by Becca Van
“No,” she answered truthfully.
“Do you think we can’t smell how we affect you, Jaimie?” he asked. She hoped it was a rhetorical question because there was no way in hell she was going to answer.
“We know you want us as much as we want you. Now, tell me what the fuck is holding you back!”
“Beckett!” Crispin shouted. “Let her the fuck go. Now!”
Jaimie didn’t like seeing them arguing. They were brothers and should stand up for each other, but she was also glad Crispin seemed to be on her side. She glanced from one brother to the other. Crispin and Daire were scowling at Beckett. Beckett looked so angry, and it was all because of her.
As soon as he released her hair and removed his arm from around her waist, she pushed to her feet and ran toward the bedroom. She didn’t care where she was going or how she was going to get there. All that mattered was getting away from these three angry men. Tears welled before rolling down her face. Other than keeping her own counsel, she had no idea why they were so angry with her and each other.
It was going to be difficult to leave since she decided she wasn’t going to use the front door, especially with her right arm in a cast and sling, but she wasn’t about to stay where conflict seemed to reign.
She closed and locked the door behind her, raced into the bathroom to gather her hairbrush, toothbrush, and few other things that had been placed on the counter after her small bag had been delivered. She lifted her case to the bed, putting the items inside before zipping it up. After moving to the door and listening to make sure no one was on the other side or coming toward her, she hurried toward the window, unlocked it, and opened it. Pushing the flyscreen out was hard since she was awkward using her left hand, but she got there in the end.
Giving the bedroom one more perusal to make sure she hadn’t left anything behind, she carried her case to the window, extended the handle and lifted over the sill to the ground. Being careful so she didn’t fall or bang her casted arm on the window frame, she slung first one leg and then the other over before dropping to the ground.
Grabbing her bag, she carried it toward the concrete driveway, glancing back toward the house to make she they weren’t looking for her, and she didn’t breathe easily until she was sure they couldn’t see her even if they gazed out a window, and started walking up toward the road.
Jaimie had no idea which direction town was, but figured she’d find a house, knock on the door and ask for directions and or a lift. Maybe she’d be lucky enough to find the bed-and-breakfast so she could rent a room.
The further she got from the Rafferty brothers’ home, the faster the tears flowed and the more she felt as if her heart was being ripped apart. She started sobbing which made it difficult to breathe and walk since she couldn’t see very well through her tears. Jaimie had no idea if she put her foot down wrong or if she’d stepped in a pothole when she rolled her ankle but the next instant, she fell to the road with a cry of pain. Thankfully, she fell to the left and didn’t injure her broken right wrist further, or her hip since her shoulder had taken the worst of the impact.
The sobs and tears came faster as she lay on her side crying her eyes out. She’d made a total mess of things and now she was probably going to die from dehydration. Her left ankle was killing her and she could feel the skin getting tighter and tighter as it swelled. It wasn’t broken. She would have known right away if she’d broken another bone, but she’d definitely sprained it.
Her tears finally slowed until her breath hitched spasmodically. She looked up to the sky and the heavens. “What have I ever done to deserve any of this?”
She was all alone in the world, and now she had the three men who’d declared she was their mate at each other’s throats.
She began to wonder if she was cursed.
Chapter Seven
“What the fuck, Crispin?” Beckett snarled as he stood and began pacing.
“Do you have any idea what you nearly did?” Crispin snapped.
Beckett frowned. “What the fuck are you talking about?”
“Your claws are out,” Daire said calmly.
Beckett glanced down at his hands. “Shit!”
“Exactly,” Crispin said. “Your tiger was too close to the surface, and you were seconds away from claiming her.”
Beckett rubbed the back of his neck. “I didn’t even notice.”
“We’re all feeling aggressive.” Daire scrubbed his hand over his face.
“Yeah.” Crispin sighed. “You were calmer than you’ve been for a while, but now you impatient as ever.”
“Fuck you!” Beckett shouted.
“Fuck off,” Daire roared at the same time.
“I think we should let our tigers out to go for a run,” Crispin said in a reasonable tone, but Daire could tell by the way he clenched his teeth his brother was having trouble keeping his aggression under wraps.
“I don’t want to leave Jaimie here alone.” Beckett frowned. “What if she falls or needs one of us and we’re not here.”
“I’ll stay,” Crispin volunteered.
“No, you fucking won’t. I will!” Daire said in a growly voice as he got in his brother’s face, shoving his chest into Crispin’s. “You just want to stay so you can be alone with her.”
“And you don’t?” Crispin yelled.
“Shit. Listen to us,” Beckett said. “We need to calm down so we don’t scare our mate. This is what the other shifters were talking about when they met their women and hadn’t mated yet.”
“You already scared her,” Crispin said in a quieter voice.
“She had to have heard us arguing.” Daire rubbed the back of his neck. “Do you think we should get one of the other women over here to talk to her? To explain our angry aggression isn’t her fault and has nothing to do with her.”
“It does have to do with her,” Beckett said.
“Yeah, but not because of anything she’s done,” Crispin replied.
“We need to deal with this ourselves,” Beckett said. “We need to earn her trust. If we want her talking to us and telling us why she’s so fucking scared, we need to build a rapport with her.”
