by Dizzy Hooper
He'd want the rich dirt of our homeland beneath his feet and paws—always.
"When do they come back?" I ask.
"Couple days."
"And they took her whole family with them?"
"Not everyone. But the big muscle—yeah. They went, too."
"Tommy. Tommy."
"No way, Jessie."
"Come on," I wheedle.
He knows what I'm asking for, and he's going to break. I can taste his wavering will in the air.
"I can't."
"Who's going to know? Just let me in, Tommy. Please. Just for a few hours. I want to see Nikki and Claire. Are they still here?"
Darkness colors his gaze. "Yeah."
The hairs on the back of my neck stand up on end, a nervous trill humming up my spine. There's something going on with his sisters. I'm going to find out what, too
First, I just need him to open the gate.
"Please," I try again. "I won't stay long. You won't get in trouble."
He rolls his eyes. "I'm already in trouble, just for talking to you. She's going to find out."
"Then what's a little more trouble?" I can feel him cracking.
These aren't rules he wanted to enforce in the first place. He knows I belong here. Keeping me out is cruel.
"Just let me see my mother's things." And God, it's so manipulative, but I rub the swell of my belly all the same. "My pups deserve to inherit something from her."
Tommy works his jaw, then looks to the side. He spits on the ground and mutters something beneath his breath.
"You are going to be the death of me," he swears.
But he's heading toward the keypad for the gate.
My heart soaring, I turn back toward the car. My mates fall right into step beside me.
As the gate swings open, we pile back into the Jeep. Grady puts the thing into gear, then settles his hand on my knee.
"Come on," I say, clasping my palm over his. Emotion is bursting the seams of my ribs. "There's so much I can't wait to show you."
Chapter 6
The tour begins the instant the gate swings shut behind us. I point to each of the gardens I used to tend as a child, to the outbuildings and bits of rusty old playground equipment where my cousins and I ran around when we were pups. We pass a fountain I probably jammed with all the pennies I threw into it. Then the little house where my grandparents lived, the bigger one that was home to my aunt and uncle and Tommy and his sisters.
We pass a new building I've never seen before. My voice catches in my throat.
It's…ugly. Not in keeping with the sturdy brick and wood and stone of the rest of the compound. Garish white siding reflects the sun to the point where it literally hurts my eyes. There are column and frills and…
Beer cans littering the yard?
"What the…"
Then I spy a young man with dark eyes and an even darker stare glowering at our car from the porch.
The family resemblance is impossible to ignore. One of Katarina's kin, then.
The entire story falls into place in my mind. She had my father build that house for them, and she built it to her extravagant tastes.
But then she let those mutts of hers live in it, and they've turned it into a glorified frat house. A growl builds, unbidden, in my throat.
I was the one they ran off the property, but them? They're allowed to stay? To defile the place with their stench?
My heart hurts. I press my fist to my sternum, and my low abdomen gives a twinging twist.
Closing my eyes, I fight for calm.
My pups have been squirming all afternoon. They feel the stress this is putting on my body, and it's agitating them. That's the best explanation I have for how physically off I've been feeling today.
I need to do better. I have to keep my emotions and my reactions in check.
But when the Jeep pulls off onto the little cul-de-sac in front of my childhood home, all my good intentions go out the window.
It's the same. Katarina hasn't razed the place out of spite. The sturdy stone front and the big, shady trees that stand to either side of it. The bright windows. I crane my neck, seeking out the one in the corner that used to be my room.
It's all still there.
My pulse thunders in my ears. Blood runs hot in my veins.
But then I take in the subtle details.
No, Katarina didn't knock my parents' house to the ground. But there are new curtains, a new statue of a wolf on the front lawn. Through the windows, I can see she's repainted. The forest behind the house has been cut back.
And that hurts.
We weren't allowed to run far into our family's back woods as pups, but the stand of trees close by was fair game.
We built forts there. We chased each other and nipped at each other's heels.
The waves of memory crash over me, threatening to pull me far from shore.
My mother's wolf used to shepherd me through those stands of trees. She taught me to hunt and clean myself. In human form, she explained the changes my body would go through, both as a shifter and as a woman coming into her season for the first time.
She raised me there.
My eyes mist over yet again.
And my father helped. He hid behind old hollowed out trees and pounced on me. He let me wrestle him to the ground. He taught me to fight.
He loved me. Deeply—the way only a father can.
Back before everything fell apart. Before my mother got sick.
Before my father fell pray to a woman intent on cutting his family out.
"Jess? Jess…"
I whip my head around. The fog of memory blows away from my vision like so much smoke.
Colt leans forward in the back seat, his hand outstretched toward me. Landen has already gotten out of the car. He comes around and opens my door. From the driver's seat, Grady stares grimly ahead.
I follow my alpha's gaze.
It lands on the faces of two women. Joy leaps inside of me.
