by Diane Leyne
* * * *
“No,” Joe sighed. “We just wanted to get you out of the house. You could have knocked me over with a feather when I saw her. We did get to talk to her a bit before her friends arrived, and she told us about Sam and Gabe.” He repeated the story to Alex and was gratified to see him laugh, really laugh out loud. His big brother didn’t laugh or even smile much since he came back.
“She really walked him on a leash?”
“And took him to the vet’s to be neutered,” Will added dryly. “Luckily Lena recognized him, so he’s intact.”
“Lena told me that Samantha is actually Arthur Daniels’s granddaughter, so she knew about the wolf-dog-shifter thing before she came here. Gabe didn’t know she knew and spied on her while shifted. The trip to the vet and the walk around town on a leash were just her way to teaching him a lesson.” Joe grinned. “I’d have loved to have seen her walking Gabe through the town square.”
“I’d have paid to see that.” Alex chuckled, but then his face grew grave again. He shifted uncomfortably in the hard chair behind the desk. He turned the computer off and stood carefully. “I’m heading home. I’ll see you later.”
He turned and limped out, not waiting for their reply and using the back entrance to the employee parking lot to avoid running into anyone he knew. Joe and Will looked at each other and then at his retreating back.
“God damn it.” Joe was pissed. “I didn’t know that Lena would be here tonight. I was hoping he would go out and have a drink in the bar. He probably knows half the people out there, and they’d have been lining up to buy him a drink. He’s been home for a week and hasn’t been out of the house before tonight. He doesn’t go anywhere and won’t see anyone. Of course, they’d all be peppering him with questions, like why he has been home a week and not been out and about, but it would be his own damned fault for hiding from everyone. Will, what the hell happened to him over there. He’s not the same man anymore.”
“Hell, Joe. You think I didn’t notice that. Seriously, he puts on a good macho show, but haven’t you noticed how he jumps at the slightest sound? The other day, I yelled at him for taking the last piece of cake, and he actually cowered for a moment.
“I thought tonight was a step forward. This is the first night he’s even come to Lupo’s, and you know he loved this place. He worked so hard to help us get it up and running.”
“Yeah, which is why I was so shocked when he just left without a word, just left that stupid fucking note. And as devastated as we were, what about poor Lena? I don’t think she’s ever let herself trust a man since. I’ve never scented another man on her.”
“Yeah, that morning was a huge trauma for all of us. She just shut down completely, and then she a few weeks later she was gone and it was like we lost her too. Even after she graduated, she only came home for short visits. I didn’t think she would ever come back to live in Harmony.”
“You knew she’s always planned on taking over her father’s vet practice.”
“Plans change.” Joe’s tone was flat, but Will continued as if he hadn’t been interrupted.
“So I always figured she’d eventually return permanently and she finally did two years ago. I have to admit that I always thought we’d just wait them both out, but I was starting to worry that I was wrong. I figured that there was no way Alex was going to be a lifer. One tour to honor granddad’s service and that would be it. I got that, I did, but we and Lena were just starting university and wouldn’t be around much anyway, so I didn’t really think much of it.
“But then he just kept reenlisting. If he hadn’t been so badly injured…”
“But he was and he’s back and she’s back, and it is up to us to get them back together so the four of us can finally be mated and live happily ever after, even if we have to tie them up and lock them in a room together to get them talking again. Or, maybe knock them unconscious and perform the ceremony while they are out cold.”
“Don’t you think that’s kind of extreme, Will? Surely we can just drug them. Lena’s a vet. She’s got something in her medical bag that we could use.”
The two brothers burst out laughing as they came up with more and more outlandish plans to force the two stubborn vets to let go of their pride and do what the four of them should have done years ago.
“All kidding aside, Will. We have to do something. Tonight is the first night of this full moon cycle. There’s no way we can get everything settled before the third night of this cycle, but I want us all to be mated on the next full moon. I need that. If those two don’t make up in the next four weeks, I vote for drastic action on our part. Agreed?”
“We’ve waited a decade, and I’m not willing to wait any longer either. Agreed.”
The brothers solemnly shook hands, and then Joe went over to the calendar on his desk and flipped to the date of the next full moon. He circled it in red. They had just over four weeks.
Chapter Two
Lena drove slowly. She’d been truthful about having only a single beer, but she was distracted by other things. That weird feeling she’d had a Lupo’s. She hadn’t told her friends that it wasn’t the first time. It had started almost a week ago. It almost felt like someone was watching her. She could almost feel the eyes on her, but there was never anyone around when she looked.
She headed to her office before going home. She had an injured puppy she wanted to check on. One of her vet techs had stayed late with the little guy and promised to call her if he had any problems, and she had another volunteer who was going to stop by early to check on him, but she wanted to see for herself. He was a little mongrel dog, not even a year old, that some idiot passing through the area had dumped. He’d been half-starved when she’d found him and had a broken leg, but he was such a plucky little guy. He’d licked her hand, and she’d lost her heart.
