by Cara Adams
Unchained Love 4
The Dom’s Patience is Rewarded
Panther Dom Oliver Simpson has wanted to claim Leticia Brooks, another panther, for over a year, but her father, Sam, is paranoid about attacks by the rogue panthers. Now, a human nurse, William Chapman, has fallen in love with her too. It’s time for Leticia to decide what she wants.
Sam flees from the community after trying unsuccessfully to kidnap Leticia. With her father out of the picture, Leticia agrees to a three-way mating with both Oliver and William. Oliver teaches her the release and freedom that are found BDSM sex, but the trio isn’t out of the woods yet.
Just as they settle down to begin their happily ever after, Sam tries to kill the leader of the rogue panthers because the man is his son. Now Leticia has to deal with a crazy father and an evil brother. Will Oliver, William, and Leticia’s new love be strong enough to survive?
Genre: BDSM, Ménage a Trois/Quatre, Shape-shifters
Length: 39,695 words
THE DOM’S PATIENCE IS REWARDED
Unchained Love 4
Cara Adams
MENAGE EVERLASTING
Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
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A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK
IMPRINT: Ménage Everlasting
THE DOM’S PATIENCE IS REWARDED
Copyright © 2013 by Cara Adams
E-book ISBN: 978-1-62242-268-5
First E-book Publication: February 2013
Cover design by Les Byerley
All art and logo copyright © 2013 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
Dear Readers,
If you have purchased this copy of The Dom’s Patience is Rewarded by Cara Adams from BookStrand.com or its official distributors, thank you. Also, thank you for not sharing your copy of this book.
Regarding E-book Piracy
This book is copyrighted intellectual property. No other individual or group has resale rights, auction rights, membership rights, sharing rights, or any kind of rights to sell or to give away a copy of this book.
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This is Cara Adams’s livelihood. It’s fair and simple. Please respect Ms. Adams’s right to earn a living from her work.
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DEDICATION
With grateful thanks to the editors who noticed my mistake, so that Leticia, Oliver, and William were able to tell their story.
THE DOM’S PATIENCE IS REWARDED
Unchained Love 4
CARA ADAMS
Copyright © 2013
Chapter One
Leticia opened her door the merest crack and peeked out. No one in the hallway? Good. Even though her shoulder was strapped to her body and hurt like hell, Leticia was determined to go out into the garden and begin planning how she’d tackle turning it from a tangled wilderness into a productive vegetable garden again.
She tucked her notepad under her chin, grasped her pen between her teeth, and used her one good hand to shut the door as silently as possible.
She only got as far as the staircase down to the ground floor before William Chapman appeared around the corner, his dark eyes filled with worry.
“Where are you going? Please let me hold your good arm. I can carry the notepad and pen. What if you trip and fall?”
William, a human nurse, refused to leave her side, wanting to keep his arm around her waist every step of the way. She really liked William and Oliver, a panther like her, too, but was so very tired of being confined by the people who loved her. She knew William only wanted to care for her and she appreciated that, but she needed to have some freedom and space, too.
Leticia shook herself free from his arm and said firmly, “I’m going out to the garden now. You can follow me if you want to. I won’t fall. I didn’t dislocate my shoulder by falling.”
“I’m well aware your father did it. It’s only a few months since you were rushed to the hospital after he shot you in the leg. I hope the community here never lets him come back.”
Leticia felt confused and turned to look William in the face. “What? Why shouldn’t he come back here? It’s our home now.”
“It may be your home, but it’s never been his. He’s never joined the community, has he?”
“No, but neither have I.”
“Exactly. He never let you. Most of the panthers have joined Carnal Connections, though, haven’t they?”
“I don’t know. My father kept me in my room so much I never went to many of the meetings and I’d never been to any celebrations until I went to Serena and Verity’s twenty-first birthday party. I hadn’t thought about it, but I guess many of them have asked to be part of Carnal Connections.” Leticia sat down on the bottom step of the deck leading into the garden. With one part of her mind she was looking at how very neglected the garden was and planning how she could make it flourish again. But with the rest of her mind she was thinking about what William had said. Her father had forced her to stay in her room most of the time because he was worried about the danger of the rogue panthers.
“The rogue panthers constantly attack us. I was in great danger as an unmated full-blood. It was the only way my father could keep me safe.”
