“You’re the first mate in the house to become pregnant,” Wes said.
“Melody said she, Tristan, and Micah have been talking about starting their family. We always said we’d have kids at the same time, you know, if biology agreed. That was a total pipedream, since I didn’t think we’d even live in the same state or be able to keep in touch.” She squeezed their hands. “But I’m not dreaming and I’m living with my mates in the house where my bestie lives with her mates. It’s the best of both worlds.”
The doctor came in to examine her. He used steri-strips to close the claw marks on her cheek and arms, and gave her a prescription for pain medication that was safe for her and the baby. He recommended ice packs for her bruises and plenty of rest.
While Ray went to fill the prescription in the hospital pharmacy, her family came to see her, crowding around the bed. The pride was in the waiting room, and Ray stopped in to tell them that she and the baby were well. Everyone left except for Micah, Tristan, and Melody. They were driving James’s SUV home so that Ray, Wes, and Scarlett could ride with them in comfort.
It took another two hours to get her medication and get her discharged. A nurse had already given her something for the pain and she dozed off, waking up long enough to be wheeled out into the parking lot before Ray put her on Wes’s lap in the middle row of seats in the SUV. She promptly fell asleep again, and Ray rubbed the top of her hand with his thumb. She had blood on her skin, but it wasn’t all her blood. She’d lost very little of her own even though she’d been hurt, and he was thankful for that. The bruises would heal and the pain would recede with time. She was safe now, and that was all that mattered.
He knew for sure she really was safe now. Joe hadn’t outright said it when he’d pulled Ray aside before he left with his brothers and his mom, but he’d alluded to Quentin and the males who had survived the fight not being a problem any longer. To Ray, judging from the serious and slightly haunted look in Joe’s eyes, it was obvious that all the wolves were dead. There was only one real way to stop a madman, and that was to put him down. Quentin had been a black-hearted bastard, but Ray couldn’t imagine how difficult it had been for Joe to end his life. Whether it was by his own hands or on his order as the oldest alpha, it couldn’t have been an easy decision to make.
Scarlett woke up when Ray carried her into the house, but she was groggy and not speaking coherently. He and Wes managed to get her cleaned up in the bathroom before dressing her in her favorite sleep shirt and tucking her into bed. As they settled on either side of her, Ray inhaled silently, sorting through the still-lingering scents of blood and hospital, and found her sweet, natural scent.
“It’s fucking good to be home,” he whispered.
“Scarlett said the baby will be able to hear us when he’s five months old, so you better figure out how to stop swearing before then. I don’t want the first word that Peanut says to be ‘fuck’,” Wes said softly.
Ray chuckled. “I’ll work on it. I think it’s time to retire the game station, too.”
“We’re going to be busy with a baby in a few months. Holy shit, we’re going to be dads.”
“Now who’s hurting his poor little unformed ears?” Ray teased.
Wes laughed quietly. “First we need to marry his mother.”
“The sooner the better.”
Scarlett woke up feeling foggy and disoriented. She blinked a few times and stared up at the ceiling. She wasn’t scared, though, not even remotely. She knew that she was in bed with her mates, and that she and her baby were safe.
Just as she was thinking that it was the first morning she hadn’t felt sick, her stomach churned and she had to rush to get to the bathroom. She groaned as her body protested moving, the aches in her joints intensifying as she made it to the bathroom to retch. In seconds, her mates were standing by her as she emptied what little had been in her stomach.
Leaning back against Ray’s legs, she accepted a cool, wet cloth from Wes. “I’ll be glad when this part of the pregnancy is over.”
“You’ll still let us take care of you, though, right?” Wes asked as Ray helped her stand.
“If you insist,” she said, smiling at them in the mirror. After brushing her teeth, she let Ray carry her back to bed while Wes went down to the kitchen to get her something to eat.
He returned a few minutes later with apple juice and crackers. “I think we should consider getting a mini fridge for the bedroom,” Wes said.
“Makes sense to me,” Ray said.
“You guys just don’t want to leave the bedroom,” she teased.
Ray snuggled against her, kissing her neck with a soft purr. “Can you blame us? Our mate is so tempting.”
Wes pressed to her other side and her heart began to pound. He chuckled in her ear and nipped at the lobe. “You need to eat something and take a pain pill.”
As if on cue, her body began to ache. “Ouch. Thanks for reminding me.”
She settled against the headboard with several pillows cushioning her as Wes handed her a plate of crackers and Ray held a glass of apple juice. After eating and taking a pill, she told them what had happened in the van. She could remember everything so clearly. The dispassionate way Quentin had looked at her as he’d explained what her new life was going to be like. The way the pack had stood around the van, excited about Leon forcing her. So much blood.
Ray rubbed her calf in a soothing motion. “You’re a survivor, sweetness. It’s okay to feel guilty or sad because you took a life, but you did what you had to do to protect yourself and our baby.”
