“Are there nursing schools for wolf shifters?”
“No, not really. She went to a human school of nursing and then spent time apprenticed to a couple of our doctors to learn our medicine.”
“Is it very different from human medicine?” She’d been curious about that. Were their doctors more vets than anything else?
“Yes and no. We take human form, too, so our anatomy is basically the same until we shift, but our cells, our organs, and even our metabolism is different, so what works for a human won’t always work for us.”
“I’m surprised you actually need doctors with the speed at which you heal.”
“The thing is, some injuries take a longer time to heal than others, and that’s when we need medical help. Also, some injuries can kill us if they outpace our healing ability. And pain, we still feel that, so we need our doctors and nurses for medicines to help with things like that.”
“And you never get sick? I mean like never at all?” She couldn’t even imagine a life without illness.
“Well, we don’t get the illnesses that humans do. Rarely, an illness will pass through the area that we catch, but humans don’t seem affected by it, and we bounce back pretty quickly.” He got to his feet, dusting himself off. “It’s got to be lunch time. Hungry?”
“A little. I’d better go get cleaned up.” She stood up, putting her sketch pad down on the seat. She’d definitely want to come back and finish her drawing later. “I’ll just go take a quick shower.”
He walked over and pulled her close, take her lips in a long, slow, brain-scrambling kiss. “I’ve been wanting to do that all day. Why don’t I help you with the shower?”
“Are you kidding? We’ll never actually get around to lunch if that happens.”
Levi ran his hands down her back, over her hips, and then up to caress the sides of her breasts. He kissed her neck, using his thumbs to brush over her nipples.
She sighed, closing her eyes. “On second thought, I’m not hungry at all.”
He lifted her easily, making his way into the house and toward his bedroom. Hope buried her nose in his neck, loving the outdoorsy smell of him and wondering, not for the first time, if she’d ever get enough.
* * * *
Planning a joining was like the light version of planning for a wedding. Sarah spent time choosing things like decorations, music, and food selections, but the bulk of the work was left to the alphas’ staff, which left plenty of time for doing nothing. Hope had never been great at doing nothing, though, and filled the time that she didn’t spend with the Black brothers with helping Nikki with her big medical-building project, hanging out with Sarah, and checking up on things back home. Her mother was getting along just fine, it seemed, without her, and so was her business. Her assistant seemed to have everything she hadn’t completely tabled for the trip well in hand.
Nikki had settled on a building she thought would be right for the clan’s medical home, and Hope was helping her scrub the walls, floors, and windows. According to Nikki, it had been empty for quite a while, which made sense, considering the hefty coat of dust that covered everything.
“What do you think of River’s Bend so far?” Nikki asked, startling Hope out of her thoughts. They’d been working in silence for a while.
“I like it. Honestly, it’s peaceful one moment and full of activity the next. I have to say I’m surprised to find myself feeling at home here.”
“Getting used to the nudity, huh?”
Hope laughed. “I wouldn’t go quite that far. It’s still a little jarring, but I’m getting there.”
“And your mates?” Nikki sat back from where she’d been kneeling and wiped her forehead with the back of her hand. “How are things with them?”
As if she had to ask. They were openly affectionate with her, and Hope couldn’t keep her hands off them, either. “Well, I don’t really know what to say about them. Everything happened so quickly, but I no longer cringe when someone calls me their mate. The idea is…sort of…growing on me.”
Maybe she’d truly gone bat shit crazy, because if she were honest, really honest, she’d have to say they’d done more than just grow on her. She was in love with both of them and had spent many a moment toying with the idea of staying in River’s Bend.
Nikki smiled at her a little too knowingly, then went back to scrubbing and wiping. “Well, that’s a start.”
