Asher saw Mason shift his focus back to Jade. The tense set of the man’s mouth and the way tension rippled off his tall frame had Asher’s cat bracing for bad news.
“Beau and his friends destroyed your apartment, Jade,” Mason said. He stared unblinkingly at Jade, his body taut. “I’m afraid there was nothing salvageable.”
Jade paled as the realization of how furious Beau had been when she’d escaped him sunk in.
“Beau lied to you about his living arrangements,” Mason continued. “He and his friends were squatting on an old property outside of town.” Asher didn’t miss the slight curl of the coyote’s lip, or the flash of rage he worked hard to conceal.
“What was discovered at this property?” Finn asked flatly. Finn was not the Alpha of their pride for nothing. He’d also seen the coyote’s attempt to conceal information. “Jade has her mates to protect her now, Mason.”
Mason nodded at the Alpha before turning his gaze back to Jade. Asher’s cat snarled at the disgust and fury coming from Mason. This was going to be bad.
“We found the remains of a young woman at the property. She’d only been dead a few days.”
A small gasp escaped Jade’s mouth, and Asher saw her grip on Barrett’s arm tighten. Wes and Troy moved to stand beside her.
“There was no question that the same wolves were responsible for her death,” Mason said.
“He would have killed me, too.”
“Eventually,” Mason said soberly.
“They haven’t returned there or been seen anywhere around Duckwater?” Hunter asked. Mason shook his head, his jaw tense.
Asher was barely keeping his cat under control, his every instinct screaming at him to shift and hunt down this threat to his mate. But Asher wasn’t so enraged that he missed the fact that Mason was still withholding information. A great deal of it, the lawyer in Asher recognized Mason being ambiguous in his use of facts. He understood Mason wanting to spare Jade any further anguish, but Asher needed to know everything if he was to keep his mate protected.
The air in the room prickled with tension and Asher had no intention of allowing Jade to suffer further. “May I escort you out, Mason?”
After saying good-bye to Jade and his brothers, Mason followed the Alpha from the kitchen. Asher noted Mason moved with sleek grace. The man was an old shifter, coexisting with his beast in a way that Asher had only recently begun to experience.
“I need to coordinate with the Alpha on your protection, but I’ll be back to tuck you in for the night, little one.” Asher kissed Jade deeply, trying to drive away her fear, and his own, before leaving her in the care of his brothers.
Asher was in total control of his furious cat by the time he faced Mason. His parents stepped up beside him, their concern evident on their faces and in their scent.
“What exactly did you find at this property Beau and his friends were camped at?”
Mason looked to Finn before speaking and Asher’s respect for the man continued to grow.
“There are no secrets in my pride,” Finn said.
“We found the woman’s body in a shallow grave behind the old farmhouse. She’d died recently, as I said, but her injuries indicated her abuse and captivity took place over a number of weeks.”
The cold night air tingled with the power of their combined rage. Asher watched his father wrap an arm around his mother. Asher pushed back all emotion, refusing to be blinded by it when Jade’s life was at stake.
“So she was being held captive at the same time as Jade?” Asher said.
Mason nodded, his eyes glowing red with his coyote’s anger. Jade would have been kept prisoner for as long as Beau and his friends found her amusing. Then they’d have killed her and discarded her like garbage. Asher thanked the fates that she was here with them. It was a miracle to have found her in time. To have found her at all.
“Were any other bodies found on the property?” Hunter asked.
“Two others so far. My pack is continuing the search, but it’s a large property,” Mason said.
Asher let his cat’s rage build inside him, channeling its fury for use in Jade’s protection. Asher would waste none of his cat’s gifts. Mason’s coyote was clearly visible to Asher and he saw through Mason’s deadpan expression to his coyote’s attempt at evasion.
“Is whatever you’re continuing to withhold from us important to my mate’s safety?”
Finn’s growl had Marguerite covering her ears with her hands. The Alpha’s power was pouring over Mason, but he stood firm, his determined expression unchanged.
“The women we found were all human,” Mason said, his rage well under control. “But they have families somewhere who deserve to know their daughter’s killers have been found and punished.”
