Between Two Wolves (BBW Paranormal Shapeshifter Menage Werewolf Romance) (9 page)

I was cold, bone cold. I knew I was more
or less sitting on Jericho’s lap, that his arms were around me, but I couldn’t
feel anything. Not the warmth of his embrace, or the solid presence of him behind
me. It seemed like everything was growing colder around me, and I half expected
to see my breath. But it was still summer.

Colt’s muzzle brushed against my neck. He
whined again, a tentative sound.

“Do it…now, Colt.”

There was a blinding flash of pain. I
squeezed my eyes shut, trying to scream, succeeding only in making a muffled
groan. Then again, more pain, and Colt’s body pressing me back against Jericho.
What the hell were they doing to me? They were supposed to save me!

Heat flooded through me, intense, almost
unbearable. I could feel everything, arms, legs, fingers, toes…in a way that I
really didn’t like. It was like being dumped head first into one of the
steaming hot springs. I wanted out of my skin.

“Red? Hey…can you open your eyes? Look at
me.”

I forced my eyes open, looking up at Jericho.
“Yeah…okay.” The room was brighter now, things coming into focus. But there was
a roaring in my head that made his words garbled, indistinct.

“Can you hear me?”

I nodded. “Yeah…shhh…” His voice only
made the roaring louder. “I’m okay. Just don’t talk right now…”

“You’re not okay. But we need to get you
to our cabin. I’m going to pick you up now, okay?”

I really didn’t have a say in that
decision. I was lifted in the air, flying I thought, even though I knew that
was impossible. People didn’t fly. But then we were out in the forest, the cool
air a blessed relief against my feverish skin. Maybe I was dead, and an angel,
flying through the forest. I closed my eyes again, or they were still closed, I
wasn’t sure. I decided I’d completely lost it, and that taking that nap now
might be a good idea. I let go of reality, and let myself go someplace else,
someplace far away. The roaring faded, and everything went silent and black.

Everything was silent. The roaring in my
head was gone, replaced with a migraine. I could tell, without opening my eyes,
that it was light outside. But eyes closed were fine for right now.

I was in a bed, so that must mean I was
in Jericho and Colt’s cabin. Some snippet of conversation came back, something
about bringing me here, after…after what?

“Oh, geez…”

After Colt had killed Weatherly. After
Weatherly had tried to kill me. And come damned close. I reached up, touching
my neck. There was a bandage wrapped around my throat, a really big bandage.
Weatherly must have done quite a number with his knife. I let my hand fall back
onto the bed.

“Hey…you awake?”

I opened my eyes enough to look toward
the voice, toward Colt. He stood in the doorway, hair pulled back in a low ponytail.
I smiled.

“Yeah.” My voice came out a weak little
croak. “I’m awake.”

He crossed the room and sat on the bed.
“You’ve been out for a few days.” He took my hand, chafing my fingers in his.
“We’re glad you’re back with us.”

“Me too.” I tried to sit up, but my body
didn’t really want to cooperate.

“Here…you’re going to be weak for a
while.” Colt helped me sit up, propping pillows behind me. “Better?”

“Yeah. Better.” A wave of vertigo sent my
head spinning. I swallowed, my dry throat clicking. “Can I have some water?”

“Yeah. Okay. Here…” He poured a glass
from a pitcher on the bedside table. “Drink slow. Your throat’s probably a
little bruised.”

The water was cool, felt like heaven, but
he was right. It reminded me of having my tonsils out as a kid. All the ice
cream you want…except you can’t swallow it.

“What happened?” I handed him back the
glass.

“Hey, you’re awake.”

I looked past Colt at Jericho. He smiled,
crossed the room and sat on the other side of the bed. Same thing, took my
hand, held me as if I was made of fine china.

“She wants to know what happened.”

I wasn’t that out of it that I didn’t
catch the glance between the guys. There was a long moment of weighted silence.
Jericho finally blew out a sigh.

