Triple Threat (2 page)

Chapter 3

Lachlan sighed, watching Charise closed the door behind her. “You’ve insulted her. I hope you’re ready to deal with the fallout.”

Xander looked at him curiously. “What do you mean?”

“When she gets home and her brothers find out that Dad fired her because of you three and that you called her pudgy, there will be hell to pay.” Jack sighed and covered his face with his hands.

“Why would we pay?” Xavier asked.

“Her brothers are the meanest men I know.”

“We can handle ourselves,” Xavier said.

“I hope so because once her brothers get ahold of you there won’t be much of you left. Now, I will stop seducing your clients. So do me a favor and leave,” Jack growled.

“Don’t think that I won’t come back and neuter you if you do this again,” Xavier snarled.

“My best friend just got fired because you were being an ass.”

“No, she got fired because you couldn’t keep your dick in your pants.”

“Get out. Now!” Jack roared.

“Goodbye Mr. Kale and I’m sorry that things came to this,” Xerxes said. All three of the turned and left.

Lachlan looked at his son. “So why didn’t you tell them about Charise?”

“Why should I make things easy for them? They’ve known her for years and haven’t figured it out. I didn’t see you correcting them.” Jack grinned at his dad.

Lachlan chuckled, shaking his head. “Your new secretary will be here tomorrow. Don’t screw up, she just might kill you.”

“I can handle one little secretary.”

“If you think so. Good luck tomorrow son,” Lachlan said before leaving the office.

Jack groaned, leaning back in his chair as the office door clicked shut.

~              *              ~

“Damn testosterone filled, chauvinistic, male idiots.” Charise muttered as she slammed into the main house of the Den.

“What’s the matter, sis?” Jason asked as he walked into the front room.

Standing a few inches over 6 foot he towered over her. Unlike Charise, who took after their mom, he took after their dad and had green eyes and black hair. She didn’t understand why he like to shave his head but she knew from her friends that women thought it was sexy, right along with the tattoos that covered both of his arms, and his muscular frame.

“Nothing,” she muttered, looking through the mail on the foyer table.

“Don’t lie. I can smell it when you do,” Jaxon said, following behind Jason.

Like Jason he had black hair like their dad but he had the same dark brown eyes as her. He kept his hair in a close military cut like their dad once had. He was tall and muscular as Jason but unlike their brother he didn’t have any tattoos, at least none that she knew of. She had heard rumors that they both had piercings but she didn’t want to know.

“Why are you ganging up on me? Why aren’t you in some stockholders meeting or something? Or down at the mine working?” she asked, stuffing her mail in her purse.

Jason chuckled. “It’s called a day off. We do get those occasionally.”

Charise arched a brow at them. “Really? Your first day off in how long? A few months? Years?”

“We have days off, You’re just not the woman involved when we do,” Jaxon snorted.

“Seriously? Why’d I get stuck with you two as brothers? Why couldn’t I have a sister or be an only child?” She gagged and tried to clean her mind of the images that had popped into her mind. Thoughts of the sexy trio she’d be visiting were soon replacing the thought of her brothers. Images of the trio doing everything in the book and then some to her, had her shivering in delight.

“You’re just unlucky like that. So, what’s brought you home so early?’ Jason inquired.

“I was let go this afternoon,” Charise growled, knowing what was coming and it was the last thing she wanted to talk about.

“Well, since you got fired you can start showing Ares around, get to know him and all that,” Jaxon said.

“No. In fact, hell no,” she growled. He was the last man she wanted to be around. Why could no one understand that?

“You’ve been betrothed since birth. Why do you keep refusing to have anything to do with him?” Jaxon growled.

“I’ve told you repeatedly he’s been stalking me but every time I tell you, you refused to listen!”

“You haven’t given us any proof that he’s been stalking you,” Jaxon said.

“I’ve given you plenty of proof but what did you tell me? Oh that’s right, it was just a coincidence. God! I wish Mom and Dad were alive. They’d believe me,” Charise growled. She turned on her heel and stormed out of the house.

