Between Two Wolves (BBW Paranormal Shapeshifter Menage Werewolf Romance) Page 8

  “And Colt biting you?”

  I stared at Colt. “Yes…” Teeth…

  “Yes. You bit me after Weatherly…”

  “Tried to kill you. With a knife.” Jericho said the words so carefully, as if saying them again would actually hurt me. Tears welled up in my eyes.

  “Yeah…he did. Then there was a lot of crashing…”

  “Colt broke down the door.”

  …splinters…

  “As a wolf. And you were there…” I reached for Jericho’s hand. “But not as a wolf.”

  “No. I didn’t shift, in case we needed to get you back here. Which is what happened.”

  “You killed Weatherly.”

  Colt was still standing in the doorway. I held out my hand and he crossed the room, dropping onto the bed beside me, taking my hand.

  “Yeah. I killed Weatherly.” His voice was low, almost inaudible. “I’ve never killed anyone before.”

  His hand trembled, and I squeezed back. “Thank you. You saved my life.”

  “He saved your life by biting you. By making you one of us.”

  I glanced at Jericho. “That’s the part where I lost the thread. The part that I thought I dreamed. But that’s true?”

  “It is. I bit you…it was the only way to save you. You’d lost so much blood. We thought we were too late. It was the only thing we could do. You can’t know how hard it was…knowing that you didn’t have a chance to decide yourself. That we decided your fate.”

  “But you saved my life. I can’t be angry over that. I can be confused—and I am—but I can’t be angry.”

  Colt squeezed my hand, then slid his arm around me, pulling me against his chest. “You’re one of us now. Part of the clan.”

  I let him hold me. Jericho rubbed the spot between my shoulders, and we stayed like that, all wrapped up in each other, until my mind started coming up with more questions. I pushed away from Colt.

  “And I’m part of Colt’s clan, right? I remember asking you this already, but I feel like I need to make sure that I understand.”

  Colt nodded. “Yes, that’s right.”

  I turned to Jericho. “And you’re sure we’re okay?” Just days ago these two men were complete strangers, and now it felt as though they were the most important people in my life. The thought of being away from them made me panic.

  Jericho nodded, his lips curved into a bright smile. “You’re a shifter, a wolf…right now that’s all that matters. Your blood line isn’t pure anyway, since you were created, not born to this.” He shrugged. “Frankly, the least of my worries is if Colt bit you or I did. The only thing I…and he…care about is that you’re alive and in one place.”

  “Weatherly called it, a what? A bite to make me his?”

  “Mating mark. And you’re mine, if you want to get technical.” Colt leaned back, the sexy half-smile I loved turning up the corner of his mouth.

  “But I’m not one to get too hung up on technicalities.”

  I punched Colt lightly on the shoulder. We sat for a long time, watching the darkness outside, me hearing things I’d never heard before. I was getting sleepy again, a good kind of sleepy, not the zoned out feeling I’d had before.

  But there were things that needed to be figured out, at least for me. I was changed, marked…a radically different girl than the one who had arrived to spend the weekend doing yoga. I was a completely different animal now. But I was an animal who didn’t know where she belonged.

  Finally Colt gave words to the thoughts running around in my head like a caged squirrel.

  “You’re welcome to stay, if you want. I want you to stay.”

  I punched him harder this time. “You said you don’t use mind control.”

  “I don’t.” He rubbed his arm, winking. “But I can read them. You don’t know where to go…what to do. Stay here, think about it.”

  “Like Colt said, you’re welcome here. For as long as you can stand us. Hopefully that’s longer than just the rest of the weekend.”

  Then the important thing finally surfaced. Maggie. “What day is this?”

  “Sunday. Or it will be when the sun comes up.”

  “I’m supposed to go home today. If I don’t…people will worry. My best friend…she will be frantic.” I kicked aside the sheets, but there was too much masculinity holding them down. “I need to call…”

  “Settle down. You shouldn’t get up yet. Besides, it’s not even light yet. Lay back, think about what you want to tell her. You’ve got time.”

