The wolf sat on his haunches and stayed very still. He cocked his head to one side and blinked as though assessing her.
Amanda looked past the animal and glanced around, wondering where Logan went.
“Logan is the wolf, Amanda,” Sawyer confirmed. “Like he said, we’re shifters.”
“Shifters,” she repeated. Wolf shifters. “You expect me to believe Logan just miraculously changed into an animal?”
“You saw him. So yes.”
“I know I saw him, but I assume you guys are like magicians or something.”
“Nope. We really are shifters.”
“There’s no such thing.”
“There is. You just didn’t know it.” Sawyer released her hands and stroked a palm up her arm, making her shiver.
“Uh-huh.”
The wolf, or Lord have mercy, Logan, stuck his enormous paws out in front of him, too close to her legs.
“He won’t hurt you. Ever. In fact, he’ll do everything in his power to protect you. We both will.”
Amanda jerked her gaze to Sawyer. “You can do that too?”
“Yes. You want me to? We thought one of us should demonstrate and the other explain.”
She nodded. Valid point.
Wait. Not a valid point. There were no valid points or anything. Just more questions.
She glanced away, toward the front door. Everyone was inside now. And the door was shut. Where was Laurie?
They sat in near darkness so far from the porch light.
“Yes, you want me to shift? Or no, you would prefer I explain?” Sawyer asked.
“No. Please. No. One’s enough.”
He chuckled. “I know it’s overwhelming.”
“Do you? I’m not sure you can appreciate the full volume of my complete disbelief.”
“You’re probably right.” He turned toward the wolf. “Shift back. She’s freaked.”
Before Amanda could manage to inhale and exhale, the wolf popped and squirmed in front of her until Logan once again stood before her.
Was he ever not erect like that?
Jesus.
He picked up his jeans. “You want me to put these back on, or you want to keep ogling me?” he teased.
She squeezed her eyes closed. “God. Please. Put your pants on.”
“Hey, I’m sure I’m not as big as Sawyer there, but I can’t say a woman has ever covered her eyes in disgust before.” He chuckled again, more of a nervous noise than a joke.
“Stop teasing her, Logan. She’s about to have a heart attack.”
“Sorry,” Logan mumbled.
She heard his zipper and opened her eyes. “Is this how you introduce yourself to all your girlfriends?”
Chapter Seven
Sawyer couldn’t believe their good fortune.
Amanda was amazing. Of course, it was common knowledge that when mates met, they automatically found the other attractive whether it was true or not. But he was certain he’d truly hit the lottery.
She was smaller than he would have expected, considering he and Logan were huge. But her spunk made up for her stature.
Her thick black hair hung like silk, and he couldn’t wait to run his fingers through it. Her skin was fair and smooth. And her eyes. Jesus. Deep blue that made his cock hard just looking at them.
Logan chuckled at her unintended joke. “I’ve never actually demonstrated my abilities before.” He groaned as soon as the words left his mouth. “Shifting, I mean.”
Amanda lifted both hands, palms out. “Okay. Okay. Fine. Good.”
Sawyer brushed a lock of hair from her face and lifted her chin with one finger. “I’ll shift also if you’d like. Or I can do it another time.”
She shook her head. A bit too violently. “I’m good. I think now’s a good time for me to go.”
“Go where?” Logan asked.
Sawyer shot him a sharp look.
“Home, of course. It’s late.”
There was no way in hell Sawyer wanted her to leave. “Stay. Please. I know it’s overwhelming, but we would die if you left.”
“Die?”
“Figure of speech. Not literally. At least I don’t think so.” Logan resumed his spot on the chair in front of her, scooting it closer. He hadn’t put on anything more than his jeans, and he hadn’t bothered to button those.
Amanda’s gaze zoned in on Logan’s crotch, and she licked her lips again. Probably a nervous habit, but Sawyer took it as a good sign. She was curious.
