Peata [Eminence Shifters 2] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour)
Page 6
“Would the police still have her clothes in evidence?” Calder managed to ask through his clenched jaws. “Axel and I are the best trackers in the pride. We can find them. We can find them all.”
The idea of hunting them down, finally cleared the last of the haze and allowed him to see again. His cat was eager to feel their blood spill down its throat. Killing them once would not be enough. He heard Axel stop in his destruction of the barn. He agreed, they could find them.
Finn was planted firmly in front of him now, his eyes a dazzling amber. “Do you think so little of your mate that you would stain her conscience with their deaths? How could she live with such guilt? It would destroy her.”
He ached to deny the truth of Finn’s words, but he couldn’t. His mate was a kind person. She would never forgive Calder if he killed because of her.
“Sorry, Cooper.” Calder could now see the wounds he had inflicted in his rage. The bleeding had stopped, and as a shifter he would heal quickly, but he felt terrible for upsetting Melanie. “I will apologize to Melanie for hurting you.”
“Don’t sweat it, Calder, she will want to nurse me back to health, now I’m so badly injured. I may need a sponge bath,” he said.
“Pervert,” Calder said, slapping the big man on his uninjured side. “Thanks, Cooper, I owe you.” His Beta was a good enforcer.
“Thank you for being here for this. I know it was hard to hear. Axel I could handle, but Calder…” Max said, nodding his thanks at each of them.
Hunter stepped forward and put his arm over Calder’s shoulders. “Calder’s idea may have some merit.”
Finn’s eyes fixed Hunter in a bright amber stare.
“Dial it back, big brother. Not the part about killing them and disposing of their bodies. The police probably still have all the evidence. I know a wolf shifter who works a detective in Durango, right near Montrose. If he could get a hold of that evidence he could try and track them. Peata may not have been their only victim.”
“What about the other scum bags, the ones who are trying to kill her?” Calder asked.
“That is going to take a little more finesse. We will get their names from Peata, and contact some people we know in the FBI,” Finn reassured Calder.
“We will involve the entire pride in keeping her safe. Doc’s brothers Samson and Michael are home on leave at the moment. They work in some uber-secret arm of the military. We can get them on patrol duty,” Dane stated.
“Those fuckers are lethal,” Cooper added, grimacing.
Calder began to relax, he needed to hold Peata. He knew she was safe now, but after hearing what she had gone through, alone, and at only eighteen, he just had to feel her in his arms.
“Can I release you now?” Finn asked him.
“Yes, Alpha,” he said, finding he was able to move once Finn had dropped his glowing amber stare from him.
“Do you think that Melanie is ready for us, Finn?” Max asked, walking toward the barn’s door.
Calder felt his whole body tense again. How was Peata going to take the news that they were shifters?
“She’s going to be fine, she already loves us,” Axel said, smacking him on the head as he walked past him and out the barn.
He stalked after his brothers. The thought of shifting for Peata calmed more of his rage. His cat was going to feel their mate’s touch at last.
Chapter 11
Peata sat and watched the women move around the unfamiliar kitchen making tea. They had to open and close lots of cupboards before they found what they needed. Melanie spoke to the older woman, Shana, with deference, making Peata wonder at the significance of the word “healer” that had been used in introducing her.
“I have mixed honey with some herbs to soothe your throat, Peata, please drink,” Shana said, placing a mug in front of Peata. It smelt of honey and lavender.
“Thank you very much, for the tea and for coming out to meet me. It’s kind of you both.”
The women sat opposite her at the table as she began sipping the lukewarm tea. It did soothe her throat. She was never anxious around women, and these two were being so kind that she felt quite at ease in their company.
“How did you come to be in that barn, Peata?” Shana asked her. “We know of the circumstance that caused you to flee your home, but I am curious as to how you found yourself in Eminence.”
“I went to the bus station early that morning and just caught the first bus leaving. It was going to Denver, but I only stayed on it for a little while before getting off and changing directions. I kept doing that until I ended up in Eminence. There were no buses out of town yesterday afternoon and I was too scared to book into the Inn. I got a lift from a delivery driver who was heading out of town. When I saw that old abandoned barn I decided to spend the night there. I had the driver drop me off at the first house we passed and I walked back.”
“You must have been very scared, Peata, but you are lucky to have survived the fire,” Shana said. Her tone had become slightly admonishing.
“If she hadn’t lit that fire, she may never have met her men,” Melanie said, “so it all worked out perfectly.”
“Indeed, quite serendipitous,” Shana replied simply.
“Why do people keep referring to them as ’my men’?” Peata asked.
“That brings us to the reason we are here,” Shana answered. Peata froze. They had a reason other than being friendly?
“Don’t be scared, Peata. We’re just here to help your men answer all those questions you have, undoubtedly, been asking,” Melanie said sweetly.
“How do you know I’ve been asking them questions? Have they told you?” Perhaps they hadn’t wanted to give her bad news, so they had sent someone else to do it. “Do they want me to leave?”
“God, no,” Melanie said, grasping her hand tightly. “I just know what you’ve been feeling today. I met my husbands eight weeks ago, and we have been married for the last four of those.”
