Wolves' Bite [PUP Squad Alpha 6] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) (3 page)

But then they might never have learned how sad their mate was without them.

* * * *

Adam could see the disappointment written on Kristen’s face. Only yesterday she’d told him how much she preferred to have a kitchen that was so well appointed. He felt like a bit of an ass for suggesting they move on before it was technically necessary, but he longed to go to Jennifer, and he worried that he might do something stupid like abandon his mission and seek out his mate.

At least if they moved out of range of the mating dreams, he’d have a better chance at focusing. He had every intention of discussing their options as soon as this mission was over, but for now it seemed safer for all involved if he didn’t have contact—dream or otherwise—with a woman he missed so desperately.

Kristen gave Adam a disappointed smile, but didn’t complain out loud.

“We should be all right here for a few more days,” Angus said with a puzzled frown. “And besides, I don’t think Thomas has quite recovered from the last road trip.”

Thomas raised a disdainful eyebrow, but refused to comment. It was well known among the PUP Squad Alpha members that Thomas hated to travel in modern transport. Anything that went faster than a horse left the werewolf looking a very sickly green color.

“It was just a thought,” Adam said, backing down. Kristen was safer here than on the road. Angus had rigged up a portable ward protection field so they weren’t going to get any attackers entering the rooms by slip, bounce, or vortex travel. It was their job to put Kristen’s safety first, and despite his own intense longing for his mate, he needed to do his job properly. He’d find a way to balance everything. He had to.

He’d never lost anyone on his watch, and he intended to keep things that way.

* * * *

“Wow, you look like shit.”

“Thanks,” Jennifer said with a wry grin. The receptionist, Andie, smiled widely, grabbed hers and Jennifer’s coffee cups, and headed into the kitchen. “So, did you, like, have a great night out or something?” she asked over her shoulder.

“No, just didn’t get much sleep.”

“Oh, like that, was it?” she asked, poking her head out of the kitchen and wiggling her eyebrows.

“Sadly, no,” Jennifer said with a quiet laugh.

There were days when Andie made Jennifer feel impossibly old, but at least she was a pleasant person to work with. Considering the last dour-faced receptionist they’d had, Andie was a breath of fresh air—a bouncy, enthusiastic, annoyingly cheerful, nineteen-year-old breath of fresh air—but still a definite improvement on the last receptionist.

Jennifer sat at her desk waiting for her computer to boot up and tried not to think of the nightmare she’d had last night. She’d had the recurring dream almost every night since it had actually happened nearly five months ago. Over time it had morphed into different variations. Some nights Skye died. Other nights it was Adam or Thomas. Occasionally it was all three.

She hadn’t been able to talk to anyone about it because officially none of it ever happened. Her sister had merely left town with the man of her dreams and was living a wonderful life. Jennifer couldn’t tell anyone that Skye was now a vampire or that she lived and worked with her two vampire husbands who just happened to be elite members of a Paranormal Undercover Protection squad. And Jennifer certainly couldn’t tell anyone she was pining away for a couple of werewolves who were at least three times her age and liable to outlive her by several hundred years.

Jennifer rubbed her eyes tiredly and tried not to think about last night’s change in her dream. It had almost felt like Adam and Thomas were really there—guiding her, protecting her, caring for her. The irony was that their unexpected inclusion as observers had disturbed her more than her usual gory nightmare.

She should probably have mentioned the nightmares to her sister, but Skye was so happy with her men that Jennifer was loath to disrupt it with her petty concerns. And besides, maybe last night was a turning point. Maybe it was her brain’s idea of a signal that she should move on from the nightmare and get back to living.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” Andie asked as she put a steaming cup of coffee in front of Jennifer.

“I’m fine,” she replied, very much hoping it was true.

* * * *

Thomas glanced at the clock and wondered how to casually suggest that he could do a double shift. Jennifer would most likely be asleep by now, and the last thing he wanted was to join her in her dreams. Of course, it was also the first thing he wanted, but he didn’t think it would do his sanity any good. They needed to get this assignment wrapped up first.

“Kristen?” he asked as the woman came into the main space of the holiday apartment, “do you know who the traitor is?”

“The what?” she asked with a stunned expression on her face.

“I’m sorry,” he said quickly when Dyson looked angry enough to fry his ass. “It’s just that the other women the squad is protecting, the ones who share your birthday, all seem to have a skill they describe as ‘knowing’ stuff they have no memory of learning.”

Kristen shook her head, but pursed her lips a moment in thought. “How would they know stuff they haven’t been taught?”

“We’re not sure,” Dyson said, sending a glare in Thomas’s direction that suggested he was very close to being flambéed, “but we suspect it’s something the Oracle passed on before she died. It’s not important now. Thomas shouldn’t have brought it up.”

Kristen gave Thomas a hard stare before turning her attention to Dyson. “Thomas wouldn’t have brought it up if it wasn’t important. Do all of the others have this skill?”

It was obvious that Dyson didn’t want to answer that question, but after a moment of uncharacteristic indecision he finally nodded.

“Do they have any other skills?” Kristen asked, her gaze bouncing between the two men.

“Yes,” Thomas eventually replied. He really hoped Dyson held on to his temper for just a little bit longer. “Kali and Ava are telekinetic. I believe Hannah was, too.”

“Hannah
was
?” Kristen asked, sounding frightened. This time Dyson really did lose his temper. Fortunately he kept his reaction “human” and only punched Thomas in the nose. Strangely, Thomas saw the hit coming but didn’t bother to get out of the way. Dyson almost looked surprised when his knuckles connected with Thomas’s face, but of course that split second gave Thomas a chance to hit back. It felt surprisingly good to be able to work off some of the endless tension they’d all been feeling. If he’d been fighting another shifter, he would have changed into his wolf and really gone at it, but he at least stayed focused enough not to do something like that in front of Kristen.

