“Except when those ‘things’ involve getting it on with a mate,” Stephen said. “Then you move right in for the kill.”
Heat flooded Rose’s cheeks.
“And by the way,” Stephen went on, “it just so happens that I am a cowboy. Was, anyway. I spent six years working a ranch right here in Shay Falls.”
Caleb laughed. “Is that so, Doc?”
“It was a while ago, I’ll admit. But it’s true.”
She stared at him. How old was he? Certainly not much more than thirty. How could he have been a cowhand for six years, graduated medical school, and practiced long enough to land a hospitalist position? Had he been four years old when he “worked” this ranch?
“Once a cowboy, always a cowboy,” Caleb said. “If you say it in the past tense, I ain’t sure you had the chops to call yourself one in the first place.”
Stephen gave Caleb a one-sided smile that tinged on dangerous. “So far as I can tell, I have the distinction of being the very first cowboy in this town to get that life yanked right out from under my boots because I got turned.”
Caleb’s smile vanished.
Rose’s brow furrowed. “Turned? Turned into what?”
Stephen’s gaze honed itself on Caleb like a blade on a whetstone. “You told her nothing at all? How could you be intimate with her without telling her the truth about yourself?”
Several things about that statement set off Rose’s internal alarms, and the first one she jumped on was the last one she should have been worried about. “Whoa, whoa. Why are you acting like it’s a given Caleb and I have been intimate when you know we barely met yesterday?”
His dangerous grin turned her direction. “Are you denying you’ve been with him?”
She bristled and shifted on the couch, pushing Caleb’s stroking fingers away with an irritated grunt. “It’s none of your business if I have or not. I just find it curious you’re assuming I throw myself around freely when the truth would probably surprise the hell out of you.”
“What truth, that you’re a virgin? That wasn’t the question I asked.”
Her eyes widened. “You, too? What is this? Don’t tell me that piece of information turned up during my medical exam.”
He ignored her tirade and focused on Caleb. “Why the hell didn’t you tell her the truth?”
Caleb’s eyes flashed, and he gave the front of his shirt a vicious tug. The snaps on his shirt gave way, baring his still-injured chest. “When you get shot at by silver bullets not just because of what you are, but who your pack was, then you can lecture me about my reluctance to share my darkest secrets.”
She gaped at him. “Would somebody please answer at least one of my questions? What darkest secrets?”
“Why don’t you ask Caleb what happened to the wolf you ran into with your car?” Stephen asked.
“The wolf?” She frowned. “What about it?”
“You mean this wolf?” Caleb snatched up the sketch pad from the coffee table and flipped to the drawing.
Stephen gazed at it with a question in his eyes.
“Rose drew this picture off of a dream she keeps havin’,” Caleb said. “Even though she ain’t never seen the falls.”
The other man nodded. “Not that there was any doubt who she is.”
A spark of irritation touched off in her chest. “‘She’ is sitting right here. And by all means, Caleb, go right ahead and show my private artwork to anyone you feel like.”
“Stephen ain’t just anyone, darlin’.” Caleb’s smoldering look heated her stomach. “And I think you know it.”
The buzz of questions shouting in her mind silenced when he scooted closer to her, invading every inch of her personal space. “You feel it, don’t you?” His voice was low and throaty. Mesmerizing. “There’s somethin’ about Stephen that you can’t explain. It’s irresistible. Strong enough to pull you right off your pretty feet. It’s the same feelin’ you have for me.”
He leaned closer to her with every sentence until his words surrounded her like a hypnotic cloud. She was leaning, too, unable to curb the urge to bridge the gap and taste his lips.
“You’re starting up with her again,” Stephen said, “and yet you still haven’t told her what needs to be said.”
That burst through Rose’s trance, and she yanked back from Caleb with a scowl. Damn, how easily he could completely derail her train of thought! Hopefully, this was just a temporary side effect of hitting her head, not a talent Caleb could wield on her at will.
“Stephen’s right,” she said. “Whatever you should have told me, you better say it now.” She glanced at the drawing still in his hand. “Starting with what he meant about the wolf. What does it have to do with this? I never saw it again after I hit it.”
