Suzie stepped into the shower and reached down to start the water, turning on the showerhead once the water was warm enough. She raised her head up to the stream of water, allowing the spray to cascade over her face and envelope her in warmth. Closing her eyes, she allowed the water to soothe her and take her away from her prison to bring her to the place she always visited that made her feel happy while, at the same time, breaking her heart.
She traveled back in her mind to the night of her mating when she was claimed by Drew and Carter and finally experienced what it was like to belong to a fated, loving triad. They were only mated for a little more than twenty-four hours when her men were taken from her, but the memories of that perfect night had helped her get through her lowest times.
My Drew. My Carter.
The words were whispered in her mind, coming straight from her heart. She pushed her love through the white ribbons of the bond that still surrounded her. How she wished she could send those thoughts of love to her men. She hoped they hadn’t suffered before Randall had killed them. The last memory she had of that night was of Carter bleeding on the ground before her and Drew standing before Randall trying to protect them all.
Her tears slipped down her cheeks to mix with the water that ran down her body to be washed away down the drain. She picked up the bottle of shampoo and poured a good amount into her hand. She scrubbed her hair and then her body. She felt as if everything was going to change for her tonight. It was the first time she had felt any degree of hope in a very long time.
The dreams she had been having over the past week had spurred her to escape Randall and his pack. The pictures that played in her mind of Drew and Carter, loving her, touching her, laughing with her, and kissing her had filled her with such a sense of happiness.
When she saw them in her mind, they weren’t the young men of the time of their mating. In her dreams they were as handsome as ever, but they were definitely mature men. Carter looked the same except for the scar that ran from the corner of his left eye to his mouth, and his soft, brown hair had streaks of gray throughout it, but his light blue eyes were as clear as ever and sparkled with the mischievous twinkle that she remembered so well. Drew’s hair also held some gray at the temples, and his soft, hazel eyes had looked at her with such love and tenderness. It had made her heart happy to have such wonderful dreams.
The thing that had made her the happiest during her dreams was the way the men had held her between them as they lay in their triad bed. Suzie had seen them snuggling against her and holding her tightly. The way their hands settled over her belly made her smile. In her dream she was obviously pregnant, and both men were touching their cub and talking to her belly. She knew that her men would have made amazing fathers. The loss of that future weighed heavily in her heart.
She pushed aside the sad thoughts and concentrated instead on the memory of the last time they had been together. She remembered how Carter had kissed his way down her back, caressing her lovingly as he leaned down and bit at her left butt cheek lightly. She remembered how he laughed seductively as she moaned beneath him. Drew’s soft laughter against her mouth had made her smile. These two men together were a driving force of desire.
She ran her hands over her breasts and pulled at her nipples lightly, giving herself over to the fantasy that they were Drew’s and Carter’s hands touching her. Slipping her soapy hand down her torso, she parted the folds of her pussy and slipped a finger inside of her. She fantasized that Carter’s finger was moving in and out slowly, crooking it just slightly to rub against her G-spot. She moaned slightly, remembering Carter’s growl of need at her excitement.
Pulling her finger out of her channel, she dragged the wetness she had gathered up her slick folds to rub at her clit, remembering how Drew had worshipped that bundle of nerves until she screamed out her release. The memory pushed her over into orgasm. She shook violently, leaning against the shower wall, turning her forehead against it as she gave in to the sadness that filled her. She wanted her men. She wanted the life that had been ripped from all of them. But it didn’t matter what she wanted. It wasn’t going to happen. Her men were dead—leaving her alone and empty.
Rinsing off quickly, she turned off the water and stepped out of the shower. She toweled herself dry with brisk movements, put on the heavy gloves that she kept on the counter, and began the ritual of unwrapping the material that she had surrounded the collar with then wrapping clean material around it once again. The pain she felt every time the silver collar touched her skin barely registered anymore. Whether it was because she was so used to the pain or because she was focused on her impending escape she didn’t know, and she didn’t care. She just knew that within a very short time, she was finally going to be free.
