SizzlingInsanity

by Lorna Jean Roberts

“She doesn’t seem to want you. No way are we going to stand by and let you force her,” Owen snarled.

  “Oh believe me, we won’t need to use force,” Cade drawled.

  Owen moved forward and Sawyer had to stand and force him back.

  “Cade, shut up,” Connor said. “You’re not helping matters. Shelby, did you run off because you thought we were going to give you to Sam?”

  “I figured you’d tell him what I told you and he’d put two and two together and realize he’d have to get rid of me.”

  Connor sighed. “You need to tell us everything. Why the hell do you think that Sam killed your mother and that he’d want to kill you?”

  She looked over at Sawyer who nodded. “You might as well tell them all of it, squirt, they don’t seem the type to give up. Maybe it will help us all figure out how best to deal with this mess.”

  “I’m sorry,” she whispered. “This is all my fault. You’ll all be better off when I’m gone.”

  “What the fuck kind of thing is that to say?” Owen snarled. “Better off without you? That’s bullshit.”

  “But it’s what she believes, isn’t it, Shelby?” Connor said. “You think that you’re a burden to your cousins, that their lives would be better if you hadn’t come into it. That’s why you were so reckless with your safety, because you figured it didn’t matter if you died.”

  Owen moved swiftly, grabbing Connor by his shirt to pull him from the chair. “You take that back, my cousin is not a burden and if she died there would be hell to pay, you hear me?”

  “Oh I hear you,” Connor said calmly. “But I’m not the one you need to convince.”

  Owen let him drop back into his chair and he turned to Shelby.

  “Shel?” Jonty asked, squeezing her hand. “You don’t really believe any of that, do you?”

  She shrugged.

  “Shelby,” Connor growled sternly. “Speak up.”

  She shot him a heated look before staring at her cousins. Jonty looked concerned, Owen mad, and Sawyer was hiding his emotions behind a stony mask. She sighed. “All I cause you guys is trouble. You’re not welcome in the pack because of me, you have to work shitty jobs and live in a crappy house because of me. It’s even my fault that Uncle Colin died.”

  “What?” Sawyer said with shock. “That was an accident.”

  “But we wouldn’t have been in the caves if it wasn’t for me. He was training me. If I hadn’t been around, he would have been somewhere else that day, he would still be alive.”

  A tear tracked down her cheek.

  “Oh baby.” Sawyer moved over and sat on her other side, drawing her in close. “That wasn’t your fault. It was his choice to be there. We told him he was being too hard on you, but he wouldn’t listen to us. Those caves weren’t safe and he had no business endangering you like that. There is no way his death was your fault and I don’t want to hear you blaming yourself again.”

  “Do you really think our lives would be better without you?” Jonty said. “You brought laughter back into our house. We love you, Shelby. There is no way we would ever be without you.”

  “And it’s Jack’s fault that he couldn’t see past his prejudices and accept you for who you are,” Owen added, coming to crouch in front of her. “Not yours.” He took her hands in his, squeezing gently.

  “I love you guys.”

  They hugged her, telling her how much they loved her.

  “So this is why you didn’t tell us about your plans to go after Senator Garrison?” Sawyer asked. “What were you thinking, Shelby? You know we would have helped you however we could.”

  “I know,” she said, feeling guilty for keeping them in the dark. “But you would have tried to stop me and you know it.”

  Owen snorted. “Damn straight. Do you know how dangerous it is to spy on a senator? Anything could have happened to you. At the very least you should have told us after that first time you were caught.”

  Connor cleared his throat and they all looked at him.

  “Maybe this is the time to start at the beginning,” he said. “Shelby, you want to tell us why you think Sam killed your mom?”

  She took in a deep breath, trying to calm her racing heart.

  “I know Sam Garrison killed my mother, I don’t just think it.” She glanced around at her cousins.

  “Tell them all of it,” Sawyer said. “If they’re being honest about their feelings for you then you can’t keep things from them. If they’re lying, if they betray you, then they’re dead men.”

