by T. Cobbin
Glancing around, Brock saw that all of the other hyenas had been taken down. No one moved on the ground. Five bears encircled the two fighting hyenas.
Finally, Bradley managed to get the alpha male on his back, and his jaws opened wide enough to attach around the alpha’s exposed neck. Bradley paused. Brock could almost feel the indecision run through the young male. Should he kill his father? Would he ever be free if he didn’t?
Brock shifted back to his human form. “It’s up to you, son,” he said calmly. “But remember, it’s your peace of mind. Can you live with killing your father? You will be safe with us no matter what. I vowed to help you, and I won’t go back on that. You already know you don’t want to be like them.”
Brock stepped forward so he was in touching distance. Bradley’s hyena growled and shook the alpha’s neck a little. Brock’s fear was if the boy killed his father, he would forever regret that decision.
“I will step back if you really want to do this,” Brock said, “but be certain about it.”
Fiery amber eyes stared back at Brock from the boy’s hyena. The anger simmered to one of sorrow.
“You have beaten him already. He lies under you submissive.”
The alpha was foolish enough to growl, but with another shake from Bradley’s jaws around his neck, the alpha submitted, going limp. Bradley’s hyena looked down at his broken father’s animal and seemed to make a decision. Releasing his jaws from the beast’s neck, Bradley stepped away and started his shift to his human form.
The alpha hyena flipped his body over and for a second it stood on shaky legs. But gradually, as it got its bearings, its muscles began to bunch and gather. He was going to lunge at a human Bradley. Brock dived for the boy as another large bear, who must have noticed the same thing, pounced on the alpha male. Claws ripped into the skin of Brock’s back as he covered Bradley on the ground, then a yelp ripped through the air. Brock heard the snap of bone before he was left with silence, and pain.
“Brock!” A sweet, honey-filled scream suffused his ears before blackness became his world.
Chapter 20
“Fucking dick!” Melanie cursed at Cole for the umpteenth time while she showered.
He had chosen to pay her back for the pranks she had pulled on him during the last few days. This morning he had placed cling film over the toilet bowl, leaving her with both splashback and pee running down her legs. What made it worse, she had to clean it up before showering.
Sighing, she leaned her forehead against the cool tiled wall. The last week was catching up with her. At night, when it was quiet, she often relived moments from that night...over and over. It was getting easier to handle the image of Brock diving at Bradley to protect him from his father, but seeing his injuries always brought up the feeling of both intense sorrow and dread.
While lying on the caravanette bed, she’d been constantly trying to think of ways to escape when the van suddenly shook. She looked down her body to the male sitting on the end of the bed. He seemed concerned. Taking action before thinking, she stretched her legs out, booting the male in his side. She watched his bulky body sprawl across the floor, his head bouncing off the corner of a low-built cupboard as glass sprayed everywhere. What looked to be a huge ball of sleek, black fur landed on top of the male, finishing him off. With both shock and fear coursing through her veins she struggled to free herself, causing the ropes around her wrists to cut into her skin.
The bear sitting on the male shifted into a tall, well-built man. His calm voice met her ears, stopping her frantic movements. His friendly eyes stared into hers as he walked toward her, naked as the day he was born. With a large, thick claw, he sliced through her bonds and lifted her up into his arms.
“No more worries, little female. Your mate is on his way.” His somber voice had her immediately wondering if Brock was okay.
“Tell me Brock is okay. Where the fuck is he? Where is Cole? What about Bradley? Ugh, his father is so…so….” She shivered, thinking of the vile man who had put his hands on her.
She didn’t receive an answer from the male, because just then Cole arrived in a flurry of black fur. He shifted and started toward her, worry, panic, and fear in his eyes.
She glanced up his body, making sure he was real. Her gaze traveled up to his long, limp cock swinging between his legs, his six-pack abs, his broad, muscled shoulders. Finally, she reached his beautiful, sculptured face. His dark eyes were angry, then they softened to show sorrow, and once he saw she was safe, relief.
