by Becca Van
Reynolds Pack
Melanie Stratton leaves her home in Melbourne, Victoria behind and heads toward a small rural community in Outback New South Wales near Silverton for work.
Johnny, Kris and Jules Reynolds know the instant they catch Melanie's scent that she is their mate, and want to claim her straight away, but they can't if they don't want to scare her off. But when Blue and Joe stuff up and Mel begins asking questions they have to tell her of the existence of werewolves.
The three men set out to woo her but Melanie needs time to come to terms with everything she's found out and asks them to back off. Johnny, Kris and Jules are fighting the mating heat as well as their animals and don't think their mate will ever accept them.
And there is also trouble brewing.
Can Melanie accept her mates before it's too late? Or will she end up paying the ultimate price?
Genre: Contemporary, Ménage a Trois/Quatre, Paranormal, Vampires/Werewolves
Length: 49,981 words
REYNOLDS PACK
Becca Van
MENAGE EVERLASTING
Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
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A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK
IMPRINT: Ménage Everlasting
REYNOLDS PACK
Copyright © 2015 by Becca Van
E-book ISBN: 978-1-63259-686-4
First E-book Publication: August 2015
Cover design by Les Byerley
All art and logo copyright © 2015 by Siren Publishing, Inc.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without express written permission.
All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.
PUBLISHER
Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
Letter to Readers
Dear Readers,
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Regarding E-book Piracy
This book is copyrighted intellectual property. No other individual or group has resale rights, auction rights, membership rights, sharing rights, or any kind of rights to sell or to give away a copy of this book.
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This is Becca Van’s livelihood. It’s fair and simple. Please respect Becca Van’s right to earn a living from her work.
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DEDICATION
This book is dedicated to my sister and my husband. If it wasn't for the both of you at my side while I've been so ill, I don't know if I would have come out the other end.
I love you both more than you'll ever know. Thank you for your strength and your love.
Becca. xxoo
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
About the Author
REYNOLDS PACK
BECCA VAN
Copyright © 2015
Chapter One
Melanie took in the sights as she entered Broken Hill, New South Wales, awed by the open-cut silver and ore mine as she passed it. When she entered the town proper, she saw by the historical buildings and old houses that the town had been around for over a hundred years or more.
She was excited and anxious at the same time because she was embarking on a new adventure, one she would never have imagined herself taking, but since she’d had trouble finding employment in Melbourne and rural Victoria, she decided to look beyond the normal locations for work. And now she was headed to just outside of Silverton, which was approximately twenty-five minutes northwest of Broken Hill.
She sucked in a deep breath and tried to quell her nervous energy as her gaze darted from side to side taking in the sights, as well as keeping an eye on the road, and she planned to come back on one of her days off to explore.
Funny thing was she already had the job as housekeeper and cook, and she hadn’t even sighted her employers. She’d had a telephone conversation with Bill “Blue” Reynolds, and after answering all the appropriate questions and emailing him her CV and references, she’d been hired on the spot.
Thank God she’d been only renting and had been able to find someone to sublease the room she’d been sleeping in because she’d had a maximum of two weeks to get things in order and start the 859-kilometre journey, which she’d taken two days to do. She’d stopped overnight in a cabin in a caravan park in Mildura, which was near the border to New South Wales and South Australia, at the top western part of Victoria.
As Melanie drove she tried to envisage what her new boss looked like. Based on his deep, laconic Australian drawl, she imagined him to be a handsome country bumpkin. Through the emails she’d exchanged with him over the last week and a half, she’d found out he was the leader of a community that didn’t allow any outsiders into their midst. Mel didn’t have a problem with how anyone else lived their life but found it a little odd that Bill Reynolds and his family and friends kept to themselves, and hoped she wasn’t heading to a cult of some sort.
She drew another deep breath and glanced into the rearview mirror every now and then as Broken Hill disappeared from view. The closer she got to Silverton, the more trepidatious she got, but she had no other choice where her job prospects were concerned.
She’d heard the tiny desert town was where part of the movie Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior had been made and that there was a small museum open to the public for a price. She would definitely like to see that if and when she had the time.
