by Becca Van
“So now you know how things are done. If you have anything you want us to order so you can cook the meals, just write it down and give it to Jenny. She’ll add it to the weekly shopping list,” Joe said.
“Are you sure you don't want me to do the shopping?” Mel asked.
“No, we don't like the thought of you being out alone. Plus with the amount of food we eat there is no way you'll be able to handle it all yourself. It's better if we leave things as is,” Joe said.
“Okay, thank you, I’ll do that.” Melanie looked up at Jenny when the other woman yawned for about the fifth time in a row and she knew she’d been here more than long enough. Jenny needed her rest since she was pregnant, and Mel didn’t want to keep her from her bed. She stood up, gathered the two empty glasses, took them into the kitchen, rinsed them out, and put them in the dishwasher. When she returned to the living room, she felt a little guilty when she saw that Jenny had her eyes closed and was now resting her head on Joe’s shoulder.
“Thank you for answering all my questions,” Mel said in a quiet voice in case Jenny was asleep. Joe nodded and smiled at her. When his body tightened up as if he was about to move, Mel held her hand up, palm out. “No, please. Stay where you are. I can see myself out. What time do you want me to have breakfast ready in the morning and for how many?”
“I’m not asleep,” Jenny said right before she yawned again.
“But maybe you should be,” Mel suggested with a smile when Jenny opened her eyes.
“Yeah, I think I am more than ready for sleep. As for tomorrow, why don’t you start with lunch? I’m sure you could do with a bit extra sleep after all your travel.”
“I’m fine,” Mel said. “Why don’t I make breakfast for seven? Does that suit all of you? If you’d prefer, I can have it ready earlier or later. It’s up to you.”
“Seven is perfect,” Joe piped up. “The door to our home is always unlocked. Just come right in and do whatever you need to.”
“Okay. Thanks.”
Joe gave Jenny an indulgent look. “I don’t want you getting up at the crack of dawn. You need more sleep now that you’re carrying our pup.”
Mel tried not to grimace over that word. Although it was appropriate terminology for their species, the word still brought to mind the image of puppies and not human babies that would eventually be able to turn into wolves once they’d hit adolescence.
“I still find that word a little strange,” Jenny said, practically mirroring Mel’s thoughts.
“I’ll leave you to it,” Mel said and headed toward the door.
She didn’t hurry back to her pretty cottage but took the time to smell the night’s scents. What had surprised her was the vastness of the desert landscape and lack of greenery. The bushes were small and scraggly, and yet they managed to survive on little or no water at all. And she couldn’t believe how red the sand was.
She let her thoughts drift as she entered her new cottage and got ready for bed.
In a way she was excited and yet humbled that three men found her scent attractive, and although she was nervous to encounter them again, she was also looking forward to it.
What woman wouldn’t want to look at three tall, muscular, sexy, handsome men? It didn’t seem to matter to her body that they could shift into wolves. In fact, now that she’d had a little time to process that fact, she began to wonder what Johnny and Jules would look like in their animal forms. But better yet would be seeing their naked buff bodies like she had Kris’s before he had transformed.
One thing she knew was a certainty. Life around here in the Outback of New South Wales and the Reynolds Pack land would definitely be exciting and different to the norm.
Chapter Five
Johnny was up way before the crack of dawn, and although he’d had trouble sleeping since his mind kept remembering how gorgeously sexy his mate looked, he felt excited and invigorated and eager to start the day. He wondered what time breakfast would be ready over at the Alpha’s house, and even though his inclination was to head over and sit on the veranda to await another glimpse of his mate, he made himself go through his normal morning routine.
Though nothing felt normal anymore, and for that, he was thankful to the fates who had sent his and his brothers’ woman to them. He’d begun to wonder if they would ever meet the one woman meant for them since none of them travelled far from pack land. He’d even thought about talking to Kris and Jules about each of them going out on their own, one at a time to search for her, but none of that was necessary now. Normally he wouldn’t be up for another hour, but his wolf was pushing at him to go and find Melanie and spend some quality time getting to know her. He was keeping his animal on a tight rein since he didn’t want to appear over eager and scare or piss her off. He had a feeling his mate wouldn’t hesitate to go toe-to-toe with him or his brothers if they annoyed or angered her. Especially after how she’d virtually told them to fuck off and leave her alone after all the information they’d inundated her with the previous evening.
After a quick shower, shave, and dressing, he headed toward the kitchen and started the coffee brewing. He wasn’t at all surprised when Kris and Jules came in not long after the pot of coffee was full.
“Do you think it’s too early to head up for breakfast yet?” Kris asked and then glanced toward the clock on the wall. “Shit! Don’t bother answering that. I know it is.”
“I’m sure our Alphas and Beta would read us the riot act if we showed up at their place at five o’clock in the morning.” Johnny took a sip of his coffee and grimaced at the bitter and too-strong taste. None of them had perfected the art of making coffee or cooking and had spent each and every meal up at their leader’s house, but now more than ever, there was a very sexy incentive to hang out at the Alpha’s home for longer than they normally would have. He and his brothers usually only stayed long enough to eat and rinse their plates, and then they left again. He hoped that Blue, Joe, and Jenny didn’t mind if they hung around their home as much as possible but suspected the three leaders would encourage their interaction with their mate, rather than become annoyed with them. Mates were sacrosanct and to be revered. There was no way his leaders would kick them out when he and his brothers needed to woo their woman.
