by Avery Gale
The large wooden deck at the back of the house was bathed in the first rays of moonlight and the depth of the shadows gave the entire area an almost eerie appearance. They usually ran much later at night because there was less chance of running into their neighbors, but tonight they were going to be staying close enough to home it wouldn’t matter. Just as they stepped outside, Jameson looked at Trev and shook his head. “Did you see the candles in our room light on their own when she came? It was the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen.”
Trev laughed, “I did and I’m glad those candles were there, hell who knows what might have spontaneously burst into flames if they hadn’t been nearby. God, she is amazing.” Because they had recently hosted several events for charity, there had been so many people in and out of their compound, so neither of them noticed the man standing in the shadows of the nearby trees listening to their every word. Shifters enhanced senses weren’t without their limits and it was easy for Damian to mask his scent. Dark magic had always blurred the lines between what nature had intended and what evil craved. He had been battling for years to break through the seal the three witches had placed over the portal and the fact he’d only been able to kill one of them and had failed to kill her sons still shamed him.
Jameson stepped out of his gym shorts and tossed them aside. “Let’s get changed and run. I want to get back to Kit. The hair is standing up on the back of my neck and I don’t want to leave her unattended for long.” His words were immediately followed by the popping of joints and the snapping of bones as they lengthened and adjusted to the men’s changing forms. As their eyesight sharpened, both wolves looked around and nodded as their telepathic link took over. ‘Let’s run the short circle through the woods to the creek and back. I want to be back quickly so remember, this isn’t a scenic tour.’
‘Yeah, I got it. Let’s do this. I’m already anxious to smell our sweet woman again.’ Trev had no more than let the words race through his mind than he and Jameson were both racing through the woods. They both stopped short at the edge of the trees when they scented what smelled an awful lot like the stuff local deer hunters used to mask their scent from their prey. Jameson immediately sent out a telepathic alarm to every member of the pack. He and Trev were both following the fast fading trail through the woods and the further they went away from the house the more uneasy Jameson became.
‘Who on earth would think they could mask their scent with this crap and hide from a pack of wolves? Even if we can’t identify the person directly, we’d damned well know someone was trying to conceal themselves from us.’ Jameson was baffled about who would brazenly breach the perimeter of their property. Hell, they hadn’t had a security challenge in several years because they made no secret of the fact their security system was state of the art. The electronic motion detectors alone usually let them know the minute anything moved through the invisible beams and their security team’s response time was always less than a minute.
‘Fuck, do you suppose he’s a decoy? Did you hear from the guys outside our room when you sent out the alarm?’ As soon as Trev’s words registered in Jameson’s mind, he knew his brother was right. They’d been deliberately drawn away from the house and it infuriated him that he’d fallen for the ruse. He immediately veered to the left and headed in a straight line back to the house with Trev fast on his heels.
‘I’m not getting any response from them. I’ve sent Tristen and Nick up to check, and if I know Angie, she’s with them.’ Jameson was already changing as he leapt over the shrubs surrounding the large deck that ran the length of the huge main house. The original structure had been enormous, but not large enough for their rapidly expanding pack, so Jameson and Trev had added on two large wings that were each three stories tall. Their estate was home to nearly sixty people at times and even though many of those were children, they still needed rooms to sleep and play. Grabbing his gym shorts on the run and slipping them on, Jameson was a step ahead of Trev as they entered the back door. As they both ran through the door a woman’s blood chilling scream filled the air.
Kit had been leisurely drifting in that blissful place between sleeping and fully awake when she looked up and saw a man standing just outside the window. Well, standing wasn’t exactly accurate, because technically he was floating, but who was she to split hairs? She wasn’t sure which thing had startled her most…the fact his feet weren’t actually touching anything, his red glowing eyes, or the fact he was trying to speak into her mind. She knew her scream had probably been loud enough to wake the dead but she didn’t care. All that mattered was getting the thing outside the window away from her. And then she was having a serious heart-to-heart with her mother and grandmother. It was time they answered her questions directly without their usual smoke and mirrors evasions. Kit had asked all these questions before and had gotten answers that were little more than riddles, so she’d walked away in frustration and not ever asked again. Deciding it was easier to just avoid the issues she knew mating would bring, she’d taken what she had thought was the path of least resistance and simply decided to not ever mate. Now, it appeared as though she was up against the wall and she simply no longer had any desire to participate in their usual dance of deception.
When her mind finally re-engaged, she realized there were people banging on the bedroom door. Why is it locked? She hadn’t locked it and she couldn’t imagine Jameson and Trev locking her in either. She knew whoever was on the other side was a split second from bursting through the door because she could hear the key sliding into the lock. Time seemed to slow to a crawl and everything seemed to be happening at the exact same moment. She saw the man outside her window looking at the door with a wand in his raised hand and she instinctively knew he was planning to hurt her mates. My mates? When did I start thinking about them as mine? With a flick of her wrist she sent a ball of fire crashing through the window’s large pane of glass. She heard the man scream and then he simply evaporated. Well shit, I didn’t mean to do that. I just wanted to frighten him away. My mother has a lot of explaining to do, I tell you.
