Xanthe's Choice [Grey River 6] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour)

by Maia Dylan

  She continued to struggle for a short time before wrapping her arms around his waist and clinging to him. They sat like that for a couple of minutes, Xanthe breathing hard and trembling in his arms. He squeezed her a little tighter and stroked his hand down the soft blond silk of her hair when she began to sob. He felt his heart fracture at the sounds she made. He continued to murmur words of comfort and calm, telling her that she was safe and he was there.

  Her cries eventually died away to small hiccup-coughs, and he gently eased her away from him so he could see her tear-stained face. His heart turned over at how pale and lost she looked.

  “You’re safe, Xanthe,” he whispered softly as he looked her directly in the eye, hoping that she would read the truth in his eyes. “It’s okay. You’re in the Grey River Hospital and you’ve been here for almost four months. You—”

  “I’m fine, Dane.” Xanthe gave him a small watery smile. “You don’t have to do the whole recap and test my short-term memory thing like everyone else does. I’m okay, and I know exactly where I am and how long I’ve been here. Honest.”

  “That’s good to know!” A familiar voice came from the door. Dr. Chris Carter was a member of the Grey River pack and had been Xanthe’s physician since she had been admitted to the hospital after being attacked by a madman. Baxter had come here seeking vengeance on a friend of theirs almost four months ago, and it hadn’t ended well for him. “It totally saves me from having to do it.”

  Chris grinned at the two of them as he crossed the room to stand on the other side of Xanthe’s bed, then gently took her wrist. Even though Dane knew that he was there to take her medical stats and make sure she was okay, his lion paced at the fact another man had his hand on her.

  “So, what’s happening?” Chris placed her arm back down on the bed and pulled a pen light from his pocket. “Here I was, heading out to meet Noah so we could go buy our mate a birthday gift before heading home to her and our baby, and what happens? I hear a scream from my favorite patient’s room and have to come running back.”

  Dane watched as color bloomed across Xanthe’s beautiful face. Her startling blue eyes filled with sadness, and Dane’s entire body throbbed with the need to hold her. Xanthe was unhappy and that was not something that sat well with him.

  “Sorry, Chris.” Xanthe grimaced. “It was a nightmare, nothing more.”

  “Xanthe, honey, it sounded a little more than just your common garden-variety nightmare.” Dane leaned in and took her hand. “You feel up to telling us what happened?”

  Xanthe was quiet for a moment as she watched his face intently. Dane got the impression that she was looking for something. He had no idea what it was, but he kept his expression as open as possible. Hell, with all his training, first with the Marine Corps and then with the Enforcers, he could fake just about any reaction there was and make it believable, but he would never do that with Xanthe. Everything between them would be real.

  After a long moment, Xanthe took a deep breath. “It was a dream about the day I lost my older sister.” Dane squeezed her hand as his heart ached for her. “It’s not something that I like to remember, and I most definitely don’t talk about it a lot. Needless to say, it was one of the worst days of my life. So yeah, as far as nightmares go, it was a doozy, but it is one that I have been having for the past sixteen years, and will no doubt have again.”

  Xanthe closed her eyes and rubbed her hand against her temple. “Headache?” Dane asked and reached for her water glass.

  “Yeah.” Xanthe took the water glass with a smile of thanks. “Nothing too bad, just tired from the marathon physical therapy session this morning. Honestly, I swear Faith could have had a seriously successful career in the military as a drill sergeant.”

  “You know,” Chris said as he patted her arm then walked backward toward the door. “That doesn’t surprise me. Faith is mated to two of the strongest and dominant damn alpha wolf shifters I have ever met. Hell, that’s why they are so damn perfect to lead our pack and sit on the Shifter Council. But I have seen that woman turn them both into groveling puppies in seconds, and, damn, it does my heart good.”

  Pointing to a smiling Xanthe, he said, “Get some rest and if that headache keeps on, then press that call button. I’ll leave the nurse with some instructions for pain relief to help you get to sleep.” Then with a wave, he turned and left the room.

