Disgraced Cowboys (Lone Wolves of Shay Falls 3) [Siren Publishing Ménage Amour] (16 page)

The men’s tones had changed now, and she snapped back to the realization that she hadn’t started her set. The heavy drone of the music thrummed through her chest, but she didn’t move. She stood there, gripping the pole like she didn’t know what to do with it.

Leering expressions turned to knit brows furrowed in confusion—or annoyance.

“Let’s go, dollface!” someone shouted.

“Guess Cherry needs someone to pop hers!”

“Some headliner,” a final man shouted through cupped hands.

Suddenly, all hell broke loose for the second time that week. A skinny man who was all ears and limbs jumped up on stage. Before she could react, he charged her and gave her bikini top a vicious yank.

“I wanna see those titties!” he hollered as the fabric came away in his hand.

Bouncers were on the man in a flash, dragging him offstage, but other men were approaching now. The shouting dimmed behind the roar of blood rushing through her ears as she stood there, topless. She tried to move, but her body was frozen in position and her stomach was roiling in waves. She caught a glance of Paulo, standing by the bar in a bright pink shirt, staring in shock and shouting something she couldn’t hear.

She thought of Seth’s gentle yet searing touch and of Marcus’s demanding possession. She remembered the fire in Seth’s eyes when she tried to pretend the two of them were nothing more than marks on her tattoo. The tattoo that hadn’t been expanded when she got home, the way she’d threatened to back in the cave. The tattoo she no longer had any desire to expand with new marks.

Marcus and Seth weren’t casual wham-bams, much as she’d like to kid herself about it. They’d done far more than bring her to mind-altering climax. They’d invaded her very soul, and as she stood there, facing a group of horny and increasingly agitated men, that fact kicked her hard. She belonged to her cowboys, not these other men. That was why her body refused to cooperate now. Why she couldn’t dance for them.

Another man hopped on stage and was promptly tackled.

How could she be so stupid? She’d given herself so totally to them that now she couldn’t even perform. She’d lost her senses to two men who were not only a threat to her but hadn’t even bothered to show up and prove they gave a damn. They hadn’t even come after her when she’d fled the cave and nearly frozen. She owed them no loyalty. She owed no man any loyalty. Men had certainly never shown her any. The fiasco going on right now was proof of that.

More men flooded the stage, and Paulo finally surged forward. “Brandi,” he shouted. “Wake the fuck up!”

“Come on!” Stephen had her by the arm now, and was trying to tug her away from the pole. “Let’s get you out of here.”

Gritting her teeth at the thought of Marcus and Seth having forgotten her and moved onto their next unsuspecting female conquest, she let go of the pole and let Stephen drag her toward the curtain. The room spun now, and she blinked hard at the dizzy sensation in her head. The motion of being pulled along brought a new wave of sick nausea, and she leaned on Stephen heavily in hopes of not throwing up.

Her wandering thoughts returned to the cave. Marcus had driven her wild with need, and she’d wanted him to lose control like that. She wanted him to show her he couldn’t live another minute without being buried inside her. She’d been so desperate for the men to claim her physically yet panicked when they wanted to deepen that connection. She rejected the men she wanted more than anything, ran away, and now was back to selling the shallow, fake display of sexuality to any man with the dollar bills to pay for it.

Who was betraying whom?

Paulo’s dark expression loomed right in front of her, and she realized he was on stage with her now, shouting orders at Stephen as her legs stopped working. She couldn’t hear anymore as she collapsed in their arms.

* * * *

Brandi woke up on the lounger in the dressing room, blinking as she gazed up at the concerned faces staring down at her.

“Thank God,” Stephen said, dragging a hand through strawberry-blond hair. “She’s awake.”

“I knew something was wrong with you.” Angel stood over the top of her head, so her face appeared to be upside down.

“You’re pregnant, aren’t you?” Paulo said, and the accusatory tone was evident. “You went and got fucking pregnant and didn’t tell me.”

