Under a Raging Moon: Part Three

by Chambers, V. J.

She squeezed me. “Yes, on the programming, that was one of the big problems. But, the truth is that there are problems with monogamous relationships too. If you really care about each other, then you can make it all work. And I think being here and coming out to your father and me is a great first step.”

  Coming out? Oh geez. Like I wasn’t weird enough already, being an ostracized werewolf who’d killed six people. Now I was the kind of person who had to come out?

  My mother kissed me on the forehead. “I’m proud of you.”

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  “So,” I said to Hudson and Kale, “my mother thinks we’re polyamorists and that I brought you guys here so that we could ‘come out.’”

  “What’s a polyamorist?” said Kale. He and Hudson were both in Hudson’s room, which had a few arm chairs flanking the closet. It was a nautical-themed guest room, and there were bottles of shells on end tables and pictures of ships on the wall. The guys sat in the chairs, and I stood up in front of them.

  “Well, it’s kind of true,” said Hudson.

  “What does it mean?” said Kale.

  “It means,” I said, “that we’re all in a relationship together.”

  Kale made a face.

  “And she’s not upset about it?” said Hudson. “I think my mom will flip out when she finds out.”

  I shrugged. “Well, my mother isn’t, but my father isn’t exactly thrilled, I don’t think.”

  “When she finds out?” said Kale. “She’s not going to find out, because it isn’t even true. That’s not what’s happening. I mean, sure, you had that crazy idea when we were drugged with Benadryl, Hudson, but it was just an idea, and we weren’t in our right minds.”

  Hudson grinned at him. “Well, if you’re not cool with it, then I guess I’ll just be with Piper myself.”

  Kale’s nostrils flared. “That isn’t what I meant, and you know it.”

  My heart leapt. “Wait a second. Don’t you hate me, Kale?”

  “Yes,” he said.

  “Not enough to give her up, though,” said Hudson.

  “That doesn’t mean I want into some relationship with both of you,” said Kale. “I’m still pissed off about all of this.”

  “It doesn’t matter,” I said. “It doesn’t have to be true, but it does give us a convenient story for why we’ve come to visit my parents.”

  “So, we pretend that we’re both fucking you?” said Kale. “And that’s somehow better than it actually being true?”

  Hudson waggled his eyebrows. “We could make it true.” His gaze dragged over my body.

  I felt hot all over. I glared at him. “Stop that. Not in my parent’s house, you ass.”

  “Wait a second,” said Kale, “do your parents think that…” He looked at Hudson. “That he and I are… you know?”

  “My mother didn’t ask for specifics,” I said.

  “Because we’re not.” Kale crossed his arms over his chest. “It’s not like that. I don’t want Hudson or anything.”

  “Who cares what her parents think?” said Hudson. “It doesn’t matter, does it?”

  Kale made a face.

  “Look, I just brought us here for a chance to catch our breath and figure out what we’re going to do,” I said. “We can’t stay here for long. It wouldn’t be safe for my parents. And besides, they would think it was weird.”

  “I think you brought us here so that I can’t yell at you,” said Kale.

  Hudson leaned forward in his chair. “In all seriousness, Piper, you have gotten us into a jam here. I mean, what are we going to do? We can’t run forever.”

  “No, I know that,” I said. “We have to come up with a plan.”

  “What kind of plan?” said Hudson.

  “Does it involve going home and never seeing you again?” said Kale.

  “I thought you didn’t want to give me up,” I said, feeling hurt.

  Kale rolled his eyes.

  “Well, the way I see it, we’ve got two problems. One is Sal and his men, and the other is the necklace itself. Even if we got Sal off our tail, the necklace is out there now. People know about it, and someone else will try to get it.”

  “I don’t understand,” said Hudson. “What’s so special about this necklace, anyway?”

  “It belonged to Princess Irina,” I said. “She was this werewolf princess from Russia—”

  “Oh, I know that story,” said Hudson. “They found out the Russian nobility were all werewolves, and they killed them.” He turned to Kale. “You remember that from history class?”

