by R. E. Butler
Dante left to head home. Sterling had taken Alyssa and Sydney home when they had headed to the police station. Fade knew that Dante was anxious to get home to his mate.
* * * * *
Ian paced in the cramped hotel room. Their dad had gone off the rails. Brin had been right. Something was off about the whole situation. They’d been following Dawn for two weeks and had seen her again and again with the same males from the gathering. And then Ian had seen a scar on her neck and known for sure that she was mated. Which meant that no matter what their father had told them their whole lives, Dawn was mated to a hyena clan and moving on with her life. It was time for them to do the same.
When they had confronted their father earlier that day, he’d gone berserk.
“No, no, no,” he shouted, practically howling in anger. “This is what your mother would have wanted for you! Dawn is perfect. I chose her.”
Quill clenched his hands into fists. “What about what we want, Dad? Our whole lives you’ve told us that Dawn is the one for us. We’ve searched everywhere for her, following you on this crusade to get her back. But she doesn’t want us; doesn’t even know we exist! And now she’s mated. What would you have us do? Pull her from the arms of her mates and demand she become ours? Have you lost your mind?”
Their dad gripped his hair and let out a frustrated wail. Brin approached slowly and put his hands on his shoulders. “Dad, why did you think she was right for us? You told us that good hyena parents picked out their sons’ mates, but how come none of the other hyenas had parents at the gathering?”
“How could you even think to know she was right for us when we were kids?” Quill asked suspiciously.
Ian raised a brow, frowning. “Where did Dawn come from? Why were you going to get her and bring her to live with us?”
Their dad let out an angry snarl and pushed away from them. He pressed his forehead to the wall and slapped his hand on the nearby desk a few times. But he never said anything coherent, only muttered to himself and then stormed out of the hotel room and drove off.
He’d turned off his cell so they hadn’t been able to reach him, and he’d been gone for hours. Ian was starting to really worry.
Brin pulled aside the ugly striped drapes and looked out at the parking lot. “He hasn’t been the same since we saw Dawn. I wish we’d never seen her.”
Quill leaned against the desk. “I feel the same way.”
Brin gasped, “Oh no!” and rushed to the door, throwing it wide open. Down on his knees, their father clutched at blood-soaked gauze pressed to his stomach. “I’m sorry,” he gasped as all three of them grabbed him before he hit the ground.
“Shit! Dad!” Quill yelled.
Ian lifted his father into his arms and rushed to the car, his brothers right with him. “Fucking get us to the hospital, Quill!”
Brin wrenched open the back door, and Ian climbed inside, frantic when his father groaned and made a rasping sound.
The engine roared to life, and Quill gunned it, the tires squealing as he drove them to help.
“It’s too late,” their dad said, his eyes focusing intently on Ian’s. “I’m dying.”
“No!” Brin growled from the front seat. “We’ll get help. Just hold on.”
“I don’t want to live,” his voice trembled and broke as tears filled his eyes, “I just want to be with your mother and my brothers. I’m sorry. It’s all a mess.”
Ian gripped his dad’s shoulder as fear and sorrow washed through him. “Quill,” he said, “pull over.”
With a sound that was half sob and half shout, Quill pulled over to the side of the road and turned around in the seat. Knowing that he had his sons’ attention, their dad began to weave a tale of the kidnapping of a little girl so he could ease his sons’ grief at the loss of their fathers and mother. Disbelief and fear warred with betrayal as he realized what a great, horrible mistake they’d been about to make in kidnapping the girl for a second time.
He just hoped she could forgive them.
* * * * *
Whisper groaned as she shifted back to her human form. Az knelt next to her, holding clothes he’d brought from home when Fade requested them. She pulled the shirt over her head as she sat back on her heels.
“I feel gross,” she said. Her skin was tacky to the touch, and she was sure she looked like a nightmare.
Nyte looked down at her, a forced smile on his face. “Don’t worry about that right now.”
