He nodded once and then jerked his muzzle as if shooing her on. Anna huffed, pivoted, and stalked off. When she sat firmly ensconced in her SUV, she watched as they, the two officers with guns drawn and Colton in his fur, entered her apartment and disappeared. The place wasn’t all that big, just two bedrooms, a kitchen, and a living room. But damn, what if the intruder
was
still inside. What if they shot Colton thinking he was a dog and not for one second realizing the wolf was a shifter? Long minutes passed while Anna sat on her hands to keep from biting her nails.
Suddenly the door opened and Colton was there, in the flesh, waving her in. He stood just inside the door with his hands on his hips, a mixture of anger and regret plastered on his face.
Anger and regret didn’t even begin to break the surface on how she felt. “I don’t understand why someone would do this.”
“Me, neither.” He tugged her close and wrapped an arm around her. “Can you think of anyone who’d—”
“No.” She honestly couldn’t. “Peter, well, I don’t think he’d do this. It’s not like he’s paying me alimony, and he’s the one who fucked up, not me. If anything, he’d be begging my forgiveness.”
“He sold your home.”
“Touché.” Since she hadn’t spoken to her lawyer today, Anna had no news about that situation, either.
“Anna.” He turned her to face him and put a hand on both her shoulders. “Is there a possibility all of these things are related? The house, the stolen car, the flat tire, this…”
She swallowed down a sudden rush of nausea and thought about it. “What for, though? Seriously, the only person I can think I might have pissed off was the waitress the other day. You know, the one who was ready to have your babies?”
A muscle jumped in his jaw, and she placated him by putting a hand on his chest. “I met her after the house and stolen car. I’m just saying. I don’t know anyone else who’d do this. Unless, like you said, it’s Peter, and I can’t wrap my head around why he’d do this.”
“But you said he’s missing, right?”
“Well, yes, he’s on a business trip, and he’s changed his phone number, so I can’t get ahold of him.”
Colton nodded. “I think it’s time I found out a little more about your ex.” He took her hand and led her through the mess. One officer had taken a fingerprint kit to her back door and the other was picking through papers on her table. “If you notice anything is missing, let me know, but I get the feeling this wasn’t about a robbery.”
“Great.” She stepped gingerly through the mess when all she really wanted to do was kick things. But dammit, they were her things. Broken or not. Her boxes were upended, their contents smashed and thrown everywhere. The floor was littered with shattered dishes, torn clothes, ripped photos. Her walls were punched with holes.
How any of her neighbors could mistake this angry slashing of her life as a wild party, she had no clue.
Turning in a slow circle in the center of her living room, Anna deflated. Even if she had been able to stay in her apartment, she couldn’t now. The place needed one of those disaster cleaners, not to mention no-way-in-hell would she stay alone here.
“I can’t begin to tell if there’s anything missing. Just looks like it’s all mangled. I had almost everything packed in the remains of the boxes you see. Any important paperwork is at the bank, so the rest is mostly stuff.”
She picked her way into her bedroom, stopping briefly to see the same disaster in the extra room. “Jesus. There’s really no way for me to tell what might be gone. It’ll have to be one of those things where I need something and I can’t find it. Then I’ll know it’s gone.”
The notion was rather pathetic. Strong fingers kneaded the tense muscles between her shoulder blades. Tears pooled in her eyes, blurring the scene in front of her. What the hell. She needed this.
Anna spun, threw her arms around Colton’s waist, and buried her face in his chest. His muscled arms engulfed her and hugged her tight. His chin settled on the top of her head. He didn’t speak, simply held her and rubbed her back.
Minutes later, she pushed back, and then frowned at the spot left on his shirt by her tears. “Sorry.”
“Don’t be.” He tilted her face up with his thumb under her jaw. “It kills me to see you this way.”
“Yeah, this hasn’t been my finest week.” She sniffed, and twisted to take another look at the damage. “Do you think we can go for a while? Come back later to start cleaning? We could hit Fair’s for a chocolate shake or an old-fashioned soda. Unless you have to get back to work. I forgot you were at work. And Marc’s at work, so you could just drop me off so I could have a soda, or maybe leave me at the Maid-Rite for a b—”
His lips landed on hers, effectively shutting her down. His tongue tangled with hers, teasing her into calmness until she relaxed in his embrace and kissed him back.
