Triple Threat (4 page)

Chapter 8

Charise walked into Wolf Haven, waving at Remy as she went to the kitchen. Dejah was standing at the sink cleaning up the dishes for the day. “Hey Dej.”

“Alexis should be here any minute,” she said, looking up from the sink. “I figured afterwards we could all go to The Blue Moon.”

“Sure. I need to tell you and Alexis what happened today,” Char said as she sat down at the breakfast bar. “Anything good happen today?”

“Nothing much. The normal sibling spat between Remy and Freya. Cutie’s was slow as hell and Gabriella started working over at Cougar Construction,” Dejah said drying her hands on a dish towel.

“What position did she take?” Charise asked.

“Electrician. She seems to be really happy with it. And apparently the new secretary started today as well,” Dejah said, sitting down across from her.

“Really? I knew Jack had been looking for a new electrician since the last one retired and moved to Florida. Did Gabriella get a chance to meet the new secretary yet?”

“Yes, Jack was on site all day today. He refused to go to the office at all,” Dejah chuckled.

Charise laughed. “Maybe he’ll start behaving himself now.” Dejah looked at her, arching a brow. “Okay, maybe not. He just needs to find his mate then he’ll calm down.”

“You just need to find yours and then Ares will leave you alone,” Alexis said as she walked into the kitchen.

“I highly doubt he’ll ever leave me alone, even if I do find my mate,” Charise said with a sigh.

Alexis nodded in agreement. “Well, lets get this over with so we can have some fun. Char, we’re going into the backyard. You’re going to take off the veiling charm and shift for me. I’m going to try something different this time. Your bear is the source of your scent. If we cover your bear’s scent then it should cover your human scent as well,” Alexis said.

“Okay.” Charise stood up and quickly undressed, folded her clothes, put them on the counter, and walked into the backyard. She turned to Alexis and Dejah before shifting into her bear. She growled as the shift finished and sat down. She was small for a brown bear but her size was still imposing for some people. She huffed, signalling that she was ready for Alexis to start.

Alexis pulled several items from her satchel and cast her circle. She called forth the gods and cast a veiling spell on Charise. She motioned for Dejah to see if she could smell her.

Dejah sniffed Charise and frowned. “Her scent hasn’t gone away. If anything it’s stronger than before.”

Alexis frowned looking through her spell book. “Charise, have you met your mate recently?” Charise huffed and hung her head. “This won’t work if you’ve met your mate. This actually does the opposite and amplifies it until you’ve officially mated. Why didn’t you tell me you had met your mate?”

“I don’t think she realized they were her mates. In fact I don’t think she recognized her attraction to them as finding her mates,” Dejah said, chuckling.

Charise shifted back and stayed seated on the ground. Dejah was right about not realizing that they were her mates. She was incredibly attracted to them, to the point she wanted to do nothing more then throw herself at them and beg them to take her. But she wondered if she would ever be their mate. Xavier wanted nothing to do with her, no matter how much Xander and Xerxes wanted her. She laid down on the grass and looked up at the sky. If only things were different.

Dejah walked over and looked down at her. “Why don’t you get ready to go to the bar? We’ll have a nice relaxing night and you can forget everything for a little bit.”

Charise stood up and brushed the grass from her backside. “Ok, give me enough time to take a shower then I’ll meet you in the kitchen.” She walked into the house and grabbed her clothes before going up to her room. She quickly showered and dressed for a night out. She didn’t get to wear her little black dress very often and decided to wear it. She put on her favorite high heeled boots and jewelry, grabbed her clutch, and went down to the kitchen.

Alexis wore a pair of jeans, emerald wrap-around top, low heels, and a simple silver locket necklace. Dejah was in her normal ripped jeans, knee high boots, and black leather halter top.

Dejah smiled as Charise walked in. “Ready?”

“Yeah.” They got into Alexis’ car and drove to the bar.

“Jasmine’s working tonight so we should be able to avoid men trying to pick us up,” Dejah said. They sat down in an available booth. “We might even get a couple of free drinks.”

“In your dreams.” Jasmine said as she walked up. “My boss would kill me if I started giving out free drinks. Who’s running the desk if you’re here?”

“I left Remy in charge,” Dejah said.

“Really? I hate to inform you but he showed up before you three did,” Jasmine said pointing towards the bar.