He placed his arms under her body and took her from the male who had saved her. Her arms wrapped around his neck. Never before had she wanted to be in anyone else’s heart or mind until now.
“I have you now, my love. Never again will I let anyone hurt you,” he promised.
“Where’s Brock? Is he okay? Oh God, please tell metheydidn’tkillhim.” Her words came out in a tumble.
“Brock is fine,” Cole assured her. Those were the sweetest words she’d ever heard. “In fact, he is handing the hyenas their arses about now.”
Melanie struggled in his arms. “I want to see, I want to make sure.” For a second, it looked like Cole was going to refuse. She decided to plead before he denied her.“Please take me, so I can see with my own eyes that he’s okay.”
Cole placed a sweet, butterfly kiss on her cheek and carried her from the awful van. The night air hit her, and from the black tarmac of a car park, she could just make out the beach in the distance, where several bears stood in a circle.
“Who are they?” she asked.
“Don’t worry,” Cole said when she stiffened. “They’re bears from the Jefferson clan who live nearby. They came to help.”
Cole walked a little way. Two males followed him until they reached the edge of the beach. Cole placed her down on the soft sand near some bundled-up clothing. He quickly dressed while pointing out her other mate. She gasped seeing Brock and Bradley facing off with the alpha hyena. She hadn’t realized she’d stood and taken several steps toward them until an arm banded around her waist, halting her movement.
“Just watch. You can’t do anything, sweetheart.”
Oh shit, he was right. It would turn into a fur and claw beach party. She didn’t stand a chance, but to just sit and watch? Turning her face into Cole’s chest, she could hear the snarls and quiet roars of the men’s animals.
No longer able to bear not seeing what was going on, she lifted her head and turned toward the beach just as a large hyena ripped its claws along Brock’s back, who was trying to protect Bradley. Cole’s arms loosened around her, and she screamed Brock’s name, tearing herself away from one mate to reach the other.
She ran, only to be halted after a few feet. Cole’s arms banded around her waist. She struggled to free herself, but only managed to take a few steps before she was halted again. She watched Bradley squirm from under the bulk of Brock’s body and shift into his animal so fast it happened in a blink of her eye. He then proceeded to pin down the slightly larger hyena. Opening his mouth around the other’s head, he twisted it viciously to the side. With the snap of bones ringing through the air, Bradley released the limp animal, leaving it to fall to the ground. Lifeless.
Not caring to see much more without seeing if Brock was okay, Melanie threw back her elbow into Cole’s stomach. She heard his heaving grunt as his arms loosened around her waist, and she ran. Ran toward what she hoped wasn’t the dead body of her mate.
“Brock!” she screamed. Her lungs burned as she ran, yelling his name repeatedly.
Finally, after what felt like a lifetime, she dodged the dead bodies of animals on the ground and pushed through the small group of bears and humans surrounding Brock’s body.
“Please, be alive.” She placed her fingers on Brock’s bloody neck and sighed in relief. He had a pulse.
Tears flowed freely down her face, which blurred what she could see of Brock’s injuries. She didn’t know where to touch him; there seemed to be blood everywhere. She wanted t
o hug him, shake him. Anything just to see him open his eyes and look at her.
“Brock,” she sobbed out. “Brock, please, look at me.”
Nothing.
Arms wrapping around her waist had her screaming out and pushing against whoever held her. Was another hyena trying to get to Brock? Fuck them if they were, they were going to have to go through her first.
“Get off me, you bastard.” If anyone was going to take her down, they were going to have to fight her. She wasn’t going to go down easy. She had to protect her mate, he couldn’t do it right now. She curled her fingers into claws, ready to scrape their eyes if she could reach; she would claw anything she could get her fingers on.
“Easy, sweetpea. It’s just us bears. The hyenas are all dead or running.” Cole’s silky voice whispered into her ear.
She couldn’t think straight. No, it was the hyenas trying to get to Brock.