  “Can I get cell reception up here?” The thought of hiking to my car, then driving down that damned bumpy road to somewhere civilized seemed too exhausting to even contemplate. Plus there was my stuff, my gear… my tent.

  “Whoa…slow down.” Jericho set a hand on my shoulder, pushing me back against the pillows. “One step at a time. First, what are you going to tell her?”

  “I’m going to tell her…” What the hell was I going to tell her? That I decided to just up and move in with a couple guys I happened to have sex with? Oh, and by the way, I’m a wolf?

  “I can’t tell her the whole truth. You don’t want others…her…to know about this, do you?”

  There was a moment of silence. Even though I couldn’t actually read their minds, it was pretty clear there was no debate on the answer to that question. A big fat no.

  “Yeah…I thought so. No. So I won’t tell Maggie the why.”

  “Wait. You’ve decided to stay?” There was a little more than a hint of surprise in Jericho’s voice. He sat up, turning to face me. Colt was in a similar state of shock apparently. I glanced at him, almost laughed at look on his face, but didn’t have the heart.

  “Did you really think I’d leave now?”

  “Red…you gotta admit this all happened to you so quickly. We don’t expect you to stay…we want you to…but…”

  “It’s a lot to ask.” Colt finished Jericho’s sentence.

  “But you did ask. And I accepted.” I heard my voice speaking the words, and wondered what I had just agreed to. It was totally off the wall, totally out of character for me, but then again, nothing about my former life seemed to fit anymore. I was a completely different person – half woman, half wolf – and I knew there was no possible way that I could return to life as it once was.

  This is where I belonged. With Colt and Jericho. Between two wolves.

  “There’s nothing conventional about my life. I work from home, I write strange stories. I don’t have any family…not that no one would miss me, but still. I can work from anywhere…as long as I have some kind of Internet access at some point. There are ways to work around that…”

  “Hey, take a breath.” Jericho reached over, putting his hand over my mouth. “One thing at a time. You’ll stay?”

  I waited until he took his hand away. “Yes… I want to stay.”

  “You don’t know how happy that makes us, Red. Later today we’ll take you out to the clearing. There’s a place where I’m pretty sure you can make a call.”

  “Okay. Alright. I’ll tell her I met you…both of you…that right there should keep her occupied with questions for about a week or so.”

  The guys laughed, and I joined them. It felt good to laugh. It felt right.

  “After that…I’ll think of something.”

  Chapter Eight

  I had thought of something to tell Maggie. I told her about Jericho and Colt, and meeting them in the springs, and after many prying questions from her, gave her a play-by-play of exactly what happened in the springs, minus the near-death-experience, and of course, no mention of what I had become. She seemed particularly interested in the graphic details of my threesome, and asked me a torrent of questions, giggling after I answered each one. The battery on my phone was almost dead before I got around to telling her that I was staying…that I had planned to move into a cottage with my two lovers.

  “You’re not coming back? Ever? That’s crazy!”

  “I really don’t know,
Maggie. All I know is that, somehow, this feels right. I can’t leave them. I feel alive when I’m here, like I’ve never felt before. I have never been so at home, as crazy as it sounds.” I looked out past the edge of the clearing, down toward the river, and beyond. “It’s so beautiful here, Maggie. So peaceful.”

  “Are you happy, Rish?”

  “Happier than I have ever been.”

  “Then do what you need to do. I’ll be here, always…I love you.”

  “I love you, too…”

  The battery went dead, and I shoved it in my pocket. There’d be a time when I was in town, or somewhere there was a signal, and I’d call her back. We’d figure it out. We always did. It wasn’t goodbye, that was for certain.

  I turned back to the cabin. There were lights on downstairs, voices, scents. I closed my eyes and breathed in all of it. I was exactly where I belonged.

