by Jane Jamison
Paul and Wick lowered their bodies to the ground, hoping to make themselves look less threatening. They kept their ears forward and their tails wagging side by side, true signs that they were friendly.
“Darlin’, try to calm down.” She hadn’t mentioned seeing his brothers change, but how could she have missed it?
She dragged in several deep breaths, the trembling slowly subsiding. “Turn me free, Shane.”
He was hesitant to do so. “Are you all right?”
She craned her neck around to glare at him. “Turn me free.”
He did, releasing her slowly, gently. As soon as he wasn’t touching her any longer, she dashed toward the chupacabra. Falling to her knees, she bent over the animal then put a hand to its head. “Mom? Is it you? Mom, please answer me. Please come back to me.”
Shane came up behind her but didn’t touch her. He’d let her have her time, giving her the chance to say good-bye. If the animal wasn’t her mother, they’d keep looking. But if it was, then they’d be there for her.
The chupacabra moved. It was a slight movement, but enough to show it was still alive. Its eyes opened and stared up at Tasha.
“Mom?”
“Be careful, Tasha. It might not be your mother.” He stood at the ready in case the animal tried to bite her.
“Mom, please come back to me,” she begged.
Shane was almost certain the animal wasn’t Tasha’s mother, but when he noticed her form growing blurry and heard the snap of its bones changing, he knew he was wrong.
Wary, Tasha eased back as the animal shifted. Soon, a woman who looked like an older version of Tasha lay on the ground.
* * * *
It can’t be. This is not my mother.
Yet, as much as she hoped she was right, she had to face the facts as the chupacabra changed into a woman. A sob broke from Tasha as she pulled her mother onto her lap.
“Mom? Mom, just stay calm. We’re going to get you help. I promise.”
Promise. Hadn’t the men promised her they’d help find her mother? But they’d been too late.
“Honey?” Her mother’s voice was only a whisper.
“Yeah, Mom. I’m here.” Tasha wiped a tear away. “Don’t talk. Save your strength.” At last, she turned toward Shane. “Call someone, please. Get her help.” Her gaze flitted to the two wolves sitting next to her mother’s hunters. She darted her gaze back to her mother, unwilling and unable to handle anything more than taking care of her mother.
Not now. Maybe later.
“Honey, it’s okay.” Blood trickled from her mother’s mouth and down her chin.
“Please, Mom.”
Please what? Don’t die? Don’t let the wound in your chest bleed all over my legs?
“I’m sorry I wasn’t a better mother.” Her mother stopped, her face scrunching in pain, her eyes closing. When she opened her eyes again, they were dotted with red. Was it the red of the chupacabra’s eyes? Or was it blood?
“It doesn’t matter now. All that matters is that you stay alive. Please. Don’t leave me.” Not again.
Her mother managed a weak smile. “I love you, honey. Through it all, I always loved you.”
She never would’ve believed she’d hear those words ever again. Never would’ve believed she’d say them to her mother. “I love you, too, Mommy.”
Her mother attempted to lift a hand to touch her. Tasha took hold of her mother’s hand and lifted it for her, placing it against her cheek. “Please, don’t die.”
“Are they dead?”
Tasha didn’t want to talk about the hunters. “They can’t hurt you now. But, Mom, please don’t talk. Save your strength.”
“I have to tell you. They wanted me dead.” Her mother managed a weak smile. “Looks like they’re going to get what they wanted.”
“But why?”
Her mother groaned, closing her eyes against the pain. “Because I dared to love them.”
Tasha’s mind whirled. “What? I don’t understand.”
“I loved them both. And they loved me. But that was before”—her mother groaned again—“I was bitten. Before I became something they couldn’t love. When they found out, they couldn’t stand the idea of being involved with an animal. I tried to leave, but that wasn’t enough. They wanted me gone forever. Erased as though I never existed.”
Tasha glanced at the dead men. Their bodies were bloodied and torn, but she felt no sympathy. She shook her head, silently asking her mother to keep quiet. “Hang on. We’re going to get you help.”
