by Maia Dylan
Ty felt his dick instantly rise to full mast at her heated gaze. His pulse sped up as her hand began to slide down his chest. When she reached his abs, he clenched them, praying that she kept going. Faith murmured with pleasure as his abs hardened, and Ty vowed to double the amount of crunches he did every morning. His mate liked his body.
Faith leaned forward and pressed her lips to his ear to whisper to him, “Do you happen to know…” She paused, and Ty growled in pleasure, his arms tightening around her, drawing her even closer to his body as her tongue rimmed the edge of his ear before her teeth latched onto his earlobe. Fuck.
“What, love, what do you want to know? I’ll tell you anything, do anything…” Trent growled against her neck as he pressed kisses and nibbles to the area where her neck and shoulder met, vowing that his mating bite would be there soon. So soft, so sweet.
“Hmmmmm, Ty, that feels so good.” Faith’s groan of delight vibrated against his ear, and her hot, gasping breath against his neck took him close to the edge. “Do you happen to know…what’s happening on Grey’s Anatomy?”
Trent had been about to nibble on her ear to return the pleasure she had been giving him when her question registered, and he froze.
“Huh?” With that intelligent and manly sound echoing though the kitchen, because his surprise had made it louder than he had anticipated, he leaned back so he could look into his mate’s eyes. He growled at the mirth and amusement flashing in her eyes and grin. Damn minx was playing with him.
Faith began to giggle, and Ty felt his wolf preen at how they had managed to make their mate laugh. OK, it was at him rather than with him, but they were both okay with that.
“You think that’s funny, kitten?” Trent fought to keep the grin from his face.
“Ah, yeah, I do,” Faith laughed. “I think it’s hilarious.” She dropped her tone to mirror his. “Huh? And you say you are the intelligent one between you and Trent? Just wait till I tell him!” Faith continued to giggle. Ty growled and pulled his mate from the counter and up against his chest so fast she stopped giggling and gave a startled yelp, gripping him tighter with both her arms and her legs. The feeling of her pressing her delicious little pussy hard against his dick brought his own groan.
Filled with joy, love, and no small amount of fun, Ty began to stride toward their bedroom. “I’ll tell you what, sweets. If I can’t convince you to keep this our little secret by giving you, say, three screaming orgasms within the next sixty minutes, I’ll tell Trent myself.”
Ty couldn’t tear his gaze from Faith’s face. So expressive, so beautiful. He watched as she tilted her head slightly as if contemplating his offer.
“And if you can convince me?”
“Then I get to pick what you wear to our dinner table tonight.”
“And what would that be?”
Having arrived at their room and the foot of their bed, Ty threw Faith onto it. She gave a little yelp then laughed as he threw himself on top of her.
“Why, nothing, of course.” Ty knelt over her, his hands making quick work of the buttons on her shirt, his gaze following his fingers, mouth watering as more of her skin and body came into view. He stilled at once when she grabbed his hand, and his gaze flew to hers. Thinking he had perhaps done something wrong, he was surprised to see her eyes glinting with challenge and her wicked smile in place. He couldn’t stop himself from leaning in to kiss her, so overwhelmed by how inviting her lips were, how they called to him to claim them.
Just before he pressed his mouth to hers, he heard her whisper, “Deal.”
Faith surrendered under the onslaught of Ty’s kiss. When he lowered his body to lie directly on top of her and pulled her leg up and over his hip, he pressed his hard shaft against her rapidly heating pussy, nothing between them but the denim of his jeans and the cotton of her panties. Faith groaned into his mouth as he ground his hips against her with a groan of his own. She could feel her pussy starting to clench and knew that she was not far off from coming, and Ty hadn’t even got her naked yet. She tried to count to one hundred in her head to distract herself from the mind-numbing pleasure he was giving her, in a vain attempt to stave of the orgasm that was rushing down on her. Damn Ty and his competitive streak a mile long!