The last leg of her trip seemed to go so fast and yet seemed to drag, too. She was looking forward to putting a face to the voice she’d heard over the phone near
ly two weeks previously, but the closer she got to her destination, the more her excitement grew. It was weird because Melanie had always thought of herself as calm and level-headed, but right now, she felt as if her whole life was about to change.
Whether that would be for the better or not she wasn’t sure, but there was no way she could turn around and head back to Melbourne when she’d come so far. She’d never been a quitter and wasn’t about to start now. Turning tail and running had never been a part of her vocabulary, and although she wasn’t tall or aggressive, she’d never run from confrontation in her life.
As she hit the city of Silverton, a giggle formed and erupted from her lips because the town was almost non-existent it was that small. The sign leading into the outback town said the population was a total of sixty-four. Melanie presumed that didn’t include Bill Reynolds or his family, as they were living outside of the town’s limits.
It took her another ten minutes to reach the turn-off on the instructional directions Bill had emailed her, and as she slowed and turned right, she gasped with awe at the elaborate sandstone gated entrance and closed gate. There was even a guard shack, and as she pulled to a stop, she saw a tall, muscular man inside the building talking on the phone. He must have heard her car because he turned to face her and held up a finger indicating he would be only another minute.
Melanie’s breath caught in her throat when she saw his face. He was huge and handsome and so damn muscular even his muscles had muscles. His dark hair seemed to contrast with his green eyes perfectly, and for a moment, she thought she saw his eyes turn a yellowy colour and seem to glow, but when she blinked and the colour was no longer there, she figured it had been a trick of the light. The door to the small modern shack was open, and when the man lifted his head, she saw his nostrils flare as if he was sniffing the air.
True to his word, the signal, he put the phone handset down, and although he seemed to stroll toward her with a long-legged, loose gait, he was at her window seconds later. Melanie pressed the button and lowered the window and hoped her face wasn’t as flushed as it felt.
“Are you Melanie Stratton?” The deep timbre of the man’s voice washed over her, and although she wasn’t attracted to his handsome visage or his muscular physique, she couldn’t seem to stop the blush forming on her face. She opened her mouth to respond, but all the saliva had dried up in her mouth so she found herself nodding instead.
When she finally managed to answer, her voice came out a bit croaky, but she hoped he didn’t notice. “That would be me.”
“Welcome to the Reynolds Pa— estate, Melanie. I’m Shayne Reynolds and part of pa— security.”
Melanie wanted to ask why there was a necessity for such stringent security when the property was ten kilometres from the nearest town, which was so small she would have missed it if she’d blinked, but she decided that caution was the better part of valour. She would have to try and curb her usual blunt tongue until she got to know the people living here and them her, because she didn’t want to upset anyone and end up losing her job before she’d even started.
“Nice to meet you, Shayne.”
“And I’m more than glad to meet you. Since Jenny has become pregnant, she’s having a hell of a time dealing with meal times.”
“Jenny?”
“Jenny is Blue and Joe’s ma— wife.”
“Who’s Joe?”
“Joe Reynolds is Blue’s cousin. He’s second-in-lead to Blue for our little community, and if you need anything if Blue’s not around, you can ask him. Do you have an open mind, Melanie?” Shayne asked.
“I like to think so. Why?”
“Well, one of the reasons we don’t live in a city and have our own little town is because we have unconventional relationships.”
“What do you mean?”
“Why don’t I get into the passenger seat and I can direct you to where you’ll be staying and explain on the way?”
“Okay.” Melanie nodded.
She watched his deceptively easy-going stride around the front of her small SUV and held her breath as he got into the passenger seat. The man’s shoulders were so wide his right shoulder brushed against her left as he sat and reached for his seat belt. She hadn’t expected him to put his safety belt on but wasn’t about to protest. She was a safety girl and didn’t like to drive anyone around if they didn’t put their belt on.
By the time Shayne turned to face her, the gate to the property was open, and she put the car in gear and drove forward slowly. When Shayne lifted his hand and pressed a button, she saw he was holding a remote control and glanced in the rearview mirror and saw the gate begin to close again.
“Okay.” Shayne met her gaze for a moment and then directed her to turn right. “This is the lowdown in an abbreviated version. Jenny is married to Blue and Joe. They share her as their wife, and although only Bill is married to her on paper, she considers both of them her husbands.