“Yeah. Okay. It’s complicated. I don’t
know what Weatherly told you…”

“He said a lot of stuff about you guys,
none of made much sense though. I got the feeling he thought you two had
something he wanted. And then…” The feel of the knife was back, the pressure,
the non-pain of the cut. “He wanted me, but then he didn’t.” I shrugged, at a
loss to really explain anything else. Colt nodded.

“Weatherly’s been after us for a long
time. We live here, on family land…Jericho’s family to be honest; the land
that’s not part of the park. I was raised on the other side of Black Wolf. The
mountain’s named after my clan. But shifters lead a very dangerous life, even
on land that’s pretty inaccessible. Weatherly’s from north of here. Long story
short, clan rivalry, clan betrayal. Jericho and I teamed up; Weatherly decided
he’d rather be the proverbial lone wolf, than join a clan that’s not his.”

“So he’s…
was
…a shifter too?” I was
relieved that I used the right term this time.

“Yeah. We’re all that’s left of three
different clans. I think being alone took a toll on Weatherly, sent him off the
deep end, into some dark place that he couldn’t get out of. There was some
really nasty stuff that happened in his clan, near the end. It wasn’t good,
from what we heard.”

“What happened to your families?” It hurt
to talk, but there were questions I wanted answers to. “You’re the last of your
clans?”

Jericho nodded “Yeah. We’re it. We
decided a long time ago that two against the world was better odds than going
it alone. This land…my clan’s land…has never been part of the park. It goes
back a long, long way in my family, further than even Colt’s claim to his
lands. The deed’s structured in a way that whoever occupies the cabin, as long
as they can prove they’re part of the family, owns the land. Someone was smart,
a long time ago.” He gave me a crooked smile. “Smarter than the average wolf, I
guess. Colt wasn’t so lucky though. Or Weatherly.”

“My family’s land ended up being taken
over by the state. Eminent domain. Turned Black Wolf into a park. I still think
of it as my land, even though it’s full of hikers and backpackers. Ruffles my
fur to see them, present company excluded.” He squeezed my hand and smiled at
me, and I squeezed back.

“Thanks for that. So he’s been after you
just because…”

“Because he could, because he’d gone round
the bend? Because he was jealous, wanted something he thought was better than
what he had? Who knows? Weatherly was just plain crazy, either from isolation
or because he drove himself there, on his own. The man was full of hate.” Colt
shifted on the bed so he was sitting beside me. I moved a little, sharing the
pillows. Jericho took the cue and sat on the other side. Sandwiched between
them, I felt safe and warm and less out of my body than I had. But something
was still off.

“So Weatherly tried to kill me, right?
With a knife?”

“Yeah,” Colt said. “We got there too
late…”

“And saying we’re sorry is never going to
make that better.” Jericho squeezed me, hard enough to almost pull me over. “We
messed up, big time. But we’ll never do that again.”

“You didn’t get there too late. You got
there in time, or I wouldn’t be here, right?” I touched my neck again. “You
saved me.”

From the silence between them, I knew
there was more to the story. Colt was the first to say anything.

“About that…you’re right…we saved you. It
wasn’t exactly what we’d planned, but it was the only way to save your life.”

Something inside of me clicked, words
that Weatherly had said coming back to me.

“He said he was going to bite me…bite me,
mark me, make me his.” It sounded like a demented chant. “What did he mean?”

“Red…” Colt coughed, started again. “Red,
to make someone who isn’t a shifter into one, we bite them. Bite them while
we’re shifted. It…does more than just make you one of us. It also can save
someone. Like you.”

“Save me? From Weatherly?”

“No. Save you from dying. Weatherly cut
your throat. You were bleeding to death when we got there. The only way to save
you was to change you.”

I twisted around, ignoring protests from
both of them. I faced Colt. “You bit me? In that shack?”