  Dane watched as Xanthe looked everywhere in the room but at him. He leaned forward a little more and slid the side of his index finger under her chin, turning her head so that she had no choice but to look him in the eye.

  “I’m really sorry about your sister, Xanthe,” Dane said softly and when her eyes filled with tears and her little chin began to wobble, he lay down beside her. Gently he pulled her into his arms so that she lay against him with her arm wrapped around his chest and her head nestled comfortably against his shoulder.

  Dane felt something within him snap into place as he held her, and he closed his eyes against the wave of emotions that rolled over him. She felt perfect in his arms, and the way she snuggled into him made him want to wrap her in cotton wool and put her in his pocket forever. It also made his dick harden to the point of pain, but he was currently actively ignoring that and willing it away. Besides, as far as he was concerned, the benefits definitely outweighed the discomfort.

  “I know you have to leave when visiting hours are up,” Xanthe said softly. “But could you stay until I’m asleep? It’s silly. It was just a nightmare, right? People have them all the time, but just this once, just for now”—Xanthe lifted her head to lock her gaze with his—”I’d like you to hold me until the memory fades enough for me to sleep.”

  “Xanthe.” Dane smiled softly at her. “It will be my honor to hold you until you fall asleep. But you should know that I’m hoping that it won’t be just this once. And that this will be the first night of many with you in my arms. And of course, I’m not the only one hoping for the pleasure of holding you all night, every night.”

  Xanthe grinned cheekily and had Dane’s pulse speeding up. “You know, I think I might actually know who you’re talking about. Tall guy, brown hair, blue eyes?” Xanthe’s own blue eyes sparkled. “Tends to growl a lot?”

  “That’s him.” Dane gasped in mock surprise, widening his eyes for effect and loving the sound of her giggle as she snuggled closer to him and laid her head back down on her chest. “How’s the headache? Are you sure you don’t need anything for it?”

  “No, Dane, honestly, it’s fine.” Xanthe breathed deep, her eyes already closed, her voice sounding sleepy. “I’ve asked Faith to grab some peppermint oil from my shop, that’s all I need.” Xanthe owned Lotions and Potions in town and was a genius when it came to all that homeopathic and aromatherapy stuff. Dane had been on the Internet and studying like a fiend in an attempt to sound knowledgeable about what Xanthe was interested in. He made a mental note to Google peppermint oil and find out how it would help a headache. He figured a side effect of drinking that shit would be great-smelling breath.

  Dane started to run his hand up and down her back, rubbing soothing circles across her shoulders, and holding her left hand where it lay across his chest, listening to her breath even out. It didn’t take long for her to fall asleep, and he lay there, not wanting to move for fear of waking her, and not wanting that moment to end. He gently lifted the arm she had across his chest and studied the full sleeve of tattoos that ran the length of her left arm. He knew the tattoos swirled up and over her left shoulder.

  He looked at the intricate ink work and the stunning shading that adorned her arm from wrist to shoulder. The tattoo was done completely with dark ink and shading that made the flowers look so damn real he could make out the individual petals and stamen on all of them, and they ran like a vine up her arm. Within the vines of the flowers he could see a number of small spiders almost hidden within the petals, all in webs. Some were so small he almost missed them.

  Dane had spent a lot of time tracing the
petals on that arm when she had been unconscious, loving the feel of her soft skin beneath his fingertips. Much of the time he was praying for her to get better and wake up and when she finally did regain consciousness, he’d had no idea how to proceed. How did two men go about telling a woman that they thought she was theirs? He hadn’t a clue and so far they were winging it.

  He and Hunter were lion shifters and as children were both part of a pride of lions whose pack lands lay on the outskirts of Wyoming. As they got older, it became very clear that perhaps their future lay beyond their Pride borders and they had moved on, first into the Marine Corps and then into an elite group of shifters who worked for the Shifter Council. Their role was to bring justice to rogue shifters and keeping the peace as much as possible between warring factions of shifter communities around the country.