“Ding! Wrong answer. No rogue panther has ever even gotten onto the property here. I agree a person might have worried about you running near the fence line alone or walking around the front gates alone, but there’s no reason to believe there was any danger to you or anyone else in the buildings or around other people here. Think, Leticia. Use your head. What danger has there ever been inside the property here?”
She stared at him. In all their conversations he’d never been this blunt before. William had nursed her in hospital twice now, the
first time after her father shot her in the leg, and the second after he dislocated her shoulder. She knew William was a deeply caring person who’d made it very clear that he loved her. She loved him, too, but she also loved the panther, Oliver, who’d loved her in silence for over a year. The other panthers had been quite circumspect about what they said to her about her father, but the humans had been more forthright. More and more she was coming to see that her father protecting her so fiercely had prevented her from knowing the true facts about their situation. She’d only known things from her father’s viewpoint, not as they may have truly been.
“I–I believed my father. He does—did—love me. He always cared for me, and after my mother was shot by a hunter when I was thirteen we were both traumatized, yet he tried to be both mother and father to me then. But more recently…None of the other women were made to stay in their rooms, were they? And no one else had their father sleeping against their bedroom door.”
“No one else’s father shot them, either,” added William acerbically.
Leticia shook herself then winced at the pain from her dislocated shoulder. Something else that hadn’t happened to any of the other women. “Why is my father so overprotective? I’ve never done anything risky. I don’t work as a stunt woman in a movie studio like Gaynor or ride a motorcycle off a cliff like Jubilee. Why is he so worried about me?”
William laid his hand on her thigh then cupped her chin in his other hand and turned her face to look directly at him. “You know the judge ordered your father to attend counseling after he shot you. And you know your father has refused to speak to the counselor. Whatever demons your father is fighting, he totally refuses to get any help. He doesn’t take advice anymore from people he’s known and trusted for many years, and he only obeys his Alpha when he absolutely has to. He’s not acting normally at all.”
“But why?” wailed Leticia, hating the whine in her voice but hating even more that the man she’d loved and respected all her life could no longer be trusted to tell her the truth or care for her.
“I have no idea,” said William, stroking her skin gently.
As he leaned against her she sensed he was about to say more and guessed what it was. He’d developed the habit of chastely kissing her good night in the hospital and it’d helped her to sleep knowing he watched over her. However, she wasn’t ready to hear a declaration of love from him. Because of Oliver, who’d been waiting for her for over a year now. Her own feelings were too complicated. So she wiggled away from him and stood up. “I want to look at the garden now. Since you insisted on coming, too, you can take notes for me.”
“Lucky me. Should the first note be ‘hire a bulldozer’?”
“Good heavens, no. I need to see what’s hiding under all these weeds, not to tear the good crops out with the trash!”
* * * *
A week later, Oliver sat silently in the meeting, running his hands through his hair instead of banging his head on the table as he was sorely tempted to do. Omar, his pack Alpha, clearly wanted to leave Sam to his fate but felt honor-bound for them to save him from his own foolishness. Larry, the business manager here at Carnal Connections, apparently agreed with Omar that they had no choice but to look after Sam. Personally, Oliver thought Sam deserved anything that happened to him due to the crazy way he was behaving and his inability to take advice.
“JB, you know where he is, right?” asked Larry.
“I know where his truck is. The bug I planted on his truck tells me where it is. Since it’s way out in the countryside I’m guessing he didn’t just dump it there and is nearby himself,” replied JB.
“I don’t feel inclined to fetch him back. Sam never applied to become a member here, and he doesn’t belong here anymore. But I’m happy for JB to keep you informed about his movements. Or the movements of his truck, at least,” said Larry.
“In some ways it’d be good if he got himself arrested again and ended up back in jail. At least he can’t cause us any grief there. But I’m going to have to send a few of my panthers to keep watch on him, I think. Just knowing where he is won’t help us to avoid any trouble he may cause.” Omar looked at Oliver.
“Not me, please, Alpha. I’d much prefer to stay here with Leticia. How about Josh or Pete? They’re young, strong, fit, and sensible. They’d be more than a match for Sam.”
“I’d be relieved if I knew what he was doing in the middle of nowhere,” said Larry.
“Are you sure it’s the middle of nowhere?” asked Omar.
“Yeah. Jubilee showed me how to do that overlay thing of Google Earth over Google Maps, and according to them there’s nothing there, just uninhabited land,” said Larry.
