by R. E. Butler
Whisper put a small wedge of potato in her mouth and chewed slowly, her mind spinning. Ally said, “What do you want to know?”
“I, uh…” She glanced around and saw that not only were Harry and his brothers paying attention but several other clans were listening intently, without even attempting to hide their interest.
Ally chuckled and said, “Why don’t you come outside onto the back patio and we can chat privately?”
“Thanks,” Whisper said, picking up her plate, saying goodbye to the three males at her table, and following Ally out a side door to a small, covered patio. The door closed, and her husband stayed inside the cabin and left them alone.
Whisper ate a few more bites as she gathered her thoughts and then she asked, “Do those guys in there…do they only want to talk to me because I’m a hyena?”
“What do you mean?” Ally’s head tipped to the side as her brows furrowed.
“Well, they all look at me like I’m something good to eat and they’re starving, but they don’t know anything about me. What do hyenas do when they find their mates?”
“Ah,” she nodded, a small smile curving her lips, “you want to know what a mating is like.”
“Well, not a mating-mating, just…how do hyenas know they’ve found their fourth?”
Chuckling, Ally leaned back on the patio chair. “There’s an instant knowledge when you’re in the presence of your mates. It almost defies explanation. One minute you’re by yourself and you’re fine with that, the next minute you can’t imagine being apart from them for a second. And it’s not only the females that feel that way but the males, too. When I met my mates, I was on my way to a gathering. I’d stopped to get gas on the way. I was sitting in the car, and then I felt almost pulled from the car by this strong desire to find something. I had no idea what it was, only that my feet wouldn’t stop moving and my beast was going crazy. I turned the corner of the gas station and found my mates coming out of the bathroom. They froze, we stared at each other for a full minute, and then, well, let’s just say that I didn’t make it back to my car for such a long time that the guy pumping the gas thought I’d taken off and came looking for me.” She laughed lightly and blushed. Whisper smiled.
“So you knew from the moment you saw them?”
“Sure, hon.”
“Why would they want to settle with me, then? If we’re not mates?” She looked over her shoulder and could see through the window that many of the males were looking at her.
“Some baros are stuck in tradition, and believe that clans should only contain hyenas. Those sorts of archaic baros encourage their young males to take mates of female hyenas regardless of whether they’re true mates or not. You could fall in love with a clan like that, but you might always feel unsettled, knowing that they weren’t the ones you were meant to be with.”
“If I’m even supposed to be with hyenas. I mean, I could end up mated to a wolf or a human.”
“Very true.” She leaned forward and put her hand on Whisper’s shoulder. “I firmly believe that everyone will find their true mate eventually, Whisper. That you aren’t feeling like jumping the bones of any of the males in that cabin tells me that they’re not right for you. And there isn’t anything wrong with that.”
“Thanks, Ally.”
“My sons are very enamored with you, but even I can see that there’s no spark between you.”
“They’re cute.”
“Thanks. They won’t pressure you, I promise. And if anyone gives you any trouble, let me know. You or the three that you came with. This week is about relaxing and having fun, and if a few clans find their mates, then that’s wonderful. But if not, then that’s okay, too.”
Whisper liked Ally a lot, and she was glad that she had spoken to her. She hadn’t ever thought she missed out on anything by not having a mother because the pack females had been there for her in every way they could, but she’d never had someone she could call Mom. Her heart ached a little bit at the thought.
As she finished her meal and Ally shared some more stories of her early mating days with her husbands, Whisper’s mind wandered to her own family. Her biological family. Had Ally been right? That no baro would allow a baby to be raised by anyone else? Had something really happened to her when she was little, and no one knew where she was? If so, why hadn’t they found the alerts listed with children and family services that said that she’d been found? Old worries surfaced. The feeling that she hadn’t been wanted by her biological family. Ally and her husbands would never have given up one of their sons, that much was clear. So why had Whisper wound up in a crack house in Atlantic City next to a dead prostitute? Shoving away all thoughts of the mysterious circumstances of her earliest years, she focused on Ally and laughed at a joke, relaxing in the moment.
* * * * *
When she got back to the cabin, her brothers and Bliss had just returned with food from a nearby grocery.
“What did you get?” Whisper asked, peering into one of the bags.
“Dinner,” Kayne said.
“There’s a dinner for the gathering,” she pointed out, brows furrowing.
“Don’t be mad,” Bliss said, wringing her hands, “but there were these three guys that kind of cornered me, and they totally freaked me out.”
Her temper flared. “They did? Who were they? When did this happen?”
Kross patted Whisper’s shoulder. “We handled it, Mouse. I don’t know what their deal was, but they said that unmated females were ‘fair game.’ Kayne punched one of them in the face, and they slunk away into the woods.”
“You punched one?” she asked.
“His face was fair game, too.” Kayne shrugged.
“I’m sorry.” Whisper frowned.
“Not your fault. They’re clearly Neanderthals. I called the main office and gave them the description of the males, and the guy I talked to said that they’d had other complaints and were going to find the males and kick them out immediately.”
“Good. Maybe we should head home?”
All three answered, “No!”