My cousins, Nikki and Claire, were my closest friends when I was a pup. I played around with Tommy, too, of course, but he was a yucky boy. When I lived in the city, one of the best things about coming back to my family home was the chance to see them. We'd laugh and gossip and drink a little more wine than we should, and it was wonderful.
I pause, my skin prickling at the sound of warning building in the back of Grady's throat. I look to him, then back to my cousins.
Only then do I see what he did right away.
Shadows hang under their eyes. They're pale—haggard, even. Exhausted in a way I've never seen them before, and just like that, my joy at seeing them morphs.
Anger takes its place.
It's not that I never spared a thought for my cousins. My mind floated to them often. I knew it must be hard for them, to still be living at the compound now that Katarina's taken over. But they were strong females. They had jobs and boyfriends and lives. Surely, they'd be okay.
Clearly, I was mistaken.
Colt squeezes my shoulder. Landen echoes the protective growl that Grady started.
When I first agreed to form the mate bond with these three males, they told me the history of their pack. All their females were wiped out in a vicious, treacherous attack.
Now they hold females in the highest possible regard. We're precious to them—to be protected at all costs.
To see two women as beaten down as Nikki and Claire must be filling them with a rage to rival my own.
My heart breaking, I turn to Landen. He helps me out of the car, keeping a hand on me as I gaze across the lawn at my kin.
For a long moment, we stare at each other across the space. Grief and joy and anger all mix and roil inside me, goaded along by the pregnancy hormones that have intensified every emotion I've had for these past few months. My knees tremble.
Nikki is the first to move.
She drops the laundry basket she'd been carrying, sending clothes flying. She takes a step toward me and then another
. And then she breaks out into a run.
The smile that lights her face sets fire to the spark of happiness inside me. My own face feels like it cracks with the force of my grin. Claire moves forward, too, albeit more slowly. I waddle toward them.
"Jessie," Nikki cries as she reaches me, pulling me into a hug. "You got so fat."
"Shut up." I squeeze my eyes shut as grateful tears roll down my cheeks.
Nikki's always been the fieriest of us. She jokes and makes fun, but she loves with an intensity that takes my breath away.
Quieter, gentler Claire waits while Nikki squeezes me tight. When Nikki finally lets go, Claire opens her arms. We embrace. I frown.
She smells…hurt.
I pull away. "Claire…"
There's no obvious sign of trauma, but my protective instincts flare regardless.
"I'm fine, I swear."
"Bullshit," Nikki says.
Claire waves her off. "It doesn't matter. Jessie. Jesus, you're a sight for sore eyes."
"You have no idea."
"Come on," Tommy says, catching up with us. He glances around. "Let's go inside."
I look over my shoulder, then shiver when I spy a russet colored wolf staring at us from the trees. His eyes are the same dark shade as the man who watched us from the building we passed on our way in.
"Good idea." Grady takes my hand and leads me toward the house.
My mates all radiate tension. Colt in particular keeps a watchful eye behind us. They sense trouble just as keenly as I do.
That prickly sense of anxiety doesn't go away as we head inside, though I do relax a little once the door is closed behind us.
It's hard to really be at ease, though. Clinging to Grady, I take in the changes to the house. Dad had let the place go a bit after my mother died. The couch had gotten worn, his favorite old plaid blanket becoming a fixture in the living room, despite the fact that it didn't really go with anything.
Now both are gone. The comfortable taupe of the walls has been painted over with a stark red. Everything is covered in black and white accents, and it's all wrong.
Nikki clearly thinks so, too. She rolls her eyes and heads further into the house, past the modern new kitchen and a redone bathroom, until finally we hit the den.
At last, I breathe a sigh of relief. It's been cleaned up a bit, but this room still smells like home. The old couch from the living room has been moved into here. I make a beeline for it and sink into the comfortable cushions.
My mates move to flank me. Landen sits to my left and Colt to my right, while Grady stands, putting himself between me and anyone who might try to enter the room. I want to tell him to stand down, while at the same time, I appreciate the extra layer of safety and protection.
I look to Nikki as she drops into a recliner set up by the door. "What happened?"
She chuckles. "You're one to talk. Look at you."
Instinctively, I rest my hand atop my belly. "I guess we all have a lot of catching up to do."
At their insistence, I fill them in first. I tell them about my grief-fueled flight away from this place after my father cast me out, followed by the storm that drove me into Grady, Colt and Landen's open arms.
Landen interlaces his fingers with mine as I talk. My cheeks heat.
I leave out the details of how they satisfied the desperate, carnal urges of my season. Nikki and Claire gaze at me with knowing eyes, though. They're women in their prime. They understand.
Clearing my throat, I leave it at the fact that I'm now happily mated to all three of them and expecting pups in a couple of weeks.
"Weeks?" Claire says, brows high. "You sure you don't mean days?"
I shrug. "That's what my midwife said."
She hums, and the low thread of disquiet inside me gains in strength. "If you say so…"
Nikki chimes in, "Claire's been taking classes, so she thinks she knows everything."
"Really?"