“You make the worst coffee,” Jules mumbled after taking a sip, then rose and dumped the rest of the contents of his cup down the sink.
“Yours isn’t any better,” Johnny grumbled.
“Why don’t we go and sit on the veranda?” Kris suggested after he, too, poured his coffee down the sink.
“That’s the best idea you’ve had yet.” Johnny grinned and followed his brothers out to sit in the chairs on the front porch. The chairs were positioned just right, and they would be able to see when and if Melanie headed up to the main house. After they were all seated and staring up at the dark main house, Johnny voiced his thoughts. “What do you think about learning to cook?”
“I’m all for it,” Jules answered immediately.
“I am, too,” Kris said, and then he sighed loudly. “But don’t you think our mate will be wise to us? It’s not like we’re teenagers who need to learn to look after ourselves. We should have learnt to cook a long time ago.”
“Oh yeah.” Jules scowled at Kris. “And who did we have to teach us?”
“We know how to grill on a barbeque,” Johnny interjected, feeling a little inadequate, knowing their woman could probably cook up a gourmet meal for at least a hundred people without batting an eye.
“Yeah, well, she probably went to one of those culinary schools to learn how to.” Jules frowned at him.
“We always helped with the peeling and chopping and stuff.”
Johnny noticed Kris’s body go taut, and then he lifted his nose into the air and inhaled deeply through his nostrils. He did the same, and when he caught their mate’s scent, he called on his wolf’s eyesight until she came into view.
“She is so fucking sexy,” Jules said in a low, rumbling voice.
Johnny glanced over at his brother and saw that his eyes were glowing.
“Don’t let her see either of you staring at her,” Johnny whispered, too low for a human to hear but loud enough for his siblings to hear him. “We don’t want to frighten her.” He turned back to watch the gentle, sexy sway of her hips as she walked. Her braid swung to and fro, and he had the urge to release her hair from the knots and run his fingers through it. He knew it would be soft and silky. Johnny curled his hands into fists and drew a deep breath.
“I don’t think we scare her at all.” Kris met his eyes for a moment before turning his gaze back toward Melanie. “I know she was initially a little scared when I shifted, and more than a little anxious learning everything she did, but who wouldn’t have felt that when they’d had no idea that werewolves existed hours before?”
“We should go and offer to help her,” Jules suggested.
“Do you think she’d accept our help when she knows we want to mate with her?” Kris asked.
“How the hell should I know?” Johnny questioned irritably.
“There’s only one way to find out.” Jules pushed to his feet and started down the steps.
Kris moved faster than he normally would have to follow, and Johnny decided that his brothers had the right of it. As the saying went, “nothing ventured, nothing gained.” He stood up and hurried after his younger brothers.
* * * *
The hair on the back of Mel’s neck stood on end, and although she wanted to turn and look about to see who was watching her, she didn’t really need to. She didn’t need to see, or look for, Johnny, Jules, and Kris to know it was them gazing at her as she walked toward the large main house.
A shiver of trepidatious desire ran up her spine, and she cursed under her breath as her body began to respond to their close proximity. And yet she had no idea how close or far away they were. But if her body’s reaction was any indication, they were much closer than she would have liked.
She drew in a deep breath and shook her head slightly at that lie. If she were only honest with herself, then she would love to be as close to them as possible. She didn’t know why, but now that she’d met them, she craved to be in their presence. She was going to have to ask someone about that anomaly. And now that she thought about it, when Blue and Jenny, and then Joe and Jenny, had tried to explain to her how things worked with werewolf shifters, she remembered how this calm feeling would flow over her when her anxiety began to get a little too much.
There was so much more to these people—men, shifters, whatever—than she could imagine, and although she was in shock yesterday and more than a little overwhelmed, now that she’d had time to think and take everything she’d been told in, she was curious to know even more. In fact she had a yearning deep inside to know everything there was to know in regards to Johnny, Jules, and Kris Reynolds.
Mel picked up her pace and didn’t relax until she’d closed the door to Blue, Joe, and Jenny’s house behind her. It took her a couple of moments to find her way into the kitchen without bumping into anything since she wasn’t that familiar with the layout of the house and since there were no lights on, but luckily for her, she’d taken note of where the light switches were last night and had no trouble finding them.
Within minutes she’d familiarised herself with where everything was situated in the kitchen cupboards and then got out the ingredients for a large breakfast. All the men she’d seen here yesterday were tall and brawny. Add into that the fact that they were shape shifters and she had a feeling they would all consume mounds of food in one sitting. When she stepped into the large walk-in freezer and saw the huge quantities of frozen meat, she knew she’d guessed right. There wasn’t enough time for her to thaw out and cook steak, but bacon, scrambled eggs, and pancakes would be filling enough. That is if she doubled the amount she would normally allow for a male to eat. At least she hoped that would be enough.
