Hearts Unleashed: A Limited Edition Paranormal Romance and Urban Fantasy Collection

by C. D. Gorri

  If he DARES to try it again, we will take him out!”

  Chapter Six: Peeping Tom

  The following day dawned bright and cold and was busier than the previous one had been, in spite of all the extra energy that the Winterborns had to extend after the incident with Scar.

  At least it hadn’t been boring. Echo was surprised that Arcadia had seemed to not only accept them as Shapeshifters, but didn’t seem afraid of Smoke’s Wolf. Of course, Smoke being who he was, he just had to get closer to her than he should have. Echo imagined that his little brother was probably getting a nose full of her feminine musk at the same time.

  He heard a fairly close howl, and ascertained that it was a member of his pack on Day Patrol in the woods around the lodge. He stopped for a moment and realized that it was an alert that a member of the pack that had NOT been assigned to duty had been sighted close by.

  That was an oddity. Usually, since their wolves were nocturnal, the regime would complete their assigned tasks in human form during the day and, after a short rest (or not), meet at night to exercise their wolves, hunt, do patrols around the perimeter of the property and chase off any unwanted intruders, i.e., lone wolves that occasionally would show up on the property.

  They hadn’t had a territorial challenge for many years, but you never knew.

  Just to be sure, Echo decided to walk to a particularly thick stand of pines on the edge of the cleared property around the Winterborn, strip off his clothing and shift into his wolf so that he could surreptitiously check out the report.

  After doing so, he began walking as closely to the building, staying in the shadows of the snowdrifts so that he wouldn’t be cited and reported by guests gazing out of their room windows. The weather was more frigid than usual, near zero with the wind chill, so guests were enjoying themselves inside of the lodge, many getting their hair done, massages or manicures and pedicures.

  Rounding the corner to the back side of the Winterborn, Echo’s wolf immediately picked up a familiar scent. As it approached stealthily, his wolf sighted another wolf that had stretched its long powerful frame out vertically against the building so that its eyes were level with the bottom part of one of the room windows.

  The room window happened to belong to the shower room in Echo’s suite.

  Echo didn’t have to guess what Smoke’s wolf was doing. It was obviously peering in at Arcadia as she showered. He would have bet money on it!

  Without a second thought Echo’s wolf charged at the peeping Tom shifter, knocking it over and sending it tumbling down the incline into a drift.

  Before it had a chance to recover, Echoes wolf was on top of it, growling thunderously.

  Their Wolf Speak conversation went something like this…

  What the fuck are you doing spying on Arcadia, you little shit!

  Hell, we’re supposed to be protecting her not molesting her for one. For two, you are violating her privacy!

  What if she had seen you?

  Okay, okay, you win, but there is something you don’t know—can you get off of me so I can tell you, maybe?

  With great reluctance Echo let Smoke up. With an injured air, Smoke’s wolf shook himself vigorously to rid himself of all the ground in snow stuck to his fur coat and returned Echo’s stare evenly.

  BROTHER, MY ALPHA, I need to tell you something, something that I only was able to confirm today, even though it had occurred to me a few days ago.

  At the time I thought, this cannot be—but now I know deep in my bones that it is a fact! AT

  Cut the drama. Echo said to him, and cut to the chase, Smoke!

  Okay, it is this—even though you have claimed Cadie, I recognize that she is my mate also. And there is more…

  Logan believes that she is also his mate! He is as certain as I am!

  I believe, dear brother, what we have to recognize is that we are in a tetrad!

  We need to talk!

  Making sure that Arcadia was otherwise occupied (Echo had encouraged her to seek private ski instruction with one of the professionals that offered such services at the lodge), Echo, Smoke, and Largo convened their meeting in Smoke’s smaller quarters.

  The first thing out of Echo’s mouth was,

  “Can this possibly be true?”

  He was looking straight at Largo, and Largo met his gaze defiantly.

  “It is true, and I am as sure that Arcadia is my fated mate as both of you are!”

  “How long have you known?” Echo wanted to know.

  His second and third in command looked at each other. Finally, Smoke spoke.

  “From the moment of our first meeting,” he said earnestly, and I am sure Largo would agree. It’s like nothing either of us have ever encountered before.

  Time seemed to stop, and that deep recognition that our kind always talks about kicked in. Her scent was beyond intoxicating—so much so that we felt a sense of euphoria. Every time we touched her, or even accidently brushed against her, the electricity from it made our hairs prickle. And not just the hairs on the backs of our necks! Even our pubic hair!”

  Echo snorted and shook his head.

  “I think I was in denial when I first perceived those feelings,” he confessed, “After Delphine died, I thought that I had lost my chance to mate for life, that I would be without a mate for the rest of my days on the planet.

  You can imagine my shock at feeling those feelings again. It was as though a shroud lifted, and all the sensations that I never expected to experience again returned.”

  “You marked her,” Largo stated. There was no reproach in his voice.

  “You mated with her and marked her. Even though she is fully human both Smoke and I could sense it. And now that it is clear that the near impossible has happened, I am sure you understand that Smoke and I are tortured by our own desire to both mate and mark her so that the rest of the pack can recognize our Tetrad.”

