Obsessed with Fur [3xtasy Lake 4] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) (7 page)

That wasn’t the first bitter comment Jessica had heard from Brenna lately. In fact, ever since Brenna had come home from helping her sister during her pregnancy, she had been acting more and more negative about men. Even Brenna’s father, Gordon, was concerned. Gordon didn’t want to look like he was getting involved, but he wanted
everyone else
to find out what happened and then report back.

She and Carol had come up with the plan to drag Brenna out of the animal clinic today. Something happened while Brenna was out west, and they both hoped she would confide in them and let them help her. Brenna was like a sister to her, too, and Jess didn’t like seeing her in this kind of pain. More than once she’d caught Brenna looking off into space, a heartfelt sadness dulling the light in her gaze.

Jessica’d had enough with her friend’s anger and surly attitude, and both she and Carol had decided that a girlfriend intervention was overdue. “Brenna did something happen to you at your sister’s?”

Brenna’s face drained of all colour and she glanced around before leaning forward. “Why? What did you hear?”

“Not a damned thing, and I think you should have confided in one of us by now.” Carol pinned a narrow glare on Brenna. “We’re your friends, and you know we love you.”

“There isn’t much to tell.” Brenna scooped a spoonful of sugar into her coffee and stirred idly. “I met someone, but he turned out to be an asshole.”

“That’s all? You’ve dealt with jerks before. What made this one so different?”

“I thought he was the one.” Brenna ladled another scoop of sugar into her cup and continued to stir.

Jessica could completely sympathize with Brenna’s broken heart. She had thought Geoff was the one, and he’d turned out to be a number-one abusive asshole. Only she had convinced herself that he had to be Mr. Right, because she needed to find someone who would keep her safe. Only she hadn’t stopped to consider that security wasn’t something that could be forced. She had to feel it in her heart, and all she’d managed to do was lie to herself and everyone else

“Brenna, what happened?” Carol moved the sugar bowl away from Brenna’s spoon.

“He turned out to be an ass.” Brenna sipped her coffee, grimaced, and pushed the cup away. “I hardly knew him. Who am I kidding? I
didn’t
know him at all. I thought I did, in here.” She thumped herself in the chest. “But, I was nothing but a fuck against a wall, and then off he went to go drinking with his scumbag friends.”

Jessica wanted to cry for her friend. How would she react if she’d felt something that intense and then had him walk away? Kind of like what would probably have happened with Marcario and Jelani. If things were different, and she hadn’t allowed Geoff to trample all over her self-esteem, she would have happily jumped into bed with the Bennett brothers, and then they would have walked out of her life, too. She’d have been screwed either way.

Brenna leaned forward and covered Jessica’s hand with her own. The stark pain on her friend’s face tore at her heart. “Don’t buy into this mating shit, Jessica.”

“That’s not fair, Brenna,” Carol argued. But she was in a unique position being mated to three incredible men who worshiped the ground she walked on. “You can’t paint all men out there with the same shit-covered brush.”

“No, she’s right, Carol.” Jessica understood where Brenna was coming from. “You are blessed by Fates, everyone knows that. The series of events that allowed the four of you to come together is nothing short of Serendipity. We all can’t expect to be that lucky, and I would never wish anything else for you.”

“All right, so if I believe you two, then what about Mai Solfalvi?” Carol arched her eyebrow at them both. “What about your dad and moms, Brenna?”

“Okay, so you have a couple valid points.” Brenna shook her head. “But I don’t think that I was meant to find that kind of love. I need a man who isn’t going to be intimidated by my wolf, who will try to crush me in order to prove that he is stronger.”

And that was exactly what made Jessica so nervous. She knew she avoided Alpha males in her personal life for a reason. She needed to feel safe in order to survive but, she wouldn’t survive another relationship like the one she escaped with Geoff. There were many local males to choose from, but they were friends. She could never pick one as a lover. They were too strong, and she would never feel safe with a man who could hurt her.

Next time she would choose a man with her head, not her instincts. She would choose someone who was honest and kind, and one she could trust not to hurt her. She might never feel completely safe with him, but she wouldn’t feel like she was in danger
from him
. That was her entire theory behind only dating humans. Getting involved with human males made logical sense, but then when did logic ever meld well with the heart? Geoff was weaker than any Alpha male, but he was still able to hurt her.
Why bother getting involved with anyone?

“Trust me on this, Jess. If you ever meet a man you think is your mate, then run fast and far in the opposite direction.”

“Why would I want to do that?” Jessica grew up dreaming of one day meeting someone who would be her mate. For a short while on that sofa she’d thought she’d finally found them in Marcario and Jelani Bennett, but that had to be an emotional throwback from the upheaval she’d experienced that night. Her inner doe gave her heart a sharp kick for that bit of rationalization.

“I still think all this mate stuff is bullshit, a throwback to a time when we had to mate to survive. Much like the human need to marry and be monogamous because of some ancient moldy scrolls they discovered near the Dead Sea. Over the centuries the true meaning has been bastardized to suit a male-dominated society.”

Jess frowned at the bitterness in her friend’s tone. Carol looked upset over it as well. “They all have their moments, sure, but it’s not all that bad,” Carol commented back. “They can be jerks but all that mating bullshit
I love
makes up for it.”

“That’s because you have your three husbands wrapped around your little finger,” Brenna muttered as she dunked her sausage roll in a puddle of savoury HP Sauce.

“As much as I’m wrapped around theirs.” Carol smiled brightly and took a bite of her sandwich.

Carol was married to Jaxon, Kaden, and Sloan Henderson, and the brothers were completely besotted with their wife. Jess was certain that the feeling was mutual. She went to school with Sloan and knew what a complete flirt he could be, but he adored Carol.