  All three of her cousins glared at Cade and Connor, even even-tempered Jonty. Connor just raised an eyebrow while Cade stared back at them, looking offended.

  “We’re not lying,” Cade said. “It is our right to protect her and to do that we need to know everything.”

  Shelby glared at Connor and Cade. She wished they’d stop going on about her being their mate. She didn’t have time to think about that right now. She particularly didn’t want to think about how right it sounded every time they called her that.

  Their mate.

  Shelby never expected to have one mate, let alone two. She was a half-breed. They deserved better than her.

  “Shelby?”

  She looked up into Connor’s concerned gaze. “What’s wrong?”

  “Nothing. I’m fine. Just deciding where to start.”

  “Start at the beginning,” Cade said matter-of-factly.

  “Right, why didn’t I think of that?” she said, with some amusement. “The beginning, well, my mother’s name was Annabeth Miller.”

  Connor’s gaze widened and he looked over at Cade.

  “What?” she asked.

  “Nothing,” Connor replied. “Continue.”

  She stared at them suspiciously but decided to keep going. “Anyway, when my mother was in her early twenties, she met Sam Garrison. He was a real charmer—he made her fall in love with him, even though she realized how impossible their relationship was. There was no way they could ever be together, but my mom had blinders on, she was in love and that was all that mattered.”

  She knew she sounded bitter, but couldn’t help herself.

  “They’d been meeting up at the cabin he’d had built for them because he was too ashamed of her to meet her out in the open. Then some asshole convinced her that she wasn’t good enough for Garrison, that she was holding him back. It tore my mom up and she decided to end things with him.”

  “Who convinced her of that?” Connor asked.

  Shelby shook her head tiredly. “I don’t know. Someone close to Garrison, I guess. My mom never wrote his name down. She was devastated, but she didn’t want to do anything to hurt Garrison. She was in love with him, after all. So she stayed away, even though it half killed her.”

  “How old were you? You must have just been a baby.” Connor said.

  She snorted. “Oh you could say that. Four days later mom found out that she was pregnant with me.”

  “Wait, are you saying that Sam Garrison is your father?” Connor asked incredulously.

  “My mom wasn’t sleeping around,” she said heatedly.

  “How could we not have seen the resemblance?” Cade said, moving forward to stand by Connor. “She’s got his coloring, his eye color.”

  “We weren’t looking,” Connor replied.

  She scowled at them both, not really liking being compared to Garrison.

  “Sam doesn’t know. She never told him,” Cade said with a scowl.

  “She never got a chance,” Shelby told him fiercely. “She was alone, pregnant and with no idea what she was going to do. She knew Jack wouldn’t accept me, so Uncle Colin arranged for her to go and live with some cousins. She stayed there for two years, but she missed her family and she missed him,” Shelby spat out with disgust.

  “How do you know all this? You were a baby.” Connor leaned forward in his seat. Her cousins were all sprawled on chairs around her, remaining quiet, letting her talk.

  “My mom kept a diary. My uncle ga
ve it to me a month before he died. He wanted me to be ready. He trained me to take care of Garrison. It was my job to make him pay for what he did.”

  Sawyer sucked in a breath, looking shocked as he turned to her. “Is that what Dad told you? That he was training you to become some sort of killer?”

  She glanced around at her cousins, taking in their surprised expressions. “He told me that I had to be prepared for anything, that he was tougher on me than you guys because I had a job to fulfill. When he gave me the diary, it was like he knew he wasn’t going to be here much longer. He told me it was up to me to avenge my mother, to make sure that Garrison paid.”

  “Fucking hell,” Owen swore. “He had no right to say any of that. He had no right to put that pressure on you.”

  “He loved Mom, he just wanted to make sure that Garrison didn’t go free.”

  “So he should have taken care of it himself,” Sawyer said. “He was wrong to put that on you, Shelby.”

