Pepper's Journey Home [Grey River 9] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour)

by Maia Dylan

  “Pepper thinks that she can’t feel emotion, that she can’t experience desire. Let’s show her how wrong she is. We’re going to romance our mate, and to steal a popular word among the mated shifters in Grey River, let’s court her until we are all she can think about.”

  Tomas growled his approval, and as their mate hesitantly went back to her yoga, the two of them worked on the details of their plan.

  * * * *

  Pepper stepped from her shower with a sigh. As she walked into the bedroom, she felt the slight pull of muscles she had used stretching out on the porch. At the thought of that workout, she frowned. She had been concentrating on the yoga, aligning her breathing to the moves, her mind completely on the sequence, cleared of all distractions as she had trained it to be in that moment. But toward the end of her first sequence, she felt a shaft of what she could only describe as desire sweep through her.

  She had been so startled she’d almost fallen flat on her face. She had felt drawn, pulled in two directions, and it had been the strangest feeling. When she’d looked over toward the forest, she thought she’d spotted something staring back. She’d dismissed it as nothing more than her overactive imagination getting away from her.

  Then just as she was about to start on her second sequence, her heart started to ache. At first, she was frightened that she might actually be experiencing a heart attack. The ache was a physical pain within her, but it was wonderful at the same time. She quickly came to the realization that it was emotion. She felt something, but she was too broken to give it a name with any accuracy.

  Shaking her head to clear it of those thoughts, she quickly got dressed in a pair of leggings and a loose T-shirt and then padded into the kitchen in search of something to eat. She came to a sudden stop when she found Tomas and Diego waiting for her. They were both standing behind the breakfast bar in the kitchen, and what looked like enough food to feed a small nation laid out before them.

  “Hey, baby girl,” Diego said with a smile that had butterflies taking flight in her tummy. “We figured you’d be hungry after your workout this morning.”

  Pepper gave him a small smile as she reached up to pull her hair back into a quick ponytail. “I am, but I don’t think I can eat all of that!”

  Tomas stepped forward, and Pepper gasped when he pulled her into a hug. “It’s not all for you, cariño. Diego and I eat lunch, too.” He stepped back, and Pepper took a deep breath to calm herself. Not because she enjoyed the scent of man and wilderness that shone through beneath the woodsy cologne he wore. Nope, not because of that, it was most definitely because she needed to steady herself.

  “Come and sit down, niña,” Diego said gently. “We’ve noticed that you like to eat healthy, so there’s plenty of choice.”

  Pepper walked over to the kitchen bar and reached out for the chair, but Tomas beat her do it. She frowned when he pulled her chair back and then all but lifted her into it. “Um, thank you?”

  Diego made a sound, and when Pepper looked up at him, she could tell he was pissed about something. She would have queried him about it, but from the way his eyes glazed slightly, she knew he was talking with his brother. From his expression and the sweep of color that washed up his cheeks, she figured that whatever he was saying, it wasn’t anything good.

  “You know,” she said quietly, reaching for a grape, “if you are genuine in your request for us to get to know each other, then it would probably be best to stop with the psychic talk when I am unable to join in the conversation.”

  The brothers looked back at her, both with sheepish grimaces. “Sorry, Pepper,” Tomas said as he slid into the chair to her left.

  Diego claimed the one on her right and shrugged. “Yeah, I guess that is a little uncool, but I didn’t want you to hear me cussing out my brother. I want to make a good impression on you, not scare you with my tendency to swear at my twin brother.”

  Pepper chewed on her grape thoughtfully for a moment. “Firstly, the men at the compound didn’t care too much about that. They would turn the air blue around them, so I am not so sure I would even flinch if I were to hear you cuss your brother out. Besides, you have both dropped more than a few curse words in my presence, so I don’t think it would bother me all that much to be honest.”

  Diego paused as he was reaching across the table. “Good to know, but I am trying to impress you with my suave gentlemanly manners and shit, so trying to keep the general cursing to a minimum.” When he grinned at her, Pepper couldn’t help but grin back.

