by Rae Foxx
"Yes," I knew I sounded crazy, but I wasn't. Now was my chance to prove that to him.
Seemed he had the same idea.
"Come here," he half growled, his hand warm and glittery against my forearm as he pulled me away from the butcher’s and into the smoothie shop next door.
You know, the one with the terrified shop owner who, as expected, squeaked, attempted to dodge behind the counter, and managed to drop the two shakes he had been carrying. No one in the store moved, I guess the jumping was quite common for him.
It was just as orange and smelled just as bad as it had from the street. The vile aroma of carrot tops, beets, and celery permeated the air; something that the twins made sure to point out as they danced their way in.
"What herbivore exploded in here?" Evan mumbled, sliding between me and Phoquin and making a show of smelling the air and gagging. I slugged him in the stomach and he recoiled, making another show of collapsing down to his knees.
"Take it this is your first time at the Sip in—" he stalled. At least we weren't the only people to recognize the inappropriateness of all of these names. "That's Eddie, the owner." He waved to the rabbit who had now reappeared. Eddie offered a short wave before going back to making smoothies, presumably the ones that were now being mopped off the floor.
Phoquin gave me a grin before leading us to a countertop in the corner. It was only seconds later that Eddie bounded over, his eyes darting between me and the boys as if we were going to explode all over his orange walls.
"What—what can I get you?" His voice was a squeaky whisper, that combined with the noise of glasses and talking in the restaurant, I could barely hear him.
“Four of the beet specials, please. No carrots, no algae,” Phoquin ordered for us, Eddie's face falling as what were clearly his favorite ingredients were removed. Rabbit-Eddie gave a nod and bounded away, only giving us one death glare on the way away.
I guess we were only marginally more acceptable when accompanied by the police chief.
“You can’t go around searching for evidence and investigating murders, Scarlet. It’s dangerous.” Phoquin dove into the topic at hand the second Eddie fired up the blender, bending over the table to stare me down.
"When my name is on a list of possible suspects, you bet your sweet ass cheeks that I'm going to be involved." I retorted, leaning closer. I stared him right in the eyes that were trying to make me think of a million other things.
"Hold up!" Owen interrupted, both he and Evan leaning into the close-quarters conversation, and turning us into a secret teepee of whispers. "Scarlet didn't do this. We are her alibi. if anyone did this it's one of Kent's fuckbuddies. That bear said he had a ton—"
“We know Kent was a womanizer," Phoquin interrupted, holding up his hand. "Hell, everyone in town knew he was a womanizer. I'm sure everyone has walked in on him and one of his girlfriends at least once. But every single one of his...conquests have alibis. They are all rock solid. Believe me, we’ve asked and prodded them for answers, but there are no holes in their stories.”
I wanted to call his bullshit, but the softness of his eyes when he was worried was turning me into melty goo.
"Talking about that butcher?" Eddie asked with a tiny stutter as he set four glasses on the table. All of us grabbed the deep red beverage quite reluctantly. Thankfully these glasses didn't smell as bad as the rest of the shop, but I still wasn't interested in chugging the whole thing down.
“Unless you have new information, Eddie, we shouldn't be talking about this." Phoquin's eyes darkened as he stared Eddie down, although that time the poor guy didn't so much as jump.
"No, no, I know," Eddie mumbled, wiping his hands on the dishcloth on his apron, but he didn't move to leave. "I just worry for that poor woman. I doubt she knows how to run a business, and the smell of meat was already bad enough. It drives people away, that smell. I wish I had known Kent better, maybe I could help her control it. Run that business the right way for once."
He sighed dramatically, like an old lady with gossip she was just dying to share. I had heard and seen this enough in the old ladies back home. Sure, I'll bite.
"You didn't know him?" I asked, shifting in my seat as I went back into detective mode. Phoquin gave me a warning look, but I just smiled at him.
"Not well, we've worked side by side and all that... but I can't associate with many carnivores. They make me too jumpy. And the smell of blood..." He shivered, jumped, and turned to scuttle away so fast I could have sworn he teleported behind the counter.
