That sounded like Gabe, always taking care of everyone. Although Marc wouldn’t be fooled into thinking his younger littermate wasn’t a bit curious about her too. He didn’t come on to the bitches as hard as Stone did, but his smooth, mothering attitude, landed him as much pussy as his twin brother.
“I’m sure you did.” He knew he should have been more appreciative. But damn it if he didn’t wish it had been him in that bar.
Gabe had chuckled. “I’m not sure she liked hearing that she was mated to you for life.”
That had pissed Marc off. “Where the hell would she get an idea like that?”
“She asked me if werewolves changed into werewolves when they fucked each other.” Now Gabe was laughing. “I didn’t know how to take her question at first.”
“You told her that she and I were mated?” He could only guess how Heather would have reacted to that conversation. And nothing he imagined sat well with him.
“I explained how our laws work. She’s a human. If you tried to mate with her, I mean, seriously mate with her, well, Marc…” Gabe had paused.
Tiny little hairs tickled the back of Marc’s neck and then spread down his spine. Every muscle in his body hardened and he fought to keep his temper at bay. It bugged him that Heather had asked Gabe questions about mating, and not him. Sharing his feelings had never been easy, but this was a personal conversation. Why the hell had Heather sought out his brother, someone she barely knew, and asked him things that were none of Gabe’s business?
“I just never would have guessed that you’d go and mate with a human,” Gabe had finally said.
Marc growled, pushing “enter” to send the form he’d finally finished to the printer. Damn paperwork. His conversation with Gabe had left him antsy, itching to get the fuck out of here—find Heather.
By the time he left the police department, a half moon sat high in the sky. City lights made it impossible to see the stars but the cold night air washed through his senses. He hurried to his car, anxious to get over to Heather’s and talk to her.
Taking her for a mate had been on his mind—a lot. But this wasn’t how he would have addressed the matter. The standing between werewolves and humans was so shaky right now. If her job was on the line he had a feeling she would run from him before she would run to him. He knew how much being a reporter mattered to her.
Heather wasn’t at her apartment. He even made sure when her car wasn’t there by knocking on her door anyway. Her scent was nowhere around the building. Remembering that she’d gone to his house before and waited for him, he hurried home. But his place was dark and quiet.
“Well, fucking hell.” Instead of stopping at his place, he continued down the dark country road.
His brothers’ den was just down Wright Creek Road, and he pulled into their drive while punching in the numbers to Heather’s cell phone.
She didn’t answer.
This wasn’t good.
Marc didn’t bother to knock, but entered the den he’d first lived in when moving out here with his littermates from the Canadian Rockies. Stone lay on the couch and lazily looked up at him when Marc entered. The smell of burgers grilling filtered from the kitchen.
“What did you do to that girl?” Stone asked, giving him a look as if Marc had just royally fucked something up.
“What the hell are you talking about? Where’s Heather?” He wasn’t in the mood for his brother’s righteous behavior.
Stone obviously smelled Marc’s anger and frustration because he straightened, rubbing his eyes and then giving Marc the once-over.
Gabe strolled in from the kitchen. “You can’t find her?”
Marc’s littermates watched him, but he didn’t answer, and ignored the two of them as he began pacing the living room. She should have at least answered her phone. The urge to sniff her out consumed his thoughts. Something was up with his little bitch, and he knew what happened in the bar, and then her conversation with Gabe, had everything to do with it.
“None of this would have happened if you’d just kept your jaw shut,” he hissed at Gabe, needing to burn off some pent-up anger.
His muscles bulged, stretching the material of his shirt. The urge to change, take his aggravation out on his littermates and then run through the night until he’d found Heather, sounded real damn good.
“You shouldn’t have changed while fucking her,” Gabe countered.
Stone watched the two warily from the couch, looking like he would pounce into action if the two of them took each other on.
“What I do with my personal life is none of your fucking business.”
“Well, your bitch made it my business. I didn’t ask the questions, she did.”
Marc took a quick step toward Gabe, anger creating a spicy smell around him. Stone stood and moved slowly to stand next to his twin. Marc glared at the twins, so incredibly similar in appearance that they’d fooled many throughout their life. But to Marc, they were both so very different.
“Stay out of this, Stone,” he growled.
“We’ll find her, Marc.” Stone wasn’t usually the peacemaker. “But I don’t want my meat burnt, and Gabe is fixing food. We’ll kick your ass on a full tummy, unless you’d rather spend the time figuring out where your bitch is.”
Marc moved quickly, grabbing Stone by the neck before either twin could react. Stone gave him a hard stare, not backing down, or fighting back. Gabe didn’t move either, the three of them simply staring at each other for a moment.
Marc shoved Stone backwards, knowing taking out his aggravation on the two of them would accomplish nothing. He turned his back on them, fighting to calm his heated senses, and ran his hand through his hair.
“Tell me again exactly what happened between you two,” he said finally, turning around and fisting his hands against his hips while staring at Gabe.
“Did you fuck her?” Stone asked, once again his usual ornery self.
“Hell no.” Gabe scowled at his brother, and then shook his head at Marc. “You know damn good and well I wouldn’t do that without your permission, Marc.”
“No one has fucked anyone.” Marc raised his hand. The last thing he needed was to picture her fucking anyone else right now. He just wanted to find her.
He had no doubts that Gabe never touched Heather. Her scent wasn’t on him. Besides, his brother spoke the truth. Marc knew that not even Stone would touch either of his littermates’ bitches without their permission. He knew that line of respect ran deep through all of them.
“She was upset, Marc.” Gabe turned, heading back into the kitchen. “I could smell how frustrated that pudgy human made her feel.”
