Every Which Way

by Sasha White

  Bethany drove faster on a straightaway, knowing she’d probably care later she couldn’t have sex with him, but right now she just wanted to see him, talk to him, make sure he was okay.

  Make sure they were all okay.

  It was Friday, but she’d called her four appointments for tomorrow and moved two to today, one to Monday, and arranged for another therapist to work on the other one tomorrow. She never put her personal life before her patients, and was aware the fact she’d done so meant these particular men were more than a passing fling. The ache in her heart should’ve told her, but she’d stopped listening to her heart a decade ago. However, the fact she’d moved appointments around so she could see her men was confirmation she was in way over her head.

  A note on the kitchen counter told her to make herself at home, pointed out there was wine as well as margarita ingredients in the refrigerator, along with some of her favorite foods, and gave her the wi-fi password. Mac signed it, and she realized if he hadn’t, she wouldn’t have known which of them wrote it.

  She didn’t know what their handwriting looked like, their shoe sizes, how many siblings they had, or their favorite colors. She knew none of them snored, knew their favorite foods, and knew their deepest, darkest secrets, but there was so much missing in between.

  Her men weren’t here, but Mac and Ranger’s things were in the bedroom, and her heart warmed just knowing they were close and could walk in the door at any moment. She put her suitcase next to theirs, made a margarita, and stepped onto the screened in back porch to see a hot tub under a cover. Smiling, she went in search of towels, put her e-reader in a plastic protective case, took her clothes off, then the cover off, turned the jets on, and sank into the warm water with her drink and a book.

  She’d been soaking for perhaps thirty minutes when two beautiful wolves came through a doggie door onto the porch.

  They were both charcoal and rust, and huge. She settled her drink and e-reader on the side and leaned towards the edge so she could look down at them easier.

  “Well, hello to both of you. Do you need me to get you a bowl of water or something?”

  One of the wolves took a step towards her, hunched in a little, and morphed into Ranger.

  “I think I’ll get myself a beer, do you need a refill?” he asked, but she was out of the water and into his arms as he finished his sentence.

  “God, I missed both of you. I’d hug Mac, too, if it was safe.”

  “I think it’s safe right now. We’ve had a long run and he knows who he is.”

  She let go of Ranger and took a few steps towards the wolf. His head was at an odd angle, so she sat on the edge of a chair and offered her hand. The wolf looked at Ranger, then back to her, closed his eyes, hunched in, and slowly turned into Mac the human.

  It looked painful, and took close to a minute, where Ranger had near-instantly morphed from one form to another in a handful of seconds.

  When Mac was a man, Bethany stood and walked to him slowly, and he put his arms around her, pulled her into his warm embrace, and squeezed her tight. They were all naked, but this wasn’t sexual, it was lovers who’d missed each other, and yet they were all being careful.

  The relationship was too new when they’d separated, so the reunion didn’t have them jumping straight into bed.

  “Are you okay?” she asked, her heart reaching towards Mac’s, her soul aching to be closer even though she was wrapped in the strength of his arms.

  “He’s managed to change from wolf to human twice now, both times for you,” Ranger told her. “And this time was near the full moon when his control sucks.”

  Mac kept his arms around her, but looked to Ranger and said, “My wolf likes her, and seems to understand she isn’t safe around him in physical form. Or, he doesn’t understand why, but he believes me, I guess, and he lets me take over so we can be around her.”

  “Twice,” Mac said as he looked at her, his eyes dark with a bad memory, “I was locked in an interrogation room during a debrief, and I remembered your hands on my shoulders when I nearly lost control. My wolf doesn’t deal well with enclosed spaces and he wanted to eat the man interrogating me. It was close, but you pulled me back.”

  “You’re back for good?” she asked, as they hadn’t told her anything except the cabin’s address, and the fact they could run in the woods naked here if they wanted — code to let her know they could run as wolves.

  “There’s some fine print saying I can be recalled if I have an established relationship with someone vital to the nation’s security, but otherwise, yeah, and I’d owe Aaron big time even if he hadn’t been on his honeymoon.”