“You married them after knowing them only four weeks?” Peata exclaimed, not meaning to sound shocked. But it came out that way nonetheless. “Sorry, that was rude of me.”
“It wasn’t rude. It was fast, by normal standards.”
“We can help you understand what you are experiencing,” Shana said. “We want it to be easier for you than it was for Melanie.”
“Not to be rude again, but you have four giant husbands. Surely nothing could have made that easy.”
“That’s a scream. I called them giants the day we met.” Melanie laughed briefly. “I came home with them that same day too. I was unable to say no. I just couldn’t bear not being near them. Their touch made my skin tingle. I’d never felt like that before. I found it impossible to lie to them. I just blurted out the truth. It was really quite embarrassing.”
Melanie paused and looked at Peata searchingly. “Any of this sounding at all familiar?”
“My God, you just described everything that has happened to me since I met Max, Axel and Calder. I feel…” Peata paused, searching for the right words.
“Like you’re finally where you were always meant to be,” Melanie supplied.
Peata nodded. “I’m just about to go crazy with all that has happened. I’m not acting at all like myself.”
“Meeting your men today has opened your senses,” Shana explained.
“The world is the same as it was yesterday, Peata, but it’s like you’ve put on glasses, and can see it clearly now,” Melanie added helpfully.
“Am I really stupid?” Peata asked, trying not to cry. “Because I don’t understand anything you just said.”
The front door opened and Peata could hear footsteps and talking. The men were all back. She tensed and rose up out of the chair, ready to run away.
“I’m here, sugar, no one but us will come close,” Calder said. Sitting in Peata’s vacated chair, he pulled her onto his lap, and wrapped his thick arms around her. Max sat next to them, placing a hand on her thigh and kissing her on the lips.
She felt her calm returning. Calder moved her hair aside and placed kisses down her neck. She didn’t want to feel aroused with a room full of people, but she couldn’t seem to stop it from happening. She sighed and sunk further into his embrace.
“That’s better, honey,” Axel said, sitting on the other side of her. He wrapped his big hand around her nape and pulled her into a long, deep kiss. Peata felt juices actually drip onto Max’s sweatpants.
Max, Axel and Calder all growled, the vibrations sending shivers down her spine.
Shana cleared her throat loudly, drawing their attention. “Max, I think it is past time you shared some of your family history with Peata.”
Axel pulled away from Peata’s lips and smiled at her. “My turn for a hug,” he said, sliding her to his own lap and holding her close.
Peata looked around for Melanie’s husbands. They were all standing on the other side of the big living room, staring intently at Melanie, their faces clearly showing their affection.
“I told you, sugar, we’ve got you now,” Calder whispered in her ear and went to stand behind Shana.
Max turned his chair to face her. “I have been a fireman here in Eminence for over fifty years. I will have to retire soon, as people will start to notice that I haven’t really aged much in all these years. After retirement I will stay out of the town’s business, and work with the horses for the next couple of hundred years. That’s what all the men in our family have done.”
“You’re not that old, Max,” Peata said in a hesitant voice. Her head was suddenly pounding with anger and embarrassment, and she had the feeling that she was going to be sick.
“I am seventy-two years old, Axel and Calder are fifty-four. Our race is very long lived. We age slowly compared to humans. Shana is reputed to be three hundred, but she refuses to tell anyone her true age.”
Max looked so sincere. But really, he couldn’t be serious. Is this a really bad joke they are all playing on me?
“There is more than one kind of human in the world. Other races are called ‘Were,’ or shape-shifters. We are descended from a race of shape-shifters that share our form with mountain lions. But other races share their form with different creatures.”
Peata found herself rendered speechless. She looked at Melanie and Shana. What were they doing? She couldn’t see the humor in this at all.
“I understand how difficult this is. Melanie is human and, until she met her men, knew nothing of shape-shifters,” Shana explained.
Peata held up her hand. She needed them to stop talking. It was just too much. It was overwhelming. She read books, she knew the stories of werewolves and vampires, and that’s what they were, stories. She just didn’t know if these people were all sane.
Finn moved slowly into the kitchen. “Who is going to shift?”
Calder stepped forward until he stood directly behind Melanie. He stripped off his clothes in seconds, leaving him naked and glorious. He may be a nut job, but he was built like Adonis come to life. She stopped breathing, her whole body tingling at the sight of his hard, muscled body. She couldn’t look away, but she also refused to look at his crotch. She was aroused enough with what she saw above the waist.
“Eyes on me, Melanie, or there will be punishments,” Finn drawled.
As she stared unblinkingly at Calder, she saw his outline change somehow. The air around him seemed to shimmer and thicken. He became hard to focus on, almost as though he was being erased. He seemed to lengthen, and popping noises rang out around him. When the shimmering faded and she could see him clearly again, he was a puma.
With its golden eyes fixed on her it walked sinuously around the table to stand in front of her. At nearly five feet tall it was huge.
Seeing him change negated the need for most of the questions Peata had been about to ask, as well as clearing up the issue of their sanity. She had no choice but to believe them all.
