Rebecca's Wolves (Wolf Masters Book 6) (28 page)

“Pardon?” Miles asked.

“The first was a long-range photo taken of the three of us on your patio the day I sat on your lap wearing a sheet. This one.” She tugged at the current toga she wore.

“Fuck.” Miles released her hand and ran it through his hair.

“And then there was a second one. It was a simple message threatening my boss to let me go because I was a whore.” Her voice fell as she said that last word.

“Please tell me you’re mistaken,” Griffen gritted out.

“Wish I could.” She shook her head and braced for the storm.

“Fuck,” Miles repeated. “What exactly did it say?”

She cringed and then mumbled, “‘Fire the whore or suffer the consequences.’”

Miles jumped up from his seat, so forcefully it fell over backward. “Rebecca… Love…” He paced behind her, and she didn’t turn around for the longest time.

He was mad. At her, yes. And at the situation. She couldn’t really blame him. If either of them had received threats and didn’t tell her, she’d pitch a shit fit.

Suddenly she jerked her head up and grabbed Griffen’s arm. “Have either of you been receiving similar threats?”

“No, baby.”

She narrowed her gaze. “You would tell me.”

“No. Not a chance in hell,” Miles said from behind her, “but the answer is still
no
.”

She wanted to scream at him for how irrational he was being. She released her grasp on Griffen and jumped from her seat. “So this truth thing,” she waved a hand back and forth between the three of them, “it only goes one way?”

Her blood boiled.

“Exactly.” Miles set his hands on his hips, his damn sexy hips that held up his fucking hot jeans, barely.

She stepped back. “That’s fucked, Miles.”

“It’s reality, love.”

She couldn’t believe he could be so blatantly nonchalant about lying to her.

“Miles, calm down,” Griffen said in a low steady voice. “This isn’t helping.”

“Somebody has been threatening our mate, she chose not to tell us, and you want me to fucking calm down?”

“Yes.” Griffen stood also.

Rebecca stared at Miles. His chest rose and fell at a rapid pace. His face was red with anger, directed halfway at her, and he was currently behaving like a world-class asshole.

She held on tight to the sheet and stomped from the room, mumbling as she went. “And this is why I didn’t want to tell you.”

Rebecca crawled back into the bed she’d slept in an hour ago with her men—mates. She wrapped the comforter around her and buried her face in the pillow, trying to calm down.

She didn’t have any other option. It wasn’t like she could leave—just walk out the door. She would need to look for clothes first to do that, which would mean facing Griffen and Miles and possibly interacting with them.

She couldn’t walk out the door wearing a toga because that hadn’t panned out well for her the last time she’d done it.

She didn’t have a car. Hell, she hadn’t had a car since she met them.

And on top of everything else, she didn’t trust there wasn’t someone or something out there waiting for her to wander away so it or he or she could cut her up into small pieces and feed her to the fucking—
wolves
. Surely there were plenty of wild wolves roaming the mountains that were not shifters.

Right?

She shivered and burrowed deeper.

She could hear them arguing. The front door slammed.

She held her breath, waiting for the truck to start. It did not.

Of course.

They might be mad, but they wouldn’t leave her.

No fucking way.

Never.

More arguing. Muted. This time outside. She could hear Miles’ voice louder. Most likely Griffen was the calmer one, trying to talk sense into her other mate. She needed to remember that in the future. Miles could be hot under the collar.

She wasn’t particularly shocked by their reactions. She knew they would be mad. Mad enough to let her wallow alone in the bedroom? Not really. But she’d been mentally prepared for just about anything.

Nevertheless, it made her heart ache they couldn’t just listen to her and be reasonable. She was their equal, not some little girl who needed to be coddled and treated with kid gloves. Right?

God, she hoped they saw it that way. If they didn’t…

Well, if they didn’t see her as equal, this would never work.

Half an hour went by while she waited, tears forming and then falling. She didn’t want to cry, but she couldn’t help it.

Damn them.

They needed to get over themselves. And fast.