"Well, that explains why the guy is scared of his own shadow," Evan mused, pulling his drink closer and finally taking a sip. The face he made said it all.
He puckered as though he had eaten a lemon: forehead wrinkling, lips pursing as he sucked in air like he was trying to breathe through a straw. Damn, this thing must be vile if it got a reaction like that from Evan... and Owen... the twins looked almost identical after Owen also took a long swig. Those two would eat anything, and they always ate it gladly. It seemed that beet smoothies were the line that would not be crossed.
"What the hell fucker?" Owen asked, going for another sip as though it would be better than the last. It wasn't. "I didn't count you as the type to eat raw sewage." He said, directing his remark at the Police Chief.
"I'm not. They are meant to be sipped," Phoquin teased, a mocking smile on his face as he gripped the straw and sucked. His face made the exact same horrified expression as the twins’.
I leaned forward and sniffed. Sure enough, it smelled like garbage and something that reminded me of death for some reason.
"Well, I'm out," I announced, pushing the tall glass of red beets away.
"I don't... that's not... what the hell..." Phoquin stuttered, smacking his lips as though he was trying to get rid of the taste. "Eddie!"
The entire store jumped at Phoquin’s outburst. Eddie made a squeak as he dove behind the counter before reemerging and hopping his way over to us. His hands were wringing around that grubby dish towel.
"Ye... Yes?" I was surprised he didn't piss himself with how nervous he was. "I said no algae."
“Oh yes," Eddie mumbled, still wringing his hands on his towel. "But you see, I always make them fresh with my special algae blend, and it's their first—"
"No algae,” Phoquin demanded, shoving all four of our glasses back to him.
Eddie mumbled angrily as he collected the glasses before scuttling away. When he reached the back he threw the glasses in the sink with a volatile clatter.
“Look, Scarlet, I can’t do my job and worry about you too. Don’t make me choose between keeping you safe and being a cop. Because I probably won’t choose the cop route." Phoquin leaned in, taking my hand in his. That same spark of desire and heat flooded through me and I straightened, shifting in my chair as I tried to keep myself under control.
Evan and Owen cleared their throats and whispered something, but I couldn't turn to ask them what they were talking about. Phoquin’s thumb was moving over the back of my hand and I was about as much use as pudding right then.
"You have to stay out of trouble," Phoquin whispered, leaning in again. "No more evidence searching. No more snooping around where you don’t belong. We know the murderer is still out there, roaming free. Now I know you changed your mind about it being the wolf, but that’s the only lead we have, so I have to follow it. If something happened to you…”
My insides were goop. A melted pile of goo. Not the green goo. A good goo. The warm goo that stuck to your bones and poured from your heart in need and desire.
"What would you do?" Evan whispered, leaning into the globe of warm fireworks that I and Phoquin had made. We both jumped and pulled back, me shoving my hands safely in my lap.
"Um... I would... I would go to the bathroom.” Phoquin jumped up so fast that Eddie squealed and dropped the freshly made juices. He returned to hiding behind his counter as Phoquin rushed into the bathroom in the smoothie shop like he hadn’t peed in a decade.
I watched him go in and slam the door.
He wanted me to be safe.
Fuck, I knew what that meant. I mean, I always did, but with the hushed whispering going on the other side of the table I was sure I wasn't the only one to have done the math anymore. Phoquin was my mate, my other mate. My third mate. He belonged with us. That protective nature just drove the point right home. Phoquin was mine. Never thought I’d have three, but now that my entire being had confirmed it, I couldn’t be happier-or hornier.
“Hey Scar,” Evan whispered, leaning over me and pulling my focus from the bathroom door that I was still staring at with laser precision. “I think Fuckin’ is your Fuckin’ mate too. I know we were a little weird about it the first time he was around, but we see the way you are around him. If he is your mate, we won’t try to interfere.” His face lit up. “You know until you want us to. You feel it, right? You feel the pull toward Fuckin’?”
