by Lia Davis
Blaine raised his cup toward the desk. “How valuable is that?”
He felt Graham shrug before he straightened. “Isaac bought it at a garage sale a few months before he left…went missing.”
“Good. I want to break it.”
Graham chuckled. “Do we have aggression issues?”
Blaine felt his lips twitch, and he turned to face Graham. Damn. The male didn’t only smell good; he looked it. His short blond hair was tousled from sleep, and he only wore a pair of black boxer briefs, leaving his tight abs and broad shoulders on display. Blaine’s leopard nudged at him from the inside, wanting out to play with the lion in front of them.
Again.
Fuck. Blaine had had male lovers before, but none of them had ever stirred a need as fierce as Graham did.
Blaine met Graham’s blue gaze and growled, “Come here.”
Graham’s blue eyes darkened as he smiled. When he stepped closer and leaned over the sofa, Blaine cupped the back of his head and tugged him into a hard kiss. Blaine growled low. Graham tasted of mint from recently brushing his teeth. His sage and earthy scent filled Blaine’s senses, threatening to force him over the edge.
Breaking the kiss, Blaine rested his forehead against Graham’s. “No matter what happens, I can’t be without Cameron. She was my mate first.”
Graham stepped over the back of the couch and sat beside to him. “I know. If it doesn’t work, I’ll walk away.”
Something inside Blaine twisted, and his chest grew tight. “We’ll have to make sure she sees all the benefits of a triad.”
Graham nodded and stared at the desk. “So what did the desk do to you?”
Blaine laughed. “Do you see the square at the top of the left leg?”
“Yeah…” He leaned forward as if trying to study it closer. “What the hell?” Graham stood and moved toward the desk. He tapped the square then felt around the edges.
“Don’t know, but I want to break it to see if anything is in there.”
Graham nodded and turned the desk on its side spilling the contents on the floor. With a jerk, he ripped the leg from the desk and peered at the top. His eyebrows dipped as he took out a soft black booklet and an envelope.
Blaine stood and walked over to stand next to him. “What is it?”
“Isaac’s research notes.” Graham tucked the notebook under his arm and opened the envelope.
Blaine stepped back to give him some space, not wanting to pry into his business no matter how much his leopard pushed to know everything he could about the male. No, if Graham wanted him to know, then he’d tell Blaine in his own time. It was the same respect he and Cam had with each other.
“It’s his will,” Graham offered.
Blaine snapped his head up and studied Graham. “He knew…”
Graham nodded. “Apparently. He left everything to me: the house, the kids, and their trust fund.”
Well, hell. Blaine didn’t know what to say. Isaac must have been in deep shit and known he would die to save the kids. What the hell had he been involved in?
The faint smell of gas reached Blaine’s nose. “You smell gas?”
Graham sniffed the air and drew his brows together. “Yes, but there shouldn’t be any turned on to the house.”
“How far away is the main gas line?”
Graham’s eyes grew round. “A few yards from the front door.”
The sound of breaking glass made Blaine turn in time to see a fire-tipped arrow hit the sofa cushions, sending it up in flames. Within seconds, two more fiery arrows flew in. One stuck in the wall between Graham and Blaine, and the other hit the floor at their feet. Flames flared around them, burning Blaine’s arms.
Out of reflex, he grabbed Graham by the arm and dematerialized the instant the sounds of a loud explosion filled the room.
****
Cameron tip-toed through the living room toward the kitchen to make coffee. She wasn’t afraid of waking anyone, no, she walked softly because of the massive headache she had, thanks to the abundance of wine she’d drunk with Dani last night.
Shay stepped out of the kitchen with two cups of coffee and giggled.
Cameron growled. “Quiet, she devil.”
That only made her BFF laugh harder. “Sorry, Cam, but you should see it from my point of view. I do think being the only one sober is the funniest thing I’ve ever done.”
Cameron let out another groan and took one of the cups from Shay. “Dani still asleep?”