She pulled up outside her office. It was in downtown Harmony just off the main square. It took her only a minute to see that he was resting comfortably. She had treated lots of animals and loved them all, but little Otis was special. A few of her volunteers had already inquired about adopting him, but she’d pretty much decided to keep him.
He was sleeping in his pen when she entered, but he immediately awakened and tried to struggle to his feet when he saw her. The bulky bandages impeded him, but it didn’t stop him from trying. She hoped his leg healed. She’d operated and put in a couple of screws. Initially she’d been worried that she might have to amputate, but he seemed to be healing. He’d probably always have a limp, but he definitely didn’t seem to be in any pain.
He looked up at her and then looked around as if checking to see if she’d brought anyone with her. She carefully picked him up. He was around fifteen pounds, but should be five pounds heavier. She could feel his ribs through his patchy fur, but already he’d put on half a pound and she could feel the hair beginning to re-grow. She cuddled him close and checked on his leg. The paw sticking out of the bandages was warm, and he responded to her touch. Gangrene had been a real possibility, but it seemed like they’d dodged that bullet. It might be weeks before they knew if the bone knit properly, but the life-or-death risk was over.
“Oh, Otis.” Wriggling, he licked her face with his little pink tongue. It was only then that she realized she was crying. “So what do you say? Want to be my forever dog?”
As if he could understand, Otis started licking her face harder which caused her to cry harder. “If only all dogs were as loveable as you. Let me get your stuff. You’re coming home with me.” She put him down in his basket, and she wrote a note for the volunteer who was on the early shift.
Finally she gathered up his collar, some toys, some dog food, and a small dog bed out to her SUV and then came back for Otis. He had an anxious look on his face but then calmed down when he saw her. She picked him up in her arms and walked out, shutting off the lights behind her. She settled him in the dog bed which she’d placed in on the passenger seat and clipped into place with the seat belt.
/> She felt that shiver again as she did up her seat belt. After she started the engine, she turned to Otis who was sitting up and looking around. He didn’t seem upset, though. It was like he was looking for someone he knew.
Did he feel something, too? Maybe it wasn’t just her imagination. But if he did, he certainly didn’t seem to be upset by it. She looked around the parking lot, but although her parking space and the clinic doorway were well lit, the outer edges of the lot were shadowed. She shrugged, telling herself she was imagining things, put the truck into gear, and headed home.
* * * *
Alex limped out of the shadows. It was good to see Lena again. He thought she was going home after the club. He hadn’t realized that she was going to the clinic. He’d come to see Otis when he’d seen her SUV in the parking lot, so he’d parked his truck in the next lot over and walked to where he could see the back entrance, but not close enough that she would spot him in the shadows and waited.
He reached down to rub his own lame leg. He’d seen the posters she’d put up and the pictures on her website trying to find the owner of the spirited little animal. He wasn’t sure what had made him break into her clinic for the first time three nights ago, but he felt a kinship with the abandoned pup. Lena really needed a better security system because it had been darned easy. He had only planned on checking up on the pup and maybe trying to find out if she had been contacted by the owners or someone who knew the owners. He felt a need to punish anyone who’d do that to an innocent creature, or that was what he’d told himself the reason was, but one look at Otis and he found himself shifting and curling up with the little animal, sleeping soundly for the first time in months. He’d almost overslept and had to dress quickly and slip out before the volunteer on early shift caught him.
He’d been more careful when he’d returned the next night and the next. He hadn’t planned on coming tonight. It was foolish of him to visit the dog. What if Lena caught him? But he was drawn to Otis and took as much comfort as he gave. But now that Lena was taking him home, he wouldn’t be able to spend nights with his little buddy.
He wondered if she’d take Otis to work or leave him at home. If it was the latter, hopefully her home security system would be just as poor as her office security.
He turned to walk back to his truck. She’d looked good. She’d looked good when he’d used the security cameras to watch her at Lupo’s. Okay, he admitted to himself. He’d been spying on her. He’d been back in Harmony a week and had done everything to find out how she was and what she was doing except actually see her in person or talk to her. He’d been stalking her online for a very long time, even going to far as to create a fake Facebook identity and friend her and the clinic a few years ago so he could see her photos and see what she’d been up to. It was sad, almost pathetic really, but he’d been unable to stop. He needed to know if she was involved with anyone.
She had plenty of photos of her with her best friends Penelope and Ginger, but none with any men except the occasional one with his brothers. Since he got back, he knew that she still slept with them periodically, but they’d told him how she was keeping them at an emotional distance and wouldn’t come near them on full moon nights, not that anything permanent could be established at that time without his participation. However if Joe or Will bit her on a full moon night, then she would be caught up in an uncontrollable arousal that would last until the sun came up. It would be the same if he bit her, but his brothers did not like what happened the night before he left. But from what they’d told her, it seemed that Lena had decided never to lose control like that again.
He wondered if there had been many other men in her life during the years she’d lived away from Harmony. He knew about her broken engagement to a doctor, a human he presumed.