“Pregnant? No! Of course not.”

She tried to sit up, but Paulo pushed her back down. “Don’t move. An ambulance is on the way,” he said. He was holding her hand and looking downright fatherly.

“I don’t need an ambulance. And I’m not pregnant. I’m just not feeling well.”

Pregnancy wasn’t possible. Even if Seth had been mistaken about his fertility thing, this was far too soon to have any symptoms. There’d been no one before he and Marcus for quite a while. There was something else wrong with her. Something she knew she wouldn’t be cured of in nine months.

“If you were still sick,” Paulo said, “why didn’t you just call in and tell me?”

She glanced at him. “I didn’t want to piss you off. I’ve already taken two extra days off this week.”

Paulo eyed her warily. “Better to hear me bitch than collapse on stage.”

“Please, tell the ambulance to forget it. It’s just a flu bug or something, really.”

He nodded to Stephen, who turned and presumably left to cancel the paramedics. Then he fastened a hard stare on her. “You need to stay home until you’re well enough to perform. That’s an order. Angel can fill in for you while you’re gone.”

She swung her legs around and sat up. “I have a better idea. Give Angel back her spot as headliner and let her fill in for me permanently. I think life’s trying to tell me that I need to retire.”

Angel looked shell-shocked, but not as much so as Paulo. “What are you talking about?” he said. “You’ve got years left ahead of you. You’re a great dancer.”

She offered him a smile. “No, I’m not. I’m a great
moneymaker
, which is something that mystifies me as much as I’m sure it has other people.” She flicked a glance at Angel. The tiny grin in response confirmed it. “I’m sorry for the short notice, Paulo. But I can’t do this job anymore.”

He gave a thick sigh and raised her hand to his lips. He kissed the back gently, patted it, and then laid it in her lap. “I’m definitely going to miss you, my Cherry girl.”

“You mean you’ll miss the money. But just think, you won’t have to keep hiring extra bodyguards to keep the crowds controlled and drag overzealous customers offstage.”

He gave a noncommittal shrug. “It’s definitely been interesting having you here.”

“Shay Falls has been pretty interesting for me, too.”

Nothing more was said, and when the paramedics arrived because it had been too late to stop them, Brandi waved them off and turned down Stephen’s offer to drive her home. The truth was, she was feeling better. The minute she’d let go of her career option, her stomach stopped churning. It was as though a huge weight had been lifted from her. That left one weight still pressing down, one decision that needed reconciling.

She packed up her things quickly and headed out the side door of a strip club for what she assumed would be the last time. She had questions that needed to be addressed, and only two men could answer them. Lost in planning her next move, she wasn’t paying attention as she yanked open the back door to her car and tossed her makeup and costumes in the backseat.

“Hello, Brandi.”

She spun around with a gasp to see a pair of eyes glittering in the darkness. She’d just been picturing gold eyes, wondering how soon it would be before she found them. This pair, however, didn’t belong to the cowboys her body ached to be near.

“Kade,” she whispered. “What do you want?”

“I think you know.” He strolled forward, tugging his battered Stetson farther down on his head. “And for what it’s worth, I’m sorry it has to be this way.”

She didn’t even get a scream out before he grabbed her. A large hand clamped down over her mouth as his other arm held her tight to his chest, restraining her. He pulled her into the backseat of her car, and as she struggled helplessly against his strength, she saw another pair of glowing eyes emerge from the dark.

“Drive,” Kade told the other man.

Kade sat with her in the backseat, holding her firmly as she struggled. The other werewolf got behind the wheel and yanked the door shut. They pulled away from Hot Pink to head farther up the mountain, and as they drove, she knew she was in big trouble—and on her own.

Voices rose in argument from the adjoining room—a kitchen, Brandi thought—as soon as she’d been brought in and left alone in the living room. Her arms and ankles were lashed to a chair with authentic cowboy rope. Suited the Southwestern decor quite well, she thought with a bitter laugh.