He fought to keep from adjusting his own cock next to her. In truth, he was busting at the seams and had been since she walked onto the porch.
“A few more minutes then. It’s not like you can keep me forever.”
“You have a new life now,” Sawyer said.
She jerked. “I don’t think so.”
Logan spoke again. “Nobody’s going to keep you anywhere against your will. But you have to understand how things work in our world.” He leaned forward, his elbows on his knees. “Forces beyond our control decide who we mate. We call it Fate. She makes choices we don’t control, and frankly, we don’t question Her judgment because She’s always right.
“When we meet the woman we’re destined to spend our life with, it all falls into place. Granted, it’s rare that we happen to meet a human woman, but it happens. In fact, Rebecca’s human.”
“Rebecca? Are you trying to tell me everyone else inside can shift into a wolf like you just did?”
“Yes. If it helps, we could have her come out here and talk to you,” Logan suggested.
“Uh. Okay. Not now. But maybe later.”
“She’s amazing, and she’s been through what you’re experiencing now.” Sawyer couldn’t keep his hands off her. He kept squeezing her hand, stroking her back, or brushing her hair aside. And every single time he did so, he grew more aroused. It was going to be a long night.
“And she lives with two wolves?”
“Yes. My brother Griffen and Sawyer’s half brother, Miles.” Logan rubbed his hands on his jeans, flattening his palms. His knees brushed against Amanda, but other than that, Sawyer was touching far more of her skin.
If her nipples beaded any further than they had already, Sawyer would be forced to unapologetically lean forward and suck one into his mouth through her shirt.
Worse than her nipples was the scent of her arousal through her jeans. And she constantly squirmed next to him, undoubtedly trying to adjust herself to ease the pressure of her jeans against her pussy. He wanted to strip them off her so badly his chest ached thinking about what she must look like under her clothing.
“And they have two kids. How does that work?”
“It’s different for everyone, but most mate groups like this let nature take its course. That usually means each baby is created by whichever father happens to beat out the sperm war.” Sawyer hesitated. “Sorry, that was sort of crude.”
“Uh-huh.” She shivered. “And do you,” she pointed back and forth between them, “you know…sleep with each other too?”
“No.” Logan shook his head. “At least none of the members of our families do, as far as I know.”
“Do you realize how ridiculous this all sounds?”
“Yes.” He blew out a breath. “It must sound beyond absurd to you now. But it’ll sink in slowly.”
“Why two men? Why not two women?”
“We don’t know. And in fact, the entire crazy notion of having three in a group is extremely rare. In most packs it’s unheard of. We have no idea why this has happened to our two families. It even extends to all of my cousins in Oregon,” Logan added.
“So there are other more, uh, regular wolves out there with just one wife?”
“Yes. But we call ourselves mates.”
“And you think I’m your mate.”
Logan nodded. “We know it. You do too.” He let that sink in a second. “We don’t control it. We scent it. When we meet our mate or mates, we can scent them in a crowded room and know. Our enti
re being shifts on its axis, and all we can think about is claiming her.”
“Claiming her?”
Sawyer fielded that one. “Technically, until we have sex with you, you aren’t really our mate. Not fully.”
She jumped off the chair and hurdled behind it so fast, Sawyer didn’t have a second to react. “If you think I’m going to let you two have sex with me, you’ve lost your minds.” She licked her lips on that statement, however, knowing she wanted nothing less than exactly that.
Sawyer sat very still, not wanting to startle her further. He watched as she continued to back up, her chest heaving as she breathed. Her nipples were still sharp points he longed to see and taste. And the worst part was her pussy was soaking wet with need.
She could verbally deny the attraction with as much vehemence as she could muster, but her body already betrayed her.
“I need to go.” She turned and ran across the porch and down the stairs.
Logan jumped up first, racing behind her with Sawyer following on his tail. It was Logan who spun her around as she reached her car, and he leaned into her body against the cool metal.
