The Wolves Next Door

by Catherine Vale

  “No, I’m fine,” she said, her cheeks looking hot as she swept her lashes shyly down. “In fact, I’ve never felt so…alive. No, what I truly wanted to ask is…what next? Is this supposed to be some ongoing thing, a relationship, or…”

  Caine cupped her face gently and compelled her to meet his gaze. “I’d rather wait till Ryan’s here so we can explain what we’re hoping for. But I can tell you, this isn’t some fling or whatever. We’re playing for keeps, Julie. It might seem unconventional to the outside world, but this is the way we choose to share our future. With you. Just you.”

  Julie was staring at him, eyes wide. “When you talk of the future, you mean like marriage? How is that possible since there’s two of you? That’s um…illegal.”

  Caine smiled. “Obviously. Ryan’s the elder so basically you’ll wed him, but you’ll belong to both of us. Our children, our family, will be as one. Can you picture a lifetime of being with the two men who are determined to make you the center of their world?”

  “I…,” she began, her expression lost. “It’s…I never imagined this would ever happen to me. I just don’t feel that I deserve you both.”

  Caine let out a chuckle as he scooped her up into his arms. “You deserve much more than us, Julie. Though we’re hoping you’ll give us the chance to earn your love.”

  “I already love you both,” she breathed, resting her cheek against his shoulder. “More than I’ve ever loved anyone.”

  “I won’t tell you that everything will always be easy,” Caine said reluctantly. “There’s still a lot that you need to know before you agree to stay with us. But like I said, I’ll wait for Ryan before getting into that.”

  She looked up at him then, and her smile was trusting, adoring. Caine felt a pang as he wished with all his heart that she’d always look like that, look at them with trust and love and never doubt that they had her best interests at heart. They’d find a way to take care of Tre, and then they’ll let her know the truth about their Lycan heritage and how she was going to play her part as their mate, lover and wife till all eternity.

  Chapter Twelve

  This wasn’t exactly how Julie had imagined her life would be; yet she was happier than she ever thought possible, and it was only getting better.

  Here were two absolutely incredible men, whom she’d fallen deeply in love with, and who adored her and wanted a future with her in return. They were working so hard to make sure they could be together with nothing standing between them. Here, in these dark woods she had spent hours getting to know them better and with each passing minute, she could see a clearer future with the three of them blissfully happy.

  The only problem was what to do about Tre.

  “He’s never going to stop coming after me. I realize that now,” she said in a far-off voice, sitting in between Ryan and Caine on the comfortable leather sofa in front of the crackling fireplace. More than a week had passed, and she wondered how long it would be before they would have to leave the safety of their private cabin.

  “We’re working on a way to bring him down,” Ryan replied through gritted teeth. “He may have tracked you to our town, but this cabin is the last place he’ll ever find you. In the meantime, it’s our goal to link him to the attempted abduction at that restaurant. The prints on that gun didn’t match anyone on record, but that’s a search narrowed to our area. We know Tre’s original base was the city you used to live in, so it wouldn’t be hard to prove that he sent his men in an attempt to kidnap you or worse. He already has a motive, since you decided to leave him. The police would want to know why he was so keen on getting you back at all costs.”

  Julie huffed. “Well it wasn’t because he actually cared about me. He just hates to be thwarted. I’m just a toy he doesn’t want to let go of just yet,” she said bitterly. “I still can’t figure out how he found me though. Maybe I unintentionally left some sort of paper trail that led him to me. I thought I was careful. To think he had his men outside, watching us eating at that restaurant.” She shook her head and shuddered. “They had guns and would have used them. You can’t imagine how relieved I am it never came to that.”

  She smiled when both men leaned in, planting kisses on her cheek and nuzzling her closely.

  “It will be okay,” Caine said, his voice just as strained with anger as Ryan’s had been. “I’m just glad you didn’t get carted away just to keep them from shooting at us. Because it would have killed us to think of you sacrificing yourself like that for us. Promise us you’ll never do that again, Julie.”

