by Maia Dylan
“Guys, it’s for the best,” Hunter said as he moved to stand on the other side of Xanthe. Dane grimaced when Xanthe flinched away from them both, and moved to stand by the counter at the back of the store.
“Xanthe, baby?” Hunter asked with a frown. “What have I missed here D?” he asked down their bond.
“Jack and Maurice are here with news of Melaina,” Dane sent back, not taking his eyes of their mate, who was now leaning against her service counter and glaring at him and Hunter.
“Have you two finished having your private little chat?” Xanthe asked, her voice filled with anger. “Because I have a question or two to ask, and I want to make sure you are listening to me when I ask them.”
“You can ask us any damn thing you like, baby,” Hunter replied, and Dane knew from his tone that Hunter did not like the attitude she was taking with them both.
“Thanks for your permission, but it’s not you I have questions for.” Xanthe shot him a quick smile that simply dripped with sarcasm and had Hunter growling. Then she turned to face Jack and Maurice, who were watching them with grins. “You two, you said you came with information on the woman these two have been looking for. What is it?”
Jack shot a look at Hunter, and Xanthe growled as she moved to stand between them, obviously trying to keep their attention on her. A little ridiculous, considering Hunter towered over her.
“I asked the question, so you will answer me, please. Or are you both such pussies that you have to get Hunter’s permission to speak?” Xanthe snapped and Jack and Maurice both narrowed their gaze at her. Damn, she was beautiful when she was pissed off.
“Baby, watch your tone,” Hunter said between gritted teeth from beside her, his eyes flashing with heat. No doubt he was thinking about smacking that gorgeous ass of hers for being bratty. Dane grinned as the image slammed into his mind. How hot would she look all naked and beautiful lying across Hunter’s lap, her ass glowing a gorgeous rosy pink from the fall of Hunter’s hand, as she took the punishment Hunter doled out with precision?
“Goddamn it, D, you need to shield those fucking images! I have a hard-on so damn hard I could pound nails, and that is not helping me in this situation!” Hunter’s voice came to him from their bond, and it came with a strong feeling of arousal that had Dane’s dick hardening even further.
“Forget about my goddamn tone. Jack, tell me, who is this woman, and what information do you have about her?” Xanthe threw her arms in the air in frustration, and Dane caught her distress down the slight link that tethered her to them, and all thoughts of arousal and spanking flew from his head. She was really upset. Hunter must have caught it too, because he nodded at Jack.
“Hunter and Dane asked us to look into a woman called Melaina White.” Xanthe inhaled sharply at the name. “It took a while because for all intents and purposes the woman does not exist. But then a woman named Melaina Christakos began a search for Xanthe White, and we managed to locate her fairly easily. She was doing nothing to hide her tracks at that point, and we figured there were too many similarities for there not to be a connection. When we dug a little deeper into Melaina Christakos, we found that her father was Aristos Christakos. Now, there’s a mean bastard, and he has ties to Baxter’s father and the late greatly fucked-up Silas Williams.” Jack frowned as he paused for a moment. “The funny thing about it is we only really got wind of her when she deliberately surfaced, using her real name and booking a rental car in Amarillo.”
Xanthe had frozen to the spot, her arms wrapped around her middle and with her back to them Dane couldn’t tell what she was thinking. When he reached out along the bond that led to her he felt nothing. The bond simply disappeared behind a shield of some sort that had his wolf pacing and the hair standing up on the back of his neck. Something was very, very wrong here.
“You were looking for Melaina?” Xanthe had turned her head slightly and Dane knew the question was aimed at him and Hunter.
“Yes,” Hunter answered for them both. “We wanted to find her and bring her to you so that you would have her with you, just like you wanted.”
“How did you even know her name? I sure as hell never told you.”
“You called her name out when you were dreaming, baby,” Dane frowned as she closed her eyes for a brief moment, but not before he saw the sadness that flickered there. “And I overheard you talking with Faith and the others that day in the hospital.”
“So, you just decided to go looking for her without even talking to me about it first. Did you hide the fact that you were looking for her in any way? Either who you were looking for or where you were?” Xanthe’s voice trembled. He and Hunter moved around to stand in front of her, and Dane frowned at how pale she had gone and the look of fear in her eyes.
What the fuck was going on here?
“No, we didn’t,” Hunter growled.
“Why would we want to hide who we were looking for, and where we are, baby? I can tell that this is upsetting you, and the fear in your eyes is tearing me up. Tell me, what the hell has you so damn scared?” Dane heard the frustration in his own voice.
“Because now they probably think it’s me that was looking for her,” Xanthe took a shuddering sigh, and then lifted her head, her eyes bleak. “And if they think that, then they believe that I’m alive. If Melaina is out in the open, she is doing it to warn me and to give me time to get away, and she is making herself a target to do it.”
Chapter 9
Xanthe was aware that there was movement around her, but she was already in flight mode. She had a car in a storage unit in Amarillo that could not be traced back to her. There were passports, and money under the carpet of the passenger seat that she could use to start over in—
And that was the problem.