“Yes,” I whispered as my entire face lit up in flames. Not that I was ashamed.
I wasn’t.
My fox clamored inside me, wanting me to go to my new mate.
“Well, it looks like our harem just expanded.” Owen waggled his eyes. “That’s not the only kind of expanding that will be happening.”
Oh, god. Owen was already planning out positions and new ideas, and that fact both thrilled and chilled me.
Owen was a menace in the best way possible.
"All aboard the sex train!" Not that he was alone, Evan had even turned heads with that outburst.
Damn them.
“Go get ‘em, tiger. I mean, fox. Go get that mate," Evan dropped his voice to whisper in my ear. His hushed whisper as soft as the flutter of his fingers against my hip. "Don’t wait around for a year like you did with us.”
"Guess the threesome just became a foursome," Owen was waggling his eyebrows a bit too much.
I didn’t have much of a choice.
23
"Come on our sex train! Come and ride me!" The twins whisper-sang as I slowly stood from the table, giving them my best devil stare.
Luckily, they quieted down. They didn't stop humming their song, humping the air and blowing imaginary air horns like my very own male sex-cheerleaders. Those boys were priceless. I mean seriously, who has mates that push you to get even more mates?
This girl. Lucky as fuck, that’s what I was.
“Go!” Owen waved me off and continued gyrating his hips, the metal chair he sat on squeaking ominously. Evan laughed and scooted his chair with the same amount of flourish, catching the attention of a very frustrated Eddie who whisked his way over to the twins’ table. It gave me a chance to push my way into the bathroom that Phoquin had ducked into and thankfully left the door unlocked.
I cringed a bit as I went into the single-stall bathroom, scared that I would be walking in on him taking a shit or some nonsense. That would be nine shades of awkward. Thankfully, he was just leaning over the sink, splashing water on his face and talking to himself.
"Stay calm, dude. Stay calm. You got this; you can control yourself. You know you can, just remind yourself that she's taken... Just chill.” He splashed more water on his face and then promptly poked himself in the eye when I closed the door a bit louder than I had expected. I flipped the lock before he could wipe all the water out of his eyes.
My nerves tangled in the base of my neck, and all the muscles in my back tightened as he turned toward the sound, furiously blinking to pull me into focus.
“Scarlet?" His voice was high pitched in panic, hands still wiping away water to see better. "This is the men’s room...unless. Shit, did I come into the women’s room? Not again! I mean, it’s not that I do it on purpose... I don’t…” He was flustered, hands shaking as he turned to grab a paper towel and froze, the single urinal coming into his view on the wall before him.
He rounded on me, “No, you’re in the wrong bathroom, Scarlet!”
"Yes, but I did do it on purpose," I gave him a giant grin and stepped forward, which only sent him into a bigger tizzy.
"Why? What's going on?" He sucked in a breath through his teeth, his fingers winding one over the other as he checked my hands. Oh god! He really did think I was the murderer. He was drowning in confusion and I was about to throw him the life vest that I thought he’d been waiting for.
“Travis, do you know why I was banished to Cummings Cove?” I leaned against the door and tilted my head up. My stomach twisting at the horde of spitballs that had been placed there. Not really the place I wanted to be having this conversation, but here we were.
"And no, it's not because I was a murderer." At least not in the way he thought. It was only half a lie. Besides, I wasn't a murderer in the way he thought.
"Your aunt says you were banned. But we all were, or are parents were. Mine were old school. Lemur and big cat mixes were not allowed—" He swallowed again and shook his head so much I thought he might rattle his brain.
“I came here not because I mated outside of my species," I waved my hand toward him, it seems that simple thing was more common than I thought. "I was banished because I have more than one mate. My old pack was, well, old-fashioned is the best thing I can say about them. They threw me out for what my animal knew was true. I have two mates."
I also murdered the Alpha, but again, we weren't going to get into that.
His eyes were hooded in confusion, the dark brown almost black as his eyebrows furrowed and he took another step toward me.