Hope got back to work, too, Adam and Levi on her mind as usual. She couldn’t imagine leaving them, going back to the life she had before. Of course, she could head back when Sarah was happily joined and just start dating again. No one was forcing her to live a hermit’s life, but she couldn’t imagine any man ever holding a candle to Adam or Levi. She could walk away and go back to what was familiar, but the thought actually made her feel slightly sick inside. Adam and Levi had said fate couldn’t inspire love. If they were right, and she could only believe they were, this feeling was one hundred percent her.
Hope sighed. “I haven’t told them yet, but I’m considering staying.”
Nikki got to her feet and pulled Hope up with her, wrapping her in a hug. “I’m so excited to hear that. It’s about time I got a sister.”
Hope smiled. “I always wanted more sisters, or even a brother, but my mother was quick to say she’d closed up shop.”
The door opened, and in walked the subject of their conversation, with Luke and Mason following close behind.
Adam looked from Nikki to Hope. “We’re leaving for Silver Spring. There’s been an attack on one of the local women. One of ours.”
Luke and Mason made their way over to Nikki, and Hope walked over to her men. She’d begun to think of them that way, as her men. “Was it them?” They’d all been worried her attackers would cause trouble in town.
“We don’t know yet,” Levi answered. “We’re going to see what’s what and hopefully catch these guys. There’s a good chance it’s them, though. This isn’t the sort of thing that usually happens in Silver Spring.”
“What kind of attack was it?”
Adam and Levi looked at each other, then back at her. She was beginning to get used to their silent communications. Adam reached for her, crushing her against his chest. “All we know so far is she was severely beaten,” he said.
A chill ran through her body as she thought about that poor woman. That could easily have been her if not for Adam and Levi. She was suddenly certain it was them.
“Look at me, Hope.”
She looked up into Adam’s eyes. His expression was determined.
“We will catch them.”
“And we’ll make sure they’re no longer a threat to you or any other woman.” Levi cocked his head toward the door, and Luke and Mason gave Nikki quick kisses goodbye.
“Take care of her?” Adam asked Nikki. “I’m not sure how long we’ll be gone.”
Nikki nodded. “Of course. She’s practically my sister after all.”
A quick peck from Adam and Levi, and all four men were out the door.
“Guess it’s just us girls tonight,” Nikki said.
Hope nodded. “Does it worry you? When they run off after trouble like that?”
“Every time. But it’s part of clan life. I’ve watched my father run head-on into battle, and then my brothers. Now, it’s my mates. I didn’t think Luke would be much for sticking his neck out when we met, but he’s surprised me time and time again.” She smiled wistfully. “Anyway, the clan men work hard to keep trouble away from Silver Spring and out of River’s Bend. For a long time, it worked…”
“And now?”
Nikki shrugged. “I shouldn’t be going on about this. Don’t want to scare you off.”
Not a chance. With every second she spent in River’s Bend, leaving seemed less and less attractive. “You won’t. What were you going to say?”
“Just that we’ve had a long period of relative peace. Except for the border skirmishes before our clans merged, we haven’t faced any serious struggles in a
long time.”
“Well, that’s great.” It sounded like good news, but Nikki’s expression said otherwise.
“It’s just that the life of a wolf shifter isn’t always so easy, and I have a feeling peace won’t always be so easy to maintain.”
* * * *
When Adam got home and discovered that Hope was still up and waiting for them, his heart swelled. He rushed to take her in his arms and hold her close. The sight and feel of her, even her scent, warmed him, but it couldn’t touch the cold, heavy feeling in the pit of his stomach. Levi came in a few minutes later, and he reluctantly released her, so his little brother could hold her next. After what they’d encountered in Silver Spring, Levi would need her warmth just as much as he did.
Hope looked over at him, then pulled away to look at Levi. “I made dinner, but you were gone so long I put it in the fridge. Are you hungry?”
Adam’s stomach growled loudly in response. He didn’t want to eat, honestly, but he needed to. “I could eat. Thanks for cooking for us.”
He sat heavily at the table and watched her closely as she moved about the kitchen, reheating food for them
“I ate hours ago,” she said. “Sorry, I was hungry.”
