Lindsey's Wolves (25 page)

She blushed, a deeper shade of red than the flush already covering her skin from being well-fucked.

Alex moaned as he removed himself from her with a soft pop. “That is the sweetest ass on the planet.”

On shaky legs, he lifted his body off the bed and padded to the adjoining bath for a wash cloth.

Moments later he returned to find Lindsey and Ryan curled around each other and pulling the blankets out from under them. As they situated on the cool sheets beneath, Alex kneeled beside his mate and pulled her legs apart to wipe their excess lovemaking from her sexy pussy and ass.

He tossed a second cloth to Ryan and pondered briefly how it was that the sight of another man tending to his own cock wasn’t a bone chilling experience. Whatever the case, it was nothing but sexy.

Discarding the cloth on the side table, Alex lay down alongside the love of his life, wrapped his arm around her middle, and let his mind relax for what he hoped would be a short nap before they woke needing to repeat the experience with unbridled passion.

Lindsey awoke gasping. She bolted upright, looked around the room, and remembered where she was. The sun was just peeking over the horizon outside, but she was alone. What woke her?

An uneasy sensation gave her a chill. She’d been dreaming. What about?

Lying back down, she pulled the covers over her still-naked body and closed her eyes. Sometimes she’d had weird dreams about the worship services and the parishioners of His Mighty Sword, but not usually two nights in a row. They must have really gotten to her.

Something niggled in the back of her mind. What? Flashes of her days of attending the cult-like chapel swam around in her head.

Where were the guys?

“Lin? You up? We’re at the barn. Thought we’d be back before you awoke.”
Ryan’s words made her shiver anew. How was she ever going to get used to this telepathy thing?

“Hey, babe. Go back to sleep. It’s early still. We felt we should help out around here. We’ve both been slacking for a few days,”
Alex soothed. Even in her mind his Latin accent reverberated.

“I’m fine, boys. Do what you need. I’ll just go hunt down some coffee. If you left me any clothes around here…”
She glanced around the room with a smile and spotted her bag on a chair.

“Clothes? Shit, Alex, I knew we forgot something. Why didn’t we think to leave her nothing to wear?”

“Ha, ha. Get back to work so you have more time for my insatiable needs later.”

“Don’t tease,
cariña
. You’ll wreck our concentration.”

She wasn’t teasing. Jeez, when would this ridiculous need to have sex every hour of the day subside? Climbing from the bed, she nearly stumbled when two men moaned into her mind.

“It’ll take some time, but, hon … please try to block some of those thoughts from us. We’ll never get a damn thing done if you torture us with your voracious libido all day. Alex is blushing. I think he’s—”

She didn’t even want to know how a
thought
could get cut off. Alex probably tackled him to the ground, knowing them.

As soon as she pulled on shorts and a T-shirt, Lindsey headed for the kitchen where she found both Nancy Masters and Tessa already at the table.

Nancy stood and pulled out a chair. “Morning, Lindsey. I hope you slept well?”

Tessa sucked in a breath, jumped up and squealed like a kid at Christmas. She knocked her chair over backward in her mad dash to tug Lindsey into a huge hug.

What the hell?
It was one thing for these people to be up so early, another for them to be so chipper about it, but on an entirely different plane for them to be downright excited just because Lindsey came into the room.

“Um, morning?” She peered around Tessa and raised her eyebrows at Nancy.

“Tessa, hon. Give her some space. She has no idea what you are excited about. You’re going to embarrass her.”

“Tell my sister to bug off. Is she pestering you? Your thoughts are all jumbled, but I can tell you’re with her.”

Okay, now this was just too weird. Nancy took Lindsey by the arm and led her to a chair. “Sit. Coffee?”

“Please.”

“Tell my brother to stay out of your head for a while. It’s too confusing the first morning after you’re claimed. I nearly tripped and fell with Aaron constantly nagging me only hours after we mated.” Tessa took the chair beside Lindsey and a giant light bulb went off.

“Good grief, does everyone know? Couldn’t you keep this to yourselves for one freaking minute?”
She hoped she was shouting at Alex and Ryan and that they both heard her loud and clear.

