scent? Then they both have to be rogue. Why would a male be chasing a female this close to the den of our pack if they’re rogue?” Owen said, looking completely befuddled.
“They aren’t mates. She doesn’t carry his scent. He’s probably nearby,” Cash said, turning his narrowed gaze on the woods surrounding them. His jaw flexed as he scented the air. “Owen and I will do a check and see if we can track him.”
Devin nodded as he tugged his jeans on. “Good. We’ll take her back to my cabin and watch her.”
Finally acknowledging Rafe, Ryley, and Shandi, Devin smiled widely. “You three probably need to have a talk, so come give report when you’re finished. If you can still walk, because she’s pissed.” The grin covering his face caused Ryley to growl low in his throat, but Devin just snickered back.
Rafe watched as Owen and Cash both shifted back into their wolf forms and headed in opposite directions on the hunt for the strange wolf. Devin and Henley, both wearing clothing now, lifted the limp wolf into their arms and headed in the direction of the pack den.
As soon as they were alone, the two brothers turned all of their attention to their mate, who stood trembling with shock in their arms.
Chapter 13
Several moments passed in absolute silence before Shandi asked softly, “What the fuck is going on?”
The tension surrounding them was palpable, and Shandi tried to pull away from their tight grip. Instead of releasing her, Rafe pressed her hard against his chest and tucked her face into the curve of his throat.
“Angel, I know you have to be freaking out right now, but please do us all a favor, and don’t run,” Rafe said pressing his lips against the top of her scalp. His fingers skimmed through the long strands of her red hair gently, almost too gently. Did he really think that she was going to shatter over whatever charade they were playing?
Then again, it was a lot to take in. Shandi’s mind was racing. She had just watched three wolves emerge from the woods, turn into humans to have a conversation, and th
en turn back into wolves in the blink of an eye. It was absolutely inconceivable, and yet she had seen it. The biggest one had even winked at her, and he looked just like the cowboy from the bar! And did that dark one make a joke as he carried the wolf away?
Her body started to shiver as shock set into her system, and she heard a whimper. It took another moment before she realized it was a sound from her own throat. Unable to process any of the events that she had just witnessed, she took a gasping breath and was immediately assaulted by the seductive scents of Rafe and Ryley. Her body thrummed just being this close to them, and it pissed her off. She had no business being horny when she was the butt of a practical joke like this.
Adrenaline racing through her system, she felt slightly superhuman, and completely disconnected from reality. Shoving hard on Rafe’s chest to break his hold, she stumbled backward into the tree behind her again.
“Ouch! Fuck!” she yelled, and then smacked Rafe’s searching hands away when he tried to comfort her. “Stop it! Would one of you please tell me what exactly just happened? Because I thought I just saw three enormous wolves turn into three mind-numbingly hot men for a few minutes. Please, tell me I’m hallucinating. Maybe I ate something bad, or you slipped me some drugs. Yeah! That’s it! What kind of drugs did you two crazies give me?”
She turned angry eyes on them and Ryley’s snarl cut off her rambling accusations, but it also made her whimper again.
“They are not mind-numbingly hot men, and we did not drug you, angel.” Rafe growled through his teeth, and her eyes narrowed.
“Don’t you take that tone with me, buster! I’m the innocent victim here! Who were those guys, and why did they take the wolf with them? Are they real? How did they become wolves? How did they become human? Answer me damn it!” Her hysteria added a layer of urgency to her demands, and Ryley sighed heavily as he gripped her hand tightly in his.
“Baby girl, I promise you, we were going to explain. You shouldn’t have found out like this,” Ryley said, watching her carefully. The urge to run was strong for her, and she felt Rafe reach for her other hand as if he wanted to have a hold on her, too.
“Shandi, they are real. That was Devin, Cash, and Owen Gray. They are cousins to us, as well as pack mates. Shandi, Ryley and I are werewolves. What you saw was our family members shifting between their wolf forms and their human forms,” Rafe explained calmly.
Instead of responding verbally, she groaned, and then started to giggle. Her quiet giggles quickly turned into loud laughter, and her whole body shook with her guffaws. Rafe and Ryley exchanged a concerned glance.
“Funny. You two are practical jokesters, huh? Well, don’t worry, I’ll find a way to get you back. I don’t like it, but I can take a joke,” she said, wiping tears from her eyes.
“It’s not a joke, Shandi. He’s telling the truth,” Ryley snapped, grabbing her attention away from Rafe.
“Right, and next you’re going to tell me that Sasquatch visits your house for Monday Night Football, and you keep a goblin for a pet. Do I look like I’m an idiot?” She stared back into their stoic faces without flinching. “Don’t tell me you want me to believe this crock of shit.”
Ryley’s hand gripped the back of her neck, and his fingers massaged at the muscles there as he forced her to look at him. “Shandi, you are not an idiot, and you are not hallucinating. We were going to tell you, but we wanted to give you time to get to know us first. We didn’t want to force you into being our mate, and we didn’t want to spring it on you and have you reject us because of it. Is that what you’re doing?”
His accusing tone grated on her nerves, and she jerked away from him. Backing away from the two of them a few feet, she wrapped her arms around her stomach protectively.