But the perpetrators were not human and no human prison could hold a shifter. These wolves had gone rogue and the shifter judicial system was not lenient to rogues who risked the exposure of their race.
“So you’re really here to kill these wolves, not apprehend them?” Asher said, liking Mason more and more each second.
Chapter 13
Harry hated having Justin with him on the search. The man reeked of the alcohol he continually ingested. The stench didn’t affect Harry’s ability to track. It simply made it damned unpleasant for him.
“You should bathe in something other than beer once in a while,” Harry said. “Then someone may actually fuck you without the necessity for restraints.”
Justin’s retaliation was swift and painful as he swiped a clawed hand across Harry’s abdomen. Harry didn’t scream. That would only make Justin more excited. The brute liked inflicting pain as much as he liked drinking.
“Just shut the fuck up and do your job, you freak,” Justin snarled, his eyes gleaming as he licked Harry’s blood from his clawed fingers. “You’re one to talk. I don’t see the ladies queuing up to fuck your fat ass.”
Harry closed his eyes and pulled in his anger. Beau was going to kill Justin soon. Please let it be soon. Harry had to content himself with the knowledge that only Justin’s size, strength, and ruthless brutality was keeping him alive right now.
“If Beau wasn’t so fucking obsessed with this Jade bitch we wouldn’t be in this town full of stinking cats,” Justin said, retracting his claws and looking round the corner of the alley they were hiding in.
Harry pulled off his clothes while Justin was looking the other way, and after hiding them under a Dumpster he shifted. The shift allowed him to heal, as well as track Jade more easily. Harry ran out of the alley and followed Jade’s trail. She’d been in the alley, but was taken somewhere by car. He was confident he’d soon find her scent again. No one had ever evaded him for long.
He left Justin to follow in his own time. Harry was a small wolf who would easily be mistaken for a hairy black dog in the dim streetlights, which left him free to search the whole town undetected. He’d find Jade and be gone, with the cats being none the wiser. Stupid cats.
* * * *
Barrett had left immediately to patrol their ranch and Jade found her heart was still racing from their wild good-bye kiss when Troy carried her to their bedroom. Their bedroom. She could hardly get her head around the speed at which she’d accepted all this craziness. Shifters, vampires, matings, living for centuries, it was all insane, but she felt the truth of it in her very soul. Plus she’d witnessed them shifting. The simple truth was she was mated, and she never wanted to be apart from her four wonderful men.
“Have I told you how beautiful you are?” Troy said, placing her on the bed and kneeling between her legs to wrap his arms around her waist. “I can scent your fear and confusion and I’m sorry, but I can’t be sorry that any of this has happened.”
“Troy?” Jade pulled back, but he held her face gently in his hands as he gazed at her with his beautiful blue eyes.
“Don’t ever doubt I’m enraged over the fucker hurting and terrifying you. I’m going to see him punished for that. But it brought you here
to us. That’s a miracle I’m never going to stop cherishing.”
Jade laughed at the ridiculousness of that statement, and was shocked that she could laugh after the bad news Mason had just delivered. Maybe I am insane after all?
“You’re not insane, honey,” Wes said, sitting beside her and wrapping an arm around her shoulders.
“I said that aloud, didn’t I?”
She felt surrounded and protected by them. Beau didn’t have a hope in hell of getting near her. Wes and Troy both suddenly froze, their bodies going rigid as they both began to growl. The vibrations rumbled through her and she felt her confidence drain away.
“Is he here?” Jade asked, the brothers unmoving and rigid with tension.
She cupped Troy’s face in her hands, searching for the answer in his expression but not finding it.
“Where did you go, Troy?”
His eyes locked with hers as his arms caressed down her back to cup her ass. He didn’t pretend to not understand her question. He just smiled and kissed the end of her nose.
“We explained how Wes and I communicate.” She nodded, curious to see how much he’d share about his special bond with his twin. “Well, since meeting you we discovered Asher is able to hear us, too.”
“You don’t want him to hear you?”
