by Abby Blake
She nodded against the table, unable to find enough energy to speak.
“We’re not finished yet, princess,” Zeek whispered as Nickolas finally pulled his cock from her ass and wiped her clean with a soft cloth that she suspected was probably his T-shirt.
Zeek lifted her as if she weighed practically nothing, laid her on her back, lifted her legs over his shoulders, and thrust hard and deep into her sopping wet pussy. She arched her back, the incredible feeling of being possessed this way rolling through her, over her, as he held her ass and pounded into her again and again.
His pace was frantic, his motions fast, almost uncoordinated. “Come for me, Ruby,” he demanded as he ground his palm against her swollen clit. Despite her exhaustion, climax rolled over her once more. He pounded her harder, slamming into her convulsing pussy again and again and again.
He made a strangled, gasping sound, thrust to the hilt, and held her close as his cock pulsed and jumped inside her.
Now completely and utterly exhausted, Ruby could barely keep her eyes open. She may even have passed out for a moment, because the next thing she knew Levi was helping her off the table. He lifted her into his arms, pressed a kiss against her lips, and whispered, “Shower time.”
If this shower was anything like the last one they’d shared, Ruby was in a whole heap of trouble. Levi laughed quietly, kissed her again, and whispered, “Nope. You need to rest.” She nodded tiredly but managed to lift her face high enough to press a lingering kiss to his jaw. But then he winked and added, “Definitely next time.”
* * * *
After a quick shower, Ruby lay quietly in Levi’s arms. She was completely exhausted but not really tired enough to sleep. Her ass and pussy throbbed pleasantly as everything she and her guys had shared ran through her mind.
It seemed almost unbelievable that less than two days ago she’d been practically a completely different person. Surrounded by these three men, she felt like she belonged. It wasn’t something she’d ever felt before.
“Levi,” she whispered, hoping that he was awake.
“Yes, darlin’,” he answered as he pulled her more comfortably into the cradle of his body.
“Do bear-shifters procreate the same way as humans?”
“Are you asking me where baby bears come from?” She could hear the humor in his voice and was grateful for it. Their entire relationship seemed on fast-forward, and while she’d happily take time to get to know her men better, she’d noticed that they hadn’t seemed the least bit interested in using contraception. It was probably something she should have discussed beforehand, but a part of her wanted to be bound to these men for all eternity. Very strange, considering that she’d spent the first twenty-six years of her life holding people away.
“I suppose I am,” she said with a smile on her lips. “Where do baby bear-shifters come from?”
“Well, you see, when a mama bear and a papa bear love each other very much—”
She smacked his arm playfully. “Levi,” she said in a warning voice, but couldn’t quite hide her amusement. How could such a serious conversation still be fun?
“Okay,” he said, rolling her over so that she could see his face. “Bear-shifter females go into heat once a year during mating season. If you’re anything like our sister, you’ll go all cranky-bear the moment you become pregnant and spend the next several months chewing our asses.”
“You have a sister?” It wasn’t exactly the most important part of that sentence, but it was kind of nice to know that she’d have a female relative to turn to when the time came.
But then the reality of her thoughts intruded. Shit, she was lying here making plans for the rest of her life as if two days of fucking somehow created a relationship. She practically jackknifed off the bed as embarrassment streaked through her.
“Ruby?” Levi asked as he hauled her back into his embrace. He was far stronger than her, and he held her down easily.
“Let me go,” she demanded in a very weak version of her demanding-diva voice.
“Not until you explain why you’re upset.”
“I’m not upset,” she denied even though tears spilled over her eyelids.
“Ruby, honey,” Nickolas said as he came into the room and sat on the bed beside her. “Please talk to us. Why are you suddenly upset? Don’t you want babies?”
“I…” She glanced over to see Zeek had joined them also. All three of her men seemed very worried. Shit, they weren’t her men. How could they be? She’d met them two days ago. Just because she’d given them her virginity didn’t mean they were as attached to her as she was to them. God, she was an idiot. But then the meaning of Nickolas’s question finally sank in.
“Do you want babies?” she asked, not daring to look at their faces.
“Of course,” Zeek said, “but not until you’re ready.”
“Until I’m ready?” Had she missed part of the conversation? They wanted to have babies with her?
“Of course,” Levi said, repeating Zeek’s words. He pressed a kiss to her temple, his rough hand caressing her lower belly soothingly. “Even bear-shifters have ways of protecting against pregnancy during mating season.”
“So you…um…want to keep me. I can stay if I want.”
“Of course you can,” Nickolas said, sounding completely bewildered. “What did you think this was all about? You’re our mate, Ruby. We will love you and protect you and spend the rest of our lives trying to make you happy.”
Before she could answer, a voice that she recognized came from the doorway. “Sorry to interrupt the undying declarations of sappiness,” Wesley said. “But you have what looks to be every cop in the state about to arrive on your doorstep.” He stood just outside the room, his lower body thankfully hidden by the wall as he looked around the doorjamb. Acutely conscious of her nakedness, Ruby snuggled lower into the blanket that she and Levi were under. Nickolas and Zeek immediately left the room, closing the door firmly behind them but not before Wesley managed to send her a suggestive wink.
