“You’re okay with this?” Gavin asked skeptically. It was obvious that Maggie had only just met all three of them, and while there might be a little gratefulness for them saving her life, it shouldn’t translate to a willingness to sleep with all three of them.
She searched his face for a moment before answering. “It’s hard to explain. I know it isn’t like me to make quick decisions like this, but it feels right. It feels like this is where I belong.”
“So you came back looking for Kade?” he asked, trying to inject a normal conversation into the idea of showering with this woman in his arms. Hell, if his cock got any harder, it was liable to disrupt the blood flow to his brain.
“Not really,” she said honestly. “I think I came back looking for a feeling.”
He sort of grunted a response to that, because he truly didn’t know what to say. He wasn’t exactly a touchy-feely sort of guy. Talking about emotions had never been his forte.
She apparently read his discomfort from the way his arms tightened around her. She laughed softly as he released his grip just a little and then leaned up to press a soft kiss to his lips. It was so different to the kiss Hensen had given him that he couldn’t help comparing the two in his mind. But as much as he wanted to go on kissing Maggie for a very long time, it was obvious in the way she swayed in his arms that she was still quite fatigued.
“Come on, sweetheart. Shower then bed. You heard the boss.”
She grinned in a way that suggested she understood the sarcasm behind his words and shared his determination to make his own decisions. He’d spent his whole adult life taking orders and saluting. Civilian life meant he was going to make his own choices, even if that civilian life was lived in the middle of a pack of werewolves.
Maggie wasn’t a very cooperative patient. It took way longer to get them both cleaned up than it should have. Hell, considering how often she’d
accidentally
brushed against his erection, it was a wonder they got clean at all. The woman inspired some very dirty thoughts.
But by the time he did get her into Gavin’s bed, she was fast asleep once more.
He didn’t want to leave Maggie alone even to make a short trip to grab his bag from the car. Unable to convince himself to drag his grubby clothes back on, and unwilling to create intimacy by borrowing clothes from a man eager to start something Gavin wasn’t quite ready for, he instead crawled into the bed naked beside her and held her close.
He’d barely closed his eyes before he heard someone come in the front door.
* * * *
“Another wolf attack?” Hensen asked as the scenarios started to run through his head.
The alpha nodded, obviously very concerned. “We just heard it on the ranger’s frequency. Just like Maggie’s attack the wolves ran off when another human charged into the fray, but it’s very concerning.” He shook his head as he looked around the room at his beta, Kobe Hallesk—the wolf who’d replaced Shaw Tryden—and the other senior members of Dry Creek pack. “Can you describe the wolf that attacked your mate?”
“Actually, neither of us saw the initial attack. Gavin was the first one on the scene. He’s an ex-Navy SEAL so he should be able to describe what he saw in detail. I doubt the guy misses a thing.”
The alpha nodded, glanced at the possessive arm Gavin still had around Kade’s waist and smiled slightly. “How’s Maggie doing?”
“Pretty good, considering what she’s been through. The wolf tore a huge gash in her throat but thankfully only nicked the jugular vein. The outcome could have been a lot worse.” Hensen closed his eyes and concentrated on their link. He was still new to this, but he was fairly certain she’d fallen back to sleep. The thing he did know for sure was that Gavin was in the bed with her. The contentment coming through his link with Maggie was quite strong. It seemed a surefire sign that she felt safe and protected, perhaps even loved.
He’d been both grateful and slightly disappointed that she and Gavin hadn’t made love in the shower, but realized it was his own sense of impatience that was trying to rush things along. After seven months of working to convince himself he didn’t want or need a mate for at least another fifty years it was quite humbling to realize just how much he wanted all three of them in his arms and in his bed.
“I’ll let you get back to your mates,” the alpha said. “Do you think Gavin would mind answering a few questions about the wolf that attacked Maggie? It would help if we knew which wolf pack we were looking for.”
“Of course,” Hensen replied, feeling very relieved that the alpha wasn’t trying to pull rank on this one. If Maggie and Gavin had been pack members, he probably would have demanded their presence at this meeting. But with them both being human—well, for Maggie, recently human—it was a good idea for the pack to be friendly. Probably none of them would feel safe until Gavin was a werewolf himself, but since Hensen had no plan to change the man against his will, it could be a good long while before that happened. Gavin definitely struck him as the stubborn type.
He felt Maggie’s panic a moment before they heard the gunshot.
* * * *
Maggie did exactly what Gavin ordered. She got down.
So far down that she ended up half under the bed. Gavin was crouched beside her, his legs pressed against her as he aimed the gun at the creature currently writhing in pain from a single gunshot wound.
“We’re almost there, Maggie.”
She glanced around wondering if this was another side effect of being made into a werewolf. She could have sworn that Hensen was right beside her when he said those words.
“We’re coming in the front door. Tell Gavin not to shoot us.”
“Gavin,” she said urgently as she heard the front door open, “it’s Hensen. Don’t shoot.”
Gavin reached a hand behind him and squeezed her lower leg in a comforting sort of way. “I know,” he said, his gaze never wavering from the creature still lying on the floor. She couldn’t see it from her position behind the bed but her first glimpse of it had been terrifying enough. The fact that it had come straight for them both, its intentions to kill them very clear, had made the whole thing feel like something out of a horror movie.
She didn’t even realize she was shivering with shock until Hensen, Kade, and several other men came into the room to subdue the injured creature. Gavin turned then and lifted her to her feet, holding her in the circle of his arms. She clung to him, crying like a baby as the events of the past several hours all caught up with her. Waking up a werewolf had seemed like a bit of an adventure in her otherwise directionless life, but the fact that within hours something had tried to kill her
again
was just a little too much to deal with.
