by Maia Dylan
She finally got to see the tattoo that had been teasing her from beneath Wyatt’s T-shirt and she loved the tribal design that flowed over his right shoulder and down onto his chest, but then Luke’s voice interrupted her drooling. “Ty talked about him and Trent being our alpha pair, and the hierarchy within our pack is the same as wolves in the wild.” All three of them loosened then toed off their work boots and socks, leaving them standing there barefoot. What was it about a man’s bare feet that made a woman think of them as vulnerable and approachable, and ultimately hot? “And that hierarchy gives our pack stability and strength.”
“There is another aspect of shifter life that resonates with wolves in the wild, Red.” Wyatt’s voice was just as intense as his brothers’. Rowena was so mesmerized by his tone and the words that she almost forgot that they were currently undoing the buttons on their jeans and had begun to slide them down their thighs. Ahem, well almost, but she wasn’t unaffected or dead, so she was definitely cataloging as they went and Rowena’s heart beat faster. Her breath sounded loud to her own ears and her pussy fluttered in arousal. “Wolf shifters mate for life.” Rowena’s eyes snapped to Wyatt’s. Mate?
“Once a shifter scents their mate,” Wyatt continued as he dropped his jeans to his ankles and stepped out of them. Rowena knew that the three of them were standing there naked before her, but she couldn’t tear her eyes from Wyatt’s gaze. “They experience something we call the Quickening. Our bodies react viscerally to having our fated mate near. We get this…humming, for lack of a better word, through our bodies that tells us she is nearby. Her scent is intoxicating to us and our mating bond snaps into place. This bond is what tethers mates to each other. Rowena, all three of us felt it yesterday when we met you at Country Blue. You are our mate, and we are your wolves.”
Her whole body had tensed at hearing that she was their mate, and she was about to question that a little more, but right then, all three of them began to…shimmer. There was no other word for it—they stood and shimmered for a few seconds, then seemed to drop to all fours, and within a few glorious moments three large gray wolves stood before her. OK, so that just happened. Rowena pressed her palm to her heart, whether she was simply ensuring it was still beating or trying to keep it from leaping out of her chest, she didn’t know.
“Wow, um—” Rowena stuttered, not sure she would be able to actually form words, so she stopped trying and just stared. The three of them were huge! She was a tall woman who stood just shy of six foot and these wolves would easily reach her tummy. Wyatt’s wolf was slightly taller than the other two. All three were beautiful gray wolves with arctic-blue eyes that now made a freaky kind of sense, and like the men themselves, although there were similarities between the three of them, there were distinct differences, too. Wyatt was the darkest of the three, and where he had more black to his pelt, Chase was more white, and Luke was a mix of the two. One thing all three of them definitely were was beautiful.
“You’re beautiful,” she whispered and laughed at the happy wolfy grin from Chase, the aw shucks sway of Luke’s giant, and the rolling of Wyatt’s eyes. Damn, even their wolfy mannerisms told her who they each were. She sat forward and held her hand out to them, “Can I touch you?” There was a slight pause as all three wolves looked at each other, eyes wide, and then there was a wolfy wrestling match to get to her first. She laughed at their antics as they barreled toward her, and then slid to a halt, Wyatt of course at the front. He placed his big head in her lap and looked up her with clear smug devotion in his gaze.
She ran her hand over his fur, which was still coarse, but softer than she thought it would be. His eyes closed in pleasure as she rubbed her thumb over his ears and he made a happy chuffing sound in his chest that had her giggling. Then she was suddenly surrounded by wolves as Chase and Luke got sick of waiting for her attention and jumped up onto the couch to sit beside her and lean into her, rubbing their heads along her arms, making her laugh. She had surprised herself with how well she had taken the fact that they were wolf shifters, not to mention the shift itself. But that fact that she was their mate? Could she handle that?
* * * *
Rowena had relaxed as she petted him and his brothers, and Luke looked down along their bond to see if he could catch a glimpse of what she was feeling. The barrier that stretched across their bond was still there, but a lot less solid than it had been before they had shifted. She was beginning to open herself up to them. Or she was simply on such a high stimulation overload that it was weakening the barrier. God, he hoped it was the former option!