Wes laughed ruefully. “It was just a surprise. I think he’s been hearing us for a while. He only revealed it to us after we’d met you.”
“So you were just talking to Asher?”
“Not intentionally, little one,” Asher said. He sat down on her other side and wrapped an arm around her waist. “Mason has gone to Mom and Dad’s and I’m starting my patrol as soon as I’ve said good night to my adorable mate.
Despite her fear, Jade felt her body tingle. The three men holding her so tightly was a sensual overload. She’d never even dreamed of being in a ménage relationship, but it felt right somehow. Except she missed Barrett being here.
“Now you’ve left us,” Troy said. She opened her eyes to see a teasing smile on Troy’s face.
“I was marveling at how wonderful it felt with you all holding me like this,” she said without thinking, the words just spilling from her heart, “and I was shocked to find I missed Barrett being here to hold me, too.”
“Why is that a shock?” Wes said, his tone serious, “Is he your least favorite?”
“No. Of course not,” Jade said hurriedly, horrified they’d think such a thing. Then she saw Troy smile. “He’s my favorite, actually.”
She was moved so quickly her head swam and found Wes staring down at her less than a heartbeat later.
“Now you’re just being mean,” Wes said.
“I’m shocked how much I like four men touching me, surrounding me”—she swallowed, her mouth going dry—“inside me.”
She closed her eyes, her face heating. She wasn’t ashamed to tell them how much she enjoyed them all making love to her. It was more a case of her never having talked with men about sex before. Actually, she’d never talked with anyone about sex before.
“I’m beyond happy that you feel that way,” Wes said. She felt his lips brush hers softly, and she licked her lips, groaning at the delicious flavor of him.
“Fuck,” Wes said, slamming his lips to hers and delving into her mouth with his tongue. Her hands flew to his short dark hair, gripping it tight as she held him to her. His kiss was carnal and desperate, and it ignited the same feelings inside her.
Jade was panting for breath when Wes released her lips. “How do you make me feel like this,” Jade whispered.
“Feel like what?” Asher asked.
Wes moved to lay beside her on the bed, one hand propping up his head, his other arm possessively draped across her stomach. Asher continued to stare at her, his gaze heated and his breathing rapid as he slowly undid his shirt one button at a time.
“Feel so…” Jade found her gaze fixed on the smooth, bronzed perfection of Asher’s sculpted chest as it was slowly revealed.
“You’re very shy about sex, Jade,” Troy said.
If he hadn’t moved to stand beside Asher, Jade wouldn’t have seen him. She’d been transfixed by Asher’s body.
“Troy,” Jade said. She was embarrassed to hear it come out as a breathy moan. Troy was naked, his magnificent body looking like a work of art. His hand was slowly stroking up and down the length of his cock. His huge cock.
“Holy hell, did I have that inside me?”
“Yes, you did, honey. You had me buried deep in your tight ass, and you cried out in pleasure as I made love to you.”
“God,” Jade managed.
“You told Barrett you weren’t a virgin, Jade,” Asher said. Jade tore her eyes from Troy’s cock to see Asher had removed his shirt and was undoing the button fly of his fatigues. “It can’t have been a lie.”
Jade knew she’d whimper if she opened her mouth, so she shook her head. Wes moved his hand under her jumper and caressed her bare skin in slow, sensuous circles. Each circle got closer to her breasts and she found herself arching her back into his touch. She’d die if he didn’t touch them soon.
“No, it was a lie, or no, it wasn’t a lie?” Wes asked. “I find I really want to know.”
“Please,” Jade said, wriggling her torso in an attempt to place Wes’s hand where she wanted it. Needed it. Her nipples throbbed. Her pussy felt swollen and slick with her juices. Her clit throbbed in time with her racing heart. She’d never felt anything like this before.
“Please what?” Troy asked.
“I need,” Jade said.
“We know,” Asher said. Jade’s pussy leaked a little as she looked up to see Asher naked at the foot of the bed. “Was it a lie?”
