by R. E. Butler
“We’ll take you wherever you need to go, Callie.” Ethan offered.
“Um, no thanks. I just need a cab.”
Eryx grabbed her suitcases and walked out of the hospital. “Hey!”
“It’s not really up for discussion, Callie. We’re going to take you to the impound lot so you can get your things from your car, and then we’ll take you to our place and you can rest up.” Ethan said.
“No.” She growled.
“No?” He looked amused.
“You can take me to the lot, that’s fine, but I don’t want to go to your place.”
He gave her a “we’ll see about that” look, and held the door open for her. At the lot, her poor, poor car was cut in half as if some huge clawed thing had tried to rip it in pieces. She gathered the papers from the glove box and the small overnight bag that held the majority of her toiletries that had gone from the front seat to wedged under the back seat, and finally the box that held everything else. After she argued to be taken to a hotel, they finally agreed to take her to the B&B she was planning to stay at in the first place, Charming Bed & Breakfast, run by Tom and Dana Charming. Charming.
Eryx, who had been brooding and quiet for the drive, took her bags into the reception area and walked out. Ethan said nothing after she thanked them both again for their help. She felt oddly alone and sad that they were angry at her, but on the other hand, she wasn’t planning to stick around so playing with the kitties was off the menu. Delicious or not. She’d only been on her own for a week. She wasn’t going to get waylaid in her plans to search out a place for herself in the world just because two hot sides of man-beef happened to have taken a liking to her.
Tom swiped her credit card and said he’d take her things up, and Dana said they had just served brunch in their dining room and she could help herself. She grabbed a plate of cut fruit and a cheese Danish and plucked the newspaper from the stand and sat down at a small, two person table.
She read the same paragraph four times before she allowed herself to admit that she was damn drawn to the two men. How weird. If they were wolves she would have thought they were her mates because the attraction was instantaneous, but dogs and cats didn’t mix, right? And of course, she didn't want to get snared in a relationship; her life was barebones right now. She'd only been free of the pack for a handful of days. She still needed to find herself, have some time to be free and independent. For the first time, she wasn't under anyone’s thumb but her own and it felt good.
“Miss Hunter, I’m dreadfully sorry, but I can’t accept your credit card.” Tom’s voice was thin and unhappy and she stared blankly up at him. Swallowing the bite of out-of-season strawberry she said, “You already accepted my card. I signed the receipt.”
He looked uncomfortable, “Yes, well, the machine is down and it didn’t go through. I can’t offer you a room unless you have cash. Do you…have enough for the night?”
She shook her head in disbelief. “I could write you a check.”
“Not from out of state.”
“Okay, are any banks open?”
“It’s Saturday.”
“ATMs?” What the hell was going on here?
“Not outside of the banks, no, miss.”
“So you’re going to put me on the street because the machine is down? What happened to small town hospitality?” She growled, standing up so fast the chair clattered behind her. He jerked backwards like she was going to claw his throat out, which she wouldn’t have done over a credit card snafu, promise.
She let the growl ebb into a deep sigh. She so didn't need this. Rubbing at her temple, she said, "Where are my things?"
Tom cleared his throat and gestured outside.
"Seriously? What a gentleman," she snapped and stormed out of the building, shrugging into her coat.
As the door shut behind her, she lifted her eyes and saw Eryx and Ethan standing smugly in front of their cop car.
“You two!” She snarled and stalked towards them. “What did you do?”
“We are offering you a no-strings-attached room for as long as you need it at our home. We have a spare bedroom; I make a mean grilled steak. Let us help you.” Ethan offered with a smile that would have melted her shoes from her feet if she hadn’t been so pissed.
She looked at the two of them and didn’t see her bags. She was betting they’d put them in the cruiser. Well, she was not going to be played. The salt on the sidewalk crunched under her hiking boots as she strode to the car. With a warning growl, she glared at them, "I just want my bags and then I’m gone.”
“You’re not going anywhere except home with us.” Eryx said matter-of-factly.
The first thought that crossed her mind was that they were trying to hurt her. But there was no mistaking the identical looks in their eyes. She’d seen that look pass between Cadence and Jason. They were being possessive and unreasonable as if she was their mate! But that was impossible. It had to be.
She shoved the warmth and hope that skated through her away and reminded herself that she was not looking for anything permanent. She hadn’t even let her wings loose let alone stretched them. And she sure wasn’t going to come between two brothers while they fought over her. Not just no, but hell no.
She gathered her anger at her situation, and for the first time in her life, she got in someone’s face. She stomped over to them. “I’m not some random tourist begging for a quick bang, okay? I’m stranded and you just took my options from me. This is my life. You just don’t fuck with someone’s life!”
Eryx jerked her into the length of his body by the back of her neck and her brain stuttered to a stop. His voice was dangerously low and her wolf whined in her head. “We said nothing about a quick bang, Callie. We simply want to ensure you are safe. Come with us. We mean you no harm, I swear.”
When her brain started firing again, she shoved away from him. “Don’t touch me, Eryx.”
He put his hands up. “I’m sorry. Please, don’t make any more of a scene than you already have.”