“All right. Print off the details and I’ll send Josh and Pete out to have a look-see.”
Five minutes later the meeting wound up, and Oliver left Larry’s office with Omar and several sheets of printed-off maps.
“I’d like you to go with Josh and Pete, see the lay of the land, settle them in, and bring me back a report. That means you’ll need to go in two vehicles so one stays there for them. They’ll need a tent, a stove, and food and fuel for three or four days.” Omar sighed. “They’d better take my big truck to hold all their stuff. At least they could sleep in the cab of that if they needed to get out of the weather at any time. Fuck, what a mess!”
“It’ll mean you’re short of men to camp on the north ridge, too. Pete and I were due to replace Bill and Frank on Thursday. William will be back on shift at the hospital by then, and I really don’t want to be away from Leticia for a week,” said Oliver.
Leticia was outwardly so small and fragile yet underneath it all a strong person. A woman he’d been in love with for so long he could hardly believe he might finally be able to claim her very soon. He knew he was going to have to share her with the human, William, but possessing her would be the fulfillment of everything he’d wanted for years. However, there was no way he was going to stay away from her for days on end. He needed to be close to her, to see her every day. To touch her, to…
“A couple of the married men will have to take a turn. I should have asked JB how his project to set up CCTVs in the high trees is coming along. Damn Sam and his paranoia. You start getting the equipment. I’ll send Josh and Pete to you.”
Oliver left Omar at the main storage barn and went inside to start collecting camping gear. Fortunately, all the panthers were very familiar with camping and the skills needed to camp in an unobtrusive and environmentally friendly way. Back when they’d lived on the farm, before they’d come to Carnal Connections, the only way they could enjoy really long runs was to head into a national park somewhere for a few days.
Oliver pulled out a two-man tent, two winter-rated sleeping bags and insulated sleeping pads, a tiny stove and the fuel to run it, and then moved over to the food stores. How long should he stock them for? A couple of days at least, but three? Four?
Ah, whatever fits in the crate!
Oliver picked up two cartons each holding twenty-four bottles of water and added them to the pile of things to take then began counting out canned and packaged food, placing it neatly in a blue crate. They’d need to buy some fresh fruit to take with them, maybe a couple loaves of bread, but they wouldn’t starve. Oliver counted the cans and packets. Enough for four days of healthy eating. Surely that’d be as long as they’d need.
“Hi, Oliver. I hear I’m heading off on a camping trip,” said Josh as he walked into the barn carrying a duffel bag.
“Yeah. I hope you packed a thick coat.”
“Pete’s bringing us winter coats and heavy boots. We’re to take Omar’s truck. He gave me the keys and the map of where we’re headed. The question is, has Sam totally lost the plot, or is something major about to happen? Because if it is, two of us aren’t going to be enough people to deal with it.”
“Did you bring your phone charger? You’ll be able to charge your cell phone using the truck engine. That way you can call for help if you need it.”
“Oh, good idea. I’ll get Pete to pick it up for me.”
Oliver checked over the things he’d laid out for the men. He couldn’t think of anything he’d missed, but they could always go buy it themselves or call for help, anyway. He just hoped this was a wild goose chase, not the start of another drama. Oh hell, he was tired of Sam’s antics. The man had even been Alpha for a while after his brother died, before he’d completely lost touch with reality. Oliver shook his head and waited for Pete to arrive so he could follow them out to where Sam was. Hopefully, he’d be home again by lunchtime.
* * * *
Oliver sat with Josh and Pete in the cab of Omar’s big truck, working out which route they’d take.
“I reckon we should go the last mile on foot,” said Josh.
“As humans? Or do you think it’d be better to go in as panthers? We’d have an enhanced sense of smell and hearing then,” said Pete.
“Yeah, but what if we need to speak or use a cell phone? Human would be better then,” argued Josh.
“How about you two go as panthers and lead the way. I’ll follow you as a human. That way we get the best of both worlds. But don’t make yourselves known to Sam. We’re supposed to be watching him, not making him run away again,” said Oliver.
“Gotcha.”
“Good point.”
Oliver followed them in his own car, staying well back and memorizing the countryside for when he had to return alone without a map. It wasn’t all that difficult and he had a good sense of direction anyway. He figured if he missed a turn he’d work it out sooner or later.