Wild Hearts

by Wild Hearts (lit)

  She allowed two men to fuck her simultaneously, and she enjoyed it like nothing else in the world. Had it been any two other than Coal and Jacy, she knew she would’ve felt dirty and used.

  Lying here, between these two men, couldn’t be any more right.

  “Am I hurting you?” Jacy asked.

  Shyla managed a shaky smile at the thick tone of his voice. Coal’s knuckle caressed her cheek, drawing her attention away from Jacy.

  “No. You’re not hurting me anymore,” she murmured. “That was amazing.”

  “You were amazing,” Coal corrected, tracing her bottom lip with his pointer finger. She nipped him, earning her a smoldering grin.

  “We were amazing,” she said.

  “Every day for the rest of our lives can be amazing,” Jacy whispered against her ear.

  Shyla closed her eyes, absorbing the warmth of his breath and the feel of both men’s bodies. Fatigue crept up from the depths of her spirit. She wanted to sleep, curled between her wolves. She wanted never to leave, but reality had a way of ruining even the greatest of moments.

  She had to get Gramps’s things in order and return to her life in New York, leaving these men behind.

  Hell, she’d enjoy each minute being with them in the meantime.

  * * * *

  “I’ll make some coffee,” Coal said, receiving a tiresome sigh along the telepathic link he kept open to Shyla. He allowed Jacy to take her in his arms and curl her against him as he climbed out of the bed and into his jeans.

  He needed to distance himself from the single most disturbing thought that had ever hit him.

  She would leave. Despite their mating, she intended to leave.

  The thought of Shyla not filling his arms while she haunted his mind left a bitter pulse in his heart. Didn’t she say she loved him? How could she leave if she did? How could she leave two men who loved her when she herself loved them in return?

  Coal shuffled through the cabinets in the kitchen until he came across the coffee filters Jacob Smith kept stocked. In life, the man had been an avid coffee consumer, so Coal had no difficulty locating an airtight container filled with coffee grinds. Preparing a pot to brew, he heard the distant crunching of tires over the gravel driveway.

  “It’s Len.”

  Coal lifted his gaze to the window as his friend’s voice touched his mind. At least the man had enough common sense to warn him of his approach during these tenuous times.

  “Jacy, Len’s coming up the drive. Might wanna get some clothes on,” Coal warned.

  “Tell the man to come back in an hour or so,” Jacy called from the bedroom.

  Coal snorted as he started the pot of coffee and returned to the bedroom. He leaned against the doorframe, his gaze fixed on the beautiful, sex-sated woman lying on her belly, head propped up on fists. She cast him a timid smile, her cheeks turning a light pink. He found a grin easy to muster even as his mind tortured him with images of her gone.

  “Hell no. She’s not leaving. No fucking way.”

  Jacy folded his hands beneath his head and looked up at him with glowing green eyes. “Why’s he coming here? I told him yesterday we’d be in touch.”

  Coal shrugged a shoulder. “We’ll find out when he gets to the door.” He nodded to Shyla. “Please, love. Put some clothes on. You’re way too tempting naked.”

  “I’ll put some clothes on after I take a shower. How’s that?” she purred, the blush on her cheeks deepening. Her stormy gray eyes darkened and trained on him as she slid off the bed. Coal’s body ignited with lustful fire, singeing his veins and shocking his heart into overdrive. She stepped up to him, lifted on her toes, and graced his craving mouth with a soft, gentle kiss. He brushed his fingers over her cheek and into her hair, forcing himself to tamp down the rolling desires she brought to life in him.

  Coal tugged her lower lip before leaning back. Just beyond the porch, he heard the tires of Len’s car come to a stop. The engine shut off, tinks echoing in the air.

  “Get in the shower. Len’s here, and I’m not about to let him see you like this,” Coal said in a quiet rumble. Shyla smiled, her lids hooding her eyes as she stepped around him, her arm dragging across his belly as she headed toward the bathroom. He turned his attention to his raring-to-go friend.

  “That woman kisses you like you’re chocolate and sin. She indulges, and you indulge right back,” Jacy said. He chuckled, bending a knee to the ceiling.