“Yep.” She gave Cameron a grin then ushered her back to the living room. “Go sit. I made muffins.” She twisted to go back into the kitchen. Cameron slowly made her way to the sofa and sat.
A moment later, Shay came in with a platter of muffins and a few chocolate croissants. Cameron raised her brow. “I thought you made muffins.”
Shay shrugged. “I found the croissants in the bread basket.” She picked up one of them and bit into it. “These are really good. I bet she got them from Rhea.”
Cameron rested her head against the back of the couch and released another groan. “Why are you so damn perky this morning?”
Shay snorted. “Because I didn’t drink a case of wine. I believe you called Jasmine at one point and asked for another case.”
Cameron lifted her head to peer at her friend and cursed the sudden movement. “We did not.”
Shay nodded, smiling from ear to ear. “You did. Jas said the only thing she would send over was coffee.”
Cameron took a sip of her coffee and almost instantly felt the pounding in her head ease. Casting a suspicious glance to Shay, she asked, “You put something in here?”
“A little something to ease pain and nausea.”
Cameron took the cup and gave a sniff, drawing in the sweet fragrance of cream, sugar and something else she couldn’t recognize. “What’s in it?”
Shay rolled her eyes. “Ginger. Now drink.”
Cameron hid her smile behind the coffee cup. Before she took a sip, the energy level in the room spiked, making the hairs on Cameron’s arms rise. What the hell? A split second later, Blaine and Graham appeared in the middle of the room. Blaine had Graham locked in a protective embrace that gave Cameron pause. Then she smelled the fading scent of smoke and gas.
Cameron shot to her feet, wincing as her head pounded in protest, and went to the males. “What happened?”
When she reached them, she looked them over and gasped as she peered down at their legs. Scorch marks streaked Blaine’s jeans. “What the hell happened?” she asked again, this time more in a more demanding tone.
Blaine released Graham and turned his silver-gray eyes to her. Through gritted teeth, he said, “The bastards set the house on fire, with us inside.”
Cameron growled, “Sorry asses will pay for that.” From the corner of her eye, she caught Graham swaying a little. Out of instinct, she reached out and grabbed his hand to help him steady himself. It was like that after being teleported by Blaine. The first couple of times he’d flashed her from one place to another, she’d felt ill, displaced.
Graham linked his fingers with hers, and she was betting it wasn’t by accident or out of the need to center himself. No, the male knew what he was doing. She jerked her hand out of his as though she’d been burned and cast him a narrow-eyed gaze before she focused back on Blaine.
She swore she saw a brief twitch of Blaine’s lips, but it was gone too fast for her to call him out on it. Peering back at Graham, she then noticed the bite mark. All she could do was stare at it. Emotions swirled inside her as though they were undecided on which one should dominate her. She should be angry, hurt, or maybe betrayed. Blaine had technically just cheated on her.
However, he had told her a couple of days ago that he wanted to pursue Graham and enter a triad. She scowled and turned back to Blaine. The males were going to gang up on her.
Damn. She hoped she had enough willpower to resist them both until she could figure out what
she and her jaguar wanted.
“I’m going to get Travis and go back to the house. I want to make sure no neighbors or the surrounding forest catches on fire,” Blaine announced then brushed his lips over hers in a quick kiss before stepping around her, ignoring her scowl.
He opened the door to find Keegan with raised knuckles. The Alpha raised his eyebrows. “You’re home early.”
Blaine nodded. “Call a meeting. I should be back in an hour.”
Keegan gave a short nod and stepped aside for his son to move past.
Cameron’s worry and anger at whoever had tried to burn two shifter males alive, melted at the sight of Max. When Keegan entered the house, closing the door behind him, he set Max down on his feet. The three-year-old took a couple of steps and froze, staring from Cameron to Graham. His little brows drew together as if unsure who he should go to.