  It had been whilst they were tracking a rogue shifter for the council that they met Xanthe. The rogue shifter was a prick called Martin Baxter whom they had arrested over twelve years ago. Baxter’s father was someone they believed to have connections fairly high up in both the shifter and non-shifter political worlds. Despite the fact that Baxter had killed his wife and unborn child and almost killed the psychologist his wife had been seeing at the same time, he had received a lesser charge than expected.

  In some cases where the guilt is cut and dried, as Dane believed it to be in that case, then shifter justice and council law were enforced. But Baxter managed to get a trial in a human court of law and was sentenced to imprisonment with the possibility of parole. That possibility became a reality just over five months ago when Baxter was released. Within a month of being let out, he had come here to Grey River and attacked the woman who had worked with Dane and Hunter to keep that crazy bastard behind bars for as long as possible, Dr. Rowena Whitley.

  Rowena had fled here, looking for a new start, and had purchased the shop next to Xanthe’s. When Dane and Hunter had tracked Baxter to Grey River, they had come across the pack alphas Ty and Trent Jamieson and the Greyson triplets Wyatt, Luke, and Chase, all standing over two wolves who had been injured by Baxter. At the alpha’s request he and Hunter had helped to get the two injured wolves back to the houses that faced back onto the woods and it was there that their world changed forever.

  “Do you smell that, Hunter?” Dane had asked along a link that existed between the two of them that shouldn’t. In their Pride there had been no bonds that existed between non-blood relatives or mated pairs, and the last time they told someone about the bond it had not gone so good for them, so it was something they rarely used or spoke of.

  “Yeah, I do,” Hunter had growled back and when he turned to look at him, Dane could see amber flickering within the blue in his eyes. “This way.”

  Despite the danger of the situation and the fact that Baxter was still out there, the two of them were helpless to resist the calling of the scent that had reached them on the wind. It was a scent so beguiling it wrapped itself around Dane’s senses and had every cell in his body almost vibrating with need. Needing what, he had no clue. Until he walked into the shop next door and was hit with a mixture of scents that had his senses overloading.

  The space was thick with Baxter’s scent, so they knew the crazy fuck had been there, and there were also sweet and exotic spices and smells, most of which smelled pretty good to him, but some that were a little too strong. Especially for a shifter. But the scent that almost brought him to his knees was the one that came heavily edged with the coppery tang of blood. And a shitload of it. When they stepped around the corner and into the shop itself, they saw a paramedic working on the still form of a woman lying in a pool of blood.

  “Come on, Xanthe,” the paramedic grunted as he continued compressions, the defibrillator behind him beeping to signal that it was charging. “Don’t do this to me. Don’t make me go home and have to tell my mate that one of her friends was hurt, and I wasn’t able to save her.”

  When the paramedic leaned forward to administer the required breaths, Dane’s lion roared with a possessiveness he had never felt before. When he shot a shocked look at Hunter he saw the same shock reflected back at him.

  “Don’t just fucking stand there looking at each other! Either get your asses over here and help me save this woman or get the fuck out there and yell for someone who will!” the paramedic shouted, jolting them both into action. Hunter dropped to the other side of her and took over compressions as Dane fell by her head to breathe air into her at the required time. Despite the fact that she was deathly pale and there was blood matted in her blond hair, he was struck by how beautiful she was.

  “Breathe,” Hunter ordered and Dane placed his mouth over hers, clasping her nose gently, and breathed, tilting his head to watch her chest rise and fall. He and Hunter would acknowledge some time later that they felt something snapping into place between them and the woman on the floor in that moment, but the stress and level of adrenaline the situation had coursing through his body overwhelmed it at the time.

  “Defib’s charged. Move!” the paramedic yelled, and both he and Hunter leaned back, out of the way. Dane had to swallow a growl when the man trying to save the woman’s life ripped her shirt open and opened the front snap of her bra. The man placed the lubricated paddles against her chest and her side, effectively bracketing her silent heart, and shouted, “Clear!” Then he pushed the buttons on the paddles that activated the electrical pulse.