“Babe, we didn’t tell anyone anything. We should have warned you about this. They can, for lack of a better explanation, smell it on you.”
Alex’s “explanation” did nothing to soothe her.

“What?”

“Your pheromones change when you’re claimed. Wolves, we know a lot about each other just by walking into a room. We can even tell when a woman is ovulating or pregnant. Your scent is distinct at those times.”
Ryan’s addition was worse than Alex’s.

“A little warning would have been nice.”
She shuddered.
Pregnant? Ovulating?
She wasn’t ready for those kinds of thoughts.

“Sorry,
mi alma
. We’ll give you more details later. Enjoy some breakfast. Don’t let anyone get to you. It’s the same for every newly claimed woman. Family gets excited. That’s all.”

Great. Fantastic. She was sitting at the table with Ryan’s sister and his mother who knew every detail of the type of sex she’d engaged in last night with their son and brother …
and
another man, for heaven’s sake.

Could this day get any stranger? The sun wasn’t even all the way up.

“Here,” Nancy set a cup of steaming coffee in front of her. “Sugar? Cream?”

“Thanks.” She took the offered tray of embellishments and stirred them into her mug without lifting her head.

“It’s okay, you know. Weird for you, I guess. Kara still tells me this is too peculiar for words, but for us it’s just life.” Tessa leaned into her line of vision. “Forgive me? I was just so excited. It’s great to have another woman around here.”

“I’m just still in shock,” Lindsey said.

Nancy changed the subject. “We didn’t expect to see you so early. You looked exhausted last night. Did we wake you clamoring around in here?”

“No. Not at all. I … think I was having a nightmare. Those stupid people stalking me must be getting to me. Now I’m dreaming about sermons from my childhood.” Something still niggled in her mind.

Lindsey laid her head on her palms, breathed in the scent of hot coffee doctored to perfection with cream and sugar, and tried to recall her dream. Pastor Stone’s words rang through her thoughts.

We have a special announcement today. Sister Mary Katherine has just turned twenty-two and has agreed to marry Brother Thomas. Please praise the Lord our God for this union. Would the betrothed come forward to complete the union?

Father God Almighty, blessed is your name. Thank you for all you have provided us. We pray in your name that you help this couple in their journey. Guide Sister Mary Katherine as she commits herself to serve you and her husband. Bless them with many numbers. Anoint them with your love and grace. Amen.

Lindsey gasped and jumped from her chair, sending the seat careening back against the floor.

“Lindsey? Honey? Are you okay?” Nancy stood and placed a hand on Lindsey’s arm. Through the haze of unwanted memories, Lindsey saw Nancy’s eyes, her brows scrunched in worry.

The back door opened and Ryan and Alex flew through it nearly side by side.

“Lin, babe?
¿Qué pasó?
What happened?”

“We could feel your terror from across the yard.”

“I remembered something.” Her whole body shook. Alex and Ryan each took an arm and led her to the living room. All three sat on a sofa.

“What?” Ryan gazed into her eyes.

“When I was in my early teens, maybe just twelve, there was a wedding. Oh, man. I didn’t know any different. I didn’t realize it was all wrong. Off. Not normal.”

“What happened,
cariña
?” Alex ran his palm up and down her shivering arm.

“They must marry their women off at precisely twenty-two years old. That’s what I saw. I’ve been to several of these ceremonies in fact. As a child. They aren’t really ceremonies actually, not in the traditional sense. More of an announcement during the service. I remember one particular girl’s face like it was yesterday. Why didn’t I think of this earlier?” Lindsey scrunched her eyes closed and buried herself in the memory, trying to piece together her thoughts.

“It wasn’t her name. I didn’t usually pay close attention during meetings. I was a kid. But that day I looked up when they called her forward … because I knew her name was Christa. They’d called her Sister Mary Katherine and I thought that was strange. Why would they do that?”

She took a deep breath, squeezed her eyes tighter and continued. “I watched in shock as they quickly married her with a simple prayer to a man twice her age. She looked horrified and turned toward the congregation, pleading for help with her eyes as he led her out of the church. I was probably the only one who even knew that since I had turned around to watch her exit through the back, much to my grandmother’s dismay. ‘Eyes forward, child. Never look back,’ she said.