“Whoa, sor-ry,” she put her hands up in protest. “I don’t want Bliss to be miserable.”
“She’ll be fine, we promise. You’re here for a reason, and that’s to hang out with hyenas. She’s promised to never go anywhere alone, and that goes for you, too,” Kross said.
“Alright.” She nodded, accepted Bliss’s hug, and turned to see what was being pulled out of the grocery sacks. Kayne offered to take her to the dinner, leaving Kross and Bliss at the cabin, but she decided to stay there.
The sun set while they ate dinner, and Kross said, “I saw a small firepit a hundred yards from here. They’re sprinkled all over the woods. There’s a stack of firewood in the pit and some waterproof matches. Why don’t we hang out?”
“Sounds good to me!” Whisper said enthusiastically.
They gathered their things and followed Kross down a trail near the cabin to a small clearing. Wooden logs lay around the perimeter of the stone-lined firepit, and she and Bliss sat down on a long log while her brothers took up two other shorter ones. While Kross got his guitar from the case that he had brought along, Kayne started a fire in the pit. Before long, the wood was crackling, flames dancing brightly and lighting up the area.
“What do you want to sing, Mouse? Happy songs? Sad songs? Silly camping songs?” Kross asked, sliding his thumb down the strings one at a time and then giving her a rakish grin as he strummed quickly a few times.
“Happy,” she said, drawing her coat around her shoulders to stave off the chill of the evening.
Kross began to play one of Whisper’s favorite songs, and Kayne kept the beat on his thighs, adding his voice to hers and Kross’s, as they began to sing. Bliss joined in on the chorus, and Whisper felt the music lift her spirits. They moved seamlessly from song to song, Kross choosing songs with good beats to keep things light. Whisper soon forgot about her worries. Each new song lifted a weight from her shoulders and le
t her slip away from reality a little bit more until there wasn’t anything in the world except the four of them and the music.
They shared stories of their childhood, laughing and talking between songs, and Whisper couldn’t remember a time when she’d ever been happier.
And then all hell broke loose.
Chapter 6
Bliss Roberts loved to hear her bestie and the boys sing. Even though they were adopted siblings, their voices seemed tailor-made to blend perfectly together. Bliss had no siblings of her own, but she considered Whisper, Kross, and Kayne her siblings, and Mack a second father.
Kayne shared a story about Whisper breaking a bowl and trying to glue the pieces together but winding up making an enormous mess, and the group laughed as Whisper blushed.
“I was seven! I didn’t know the glue would make the bowl stick to the table.”
Kross laughed loudly, and they teased her about how she hadn’t been allowed to use glue for six months after that. Whisper scowled at Kross but then started to giggle.
Bliss gasped in surprise as three men stormed into their campsite. Kross and Kayne jumped to their feet and assumed defensive postures in front of her and Whisper.
“What the hell?” Whisper hissed as the three strangers came close.
“That’s fucking close enough,” Kross growled.
The men were handsome. Well, handsome was an understatement. They were tanned, dark-haired gods walking on earth. With muscles.
The one in the center demanded, “Who was laughing?”
Bliss and Whisper looked at each other in confusion.
The center one, looking frustrated, said, “We want to know who was laughing.”
“What for?” Kayne asked.
“Because that sound…” the center one said, “it’s the same laugh our mother has. Who made it?”
Whisper rose slowly from her seat, and Bliss stood with her. “I did,” Whisper said, her voice wary.
The three men stared at Whisper, and they looked as if they were seeing a ghost. The one on the right said, “Savannah?”
Whisper sucked in a sharp breath. “My name is Whisper.”
The one on the left took a step forward. “You’re a hyena. You were kidnapped as a baby, right? We’re your brothers.”
Together the strangers took another step forward, and Whisper shouted, “Stay back! You’re lying!”
The one in the middle said, “We’re not lying! You have the same laugh as our mom. You look just like her.”
Bliss looked at Whisper as she started to tremble from head to toe. Shaking her head violently, she stumbled backwards, her hand covering her mouth.
“Whisper?” Bliss said.
“It’s not true. I was abandoned. That’s what the police said.” She dropped her hand and spit the words out like her mouth was full of acid. “Kross!”
Kross snarled and took a step forward. “Stay the fuck away from my baby sister.”
“She’s not your sister, she’s ours,” the left one growled.
Bliss could see that the group was about to come to blows. She wasn’t sure why, but the need to protect the three new males rose up inside her and the part of her that felt like a wolf growled in agreement.
“Guys,” Bliss said, trying to be reasonable as she moved from behind Kross and Kayne and faced the strangers claiming to be Whisper’s brothers. “Let’s settle down before things get out of hand.”
The three men’s heads swiveled and locked eyes with hers. Everything in her body went on high alert. The one in the middle said, “Rome, get her to safety.”
In a heartbeat, Bliss found herself jerked into the arms of the guy on the right and quickly carried away from the campsite. Glancing over his broad shoulder, she saw Whisper turn and run away, and Kross and Kayne tangle with the two other males as they attempted to go after Whisper.
