Authors: Eve Langlais
“
I’m going to be her one and only.
It’s what she wants,” Nathan said crossing his arms over his chest
with an obstinate look.
“
Not according to what she said,”
Kody sassed back. John realized that the younger man must have been
listening and made sure he got in on the fiasco.
“
She was mad.” Nathan looked pained,
and while John felt for him, he still wouldn’t back
down.
John shrugged. “Mad or not, until she takes it
back, I for one am not going to refuse. She’s not only strong and
beautiful, according to my wolf, she’s the one. I’d be stupid to
turn her down because you can’t handle your jealousy.”
Nathan’s brows arched high in surprise. “I
handled my fucking jealousy so well last time that she ran the hell
away. It took me twelve goddamn years to find her. I am not, I
repeat not, going to do anything that’s going to make her run
again.”
“
Yeah, ’cause your whole ‘me Tarzan,
you Jane’ routine where you thumped your chest upstairs like some
caveman really impressed her,” Kody piped in sarcastically. “Did it
ever occur to you that you scare her? It’s been a long time, man,
and you gotta admit you’re a lot bigger than you used to be. Maybe
she wants us as some kind of shield.”
“
I would never hurt her.” Nathan’s
voice came out almost in a whisper, and his shoulders
slumped.
“
In her mind, you already have,”
John said, quietly hitting him with the truth.
With a bellow of rage, Nathan snapped and
charged at John. Not as big, John nevertheless met his charge
head-on. Where rage drove Nathan, John relied on cool
logic.
They exchanged slugs, Nathan venting his
frustration, and John prodding him to make sure he got a good
workout. He took his bruises like a man and gave several of his own
as he let his best friend work out his jealousy and grief over
finding out the woman he’d moped about for years hadn’t harbored
the same feelings.
They might have gone at it for a while had Kody
not announced, “Thought you guys might want to know she’s trying to
escape.”
The startling announcement made John’s
attention waver, and Nathan clocked him with a hard right hook.
John staggered, and Nathan pushed past him for the stairs. John,
without thinking, stuck his foot out and tripped him. Nathan fell
with a crash, and John scrambled to get over him, only to have
Nathan yank him down.
They tussled on the floor for a second before
John, in a moment of clarity, said, “Um, Kody’s gone after her—by
himself.”
Nathan went still. “He’s going to steal a kiss,
isn’t he?”
John nodded, and that quickly they went from
fighting to cahoots. They tore up the stairs, two at a time, to the
room they’d locked her in. And found it still locked. Nathan
fumbled the key out, but John didn’t wait. He tore down the hall to
his bedroom and right through to his window. He threw up the sash
and peered out just in time to see her hit the ground in a tuck and
roll that brought her right to Kody’s feet.
She’s certainly determined to keep
us on our toes,
he thought with a grin that
turned into outright laughter as Kody leaned in for a peck only to
get his smooch returned with a crushing left hook.
Hot damn, I wonder if she’ll be as
energetic in bed.
He couldn’t wait to find
out.
* * * *
Dana didn’t allow herself to cry with self-pity
for long. Tears wouldn’t fix anything, only action might. Dana
realized she probably couldn’t get away, but that wouldn’t stop her
from trying. The guys might have left and locked her in, but doors
weren’t the only way out. She dove out of the bed, toward the chest
of drawers she saw. She rummaged through the male clothing—smelling
disturbingly of Nathan—and yanked out a T-shirt that hung down to
her knees. Not that she cared.
She found some black briefs, but
they threatened to slide right down her legs. She yanked them off
and pitched them across the room. Screw it. A proper escape didn’t
require underwear. She headed to the window when she spotted a
familiar duffel bag.
They grabbed my
stuff?
She unzipped and sure enough found her
clothing. Quickly, she stripped the large T-shirt and dressed in
her own stuff. She kept her ears peeled for Nathan’s return, but
while she heard a lot of yelling and thumping, she didn’t sense
anyone coming.
She zipped the duffel bag back up and went to
the window. She threw up the sash and peered out. High, but she’d
jumped from higher when the situation called for it. And being
engaged to four men certainly fit the bill.
She debated taking her duffel with her, but it
would just slow her down. She straddled the window ledge, cursing
as a wave of dizziness chose that moment to hit.
“
Come on, don’t be a wuss now,” she
coaxed herself. She regulated her breathing and, closing her eyes
against the weakness flooding her, thrust her second leg out. She
maneuvered herself so that she slid her body off the edge while
using her fingertips to grip the ledge. She counted to three and
took a deep breath before letting go, only belatedly praying that
her body had healed enough to handle the impact. She didn’t plummet
long before she hit the ground with a slight wince. Years of
practice had taught her to flex and tumble into a roll that had her
springing up and ramming into a rock-hard wall.
Startled, she flailed backward, but didn’t
fall. Strong hands gripped her, and she opened her eyes to see the
tousled blond from earlier grinning at her.
“
Darling, if you wanted me, you
could have just called me.”
Dana could only gape at him
stupidly.
Then the blond Lycan kissed her.
Butterflies fluttered in her tummy, and Dana blamed it on her
exertion. But as he deepened his kiss and her cleft moistened,
panic set in.
Attracted to John, Nathan,
and now this young pup?
Shock at her body’s betrayal brought her to her
senses, and she pulled back from the mouth that caressed her so
expertly while at the same time bringing up her hand to strike a
solid blow.
His head snapped back, but instead of loosening
his grip on her, his hands tightened. She waited for the return
slap. The yelling. The shaking. Instead, the blond wolf
laughed.
“
Hot damn, darling. That’s some left
hook you got there.”