  “I promise,” she replied quietly, sighing when Caine’s lips shifted from her cheek to her neck. Her heart pounded in instant excitement as he nuzzled her with a tenderness that grew more passionate, his lips opening over her flesh. As she moaned, her parted mouth was captured in a ravenous kiss by Ryan, his fingers raking through her hair to cup the back of her head. She shuddered helplessly as both her lovers began a passionate assault on her senses.

  She couldn’t think straight whenever this happened. And it had happened many times over the last week. That night of the dinner at Caine’s place hadn’t been a dream, she only just found out. Ryan had confessed when she’d prodded. Told her that they had been unable to resist giving her a taste of how it could be – but had chosen not to take further advantage. As both men began to kiss and fondle her body, Julie could only groan with desire, allowing her two lovers to claim her as their own.

  The heated exchange of lips on lips and hands on flesh grew more charged with energy. Clothes were ripped away only to fall to the floor, joined soon enough by their entwined bodies. Laid gently on her back on a sheepskin rug, Julie was taken to an all-new plane of carnal delights when both Ryan and Caine teased her heated body like never before. Her hard breasts were pulled into Ryan’s hot, demanding mouth and Julie let her head fall back to the floor as moans of sweet agony raked through her body. One large hand pushed in between her thighs to search out her wetness and the sensitive button that promised unbridled pleasure. As Ryan stroked skillfully at her breast, suckling hungrily on her left nipple, Caine kissed downwards from her right breast to her soaked slit and licked her skillfully to frenzied levels of ecstasy. Just at that moment she would have exploded in a forceful rush, Caine rose over her and drove his thick, long cock in to the hilt, stretching her with his rigid maleness.

  “Oh!” she cried, loving the swift, decisive staking of claim. Her core felt plumbed to the full and she reveled in the rhythm of each thrust that swelled the raging lusts within her to titanic proportions. She opened her eyes groggily when she felt a movement, to find Ryan kneeling beside her head. She only had to turn her cheek and her lips would come in contact with his thick, jutting erection, so beautifully carved she felt her mouth begin to salivate, wanting to suck hard and deep on his gorgeous shaft.

  She didn’t even have to think twice about what to do. Her fingers wrapped around his thick, silky base and her tongue lashed out to taste his sweet pre-cum. The sound of Ryan’s deep groan filled her with desire. Greedily, she opened wide and welcomed his cock into her hot, wet mouth, inch by delicious inch.

  “Mmm,” she purred, savoring the feel of Ryan expanding her lips with his beautiful cock, as she eagerly pleasured him. Caine stretched her just as fully at the heat of her core, with his shaft plowing in and out of her blazing hot pussy. The music of their mutual moans and linked bodies grew louder as their dance became more frenzied, passionate, intense.

  “Oh God… It feels so good to be inside of you, Julie,” Caine growled, leaning close enough to lick her nipple with his hot tongue. Julie moaned in response, the sound vibrating around Ryan’s shaft.

  He too, let out a deep growl of pleasure, fisting her hair gently and using it as a harness to guide her back and forth on his rock-solid length. “And having your beautiful mouth wrapped around me, pleasuring me – is enough to make me go crazy. I’m so close, Julie,” he rasped.

  “Me too,” Caine agreed, huskily. He sucked hard on a nippl
e, latching his mouth tightly around it while his thrust ramped to a piston-like tempo. Julie could only whimper, desire washing over her body, buzzing in her belly, her mind blown by a thousand sensations. Ryan thrusting in and out of her mouth at the same pace as Caine grinding powerfully inside her velvet-lined walls had her whole body dissolving into helpless quivers. Pleasure was a single most cataclysmic entity threatening to rupture her to pieces.

  “Keep going like that, sweet one and I’ll be exploding down your throat. Is that what you want, baby?” Ryan asked, holding Julie’s head in place with both hands as he looked deeply into her eyes, his expression one that clearly illustrated his incredible hunger for her. Julie’s answer was to stroke her fingers faster on his base, dragging in one last breath through her open mouth, which she pushed down on his shaft till she almost engulfed him whole. Her throat muscles worked convulsively and the vibrations as well as her strongly sucking lips had Ryan letting go of the last shred of his control as he erupted in full stream into her mouth.