Her eyes dropped to the floor. For the last three hours while she’d waited for her body to be ready to shift back to human form, she’d thought over what she’d done. She’d been attacked, and she’d reacted, fighting for her life. While she’d waited, she had reasoned out her reaction, shoving guilt and regret away. Fade had held her while the paramedics worked on her attacker. She’d never seen the male before in her life. He was middle-aged, very thin, with graying hair and a few days’ worth of stubble.
Now, with Nyte seeming to disapprove of her actions, she felt the wall she’d erected against the guilt of her actions crumble. “I’m sorry, shit, I’m so sorry.” Tears blurred her vision, and she pressed her hands to her face and wept.
Nyte peeled her hands away from her face as he crouched before her. “Sweetheart, why are you sorry?”
“I k-k-killed him,” she choked out.
Nyte snarled, and his brothers did, too. He jerked her to her feet, and she found herself pressed between her three mates as they surrounded her. Nyte’s voice was dark and harsh, but his touch was tender as he traced her jaw with his finger. “You’re half-naked in a police station, covered in the blood of your attacker. I want to hunt him down and tear him apart slowly. Don’t mistake my rage at the situation for anger at you or what you did, Whisper.”
Fade rubbed his cheek on her shoulder. “Get dressed so you can give your statement and we can take you home.”
Az shook out her jeans and helped her step into them. In his rush to get to her, he’d forgotten shoes, but she didn’t care. She just wanted to go home and put the night behind her. Not that she’d ever really be able to.
The police chief took her statement and said that they would be in touch if any new information about her attacker came in. They weren’t charging her because it was clear that it had been self-defense. Kentucky, like most states, had laws that a shifter could shift to protect itself if it was threatened, without being charged with using deadly force. Since her attacker had disappeared and couldn’t dispute her version of events, the police were letting her go and promising to stay in touch if they ever found the male.
When Nyte’s truck turned into town, she realized they weren’t going to the apartment but towards the baro’s property. Nyte explained that Dante thought it was a good idea for them to stay at his clan’s home, which was more secure than the apartment. “In the morning, Az will go and get clothes for us,” Nyte said as he turned down the long drive that led to Dante’s home.
“How long are we staying here?” she asked.
“A few days. We need to talk about where we’re going to live permanently. The apartment is no place to make a home.” Nyte squeezed her hand but didn’t look at her. There was still tension in his voice, and the whole cab of the truck seemed filled with it.
Since she had no shoes, she wasn’t surprised that Fade carried her into Dante’s house. It was late, but Mason was waiting for them in the kitchen. He kept his voice low as he said, “The fridge is stocked so help yourselves. I fixed up the guest room, which is the third on the right upstairs. We’re going to lock ourselves up in the den until the full moon, but if you need any of us, just call our cells.”
They thanked him, and he walked to a door that had an electronics panel next to it. He smiled at them as he shut the door and the sound of gears engaging filled the room. “When he said they were locking themselves up down there, he wasn’t kidding, was he?” she asked.
Az chuckled. “They would have already been down there if it weren’t for the full mo
on and us bringing you home. Alyssa loves being in the den.”
Since she hadn’t eaten dinner, she was hungry, so Az fixed them a quick meal while Fade and Nyte hurried her upstairs to the spare bedroom. The large room had a king-size bed against one wall, with a matching dresser and nightstands. A small bookshelf and reading chair sat next to a big window. The room was done in pale blues, masculine but not overly so.
Nyte and Fade pulled her into what turned out to be an attached bathroom with a glass-enclosed shower. Nyte turned on the water and Fade began to pull her clothes off. His expression was closed, as if he didn’t want her to know what he was thinking. She didn’t much care for that. She didn’t like being the only one who was wearing her heart on her sleeve.
“You haven’t said much of anything since I shifted.”
Fade tossed her shirt into the corner and undid her jeans. “I can’t.”
“Can’t what?”
He dropped to his knees and tugged her jeans down her legs. Fisting the material, his knuckles turned white, and he lowered his head. “I failed. I’m the one who’s supposed to keep you safe, and I couldn’t do that.”