  * * *

  It was a little before dawn a few days later, and I’d crawled into bed in Jericho’s room. It had taken me a little while to adjust to sleeping in a different bed every night, never quite sure who was going to show up. Most often than not it was all of us piled into one of the guy’s beds. But I kind of liked the big communal feel of sharing beds and men. I was rarely alone at night. We are a nocturnal race, us shifters, and being up till dawn became the norm. I still wrote best in the middle of the night, and the guys were used to prowling around in the darkness. All in all, our lives meshed together pretty seamlessly.

  “Well, we aim to please. You know that. If there’s anything else…”

  I was pillowed on Jericho’s shoulder. Colt was still downstairs, closing up the cabin, locking the doors and windows, closing out the day. I was drowsy, but not really ready to fall asleep. Something stirred inside me, a lazy tendril of desire uncurling in my stomach, a flutter of arousal. I didn’t think I’d ever get tired of this feeling, of the anticipation of being with Jericho and Colt.

  Some of it was the human side of me, the desire to love and be loved—lust and desire, the same feelings I’d had in other relationships. It was familiar, if not multiplied times two. I knew, more or less, what to expect. The progression felt pretty standard. After all, it had been the way I’d acted in relationships since my first kiss with Stevie Smith in grade school.

  But overriding all that was the wolf in me, and that part was growing stronger by the day. The feelings I had for Colt and Jericho were nothing short of all-consuming, powerful—primal. To say that I would kill for them would be an understatement. I would fight for them, tooth and nail, heart and soul, just like I knew they would for me.

  So add that level of commitment to our love life, and the result was way beyond simple multiplication. I knew the little tendrils of desire curling through me now were going to explode into a white-hot fire, a desire to take and be taken, to mate with Jericho and Colt over and over. To be consumed by my wolves. To be consumed by love.

  “Hey, you still awake?” Jericho prodded me, not entirely too gently, poking my shoulder. “You want the bed to yourself?” He started to sit up, but I rolled onto him, my breasts pressed against his chest. The sheet was caught between us, but it didn’t do much to conceal Jericho’s erection. I wiggled my hips, loving the feel of it

  “Like hell.” I smiled down into his face. Even in the soft light of the lamp the details of his face stood out. The blood of his clan was so clear in him, so strong. A wave of sadness washed over me. He was the last of his clan, like Colt was the last of his. I was the only link now, between extinction for either clan.

  “Stop thinking about it. It’s fine. Really.” His voice softened as he reached up to brush back a strand of hair. “You can’t change how things are right this very minute. Give it time.”

  I touched his cheek, ran my finger down the bridge of his nose. “I know. I’m just…impatient.”

  “You know we live longer than humans, right? Unless someone like Weatherly comes along again. Otherwise, we’ve got time. Lots of time.”

  “Time for what?”

  I glanced over my shoulder. Colt stood in the doorway, stark naked. I’d gotten used to that right away. It was one of the perks of living with guys who had no inhibitions, and who were used to shifting at the drop of a hat. I still got dressed more often than not. As far as for me shifting…

  “Time for her to save us, save our clans.”

  Colt crossed the room and sat on the edge of the bed. “You’re not ready yet, anyway, Red. You know that.” He leaned down and kissed the back of my head. “You’ve been a shifter for less than a month. It takes time to sink into this life, to let your body go through all the changes.”

  He tugged at the sheet, the part that covered my ass. “Besides, you haven’t shifted yet. We’re not sure…” He leaned over, kissing my shoulder, his hand moving to the small of my back.

  “Not sure…of what…” I tried to sit up, but Jericho wrapped his arms around my shoulders. Colt had a way of distracting me from pretty much everything.

  “Not sure if you’re able to yet. We’ve had this conversation before.”

  “Yeah. I know. I need to shift…” They were right. I did need to shift, or at least try. I’d been, well, hesitant. I’d watched Colt and Jericho, but most of those times had been under less than ideal circumstances. In fact, some of those times had been downright scary. I wasn’t sure I wanted to go through that whole drama—and frankly, what looked like trauma—with my body. But I was supposed to think about it…or something…

  “But not right now. Right now…” As usual, Colt read my mind. He slid his hand down over my ass, fingers probing between my legs. I arched under his touch, my legs sliding down over Jericho’s thighs. Jericho responded instantly, hips flexing upward, prodding me with his cock. Not to cross my shifters, but I was practically purring under Colt’s touch.