Caleb took a deep breath as he met her eyes. “Yes, you did. You’re lookin’ at him right now.”
She snorted in disgust. “And here I thought I was the one all confused from a concussion.”
“You saw that I was banged up and bleedin’ after the accident, and you knew that you’d hit me.”
“So?”
He held his shirt open wider this time. “But aside from the bullet hole, the rest of those injuries are completely healed already.”
True enough. She eyed his mouthwatering torso up and down, and there wasn’t a mark on him—except for a pair of curious puncture scars on his left shoulder.
“You said you didn’t remember hittin’ a man with your car,” he continued. “That’s because you didn’t. I was the wolf, Rose. I’m a shifter. And I ain’t the only one.”
Both men wore dead-serious expressions that she tried to mimic for a minute. Then she burst out laughing. “Come on, guys. It isn’t April Fools’.” She grinned at Stephen. “Was this why you wanted to talk to Caleb in private earlier today? So you two could set up a little joke on the head injury victim?”
“It’s no joke,” Stephen said, frowning. “And he’s not the only werewolf in this room.”
She shook her head. “So now he’s a werewolf. Not just a wolf.”
“He and I are both werewolves,” Stephen said, still looking sober as a church deacon. “I recognized him the minute I set foot in your hospital room. Not just because he’s another shifter, either.” He paused, searching her face. “I sensed the presence of my mates. Both of you.”
“That’s why you feel this uncontrolled attraction to us,” Caleb added. “Why you let me pleasure you when I know you’ve never let another man touch you that way. You’ve been waitin’ all your life for us, darlin’. And we’ve been waitin’ for you.”
Her annoyed amusement erupted into full-blown irritation, and Rose stood up and rounded to the far end of the coffee table. “Okay, now I’m getting a little pissed. Just because I hit my head doesn’t mean I’ve gone completely stupid.” In theory, anyway.
Caleb stood up, too. “I know it sounds hard to believe.”
She put her fists on her hips. “No, it’s impossible to believe, because it isn’t true. I don’t get why you’d even try and screw with me like this.”
Stephen sighed heavily and got to his feet. She stiffened when he tugged at his already loosened tie, pulling out the knot. When he started unbuttoning his shirt, however, she held up a hand.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” she asked, not bothering to hide her alarm.
“Looks like we’re about to kill two birds with one stone,” he replied, but he was looking at Caleb.
She was so fixated on the appealing glimpses of chest being revealed button by button that she almost missed it, but the unmistakably simmering gaze Caleb raked over the other man, straight down to the bulge in his slacks, caught her breath.
“Which two birds are those?” Caleb asked, his eyes glittering brighter gold in the lamplight.
“She’s not going to believe us unless we show her. And you and I have an issue to work out that apparently can’t wait, since you’re so intent on staking your claim.”
The
buttoned cuffs were undone next. His shirt hung completely open now, and so did Rose’s mouth. God only knew what he planned to “show” her, and the thought of it made her head throb against the incessant pounding of her pulse. She should say something, stop him now. But, oh! The shirt shrugged off onto the chair behind him, and she froze.
Mother of all things holy and beautiful, Stephen was a sight to behold. He epitomized all the masculine appeal Caleb perfected himself. Long shifts cooped up in a hospital had done nothing to soften Stephen’s athletic physique.
Caleb casually crossed one leg over his knee and laid his arm over the back of the sofa again. “Fine by me if you want to settle accounts now,” he said. “All you gotta do is roll over and show me your belly while you pay respect to your new alpha.”
The laugh Stephen gave in response was less than humorous. “Funny, that’s just what I picture you doing about two minutes from now.”
Caleb shook his head. “Ain’t gonna happen, Dr. Cowboy.”
“You understand, of course, why I can’t bow down to you after you told me back at the hospital which pack you came from.”
Caleb sat forward slowly. “And after two majorly fucked alphas in a row, I’m sure you understand why I’ll be damned before I’ll belly-up for another.”