She swayed and pulled back, licking her lips as she did. “You do that so well.”
He chuckled. “Kiss?”
“No, make me shut up.”
The pad of his thumb traced her cheekbone. “Definitely effective. And fun.” He grabbed her hand and started toward the front door. “A soda sounds good. I haven’t had an old-fashioned in a long time. And you don’t need to be alone right now.”
He let the officers still fingerprinting and taking pictures know they were leaving and would return later, and then led her out to his car. Like a gentleman, he opened her door and buckled her in before shutting it and getting behind the wheel. He turned the car on, but instead of pulling out, a look of apprehension crossed his face.
Now what.
Her belly dropped.
He twisted in the seat and faced her. “Before we go, tell me why you were sad this morning.”
Startled, she jerked her gaze to his. “What?”
Colton stroked a finger down her cheek. “When I called this morning, first I felt your anger, and then you got sad.”
“Excuse me? You
felt
my emotions? How, precisely?”
The man smiled. “We, uh, bit you last night.”
“Yeah. So not happy about that, mister.” She covered one of those bites with her hand.
“We didn’t mean for it to happen that fast. I’m not sorry, but the act of biting one’s mate sort of opens a pathway between them. Allows mates to…sense each other, I guess you’d say. Marc also felt you. He was worried about you too.”
She narrowed her eyes at him. “So you’ve already made me your mate? I didn’t even get a say in this?”
“That’s what I wanted to talk to you about tonight.” He took both of her hands in his. “Look, it wasn’t mine or Marc’s intention to go as far as we did last night. Everything got out of hand the second you said you wanted us both, I admit.” Colton bit his lip and turned sheepish. “We, um…didn’t use any protection, either.”
Crap. The thought hadn’t even crossed Anna’s mind. The man was right. Things had gotten hot and heavy quick last night. She really couldn’t fault them entirely. She’d been there with them, body and soul. “I’m on the pill.”
Colton nodded. “Okay, then. And I can assure you in the disease department because, as wolves, we don’t carry them.”
“Well, you know I haven’t been with anyone in a while.”
“Anna.” He waited until she looked him in the eye. “Marc and I are in this forever. I’m sorry it happened so quickly and that we didn’t consult you first, but I can’t apologize for it happening because you make us whole. We weren’t sure it would ever happen. For wolves to find their mate is an amazing thing, and it doesn’t happen for all of us. Some wolves never find their other half. But’s it’s not all a cakewalk. You will always come first and foremost to us. Your needs and desires, your safety, your happiness will be what we live for. If that makes us overbearing, overprotective, jealous Neanderthals, we can’t help it. We won’t mean to smother you with attention, it won’t be something we can really control.”
Hell. When he put it that way…he made it sound like she’d be the cherished third in their triangle. What woman could argue with such a position?
She groaned. “Damn it. I swear to God, if you guys can’t let me be my own person…”
“Baby, you’ll be your own person. Neither of us wants to change you.”
Why was she even considering this?
Because of the way they’ve made you feel since the first second you met them. Special.
She couldn’t deny for one second they’d made her feel special every day this week no matter what happened in her shit life. Notes and flowers and lunch and sundaes and baths and orgasms…
“What if it doesn’t work? What if you decide you don’t really like me once you learn all my quirks? What if I don’t like the way you leave the bread open on the counter?”
He snorted. “The bread was closed, so if it’s open on the counter now, then you did it. As for your quirks, they make you who you are.”
“Why did you plant my tree?”
Colton leaned close, so close his breath tickled her ear when he whispered, “Because you wanted it there.”
Marc carried in the last of Anna’s salvageable things and sighed. She sat on their couch, her feet tucked under her and a blanket wrapped around her shoulders, while she sipped a cup of hot tea. She looked a tad vulnerable, and more than a tad incensed, and he hated it. She and Colton had ended up throwing most of her things in the trash while he’d been at school. He felt like shit because he hadn’t been around to hold her.