  The woman’s body arched up off the floor as the electricity coursed from one paddle to the other directly through her inert heart muscle. Dane was praying hard that the woman survived, and he heard Hunter begging her to stay with them, too. The paramedic placed a gloved hand to the woman’s carotid artery, and after a few seconds his tense shoulders slumped in relief.

  “I have a pulse,” the man said and grinned at them. Another paramedic came running with a stretcher from the front of the shop, and Chris came running through the back door. Within minutes, they had her loaded up and on her way to the hospital. Dane and Hunter followed them out the door and stood watching as they packed her into the ambulance and it shot out of the drive.

  “What the hell was that, Hunter?” Dane asked quietly. His mind was whirling with the implications of what had happened in that store.

  “You know what it was, Dane,” Hunter said as he turned so that he stood facing him directly. “Somehow, some way, that woman is my mate. And from the feelings I felt coming from you down the bond that exists between the two of us, that shouldn’t … she’s yours as well.”

  Not knowing what to say, Dane had just nodded.

  Dane was roused out of his memories of that night by the gentle swoosh of Xanthe’s door opening. Dane felt the familiar strange pang at seeing his best friend, but pushed it aside as he always did and grinned as Hunter strode into the room. Hunter’s face filled with envy and need when he spotted Xanthe and Dane wrapped around each other in her hospital bed.

  “Lucky bastard.” Hunter grinned as he walked over to the two of them. “How did you get your bulky ass invited into that bed, hmmm?”

  Dane wanted to grin and give a sarcastic comment back, but remembered what had driven him into holding Xanthe to calm her down and his desire to grin disappeared. “Xanthe had a nightmare.”

  Hunter’s face fell into its usual scowl of concern. “About what? Is she okay? Does Chris know? Perhaps—”

  “Hunter!” Dane shook his head and rolled his eyes at his partner. “For Christ’s sake, man, would you calm down? I will answer all those questions but give me a goddamn minute to get the answer out before you go onto the next one, would ya?”

  Hunter grimaced and nodded. As quietly as he could, and trying desperately not to disturb her, Dane gently extracted himself from her arms and slid from the bed. Once he had managed to get to a standing position and Xanthe remained deep in slumber, he walked a little ways from the bed, Hunter following.

  “She dreamt about the day she lost her sister, a woman called Melaina.” Dane watched surpr
ise flitter across Hunter’s face that morphed into concern as he looked back at Xanthe, who looked so damn young at the best of times, let alone when she was asleep.

  “Damn,” Hunter sighed. “I didn’t even know she had a sister.”

  “Yeah, me neither, but she does, or at least, she did. An older sister. Somehow, she lost her sixteen years ago. Xanthe woke up screaming her name, and Chris heard her. He came in and checked on her before he left for the night.”

  “Good, that’s good. Damn, that means she was only sixteen when they were separated.” Hunter paused for a moment. Then he turned back to look at him. “So, any luck on the plan to tell that woman we think we’re her mates?”

  Dane shook his head. “Hell, no! I am not the planner in this team, Hunter and you damn well know it. I’m more of the jump in feet first, smack a few people around, and apologize later if I’m wrong kinda guy.”

  Hunter’s grin returned at that. “Yeah, I know, but I figured you might just have one fucking good idea in your life, and now might be the time to have it.”

  Hunter walked over to press a kiss to Xanthe’s cheek, and Dane’s heart melted at the sight of the two of them together. Where he would have once expected to feel the beginnings of a jealous rage at seeing another man kiss his mate, because it was Hunter, he didn’t. It just made some kind of weird sense that Hunter has feelings for Xanthe, and that their mating bond would be a triad. “See you tomorrow, beautiful,” Hunter whispered.

  Dane followed suit and pressed a goodbye kiss to Xanthe’s cheek before the two of them walked from the room. Visiting hours had been over for some time, so the corridors were quiet, filled only with the medical staff bustling about and doing their jobs.

  “Chris mentioned that she would be strong enough to leave this place in the next couple of days,” Dane informed Hunter as they left the hospital for the car park. “We need to think about what the hell we do next. Every time we leave her my lion paces, roars, and becomes a pain in my ass for however long we are away from her.”