Neither she nor Graham moved. Max had to make his own decisions. Slowly the little boy that melted her heart with his very presence started toddling forward, right to Graham. She couldn’t blame him. He hadn’t seen Graham in almost twenty-four hours. Besides the lion shifter was Max’s stepfather in many ways, and the only thing Max had even remotely close to family.
Sammie too. Although Cameron hadn’t spent much time with the girl, she still wanted to get to know her. Sammie needed the chance to be a child and enjoy life while she was young.
“Where’s Sammie?” Graham asked.
Shay came out of the kitchen and went to her father to give him a peck on the cheek. Then she turned to Graham. “Sammie’s in the game room with Josie.”
He nodded and disappeared with Max down the hall.
Cameron watched him leave. His long legs carried his powerful, lean, muscular body to the last room on the left. He spoke softly to Max, drawing laughter out of the little man. Graham’s tenderness with Max stirred something inside her that she had no intention of ever acting on. She had a mate. She damn sure didn’t need two.
Keegan placed a hand on Cameron’s forehead. She flinched, not expecting the sudden movement from him. Within moments, her headache melted away and took the tension with it. She took a deep breath and smiled at him.
She was one of very few who knew the extent of the Alpha’s telepathic abilities. It went past reading minds and into the mind-bending department. Yes, he could read most people’s thoughts, but with touch, he could erase or alter memories. And he could ease headaches.
“Thanks,” she said.
His lips lifted in a grin. “You really shouldn’t drink so much. The next time I’ll let you suffer.”
She rolled her eyes, hearing the undertone of amusement in his words. “Noted.”
Shadows darkened his brown eyes, and lines creased his forehead. “Do you know if Sammie has talked to Nevan?”
The front door opened, drawing their attention. Nevan walked in and gave a short nod to Keegan then Shay and Cameron. “I talked to her briefly.” Cameron wasn’t surprised the human had heard Keegan’s question. The Alpha had the kind of voice that carried, although he hadn’t tried to be discreet about his inquiry into Sammie’s state of mind.
Nevan shook his head and went on. “She stopped being a child the day she was abducted and went straight to being a protector for her brother. She saw to his care for the last year or so they were held captive.”
Keegan let out a low growl. Cameron wanted to growl with him. No child should have to go through what those children had at the hands of the rogues. Above all, no child should have their childhood stripped from them.
“I will talk with her soon,” Keegan said then turned his gaze back to Cameron.
He studied her for far longer than she deemed comfortable. Yet, she didn’t feel the dull pressure that came when he read her thoughts. She was about to turn away when his voice entered her mind.
“Seek out what you want and grab it. I’ve heard triad bonds are very powerful.”
Then he left. She stood there, staring at the closed door. Where the hell had that come from? She hadn’t been thinking about the mating dance she was about to invoke between herself and the males that had obviously formed an alliance during their trip to Black Mountain.
Yes, she’d noticed their mingled scents when they’d materialized here earlier. She caught the concern and the slight possessiveness in Blaine’s hard gaze in the brief moment his guard was down. Then there was the bite. Blaine only bit during sex. She knew that first-hand.
Keegan could have pulled the thoughts from either one of them when he entered the house.
There was no running from two of them.
Fuck.
She was in for one hell of a mating dance. She just hoped it didn’t turn into an egotistical male pissing contest.
Chapter Seven
Blaine paced in front of the mantel in his father’s living room and, most of the time, the conference room for the enforcers. He was still seething from the attempt on his and Graham’s lives. Anger ran in his blood like lava.
It’d taken nearly all day to get through the human authorities’ bullshit. Since Black Mountain was too far for Blaine to use the bond with his father to draw on his mind-bending abilities, he’d been forced to rely on his charm. Which, as Cam would have put it, was like a wet cat trapped inside of a plastic bag.
He cringed at the thought. He seriously wasn’t that bad, was he?
True, he growled a lot, and the alpha in him demanded to be obeyed. He was a born leader, the Heir to his Pack. He would one day step in as Alpha. And the Alpha never showed weakness.
