by Anya Nowlan
The last few days had been pure, unadulterated hell. Rush still couldn’t believe how quickly things could change. They’d woken up with Rhett in Danni’s bed the following morning, feeling like they were gods ready to conquer the world. Nothing seemed impossible now that they knew they had found their mate.
Rush was certain of it – he knew she was the one. The first kiss had been plenty enough to confirm that his initial attraction had been right on the money, but the night they shared? That sealed the deal.
Rush knew he had meant it when he said that there would be no strings attached. But now? Fuck. All the strings were attached and there was no way of unraveling them. Not in a million years. How could he possibly claim that things could go on as they had if he didn’t have his mate by his side?
It was some cruel twist of fate to dangle the completion of the triad in front of his nose and then snatch it away. Rush grumbled to himself, kicking back in the chair on his mother’s porch. Rhett was glued to his laptop, as he had been since Danni’s rather unceremonious message about not wanting to see either of them again. She’d said she was sorry it had to end that way, but that it would certainly have to end, and that she didn’t want to hurt them.
What Rush couldn’t understand was what the hell they’d done wrong? Were they too much for her? No, that couldn’t be it. He’d seen the way Danni writhed under their touch, absolutely adoring every kiss, grope and thrust. Their bodies had come together as one and Rush knew it could only get better when the bond was sealed. But even without it the experience had been completely mind-blowing.
“So what are we going to do now?” Rush asked, glaring into the distance.
Rhett looked up, his expression almost gray. He had aged several years over the last few days. It wasn’t surprising – Rush figured he looked much the same. It wasn’t easy to come to grips with the fact that their mate might forever be out of their reach.
“We give her time. And then try again,” Rhett said, but Rush heard the way his voice wavered.
Hope was a fine thing, but it only went so far. Both of them had tried every imaginable way to get her to talk to them, but so far it had produced nothing but additional heartache.
The sun had already set and it was dark, but sleep wasn’t something that came easily to the Dean brothers in their current state. Rush had been training himself to exhaustion every day in the hopes of catching a few moments of rest, and Rhett had been working his fingers to the bone. Rush was pretty sure that his brother might have doubled their market value in the last two days alone.
Just more to give away, I guess, he thought grimly, remembering that their birthday wasn’t far at all.
He was about to add to their listless conversation when something in him tugged painfully. His eyes went wide and wild and met Rhett’s, who looked just as shaken.
“Danni,” they said together, leaping out of their seats so fast that they sent the chairs toppling over.
Rush jumped over the porch’s guardrail and hit the ground running, with Rhett just a few steps behind. They shifted so fast that Rush had to take a moment to let his two personae adjust – the human sink down and the bear rise up – but he didn’t stop for a second. His feet carried him towards Danni’s home at the speed of the wind. Something was wrong. She was in danger. The bond might not have been sealed but both Rush and Rhett felt it in their bones, at the very bottom of their souls. She was tied to them for life.
Rhett had fallen somewhat behind by the time they reached Danni’s house. Rush could smell another shifter there, and the growl that bristled up from within told him in no few words that his bear didn’t think that shifter had good intentions. He bounded up the few stairs leading to the porch and slammed his weight against the front door.
It cracked and creaked, and the second time he pounded into it, the door fell straight off its hinges. Danni screamed, back against the wall and tears in her eyes. Rush roared, catching the tail end of the other shifter’s transformation. It was a lion, a great big hulking one. The lion’s mane was thick and luxurious, and his coat gleamed a rich copper tone – all indications that the shifter was (perhaps a little bit too) well fed and well kept.
The lion hissed, putting himself between Rush and Danni. She was trembling like a leaf. When Rhett pushed in through the door as well, the living room was pretty much filled to the brim with shifters, Danni’s little house not exactly the best staging ground for a shifter battle.
Rush shared a look with Rhett and they leapt into action together. They’d never had to fight much, but they would stop at nothing for their mate. Rush went to the right while Rhett went to the left – the lion didn’t know what hit him when both of the big Mississippi black bears bulldozed into him from the sides. Rhett grabbed him by the scruff of the neck, dragging him out of the house while the lion yowled in pain, swiping left and right and trying to get the bears off of him. Rush took a great big chomp out of his rump, which made the lion move a lot faster.
Rhett tossed him off the porch and both of the Dean brothers were on the lion immediately. Taylor roared in fury, long white teeth gnashing at the bears. Rush growled low in his throat as the razor teeth cut into the skin on his neck, drawing blood. The lion was a fighter, at least he had that going for him. Though a cowardly puss who cornered a defenseless woman was not worthy of the praise.
Rush ignored the pain and his nails dug into the soft underbelly of the lion. He thrashed against him, but Rhett was on him from the other side, ripping at his back. The fight went out of the lion fast, the cuts and wounds that the bears could inflict overpowering him easily. Instead of the threatening roars the big cat had given before, it now only mewled and yelped in fear. Rush raised his paw to strike him, but the lion contorted on the ground, just within the sphere of light cast by the lamp, and turned back into his human form.