  “What else?” Tomas asked, and Pepper turned to him as he lifted a sandwich laden with at least two of everything on the table, or so it looked like. “You said firstly, so I am assuming there is more.”

  Pepper nodded. “Secondly, I wanted to know what Diego was cussing you out for.”

  Tomas finished his bite of sandwich, and from the glint in his eye, she knew it most definitely had something to do with her. “He thought that maybe I was pushing you too far too fast with the touching. I thought a hug and helping you up and onto your chair was the gentlemanly thing to do. But Diego here was more of the mind that you might not have appreciated it.” Tomas went to lift his sandwich again but paused. “Then he called me a lucky son of a bitch for having you in my arms for even that brief moment, and I agreed. I was lucky as hell and will be counting the minutes until I get the opportunity to do it again, or I should probably say wrangle the opportunity to do it again.”

  Tomas winked at her, and she giggled. A sound that ended on a squeak as she slammed her hand against her mouth.

  “What’s wrong?” Tomas asked with a frown.

  Pepper dropped her hand slowly. “I giggled. I actually giggled. I am not sure I have ever done that before.”

  Diego slid his hand over hers as he placed a plate with a smaller sandwich on it in front of her. “Baby, while it hurts my heart to hear you say that, I’m filled with joy at the same time that you are comfortable enough with us to relax and give into your natural reactions. And I loved the sound of that giggle. Tomas and I will be working hard from this point on to make you as happy as possible so that we hear that sound often.”

  Pepper smiled shyly as she reached for her sandwich, and the three of them settled into a comfortable silence as they ate for a few minutes. Pepper’s mind swirled with their conversation. Diego had cussed his brother out for fear of him pushing Pepper with the hug and then lifting her onto the chair. She thought back to her reactions to both and realized she hadn’t felt pressured by them at all. At least not in the way Diego thought she might have been.

  “I didn’t mind the hug,” Pepper said quietly, taking her courage with both hands. “Even being lifted onto the chair. Neither bothered me in the way you might have thought, Diego.”

  The two of them looked at her, their eyes shimmering with a slight arctic blue, and she knew that their wolves had pushed forward a little. The smiles they gave her did funny things to her insides, and she shivered.

  “But they did bother you,” Tomas asked slowly, and she nodded. “How?”

  “Well.” Pepper felt warmth sweep up her neck and into her cheeks, something that the brothers couldn’t have failed to notice given her pale complexion. “My heart rate increased slightly, and I felt a little breathless. Not unlike when you’ve exerted yourself physically a little. But I had theses flutters in my tummy at the same time, and I don’t usually get that when I exercise.”

  She fell quiet, her face now flaming, and stared down at her half-eaten sandwich. She wasn’t so sure that Tomas was looking for such a detailed and analytical answer. She swallowed when Tomas reached out and gently lifted her chin until she met his gaze. His eyes, like Diego’s, were the color of melted chocolate, and she often felt this strange sensation when she looked too carefully into them.

  “That’s damn good to know, sweetheart,” Tomas said in a deeper voice than usual, and she couldn’t hold back another shiver. “But be forewarned, now that we know, we’ll be wanting to touch you all the
time.”

  “Not that we didn’t before you admitted you were okay with it,” Diego added, “but we’ll be much more open about it now.”

  Pepper smiled. She wondered for a brief moment if she were ready for what all that might entail, but figured she’d do something she’d never done before. She’d simply sit back and wait and see what happened and not expect the other shoe to drop.

  Chapter Seven

  “Please, please!”

  Tomas heard his mate despite the fact she was in her bedroom on the other side of the cabin. Dropping the book he’d been holding, he employed every ounce of preternatural speed he had to get to her, Diego right on his heels. They ran into her room and came to a stop at the side of her bed.

  Tomas’s heart bled at the way his mate was lying in the large bed. She was curled up in a tight ball, almost as if she were trying to make herself as small as possible. As small a target as possible? Fuck! Her arms were wrapped tight around her middle as if she were in pain, and her beautiful face was locked into a frown.

