Hounded

by Sadie Hart

  Chapter Twenty One

  Lennox hated waking in hospitals. She’d done her best to avoid waking up under the bright, white-washed walls throughout her career and now squinted up at the room, the sterile air burning down her lungs like bad whiskey. With a grunt she squeezed her eyes shut and wished she could go back to sleep. Sleep had hurt a heck of a lot less.

  Her right shoulder throbbed, pulsing in time with her heartbeat. Her arm was in a sling, but it did nothing to ease the gnawing pain on that side. Her stomach felt seared, scorched. The silver no doubt. A grimace flashed over her face.

  “Lennox?” Mel’s soft voice startled her and she blinked into the brightness. Mel was hunched over her bed, her arms wrapped around herself as she stared down at her. “You’re awake.”

  The relief in those two words ate at her heart. Lennox forced a small smile on her face. “Yeah. Mostly. Damn lights.”

  She closed her eyes again under Mel’s happy laugh. The last thing she remembered... A soft groan slipped from her as Mel’s hand found hers. Torres. Bree. She sucked in a hard breath. She wished she’d seen that one coming. The signs, there had to have been signs that Torres had been losing it. He’d been withdrawn, standoffish, but becoming a killer?

  A bitter laugh flung from her lips and Mel tightened her grip on her hand. “You okay?”

  “No.” She rolled her head to look at Mel. She looked fine. Tired, with deep bags under her eyes, but unhurt. “You?”

  Mel gave a fast, bouncy nod, but the worry in her eyes belied her answer. Physically, maybe she was fine. Emotionally, she was still worrying. There was one way to fix that. Lennox let go of Mel’s hand and reached behind her, using her good arm to push herself up. “Help me up.”

  “Are you sure that’s—”

  “Of course I’m sure. I feel fine. A little battered.” A hiss squirmed out between her teeth as she wriggled her way up to a sit. Make that more than a little. She felt like a damn battering ram used to knock down a castle. Every muscle in her body screamed loud and hard with protest. “Nothing rest won’t cure.”

  “Which is why you’re not resting?”

  Lennox grinned. “I’m sitting. That’s resting. I just wish I’d known.”

  It probably wouldn’t have fixed much, but maybe she could have stopped him before he’d killed so many people. Maybe she could have even gotten him help.

  “It wasn’t your fault.”

  Sure felt like it was. Between her and Bree, someone should have known. Torres had never been alone. She’d been his right hand lady, Bree the woman he came home to every night. When had he had time to plan mass genocide?

  Settling herself back against the pillows, finally upright without the fear of face planting in her lap, she held out a hand for Mel to take out the IV. Her friend slid the needle out, a familiar lecturing look in her eye as she did it. “You probably shouldn’t.”

  “How long have I been here?”

  “Two days. Drugged up most of it. The silver poisoning did a number on you.”

  “Everyone else, they’re okay?”

  Mel nodded, reaching behind her to pull her chair up next to the bed. “Kanon and Tegan have been here huffing and puffing over your bedside since the medics brought you in. They nearly split skin again when there wasn’t room in the ambulance for two extras.”

  She could see that. The last thing she remembered, they’d been wound so tight they’d almost charged Bree and another Hound, tails twitching like beasts ready to throw down over turf.

  “In the end, Tegan rode with you, while Kanon rode, unhappily so, with a Hound. They had to do the whole Shifter Town Enforcement sirens, flashing lights and all so they could keep pace with the ambulance. The poor Hound was sheet white and shaky by the time I got here. I think Kanon probably gave him a few good scares on the ride over.”

  She glanced over to Lennox. “They are head over heels, chica.”

  Lennox warmed at that. She was head over heels for them. She glanced at Mel and found they were both grinning, ear to ear. “About time, girl.”

  Yeah, Lennox guessed it was. “So how’d you get them out of here? Tranq-gun?”

  “Ha. Was looking like it, but no. Exhaustion got the better of them and I reminded them I’d been taking care of you, scrapes and all, for far longer than the both of them combined.”

  Lennox would give her that. Mel had been there when they’d both been falling off bicycles and busting kneecaps. She’d been there when Lennox had vaulted off a swing at recess and broke her arm.