  Kale furrowed his brow. “There’s no way that necklace belonged to Princess Irina.”

  “Yeah, it does seem crazy that you found it in an abandoned house on your property,” said Hudson.

  “It hardly matters,” I said. “Sal and his guys are convinced it’s the real thing. They’re still coming after us, and other people will too.”

  “So, we need to get rid of the necklace is what you’re saying,” said Hudson.

  “No, they aren’t going to believe us if we tell them we ditched it,” I said.

  “You know,” said Kale, “it is true that some of the wolves that settled our town were Russian. You know, back in the day.”

  Hudson and I shot him a glance. We’d already moved on from that.

  “I think it might be legitimate,” said Kale. “And if it is, and it’s as valuable as you say, then it rightly belongs to the werewolf conclave.”

  “Are you insane?” said Hudson, getting out of his chair. “We’re not turning it over to the conclave.”

  “I just think that’s the right thing to do,” said Kale. “I’m not saying I’m crazy about the conclave. But I am saying that we owe them—”

  “Bullshit, we owe them,” said Hudson. “They demand all kinds of crap from us, and they don’t give us anything.”

  Kale looked unsure. He glanced from me to Hudson. “Well, I guess we can’t even be sure if the necklace is real or not.”

  Hudson threw open the closet. Inside, there was a computer on a pull-out desk. It was probably five years old or so, but it still worked. “Let’s be sure. We’ll look it up on here.” He switched the machine on, and the screen came to life.

  Both Kale and I gathered around to watch as Hudson pulled up an image of Irina Petraclovna, the Russian werewolf princess. She was wearing the necklace in the picture.

  “That looks like the necklace to me,” said Hudson.

  “It could just be similar,” said Kale, but he was scrutinizing the picture, and he didn’t sound very convinced of that idea.

  Hudson’s fingers flew over the keyboard. Several moments later, a huge picture of the necklace filled the screen.

  “When was that taken?” I asked.

  “Before she was killed,” said Hudson. “All their jewels were cataloged before the execution. The rebels didn’t think it was right that riches could belong to the few. They wanted to redistribute wealth. Anyway, the reports claim that Irina was executed and the necklace seized. But no one has ever found her skeleton or this necklace.”

  “Right,” said Kale. “I do remember this from class. The theory is that one of the rebels saved her and gave her the necklace because it was her favorite. She was the youngest of the children, and this rebel supposedly felt sorry for her. Couldn’t handle the thought of killing her.”

  “Yeah, and at her age, she wasn’t shifting into a werewolf yet,” said Hudson. “So he maybe thought she could be saved from the fate of shifting. After all, Fredrich Sullivan was already doing his work with werewolves.”

  “I can’t believe you guys know this much stuff,” I said.

  “Well, they might have emphasized werewolf history in our schools, considering,” said Hudson.

  I supposed that made sense.

  Hudson scrolled down the page. He let out a low whistle.

  “What?” I said.

  He pointed at an enormous dollar amount.

  “What’s that?” said Kale.

&n
bsp; My eyes bulged. “That’s how much the necklace is estimated to be worth. The Belmann Museum would pay that much for it.” Sal was seriously lowballing me for the price he’d negotiated for me to steal it.

  “Whoa,” whispered Kale.

  Hudson turned to him. “You still think we should hand it over to the conclave?”

  Kale was speechless.

  “I think we should call the Belmann Museum,” said Hudson. “See if they’re interested.”

  “You want to sell it?” said Kale.

  “Even if we split that three ways, a third of that money is enough for me to get the hell out of town,” said Hudson. “I could be free of the conclave, free of all of that shit. I could start over somewhere.”

  Kale rubbed his chin, considering it.

  “You could too,” Hudson said softly. “Actually, if we wanted, we could use this money to be together somewhere. All of us.”

  “We couldn’t live on that forever,” said Kale.