Faith had hoped to win their little deal, telling herself that she would be able to handle whatever this beautiful man threw at her, but she had temporarily forgotten how determined he was. His determination only matched by how extremely competitive he was. When Ty began to simulate actually fucking her by lifting his hips then rolling them hard into her pussy, she was a goner. She pulled her mouth from his, thrust her head back, and keened her pleasure. Loudly. Ty’s exultant grunt gave way to his harsh breathing as he continued to roll his hips, milking the most out of her orgasm and sending sparks of pleasure through her body.
Faith dropped back against the bed with a deep breath. “Holy God,” she whispered, her breathing fast, and as she raised her hand to her brow, she knew it trembled. When she was able to open her eyes and actually look at him, her eyes narrowed at his shit-eating grin.
“That’s one.”
Faith shivered at the growl in his voice. Adding in the flash of blue in his gaze, she knew his wolf was close to the surface.
“Ty.” Faith ran her fingers down his back and under the waistband of his jeans, cupped his cheeks, and squeezed. “This would feel a whole lot better if we were naked,” she finished breathlessly.
“Yeah, and over way too quick. I plan to win this bet first, and then I am going to fuck you so hard you’ll feel me for the rest of the day.” Ty’s eyes glittered blue, and a gravelly timbre came into his voice. “Every time you move this beautiful body, it will feel like I am still balls deep inside you. Your cunt will quiver with the need for my cock to fill you again.”
Faith groaned at that picture, and her hips began to roll against him involuntarily as she began to feel very empty.
“But know this, sweetness, as empty as you will feel, as needy for my cock as you will be, I will be just as hungry for you. My cock will be so hard, and I will be needing to feel your tight, beautiful pussy wrapped around me, squeezing the come from my balls at the same time.”
Faith felt her heart skip a beat at the picture he painted in her mind. So this is what it felt like to be mindfucked, she thought to herself.
Ty chuckled. “No, sweetness, a mindfuck is something entirely different.”
Faith froze. She knew she hadn’t said that out loud. Ty was seemingly oblivious to her shock as he nibbled his way down her neck. What the hell? Faith knew she wasn’t telepathic, and she was certainly no damn wolf, so how the hell had he heard her?
Ty growled against her neck. “Am I losing my touch, sweet girl? You seem to have forgotten I’m here.” Ty grumped as he pulled back to look into her face. “Faith, what’s wrong?”
The desire on Ty’s face was suddenly replaced with concern, and Faith raised her hand to cup his face.
She opened her mouth to speak, but Ty suddenly stilled, and his head tilted to the side slightly as if he was listening to someone. Hmm, Trent must be talking to him. And from the way his face filled with thunder and his muscles swelled up, all hard and bulging and dripping with yumminess that made a girl want to—Stop it, Faith! Damn it, girl, get it together and focus! It wasn’t good news.
Ty suddenly leapt from the bed, lifting her with him, not stopping until he had her pressed against the wall beside the window, his body crowded against hers. He lifted the curtain, eyes sharp as he looked out across their property, a continuous growl rumbling from his chest.
“Um, Ty? I’m gonna need a little update on what’s happening,” Faith asked quietly. Ty’s eyes flicked to hers, and she felt her knees buckle a little at the beauty of the full arctic blue he turned her way. She had never seen his wolf so close.
“Trent’s on his way back.” Ty’s voice was garbled, and Faith noticed that his canines had dropped a little, making it hard to be articulate, another wo
lfy sign. “Something has happened.”
“No shit. I never would have guessed from the fact we went from nearly making love to DEFCON Three in a matter of seconds,” Faith snapped. Yeah, her sarcasm ran into overdrive when she was nervous or scared. And right now she was both. Ty raised his brow as if reprimanding her reply. She raised her own as if to say, “Deal with it.”
“He’ll be here in seconds, and we will talk with you then. He is bringing Cody and Brendan with him, too.” Ty’s voice had cleared, so he was once again in control of his wolf.
As soon as he finished, Faith heard the roar of trucks crest the rise leading from the drive up to the property, then two vehicles skidding to a halt, doors slamming shut, and in no time at all, Trent’s voice calling her name from the front room.
Ty grabbed her hand and ran with her to meet him.
