Between Two Wolves (BBW Paranormal Shapeshifter Menage Werewolf Romance) (13 page)

“Yeah.” I touched his face. “It was.”

Something warm touched my hip. I turned
my head to the other side. Colt had his head propped up on one elbow.

“You got anything left for me?”

“Always.” I rolled onto my side.

“Are you sure about…” I put a finger to
his lips. “You’re so beautiful, Colt. Let’s find a better use for that mouth
besides asking questions.”

He grinned. I slipped my finger between
his lips, and let him suck gently on it. He swirled his tongue over my finger,
teasing me, pulling me deeper. I reached between us, finding his cock, wrapping
my fingers around him. He moaned softly, hips flexing, sliding himself into my
hand.

“Is that what you wanted?”

He bit my finger, not all that gently. I
pulled it out slowly, very slowly, never looking away from Colt’s eyes,
stroking him forcefully as I did.

“You aren’t going to be satisfied with
just this, are you?” I gave him a little tug at the end of that stroke. “I know
I’m not. I want more…much more of you. Mate of mine.”

Never letting go of him, I sat up, swung
one leg over Colt’s body as he rolled onto his back. I straddled his hips,
holding him, squeezing him. He bit his lip as I brought my body close to him.

“You want this?” I moved again, until the
head of his cock touched me, touched my wet pussy. Just the soft brush of his
hot silkiness sent a wave of desire through me, almost brought me to the edge
again. It also brought my wolf howling to the surface. It was all I could do to
fight her back, to keep fangs and claws from tearing through my flesh, tearing
into Colt.

“She’s powerful, isn’t she? Hard to
control…” He reached for me, hands resting on my hips, moving higher. I leaned
into his hands, letting him cup my breasts. “I love the wolf in you, Red. But
it’s you I want. And I want you now.”

He thrust up as I pulled my hand away. I
gasped, throwing my head back, as he filled me. It was all new, all pristine;
as if this was the first time I’d been with any man. My mate, the wolf who’d
bitten me, was claiming me. I was over the moon.

I rode Colt hard, forcing him deeper,
beyond any place any man had ever been. I took him, and I loved every second of
it. In that minute everything else faded away, including Jericho. There was
nothing in my world except Colt and me, coming together as one. Coming together
forever.

My body arched and shook, my hips moving
to some ancient rhythm that I seemed to know without even trying. Colt matched
every move, every twist, grind, shake and thrust. We moved in perfect harmony.

We came together, the peak we reached
higher than any I’d ever climbed. I closed my eyes, threw my arms wide, and
howled my climax for the world to hear. Then it was all too much, and my mind
gave in, gave up trying to hold onto reality. I cried out names, Colt’s…Jericho’s…and
then everything went black.

Someone was holding me, easing me onto
the bed. I opened my eyes to find my guys looking down at me. I was relieved to
find I was in one piece, more or less. At least my body felt like it was still
intact. My mind though was another matter.

I sat up, a little too quickly. Colt put
an arm behind me, and we rearranged arms and legs until the three of us were
sitting against the head of the bed. I looked at the tangle of
sheets—some torn—and blankets, most of which were on the floor with
the pillows.

“Guess we’re sleeping in Jericho’s room
tonight?”

“Yeah. We might have to rethink the
bedroom arrangements.” Colt looked around at the devastation that was his bed.
“If we keep this up, we’re going to run out of sheets.”

I glanced at Jericho. He looked…fine. But
I wasn’t. Other than a major case of afterglow, which made me feel sublimely
relaxed, I was slightly upset with myself. I took his hand.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean…”

He looked down at me. “Didn’t mean to
what? Have a hell of a good fuck with Colt?”

I blinked at his choice of words, and at
the smile on his face. “Well, yeah. I mean…it was…different. Not necessarily
better than with you…but…”

“Different. And it will be. He’s the wolf
you’re mated to. Can’t change that.”

“And that’s okay with you?” I was having
a hard time wrapping my head around this. The sharing thing was still hard
enough to grasp, but this was something else.

He shrugged, lacing his fingers through
mine. “It’s going to be different with you and him. It has to be. I’m okay with
that. If I’d been the one to mark you, the tables would be turned.”

Colt had been silent. I reached out and
took his hand. “So you two really are okay with how all of this is working out?
Really truly?”