“I can’t keep Faith from coming upstairs anymore, guys,” Ty’s wry voice came over their alpha link, the bond Ty and Trent shared with all wolf shifters in their pack. “So ready or not, here we come.” Luke heard them all on the stairs so he lowered himself to lie next to his mate, trying not to overwhelm her too much. Chase followed his lead and dropped down on her other side.
“Oh, good lord!” Faith shrieked as she walked into the lounge. “You look like that woman Sigourney Weaver played in that movie! Well, except they’re wolves not gorillas and you’re sitting on a couch and not in the wild, but pretty damn close!” Faith stood with Trent’s arms wrapped firmly around her, while Ty helped Angel into a kitchen chair.
“Is Angel OK?” Luke sent to their alpha.
“Yeah, just a little breathless from the stairs. She looks ready to pop though, so we should talk with Chris and get him to come over and see her.” Ty turned to look at them once he had her settled.
“Now,” Ty spoke aloud, “we are all across the whole shifter thing and I am guessing that you have told her she’s your mate. Wyatt has given us an abbreviated version of Baxter the Bastard, not revealing too much about, you know, the emotionally scarring shit, but enough so that we can get to the party planning part of the afternoon.” Luke felt Rowena tense and his heart plummeted. They should have told her that they had spoken with Ty.
Wyatt must have felt the same way because he turned to snarl ferociously in Ty’s direction. Ty threw his hands in the air. “What did I do?”
“Ty, my darling, I love you with all my heart,” Faith spoke, shaking her head as she walked to him and wrapped her arms around his waist. “But you have about as much tact as using a wrecking ball to tap a wine glass. I don’t think there is any hope for you, my love, I truly don’t.” Faith patted his arm and Ty wrapped an arm around her waist, gazing down at his mate with such a soft look that Luke felt he should look away.
“Does that mean I can cancel that damn workshop next month with Cody and Brendan?” Ty asked hopefully, and Luke chuffed in wolf form, as close to a laugh as he could get. Faith was making Ty and Trent attend a workshop with their pack mates Brendan and Cody to learn how to talk pretty to their mates. Chase, Luke, and Wyatt were signed up to go, as were all other males in the pack who were unmated, and mated ones whose mates thought they would benefit from it. Luke was prepared to go just to watch Ty in the session. His discomfort would so make it worth it.
“Nope! Just because I think you are beyond hope doesn’t mean I’m going to give up on you!” Faith grinned up at Ty, rose on her tiptoes, and kissed Ty’s now-scowling face. Luke cast a furtive look at his mate, and he saw that she was grinning at the pair, too. Perhaps not all was lost.
* * * *
A few hours later and a plan was forming that Chase was happy with. They had a schedule that would see the perimeter of the house being protected by pack members in wolf and human form twenty-four hours a day. He and his brothers had made some calls and put off the work they had pending until they had the situation handled. And by handled Chase meant buried. The girls had a plan on what to do if anything went wrong or spooked them, and they even had an emergency code red word. If either of them said quarterback then everyone would come running.
It was getting late and Angel had already turned in. She had admitted to living with a family of shifters as a child, and Chase suspected she had some psychic talent like Faith to be that sensitive
to shifters. Ty, Trent, and Faith were just leaving to go home after sharing dinner with them. The alphas had gone out first to do a perimeter check and left Faith and Rowena to talk for a few minutes in the stairwell and try as he might, Chase couldn’t stop himself from eavesdropping.
“So, funny old day for you, huh, sweets?” Faith asked, her voice filled with understanding and Chase tried to imagine what it would be like to hear that the world wasn’t as you thought it was. He didn’t know how he would feel if he was suddenly told angels from heaven walked the earth. But then he thought about their mate and realized that they already did.
“Yeah, funny old day.” Rowena sighed out a humorless laugh. “Way to just downplay it all and trivialize the day that I might pinpoint at some stage in the very near future during my therapy sessions after my inevitable breakdown as the start of my downward spiral into insanity.” There was a pause, and then Faith laughed.
