by Amira Rain
"Good morning."
They both smiled in return, and Cameron said good morning in return, but Elliot told me to come over to him and say good morning again, but this time like I really meant it. Unable to suppress a grin, I made my way over to him, saying that I thought I had said it like I meant it.
When I reached him, he shook his head with his vivid green eyes twinkling. "Nope...nope, I'm sorry, but you didn't. This is how a person says good morning like they really mean it."
After taking me in his arms, eyes still twinkling, he lowered his mouth to mine and gave me a brief but passionate kiss so intense that it left me nearly breathless. It also made my head spin, but in the most pleasant possible way.
When he pulled his mouth from mine, Elliot looked into my eyes deeply with bright sunlight coming in through the nearest window making his lightly-tanned skin seem to glow.
"I've been wanting to do that for days." He paused, seeming to be fighting a smile. "But I bet that you haven't thought about me at all. Bet I haven't even crossed your mind."
Throwing my head back, I laughed at the absurdity of his statement. If only he knew.
"That's ridiculous. I've thought about you more than a few times while you've been gone. Cameron, too."
I turned to look at Cameron and saw him crouching, feeding Sunny a bite of toast from his hand, petting him with the other. I'd caught him having a few caring moments with Sunny, which, little by little, had finally cooled my residual anger toward him about the night that he didn't want to let Sunny come in. Which, now in hindsight, struck me as kind of strange, just the fact that someone who clearly enjoyed dogs didn't want to allow one, a three-legged one, no less, to come inside out of the rain. Especially since Cameron had been feeding Sunny for weeks by that point. I supposed that maybe the whole thing had even seemed odd to me that very night, though my anger hadn't let me think things through much. And now I had much bigger mysteries to unravel.
Elliot had made an enormous Spanish omelet with red and green peppers and sausage, which he, Cameron, and I soon began devouring in thirds, along with buttered toast and orange slices.
While we ate, Elliot told me the basics of what had happened during the trip northeast. He, Cameron, and their elite pack of twenty wolves had chased the fleeing red-eyes into Michigan, where they'd eventually caught up with them, killing them all. Then, on their return trip home, they'd encountered a group of several Angels and had killed them, too.
"There's still plenty more where they came from, though, so our work isn't quite finished. With as many Angels as there still are in the area, and with as many wolf shifters that have joined them to become enchanted red-eyes, I imagine we'll be fighting them for years to come...decades, even. Makes it all seem kind of futile sometimes, like rolling a boulder up a hill, only to have it roll back down, time and time again. But we have to keep doing it, don't we, Cameron? What other choice do we have?"
Something about Elliot's tone seemed subtly hostile or accusatory, but if Cameron took it that way, he didn't let on. He just glanced up from cutting his omelet, nodding. "We have to keep fighting the good fight."
It occurred to me that maybe Elliot was feeling a little hostile because Cameron had quickly slid into the seat at the head of the table before the meal, leaving Elliot to sit on his right, which always seemed to annoy Elliot more than it did Cameron.
With birds chirping in the trees and bushes beyond the dining area windows, the three of us continued eating in silence for a little while, until Cameron started in on his three slices of buttered toast.
Catching my eye first, he held a half-slice of toast above his plate and spoke in a low voice. "Imagine that. The butter spreads better when the bread is toasted. I guess a man can learn something new every day."
I stifled a laugh, trying not to spit a sip of coffee, swallowed it, and then laughed out loud. "Amazing realization, Cameron. We can start toasting all bread, or, alternately, we could even invest in a pretty butter dish and start leaving the butter out on the counter to soften. I promise we won't all die of food poisoning if it's left out."
Somewhere in the several boxes of my possessions that I still had left to unpack, I had a gorgeous lead crystal butter dish; I just hadn't found it yet.
Cameron just shrugged, looking at me with the corners of his delectable full lips twitching.
"What do I know about pretty butter dishes? You just get one and put it out on the counter, and I'll use it. No more mangled bread for this man...or anyone he ever butters bread for."