She dressed quickly in the only change of clean clothes she had. Grabbing her small cloth bag, she stuffed her dirty clothes inside it, along with some strips of cloth and the gloves she needed when she wrapped the cloths around her collar. She slung the bag over her head to rest comfortably against her hip.
Walking slowly toward the cabin door, she reached for the doorknob and turned it slowly, relieved when she found it unlocked, and it opened. She knew a moment of anger over Randall’s arrogance. The unlocked door showed how much he underestimated her intelligence and determination. Well, he would soon see that she was more than he had ever thought her to be.
Pulling open the door, she let it slam back against the wall, raising her hand so that it wouldn’t rebound closed. Taking a deep breath to center herself, she took the one step needed to bring her out of her prison and into the freshness of the forest outside.
For the first time in a very long time—she felt hope.
Chapter 6
Drew closed the door to the supply cabinet in his office. Despite the depression he was fighting, he knew he had to go on for the good of the pack. He planned in his head how he was going to upgrade his medical equipment. There were more and more triad mates becoming pregnant. Jace and Jackson’s mate Laurie was already well into her first trimester. Alexander and Butler’s mate Nikki was already experiencing visions of her pregnancy which would result in twins. Adrian and Colin’s mate Julia would be due with her cub soon. The amount of newly pregnant mates was increasing by the day.
Drew had researched pack history and had come to the conclusion that since Jace and Jackson had found their third, the rest of the pack had been sent into something that could only be described as a mating frenzy. He had researched other wolf packs in the surrounding area and had found that the history among those packs showed that once the alpha of each pack had mated, others within the pack soon followed in the finding of their own mates. The birthrate of each pack had increased soon after.
Turning away from the supply cabinet, he walked over to his desk and sat wearily. He looked down at his hands as they rested on his thighs and felt a flash of pain shoot through him as he looked at the ring that Suzie had placed on his left ring finger fifteen years earlier. Neither he nor Carter had ever removed them except before they shifted into their wolf forms. In their hearts they were mated and committed to her. No other woman would ever take her place.
“Need any help, Drew?”
Carter’s voice brought him out of his thoughts. He looked up and saw the concern on his triad partner’s face.
“What’s wrong?” Carter asked him, taking a step closer to him.
Drew raised his hands and rested them on the desk before him. How could he hurt Carter again by telling him what he had been thinking? Over the years, he had become a master at hiding his thoughts or the pictures that had flashed through his mind from Carter, just as he knew Carter did for him. At that moment, though, the pain in his heart bled through, and he saw the moment Carter received his thoughts.
“Sorry,” he apologized softly.
Carter nodded. “Don’t be,” he told him roughly. “You can’t help what you feel.” He sat down in the chair beside Drew’s desk and looked down at his own mating ring.
Turning it slowly with his fingers, he couldn’t prevent his own feelings from traveling across the mating link that they shared.
“I think about her all the time,” he told Drew honestly. “This last week has been more intense. I’m about to lose it, Drew. Do you think you can figure out something you can prescribe for me? I don’t know how much longer I can hold it together.”
He was quiet, watching the way the light made the ring sparkle as he twisted it slowly. The colors of the yellow and white gold blended together, making his heart hurt at the thought of the three of them as one. After a few moments of silence, he looked up and saw the raw ache that Drew hadn’t bothered to hide from him. He knew exactly what Drew was feeling, because he was experiencing the same thing.
“I know it will affect you if I die, but I’m there, Drew. I don’t want to live without Suzie anymore.” Although his voice was calm, there was conviction in his words.