“It’s too late.” Again, her mother closed her eyes against the pain. When she opened them, she looked to Shane. “I should never have involved her. Don’t tell anyone about them. Get rid of their bodies. Get rid of mine.”
“No. You’re going to be all right. You have to be.” Tears wet her face. How could she bear to lose her mother yet again?
The pain shone in her mother’s eyes. “I’m sorry, honey.”
“No. Mom, don’t.”
Her mother drew in a ragged breath then slowly exhaled it.
Tasha stared at her mother, willing her to take another breath. Yet she knew she wouldn’t. She was gone. “Nooo!” she wailed. “Please, come back. Mommy, come back.” She’d said the same words so many years earlier and never thought she’d say them again.
Shane took her by the arms. “Darlin’, let me take care of her. Come on. Let’s get you back to the ranch.”
Pain turned into an ugly anger. “You promised you’d find her.” She kept her attention glued to her mother as she gently eased her off her lap and onto the ground. “You promised.”
“I’m sorry. We tried, but we were too late.”
The pain erupted into even more anger. Shoving him away, she staggered to her feet and whirled on him. “Get away from me!” She pointed at him then switched to pointing at the two wolves. “All of you just stay the fuck away from me!”
“Darlin’—”
“Shut up!” Tears burned in her eyes and blurred her vision. “You lied to me. You promised you’d find her.” She pulled her lips back into a snarl. “You’re nothing but animals! I know what you are. You’re fucking werewolves.” Her focus shifted back to Shane, unsure, but assuming he was like his brothers. “All of you.”
“Let us explain.”
But she had no intention of listening to Shane, to any of them. “No. Leave me alone.”
Still, she couldn’t help but stare as the two wolves began to change, their forms blurring as her mother’s had. Soon enough, they were back in their human forms. “You’re werewolves.” If she said the words enough times, would believing become easier?
Paul and Wick moved toward her then stopped at her glare. “It’s true, sugar. We’re werewolves. How’d you know?”
She snorted her derision. “I didn’t. Not until you changed. But it doesn’t take a fucking genius to figure it out. My mother was a shifter. Once I saw you change and attack those men, I knew.”
“Well, at least we don’t have figure out how to tell her now.”
Paul and Shane glared at Wick. “Now’s not the time for jokes, man,” said Paul. He took a few more steps closer. “Sugar, you’re probably still in shock. Let’s round up the horses and get you back home.”
She rushed to snatch up the tranquilizer gun. Raising it, she pointed it at Paul. “Stay back. Stay the hell back or I’ll shoot you. I swear I will.”
“You don’t mean that,” said Shane as he moved toward her, too. “We won’t hurt you. You know that. We love you. You’re our mate.”
“Mate.” She laughed. “Now the word makes sense. I’m supposed to be your mate. I’m supposed to be your bitch.”
Anger flared in Paul’s eyes, amber bits highlighting them. Their eyes had been full of amber as wolves. “Your eyes. I always meant to ask you. Your eyes get amber in them because you’re werewolves.”
“When our wolf comes closer to the surface, then, yes, our eyes fill with amber,” answered Wick.
He stripped off his shirt then walked over and covered her mother’s torso with it. “We’ll take her home with us and give her a decent burial.”
“No. She told you what to do. You’d better damn well do it.”
“Whatever you want, baby.”
Her mother had known it would end up with her death. Tasha, however, had dared to think she could save her. She couldn’t get the refrain out of her head. “You promised to find her.”
“We did. And we kept that promise.” Paul shook his head. “I’m sorry we didn’t keep the promise in time.”
Suddenly, looking at her mother again, the anger fell away, eroded by the overwhelming pain. “She’s dead.”
They were with her then, taking the gun away as they pulled her into a circle of their comfort. She moaned then, unable to hold it back any longer, turned the sobs free.
“It’s going to be okay, baby,” said Wick. “We’ll take care of everything.”
Paul pulled her close, wrapping his strong arms around her. “Let it out, sugar. Let it out.”