“Shit. That must be what they meant when they said my grandmother had made arrangements for me. They want to force me into an arranged marriage.”

Lindsey bolted from the seat and started pacing. Her heart raced with the unwanted enlightenment. Sweat beaded on her forehead even though it was a cool morning, and her skin was covered with incongruent goose bumps.

Ryan and Alex were at her side in seconds. Wrapped in their embrace, they led her down the hall back to Ryan’s room. “Deep breaths, hon. We’re here. Nothing is going to happen to you. We promise.” Even Ryan’s consoling words would not calm her nerves as they sat together on the bed.

“What if they don’t give up?”

“They will. You’ll be twenty-two on Tuesday, right? Maybe after that, it’ll be too late.” Alex sounded more confident than Lindsey felt.

These rock-solid men/wolves who seemed to have landed at her doorstep by coincidence, may very well have saved her from a life of hell.

Thank God.

The next time Lindsey awoke, she was not alone. Alex lay alongside her, his hair tussled about his face, a lock laying over one eye. She thought he could be a cover model if he’d just hold still for a moment so she could get a camera.

She smiled up at him. “You didn’t leave me alone.”

“Never.”

“Where’s Ryan?”

“Talking to his parents.”

“About?”

“Making sure you’re safe,
mi amor
.”

He kissed her chastely on the lips and drew her into a hug. “Feel better?”

“Much. Sorry I wigged out,” she said against his bare chest. Even groggy and still carrying the edge of fear in her system, she wanted him. He smelled of the slight sheen of sweat he must have worked up earlier, his own personal musk, enticing her to curl around him and beg him to enter her again. Would she ever feel quite safe even with these men wrapped around and inside her? Could she at least forget the fear at those times, if only for a while? When would Pastor Stone give up and leave her alone?

“Relax your brain,
mi alma
. Your thoughts are giving even me a headache.” He chuckled lightly. “We are here. We won’t let anything happen to you, ever. And just think of your luck. You have two of us. We can tag team and make sure you aren’t alone a single minute if need be.”

Her shoulders sagged, and she tried to relax her grip on Alex’s biceps.

“Our queen has awoken,” Ryan announced as he came through the door.

In retrospect, she’d felt his presence even as he walked down the hall. Knew instinctively he was near before he came into the room.

“Hungry? It’s almost noon. You haven’t eaten.”

“Damn, I never even got a sip of my coffee. No wonder I’m out of sorts.” She sat up and tried to smile.

Unwelcome tears pooled in her eyes as she glanced from one sexy hunk to the other. “How did I get so lucky?”

“Ah, but we have you fooled. Perfect.” Ryan rubbed his hands together in a mock gesture to solidify their game plan.

“Could I be in love with you two fools after such a short time?”

“Sure,” Ryan inched forward like a predator stalking his target. “What’s not to love?”

The tears broke forth and streamed down her face. There was no doubt. It may have only been a few days, but these men were under her skin and in her soul to stay.

“I love you,
cariña
. With all my soul,” Alex said, his face sobered to complete seriousness as Ryan climbed up on the bed.

“And I love you with all my heart,” Ryan added as he took her into his embrace.

Squeezed between the two sexiest men in the world, Lindsey’s heart tightened. There was no doubt, she’d love them for the rest of her life.

“It’s been two weeks, don’t you think it’s safe enough to go by the apartment and at least get my stuff?” Lindsey turned to Ryan from the counter where she’d been making sandwiches for lunch.

“Probably. But why don’t you let Alex or I just go for you?” He came up beside her and tucked a lock of hair behind her ear.

“It’s my home. I lived there for four years. I need … to say goodbye.”

“To the apartment?” Ryan grinned and furrowed his brow. He didn’t get it.

“Sentimental thing and all. Charles and Michael have been driving by every day. They haven’t seen anyone or anything suspicious since the day after I turned twenty-two. Surely, we can at least go there for a few hours.”

They’d been staying at Ryan’s parent’s house for fourteen days now. She was used to it by now, having so many people around. Everyone knowing her business.