Eventually, thinking she was really in trouble, she pulled from the bed and dragged herself to the shower. She turned on the hot water, and as soon as it heated to a temperature she could endure, she stepped under the spray and let it wash down her face.

Her hair hung long and loose, adhering to her back and butt like glue.

And she cried. For everything. For herself. For this fucked-up situation. For the race she wouldn’t be competing in. For the job that was now precarious at best. A job she loved.

For the men behaving like assholes she was stuck with for eternity.

It hurt. Deep.

She grabbed the shampoo and washed her hair. She applied conditioner next and let it sit while she washed her body.

She stood under the spray until the water grew cold and she was shivering.

Finally, the shower door opened and someone flipped off the water.

Miles.

He didn’t say a word as he led her from the shower and wrapped her shaking body in a towel.

Long clusters of her hair clung to her back as he picked her up and carried her to the bedroom. He set her on the edge of the bed, dried her as well as he could, and then grabbed the comforter to tuck around her still-shivering body.

She was spent. Exhausted. She didn’t meet his gaze.

She didn’t know when Griffen came in the room, but he sat beside her.

Miles kneeled in front of her. “I’m sorry, love.”

She trembled, tucking her lips under her teeth.

“That was completely uncalled for. Please forgive me.”

She lifted her face a few inches to meet his gaze. “I’m not a child.”

“I know that, love.” His voice was tender.

Griffen stroked her back through the comforter. “I’m sorry too, baby.”

Miles opened his mouth. “I can’t explain the feelings I have for you.” His words were strained. It was hard for him to say this. He set a fist on his chest. “It’s like one minute I was just me. And I was fine that way. Happy. And the next minute, it was no longer me alone. It was you. And Griffen. It was instantaneous. I knew I was in love with you in less than an hour. It shocked me. It still does.”

Griffen’s hand stilled.

Rebecca didn’t think she was breathing.

He continued. “You’re my world. Both of you. And maybe it doesn’t work quite the same for you because you aren’t lupine, but I know you feel at least half of what we feel for you already. It will grow with time.”

It didn’t need to grow. It already was the same thing. That’s why it hurt so much for them to be so angry with her. If she didn’t care, it wouldn’t matter. She wouldn’t have this pain inside her chest that wouldn’t let up.

She didn’t say any of that because she couldn’t find her voice.

“Rebecca, I shouldn’t have gotten so angry. It was uncalled for. I have a temper. I’ll do my best to control it in the future. Can’t promise I won’t fuck up sometimes, but know that I love you at all times, and I’m man enough to apologize when I calm down. I was wrong.”

“You weren’t wrong,” she finally managed. “I should have told you.”

“You should have told us, baby,” Griffen added, “but only because we need to know what we’re up against so we can protect you. When Miles fell in love with you, he was already one day behind me. You’re in our blood, so to speak. It’s a deep, deep bond that can’t be broken.”

She swallowed. She didn’t have more tears. After last night and this morning, she was spent. So, she addressed the unaddressed. “You can’t keep me locked in the house.”

“Not even with the ropes you suggested?” Miles teased.

“Not even. I mean, you can use ropes if you want. I’m not opposed to that, but you can’t use them to keep me inside.”

His chuckle turned into a groan.

Good.

“I have to go to work. I have to run free outside. If you stifle that, you’ll kill me inside.” She held her hand over her chest. “And if you keep me from going anywhere, the bastard wins.”

That was the crux of the problem.

“I hear you, love.” Miles leaned in and closed the distance, setting his forehead against hers. “We’ll work it out. I promise.”

She nodded subtly against him. “You’re wrong, you know.”

“About what?”

“My feelings. They’re just as deep as yours. I may be human, but I feel as much love for the two of you as you do for me. Already. I might not have had the exact words to describe it as quickly as you did, but I knew in my heart I belonged to both of you.”

A grin spread across Miles’ face. And then he pounced.

His hands came up under her arms, and he slid her back on the bed to throw his entire weight over her.

The week started out uneventful. Rebecca held her breath most of the time, always diligent about her surroundings, glancing around her to make sure no one was following her, and then looking at the sky to make sure it wasn’t about to open up and drench her or shake her foundation.