Lena was of wolf-shifter blood. The women of the bloodline didn’t shift themselves, but they were drawn to men who did, and generally had relationships with all the men in a family. He and his brothers had grown up knowing that, one day, she would be theirs. He’d taken that commitment for granted and expected her to just blindly submit to his will and wait for him. He’d made his decisions without any consideration for what she wanted or even what his brothers wanted. What kind of crappy Alpha was he? He was supposed to care for his brothers and his mate. Instead he’d fucked up all of their lives.
She looked good on the security monitors. She looked even better in person. The ten years looked good on her. She was most definitely a woman now. She was still fit, but her breasts looked bigger and her ass lusher, or maybe that was just his faulty memory. She wore her hair shorter, probably because it was practical for work, but the pixie cut looked good on her. It still amazed him that she worked with all sorts and sizes of animals, considering her slight five foot one, but she was of wolf-shifter blood, so she was definitely stronger than the average woman her size.
He felt his dick stir at the memory of what it was like to hold this taut little body under him and pound into her as she came apart in his arms. He remembered the last time they’d all been together, the night before he’d left. It had been the first night of the full moon, and she’d, hell, his brothers, too, they’d all wanted to do the mating ritual. He’d convinced the three of them that the third night of the full moon was the most powerful, so that night, only he had given her a mating bite. That had caused her to become almost overwhelmed with arousal, but would wear off when the sun rose.
It was the most sexually satisfying two nights of his life. She’d been insatiable, and the three of them had taken her over and over, singly and in combination each night, and slept most of the day. Being wolf-shifters, they recovered after sex much faster than human men, and they were able to satisfy her over and over until they were all exhausted, sleeping most of each day. But even being of the wolf blood, even three of them could barely keep up with the need the mating bite had unleashed in her because she, too, was of the blood.
He thought back to the very last time, just before dawn broke at the end of their second mating night when the three of them had once again taken her together. She was sandwiched between his brothers, the twins buried deep in her ass and pussy, unmoving even as she struggled between them. But then she realized that he was watching and waiting, and her eyes, big and dark and aflame with arousal, looked up at him as she silently begged him to take her mouth so that their possession of her body would be complete.
He throbbed at the memory of twining his hands in her long dark hair and pushing into her mouth, forcing her to take him deep, controlling her totally. Three strokes and he was buried to the hilt. Her eyes rolled back in her head in pleasure. He could have stayed like that all night, her warm mouth caressing his cock, but he had to move to come and mark her as his. He’d heard Will groan from underneath her, his cock buried in her pussy.
“I can’t wait any longer, Alex. She’s squeezing my cock like a vise. I have to move.” He flexed his hips, and Joe flexed as well, and then they were pounding into her from both sides. She moaned around Alex’s cock, and he, too, was soon pounding into her, burying his dick deep in her throat over and over again. He wanted to draw out the sensation, but he could see that her own orgasm was beginning as the little tremors started in her body and quickly grew to giant quakes as she convulsed around their bodies. He couldn’t hold off any longer. He pulled out of her mouth and stroked his cock once, twice, before the first stream of cum jetted out, hitting her chin and sliding down her body. He jerked his hand again, and cum landed in her hair and on her belly and breasts, and he pushed her head back and aimed his cock at her body before shoving it back in her mouth and finishing in that warm pussy as she went limp, spent from the force of her orgasm.
Carefully, the three brothers pulled out of her body. Alex lifted her into his arms and carried her into the bathroom. He sat down on the toilet seat as Will and Joe wet washcloths and carefully cleaned her body and hair as best they could. She was so spent she barely opened her eyes at their tender ministrations. And w
hen Alex carried her into the bedroom and settled into the big armchair with her still in his arms, she just snuggled up to him and slept.
It was almost noon when he’d finally arisen with her still sleeping soundly in his arms. His brothers were in the big bed. He nudged Will, who was closest to him. Will got up sleepily, and Alex carefully set her down in the bed beside Joe and motioned for Will to slide back in beside her. His brother looked at him with puzzlement, but he wasn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth.
Alex watched the three of them cuddle close. They’d look after her while he was gone. And if he didn’t come back, Joe, who was twenty minutes older, would be the new Alpha, and he and Will would eventually mate her and raise a family together.
They’d discussed having the mating ceremony before he left the first time. She’d offered to do it then, but he’d said no. He had been only twenty-two and the others were eighteen. No one pushed it. But now he knew that the three of them had discussed it during his absence and were determined to be mated this time. It was up to him to do what was right for all of them.
The twins couldn’t leave Harmony. They’d just taken over Lupo’s and were excited to be running their own business. He knew that if they did the ceremony, Lena would have to give up her dream of being a veterinarian to be with her mates. There were no vet schools in driving distance of Harmony, and the mating bite wouldn’t allow her to live far from them. And he knew Lena. She wouldn’t let them give up their dream business, so she’d help them with Lupo’s but would always regret her own lost dream even though she’d never admit how much she missed it.