by Loki Renard
“So,” he said. “You slept with both of us.”
Addie gave a little shamefaced shrug. “I guess.”
His sharp blue gaze seared through her. “You know what this means?”
“Armel was saying…”
“It means you have created a mate bond with both of us,” Adam said, talking over her. “It means you are mine, and you are also his, and there is nothing any of us can do to change that.”
“Well…”
“It means I will have to tolerate that bear in my territory,” Adam growled. “You have caused quite a lot of trouble, girl.”
“Hey, fuck you,” Addie scowled. “I didn’t ask for any of this. I didn’t know about any of this—and I can sleep with whoever I like.”
“Well, you won’t be sleeping with anyone besides me or Armel,” Adam said firmly. “Even if it means I have to lock you up, I promise you that.”
“You don’t own me, Adam!”
Those weren’t the words the alpha wanted to hear.
“That’s where you’re wrong,” he growled, stalking toward her. “I do own you. You are my mate. You are supposed to be mine alone.”
“I guess not,” Addie shot back. “Because that isn’t what happened. Is it?”
He stopped and looked at her with a suddenly curious expression. “Maybe you’re right,” he said. “Fate has its own agenda for us all. If you were supposed to be mine and mine alone, you would be. It is not typical for a dual bond to be formed. Most mates don’t have the capacity.” He lifted his head and looked at her down the length of his nose. “You are a strange little thing, Addie.”
Addie was relieved that his anger had faded, but his comment struck her as ironic.
“I’m a strange thing? You’re a wolf! We haven’t even talked about that. Armel’s a bear! Are either of you even people?”
“You know what we are, Addie.”
“No, I don’t.”
“You do,” he insisted. He extended a finger and pressed the tip of it to her chest over her heart. “You know what we are in here. It’s why you’ve trusted both of us from the moment we appeared to you, though we both came in the forms of dangerous predators. It’s why you’re standing here arguing with me instead of running scared. You know what I am. You’ve seen it. And it doesn’t frighten you, because you understand it.”
It was Addie’s turn to be stunned. He was right. She did understand that part of him. Not intellectually. Not in a way that would have made sense in a research paper, but on a cellular level she got what he was and knew that she was safe with him. Their arguing was a sign of trust—of her belief that he would not take bestial form and do her untold harm.
“Yeah,” she said in wondering tones. “I guess I’m not scared of you, huh.”
“I don’t want your fear,” Adam told her. “But I will require your respect, and I will ensure your obedience.”
He growled the words in a way that made the very core of her quiver with excitement.
“Yeah?” She arched a brow at him. “You didn’t ensure it last night, did you?”
It was a challenge. A snarky, bratty challenge and she reveled in it as Adam’s face registered annoyance, then amusement swiftly hidden by his alpha demeanor, which was the most rewarding of all for the way it made her feel between her thighs.
“You are on thin ice,” he growled at her. “And you’re going to pay for last night.” He pointed at his desk. “Bend over.”
“Nuh uh.” She shook her head.
The alpha was done arguing. Adam grabbed her and pushed her over the desk. He held her pinned there, one hand on the back of her neck. He let her squirm for a bit, which she did as furiously as she could, but which got her nowhere at all. The blanket slipped from her body and left her naked and wriggling in his powerful grip.
“I can still smell him on you,” Adam said. “And I can smell myself too. You’re swimming in our scent, Addie.”
“Quit sniffing me and lemme go,” Addie gasped. Her pussy was already reacting to his words. He spoke in such primal, basic terms, and he cared about such basic, primal things. If he was anything like she thought he was, her scent probably mattered more than her appearance to him. It was a far cry from the way civilized men liked their women, cleaned and shaved to an inch of their lives. Adam didn’t care how disheveled she was. He didn’t care that she hadn’t had a proper shower or bath in god knows how long. Marnie had helped her clean up a little, but it wasn’t the same. “If I smell so much, maybe you could let me get cleaned up. Is there a bath in this place?”
“Yes, there’s a bath,” Adam said. “It’s down the hall, but I’m not done with you yet.”
“You’re never going to be done,” she complained against the hard desk.
“You’re right about that,” Adam agreed. “I’m never going to be done with you.” His hand met her bottom in a hard slap. “Go and bathe, brat,” he said. “I need to speak to Armel.”
He let her up and she stood straight, pushing her hair out of her face. “Are you going to pin him over your desk too?”
Adam shook his head at her, his hands on his hips as his expression shifted from exasperation to fond amusement. “Addie, your mouth is going to get you in so much trouble. Go take a bath before I change my mind about punishing you.”
* * *
Armel was waiting in the hall. He’d told Addie he wouldn’t intervene, but his protective instinct made it impossible for him to actually leave her to Adam’s mercy entirely. She came out of the room with a broad smile on her face, which only grew when she saw him.
“My hero,” she said with that impossible smirk. “I knew you wouldn’t desert me. Would you have come in to save me if he’d actually started spanking me?”
“I’d have come in and cheered him on,” Armel said, quirking a brow at her. She was starting to get very full of herself, this little brat. If Adam wasn’t going to take her to task, he would.