I giggled, picking up a slice of my toast. "Good."
Across from me, Elliot made a faint, disgruntled scoffing noise. "Am I missing some joke, here?"
Expression perfectly neutral, Cameron glanced over at him. "Yes."
Cameron then went back to his food, and Elliot looked to me, as if waiting for some explanation, but then suddenly went back to his own food before I could respond.
"Never mind. Doesn't even affect me."
After breakfast, Elliot seemed a little salty, loading our dishes into the dishwasher with more force than I thought was necessary, and it struck me that maybe it had been unkind of me to tease Cameron about a private joke while in Elliot's presence. Coming to stand beside Elliot, I picked up a few dishes from the counter and began loading them in.
"Let me help."
While we finished loading the dishwasher together, I asked him more about the trip north, knowing that he liked to recount details of fights; and once we'd finished with our task, he seemed in a much better mood, pulling me into his arms.
"That was a good breakfast, but I'm still hungry, though for something other than food. Are you?"
Fighting a grin, I lightly pressed my body into the front of his. "I could eat."
CHAPTER 13
I soon found myself naked in bed with Cameron and Elliot, who'd also lost their clothes. Pale sunlight streaming in through the gauzy curtains filled the room with soft light, providing just the perfect level of illumination for me to fully appreciate every hard ridge and contour of Cameron and Elliot's bodies.
First, sharing a bottle of lotion from my nightstand, they both worked together to give me a full-body massage, gliding their slippery, large hands over nearly every inch of my skin, both front and back. Having both of them simultaneously examine and caress my naked body aroused me to the point that I became wetter than I probably ever had in my entire life, with slickness drenching my inner thighs, which Cameron and Elliot massaged with slow, firm strokes. They refused to bring their touching a bit higher, though, to the place I really wanted them to touch, with Cameron saying that a little teasing was an important part of any massage.
He really wasn't kidding about teasing me. Once I'd been massaged nearly from head to toe, he brought a lotion-slicked thumb to one of my stiffened nipples for the second time and lightly began stroking and circling it, apparently having decided that one round of exquisite torture wasn't enough. Elliot joined him in this task, circling my other nipple with a slick thumb, and before long, I was writhing and whimpering, begging them to make love to me and give me release.
Moving his mouth near my ear, Elliot spoke in a low, husky voice. "You have to tell us exactly how you want us to make love to you, Jayme. The naughtiest girls always give the very best orders."
I wasn't sure about that, but I was definitely feeling very naughty indeed, to the point that I didn't feel a trace of self-consciousness about giving orders.
A little breathlessly, I quietly began explaining what I wanted. "One of you please grab those scarves from my dresser and tie my wrists up with one of them...then use the longer one to tie my wrists up to one of the curlicues on the headboard, so that I can't move my hands or arms at all. But tie me up so that I'm on my side."
Seeming all too eager to comply with my request, Cameron and Elliot had both leaped off the bed to grab the scarves before I'd even finished speaking.
I'd actually been thinking about this particular idea with the sc
arves for a little while, and during the days that Cameron and Elliot had been gone, I'd hardly been able to get it out of my mind. So, the night before, I'd placed the scarves on my dresser for easy access, anticipating that we might be spending some time in the bedroom soon after they got back.
While they each grabbed a scarf and returned to bed, I quickly shifted my gaze between the two of them, and specifically, between the two of their large, rock-hard members. As the two men moved, their thick shafts bobbed with such clear weight and heft that I became even slicker still right at that moment, just viewing the incredibly erotic sight. While they tied my wrists to the headboard, I took a few peeks at their enormous erections yet again, panting with desire.
Once my wrists were securely bound and I was positioned on my right side, facing Cameron, with my back turned toward Elliot, I quickly explained how I wanted them to make love to me. "If that's fine with the two of you."
