My Three Mates

The night was torturous. The Faber brothers had raged against the walls of my hut and my senses. Victor called to my she-wolf all night. I’d realized how powerful my she-wolf was.

She’d nearly driven me out to them.

She was ready to let them possess her. She wanted to lift her tail and let them all mount her.

I’d barely been able to hold her back.

She’d been wild. Just as wild as those brothers were, lingering outside my hut.

I’d yearn to touch myself in new places. To seek something in me or with them I couldn’t define but that my wolf and body longed for. I had to turn my back on my barricades and cover my ears, huddled in the corner. Desperate to stay in control; desperate to stay inside and unharmed.

The pink haze outside my window eventually waned into morning light. The howls and grunting and coaxing words died down. I managed to make it through that Mating Moon. It had taken every ounce of control I had. And it hadn’t been without price.

When I did dare emerge at dawn, it was to find them all sitting against the walls of my hut, staring out toward the river. Their hair was tousled, their faces were pale, and they looked worn.

I caught Victor’s gaze as I retreated inside and closed the door. He was furious.

Sealing myself back inside, I readied to wait the next two days to be sure they were gone.

And I’m safe.

That afternoon I heard a camp meeting being held.

The alpha was enraged and bellowed, “I said all females would be bred and set to carry pups!”

His fury was tangible, coursing over the camp.

I didn’t know if the other females obeyed, but I certainly hadn’t.

And Laura, I guessed.

“Look to your new beta as an example,” he bellowed.

My eyes went wide as I pressed against my shudders to try and see who the alpha had claimed. To my horror, Laura stood next to him.

“Next Mating Moon,” the alpha raged. “All females will be bred. Any not, will be banished from our walls.”

I gasped, pressing my forehead to the wall.

No. He’s out there!

The one who killed my mother.

That was the price I was going to have to pay, if I wanted to reject them all for another Mating Moon.

What choice do I have?

Either option could kill me.

***

I stayed in my hut as much as I could stomach for weeks. My nights were haunted by visions of blood and endless running. My wolf hadn’t divulged any more to me about what happened at that cottage.

Even a month later, Victor hadn’t forgiven me for not opening that door. The few times they’d dragged me out since then, he’d hardly spoken to me. Victor merely glowered at me with that thunderstorm expression.

I’d taken to leaving earlier in the morning to scrounge some food and wash before the Faber brothers returned from their border guard duties.

I had learned that’s where they were most nights. They didn’t return to camp until a little after dawn. Which meant my time at the river was always limited.

This morning, I had managed to catch a fat rat. It was an ugly process, and I’d landed on him after pouncing. Squishing him more than catching him, but I was so hungry that I didn’t care.

I gathered my fuzzy treasure and crept shadow to shadow, back to my hut.

Rushing in and bolting the door, I scrambled over to the fire. With my free hand, I tossed in another log. Logs which were, blessedly, provided by the pack, chopped and stacked in the center of camp for us to gather.

Someone often left small stacks before my door. I’d glimpsed Chase now and then in the vicinity when I found them, which made me wonder if he was the one delivering them to me.

I ignored the pang of guilt at taking from the pack. Even with my memories still fractured, with so many questions and no answers, I was stuck here. Not quite a prisoner, but not free to make many choices.

Once the fire billowed to life, I flexed my lips back to let my pointed teeth emerge. I delicately peeled back the rodent’s tough skin to get to the meager meat inside.

A board creaked behind me and I froze.

“Do you think if you don’t move, I won’t see you?” There was humor in Huntley’s voice. “You really are like a rabbit, aren’t you?”

Victor calls me that. My shoulders slumped.

Amidst my surprise that he was here, there was a sense of relief. I hadn’t seen them in so long that I’d begun to wonder if something had happened. Or perhaps they’d grown bored of me.

I peeked over my shoulder at the window and confirmed how he’d gotten in.

The shutters I had closed and rigged to stay shut were shoved aside. Splinters of wood were scattered over the floor.