Jason looked at his brother. “You know she could be telling the truth.”

Jaxon sighed, his shoulders slumping. “I just don’t know. We both know she doesn’t want to mate with Ares and solidify our alliance with the Southern Den.”

“True, but what happens if it turns out she was telling the truth and gets hurt because we didn’t listen to her?”

“I would never forgive myself.”

Chapter 4

Xavier growled in aggravation, ending his phone call as Xander walked into his office sitting in one chair while Xerxes followed suit and sat in the other.

“What’s wrong?”

“That was Ankou from The Blue Moon. Nadia has decided that since Vance and Graeme work there they have to let her drink until she has decided she’s done. She’s racked up a bill of almost $300 just in drinks. That isn’t including the large tips that he says she WILL be paying to the girls.” Xavier sighed and leaned back in his chair. “It’s time we cut her loose.”

“I already have. After what she did to that waitress when she asked if we needed anything, I had had enough,” Xerxes said.

“How is Kylie doing?” Xavier asked.

“She’s moving to Ohio with her folks. They think it would be best to just start fresh, away from Millersburg.”

“Is that the only reason that you decided to do this? Because, honestly, she’s given us plenty of reason to drop her before now,” Xander said.

“According to Ms. Calley, she decided to change companies because of Nadia. She’s been ‘warned’ about coming near us and if Nadia caught her in the same room with us she’d be shown who the top female was.”

“Nadia isn’t our mate.”

“Nor do we belong to her.”

“That’s why I think we should cut her loose and hire some office help to steer her away from us.”

They all looked up as someone knocked on the office door.

“Come in.”

Charise walked into the office. “Sorry to disturb you boys. But I believe we have some things to discuss. I need a job and since I blame you three for it I figured that the promise of working with my client list a tempting reason to hire me.”

“Oh, we definitely want you, Ms. Miller. But do you think that you’d be able to handle all of us?” Xerxes grinned.

Heat flooded through her body at his suggestive look. She was sorely tempted to strip and lay herself across Xavier’s desk so they could take turns screwing her brains out. “ I think I am more than capable of handling you three.”

“Then we will see you first thing in the morning, say 8 o’clock?” he purred.

Her skin tingled as she imagined him purring against her clit.

“We’ll go over your schedule and pay tomorrow when you come in,” Xavier growled, glaring at Xerxes.

“By the way, it costs extra to fight off angry ex-lovers,” Charise smirked at Xavier’s shocked expression before leaving the office.

“What the hell! Why’d you hire her?” Xavier roared.

“She’s the solution to our Nadia problem,” Xerxes said calmly.

“Plus she’ll be bringing more clients our way,” Xander said.

Xavier sighed. “Fine, but you two better get cracking and get her some office furniture because like hell am I giving up my office for her.”

“We know you’ve worked with her before, so why haven’t you taken her yet?” Xander asked.

“She’s not my type.”

“What do you mean? She’s perfect,” Xerxes growled.

“I have a feeling that you’ll be the first one to fuck her, maybe even claim her,” Xander chuckled.

“It’s true I’m ready to find our mate and she sets my cat on edge but she doesn’t smell like our mate, she doesn’t even smell like a shifter.” Xavier leaned back, looking at his brothers. They were all ready to find their mate but it tiring sifting through all the women that threw themselves at them.

“My cat has been pacing around roaring for me to make her ours. Who cares if she’s not a shifter,” Xerxes said.

“I wish we could be 100% sure that she’s our mate,” Xander said.

“Yea, it does,” Xavier sighed.

“I knew it!” Xander launched himself over the desk, tackling Xavier, starting a full on brawl.

Xerxes just shook his head and leaned back in his chair, watching the fight progress for a few minutes. “Are you two almost done?” Xerxes asked, peering down at the two combatants when they stopped beating on each other.

“With beating the crap out of each other? Yeah,” Xander chuckled. He stood up and righted the chair they had knocked over and sat down in it.

“So you can feel her pull too?” Xavier asked, sitting up against the wall.