  She shook her head. “You know Uncle Colin would never leave pack grounds. He couldn’t go after Garrison once he’d moved to Washington. Uncle Colin was a good man and I didn’t tell you this to make you upset with him. He took me in when many wouldn’t have. It would have been easier to just make me someone else’s problem and go on with his life. But he loved Mom and he took care of me. I’m grateful for everything he did for me.”

  Jonty hugged her close. “He’s the one who should have been grateful for you. We would never have forgiven him if he’d rejected you. You’re family, Shelby.”

  She smiled at him, hugging him back.

  “So all the information you have comes from this diary?” Cade asked, drawing her back to what they’d been talking about.

  “And what Uncle Colin told me. When my mom returned with me, she was determined to see Garrison, to tell him about me. She sent him a letter, asking him to meet with her. He sent her a note back, telling her to meet him at the cabin. When she didn’t come home or contact him, my uncle went looking for her. He knew she wouldn’t leave me for that long. He found her dead in the forest, murdered. He swore that he could smell Garrison.”

  Connor sucked in his breath and looked up at Cade.

  “Someone has to avenge my mother. He killed her, murdered her when all she ever did was love him. A few weeks later, he closed up his house here and moved to Washington. He’s not going to let me live once he knows about me. I know what he did and I could ruin him. My life is over if you tell him.”

  “No one is going to harm you,” Owen growled, glaring at Cade and Connor.

  “I think we need to see this diary,” Connor said. “Sam has told us a little bit about your mother, but his story differs greatly from yours.”

  She snorted. “He’s hardly going to tell you the truth, is he?”

  “Trouble is, we didn’t detect a lie and Cade is very good at telling truth from lies.”

  “He’s a politician—he’s well adept at telling lies and making them seem like the truth.”

  Connor sighed, looking tired. “Maybe. I don’t know. What I do know is that we need to see that diary and then we need to talk to Sam.”

  She swallowed heavily. “You’ll tell him about me.”

  Cade stared at her sternly. “You are going to trust us in this. We will not allow anyone to harm you, no matter who they are, understand me? If Sam did this, if he killed your mother, then we will take care of matters. As your mates it is our right to ensure your safety.”

  “But you’re not my mates.”

  “Not yet,” he said with promise deep in his voice.

  Chapter Nine

  Cade set aside the diary and sat back. Connor paced back and forth through the living room. They could hear Shelby in the kitchen, talking with one of her cousins.

  “What do you think?” Connor asked him.

  “I think that I have a number of unanswered questions and the only people who can answer them are Annabeth and her murderer.”

  “You think Sam is capable of this? Of murder?”

  Cade tapped his fingers against the arm of the chair. “You know that anyone is capable of murder in the right circumstances. Do I believe he did this? I don’t know. But we do need to talk to him.”

  Connor nodded. “I don’t want to leave Shelby here, but we can’t take her with us.”

  “We need to bind her to us,” Cade said.

  “She doesn’t trust us fully.”

  “She will once she’s our mate,” he said with conviction. “We need to do it soon, before we both go insane.”

  Connor nodded.

  They both looked up as soft footfalls approached and Shelby appeared.

  “Well?” she said, unable to hide her nervousness. “What do you think?”

  “I think that we’ve got a lot of questions we need to get some answers to,” Cade told her.

  “You’re going to go talk to him. You’re going to tell him about me.”

  Fuck, he hated how terrified she was. Didn’t she know they would protect her with every breath in their bodies?

  Well, she’d be under no illusions once they’d claimed her properly.

  Connor drew her close, holding her against his body. Cade moved up behind her. He drew her hair to one side, exposing her neck. Leaning in, he kissed the soft skin of her neck. Gradually, she relaxed in their embrace.

  “Is there someplace we can go that’s private?” Connor asked her.

  “Umm, the barn? My cousins should be going into work in a few hours, although I wouldn’t be surprised if one of them stays behind.”

  Cade knew that they couldn’t blame her cousins for not trusting them with her. But nothing would come between him and his mate, not even her family.

