Sugar Creek 1: Tessa's Chosen (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting)
Page 1
Sugar Creek 1: Tessa’s Chosen
Tessa Michaels only just manages to escape her ex-fiancé Darren Smythe after he physically abuses her. On the run and with nowhere to live, she ends up at an inn near Sugar Creek, Ohio.
Lucien, Gabriel, and Raphael Woolf, known as Luc, Gabe, and Rafe, know that Tessa is their mate as soon as she walks through the door of the Shifters Inn, but when they see that she is hurt and bruised, they vow to protect her.
Not realizing the three men are werewolves and she their mate, she lets them deal with Darren when he turns up at the inn. Tessa accepts to go home with the men where she will be safe from her ex’s clutches. Even though she tries, she can’t resist the three sexy men and their delectable mating musk and agrees to mate with them. But Darren isn’t the only danger to Tessa.
Will Lucien, Gabe, and Rafe be able to win her over heart, body, and soul, or will the danger following her intercede before they can secure their mate?
NOTE: This book was previously published at 25,000 words under the name Becky Wilde with another publisher. This version has been extensively revised and expanded to 42,710 words.
Genre: Contemporary, Ménage a Trois/Quatre, Paranormal, Vampires/Werewolves
Length: 42,710 words
SUGAR CREEK 1: TESSA’S CHOSEN
Becca Van
MENAGE EVERLASTING
Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
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A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK
IMPRINT: Ménage Everlasting
SUGAR CREEK 1: TESSA’S CHOSEN
Copyright © 2014 by Becca Van
E-book ISBN: 978-1-62741-150-9
First E-book Publication: March 2014
Cover design by Les Byerley
All art and logo copyright © 2014 by Siren Publishing, Inc.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without express written permission.
All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.
PUBLISHER
Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
Letter to Readers
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Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
About the Author
SUGAR CREEK 1: TESSA’S CHOSEN
BECCA VAN
Copyright © 2014
Prologue
“I’m sorry, Darren, but I can’t marry you.” She took the ring off and held it out to him. He snatched it from her hand and shoved both his hands into his trouser pockets.
Tessa Michaels hated what she had to do but she’d known for a while that Darren wasn’t right for her. She’d been alone ever since her parents had died when her father had lost control of the car. He’d rammed into a tree, killing both of them instantly.
Because she had still been grieving over the loss of them when she’d met Darren at the restaurant she’d worked at in her hometown of Mansfield she had jumped at the chance of not being alone anymore. Now she knew it had been a mistake. She shouldn’t have accepted his proposal a month ago and continuing to be his fiancé wasn’t fair to either of them. She didn’t love him at all and there was no way she could marry him.
Tessa took a step back when she saw the anger on his face and sighed with relief when he spun away from her and ran his fingers through his hair.
But when he turned back to face her again she began to tremble with fear. She’d never seen that ugly rage on his face before or the possessive obsession in her eyes and it scared the hell out of her. When he began to walk toward her with what looked like violent intent she backed up even more.
A gasp escaped as her back hit the wall behind her and she tried to make herself look as unthreatening and as small as possible by hunching her shoulders and lowering her gaze from his.
She cried out when he grabbed her arm in a bruising grip and as she tried to wrench out of his hold material tore. She looked down to see that her sleeve had been torn away from her shirt and was only hanging on by a thread or two.
“You’re a fucking cock tease, you little bitch. I have waited for over twelve months to get you into my bed and I’m not walking away. You’re mine and you’re going to stay mine.”
“Darren, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt you. I was still grieving. I never led you to believe I was in love with you.”
“What the fuck does love have to do with anything? I don’t love you. All I ever wanted was to fuck you and there is no way I’m leaving until I do. Don’t think just because you say it’s over that it is. You belong to me and you always will.”
Tessa began to edge her way along the wall and away from him. Every time they got together over the last month she had seen the changes in him. The more time she spent with him and got to know him the more anxious she became. Darren had started criticizing everything about her from her hair, her clothes and her weight. And sometimes she’d caught him looking at her in ways that frightened her. When he started handling her roughly she began to get scared. She knew then that she had to get away. She’d put her house up for sale with a real estate agent,
but hadn’t let them put a for sale sign on her front lawn. She’d begun packing her things and taking it to the storage space she’d hired.