Axel pressed a kiss to the top of her head and squeezed her gently. It reminded her that she wasn’t alone. Max moved to her side and placed his hand on her shoulder. Something important seemed to pass between them all in that moment. She didn’t know what it was, but she was certain that she would never be the same again.
Without consciously thinking of doing it, Peata reached out and stroked her hand down the thick fur on Calder’s neck. His head lowered to her knees, the warm weight of it a surprise and a comfort. It gave her better access, so she stroked farther down his neck to his shoulder. His body began to vibrate with a deep growling purr.
That vibration, those growls, she had heard them before, she had heard them coming from all of the men, but especially from Calder. They affected her the same way too. Goose bumps rose across every inch of her skin. Her nipples hardened and her pussy clenched.
“Shit and damn, you are all so sexy when you make that sound,” Peata whispered. The purring rumble from Calder grew louder and Axel’s own growl vibrated against her back.
“We maintain the enhanced senses of our cats, even when we are not shifted,” Max whispered in her ear. “The growling is our response to the immense pleasure your aroused scent gives us.” Max stoked his fingers softly down her arm, the action both innocent and deeply intimate. “But remember, we are not the only cats in the house right now.”
Not the only cats? Oh no, Melanie’s men could smell her excitement too. Snapping her head around she saw that Finn was again standing with his brothers across the other side of the room, and they were all smirking.
“The whole damn pride knows when our men get us horny. It’s a fucking nightmare,” Melanie said. She was glaring at her men, but she had a small smile on her lips.
“I will still punish you for swearing, sweetness. Your pregnancy will not become an excuse for you to lapse back into using bad language.” Finn growled at Melanie.
Calder licked her hand, instantly drawing her attention back to him. She resumed petting him.
“Can he understand us like this? I mean, is he still Calder?” she asked, staring into the amber eyes that now had deep brown stars shining in them.
“Yes, honey, we retain all our personality when we shift. We are just us, as cats,” Axel said. “When we are cats, we are able to communicate by sending our thoughts to each other. It’s cheaper than cell phones, and way cooler.”
Of all the things she had been just seen, she found that to be the weirdest.
Chapter 12
“I’m still confused though. Why have you told me about yourselves? I assume it’s a secret, or you would be in zoo somewhere,” Peata asked.
Calder nipped her lightly on the fingers.
“We told you because you are our mate, Peata,” Max said, “and shifters are only ever blessed with one mate for our entire lives.”
“That mate, is the only one with which we can have babies, or cubs, in our case,” Shana continued. “Our mates are instantly recognizable to us by their scent, and our cats immediately start the mating bond. The bond is pheromone based and completely beyond our control.”
“That is why you have been so drawn to your men,” Melanie explained. “They haven’t drugged you, or tricked you. It is the bond pulling you all together. Once it has started, only mating, or death, can stop it,” Melanie explained quietly.
“Why am I feeling this way toward all three of them?” Peata asked, her cheeks heating in embarrassment, but she failed to see why she would have been chosen for all of her men.
“It is not uncommon in our species, for brothers and relatives as close as cousins, to all share a common mate, Peata. No one knows why, but I have my own theories,” Shana said.
“Finding a mate, be they human or shifter, is a rare and precious gift that not all shifters are granted. I was never lucky enough to find mine. Brothers sharing a mate, I believe, is an evolutionary advantage. It makes the odds that much higher that they will all be mated. Plus, there are more me
n to keep that mate safe and protected throughout her long life. She can survive the loss of one of mates, as she has the others to ease her pain. The men, on the other hand, will die when she does.”
“We will leave you now,” Shana said solemnly. “Any other questions you have your men can answer. I hope that we have made this all somehow easier for you, Peata.” She came around and kissed her lightly on the cheek. “Welcome to the pride.”
“Thank you for coming to help me. It’s a lot to try and take in, but it makes a strange sort of sense,” Peata replied. “I’m sorry you never found your mate. Is it too late?”
“I’m still breathing, young one.” She left the room with a wistful smile playing across her lips.
“Congratulations on your pregnancy, Melanie.” Peata hoped Melanie didn’t think her rude for not offering her congratulations earlier.
“Thank you, I’m amazed you remembered, what with all the earth-shattering stuff we just dumped on you. I hope we have helped you. When my men told me, I totally freaked out. I thought they were assholes who just wanted into my pants. I ran away from them and nearly died. No one wanted a repeat of that episode.”
Melanie kissed her lightly on the cheek. “Welcome to the pride. I’m so happy you’re here.”
“That’s two, angel, and he’s not going to forget,” Cooper said. He looked directly at Peata as he slowly approached them. Lifting Melanie up, he gave her a quick kiss on the lips. “Let’s get out of here before Calder shifts back. I nearly had to kill him for getting his junk out with you in the room.”
Then he was gone, moving faster than she could track him, Melanie’s laughter ringing in the air.
Max kissed her on the cheek and escorted the remaining guests out the front door. Things were making a lot more sense now, but she did have more questions. After sharing this much of themselves with her already, she trusted they would tell her everything she needed to know. So she allowed herself this moment, to relax into Axel’s warm embrace and enjoy the feel of Calder’s thick, soft fur under her fingers.