by Mina Carter
He shoved the leather and cotton over his hips down to his ankles, freeing his already hardened cock. He'd been hard since Cat had first walked through the door, a situation not helped any by her increasing nakedness now but it wasn't anything he was going to apologize for. Not even at the soft gasp which escaped her, one she quickly smothered as she turned away to unclip her bra.
She wasn't above a peek herself then. Ryder smiled as he kicked his boots off, the footwear thudding into the dirt. Dammit, he was going to have to leave them. Clothes could be folded up and secured with a belt to make them easy to carry in wolf form, but custom made, hand-stitched leather boots? His jaw would be aching for days.
White cotton hit the floor, a flash in his peripheral vision, and Ryder prayed for strength. How the hell he was going to get through this he didn't know, but he had to, for all their sakes. That were-cat had been loaded for wolf, Ryder had smelt the silver in the air after he'd shot Jayce. Worse, he could feel the burning sensation spreading through his brother's body as the silver poisoned his system and held him locked into his human form.
His dying human form. A truth Ryder had forbidden Honey to mention in front of Cat with a look and a shake of his head. She was too sheltered to realize what the sharp tang on the air was and, dammit, he wanted to keep her that way.
"Change. Now. He doesn't have much time." Blood still dripped from Jayce's torn abdomen, the thirsty sand below his body absorbing it greedily. "No time for modesty, we need to run noooooowww!"
His last word was stretched out into a moan as Ryder reached for the power of his wolf. The change gathered in a hard knot deep inside and gained critical mass. It bubbled and raced outwards under his skin, the push of fur against the inside a warning the wolf was right under the surface. Ryder let it loose, the change ripping through him at light speed.
Bones popped and cracked under the skin. Skin which boiled and stretched into new configurations to cover the shape beneath. Fur sprouted across the tawny human flesh, covering scars, tattoos and piercings alike. Within seconds the man was gone, replaced by the wolf. Opening his eyes he shook himself, a heavy shudder racking the powerful lupine form and making the thick fur shake.
He was just in time to see Cat finish her own change—the delicately boned, smaller wolf whimpering as she came to her feet in front of him.
Mine. Possessiveness surged through him as he padded around her, the instinct to claim her in this form almost overriding his ability to think. Fuck, she smelt fantastic, her scent calling out to him in a way he couldn't remember another she-wolf ever affecting him. Not even Vanessa, the bitch who had started all his and Jayce's problems in the pack.
Sure, Jayce had been the one with the balls to challenge for her but both would have enjoyed her before the month was out. It was the way they were. The bond was too deep for either to have separate relationships … which doomed them both.
The kind of woman they wanted as a mate, the mother of their cubs, wasn't the sort of woman who would ever consider taking them on. It wasn't the way wolves were built, they mated with one partner for life, not two. So they limited their relationships to floozies and easy women. Women eager, even begging, to take two horny wolves on in a threesome.
Just fucking. Never loving. And Ryder's heart ached.
His muzzle skimmed over Cat’s fur from her tail to up behind her ear. She flinched, skittish on her paws, but held her ground. Good girl, Ryder silently approved. She knew better than to run, in any form. He was glad because if she did, no force on earth would stop him chasing her down and claiming her as his own.
Then Jayce would kill him.
If Jayce survived. With a growl Ryder circled again and shouldered Cat towards the still prone form of his brother, prompting her to do her thing. Cat yelped, a sharp sound of surprise, as she was almost knocked off her feet. She shot him a sharp look and padded towards Jayce.
Ryder watched intently, standing to one side with half an ear out for any noise on the road. In all honesty he'd done as much as he could. He'd gotten Jayce out of there, out of harm's way, but now it was up to Cat to tempt him into the change which would save his life.
Guilt coiled in his gut. He should have known the cat was packing heat, should have moved quicker, faster, and stopped Jayce getting shot. A grumble sounded in the back of his throat as he berated himself. Cat shot him an irritated look, taking the noise to mean “get on with it”.