Levi smiled at her with what looked like a lot of effort. “It’s okay. We didn’t expect you to wait for us, and we didn’t think we’d be gone so long.”
Adam glanced at Levi, seeing the exhaustion and lingering horror mirrored in his eyes. The victim of the attack had been savagely beaten and torn. That could have been Hope or his sister lying there.
Hope set plates in front of them and joined them at the table as they went to work eating. It was delicious. Roasted chicken and gravy with rice and a salad. He tried to muster enthusiasm for the food, especially since she watched their reactions so carefully.
Eventually, she leaned back in her chair and sighed. “It was bad, wasn’t it?”
He looked over at Levi. They’d discussed the fact that they had to tell her. Neither of them wanted to, but she needed to know.
It was Levi who spoke first. “She was raped, Hope.”
Adam reached across the table to take her hand at her sharp intake of breath. Unfortunately, there was more.
She squeezed his hand back. “Is she okay? I mean, I know she isn’t okay, but will she be?”
Levi nodded slowly. “She’ll heal physically, faster than a human would, but…”
Hope closed her eyes, breathing deeply. When she opened her eyes, there were tears in them. “But?”
“I don’t know how long it will be before she can heal mentally,” Levi said.
Adam shook his head, still trying to get the images of the hysterical, broken woman out of his mind. “Her name is Abby. She’s a clan member, but she lives in Silver Spring. They beat her, raped, her, and left her to bleed alone in her own backyard. She wasn’t mated, but her sister found her like that. We brought her back here for medical attention, but I don’t know what it will take to get her back mentally. She was hysterical when we got there, but soon fell silent, unable to or unwilling to talk.”
“It was them, wasn’t it?” Hope’s lips trembled when she talked.
“She wasn’t able to give us a description,” Adam said. “But we caught their scent. We’re pretty sure it was them.”
“My God… I can’t… There are just…no words.”
He nodded. He wouldn’t say the words they all had to be thinking. That could have been her. “We searched for them for hours after we brought Abby back here. We couldn’t find them, Hope.” He was so angry and frustrated he wanted to punch something. What he really wanted to do was find them and tear them apart. His inability to do so filled him with rage and simultaneously made him feel useless.
Levi pounded his fist on the table, making the plates rattle and Hope jump. “Sorry. I just can’t get the sight of her and the horrible keening sounds she made out of my mind. I need to do something…anything, but it was like they disappeared. No one saw anything and we lost their scent after only a few miles.”
Hope stood and went to Levi. Adam couldn’t believe it, but after what they’d just told her and how anxious it had to make her, she wrapped her arms around Levi in an effort to comfort him. She was an amazing woman, their Hope. Adam felt like he should apologize to her again and again for failing to catch her attackers. All he wanted to do was tell her the threat was gone, but he couldn’t. And despite that, she made her way to him next, apparently thinking he deserved her comfort as well.
He pulled her onto his lap and buried his face in her hair. “I’m so sorry we couldn’t find them, that we didn’t catch them before…this.”
“It’s not your fault. I know you’ve been trying.”
So why did he feel so guilty? It was his job to protect her, their job. “We’ll find them, Hope. I promise you. And when we do, we will make sure they never hurt you or anyone else again.”
* * * *
Hope felt safe with Adam and Levi. She knew they would do everything in their power to keep her safe until they’d located the attackers. With the security set up around River’s Bend, she didn’t believe she had any reason to fear. Still, she felt their frustration, and though she assured them she didn’t blame them, they were hard on themselves. They seemed to feel they’d let her down.
She stood up, tugging on Adam’s arm, then Levi’s, to get them to their feet. “Let’s get you two to bed. You look dead on your feet.”
Hope found that she wanted to take care of them, as they had her, so she ignored their protests as she shuffled first Adam into the shower, and then when he was finished and getting into pajama pants, she did the same with Levi. She fussed over them like they were small boys instead of men, and once she’d gotten them into bed, she climbed in, too, settling between them.
