Blake, Abby - Suddenly Bear (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) (5 page)

“Uh…remember Violet?”

Of course he did. Declan hadn’t been able to get her image or her sweet scent out of his mind. The certainty that she was his mate had been growing exponentially every moment that he spent away from her. It didn’t hurt that the woman was hot with a capital “H.” Even as they’d healed her, he hadn’t been able to miss that she was deliciously sexy and curved in all the right places. He ground his teeth together, hoping that his brother wasn’t calling to brag about getting some loving.

“Well, I don’t think we should tell her what happened.”

Declan shook his head. Surely he’d misheard. Not telling the woman of her newly acquired furry alter ego would surely lead to disaster. She needed help and support and patient explanation. It was probably still months before she’d be able to shift fully, but all she had to do was step on some scales or notice her growing strength and things could get quickly out of hand. Surely, Jayden wasn’t considering doing something as foolish as keeping the information from her.

“Say that again,” Declan said, managing to hold on to his temper by a single thread.

“I’m sorry, Dec. I just don’t think she needs to know, yet. She avoids scales like the plague. She’s unlikely to notice the gradual weight gain, and it won’t change her overall shape anyway. She’ll—”

Declan cut off his younger brother as his vision blurred and his fist somehow lodged itself in the wall beside him. “You fucking arrogant little asshole! We have to tell her!”

“I’m sor—”

Declan hung up. Although, slammed the phone down would probably be a more accurate description. He managed to extricate his fist from the wooden paneling of his office wall, but he scowled at the hole, mentally laying blame for that on his youngest brother as well.

He tried to take deep, calming breaths. A part of him could understand Jayden’s reluctance to explain to Violet what had happened to her, but the fact that his own attraction for the woman had only grown in the twenty-four hours they’d been home was making him just a little crazy. They were already damn busy here and with the new ski season about to start, were only going to get busier. Neither he nor Brandon could afford time away, but he really didn’t want to explain to his youngest brother over the phone that the woman he had fallen in love with was also the mate of both his brothers.

“Brandon?” he asked as he stepped into the shed where his brother was working.

“Over here,” Brandon called absently as he bent over the engine of the snowmobile and fiddled with a part that Declan didn’t recognize. Mechanics had never been his thing. He was more than happy to spend his time dealing with customer complaints rather than trying to figure out how machines worked.

“I just spoke to Jayden. Well,” he said with a self-deprecating laugh, “technically, I just hung up on Jayden. I think one of us needs to go back and help him explain everything to Violet.”

“Why can’t Jayden just do it?” Brandon asked as he tried to undo what seemed to be a particularly stubborn nut. “I need to get this fixed and the others serviced before Friday.”

“I know,” Declan said as his mind once again filled with details. The peak ski season was about to start, and with a snowstorm forecast for the weekend they needed to make sure everything was in proper working order. A major blizzard could cut them off from civilization for days, even weeks. It was both the blessing and the curse of living in the middle of ski country. Of course they had their furry alter egos in an emergency, but with so many people staying at the lodge it was something they tried to avoid.

Declan practically shook himself as he tried to get back to the matter at hand. Brandon was watching him with a scowl, so he figured it was probably a good idea to get to the point.

“Jayden doesn’t want to tell her.”

“What?” Brandon asked with no small amount of disbelief. “How the fuck does he expect to explain her furry form the first time she shifts?”

Declan shook his head as Brandon dropped his spanner and headed over to the sink to clean up. “I probably should have talked some more rather than hanging up, but I was angry enough to put my fist through the wall.”

Brandon turned sharply to stare at him. Declan merely shrugged in return. He’d always been the calm, controlled decision maker, and it took a lot for him to become angry. He couldn’t even remember the last time he’d lost his temper.

“Is Jayden okay?”

That was just like Brandon. He was right in the middle, one older brother, one younger, and he seemed to spend a lot of time looking out for them both.

“I don’t know,” Declan answered honestly. “I didn’t get around to asking.”

“Okay, we need to call him and let him know that she’s our mate. I know it’s not something you wanted to explain over the phone, but I think the three of us need to come to some sort of agreement. If we’re all her mates, then we need to figure things out between us before we speak to Violet.”

“I agree,” Declan said, running an agitated hand through his close-cropped hair. “It’ll be months before she’s fully capable of shifting. I suppose the explanation on what happened can wait until we’re sure that we really are her mates.” He took a deep breath, trying to still his agitation. “We’ll call Jayden back and explain, but I really think we need to visit again just to be certain.” There was still a small chance that he and Brandon had been mistaken and the woman wasn’t really their mate.

Again Brandon gave him that curious look. Then he glanced around the shed, probably mentally cataloging the work that still needed to be done, before asking, “Do you want to go first, or should I?”

* * * *

By the end of her shift at the diner, Violet almost had herself convinced that last night was a really big mistake. She even had a little speech prepared on how they’d be able to pretend it never happened.

