Authors: Missy Martine
“Okay, I still don’t understand why I’m getting up. Surely you don’t mean for me to help with the search.” She reached for the clothes she’d left folded on the chair near the bed.
“No, of course not. Eric and I have to join them, but we’re not comfortable leaving you alone.”
She scowled. “I’ve been practically on my own for most of my life.”
David grabbed her arm and pulled her into a hug. His rich, manly scent surrounded her. “I have no doubt you can take care of yourself, but this is a house you’re not accustomed to. You wouldn’t even be able to safely get yourself anything to eat, and I don’t know how long we’ll be gone. Plus, we don’t want to leave you alone until the situation with your father is settled.”
Laynee pushed away and turned her back to him. “So where am I going?”
She pulled off the oversized shirt they’d given her to sleep in and pulled on the T-shirt she’d worn earlier, ignoring the groan from the man behind her.
Let him
get a peek at what he’s missing.
The dreams she’d had about the two of them made her want to get to know them better, much better.
“Remus said we could bring you to their house and you could stay with Maddie and the girls if they show up.”
He moved in close and put his hands on her shoulders. Slowly, he turned her around. “Is that okay with you?”
She could feel his warm breath against her cheek. She nodded and licked her lips, then gasped when he growled and covered her mouth with his. His hands tightened on her waist and pulled her closer, the bulge in his pants pressed firmly against her abdomen. His warm, wet tongue slid inside her mouth to tease.
Breathing heavily, David ended the kiss and moved her away, holding her at arm’s length. “Damn, if we didn’t have orders from Remus, I’d be laying you on that bed and joining you.”
Laynee swallowed hard. “I think I might have let you join me.”
“What about me?” Eric brushed the hair from her shoulder and then pressed his lips against her neck. “Would you have invited me to join you as well?”
“I…I…think…I want…”
David chuckled. “That’s good enough for now. Come on and get your shoes on, pretty lady. The boss is waiting.”
Eric glanced over at David as they walked down the road toward Remus’s house. They’d gotten an all clear from Zack, signaling Lyssa had been found.
“What do you think happened?”
David shook his head. “Hard to say. If it was bad, or she was hurt, Zack would have said something. My guess is the pampered princess was thoughtless and didn’t let her folks know she was staying out all night.”
Eric whistled low. “What do you think Uncle Remus will do?”
David snorted. “If I was her, I’d be more worried about what Alpha Remus will do. You know he doesn’t put up with any foolishness.”
“I can give you one better than that.
Wait until Aunt Maddie gets involved.
You know how she loves being wakened in the middle of the night.”
David laughed briefly and then sobered. “What are we gonna do about our mate?”
“What do you mean? We’re gonna claim her and take her back to Montana.”
“That’s extremely naïve of you, bro.”
“Why do you say that?”
“Well, let’s see. First, we have to figure out how to keep her safe from her homicidal father. Next, we have to find a way to let her know what we are, without scaring the crap out of her in the process. Do I need to go on, or are you getting the gist of this conversation?”
“I’m not naïve. I know there are problems to overcome, but nothing is more important than claiming our mate.
Did you ever think that just maybe, claiming her will make a lot of those other problems go away?”
“Eric, you don’t even know if she’d be willing to go back to Montana with us.
What if she’s determined to go back to her teaching job in Oregon? What are we gonna do then?”
“Why borrow trouble? I say, face the problems we have now, and worry about everything else if it happens.”
“We have to get Remus’s permission to tell her about our beasts. Do you think he’s gonna be willing?”
“Alpha Remus would never stand in the way of a mating. He may ask us to wait until the problem with her father is settled, but he’d never forbid us from mating.”
“So how do you wanna proceed with wooing our mate?”
“I’ve been giving that a lot of thought.
She told us that nobody had ever given her a good idea of what colors are. I say we change that.”
“What do you propose?”
“I say we give her a lesson in life she won’t soon forget.”
“You got something specific in mind?”
“Absolutely.”
The back door flew open with Eloise blocking the way, a wicked grin on her face. “Hey, guys, how’s it going?”
Eric growled, put his hands on her small waist, and steadily pushed her back into the kitchen. “How do you think it’s going, cousin? Torn from our nice, warm beds in the middle of the night to search through the cold, damp woods.”
She chuckled and ruffled Eric’s hair.
“Losing a little sleep won’t kill you, unless of course you’re the one that woke Mom in the middle of the night.”
David shut the door. “Aunt Maddie upset?”
“That’s probably too tame a word for what she is.”
“What happened to Lyssa?” Eric asked.
“I don’t know the whole story. She’s in the study with Dad, Zebron, and Koril.”
David growled. “It was serious enough to bring in Koril?”
Eric barked out a laugh. “Hardly surprising considering he’s been head of security here for over thirty years.”
David leaned his arm on Eloise’s shoulder. “Okay, fess up, little wolf.
What did you hear when you had your ear pressed to the door?”
Eloise flushed and glanced at Eric.
“Not as much as I’d like. She says she got upset at the party, but she wouldn’t say what about. Then she supposedly decided to take a run. She’d tied her clothes in a bundle so she could slip her neck through and carry it along. She says the phone must have slipped out without her realizing it. Then she claims to have just wandered around the woods for a while and then took off down the mountain with time getting away from her.”
“I didn’t
claim
I wandered around the woods, your highness.” Lyssa stood in the kitchen door, her large brown eyes glaring at Eloise. “I wandered in the woods. Although, explain to me how any of this is your business?”
“It’s very much our business,” Eric said. “Especially considering we were traipsing through the woods looking for you.”
Lyssa curled up her lip and snarled.
“Don’t cry to me. I wasn’t the one that dragged you out of bed, and as far as I’m concerned, you can go home and take your little playmate with you.”