  All of them sat quietly as the reality of what was before them sunk in.

  Smoke broke the silence by sighing.

  “Trouble is, how are we going to convince her that she must accept her destiny to be mated with all of us? I know she can sense this magnetic pull. Echo, I think she thinks it is just an ordinary attraction, a magnetism that happens between males and females.

  How do you think she feels, really?”

  “I think she can feel it,” Echo said thoughtfully, staring into the flames of the blaze in the fireplace as they licked along the length of the logs in the grate, “It’s metaphysical, and powerful.

  I saw the way she looked at you two when she was introduced to you both. I noticed that she could hardly take her eyes from Largos.

  I know that you have a special ability with mesmerizing both humans and wolves,” he continued, “I wonder.”

  Largo’s lips twitched at the corners.

  “It needs to happen naturally and be as sacred and beautiful as it is meant to be,” he stated finally. “Sure, I can turn up my little superpower a notch. Smoke has abilities when it comes to pheromone manipulation by either increasing or decreasing.

  What do you think, Echo? You’re the Alpha.”

  Echo smiled.

  “I think when something is destined it will happen no matter what we arrange or don’t arrange—not to say a little persuasion in whatever form could hurt!

  And in case you haven’t noticed, our darling Arcadia loves her single malt Scotch. A lot.

  Did you know her birthday is tomorrow?”

  He crossed his muscled arms over his broad chest. All of them were aware that the intertwining of their fates had redefined and transformed their relationship to one another.

  They had always been brothers, and as far as pack life was concerned, they were the Alpha, Beta and Gamma/Delta, as Largo acted as both the wolf in charge of spars and training and also the pack messenger as he was the fleetest among them if they should need to send a message.

  Now they were something more. They were the fated mates and guardians of
one voluptuous human female, Miss Arcadia Pines. They were bound to mate with her, provide for her, protect her and, if necessary, give their lives for her.

  The gravity, and the miracle, of their situation was not lost on any of them.

  Chapter Seven: The Outcast

  It was the same night, and all of the pack with the exception of those that had been left behind to patrol the Winterborn lodge itself were on patrol, on the alert for trespassers and interlopers.

  They communicated through their intermittent swells of howls, some lasting longer than 10 or 12 seconds, reporting that all was clear, with an occasional alert as to available prey to feed on. The lands around the Winterborn were abundant with their favorite ungulates: deer, elk and moose. More than one hunt took place that dark night. The only light over the hills was provided by a huge silver scythe of a crescent moon.

  Echo, Smoke and Largo stayed in constant silent communication, all even their wolves seemed to be preoccupied with thoughts of Cadie—memories of her smell and the way her touch felt.

  Smoke in particular remembered being close to her when he introduced his wolf to her. She was amazing for a human, and her musk was tantalizing even to his wolf.

  He couldn’t wait until their mating, and he hungered to mark her as Echo had. He knew Largo was also looking forward to claiming her in every way possible.

  She would be theirs, no question. Theirs to mate with, theirs to protect from all others.

  Their quieter brother Cisco, the Omega of the Pack, was running West to separate himself from the rest of the pack with a single goal in mind.

  He too was obsessed with his fated mate, but his mate was a female wolfshifter that had been trailing the pack for months, hoping to join it. Echo had been reluctant to offer her membership, but Cisco KNEW that Echo would be forced to, because Cisco had realized, when she had permitted him to at last come close to her, that he had found HIS mate also.

  Her name was Kibu.

  Hers was a heart wrenching story—she had been rejected by an Alpha male that she was desperately in love with, and it wasn’t just the wolf that she had been smitten by, but the wolfshifter’s human form also caused her young heart to skip a beat.

  If he had ever shown her the least bit of attention in either form, human or wolf, she would have devoted the rest of her life to the pack, but the fact that he rejected her across the board had crushed her spirit.

  She had been beautiful, both as a wolf and a woman. Since she had made one last plea to him for his affections, even after he made it abundantly clear that he had found his fated mate in the pack in another wolf shifting female named Nia.

  Kibu was permanently banished.

  In her depressed state she had nearly starved. By the time she had drifted far enough West near the Winterborn Pack she was so downtrodden she was nearly dead. Their territories were extensive even though their pack was not the largest in the region. They had marked their territories with their unmistakable scent to alert any other packs or even lone wolves like herself that they were trespassing and had better move on quickly.

  So bereft of a will to go on by that point that she didn’t care, she abandoned any pretense of even attempting to live part of her daily life in womanly form. She often wondered if she had forgotten how to shift back into human form, though intellectually she knew that was impossible.

  What caused her to stay in the region rather than keep moving until she reached the Pacific Ocean was inexplicable and based entirely on an inner knowing and intuition. All her instincts told her that her destiny was somehow connected to the Winterborn pack.

  And after she had made that decision, a peace that transcended her heartbreak began to flicker in the way that a fire that has been seemingly extinguished is able to relight itself from a single, seemingly inconsequential remaining spark.

  Her hope and strength returned to her. He was out there, her true mate, she was sure of it. If she were patient, she knew that their entwined destinies would bring them together.