  “No more, I don’t want to be here anymore.” Pepper’s voice caught, and he saw tears glistening on her cheeks. He looked up at his brother and knew his expression must have mirrored the tortured, ragged look on Diego’s face.

  “Tomas! Diego!” At the sound of their mate calling their names, the fear or spell or whatever the hell it had been that had held them back broke, and they both climbed onto the bed, moving as close to her body as possible.

  “Shh, niña,” Tomas murmured as he reached for her and was startled at how cold she felt and how tense she held herself. It was as if every muscle in her body was tight. “Relax, my love, we are here. We have you.”

  Using as little force as possible, but more than he would have liked, he forced her knees down, wrapping her in his arms and pulling her tightly into his chest. “Shhh, niña, it is just a dream.”

  Diego slid as close as he could behind her, threading his fingers through hers as they lay against her side, her arm still wrapped tight around her waist, and he rested his chin on her shoulder. “Ah, cariño, please, this is killing us. Wake up, sweet girl, show us those pretty green eyes.”

  The two of them continued to murmur to her, and she gradually relaxed between them. Tomas was suddenly filled with a sense of helplessness the likes of which he had never felt before. Threaded through that was fear, pain, and no small amount of belief that whatever he was enduring he deserved it. He knew it was coming down their mating bond, directly from her, but it was no less debilitating. His heart ached when Pepper sobbed against his chest and reached one arm up to wrap it around his neck.

  “You came for me,” she said on a sob, and Tomas pressed a little closer.

  “Not soon enough, niña, and for that we will never forgive ourselves,” he whispered back before pressing a small kiss to her temple.

  She shook her head and wriggled until she could lie flat, looking up at both of them. “No, you came. As soon as you could you came. No one but Melaina and Parris has ever come for me.”

  Diego leaned down and pressed a kiss to their mate’s lips. “We will always come for you, Pepper. Never doubt that. You are the woman the Fates have decreed is destined for us. We don’t know how we got so lucky or why the Fates thought we would ever be worthy of you, but we’re not going to point that out to them.”

  Pepper huffed a laugh through her tears and took a deep breath. “I’m not so sure I can agree with you that you’re lucky. I think it’s more like the Fates thought to curse you with a mate who’s broken.” Tomas leaned down and bit Pepper’s nose. Not hard enough to leave a mark, but enough to make her yelp. “You bit me!”

  Tomas nodded, completely unrepentant. “You’re damn right I did. You talk about being a curse to us or being broken one more time, and I’ll do it again. Or, I might actually turn you over my knee and spank that pretty ass of yours.” Pepper’s eyes widened in shock. “Now, listen here, Pepper Gallagher, and you listen well. You are not a curse. You are a goddamn fucking gift and one that Diego and I will give thanks for, for the rest of our lives. We talked about using this time for us to get to know each other, but from our perspective, this is all about you. Everything that we have learned about you tells us that we’re two lucky sons of bitches.

  “Your sisters have talked of your kindness, your ability to forgive, the fact that you always put the needs of others before your own and that your heart is the purest of any they have met. Hearing them talk about you with such love, such reverence in their tone made us so fucking proud. We promised ourselves and most importantly we promised our mother that we would do everything to be worthy of a woman like you.

  “We live to make you laugh. We live to protect and cherish you above anything and anyone in this world. And most importantly, we live to love you, Pepper Gallagher, with everything that we are for as long as you’ll let us, and let me be clear on this. You might at some point decide that you want us to leave because, well, Diego can be an annoying asshole, and I’m not exactly the easiest man in the world to live with, but you need to know this. We will give you time, we will give you space, but we will never give you up. We will camp outside on your doorstep until we can convince you to take us back and follow you around on our knees if necessary until you forgive whatever it was we did that fucked things up. You should know that we are in this for the long haul, and we ain’t ever letting you go.”