“You’re right,” Daire said.
“What?” Beckett cupped his ear.
“Fuck off, asshole.” Daire flipped him the bird.
“So, are we under control again?” Crispin asked.
“For the moment,” Beckett and Daire answered simultaneously.
“Then let’s go talk to our mate.” Crispin hurried across the living room and down the hallway toward the master bedroom with his brothers right behind him. The door was closed but he knocked, hoping Jaimie wasn’t too upset with them and didn’t ignore them. He exhaled with frustration when he didn’t hear her coming toward the door. “Jaimie, open the door, honey. We need to explain a few things to you.”
Silence was the reply.
Crispin frowned as he tilted his head, using his enhanced hearing, hoping she wasn’t still crying. Yeah, she tried to hide her tears, but he had seen the shimmer of moisture in her eyes before she’d turned away. When he realized he couldn’t hear anything, not the sound of her breathing, nor the beat of her heart, his heart lurched with pain.
Their mate wasn’t even in the house.
She’d left them.
* * * *
“Fuck! Jaimie are you all right? What’s happened?” Preston Louis knelt on the ground at her side.
She sniffed, swiped the tears from her face, and tried to sit up. She gasped as pain knifed into her left ankle when she moved her leg.
“Where are you hurt?” Preston asked.
“My ankle.” She really wished she hadn’t been so impulsive. If she hadn’t, she wouldn’t be in such a predicament. Hysterical laughter bubbled up from her chest and out of her mouth. How the hell was she going to cope with a broken right wrist and sprained left ankle? There was no way she’d be able to use crutches, and she knew she needed to stay off her feet so she didn’t do any permanent
“Let me help you.” Preston leaned down before lifting her into his arms. He took a couple of steps before he froze, nose in the air sniffing deeply. “Don’t get scared, but your mates are on their way and they’re in tiger form.”
“What?” She whispered her question, glancing about nervously.
“You’re scared of them. Why Jaimie?” Preston frowned down at her. “I just told you they won’t hurt you.”
“They were fighting,” she explained quickly. “I’m not going to stay and cause a rift between three brothers.”
“Fucking dumbasses. Did they explain anything at all?”
“What are you talking about?” She looked up at him, but his attention was on the copse of trees lining the road.
Three loud, angry roars were the only warning she got before three massively huge tigers bounded from between the trees, racing toward her. They were snarling, their fangs showing, and the fur on the back of their necks and along their backs was standing on end.
“Stop!” Preston ordered in a hard voice.
Jaimie was surprised the three tigers listened and halted a few feet away. She couldn’t believe how big they were. They were way bigger than any tiger she’d ever seen in a zoo or on the TV when she’d been watching documentaries. The tiger in the middle crouched lower on his legs. When she saw the muscles at the top of his thighs bunching, she realized he was about to pounce. She knew it was Beckett by the startling green of his eyes.
“Don’t you dare.” She pointed at him. “If Preston hadn’t come along when he did, I’d still being lying on the road hurting.”
Beckett raised his muzzle before sniffing loudly. He glanced at Crispin and Daire before gazing at her.
And then everything took on a surreal quality. The lines of the three tiger’s frames began to shimmer. The muscles and bones in their bodies contorted and shifted, contracting and elongating as their bodies changed. Stripy orange, black, and white fur receded until she was staring at three naked men down on their hands and knees. While it was the most phenomenally amazing thing she’d ever seen other than the Louis men changing from Kodiak bears to men, it was also a shock.
Her vision began to narrow, the outer edges getting darker and darker, and her lungs began to burn. When she noticed she’d stopped breathing, she sucked in breath after breath and blinked until her vision cleared.
Heat invaded her cheeks when she realized that Beckett, Daire, and Crispin were now standing up straight and tall, their bare bodies garnering her attention, even though she wanted to look away.
They were all bulky with muscle but not bulging in the horrible overblown brawny way. Beckett had his hands curled into tight fists, and each time he flexed them, his biceps twitched.
Daire had his arms crossed over his broad, muscular chest, looking deceptively calm, but he was clenching his teeth.
Crispin was taller than both his brothers and was just as strapping. Without any conscious thought, her gaze wandered lower, and she quickly closed her eyes as fire heated her cheeks no doubt to a bright red with embarrassment. All three of them didn’t seem the least concerned their cocks were standing at attention or that anyone passing by would see their glorious god-like bodies.
“Give her to me,” Beckett ordered gruffly.
“I don’t think so.”
“What the fuck, Preston?” Daire shouted. “You have no right to keep our mate from us.”
“That’s where you’re wrong,” Preston answered in a cold, low voice. “I found your mate lying on the road hurt and in tears. She left because you all scared her with your arguing.”
“We didn’t mean—” Crispin began but Preston cut him off.
“I know you didn’t, but right now your woman’s well-being is more important than anything else. I’m going to take her to our home, call Broden to check her over and if…if she wants to see you after that, I’ll let you know.” Preston didn’t give them a chance to argue further. He leaned down, grasping hold of her case, turned and walked quickly down the road.
