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Insatiable Box Set: Books 1-4

Page 13

by Rice, Rachel E.


  “Shouldn’t you get ready for your duties in Oregon and spend time with Mena?” Wilder said eyes glaring at Lycell.

  “Did he tell you what he’s planning for me?” He said, his glance transferring to Adrienne.

  “No,” Adrienne said looking to Wilder. “What are you planning for this family?”

  “He is sending me away and when our pups are born then he wants me and the werefemale to take them with us.”

  Adrienne’s brown eyes narrowed, her eye brow lifted and she turned to Wilder. “Get out of here Wilder, and take Lycell with you. I want to talk to Drayton.” They looked at her but rushed out of the room so as to not upset her further. She had endured enough by their hands.

  ***

  Drayton knocked and he entered Adrienne’s room. He looked around, where are the boys?”

  “Asleep in their rooms next door. I hired a nurse and dismissed Mena. I didn’t trust her,” Adrienne said to Drayton.

  “Mena’s good. She’s not like some of the werefemales. She’s not likely to run off with the babies.”

  “That’s because Wilder promised her Lycell, and my pups to take with her.”

  “Why would he do such a thing? He swore we would have our own pack and we would stay together as a family.”

  “He has no feelings, he’s cold like the lone wolf that he is,” Adrienne said.

  “He’s not cold, but he can be hard. Most men in power have to make decisions that will affect and not sit well with many. You fell in love with a leader and then you fell in love with Lycell, who is arrogant and head strong, and then there is me.”

  “I love you too Drayton. How could I not. You are the only one who keeps me sane in this insane world of yours. It must be difficult to manage being a human and a wolf. I want you to know that I love you, and if I pick anyone to marry, it will be you.” She reached for his hand. He walked closer to the bed and touched her hand.

  A wide smile showed in every inch of Drayton’s face. He smiled with his mouth, eyes, and ears.

  She placed her hand down and patted on the bed. “Come sit with me for a few minutes and hold me. Right now I need a hug, and I need to talk to my mother. Can you get me a phone?”

  “I can get you a phone but it’s dangerous for you to have a conversation with her right now. The best thing to do is for me to take you home. Then you can tell her face to face what happened. If you call her, she could assume that you were kidnapped and you were coerced into calling.

  Then there is the problem with the Oregon pack because of your kidnapping, and Lycell killing the Alpha werewolf, and the matter of sending Mena back to Alaska. These are dangerous times for all of us. We just don’t know what is going to happen next, and Wilder will have to deal with all of that, so have patience with him.”

  “Now I know I need a hug.” She leaned in Drayton’s arms and closed her eyes. When he thought she was asleep, he lay her head on her pillow and eased out of the room only to see Lycell and Wilder standing at the door. “She needs to sleep. She is pregnant again and she hasn’t had any rest from you two,” he said closing the door slowly.

  “And who are you now, her keeper,” Lycell said with a scorn and his eyes darkened.

  “Yes, I’m sort of a protector because she needs protection from you, and you, Wilder,” Drayton said. “I’m calling a meeting,” Drayton said forcefully. “I have to discuss something with you Wilder and you Lycell. I don’t want Adrienne hearing.” Drayton walked down the stairs heading for the library but turned to the kitchen entrance instead.

  ***

  They followed after Drayton and ended in the large working kitchen. It had all the latest appliances, large stainless steel refrigerator, a stainless steel gas stove with a top the length of a small truck. Marble everywhere, and a large kitchen isle with stools they built. They sat, then Lycell stood up as if remembering something he forgot. He walk to the fridge and opened it. He reached for three cold beers. He opened them with his large thumb and handed each of them one.

  “We need to talk,” Lycell said to Wilder and Drayton.

  “I agree,” Drayton said his head craning around to Wilder who sat stoic with his arms crossed. Then Wilder flashed a stern gaze in Lycell’s direction.

  “That’s why we need a serious conversation,” Drayton said. “You two are at odds with each other and it’s not going to get better. It was you,” he said turning to Wilder, “who came up with the idea of having one female siring our pups. We said it wouldn’t work in the beginning, but we went along with you, nevertheless.”