She’d felt guilty for not being upfront with Darren but after she’d noticed he was trying to control every little thing she did and was becoming more violent toward her she’d kept her mouth shut.
Just as Tessa reached the door which led into the kitchen, Darren pounced. She cried out in pain when he grabbed hold of her hair and pulled her neck back until she thought he would break it. She knew then that if she didn’t get away from him that he would end up raping her. She could see the lust and fury in his eyes.
She kicked out and nailed him in the knee. He released her hair and roared in pain and anger. His hand connected with her face so hard her head was flung to the side and she fell to the floor. He stood over her with his fist raised and knew he was going to hit her again. She braced herself for the pain, but nothing could ever prepare her for his fist connected with where he’d just hit her with the palm of his hand. Blackness swirled around the edges of her mind but she gasped in air and nearly sighed with relief when the darkness began to fade. She looked up at him in anger and all the disgust she’d kept hidden from him over the last few weeks emerged. He sneered down at her and as he raised his foot to kick her, Tessa made her move.
With all the strength she could muster she kicked him in the balls and nearly laughed when he yowled with agony and fell to the floor where he lay writhing.
Tessa scrambled to her feet, ran to the hall table where she’d left her purse, house and car keys and after making sure the door was locked after she opened it she slammed it closed behind her and listened as the latch engaged and ran toward her already packed car. It would take time for Darren to get out and by then she would be long gone. She had no idea where she was going but didn’t really care. All that mattered was that she got away from him.
It saddened her that she would never see her home again since she’d already sold it, but she’d also never been more thankful than right then that she’d planned her escape. Everything she needed was already packed away in her car and she’d sold most of the large furniture with the house. She placed a few things precious to her into storage, like her mom’s kitchen dresser and her dad’s camera equipment. Thank God Darren hadn’t seemed to notice anything missing when he’d come to visit. Although she’d mostly entertained him in the living room.
She kept glancing in the mirror as she drove and prayed that he wouldn’t find her too soon. Because Tessa had a dreadful feeling that Darren wasn’t going to give up looking for her.
Chapter One
Lucien Woolf looked at the table and tried to see the projection and angle of the ball he wanted to hit into the pocket of the pool table. He and his brothers owned the Shifters Inn, located in Sugar Creek, Ohio, and spent a lot of time there wiling away the lonely night hours. Just as he moved around the table again, his brother Rafe spoke up, being his usual impatient self.
“Hurry the hell up, Luc. You’ve been staring at the table for five minutes now.”
Luc flipped Rafe off and grinned when his brother chuckled. His younger brother Gabe sighed and leaned back against the high bench while he watched his and Rafe’s antics and took a sip of his beer. Gabe was the mediator of the family and often stepped in when he and Luc started arguing. It didn’t seem to matter that they liked goading and arguing with each other for fun. Gabe always moved between them in case their provoking got out of hand like it used to when they were young pups. It amused him no end, and he and Rafe often jibed each other just to get a reaction out of Gabe.
Lucien took his shot and sunk the ball into the pocket. He decided to taunt Rafe a little more, and he sauntered over to the high bench, snagged his beer, and took a long sip. When he was done he put the bottle back down and slowly made his way back to take his next shot. Gabe snorted as if he’d finally caught on to what they were doing and when Luc looked up at his younger brothers they were standing side by side and bumping each other with their shoulders.
Luc loved his brothers. They were a lot closer than human siblings were and even though he was the pack Alpha he would do anything he could to protect them. Not that he needed to. He and his brothers were the fastest, strongest, and most powerful wolves in their pack.
Rafe voiced the question all of them had been thinking about over the last five years, once again showing his impatience, but this time Luc and, he guessed, Gabe, was just impatient to have that question answered.
“Do you think we’ll ever find our mate?”
Lucien wished he could answer, but he couldn’t, so he shrugged instead.
“I’m sick and tired of being alone.” Gabe sighed and took a swig of beer.