Colton had assured him they were fine without him and that Anna wasn’t upset but pissed. Apparently some depression was sinking in.
Damn it, they were supposed to protect her, and so far they’d done a pretty shitty job of doing so. The disturbing news he’d gotten on the way home from picking up the final load drummed in him the need to be more vigilant than he’d ever had to be.
Wanting to see for himself she was okay, he moved over to her, bent, put his hand on the back of her head, and kissed her. No use backing off now. Some of his tension eased when she reciprocated, kissing him back and thrusting her tongue against his. Maybe she wasn’t as angry over their mating as he believed she would be. Colton had said she wasn’t necessarily happy but also hadn’t kicked him in the balls, so Marc counted her attitude as a plus.
Still, Marc wouldn’t believe it until he held her in his arms and got to speak to her himself.
“You okay?” He caressed her cheek with his thumb.
She nodded but otherwise didn’t speak, which was fine, for now. He understood she had some things to work through. At the same time, she needed to realize she had both of them to lean on.
He caught Colton’s eye over her head and indicated for him to meet in the kitchen.
“I took the tire in like you asked.” Marc had changed her tire that morning before work, and he’d left the flat on in his trunk. When Colton had asked him to take it to the service station, his first instinct had been to say no because the tire was beyond repair. They were going to have to buy her a new one.
Now he knew why Colton wanted him to.
“He found some marks, possibly made by a knife. Something sharp, at any rate, that didn’t go all the way through the wall. Meaning the tire was slashed. Not all the way through but enough that he said it would have easily caused a blowout. It could have caused her to crash.”
“But it didn’t, so let’s not ask for trouble. We’ve got enough on our plate.” Colton glanced at Anna to make sure she was still watching TV. “Peter is out of the country. I did some digging, finally got his employer to tell me a few things. However, they haven’t been in contact with him, either, and won’t tell me where he is exactly.”
“That’s convenient.”
“Right. I’ve got some people looking into it. They’re also getting some information on his girlfriend, Vanessa King. Hopefully I’ll know more tomorrow.”
“This is serious, then. The house, the stolen car, the flat tire, the break-in. None of it’s coincidence, it’s all related. Someone’s out to hurt her.”
“Yeah, but who? The only logical person is her ex-husband.”
“That we know of. Has she mentioned any other names?”
“
She
hasn’t mentioned anyone because
she
is a divorced, elementary school teacher. And
she
is in the room, so stop talking about me like I’m not.” The smile she threw their way had sarcasm written all over it.
Marc crossed his arms at his chest. “You’re right. This concerns you, so you should be involved in the discussion.”
“Thank you.” She stepped closer and leaned up to kiss his cheek. “And thank you for the tree. I would have said something sooner, but…”
He hugged her close. “I understand.” His lips found hers, mingled until she opened to him so he could tangle his tongue with hers. He needed this. Needed to feel her and taste her and smell her.
“What happens next?” Anna tucked her hands into her jeans pockets and stepped out of reach.
Colton answered for him. “Tomorrow we go shopping. Unless you want to still be wearing that outfit your first day of school.”
Marc watched her shoulders sink. “I suppose I do need to replace a few things right now. Get a few interchangeable outfits while I wait for my insurance to send me a check. Some new makeup, shoes. I guess if I’m living here, I don’t need things like dishes.”
“Hell no, baby.” Marc reached for her again and put her cheek on his chest while he rubbed her back. “Whatever is in this house is yours.”
The doorbell rang, and Colton excused himself to pay for the pizza they’d ordered. Anna’s stomach chose that moment to growl, and Marc grinned.
“Totally not embarrassing,” Anna said against his chest.
“I’m guessing you guys skipped lunch, so it doesn’t surprise me you’d be hungry.”
Colton brought the pizza to the table, and Marc released her. Hard to do when he really wanted to eat her, not pizza.
She had a slice up to her mouth before Colton could return with the plates. “One thing you should know about me. I don’t screw around when pizza’s involved.”
Marc shrugged. “I like a girl who eats. Never did go for boney chicks. And, you haven’t seen Colton and I take apart an animal we’ve hunted and taken down, so I’d say we’re even.”