  “I don’t expect them to stay away long though.”

  “And Bree?” she asked, hating the way her voice quivered over the name. Bree didn’t deserve to be alone, but Lennox wasn’t sure her boss would welcome her. She busied herself shimmying up the hospital grown so she could get a good look at the wound on her side.

  “She left. They cleared Torres’s body too. She stopped in to see you and then hit the first plane out of here.”

  Lennox paused, the gown bunched in her fingers. “Did she look okay?”

  “She looked like a woman who’d just lost her husband after he murdered eight people and tried to kill four others, including her close friend.” Mel touched her shoulder. “I’m sorry, Lennie.”

  “I know. He...” She shook her head and pulled up the gown, revealing the white gauze of a bandage. One handed, she tugged at the bandage until it loosened enough she could tug it down. Mel leaned over and helped unwrap it. They both paused, staring down at the small, angry, puckered line of stitches where the bullet had grazed her side. The skin was bruised, irritated still from the silver.

  Then again, a good deal of her side and abdomen was bruised. She’d only fallen and been knocked around a half dozen times. Lennox scrunched up her nose and let the gown fall back over her hip. She’d live. Now, all she needed to do was get out of this damned bed.

  Mel pressed a hand against her shoulder. “Don’t even think about it.”

  “I’m not going to get any better sitting in a damn hospital bed.”

  “That is exactly how you’re going to get better. That’s the whole point.”

  There was a creak to her left as Kanon appeared in the doorway, a soft grin on his face. He lifted his eyebrows. “Need back up?”

  “Yes,” both she and Mel answered at the same time, drawing a soft chuckle from both men as Tegan stepped up behind Kanon.

  “I think he was talking to Mel, but it’s nice to see you awake. Alive.” Dark brows drew down over his face as Tegan crossed the room to lean over the side of her bed. He laid a kiss against her temple and Lennox tilted her head up to snag his lips in a kiss before he could pull away. She didn’t need to be babied.

  But one touch of his mouth against hers and she could feel him hard, hungry as he leaned in. One hand cupped around the back of her neck, Tegan held her to him, drinking her down as if he hadn’t thought he’d ever kiss her again. Maybe he hadn’t.

  He pulled back and the soft, cat-gold of his eyes slammed into hers. “Let’s try not to do that again.”

  “What?” Lennox grinned, trailing fingertips down his jaw. He had a half day’s growth of beard peeking out from his skin, making him look rough. She fought the urge to lay her cheek against his and rub. “This?”

  She slipped her hand up to catch the loose strands of his hair and she tugged him back down to her, kissing him slowly. Leisurely. The gentle press of lips, the silken, wet caress of their tongues sliding against each other.

  A hand wrapped around the back of her neck, fingers entwining through her hair then with one small tug Kanon pulled her back, taking over where his partner had left off. There was a wicked glint to his eyes as he deepened the kiss, a low rumble of a growl sparking deep in his gut.

  “No, sweetheart,” he answered when he pulled away. “He meant try not to get kidnapped and shot by a madman and then leave us trekking all over the state.” Then with a sly wink he added, “Besides, I thought you were supposed to be saving me. Not the other way
around.”

  Lennox slugged him once in the shoulder. “I did save you. Your ass would have been in jail on night one if I hadn’t.”

  “Please.” Tegan shook his head. “You were outnumbered. You’d have been in a body bag.”

  Like hell she would have. Her snort echoed through the small room and Melody tossed back her head in a laugh, one arm snaking over her belly. “What they’re trying to say, is they’re happy you’re alive.”

  Tegan leaned down, catching Lennox under the chin with one hand, the other wrapped around Kanon’s waist. “What, we didn’t say that yet?”

  Kanon smiled. “We’re happy you’re alive, Lennox.”

  “God, me too. Now when can I get out of this bed?”

  “That’s my cue,” Mel said, stepping towards the door. She paused, one hand on the wall as she glanced back towards the three of them. “I’ll get the doctor. Try not to do anything while I’m gone.”

  She gave the bed a pointed glance, eyebrows wiggling before she disappeared out the door, heels clicking down the hall.