“Cross my heart and pinky swear, if that’s
what will make you happy. But yeah, it is what it is. You have something
different with Jericho that I’ll never have. And what we have…it’s colored by
the mark.”

“It’s not going to change how I feel
about you, Red.” Jericho leaned close, kissing my cheek. “I love you no matter
what.”

“I love you, too.” Colt kissed the other
cheek. “You need to stop worrying about us. We appreciate it, but we’re a lot
tougher than you think.”

For the first time in a long time I was
speechless. Two men, men who’d fought for me, had told me they loved me.

“I love you both so much.” I looked
between my wolves.

We hung out in Colt’s room for a little
while longer, talking about everything and nothing, the way people talk who’ve
just told each other they love them. A little shy maybe, a little tentative.
Testing the waters. Which seemed a little odd, since we’d just destroyed a bed
with our lovemaking. I felt like I was already in the deep end of the hot
springs, loving every minute of it.

The sun was just coming up over the top
of Black Wolf on the other side of the river, setting the trees on the other
ridge alight. The leaves had changed almost overnight; fall was here. There was
a tang in the air, crispness, like biting into an apple. I’d never been a fan
of autumn; it had always seemed to me things ended in the fall. The garden my
father had loved to potter around in on weekends was giving up its last
tomatoes, the flowers fading, setting seed. And when I was a kid, it also meant
back to school, the end of the summer. Fall always made me sad.

But this year was different. It was a
beginning. My heart did that thing I’d only read about in overwritten romance
novels:
it swelled with emotion
. I’d never felt it before, and it took
me a minute to realize what it was, that I liked how it felt, that I was
comfortable with so many new emotions. And I realized something else. For the
first time in a long, long time, I was truly happy. I wasn’t really thrilled about
being awake this early though. I was more accustomed to going to bed at this
time. But my schedule, and the rest of the world’s had rarely meshed, and now
it was even more obvious, living here with my wolves.

Jericho and Colt were sound asleep. I’d
wanted to leave early, get done what I needed to do, and be back before dark.
Some of my errands were purely chores; getting the last of my things out of my
apartment. Maggie had called, and the couple subletting my apartment wanted to
move in a week early, willing to pay extra for most of the furniture that I no longer
needed. What was left wasn’t much, but it was all personal, books and journals.
Photos of my dad. The bare essentials, sentimental and otherwise. My clothes
I’d brought up over a couple weekends; everything else remaining with the
sublet. And that included the artwork Harrison never liked.

Colt and Jericho had made the transition
into my new life with them a little easier. For one, they'd cleared the path
down the mountain so I wasn’t continually being hit in the face with branches
and underbrush. They'd hacked out a parking space for my car too, so I could
pull off the logging road that led back to the main road.

I headed down the path. It felt really
strange to be awake in the daylight. It seemed far brighter than I remembered
for this time of the year. The shifter in me dug through my purse, fishing out
sunglasses. They guys had told me there were things that took some getting used
to, and I suppose this was one of them.

The car was covered in leaves and pine
needles, pretty well camouflaged against the undergrowth behind it. I brushed
off the windshield, unlocked the car, and got in. This was the first time I’d
started it up in weeks. I crossed my fingers. It seemed to me that my dad had
told me cars needed to run on a regular basis, or they stopped working.

I turned the key and the engine purred. Smiling,
I managed to turn the car around on the narrow road, heading back toward the
city.

It was a very surreal experience speeding
down the Interstate. The fastest I’d moved lately had been at a sprint through
the forest as a wolf. Piloting a car at the limit, even though I’d done it
thousands of times before. Before my new life.

I took the exit to my street, slowing
down as my apartment came into view. Maggie’s car was at the curb. My heart did
a little jump at the thought of seeing her. I missed her more than I thought
possible. We’d blithely assumed phone calls, and text message would be enough.
But the service in the mountains was a fickle mistress, and even though I could
get a bar or two if I walked out to the edge of the clearing below the cabin,
it wasn’t reliable. Colt had been amazed there was any signal at all. Not that
either he or Jericho had cell phones, or computers.

The light was out in the hallway, like it
always was. That was something I wouldn’t miss; conversations—more like
arguments—with the super, trying to get him to replace the bulb. No
longer my problem.

I took the stairs two at a time. Since
I’d started shifting on a regular basis, and gotten over the whole being
exhausted every time, I’d had more energy than ever. Back in my old life these
stairs had seemed insurmountable. Now, they were a piece of cake.