But the moment she walked in the door she wanted to step into his arms and do it all again. Jayden looked tired, but he held his arms open, and she couldn’t resist.

“Babe, you are a sight for tired eyes.”

She hugged him close. “I thought you didn’t have any classes today? Don’t you usually use Tuesdays to catch up on your sleep?”

He nodded against her head. “Have you eaten?”

“I ate at the diner.”

“Good, let’s go get some rest.” From anyone else she would have considered that a sleazy line to get her into bed, but from Jayden she knew it was exactly what he meant. She’d slept quite well last night, but considering how Jayden held her, she figured he probably hadn’t slept at all.

“Are you okay?”

“I am now,” he said with a jaw-cracking yawn. He shuffled her toward his bedroom without breaking their embrace, and a few minutes later she found herself naked and spooned against his warm body.

But this time she had trouble falling asleep.

Something was obviously bothering him. She had a few paranoid theories—he regretted last night, it was only a one-night stand, he was trying to let her down easy—but none of them explained her nakedness.

“Jayden, are you still awake?”

“Yeah, babe.”

“Should we talk about last night?”

He stiffened, and a cowardly part of her wanted to drop the subject and go to sleep. But a far larger part of her needed to know what was going on.

“Sure, babe, what’s on your mind?”

She hesitated, unsure where to start. The words “I’m too old for you” fell from her lips before she could take them back.

“No, you’re not.” He said it so simply that it was hard not to believe his confident dismissal of her biggest worry.

“I’m just a waitress who’ll probably never be anything more.” That was such a depressing thought that she was very grateful to have her back to him. She closed her eyes to hold the tears at bay. She’d made her choices a long time ago. She had no right feeling sorry for herself now.

“Why are you a waitress?”

“Huh?” Nobody had ever asked her that before.

“I mean,” he said, shifting so that he could see her a little better. “Why didn’t you go to college? You’re obviously intelligent enough.”

“Obviously not,” she said with a self-deprecating laugh. “I got involved with Bruce, and together we decided that I would keep house and raise the babies while he studied to be a world-class surgeon.” She sighed tiredly. “You saw how well that worked out.”

“Are you okay? We never did talk about what happened last night. Maybe you should press charges against that asshole.”

“Maybe, but I reckon he’d make sure to drag you down with him.” She moved and turned slightly so that she could see his face. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone tossed out a door like that before. You must be stronger than you look.”

“Adrenaline,” he mumbled, sounding embarrassed. He seemed willing to argue the point, but then he breathed out heavily and hugged her a little tighter. “Okay, we’ll leave it for now, but if he tries anything else, we need to report it.”

“All right.”

They fell quiet again for a few minutes, and she was starting to wonder if he was asleep until he cleared his throat and said, “Oh, by the way, my brother is coming to stay for a couple of days. He’ll arrive sometime tomorrow afternoon.”

A good dose of that adrenaline he’d mentioned burned through her veins.

“W–Why?” Was the timing suspicious? She hadn’t met any of his family in the past year, but within twenty-four hours of going to bed with this man five years her junior one of his older brothers was coming to stay.

“He wants to meet you,” Jayden said in a tone of voice that she couldn’t interpret.

A little too freaked out to censor her words she said, “Oh, god, he’s going to hate me.”

“Hate you? Why would you think that?”

She shook her head, too embarrassed, and perhaps a little too frightened, to explain the fear coursing through her. Jayden pulled her back into his embrace, his warmth surrounding her as he settled them both back into a spooning position.

“Babe, he’s going to love you,” he said as he pressed a kiss to her temple. “I know that for a fact.”

Chapter Four

The first thing Brandon noticed about the woman was that she carried his brother’s scent. The second was that she had a beautiful smile, and the third was confirmation that she was indeed his mate.

Every primitive thought in his head screamed at him to claim her. It was only the underlying fear he could sense from her that kept him sane enough not to follow through.

“You must be Brandon,” she said as she stood partly leaning against the open door.

“What gave it away? No wait, let me guess. It was the hair, right?”

She laughed softly, and his cock twitched at the melodious sound. Everything about this woman called to him in ways he’d never expected, and he was hard pressed to keep his thoughts to himself.

“Come in,” she said as she stepped away from the doorway. “Jayden should be home any minute. Can I get you something? Have you eaten?”

“I’m fine,” he said, already falling for her nurturing personality. Shit, if this was the way he was reacting to her after only a few minutes’ acquaintance, how had Jayden lasted a whole year?

“Um…Jayden said you…um wouldn’t mind sleeping in my bed.” Brandon’s cock rose with immediate interest, but sense finally kicked in, and he realized that she meant without her. She’d most likely sleep beside his brother. Lucky bastard.

“That’s fine,” he said, hoping that she didn’t glance down and see the erection trying to burst through his zipper.

“Okay, my room’s the door on the left. Did you want to take a shower or something?”