She had no idea where she was going to run to. She had always had a plan, and a destination in mind, but now she was coming up blank. There was no place she would rather be than here in Grey River. She wanted to stay more than anything in the world, but she knew that it would be impossible. Staying would only place everyone she was coming to care about in danger, and she couldn’t live with herself if that were the case.
Nope, she was going to have to run again. If Melaina was being that obvious about her location, then Xanthe’s time was short. She needed to leave, and she needed to go now. Looking around her, she saw that Jack and Maurice Casey were huddled over a laptop, showing Hunter and Dane something on the screen. Since the moment she had mentioned that danger was coming, the four men had morphed almost seamlessly into full-on military protection mode. They had tried to get more information out of her, but she had shut down. They felt she was overwhelmed to the point of exhaustion and needed time to process what had happened that afternoon.
They had moved her away from the windows and placed her by the back wall. She had gone willingly so that she could think about what she needed to do to leave. Now she kept as still as possible, not making a sound to draw attention to herself. She just had to turn around and walk out the back door. Just fifteen little steps and she would be out of sight, and then she would be able to make her way out of town.
There was one small issue holding her back.
She didn’t want to leave.
The thought of never seeing Hunter or Dane again sent shards of pain ripping through her. She knew that without a doubt, as soon as she stepped from this room, her heart would shatter and she would never be able to put it back together again. But she also knew that she would have to do it. The alternative saw them having to face the man who had held Melaina captive for many years, and was coming for Xanthe. Putting them in danger was not something Xanthe could live with.
Taking a deep breath, Xanthe gathered her courage and strength and moved toward the door. Hunter and Dane were both still stooped over at Jack’s laptop, looking at whatever surveillance or system they had out there tracking Melaina. With each step she took, her heart tore even further and the pain almost had her doubling over. She stared at the two men s
he loved with all her heart and knew that she would never love again once she left them.
“Xanthe, baby.” Hunter’s soft voice stopped her just one small step from walking out of the store. Her heart began to beat wildly when he turned to look at her. She would have thought that the look would have been filled with hurt, but there was only kindness and understanding shining there. “Did you think that Dane and I wouldn’t feel your pain down our link? You don’t want to leave us, and we sure as fuck aren’t going to let you go, so please, baby, choose us. Stay with us here in Grey River, and let us bring your sister back to you.”
Xanthe couldn’t stop the small sob she had held inside from escaping. She had heard the pain in his voice he had tried hard to mask when he asked her to choose them. She started to tremble with the need to run to them, but her mind still screamed at her to flee and take the threat with her.
“Xanthe, you have to know that if you run, we’ll simply go with you,” Dane said with a slight shrug of his massive shoulders. “God, we wouldn’t know what in the hell to do with ourselves without you in our lives. So choose, my love. Choose for all three of us. Do we stay here in Grey River, and defy anyone to drive us from our home, or do we leave?”
Xanthe stood there with tears falling freely, looking back and forth between the two men who owned her heart and soul. She had heard Ty say on more than one occasion that they were strong alone, but stronger together, and although he was referring to his pack, Xanthe knew it rang true for her, Hunter, and Dane as well.
“We st-stay,” she managed to sob out on a hiccup. She ran forward to fling herself at her men, trusting them to catch her, which they did. She felt the tension within them the minute they brought her up against their bodies, and felt begin to leach away as they sighed. Dane moved so that he was pressed against her back, and she felt something pulse inside her as they held her between them.
“God, Xanthe,” Hunter whispered as he pressed a kiss to her temple. “If you ever think about leaving us, or have the insane thought that you can keep us safe if you leave us, I will spank your ass red, you hear me?”
Xanthe nodded her head against him, before leaning back a little to give him a watery smile. “Of course, you’re thinking that would be a deterrent for bad behavior, but it may just be more like an incentive.” She grinned when both her men groaned.
“As happy as I am that y’all have come to a decision to stay and claim this place as your own,” Jack said dryly and Xanthe grinned at him when she turned to see him grinning at the three of them, “I gotta tell you, I do not need to watch my unit leaders getting all freaky with the woman of their dreams.”
Xanthe felt Hunter and Dane tense a little around her, and her gaze flew to theirs. But they were looking at each other and Xanthe suddenly realized the importance of the opening Jack had just given them. They could simply play it as two men who loved one woman, or be true to themselves and their relationships and let them know that they were a triad in every sense of the word. Xanthe knew that they would most definitely be telling the world that the love they have for each other was as real as the love they had for her, but she didn’t know how they were going to do it.
She could sense the two of them struggling to find the words to explain. From the way they stared at each other, she knew they were talking telepathically about what to say. She hadn’t mourned the loss of her ability more than she did in that moment.
“Oh, fuck it,” Hunter growled as he gently lowered her to her feet and set her to the side, but never took his hand from her waist. Dane mirrored the move so that their bodies formed a symbolic triangle. Then Hunter reached up with his free hand to clasp the back of Dane’s neck, and pulled him in for a kiss.
Hot holy hotness!