  She pulled out of his arms, wrapped herself in a towel, collected her things, and went into the house. Ranger chuckled as they followed her in. “What’s with the towel?”

  “It’s chilly in here, and I’m wet. Mac kept me warm while I was in his arms, but I want another drink.”

  Bethany donned jeans and a t-shirt, and the men put jeans on but stayed shirtless, and they all worked together to make homemade pizza. She watched in amazement as Ranger worked and spun the dough. He talked her through trying it and she didn’t do too badly, but he took over and finished it off with the four circles on four pans.

  They were cutting the toppings and arranging them when Jonathan arrived, and she met him on the front porch, flying into his arms with the knowledge he’d catch her.

  He caught and lifted her, and she wrapped her arms and legs around him, put her head on his shoulders, and was happy to finally have all of her men in the same place again.

  Jonathan buried his face in her neck and breathed deep before saying, “I missed you too, Raggedy. You smell like pizza, and I’m thinking someone should come up with pizza cologne, ‘cause I’m suddenly hard as a rock.”

  “Talk first, preferably while we eat, then the fucking!” Ranger shouted from the kitchen.

  Bethany laughed and muttered, “Damned supernatural hearing,” and then used a normal voice to ask, “How was your trip?”

  “Uneventful, thank goodness.” He walked inside with her still glued to his front, and she got down as they reached the kitchen. She got him a beer as he did the one-armed man-hug thing with both Ranger and Mac, and then she went back to helping create the pizzas.

  “So who did you almost have sex with, Raggedy?”

  Her head jerked to Jonathan and her face flamed hot. “I didn’t almost have sex with him! I was eating lunch alone and he asked if he could join me. He’s an ex-patient, and he asked me to dinner. I wasn’t going to have sex with him, just wondering if dinner would be okay.”

  She looked at Ranger accusingly, wondering why he’d told everyone, but Jonathan said, “We all knew when you were considering it. Mac and Ranger were together, and Mac texted me to let me know Ranger was calling you, so we wouldn’t both call at the same time. His text came through as I was about to hit send on my phone.”

  She shook her head and looked down, embarrassed. “I wasn’t planning to have sex, just considering whether to accept his offer for dinner.”

  “Yeah, so you said. Who is he?” His voice wasn’t angry, but Bethany could tell he wasn’t happy, and had a feeling the cat wanted answers as much as the man.

  They’d smell a lie, but she had no reason to be dishonest. “He’s a UTC football player, way too young for me, and our entire conversation was about him, but I’m not used to going home alone every evening. I did things with Gen several nights, but I don’t want to intrude on her and Duke too much.”

  “And I’m assuming you turned the football player down?”

  She smiled. “He could tell how much I cared about whoever called, and told me I should’ve told him I was seeing someone. He said he hoped the guy knew how lucky he was, and that was pretty much it. I went back to work ten minutes later and haven’t heard from him or seen him since, and don’t figure I will unless he gets another injury.”

  No one said anything, and she asked, “Are ya’ll mad? How bad
did I fuck up?” When no one said anything, she took a breath, turned her back to them, and admitted, “Everything was upside down with all of you gone. Nothing went right, nothing worked. I’ve been fine on my own all of my adult life, until this past week.”

  Mac stepped to her and pulled her into his embrace, turning her so she faced him as he cocooned her in the safety of his arms.

  Jonathan took one step towards them and froze as he said, “Not threatening you, Mac, just making sure Bethany is safe.”

  Mac took a breath, let it out, and said, “She’s safe.”

  “Doesn’t look like it to me, can you step away from her, please?”

  “No,” Bethany said, looking at Jonathan. “His wolf likes me, and is backing away so Mac can be around me. Don’t threaten him and we’ll be fine. You weren’t here earlier, but Mac came to the cabin as a wolf and turned to human on purpose. It took a lot longer than Ranger, but he did it. He said his wolf likes me and wants me safe, and he’s backing off so human Mac can hold me and be near me.” She looked at Mac, snuggled back into his warm arms, and asked, “What were you going to say?”