“Hey, sweetheart,” Kade said as he came closer. “It’s okay. Everything’s going to be okay.”
She shook her head, not really disagreeing with him, but unable to agree with him either. Her world was upside down already, and right at this moment it felt like nothing would ever be okay again.
“I need to call my…my friend.” God, she needed some normalcy, something ordinary and humanly mundane.
Both Gavin and Kade tightened their grip on her as Hensen leaned over and touched her face gently.
“It’s okay, Maggie. We’ve got you. You can call as soon as we’re finished here,” he said in a deep soothing voice as he wrapped his massive arms around all three of them. “The alpha just needs to talk to Gavin first.”
She shook her head. She needed Gavin. He was an anchor to the real world. He was human. He wasn’t going anywhere without her.
“It’s okay, Maggie, you’re coming, too. Whatever the hell is going on it’s clear that we need to stick together.”
“Th–thanks,” she said as Hensen leaned over to brush a kiss to her forehead. “W–What was that thing?”
She could sense that he really didn’t want to answer that question, but she was a little surprised to hear a growl from low in her own throat when Hensen looked at Gavin as if asking for help on how to avoid the question.
“Hey,” Gavin said, squeezing her slightly in his embrace. “None of that. Hensen is only trying to protect you. You’ve had enough shocks for one day.”
“But I need to know,” she said pathetically. Somehow she was flashing back to the early days of her mother’s illness when her mom had tried to keep the horrifying details to herself. It had been twice as devastating once Maggie had found out. She’d wasted so much time she could have spent with her mother in those early days. She had no intention of making a similar mistake with her mates.
Hensen smiled and leaned over to press a kiss to her lips. Tears started to flow at the emotions she could sense from him. He was frightened for all three of his mates, and despite his calm exterior his need to lock them away and keep them safe was nearly overwhelming his control.
She wasn’t certain how she understood any of that, but she absolutely knew in her heart that it was the truth.
“I’m okay,” she whispered as Hensen finally broke the kiss. “I just need to be with my mates.”
He smiled, touched her cheek, and then moved back so that Kade could kiss her, too. His touch was brief but comforting, his smile reassuring. A moment later Gavin turned her face into his chest, his arms tightening around her as several men she didn’t know carried the now unconscious creature from the room. Strangely, she felt like she could see it anyway.
“Maybe we should relocate to my place,” Kade said quietly.
“I’d rather take my family home,” Hensen said in a frustrated tone, obviously wanting to get them all as far away from Dry Creek pack lands as he could, “but I’m guessing the alpha will want us to stay close while we figure out what the hell is going on.”
“Unfortunately,” Kade said as he stepped away, “that would be my guess, too.”
“The wolf followed us here,” Gavin said calmly, even though Maggie could feel the tension in his muscles, “so traveling by car didn’t throw it off the scent.”
“
That
was the wolf that attacked Maggie?” Hensen asked, sounding as surprised as Maggie felt. The creature they’d carried out of here hadn’t looked anything like the wolf she remembered.
“It was when it came through the door, but as it approached the bed it moved onto two legs and changed into whatever you want to call that thing they just carried out of here.”
“It was in wolf form when it came into the cabin?” an unfamiliar voice asked. Maggie turned to see a very big man—hell, probably bigger than Hensen—step into what suddenly felt like a very tiny room.
“Gavin, this is the alpha.”
The man leaned over and shook hands with Gavin, apparently unaffected by the fact that they were both naked. Maggie stayed pressed against him, unwilling to share anymore of herself with a stranger just now. She somehow knew that nudity wasn’t an issue with shape-shifters, but again she had no idea where the knowledge was coming from.
“Alpha,” Gavin said in a respectful tone. He probably sounded very much like the Navy SEAL he’d once been. “It was definitely in wolf form. Someone else opened the door to let it in.”
“Are you sure? We’re not picking up any other scents.”
“Positive, sir. Even after it changed shape I doubt it had the ability to grip the handle and turn it. There was definitely someone else in the cabin as well.”
The alpha looked around the room before turning his attention back to Hensen. “Unfortunately your guess was correct. I need you and your mates to stay on Dry Creek pack lands until we can get to the bottom of this.” Hensen nodded, but it was clear he wasn’t happy about it. “Have you ever seen a creature like this?”
“Never,” he said with a quick shake of his head. “With your permission I’ll contact Brigden Hawkes at Shy River and ask him if he knows anything. He spent decades collecting information on other shifter species. Maybe he’ll have some idea of what we’re dealing with.”
“Thanks,” the alpha said. “Any information is better than the big fat nothing we have now.”
Kade quickly moved around his small house collecting the clothes and dirty dishes that hadn’t quite made it to the laundry basket or kitchen sink. He wasn’t a complete slob, but he certainly wouldn’t have called the place “visitor ready.”
“Sorry,” he said as he brushed past Gavin and dropped a load of clothing into the basket. “I’ve lived alone for a long time.”
Maggie shook her head and gave him a wry smile. “Compared to my place…ah, maybe I shouldn’t confess to that. I will point out, though, that I’m a pretty big failure when it comes to housework. I don’t suppose werewolves have maids?”
“Sorry,” Hensen said, pulling her into his embrace. “No maids, but no stereotypes either. We’re slightly more evolved than our wild cousins. Females are as important to a pack as the males, so we share most responsibilities.”
“Good to know,” she said as she snuggled into his embrace. Kade didn’t miss the fact that Gavin also hovered nearby. Two attacks in one day had left them all on edge. “Does it always happen this way?”
“Not always,” Hensen said, apparently understanding what “it” Maggie was referring to. “But a true-mates bond is different. Even though he’s still human, Gavin is finding it as hard to resist as the rest of us.”