Bonded To The Pack (Military Werewolf Menage FMMMM Steamy Romance)

by Nikki Wild

  "Sorry sir."

  "Moore, there's nothing I can do. Sign-out sheet says you're responsible for these tools, I can't let you back until you've turned them in."

  "Are you...kidding me chief?" I looked around at the swiftly darkening woods. "It's quitting time."

  "No ride back to town until you find those tools," he said, and I swear I heard a touch of glee in his voice. "Sorry Moore, hope you dressed warm."

  I stammered and sputtered as he hopped into his Jeep. The rest of the crew followed in the bus and I swear I saw Barnard's cheerfully grinning face pressed up in the window like a naughty schoolboy. I swung both of my middle fingers in the air, swearing and vowing my revenge, but the only response I got was a lungful of diesel exhaust for my troubles.

  I sat down heavily on a fallen tree, trying to keep the misery from flooding in. It was a ten mile drive back into town where we were bunked. I could start walking now. But then I'd roll in at two or three in the morning to the chorus of insults and I didn't really feel like dealing with those assholes after what they just did to me. I had water and a bit of food left over from my sack lunch. If they wanted me to prove how tough I was well then fuck it. I'd show them what a lumberjill was really made of. A night in the woods wouldn't kill me.

  The night was creeping in fast. The first thing I needed was shelter. I scrambled down to the end of the log, where the fallen tree's roots had dug a kind of hollow in the ground. I could put my hood over my head and pull it tight. That would keep the bugs from crawling in my ears. I’d be uncomfortable, but at least I’d stay warm and dry. I shuddered and tried to psych myself up. "You can do this, Anna," I said out loud. "You're made of tough stuff."

  I heard a snuffling growl, as if in reply. The dark forest was becoming blacker, but it seemed like part of the shadowy trees had detached themselves in three distinct places. In the dwindling light of twilight, I could see three shapes moving across the clearing, like boulders that had gained the ability to move. The hair stood up on the back of my neck before my mind could catch up. I backed myself into the hollow and shrank down.

  Bears.

  I knew there were bears in these woods, but when you're behind the wheel of a five ton piece of machinery, you tend not to pay attention to anything so silly as a dangerous animal. In my skidder, I was in an impenetrable fortress, protected by reinforced steel. Now? Now I may as well be naked and served up on a platter that said, "Eat me."

  The bears were growing larger in the gloom, and I realized with a sinking heart that they were getting closer to me. Honing in, like the predators they were. I probably smelled of fear to them, in fact I'm sure I positively stank of it. I was willing to bet that it made me smell delicious.

  I felt a cry for help bubble up from my throat and I clapped my lips tightly around it. There wasn’t another human for miles, and I wasn’t about to let my fool self get eaten. The bears were only yards away from me now, but the wind was coming from their direction. There was still the possibility that they didn't know I was here.

  And then the strangest thing happened. I don't know if it was a trick of the waning light, maybe my eyes playing tricks on me instead, but the bears seemed for a moment to waver. They stopped and seemed to ...shift, their bodies becoming indistinct and shadowy. There was a noise like rushing water and suddenly the bears were gone.

  In their place stood the shadowy forms of three huge men.

  I had barely had time to wrap my mind around this new information when there was a sudden flare of light. The man in the middle of the group suddenly swung a torch high above his head, casting dancing light amidst the shadows. The fiery pool illuminated three rugged, handsome faces.

  Three rugged, handsome, and extremely angry looking faces.

  The men strode towards me with a purpose and there was no way I could pretend that they didn't see me cowering in a hole in the dirt. I pressed my lips tightly together to keep from screaming.

  "You there," the man in the center spoke, swinging out his torch so that the light fell on my face. "Why are you in our woods after dark?"

  The torch shone down on me like a spotlight and I couldn't shake the feeling that I was being interrogated. But the bear who turned into a man was now speaking directly to me. A quick pinch to my forearm made it clear that I was definitely not dreaming.

  "Um, hi," I answered instead. For some reason it didn't seem wise to go into detail about asshole, sexist co-workers.

  "Forgive him, Zachary is rude," the man on the left said in a smooth baritone. The one he called Zachary swung his torch back upward to shine on his face and if I hadn't been so scared I would have definitely shot him my most flirtatious grin. The speaker was tall and broad in all the best possible ways, a tall tree of a man I would definitely enjoy climbing.

  He was also completely naked.