She did, crying harder than she’d ever cried before. “She’s gone. I loved her, and now she’s gone.” Every ounce of strength fled her. Her legs buckled, and she felt herself falling.
Paul lifted her into his arms. “Let’s go home.”
* * * *
Tasha drew in the smell of the rose bush the men had planted along the railing of the house. She smiled, remembering how they’d argued over the best way to plant the bushes.
Her mother had loved roses. That was one of the few things she remembered about her mother from her childhood. Strange how she’d started remembering good memories of her mother. Perhaps her mother hadn’t been a good parent, but maybe she’d tried her best. At least, in the end, they’d managed to come together.
A month later and the memory of her mother’s death still hurt almost as much as it had that night they’d found her. Fulfilling her mother’s last wishes, she and the men had burned her body. They’d buried her ashes under a huge tree near the house so Tasha could visit her whenever she wanted. The men had taken the killers’ bodies somewhere else. Tasha hadn’t asked what they’d done with the bodies and she vowed she never would.
Telling her brothers that their mother was dead had been difficult, especially when she’d had to lie and tell them a fever had taken her. Uncaring, they hadn’t questioned her story.
Through it all, the men had handled everything, allowing her to mourn in peace. Through it all, they’d given her the time and space she’d needed to accept them for what they were. But she’d had enough time. The time for mourning was over. Now she wanted to begin her future.
Wick and Shane were busy arguing over how to get the pickup running again. As she’d seen time and time again, Paul would cast the deciding vote. Whoever was right, however, would razz the others to no end. Or, at least, until the next argument started.
She tilted her head to the side and studied her men. They’d given her so much without asking anything in return. Not only had they taken care of her mother’s body but they’d supported her when she’d made the decision to turn the leave of absence she’d taken from her job into a permanent situation. At one point, they’d even offered to do a long-distance romance until they could sell the ranch and move to the city. But she’d known they would’ve been miserable with all the noise and people. Besides, she’d fallen in love not only with the men but with the ranch.
It’s time.
She stood up and walked to the end of the porch. “Hey, guys?”
Shane jolted upward, bumping his head on the open hood of the truck. “Shit.”
Wick laughed as he turned his attention to her. His dark eyes sparkled just as they did every time he looked at her.
Paul stopped pounding a nail into the corral, a similar gleam in his eyes. “Yeah?”
“You guys have been really good to me.”
Wick frowned at her, confused. “What else would we be but good to you? You’re our mate.”
Wasn’t she more? Yet had they ever told her that they loved her? Had she told them? It seemed she’d let a lot of things slide while she’d mourned her mother.
“I mean more than good. You helped me get through an awful time, and you didn’t push me.”
Paul put the hammer down and sauntered over to his brothers. “I feel like you’re getting at something. So how about you just get to it?”
At times, Paul could seem a little harsh, but she’d learned that he had a soft heart. His brothers had the same sweetness about them, hidden ever so carefully under their rugged exteriors. Even when they shifted into their wolf forms, they were sweet and loving, almost puppy-like at times.
“Okay. I will.” She tugged her T-shirt over her head and flung it away. That got their attention in a major way. Her shorts, along with her panties, found the hardwood beneath her.
“Damn,” said Wick. “Talk about getting to it.”
“An understatement if ever I heard one,” added Paul.
Shane licked his lips. “I think I know what you’re trying to tell us.”
She smiled, loving the hunger on their faces. “You know part of it.”
“What’s the rest of it?” asked Wick. “Tell me before I can’t think straight.”
“Okay. Here it is.” She drew in a breath, knowing the next words would change her life forever. “I love you.”
There. She’d said it, and it was way overdue.
They seemed astonished at first, their eyes widening. Then came the smiles followed by the simmering heat of the connection roaring into a blazing fire, amber dotting their eyes. They started toward her.
“Come here, darlin’.” Shane grabbed hold of her and pressed a hard kiss to her lips.