Dejah got up, growling. “Excuse me. I need to put a certain pup in his place. Just because his sister is the alpha doesn’t mean he can ignore what I said.” Dejah walked over to the bar and slammed Remy to the floor.

Jasmine smiled at them. “What can I get you?”

“Rum and coke for me,” Charise said.

“Water for me. I have to drive home tonight,” Alexis said.

“Of course. I’ll be right back with your drinks,” Jasmine said, shaking her head as Graeme broke up Dejah and Remy.

As Jasmine walked away Arius, the only known dragon shifter in the US, walked up. “Hello, ladies.” He looked at Alexis. “I’m Arius, I work at Leo Construction with Charise.”

“This is Alexis Black. Alexis, this is Arius Loreigh,” she said. “What brings you out tonight?”

“Not much, just the pretty women. Xander and Xerxes talk about you all the time. I couldn’t resist coming to talk to you,” Arius said, sitting down in Dejah’s seat.

“Really?” Charise asked.

“Yea. They always talk about how you light up the room when you walk in and how their cats are driving them crazy wanting to claim you.”

“And you doubted that they were your mates?” Alexis asked.

“There’s three brothers, Xander and Xerxes have been upfront about their claims as my mates. It’s their brother Xavier that claims that I’m not,” Charise explained.

“I have a feeling that if you let them they would claim you in a heartbeat. Xavier though, he’s one cautious guy. It might take a little bit of prodding for him to stake his claim,” Arius said.

“Here are your drinks,” Jasmine said, putting their drinks in front of them. “What can I get you, Arius?”

“What I’m always wanting?” he said grinning at her.

“In your dreams,” she snarled before stalking off.

Arius sighed. “It was nice meeting you Alexis. I will see you later Charise.” With that he got up and followed Jasmine.

Dejah walked up and sat down. “What did I miss?”

“Arius and Jasmine hitting it off spectacularly,” Charise grinned.

“How could you tell they hit it off?” Alexis asked.

“Jasmine didn’t hit Arius this time,” Charise replied. “Arius also said that Xander and Xerxes talk about me at work and that Xavier might admit his claim with a little bit of prodding.”

“I guess that means you accept them as being your mates?” Dejah asked.

“I never denied it. I just didn’t realize it yet,” Charise laughed.

“I think this calls for intense planning on what you’re going to do when you go to work tomorrow,” Dejah said, signalling Jasmine for a drink.

“Are you going to tell them what’s going on with Ares?’ Alexis asked.

“I don’t know yet. I’m going to have to sooner or later but tonight I’m not worrying about it,” she said.

Chapter 9

Ares sat in a dark corner of the bar, his back against the wall as he watched the woman who would be his mate. She had eluded him for years but now that he had found her again he wasn’t going to let her out of his sight. A woman walked up and sat down across from him. She had helped him before when he had found his last mate. “Nightshade.”

“Ares, so nice to see you. I see you have found yourself a new mate,” she purred.

“She’s my true mate, the one that I have been searching for,” he said.

“Then you wouldn’t mind if I asked you to take her as soon as possible. The men that tried to take Rachel from you, are going to take her now,” she said.

“No!” He pounded his fist on the table. “She is mine!”

“And she will be, if you take her sooner than planned,” she said soothingly.

“Fine, I will move up my schedule. But I’m going to need a new den for all of my mates,” he growled.

“I will make sure your new den has enough room for all of your mates and more,” she said, grinning at him. If she wasn’t so skinny she would make a perfect mate for him.

Chapter 10

Charise smiled to herself as she got out of her car. Dejah and her had carefully picked out her outfit after they had gotten home. She always had a thing for short skirts but never really wanted to wear them to work until today. Dejah had picked out a black pleated skirt that Charise had pushed to the back of her closet and paired it with a dark emerald green blouse, black stockings and her favorite black high heels. Underneath all of this she had worn her skimpiest bra and panty set in dark plum. She had decided to continue wearing her veiling charm, just in case. She walked into the office and passed Xavier on her way. “Good morning.”

“Morning,” Xavier mumbled before looking up at her. He stopped in his tracks and stared at her, his eyes tracking her every move as she started her morning routine.

“Is something wrong?” she asked, looking down at her blouse, did she had get something on her?