  “The relationship’s new, and we had to leave kind of fast. I believe you when you say you were only contemplating dinner, but how would you’ve felt if you got a hit because one of us was contemplating having dinner with a college cheerleader, or a Broadway dancer?”

  She tried to pull out of his arms, but he held tight. She looked down, ashamed, but then decided she wasn’t a coward, so she met his gaze and said, “It would hurt my feelings, and I’d wonder how serious you were.”

  He tilted his head and lifted his eyebrows, and she said, “Yeah, okay. I fucked up, and I’m sorry.”

  Mac was still holding her, still accepting her, so she leaned into him, put her cheek against his chest, and added, “I really like all three of you, and not just because of the sex, though I have to admit it’s pretty out-of-this-world.” She shook her head and let Mac hold her a few more seconds before stepping away.

  “I don’t do relationships, and I’m not really sure what I’m doing here, and I might screw up a few times before I get it right, but I’m willing to give this a shot.” She looked at Jonathan. “I don’t like being so far from work, but I know you’re closer to Sophia when you’re home, since she lives on Lookout Mountain, too, so I’m not really sure how to resolve where we spend the majority of our time. I have plenty of extra bedrooms and closet space, but…” She trailed off, suddenly unsure of what she was suggesting.

  “Are you inviting us to move in with you?” Ranger asked.

  “I don’t really know what I’m saying, except I missed ya’ll while you were gone. It’s too soon for you to move in, but maybe you can move some clothes and toiletries in? I have furniture and a kitchen table.”

  “And a kick-ass bathroom,” Jonathan added as he stepped to her, pulled her hair from the ponytail holder, ran his fingers through her tresses, and kissed her forehead. “How about we all move some stuff to your house and try it a few weeks. If it works, then a month from now I’ll see if some of my team wants to rent my house, as that’ll put them closer to Sophia. I’ll keep a room for the times I only have a few hours to rest.”

  “And we’ll all chip in on your mortgage and utilities,” Ranger told Bethany.

  Bethany shook her head. “Mac won’t be working for a while, I can’t ask him to.”

  “I’m good, Cupcake,” Mac said as he layered sausage over beef on his pizza. “I have enough saved I could take a three year vacation if I wanted, though I wouldn’t know what to do with myself. I’ll pay my way.”

  Ranger put one of the pizzas in the oven, pulled her into his arms, and said, “I love that he could tell you cared about me, just by watching and hearing you talk to me. You know we can smell truth and a lie, and while our feelings are a little bruised, we know you’re scared shitless about your feelings for us, but we also know the emotions are real.” He kissed her nose and added, “Mac and I will go on a nighttime run tonight, and no matter how good he’s doing around you now, I don’t think the three of us should try to share you this evening. It won’t take much to set his wolf off, and after the way he reacted to Jonathan, I don’t want to risk it so close to the full moon. If you want some time with him, you should do it now, while we’re waiting for the pizza to cook and then cool. Just the two of you, while it’s still daylight, before the moon rises.”

  She hadn’t expected to be able to be near him, and her heart somersaulted into her throat as Ranger’s words sank in. She looked at Mac, worried it might be awkward, but he gave her the perfect bad-boy rogue smile and she went back into his arms, easy as pie.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Three months later

  Bethany pulled into her driveway to see heavy equipment in her yard, and rolled her eyes. The house came with a perfectly good two car garage, but her harem had decided to build a four car garage onto the back. Thank goodness she had a huge back yard.

  Bonus, though, was the sunroom and workout room they were also adding, as well as another deck with a kickass six person hot tub.

  She’d moved her schedule around and now worked slightly longer hours Wednesday through Saturday, as this allowed the most time with all of her guys.

  Mac’s control was good enough he occasionally worked for Drake security, and he could sleep with them except the five or six nights a month around the full moon. The foursome now had a bed with a king and queen mattress side by side, strapped together with a big fluffy cushion on top so no one felt the ridge between the mattresses. Ranger made a bed, and it totally kicked ass. Their sheets had to be custom made now, though.