“I made a scene? You had them deny my credit card! You took my things. You stranded me on purpose, and after all that I’ve been through, that’s just, it’s wrong.” She wanted to make them feel guilty so they would let her walk away, but her statements had the opposite effect. Or, rather, no effect at all.
Ethan made a gesture to the car. “Callie, please.”
They had her by the scruff that was for damn sure. If she walked, she’d leave without her things and her whole life was in them.
“Why are you doing this to me?” Her voice sounded like it had deflated completely. Apparently she could only be bitchy for short bursts.
“Because we want to make sure that you are safe while you get your life straightened out.” Ethan said quietly.
The nuts and bolts of things for her was that she didn’t want to fight. She walked away from the pack because of all the in-fighting between the females. Even though she never tried to rank-fight, she had grown up a punching bag as much as Cadence. The two of them had commiserated over many black eyes and bruised bodies. But Cades had a warrior’s spirit and Callie didn’t. She trained to fight, to better herself and make up for her inability to shift as a half-breed. A terrific alpha, she was the model of what Callie wanted to be some day. A protector. But a protector of her own family. As a lone wolf, she could marry a human and have half-breed children that would be human, because human and wolf matings didn’t produce wolves. She would be the one that would stand beside her husband and keep their children safe. What she definitely didn’t want was to come into another were-group as an outsider and fight for position. Even as a wolf in a wolf pack she didn’t fit in right, she couldn’t imagine how she’d go about being the only wolf in a cat group. These twins were dangerous. Not just because she was drawn to them, not just because they were cats, but because their voices made things low in her belly clench and their eyes spoke of love and affection so fast it made her head spin. Determined to leave as soon as possible
, she knew the best defense was to put on a strong front and ignore everything they did for her. She would walk away before they got any ideas and she’d be on to her next stop, wherever that was going to be, immediately.
Eryx opened the door for her, sensing her resignation. They tried to engage her in conversation, but she sat stonily in the backseat alone and stared out the window. Their small three-bedroom home sat nestled in woods that just begged to be hunted. Eryx took her things into one of the bedrooms and she followed, sitting angrily on the bed. He left her alone, and she sat there like a lump trying to figure out what to do. The problem was that she couldn’t really think past how gorgeous they were and how much she wanted to be with them. A very large part of her wanted to go out into the kitchen where she knew they were talking quietly together, and grab hold of both of them.
But then her sane, logical side popped up and reminded her that she wasn’t looking for a quickie. And she definitely wasn't looking for something serious. She was trying to start fresh. A relationship, not to mention such odd feelings for two men at the same time, meant that she would have to choose between the brothers and get stuck here in this small town that was a lot like Allen. No telling how lion hierarchy worked, but she didn’t want to be the punching bag for any female lions; she just didn’t have the strength anymore. It’s why she wanted to go human. Humans didn’t have hierarchy.
The car accident had thrown a serious wrench into her plans.
Chapter 5
**Ethan**
He paced outside of the bedroom where Callie was finally sleeping. It was well past 3 a.m., and after barely eating anything for dinner, she locked herself in the bedroom for the rest of the night, seething and unhappy. Several hours later, she listened to phone messages on her cell and then cried for a long time. Both he and Eryx had wanted to go in and comfort her, but everything about her demeanor right now told them to stay away. His lion and his human nature were both clamoring in his skull to hold her and brush the tears from her cheeks, but going into her room would have only served to make her angrier. Since they were the reason she was there in the first place.
“Are you sure it was wise to not let her stay at Tom’s?” He whispered to his brother as they leaned against the wall outside of the bedroom, both too hyped up to sleep with her in the house. They had kicked Alek out and he had reluctantly gone to live with their father for an indeterminate amount of time.
Eryx scrubbed his hands through his hair with a soft growl of frustration. “I’m not sure about anything. There is war in her eyes, Ethan. She wants us, but she refuses to acknowledge it.”
“What did the doc say about being rogue when you called him earlier?”
“Uh, he said that there were a lot of reasons to go rogue, but usually there was a problem within the pack that the wolf wanted to escape. He said it was really rare for females to leave on their own and that it probably had something to do with an unwanted mating.”
“Sounds like the wolves try to pair their kind up.” He looked wistfully at the door. She just rolled over. He could hear the sheets sliding across her clothes and he wondered what she was wearing.
“Do you think it’s because we’re cats? That she thinks we don’t go together?” Eryx reached out his fingertips and touched the door, like he could feel her on the other side of it.
“I don’t think it matters that we’re two different kinds of beasts. And she’s rogue anyways, there’s no pack to tell her what to do. She can do what she wants.” He sighed and closed his eyes, leaning his head back on the wall. She was so angry with them. It was like she was a caged beast snarling at her captors. “One of us should stay home with her today, so she’s not alone. Maybe when she’s hungry, she’ll come out of the room and a little of that ice around her heart will thaw.”
“It should be you. I think I scared her at the hospital, and then later at Tom’s.” Regret was heavy in his words.