“Goddamn, girl, you do have a flair for the dramatic. Yeah, I get that you shared something personal today, but hell, I’ve shared worse with you and I’m sure you’ve heard worse. Rowena.” Faith’s voice softened and became tense. “Did Baxter rape you?” Everything within him tensed.
“Oh, Faith.” Rowena’s voice rang with surprise. “No, he didn’t. He was never able to sustain an erection to actually rape me. But he did touch me, and he did hurt me.” Chase felt a roaring in his ears as relief crashed through him. “It was horrible but it was something that I have truly been able to deal with, well as much as I think I can at this stage, but I never had to work my way through something like that.” Chase heard Rowena move and clothing rustle, and he guessed she had pulled Faith into her arms.
“That’s good.” Faith’s voice came on a trembling and slightly muffled sigh. Definitely being hugged.
“Yeah it is.” Chase heard the smile in Rowena’s voice.
“So.” Faith sniffled a little. “What ya gonna do with the triple threat upstairs, hmmm?” The two women shared a laugh that had Chase smiling and feeling glad that his mate had such a good friend here in Grey River. Chase glanced at his brothers and saw both of them frozen, listening intently, not wanting to miss a word.
“To tell you the truth, Faith,” Rowena spoke slowly, as if she were measuring each word. “I’m not entirely sure what I’m supposed to do. I mean, I get that I’m their mate, and I can’t lie to you and say I feel nothing for them, because I do! But is it rational and logical to feel emotions as intense as I seem to be feeling toward them in only a handful of days? I could quote theories and medical journals that would tell you that, no, that was not rational or logical behavior, and prescribe distance from the subject of fascination toward which the patient was exhibiting the symptoms.” Chase felt his blood thicken as she started talking all doctor like. Damn, he was getting turned on just hearing her talk like a psychologist. Damn, maybe he did need professional help! Hers at least.
“Rowena.” Faith sounded more than just a little amused. “Stop trying to self-diagnose and design yourself a treatment plan. Someone once told me that sometimes, when it comes to intense emotions like lust and love, there is no rhyme nor reason to them, they simply are what they are and all you have to do is open yourself up to the mere idea of them to realize that they are rational and logical and that you are so damn worthy of them that all you need do is just reach out and grab them.” Chase closed his eyes at Faith’s words. Thankful that his alphas had been fated to someone so caring and warm-hearted and as beautiful on the inside as she was on the outside.
“That’s actually really good advice,” Rowena said after a long pause. “Who told you that?”
“You did.” Faith giggled.
“Really! Damn I’m good.” Chase heard laughter in their mate’s voice and smiled. “Now go home with your husbands and I’ll see you here tomorrow at ten.” The two women had made plans to be there to help Angel through her first appointment with Chris in the morning. They continued downstairs and Chase turned to look at his brothers, aware that all three of them wore the same hopeful expression.
“She has feelings for us.” Chase couldn’t hold it in anymore and grinned.
“Yeah, she does.” Wyatt smiled back. “We’ve made a good start. We just need to take the time over the next while, as we get downstairs started. We need to make it easy for her to get to know us and make her comfortable with us.”
“Yeah, sounds like a plan.” Luke sighed. “We have one more night before Baxter is released in the morning. Let’s head home and get things sorted there and plan for tomorrow night. With Grant and Kyle outside the house, we’ll know if anything happens here. Our mate is exhausted and needs her rest.” Chase agreed, but a part of him, a huge part, didn’t want to leave. They turned when they heard Rowena enter the room. When Chase saw the hesitation on their mate’s face, he knew that leaving was definitely for the best.
“Hey, baby.” Chase moved to her and wrapped her in a hug, closing his eyes when her arms reached up and squeezed him tight. “We’re going to head out and be back in the morning. You head on to bed and get some sleep.” He moved aside as Luke stepped into her, then pulled her up and off her feet into another hug.
“Try not to think about that bastard Baxter, princess.” Luke pressed a kiss to her temple and Chase saw Rowena smile softly at the touch. “We have a plan to keep you safe, and he won’t get within a mile of you.” Rowena nodded and Chase saw that although there was still a slight hesitation in her gaze, there was trust there as well. Luke moved to join Chase at the top of the stairs and Wyatt swept Rowena into his arms and pressed his lips to hers.