“Melanie!” Cole’s sharp reprimand had her looking up over her shoulder to see the distraught face of her other mate. Automatically, she relaxed and turned into his chest and allowed her tears to flow freely.
“He’s breathing, he’s alive. We have to help him,” she wept.
Cole released her and bent over Brock, his hands gently roaming the male’s bare skin. Melanie knelt beside him, watching as he examined Brock’s wounds.
“He has some deep lacerations to his back. Marcus?” Cole looked up at another male that was standing over them.
Melanie grimaced. Peering up from Brock’s body, she quickly shut her eyes and gulped. At least seven naked men stood around them, and to make it worse, she was head height with most of their dicks. A mental image of Bobbie flickered into her mind. Oh God, the woman would love this. She’d probably be comparing sizes.
“Can you take him to your lair until he heals?” Cole’s voice broke through her naughty thoughts.
Melanie still had her eyes clamped shut. She couldn’t bring herself to open them. School teachers, let alone someone who was mated to two men, didn’t openly stare at other men’s junk when they were swinging inches from her face. Did they?
Several grunts sounded around her, and the hand she still had laying on Brock’s arm told her he was being moved. Warm hands and arms again engulfed her and lifted her back to her feet.
“Come on, love.” Cole coaxed, steadying her.
She opened her eyes and looked up into a sorrowful, dark pair. With his arms wrapped around her waist, they followed four naked men, who were carrying Brock face-down because of his injuries, off the beach. It wasn’t the males’ naked butts or bodies she was seeing though. Through her tears, Melanie watched Brock’s blood still streaming down his back.
“Good morning, sweetpea.”
Melanie screamed and spun around, looking straight up into Brock’s beautiful black eyes. Ever since that day on the beach, staring into his eyes or even just seeing him, she couldn’t help but release a sigh of relief. Yes, it had only been a short time since she’d met them, had sex, mated, and fallen in love with them, but she didn’t give a shit. Seeing Brock being carried away between those four—naked—men had been heartbreaking. A wake-up call as to how badly and quickly she’d fallen for them.
They were now back at the men’s place and had been for just under a week. Her friends didn’t know she was back yet, because she hadn’t told them, but she was planning to rectify that today. Amy’s wedding was getting nearer and she wanted to be there for her friend. She also couldn’t wait to tell Bobbie about Brock and Cole. Boy, her best friend was going to be pissed, but only because Melanie hadn’t called her earlier to tell her the news.
“You scared me.” She slapped Brock’s naked chest, splattering the water droplets that dotted his skin as he joined her in the shower.
She suddenly felt thirsty; the water droplets dribbling down his body just seemed to be, wanted to be, licked off. His head lowered, and his lips slanted over hers, taking her next breath away. Damn, could this man kiss.
The men didn’t live far from Dragon’s Heart. From the outside, their place looked like an old industrial warehouse. But inside was a massive one-floor, six-bedroom ‘man cave’ as Brock had described it. Besides the usual bedrooms, bathrooms, living room, and kitchen, there was a luxury cinema room where several long couches sat side by side and a huge TV screen filled one wall. The other three walls were lined with shelves of movies in CD form.
The room next to that one contained an assortment of games: foosball, pool table, and game systems from an early Nintendo to the latest PlayStation. Melanie agreed it was totally a man cave, that was until they reached the center of the building and came across a room that had a bed big enough for two fully grown bears to sleep in it, let alone two human men. It looked as big as two king-size beds plastered together. Everything in the room, from furniture to curtains, was white.
“This is our room, sweetpea,” Brock announced. “Since having it built and decorating it, no one, not even us, has ever slept in here. We vowed that if we ever found our female...” He paused to pull her tightly against his body in a hug. “...that you, our mate, would be the one to put her stamp on the place.”
Melanie looked from Cole then up to Brock. “What if you never found her…me?”
Brock shrugged. “Then this room would forever be unused.” He looked toward Cole as if waiting for his agreement.