She was convinced the god of weather, if there was such a thing, was toying with her. He or she did not want her to run in that race on Saturday.

She’d never been a superstitious person, but when slammed with that many signs, she had to admit defeat.

As soon as she announced she would not run in the race, the weird weather abated. She was able to go to the gym in the afternoons and work out unencumbered. They even had electricity. Monday afternoon she was leery about entering the gym, but once she managed to get on a treadmill and the electricity didn’t flicker and the building didn’t collapse, she relaxed, plugged in her music, and ran her heart out.

Griffen and Miles were not as calm. And truthfully, Rebecca’s concern for her surroundings was needless because both men had it covered in spades.

She had to grit her teeth and take deep breaths at the way they shuffled her from home to work to the gym and back. One or both of them was always at her side, even inside the gym. The only place they didn’t trail along behind her was inside the hospital. She was actually grateful for those eight hours without their scents surrounding her and making her crazy with lust.

Her arousal level was insane, and it wouldn’t let up. She kept thinking it would ease. Who had sex that many times a day and didn’t feel completely sated?

She woke up every morning to one or both of them stroking her, sucking on her, or already pressing into her.

She went to bed every night the same way, exhausted from so many orgasms, her mind mush, her body limp.

And still she craved more.

She was on mornings at the hospital this week, which meant someone woke her up with their hands or mouth before the sun rose. It also meant she could go straight from work to the gym before one of the guys had her once again in Griffen’s apartment flat on her back.

By Wednesday afternoon, she entered the condo beside Griffen, dropped her purse and gym bag by the door, and collapsed on the sofa on her back. She needed a shower, but she was too tired to move.

She held up a hand as Griffen grinned down at her, palm out. “Don’t touch me.”

His grin widened. “How about if I fill the bathtub, and you soak in it for a while? I’ll pour you a glass of wine.”

She narrowed her gaze. “Alone? I could use one evening off. I’m exhausted. The two of you have worn me out.”

“That could be arranged.”

Awesome. “You have a deal.”

She didn’t move. Griffen shuffled away from her. She could hear the water running, and then he padded into the kitchen and popped a cork.

All she did was close her eyes and listen.

The man hadn’t worked more than a few hours since she met him. Luckily his family could do fine without him during the brief summer months. There were enough of them to handle the hiking tours and cover for him. If they had met during ski season, the situation would have been far different.

They had sort of a routine now. Griffen did most of the escorting and cooking and cleaning, and Miles drove the long distance to the reservation every morning to see patients. He grumbled about how unfair it was he didn’t get to spend as much time with her as Griffen, but it also couldn’t be helped.

They couldn’t keep up this pace forever, and all three of them were aware that changes had to be made soon.

For one thing, Griffen’s apartment wasn’t his own. His brother Trace had graciously agreed to stay with their parents for the near future, but not forever. And Zachary was chomping at the bit to take Griffen’s half of the lease. He was ready to move out of their parents’ house and get on his own.

Rebecca’s housing situation was the pits. She was now the owner of nothing but the clothes she salvaged from the fire. So, staying with Griffen was easy enough.

But the elephant in the room was always Miles. The commute was far. Forty-five minutes to his house and oftentimes farther to his patients’. None of them wanted to keep that up for long. On the one hand, he had the best home. He owned it free and clear, and he had lived alone when the three of them mated. On the other hand, it wasn’t large, not much bigger than Griffen’s condo. Eventually the three of them would bump elbows a few too many times a day in his small two-bedroom place.

It certainly didn’t matter for the near future since the three of them nearly always occupied the same four square feet of space, but she didn’t imagine this ridiculous sexual frenzy would last forever. In fact, the thought made her shiver, and she didn’t know if it was from the hope that it kept up the pace or allowed her an eventual reprieve.

Miles had a great-paying job he loved as a vet, and they needed him on the reservation far more than anyone did in Cambridge. Rebecca made good money as a nurse at the hospital too, but she realized it didn’t matter as much where she worked as long as she did for sanity’s sake.