His bear wanted to rip the bastard to shreds. Anyone who dared lay a finger on his mate deserved nothing less than death. But Rhett stopped him, putting himself between Rush’s rage and the trembling man on the ground, backing away on his hands and feet.
With far more effort than Rush cared to admit, he shifted into his human form at the same time as Rhett did. Rush walked over to the man, who was still on the ground, his green eyes filled with fear, and stopped his further escape.
“Danni, did he do something to you?” he yelled, his blue eyes set square on the bastard before him.
“No,” she squeaked lowly, standing at the shattered doorway.
“You can tell us the truth, Daniela,” Rhett said, always the more composed one.
Rush’s hands were balled into fists as Rhett walked up the stairs and stopped in front of Danni. The lion in the dirt looked like his tongue had been ripped out of his mouth – he was nothing less than pathetic.
“Are you sure he didn’t do anything to you?” Rush heard Rhett ask.
“Yes, he didn’t touch me. He’s… he’s my ex-boyfriend. He saw your post on SassyDate and he tracked me down. He cheated on me with an acquaintance of mine and I left him, but I guess he still thought he had some claim over me,” Danni said, her voice surprisingly clear.
“I should pound that face of yours into the fucking dirt. You’re a disgrace to shifters everywhere,” Rush hissed, his body shaking with the need to teach the dirtbag a lesson.
“No. Let him go, please. He’s not worth it,” Daniela said with a sigh.
Reluctantly, Rush kept his anger at bay. He lowered his voice so only the lion could hear, leaning down towards him.
“If I ever see you anywhere near her… Or anywhere near Shifter Grove… I will make sure you no longer have a mouth to talk out of or fingers to text anyone with. I’ll shear off that mane of yours and wear it as a fucking pelt. And my brother there will destroy whatever hope you have of a future or a career. Don’t think we won’t do it.
I’ll let you go now because Danni’s found it in her huge heart to show that bit of mercy to you, but I don’t think you deserve that kind of courtesy. I think scum li
ke you should be destroyed and buried before you can hurt anyone else. So count your blessings that this beautiful woman has decided to let you go, because my brother and I never forgive, never forget. You understand? Fucking nod if you do.”
The lion nodded quickly, his head waggling up and down so fast that Rush thought it might break off.
“Fantastic. Now get the fuck out of my face.”
Taylor didn’t need to be told twice. He jumped up and ran into the darkness of the night. A very big part of Rush wanted to go after him and break both his legs.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Rhett
“I think we need to talk,” Rhett pushed out through gritted teeth.
He could feel Rush’s anger from thirty feet away. Danni might not have heard more than mumbled words, but Rhett’s hearing picked up on the threat, and he would have been a liar to claim that he didn’t feel exactly the same way as his brother did. It gnawed at him from the inside to know that their mate had been in danger and that they could have been too late to help her.
Hell, what if she had gone somewhere else, left Shifter Grove, and then that lion bastard had found her? His blood boiled at the merest thought of it. He knew then and there that they had no other choice. They would have to talk to Danni, reason with her, understand her worries, and settle things. It was the only way they could hope to continue their lives without completely losing their minds out of fear or worry for her well-being.
There was no way in hell he could have gone home at that point and just left Danni alone.
“I think you’re right,” Danni said, nodding slightly.
She wiped the tears from her eyes and sat down on the porch swing. Rhett didn’t think he was capable of sitting down. If anything, he wanted to pace back and forth until he wore a groove in the hardwood. Rush bounded up the stairs as well, each muscle flexed and ready to leap into action and protect their mate.
“I’m sorry you had to see our bears like that,” Rush said, sitting down on his haunches next to Danni.
Spirits above, it was good seeing Danni again. She smiled a little, and it was like a balm to the soul, smoothing out Rhett’s edges. Rush met her smile and Rhett knew his brother felt the same.
“Well, I knew you were shifters. But it might have been better to meet them without having them rip off the front of my house,” Danni said with a chuckle, pointing at the sad-looking hole that used to be her doorway.
Rush looked a bit sheepish.
“I’ll fix it,” he promised.
“Danni, do you want to tell us what’s been going on? I don’t want to push you, but I think you felt what we did. That this isn’t just something that will go away. There’s something here, something special between the three of us. Rush and I know what this means for us, and we don’t want to browbeat you into anything, but I got the feeling you sensed it too. Or at least that you’d be willing to see us again. What happened?”
The silence that fell between them was almost deafening and hellishly long. When Danni threw glances between him and Rush, he thought the anticipation would kill him. Did she like one of them more than the other and didn’t want to choose? Were they too much for her? Did she realize that this was heading into the Alpha triad and it was just too damn much to deal with? What was it!?
“I talked to your mother.”
Rhett and Rush let out a collective groan. Rush propped his head on his hands, his elbows digging into his knees. Mama Dean always had a way of complicating things.
“And what did she say?” Rush asked.
“That…”
Danni blushed – dammit, it still looked just as cute as before.
“That she thought you two were getting played by a woman who just wanted your money. That she was making you argue and not tell one another things that you otherwise would. I didn’t want to be the one responsible for making you two fight or your mother worry. I thought things were going really well and that night was… Well, it was… It was everything. But I know I’m not great at reading people, so when your mother talked about how much she was worried about you two… I… I’m so sorry.”