  There had been problems, but nothing they couldn’t solve with a lot of communication. Bethany had received a few pointers from Cassie about how to survive in a testosterone filled house, though their situations were different since Cassie’s three guys were bisexual.

  None of Bethany’s harem were homophobic, so they didn’t freak if there was inconsequential touching, but they never pleasured each other. She was solely responsible for keeping all three happy. As a self-professed sex addict, ninety-nine percent of the time she had no complaints, and the other one percent? The guys quickly learned when to leave her the fuck alone. They could smell her arousal or lack of it, and forcing her to safeword to get some peace on the rare occasion she needed time alone just pissed her off.

  Jonathan was gone a lot, and even when he was scheduled to be home, if Aaron was called away on an emergency in the middle of the night, Jonathan had to go to Sophia. Ranger was often called in to help Aaron with those emergencies, which left just Mac and Bethany at home. Some nights Mac and Ranger were on a job, so it was just Jonathan and Bethany together, and occasionally Mac helped Jonathan when Sophia had a personal appearance at night, which meant Bethany had some alone time with Ranger.

  Tonight and tomorrow, they would all be home, and had made it clear they weren’t on call. Tomorrow was Memorial Day, and tonight they were doing the blood-promise thing again — and Jonathan had agreed to be fully included this time.

  Tomorrow night they were invited to the Rolling Thunder Motorcycle Club’s big Memorial Day Bash, and during the day they’d be attending a huge party thrown by Aaron and Sophia Drake.

  Mac opened the front door as Bethany walked up the front steps. He was dressed in nothing but a faded pair of blue jeans, and he was pure muscle and all man. Her body reacted to him as it always did — with fire and heat. As the door closed behind her, he pressed her against the wall and angled his mouth to hers for an incredible welcome home. She didn’t fight him, didn’t ask questions, but let him overwhelm her senses with his kiss. When he finally let her up, they walked towards the rear of the house together, hand-in-hand.

  “I missed you, too,” she told him, and heard Jonathan chuff from the den.

  She looked to Mac with a question in her eyes, and he shrugged. “He’s been cat a few hours. I’m gonna go out back and work on the deck until Ranger get
s home. Why don’t you see what’s up with the feline?”

  He gave her another peck on the cheek and went out the back door, and she went to the den. Jonathan was lying on one of the huge pet cushions they kept on the floor, and his eyes watched her like prey as she stepped into the room.

  “If you’re trying to creep me out, you’re succeeding. Everything okay?”

  He looked the other way, ignoring her as he twitched the very tip of his tail, and she sat in a chair so they could see each other.

  “It took me a while to agree to this new blood bond thing tonight, so I totally get the whole cold feet thing.”

  He shook his head as if he’d just come out of the water, and just to be sure she got the message, growled. He wasn’t getting cold feet, apparently.

  Bethany looked at him a few seconds and said, “Okay, then. I’m not a mind reader. When you’re ready to talk let me know. Meanwhile, I’m going to get a shower.”

  For the longest, she had to come home and shower before Mac could be around her much, because the smell of her massage clients on her skin had bothered his wolf. He could handle it okay, now, but she still tried to shower soon after arriving home.

  She hadn’t been under the water long when Jonathan arrived in his human form, and she let him help with her hair without talking. It was a comfortable silence, and he would let her know when he was ready to talk.

  Finally, he said, “Not getting cold feet, Raggedy. If anything, I want more than we’ve agreed to, but it can happen in due time, doesn’t have to happen this year.”

  She knew he wanted to bind them all together financially and legally as much as possible, so she didn’t have to question what he meant. Instead, she asked, “Then what’s wrong?”

  “My cat isn’t happy about blood bonding with wolves, and I needed to assure him he can be himself all day with no problems.” He tilted her face up with a single finger, held eye contact a few seconds. “It has nothing to do with you or the guys, just something I needed to do for the cat. I spend some time around Sophia as a leopard, and you know my cat loves snuggling with you at night when it’s just the two of us, but he needed more today, so I gave it to him.”