  “Well what do you propose doing?” Wilder questioned taking a sip of beer from the bottle.

  “I say we let Adrienne decide what she wants to do, and who she would prefer to marry. She needs to marry. Human females like that kind of thing. Then whomever she marries, her husband will determine the next steps for the good of the pack,” Drayton said trying for diplomacy.

  “I am the Alpha male in this pack,” Wilder interjected, and she is my mate, and I will marry her.”

  “That is precisely what I’m talking about,” Drayton said to Wilder.

  “She’s having my pups now, it should be me,” Lycell said standing.

  “Sit down,” this meeting isn’t over,” Wilder said meeting Lycell eye to eye. Lycell sat, not out of fear, but out of respect.

  They sat uneasy gazing at each other like well-matched predators sizing up each other. Then Wilder said, “You haven’t mentioned yourself.”

  “I will do whatever Adrienne wish. If she doesn’t want to mate with me, then I will wait until she’s ready,” Drayton said glancing at Lycell.

  “Oh that is noble of you. And what do you think I did in that cave?” Lycell questioned standing in front of Drayton, and Drayton rose from his seat meeting Lycell’s steely glances.

  “Let’s stop this now,” a calm Wilder said knowing the tempers of the brothers.

  “Drayton is right. Adrienne will need to decide who she wants to marry, but as far as allowing who she marries to control this family, it will be me, and I know she will choose me,” Wilder said with full confidence and a smile of satisfaction crossing his face.

  He drank his beer with a smirk, and Lycell and Drayton were unruffled by Wilder’s declaration as they sat peering at their arrogant big brother. Then they raised their beers to their mouths and gulped down the remainder and drank another.

  Lycell confident that he controlled her body, and he could make love to her the way she desired. He thought she would choose him because of his sexual prowess. He sat with a self-assured smile. Wilder’s duties would take him away most times. She was young and she needed the warmth of a body to ease her yearning.

  He never considered Drayton because Drayton would accept Adrienne even if he never slept with her. He thought Drayton would sit around like a love sick school boy and wait. By that time Lycell estimate that he would have her impregnated a second time with more pups for the Samsa family of werewolves.

  “Oh there is one more thing,” Drayton said. “Adrienne wants to visit her parents.”

  “No,” Wilder said with Lycell upholding his objection.

  “Then you two will have to tell her. I plan to take her home tomorrow so she can clear up the situation of her being abducted. It could get messy if she doesn’t show her face. She’s old enough to decide if she wants to remain with us, but you can’t keep her from her...”

  Adrienne stood in the doorway.

  “You can’t keep me from doing what?” Adrienne questioned looking around the kitchen. “Did the cook fix my breakfast before she left for town?” she asked before walking to the warmer, reaching in and pulling out a plate filled with bacon, scramble eggs, sausage, English muffins.

  She reached for a large thick piece of bacon putting it inside her mouth. The brothers looked on her in amazement, thinking she was the most beautiful female they had ever seen. Her pregnancy made her cheeks rosy and her stomach showed a slight budge. Her breasts overflowing. She was beautiful when
she was pregnant, and it appeared she would have that glow for a long time.

  “What...What is it? What’s wrong?” she said with the bacon still in her mouth. Drayton smiled at her.

  Drayton said, “You look radiant.”

  “That’s because she is having my babies,” Lycell said standing, walking over to Adrienne, and placing a kiss on her lips, rubbing her stomach, and leaving the kitchen heading in the direction of the stables.

  “What’s up with him, I’ve never seen him so affectionate,” Adrienne said taking a seat between Wilder and Drayton. She leaned over and kissed Wilder and then turned to Drayton and gave him a soft slow kiss.

  Wilder looked on and for some strange reason he didn’t feel the jealousy that had consumed him before. “Drayton said that you want to see your family.”

  “Yes, and Drayton is going to get me a cell phone after I see them.” Wilder’s glance shot to Drayton and he hunched his shoulders and raised his hands. “I should keep in touch with them,” Adrienne said looking around for some strawberry jam and Drayton handing it to her.