She could hear the sounds of the other two men hurriedly getting naked. Smiling into the kiss, she worked at Shane’s belt buckle, but her fingers were suddenly useless.
Their hands skimmed over her body, caressing her with their words of need first, followed swiftly by words filled with love that warmed her heart. The connection never left her completely any longer, but it whipped into a greater frenzy after being so long without their touch to thrill her.
“Bed,” demanded Paul.
She shook her head. “I can’t wait that long. Here. Now.”
“Then I have to taste you, sugar.”
“Then taste me.”
“Don’t take long. I want my cock inside her,” answered Shane as he worked his hand between them and massaged a nipple.
“What are we waiting for, guys? Use the swing. Use whatever,” added an impatient Wick, whose eyes were flecked with amber.
Paul lifted her off her feet, carried her to the swing they’d put on the porch just for her. He dropped to his knees in front of her then leaned forward, a starving man ready for his first meal. She gasped as he put his mouth against her pussy.
Wick sat on the swing beside her and took her breasts in his hands. As his tongue tortured one nipple, his thumb raked over the other.
Shane went behind the swing. He took her by the chin and eased her head back. She saw his hungry face for a moment before he pressed a kiss to her mouth. It had been far too long since she’d tasted his flavors, and she pulled his tongue inside, eagerly tasting them.
Paul’s tongue was a weapon of seduction as he lapped up her juices. His tongue pierced her pussy while his thumb changed her clit into a throbbing mass of muscles that might melt under the heat of his touch. When he put his teeth to her clit then thrust two fingers into her sheath, she cried out, but her cry was smothered by Shane’s passionate kiss.
The brothers were alike yet uniquely different in the way they made love. Paul was serious, steadily working her clit and her pussy until every inch of her hummed under his masterful attention. Wic
k whispered terms of endearment in her ear, at once turning her on then making her inwardly giggle. Shane wasn’t about to be outdone and intensified his kiss, including nibbles to her lips.
She reached out to take Wick’s cock, but he pushed her hand aside. “Nah, baby. Just lie back and enjoy.”
She broke the kiss she shared with Shane and earned an unhappy growl from him. “But I want to taste you.” She batted her eyelashes at Wick then flicked her tongue over her upper lip, tempting him. He groaned, at once giving in. Standing, he put his foot on the swing and offered her his cock.
She drew him in, loving the difference in flavors between Shane’s mouth and Wick’s cock. Not that she’d ever talk about it with them. They’d probably end up arguing about which one tasted better. She smiled as she rounded her mouth around his length. She would, of course, be the judge.
Shane bent over the back of the swing, his hands cupping her breasts as he kissed, fondled, pinched, and nibbled the curve of her neck, the slope of her shoulders. She whimpered as her body heated up even more, firing the connection to full force.
She inhaled as Paul flattened his tongue against her clit and showed her how easily he could command her body. Cupping Wick’s balls, she used the other hand to grab a hunk of Paul’s hair, holding him to her pussy.
If anyone had stopped by, she wouldn’t have cared. Nothing on earth would make her break free of them.
Wick pulled his cock back all too soon. When she cast an irritation look his way, he explained, “If I don’t, I’m going to blow too soon.”
“I could drink you up,” she replied, knowing how it would get to him. When he closed his eyes and groaned, she knew she had.
“No, baby. Not today. It’s been too long since I’ve had my cock inside you.”
“Same here.” Paul wiped her juices from his mouth then stood. He took one of her legs, forcing her to turn on her side. Wrapping the chain of the chair around a planter hook on the house, he kept the swing as still as he could. Then, kneeling in such a way that only a powerful man could do, he positioned his cock at her pussy and plunged it inside.
She let out a cry that was short-lived. Paul set his hips into motion, thrusting his cock again and again into her pussy. The swing rocked back and forth in short moves with each thrust, yet was held steadier as it was caught between the men. Paul’s chest was wide and muscled, a rock shelf she longed to climb. Yet the only thing she could manage to do right then was to skim her fingers along the soft-hardness.