“Have I done something to offend you?” Laynee pushed past Lyssa in the doorway, using a cane to find her way across the room.
“There’s our pretty lady.” Eric moved in close and put his arm around her shoulder. “Where’d you get the cane?”
Laynee smiled and leaned her head against his arm briefly. “Maddie gave it to me.”
David moved in close to slip his arm around her waist. “Has it made things easier?”
She blushed. “Much easier. Nobody has needed to guide me around the house, and I’ve not knocked over or broken anything since you’ve been gone.”
Lyssa moved toward the door, bumping into Eric’s arm. “Not true, little outsider. You barreled into me right after I arrived, and you were using the damn cane then.”
Laynee gritted her teeth and turned toward Lyssa. “And I apologized, several times if I recall.”
Remus entered the kitchen and glared at Lyssa. “That’s enough. Your father went out the front. I’m sure he’s expecting you to be home when he gets there, and I know your mother is worried sick. Go home, Lyssa, now.”
Lyssa flipped her long blonde hair over her shoulder and walked out the kitchen door, slamming it hard enough to rattle the plaques on the wall. Remus chuckled. “Well, that was fun.”
“I’m sorry, Remus,” Laynee said. “It seems I just rub her the wrong way. She gets positively hostile every time I walk into the room.”
“You have nothing to apologize for, Laynee. Lyssa has always been a little high-strung. She was just having a bad morning, and you’re the only one she could get away with being mean to. The rest of the family would put her in her place real fast.
Laynee laughed. “In that case, the next time she and I meet, I’ll give her something to remember.”
Remus threw back his head and laughed heartily. “I hope I’m around to see that.” He turned to Eric. “Most everyone that lives away from the mountain is going home today. I’d rather you boys stick around until we get some word on Laynee’s father. Koril tells me that he should have a preliminary report later today.”
David nodded. “No problem, Remus.
We already made arrangements to have the business covered for as long as we need. We’ve got good people working for us.”
Remus smiled and patted David on the shoulder. “I’m real proud of you boys.”
He looked at Laynee and nodded. “I promise we’ll get this situation under control soon.”
“There’s our boys.”
Eric turned and watched his parents enter the kitchen. Before he could say anything, he was caught up in a hug from his fathers.
David laughed and then grunted as they turned and swept him up off the floor.
Eric took Laynee’s hand and pulled her over to his adoptive mother.
“Laynee, I want you to meet our parents.
This is our mother, Kitania Wind River, and our fathers, Ethan and Latan Wind River.” He pulled her close to his side.
“And this is Laynee Conners.”
Laynee blushed. “I’m very pleased to meet you. I’ve heard so much about you and your family.”
Kitania stepped forward and hugged Laynee. “It’s a great pleasure to meet you, Laynee. I look forward to getting to know you.”
“Hugs are not only for mothers.” Latan stepped up and hugged Laynee, lifting her clean off the floor. As soon as he put her down, Ethan took his place.
Laynee giggled. “It’s gonna take some time to get accustomed to your family.
I’m not used to all the hugging that goes on with this one.”
Kitania frowned. “I’m sorry, have we embarrassed you?”
“Oh, no, ma’am. I think it’s wonderful.
It’s been a long time since I was around a normal family.”
Ethan whacked Latan on the back when he choked.
“I’m sorry, did I say something wrong?” Laynee asked.
Kitania rolled her eyes. “No, honey, you didn’t say anything wrong. These men are just plumb worn out. We’d only just arrived when the search party went out, so we joined it. We’ve been up for almost forty-eight hours now.”
Ethan grabbed Kitania’s arm and pulled her toward the door. “We’re all done in. We’ll be saying good-bye for now so we can get some sleep, and we’ll look forward to seeing more of you later. You boys bring her around so your mother can make dinner for all of us. There’s a lot we need to discuss.”
Eric waved as his fathers dragged his mother out the door. “What do you think he wants to discuss?”
“He wants us to move home,” said David.
“Ahh, well, we’ll cross that bridge when the road runs out. But they have the right idea.” He put his arm around Laynee. “Let’s take our woman home and get some sleep.”
Maddie knocked on the door to Remus’s office and stuck her head inside. “Koril and Macon are here to see you.”
“Send them in.”
“If it’s about Laynee, I wanna stick around.”
Remus grinned. “Absolutely, Alpha Femm. You’re entitled to sit in on any business regarding the pack’s females.”
Maddie turned away. “Damn straight!”
A minute later, Koril walked in followed closely by Macon and Maddie.
“Please sit down, gentlemen, and tell me what you’ve discovered.”
Koril took the chair closest to the desk. “You’re not gonna like it. The young lady’s father definitely tried to kill her.”
“Why,” Maddie asked. “How could a parent do anything to harm their child?”
Koril looked at Macon. “You did the legwork on this one. Go ahead and tell them what you found out.”
Remus watched the young man and marveled at how his pack had changed since his brothers mated with Kitania.
They’d brought a whole new dimension to their family. This slender, blond man resembled a child, even though he was nearing his thirtieth year. He’d only seen him shift a few times, and the sight of his hawk in flight never failed to take his breath away. He could see the young man trembling slightly. “Relax, Macon.
You’re doing a fine job for the pack, and I couldn’t be more pleased with your work. Tell me what you found out about Laynee’s father.”
Macon nodded, took a deep breath, and relaxed back into his chair.
“Basically, it boils down to one word.
Money! The young lady’s grandfather recently died and left her his entire estate.” He leaned forward, propping his elbows on his knees. “We’re not talking about leaving her his stamp collection.
The man left her his estate in St. Paul, stock and bonds, and a bank account bringing his total worth to somewhere in the neighborhood of three million dollars.”