She reached for him, pulling his chin up so she could see him. His eyes were filled with anguish. “You can’t be with me twenty-four-seven.”
“I should have been there.”
“Oh, Fade. If you’d tried to follow me into the bathroom, I would have called you a nutcase.” He didn’t return her smile. “And I was thinking, anyway, that if you’d been there then the guy wouldn’t have been able to take me. Which, yeah, that’s a good thing. But he might have tried again and been successful. If he’d shot me up with some drug to knock me out, I wouldn’t have been able to defend myself.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. I’m…still kind of terrified because we don’t know what happened to that asshole, but I know that I’m safe with you. I never doubted it for a second.”
Some of the anguish eased away from him, but she was sure that he would be beating himself up for a while. She wasn’t over what had happened by a long shot, but the important thing was that she was safe and her mates were, too. Nothing else should matter but that.
“Help me clean up,” she said softly, bending and kissing him.
He growled lightly and returned the kiss.
When she was free of her clothes, Nyte held open the shower door for her, and she stepped under the hot spray. Within seconds, two sets of soapy hands were washing her body, tipping her mind to other things besides the man who attacked her, and she willingly let them coax her body to pleasure as she reveled in the love of her clan.
Chapter 16
Nyte watched Whisper shift into her hyena form on the full moon and thought he’d never seen a prettier hyena. Like them, she was golden-furred with brown spots, but her spots were caramel-colored like her eyes instead of the darker chocolate brown of his own.
She shook her whole body out, her paws scraping on the ground near the bonfire that blazed brightly, and then lifted her head, yipping at the full moon. She hopped around a little and made him smile as she took a swipe at Fade’s hindquarters as he sat staring into the woods, scanning for intruders.
Fade chuffed at her when she smacked his rump again, and then he sprang on her, rolling her to the ground and covering her throat with his jaws. They both laughed when she wiggled under him, their braying laughter filling the night as he released his light hold on her, and she bounced away, running to Nyte for protection. Butting her shoulder with his head, he motioned for the hunt to start, and they headed off into the woods. Since Alyssa and Sydney were pregnant, neither she-wolf was shifting any longer, and one male from each clan stayed at the bonfire with their mate while the others hunted. Someday, he and his brothers would be taking turns watching over Whisper once she became pregnant.
Thoughts of her belly swelling with their cubs made his beast want to drag her back to the room and make sure that became a reality. The human part of him, however small it felt at the moment, knew that having a baby right now probably wasn’t the best idea. They’d forgone the fancy dinner out and just stayed in Dante’s clan’s home for the weekend. Az had cooked an amazing dinner, and they’d asked Whisper to marry them, giving her the ring that they had jointly picked out and sharing their love with her. Az kept hinting that he thought that Dalton wasn’t the right place for them to live, but Nyte had made a promise to the baro, and he didn’t take that promise lightly. Whisper seemed happy here, but maybe he was just deluding himself about her level of happiness.
They hunted for hours. Nyte and his brothers stayed close to Whisper as they tore through the baro’s territory, racing around trees and flushing small game from their hiding places. Whisper was an excellent hunter, but he wasn’t surprised, since she’d grown up with an alpha teaching her how to hunt.
Eventually he felt the pull of the shift and knew that it was time for them to head back. Instead of going towards the bonfire that he could see flickering in the distance, he snagged Whisper by the neck and pulled her to a stop. His brothers paused and looked at him as he released Whisper’s neck and licked the edge of her mouth with a soft hum. She barked at his brothers and turned with Nyte, following him as he trotted towards the currently empty house. He didn’t know how long his brothers would wait before they joined them, but he hoped it was long enough to play with his mate alone.
She kept pace with him as he moved through the woods, and when they reached the deck, they both shifted. He scooped her up into his arms and kissed her. The home was kept locked while they were all out hunting; he entered the code at the security panel next to the sliding glass door, and the locking mechanism disengaged. He pushed open the door, stepped through, and then closed it, pressing the lock to secure the house again.
