Where were Rick and Gunner? She dared not take her attention off the wolf. If she did, she was certain she’d look back just in time to see it launching its body at her, jaws open, fangs ready to sink into her flesh and tear her open.
She had two options. She could face the wolf head on, grabbing for the nearby shovel to use as a weapon. Or she could run like hell.
The distance to the shovel was still far enough that she wouldn’t get to it before the wolf reached her. That left her with only one choice, and it was a sorry excuse for a real answer.
Taking a steadying breath, she gathered her courage. The wolf lowered its head, its ears lying back and its tail low but swishing back and forth, a signal of its intent to attack. It took one step closer, then another. On the third step, Mallory spun around and ran.
Please, let me make it to the house.
She heard the panted breaths of the beast behind her. Without checking, she sensed that it wasn’t running as hard as it could.
It’s playing with me. Tormenting me like a rabbit it would soon pounce on.
Her heart pounded, her breath burning her throat. The distance between the house and the barn had never seemed so immense. She knew in that next moment that she wouldn’t make it. But she still had to try.
Halfway there. Keep going.
She pressed on and heard the whine of her breath as it met her panic. Why hadn’t he attacked her yet?
She was almost to the front porch steps when Rick and Gunner yelled at her.
“Mallory!”
Where were they? She had to look, had to know that they were close enough to save her.
A glance over her shoulder sent her sprawling to the ground. She landed on her side, then rolled before coming to a stop on her back.
“Gunner, get to her!”
The sky was beautiful with light swatches of white and gold from the rising sun splashing across the blue as it transitioned from dark to a light. She studied it, ready to be plunged into darkness as death descended on her.
Instead, Gunner’s face appeared above her.
She blinked, unsure if she could believe what she’d seen.
“Baby, are you all right?”
Suddenly, awareness jerked her back. She was alive and Gunner had saved her. He pulled her into his arms, then lifted her. Giving into his support, relishing the way his warm body felt next to hers, she closed her eyes and surrendered to him.
He carried her into the house and set her on the couch. Pointing a finger at her as though she’d done something wrong, he ordered her to stay put, then rushed out the front door.
“No!” She had to stop him, had to keep him away from the wolf. Yet her legs wouldn’t hold her as she pushed off the couch and tried to stand.
Agonizing minutes passed with no sounds. Guilt rode her like a bronc free from its halter. If she hadn’t chased after the men, they wouldn’t have run into the wolf. But where had they gone? She’d seen them go into the barn, but hadn’t seen them leave. Had they gone out the back?
“Where are you? Please, come back.” Determined to find them, to do anything to help them, she pushed off the couch, her legs finally allowing her to hurry to the front door. Just as her hand fell onto the doorknob, the door opened.
Rick took her by the arms, scanned her body from top to bottom, then let her go. A glimmer of a question flicked through her mind at the sight of his arms, the dark hair covering the smooth skin. But the question was gone before it had a chance to form into coherent thought.
“You look all right. Are you?”
She nodded, then reached out for him. If she didn’t feel his body next to hers and know that he hadn’t gotten hurt, she’d cry. Yet crying would only make him angry. “I’m all right.”
He stalked away from her as he did so often. “Damn it all, Mallory.”
Gunner didn’t take her side this time. “We don’t have time to tell you why. Just stay in the house. Do you understand me?”
“If you don’t, I’ll swear I’ll hog-tie you to the couch and nail the damn doors and windows shut.” Rick’s eyes were wild as he ran his hand through his hair once, then again. “We’re wasting time.”
Gunner threw open the door. “Please. For once, do what we say, Mallory. And lock the door behind us.”
She couldn’t argue with them about the need to lock a door because of a wolf. It didn’t matter. The relief she felt after finding out that the wolf hadn’t hurt them overshadowed everything else. “Yes.”
They were gone in the next minute.
She did as they’d told her, turning the lock in the door and bolting the dead bolt. Peering out the closest window, she searched for them.
How had they moved so fast?
