Between Two Wolves (BBW Paranormal Shapeshifter Menage Werewolf Romance) (12 page)

“I never want to go through that again.
At least not the first part. The rest...yeah, definitely. But not right now.”

They guys were hovering around the bed,
pacing, not quite giving each other high fives. But they looked extremely
pleased with themselves. Or maybe they were pleased with me. Actually, I was
pretty pleased with myself. But I was also exhausted.

“This pacing stuff has to stop, okay? Sit
or something.”

Colt perched on the edge of the bed. Jericho
hovered a moment longer, then sat down on the windowsill. They still seemed
full of energy. Annoyingly so.

“It’s hard coming down sometimes, for
us.” Colt reached out, pulling the blanket up over my arms. “But for you, it
was different.

“You think?” I turned toward Colt. Every
inch of my body hurt and I winced.

“You didn’t grow up like this. We did.
But you did good, Red.” He leaned over and kissed my forehead. “Real good.”

“So I’m one of you now, for real?” I was
having a hard time keeping my eyes open. Colt was fading in and out, Jericho
behind him just a big familiar shape backlit by the light from the window.

“For real. You’re a shifter. One of us.” Jericho
came into view over Colt’s shoulder. “You’re our shifter, Red.”

“Well, your shifter wants to sleep.” I
pulled the blanket higher, unable to keep my eyes open any longer. And not
wanting to. I wasn’t going anywhere, and I knew they weren’t.

“We can do a play-by-play later.”

The last thing I heard was Colt’s soft
laugh, and the door clicking shut behind them.

* * *

I opened my eyes. It was dark, really
dark. The usual house sounds were absent, and for a minute I panicked. The only
clock in the house was downstairs, the big antique in the front room that
didn’t keep very good time. I could just hear it ticking. Cellphone.

But I had no idea where that was right
now. Tossing off the blankets I sat up. A wave of dizziness made me reconsider,
but I shook my head. I was still in Jericho’s room, but like my cellphone, I
really wasn’t sure where my clothes were. It really didn’t matter.

My eyes took almost no time to adjust to
the total darkness. I stood up, waited through another wave of dizziness, and
then decided it just might be from hunger and not some bizarre after effect of
becoming a wolf for the first time. The rest of me felt pretty normal, except
for the lingering aches in my joints.

I snagged a robe from the bathroom and
padded downstairs. Before I’d reached the bottom I heard Colt and Jericho’s
voices through the open door. They were on the front porch.

“Hey, Red. You’re back with us.” Colt was
sitting on the ancient wicker sofa that seemed on the verge of collapse. He
patted the cushion beside him. Jericho was leaned against the wide porch
railing.

I dropped down, thankful for the softness
of the cushions. My hips and knees ached, but I was starting to take a perverse
pleasure in the pain. It was a badge of some kind.
Shifter: Achievement
unlocked.

“You feeling okay?” Jericho had a beer,
held it out to me. I shook my head.

“Not bad, considering.”

“You were amazing, Red. Seriously. You
did really great, for not being born to it.” Colt wrapped an arm around my
shoulder, rather more gently than usual. He kissed the top of my head. “And
you’re just as stubborn as any shifter I know.”

“And you were beautiful. Wish we could
have gotten a picture. But…that’s not something we do.” Jericho finished his
beer, set the empty on the railing, and joined us. “Your coat is like honey and
fire, amazing. Can’t wait to see you as a wolf again.”

I thought about that, about the pain.
“Will it always be like that? Will it always hurt?”

“Can’t say. You’re not born as a shifter.
Colt and I were shifting before we even knew what that meant. It’s just how
we’re wired. For you…” Jericho took my hand. “It’s a steep learning curve.”

“Why did it just happen…out of the blue?”

Jericho laughed. “Might have been the
heat of the moment. Your inner wolf gets excited by strong emotions, strong
desires. And you, Red, are full of strong desires.” He shrugged. “The wolf
rises to the surface. In your case, it got away from you.”