From the quick look she’d gotten when they pulled up outside, she was in the middle of a sprawling ranch. The wrought iron sign out front read
Winchester-Saratoga Ranch
.

“Werewolf ranchers, seriously?” she muttered under her breath as she struggled against the ropes. “Why not call the place
Full Moon Ranch
or
We Be Wolves
?”

Still, as far as werewolf lairs went, this one ranked much higher on the luxury scale than Seth’s hidden waterfall cave. The interior had been decorated with a heavy male hand—lots of brown leather, rugged wood, and black wrought iron. Splashes of color brightened the monotone earth colors by way of Navajo-style artwork and throw rugs scattered on Mexican tile. A fire crackled in the hearth, completing the picture of a homey, well-kept abode. It was the perfect, cozy setting to entertain kidnap victims.

She yanked and jerked her limbs, gritting her teeth when it did little but chafe her skin. Why the hell were they doing this to her?

The argument in the other room grew sharper, and she stopped fidgeting to listen.

“I can’t believe you would do something like this,” a woman was saying. “You have to let her go, Kade. This isn’t right.”

“What ain’t right is the pack disobeyin’ my command,” Kade snapped back. “Or have you forgotten what they did to you?”

“So, you thought you’d kidnap a woman the way they kidnapped me? Call it even?”

Brandi’s eyes widened.

Kade growled. “Do you want them to come back and finish what they started?”

“God,” Brandi whispered. Just what the hell had Marcus and Seth done to that woman?

She strained over her rising pulse to hear the other man, the one who’d driven her car here.

“No, I’m
not
sayin’ I agree with Kade’s methods,” he said. “But he’s got a point. You know what Blaise’s pack is capable of. If they ain’t gonna respect his orders about stayin’ apart and stayin’ away, they’ll be huntin’ our cattle and our woman next. We have to make sure they don’t come back.”

“But don’t you see?” the woman said. “That’s exactly what they’ll do if you’re right about this woman.”

“Oh, I’m right,” Kade said. “There’s no doubt she’s their mate.”

“She isn’t even marked,” the woman insisted. “You checked yourself.”

“And you know full good and well that a mate bond begins long before a wolf sinks his teeth into a mate’s flesh.”

Brandi gave a sharp gasp. The memory of Seth’s scream filled the brief lull in the kitchen conversation. He’d begged Marcus to bite him, and those fangs had hovered just over his shoulder before she’d run away.
Claim me before I claim you
, Seth had said. Marcus hadn’t been attacking Seth, after all. He’d been marking him in some crazed, werewolf sex rite.

You’re driven to mark yourself after sex,
he’d said,
because your instinct knows you were supposed to be marked by your mates.

“You can’t keep Brandi here,” the woman said after a moment. “You say you don’t want the pack to return. But you’re practically driving two of them straight to our front door.”

“I know what I’m doin’,” Kade said. “Lettin’ ’em come to me is the fastest way to end this. I keep losin’ their scent. They’re maskin’ it somehow. I can’t even sense some of the wolves anymore.”

“How is that possible?” the other man asked.

“I think I know,” Kade said. “You ain’t gonna like it.”

“They’re forming new packs,” the woman said.

Kade grunted. “Exactly. As soon as they come under the rule of another alpha, the bond with me is severed. I can’t feel ’em anymore, and I don’t know what they’re up to.” There was another pause. “Marcus and Seth fell off my radar two days ago.”

“Shit,” said the other man, and he went on to mutter things Brandi couldn’t hear.

So, that was it, then. They had formed a new pack when Brandi had taken her ill-advised plunge into the icy river. Their bond broke the hold Kade had over them, and he wanted that power back.

“You’re the one who said they could join other packs,” the woman added. “You told them to wander alone
unless
other wolves took them in.”

“I didn’t figure any would have ’em,” Kade said. “After Blaise took over the territory and attacked the others, everyone in his pack was declared a mortal enemy.”