Abbey's Protectors [Beckett's Wolf Pack, Triad Mates 4] (Siren Publishing Menage & More) (43 page)

“You’re going to have twins?” Synthia asked, shocked.

“No!” Abbey told her, laughing. “I saw them playing with our son who was probably about three, and our daughter who was probably about sixteen months old.”

“Wow,” Shelly whispered. “That’s so nice.”

“Yeah, and in the vision I was pregnant with our third child,” Abbey added.

“By the Fates!” Synthia choked out. “Are you going to populate the earth all by yourself?”

Abbey laughed and shrugged her shoulders. “We’ll see,” she answered, smiling. “Clay said he wants five children but we haven’t discussed that for sure yet.”

“Abbey, I’m so glad you’ve found the place where you’re meant to be,” Synthia told her sincerely. “It’s so nice to see you so happy and content.”

“Maybe someday Synthia and I will find that place, too,” Shelly told her sadly.

“Well, actually, I wanted to talk to you about that,” Abbey told them, biting her lower lip nervously. “I talked to Jace and Jackson about you coming here to stay on their pack land.”

“No, Abbey. We can’t do that,” Synthia spoke up immediately.

“Synthia, we can set up a satellite office for Tyler Industries and you and Shelly can do what you always do to make sure it’s running efficiently,” Abbey offered. “There’s no reason you can’t do it from here.”

“I don’t think either Shelly or I will fit in with your new life,” Synthia said quietly.

“You’re wrong, Syn,” Abbey interrupted her. “You both would fit in perfectly. The people here are so kind and welcoming. You both would be part of this pack family. Maybe you’ll even find your mates. Unless you have a problem with the whole wolf shifter thing.”

The two sisters looked at each other in silence. Abbey didn’t understand their reluctance, but she wasn’t going to allow them to push aside their possible future happiness.

“Is that it? Are you afraid of the fact that these people are wolf shifters?”

Both women faced the monitor and shook their heads. “No, Abbey. We don’t have a problem with that,” Shelly told her honestly.

“Then what is it?”

When both women remained silent, Abbey knew she had to take charge. If there was one thing she had learned in business, it was to find the moment to press home your advantage.

“I’m going to give you one week to settle things at the office,” she told them firmly. “I want you to make managers that you select aware that they will be responsible for the branch in Denver. I’m going to come and get you next Saturday. I’ll be at your apartment by three in the afternoon. Take what you want with you, and I’ll ask my mates to get the rest of your things later. You’re going to live with us until you find a place on pack land to live, or you find your mates—whichever comes first.”

“Abbey!” Synthia sputtered.

“I’m not listening to you,” Abbey told her sharply. “You both need to take a chance. What will it hurt, guys? If you really don’t like it here you can always return to Denver. But if you like it here and form a connection to the land and the people, how great would that be? And the weather is great here. It’s so nice and warm. Hunter and Clay told me that the winters aren’t harsh like we’re used to in Denver. I know I’m looking forward to living here for the rest of my life.”

“I don’t know,” Shelly said softly. “I still think it might be best if we don’t go there.”

“I’m not hearing your protests,” Abbey stopped her. “I’ll be at your apartment next Saturday by three. Don’t argue with a pregnant woman.”

Both women smiled at her words. Abbey could see that she was winning. She wasn’t going to give up on her friends.

“Come on, guys. I need you here so you can spoil my kids,” Abbey told them softly.

“You can’t come and get us, you don’t have your driver’s license,” Synthia told her, grabbing for straws.

“Ship it to me. One day delivery,” Abbey told her firmly.

Synthia looked at Shelly. “Maybe it’s time,” Synthia offered softly.

“I think it might be,” Shelly agreed.

“Does that mean you’ll give it a try?” Abbey asked hopefully.

“Okay, Abbey. We’ll give it a try,” Synthia said softly, unable to put up much more of a fight.

“You won’t regret it,” Abbey told her, happy and excited that her friends would be with her soon.

“I hope not,” Shelly whispered.

* * * *

Hunter and Clay waited patiently while Abbey worked in the study. They had to hold back from going to her. Since they had realized that she was carrying, the need to be near her had intensified.

“It happened pretty quickly, Clay,” Hunter told him softly.

“What?”

“Abbey getting pregnant.”

Clay smiled and nodded. “I’m glad.”

“Me, too.”

Hunter was quiet for a moment, thinking about Abbey’s condition. Although he was happy with her pregnancy, he held some fears that he had to talk to Clay about. He looked at his triad partner and reached up to touch his shoulder lightly.

“Do you think we’ll have to be more careful when we make love to her?”

Clay looked at Hunter with a horrified expression on his face. “I hadn’t even thought about that. Do you think we hurt her or the cub the last time we loved her?”

Hunter shrugged. “Don’t know. Just the thought of it scares me. Maybe we should hold off on making love to her for a while. Just to be sure she’s okay.”

“Hunter, we’re nothing like the guy who hurt his wife today,” Clay cautioned him, realizing why Hunter was suddenly so concerned about the way they loved and made love to Abbey.

Hunter’s entire body shivered with revulsion at the replay in his mind of what they had responded to that morning. Neighbors had called in for help for the woman next door. She had been seven months pregnant, and her husband had a history of domestic violence. The police had responded to many calls to protect her from his abuse over the last year.

“I’ll never be able to let it go,” Hunter told Clay, removing his hand from his triad partner’s shoulder and staring off into the distance as he thought about what they had found when they had arrived at the small home in the quiet neighborhood.

