by Cara Adams
After about twenty minutes they scrambled up a sandy hill and sat on the top of it. Stone looked carefully and saw no signs of scorpions, fire ants, or snakes but made sure to stomp his boots heavily on the dirt before he actually sat down.
Reuben jumped up and down on the sand on the top of the little hill before he sat down as well. Stone grinned. Anyone who hadn’t grown up in the desert would think they were crazy, but people who got bitten had often surprised a frightened desert dweller that would have been happy to run away if given the opportunity first.
Stone began by reiterating their original pact. “Both of us always equal. Both of us always there together.”
“That’s the agreement. So it looks like we’ll both be at dance class at nine tomorrow.”
“Holding Indigo and dancing with her is fine. I can live with the rest of it.” It wasn’t what Stone wanted, but it was only for a few days, and he could deal with the noise and crowds for that long if he had to. But they needed to deepen their agreement and move it along several stages further.
“Things are progressing much faster than I expected. Where do you stand with BDSM? I know your family home has a dungeon, just as ours does.”
Stone waited in silence as Reuben prepared himself to answer the question.
“Our parents took us to Las Vegas one year for a vacation. They said that we could see replicas of just about everything and everywhere in the world there, and they were right. It was certainly an eye-opening vacation. Mountains of food that would just get thrown away if no one ate it all. Movie theaters and stage shows that ran all day and all night whether the theater was jam-packed full or completely empty. People who sat in front of gaming machines until they collapsed with exhaustion. It was enough to fry my brain.”
Stone nodded. That fit with his memories of Las Vegas as well. The shiny, glittery, never-still façade, the noise and lights and excitement. But underneath it, sometimes a sense of purposeless and emptiness. He’d been glad to get home each time, to his silent beautiful desert.
“Tekoa took Gideon and me to a BDSM club. In theory we went to watch the show, but we all knew Tekoa was itching to try out the whips. In the end we split up to maintain our own privacy. I took a lesson on using the whip, flogger, and paddle properly. I mean, in one night, how much can anyone learn, but I did get a sense that it was something I’m very comfortable with.”
“We’re actually very alike. I did almost exactly the same thing, except I went back each night for lessons. I know the theory, and from watching Forest, I sure as hell learned the difference between Dom and asshole, but I’ve never had a sub. I feel sure that Indigo would be interested in exploring BDSM, although not yet. However, I see dancing and kissing in our immediately future, and it’d be good if we could parlay that into something more. Only problem is I’m sharing a tent with Hawk and Yuchi.”
“And I’m sharing with both my brothers. But Chloe seems to be getting very friendly with Forest and Ny, so maybe we could borrow her tent.”
Stone grinned. “Hell yes because I suppose Indigo will be sleeping at her home since she lives here in Towler, and I don’t aim to get shot by her father or brother.”
“Well, that’s step one, then. To move Chloe’s tent from the women-only area and set it up somewhere a fraction more private for us and Indigo.”
Stone’s smile faded. “I’m fucked if I can see step two clearly though. Tonight’s the official meet and greet, and we should certainly be able to spend time talking to Indigo then. Tomorrow morning we should be able to dance with her at least a little and at night is the whole purpose of this pack get-together, the masquerade ball. But as to how we get from dancing with her to mating her, I’m not sure.”
“We absolutely have to get her to spend time in the tent tonight. Only when we can kiss her and make love to her will she know for a fact that we’ll treat her right. I mean we can tell her, but actions speak louder than words,” said Reuben.
Stone felt happier with a plan in place. “Okay. Let’s go dazzle your sister and steal her tent from her.”
* * * *
Having basically promised Stone he could get the use of Chloe’s tent, Reuben hoped like hell he’d read the signs right and that Chloe was spending all her time with Forest and Ny. It’d certainly solve their most immediate problems if she was. Besides, she loved those men. Forest had acted like an asshole, but then Tekoa had suffered from the same disease, an overwhelming desire to protect Chloe even if it wasn’t what she wanted. The difference was that Tekoa was her oldest brother and Forest was the man Reuben was sure she loved, along with Ny.
It was good to have gone for the walk with Stone. They seemed to think alike a lot, which was invaluable. Reuben was prepared to put in plenty of effort to get along with whoever wanted Indigo and to share her with that man, but he was damn lucky he and Stone were so compatible. Maybe it was because they both came from large families. Likely that had helped them grow up in similar situations and appreciate similar things.
Now he just had to hope Chloe really was spending her nights in Forest and Ny’s tent so he and Stone could use hers.
Chloe was easy to find, sitting among a circle of chairs under a huge beach umbrella, surrounded by half a dozen other young women, including Jaz and Indigo. Reuben wasn’t sure if he should interrupt them, so he waggled his fingers at her to attract her attention. She jumped up and came over to him where he was standing a little apart from the women, not wanting to seem as if he was crowding them.
“What’s up, Reuben?”
He suddenly wondered how to ask her without sounding rude. He finally decided to avoid the whole topic. “Stone and I wondered if we could borrow your tent for the rest of the gathering, please.”