I’d never had anyone look at me like Colt
did. There was a hopelessness to that look, but there was something beneath
that, a stubbornness that said he’d do it again, given the chance. And a lift
to his chin that dared me to challenge what he’d done.

“You saved my life.” Not a question about
it. No challenge to his actions. His face relaxed, his smile returning. “I’m
one of you now. A shifter?”

“Yeah. I did. You are.”

I looked at Jericho. “I’m part of his
clan, right? Not yours. Does that change anything between us?”

Jericho shook his head, and chuckled. I
could see the look of surprise and relief on his face that of all possible
questions, that was my main one. “It doesn’t have to. I really don’t mind. I
just want to be with you…I don’t care about anything else.” He looked a little
confused. “You seem awfully calm for someone who’s just been told she’s been
bitten by, mated to, and turned into a shifter. Most people, from what I’ve
heard, tend to be a little more…agitated, maybe…with that much information.”

I sat for a minute, looking out the
window. I could see trees and what I thought was probably the top of Black
Wolf. It was nice, this room, this view. I could do worse.

“Red? You okay?”

I looked back at Colt and Jericho. The
guys I’d met yesterday, or the day before, or the day before that. I wasn’t
sure when, really. My head hurt, worse than any migraine I’d ever had. But I
knew they’d risked their life for me, and they’d taken it on faith that doing
what they did was the best thing for me. It seemed only logical that I take it
on faith that it was the right thing.

“If you haven’t figured it out by now,
I’m not like most girls.” That got a laugh from Colt, and a sound from Jericho
that just made me shake my head.

“Could be that I’m a writer. I’ve written
stuff that’s stranger than fiction. Although this is right up there with
strange. But I’ve thought about what other kinds of lives would be like.
Obviously I thought they were all fictitious, just stuff I made up. This is
like finding out the fairy tale is real.”

I sank back against the pillows.
Exhaustion swept through me like a summer breeze. I yawned, a rather inelegant
gesture, considering.

“I’m tired. Is that normal?”

Jericho slid out from beside me. “Yeah.
You did lose a lot of blood. And Colt’s bite was on the aggressive side.”

“Hey…I’ve never done this before. And it
wasn’t under ideal circumstances.” He sat up, easing me back onto the pillows.
I sank into them, breathing out a sigh. I could feel consciousness dissolving,
sleep taking over.

“Just rest, Red. We’ll be around,
checking on you. If you need anything, just let us know.”

“How will you hear me?” I closed my eyes.
Hands tucked the blankets around me, pulled the curtains, and doused the
bedside light.

“Red, we’re wolves. We can hear you
breathing.”

I smiled, imagining them sitting
somewhere close by in the dark, counting my breaths, my heartbeats. For others
it might seem creepy. But it put my mind and heart at ease, and I fell asleep
knowing I was safe.

There were noises…crashing...things
breaking. The scent of rotten wood, splinters in my fingers. Splinters in my
neck. Clawing to get them out…someone cutting them out with a knife. My Dad
used tweezers…when I was a kid…

Everything hurts…my neck…my body. I want Colt…Jericho…teeth.

I thought I was awake. Or that I was
dreaming.

I screamed. And again. And then fell into
something not really close to sleep, but further away from death than I had
been.

* * *

The next time I woke up—really woke
up—it was dark. Someone was sitting in the chair in the corner, snoring
softly.

“Jericho?”

“Hey…” He sat up, the chair creaking.
“How do you feel?”

“Tired. But better. Not so wiped out
though. My head is all fuzzy. I think I had a bad dream.”

“You mumbled a lot, screamed sometimes.
We’ve been taking turns sitting with you, to wake you up. But you were really
out of it.”

I nodded. Out of it was a pretty good
description.

“Are you hungry?”

I sat up, adjusting the pillows. Jericho
turned on the lamp beside his chair. There were dark circles under his eyes,
and I wondered how long he’d been sitting there, watching me sleep.