  “If we invested wisely, maybe we could,” I said. I wouldn’t have to be a thief anymore. I could settle down someplace and try to give myself a half-normal life. Of course, if Hudson was saying what I thought he was saying, then my life wouldn’t be anything near normal. I tried to picture myself living someplace with both of them. How would it work? Would we all share one big bed like we had in the cabin, or would I shuffle back and forth to their separate bedrooms?

  “Together,” muttered Kale. “You keep harping on that.”

  Hudson moved away from the computer. “You’re my best friend, Kale.”

  “Not anymore,” said Kale. He turned and walked into the center of the room, where he massaged the bridge of his nose, looking overwhelmed.

  “I don’t know about this together stuff either,” I said. “I just… I can’t see how that would work.”

  Kale turned back to us. “You’re right, though. We should sell it. Screw the conclave.”

  * * *

  Now that we had a plan, there was no reason to stay at my parents’ house any longer. I didn’t want to start any negotiations from that location, because I didn’t want anything to do with the necklace being traced back to my parents. Maybe I was being overly cautious, but I couldn’t handle it if anything bad happened to them.

  We drove an hour away from my family home before finding a hotel room. There was some discussion about getting separate rooms, but Kale said we’d just get one. He said he didn’t trust me to be alone, he didn’t trust Hudson alone with me, and he didn’t want to be alone with me himself, so we’d all bunk together.

  I wasn’t sure how that was going to work when it came to sleeping. The room we got had two queen-sized beds, and I was planning on sleeping in one of those beds. If the guys thought that I was going to sleep on the floor or something, they were crazy. I wasn’t going to. Which meant that there would be an inevitable tug of war as they tried to decide which of them I would sleep with.

  I resolved to make them sleep in the same bed and keep the other one for myself. That would solve everything.

  Once in the room together, we all seemed a little unsure of what to do with ourselves. No one sat down on the beds or the desk or anything. We all just stood in the middle of the room, glancing around, none of us saying anything.

  Abruptly, Hudson grabbed me from behind.

  I let out a startled cry, and that made Hudson laugh.

  Kale smirked too.

  Hudson’s voice at my ear. “You’re so easy to scare, Piper.”

  I elbowed him. “Shut up. Let go of me.”

  He oomphed when my elbow connected, but didn’t let go. “No way. We’re not in your parents’ house anymore, and I don’t think you have any other excuses.”

  “What the fuck are you doing?” Kale muttered.

  Kale laughed. He reached down and lifted my shirt, baring my navel.

  I tried to push it back down. “Stop that.”

  “Come on, let’s show Kale your tits,” said Hudson. “Don’t lie, Kale, you’ve been missing them, haven’t you?”

  Kale swallowed. “Don’t, man.”

  “Hudson,” I said, but my voice was getting breathy. This was turning me on. I still struggled a little bit against Hudson, but it was half-hearted.

  He pulled my shirt all the way up, displaying my bra to Kale.

  Kale shoved his hands in his pockets, but he didn’t make any attempt to look away from my body. “Haven’t seen you in a bra in a while,” he said in a husky voice.

  As far as bras went, it wasn’t a sexy kind. It was one of my typical, comfy bras, just cotton. There was a little bow between the cups, but that was as fancy as it got.

  Hudson’s hand snaked up my torso to feel me up through my bra. “Mmm,” he breathed against my skin. “She feels really nice, Kale. Don’t you want to touch her?”

  I shut my eyes and leaned back into Hudson’s chest. I couldn’t deny that I liked this. It felt good, and I liked being an object of adoration for both of them. I was going to surrender to it. I didn’t know what it meant, but right now, all I wanted was the elation.

  Kale rubbed a thumb over his bottom lip. He watched Hudson squeeze both of my breasts through my bra. He seemed mesmerized.

  “She’s soft,” said Hudson.

  “Yeah,” murmured Kale. “Make her nipples hard.”

  “Okay,” said Hudson, a wicked note in his tone. He switched to pinching my nipples.

  I moaned. That felt amazing. Pleasure shot through me.

  Kale smiled. His voice was scratchy. “Oh, Piper, I can see you poking through your bra there.”