“Not your best work.” Huntley gestured. He walked to me, towering over me, at six feet. The aura of strength that surrounded him was normally softened by his constant grin.

He’s not smiling now though.

Huntley sniffed the air as he descended on me. “You smell good.”

I pulled my hood more firmly over my head. I’d taken to wearing it all the time, feeling safer when I was buried within it.

“It’s the rat.” I lifted it weakly.

“Yuck.” He reared back, scrunching his face. “Why are you eating that?”

“I haven’t had food in days,” I said, trying to keep the edge out of my voice. His disgust implied I should be more disgusted.

But I’m too hungry to care.

“The alpha has been furious that we didn’t breed you under the Mating Moon. We’re being punished.”

I frowned in confusion.

“We haven’t had time to bring…” he trailed off. Eyeing the rat in my hands, he let the sentence fade and shifted uncomfortably on his feet.

“It’s definitely not the rat that smells like that.” He shook his head and took deliberate breaths. “It’s you. Faint, but sweet.”

I darted for the door but Victor was there, muscle and heat blocking my exit. He tipped his head and those green eyes locked onto me, cutting through me like daggers. He exuded the same strain and animosity he had since the Mating Moon.

When I refused to surrender to him.

I wheeled backward, trying to keep well out of his reach.

“Don’t be afraid, Valerie. Just us.” He growled in a low voice.

That is the reason to worry.

“We’re going to the river to find a snack and wash up,” Huntley explained from behind me.

“Care to join us?” Chase materialized next to him.

Probably through the window too.

I suddenly found myself surrounded.

“No.” I shook my head. Wheeling around to face those two, I eyed them as I set my jaw. “No.”

But the sudden heat at my back meant Victor had closed in behind me.

They’re always too close. I glanced over my shoulder, and he peered under my hood, suspicious.

“What’s with that thing?” Huntley asked.

Victor was so close that I could feel his chest brush against me with each breath. My knees quaked.

What would it feel like to have his arms around me, instead of him always being angry with me? Would I still hold so strong?

No, my wolf whispered. Her certainty frightened me.

They are as likely to kill you as mate you. Martha’s voice echoed in my head.

I looked at Huntley. When he reached to pluck off my hood, I ducked and lunged back. And slammed into Victor.

He was as immovable as a tree trunk.

“Sure, she does, Chase,” Victor responded over my head. His breath ruffled across my hood.

It took me a second to realize he was answering the question about me going to the river. Victor caught my shoulders through the oversized cloak and turned me toward the door.

Fortunately, the cloak was roped around the waist, acting more like a robe than a cloak.

Victor walked toward the river with me in tow.

“You look like a plump mage in that thing,” he grumbled.

“I don’t care,” I said impudently. But my tone was barely more than a whisper, afraid of inciting them.

“You need a good washing,” Chase said.

“You don’t want to stink, do you?” Huntley added.

I didn’t dare tell them that I’d already bathed earlier.

They’d know when I was sneaking out then. I blanched at that thought.

“My rat,” I objected pitifully. I lifted the limp animal, hoping it might be reason enough to leave me behind.

“Eat it on the way,” Victor dismissed.

“Whether she wants to stink or not, that cloak certainly does,” Huntley cackled from behind us, feigning holding his nose.

It was true. I hadn’t bothered to wash it, hoping that it would deter attention from males.

I shot him a dark look.

“Aw, don’t be mad, Valerie,” Huntley scratched the fabric covering my head, as if trying to ruffle my hair beneath.

“Look at her,” Chase stepped aside me. “Round little thing, aren’t you?”

He tickled my sides, unaware it was the soft bindings I layered under my clothes instead of skin.

I jumped. Chewing my cheek, I nodded.

Victor shot me a dark look.

“How could a she-wolf that can’t hunt, be plump?” Victor drawled, causing the other two to laugh at me. All while his gaze never flickered from me.

I couldn’t hold that gaze. It saw too much. It demanded something from me, something that stirred low in me and made my wolf pace under my skin.