She felt safe and loved between her two wolf shifters, but she tried to give them what comfort she could, stroking Levi’s hair until he fell asleep and then massaging Adam’s shoulders and back. They were her mates, after all, and caring for them just felt right.
* * * *
The next few days passed more or less uneventfully. Many of the women of the clan rallied around Abby, and Hope met her as well. Hope offered her support, though the woman didn’t seem ready to talk much. Nikki did say that she’d opened up to her sister and best friend, though, which made Hope feel a little better. At least Abby wasn’t trying to deal with the rape entirely on her own.
Hope continued to spend much of her time with Sarah and Nikki. When she wasn’t with them, she was with Adam and Levi, learning about the clan and River’s Bend, taking long walks, and sometimes just relaxing. That was when they weren’t out searching for the attackers or busy with other clan business. Security had been stepped up even more in River’s Bend, and some of the men had volunteered to take shifts patrolling in Silver Spring. Still, the attackers proved elusive, and Adam and Levi grew more frustrated with each passing day that they remained at large. They believed they must be holed up in some other town.
They continued to be careful with how often they made love to prevent soreness on her end, but she went to sleep smiling contently and fully satisfied every night. They were inventive in bed, so she never knew what was coming next, but she always enjoyed it.
On her way to the lodge to see Sarah on her twelfth day in River’s Bend, Hope asked Adam where he was heading off to. Levi had already left to see to the restaurant in Silver Spring.
“I’m going to check on a clan member and her pups. You know, the ones born the night we brought you and Sarah back to River’s Bend.”
“Are they okay?”
“They’re fine, but their father has been spending a lot of time on border patrol. I told him I’d check on them from time to time while he’s out at his post.”
“I guess he doesn’t get leave time?”
“He could switch with one of the other guys if he wanted to, but he’d still have to take a shift. It’s not so bad. He’s only out there during the
day a few times per week, and he gets to be at home with them at night. But these are their first pups, so knowing someone is looking in on them eases his mind some.”
She nodded. “Makes sense.”
He playfully swatted her ass. “Why don’t you come with me this time?”
“Oh, no. I don’t want to intrude.”
“You won’t be intruding. And there are three of them. An extra pair of arms won’t hurt.”
Hope felt the sting that always hit her at the thought of babies, but she roughly forced it away. She wasn’t going to be that person, especially with Sarah’s news. It was time to put that old hurt away for good. “If you’re sure the mom won’t mind. I mean, I am a stranger to her.”
“You’re not a stranger, not really. You’re my mate.”
She rolled her eyes at that one. That was his reasoning for everything. “Okay, I’ll go.”
Hope wasn’t entirely sure why she’d agreed to go with him. Maybe it was curiosity about the pups and what a wolf shifter baby would look like, but when the mother, Mara, invited her in, she was happy she’d gone. They were so tiny, all boys, and beyond adorable.
Mara wasted no time in putting a tiny blue bundle in her arms and two in Adam’s. “I’m sorry. You probably think this is crazy, but it’s really hard to shower or eat or do anything with these three. I love them so much, but yeah, I still need to shower. I’ll be quick, okay?”
How could she refuse? “Sure. Go. Take your time.” Honestly, she hadn’t ever held such a tiny baby before, and she wanted her chance to cuddle him. Somehow, smelling his baby smell and hearing his tiny sounds soothed her heart.
Adam held the other two bundles with amazing gentleness, looking down at them with a tenderness she would never have imagined possible for such a large man. She was overcome with how adorable he looked, talking to the babies as if they understood every word he said. He was a natural, and that brought the pain back. She quickly stomped it down, but a sadness lingered, even as she tried to focus on the joy holding the baby brought her.
Claiming Hope [Wolves of River's Bend 2] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) Page 17