“Adam wants to see you,” Addie smirked. “He didn’t spank me, but maybe he’ll spank you.”
Armel’s hand met her bottom in a swift slap, which he knew didn’t hurt at all through the blanket, but did catch her by surprise and cause her to yelp and reach back with one hand to cover her backside. “Hey! Not you too. I don’t need two of you busting my butt.”
“I think you might,” Armel said. He left her shuffling down the hall in her blanket and let himself into Adam’s office, trying his best not to be intimidated. Adam didn’t have anything on him, not really, but there was something about an alpha in his den that made anyone sensitive to animal power react.
“Armel.” Adam said his name like a sentence.
Armel sat down on the long couch at the back of the office and crossed his legs, his ankle resting atop his knee. Adam stayed on his feet, of course, wanting to maintain some physical advantage.
“So.” Adam folded his arms over his chest. “We have a problem.”
“Yes,” Armel agreed. “We do.”
“And there’s no point fighting any further over it. What’s done is done.”
“Mhm.” So far, Armel could only agree with what Adam was saying. Of course, Adam wasn’t really saying much besides stating the obvious. The same obvious that had almost brought them to blows in the kitchen.
“Sharing her is the only option,” Adam said. “It’s not what I want, and I don’t think it’s what you want either…”
“I’m starting to think there could be advantages,” Armel said, a slow smile spreading across his face.
“Oh?” Adam registered surprise.
“You must have noticed, Adam. She’s a handful. You have a pack to run, and I have wilds to watch over. Neither one of us could keep tabs on her alone. She’s independent and headstrong, and that means trouble.”
“It does,” Adam agreed, his lips twisting into what might have been the first genuine smile since they had met in battle at the mouth of Armel’s cave.
“She’s not alpha female material,” Armel poi
nted out. “She’s not going to keep your pack in line along with you. She’s not going to control the mating of the others as an alpha female would. She’s going to encourage anarchy and then she’s going to study it.”
“Hm,” Adam nodded. “I agree, she’s not the classic choice for the role, but she has strength of personality. I think she can lead by example.”
“Ha!” Armel let out a short laugh. “And what example do you think she will be setting for your pack? Seriously, Adam. She might be your mate, I don’t deny that, your coupling gives her that status, but she’s not Mrs. Right for the pack.”
“I could keep her in line,” Adam said. “She just needs a little training. A firm hand.”
“You don’t believe that for a second. It’s like you said. She likes being held captive. Because it gives her something to rebel against. Hell, I bet there’s some guy thousands of miles away who told her she couldn’t come out here, and here she is. Addie is a girl looking for a consequence, Adam. You know it, I know it, I think even she knows it.”
“You might be right,” Adam said, a grin passing over his lips. There was a certain anticipatory gleam in his eye, and Armel knew why. If Addie was a girl looking for a consequence, then Adam was a consequence looking for a girl. But she needed more than that too. She needed someone who could help her break the rules a little, keep her spirit free, guide her through some of the wild places she was yearning for without letting her get herself seriously hurt.
“So how is this going to work?” Armel scratched the stubble under his chin. “Where is she going to live?”
“I want her to stay with me. Here. The pack needs me, and she needs eyes on her. The pack can help with that.”
Armel opened his mouth, but before he could say anything, Adam raised his hand. “I know you want her with you. But I don’t think either one of us wants to send his mate back and forth between territories. So, I’m going to offer you a place here, in my home.”
“Hell, no,” Armel said swiftly.
“No?” Adam frowned. “I thought I was being reasonable. More so than I have to be.”
“You are,” Armel said. “But this house is far too small for four people and this town is too big for two alphas. I will have my own den nearby.”
“Will you?” Adam nodded. “So whose bed will she sleep in? Which of us will sleep with his mate by his side? Is that something you will sacrifice?”
Armel sighed inwardly. No. The notion of knowing Addie was nearby and not being able to touch her was maddening, even as a thought. As was the thought of living under Adam’s roof.
“I have my lands to patrol,” he reminded Adam. “I have your borders to watch. How am I going to do that if I’m stuck here in the village?”
“You’ll go on your patrols as you wish and see her when you return. Even if she were yours alone, Addie couldn’t be with you on your patrols anyway. She doesn’t have the fur or the fat to keep her warm.”
Adam was right. The life of a bear’s mate was not an easy one. It would be almost impossible for someone who wasn’t a shifter like him. There would be a lot of long and lonely nights for Addie if she were his alone.
“How is the pack going to take having me around?”
“My pack has always been home to all shifters,” Adam reminded him. “There have been generations of all kinds of shifters who have lived with us. You would be welcome. I would ensure it.”
Armel was sure he would. Adam ruled his pack with an iron fist. Armel wasn’t about to fall under that rule. “Just as long as we understand I am not one of your wolves to be ordered about. I will not follow your lead.”
“You have always been too independent, Armel,” Adam said with a smirk. “Do you remember when we were playing as whelps… and you insisted that you should go over the hill even though we had been told not to?”
“Yes,” Armel said with a grin at the memory.
“You came back yelling with a snow leopard chasing you. You were lucky it was old man Lee and not a real leopard.”
“There aren’t any real leopards in Alaska.”