She made up a huge bowl of pancake batter and was ecstatic when she found a large griddle plate that would fit over the top of the big stovetop, allowing her to cook multiple pancakes at one time as well as the bacon. She decided to use the microwave to cook the scrambled eggs in a casserole dish.
She searched the large butler’s pantry for herbs and spices and was pleased to find her secret ingredient of all-purpose seasoning, which she would add to the egg and milk mix. She was so intent on what she was doing she didn’t hear the men enter the kitchen, but when the hair on her body stood on end, and her body lit up with desire, she knew they were in the room with her, watching her. How was it that she was so damned aware of Johnny, Jules, and Kris? She exhaled slowly when her body once more responded to their proximity and hoped they didn’t notice how her damn traitorous nipples stood up at attention as if begging for their touch. And she wasn’t even going to mention what her perfidious pussy was doing.
It took all of her self-control to not look over her shoulder, but couldn’t stop her shoulders from tensing.
“Do you need some help, Melanie?”
The deep, gravelly cadence of Johnny’s voice washed over her, eliciting a tremble through her body, and she mentally cursed when her heart and breathing sped up. She kept her back to them and shook her head. “I’m good.”
“Are you sure?” Kris asked. “We really want to help you out.”
“Why?” Melanie blurted out before she could stop her wayward tongue, and this time she gave in to the urge to look at them.
Her breath caught in her throat when she saw Johnny leaning against the doorjamb with his arms crossed over his broad, muscular chest. His biceps bulged and stretched the seam of the T-shirt sleeves, and she unconsciously licked her dry lips. Her deceitful gaze slid down his body and paused at the more-than-average bulge at the apex of his thighs and then down over his long, muscular thighs before it began its wayward journey back up again.
She squeezed her eyes closed for a moment when she realized what she was doing but couldn’t help her gaze from skittering a few feet over, only to meet Kris’s grey eyes. She quickly looked to his left and met Jules’s green orbs briefly before she moved her gaze back to the stove and the cooking pancakes and bacon. Her heart was pounding, and although she tried to regulate her breathing, the task seemed to be insurmountable. Especially when her whole damn fucking body was tingling wherever their gazes paused and was screaming at her to jump their bones.
“Because we’d like to make your load a little lighter, and we’d like to spend some time with you,” Jules answered.
“I don’t need any help.” Melanie ignored the exaggerated sigh and didn’t need to look to know Johnny had made the sound.
“But we do,” Kris said.
“What?” She frowned as she turned to look at him before removing the cooked pancakes from the griddle, placing them in a dish before covering them and setting them in the warm oven.
When she’d added more pancake mix and bacon to cook on the grill, she turned to face all three of them. “What do you mean by that?”
“We don’t know how to even make a decent pot of coffee, let alone how to cook a meal, and we’d like to learn. And you would be the perfect person to teach us.” Kris walked toward her slowly as if he were worried he’d spook her.
Melanie instantly thought about the story she’d been told of how all these men’s parents had been shot and killed, and empathy flooded through her at how hard it must have been on them all as young boys. To have no one to guide and love them was a travesty and should never have been, but there was nothing she could do about their pasts.
However, she could do something about their futures.
That wasn’t to say she was ready to accept them as her mates, but she could teach them how to feed themselves and make coffee. It was the only thing she could do that would make a difference in their lives right now, and her heart softened toward them even more when she saw that each of them was watching her avidly. They each held their bodies so still, and yet she could tell that they were very
alert and aware of her, and they were waiting for her answer.
There was no way she could deny them when they were in need, but what made her heart ache was they hadn't had the guidance of parents to love and teach them basic necessities. She could just imagine these three men as young boys looking so lost and feeling so much pain. How could she add to that by refusing them?
“Okay,” she finally answered quietly. She watched each of their expressions and was amazed to see the wariness leave their eyes to be replaced by what she could only describe as excited enthusiasm.
“Johnny, maybe you could set the table?”
Johnny nodded, smiled and winked at her, and moved toward the dining side of the room. He started opening the drawers in the large buffet, drew out the cutlery, and began to place it strategically on the table.
“What do you want Jules and me to do?” Kris asked.
“Let me get this batch of pancakes and bacon into the oven, and then I’ll let you cook the next batch. Jules, you can help me make the scrambled eggs.”
“Sure thing, Mel. I’ll do anything you want, babe.” Jules gave her the ridiculously sexy, crooked smile, which, in turn, caused the butterflies in her stomach to flutter and her breath to hitch.
She nodded at him, cleared her throat, and showed Kris how much pancake batter to ladle onto the griddle.
“Jules, you can crack the eggs but don’t crack them into the bowl. What I usually do is crack one egg at a time into a cup and then pour it into the mixing bowl.”
“Why would you do that?” Jules asked. “Wouldn’t it be easier to just crack them into the bowl?”
“Not really. If you cracked them all into the bowl and the last egg was off or you get shell in it, it’s harder to fish out. By cracking them individually into the cup, if one is off, you’re not spoiling the good ones, and it’s much easier to fish shell out from one egg than it is from a whole bowlful.”
“Smart as well as beautiful.” Jules reached up and tugged the end of her braid.