  They all were, I suddenly realized. It made me feel both better and worse. Better because it showed they could be vulnerable. Worse because their vulnerability clearly didn't faze them one bit.

  "Zachary is rude," the man on the left continued, "for not at least introducing us first. I am Denton and my brother over there is Calgary. You've already met Zachary."

  "I'm Anna," I squeaked. When a bear-man addresses you, you can't help but answer him.

  "Anna," Calgary spoke slowly, like he was tasting my name on his tongue. "Anna you don't strike me as being like the others, why are you here?"

  "The...others?" I asked. The sun had disappeared completely from the sky and the ground beneath me was chilled. I shifted uncomfortably in my hole.

  "The ones who come in here with their machines and destroy our land," Zachary growled savagely, sounding every bit like the bear he had been a moment ago.

  "Oh," I squeaked and swallowed again. "The logging team you mean?"

  "Yes," Denton said stiffly. "We chose tonight to come and treat with you, to beg you to stop destroying the land we call home, the one that our ancestors have patrolled for generations."

  "Not to ask," Zachary growled. "To demand."

  "Now Zachary...," Denton admonished.

  "Brothers!" Calgary called. "Let Anna speak. I apologize for their direct nature; we rarely have need for words within the forest."

  "Um, thank you," I said as the three men went silent and looked at me expectantly. There was something very alike in them, like a matched set carved from the same block of stone, but each was somehow different too. Zachary had eyes that snapped cold emerald fire as he glared at me in the torchlight. Denton's eyes were a warm topaz, nearly yellow, fiery like the sun that had just slipped below the hills. Calgary's eyes were dark, nearly black like the shadows that surrounded us. "Are you really brothers?" I asked, feeling stupid.

  "We belong to the same clan. We share everything," Denton clarified, and there was heavy meaning in the way he said the word "everything."

  "Oh," I said, feeling a small thrill shiver down my spine. I had no idea why it did that. Nor did I understand why I felt a deep clutching sensation in my core.

  I looked back up and shivered to see those torchlit eyes. They were all watching me intently; ready to hang on my every word.

  I shifted. Sitting on the ground was getting very uncomfortable. I stood up and stamped my feet, willing the blood to flow to my extremities again. "I am not who you need to speak with," I said, feeling almost sad. "I only work for the company that is extracting the lumber. My foreman, Rich Hawkins," I tried not to spit as I said his name, "would be your best bet, but even he isn't the one who is completely in charge."

  The three men looked at me, and I felt almost ashamed. Like I had disappointed them. I scrambled up out of my hole and planted my feet on the ground in front of them. "But," I went on, hopefully. "I can for sure take word of your grievances back into town and make sure they reach the right set of ears." I crossed my arms over my chest and nodded, hoping that I projected more confidence than I felt.

  Zachary growled low, but Denton nodded eagerly. "If you would, you would have our g
ratitude."

  "The destruction cannot go on," Calgary lamented.

  But Zachary still glowered at me. "If you do this," he rumbled in a bass tone that I felt clear down to my toes, "you need to know what is at stake."

  "I do," I nodded fiercely. "Your home, ancestors, all that. I totally get it."

  "No," Zachary said as he reached for my arm, "I don't think that you do."

  His thick fingers closed gently but firmly around my upper arm, and his fingertips burned like they were on fire from within. I made a small sound and tried to move away, but he only pulled me closer. I felt Denton and Calgary move to flank me on either side as Zachary brought me so close to him that I no longer needed the torch to see every inch of his skin. "Come with me," he urged, in an entirely new tone of voice. This one didn't rumble through me, it sang, vibrating down my spine so that I shivered even though his body heat had me warmed through and through. Without waiting for an answer, he began to lead me down the clearing, holding me close to his side.

  I followed blindly, the darkness of the forest now near total. But Zachary moved expertly, leading me on a wending path through the shadowy trees that had me completely turned around in moments. In spite of being utterly lost and at their mercy, I felt strangely at ease. I wanted to know what they wanted from me. My curiosity was nearly burning me up.

  "Careful now," Zachary urged, and jumped down into blackness.

  I hovered at the edge of an unseen precipice, my heart hammering in my throat. "Zachary?" I squeaked? "I can't see!"

  "I've got you," Denton said smoothly in my ear, and I felt myself lifted gently aloft. He carried me like I weighed absolutely nothing and the feeling of safety I felt when he held me was almost as strong as the deep rush of desire that suddenly flamed inside of me. I could barely see him, but I could smell the scent of the forest on his skin, the deep pitchy scent of the pines mixed with the loamy scent of earth and beneath than a darker, more primal scent that stirred something deep inside of me.