She turned to see Cole nodding his head. Staring around the large, white room, Melanie was stunned to her core. What a beautiful room to waste if they hadn’t found her.
“What happens if I get pissed at you? Will you still sleep here? With me?”
Both Brock and Cole chuckled, then Cole answered. “My mother always said never go to bed angry, and never sleep apart in anger. So, if by chance we do piss you off, and with your fiery nature that will probably be quite often,” he said, his smile growing wider, “then we will have to make sure you never go to sleep angry.” His smile turned seductive, an eyebrow raised in challenge.
Heat rose to her cheeks. Yeah, she just bet they had all kinds of sexy ways to make sure she slept…well.
“So, what do you say, sweetpea, think you can put your stamp on our room?” Cole asked.
Melanie frowned. Ever since she knew the men, they had called her sweetpea. “Why do you both call me sweetpea?” she asked, looking between her men.
“That’s simple.” Brock shrugged. “Cole’s mother grows them. In the summer her whole garden is a field of those sweet-smelling flowers. When I first saw you, you reminded me of those tiny little buds, looking up into the sky at the sun, just waiting for the sun to touch their fine petals. Your skin feels as soft as those petals, and your face lights up like the sun is touching it. You are our sweetpea.”
Melanie examined both males’ faces. Each one was filled with love, affection, and most of all, desire. Sighing, she laid her head on Brock’s chest and thanked whoever deemed it be, that she would be their mate. She couldn’t be happier.
Since that day, the three of them had spent every night together in that white room. She made secret plans on how to decorate it, she wanted to hire an artist to paint a bunch of sweetpea flowers over the bed. They had moved in each of the male’s clothes, leaving space for hers when they eventually went to get them. They even made plans to turn their original bedroom into something else—a library or an office. Her men had done nothing but treat her like a queen, from gifts to finding herself constantly ravished.
At first Melanie found living with two men rather overwhelming. But whenever she felt angry or annoyed, wanting time alone, they seemed to sense they should make themselves scarce. And when she needed a hug or some loving, they knew where she was and what she wanted. Then she remembered the emotional bond they all shared. That was how they always knew the perfect thing to do. She began to use the bond to her advantage...until they realized what she was doing. Even after they had though, she never wanted for anything, it was always provided.
When Brock had hinted that instead of
an office they could turn their old room into a nursery, Melanie realized that other the first time she’d slept with her men, they hadn’t used any protection. The pill she normally took each morning was laying at home on her bedside table. She’d been in such a rush packing her stuff when Brock and Cole had turned up, she’d forgotten them.
Gulping, she calculated the number of days since her last period. She had only a few days to go before her next period was due, which meant…they had been going at it during her most fertile time. Automatically, she laid her hand on her lower stomach. Could she be pregnant already? Oh shit. She wanted kids, yes. But so soon into a relationship? But then she shrugged; meeting the men then mating, loving them, etcetera had happened so bloody fast, why not?
While learning to live together, Melanie found Cole was a pretty decent prank player. He could hold his own against her, as she’d found out that morning. Brock, however, sucked big time. His fly in a sugar cube or the fake chewing gum that snapped your fingers just didn’t hack it. But she played along, hoping one day he would get better. Cole, however, matched her sense of pranks. The cling film on top of the toilet bowl was certainly the best one so far.
“Hey.” Brock pulled her even closer to him, his erection digging into her lower stomach. “Where did you disappear to?”
“To the day you showed me our room.”
Brock smiled. “I can’t wait to see what you do with it. In fact, I can’t wait for you to put your stamp on the whole place.”
He leaned down and kissed her, his tongue sliding between her lips to entwine with hers.
“Now, that’s how you greet someone so early in the morning.” His head lifted slightly, and he seemed to scent the air. “By the strong aroma of bleach, and the pee-smelling cling film in the bin I passed, and with you in the shower...” He paused, seeming to sum things up in his head. “Cole managed to get you in a prank?”