  “Meet us in the barn in ten,” Cade told her. “Don’t keep us waiting.”

  *

  Connor paced up and down the floor of the barn. Cade sat, watching him.

  “You’re giving me a crick in my neck.”

  “So don’t watch me,” Connor snapped back. “She’s late.”

  “She’ll come,” Cade said confidently.

  Before Connor could reply, Shelby stepped inside. She stopped and just stared at them for a long moment.

  “You wanted to talk in private?”

  Connor’s nerves disappeared as soon as he saw her. He crooked a finger at her.

  She glared back at him, then mimicked his gesture.

  Connor shrugged with a grin and stepped forward. “If you insist.”

  A look of alarm crossed her face as he strode toward her and he noticed that she swallowed heavily. He cupped her shoulders, dragging her toward him.

  “I thought you wanted to talk,” she said.

  “First, I need to kiss you.”

  Leaning in, he took her mouth with his. The tight knot in his stomach that had formed when they’d realized she was gone finally started to unravel. He ran his hands over her back then down to her ass, cupping it.

  Lifting her, he brought her up until she wrapped her legs around his waist. Her hot pussy was pressed against his stomach. He turned so her back was resting against a wall.

  “Damn, you taste good,” he told her, before nibbling his way along her jaw and down her neck.

  She whimpered. “I came here to talk.”

  “We’ll talk,” he promised her. “Right after we teach you not to run from us ever again.”

  Cade stepped up beside him. “Damn straight.”

  “Damn, I cannot wait to fuck that sexy ass,” Connor said.

  Her eyes widened and he would have worried that they’d scared her if the smell of her arousal hadn’t grown stronger.

  “You were holding me as your prisoner. I can’t believe that you’re upset I escaped. I don’t deserve any punishment.”

  “Maybe not, but you’re still getting disciplined,” Connor told her with a wolfish grin as he turned and headed to the ladder leading to the loft area of the barn. They’d prepared it for what they needed, stealing a couple of blankets and so
me cooking oil from the house.

  Cade went up the ladder before them.

  Connor placed her on her feet and turned her to face the ladder. He gave her hair a tug to get her moving. “Asshole,” she muttered.

  She hardly ever swore now, not like she had when they’d first captured her, meaning she was coming to trust them even though she might protest otherwise.

  “Why are we going up here?”

  “Because we don’t want your cousins interrupting us,” Connor replied.

  “They’ll come looking for me soon.”

  “Maybe. But you’re eating into it with every moment you procrastinate, so I suggest you get your cute little ass up that ladder and take what’s coming to you.”

  She sighed but made her way up the ladder. When she got to the top, she came to a stop.

  “Go ahead and make yourselves at home,” she said dryly. “What part of ‘talk’ did you not understand?”

  Connor stepped up behind her, cupping her hips as he pressed his erection against her. “We’ll talk after.”

  “Do you believe me? About my mother’s murder?” she asked in a small voice.

  “I believe that’s the truth as you know it,” he said carefully. “I also think there may be more to it than we know.”

  “So you believe him? You’ll side with him?”

  “We are always going to be on your side,” he told her as Cade walked toward them. He’d stripped his shirt off. The loft area was mainly used for storage but they’d placed a couple of blankets on the floor to make a cozier area.

  Cade reached for the bottom of her T-shirt, tugging it up and over her head. “Whoever killed your mother will die, we promise you that,” Cade told her, cupping her cheeks. “We won’t rest until the truth comes out. But right now, it’s time for your punishment.”

  Shelby’s breath caught in her throat. She knew she should protest how high-handed they were being. She should have just hidden in her room, or stuck close to one of her cousins, but that wasn’t what she wanted.

  She wanted to be here with them. Since leaving them, she’d had to fight the urge to return to them, her every instinct had screamed that she belonged with them.

  Even if she knew she didn’t deserve them.

  Cade undid the front clasp on her bra, pulling it off. Leaning down, he took one nipple into his mouth, sucking strongly.