“
You shouldn’t have kissed me.” She
spoke the words, but her tingling lips wanted to pout when he
didn’t resume his caress.
His green eyes twinkled at her. “I was just
sealing the engagement, darling. And might I say, I think you’ve
made a fine choice.”
“
But-But—” She wanted to protest it
was a mistake, but before she could utter a coherent sentence, she
found herself yanked from his grasp.
“
Caught you,” Nathan growled before
he upended and threw her over his shoulder, its width digging in to
her belly.
“
Put me down,” she
screeched.
“
Not fucking likely,” snarled Nathan
followed by a slap on her bottom.
Stunned at his action, she didn’t cry out,
because it hadn’t hurt, but then the indignity of her situation set
in. She lost it.
“
You fucking prick! Set me down
right this instant.” She called him several choice names,
punctuated with jabs to his lower back, some hard enough to make
him grunt, but he didn’t reply and just smacked her hard on the
bottom again.
She gave an inarticulate cry of rage. She
looked wildly to her left, saw nobody to help, and looked to the
other side to see John striding alongside.
“
Make him put me down,” she appealed
to him.
John frowned at her. “You are still healing,
woman. Do you realize what kind of damage you might have done with
that stunt?”
Actually, she did know because her ribs ached
something awful. Defeated—for the moment—she stopped fighting and
hung there limply. When she was laid with more gentleness than
expected back in the bed, she turned her face to the side and
refused to look at anyone.
“
I need to examine her,” she heard
John say softly.
“
And?” Nathan bit out.
“
Nathan, get out. She’s hurt again,
so you needn’t worry anything is going to happen. Besides,
shouldn’t you be posting a guard outside the window so she doesn’t
get the drop on us again?”
“
Touch her and die,” Nathan
growled.
“
You don’t get a say,” she snapped,
turning to face him.
“
Don’t test me, Dana, or I’ll mark
you as mine right this instant.”
“
Do that, and the first time you try
to come to my bed, I’ll rip your fucking dick off.”
Nathan clenched his fists and jaw, but Dana
glared right back. She wouldn’t be forced or threatened.
“
We’ll discuss this again later,” he
finally managed to say through gritted teeth.
Dana watched his stiff back as he tread heavily
across the room and slammed the door shut. She let out a breath she
hadn’t realized she’d been holding, for despite her vehement
opposition to his domineering threat to claim her, a part of her
was aroused by it.
“
All right, little missy. Time to
see what damage you’ve done. Lift your shirt.”
Dana whipped her head around and glared at him.
“Like fuck. Do your stuff with my shirt on, like you did
earlier.”
John’s brown eyes held her gaze, and he gave
her a stern look. “Before, I wasn’t worried about internal
bleeding. But now, because you decided to act like an idiot, I need
to check for bruising that might indicate internal problems, not to
mention make sure you didn’t re-snap your ribs.”
Dana hated his logical answer. But even she
wasn’t stupid enough to defy a doctor, not when he could be right.
She turned her gaze to stare at the ceiling and pulled her shirt
up. His hands palpated her, and this time, without the barrier of
the fabric, the heat of his touch immediately ignited
her.
“
Why did you do it?” he asked
softly.
“
Isn’t it obvious? I’m not
interested in being mated with a bunch of guys.”
“
And what if we were to forget your
earlier request to claim us and it was just Nathan?”
“
I don’t want him either. I don’t
want anybody. I want to live my own life.”
“
Ah yes, because the situation you
were in when we found you was so much better.”
“
At least I was free,” she retorted,
tilting to look at him. She found him watching her, and something
warm pooled in her lower stomach.
“
Care to rephrase that? As I recall,
when we found you, there were chains.”
Dana blushed. “Before those thugs caught me, I
was living a perfectly fine life. I made my own decisions, did what
I wanted. I was free.”
John snorted. “You call that freedom? I saw
your house with its alarms and lack of personal touches.
It looked like a prison to me, one built on
paranoia and fear.”
His remark stabbed her with its truth. In
running for her freedom, had she inadvertently caged herself
tighter? “So what do you suggest? That I give up my identity? Give
up my rights to become a whore for a bunch of horny
wolves?”
John shook his head, and his lips curved. “Did
it ever occur to you that if you were mated, you’d enjoy more
freedom? With the mark of one, you’d avoid the problems of males
trying to claim you. Become marked by more and you’d have your own
built-in defense system to ensure you could do anything you
wanted.”
“
Oh please, like I’d be allowed to
do anything other than suck cock and pop babies,” she replied
crudely.
“
You have a really warped idea of
what being mated with multiple males is like.” John shook his head
at her.
“
So tell me how you see it
then.”
His gaze softened along with his voice. “I’ll
tell you how I saw it growing up. My mother wanted for nothing.
Anything she needed, my fathers got for her. Every evening, after
they put the children to bed, they’d sit, either on the porch or in
the living room, and talk.”
“
And they took turns fucking?” Dana
used the crude phrase to remind herself that the beautiful picture
he’d painted was nothing like the life she’d seen growing
up.
“
They made love, you mean. Sometimes
my mother would take only one of my fathers to bed. Sometimes she’d
take them all. But I can tell you one thing, every morning she came
down those stairs with a smile on her face. She still
does.”
“
So it works for some people. It
wouldn’t work for me. I want an emotional connection with someone
before I bed them.”
“
Fine. I can wait for
that.”
She met his gaze and could only read
sincerity in their depths.
Don’t tell me I
actually believe him? He’s a man. He’d say anything to get in my
pants.
“You’re assuming I’ll go through
with the whole marking thing.”