  “Does she look good?” said Hudson, and his voice had gotten thicker too.

  “Yeah,” said Kale.

  Hudson nuzzled my neck. “You want to take off your bra for us now? You want to be totally topless?”

  I did. I turned my face to Hudson, found his lips, and kissed him. Then I reached my hand out for Kale, pulled him close and kissed him as well.

  When I broke the kiss, Hudson tugged my shirt over my head.

  Kale reached around me and unsnapped my bra. He pulled it away.

  I was bare from the waist up now, and I turned to present myself to both of them. I could feel their lustful gazes on my body, and my nipples tightened even more.

  “I did miss them,” said Kale softly. He reached out to weigh one of my breasts with one hand. He rubbed his thumb over my nipple.

  I sighed. I wanted to kiss him again.

  But Hudson distracted me by catching my other nipple with his mouth.

  I shut my eyes then, rolled by pleasure—Kale’s fingers on one breast, Hudson’s mouth on the other. Their energies collided—heat and cold—and they twisted me up in their tantalizing sweet torture.

  Kale’s mouth found mine again. He sucked on my tongue.

  I threaded one hand through his hair and one hand through Hudson’s. I wanted to hold them both there, keep everything in this wonderful place of bliss and perfection.

  But Hudson’s mouth moved away from my nipple, and he tugged my mouth from Kale so that he could kiss me too. I felt swallowed up by the goodness of Hudson—the slow tranquility I always felt when I was close to him.

  Then the kiss was over.

  I opened my eyes to see what they were doing and found them both just staring at my body.

  Kale touched the nipple that Hudson had been suckling. “It’s a little bigger than the other one.”

  Hudson grinned. “Should I make them match, or you want to?”

  “I don’t know,” said Kale. “I really want to fuck her.”

  “Yeah,” said Hudson.

  They both looked at me hungrily. I liked being desired by both of them, and I liked the thought of having both of their cocks again. My gaze flicked down to their crotches, which were both bulging. I felt taut and hot between my thighs.

  There was only one problem. “We don’t have condoms, do we?”

  Both of the guys suddenly met my gaze, tearing their eyes away from my br
easts.

  “We’ve both come inside you before,” said Kale in his rugged voice.

  And I had to admit that something inside me leaped in pleasure at the thought of them bareback in me. But I shook my head. “I don’t want to get pregnant.” And because I didn’t want to think anymore about that, I moved before they could say anything.

  I fell down to my knees in front of both of them, and I seized both of their zippers and yanked them down.

  They both looked down at me, Hudson a little bemused, Kale raising one eyebrow.

  I reached inside both their flies and found their cocks—both hard, both huge. It occurred to me that I hadn’t really had the chance to be up close and personal with either of their cocks yet. Most of our activity had been focused on getting me hot, and they’d just gone on and fucked me really quickly. I’d never even had a chance to touch them with my hands before.

  So it was doubly nice to stroke them inside their pants, one hand on each of them.

  Both of the guys shut their eyes. Hudson drew breath in sharply. Kale let breath out.

  I tried to pull them out through their zippers, but they were both pretty hard and big, and I only had one hand each to work with.

  Luckily, they both reached down to help, almost instinctively. They undid their buttons, pulling their pants out of the way.

  And then suddenly, I was face-to-face with two very pretty penises. Hudson was a little thicker and blunter than Kale, who was a little longer. It mirrored the rest of their physique—Hudson was compact and short and Kale was long and lean. I grinned as I began to pump both of them. I liked that their shafts were miniature versions of them, almost as if they had personalities.

  The thought made me feel a wave of tenderness towards both of their cocks, and I swept in to quickly plant a small kiss on each of their heads, one right after the other.

  They both responded with a gasp.

  I kissed them both again, this time a wetter kiss, giving them each a little bit of tongue.

  They gasped again, and I clenched between my legs. I usually got turned on giving head, but this was double the pleasure, and I was already worked up from what they’d been doing to me before hand.

  I began to work back and forth between them, using my hands on their girth and using my mouth to lick and suck their heads.