“My cat went haywire the moment I saw her.”

“Mine too.”

“But why now? We’ve known her for years,” Xavier asked.

“I’ve never actually seen her up close before today.”

“Same here. You’re the only one that has actually talked to her face to face before today. We’ve talked to her over the phone, though I’m not going to lie her voice is phone sex operator worthy and she’s just as sexy.”

“I most definitely won’t be getting a good nights sleep until we know if she’s ours.”

“I don’t know. My cat has always sat up and taken notice when she was around but I’ve never felt the need to mark her, make her mine until now.”

“Maybe we all had to be there for that to happen, Why are you so reluctant to consider the possibility that she might belong to us?” Xerxes asked.

“Rachel…”

“Xavier, not every woman is going to be like her. We knew that she only wanted to be with you because of your title but when she learned that she had to take us all to be Prima she completely freaked out.”

“Neither of us were attracted to her like you were. Hell, Graeme detested her and refused to come around while you were with her.”

“Her death wasn’t related to her not wanting the three of us. For all we knew she was just an unfortunate victim of a mugging.”

“She could disappear like our folks did. Hell, I’m not even sure they’ve been alive this entire time.”

“We’ll never know until we find them.” Xerxes stood up from his chair. “Come on you pathetic lions, lets go to the bar and get a drink. Blue Moon work for you?”

“Yep, lets go,” Xavier said, wiping off his slacks.

~              *              ~

“I’m surprised no one challenged you after Mom and Dad disappeared,” Xander said, sipping on his beer.

“Everyone knew that I’m meaner and more brutal than Dad even though I looked like a scrawny rat,” Xavier chuckled.

“It didn’t help that you had Xander, Graeme, and me giving you our unwavering loyalty,” Xerxes said.

“I really thought Taj was going to challenge you when he came to join the pride,” Xander said.

“I can say I could have honestly taken Taj but when Vance came to the pride, I’m not going to lie, I was worried he would challenge me.” Xavier shook his head. Vance was an anomaly just like most of the shifters in the area. He was a scimitar cat, a distant cousin of the prehistoric sabertooth tiger.

“Yeah, it was a little shocking to see that huge ass cat showing submission when we shifted together for the first time.”

“I didn’t challenge you because I don’t want to run a pride or take responsibility for anyone else. I thought you would’ve figured that out by now.” Vance chuckled as he sat down at the table with them.

“They did when you did your Garfield impression,” Taj laughed, pulling up a chair.

“So what brings you three here? You haven’t been around the bar since Nadia’s little fiasco,” Vance asked.

“We needed a drink and aren’t you supposed to be covering the door?” Xavier asked.

“Graeme’s working the door and I’m working the floor.”

“I hear you’ve stolen that sexy secretary from Jack. So when are we going to be seeing her around the office?”

“They stole Char? Hell, I may have to start working for you instead of Jack,”  Vance said.

“What do you mean?” Xander growled.

“You’ve seen her right? She’s hot as hell and juicy for the taking.” Vance grinned. “I’m betting that she’s wild as hell in bed.”

Xavier growled, his cat not liking how Vance was talking about Charise. “You think that you’ll be the one to take a bite of that juicy secretary?”

Taj scooted his chair back and waited for what his friend would say. He obviously hadn’t caught onto the dangerous undercurrents. “Vance.”

Vance just grinned at Taj. “I wouldn’t mind having a taste of her but then I’m not looking for a forever type kind of girl like her either.”

Xavier growled louder, drawing back his fist only to be cut short as Xerxes launched himself across the table at Vance, Xander not far behind. They rolled across the floor exchanging blows.

Graeme walked up next to Xavier. “Should I tell everyone that the new secretary is off limits?”

“That’d probably be for the best,” Xavier growled.

Graeme chuckled. “I never thought you three would find your mate, and have the same one to boot.”

“I’m not so sure she’s our mate,” he replied.

Graeme looked at Xavier thoughtfully. “I think you have. You just haven’t accepted it yet.” With those parting words he went to break up the fight.