Ryder cut the low rumble and watched her. She was graceful in this form as well, and just as beautiful. Not for us, the big wolf reminded himself as she stepped around his still human-clad brother, whining and nudging him. Her long pink tongue flicked out and laved the side of his neck, his face, anywhere she could touch him.
Jayce groaned, a faint prickle of power touching the air.
Yes, it was working! Ryder couldn't help taking a couple of steps forwards, hope welling in his chest. He'd known Cat would do it. Her scent, light and delicate, was persuasive and he'd taken a gamble it would pull Jayce back to the land of the living. Considering how they'd felt about her, had always felt about her, it was a safe bet. Ryder shied away from the thought. He couldn't get attached because, as soon as they got to safety, she would be going back to the pack's protection.
Jayce groaned and opened his eyes. "Caitlin?" He blinked as a spasm of pain crossed his face. "Oh fuck…" He tried to roll over, curling his shoulders to get the momentum to turn onto his side, but failed and fell back with a cry. In an instant both Cat and Jayce were there, the smaller female wolf wedging herself in under the injured man's side as Ryder used his broad head to roll Jayce over.
Dammit, change you bastard. He yipped his frustration at his brother. Lying on his side, skin pale and breathing shallow Jayce still understood him, his lips curling in a small smile. Ryder's yips changed to a deep rumble, a warning that if Jayce didn't do something soon Ryder would get annoyed.
"Hey don't blame me man. I got a hot woman in my arms, you'd do the same," he mumbled as Cat crowded against him to lick his face in concern.
Ryder growled again, ignoring the elation that his brother was conscious and speaking, baring his teeth in a silent warning. Jayce just laughed.
"Bully. Okay, okay."
He closed his eyes and sighed. A shudder racked his body as the change rolled over him slowly. Cat leapt away as bones popped and cracked. Sickening wet sounds as flesh flowed and moved into new formations, accompanied by the sound of tearing cloth as Jayce's clothes were destroyed.
Boy would be butt-naked when they got out of here, Ryder thought as his brother completed the change. Clothes could be replaced. Ryder was more interested in why people were out to kill them. Jayce staggered to his feet, his legs a little unsteady.
Ryder winced, he hated to see any sign of weakness in his brother but his experienced eye swept over the wolf form so like his own. They'd both been injured before so he knew what to look out for. Cat though, didn't, brushing against Jayce with a concerned whimper in the back of her throat. Attention Jayce lapped up, holding his right fore-paw up in an almost canine bid for sympathy.
Ryder shook his head. Pathetic, truly pathetic. Bending down, he picked up the bundle of clothing secured by his belt and turned towards the mountains in the distance. Then he started to run, the two other wolves at his side, heading away from the bar, the were-cats who’d tried to kill them and the disturbing “message” from the father they'd never known.
Chapter Three
The run was a long one which wasn't a problem for Caitlin, she'd run with the pack since she was old enough to change, so she was used to long weekends under the moonlight spent furry and on the paw. Just … she'd never usually run so long or far without a break.
She ran on one side of Jayce as they headed towards the mountains, in case the injured male faltered. Although what she thought she was going to do if he did she didn't know. Perhaps break his fall as he squashed her? The two brothers were as big in wolf form as they were in their human guises, and fa
r bigger than most wolves she knew. She wouldn’t stand a chance.
At first, in the hour after they’d left the diner behind on swift feet, she’d reveled in the exhilaration of just running. She'd missed this, missed running with Jayce and Ryder as they had before they'd left the pack. The world had seemed so magical to her back then. A world seen through the eyes of a young wolf, everything sharp and sparkling in the silver of the moonlight.
Now though, the silver was sleeping with the moon and the late afternoon sun beat down on the three wolves as they loped across the sparse terrain to reach the foothills. The sand under their paws gave way to dirt, and the first scattered and gnarled trees, twisted and scoured by the desert wind, cast a welcome shadow. Her feet dragging with weariness, Cat slowed down as Ryder led them higher into the hills and the forest beyond.