  “Shame. I kind of wanted to test out the bed.” Kanon nudged it with one leg. “Though I don’t think you’re quite up to anything extravagant.”

  “Please. I have a broken arm. Nothing serious.”

  Tegan huffed softly. “Did you see the hole in your side too?”

  “I’m alive. The question isn’t and will never be, whether or not I can take it.” Her chin jutted up a notch.

  “Oh, we know.” Kanon said, lips pursing for a second. “I suppose we should also say something along the lines of, we love you.”

  Lennox blinked up at Kanon, then Tegan. They both shrugged, almost perfectly in sync with one another. Like the night at the club, when they’d edged in for a dance. They moved together, acted together. Mel had been right all along. Lennox had guessed it somewhere along the way, especially after they’d started sharing her, but looking between them now, it was obvious.

  They weren’t the type of men who could only have a woman love one of them.

  It was a good thing then, that she loved them both.

  A sly smile edged over her lips and she gave a nonchalant shrug. “Ditto then.”

  “Cheater.” Tegan ran a thumb over her lips.

  “I love you. Both of you. Though, for the record, I think your pride females are going to get rather cranky. I don’t share.”

  “Good. You don’t have to.”

  “Besides,” Kanon slumped against her bed, his hip braced against the mattress. “We’re applying for rogue status again. I’m not much of a pride male type.”

  “Neither of us are.”

  “So we’ll need to go house hunting. Which we can totally afford because of your new job.” Lennox blinked between them. Her new job? Kanon brushed a strand of red hair from her face, his fingertip trailing under the edge of her jaw. With one simple touch, they could light her afire. “Bree wanted to know if you’d take the pack.”

  Oh. Her heart squeezed at the thought. She’d been next in line after Torres, it made sense, but the thought of going back into work every day and have him not be there... When would it ever feel normal again?

  “She also wanted to know if you’d be willing to run the Idaho office for awhile. Sounded like she needed a bit of a vacation. When you’re feeling better, of course.”

  “Which, from the sounds of it, Ms. Donnelly already is?” A Latino man poked his head in through the doorway, white lab coat billowing out at his knees. “Up and ready to go home.”

  He saw the IV laying beside her bed and frowned. “And helping herself out of here already. Well, let’s see if you good enough to go, shall we?”

  Lennox submitted to the man’s incessant poking and prodding without complaint and when he finally issued her out the door, insisting on bed rest, she was more than ready to go.

  “I was serious about the bed rest. No strenuous activity for a while now. You need time to heal.”

  She wasn’t so sure about the no strenuous activity part, but she had no qualms about the bed rest. Kanon grinned from his spot beside her bed. “No worries, Doc, we’ll make sure she takes everything very leisurely.”

  He drew the word out, one corner of his mouth hitching up in a smile. Tegan more than happy to play along added, “Scout’s honor, but she won’t leave that bed for at least a week.”

  “If not more.”

  Lennox covered a laugh with a cough. Assured, she watched the doctor disappear out the door and laughed. “Neither of you were ever a Boy Scout.”

  Tegan kissed her temple, her forehead, the tip of her nose. “Of course not. Doesn’t mean we didn’t mean every word.”

  “Every word,” Kanon repeated softly.

  Lennox closed her eyes on a smile. She could handle that.

  ***

  Lennox sat on the back steps. The yard lit only by the glowing paper lanterns strung through the back yard. She could still see the pack laughing, Kanon and Tegan perfectly at home amongst the Hounds; then again they were on their own turf. Her pack on the other hand... Lennox stifled a smile, her gaze darting over the now empty yard.

  She’d seen the wary hesitation on the Hounds as they’d walked around the edge of the house. Every damn one of them knew she slept at home with two male lion-shifters, but while they were willing to think her nuts for it, walking into her yard—their yard—and seeing both Kanon and Tegan in the flesh, the cold, hard realization had sunk in.

  Their Alpha slept with the enemy.

  At least, they’d been the enemy right up until Kanon had fired up the grill and Tegan had plunked down to talk the last football game with the crew. And when both men had managed to keep their fur under their skin after the first hour, her crew had decided they were okay after all. For lions. In the end, they’d circled the fire pit, poking marshmallows into the flames and complimenting Kanon and Tegan on the new house.