“If you want. I’m going to try to get some sleep on the couch so I can hear her if she gets up. You should go to bed.”
“Nah,” he scrubbed his face with both hands, “I’m going to shower and go in. I’ll be better off patrolling than sitting around with my thumb up my ass.”
In a few minutes, the shower was going in Eryx’s bathroom, and Ethan walked to the couch and sat down. It seemed ironic on some level that he and his brother would connect with a female from another were-group, and one that seemed very intent on walking away as soon as possible. He replayed dinner in his head, his brow knotting with frustration.
“Callie, I made dinner. We’d like you to join us.” He said, knocking on the door.
“Unless there is a cab idling in the driveway to take me back to the bed and breakfast, I’m not interested.” She sounded tired. And so sad. And almost defeated.
“Callie, please, we mean you no harm. You should eat something; you didn’t eat breakfast or lunch at the hospital. It’s not good for you to go hungry.”
The door swung open so suddenly he had to take a step back. Eyes flashing, she sneered, “What do you know about wolves, cat? Talked to that big mouthed doctor? I’ve got news for you both. He doesn’t know a damn thing about me.”
He put his hands up, surprised at her anger. “I wasn’t suggesting anything about your nature. People eat. It’s normal.”
She snorted and folded her arms. “You’re a cat, Ethan. What the hell do you know about normal?”
Touché. “I guess normal is relative. Look, I’ll be honest. You have no car, and we kind of screwed you with the bed and breakfast so you can’t go there. If you’d rather, I could take you to my father’s house, you could stay with him. He’s chief of police.”
“You could take me to a bus station.” She set her jaw with a determined, angry frown.
That thought left a bad taste in his mouth, but he didn’t say no, he hedged. “Where do you need to go?”
She chewed her lower lip for a long time and then sighed. “I don’t know.”
“Then there’s no rush.” He turned and left her in the doorway and sat down at the kitchen table where Eryx waited. Leaning over, he whispered, “She recognizes us already. She knew my name without me saying it!”
Eryx whispered, “Really? That’s more proof in my book, brother.” For certain. Even their father had trouble telling them apart at times. That their mate could after less than a day knowing them was uncanny. It was one thing to tell them apart by their personalities, or their habits, but just having a sense about it was incredible.
After a handful of minutes, she joined them at the table and then picked at the food on her plate even though her eyes said she was starving. He’d grilled steaks like he promised, and Eryx had made several different side dishes, unsure of what she would like. She said nothing, ate little, and got up without a word and went back to his bedroom.
He’d tried to go to sleep in Alek’s room, but aside from the uncomfortable mattress, the knowledge that his mate was in the house but not in his arms made his body tense and his lion growl. He’d never been through anything remotely close to this. It was gut wrenching. A dull ache that overrode everything else. He heard Eryx pacing in the hallway, and joined him. And that’s how they spent the night. Wide awake, miserable, and torn up inside. This was going to be much tougher than he thought.
**Eryx**
Grunting at the curious look of the human woman behind the desk at the station, Eryx grabbed a walkie and headed out to foot patrol. What he wanted to do was shift and run, hunt and take out his frustration on a deer or something small and fast. Jealousy knotted in his spine, thinking about Ethan at home with her, waiting, but for now there was little either of them could do for her except be there and wait out her unhappiness.
The bitter chill of the darkest part of the night tried to lick his skin off, but thoughts of Callie warmed him like a heater. Damn it, but she was stunning. All that warm, honey colored hair, her dark hazel eyes, naturally lightly tanned skin, curves for days. She was so different from
the mountain lion females. She was passionate, even pissed off, and she had quite a little temper. She was just simply incredible.
A car pulled up alongside where he was walking down the main street through town. It was a patrol car and his father was inside. The window rolled half down and he said, “I’ve got some hot chocolate, son, get in. You’ll freeze your bits off.”
He sat down in the warmth of the car and his father handed him a thermos and cranked up the heat. As they idled at the roadside, he took a long drink of the piping hot brew and sighed inwardly. “Why were we made this way, dad? Why are the males the nurturing ones, and our females want nothing from us?”
“I don’t know. It’s unfair, but it is our way. Are you worried about Callie?”
“She’s angry. And sad. We want to comfort her, but she’s so intent on leaving and having nothing to do with us. What will happen to us if our mate leaves?”
“I only know that with your mother, it’s an ache that doesn’t disappear. That she has no regard for me as anything but a member of the pride, a man to scratch an itch if she has one...it’s hell. I don’t know that it would be easier for her to be gone than to see her and not have her. But your wolf, she may just need time.”
“Doc said she might be running from a forced mating. Maybe she’s feeling trapped in a similar situation.” Eryx sighed. “I’m afraid to let her go. I don’t want her to be alone. I don’t want her out of our sight, I just…I just want. I want so badly.” His whole body trembled as he fought the emotions that were so new. He’d never wanted a woman so badly before, just as he was sure he’d never want another woman again.
“You’ll find a way. You’re mates, the three of you together, and if she’s afraid or struggling with the situation, then she may just need time. You can figure out a way to keep her in town. Give her a reason to stay.”