They both had drawn upon the strength of their wolves to subdue the husband, and both men had admitted to themselves and to each other that they would bring the guy down the same way if they had to do it over again. The sight of the broken and bloody body of the man’s wife had made their souls hurt.

The door to the study opened and Abbey entered the living room, smiling brightly when she spotted the both of them. She walked over to them, wrapped her arms around their waists, and leaned up to kiss their throats before biting down and humming against their skin. When she pulled back, she was still smiling but hesitated when she saw the serious way they were watching her.

“What’s wrong?”

“Honey, have we ever hurt you?” Clay asked her gently.

“Hurt me? Of course not! Why would you ask me that?”

“When we made love to you, were we too rough for you or for our baby?” Hunter asked, not able to get the image out of his mind of the young woman who had been brutalized and beaten until she had lost the child she was carrying.

The absolute love she had for both men filled her, spilling out through their mating bond and wrapping them in the intensity of her feelings. She smiled as they let out a sigh as her love surrounded them.

“Do you have any idea how much your concern touches me?” she asked them softly. “Do you understand that I have never in my life felt more cherished or more protected? There isn’t even a remote possibility that you would ever hurt me.”

“But, Abbey,” Hunter stopped her. “We did get a little rough the last time we made love.”

“Yeah, and I’ve done the same,” she countered. “I took control and put a cock ring on both of you, and I loved you until you howled. Do you want me to apologize for that?”

“Hell, no,” Clay growled. “It was great.”

“Yeah, I feel the same about the way you both make love to me,” Abbey told them both firmly. “Tell me what’s going on.”

“We were just talking about maybe not making love to you again until Drew checks you out,” Hunter told her gently. “If we have to stop being intimate with you until after our baby is born then that’s what we’ll do.”

Abbey looked at him as if he had lost his mind. She narrowed her eyes as she took in the tightness of both men’s expressions and knew this conversation was coming from something they had just experience while on patrol. Anger filled her at the thought that they were once again trying to shield her as if she were a child.

“So, let me get this straight,” she said calmly, carefully shielding her anger from them as she fought through the need to rip into them for their caveman behavior. “You don’t want to be intimate with me.”

“It’s not that we don’t want to, honey,” Clay spoke up. “We just both think it’s probably for the best until Drew can tell us it’s safe.”

“And I don’t have a say in this?”

Both men faced each other as if asking the other for guidance. They both came up lacking in the answer department. When they remained silent, Abbey lost control of what little patience she had with their constant shielding of their life on the job from her.

“This is
not
what I signed up for in this mating,” she told them firmly. “You can’t make decisions that will affect all three of us without all three of us involved in the decision making process. That’s not what triad mates do.”

She stepped back and folded her arms across her chest, glaring at both men. Hunter made a move to step toward her but she raised her hand to halt him, successfully stopping him in his tracks.

“If neither of you are going to participate in an equal triad relationship with me then I’m out.”

“What?” Hunter asked, horrified by her words.

“That’s right, buddy! I’m out,” she told him, stepping forward and poking him in the chest with her index finger. “If you’re going to keep me isolated from your life and be afraid to touch me, the mating is over. You two are the ones responsible for this. I’m making the decision like you both made the decision without my input. This pregnancy is going to take precedence. I’m going to need my own room so I can carry our child in peace. Neither one of you is going to talk to me, come near me, touch me, or kiss me until after he’s born. It’s obvious that neither one of you are capable of participating in a mating as it was meant to be.”

She turned and walked away, stomping up the stairs and away from them. She muttered angrily as she made her way toward their bedroom, going inside it and slamming the door behind her.

Okay, beautiful lady. What am I supposed to do now? How can I have a future with men who won’t be open and honest with me?

Look into their souls, daughter,
the gentle woman whispered to her.
They have seen such cruelty today. They are frightened for your safety and for the safety of their cub.

And they think they’re the ones who will jeopardize my safety? Stupid idiots!

Daughter, your men love you so deeply, the thought of losing you scares them worse than anything they have ever experienced—and they have experienced a lot of brutality and violence in their job. Give them the time they need to think things through and come to terms with what they saw. They will learn to open up to you in all things eventually.

Abbey snorted. She wondered how long it was going to take her men to pull their heads out of their asses.

For three days Abbey slept in one of the spare bedrooms. She didn’t know how her men felt about that, and she was determined not to care. If they couldn’t give her the respect she deserved as an equal member of their triad then she wasn’t going to participate in it.

She worked in the study daily, running her company with cool efficiency. She spoke to Synthia and Shelly every other day to keep up on any decisions that needed to be made. She didn’t speak to her friends about her mates since she didn’t really know if she had them anymore. She knew her friends were concerned by the dark circles beneath her eyes and the tired expression on her face.

She excused it as the queasiness of early pregnancy, when in fact she had no morning sickness at all. She did feel tired, but it was probably the result of sleepless nights without her men beside her.

Each morning her men looked at her sadly and let her know they were leaving for patrol duty on Beckett pack land. They stood in the doorway of the study, watching her intently, but they never came close enough to touch her or kiss her good-bye. She refused to speak to them, determined to have them experience what it was like to be removed from her life—just as she felt removed from theirs when they intentionally shielded her from their pain. She wasn’t being childish, although it may have seemed that she was. She was making a point that, as a triad, they had to be open to each other in all things. Her stubborn men wouldn’t get what she meant unless she demonstrated how much it hurt to be isolated.

Abbey had gone to see Drew and asked him if her pregnancy was advancing normally. When he assured her that it was, she had broken down and told him how her men were afraid to touch her and hurt her or the baby.