  The first time he found her, it was because he had come across her when she was foraging on the remnants of the larger kills that the Winterborn pack made. Cisco knew that Echo had been made aware that she was in their territory before, and had asked him, as Lead Scout for the pack, to keep an eye on her.

  Echo had basically accepted her presence in Winterborn territory as an Omega, the lowest of the low as far as pack hierarchy was concerned. Cisco rarely disagreed with his Alpha brother’s decisions, but from the beginning he had felt drawn to her.

  Her wolf was comely and attractive, which caused his wolf to become alert to her presence. He also picked up on her deep sadness, and wondered why she wasn’t part of a pack and not yet mated.

  The first time he approached her, slowly and carefully and gauging her reaction the entire time, she never growled or even tried to run from him. He found that surprising, because she must have known that as a “fringe” member of the pack she was considered expendable.

  Still, she stood placidly, and when he was close enough to sniff around her and greet her, she allowed him to bow and whine and nuzzle her, returning her own low frequency whining, both of them tentatively escalating the courtship.

  It was only when he went for her nether region that she growled and snapped at him. He quickly retreated.

  Their courtship progressed. Cisco, when he did not have duties to fulfill in human form at Winterborn Lodge, often shifted so that his wolf could seek her out and sleep with her in her makeshift den she had made in a dug out in between the giant roots of an ancient elm tree and spend time with her. He knew she was his mate—but would he be allowed to claim her?

  Echo was the Alpha and made all the decisions. Cisco knew that after the death of Delphine, Echo had been with some of the pack females but only intermittently and so there was currently no designated Alpha female.

  Because the pack hierarchy had changed, he thought that even the High Order of Wolves League (the high Council decision making Board of Wolf Shifters, also known as “H.O.W.L.”, might even approve of his mating with Kibu.

  Cisco meant to discuss the situation with Echo, but Echo seemed to be preoccupied with the most recent breach in the lodge security, and had kept putting him off.

  On one of his visits, Cisco had shifted into human form as he lay beside Kibu, and challenged her to do the same. He was curious as to what her human female looked like.

  At first, she had refused, then seeing the acute disappointment in his eyes, she acquiesced, though she insisted he close his eyes until she told him she was ready.

  Inside the den one afternoon, he waited with his eyes pressed together, shivering a bit because the slits in the canopy of tree root cover that afforded the “roof” of the cave-like shelter were the only source of light, and in human form the dugout space was not warm enough unless his and Kibu’s wolves were wrapped around each other.

  He had never heard her human voice, either, and when she told him, “Ready!” He noticed that her voice came out softly and somewhat weakly, from months of disuse.

  Even though her long straight hair was mussed her appearance both startled and pleased him immensely. She had huge gray almond shaped eyes. She was thin, just as her wolf was on the thin side, but her breasts were surprisingly full.

  He instinctively reached out to stroke her cheek. He couldn’t believe that her human form was real, and he had an overwhelming sense that everything that had come before in the entire course of his life had led up to this one moment in which he was with his fated mate.

  She seemed to recognize that admiration in his eyes, and blushed prettily as her own eyes, hungry with desire, perused his body.

  “Do I please you, my love?” She asked softly.

  “Oh yes!” He assured her brushing her hair back from her shoulders so that her heavy breasts with their distinctive nutmeg brown nipples were in full view,

  “But more importantly, do I please YOU?”

  At her quick nod he continued
, “Because I intend to please you, Kibu. I want to love you so well that your heavy burden of sorrow and regret is replaced by the joy we create together.

  Cisco wasn’t cold anymore, even though their shelter was not as snug as it could have been and more suited to their Timberwolves than their naked human forms. He found that his blood was pumping faster as his heartbeat ramped up and he gently reached for Kibu to pull her to him possessively.

  She moaned as his mouth covered hers. It had been so long since she’d been held in human form by another human being that the intensity of the pleasure she felt at his touch was almost painful.

  He flipped her over so that he could enter her from behind as quickly as possible. Doggy style seemed appropriate since they were making love for the first time as mates in her den. He’d hoped that she would be aroused enough to be wet and he was not disappointed as he skillfully guided the engorged head of his throbbing penis along the cleft between her buttocks, down to where her turgid, tumescent vulva seemed to reach out and envelop the head of his cock.

  The sensual and pleasurable sensations galvanized him to action, and he plunged his shaft deeply within her, groaning as he did so, crouched over her backside protectively as he gave himself over to instinct. The desire to fill her with his seed was overwhelming, and it was a declaration that they were bonded for eternity.

  He felt her tremble and shudder as he filled her with his semen, and as soon as he had finished one round of fucking her, he became immediately erect again as desire to lap on top of her overcame him.

  The first time had been a celebration of their feral passions. For the second round he slowed things down a little, taking his time to suckle and tug at her breasts, massaging her exquisitely rigid clitoris and finger fucking her as he kissed her before grabbing one cheek of her buttocks in each of his massive hands before he pressed the full length of himself inside her once more.

  She was eager for his sex, his touch, and his affection. She was as anxious to please him as he was to please her.