Chase felt no jealousy at seeing his older brother take their mate’s lips for the first time. That wasn’t how a relationship like theirs worked. All he saw was his mate looking slightly dazed, eyes glazed with desire, and her face flushed with heat. She was aroused and happy and that pleased the hell out of him.
“Soon, Red.” Chase heard a hint of Wyatt’s wolf in his voice and saw Rowena shiver a little. The delicate scent of her arousal perfumed the air and Chase drew it into his lungs. Jesus, she smelled delicious. “Soon, we will be joining you in that bedroom at night, darlin’, so don’t get used to sleeping alone, OK?” He placed her gently back on her feet and moved to join Luke and him.
“Good night, guys, see you in the morning.” Rowena smiled at them sleepily. She had given them a key so that they could come and go more easily and so they would lock up behind them. “Oh, and, guys?” They were about halfway down the stairs so they stopped and turned back to look up at her. Chase felt his breath catch at the sight she made leaning against the doorframe. Lit by the light behind her, she looked like an angel.
“If y’all are going to be joining me in that bedroom soon”—Chase felt all the blood in his body flow to his rapidly swelling dick. Her voice had turned into pure sin and smoke—“then we’re going to need a bigger bed.” With that she winked and walked back to her room. Chase let out the breath he had been holding in a rush.
“Fuck me,” Luke murmured, just as in awe as he was.
“Chase,” Wyatt choked out, before he cleared his throat. “Chase, tomorrow you get started on finishing that bed we designed for our mate. We’ll bring it with us and you can finish it here.”
“Yeah.” Chase’s own voice was a little raspy. “I’ll get right on that. It won’t take me long.” Chase knew he would be working on it tonight as soon as they got back to the house as well. The motivation for what would happen once it was finished was just too damn high.
Chapter 6
Five days later and Rowena was at breaking point! She sighed and wriggled farther beneath the water of her bath. She was in a constant state of heightened arousal and it was messing with her concentration, damn it! And regardless of the fact that he was still in Dallas and adhering to the limitations imposed on him by the parole board, the fact of the matter remained that Baxter was now out of jail, and she needed to be at the top of her game. So she had no choice really. She would
have to take matters into her own hands and drag the three of them into her bed. And yes, she realized that was a pathetic excuse, but she was a desperate woman!
The day after she had met their wolves for the first time, Wyatt, Luke and Chase had turned up the next morning bright and early, ready to start work in her shop. Chase had a surprise on the back of his truck for her, and he worked steadily on it for the next couple of hours until she had a brand-new bed assembled in her bedroom, complete with new linens and a sea of fluffy pillows.
She had been excited and nervous for the rest of that day thinking they would make their move that night, but nothing. Not that night, nor the next day, and in fact there had been an extreme lack of naked bodies coming together for mutual satisfaction as far as she was concerned. Oh, there had been some heated kisses and lingering caresses and a really hot encounter with Wyatt against the wall in the shop that she had relived a thousand times or two, but nothing to release this ever-growing frustration!
Rowena knew they were giving her time and probably trying to show her that she wasn’t just a challenge to them and that they wanted something real and lasting. She understood that they felt this way because of the comments she had made on the first day they had met, but come on! She wanted to have sex with three wolf shifters and maybe, eventually, come to a point where she could accept that she was their fated mate and live happily ever after. Was that too much to ask?
Red-faced and embarrassed, Rowena had spoken with Angel and Faith the night before about wanting some alone time with Wyatt, Luke, and Chase. And it had gone better than she could have hoped.
The three of them were sitting on her new bed, laughing and chatting like old friends. Angel had changed so much in the week they had been in Grey River. Rowena was starting to see flashes of a sassy and funny as hell woman coming through that traumatized shell. Angel had relaxed a lot since she had been seen by Chris Carson. Rowena smiled when she thought back to the moment the two had meet. Sparks had flown between them faster than anything she had ever seen before. Chris was tongue-tied and seemed to forget how to work some of his equipment, and Angel couldn’t take her eyes off the handsome doctor.