Jaimie felt bad when she glanced back at Beckett, Daire, and Crispin. They were standing in the middle of the road as naked as the day they’d been born, their shoulders slumped, staring after her dejectedly.
Pain lanced into her heart, making her groan, and she quickly turned away again. She hurt all over and the pain only got worse the farther Preston carried her from the Rafferty brothers.
Jaimie berated her impetuousness as she wondered what the hell she’d done.
* * * *
“We need to go after her,” Daire grumbled. His tiger was pacing and roaring with fury and pain. He wanted to run after Preston, rip the fucker to shreds, and claim his mate.
“We can’t,” Beckett said, surprising him. Usually it was Crispin being the voice of reason.
“What do you mean we can’t?”
“It’s our fault she got hurt, Daire,” Crispin said. “If we hadn’t let our animal’s aggressive frustration get the better of us, we wouldn’t have been arguing. Nor would we have scared her enough in to running away.”
“Fuck!” Daire tilted his head back, staring up at the sky before he roared out in pain. His heart felt as if it had just been ripped out of his chest.
“We need to go home and get dressed. Then we’re going to go over to the Louis’ to make sure our mate is all right.” Beckett turned toward the trees and their house. Crispin and Daire followed.
Daire had never felt such grief.
Their mate didn’t want anything to do with them, and they could only lay the blame at their own feet.
The agony in his heart was hard to take, and he wondered if he and his tiger would end up dying because he couldn’t put it back together again.
* * * *
“Oh my god. What happened? I’m Elsa, are you okay?”
Jaimie nodded but then shook her head.
“Broden’s on his way, baby. Can you show him in?” Preston asked.
Jaimie kept her gaze lowered, aware of Elsa’s worried stare.
“You know I will, but I think it’d be better if one of you let him in,” Elsa said as she sat on the sofa next to Jaimie.
She looked at the other woman and licked her lips. “I’m Jaimie.”
“I know.” Elsa reached out, clasping Jaimie’s hand in hers. “I hear you met my mates last night. That must have been quite a shock.”
“Understatement,” Jaimie muttered.
Elsa burst out laughing. “It’s great that you still have a sense of humor. You’re going to need it around here.”
“No kidding.” Jaimie winced when she shifted the foot Preston had propped up on a cushion after lowering her to the sofa.
“We’ll be in the kitchen if you need us, mate.” Gabe clapped Liam on the shoulder before they headed away. Preston had gone out the front door, presumably to wait for the doctor.
“I don’t really need a doctor. I’m a nurse and know what to do. It’s only a sprain.”
“I’ll get you some ice,” Elsa said as she stood.
“I’ve got it,” Liam called out just before he came back in and handed the ice pack to his mate. He stroked a finger down her face, the love in his and Elsa’s eyes evident.
“Do you want to talk about what happened?”
Jaimie didn’t want to bare her heart to just anyone, but she was so confused and so out of her depth, she knew she needed to offload. Maybe Elsa would be able to give her some sound advice so Jaimie could make up her mind one way or the other. And as that thought struck, she knew there wasn’t a way in hell she could walk away. She already had very strong feelings for Beckett, Daire, and Crispin, wanted to be with them, to build a relationship with them more than anything she’d ever wanted.
She just needed to know how to cope with their unusual, aggressive behavior and the riotous hunger coursing through her body. The desire heating her insides was so strong it was almost painful. She wasn’t sure she could cope with that on top of everything else, but she was going to have to.
There was no way she could have sex with her injuries. She’d only end up hurting worse than she already was. The pain was pretty bad right now. She was hot and cold at the same time, her body sheened with perspiration making her feel clammy. She wanted to stand under a cool stream of water but she had a feeling even if she could, it wouldn’t help cool her insides.
Her pussy was so damn wet her panties were soaked and her womb was aching from the continual clenching. Her breasts, nipples, and clit felt as if they were twice their normal size, and she wanted to scream in frustration. Instead, she took a couple of deep, calming breaths and hoped she didn’t end up going insane.
She jolted back to the present when Elsa gently placed the ice pack on her swollen ankle, and she ended up gritting her teeth against the cold and agony shooting up her leg and into her foot.
“They were fighting. I had to leave. There’s no way I was hanging around and causing a rift.”
“Why are men so fucking stupid?” Elsa sighed.
“They aren’t—”
“Yes, they are. I’ll bet they haven’t explained much about what happens when a shifter meets his mate, have they?”
“They told me that if I agreed to be with them that I’d end up healing faster as well as having some enhanced senses.”
“Did they tell you that they fell instantly in love with you as soon as they met you? Or that the longer they’re around you without claiming you, they and their animals would become more unsettled, more aggressive. That it would be harder for them to keep their tigers on a leash?”
“Uh…no.” Jaimie licked her lips, staring at Elsa wide-eyed. “They love me?”
“Yeah. I don’t know why or how it happens so fast for the men, maybe it’s got to do with their shifter genes. Us human women usually want to take our time to get to know someone before we let our guards down and have sex, but it’s different for us too. I was in instant lust with my mates, too, but I didn’t trust my instincts and fought them for as long as possible.” Elsa snorted as she smiled. “It wasn’t very long at all. A couple of days at the most.”
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