With his breathing fast and ragged, Elliot whispered near my ear that it was more than fine. Cameron spoke in an incredibly husky voice, saying that it was more than fine with him, too.
After I'd hiked a leg up on Cameron's hips in order to give Elliot easy access to my slick entrance, Elliot penetrated me from behind, filling my depths with one slow, powerful thrust that made me cry out in rapture. Groaning, Elliot soon began thrusting, and at the same time, Cameron began stroking my most sensitive spot with the thick head of his shaft while looking at my face, clearly interested in my response. Moaning, I didn't even care if my face was contorted with pleasure, because the sight of it seemed to be further turning him on, if the rapidly accelerating pace of his breathing was any indication.
The sensation of being stroked and filled at once quickly drove me to the height of ecstasy, and I cried out my release while Elliot drove his granite-hard manhood deeper and deeper inside of me, grunting out his own climax. The moment both of our bodies had stopped shuddering, Cameron flipped me on my other side to face Elliot now, just as I'd asked earlier. We didn't even have to reconfigure the scarves securing my wrists to the headboard, because Cameron and Elliot had done them in a way that they just twisted when I was turned.
Before I knew it, literally within a second of flipping me over and roughly hiking my leg up on Elliot's hip, Cameron was burying his hard pole deep inside of me from behind, and simultaneously, Elliot began stroking my most sensitive spot with a few fingers. With my eyes rolling back in my skull, I moaned, feeling a bit manhandled, but in the most welcome, pleasurable way possible.
In less than a minute, Elliot replaced his stroking fingers with the head of his manhood, already hard again, displaying the high sexual drive and incredible stamina shifters were known for. With Cameron rapidly thrusting into my depths behind me, once again it didn't take long for me to reach a peak, and I cried out with a powerful orgasm, the fact that my hands were restrained somehow greatly adding to my rapture. While wave after wave of intense erotic pleasure crashed over me, I tugged on the scarves, not really wanting to break free from them, but for some reason just enjoying the feeling of not being able to.
Cameron, Elliot, and I ended up spending the entire morning in bed, napping between lovemaking sessions. They only showered, got dressed, and left the house around noon because they were holding a meeting with their elite pack members in the village's small bar. I curled up in bed and took yet another nap, thoroughly exhausted from having experienced no fewer than three mind-shattering climaxes. That evening, Cameron helped me to have a fourth, lifting his hips to meet mine as I rode him while stroking Elliot's hard shaft at the same time.
With the three of us seeming to have hit a real stride in the bedroom department, and with the three of us all clearly enjoying the time we spent engaged in our various sexual activities, the next week or so passed in somewhat of a blissful erotic haze. Physically very energetic and engaged but mentally tired, I really didn't even think about my government-assigned task much, deciding that I just needed a break. It was Elliot one night that brought this break to an end.
One evening while I was in the kitchen making dinner, and Cameron was in the shower, Elliot came in, gave me a hug from behind, and spoke in a low voice near my ear. "I love you, you know."
Body stiffening, I froze verbally and physically, having no clue what to do or say. The previous week, I'd done a pretty good job with keeping my emotions in check and remaining focused on just the physical, but now hearing Elliot say what he had, I felt a distinct ache in my chest, realizing that I desperately wanted to say it back.
After a few moments that felt like years, he spoke near my ear again. "Don't you love me, too, after all the intimacy we've shared, Jayme? Can't you say it back?"
After a long second, I set down the knife I'd been using to slice vegetables and slowly turned to face him. "I care about you, Elliot...a lot. But I just can't...I can't say...."
I couldn't get the words I love you out, even in that context.
Studying my face, Elliot gave me a small smile. "I understand. We haven't even known each other a full month. Things are still too new. Is that it? Maybe you just need more time?"
Nodding, I said yes. "That's all it is...I just need more time to figure some things out."
