Gavin laughed as the car started to move. He was fairly certain they weren’t being shipped to a tropical destination, so it was unlikely to be a luxurious setting, but he looked forward to some time with his mates where they wouldn’t need to worry about imminent danger all the time.
Lord knew, after the stress of the past three days, they all deserved some downtime.
Maggie was very glad she was a werewolf now. The hike deep into the mountains was long and arduous, but also quite enlightening. She was fairly certain that few humans, if any, had ever ventured this far into the wilderness. Gideon and Suzanne had driven them as high up the mountain as the roads would allow, and then they’d literally climbed several hundred feet straight up the same type of cliff face she’d fallen down eleven years ago. In the past four days they’d done that twice more.
They were probably several miles above sea level by now. Nights were damn cold this high up, and it would be impossible to survive a full winter without some serious planning, but with the summer months ahead of them it should be quite a nice little vacation. She almost didn’t notice the cabin built into a cliff face, but once she spotted it she was very glad for the GPS device Gideon had given them. It would have been impossible to find otherwise, especially with the wild growth in an area that was likely a small clearing at one stage.
“You two stay out here while Gavin and I check the inside for wild animals and structural integrity.”
“Yes, boss,” Maggie said with a sarcastic salute. She didn’t mind following Hensen’s lead in things she knew nothing about, but his “orders” were starting to get under her skin. The fact that they’d traveled practically nonstop for the past four days probably had a lot to do with her annoyance. None of them had slept much, but even reminding herself that Hensen had probably slept less than all of them didn’t seem to pull her irritation back under control.
Gavin raised an eyebrow at her attitude but didn’t say anything.
Kade stayed by her side and watched their mates enter the long-abandoned building. “Suzanne called it ‘werewolf PMS.’”
“I don’t give a fuck what Suzanne called it,” she said with an almost animalistic growl in her voice. She managed to surprise both of them with her reaction, but instead of turning away or berating her for her rudeness Kade simply wrapped his arms around her and held her close. She closed her eyes against the tears that threatened to fall, and tried really hard to relax as Kade ran his fingers through her hair in a soothing rhythm.
Unfortunately, all it did was remind her that she hadn’t washed her hair or had a proper shower in days. Diving into an ice-cold stream was
so
not her idea of a good time.
“Things will feel a whole lot better when you can morph into your wolf shape.”
Thanks to her link with Hensen, she already knew that was going to take several more weeks at least. The idea didn’t make her feel any better. She shook her head against Kade’s chest as the real reasons for her emotional outburst moved to the front of her mind.
“I can feel him pulling away from me.”
“Hensen?” Kade asked sounding really shocked. “He’s not pulling away from you. Why would you even think that?”
She couldn’t put it into words. She shook her head again even as she tried to compare the closeness she’d felt to Hensen in those first couple days to how she felt now. She didn’t even realize she was crying until the werewolf himself came up behind her and lifted her into his arms. She clung to him, crying harder, as she struggled to comprehend everything that had happened in the past week.
“Don’t cry, baby girl,” he said as he carried her over to a large tree and sat them down in the shade. “I’m sorry. I’ve been so focused on getting us here I didn’t realize you were feeling ignored. I promise to make it up to you.”
“I’m sorry, too,” she said haltingly. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me.”
“If it’s any consolation, I feel it, too,” Gavin said as he sat on the grass beside them. He reached over and pulled Kade into his lap. “To be honest, I’m starting to admire the control human women have over their hormones. I can’t imagine going through this shit every month.”
She smiled at that but didn’t loosen her grip on Hensen. Kade had held her in his arms every time they’d stopped to sleep, but Gavin and Hensen had stayed on guard, never truly relaxing. In fact this was as close to unwinding as they’d gotten in five or six days. Maggie dragged in a deep, calming breath and then they all lapsed into silence. It felt wonderful just to know they didn’t have anywhere to go.
“The cabin is in pretty good shape,” Gavin finally said. “We’ve got a bit of cleanup to do and the bed will need to be restrung, but otherwise we should be pretty comfortable.”
“Restrung?”
“The wooden frame is massive—big enough for three grizzly bear-shifters—but the mattress is long gone and the ropes that held it up have decayed,” Hensen said. “We should be able to replace them with the climbing equipment ropes, but it’ll take a few days. The sleeping bags should do until we can build a mattress.”
“You know how to do that?” she asked skeptically. It wasn’t exactly a skill modern humans required.
“Except that I’m not human,” Hensen said, clearly reading her thoughts. It felt kind of nice to have him back in her head even if he was just listening in on random snippets. “And yes, I know how to restring a bed.”
“So do I, by the way,” Gavin said with a smile. “I spent a lot of time with my grandfather when I was a kid. He was very much into conservation and self sufficiency.”
“He owned the cabin Suzanne was living in?” Kade asked. Gavin nodded. “I think I met him a couple of times—in wolf form of course. He seemed unusual for a human. Back then they mostly shot first and well…okay, that was pretty much all they did. Shot anything that moved. Your grandpa was different.”
Gavin nodded again. “He was definitely different. My mother called him the family kook, but she found raising four kids alone was hard so my brothers and I spent a lot of summers with our grandfather.”
“What about Suzanne?”
“She barely knew him. Her dad was more involved in her life than mine or my brothers’ fathers, so she never got to stay longer than it took to drop me, Quinn, and Oliver off. I think that’s why Grandpa left her the house. He wanted her to have a chance to know who he was even if she didn’t actually get to spend time with him.”
“Does that mean you spent a lot of time near Dry Creek pack lands?”
“I guess so.”
“As horrible as it sounds I’m really glad I didn’t run into you back then. I don’t think I would have survived knowing I had two mates out there—both human.”