  Coal folded his arms over his chest and rested a shoulder against the doorframe. The door to the bathroom clicked shut behind him.

  “She thinks she’s leaving us when she’s done here,” Coal said. The raw frustration that etched his voice surprised him and earned him a rightful—and rather annoying—arched brow from Jacy. “Little does she know she’s not.”

  “That’s ridiculous. She won’t leave, especially after last night,” Jacy assured with a white-toothed smile. He pushed himself upright and scooted off the bed, stretching his arms over his head. “Damn, Coal. In all the years I’ve known you, the last thing I ever expected to see in you was uncertainty. Hey, if you just saw the way she kissed you, you’d agree there’s no way she’s leaving. She’s completely enamored by us.”

  “Keep telling yourself that.” The car door outside slammed shut, and footsteps crunched over the drive.

  Jacy clapped his healed shoulder and nodded toward the bathroom.

  “You keep yourself company. I’m gonna check on Shyla and see if she needs any help.”

  Footsteps climbed the stairs to the porch as Jacy followed Shyla’s path to the bathroom. Coal gathered his composure, shoving the disturbing thoughts from Shyla into the dark corner of his mind.

  He’d worry about that when the time came. Right now, there were more dire things at hand.

  Finding Laela and Rian were two of them.

  Coal opened the front door before Len knocked, inviting the man inside just as Jacy closed the bathroom door behind him. The vague smell of steam and soap escaped in those few moments, teasing his nostrils and his cock. He forced himself to face Len. The disgruntled air that followed his old friend quickly dissolved his desires and stoked his wolf until the predator in him paced with unease.

  “Coffee?” Coal asked.

  “I’ll definitely be needing it. Brought chow,” Len said, holding up a large paper bag. “Has your white accepted she’s a wolf yet?”

  Coal repressed the urge to display his emotion behind a simple smile as he led Len into the kitchen. The man dropped the bag of breakfast foods on the small kitchen table and took a seat, keeping his attention anywhere but on the bathroom door.

  “I think she’s coming around.” He grabbed four mugs from a cabinet and filled two with the freshly brewed coffee. Wiping the smile from his face as he turned to Len, he added, “She can’t dispute what she saw happen in front of her.”

  “I’d say.” Len’s brows lifted as he nodded toward the bathroom door without looking. “Your boy there needs to learn to control himself. Be more like you.”

  “That wouldn’t make for a good friendship. Two of me?”

  “Brooding bastard. True, true. The town can only handle one Coal Demmering, and that’s stretching it.” His eyes narrowed on Coal. “Although, not sure if I sense much brooding in you today.”

  Coal turned a chair around and straddled the seat, then placed the mugs on the table. He folded his arms over the top of the chair. Len shrugged and unloaded the Styrofoam containers from the paper bag. The mouthwatering aromas of bacon, eggs, and steak filled the kitchen but did little to cast aside the resounding unsettlement.

  “What’s bothering you? Seems like you’ve got your tail in a bunch,” Coal said, reaching over to the closest container. He flicked open the lid, grabbed a sausage link, and took a bite. The savory, salty meat made his stomach rumble. “Wife up your ass again?”

  “You disappoint me. You’ve got the positions backward.” Len chuckled despite the growing uncertainty flashing in his eyes. “Two w
olves were slain last night about three miles from here. They’re part of the Jenson pack. Came in to lend us a hand keeping Smith’s granddaughter safe. A half dozen pack members went on a wild goose chase trying to follow the scent but only came to the lake, where it disappeared.”

  Coal paused, teeth half tearing into another bite of sausage. He stared at Len as the man rapped his fingers on the top of an unopened box.

  He severed the piece of meat, chewed, and swallowed, dropping the remainder in the box. Quenching his ravage hunger would have to wait.

  “Did anyone recognize the scent?” Coal asked.

  “No. Not a one.”

  “Did they move down the lakefront and try to pick up the scent again? If it’s a wolf, it wouldn’t stay in the water long.”

  “They said they couldn’t find anything.”

  “That’s fucking impossible, Len. How can they lose a scent?”