Xavier cleared his throat and shook his head. “No, nothing’s wrong. You look really nice.”

“Don’t you mean hot?” Xander said as he walked into the office.

Xerxes was not far behind him. “You look ravishing. What’s the occasion?”

“I’m calling my clients and telling them of my move to Leo Construction. Plus, a few of the men from the den are coming in for an interview,” she said, smiling at them. She had decided to finally tell them about herself instead of waiting for them to figure it out. Obviously, they still didn’t know the most basic things about her but then she didn’t know those things about them either.

“Why are men from the werebear clan coming in and why would they need an interview with you?” Xavier asked, curiosity and suspicion clouding his features.

“I’m interviewing them because it’s one of the rules my brothers gave me when I decided that I wasn’t going to work with them at the mine,” she replied. She watched as they processed this information and wondered what was going through their heads.

“You’re a bear shifter?” Xavier questioned, still not believing her.

“Yes, Jason and Jaxon Miller are my older brothers and I am the princess of the Northern Ursus Den. Did you think I would have been able to make Nadia submit if I had been a human?” She asked curiously.

“I can honestly say that I was thinking about how hot it would be to be dominated by you and then dominating you,” Xander purred. She blushed as her mind conjured up the images he described. She definitely wouldn’t mind being dominated by all of them.

Xerxes chuckled. “I had my suspicions but I didn’t think that you were a bear shifter or royalty for that matter. Why didn’t you tell us before now?”

“I honestly thought all of you knew. I have worked with you before and figured that Jack or Mr. Kale had said something before now,” she said. She hadn’t thought that Jack and his father would have kept her secret guarded from everyone but themselves.

“We’ve only known you as Charise. We’ve never been told your last name or officially introduced,” Xavier said. “When did you meet Jack?”

“We went to high school together. He was a major player even back then,” she said. “It was a huge pain because he would seduce all of my friends and then when he dumped them that’s all I would hear about. When we became friends everyone thought we were a couple. Boy, did that friendship flush out my real friends. Turns out that if you hang out with a guy you have to be screwing him. Such crap.”

“So how did you two become friends?” Xander asked.

“I was his Chemistry tutor. When he started failing his dad gave him an ultimatum: get the grade up or lose your car, get cut from the football team, and be on restrictions until the grade is at least a B. He found me in the library and begged me to tutor him, even offered to pay me. Thus started our long friendship and working relationship”

“How did you end up working at Cougar Construction?” Xerxes asked.

“I was their secretary during the summer while I was in college. After college Mr. Kale offered me a job and I took it. It wasn’t long after that that Mr. Kale started raising my pay to compensate me for dealing with Jack’s ex-lovers.”

“So why do you wear the veiling pendant?” Xavier asked.

“I can tell you that,” Mrs. King said as she walked into the office. She eyed the scene in front of her and smiled knowingly. “I can come back if I am interrupting.”

“It’s ok Mrs. King, you’re not interrupting anything,” Charise said.

Mrs. King looked between them. “If you say so. If my husband looked at me like that all the time then we would never be leaving the house.”

Xavier smiled at Mrs. King. “Good morning Mrs. King. How do you know Charise?”

“I’ve known her since she was a little girl. I was good friends with her Mama before she died,” Mrs. King said.

“So you can tell us everything about her. I believe you said something about why she wore her veiling pendant?” Xerxes asked.

“Why yes I did. But I’ll only tell you if you discount the price of the addition onto my house,” Mrs. King said.

“You drive a hard bargain,” Xerxes said.

“That isn’t your project.” Xavier growled.

“I don’t really care,” Xerxes replied.

“Enough! All of you get to work! This is ridiculous. If you want to know about my pendant then just ask me instead of interrogating everyone else,” Charise said, exasperated.

“Well, I think it’s time that we went over the additions I would like you to do. Which one of you will I be talking to?” Mrs. King asked.

“Xerxes, since you gave her the discount you can take over the project. Xander, you’re in charge of the Lover’s Lane site. If anyone needs me I’ll be in my office,” Xavier said. He looked at Charise thoughtfully before closing his office door behind him. Xander gave Charise a quick kiss on the cheek before leaving. Xerxes lifted Charise’s hand to his lips, giving her a tender kiss before leaving with Mrs. King.

Charise huffed and sat down at her desk to start working.