A flash of dark brown garnered her attention to the side of the barn. Another wolf, not the gray one that had chased her, lifted its head, and against her better judgment, she would’ve sworn it stared right at her. Their gazes held, then it whirled around and disappeared behind the barn.
Rick’s arm. Something wasn’t right about it.
Or rather, something was too right about it.
The memory of his wound came back. The wound that should’ve taken days, even weeks to heal, was gone. Not even a scab or a scar remained.
The wound, their eyes, she had to find out what was behind both.
* * * *
A day had come and gone with the men staying out well past the time when Mallory had finally given up waiting for them and had gone to sleep. She wondered why they didn’t join her, even if it meant waking her up. The only sign that they’d been home was a note left on the kitchen table.
Stay inside. We’ll be back as soon as we can.
They’d come home sometime last night, but why didn’t they sleep with her? They’d had sex enough times that they had to know she’d want them in her bed. Gunner’s excuse that they didn’t want to disturb her with their odd hours made sense, but they still hadn’t come to her even after she’d explained that she didn’t care if they woke her up from a sound sleep.
At least her time alone hadn’t been a total waste. She’d spent the day working through her plan. A plan that would give her the answers she needed.
Since she saw the amber flecks the most when they were upset or turned on, she’d do her best to stir those emotions in them. Hadn’t they said they enjoyed rough sex? If that was true, then she’d make sure that their next time together would be as rough as she could handle it. Once she’d gotten them turned on and recovering from a hard romp, she’d slip in the question of Rick’s arm. No one healed that fast. There had to be a logical explanation for it.
She met them as they came through the back door. Rick groaned, his jaw tightening. Gunner, looking more fatigued than she’d ever seen him, tossed her a confused look.
“We’re home to get a bite to eat and then we’re going back out.” He ran a hand over the stubble across his jaw. “Okay, just say it out loud. A blind man can see that something’s on your mind.”
“Why won’t you let me go with you?” She knew why, but that was the first part of getting them riled up.
“It’s too dangerous. We’ve talked about this. And after yesterday, with the wolf, we can’t risk it.”
“That’s my point. It’s just as dangerous around here.”
“Not if you stay inside the house like you’re supposed to,” grumbled Rick as he marched past her.
Anger flared inside her, but she pushed it back down. She had to stay in control of her emotions. It was their anger she wanted to see, not hers. “Tell me what’s going on with this wolf. Where is it? Why can’t you find it? I mean, come on. How hard can it be to kill one lousy wolf?”
Gunner shouldered his way into the living room, then eased behind the bar. He got out two glasses, then poured whiskey into both of them. After giving one to Rick, he held the other out to her, but she refused. He slugged the drink back.
“This wolf is different. Smarter.”
She knew that from firsthand experience. “I know that. I saw it in his eyes. He looked at me like he knew what I was thinking.”
They exchanged one of their telling looks that were beginning to irritate the hell out of her. If her plan was to work, she had to know when to push and when not to. When it came time, she’d push hard.
“Still,” she smirked, meaning to needle them, “it is only a wolf, right?”
Gunner threw a wrench in her plan with his easygoing nature. “Baby, we’re sorry we haven’t been around for you lately. But right after you came here, the wolf increased his attacks. That calf that was injured? He was only one of about fifteen others.”
“I’m sorry to hear that.” She hadn’t realized so many animals had been injured or killed.
“Thanks, but I’m only telling you so you’ll understand.” He placed his palm on her hair then let it slide down until it came to rest on her shoulder.
She basked in the thrill his touch gave her. But one touch wasn’t enough.
“If we don’t take care of him soon, then we’re going to lose a lot more animals.”
“Gunner’s right.” Rick downed the remainder of his drink. “I know it’s been rough on you, but after staying up all night to search for the wolf, then getting up to handle the regular chores, we just don’t have the energy for—”
“For me?”
He turned his heated glare on her, making her feel like a jerk for what she was planning to do.
“It’s not like we haven’t wanted to be with you.” Gunner let out a sigh, then dropped his arm. Exhaustion shone in the darkened circles under his eyes.