How does he do that?

I winced and tried to skitter further away from him as he propelled me forward. But there was no going where Victor didn’t want me to go.

He led me near the river.

Chase and Huntley shucked their britches and bounded into the water. Soon, they were splashing and laughing.

I was pointedly ignoring them, trying not to look at their bare, bronzed bodies. I felt my cheeks heating.

“Why do you always try not to look at them?” Victor whispered. “Don’t you want to?”

He was so close that his warm breath ruffled a few loose tresses of my hair.

“I…”

“If you want to look. Look. They won’t mind.”

They wouldn’t either.

They love attention.

And the more shocked I seemed to be, the happier they were.

My she-wolf was happy to comply, moving my eyes to them without my direction.

After a moment though, it was me that dared a glance at Victor’s hard profile. I took in his lowered brows and tight jaw. His face was written with strain.

He always looks like that. I dismissed. ~Barely leashed.~

Victor let me go and I slid down to the bank.

“You should get in.” He nodded to the water. “Wash up.”

“I…” I plucked a bit of grass near me.

“I…” Victor mimicked. He shook his head. “It’s always ‘I…’ something.”

I chewed my lip, feeling Victor’s keen gaze on me. It roved over me like a hot caress, like he could touch my bare skin even beneath the layers of fabric concealing me.

“It’s warm today!” Huntley called.

Victor stood at the edge of the water, alert. I’d seen that tension in his body when we hunted. He leaned around a shrub to peer deeper into the woods.

I scented the air, catching only fresh water and the mixed musk of males. My wolf bristled under my skin as I caught a flash movement in the shadows far in the woods. But it was brief and I couldn’t be sure what it was.

After enough time passed that I was sure they were all distracted, I leapt to my feet and made a break for it. Trying to retreat back to the safety of my hut as fast as my feet could carry me.

But as I tucked behind a tree I peered around and found that Huntley and Chase hadn’t seemed to notice nor care that I’d bolted.

But Victor…

Where the hell is he? I looked and looked again, twisting to peer over my shoulder. My breathing was shallow. I turned my head toward camp and slammed into a solid wall.

A hard, masculine arm reached over me to brace against the tree.

How’d he get here so fast?

“Where do you think you’re going?” Victor leaned over, caging me against the tree.

My chest brushed against him with each breath. He was all hard planes, as unyielding as the wall that locked our pack into this part of the woods.

Damn him.

How is he always everywhere?

“Come play with us!” Huntley invited. “Victor! Let her come join us.”

Victor studied me and tilted his head.

Is he waiting for my answer?

“No.” I shook my head.

“So, you’d rather stay here with me than take your clothes off around us?” Victor caught a wispy lock of frizzy blonde hair and twirled it around one finger.

The gesture was so terrifyingly intimate that my body tightened under his touch. I wondered what those hands would feel like on me.

He exuded lust as surely as he breathed.

They all did.

No way am I taking off my clothes with them.

“Katy or Alana would come in,” Chase complained.

~“I’m sure they would.” The words leapt from my lips as I shot him a black look. “I’m not them.”

I’d often seen the two females giggling as they followed the Faber brothers about.

Those two always seemed willing to offer themselves to any male. Not just under the Mating Moon, but whenever they wished it.

They sought it out.

Which was confusing. I wondered if the only reason they weren’t hurt under the Mating Moon was because none of the males seemed inclined to claim them.

Or perhaps they do hide like the rest of us.

“I asked you a question,” Victor sneered.

His hard face hovered above me, forcing me to look up into his fierce green eyes.

“No! I was just—” I looked around desperately and ducked under his arm. “Going to pick some berries.”

I rushed to the nearest bush.

Victor allowed me to scurry away.

I searched the bush and collected berries in my hand.

“Picking berries,” I muttered. Nothing about the words was convincing, even to my own ears.

Victor wasn’t done with me.

He strode over to bat the berries out of my hand before snatching me up under my arms and tossing me in the river.