  Denton passed me to a pair of unseen hands, and I found myself lowered gently down to the ground. Zachary's face was there in front of me, that same scent mingling in my nose, so strong I could nearly taste it. I licked my lips.

  "It's just through here," he said, snaking his fingers around my waist and urging me forward. The whole length of his body was pressed alongside mine, and the scent of him mixed with the warmth of his bare skin had me stumbling nearly drunk.

  There was a glimmer in the trees, light where there should have been none. The forest fell away and I found myself standing in a clearing ringed with torches. The dancing fires cast shadows on the trees, making the whole forest seem like a living, breathing thing. There in the center of the ring of fire stood a huge glacial rock jutting upward, a stone monument that had been carved in the rough shape of a snarling bear.

  I caught my breath. "Where am I?" I asked the three men who stood behind me.

  "This is our temple," Zachary answered and I shivered when his breath passed over my earlobe.

  "Our sacred place," Denton elaborated.

  "The logging is coming too close," Calgary said darkly. "Your machines will destroy it unless you can convince them to stop."

  I inhaled sharply as I looked around at the wild beauty of the place. All around the carved bear were other rocks, heavy slabs of granite that were arranged in a miniature replica of the mountains behind us. It was a wild place, made even stranger by the dancing firelight, and seeing it stirred something inside of me. This was a precious place, and now that I knew it existed, I couldn't let it be destroyed.

  "I will do everything I can," I exhaled.

  Zachary moved closer to me, his lips impossibly close to my skin. "We thank you," he said, and his voice was as much in my head as it was in my ear. I moved to him like a flower turning to the sun, his magnetic, animal pull holding me fast in his emerald gaze. The dancing of the torchlight had nothing on the green fire that blazed in his eyes.

  "We chose the right one," Denton spoke behind me, musingly running his fingers through my tangled hair. His body was so close that I could lean back and rest my head on his chest if I wanted, and I had no doubt that he could support my weight completely.

  "She understands," Calgary said, and I heard the surprise in his voice. "I can feel it. She is not like the others."

  "No," I spoke up, thinking of my asshole, sexist boss and the pigs I had the misery of spending my days with. "I am most certainly not like them." I looked at the three faces that surrounded me. "But then again, you are certainly not like any men I know either."

  "We are not men," Zachary growled. "We are shifters."

  "Werebears," Denton added.

  "With primal desires." Calgary touched my neck as he spoke, drawing his finger up under my jawbone and cupping my chin in his palm. He turned my face towards his. "We are as animals, bound to this land."

  "And now," Zachary growled as he drew the sensitive flesh of my earlobe between his lips and bit down slightly, "to ensure that you follow through with your promises… We will bind you to it as well."

  He wasn't asking permission. But as his words shivered through me and I felt the flash of desire ripple in my veins like a school of silvery minnows, I gave it anyway. "Yes," I whispered, right as his lips slammed into mine.

  Want more? Click here to read “BOUND TO THE WEREBEARS” by Nikki Wild. $2.99 or FREE with your Kindle Unlimited subscription!

  Want EVEN MORE Nikki Wild? I am writing new stories every single week. As always, you can click RIGHT HERE to get your hands on my latest and SEXIEST new release!

  Thank you for supporting an independent author! Just for my naughty readers, my entire catalog is now FREE TO READ to anyone with a Kindle Unlimited subscription!

  Be sure to check out my entire naughty Nikki Wild catalog by clicking RIGHT HERE!

  You might be interested to know that I offer special discounts, new release notification, and FREE EXCLUSIVE CONTENT to anyone that subscribes to my Nikki Wild List! So go ahead, sign up is easy and I will NEVER send you spam or share your e-mail address with anyone.

  Sign up for the NIKKI WILD e-mail list by clicking RIGHT HERE!

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  I’m Nikki Wild, and I live in Southern California with my cat, my loving husband, and a genuine creeping fear of bad wine. I’ve been writing independently for three years now, and I’m in love with my readers every bit as much as I’m in love with my words! Every story I release brings me joy and pleasure, and knowing I’m able to spread a bit of that happiness to others makes every day of my life just a little bit better.

  Thank you for giving me the chance to live my dreams. Thank you for giving me the chance to be an author. I owe everything to you, dear reader, and I hope in repayment, I can excite your senses and make your every night just a little bit better.

  – Nikki Wild