“I don’t care about the sex. I want you beside me, even if you only want to lie next to me and sleep.” It was both a lie and the truth. Her need to feel them against her was dwarfed only by her need to feel them inside her. But she’d take what she could get. For now.
Rick poured himself another drink and drank it down in one quick gulp. “Take a look at us, Mallory. We’re filthy and we probably stink to high heaven.”
She couldn’t lie. The longer she stood close to Gunner, the harder it was to breathe in the rank odor. They were sweaty like the other time, but now they were covered in dust and dirt as well as other grime she couldn’t identify.
“We could always take a bath together. I could wash you.”
Gunner groaned and moved toward the stairs. He gripped the railing. “Damn, woman, you’re driving me crazy. Don’t you know how much we want to do that?”
“Then, damn it, do it.” She pulled her T-shirt over her head, leaving her bare breasts exposed. Almost immediately, amber flecks appeared in their eyes. Giving them her best come-here look, she undid her jeans and let them drop to her bare feet. Their hungry gazes fell to her smooth mons.
“Are you sure you’re too tired?” She chuckled, adding an edge of snarkiness. “I thought you guys were rough.”
“You want it rough, huh?”
She thrust out her chest, daring Gunner. “I don’t think you can handle rough. Not in your present pitiful condition.”
“Girl, you’re just the thing I needed to get me going again.” Rick set his glass down on the bar with a loud bang, then strode toward her. If she kept to her plan of seducing them, then getting them to talk, she’d find out everything she wanted to know.
Sliding her tongue over her lips to further distract them, she took off running, slipping past Gunner to bound up the steps. “Catch me if you can, guys.”
They came after her, hot on her heels. In a strange way, it reminded her of the gray wolf as he ran after her, delaying the moment that he’d strike. But this time, she didn’t want to get away.
Fooling them, she raced past her bedroom to the door at the end of the hallway. She’d just opened the door when a naked Gunner grabbed her and pushed her back. He threw her on top of the bed. Rick came beside them and took the arm his brother hadn’t already caught.
How had they gotten undressed so fast?
The amber had grown more prevalent. She’d been right in recognizing that the color was stronger whenever they were angry or horny. Fighting against them, but not too hard, she kicked out, then paused, dragging her breath in and out.
“This isn’t my room,” she puffed out.
“It is now. If we’d had time, we would’ve moved you into it before now.”
“Rick, didn’t she say something about us stinking?”
“I seem to recall something about her taking a shower with us.”
“She sure as hell did.”
Gunner’s grip on her arm tightened as he jerked her to her feet. “Come with me.”
Rick got past them and was already turning on the water in the huge shower. The bathroom, although modest with simple décor, boasted a shower that had two heads and was large enough for five people.
Before she could ease under the spray, Rick grabbed her other hand and tugged her inside along with him. She yelped as the warm water hit her, then worked to stay on her feet when Rick whirled her around to the other spray of water. Gunner adjusted the temperature on both, making it a pleasant warmth that spread over her body, wetting her hair into a slick of darkness with a slice of pink darting through it.
Rick tugged on a strand of the pink. “Why’d you put this color in your hair?”
“You don’t like it? Do you think it looks ridiculous?”
“Naw. It suits you.”
She fell back to her plan of baiting them. “Still, if anything’s ridiculous, it’s that soap on a rope.” She pulled the rope off the shower bar and held it up. “Who still buys these things?”
Gunner snatched it from her.”We like it.”
“I guess it has its purpose. You.” She took Rick by the arm and made him twist around until he faced the wall. “Hands on the wall, big guy.”
“What for?”
“You’re not touching me again until you smell like a human being.”
Again with the telling look? Is it a brother thing?
She took the soap away from Gunner, then rubbed the bar of soap over Rick’s back and felt the rush of current pass between them. He was massive, the width of his shoulders spanning an average man’s width and more. Sliding the soap over his back wasn’t enough. Making lather on her hands proved less effective in getting him clean, but it was definitely more appealing. Her hands slid over his back, down around the strong arm muscles, then along the lean line of his waist. She paused, wondered if she dared to explore between his legs, then thought better of it.