Claire demurs. "It's nothing." She looks to Tommy, who's looming by the door. "Just working on my nursing degree."
"That's amazing."
She shrugs. "I might not get to finish it. Not a lot of money for extras these days."
"What?"
"Oh, please," Nikki says. "Like you can't see how that bitch is burning through your dad's accounts."
Well, when she puts it that way…
All the "improvements", both to the property and to the house, would have cost a pretty penny. We've always been secure here, but we've never spent much, either.
My father preferred the simple life. Minimal material goods. And now he has…
This.
I swallow roughly, my throat going tight. I look to each of my cousins in turn. "Tell me, honestly. How is he?"
The know who I mean. My father. They glance amongst each other.
Finally, Nikki confesses the truth. "Honestly? He's not good."
How can I still care? My father heartlessly cast me out. I'm furious at him. What he did was unforgivable.
But my ribs still threaten to cave at Nikki's words.
I could have predicted them. Looking around this house that was his sanctuary—our family home…
All the creature comforts that fueled my father are gone. This room is alone among the ones I've seen that still even shows a hint of his presence. I could have been convinced that he enjoyed the changes, but deep down, my skin has been crawling since the moment we walked in the door.
"Katarina," Claire says, "she wants everything her way. She has him under her sway."
Nikki scowls. "She leads him around by his dick."
I hold up my hands. "I do not need to know about my father's dick."
"But it's true," Nikki insists. "How else could she have tricked him into bonding?"
"She runs the whole place as if she owns it."
"Technically, she does," Nikki says. "I'm just waiting for her to off him so she can inherit."
My blood flashes cold. "You don't think…"
"I don't put anything past her." Nikki shakes her head. "She's crazy."
"And you guys…" I glance between them.
Jesus, they look like hell.
Claire brushes her stringy hair back from her face. "We get by. But it's not easy."
"She treats us like her servants." Fire burns in Nikki's eyes.
"Then why are you still here?"
Tommy speaks up. "Could you have left? Knowing it was like this?"
I feel his question like a physical blow. God, did I abandon my father? Just in his time of need?
Did I abandon my home?
Nikki glares at her brother. "She didn't have a choice."
"I know," Tommy says. "That's not what I meant."
"Then what did you mean?" I ask.
"I mean— If he hadn't kicked you out, could you have left him like this?"
"This is our home," Claire says quietly.
Is it just me, or is there doubt in her tone?
Well, there's none in Tommy's. He crosses his arms over his chest. "I know you left for the city and your career, and that's fine. But we like it here. It's ours."
Maria nods. "Fuck Katarina if she thinks we're going to let it be hers."
My head spins.
Part of me wants to feel guilty about my absence. But in the end, my conviction doesn't waver. I truly didn't have a choice. My father and Katarina refused to let me enter the property. They cast me out and threatened me with physical harm. Katarina's goons stood guard. They practically hauled me back to the road. I had no way to fight back.
I shudder.
Jesus. What if they had let me in? I'd been planning to ride out my season in solitude in the far reaches of the woods of my father's compounds.
But would those sinister males have allowed it?
Yet again, my heart aches with gratitude for my mates. I reach out to both sides, and Landen and Colt each take one of my hands. I was so, so, so lucky to find them.
I'm lucky to be here with them now.
My father and Katarina may have forced me out all those months ago, but I'm back. I came here to see my cousins and to reclaim some of my mother's things.
But now I wonder if I'm not here to take back a hell of a lot more than that.
What if I could save my father?
What if I could drive that awful woman and her people away?
I came back here for myself, for the legacy I wanted to leave my children. But maybe there were other reasons. I might not have acknowledged it, but the call of this land and of my kin sang loudly in my heart.
I may not have had a choice those nine odd months ago. But now I do.
I can't let myself throw this chance away.
Chapter 7
The magnitude of what I'm considering is a gong, echoing in my ears for the rest of the night.
We retreat to less intense discussions. I tell my cousins more of what I've been doing since I left, running the back end for my mates' outdoor adventure business and creating websites in my free time.
Nikki talks about her work as a teacher in the local town. Pride in her work and in her students makes her glow—almost brightly enough that I can ignore the circles under her eyes.
Claire isn't quite so animated. She had some health problems when she was young and didn't graduate when she was supposed to. She worked part time and finished her degree, but life has been a struggle for her ever since. Talking about the nursing program she's trying to complete brings her out of her shell a little, but she still has this downtrodden slump to her shoulders.
I want to press. I know Katarina has been a hard person to live with, but something else is going on.
One word from her about the males that live in that new building, and I'll go set a match to it myself.
But my attempts to draw her out are rebuffed. Whatever stories she could tell, she chooses to keep them to herself, for now.
Eventually, my stomach starts to rumble. I snacked generously in the car, but the pups in my belly always demand more.
Claire jumps up—relieved, maybe to have a distraction from the conversation. "Come on, let me heat something up for you."
"Don't go to any trouble," I insist, but let's be honest. I'll eat basically anything.