“No. I’m good. Maybe later. What time is
it?”

“Late…not far off dawn, I think. I lost
track of time. I do know you’ve been sleeping for the better part of
twenty-four hours.”

I stretched, easing the kinks out of my
shoulders and neck. “You know how you feel when you go to the movies in the
afternoon, and it’s dark when you come out? Kind of disoriented? I feel like
that.”

Jericho laughed, stood up and crossed the
room. “Yeah. It’s been a long time since I’ve been off the mountain, but I know
what you mean.”

“Can you get Colt? I want to talk to you
guys. Together.”

“Yeah, sure.”

I sat in the dim light, listening to Jericho
going downstairs, then outside, to his and Colt’s voices. I could hear them,
from up here. The guys came in, and then there were footsteps on the stairs,
louder as they came down the hall.

“Red. You okay?”

“I could hear you, hear almost everything
you said, even outside.”

Colt broke into a big grin. “See? You are
one of us now.”

I started shaking uncontrollably, my mind
spinning. “One of you? I thought…that was all true? I thought I dreamed all of
that…stuff about being bitten…being changed.”

Jericho sat on the edge of the bed. “It’s
true, all of it. Do you remember the rest of it? Weatherly…”

“Yeah. I remember him…the knife…blood…” I
touched my neck. There was a bandage…really just a big bandage, nothing like I
thought I remembered. There had been something bigger around my neck.

“And Colt biting you?”

I stared at Colt. “Yes…” Teeth…

“Yes. You bit me after Weatherly…”

“Tried to kill you. With a knife.” Jericho
said the words so carefully, as if saying them again would actually hurt me.
Tears welled up in my eyes.

“Yeah…he did. Then there was a lot of
crashing…”

“Colt broke down the door.”

…splinters…

“As a wolf. And you were there…” I
reached for Jericho’s hand. “But not as a wolf.”

“No. I didn’t shift, in case we needed to
get you back here. Which is what happened.”

“You killed Weatherly.”

Colt was still standing in the doorway. I
held out my hand and he crossed the room, dropping onto the bed beside me,
taking my hand.

“Yeah. I killed Weatherly.” His voice was
low, almost inaudible. “I’ve never killed anyone before.”

His hand trembled, and I squeezed back.
“Thank you. You saved my life.”

“He saved your life by biting you. By
making you one of us.”

I glanced at Jericho. “That’s the part
where I lost the thread. The part that I thought I dreamed. But that’s true?”

“It is. I bit you…it was the only way to
save you. You’d lost so much blood. We thought we were too late. It was the
only thing we could do. You can’t know how hard it was…knowing that you didn’t
have a chance to decide yourself. That we decided your fate.”

“But you saved my life. I can’t be angry
over that. I can be confused—and I am—but I can’t be angry.”

Colt squeezed my hand, then slid his arm
around me, pulling me against his chest. “You’re one of us now. Part of the
clan.”

I let him hold me. Jericho rubbed the
spot between my shoulders, and we stayed like that, all wrapped up in each
other, until my mind started coming up with more questions. I pushed away from Colt.

“And I’m part of Colt’s clan, right? I
remember asking you this already, but I feel like I need to make sure that I
understand.”

Colt nodded. “Yes, that’s right.”

I turned to Jericho. “And you’re sure
we’re okay?” Just days ago these two men were complete strangers, and now it
felt as though they were the most important people in my life. The thought of
being away from them made me panic.

Jericho nodded, his lips curved into a
bright smile. “You’re a shifter, a wolf…right now that’s all that matters. Your
blood line isn’t pure anyway, since you were created, not born to this.” He
shrugged. “Frankly, the least of my worries is if Colt bit you or I did. The
only thing I…and he…care about is that you’re alive and in one place.”

“Weatherly called it, a what? A bite to
make me his?”

“Mating mark. And you’re mine, if you
want to get technical.” Colt leaned back, the sexy half-smile I loved turning
up the corner of his mouth.