* * * *
"Could do with some clothes you know. These pants itch like fuck." Jayce, sitting on a fallen log in the clearing they'd stopped in, complained as he wriggled his ass, his lip curling as he plucked at the leather pants clinging to him like a second skin. Ryder's leather pants.
"Well, helps if you wear underwear," Ryder replied. Lounging full length on his back with one arm covering his eyes he was as bare-chested as his brother, both of them displaying all that toned male flesh like a sensual photo shoot purely for Cat's benefit.
Gotta love how a shift destroyed clothing, she decided silently. Especially as it meant they only had one set of clothing between the three of them. She’d gotten Ryder’s shirt, complete with his scent all over it and the brothers had had to share what was left.
Jayce's lip curled. "I am not wearing your boxer shorts. Brotherly love only goes so far you know."
Ryder shrugged and lifted a knee. Cat's attention riveted to the powerful thighs and lean hips, and flirted over the fabric of the boxers at his groin. An area that started to tent as she watched.
Dragging her gaze away, she fussed with her hair as heat flared in her cheeks. Conversation had been minimal since they'd reached the sanctuary of the forest and found this clearing a short while ago. Ryder hadn't been satisfied with the first or even the twentieth stopping place they'd discovered, eliciting growls of complaint from the two other wolves as he pressed on deeper into the forest. She'd always thought Jayce to be the bossy one but now Ryder had taken command with a vengeance.
Finally he'd allowed them to stop and they'd dropped where they stood, all three wolves stretching out on the forest floor to cool down. The night creeping in helped, the shadows under the trees lengthening until darkness was upon them. Then, one by one, they started to resume their human forms.
Now she was in the middle of nowhere with two half-naked wolves, two half-naked male wolves. Butterflies raced around the inside of her stomach like it was a circus wall-of-death. Not just any wolves but ones she'd had a crush on since she was a kid. She ran her hands through her hair and tried to make it lie flat.
There was just one problem about being a wolf. When she changed back there was the mad scramble to get dressed again and her hair always looked like she'd been dragged through a hedge backwards.
Why, she didn't know. Some—hell, most—female wolves looked fantastic before, during and after a change. Like there was some sort of inner sexiness they tapped into that Cat just didn't have.
She was a woman now but still she felt like a gangly teenager who'd not quite grown into her own body. Nibbling her lip, she tried not to peek at Ryder and Jayce. Perhaps it had something to do with the fact she'd not been in heat yet…
* * * *
"It's no good; I need to get some decent clothes. We can't go out in public with this fashion-timeshare thing going on. Not that I'd call your sense of style fashion. Christ, how do you move in these damn things?" Jayce grumbled as he surged to his feet.
Movement, he needed to move, because if he had to sit here a moment longer with Cat's scent hanging in the air like the smell of a banquet, he was going to go stir crazy. There was only so much a man, or wolf, could take.
"Well what do you suggest… This part of the world isn't exactly a fashion mecca is it? Although if you keep running for a couple of hours you might hit some yokel's hovel. I'm sure a plaid shirt and dungarees will suit you down to the ground." Ryder didn't move his arm from over his eyes, feigning a state of relaxation Jayce knew was a show for Cat's benefit. Even if she was too innocent to sense it, Jayce could feel the sexual tension and sheer frustration emanating from Ryder like heat off an oven-baked brick.
"Ha-ha, you're a laugh a minute aren't you? There's gotta be a town about here. I'll double back to that road we crossed on the way in and follow it into the pass. We need supplies and wheels," Jayce announced, nudging his brother with a foot and casting a pointed look at Cat.
Perhaps the reason she wasn't picking up on the heavy sexual tension swirling in the small clearing was because she looked done in. How long had she traveled before she reached them at Honey's? He'd assumed she'd traveled by car but now he wasn't so sure.
"Yeah, pick up some burgers or something as well if you're taking orders. And a couple of bottles of Bud wouldn't go amiss—"
The conversation was conducted over and around the nearly silent Cat, a silence Jayce was ignoring. Women were prone to such things, and Jayce assumed she'd come out of it when she was ready. Most women did if it wasn't too serious, the rest resorted to tears and threats but Cat had never been that sort.