  When he finished, his mate was still lying between him and Diego, but she had a look of shocked wonder on her face that left him feeling a little vulnerable. Not something he had ever really ever felt before.

  “Holy shit, Tomas,” Diego said in a dry tone. “That is the most I have ever heard you say at one time. Hell, I didn’t even know you had that many words in your vocabulary!” Tomas growled and reached over to thump his brother in the arm. “No, seriously, Pepper, Tomas is usually a man of few words and a couple of grunts to get his point across. I have never heard him speak so eloquently before in my life! All I can say after that is, ditto. Absolutely everything he said, I say, too.” Tomas grunted when Diego suddenly reached over and thumped him in the arm hard, the little shit. “Except I am not an asshole or at least I will never be to you, cariño.”

  Pepper looked between him and Diego for a few moments, and Tomas began to think he might have said too much, but when her face bloomed into a beautiful smile, he knew he’d been right on the money. “I won’t say it again.”

  Tomas grinned wickedly down at her. “Well, you could say it at least once more so that I get the chance to spank you.” Tomas loved how easily their mate blushed, the sweep of red across her cheeks so alluring he couldn’t help but brush his thumb over it. “You never know, my love, you might actually enjoy it!”

  Pepper giggled, and his heart swelled. “Maybe. I’ll be sure to remember your generous offer, and if I ever want to try something like that, then I will use that word.”

  Tomas grinned as he lay back and moved her so that she settled in against his side. He felt the bed move as Diego shuffled closer to her, and they surrounded their mate once again. “Go to sleep, niña. Diego and I are here, and we’ll keep the nightmares at bay.”

  Pepper sighed and snuggled into him. Tomas had to bite back a moan at the feel of her body sliding sensuously against his side despite the fact that he lay above the blankets and she was beneath them. He was thankful for the muted light in the room shining in from the hall and the fact their mate didn’t have the enhanced vision of a shifter. Hopefully she wouldn’t see the proof of his arousal pressing intently against the zipper of his jeans. From the muted curse he caught from his brother, he knew Diego was in just as much discomfort. Tomas lay there for a moment, desperately trying to think of something, anything that would help him control his raging erection.

  “Your mother”—annnd that worked a treat—“you said you promised your mother that you would do anything to be worthy of a woman like me. Why would you talk to your mom about me?” Pepper asked in a quiet voic
e.

  Diego moved against their mate, and Tomas watched as her eyes darkened in arousal. “We are really close to our mom. You’ll love her, and we know she already loves you.”

  Pepper seemed to jolt between them. “Really?”

  “Yeah, we’ve told her all about you,” Tomas admitted. “Everything we learned about you, we told her. She often despaired that we would never find our mate, but when we told her that not only had we found her, but she also was a kick-ass psychic who saved lives while giving no thought for her own, she cried.”

  “Wow,” Pepper whispered.

  “Then she told us not to fuck this up,” Diego added. “And that if we did, we were going to have to face her wrath.”

  Tomas grinned at the memory of it. “That’s true. She stood as tall as she could, and even though Ma’s only five foot two, when she’s standing in front of you with her hands on her hips and her eyes spitting fire at you, she’s more like ten foot tall.”

  They fell into silence, and Tomas closed his eyes. It was going to a pure mix of heaven and hell sleeping so close to their mate, but not pressed to her skin on skin like he longed for.

  “I think,” Pepper said, surprising him as he had thought she’d slipped into sleep, “that I might be capable of emotion. I don’t think I am as completely incapable of it as I once thought.”

  “Why do you think that, cariño?” Diego asked gently.

  Tomas felt and heard her take a deep breath. “Because I feel something for you two. For both of you. I’m not sure what to call it, but it’s big, and it fills me with something I haven’t ever felt before, but I know what it is because Melaina and Parris told me about it and said I should never give it up, and I like where my head goes when I feel it.”

  Tomas frowned. “And what is that?”

  “Hope,” Pepper whispered into the darkness, and light shone into the last dark recess of his heart, filling it completely.

  * * * *