  One ballsy ridgeback had even hedged to ask how they handled living with Lennox. “Don’t you ever get tired of her bossing you around?”

  Tegan nudged her from behind, jarring her out of her day dream and she tilted her head back to look at him. “You all right?”

  “Yeah.” She reached up and grabbed the edge of his shirt, tugging him around until he was standing in front of her, the lean muscular stretch of his chest hers for the taking. Sliding both hands under the fabric she felt the muscles in his stomach clench, tighten. She leaned forward and nipped over the sensitive skin. She smiled, remembering Tegan’s slight shrug. “Belly up for a Hound works pretty damn fine for me.”

  “Besides, she doesn’t make all the rules.”

  Kanon’s hands landed on her shoulders as if summoned by her thoughts. He knelt behind her, his knees straddling her back, his head resting on hers as he watched her peel his partner’s shirt up, licking up the small trail of hair dusting from Tegan’s belly button, down below the edge of his jeans.

  Blunt fingertips dug into her shoulders slightly and she smiled as Tegan swayed slightly, his hips arching to meet her mouth. A silent plea. She slipped one hand down to cup the swell building underneath his jeans. “Bet those are getting tight.”

  She licked her lips against his stomach, purposefully tasting Tegan’s skin while she was at it. He gave a low groan. “We should take this inside, break in the bed.”

  “But she started it on the stairs.” Kanon slid his hands down over her back all the way to her hips before hefting her up against him, holding her tight as Tegan reached to tug down her zipper.

  Lennox grinned as she leaned into Kanon. She didn’t want to go inside. Out here, with the night air cool and wild against her skin, this was where she wanted them. “We won’t make it all the way upstairs.”

  “This’ll do,” Kanon murmured against her neck. He shifted his grip higher, around her waist. There was nothing left of the injuries on her side but the faintest white line of a scar now, the wound healed weeks ago. Tegan pulled her jeans down her hips, all the way down her legs. Slowly. Taking
his time, pausing every few inches to taste and nip softly over the skin. He traced small spirals on the backs of her knees, the undersides of her calves.

  She squirmed in Kanon’s arms, bucking. Her head rolled back to rest in the crook of his shoulder, her breath growing shorter. Desperate. “Stop getting distracted.”

  Tegan nipped over her thigh, before slipping fingers beneath her underwear. “But I like you like this. Spread out like a fucking buffet.”

  “Not yet she’s not,” Kanon said into her skin, but Lennox knew without looking that he was staring at his partner. He gave a slight jerk of his head. “Off.”

  Tegan didn’t hesitate. He peeled the thin, cotton panties down, slipping them off her legs, only to pause as Kanon hefted her up higher. One hand at a time, he reached under her thighs, holding her by the backs of her legs, he spread her wide.

  “Shit,” Tegan breathed. “That’s better. Much better.”

  He leaned in to taste her, one sweeping heated stroke of his tongue and Lennox arched between them. She reached back, hands wrapping in Kanon’s hair, she writhed against the pressing exploration of Tegan’s tongue. The slick dive of it slipping inside her.

  Lennox glanced down at him, met the hot gold of his eyes as he stared up at her. His grin was wicked in the dark. He leaned up and laid a kiss against her belly, his knuckles brushing the very core of her. Kanon’s zipper whirred softly in the quiet, crickets the only lingering song in the night. Under the pallid light of the moon, Tegan stood, nibbling his way up her stomach, nipping at the twin peaks of her breasts under cloth.

  “Let me have her,” he said, even as he plucked her from Kanon’s arms. She wound her legs around his waist and shivered against the hard press of denim against her skin.

  Without another word, Kanon slipped past them and into the yard, the moonlight tracing his jeans in shades of silver. Looping his thumbs into his pants he dragged them off his hips, boxers and all, and shucked them aside. His shirt trailed next, a flutter in the wind. Lennox buried her face in Tegan’s shoulder, whimpering as Kanon took her from Tegan’s arms, only to have him reach past her.