Rhett and Rush both sat down on either side of her. The swing creaked and groaned threateningly. They didn’t pay it any heed. A weight fell from Rhett’s heart – it was a problem he could fix. Thank the spirits!
“Our mother got the wrong idea,” Rush began, snaking a hand around Danni’s waist.
“We weren’t fighting. She saw us bursting out of the house when we both realized we’d been chasing the same woman. We didn’t tell each other about you before because I didn’t want to put that kind of stress on you before I was sure you felt something for me.”
“Same here,” Rush confirmed.
Danni’s big blue eyes were wet with tears and Rhett had to fight himself to keep from kissing the pain in those gorgeous eyes away.
“We both want you so badly. We’re sure you are our mate, our third, and nothing you did could ever hurt us. You can only make us better. Work harder together, figure things out faster… be better men. Without you, we’re worse. The last few days without you have been… I can’t really put it into words, but there has been a void in me that I can’t seem to fill.”
“An emptiness,” Rush echoed, looking deathly serious.
“I’ve missed you too,” Danni said with a small voice that made Rhett want to pull her onto his lap and cuddle her until she felt better.
“And?” Rush urged, impatient as always.
“And I didn’t want things to go like this. I never thought Taylor would be insane enough to show up here… And I never thought I’d end up dating twin brothers at the same time! Let alone really, really liking them both… That night was fantastic and I was on top of the world the next morning, but after the conversation with your mother, I felt like I was doing more harm than good. You have to believe me when I say that I didn’t know you two were Deans! Or so… rich! I mean I should have realized, but my head’s been so full of everything lately that apparently I’ve lost my capability to reason!”
Rhett and Rush chuckled. They’d spent a lot of time in their lives trying to fly under the radar and it seemed they’d got very good at it.
“We believe you. We both should have told you earlier that dating one meant dating the other as well. I guess both of us just wanted to keep you to ourselves a moment longer than was wise.”
Rush nodded.
“I wanted to keep both of you, too,” Danni admitted with a smile.
“But you can!” Rush interjected, squeezing her side.
“You totally can,” Rhett confirmed with a laugh. “If mama finds out it’s you we’ve been dating, she’ll be ecstatic. She can’t shut up about how nice and sweet and great you are, and how we should date someone like you.”
“Pouring salt on the wounds,” Rush noted.
Danni giggled, and it was a heavenly sound.
“You think so?” she asked.
“We know so,” Rhett said, all the confidence in the world on his side.
“I’d like to say that there are still no strings attached, but I have to be honest with you – we both want you more than anything in the world. You’re the one, I’m sure of it. And, we just want a chance to prove it to you. Would you give us a shot?” Rush asked, flooding his words with that Dean charm.
Rhett had to admit that he wasn’t the only one with some negotiating skills. When the time called for it, his little brother could be surprisingly smooth!
“I don’t want to hurt anyone… Or get hurt,” Danni said softly.
Rhett threw his hand around her shoulders and kissed her cheek.
“We would never hurt you. And if you hurt us, well, we’ll get over it. We’re big bears.”
She thought about that for a moment and the silence dragged on for too long again, grating at Rhett’s nerves. When she finally looked up at them, he was just inches from bursting with anticipation.
“Only if you promise to tell me everything from now on!
”
“Promise!” the Dean brothers said in unison, grinning their sly, wolfish smiles.
Rhett’s body was already brimming with hunger. He knew she was going to taste delicious, and now there wasn’t a thing in the world that was going to stop him and Rush from getting a taste.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Danni
Her head spun. She’d been talking with Rhett and Rush on the porch for an hour or so after she had agreed to give things a chance, just hashing out the details.
Everything she enjoyed about spending time with them came flooding back to her. Rush’s laugh and his happy spirit that really did give her a rush, and Rhett’s calm insightful ways, always making her think that there was a better future ahead. They made her better and filled her with a desire to share that sensation with the world around her.
At first, it had started with a peck on the cheek from Rush, and then from Rhett. It didn’t take much to turn into a full-on make-out session, and when Rhett’s hand slipped under her cardigan, squeezing her ample bosom, she could barely squeak out that maybe they should retire into the bedroom before things got too heated.
The Dean brothers didn’t have to be asked twice. She giggled as she found herself quickly flung over Rush’s shoulder and carried into the house like a prize; somehow she also lost her panties on the way from the porch to the bedroom… Curious, that.
When she landed on the bed – the wide California King seeming like a very wise choice now – her body was buzzing with need. Rhett and Rush both tore off their shirts and the hunger that blazed in their eyes was equaled only by the fire she felt inside of her. Danni got on her knees quickly, tearing at their belt buckles, undoing them with the kind of urgency that comes from wishing and praying for that exact moment for far too long.
“Let’s get that off of you,” Rhett hissed, pulling her top over her head.
Just as easily, he undid her bra and slipped it off of her. She didn’t feel self-conscious for a moment under their lustful gazes. She just wanted more, right away.