She breathed as if she’d run much farther than the short distance to her car. “Please.” She turned her face to one side, meeting Sawyer’s gaze to avoid Logan’s.
“Baby,” Logan began, gently. “You can’t just leave. I mean technically, you can, but I would be a jackass to let you. You’re distraught and confused. You’d never make it home without having an accident.” He threaded one hand into her hair and held her head steady while Sawyer watched. “I know this is fucked up. I know you’ve never been so confused in your life. And I want you to know we will never pressure you. You’ll sleep with us when you’re ready. Not a second before that.”
“You’re going to have blue balls if you wait for me to decide to have sex with you two. I wouldn’t sleep with you if there was only one of you. I wouldn’t sleep with either of you if you hadn’t demonstrated you were half animal. I’m not that kind of girl. I ordinarily tend to date men for a while before crossing into that territory. Like months. Not minutes.”
Sawyer stepped closer and cupped the side of her face Logan wasn’t holding. “We know that. And we understand how hard this is. But you won’t be able to deny us. That’s how Fate operates. You’re ours. It’s permanent and indisputable.”
She blinked. “I can’t think straight when you’re both in my space.”
“I know.” Sawyer smiled at her. “We can’t either. Trust me.”
“Trust you?”
“You can run, but you won’t be able to stay away. The pull is that strong.”
Sawyer turned around when he sensed someone behind him. Two someones. Laurie and Rebecca.
“Logan,” Laurie groaned, “give her some space. She’s confused.”
Logan released her immediately and stepped back. He looked like he’d lost his best friend.
Amanda sighed, taking deep breaths. “Thank you,” she said to Laurie. And then she turned toward Rebecca. “They said you would answer my questions.”
“All of them. Any time you need me. Day or night.” Rebecca handed her a card. “My cell phone is on there.”
“So it’s true? These people are wolves? And you live among them?”
“It’s all true. And yes, I live with my mates.”
“And you sleep with both of them? What? Do you take turns?”
Rebecca bit her lower lip and held up a hand when Sawyer started to answer that question. She turned to face him. “How about you give me a few minutes alone with Amanda?”
Sawyer hesitated, but Logan grabbed his arm and hauled him away. They headed back to the porch and sat on the middle step while they watched Rebecca and Laurie interact with their mate.
It was painful to say the least. Sawyer already burned for her, openly adjusting his cock next to Logan. Moving several yards away didn’t help at all. If anything, it put fuel in the fire.
Chapter Eight
Amanda ignored the giants who finally sauntered toward the house, but only as far as the porch. They didn’t let her out of their sight.
She felt a weird sense of unease when they stepped away. Not that she thought Laurie or Rebecca were a threat, but because she craved the presence of her men.
What was she thinking? Her men? Gah.
“As I was saying,” Rebecca continued, turning them all so her back was to the porch and no one could see Amanda’s face, “in order for the claiming to be complete, you’ll eventually sleep with both men. Together. Yes, sometimes in your life you’ll have sex with just one or the other, but not the first time, and it won’t happen as often as you’d think.
“At first, you won’t be able to fight the need to fuck like a bunny night and day. It’s a drive you can’t comprehend until it happens to you. It’s the way of wolves, and for some reason, even when they mate with a human, that attraction is no less fierce.”
Laurie spoke next. “I’m so sorry. I had no idea this would happen when I asked you to babysit. I’m sure your sister’s going to kill me when she finds out. This possibility never occurred to me.”
“Trust me,” Rebecca continued, “I know your instinct is to run and hide, but you can’t hide forever. You won’t be able to sleep or eat or concentrate. All you’ll be able to think about is when you’ll see them again. It’s powerful, and when you finally give in to the need, you’ll find yourself in a world that is amazing and beautiful and so much better than any relationship regular humans ever have.”
“You’re saying when I go home, I won’t be able to keep my mind off them? That’s crazy.” There was no way she believed that. And she fully intended to prove it.