  The sight of Ryan bursting forth inside Julie’s mouth and watching her swallow every drop was enough to push Caine over the edge as he came deep inside her clenching walls, his seed filling her until it was dripping down her thighs. He had to hold tight to her hips which began to spasm with her ensuing orgasm as his almost manic thrusts sent her into orbit. On and on she climaxed, and just watching her let go for them was a vision they were desperate to burn into memory. Ryan reluctantly withdrew from her mouth so she could draw in much needed air, his hands combing gently through her hair as she rested back against the soft rug, her body sated, still twitching with reflexive tremors.

  As she lay back, chest heaving and eyes closed tight, her two lovers came to lie on either side of her, their hands and lips gliding over her face, lips and body to calm her into a pleasure-induced slumber.

  * * *

  “I’ll be fine. You two don’t have to worry about me. If there’s somewhere you need to be, then go,” Julie said.

  She’d walked in on them talking about some meeting with the ‘alpha’ and though she didn’t fully understand what that meant, she sensed that being here with her had been keeping them from certain obligations.

  They turned to face her as she entered. She was wearing one of the dresses Ryan had bought her days before. It was flirty and hung on tiny straps, the hem barely skimming past her curvy thighs. She giggled as they ran their eyes over her with unconcealed masculine admiration. It felt as though they were undressing her with those hungry eyes, but Julie couldn’t be sidetracked. They’d made love in every room and possibly every position known to man and still they couldn’t seem to get enough of her. The craziest thing was, Julie felt an equal rise of excitement coating her inner thighs and knew that she’d never get enough of them either.

  She marveled at the way her once low sex drive now matched those of her two skilled lovers. She’d become absolutely insatiable and even her body had become accustomed to the many physical demands of pleasing two highly sexed, powerful men who couldn’t get enough.

  Still, she kept her attention on the matter at hand. “You guys told that this hideaway is safe, remember. Which means I’ll be perfectly fine being left on my own while you go do whatever it is that you need to take care of.”

  “It’ll only be for a few hours,” Caine agreed, advancing to her side and taking her hand to lift it to his lips for a soft kiss. “But Ryan and I have never left you here alone. Either of us has always been home to make sure you…”

  “I’m not a child, okay? I don’t need babysitting,” she teased, with a smile. No one had ever come around the place since they’d arrived nearly two weeks ago. She finally felt safe, and she was certain that nothing would happen to her if left alone in their secret hideaway. She just wanted life to get back to normal and that meant, being able to handle herself without her men hovering around like bodyguards twenty-four hours of the day.

  “Julie, we bought this place knowing that one day we’d need a location we could make a home with our chosen mate – I mean wife,” Ryan explained, also coming forward and then cupping her face in his strong hands, his masculine fingers skimming her heated skin. “Here, we’ll be safe from prying eyes and people that just don’t understand our lifestyle. But we never want you to get the impression that you’re being locked away, or imprisoned. For one thing you have a career and we respect that. When the time comes, we intend to do what’s not just best for us, but you as well.” He kissed her lips softly. “We just need time to get some things straightened out, okay? And this meeting will help with that.”

  Julie nodded, looking from Ryan to Caine with trusting eyes. “I know there’s still so much you aren’t telling me,” she said softly, eyes downcast. “But you can’t protect me from the truth forever. Over the past several days I’ve overheard you both whispering. I know you’re both hiding something important from me and I’m confused. I thought you didn’t want anything or anyone to come between us.”

  Julie glanced up to see them share a quick look. Her heart ached and she wondered why they felt that she couldn’t handle the truth – whatever the truth was.

  “You have nothing to fear with us, Julie,” Ryan replied, looking straight into her eyes. “Yes, there’s more you need to know about us but we promise, in good time. Just know that we would never, ever hurt you.”

  Julie drew in a deep, shaky breath, and nodded. Somehow, she believed them. She had to. Who else could she turn to? She was tired of running, fed up with being alone. Just this small taste of being cherished by not one, but two devoted lovers wasn’t something she wanted to give up. Whatever the cost, Julie vowed she would see it through, that she would give her heart to the most beautiful men she’d ever known. No matter the risks.