  “Right now you need to stop worrying, okay? It’s just going to distract you from what’s really important.”

  “And what’s that?” I wiggled again, and Jericho twitched the sheet out from between us. It was, as always, glorious to feel his skin against mine. He was hot, as always. It still amazed me how warm both of these guys were. I imagined us in winter, snuggled between them, toasty warm without even needing blankets.

  “What’s important is us…this…” Colt’s fingers slipped lower, playing over my swollen folds. “No pun intended, but I get the feeling…” His fingers pushed further. “This is something you’re looking forward to, just as much as we are.”

  “Yeah, well, I am.” I drew in a sharp breath as Colt probed, one finger sliding down, rubbing my clit. I made a little yelping sound, a new sound that had started cropping up in my symphony of noises during sex. I assumed it was part of my new identity. In response he thrust harder, the palm of his hand cupping me, his thumb pressing into the cleft of my ass. I arched further, loving the touch of him, the proprietary way he touched me.

  While Colt was doing a great job of taking my breath away, beneath me Jericho was making inroads in making a frontal attack, his cock sliding against my inner thigh.

  “You two going to fight over who gets there first?” I pushed up against Jericho’s chest, letting my knees slide apart on the bed. There was always a hint of competition between the guys, subtle, never interfering, mostly good-natured. I’d long gotten over worrying they’d come to blows over me. But the game was still there, the hint of it adding a little spice to the whole thing.

  “I think I won this time.” Colt curled his fingers inside me, finding that magic spot that drove me wild. My body jerked and I gasped as a primal rush of arousal speared me. Not that I wanted to, but I wasn’t sure I’d ever get used to this, the intensity, how everything seemed heightened, my senses sharpened, every sensation taken to the max.

  “I think not.” Jericho flexed his hips quickly upward, almost flipping me off his body. Behind me Colt laughed, his fingers slipping out of me. Jericho grabbed my hips, getting me back into position, the head of his cock taking the place
of Colt’s fingers.

  “Always a pleasure, Red.” Jericho’s entry into me was exquisite. He had a way of taking me that was slow and languorous, but edged with something raw that sent a thrill through me like no one ever had. It wasn’t exactly fear. I knew in every cell in my being that this man would never hurt me, would fight for me like I would for him. But still…

  Colt was moving behind me, the bed dipping and shifting. He reached out, grabbing my hips, pulling me up and down. I sat back, Jericho’s cock sliding further into me, my thighs tensing against his hips. Colt moved his hands up my torso, reaching up to cup my breasts. I leaned against him, his broad chest pressing against my back. He nuzzled my neck for a minute, his breath hot, his scent washing over me. I never realized how good men could smell until I got mixed up with these two. I closed my eyes and inhaled, and something coiled inside me, like a spring that got wound tighter. And when that spring sprung, all hell was likely to break loose, in a strictly sexual sense.

  But until then, until I couldn’t stand it anymore and came so hard I thought I’d break apart, yeah, this was exactly where I wanted to be.

  Jericho ran his hands up my thighs, fingers playing over my skin. He moved them higher, until his hands reached the apex of my thighs, until his thumbs reached that certain spot between my legs. He spread the edges of my swollen folds, one thumb circling over my clit. I jerked again, but there was nowhere for me to go. I was held fast against Colt.

  He tightened his hands on my breasts, moving from caressing through fondling to frankly mauling me. I bit my lip, looking down at his hands, dark against my oh-so-pale skin, loving the contrast. Behind me was the unmistakable thrust of Colt’s erection moving against my ass. For a moment he rubbed against me, hot and hard. Then he shifted, his cock sliding against the cleft of my ass. This was still uncharted territory for me, and as close as we’d come on several occasions, we hadn’t explored this, um…area yet.

  “Like the view?” Jericho grinned up at me.