  “We’re wolves, which means we come with wolf-like abilities. Even wolves can lose scent trails if other scents overpower the one being traced.”

  Coal arched a brow. He never lost a scent trail. But it was pointless for him to try to follow a scent after so many other wolves compromised the area. Besides, he and Jacy had another trail to follow once his friend finished fucking in the shower.

  “Did you pick up the strange scent outside?” Len asked. He pushed the container away and looked at Coal. His blue eyes coated with deadly ice.

  Reluctantly, Coal shook his head once.

  “Really? Actually, there were two different scents, aside from yours and Shyla’s.” Len snickered. “I would’ve never suspected that woman to be the outdoors type.”

  “Leave it, old man,” Coal growled, shoving back from the chair. Anger welled in his spirit, the wolf mewling to come out. The screen door cracked against the side of the cabin from the force he threw it open with. He jumped off the porch and stormed into the middle of the clearing.

  Suppressing the restless side of him, he stood stone still, nose tipped toward the bleak, cloudy morning. The cold air lent a crispness that made it easier to distinguish the hundreds of different scents surrounding him. Immediately, he could smell the lingering musk from his mating with Shyla, and it made his cock hard. He couldn’t seem to get enough of her.

  Pushing the obvious aside, he turned his head as a coaxing breeze filtered through the trees, bringing with it two entwined scents. Two scents he knew very little of, but knew well enough to realize just what might have occurred because he was too enamored by Shyla to detect it.

  “Son of a bitch,” he spat. His fingers began to contort as his desire to transform and hunt the fools who tread this land mounted. He turned to the cabin and ran back inside, barely keeping the wolf contained.

  Len looked up.

  “I’m going to see if I can find them. When those two are done, bring them over to my place and tell them to stay there. If I’m not back by sundown, get her away from here. You understand?” Coal barked, stripping off his jeans. His body accepted the familiar transformation as his wolf came to the forefront. In a few blinks, he bounded back outside.

  “Don’t let anything happen to our woman, Jacy. It’ll be your throat I tear open otherwise,” he warned his friend just as he came upon the strong start of the enemies’ scent.

  Chapter Nine

  Jacy massaged shampoo into Shyla’s thick mane of hair, lathering the dense white foam until it practically consumed her dark strands. The hot water sprayed over his shoulders and down her back, glistening like tiny diamonds against her smooth flesh. Unlike his friend, he knew Shyla wouldn’t leave them. This was a sight he’d get to experience as much as he wanted, and hell would freeze before he got sick of it.

  “Mmm, that feels good. You do this often?” Shyla murmured, leaning her head into his hands.

  He chuckled, fingers working into her scalp. He watched goose bumps rise over her arms despite the heat of the water and the steam produced by it.

  “I save these specialties for you. Figured after our active night, a little massage might be in the cards. You sore?” He pressed a light kiss to the soapy underside of her jaw. He slid his fingers out of her hair and down to her shoulders where he gently kneaded the tight muscles surrounding her neck.

  “Keep doing what you’re doing, and the soreness will disappear.” Shyla’s body swayed with his deep, massaging strokes, narrow streams of white foam creeping down her back from her hair. “Have you and Coal shared other women?”

  Jacy paused, her curiosity washing away his smile.

  “It depends on the term. We’ve shared women. Separately.”

  Jacy snaked his arms around her waist and pulled her into his body. He might have an overactive sex drive, but times like this outweighed the desires stirring in his gut. Shyla’s slender, solid form molded to him so perfectly, as if she were made for him. Her head leaned back on his shoulder, the spray of water working the shampoo from her hair. She looked up at him, a small smile on her swollen lips. Jacy graced her with a chaste kiss. He nuzzled his cheek to hers.

  “You both don’t seem the type to be short of women at your sexual disposal,” she murmured.

  “Maybe not, but none of it matters anymore.”

  “Just because I’m a white wolf, you’re open to settle with one woman?”

  “You being a white has a little to do with things. It brought us together.”

  “Coal said both of you were appointed as my mates. How can two alpha males submit to one another and share a single woman?”