Rose clenched her fists against the tension soaring in the room, totally lost for the umpteenth time during the course of this conversation. What the devil was all this male posturing about?
“I’m not like the others,” Stephen said.
“That’s right, because you’re about to bend over for me.”
“Get up and give it your best shot.”
Caleb rose steadily to his feet until they were barely a foot apart. “Speakin’ of shot, surely the good doc ain’t gonna make a pack challenge on a wolf who was just hit by a silver bullet?”
Stephen’s twisted smile indicated otherwise, and an ugly feeling slid down Rose’s spine. “You know,” he said, “I happen to be a good deal older than you.”
“Okay, Gramps. Old man versus cripple. Is that supposed to even the odds?”
“As much as you could ever match up to me.”
With that, Stephen yanked Caleb’s shirt over his shoulders, exposing his chest. The bullet wound was healing impressively, but it still gaped open deeply, marring the perfection of his hard chest.
Caleb swallowed hard as he stood there, letting his shirt slip off his arms while he watched Stephen. To Rose’s shock, Stephen grabbed the man’s upper arms, leaned down, and flicked out his tongue to give the wound a long, slow, lick.
Rose pressed a hand to her mouth at the gesture that was equal parts erotic and disturbing. Caleb’s head dropping and eyes rolling back weighed heavily on the erotic side. She felt her nipples actually tighten at the sight of the two men locked together this way. Her medical knowledge, however, tipped the scales heavily into the zone of disturbing. Just the thought of how much bacteria had been exchanged made her lean weakly against the wall behind her. That a doctor, of all people, would introduce saliva into an open wound was truly mortifying.
At least, until he pulled back.
Something odd was bubbling in Caleb’s wound, almost as though Stephen had poured peroxide on it. She leaned forward to stare right along with the men while the impossible happened. Threads of pink tissue pushed out from the open wound edges, webbing together to build up inside the hole. The injury grew narrower and shallower until at last, smooth flesh fused itself over the top.
The bullet wound was gone. Not even a scar remained.
She blinked furiously, wondering whether this was all part of some freaky, concussion-induced dream. “How?” was all she managed.
“Convinced about us bein’ shifters yet?” Caleb asked, working the arm on the affected side back and forth, and then grunting in satisfaction.
“Wolves can’t do that,” she said.
Stephen smiled. “Canine saliva actually does have use, especially among our kind. The longer we’ve been turned, the more potent the healing properties become. That’s partly what gave me the idea to pursue medicine when I couldn’t work livestock anymore.”
She shook her head in amazement. “You don’t actually lick your patients, do you?”
“Of course not. It might not work on humans, anyway. I’ve only found it of use in silver poisoning. If I even tested it on a human patient, I’d get my license revoked before being taken apart piece by piece to find out what makes me tick.”
“Don’t you mean howl?” Caleb asked. He smoothed his fingers over the wound site, much the way Rose had just after the accident. “I suppose I should thank you. But since you only healed this so you can fight me, maybe I won’t.”
That brought Rose a step forward. “Hang on. That’s what this is about? You two are planning to fight?”
Caleb turned and shoved the couch backward several feet, and Stephen picked up the coffee table, sketch pad and all, and stood it on the cushioned seat.
“No, no, no,” she said, fisting her hips. “You are not starting a fight in here.”
“It has to be done,” Stephen said, grabbing a lamp off the end table. “We’ll be careful.”
“He can cover the cost of any damage,” Caleb said. “He’s a rich doc, after all.”
“Hardly,” Stephen said, relocating the end table.
She gaped at them. “Put that back! Are you both insane? You can’t start duking it out right in the middle of my living room. What are you, a couple of animals?”
Pointed and heavily sardonic expressions flashed her way.
“That’s the real question, ain’t it?” Caleb said, kicking off his boots. “And you’d best step out of the way before you get an answer.”
The men were unbuckling their belts now, and her eyes flicked back and forth between them wildly. “I changed my mind,” she blurted in desperation. “I don’t want an answer anymore.”