“What makes you think I’m sad?”
“Because I know you well enough to know that even though you knew he was going to hurt you, you’d rather he hadn’t actually died.”
She swallowed hard and tears stung her eyes. “Why did my dad put me in that position? Why couldn’t he just let me go?”
She’d been calling him by his first name in an attempt to distance herself from him, but he was her father, plain and simple. She couldn’t change her genetic relation to him no matter how much she might wish differently.
“We’ll never know, love. He didn’t value you as a father should. He saw you as a way to increase his power.”
“We’re sorry that you had to protect yourself because we weren’t here, sweetness,” Ray said.
“It’s not your fault.” She could tell they felt guilty, maybe more than she did over taking a life.
“What happened in the van is on your dad’s shoulders. He should have walked away when Joe told him to, and not mounted a campaign to make you a sex slave.”
She shivered as she thought about the wolves who had been excited by what her dad’s plans were for her role in the pack. Ray and Wes held her as she cried, until the tears were gone and the ache in her heart had slowly eased.
She lifted her head from Wes’s shoulder and looked at Ray. “Is he dead?”
“The guy in the van? Yes.”
She shook her head and took the tissue that Wes handed her. “No, Quentin. The others.”
Ray nodded slowly. “Joe said that they’d been warned if they came after you again that they’d be dealt with according to pack law. I don’t envy Joe making that decision, but it seems like being alpha means you have to do what you have to do to keep the peace.”
Her brothers were going to stay in Bent Creek and run the pack together. Twelve alphas for one pack. She thought they were a little nuts, because that was a lot of alpha males trying to be the boss, but according to Wes they were already divvying up the responsibilities, and instead of one alpha there would in essence be a council of alphas, who would make decisions for the pack jointly. She knew that they’d take the pack in a new direction, one where the leader wouldn’t do despicable things to enlarge his territory.
After a while, when her stomach protested her eating only crackers and juice, they showered and dressed and walked downstairs. Almost the whole pride was milling around the kitchen, and they clapped and cheered for her. She blushed and thanked them for their help, and then found Melody and Jilly and hugged them both.
“I was scared out of my mind,” Melody whispered. “I’m so glad you’re both safe now.”
Jilly, whose face still had some blistering from the mace, said, “I’m sorry I couldn’t help you.”
Scarlett didn’t want her to feel guilty, even though she felt guilty herself because Jilly had been hurt. “It’s really okay. I’m glad that you’re healing.”
One of her mates – Scarlett couldn’t tell them apart yet – put his hand on Jilly’s shoulder. “Whatever they used is really nasty stuff. Our clan healer said that it’s a product made especially to use on shifters. In young shifters, it can leave permanent scars and even blind them. You’re not a shifting wolf, so it didn’t seem to harm you as badly as it did Jilly.”
James said, “It’s illegal in the United States, so how they got it is a mystery, but it certainly makes me uneasy.”
Scarlett squeezed Jilly’s hand and looked at the pride. “Thank you, all of you.”
Ray and Wes stepped close and put their arms around her. The pride came by to see her and say they were happy she was safe, the mates hugging her and the males smiling but keeping their distance. Ray and Wes both growled softly when the unmated males in the house drew close and Melody’s uncles, who Scarlett considered part of her family as well, paused, looking unsure of what to do.
“You can hug me, I promise. We’re family, not just because of the pride but because Melody’s like a sister to me.” She looked at her mates and Wes nodded but Ray was glaring at them over her head. “Make it a quick one,” she added. They hugged her so fast it was like being brushed by the wind and she laughed as they quickly moved away.
Ray pressed a little closer to her and Wes held her hand as Chase, Dylan, and Hunter came over. “We don’t want Ray to have a fit, so we’ll just say that we’re happy you’re safe now and we’re glad we could help,” Hunter said.
Dylan said, “Yeah, but we’ll say it from a safe distance.”
She laughed. “Thank you.”
Ray walked with her into the family room, along with Melody, Tristan, Jilly, and one of her mates, Wyked. The other males stayed in the kitchen to make breakfast. While they were waiting for their food, she, Jilly, and Melody talked about the baby and fixing up the bedrooms. Her body ached and the claw marks felt scratchy as they were healing. She wasn’t sorry about them, though. She would rather have a few scars than be dead or have lost her baby.
“Scarlett is going back to bed after breakfast, but tomorrow, if she’s feeling up to it, you guys can come out with us shopping. We’re going to get paint and supplies, and look at furniture,” Ray said.
“Baby furniture?” Melody asked.
Ray nodded and Scarlett smiled broadly. “I can’t wait,” she said.
Melody and Jilly volunteered to help paint the baby’s room, and Scarlett was glad to have friends in the pride. Not only Melody, but Jilly, who was sweet and funny. She’d only ever really had Melody to confide in because of her Breeding Queen situation, so having another girlfriend living in the same house was comforting. She knew she’d become friends with Lachlyn and Sam, Rhett’s wife, Lisa, and Callie.