  “Sugar, we’re perfectly capable of sharing. You experienced that just a short time ago,” Jacy reminded. He inhaled the sweet scent of rose soap from her skin and closed his eyes. “Although, I’ll admit Coal’s been hogging your mouth.”

  “I think that’s fair considering how long you hogged me last night,” she said, her voice dipping. A sultry chuckle rumbled through her throat and made the blood pool in his cock. He kissed the soapy side of her neck.

  “And I’ll continue to hog you as much as I can—”

  “Don’t let anything happen to our woman, Jacy. It’ll be your throat I tear open otherwise.”

  Jacy lifted his head from the alluring temptation of her neck and loosened his arms from her waist. He stepped out of the shower and grabbed a towel.

  “Jacy? Where’re you going?” Shyla asked, poking her head from behind the shower curtain.

  “What the hell are you rambling about now?” he asked, following the telepathic link that flared to life. He dried in haste and tucked the towel around his waist.

  “Doll, finish up, and meet me in the kitchen.” His gaze drifted over her once more. He licked his lips. “With some clothes on or a towel in the least.”

  He slid out of the bathroom and followed the delicious aromas of breakfast foods and coffee into the kitchen. Len climbed to his feet from his place at the table. Jacy scanned the living room through the doorway behind Len, noting the peek of jeans hanging over a sofa pillow. When he didn’t see Coal, he leaned back into the living room.

  “He’s gone,” Len said, answering the curiosity building in Jacy’s mind.

  He turned to the man and quirked a brow. “Don’t tell me he can’t handle being around—”

  “He’s following a scent trail left by two trespassing wolves last night. He left instructions for me to bring you and the white to his place,” Len said, his words backed by a fierce determination that reflected in the blues of his eyes.

  Jacy bristled.

  “Where’s Shyla?”

  “Finishing up in the shower.” He barely connected with his friend before asking, “Coal, what the fuck is going on?”

  “Don’t you concern yourself with me. Keep Shyla safe until I get back. Don’t try to be a stubborn ass either.”

  Jacy detected the carnal air in the telepathic response. Coal was a wolf. He knew better than to distract his closest friend while tracing enemy trails.

  “I’ll get her together, and we’ll leave right a
way,” Jacy said. Once Shyla was tucked safely in Coal’s home, he’d go after his friend.

  No way in hell would he let Coal face the dangers alone.

  * * * *

  Shyla dragged her feet up to the front door of the extensive ranch-style home. Frustrated with Jacy’s vague explanation behind the urgency to leave, and awestricken by the immaculate condition of this new place, Shyla barely had time to react before Jacy resorted to picking her up and dropping her back to her feet once she cleared the front door.

  “Will you tell me what’s going on now?” Shyla growled, adjusting the shawl around her shoulders. As much as she wanted to drink in the extremely contemporary décor and the clean-cut severity of the home, she kept her gaze trained on Jacy.

  “Smith’s place isn’t safe. That’s what’s going on.”

  “Where’s Coal?”

  “Tracking two wolves that hunkered down outside your grandfather’s place last night.”

  Shyla blinked. She swallowed. There had been two wolves hanging outside Gramps’s place? Had they watched her and Coal?

  “Why are we here? Whose house is this?” she asked, the sharp edge in her voice melting away.

  “Coal’s.”

  Jacy ushered her deeper into the house as she observed Coal’s home. Spotless white walls and light pinewood floors flowed into each room. Sharp abstract paintings in black, gray, and red were hung with incredible precision. Cold metal sculptures stood tall as the hallway opened into a large, airy living room. Stark white carpeting filled this room, along with a black leather sofa, glass coffee table, and a large flat-screen television mounted to the wall. A white-brick fireplace opened just below the television.

  “Wow. Not even my place is this clean,” Shyla said. She took a step on the carpet. Immediately, she pulled her shoe back and slid out of them. Jacy laughed. “Somehow, this place fits Coal perfectly.”

  “Simple and yet complex. That’s my boy.” Jacy held no regards for the pristine carpeting and trekked across the room to one of the floor-to-ceiling windows that lined one full wall. He lifted the wooden slat of the blind and peeked out. “Coal wants you here. His home is impenetrable. He has every security precaution and alarm system known to man.”