“I couldn’t help noticing that we’re alone.” She nuzzled his neck.
“I don’t know for how long, though.” He took the stairs two at a time, and she laughed.
“Better hurry then.”
He carried her into the bedroom and kicked the door shut. Once they were inside the bathroom, he shut that door and put her down. She leaned against the counter as he turned on the shower, wanting to wash off the dirt, sweat, and blood of their hunt.
She moved behind him and ran her fingertips up his spine. “You’re so gorgeous,” she said, pressing a few kisses across his back, “it’s a wonder I let you out of bed at all.”
Her hands slipped around his waist, and she rubbed her fingers along the V of his abs. “I don’t know what this muscle is called but it’s really, really sexy.”
He opened his mouth to tell her what it was called, but decided that he’d just take the compliment and not try to teach her anything. Besides, he was feeling a little cocky that she liked how he looked. Turning to face her, he said, “I’m the luckiest male in the world to have such a beautiful mate.”
She ran her hand across her stomach. “I don’t have the muscle thingy.”
Chuckling, he slipped his hand between her legs and gave her clit a soft flick. “But you have this, which I also love.”
Her eyes sparkled with mirth, but then she grew serious, placing her fingertips on his jaw. “I love you, Nyte.”
“I love you, too, Whisper.”
Their lips met, and he groaned when she pressed her naked body against his. He clasped her close, splaying his hands across her ass and squeezing lightly. She moaned and sucked on his tongue, her hands fisting in his hair as she went on her toes to close the distance between them. Reaching blindly, he felt for the handle of the shower door and tugged it open, walking with her into the close space and shutting them in. Steam surrounded them, and the scent of her arousal permeated the air.
He broke from the drugging kiss, smiling inwardly when she made an aggravated sound. A plastic basket hanging from the shower wall contained shampoo and body wash. He pulled the shampoo from the basket and upended it over his palm, squeezing out a generous amount. Gesturing for her to get unde
r the water, he let her get her hair wet then began to massage the shampoo into her thick tresses.
“Um.” She closed her eyes with a sigh. “You’re going to put me to sleep.”
He kissed her jaw and nipped at her full lower lip. “I’m not trying to; I’m just taking care of my sweetheart.”
Her eyelids cracked open, and she smiled. “You’re very good at taking care of me.”
He wanted to preen like a damn peacock. She was all full of compliments tonight, but the best thing about it was that he knew she was being sincere. After washing her hair, he scrubbed shampoo through his own hair and rinsed off. She picked up the bottle of body wash that was scented with cocoa butter and wiggled her brows. “I’m not done taking care of you yet,” he said as took the bottle from her and squeezed soap into his hand before setting the bottle back in the basket. With firm hands, he spread the thick lather across her skin, enjoying her reactions as he made sure every inch of her was thoroughly clean. She wanted to return the favor, but he knew the minute she put her hands on him, he was going to explode from pent-up lust. His hands began to tremble as he rubbed himself with soap, and she watched, leaning back against the cool, tile wall.
“Damn that’s hot,” she purred, licking her lips. Her eyes tracked the movements of his hands as he washed himself.
He could tell she was about to drop to her knees, but that wasn’t how he wanted their time together to go. He wanted to make love to her, to hear her scream his name, feel her body clutch him as he lost himself in her depths.
“Ah, ah.” He turned her around to face the wall, pressing her hands against the cool tile.
Peeking over her shoulder at him, she tried to look innocent. “What?”
“You know what, babe. You were about to ring my bell with your mouth, and I don’t want to come like that.” He let go of her hands, sliding his fingertips down her arms, over her shoulders and down her spine. She writhed like he had electricity flowing from his fingertips. With one hand, he reached up and turned the showerhead towards the side wall so it wasn’t smacking the back of his head. Then he hooked his hands on her hips and backed up, taking her with him. Her hands slid down the wall by slow inches until she was bent over, her luscious body spread out before him. He pushed her feet further apart with his own. He teased the opening of her pussy with one finger, feeling the sweet heat of her arousal on his fingertip.