“It’s something you’ll learn to use to
your advantage.” Colt ran his fingers through my hair. His fingers snagged in a
tangle, and I cringed, suddenly aware of how unkempt I must look.

 “Just take your time. There’s no
rush. You seem to think there’s some kind of clock running, like you need to
prove yourself to us. Or to yourself.” Colt took my other hand. “There’s
nothing you need to do, other than be here with us.”

“About that…” I held their hands, my
guys…my wolves. “You said—one of you said—that until I shifted, we
wouldn’t know if the mating biting thing had worked. So, now that I’ve
shifted…that means…”

Colt lifted my hand, kissing my knuckles.
“That means you’re a shifter, through and through. To the bone.”

“I’m glad to know I’m one of the pack.”

“What you really want to know is if you
have our pups, will it be a shifter? The answer is yes.”

I didn’t realize I’d been holding my
breath until I breathed out a sigh. “Yeah. It’s what I really wanted to know.”
Something heavy and dense felt like it was lifted from deep inside of me. I
smiled, a silly loopy smile that I tried to hold back. I’d wanted this, from
the start. From Colt’s first bite, from the time Jericho’s teeth sank into my
flesh. I wanted to give them both a fighting chance at having a clan again. And
now I knew I could.

Jericho wound his fingers through mine. “Red,
hold on. First, we’re not asking you to do anything. Not to continue our clans,
or make things right, or anything else. I’d…we’d…never ask that of you.”

“I know. But I want to…I can do this for
you, for both of you. It’s like this…it’s…I mean…” I stumbled over the words to
explain the excitement running through me. Part of my brain was still working
on wolf-time, and I had the desire to wag the tail I didn’t have at the moment.
Or yip and jump. I took a breath, looked between the two of them, at the
identical bemused expressions, and shrugged.

“Call it instinct. Or something like
that. For the first time I have a clear idea of my life. And this is it.”

Jericho held my hand, and Colt held me
close. I took a deep breath, breathing it out slowly. Time stood still in one
of those rare perfect little moments. The sun was rising, like it always did.
And it would set, and the moon would rise, over and over, again and again. The
river would rise in the spring, wash away the pools at the hot springs, and
then people would come and rebuild them. Everything kept keeping on.

Something clicked inside me, like someone
tuned on—or off—a switch. The chatter in my mind, meaningless
static, disappeared. It was like seeing my place in the universe, touching the
great wheel, and for a moment—a beautiful exquisite still
moment—knowing how I fit into all of that.

And for the first time since Weatherly
took me, since they’d come to get me, since they’d made me theirs, I realized
not only were they right, but
why
they were right. There was time. Time
to get used to this new life, this way of living. There would be time. Time to
save their clans, time to do whatever I could, if that’s what was going to
happen. Everything was going to be okay.

“Okay. No rush.” I lifted both of their
hands to my lips, nibbling on their knuckles. “But that doesn’t mean we can’t
start now, right?”

* * *

The guys pulled off clothes as we made
our way up the stairs and down the hall, dropping shirts and pants, on the
floor. It took ten seconds for Jericho to untie the sash on my robe, letting it
fall to the floor. We tumbled into the closest room, and onto Colt’s bed, Jericho
claiming my mouth with a brutal kiss even before I’d caught my breath. It was
right, the harshness of it, the force, the weight of his body pinning me to the
mattress. For a long moment I let him weigh me down, let him plunder my mouth,
his tongue sweeping my mouth, probing, exploring.

But inside something roiled and moved,
paced and stalked. Someone had called it my inner wolf, and she was on the
move. She wanted out. But I wasn’t ready for her yet.

The power inside me grew, the urge to
bite and snap, but I held it in check, working with her, taming her. I let my
wolf know I was in control, but I let her know she was welcome to join the
party.

I pushed up against Jericho, rolling him
over…or he let me. Either way, it was my turn to pin him to the bed, to
straddle his hips with my thighs. I broke the kiss, sitting up, a wave of
triumph and arousal flooding my body.