The relief at seeing Faith was stark in Trent’s face. In a blink of an eye, he was across the room and had her wrapped in his arms, so tight she could feel the thudding of his heart against her chest, a heart that was beating just a little faster than it should.
“Trent?” Faith gasped. “What’s wrong? What’s happening?” Faith awkwardly patted him on the back but couldn’t really move properly because his grasp on her was so tight. Over his shoulder she could see both Brendan and Cody standing at the windows, watching out over the pastures much like Ty was before.
“Faith, it will be OK. We told you we will take care of you, and we meant it.” Trent leaned back and reached up to grasp her cheeks in his hands and pressed kisses over her face. Bewildered, Faith lifted her hands to his wrists, not knowing what to do but recognizing the stress in the man she loved by the fact that his whole body seemed to quiver.
“We protect what’s ours, Faith. Trust us.” Ty promised and leaned into her back, his hands on her hips.
Surrounded by the two men, she definitely felt safe, but no less bewildered. “Tell me, what has you both so spooked?”
Trent looked at his brother over her shoulder.
“Stop it! Damn it, no more Secret Squirrel shit. Just say it out loud,” Faith snapped.
Trent shot her a grin, and a rude hand gesture at the two men across the room who had snorted a laugh. “Sorry, baby, force of habit. Faith, something has happened, and I am not sure how you are going to react to it.” Trent grabbed her hand and led her to the couch. He sat down on the coffee table in front of her and grabbed both of her hands. Ty sat down close beside her and wrapped his arm around her back.
“Just come out with it already! It can’t be any worse than seeing you both so on edge and not knowing why,” Faith snapped.
Trent sighed. “Baby, Parks escaped custody, and we think he is on his way here.”
Faith felt all the blood leave her face. She was wrong. Knowing was way worse.
Chapter 8
“Fuck, I hope he makes it this far. I’d love to finish what I started the day we found Faith.” Ty’s voice pulsed with rage, and Trent knew exactly what he was feeling. He was a fairly pissed-off wolf hell-bent on revenge himself. He glanced over at his mate asleep on the couch, marveling, not for the first time, at her inner strength.
Trent had been at his mother’s when he received the call from Grant Snow, a pack mate who also worked at the sheriff’s department. As soon as he heard Grant on the phone, his wolf leapt forward as if he knew something was wrong. Once Grant shared the story of how Parks had manipulated a young officer into aiding in his escape from a holding cell in Houston, where he was facing trial, Trent was already on the move. He ordered Grant to get more pack members over to the ranch and protect the kids as he rushed back to his mate.
He had tried to reach his brother through their bond, but whatever the lucky bastard had been doing at the time with their mate had been so all consuming he had inadvertently thrown a barrier up on the link to Trent. When Trent asked him about it later, Ty had no idea how he had done it, but it wasn’t until Trent was almost back to their place that he had been able to get a warning through to Ty.
Finding out that Parks had escaped was enough to put the fear of God into both of them, but to hear from the Marshals office in Texas that Parks had been talking about woman that he intended to “reign down upon her a righteous judgment befitting that of her crime against the church” from the first moment he arrived, that had them seeing red.
Trent wanted to ensure that the crazy fucker never got within five miles of their mate, but the wolf in him wanted him closer—the better to rip his spinal cord out his throat, or so the bloodthirsty hound had made very clear to his human. To be honest, Trent thought there was a lot of merit in that idea.
Trent thought back to the moment they had told Faith that Parks had escaped. He had expected her to crumble, to fall back into that catatonic state that had seemed like her refuge just a few short weeks ago. But she hadn’t. Other than that initial loss of color, she had dealt with it admirably.
She had wanted to know everything, so Ty had sent Cody and Brendan out to patrol the perimeter of their property. If they caught sight or scent of anything off, then they would send a warning.
“Do you think he will just turn up?” Faith’s question broke the silence. “I mean, he lost all his followers in that tornado. He’s alone now. Would he risk going to jail just to get even with me?”