  “We’re leaving tomorrow and we should be back that same day,” Drayton said. Wilder finally agreed. They sat looking and gawking at Adrienne.

  My decision to let Drayton take Adrienne home will determine all our futures and the future of the pack, Wilder thought.

  ***

  Wilder left the meeting with Drayton and Adrienne sitting and laughing about their trip. He headed for the stables just in time to see Lycell leading his stallion out of the barn. “Wait up,” Wilder said. “You didn’t stay to hear the decision I just made about Adrienne. Lycell stopped in his tracks and glared at Wilder. He didn’t want to hear what Wilder had to say. He felt he should have been consulted before Wilder decided on anything concerning Adrienne. After all, he was now the father to her children, and he mated with her, so that gives him the same status with her as Wilder.

  “Drayton is driving Adrienne to see her family tomorrow and they will be back the same day,” Wilder said to him.

  “Well, I guess your word is law and I have nothing to say about her putting herself in danger by going there,” Lycell said shaking his head.

  “Our whole lives could be in danger if she doesn’t go back and clear up what happened to her,” Wilder said to Lycell touching his shoulder.

  Lycell looked down at his hand. Werewolves never touched each other not even to embrace. It wasn’t what werewolves did. It was mutual respect for each other that Alpha males never invade personal space. Lycell and Drayton were also Alpha werewolves and now Lycell thought he had the same status as Wilder with Adrienne.

  To live together and share the female, they have to live in harmony otherwise what Wilder thought would keep them together, would sooner or later divide them. “We will share all the decision making from this day,” Wilder conceded. “If you agree, we will have our council and two votes will override one.” And he looked hesitant waiting for an answer. “Do you agree?”

  “And does that include Adrienne?” Wilder gazed around and looked down and exhaled. He didn’t relish having to accept each brother having an equal say when it comes to her. “Since Adrienne holds a particular status as the mother to our pack, she has the top decision when it comes to who she wants to lie with her, and who she wants to marry. You know she can’t marry all of us,” Wilder said.

  “And you agreed to that?” Lycell asked Wilder, his face showing his displeasure. “Then there can be no doubt that she will pick me,” Lycell said confident that she cared for him and he was the only choice she could make since she was now pregnant by him.

  Lycell thought Wilder is busy traveling, and he had stayed close to the ranch, took care of the livestock and lands, as well as meeting with the local town’s people to build a relationship and make it prosperous. He is the natural choice.

  “Yes,” Lycell said, “I agree that Adrienne should choose whom she will marry.” And Wilder embraced his brother as only a human would and after all, they were half human.

  Chapter 5

  The Samsa brothers, Wilder and Lycell sat in the library twisting uneasy in their leather chairs built from the hides of animals and the trees of the nearby forest. Each werewolf whittled the frame with their own hands, and each had carved bassinets for their pups. Adrienne wouldn’t take the twin pups with her to visit her parents, she thought it better to leave the twins with Wilder and the old cook, who was now in her seventies.

  Wilder holding his sons, and Lycell sat with worried glances in silence. They were concerned because Adrienne had decided on Drayton driving her to her childhood home. Drayton strode down the stairs with Adrienne holding on to his right hand and he clutching a bag in his left.

  “I thought the visit wasn’t to be an overnighter?” Wilder sat questioning with a raised eyebrow.

  “This weather isn’t reliable. It’s spring and we could get a snowfall and a freeze anytime. We may need to stay at a hotel,” Drayton said standing with Adrienne at the bottom of the stairs near the library door. Lycell stood and took Adrienne’s arm as Wilder sat in his chair holding his twins. She glanced at him and all he could see was his boys. She felt he had lost interest in her. She walked over to them and kissed them on the head as Wilder leaned in to her. She gave him a soft sensuous warm kiss.

  Wilder yearned for his time with her in the cave but they had gone beyond that. He wondered with all the attention she was getting from Lycell and Drayton whether she needed him anymore, but she needed him now more than ever. They had to solve the dilemma of Wilder’s jealousy and Lycell’s sudden change into a loving caring mate. The contrast made it appear as if Wilder was cold and aloof.