She had no more than taken a deep breath than the door burst open and Jameson and Trevlon surrounded her. She hadn’t even realized she had moved from the bed or that she was naked until she heard Jameson’s growl and felt Trev wrap her in a blanket. When she looked up into their ferocious eyes, she wasn’t afraid because their anger wasn’t directed at her. All she felt was a wave of gratitude that she could now let go and relax into their arms, accepting the protection they offered, even if it was only for a few minutes.
She could see Jameson’s mouth moving, but she couldn’t seem to make out his words. It was as if he was speaking to her through water. Everything sounded so garbled and distant, and someone must have been dimming the lights because all of the sudden things were getting harder to see…and then everything simply went black.
Chapter Seventeen
Jameson had been terrified as he’d raced up the stairs and seen several men, including Tristan and Nick, trying to get through the door to the master suite. He had no idea how the door had gotten locked—no one ever locked their doors because the cleaning crews worked such odd hours. But he knew there was a key hidden above the door frame, which he quickly retrieved. Glancing over he saw Angie working to revive the men he’d asked to guard the door. Jameson sighed in relief when he saw them both slowly opening their eyes. But his heart had nearly stopped when he heard the sound of glass shattering inside the room just as he’d slid the key in the lock and turned the ornate door knob. Racing across the room to where Kit stood naked in front of the now empty window frame, he was torn between gut wrenching relief that she was unharmed and blinding jealousy that Tristan and Nick were right behind them and would have seen their mate’s naked body.
After Trev had wrapped Kit in a blanket she had looked at each of them, locking gazes just before her eyes seemed to roll back and then she collapsed. When Jameson had looked up, he didn’t think the other men had even noticed Kit’s
lack of clothing because both men were staring at the bulletproof glass that had obviously been broken from the inside. How an unarmed, naked woman had managed to break glass designed to withstand machine gun fire was a mystery to him. But at this moment, he really wasn’t all that interested in anything but securing Kit and making sure the rest of their pack was safe.
Trev held Kit cradled in his arms and quickly made his way over to the sitting area and settled on the large leather sofa facing the fireplace. Kit’s parents and grandmother entered the room and while her father and grandmother rushed to Kit’s side, her mother made her way to the window and looking outside let out a frustrated sigh, “Well, I don’t know why she had to go so far overboard. We might have been able to ask whoever that used to be who’d sent him here.” And then the inconsiderate wench had the audacity to look over at both he and his brother before adding, “Really, you two need to fuck her into submission and mate her so we can get this show on the road. I’m not getting any younger you know? And I’d like to be a grandmother before I’m too old to enjoy it. Besides, this fight is going to be a tough one, and I’m going to need her help. Mother Goddess it’s cold in here.”
Jameson and Trev watched as Carla Harris flipped her hand toward the large gaping hole in the wall of the master suite and instantly glass filled the window. What the hell did she mean by whoever that used to be? Jameson hadn’t intentionally sent the thought to Trev, but he wasn’t surprised when his brother picked it up.
‘No fucking clue, but she grates on my nerves. Hasn’t anyone ever told her the whole world doesn’t revolve around her?’ As usual, he and Trev were on exactly the same page.
“Mrs. Harris, while I appreciate you replacing the window, we’d like to attend to Kit. If you don’t mind, we’d like everyone but Angie and her mates to clear the room.” He saw a glimmer of a smile tip the lips of both Carla’s husband and her mother before they both leaned down to kiss Kit’s forehead, before moving from the room. But Carla looked at both he and Trev as if they’d just sprouted purple hair before shaking her head and then making her way out of the room.
Once everyone had moved on, Angie moved over to Kit and set her medical bag on the floor at Trev’s feet. She was their cousin and at five foot seven, she was one of the tallest women in their pack. He and Trev had always been close to Angie and had teased her about being a stick figure when they had been kids. Now her willowy frame just seemed to add a sense of grace and elegance to her movements. She kept her long blonde hair tied at the base of her neck most of the time, but it was her huge chocolate brown eyes that seemed to stop everyone who met her in their tracks. Her eyes were absolutely gorgeous and they always lit up when she was plotting and scheming—which was a large portion of the time.
Angie used smelling salts to bring Kit back around. “She’ll be fine, guys, don’t look so worried. From what I heard from her grandmother it sounds like she used a very powerful surge of magic and she is just exhausted, but I want to be sure. I want to make sure she is alert enough to answer a few of your questions and then I want you to let her sleep it off. I’m going to wait until her parents are back in their rooms and then I’ll check in with the grandmother, because I think she’s going to be much more willing to give me answers. And you know, as a medical professional I need those answers to properly treat my patient.” Angie’s smile was wicked, and not for the first time Jameson thanked his lucky stars his sweet cousin was on their side.
Tristan was standing off in the corner talking in clipped tones into his phone, but Nick Michaels was standing guard over their sweet wife—well she was sweet most of the time. Nick was Tristan’s younger brother but few people realized that because they were born ten months to the day apart and Nick had always looked harsher in Jameson’s opinion. Nick shared Tristan’s coloring and body build, but his sense of humor set him apart. Nick Michaels was always the life of the party despite his rugged appearance.