“No. I wouldn’t lie to you.” Jade moaned as Wes cupped her breast with his hand and gently stroked his fingers over her nipple. She nearly came, but Wes moved his hand away too quickly.
“Why are you so shy?” Troy asked, grasping the bottom of her sweatpants and tugging them off her legs.
Jade felt both aroused and exposed as the cold air of the room hit her leaking pussy. She’d forgotten she had no panties on. She saw Asher’s and Troy’s eyes glow brightly as they softly growled. The tips of their cocks were shining with their pre-cum and Jade found herself desperate to taste them.
“You look hungry,” Wes said. “Do you want to taste them?”
“Tell us what happened to you, little one,” Asher said. “Then we can make love to you. We’re desperate to be inside you. We are the only ones who will ever make love to you. Your pleasure is our responsibility, so we need to know what you like. What you don’t. It’s too important for us not to know.”
Jade snapped her eyes to Asher’s, his entreaty cooling the urgency of her desire. He was right. They deserved to know she had no idea what she was doing when it came to sex. These men. Her men, Barrett included, had not only bared their souls to her, they’d bared their existence as shifters to her. She owed them the same honesty.
“You’re right. I’m sorry.” She went to sit up, but Wes held her down.
“Oh, no. I like you right there, little Jade.” Wes kissed her temple, gentling his hold to caress her stomach.
“I’ve only had one other sexual partner.” She sniffed. “And that term’s stretching the definition of the term.” She wanted to get this over with, so she fixed her gaze on the stars outside the window and kept talking.
“My senior prom date, Corey, was my only experience with sex before yesterday. It was nothing like the mind-blowing pleasure I felt with all of you. He persuaded me to have sex with him on our prom night. He said it would make the night perfect. We kissed and fumbled around in the back of his car. Before I knew it he’d managed to free one of my legs from my panties. He thrust a few times inside me and it hurt more with each thrust. Then he’d moaned and pulled out to deal with the condom.”
Jade looked at the stars and remembered she’d stared at them that night as well. She’d been apprehensive about sex, and
felt let down after the act, but was too ashamed to say anything to Corey.
“After the next two dates ended with the exact same experience, I decided sex was overrated and told him I wouldn’t be doing it again. He soon stopped calling me, and I’ve never liked anyone enough to want to try it again.”
“It was probably his first time, too. Poor Jade,” Asher said kindly.
Jade was confused by Asher’s reaction. “I really don’t know what I expected you to say. But it wasn’t that,” Jade said.
Asher crawled between her legs, licking and kissing her as he went. “I’m furious you felt nothing but pain, Jade. But I can’t change the past. I can only make certain that you feel nothing but pleasure now.”
“I did. I do,” Jade said. “The way you all make me feel is a revelation. I never knew such ecstasy was even a possibility.”
“For that, I want to shake this Corey’s hand,” Wes said. He kissed Jade until she was panting again, her fingers caught in his hair. Her desire was a pulsing need inside her again, her embarrassment forgotten. “We hold that honor now, Jade. We are the only ones to have brought you pleasure.”
“The only ones who’ll ever bring you pleasure,” Troy said.
Asher lifted Jade, kissing her deeply before turning her to lay on top of Wes. Wes was now naked, and he pulled Jade’s jumper gently off her head, his mouth catching hold of her nipple. She moaned as he sucked hard, the pleasure shooting through her body to center on her clit.
Wes tipped his hips and rubbed his erection through her wet folds. Jade didn’t even think. She took his cock in her hand and put the weeping tip inside her. A long moan echoed through the room as Jade lowered herself onto Wes. She opened her eyes and smiled down at Wes. They had both moaned.
His cock twitched as it filled her. The slow slide of his tense erection into her aroused and wet pussy made her shiver with delight. She began to move onto Wes, bracing her knees on the bed to meet his thrusts, the friction driving her need higher.
“Just a little stretch, Jade,” Asher said. His warm body pressed against her back and she arched to feel more of him. Cool gel pressed into her anus and she shivered as Asher nipped at the place on her neck that bore his mark.
Jade [Eminence Shifters 6] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) Page 12