She blushed but looked him in the eye. “Sure. I won’t be needing it, but you can’t come in and take it. Men aren’t allowed in the female-only area.”
“We could wait just outside the boundary. If you drag your stuff to the boundary, we could pack it all up there,” suggested Stone.
“Okay.” She gave them a happy smile, and Reuben understood how fulfilled she was at this gathering and how much it meant to her. Of course, he’d known all along it was her idea and was important to her, but seeing her then, so bright and excited, emphasized to him that she really was invested in the whole idea of the pack coming together more often, becoming more united as a group. Damn, his little sister was a smart cookie. It was exactly what they needed.
He stepped back hastily as the entire group of women flooded past him, chattering loudly, and walked to the women-only campsite. He and Stone stood outside the boundary as the group packed up Chloe’s things into a neat pile and dismantled her tent between them in almost no time at all.
Reuben found it hard to believe how fast they’d achieved it all. He had a feeling it was going to take him and Stone a lot longer than that to get everything set up.
Ny and Forest appeared nearby to carry Chloe’s things to their tent, and Reuben looked at the ground. How had they known to come? They must have been watching Chloe from a distance. That showed how much Forest had learned. Instead of wanting to control Chloe, he’d stayed away and let her take the lead, but he was still close enough to help when she needed him. Reuben made a mental note to do that himself for Indigo. Never to steal her delight, but to be nearby so he could always come to her aid.
He and Stone carried the tent back into general area of the campground and over to one side where there was a bit of empty space around them. As he’d suspected, it took them several trips, but it didn’t take long to set the tent up. Then they collected their own things from the other tents and prepared their tent for the evening. When it was finished he stared through the doorway and made a wish that Indigo would want to spend time with them. He wanted that so much it hurt. He wanted her, his beautiful, vivacious, smart woman. His and Stone’s.
* * * *
Although the Alpha was emceeing the pack get-together, Chloe had planned a couple of ice
breaker activities to make the families mix and mingle and get to know others. Everyone gathered in the area the children used for their ball games, and Chloe divided them up according to the month in which they were born. Then each person had to complete a list of questions, which required the group to get to know each other.
Indigo thought it was a damn smart idea. Before most people even realized it, they were chattering away to people they’d never met until this weekend, keen to answer all the questions on their list. Wolves were dominant and competitive, and Chloe had tapped into their psyche perfectly with her opening game. By the time the Alpha announced the winner, the pack had completely reshuffled itself, and everyone had met someone new to them.
Indigo understood the big, noisy gathering might be a culture shock for people who lived very isolated in the desert, but they were all part of the one pack and really did receive value from meeting each other. Life could be lonely, and gaining the friendship and support of other wolves was good.
That was a lack Indigo understood very well. At school she’d made friends with plenty of other females, but she’d only ever known a very few female wolves. Meeting a larger group of them this weekend was awesome.
Later in the evening Indigo noticed Chloe appear with an iPad, and soon there was music and an impromptu session of line dancing and square dancing. Not with a caller but just in fun. Indigo was one of the first to jump up and dance. She loved dancing. It was the perfect way to let off steam and energy while being forced to concentrate to get the steps and actions correct.
Stone and Reuben had stayed near her all night, except when separated from her by the various activities, and she watched them follow her out onto the hard-packed dirt to dance. She had to confess putting her hands on their shoulders and waists was very tempting. Stone’s big black eyes watched everything she did, and she knew he was as ready to kiss her as she was to kiss him. Reuben was a fraction possessive of her. He never said anything when she danced with other people, but she could tell he was holding himself in as he watched her.
It was flattering in a way that neither of them made any attempt to dance with anyone else. They danced the line dances, standing either beside or behind her, and they danced with her, but not with any of the other women. And they were so handsome she knew plenty of the women would have been more than happy to dance with them.
As the evening got later, parents took their children to their tents to put them to bed. There was a special section of the campground for families with young children right at the back, so hopefully the noise wouldn’t be as distracting at a distance. When supper was set out on the long trestle tables by the barbecue pit, Indigo immediately went looking for the finger sandwiches again. Never had she tasted anything quite this good. She knew maybe she should have settled for some fresh fruit as a healthier alternative, or even one of the tempting grilled treats on a long stick, but the sandwiches called to her, and once she found them, she was happy.
Stone followed her across to a chair. “More sandwiches?” he teased her.
She grinned. “If you ate a couple, you wouldn’t need to ask why.”
“I did eat some before, and they’re delicious. But so is everything else.”
Indigo chewed, swallowed, and nodded. “Chloe has done an awesome job with her catering team. All the food is amazing, and we haven’t even had tomorrow’s barbecue. She ordered two hundred steaks and four hundred hot dogs, and the butcher here in Towler went to the supplier and picked them up himself.”
“I was here when the truck arrived. That butcher is now a huge fan of Chloe,” said Reuben.
“And we’re all set to be fans of him.” Indigo giggled and then bit into a second finger sandwich, savoring the burst of spices on her tongue.