  When Adrienne turned to walk away he held her hand. She felt a jolt of need press through her body and heat her to her core. He felt it too. It had been too long since he visited her room and felt her body next to his without distractions. She looked at him and leaned and gave him a kiss as Lycell and Drayton looked on. The kissed lasted long and it was intense.

  Drayton walked to her and said, “It’s time to go if we’re going to get back tonight.”

  “Yes, bring her back to us tonight. Don’t let anything happen to her. She’s carrying my pups. It’s my family at stake and ...”

  “It’s all our family at stake,” Drayton interrupted. She hugged Lycell and left with Drayton. They walked outside as Lycell and Wilder stood in the open door with resigned looks clinging to them. It was Adrienne’s choice to make and she made it. They had to accept it whether they liked it or not.

  They mutually agreed that her life should be dictated by her, they left her to make this decision and she could be trusted to make the right one. After all, her life was entwined with theirs now.

  Drayton stepped in the car after dropping the bag in the trunk of the dark blue Mercedes. Lycell helped Adrienne into the car, after getting one last kiss, one loving rub of her belly, he closed the door and stepped back.

  ***

  As Drayton and Adrienne drove, One Direction’s music filled the car. They smiled at each other and Drayton reached over to Adrienne with his palm opened. She place her hand inside his and he held her soft hand with her long slender fingers inside his large hands. In the full sunlight she saw how handsome Drayton is. The werewolves are triplets but they had different looks and different hair color and eyes. Drayton eyes were a deep brown, unlike Lycell’s copper brown colored eyes. And Wilder, his eyes deep cobalt blue and his hair, dark honey blond.

  Drayton felt the tension in Adrienne’s hand. It had been almost a year since she had been home. It would be a surprise for her mother and father. She stayed upset with them for a long time and tried to forgive them for squashing the investigation of her being violated by Paul’s friends.

  It was Paul who had finally woke from his drunken stupor and decided to take her to the hospital after hours of delay, and it was her parents whom he called and made an agreement with to marry her, to prevent her from testifying against his rich friends. Her par
ents capitulated after Paul convinced them that her life would be ruined, and the lives of his friends, if she named them as the perpetrators of her rape.

  She felt that no one considered her feelings. They made arrangements for Paul to marry her and that would be that. She would marry a man she didn’t love to save the reputation of future congressmen, and senators, leaving her in a loveless, childless marriage. But fate intervened and now she is pregnant again and she doesn’t need her parents or Paul to make her life complete. She has the Samsa brothers with their good looks, power and wealth to make her strong again and she would have their babies and create a family of her own.

  After an hour’s drive, they pulled up to a modern small ranch home, and Adrienne’s hands began to tremble. “What is it? What’s wrong?” Drayton said.

  “I don’t know. This place has bad memories.”

  “Don’t worry about anything. We won’t let anything happen to you or our family.” The car came to a stop behind another car Adrienne didn’t recognize. It was a new Toyota Camry. Drayton helped her out of the car. Although she was pregnant she didn’t show it. He stomach was as if she had eaten something that didn’t agree with her. But she knew how pregnant she was because now the pups began kicking.

  Walking slow with Drayton’s assistance, she made it to the door and rang the bell. It took a few minutes. The door opened and standing in the doorway was Paul. He stared for a few minutes with a look of horror. His eyes enlarged and his forehead wrinkled and sweat dripped along his face, it was fifty degrees in the sun.

  “What are you doing here?” Paul questioned Adrienne.

  “It’s my house and what you are doing here is a better question,” Adrienne said no longer intimidated by him.

  Paul looked behind Adrienne to see the towering Drayton with a serious look on his face, and he moved to the side and let them both through the door. When Adrienne’s mother and father looked up from sitting on the couch, they gasped and held their hands to their mouths.

  Adrienne’s mother jumped up ran to her and held her close and said, “Where have you been? Your father and Paul have been frantically looking for you, we had Eco Search down here. We thought you were dead.”

 

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