It had been a really rough road to get to this place, where she was finally safe, finally free to make her own choices, and she didn’t want to be anywhere else.
* * * * *
Wednesday morning, Scarlett listened to Ray and Wes argue. Neither of them seemed to really want to go work on the farm, but Rhett was expecting them. She felt bad that they were agitated, but to her surprise it wasn’t Ray who was digging in his heels, it was Wes. Of the two, Ray was usually more aggressive. Wes was her sensitive mate, the one who made sure she was comfortable and happy. Ray was the mate who made her feel safe just by wrapping his arms around her. She knew she’d never have to worry about her, or their kids’, safety.
Her mates had taken off Monday and Tuesday from Rhett’s. She’d told them they could go to work and that she’d be fine, but they hadn’t wanted to hear it. As long as she was taking pain pills, they didn’t want to leave her. This morning, she was feeling well enough that she didn’t feel like she needed a pain pill. She was a little tired, but she could attribute that to a bad dream she’d had about being locked in a van with a wolf. She’d been terrified when she woke up, thrashing on the bed, but the moment that Ray and Wes put their arms around her, she’d known she was safe. It was the worst dream she’d ever had, and it still sent chills down her spine when she thought of it, but she kept telling herself that the bastards who had grabbed her were gone and she was safe. Eventually her subconscious would believe that as much as her conscious mind did.
“I don’t like you guys arguing,” she said, leaning against the headboard and stifling a yawn.
They both turned at the same time, giving her identical looks of worry. “Sorry, sweetness,” Ray said.
“It’s okay. I know you’re both feeling kind of anxious about leaving me today, but I’ll point out that James isn’t working today, so he’s home. Dylan, Chase, and Hunter are home, too.”
Ray opened his mouth and she knew he was going to protest, but Wes put a hand on his brother’s chest and spoke first. “It’s not about who’s home, love, it’s about our cats reminding us that you were taken from this house.”
“Rhett’s counting on you, and I don’t think the pride will let us stay here if one of us isn’t working and helping out financially. I know I appear to be relatively low-maintenance, but I like things like a roof over our heads and good food to eat.” She smiled sweetly even though she was using a sarcastic tone.
Ray made a face. “They’re not going to kick us out, and we’re not going to lose our jobs because we want a few days to take care of you.”
She went up on her knees and scooted to the edge of the bed, then drew them close with her arms until her cheek was resting on Ray’s chest and she could look up at Wes. “You’ve taken care of me for four days. I feel much better today, I promise. Why doesn’t one of you stay home today? But tomorrow, you have to promise to go to work. Maybe I can even come? I want to spend time with Lisa and Callie.”
Wes and Ray looked at each other over her head, and Ray finally growled out an exasperated sigh. “Fine, I’ll go.”
Scarlett looked up at him and he smiled. She reached for him, drawing him down for a long, slow kiss. When they finally parted, Ray’s eyes were dark green with passion and a soft purr was rumbling in his chest.
“Unfair, sweetness.”
“What is?”
“To horn me up and then send me off to work.”
“I’ll take good care of her,” Wes promised, and Ray snarled at him.
After a few more kisses and some stern instructions from Ray to Wes about keeping her safe, Ray went into the bathroom to get ready for work. Wes stretched out on the bed next to her and she turned around, leaning over to kiss him. “He’s not really mad, is he?” she asked.
“Nah,” Wes promised, cupping her face and rubbing his thumb along her cheek. “I should go to work, but I can’t bring myself to leave you without one of us here.”
“What about tomorrow?”
“I’ll argue with my cat tomorrow. For now, we can head downstairs and see Ray off to work.”
“And then?” she asked coyly.
He brushed his lips against hers and whispered, “Then you’re mine.”
She shivered as heat stole through her. She’d never been alone with either of her mates, and although she would miss Ray, she was looking forward to her time with Wes. The look of promise in his eyes made her want to toss her robe and sleep shirt to the floor immediately and not leave the bed all day.
She had a feeling that Wes was thinking the same thing.
* * * * *
Wes watched Ray kiss Scarlett goodbye for the tenth time at the front door. He was surprised that his brother had agreed to go. As the more dominant of the two of them, it probably warred with Ray’s sense of duty to his mate to leave, but Wes also knew that Ray trusted him to keep her safe. In theory, Wes knew that Scarlett would be safe in the house if they were both at work. The wolves who had attacked her were dead and there were no more threats to her safety. But his cat had been yowling at him to stay by her side ever since they’d woken up when she had a nightmare.
Ray looked at Wes silently for a moment and then nodded, which Wes knew meant Ray was telling him to keep her safe. Then Ray and Scarlett kissed goodbye and he left. Scarlett watched out the door, shivering in the cold air, until Ray backed his truck out and Wes pulled her away to shut the door.