“Risha!”

The door to my apartment was open, Maggie
leaning out into the hall. “You made good time.”

“I did.”

She pulled me into a big hug and I
squeezed her back. She squeaked out a little sound, and I backed off,
forgetting for a minute she wasn’t a wolf like me.

“You go away and turn into some muscle
woman. You’ve lost weight. Don’t those guys feed you?”

She dragged me into the apartment before
I could pick a question to answer. There was food on the counter, bagels and
cream cheese, fruit, juice and coffee.

“Are you expecting company?” I poured a
cup of coffee and took a sip. Maggie stood, hands on hips, watching.

“Only you. All your favorites. And since
when do you drink your coffee black?” She nodded at the cream and sugar sitting
on the counter. “You’re a sugar maven. Have been from the first cup you ever
had.”

“Guess my tastes have changed.” How much
else had changed? And how much of those changes could I talk to Maggie about?

“Well, even if you’ve given up cream and
sugar, it’s still great to see you.” Maggie perched on one the kitchen counter
stools. I’d had them in storage; Harrison thought they were great. I tended to
fall off of them during dinner. Maggie had brought them back out in her attempt
to “stage” the apartment when she’d helped me find a sublet.

“Thanks for finding…what’s their names?”
I took another sip of coffee. “I really appreciate all your help.”

“They’re the Spaulding’s. Deena and
David. Sounds like high school sweethearts, our age, married for ages. Fell in
love with the apartment as is, down to the art on the walls.”

Maggie slid an envelope across the
counter “Here’s all their contact information, the signed agreement, and a copy
of the lease. You’re lucky there are only a couple months left on the lease.
The Spaulding’s are looking to stay after the sublet is up, so hopefully that
works out, and they don’t stiff you on the rent for the next couple months.”

“I trust your judgment. You’re pretty
good at reading people.” I spread a generous layer of cream cheese on a bagel.
My stomach had been growling for the last half hour. I took a bite. But
something was wrong. I love cream cheese and onion bagels. It tasted…off.
Wrong. I set the bagel aside.

“Not hungry?”

“I ate before I left.” I hated lying to
Maggie. But there was no way I could tell her what I suspected, that the wolf
in me wasn’t a big fan of dairy.

“You okay?”

I glanced up at Maggie. She could read me
like a book, knew me better than anyone.
Well, except for Jericho and Colt.

“Yeah. Just…tired. From the ride.” But I
could read her too, and I knew she wasn’t buying it.

“Risha…come clean. What is it? Is it the
guys?” That little line appeared between her brows, the one that told me she
was worried. I hated seeing it.

“No…yes. Sort of. But it’s not what you
think. It’s nothing bad.” I wasn’t sure what to call it…how to tell her I
wasn’t the same person she thought I was.

“I’ve made some changes in my life, Maggie.
Some really major changes.”

“That’s pretty obvious. You went away to
clear your head, and you ended up moving in with two guys. That’s a pretty
major change, especially for unconventional you.” She gave me a smile, but the
worry was still there in her eyes. “Are you telling me there’s more?”

“It’s a different kind of life, Maggie.
Radically different.” I pushed up the sleeves of my sweater, propping my chin
up in my hands. “I’m not sure I can explain it.”

Maggie reached out, touching my arm. “Is
there something you’re not telling me?”

Yeah, there is.
“No…”

“You’re scratched…and bruised.” Her eyes
were locked on my arms. I looked down, then pulled down my sleeves.

“Risha, are they doing that?”

“Oh, no. God, no. Jericho and Colt would
never hurt me. We do live in the wilderness, you know. Lots of hiking,
bushwhacking, lots of me falling down. These are just…sort of a daily
occurrence.”

She still wasn’t buying it. I reached out
and squeezed her hand. “Listen. Come up to the cabin. I want you to meet them,
and them to meet you. You’re the most important person in my life. I want you
to see that I’m okay up there. Really okay.”

After a minute she squeezed my hand.
“Okay. Deal. Before it snows, I’ll come up and meet your guys.” She giggled. “I
still can’t believe you ended up living with two guys…it’s just…so…”

“Crazy?” I winked. “It is. But it’s right
for me.”

“I was going to say sexy. But if you want
to stick with crazy, that works too.”