“Don’t be like that! I haven’t run away yet, but I’m fighting the urge. You guys need to tell me what the hell you’re talking about. Start at the ‘we’re werewolves’ part, and end at the ‘our mate’ part,” she said stubbornly.
When Rafe tried to step toward her, she held out her hand to stop him.
“From right there is just fine. Although, I think I am going to sit down, because my legs are a little unsteady right now,” she said as she slowly dropped to the grassy forest floor. Pulling her knees up to her chest, she waited expectantly for one of them to speak.
The two men stared at each other for a few more moments in silence. She could tell they were debating who would start somehow, and she was fascinated to watch their interaction. It had to be a sibling thing, or maybe it was a wolf thing, she thought and nearly giggled out loud.
Finally, Rafe took a deep breath and dropped down to sit with his back to the tree she had gotten so personal with. It probably still had an impression from her head hitting it. The look in his eyes was one of desperation as he stared hard at her, and then started to explain. “I know it seems insane to you, but werewolves do exist. We’ve always been here, but we try to keep our true selves a secret from the human population. Humans tend to give a bad rap to creatures they don’t understand. Over the years we’ve been relegated to horror stories, and children’s fairytales, but we’re as real as you are.”
She wanted to argue and debate the truth in his words, but it was staring her in the face. His eyes told her that he wasn’t making it up, and fear settled heavily in the pit of her stomach.
“We would never hurt you,” Ryley said softly, and she jumped as her eyes broke contact with Rafe’s. She was startled to find that Ryley had moved closer to her, and was sitting on the ground only a foot or so from her side. How had he known what she was thinking?
“What?” she gasped, and then flushed in embarrassment.
“It’s your scent, baby girl. When you feel an emotion very strongly your scent changes, and our wolf sides can pick up on it. We have much stronger senses than you do. That’s how we knew you were our mate. We’ve grown up knowing that our mate would have a specific scent that would attract us like nothing else we’ve ever experienced, and from the moment we got close to you we knew it was you,” Ryley said, reaching across the gap between them to run his hand over her wild red hair.
She allowed him to stroke her head soothingly, but she couldn’t have explained why. She should have been running as fast as possible back to the real world, leaving these two crazy brothers sitting in the middle of the woods with their wolf friends.
“What do you mean I’m your mate? What does that mean?” she whispered. Her throat felt constricted, and she was having trouble keeping her breakfast in her stomach.
“Wolves mate for life. Nobody really knows exactly how it works, but when mates scent each other it triggers some sort of chemical reaction in their brain that makes them crave each other. It’s called the mating lust, and it’s a really intense desire to be with that person in every way. We want to have our scent and our mark on you, so that no other male will get too close to you,” Rafe said. He didn’t move closer, or comment on his brother’s touching her. He just watched her passively, waiting for her reaction.
“It means we get horny as hell, and only one person will do,” Ryley said with a quirk of his lips. “Basically only you will do it for us from here on out.”
Shandi felt her eyes widen even more. “Are you telling me that it’s already done? We’re mates no matter what I think or what I want?”
“No! Don’t think about it like that. It’s not a bad thing, and we are definitely not going to force you into anything. Damn it, I didn’t expect this to be so hard,” Ryley said with a frustrated huff.
“We aren’t officially mated until we claim each other,” Rafe interjected, and she turned back to him, waiting for an explanation. “Claiming is done when mates bite each other, and share blood. It creates a mating bond that ties their souls together. It’s not something I’ve experienced or I wouldn’t be sitting here, but I have experienced the mating lust. The moment I caught your scent and saw your face, I wanted you more than I’ve ever wanted anything in my life. I would give up breathing
just to be near you, angel.”
The powerful words reverberated in Shandi’s chest until she had to force herself to breathe. He really is in love with me, she thought. Warmth filled her heart, while at the same time her brain seemed to slow down with the knowledge. She should be leaping to her feet, and running hard for any place but here. Instead she sat still, with her arms wrapped around her knees and her mind spinning in confused astonishment.
“Bite me?” she questioned.
Ryley nodded, and gestured to the arch of muscle between his throat and his shoulder. “Usually here, where other wolves can see it. It leaves a small silver-colored scar in the shape of the bite.”
“So, let me make sure I’m getting this right. You get no choice in who your mate is? What if you don’t like them?” she asked as she turned away from the love burning deep in Rafe’s crystal-blue eyes, only to find the same emotion glinting in Ryley’s.
“It’s never happened before, so I don’t know,” Ryley answered honestly. “It doesn’t matter in our case, because we do like you, and I have it on good authority that you like us…at least a little bit,” he said with a playful wink.
Just like that it broke the tension, and she smiled as she shook her head at him. “I told you before that I liked you, but it doesn’t change anything. I can’t be your mate. I don’t want to deprive you two of the family you deserve to have in the future. I can’t give you that.”
Ryley’s grin faded away to be replaced by a grim look of frustration and heartache. “I know that. Look, I won’t lie to you and say I’m not disappointed that you’re unable to have kids, but I’m also not willing to give you up. We will find a way to have a family, but we won’t let you run away from us because you’re afraid we’ll reject you.”
“Angel, we’re willing to give you more time to get to know us before we talk about claiming each other,” Rafe said.
“Well, that’s damn nice of you,” she muttered under her breath. Both men chuckled and she frowned at them.