Drew sighed and rubbed at his face tiredly, smiling slightly at the scruff of hair on his cheeks that he knew Suzie would love. “I understand.” He stood slowly and made his way around the side of his desk. “I’ve been thinking about that, too.” He walked over to the large window to the right side of his office and stood before it, keeping his back to Carter. “We can make plans to leave the pack after Nikki’s twins are born.” He turned to face Carter and smiled sadly. “She may not accept it yet, but her vision has shown her that she’ll be pregnant soon, and I know she’ll be worried about the pregnancy. I don’t feel right about leaving her. Do you think you can wait until she gives birth?”
“And then what, Drew?” Carter asked.
“Then you and I will leave the pack and go wherever we think will be far enough away so our deaths won’t affect our families.”
Carter stood and walked over to him, surprised by the determination in his triad partner’s voice. “You sure?” he asked him softly.
Drew nodded once. “I don’t think we’ll be of much use to anyone for much longer,” he told him. “I’m having more and more trouble concentrating, and I’m afraid I’ll end up hurting a patient if I experience a moment of lapse.” He looked at Carter briefly before turning back to look, unseeing, through the large window to the beauty beyond it. “It just hurts too much.”
Carter nodded and rested his hand lightly on Drew’s shoulder. “I’m surprised we’ve lasted this long,” he admitted. “I’ll talk to Jace about leaving.”
Drew closed his eyes and breathed in deeply. He knew Carter was right. They had to decide when and where they were going. It was their only option for the good of the pack and for themselves.
He was about to tell Carter what he was thinking when a vision of Suzie flashed through his mind. His chest hurt immediately at what he saw. He heard Carter’s sharp intake of breath and knew that he was experiencing it, too.
Suzie ran toward the water, supporting her pregnant belly and laughing as both Carter and Drew chased her. She ran to the water’s edge and reached down to pull her blue sundress up and over her head and dropped it to the ground. She kicked off her sneakers and waded into the water until it was waist high.
“Come on in and skinny-dip with me!” she yelled to them.
“Suzie, be careful!” Carter chastised her. “You shouldn’t be running. You have to take care.”
“Oh, I’m fine, Carter!” she told him, laughing. “You worry too much. You’re going to be an overprotective father!” She giggled and lay back in the water, saturating her hair and relaxing back to float. “Tell him to calm down, Drew.”
Drew watched her belly surface above the water. “Mate, you’re asking for a spanking,” he called to her.
Suzie bolted to her feet, swaying lightly in the water as she tried to steady herself. “Oh, yes, please!”
Drew’s laughter was immediate, as was the sudden growl of desire that left him. “You’re incorrigible!”
“But that’s what makes life fun,” she taunted him. “You know you wouldn’t want me to be any other way.”
“You’re right. I love you exactly as you are,” he agreed.
Stepping toward the lake’s edge, he pulled off his clothes and waded in to stand beside her. Carter did the same. Both men stood beside her, reaching out to gather her in their arms, and caressed her belly tenderly.
“Your baby is happy,” she told them both, her smile bright as she covered their hands with her own. “Can you feel how much he’s moving?”
“You’re so sure it’s a boy?” Carter asked her softly, leaning forward to kiss her lips lightly.
“No, not really. I don’t know if our baby is a boy or a girl,” she answered honestly. “I won’t let Drew tell me. Did he tell you?”
Carter smiled and winked at Drew. “No, Suzie Q. Drew didn’t tell me.”
“You know, don’t you, Drew,” Suzie accused him knowingly.
Drew nodded and smiled, leaning forward to kiss their mate’s forehead. “I know.”
“Are you going to tell us?” Suzie asked, exasperation evident in her voice.
“If you want me to, I will,” he told her as he leaned back and looked down at their beautiful mate. “Do you want me to tell you, honey?”
Suzie looked up at Drew, her forehead furrowed in concentration. She worried her bottom lip between her teeth. “I’m not sure,” she answered slowly. “I don’t want you to be disappointed if you prefer a son or a daughter.”
“Oh, honey,” Carter told her, reaching up to drag her lip from her teeth with his right thumb before brushing across it soothingly. “I don’t give a rat’s ass if it’s a boy, a girl, or an alien. I just want you and our cub to be healthy.”