By the time he and Travis materialized a few feet from Isaac’s house, and away from human eyes, the police and firemen were already there. So Blaine’s plan to have Travis put out the blaze by using his pyrokinesis and returning home within the hour was shot to hell.
No, he had to stay and see to it that the humans didn’t suspect anything out of the ordinary. He also wanted to make sure the rogues weren’t still around. It would put the icing on the cupcake for the stupid-ass mutants to show up and expose the whole shifter race to the humans.
Dammit all to hell.
He took a deep breath to help soothe his growing need to kill something, stopped pacing, and turned to face the room. Hayden, the wolf Marshal, sat in his usual seat closest to the door. He was the co-leader with Blaine of the enforcers and sentries. Where most Packs had one member per title, Ashwood had two. Keegan and Luna had agreed it would be better to ensure both the wolves and leopards recognized the equality of power that strengthened the merger of both Packs.
The Betas, Alec and Dane, sat on barstools at the bar-style countertop that separated the kitchen from the living room. Dane had his computer open. Alec faced Blaine with his elbows resting on the counter behind him.
Travis, Blaine’s new brother-in-law and Pack Tracker, stood against the wall to Blaine’s right, arms crossed and an expression that seemed to mirror Blaine’s mood. Travis had stopped the fire from spreading to the forest around Isaac’s house in Black Mountain, but it had taken a lot of the male’s energy to do so, as well as a lot of attention so that they weren’t seen by the humans. However, he didn’t let it show, even though Blaine could feel it through the bond that tied him to the enforcers.
Blaine had told him to go home and rest, but the stubborn-ass alpha male refused, saying he needed to be at the meeting. Blaine had to respect him for that. Travis had once been the Alpha of Hunter Ridge until his Marshal turned the Pack over to the rogues two years before. Travis lost everyone in his Pack, except his daughter and mother.
In the La-Z-Boy, between where Travis stood and the couch, Keegan lounged, looking relaxed and content with Blaine taking the reins of today’s meeting. However, Blaine knew all too well the Alpha was nowhere near ready to pass his Alpha title down.
The wolf Alpha, Luna, sat on the couch next to Cameron, who seemed a little too distracted.
Deciding he would deal with Cameron later, he cleared his throat and
briefed everyone on what had gone down in Black Mountain.
“Bastard-ass rogues,” Hayden snarled. “Hopefully Graham can find something useful in the journal you found.”
Blaine nodded. “I’m hoping that too. If not, and as much as I don’t want to, I’ll have to see if Sammie can find her way back to where she was held.”
Feeling Cameron’s gaze on him, he turned to her. “It’s the absolute last option.”
She held his gaze until he looked away first. The damn female had an itch that he so wanted to scratch. Something had her fired up, and he wondered if it was the fact that he’d marked Graham last night. Yeah, he knew she’d seen it and had deliberately avoided discussing it with her.
Now wasn’t the time. They had bigger shit to deal with.
But, later, he and Graham would coax her into the triad. In order for her to be comfortable with it, she had to be teased and seduced by the mountain lion first. Then Blaine could step in. The man didn’t think he’d be able to sit back and watch another male get close to his mate. But, to his surprise, his leopard calmed at the idea.
Luna stood, drawing everyone’s attention to her. “There’s not much we can do right now but research. I think Addyson should look at the journal.”
Blaine swore he saw his father tense for a brief moment before he said, “Tell Graham to drop the journal off, and I’ll take it to Addyson.”
Addyson Lewis was the Pack Scribe. She kept records of the Pack history and possessed a rare ability to tell the history of an item through touch. Her ability also worked on people, so she kept to herself. In fact, Blaine hadn’t remembered a time she’d ever left her large three-story house in the far northeast corner of town.
Blaine gave a short nod then dismissed the meeting. Well, it had actually been more like a briefing. Dammit. What the hell was the Onyx Pack up to? “What is the benefit in burning down that house?”