“Is he always like that?”
“Pretty much,” Levi said as he moved off the bed and grabbed their clothes. “But he’s harmless. In shifter terms he’s just a kid, barely out of his teens.”
“In shifter terms?” Was it just her being a little slow today, or did the information seem to be coming too fast?
“Shifters live much longer lives than the average human. You will, too, now.”
“Oh.” At least she wouldn’t need to worry about growing old and gray while they didn’t. “So how old are you and your brothers?”
“How old do we look?”
She shrugged. “Late twenties, early thirties maybe.”
He winked, pulled her into his arms for a quick hug, and whispered, “Close enough.”
She gave him a stubborn look, but he lifted her shirt over her head and then turned to drag on his own clothes. Not wanting her father to arrive while she was still naked, Ruby let the matter go…for now.
Chapter Five
Nickolas stepped off the porch and headed toward the lead police vehicle. He held his arms up, making certain that they realized he was no threat. A low-caliber bullet probably wouldn’t penetrate his skin thanks to his increased density in his human shape. But a bullet bouncing off him wasn’t something he wanted to explain to a bunch of non-shifters.
The officer opened the driver-side door and stayed behind it, his hand on his gun even if it wasn’t actually pointed at Nickolas. Obviously trust was not yet established despite Nickolas’s attempts to appear nonthreatening.
“Where is my daughter?” a middle-aged man demanded as he climbed out of the backseat of the same cruiser. A young woman, her appearance strikingly similar to Ruby’s, also climbed out of the car. “No, sweetheart, stay in the car where it’s safe,” the man Nickolas suspected was Ruby’s father said to the young woman. The blonde nodded and did as she’d been told. She was too young to be Ruby’s mother, and they knew she didn’t have any siblin
gs—a cousin maybe? The man turned back to Nickolas and demanded, “Now give me back my daughter!”
Nickolas almost laughed as the police officer rolled his eyes. A second officer opened his car door, climbed out, and turned to speak to Ruby’s father. Clearly, Mr. Rickardson wasn’t used to following orders.
“She’s inside, Mr. Rickardson,” Nickolas said with what he hoped was a bright, friendly smile. “We found her drugged and injured not far from here, but she’s fine now. You’re welcome to come inside and see for yourself.”
He’d told his brothers to keep Ruby inside as long as they could. There was no way he was letting his woman walk into the middle of a tense standoff between men with guns. She might be a bear-shifter now, but until she was heavy enough to shift, she wouldn’t have the same physical durability that he and his brothers enjoyed. They weren’t exactly bulletproof, but they were pretty close. But even if she had been further along in her transformation to bear-shifter, the last thing he needed was Ruby getting shot by some overzealous police officer. It didn’t help that they still had no clue as to the identity of her abductors.
“Bring her out here,” the officer called.
“No worries,” Nickolas said affably, trying to project calm emotions, “but we’d prefer that you put your guns away first.”
The police officer obviously didn’t like that idea, but he glanced at his partner, and they both took their hands off their guns. He signaled for the officers in the two other cars to do the same. A moment later several more police vehicles entered the small clearing that served as a front yard for their fishing cabin.
“You’re surrounded now,” Ruby’s father said with a smug grin. “Bring my daughter out immediately and you might get out of this alive.”
Nickolas took a deep breath and tried really hard to control his anger. He reminded himself that this man was worried for his daughter, and since he and his brothers planned on mating with the woman, that technically made this man his father-in-law. Nickolas counted to ten and prayed for patience. When he finally found his ability to speak without shouting, he said, “Mr. Rickardson, we rescued your daughter. We are not the people who took her. If you stay calm, we can get this all sorted without any misunderstandings.”
“He’s telling the truth, Daddy,” Ruby called from the front porch. Nickolas was relieved to see his brothers on either side of their woman. They stayed close as the three of them walked up to where Nickolas stood. “I’m okay, but until we know who kidnapped me and left me for dead, I’d really prefer to stay close to Nickolas, Levi, and Zeek.”
* * * *
Ruby concentrated on convincing her father. She had no doubt that he’d been the one to convince the police officers that she was in danger from the Brockman brothers, despite her assurances to the contrary.
“Your mother and cousin have been very worried,” he said in a tone of voice that suggested getting abducted had somehow been her own fault. “Persephone was so concerned that she even insisted on driving up here with me. Your cousin was willing to risk her own life to get you back. Be sensible, Ruby. Come home where you are safe.” Her father gave her that look that she knew so well—the one that said she was disappointing him by not immediately giving in to his wishes.
“Daddy, I’m fine,” she said in as reassuring a voice as she could muster, “but if Nickolas, Levi, and Zeek hadn’t found me, I probably would have died in the forest in the middle of nowhere. Daddy, they saved my life. They didn’t hurt me.”
“It’s okay, Ruby. Walk over here to me. You’re safe now.”
“Daddy,” she said angrily, feeling the familiar frustration at being ignored. Nothing she’d ever done had been good enough for this man. He’d never listened, and had no idea what she wanted or what she believed. She knew he cared for her, but it didn’t make up for the way he’d always dismissed her thoughts and emotions her entire life.