All three brothers ended up in the kitchen, watching while Gabe stabbed at some potatoes baking in the oven. They headed out back to the grill, and Marc stared at the half dozen burgers on the grill. He grabbed the plate waiting for them, and began pulling them off the fire.
“I was simply prepared to walk her to her car since she was unescorted.” Gabe crossed his arms over his chest, defending his actions.
“As any of us would do,” Stone spoke up, showing his more compassionate side that very few ever saw other than his brothers.
They headed back into the kitchen, and Stone changed slightly, allowing his fingers to grow long, deadly claws. He stabbed at each potato, and shook each of them off onto a plate.
“But somehow you started talking about sex,” Marc prompted.
He was beginning to think that the issue of her and him being mated might have upset her more than her job.
Maybe she didn’t think her work was in jeopardy. Hell, he hadn’t been there. And again he cursed silently the fact that she’d endured such an emotional scene without him. Something told him though that wherever she was, she was upset enough not to answer her phone. That pissed him off more than anything. Heather should be running to him if she were upset, not running away from him.
“She brought it up.” Gabe already had his mouth full of meat. He swallowed, and then pulled open the refrigerator door, pulling out a few cold bottles of beer. “I guess you must have freaked her out or something. She asked about you changing while you were fucking her.”
“I can imagine that would be a bit much for a human bitch to handle.” Stone spoke with his mouth full and then washed it down with a couple of loud gulps of beer. He burped loudly, wiped his mouth with his hand, and then grabbed another burger. “I know you think you’re more werewolf than most, big brother. But damn, sounds like you bit off more than you can chew with that little human.”
Marc scowled at Stone. His younger brother looked at him with a slightly amused glint in his eye, and dug into another burger. As many times as he’d kicked his younger littermate’s ass growing up, he’d think Stone would have a little respect. But after all of these years, it was clear that Marc would never be able to intimidate either of them. Right now though, he needed them. And both Gabe and Stone knew that. Just as he would do for them, the two of them were here for him, and would do whatever it took to help find Heather, no matter if they approved or not. He saw that they accepted her to be his bitch.
“She might have freaked thinking she was stuck with you now. I told her mating was for life.” Gabe wasn’t teasing. His tone was serious and he met his brother’s stare looking concerned. “I told her she could challenge the law if she wanted, since she was human.”
“No law is going to be challenged.” And he wasn’t going to lose Heather.
No matter where she was, he couldn’t get his mind to accept the fact that she was hiding from him. Something else was up. And he was going to find out.
Stone gulped down the rest of his beer. “In that case, I say we go find her.”
If there was one thing he knew it was that his littermates would back him in any decision he made. And without him voicing it, they both already knew what that decision was.
“Yup. And take your cell phones. The first one who finds her better call me immediately.” Marc was already stripping out of his clothes.
He tied his shirt in a knot around his phone, and then headed for the back door. He had already driven through town and not seen her, which meant she must be at someone’s house. He didn’t know her friends, had no clue where any of them lived. But there was one place he could check, and he would head over there in his fur.
Chapter Seventeen
It took a minute for Heather to realize where she was. The sound of a child crying in the other room confused her. And she had to be still asleep because the sounds were more like an infant crying and a puppy whining, all mixed into one. It would make sense after her dreams of Marc, and werewolves, all night long that she would hear a puppy whining when in truth it was actually a baby.
Then she sat up, immediately feeling how stiff she was, and realized she slept on a couch. She’d fallen asleep at the pack leader’s house, and obviously, from the blanket that covered her, they had done their best to make her comfortable.
And the noises she heard were a mixture of a baby crying, and puppy whining. Samantha strolled down the hallway, her hair messed up, wearing an oversized nightshirt. Her baby was at her breast, his long white tail sticking out of his tiny outfit.
“Sorry we woke you,” she said quietly. “He’s in a foul mood until he’s fed.”
Heather smiled, running her fingers through her hair. “I can’t believe I fell asleep last night. You were kind to let me stay here.”
“You were really upset, and understandably so. Our ways are different from yours. We figured with all the information we discussed, your mind might be a bit on overdrive.” Samantha disappeared into the kitchen.
Everything from the night before came back to her in a rush.
After arguing with her boss for over an hour until her cell phone had died, she knew she wouldn’t be able to sleep without some honest answers. And in the state of mind she’d been in, there was no way she could confront Marc with all of her questions. Obviously, he’d already decided how things were going to be.
Heather didn’t have any really good werewolf friends, but she knew Samantha was the queen bitch, and that meant that she handled issues with the women in their pack. Well, Heather wasn’t part of their pack, at least she was pretty sure she wasn’t. But she needed answers, and so nervously had asked to come over.
Samantha had been so friendly, quickly encouraging Heather to stop by. Her mate had left them alone, but Heather was pretty sure that wherever he’d been in the house, he had easily overheard everything that they’d discussed.
Heather stood and folded the blanket she’d slept with and put it at the end of the couch, and then headed to the kitchen.
“Coffee?” Samantha asked, turning to smile at her.
She had her baby in a portable bouncy seat propped up on the kitchen table. At the moment he seemed content chewing on a rubber baby toy.
“I’d love some. It is too weird waking up and not having to hurry to get to work.” Heather felt the knot that had been in her gut the entire previous evening quickly harden again. “I really should head home though.”
“That isn’t right about your job.” Samantha spoke with enough conviction that Heather knew she was still upset about hearing that Heather had been fired. “I saw yesterday’s paper, that was an excellent article you wrote. Werewolves and humans working together in a tragic situation. It should help all of us make headway. And you have to go and get fired over it.”