“But I’m not one to get too hung up on
technicalities.”

I punched Colt lightly on the shoulder.
We sat for a long time, watching the darkness outside, me hearing things I’d
never heard before. I was getting sleepy again, a good kind of sleepy, not the
zoned out feeling I’d had before.

But there were things that needed to be
figured out, at least for me. I was changed, marked…a radically different girl
than the one who had arrived to spend the weekend doing yoga. I was a completely
different animal now. But I was an animal who didn’t know where she belonged.

Finally Colt gave words to the thoughts
running around in my head like a caged squirrel.

“You’re welcome to stay, if you want. I
want you to stay.”

I punched him harder this time. “You said
you don’t use mind control.”

“I don’t.” He rubbed his arm, winking.
“But I can read them. You don’t know where to go…what to do. Stay here, think
about it.”

“Like Colt said, you’re welcome here. For
as long as you can stand us. Hopefully that’s longer than just the rest of the
weekend.”

Then the important thing finally
surfaced.
Maggie.
“What day is this?”

“Sunday. Or it will be when the sun comes
up.”

“I’m supposed to go home today. If I
don’t…people will worry. My best friend…she will be frantic.” I kicked aside
the sheets, but there was too much masculinity holding them down. “I need to
call…”

“Settle down. You shouldn’t get up yet.
Besides, it’s not even light yet. Lay back, think about what you want to tell
her. You’ve got time.”

“Can I get cell reception up here?” The
thought of hiking to my car, then driving down that damned bumpy road to
somewhere civilized seemed too exhausting to even contemplate. Plus there was
my stuff, my gear… my tent.

“Whoa…slow down.” Jericho set a hand on
my shoulder, pushing me back against the pillows. “One step at a time. First,
what are you going to tell her?”

“I’m going to tell her…” What the hell
was I going to tell her? That I decided to just up and move in with a couple
guys I happened to have sex with? Oh, and by the way, I’m a wolf?

“I can’t tell her the whole truth. You
don’t want others…her…to know about this, do you?”

There was a moment of silence. Even
though I couldn’t actually read their minds, it was pretty clear there was no
debate on the answer to that question.
A big fat no.

“Yeah…I thought so. No. So I won’t tell Maggie
the why.”

“Wait. You’ve decided to stay?” There was
a little more than a hint of surprise in Jericho’s voice. He sat up, turning to
face me. Colt was in a similar state of shock apparently. I glanced at him,
almost laughed at look on his face, but didn’t have the heart.

“Did you really think I’d leave now?”

“Red…you gotta admit this all happened to
you so quickly. We don’t expect you to stay…we want you to…but…”

“It’s a lot to ask.” Colt finished Jericho’s
sentence.

“But you did ask. And I accepted.” I
heard my voice speaking the words, and wondered what I had just agreed to. It
was totally off the wall, totally out of character for me, but then again,
nothing about my former life seemed to fit anymore. I was a completely
different person – half woman, half wolf – and I knew there was no
possible way that I could return to life as it once was.

This is where I belonged. With Colt and
Jericho. Between two wolves.

“There’s nothing conventional about my
life. I work from home, I write strange stories. I don’t have any family…not
that no one would miss me, but still. I can work from anywhere…as long as I
have some kind of Internet access at some point. There are ways to work around
that…”

“Hey, take a breath.” Jericho reached
over, putting his hand over my mouth. “One thing at a time. You’ll stay?”

I waited until he took his hand away. “Yes…
I want to stay.”

“You don’t know how happy that makes us,
Red. Later today we’ll take you out to the clearing. There’s a place where I’m
pretty sure you can make a call.”

“Okay. Alright. I’ll tell her I met
you…both of you…that right there should keep her occupied with questions for
about a week or so.”

The guys laughed, and I joined them. It
felt good to laugh. It felt right.

“After that…I’ll think of something.”