“You didn’t know that,” Adam laughed. “Lee chased you all the way back to your mother’s den. We didn’t see you for a month.”
“I wasn’t allowed out for a month,” Armel chuckled. “But that was then, and this is now.”
“Mhm, and you still go where you shouldn’t and do things you shouldn’t,” Adam pointed out, becoming serious.
“We’re not all as cautious as you, Adam. Or as obsessed by rules and order.”
“You’re just as obsessed as I am. You’re just obsessed with independence.” Adam let out a frustrated little sigh. “We could not be more different, Armel.”
“Maybe that is a good thing,” Armel suggested. “Maybe we can find a way to share Addie in a way that allows both of us to be what we are. We don’t need to compete. We want different things from her. You want to discipline her…”
“…and you want to take her out and let her run amok,” Adam finished his sentence. “You want to have sneaky, surreptitious sex…”
“And you probably want to mate her in front of the pack,” Armel laughed. The smile faded a little as Adam’s grew. “I’m right, aren’t I.”
“It would prove something to the pack, and to Addie,” Adam said. “They are confused. They know she is here. They know she is mine, and yet they know you are here and they likely already know you took her. Some display is going to be necessary.”
“I would say that she wouldn’t like that,” Armel mused. “But I think I’d be wrong. She enjoys being dominated almost as much as she enjoys being defiant.”
“She certainly is a handful,” Adam agreed, his posture becoming more relaxed as an air of accord was slowly reached between them. “I never wanted to share a mate, but if I must share her with someone, I am glad it is you.”
Armel smiled with surprise. “Really?”
“We have known one another our whole lives. Our territories overlap. You have watched our borders and we have provided you with shelter and supplies. We have defended one another when necessary. And yes, we have grown apart in our maturity, but I miss the friendship we had.” Adam lowered his voice ever so slightly. “It is not easy being alpha. An alpha has followers, but not friends.”
“It has been lonely up in the hills,” Armel admitted in turn. “You know there are no more bear shifters. I’m the last of my line. I thought about abandoning this place and trying my luck in the city, but I never could bring myself to leave. So I figured I’d grow old and die alone. Like Lee did.”
There was a silence as the weight of the fate of the wilds settled on both men. Long gone were the days where there was ample prey and shifter blood was relatively common. Their habitat was dwindling, the forests were shrinking, and the herds were not nearly as plentiful as they had once been. Shifters had been forced into the very margins of the wilds and perhaps those too would be gone in future generations.
“You won’t be lonely anymore,” Adam said gruffly. “None of us will.”
“Shall we go tell her what we’ve decided?”
“No need.”
A feminine voice floated through the door, which had remained open a crack. Adam and Armel exchanged annoyed looks as they realized that instead of taking a bath, the brat had been spying on them.
“Get in here, Addie!” Adam shouted the command. Armel got up, threw the door open, and hauled her in by the front of the blanket still wrapped around her naked form.
“Finished negotiating your custody arrangement?” There was open rebellion in Addie’s sneering tone as she looked up at the pair of them. “Dividing up what isn’t yours?”
“But you are ours,” Armel told her. “You don’t seem to understand, Addie, but you will.”
“I understand just fine,” she said. “I understand I’m a new toy to play with and you’ve decided you’ll take turns with me. Well, maybe you should ask me what I want?”
“No.” The word fell from A
dam’s lips like a stone.
“What do you mean, no?” There was undeniable outrage in Addie’s tone. “You have to ask me what I want.”
“No, I don’t,” Adam repeated. “You gave yourself to us. You mated with us. You are ours. We do not have to ask you anything. Ever.”
Addie rolled her eyes at Adam and then glanced at Armel. “Give him that speech again about how he doesn’t own me. You know the one you gave yesterday.”
“That was before I knew he’d mated you,” Armel said. “And it was before I took you.”
He watched her face fall, and then pinken with a blush of excitement he was sure she would have denied to the end of time.
“Don’t tell me you’re agreeing with him now,” she said. “All this crazy stuff. You can’t own a woman just because you have sex with her. I mean, I know you guys are from the backwoods, but men don’t own women anymore. Haven’t for a really long time.”
Her tone was sarcastic and cutting, but her pulse and her skin tone told a different story. She was arguing, but she was definitely excited by what they were telling her. There was a brightness to her eyes and an eagerness she couldn’t quite hide under all her faux derision.
“We’re not men,” Armel said simply. “We claim our mates. We have claimed you.”
“W-well, you can’t, because I won’t let you.” There was a timid tremor creeping into her voice. It was finally starting to sink in that there were consequences for what she’d done, and that there was more to the situation than her amusement at acting like a brat.
“You already did, Addie,” Adam interjected.
“But nobody told me that!”
“So? Nature doesn’t always tell you what’s going to happen before it happens. Water is wet whether you know it or not. Snow falls down, not up. And sleeping with an alpha male makes you his mate. It’s a pity you didn’t do a little more research before coming here.”
“Sorry, the college library didn’t have an encyclopedia of freaks and weirdos,” Addie shot back.
“Cut the attitude,” Adam said curtly. “I’ve got no patience for cheek today.”