“Too late,” Stephen said. “This gets settled now, before the loose cannon cowboy over there does something stupid. Again.”
“If you’re referrin’ to Rose,” Caleb said, unzipping his jeans, “I had no intention of fuckin’ her before this was dealt with. I’ve seen firsthand how crazed other males get when a mate is taken by her wolf without a proper claim.”
“And yet I could smell all the way through the front door just how close you were to chucking your intention,” Stephen said. “So save it.”
“Fair enough.” Caleb gave him a wickedly sensual, teasing grin. “Your ass is mine, boy.”
“We’ll see.”
Both their eyes were glowing yellow now, and that alone would have riveted her attention if not for the fact that Stephen was shoving his slacks down. God, they were not only going to fight, but they were going to do so naked.
She couldn’t help but stare at his heart-stopping body. He looked every bit as toned and fit as an Olympic athlete, every muscle sleek and rippling beneath his smooth skin. A tattooed message in stylized script stretched from the front of his hip to just above the dark triangle of hair on his pelvis. His cock hung long between his legs, and it wasn’t entirely soft. He was getting something of a thrill off the whole macho thing. So was Caleb, who stepped out of his jeans and left them in a pool in front of his bare feet. He had more hair on his body than Stephen, but muscle bulged on him everywhere—and that meant everywhere, as his cock was pointing right at Stephen’s rigid thighs.
Their gazes ran over one another as hungrily as her own did.
“Nice ink,” Caleb said, staring at the script over his lower abdomen that read Luna Plenus. “What’s it mean?”
“Full moon.”
Caleb grunted. “Wouldn’t have figured you for a tattoo man.”
“Bet you hadn’t figured on a lot of things from me. Like me showing up here tonight.”
“Actually, I was wonderin’ what took you so damn long.”
Stephen growled, a sound that was less than human—and Caleb matched it. The men eyed one another
with something far more driven and sinister than sexual attraction, and the mood in the room thickened until Rose could barely breathe. Her hair prickled along her arms. She had to do something.
She marched forward and planted herself between them, opening her mouth to order them both out of her house. A scream came out instead. Somehow, Stephen’s face was melting. No, lengthening. His jaw had come unhinged, and long teeth showed when he curled his lip.
Caleb tugged her out of the way, putting her behind him. “Fuck, Stephen, you’re scarin’ her. For someone with fancy college degrees on his wall, you’re a damn idiot.” Caleb turned to her and took her by the arms. “It’s okay, Rose. We won’t hurt you. Not ever. And you see how fast we heal. We just need to settle this score so we can move on.”
“Settle what score?” she asked, not sure she wanted to know.
“One of us needs to be acknowledged as alpha in order to bond us as pack mates.” Stephen was speaking now, and while the first part sounded distorted, the rest came out as normal as his face had again become. The only anomaly was the alien glow to his eyes. “It’s a necessary part of the process. I’m sorry I wasn’t clearer up front. You’re in no danger. I want you to know that. And if it makes you feel better, I’ll go easy on Caleb.”
Caleb’s jaw tensed. “Now you’re just tryin’ to piss me off. Move out of the way, darlin’. Time to teach an old wolf new tricks.”
He still had her by the arm, and he tugged her toward the dining area. She went the rest of the way on her own in a semi-daze, turning when she had herself sandwiched between the far end of the dining table and the wall. And then, she froze in wide-eyed shock.
Both men just disappeared before her eyes, shrinking down toward the carpet with the nerve-grinding sounds of popping bones and crackling joints. Their color changed on the way down, too. Stephen’s smooth, naked flesh turned into pale gray fur. Caleb shot out tufts of mottled gray-brown. In the course of maybe ten seconds, her sexy, if not crazy, suitors were gone. Two wolves stood with their feet on top of the discarded garments on the floor. Their teeth were bared at one another.
She gasped as the darker wolf turned its gaze on her. She recognized the creature straight off. It was the same wolf that had run in front of her car.
Disobedient Cowboys [Lone Wolves of Shay Falls 4] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) Page 5