“I was talking to Mai the other day and she said that Marcario is doing much better.”

Jesse poked at her salad. Her appetite suddenly vanished with Carol’s abrupt change in subject. Her heart hurt every time she heard one of their names mentioned. Mai’s brothers had been staying up here since they’d gotten back from the Congo a few weeks ago. Neither one of them had been seen around town much, and the rumour was they were both recovering from something terrible.

They were staying in the cottage a few miles away from the Solfalvis. She’d told herself to stay away from them. There was no future there, no matter how much her soul and doe wanted it to be true. She had never felt as safe before or after that evening when she slept between them. She could feel the heat rise in her cheeks at the memory of that dream, and waking up only to discover that they knew about it, too. She distinctly remembered the scent of their arousal surrounding her as she woke up.

More than once she thought about what she might have found if she’d been brave enough to slip her hand under that pillow. Would she have found Jelani’s cock as hard as in the dream? A slight rub with her leg, and she would have known if her instincts were right about Marcario.

Their sister might be mated to two men, but that didn’t mean that they shared women, and Jess most certainly wanted them both. But she wasn’t about to allow herself to be a doormat again. They had lives far away from here, and she didn’t have a place in that. What good would she be in a foreign country or in a dangerous situation?

She glanced out the large window and realized the objects of her thoughts had sprung to life. Across the street, Jelani was holding a door open while Mai stepped out of the Blavet Museum. Marcario was on her heels and the three of them appeared to be having a heated discussion about something.
Probably, the chance of there really being a lake monster under the ice.

She didn’t realize how much she had shut down emotionally over the past few months. Seeing them both had her heart racing faster than ever. She clenched her fingers together in her lap and fought the urge to leap out of her seat and run across the street to them.

There was no guarantee that either of them were the least bit interested in her. Everything she felt that night might have been a rebound of confused emotions. All they knew about her was that she had left an abusive relationship that night and then fallen asleep between them.

“What’s got you blushing like a rose, Jessica?” Carol asked.

Jessica glanced over, and both Carol and Brenna were staring at her. Brenna sat up and looked out the window behind her, but the trio had moved behind a vehicle and was now hidden from view.

“Oh, nothing.” Brenna wasn’t the only person who had secrets she didn’t want to confess.

“Really? Considering we are talking about Mai’s brothers, I have to wonder if you are holding out on us.”

“No.” Heat slowly crept up her neck with her lie. “Did you two hear about Miss Aniela? Holly, Brand, and Colwyn bought her a condo down in Florida, and they are going to take care of the antique store during the winter months while she’s down south.”

“Dad told me about it the other day. He wants to take the family to Disney World for a vacation and plans to stop in for a visit.” Brenna grinned, her mood much lighter now. “Aniela and my moms have been friends for years. I think the visit is all a smoke screen, because he wants to check up on her to make certain that the neighborhood meets approval.”

Jessica knew how underhanded Gordon could be when it came to protecting those he cared about. He never meddled directly, but was always there when you needed him most. The conversation slid into the family vacation plans and Brenna’s excitement at the prospect of going to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Islands of Adventure. Thankfully, Jessica had dodged having to admit to her attraction to the Bennett brothers.

* * * *

Jess loved having lunch with her friends, but seeing both the Bennett brothers had sent her emotions tumbling. By the time she left The Shack, their vehicle was gone. She’d stopped and picked up some groceries on the way home. She had a small winterized cottage a few miles outside of town. The sun was shining overhead and the air smelled of spring. It was a perfect day to get some spring-cleaning done. The entire drive home she tried to think about what Brenna said. She didn’t need a mate to be complete. She could choose who she wanted to be with, tradition be dammed.

Out of habit, she glanced around as she walked up to the front of her place. A nagging suspicion irritated the back of her neck. Something wasn’t right, and she felt like she was being watched. The cottage looked fine and undisturbed. She scanned the fluffy snow around the door looking for footprints other than her own.

Once she left Geoff, she thought that would be the end of it. She should have known better. Trusting that everything was safe for now, she opened her front door and looked around. Unlike the wolves in the area, her sense of smell wasn’t that strong, and she relied on her instincts and hearing more than anything. At the moment, an icy sense of foreboding trickled along her spine, and she wanted to get inside and out of view.

The last time she’d felt this sensation, it was a week after she left Geoff and she had gone to the Toronto office to catch up on some paperwork. It had taken her two hours before she’d realized that her favourite picture of her and her brother was missing from her desk at work. The photo had been taken just before Daniel was promoted to Guardian and went out west for training. She’d pulled apart her entire desk thinking it must have fallen down somewhere. Gordon had helped her look but neither of them had found it. She held out hope when they moved the office that she would find it but they never did. It still bothered her to this day what might have happened to it.

She walked into the kitchen, and the sight that greeted her frightened her so badly the bags slipped from her fingers. The missing photo was lying on her large butcher block cutting board, held there by a hunting arrow. The sharp tip of it had been plunged through her brother’s body at his heart.
MINE
was written in lipstick across her face.

Jess grabbed a tea towel and pulled out the arrow by the quiver and placed it on the counter next to her. Her hands shook as she tried to fix the rip in the photograph the arrowhead had made.

Tears blurred her vision. She had given up so much to Geoff and had compromised her own choices in favour of his. She’d allowed him to destroy her self-confidence and control her life. Months had passed, and she thought it was finally over and she could get on with her life. This couldn’t go on anymore.

She rushed to the front door and whipped it open. “Come out, asshole!” she screamed into the woods. Her voice echoed around her and the animals in the forest fell silent. “Stop hiding from me, you chickenshit muscle-head!”
That’ll get a response.