Ty’s gaze flicked to his, and he nodded. Trent moved toward their mate and swooped her up and off the couch and into his arms. He loved that little gasp she gave whenever they carried her. He carried her over to the armchair near the wall where Ty kept watch, knowing that he needed her near him as much as Trent did.
“We know he’s a whole bunch of fries short of a Happy Meal, baby.” Trent pressed a kiss to her temple when she snorted a laugh. “His insanity makes him unpredictable, and that makes him even more dangerous.”
“Trent’s right, sweet girl.” Ty moved to place his hand on her shoulder, never taking his eyes from the window. “Until that fucker is caught and taken care of”—Ty could have meant incarcerated but Trent knew he meant gutted, dismembered, and then dropped into a large hole, no need for ambiguity here—“we will take no risks with you.”
“Or the children.” Trent spoke softly knowing that their mate was close to dropping off. “There are more friends at Mum and Dad’s making sure he can’t get near the children either. They are family, too.”
Faith sighed and snuggled in to sleep. Ty asked for a situation report down the link to their betas, and the report was all clear. It was driving them crazy not knowing where Parks was. Trent was almost tempted to hunt the fucker down. They knew he was heading in this direction, so why not head on out to meet the prick?
“That’s not a bad idea, you know,” Ty muttered out loud.
“I told you I was a genius.”
Ty snorted then turned from the window to look with longing at him and their mate. “We should send someone out to see if they can’t catch his scent. Although I would love the opportunity to go and hunt Parks down myself, we can’t leave Faith. But I thought perhaps Noah. He was Special Ops in the marines for five years before he came home.”
“Yeah, but he came home a different wolf, Ty.”
Trent thought about their friend and pack mate. He was their pack healer Chris’s brother and had come back to Grey River only six months ago. He had been wounded by a roadside IED that had killed three others in his team. The only thing that saved him was the fact he was a shifter.
“He’s not the same laid-back Noah he used to be. He’s more intense and carries more than just the scars on his body. Chris has been trying to get him to talk to a professional, but he’s fighting it.”
“I know, Trent, but I think it’s that intensity and, of course, all those years of training that make him the perfect choice.” Ty sighed, and then spoke down their common length to Chris and Noah. Trent was surprised at how fast Noah jumped at the chance to track Parks down, and it was Chris who warned them that Noah might not return.
In the
end Noah insisted on going, and Chris reluctantly agreed that he was the perfect choice. Knowing that it might be the chance Noah was looking for to escape the memories, run in wolf form, and forgo his human life made it awkward to feel so relieved that someone they trusted, someone pack, was hunting the prick who had hurt their mate. The worst kind of catch-22.
Now it was simply a matter of waiting, watching, and protecting their mate. Ty growled with impatience, and Trent once again thanked his lucky stars that he was a patient wolf.
* * * *
It had been two weeks since they had word that Parks had escaped captivity and was making his way to Grey River. At first Ty and Trent had refused to leave her side, but after a week, they had issues they needed to tend to, so their round-the-clock protection service was lightened a little—which for Faith meant she didn’t have to kill one or both of them. Win-win, really.
She had thought they would have talked to her about being shifters by now, that they would have had enough trust in her to talk to her about who they really were to the Grey River community, but she reasoned that there was enough going on for them to worry about without having to talk a woman they were sleeping with through the fact that they could shift into wolves. Once this danger had passed, however, there would be another come-to-Jesus moment for the three of them. It was getting difficult for her to hide the fact that she knew, and it was causing issues for their protection detail as well.
She filled her days getting to know the members of their pack, secretly learning what Ty and Trent were like as leaders. She learnt that they were very highly respected by all members of the pack. They ruled strongly but fairly, and other pack leaders would confide in them and look to them for guidance.
She became close with the men/wolves who took shifts patrolling the area around their property as well as those who spent time protecting the Jamieson ranch. Judy Jamieson, Ty and Trent’s mom, was a force to be reckoned with, loyal to her family, her pack, and the children that had been rescued from the compound. Judy asked flat out if Faith knew about them being shifters. When Faith admitted she did, and told her that the boys had yet to talk to her about it, she had growled. “Oh, those boys of mine can be such dumbasses!”