Indigo was pleased to see that people were mingling, moving from group to group and cementing new friendships. The main purpose of the pack gathering was already being fulfilled. The various families were no longer strangers but were fast becoming a more cohesive group. The seniors had spent the day connecting the various families and marriages, tracing the new generation of relationships and embedding them in the pack history. Many of the older members of the pack were now returning to their accommodations for the night, but tomorrow morning they’d be back bright and early, ready to continue weaving the new generation into the fabric of the pack history.
Indigo was impressed. Everything was going so well. And something else that was going well was her own hope of a relationship. It was much, much, much too soon to know anything, but so far, she liked everything she’d seen about Stone and Reuben. They were not only delightful to look at but also seemed to be genuinely nice people. They were also content to sit and talk, and there was no way she could be in a relationship with men who weren’t prepared to share the details of their life with her. Especially if she was going to be out in the desert with very few people around her.
Indigo didn’t need constant company. She was perfectly happy alone for hours at a time. But she did need to have people to talk to at some stage in the day, and those people had to be willing to listen to her and engage her brain. Stone and Reuben did.
So far, so good.
But there was still a long way to go before she would be ready to make any decisions. There were two hundred people here, and almost two thirds of them were male. She had plenty of choices for a partner if either or both of these men turned out not to be a good mesh with her personality. Tomorrow she’d learn a whole lot more about them. And since they’d taken Chloe’s tent, maybe she’d spend the night with them tomorrow if everything went well. Hell, maybe she’d let them kiss her tonight. They certainly excited her hormones, even more than the finger sandwiches, and that was high praise indeed.
More people were leaving the area now, although there were still plenty sitting around the barbecue pit in small groups, talking to each other.
Stone and Reuben moved closer to her, and Reuben said, “I’m sure you can guess why we’ve borrowed my sister’s tent.”
Determined to make them work for her reply, and a little surprised that they mentioned it tonight instead of tomorrow, Indigo said, “Because both of you are tired of being bossed around by your brothers?”
Stone coughed. “Absolutely. That’s true. But we also thought you might like to visit with us for a little while.”
Indigo was really glad she’d driven her own car to the Alpha’s home today and not come with her brother as she’d done the previous few days. She’d thought she might need to run to the store for Chloe or back home for some craft equipment, not that she’d stay late with two men, but the reason didn’t matter. The facts were that she had her own transport and could remain here if she wanted to. Neither her father nor her brother would be looking for her.
Besides, she was ready to be kissed and to kiss. She was ready to advance the program to the next step. She liked them, and clearly they liked her. Kissing was mandatory if a romance was to happen.
“Okay. I would like that.”
* * * *
Reuben exhaled a breath he hadn’t even realized he was holding in. He’d guessed by the naughty gleam in her eyes that she was teasing them when he’d mentioned the tent, but it had still unnerved him more than he’d expected, until she’d said yes. He wanted her so much. She was bright and quick and cute, a talented woman with skills he didn’t even understand as yet, as well as kissable lips and luscious curves he wanted to hold. Dancing with her tomorrow night would be great, but he wanted to touch her skin to skin, and there was no way he could do that at the ball.
They only had two complete days left to win her heart, and time was racing past so fast he wanted to grab on to every minute with her he possibly could. If she’d said no, he would have been devastated. But yes was good. Yes he could work with. He and Stone together. That was an added relief, having Stone as well. Surely between them they could win her heart inside their time limit?
They walked quite slowly though the campground to where he and
Stone had set up their camp. Reuben’s heart was pounding frantically, and his feet wanted to move at that speed as well. He had to force his hands deep into his pockets to stop himself from wringing them or some other equally juvenile activity. He gritted his teeth together as well. He always fidgeted when he was bored or tense, and now was most definitely not the time to indulge in any of his more annoying habits.
When they reached the tent, he wasn’t sure what to do. He really wasn’t a very good Dom as yet. A real Dom would have planned out every detail of what happened next, but how did a man invite the woman he wanted into his tent without sounding sleazy?
The door flap was wide open so it wouldn’t get too hot inside, but if they were going to do anything much, they’d need to close it, even though he and Stone had managed to think far enough ahead to have the door opening facing the desert and away from the other campers. That was an advantage of choosing a position right over on the side of the campground. If they’d been more central, people would have been able to see inside no matter which way they faced.
“I like that you’re facing the desert. It’ll be awesome to watch the sunrise in the morning,” said Indigo.
“I wasn’t planning to be up quite that early, but if you want to be with us at dawn, it’d be my privilege to share the experience with you,” said Stone.
Stone sounded a little stilted to Reuben, and he wondered if it was because Stone was trying to think while he spoke or if maybe he wasn’t a dawn sort of person. Although they had both joined the Alpha’s hunting party, which had left at dawn.
Not that dawn was exactly his own favorite time of day either, but dawn with Indigo after a night of making love to her was doable. Very doable.
“Would you like to come into our tent?” he asked her.
She gave him the naughtiest smile ever and replied, “Said the spider to the fly.”