"More than one mate? Like...Kent? I mean, not that you’re like Kent, but...you cheat on your mate?" His face was flashing a million different expressions: confusion, desire... okay mostly desire.
Just overhearing his pep talk in the mirror I knew that he wanted me and sharing this was like giving him an open door. He swallowed slowly, his Adam’s apple bobbing as the scent of pheromones filled the air like one of those spray air fresheners. It was that same smell from the truck, but more concentrated. More desirable. Cinnamon and campfire, sugar and wood. God, my fox was on the verge of losing it just from smelling him. She was chittering and scraping against my core, practically begging me to just jump him.
"Why are you telling me this, Scarlet?” He whispered, the smell of him everywhere. "Kent... what he did. He was not a good man."
Jesus, this man. he was going to be the death of me.
“What? No. Kent was a manwhore. He did awful things to that woman. I love my mates, both of them. And they obviously know about each other. I mean, they are twins. We’ve always known the three of us belong together. It took us a while to figure things out, but… I mean, they would have to know, considering they fuck me at the same time.”
And there I was again on the infamous Scarlet Ramble Train. There were no stops in sight, and a bumpy ride was guaranteed. I shrugged like everything I had said was just your everyday situation. Phoquin choked on air.
"They fuck... I'm sorry... What? You can't have two mates." He shook his head, a stubborn streak I hadn't expected breaking out of him.
"I can." I jutted out my chin and put my hands on my hips. I was going to make him understand one way or another. "They are bonded to me the same, love me the same. And I know they aren't the only ones."
"What are you saying?" Even if one of those ways of getting him to understand might involve me smacking him upside the head.
"I think you are also one of my mates.”
His jaw dropped, a weird choking sound coming from the back of his throat as the color drained from his face. Not that it was a secret where the rush of blood had gone since his pants were currently tenting, revealing that something about me being fucked by two men at once was really working for him.
Hell, it worked for me too. And to think of three...
Oh, my fucking hell.
All that electricity that his touch brought me reawakened, rumbling in my belly at the thought of him in that massive bed. At the thought of Phoquin holding me against him, plunging himself in.
"How do you know?"
he asked, his voice tense as he adjusted his pants. Not that it did much to hide what was happening down there.
"The same way you know." Taking two slow steps forward, I closed the gap between us. I stood before him until just the few inches of air that separated us felt like a firestorm. "Because I know you feel this too."
I lifted my hand, running my fingers down his bare arm, sending a shiver through both of us that neither of us tried to restrain. He even growled pleasurably, the sound of a cat a bit bigger than the twins echoing through the room.
"See, I told you." He closed his eyes at my words, a low purr following behind the growl of ownership. I continued to run my hand up and down his arm, sending sparks through both of us. I took a step forward. "You've felt it before."
"I felt it from the moment I saw you," he whispered, eyes flashing open to meet with mine. The heat and sparks that were jumping between us increased as he moved closer. Every part of me was on fire now. "It’s taken every ounce of strength in me not to come to you, to confess that I thought you were my mate. But then I saw Owen and Evan…Shit. I couldn’t figure out which one was yours.”
"It's because both of them are. Just like you are." I raised my head and I nipped at his chin, taking in his scent, that luscious mix of man and arousal apparent. As though his lust for me was seeping through his very pores.
“My mate,” he whispered. I lifted up to my tiptoes, capturing his lips with my own to take the first kiss. To taste him, to truly taste him.
He groaned as I kissed him, his hands wrapping around my waist as he lifted me to kiss me deeper. He tasted just like he smelled; the sweetness of him energizing the sensations that were already making it hard to think.
Wrapping my arms around his neck, I lifted my legs, hooking them on his hips as I kissed him deeper. I dragged my tongue over his lower lip and begged for him to let me in. To let me devour him. With a gasp, he obliged, his fingers working under the back of my shorts and dragging up my back as our tongues tangled. The taste of him became an addiction that I needed more of in order to feel satisfied.