Gavin laughed softly. “I don’t think I would have reacted very well to learning I was destined to have three mates, two of them werewolf
and
male, either. Maybe we met exactly when we were meant to meet.”
“I’d certainly call it good timing,” Maggie added, remembering with frightening clarity the moments she believed she was going to die. They lapsed into silence as they took a little time just to breathe. They hadn’t seen or scented any evidence of other shifters in the last day or so. Gavin and Hensen had already thoroughly checked the surrounding area. They’d have to be damned unlucky for anyone to find them here.
“We have a surprise for you,” Hensen finally said. She couldn’t resist the temptation to look at his memories. He laughed indulgently when she found the surprise he was talking about.
“A bath?” she asked.
“We’re going to drag it down to the edge of the stream. It’ll be easier to warm the water—“
She cut off his explanation with a kiss. “Thank you,” she said as their thoughtfulness made her weepy again.
“Hey, don’t get too excited,” Gavin said, leaning over to tickle her behind the knee. “It’s a huge tub, so there’s a good chance you won’t be the only one in it.”
She grinned as the tension finally started to flow out of her muscles.
“I’m counting on it.”
* * * *
Hensen couldn’t remember looking forward to having a bath more than he did right now. The tub was large enough to wash three adult grizzly bear-shifters at the same time, so they’d used all seven metal buckets they’d found stored beside it to warm the water. Maggie had insisted that they all wash quickly in the cold stream so that the water in the tub would stay clean enough for them to soak their tired muscles.
They’d quickly agreed and now Maggie, Kade, and Gavin all sat soaking as Hensen waited for the final set of buckets to boil before joining them. He heard Maggie giggle and turned his telepathic senses to her to find out why.
He smiled when he realized that Gavin had produced a tiny travel bottle of shampoo and offered to wash her hair for her. It was a truly sweet thing to do, and coming from such a masculine man quite endearing. Maggie groaned as Gavin used his strong fingers to rub the shampoo through her hair and massage her scalp. Hensen wanted to groan with her.
But what he wanted more than anything was to claim both of them, but there hadn’t been enough time. There was also the small problem of Gavin’s reluctance.
“I’m not reluctant,”
Gavin whispered into his mind.
“I just need some time.”
“How is that ‘not reluctant’?”
“You’re asking me to rethink everything I thought I knew about myself. Just give me a few days—stress-free days—to work shit out in my head.”
Hensen nodded, knowing that it made sense. It was just the fact that they had time now that was making him impatient. Surprisingly, there was also the fear that Gavin would walk away once the danger to Maggie was taken care of.
“Maggie needs you right now,”
Gavin said, ignoring that last thought even though Hensen knew he’d heard it.
“So hurry up and get into the tub before I start making love to her myself.”
“That sounds like something Kade and I would like to watch,” Hensen said out loud as he carefully poured another bucket of warm water in beside them. Maggie and Kade both turned to him, obviously wanting an explanation to his seemingly out of the blue comment.
Gavin grinned, curled his arms around Maggie and lifted her onto his lap.
“Hensen would like to watch me make love to you,” he said with a wicked grin. “Any objections, sugar?”
“Hell, no,” she said with a happy laugh.
* * * *
Maggie moaned, surprised at how quickly arousal burned through her. Just like the water over the fire she’d been simmering for an awfully long time. Now that she had a chance to indulge, her patience was completely gone.
She twisted so that she was spread across Gavin’s lap, his hard cock pressing against her pussy lips. She wriggled, desperate to take the man inside of her, wanting nothing more than to sink onto that sinfully hard erection, but he held her still, refusing to let her take control.
“Not this time, sugar,” he said as he lifted her to a standing position. Water dripped down her body, the midmorning sun warming her back as the rest of her heated with need. She grinned as Hensen stepped closer and wrapped his arms around her upper body. She gasped into Hensen’s mouth as Gavin slid lower and pressed his lips to her pussy, lifting her higher as he nibbled on her folds and then thrust his tongue deep into her body.
She felt Kade move behind her, his tickly, warm kisses on her buttocks making her giggle. Gavin growled against her pussy, the vibrations setting off delicious ripples of heat, stealing her breath as arousal pulled every muscle in her body tighter.
Hensen kissed her, thrusting his tongue deep into her mouth over and over as Gavin matched his rhythm, thrusting harder and deeper into her pussy, and Kade caressed her buttocks, moving closer and closer to her anus.
She was shaking all over, no longer able to stand, being held in their grip as they pushed her to the edge of orgasm and beyond. Her scream filled the air as her climax exploded, all three men continuing to torment her with soft touches until a second, more powerful orgasm ripped through her. She shivered uncontrollably as Gavin finally stood up, lifted her to him, and thrust his cock deep and hard. She gasped, the amazing sensation of having him inside her bringing tears to her eyes as he fucked her slowly, the sudden urgency replaced with something more real, more encompassing, more enduring.
He kissed her then, his warm lips still coated in her juices, his tongue licking a path across her lips before plunging into her mouth over and over. She felt Kade’s fingers caress the place where she and Gavin were joined, spreading her natural lubrication up to her anus. She clenched her buttocks both in need and worry, but Kade and Gavin were quick to reassure her with soothing touches and soft words.
Again slippery fingers glided over her anus, the gentle press against her tiny hole somehow setting off nerve endings she hadn’t realized existed. She moaned, pushing back slightly, wanting to experience everything her men wanted to give. Kade carefully worked two fingers into her ass, the slight burning, stinging pain distracting her for a moment before Gavin groaned.
He pulled out of her pussy, holding her close as he closed his eyes for a moment.
“Don’t tease me,” he said in a breathless voice.