Suzie looked up at him and smiled slowly. “An alien, huh?”
“You know what I mean, Suzie,” Carter told her, growling at her.
“I do,” she answered, reaching her arms around his waist and hugging him gently. “I’m just teasing.” She leaned forward and kissed the spot on his chest that bore her mating mark. “I love you.” She rubbed her cheek against the hair on his chest, pulling a growl from him.
“I love you, baby,” Carter whispered, his voice filled with emotion. “Keep rubbing against me and your sweet pussy will be filled with my cock in about two seconds flat.”
“I would like that very much,” she told him, giggling, continuing to rub her face against him, taking in a deep breath and drawing in the scent of him.
“Drew, it’s safe to make love to our mate, right?” Carter asked him worriedly, looking over Suzie’s shoulder to face Drew directly.
“Yes,” Drew answered immediately. “She’s doing very well. I have no concerns at all about her pregnancy. We should be able to be intimate up until the moment she goes into labor. As long as she’s comfortable and wants us, there won’t be any problem.”
“I always want you,” Suzie spoke up, reaching back to take Drew’s hand in hers and bringing it to her mouth to kiss his knuckles lightly before dragging it to her chest and pressing it against her so he could feel her rapidly beating heart.
“I’m glad, baby,” Drew told her, smiling down at her with a definite twinkle in his eye. “It’s the same for us, in case you haven’t noticed.”
Suzie smiled up at him then looked at Carter and winked before reaching down and taking hold of both of their hard cocks. “I’ve noticed,” she told them softly as she pulled up on their shafts and smiled at the immediate groans of need that escaped both of her men.
“Suzie,” Carter whispered, reaching up to gently frame her face between his large hands. He held her still so he could take her lips with his.
Drew kissed her shoulder, biting down on his mating mark lightly as she continued to pump his hard shaft slowly. He smiled against her skin as he heard the moan that escaped her.
She pulled away from Carter’s lips and leaned her head back onto Drew’s shoulder, rubbing her cheek against the dark hair on his chest. “I want you both inside of me,” she whispered.
“No lube, baby,” Carter told h
er sadly. “We’re not going to chance hurting you.”
“Drew,” she whined, determined to get what she wanted, but Drew’s negative shake of his head killed any further request.
“Not gonna happen, sweetheart,” Drew told her firmly. “And you can stop giving me that cute, little pout of yours.”
“Fine!” she muttered, pushing out of their arms. “Then you’ve both been cut off. No more loving.”
The way they looked at her in shock, turned to each other in frustration, and then back to her with sadness made her realize that she had spoken harshly and without thought. She couldn’t hurt them. She could feel their concern for her through their bond and knew that they were just being protective of her.
“Well, maybe not cut off totally,” she conceded.
Both men advanced on her slowly, wrapping their arms around her and drawing her tightly between them. She remained stiff between them for all of two seconds before she melted into their arms and kissed their chests lightly.
“When we get home there’s going to be some serious loving,” she told them determinedly. “I want you both inside of me within three seconds of entering our bedroom.”
“It may take a little longer than that to prepare you, Suzie Q,” Carter told her, smiling.
“I think we may have to deny her for just a little bit because she’s been bratty, Carter,” Drew spoke up, reaching up to touch her face gently. “And then we should give her at least three orgasms before she gets our cocks.”
“Sounds good to me,” Carter agreed. “What about you, Suzie?”
“Sounds good,” she told them softly, smiling up at them as she wrapped her arms around their waists.
They stood there quietly, wrapped in each other’s arms, swaying side to side and enjoying the warm water as it lapped at their bodies. The strong movement of their baby inside Suzie’s body made them all smile. Both men splayed their hands over her belly, loving the feel of their cub kicking against their hands.
Susannah's Saviors [Beckett's Wolf Pack, Triad Mates 3] (Siren Publishing Ménage and More) Page 9