Although in reality she hadn’t been able to sleep well for weeks because of thoughts of them, and that was before she knew they weren’t imaginary dream characters.
“It will consume you until you have no choice but to give in. And you won’t be sorry. The sex is that good.”
Amanda swallowed hard. Sex with two men. “I’m not ready for this.”
Laurie nodded. “I know you probably don’t have much experience. I can sense it. I’m…intuitive.”
“Among other things,” Rebecca added. “Let’s not get into that.” She turned back to Amanda. “What you need to know for now is that Logan and Sawyer will be understanding. I promise. Just talk to them. Tell them to slow down and back the fuck off if you need to.
“They may be led by their cocks, but they will not pressure you to handle more than you can all at once.”
“Are you serious? This is already way more than I can ever handle.” She ran her hands through her hair. “I’ve never been so confused in my life. I think I’ve lost my mind. Two men whom I’ve been dreaming about for weeks show up on the porch of some communal living facility and claim they own me. If that’s not weird enough, one of them strips his clothes off and turns into a wolf. A wolf,” she yelled, a bit too loud.
She lowered her voice and continued just above a whisper. “I’m way the fuck past what I can ‘handle.’ Trust me. And there’s no way I can have sex with anyone I just met. I left my parents’ home only a month ago after living twenty-five years under the strict thumb of my ultra-conservative mother who rarely let me enjoy a moment of my life without pushing the Bible and all of its teachings down my throat. I’m barely coming out of that fog. This is over the top.”
She stepped a few feet from the car and began to pace in a small circle that allowed her to continue whispering to the women but kept Logan and Sawyer from eavesdropping from the porch. “I’ve had just a handful of boyfriends and slept with only three men. None of them made it seem all that interesting.” She had no idea why she was telling all this to two women she hardly knew.
Laurie smiled at her with understanding. “I promise Logan and Sawyer will change your opinion about sex in two seconds flat. In our world we’re wired that way. We crave it more frequently than regular humans, and we enjoy it far more.” She turned toward Reb
ecca. “Even a human claimed by a wolf finds that to be true. Right?”
Rebecca grinned. “Oh yeah. You’ll never look back.”
“I don’t see that happening.” Amanda stopped pacing to face them both. “Why am I even discussing this issue? There’s no way in hell I’m having sex with anyone. Not in the near future. Maybe after months of dating someone new, but not tonight. And never with two men. Not a chance.”
Rebecca stepped closer, also keeping her voice down. “Let me talk to them. And please stay here at Laurie’s house tonight. She’s already called your sister and told her that was the plan.”
Amanda jerked her gaze to Laurie. “She bought that?”
Laurie frowned. “Why wouldn’t she? She sounded kinda glad, actually. I’m sure as much as she loves having you and sharing her apartment, she could use a night without her sister in the same space just as much as anyone else would. I don’t even think she was alone when I spoke to her.”
Amanda’s eyes went wide. She was so stunned she couldn’t speak for a second. “Mary? You must be mistaken. We were raised by the same parents, after all. I seriously doubt she was excited to hear I wasn’t coming home so that she could shack up with some guy. She isn’t even dating anyone.”
Laurie’s eyes shot open at least as wide as Amanda imagined hers to be. “Uh. You… Um… I never said she was with a guy.”
“You just implied she was looking forward to spending the night with someone while I was out of the house. I know the two of you have been friends for a while, but that’s not like my sister.”
“Right. Of course. Sorry.” Laurie closed her mouth and bit her lower lip.
The world had gone completely mad. Amanda would swear Laurie was keeping several thoughts to herself. But that was the least of Amanda’s concerns at the moment. She wrung her hands in front of her and pondered this situation. The truth was it was getting late. In fact it was much later than it had been when Laurie first would have called Mary.
“You have an extra room for me? I won’t be putting anyone out?”
“We have plenty of space.”
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