Innocent she had been, yes, but never the sort of frivolous female who had both of them cringing and running for the hills. Unfortunately they usually found out what sort a woman was the morning after, which meant they'd done their fair share of early morning escapes.
However, Jayce wasn’t prepared for what happened next.
Cat lifted her head slowly, her beautiful face wary and a look of anguish in her eyes. Jayce went still, a malevolent chill running down his spine like icy water.
“You can talk about beer?” she asked incredulously. “After someone tried to kill you and your m-mother…”
“Our mother what?” Jayce's voice was like a lead weight in the sudden silence of the clearing. Next to him Ryder rolled to his feet, mirroring Jayce’s stance, and both stared at the trembling female wolf sitting on the log in front of them.
She had a leaf in her hair and her cheek was dirty. Jayce waited for her to answer. What she said was going to be bad, he could feel it, but it was like a train crash, once it had started you just couldn’t look away.
“What’s happened Cat? What about mom?”
*
She couldn’t do it. Sorrow welled up in Caitlin’s chest as she looked at their expectant faces. They didn’t know, couldn’t suspect the news she’d traveled day and night to bring them and she should have told them sooner. But with the attack and Jayce being injured, she couldn’t have expected Ryder to cope with that alone. No, she’d chickened out and decided they both needed to be there and conscious when she told them.
Now she had no excuse. It had taken her nearly half an hour to work up the courage and now she couldn’t back down.
“Your mother died a week ago,” she said softly, looking down at her hands. “Wolfsbane. Someone slipped her a massive dose of it.”
“What?”
Their response was instantaneous, two voices echoing as one, filled with disbelief. Cat bit her lip and looked up, trying hard to school her face.
“Wolfsbane? What sort of sick bastard does that?”
She shook her head, unable to answer. It was a question she’d asked herself over and over again. Unlike her rebel sons, Rosanna was the sweetest, most amiable woman alive. A born wolf with a mother hen complex she’d become the unofficial pack nanny, and nearly every cub had spent time at her home during the school holidays. The fact that someone had wanted to kill her, and in such a painful way, had rocked the pack to its core. Wolfsbane wasn’t usually harmful to wolves, but some, like Rosanna, were allergic to it.
“She didn’t stand a chance
. It wasn’t even a full moon…” Jayce murmured, looking up at the cloud-covered sky above them. “If it had been, then she might have been able to shift and…” he broke off, his voice cracking, and swore.
Cat stood and looked from one to the other, not sure what to do. Should she comfort them? But they weren’t kids. Prowling around the clearing, their movements jerky with anger and pain, neither of them looked like they wanted comfort, much less from her. The dark expressions on their faces were ones she’d never seen before, and they scared her.
Cat swallowed. Perhaps she should have let someone else come and tell them, or agreed with her grandfather that the pack would deal with it and leave Rosanna’s sons in the dark over their mother’s death. After all, they’d left the pack and the pack dealt with its own business, which was the argument some were using. But Cat knew that was more because some people found the Vanir brothers too odd.
Twin wolves were rare, rare enough that some elders said they weren’t possible, despite the evidence standing right in front of Cat. Then there was that rumor they’d mastered the change as soon as they’d hit puberty. Even Cat, the daughter of an alpha pair, had taken a couple of months to get used to her new form, but they’d done it within a week.
Odd things like that made people nervous. But not as nervous as Cat as she stood in front of the two brothers and cleared her throat to ask another question burning in the back of her mind. “So, your mother is murdered, and someone tries to kill you within the space of a week, mentioning your father. Doesn’t that strike you as odd?”
As she spoke, the clouds above them parted and moonlight filled the clearing until it was as bright as daylight. But unlike normal, the light narrowed like a spotlight on the two men.
“Ouch, what the fu—”
“Bloody hell!”
The twins hissed in pain as each clamped a hand to the side of their chests. Like a switch had been thrown, a cloud drifted over the moon.