Like if he was the traitor, or Cameron was. The couple of times the dilemma had crossed my mind the previous week, I'd started to again have thoughts that maybe the government had made a huge mistake and both of my lovers were innocent. After all, it hardly made any sense for either of them to want to betray their country, village, and fellow shifters. I knew Cameron and Elliot were both less-than-happy to have to share the role of alpha for the time being, but I couldn't see what either of them might hope to gain by giving that up to join a wolf pack that was ordered around by evil sorcerers hell-bent on taking over the world; unless Cameron or Elliot, for some sick reason, wanted to be a part of that takeover, but I'd just never gotten that feeling about either of them. Despite Elliot occasionally displaying clear flashes of anger toward Cameron, and despite Cameron very occasionally doing the same, I really got the gut feeling that they were both good men who wanted nothing more than to keep their people safe from the Angels and their red-eye wolves.
After responding to what I'd said by giving me a slow, lingering kiss, Elliot began helping me fix dinner, and he didn't bring up the subject of his love for me again. Glad to be let off the hook about why I hadn't been able to say it back, I enjoyed dinner with him and Cameron, followed by a bubble bath and a glass of wine while the two of them cleaned up the kitchen. Then, after they'd both helped to dry me off and lead me into bed, the three of us began a lovemaking session that lasted until nearly midnight, leaving me completely spent and satisfied.
Which was why, around one in the morning, I couldn't figure out why I couldn't go to sleep. I was well-fed, tired, sexually satisfied, and I'd also had a two-hour workout that day, doing some strenuous practice at Gifted training. I had the feeling that there was something my brain needed to mull over or comprehend, but try as I might, I just couldn't "grab" it. I mentally went through a list of everything I was supposed to do that day, all household and pet-related tasks, sure that I'd done every one. And as far as letting Sunny go out to use the bathroom for the last time of the day, Cameron had done that while I'd been in the bath.
Despite my frustration and a nagging feeling that maybe I was forgetting something, or failing to mull over something that I'd meant to, my eyelids finally started closing around a quarter after one. Once I was asleep, I began having a dream about the scene in the kitchen earlier when Elliot and I had been alone, when he'd said that he loved me. Though right after, instead of me freezing, gaze on a pile of sliced zucchini in front of me, Cameron's face had appeared. Just a split-second before the dream had quickly faded, somehow waking me in the process.
In the dark, sandwiched between Cameron and Elliot, I flicked open my eyes, and suddenly I knew. And not for sure who the traitor was, but I knew the question that I felt sure would tell me exactly whic
h of my two lovers I needed to report to Cynthia. Now it was just a question of asking it.
CHAPTER 14
I needed to get Cameron alone, but I wasn't able to the next day. He'd left at the crack of dawn, saying something to the effect that he and Jason needed to check on some situation to the northeast. When I pressed him about what, exactly, that situation was, he'd just gruffly said, "Hard to explain" while tying his boots. Then he was gone.
When Elliot awoke, he asked where Cameron had gone, and I told him what Cameron had said. I thought Elliot might ask further questions, but he didn't, just began silently cutting his ham with more force than I thought was probably necessary, hacking it into bites with movements that could almost be described as violent. I knew he had to have his own strong suspicions about Cameron's involvement with the Angels by this point, and was probably angry to have them confirmed once again.
I couldn't talk to him about our shared suspicions, though, not until I asked Cameron what I needed to ask him and got the response that I expected. Then, I'd call Cynthia, and only after would I share anything with Elliot. I had no idea if Cynthia would want me to keep things a secret until the government came up with a plan to remove Cameron from power, or what, and I was kind of afraid that once he learned of Cameron's betrayal, Elliot might fly off into a rage and confront Cameron himself, which I didn't think would be the right way to do things at all.
Of course, this was all if Cameron answered my question the way I thought he would, confirming my suspicions.
The next day, he left at dawn again, giving me no chance to talk to him one-on-one. He might have even left before dawn; I wasn't sure. That was just when I had woken up and had found his side of the bed empty. Whatever he and Jason were up to, it sure seemed time-consuming.