“God, you’re beautiful, Red. I can see
your wolf…feel her, taste her. Keep her in check, but don’t muzzle her.”

I leaned down, kissing him again, tugging
his lower lip between my teeth. I felt his smile as I bit harder. I held onto
him until he made a sound like a whine.

I ran my finger over his lower lip. “You
sure about that muzzle? This might get dangerous, for you.”

“I think Jericho can handle himself.” Colt
climbed onto the bed beside Jericho. I looked down at him as he stretched out,
all long legs, broad chest…and a very obvious erection. It still amazed me that
the guys were comfortable with this, that both were self-confident enough, or
self-aware enough to be like this, with me.

“And we know Red can handle both of us.” Jericho
sat up, tipping me onto my back. “Right, Red?”

I squirmed beneath him, shimmying my legs
up his body. His erection slid along the insides of my thighs, coming
dangerously close to where I wanted him to be. I tried to pull him closer, but
he was stronger than I was, and he held himself just out of reach.

“Impatient, aren’t you?”

“I want you…like crazy. You know that…” I
was panting, arousal making me hot, hotter than I’d ever been in my life. I
wanted Jericho inside me, Colt right after him.

“I do know that.” Jericho flexed his
hips, the head of his cock grazing my swollen folds. That brief, teasing
contact had me crying out as if he’d thrust himself into me to the hilt. If
being a wolf-in-training made every part of me this sensitive, this attuned to
even the slightest contact, then being with these guys might just challenge my
sanity.

“I want you too, Red.” Jericho rolled his
hips, sliding into me, inch by inch. I rolled my hips up to meet him, lifting
my ass, claiming as much of him as I could, as much as he would give me.

“But I want you on my terms. My wolf
wants control.”

I snarled up at him, showing him my
teeth. A rush of adrenaline shot through me, and for a moment I felt like I
could easily overpower Jericho, rise up and take him. The thought amazed me,
even scared me for a second.

But Jericho’s mind reading must have been
fully operational. Before I had a chance to draw a breath, he thrust into me,
burying himself to the hilt. I arched up beneath him, my body humming with
energy. I was so ready, so close that it took all my willpower not to come
right then and there.

Colt was beside me, his lips against my
neck. When he spoke, his breath tickled my ear.

“Let it go, Red. If that’s what you want
to do. Your power is endless…” He reached up, caressing my breast, rolling my
hard nipple between his fingers. An earthshattering wave of ecstasy flashed
through me. And my mind was suitably blown.

I screamed, or howled, or both. The sound
was otherworldly, but I didn’t care. I let loose, head back, body arching up
beneath Jericho. The strength boiling inside of me was incredible, and Jericho
wrapped one arm beneath me, hanging on like I was a bucking bronco. I was
pressed against him, crushed against his chest, his hips grinding against me.
The wolf in my body took over, howling for all she was worth as I let go, like Colt
said.

The world around me was spinning like
mad. I closed my eyes. My mind was filled with sounds, music, wordless poems, and
colored lights. It was crazy beautiful, and I think I laughed out loud.

From above me came the unmistakable
sounds of Jericho joining me in this wild dance. I opened my eyes, watching Jericho’s
face, each and every nuance of what was going on with him clear on his face.

And then I felt what he was feeling,
heard what he was thinking. It meshed with the waves crashing through me,
dovetailed perfectly with everything I thought, I felt.

There was no choice but to give in and
let it wash me away. I lost touch with everything except Jericho and I. If Colt
was there, I wasn’t aware of him at all.

After a long, long time I washed up on
some shore, calm, still. I was almost afraid to move, to break the perfect
moment. I opened one eye, looking up at Jericho. Only he wasn’t up, he was
beside. I turned my head.

“Hey, my sweet wolf.”

“That was pretty amazing.”

“Beyond amazing.” He brushed a strand of
hair away from my face. “For me too. Truly. Not just saying that so you’ll
sleep with me again…that was…”