“Enough already,” Angus said as he broke them apart. “You’re scaring Kristen.” He turned to the woman who looked more concerned than scared. “Sorry, sweetheart, it’s been a long few weeks. Obviously these knuckleheads need a break.” He turned his attention to Thomas. “Or they need to
cool
down.”

Thomas nodded, slowly raising his hands in a human show of surrender. He’d only been on the receiving end of one of Angus’s ice blasts before. It had not been a pleasant experience.

“We’ve got this,” Dyson said in a clear indication that they were dismissed. Technically Thomas was the senior agent in this group of four, but Adam simply nodded in agreement and indicated for Thomas to follow him out the door.

“You know what will happen once we fall asleep,” Thomas said with a growl in his voice. “Just this morning you were the one suggesting we move on.”

“I know,” Adam said, looking far calmer than he should have. “But I’ve been giving it some thought. I want to know her better. A part of me wants to run to her doorstep and claim her right now, but we can’t. We have a mission to complete. At least by being close enough to have the mating dreams, we can spend some time with her.”

“She won’t know it’s us. She’ll just think she’s dreaming.”

“Probably,” Adam said with a shrug. He stopped at the door to his room. “The way I see it we can either lose sleep trying to avoid Jennifer and put our mission to protect Kristen in jeopardy, or we can spend the time getting to know our mate and still get a good night’s sleep at the same time.” He shook his head, a half smile on his lips. “Whatever you decide, you know where I’ll be.”

* * * *

Jennifer stayed up longer than usual just to prove to herself that she knew that her dreams weren’t real. But when she could no longer keep her eyes open, she reluctantly dragged herself off the sofa and fell into bed. With a bit of luck she’d be so tired that the dreams wouldn’t come at all.

She curled under the covers, dragging her knees up, rolling herself into a defensive little ball. She literally hadn’t been this frightened of going to sleep since the nightmares had first started. But every inch of her body began to ache, and she tried to relax, tried to unclench all of her muscles, tried to take a deep breath and convince herself that dreams couldn’t hurt her.

Slowly, exhaustion wound through her once more and she fell into a restless doze, tossing and turning several times before finally slipping into deep REM sleep.

They were there almost immediately, their warm hands and reassuring hugs making her wonder why she denied herself this comfort in the first place.

“We were beginning to worry,” Adam said before pressing his lips to hers.

“Sorry,” she whispered, not entirely sure why she was apologizing to a figment of her imagination, but then Thomas snagged her wrist and dragged her into his embrace.

“Did you have a good day?” he asked in between soft kisses.

“Same old, same old,” she said candidly. At least by knowing she was imagining all of this she could be completely honest. A part of her even wondered if it was her mind giving her an outlet for her frustrations. Locked inside the safety of her own imaginary world, she had a chance to sort through stuff that she couldn’t say out loud. Maybe dreaming about the two men who made her feel safe was a healthy way of learning to cope with everything else.

Hell, considering that they were already here, it was worth a try.

“I used to be happy here. My job can be repetitive, but it’s necessary to keep the resort afloat and it keeps me really busy. By the end of the day I used to feel like I’d achieved something. Juggling priorities, paying bills, keeping things flowing—it all used to mean something.”

“But it doesn’t anymore?” Adam asked, touching her face with the back of his knuckles.

“Not really. Not anymore.” She shook her head as tears filled her vision. “I mean, I used to feel like I was working toward something, building a home, building a life.” She hesitated, embarrassed to say it out loud even though a part of her still understood that she was essentially talking to herself. “I…I feel like I missed my chance. Like the future I was planning somehow passed me by.” She closed her eyes as the tears leaked down her cheeks. “I feel like I got left behind.”

Thomas glanced at Adam’s face and saw his determination to do right by their mate. It was obvious that he intended to claim her as soon as this assignment was done. If Thomas didn’t make the right decision, there was a very real possibility that
he
would be the one left behind this time.

Surprised at how much the thought affected him, Thomas held Jennifer closer, comforting the woman crying in his arms even as he made plans in his own mind.

He wasn’t ready to retire from the PUP squad, and he suspected that despite his earlier words that Adam wasn’t really ready either—not completely. They both enjoyed the work too much, but maybe, like many of their squadmates had found recently, they could find a compromise that would make working possible while still having a private life.

“Babe,” Thomas said, “you haven’t been left behind. We’re coming—”

But she cut off his words with a hand over his mouth. “Don’t make me any promises. Please just hold me, for now.”

Willing to give her anything at that moment, Thomas tucked her head under his chin and closed his eyes. And suddenly he could see the future he truly wanted, one that involved a couple of children and a happily ever after. He’d never really given any thought to married life. Finding one’s mate was quite rare so he’d always just assumed that he’d choose not to have those things in his life. But now, with the woman in his arms, it not only seemed possible, but also something he truly wanted.

He heard Adam’s soft laugh a moment before he realized he was once again naked inside Jennifer’s mind. He tried to remind himself of all the reasons it wasn’t a good idea to follow through on what they all wanted, but then Jennifer lifted her lips to his, and all sensible thought was lost.

He groaned at the delicious feeling of having his woman warm and naked in his arms. He took control of the kiss, pushing his tongue into her mouth, exploring the dark cavern as his hands roamed over her naked spine.

She wriggled closer, her breath catching when Adam did something that lifted her onto her toes. She broke the kiss, gasping as Adam picked her up and thrust his cock straight into her pussy. Adam held still for a moment, holding her close, letting her body adjust, and pressed a lingering kiss to her neck, before pushing her forward and fucking her hard and fast.