“We all are, Gabe. We want to find our mate and have pups with her but we all know that sometimes it never happens.” Luc scrubbed a hand over his face.
“I’m sick of picking up women we have no emotional connection with, just to get our rocks off. I want that close bond that we can have with a woman after we mate her.” Rafe’s shoulders slumped as if with dejection.
“You think that I”—Luc swept his hand out to indicate all of them—“that we don’t want that too?”
“Course not,” Rafe snapped. “I just don’t know how much longer I can wait.”
“We have no choice,” Lucien said. Even though he hated saying that, it was true.
He leaned back over the table as he studied the balls and prayed to the fates that one day soon they would meet their mate.
He stood up straight, stepped away from the pool table and drew in a deeper breath of the intoxicating vanilla and jasmine perfume which seemed to grab hold of his heart as well as his cock. Lucien glanced at his brothers and saw Rafe and Gabe also inhaling the delectable aroma. As one he and his brothers all turned to face the entrance door to the inn and froze as they watched a petite brunette-haired woman sway across the room to the bar.
Luc’s heart stuttered and then began to beat out a rapid staccato. His breathing escalated and blood began to pump through his body at a fast pace. The muscles in his body grew taut and pumped up with adrenaline and blood and his cock hardened behind the zipper of his jeans. He was so het up with hunger he began to shake, but when he comprehended what he was seeing his lust turned to anger and sympathy. It took everything he had not to howl out loud with fury.
Luc noticed the sleeve of her shirt had been ripped away entirely from her left arm and the left side of her cheek was swollen and bruised. It looked as if she had been used as someone’s punching bag. A low growl formed deep in his throat for the pain this woman had suffered. But it was also a warning to the other weres in the room to keep their eyes and hands to themselves. No one was to look at his mate with lustful eyes and no one but he and his brothers would touch her.
In an unspoken agreement, Luc, Rafe and Gabe sauntered from the pool room behind the bar, just as Flynn, the bartender, placed a cup of coffee in front of their woman. Rafe and Gabe pulled stools close to and on either side of her and Luc stood directly behind her, all three of them inhaled deeply, drawing in the scent of their mate.
Gabe leaned forward on the bar but took care not to crowd their petite human mate and Rafe leaned his arm around the back of her stool, turned his body so he was half facing her and blocking her in from the other side. Luc stood behind his mate so she couldn’t scoot the stool back and try to leave.
When Luc saw their mate stiffen and he smelled her nervousness he spoke to his brothers using their telepathic link. “Back off and give her some room. You are scaring her.”
Rafe and Gabe moved back and shifted their stools a little further away and Luc was pleased when some of the tension left their mate’s body.
“What’s your name, little one?” Rafe asked.
* * * *
“My name is Tessa.”
“Pleased to meet you, Tessa. My name is Lucien Woolf and these are my brothers Raphael and Gabriel.”
Tessa, such a
beautiful name, and it suits her.
Rafe couldn’t believe that he was currently sitting next to his mate, their mate. She smelled so sweet and she was such a beautiful woman, even with her bruised face. He wanted to pick her up, carry her out to their truck and take her home. Then he wanted to strip her naked and bury himself balls-deep into her tight, hot, wet pussy and claim her. But that was not to be, at least not yet.
She eyed him warily and then looked at Gabe. When she turned back to the front she looked into the mirror and caught sight of Lucien. Rafe heard her suck in a breath and then she shivered. The tantalizing scent of her arousal wafted through the air as she moved and then crossed her legs. Rafe wanted to howl with joy. Their mate was attracted to them but before he and his brothers could help her they had to find out who had hurt her. Every now and then she looked up into the mirror and toward the door as if she were expecting someone to come bursting inside at any moment.
As far as Rafe was concerned no one would get near enough or even breathe the same air she did. Not as long as he and his brothers were around.
“Who are you running from, little one?” Tessa looked up into the mirror and met Luc’s eyes again. She stiffened up and Rafe wondered if that was because of the question Luc had asked, or because she was attracted to them and didn’t want to be, or because she was scared. There was a lot they needed to learn about their mate and he hoped that they could get her to open up with them. But when she finally answered he was disappointed that she continued to keep hiding from them.