The way these two came together and practically devoured each other, was one of the hottest damn things she had ever or would ever see. She watched as they fought for control of the kiss. She felt her body soften, and she flooded her panties as her whole body heated. Dane’s hand clenched on her hip, and she knew that he was going under, falling victim to the strength and heat of their mate. Moments after that, Dane groaned and let him take over the kiss which had Hunter growling low in his chest in satisfaction.
Xanthe knew that sound. She loved that sound. Then they pulled apart, both breathing heavily, and Xanthe could see the strong outline of their erections pressing against the zippers of their jeans.
Hunter turned to look at Jack and Maurice and she couldn’t help but see the look of dread on his face. Hunter was waiting for them to say something disparaging or hurtful and was sure that it was coming. Xanthe hoped for Jack’s and Maurice’s sake that they were a little more open-minded than that. She would hate to have to kill them for being bigoted, homophobic pricks if they turned from two men they had respected and worked with for a number of years, and take the chance for Sophia to have mates in the future away from her.
But when she looked she saw that the two brother’s had turned back to their laptop. What the hell did that mean? As she watched she saw Maurice look back at them, then slap his brother on the shoulder, so that Jack turned back to face them as well.
“So, with the rest of the team coming in, we’re going to have to figure out a place to stay and a game plan,” Jack said as he rocked back in the chair and crossed his arms over his chest and leveled his gaze at her. “We’re also going to need to hear more about these people who are looking for you. You seem to know exactly who we should be looking out for, so you are going to have to share with the rest of the class.”
Xanthe nodded despite the anticlimactic ending to the moment her mates had effectively come out to their team. She could feel the confusion coming from her men at the same time. Any reaction would be better than none. They must have been silent for too long, or perhaps their incredulous looks gave them away, because Maurice suddenly rolled his eyes.
“What? You think the fact that the two of you just sucked face in front of us was going to change anything?” Maurice said, then grinned. “Jesus, we all knew that there was something between the two of you. No partnership outside of a blood link could be closer than the two of you. We all had bets on when the sexual tension between the two of you would finally be too much, and one of you would act on it. I guess it took meeting your third to finally get the two of you to admit it to each other, huh?”
“Yeah, Moz.” Hunter grinned back. “Finding our Xanthe was the best thing that could have ever happened for me and Dane. And now we have the opportunity to bring her sister back to her, and that’s exactly what we are going to do.”
* * * *
Hunter leaned against the wall directly behind Xanthe and Dane, where the two sat on the sofa in Xanthe’s lounge. Ty, Trent, and Faith had come to hear what was heading to Grey River, and Noah had turned up, too. Noah’s brother Chris was on rounds at the hospital, and their mate was looking after their son. Hunter knew that Noah would be telling them everything he learned as soon as he was able. There were also four more members of their Enforcer team that had arrived in the past hour, and Hunter knew that the remaining four would be in by morning. It was humbling to know that all he or Dane had to do was call and they would all drop anything and come.
Xanthe’s lounge was filled with wolf, lion, and panther shifters, all of them waiting to hear what Jack and Moz had found out about Aristos Christakos and then to hear Xanthe’s story. Hunter had the feeling that he was not going to like hearing the story she had to tell, but he knew he had to hear it, if for nothing else than to know the name of the person he would be ripping limb from limb in the very near future. He’d hate to get the wrong person.
“And you sure as fuck won’t be doing it alone,” Dane said down their link. Hunter closed his eyes briefly. For so long they had ignored the bond that connected them as mates and now every time they used it, it was like they were acknowledging that connection to each other and claiming the hell out of that bond.
“I was under no illusion that I would be,�
�� Hunter sent back with a grin.
“So tell me, Jack, what did you find out about the man who donated sperm that enabled me to be born?” Xanthe’s words told Hunter a whole lot about how she felt about Aristos Christakos. “You tell me what you found out, and then I’ll tell you about what it was like to be me until I was able to get away from the crazy bastard.”
The room was silent for a moment, before Jack leaned forward with a grin. “That dominant bossiness of your mate is rubbing off on you, Xanthe.” Jack winked at her and Hunter had the urge to jab a sharp implement in his friend’s eye. “So, as I told you, Maurice and I searched for a Melaina White, and have been trying to find as much on her as possible. We didn’t have much to go on, but to be fair we are both really fucking good at our jobs and have found people with less information. But what was really odd and sent red flags flying for both of us was the extreme absence of information on anyone by that name.
“Even if the name doesn’t exist, there are usually pseudonyms or aliases that resonate with that name, but there was nothing. We could find information on you, but even that was few and far between, and that told us that someone was erasing as much about you as they could. When we figured that there was someone out there erasing your past, then we simply laid a few traps and waited for then to trip them so we could follow them and find out who they are. But we were never able to get a bead on them. Whoever they are, I have to take my hat off to them—they are better at hiding their electronic signature than we are and we are no amateurs.
“Then out of the blue, about three days ago, links started to appear that were not there before. And they led us straight to identify Melaina Christakos, the daughter of Aristos Christakos. The only daughter of Aristos Christakos.”