“Ruby, do as I say.”
“No,” she said, trying not to stamp her foot like a recalcitrant child. She took a deep breath, determined to find the maturity to deal with this situation the way she needed to. Why was it that whenever her father got involved, she ended up feeling like a chastised six-year-old? “Daddy, you and a couple of the police officers can come inside so we can discuss this like responsible adults.” He gave her an angry look that would have had her backing down as recently as yesterday, but no longer. “Or you can climb into that car and head back down the mountain without me. Your choice.”
She turned and headed back into the house, Levi and Zeek staying close to her as Nickolas remained behind to once again try and talk sense into the police officers.
* * * *
Nickolas tried to hide his smile. It was pretty obvious that despite her reputation as a spoiled, overindulged diva, Ruby had never spoken to her father so confidently before. It was quite funny to see the man’s mouth as it kept opening and closing like he wanted to say something but couldn’t quite form the words.
“Can I see some ID, Mr. Brockman?” the first officer asked as he stepped forward.
“Sure,” Nickolas said. Not wanting to get shot, he added, “My wallet is in my back pocket.”
“Turn around,” the officer said with a friendly smile. Nickolas did what he asked, glad to hear the man’s quiet sigh of relief when he saw that Nickolas wasn’t hiding a weapon. The fact that he was a black bear and quite capable of tearing the guy to shreds was probably not something the officer needed to know. Nickolas pushed two fingers into his pocket and lifted the wallet out of his jeans. He turned around slowly and handed it to the officer as he stepped closer.
“Thanks, Mr. Brockman. Is it okay if I call you Nickolas?”
“Sure,” Nickolas said, recognizing the common police tactic of creating a personal connection so that Nickolas would feel he was talking to a friend. He smiled. That suited him just fine.
“Call me Hal,” the officer said with another relaxed smile, designed to fool Nickolas into believing they were pals.
Nickolas and his new best friend, Officer Hal Davies, turned toward the cabin and headed inside. Nickolas wasn’t the least bit surprised when Ruby’s father followed them despite the other officer’s whispered instructions to wait until they got the all clear.
* * * *
It took way too much talking for what was a pretty simple matter. Levi rolled his eyes as Zeek explained yet again how they’d been hiking when they stumbled across an unconscious woman and had taken her back to their cabin. Of course they left out the part about black bears, snakebites, and magical healing, so it was probably understandable why the officer was acting suspicious.
“Fine. Okay, they saved her life. Now what?” Ewin Rickardson said rather loudly, his patience—what little he possessed—breaking at the third round of questions from Officer Davies.
“That is up to Miss Rickardson,” Officer Davies’s partner, Officer Gallego, answered, unexpectedly throwing his support behind Levi and his brothers. “It seems that she is quite safe here and very well protected.”
Ruby nodded in agreement. “Dad, at the moment everyone thinks I’m still missing, and the kidnappers probably think I’m dead. Wouldn’t I be safer staying here at least until we can catch the people who kidnapped me in the first place?”
But Nickolas surprised Levi by disagreeing with their mate. “Perhaps it would be best for you to go home.” The color drained from Ruby’s face, and Levi wanted to kick his brother from here to Sunday until he added, “We’ll come, too, of course, but it may be the best way to flush out whoever did this. We’ve already established that the kidnappers had to have known of Ruby’s plans that night. This attack wasn’t random. It was well thought out and perfectly executed.”
“So why did they dump her in the middle of nowhere?” Ewin Rickardson asked belligerently.
“Because you spooked them with all the police involvement and threats on the television and radio,” Zeek said, his anger still obvious.
“Or,” Officer Gallego
interrupted before the two men could start shouting, “they had no intention of handing her back even after you paid the ransom.”
That shut them all up.
* * * *
Ruby could feel the tension level in the car increase the closer they got to her home. Her father hadn’t been happy that she’d chosen to go back to her apartment instead of going back to the tight security of the Rickardson family home. At least that was until Officer Gallego had pointed out that since they hadn’t yet identified the culprits behind her kidnapping, it was possible that someone from her father’s own security staff could have organized it.
Her father’s face had blanched so rapidly that Ruby had worried he was about to have a heart attack. Fortunately, he hadn’t, but he’d ceased his objections after that.
They’d been traveling for nearly six hours, and Ruby was more than ready to curl up in her own bed. She glanced at the men with her and realized that it was unlikely she would be alone. Delicious heat snaked through her as she tried to focus enough to direct Zeek into the secure parking spaces under her building. She smiled at the parking attendant’s obvious surprise at seeing her safe and well, her grin growing wider as he also complimented her on hiring herself some very big bodyguards. Nickolas, Levi, and Zeek didn’t bother to correct him.
“Should I order a late supper? There’s an all-night deli not far from here,” Ruby asked as Levi held her close and Nickolas and Zeek checked every corner of her apartment for intruders. All three men seemed to relax when they realized the extent of her security measures. She’d had a state-of-the-art perimeter alarm system, panic buttons, and motion detectors installed before she’d moved in, and it had been the only reason her parents hadn’t kicked up a major fuss about her living on her own.