  Chapter Thirteen

  The low murmuring voices ceased when Alpha Jepson came into the hall. He was closely flanked by his Betas, both being at least six five in height and over two hundred fifty pounds of pure brawn. This wasn’t a social gathering, but a specially arranged assembly of the top ranking members of their pack. There was Alpha Jepson’s wife, Madame Alpha Agatha and many of the other highly ranking females. There were also other Betas and a few omegas, everyone there closely involved in the running of pack matters.

  The meetings never took that long and tonight wasn’t any different. Ryan and Caine felt equal relief that within an hour the issues at hand were discussed and handled. As two of the most powerful members of the pack they knew they were respectively in line to be voted in as Alpha when the time came – which wasn’t for long yet. Alpha Jepson was still in his prime, though being alpha was about who was strongest and most capable of leading the pack and it was getting to the point that Alpha Jepson might find himself challenged in that regard. Ryan and Caine had no intention of defying their alpha’s authority for whatever reason, but if the members decided to set a vote into motion then they wouldn’t have a choice but to step up to the plate. Members only felt safe when they were sure their leader was the best to protect them and their interests.

  Once the meeting was over, both men approached their Alpha to have a quiet word. He grinned when he saw them, his lined eyes twinkling. “I was speaking to Vern and Hawke the other day and they said something about you finding a mate – in the singular. Are congratulations in order?”

  Ryan and Caine looked to each other with small, wry smiles. “Yes, Alpha. We both have a mate – one mate. And that’s what we wanted to talk about. Congratulations aren’t in order till we can properly bond her to our respective wolf. But she doesn’t even know we’re Lycan yet.”

  Alpha Jepson nodded in understanding. “So when are you going to break the news to her?”

  “Tonight – when we get back home where she’s waiting,” Ryan explained.

  “Any mate of yours is welcome into our pack, of course,” Alpha Jepson said immediately. “You won’t find any problems infusing her into the kindred.”

  “Oh, won’t they?” said a female voice
from behind them.

  The three men shared frowns and turned to find Darcy walking right up to where they stood. Behind her was a handful other females, their expressions set.

  “What is the meaning of this, Darcy?” Alpha Jepson asked with more curiosity than anger.

  “With all due respect, Alpha, at these meetings you keep going on about pack security and keeping things running smoothly for the benefit of all,” Darcy replied, a small grin playing upon her blood red lips. “But how can that be so if so many potential Alpha’s are being lost to human mates?”

  Ryan let out an impatient sigh while Caine merely shook his head in exasperation. They both waited for their Alpha to respond.

  “It’s not about losing pack males, but gaining human members,” the alpha said sensibly.

  “Exactly. Human. While many females are left unmated, with their chances of finding a mate growing slimmer – especially when their own pack choose mates from outside the pack,” Darcy said bitterly, and the women behind her murmured loudly in assent.

  “We don’t choose our mates – that’s for the fates to decide,” Ryan spoke up, his eyes narrowed to slits. “Darcy, we all know this concern of yours is because of what happened between you and Caine. But Julie is our mate now and there’s nothing you can do about it, but accept it and move on.”

  Darcy’s thin lips formed a thinner line. “This isn’t some act of a scorned woman, contrary to what you think,” she said with dignity. “It’s about what’s best for our pack. How would the men of the pack feel if more and more pack females were choosing human males for mates?”

  “We’ll view it as nature taking its course,” Alpha Jepson said, his tone cool with reproof as he frowned at Darcy. “What’s wrong with you, Darcy? You aren’t some green pup. You know how this works. Mating is nature’s way for our kind to find the perfect other half that suits our needs physically, emotionally and psychologically. Now, Julie happens to be the perfect other half for Ryan and Caine. You’ll have to accept that, no matter your personal feelings on the matter. Remember, Darcy: everything finds a balance. Bonding with humans through mating can only bring us closer together; Lycan and mankind living as one will give us less desire to want to wipe the other from the face of the earth.”