“The reason Blue hired you to cook and clean is because Jenny is expecting, and although she has no problem eating most things, just the sight of uncooked food or certain smells triggers her nausea. Plus, she’s tiring very easily. Blue and Joe put their foot down when she fainted three weeks ago and decided they needed to take better care of their…wife. Hence the reason they hired you.”
“Understandable,” Melanie replied.
“Exactly.” Shayne smiled at her. “Cooking for twenty people three times a day got to be too much. I hope you won’t have a problem with that.”
“Cooking for twenty people?” Melanie made a small “pfft” sound and shook her head. “That won’t be problem. I’m used to cooking for five times that amount.”
Melanie slowed even more when Shayne directed her around a bend, and she gasped when she saw the large modern homestead-style home.
“That is the most beautiful house I’ve ever seen,” she said with astonishment. The bricks were a light-coloured sandstone, and the large picturesque windows broke up the brick. The garden around the house reminded her of one she’d seen in a magazine, but what was so astounding about it was that the plants were all desert-hardy and would need little to no water at all. However the green, yellow, and reds of the plants was an amazing contrast.
“Does everyone in this little community live in the house?”
“No,” Shayne answered. “Blue, Joe, and Jenny do, of course, and the strongest Ome— of our security officers do as well.”
Mel finally stopped the car in the large undercover parking area behind a big Mazda BT50 four-wheel-drive ute. The blue vehicle dwarfed her poor little front-wheel-drive SUV, but before now, she’d never seen the need for a real four-wheel drive. Maybe after she’d been here for a while and got the lay of the land, as well as the people, she would think about getting a better vehicle. However, the only time she would need such was if she decided to go off-road, and she wasn’t about to do that on her own. She wasn’t stupid. If her car broke down in the middle of nowhere, where there was no mobile phone reception and she hadn’t carried any extra drinking water with her, she could end up dying. Plus, she didn’t have a satellite phone, which was a must all the way out here, especially if she was adventurous, but where her life was concerned, she wasn’t willing to take those sorts of risks.
Melanie got out of her car when Shayne did and tried to remain calm as she followed him around the side of the house to the front door. He didn’t bother to knock and pushed the door open, calling out as he entered the home.
“Yo, anyone around?” Shayne strode around the entry wall into the biggest living room Mel had ever seen. There had to be three complete modular sofa sets, as well as the biggest flat screen TV on the far wall opposite the seating area. There were also large beanbags strewn about, and even though the room should have looked cluttered because of all the furniture, it didn’t. And everything matched to perfection. The sofas were a dark brown-red wood colour, the beanbags were a chocolatey brown, and the coffee table and small side tables were made of Jarrah w
ood, which had been stained in a dark tinge. Below the massive TV was the latest and greatest sound system, and from what she could see through the glass panels in the unit, there must have been nearly every DVD ever made. There had to be thousands of them.
When she noticed Shayne disappearing through an open doorway, she hurried after him and hoped he hadn’t seen her gawking. She stopped in the doorway, and her heart began to thunder rapidly when she saw all the men around the huge dining table across the room from the vast gourmet kitchen. Shayne had moved toward the man near the kitchen side of the colossal-sized room, and although she saw that he was talking to the red-haired man, he spoke in such low tones Melanie couldn’t hear what he was saying. She just hoped it wasn’t about her.
The red-haired man turned to face her, gave her the once-over, and then winked and smiled at her. “Hi, Melanie, how was your trip?”
“Bill?”
“That would be me, but call me Blue. Everyone else does.” Blue strode toward her, and when she swallowed, she tried not to gulp with apprehension.
The power radiating off the tall, muscular man was intimidating, and it took everything in her to not take a step backward. She cleared her throat, drew in a deep breath, and tried to smile back. She hoped it didn’t look like the grimace it felt like, and when Bill stopped just over a foot away from her, she held her hand out in greeting. He clasped her hand, and although she wasn’t attracted to her new boss in any way, she felt a spark as their skin connected, and then, to her surprise, she felt all her anxiety easing away. Her throat wasn’t constricted when she swallowed next, her heart rate slowed, and she was able to breathe more deeply and evenly.