Jameson had laughed when his friends had mated with his younger cousin because he’d known she had a rebellious streak a mile wide. The brothers had claimed they would tame her, but as one of the lead pediatric surgeons at the Babies Children's Hospital, which was associated with her alma mater, Columbia, Jameson and Trev had often wondered if their friends hadn’t bitten off more than they could chew—literally.
Angie had graduated from high school when she was twelve and then completed medical school at twenty-two. To say she was brilliant was an understatement, but you would be hard pressed to notice unless you really listened to how insightful she was. Jameson had always felt one of Angie’s greatest gifts was her ability to communicate with anyone on their own level. When their friends had started pursuing her, Angie had come to both he and Trev seeking information about their friends. The woman was a tireless researcher and she had been approaching a potential mating with the same tenacity she brought to everything else in her life. Her thirst for knowledge was matched only by her wicked sense of humor and her ferocious sense of loyalty.
Jameson sat on the sofa next to Trev, pulled Kit’s legs across his lap, and gently rubbed her tiny feet more for his own comfort than for hers. He couldn’t help smiling when she moaned as she came slowly awake. He listened to his brother speaking softly to their tiny mate. “Baby, can you tell us what happened?”
Jameson watched as Tristan hurriedly ended his call and made his way over so he could hear Kit’s answer. “Can I please get dressed first? I’ll feel better if I’m not…well, if I’m dressed with your friends in the room.” Jameson was actually quite pleased with her request because as the mate of the pack’s Alphas there would be expectations for her that most of the women didn’t have to live up to. A certain level of decorum would be a big part of those standards.
Trev picked Kit up and moved toward the suite’s bathroom, “Absolutely, baby. Jameson will bring you some clothes and then we’ll all meet in the office downstairs in a bit. I’d rather we kept business out of our bedroom anyway, how’s that sound?” Sounded perfect to Jameson, and as soon as he’d gotten Angie and her two mates out of the room, he’d found a pair of yoga pants and shirt for Kit and quickly made his way into the bathroom.
Trev wasn’t sure who had been more soothed when he’d held Kit on his lap, his sweet mate or himself. Holding her in his arms and being able to feel her breathing and her heart beating reassured him that she was indeed alright. When he and Jameson had been running and realized they’d been duped his heart had squeezed in fear. They hadn’t had Kit in their life long at all and already he couldn’t imagine being without her. There was nothing in the world that was going to keep him from claiming Kit, but he wanted not only her consent, but he also wanted her to be happy with her decision.
When he’d heard her mother’s crude words, he’d been torn between a burning desire to do exactly as she’d said and claim Kit at that very moment and wanting to ban the woman from Kit’s life. Holy Mother Goddess, Carla Harris was a pain in the ass extraordinaire. Kit’s friend, Libby, had told them that Kit didn’t talk about her family much, but it was obvious she tried to ignore the entire situation as much as possible because of her mother’s repeated attempts to marry her off.
Helping Kit dress in the clothing Jameson had brought her was torture because he just wanted to touch and taste every inch of her rather then cover her up. But he understood how much easier their conversation would be if she had the self-confidence and distance that clothing would give her. He’d felt how pleased Jameson had been when she’d wanted to be dressed with the other men in the room and Trev had wanted to hug her. He’d been none too pleased when they’d all entered the room to find her naked but he also knew her safety had to take precedence over his need to shield her from their view. Pulling her into his embrace after she was dressed, he just held her against him for several seconds before turning her into Jameson’s arms.
Trev felt a deep sense of satisfaction as he watched his brother kiss the top of Kit’s head and then just hold her tightly against his che
st and breathe her in. Their enhanced sense of smell meant there wasn’t a single nuance that would go unnoticed. The scent coming from Kit wasn’t arousal, it was pure contentment and that was certainly a step in the right direction.
Jameson’s words echoed his own, “I can’t tell you how good you feel in my arms, kitten. I was so worried about you. I can’t even imagine my life without you in it now.” ‘She’s fucking perfect. I just want to hold her and protect her. But we need to get downstairs and find out what we’re dealing with.’
Chapter Eighteen
Kit let the Wolf brothers lead her to the top of the beautiful winding wooden staircase, which led downstairs to their spacious main floor office. When they reached the top of the stairs, she looked down and sighed because she knew her legs just wouldn’t carry her any further. Both Jameson and Trev had been touching her so they had both realized immediately when she’d stopped. She just stood for long seconds and stared down the stairs before she realized Jameson was speaking to her.
“Kitten? Are you alright?” When she raised her gaze to meet his, she saw his expression was filled with the same concern she’d heard in his voice.
She hated feeling weak and if she’d had the energy, she would have been angry that she felt as if she’d been totally drained. She felt the tears flood her eyes and all she manage to say was “I’m sorry, I just can’t do it. My legs won’t cooperate. I want to go down and give everyone the information they need, but I’m just sapped.”