No one came after her. No one even seemed to realize she’d been picked up and carried off.
Thanks a fucking lot, guys, she groused internally.
“Put me down!” she demanded, even though parking her body up against hot stranger number three was just about the best thing that she’d ever done.
He stopped in front of a large tree several yards from the clearing and let go of her legs so she slipped down his tall body until her feet touched the ground. If he hadn’t kept one arm around her back, she would’ve fallen to the ground. She couldn’t take her eyes off him. Rome. The middle one said his name was Rome.
Away from the firepit, the flickering glow of the fire allowed her to see him. He was gorgeous. She swallowed hard and licked her suddenly dry lips. Rome tracked the movement with his eyes.
“Is it really true?”
“What, lovely?” He leaned forward and pressed her back against the tree. He towered over her by a foot and made her feel tiny and delicate.
“You’re Whisper’s biological brothers.”
His head tilted to the side. Dark hair cut short looked soft enough to run her fingers through, but she resisted the urge to tug on it and pull him close. She’d never been so overrun with naughty thoughts before.
“She’s named Whisper?”
“That’s what her dad named her when she was very little. Her adopted dad, Mack, alpha of our wolf pack.”
Rome dropped his head to the crux of her neck and inhaled slowly. The wash of his breath over her skin made her whole body twitch, and she grabbed his upper arms that caged her against the tree and closed her eyes. He was scenting her. Why?
A soft brush of his lips against her neck made her tremble, and her wolf howled in her mind to do something. Anything. But she was frozen in place. Afraid to move, afraid not to move. Every inhale brought his wild scent into her nose and made her belly clench.
“What’s your name?”
Her mind blanked out. What was her name?
“Bliss.”
“Well, well, little wolf,” he growled softly. “You are a bit of heaven, aren’t you?”
He lifted his head enough to stare at her with his mesmerizing light brown eyes, his lips hovering just above hers.
“Whisper,” she managed to say.
“My brothers will find her. It’s my pleasure to keep you safe.”
“Safe?” She leaned back slightly, her head bumping against the tree trunk.
“You don’t want to get in the middle of a bunch of alpha males fighting over a female, even if the female is their sister.”
“Alpha males?” She’d never really thought of Kayne and Kross as alpha males because she’d known them forever, but she could admit that if she were in trouble, she’d go to them for help.
He chuckled. “My brother Memphis is the oldest, so he can be a bit bossy. And Lincoln is only ten months younger, and he’s in charge of keeping everyone safe. So yeah, they’re both alpha males. Like the two wolves.”
She couldn’t get over how perfect the curve of his mouth was. And how thick his lashes were. A man didn’t have any right to be so kissably gorgeous.
Shaking away her lustful thoughts, she said, “They’re my friends and they won’t hurt me, so why don’t you let me go?”
“Nah.” He grinned. Dimples. Adorable.
She found him amusing and irritating at the same time. It would have been simple enough to duck under his arm and escape back to the campsite to see what was going on with Whisper and the others, but her legs refused to move away from the tempting male and his intoxicating scent.
Before she could argue with herself anymore about getting away from Rome before she did something embarrassing, he kissed her. He kissed her like he was storming a castle and taking no prisoners. Drawing her against his hard body, he breeched her mouth with his questing tongue and danced it against hers, making her toes curl in her boots.
She gripped the front of his shirt with both hands, and like the wanton hussy she was starting to feel like, pulled him even closer. His arms tightened around her, and his chest vibrated with a low growl that made her hands tingle.
Rome swiped his tongue along her bottom lip as he lifted from her mouth and said, “I swear I heard you tell me to kiss her.”
Completely dazed and hornier than she’d ever been in her life, Bliss couldn’t get her mouth to form the words that her brain was trying to say. It was probably for the best, since words like naked and sex and often were spinning around in her mind.
“I, um,” she blinked a few times and focused on releasing the death grip she had on Rome’s shirt.
“Aw, you kissed her speechless,” the other male said.
The first male said, “Sweetness, what’s your name?”
“Bliss.”
All three grinned. The first one said, “My name is Memphis. I’m the leader of our clan.”
“I’m Lincoln,” the second one said, “but you can call me Link.”
Oh, she had lots of things she’d like to call him. Gorgeous. Heaven in pants. Mine.
She frowned. Where the hell had that possessive term come from? Shaking her head at herself, she ducked under Rome’s arm and looked at the campsite, realizing that Whisper, Kayne, and Kross were gone.
She couldn’t believe that they’d just left her with strangers!
“Those assholes,” she groused under her breath.
Memphis turned her to face him. “What’s the matter?”
“They just left me!”
Link snarled. “Was one of those wolves your mate?”
Making a face, she said, “No, of course not, but they’re from my pack and they just left me with strangers!” She was used to being left out because she couldn’t shift, but being abandoned by her friends in this situation just sucked out loud.
Memphis rubbed his thumb on the inside of her wrist and looked at the empty campsite. “They went to take care of Savannah. She completely wigged out. I’m sorry you feel bad that they left you behind, but you have to know that we wouldn’t have let them take you traipsing off into the woods.”