by Becca Van
“Late thirties?”
“No,” Barrett answered this time, and Palmer could see the glint of amusement in his eyes. It looked like Primrose did, too, because she smiled softly and in that moment his cock went from flaccid to fully engorged within the blink of an eye. She was so damn sexy, he couldn’t control his reaction to her. Not that he wanted to, but now that they had claimed their mate, all he and his brothers wanted to do was fuck her for days on end. The mating heat was taking hold, but he didn’t want their woman to feel pressured or end up too sore.
Prim leaned forward with her elbows on the table and studied each of their faces. “I have a feeling I’m not going to get this right. Do werewolves age differently than humans?”
“Yes,” Ed replied.
“Okay, so why don’t you tell me instead of making me guess?”
Palmer removed the half-empty mug of coffee from her hand—he didn’t want her to drop it and end up burning herself if she jerked with shock—and he set it on the table. “I’m fifty-five.”
Primrose’s mouth gaped open with surprise and she perused his face intently before snapping her mouth closed.
“Get out of town. There is no way…”
Palmer nodded his head and grasped her hand before giving it a squeeze, and smiled at her.
She turned to face Ed. “So…how old are you?”
“Fifty-three.”
Palmer and his brothers gulped audibly when she shifted to meet Barrett’s eyes.
“I’m fifty, baby.”
“Wow…just wow. This is amazing. None of you look anywhere near your age.”
“Now that we’re mated, you’ll benefit, too,” Ed said.
“How?”
“You won’t age like a normal human anymore,” Barrett stated.
“You’ll age as slowly as we do, and your lifespan will be extended,” Ed said.
“Really? Oh my God. By how much?”
“Mated wolves live to around two hundred and fifty to three hundred years old,” Palmer explained.
“Wh–What about single wolves? How long do they live?”
“To about a hundred and fifty to two hundred years old.” Ed smiled and then chuckled at the shell-shocked look on their mate’s face.
Barrett smiled before devouring another sandwich.
“There is something we forgot to tell you, sugar.” Palmer released her hand, scooted his chair back, clasped her waist, and then brought her over to sit on his lap. Primrose squeaked and looked up at him with shock. “What?”
“You’re all so damn strong. You don’t seem to have any trouble picking me up.”
“You don’t weigh much at all, sugar, and don’t forget that we’re werewolves. We are a hell of a lot stronger than the average man.”
Prim reached up and squeezed once of his biceps. Seeing how small her hand was on his large muscle made his cock twitch and jerk against his zipper. His mate must have felt his reaction to her because she squirmed on his lap and her eyes glazed over with desire. The musky scent of her arousal filled the air and he inhaled deeply, filling his nose and lungs with her delectable aroma. He wanted to carry her back to bed and devour her, but he pushed his desire back down. This was the time for talking. Later, he and his brothers would make love to her again. He tried to focus on what they had been talking about and what he was going to tell her, but it took a few moments for his head to kick back into gear.
“There’s something you need to know now that we’re mated, honey.” Ed’s words helped him to get his head back in the present and out of the bedroom.
“Ed’s right, sugar.” Palmer lightly gripped her chin and turned her gaze to his again. “We’re not sure why, but we suspect that mated women give off hormones that are enticing to single wolves. You can’t go about without one of us being close by. If an un-mated wolf encounters a lone mated woman, he will try and get her for himself.”
“Not all single werewolves are like that.” Ed reached over and squeezed her hand. “Rogue werewolves seem to find mated females irresistible. Lucien thinks it’s because of the pheromones a mate gives off, and the single wolves who have malevolent tendencies inside them can’t resist trying to take what isn’t theirs.”
“I wish we knew for sure so we could circumvent the effects of our women on those immoral wolves, but we don’t have any scientists in our pack who can research that anomaly.” Barrett scrubbed a hand over his face.
“Oh. Wait! What?” Primrose tilted her head, dislodging his hand from her chin, and then pushed up from his lap and began to pace. After a few moments, she spun around to face them and placed her hands on her hips while giving all of them a narrow-eyed glare.
“Are you telling me I can’t ever do anything by myself again? That I’m not safe even here on your pack’s land?”
“No, baby.” Barrett stood up and walked over to her before he pulled her into his arms and held her close. “You’ll always be safe on this land. None of our wolves would ever try and take a mated woman.”
Prim leaned back to look up at him before pulling out of his arms. “But you just said…”
“Let me explain,” Palmer said, and held his hand out to her. He was pleased when she walked over and took his hand into her much-smaller one. Palmer tugged her back onto his lap and savored having her in his arms while he inhaled her wonderful scent again. “Just recently, Sara met her mates, but she needed time to decide if she wanted to spend the rest of her life with Chase and Tony. They hadn’t claimed her, but their scent was all over her. Unbeknownst to Sara, she encountered a single Alpha werewolf and that bastard tried to kidnap her for his own use, and then he said he was going to give her to the rest of his pack.”
“Oh my…That’s horrible.” Prim covered her mouth with her hand.
“Yes. She was lucky because Chase and Tony couldn’t stand being away from her, and they went to her place. She agreed to be with them, and they mated her before this bastard could try to abduct her, but that didn’t make a damn bit of difference to that asshole,” Ed said.
“Tony and Chase were just in time to rescue her, but she got hurt.”
“What happened to the man—werewolf?”
“Their pack was small and none of his Betas or Omegas liked him. Taylor Henderson, also a cop, was one of the bastard’s Betas and he challenged his Alpha. He was an evil werewolf and didn’t really care about his pack. He was only interested in his own selfish needs. Taylor won and even though he ended up Alpha of the pack, he didn’t want the responsibility. He and the few werewolves in that pack have joined Sugar Creek Pack,” Palmer finished explaining.
“What do you mean by ‘challenge’?”
Palmer wasn’t sure he really wanted to answer that question, but he would never lie to their mate. “The men fight in their wolf form. The one left alive wins.”
“Shit! That’s just barbaric.”
“It may seem so, sugar, but you have to remember none of us are fully human. If wolves challenge in the wild and the weaker of the two doesn’t back down after being blooded—that’s when the stronger of the two draws blood—then death is the only alternative.”
“Has that ever happened in this pack?” Prim asked.
“No, honey.” Ed reached over and laced his fingers with hers. “We respect our Alpha and everyone else in this pack. We are all equal, even if our strengths vary.”
“Phew, you had me worried there for a moment, but I won’t even be able to go shopping by myself?”
“You could…but we would prefer that one of us was with you. We want to assure that you are safe at all times. We couldn’t bear the thought of you being in danger or getting hurt,” Palmer said.
“That’s just totally unthinkable to us,” Barrett agreed.
Chapter Nine
Prim was astounded at how old her mates were, and the fact that she would end up living way longer than she would normally. Not that she was complaining about that, because she wasn’t. Who wouldn’t want to delay facing their own mo
rtality for much longer than expected? She would be able to have babies well into her fifties, she imagined, and not have to worry about her biological clock running out of time. Even though now that she was mated to three good-looking, sexy werewolves, the thought of having kids right now was tempting. But she wasn’t sure she wanted to bring a child into the world when someone had it in for her and she had no idea who. Although she had her suspicions that it was Harry from school, she wasn’t totally sure, and couldn’t go around accusing anyone until she had some proof.
Now that she was here amongst so many strong, muscular men and her mates, she felt so much safer, but she didn’t know if she’d been followed from home when she’d traveled to Sugar Creek Pack land. It didn’t matter that she hadn’t seen anyone following her. She was sure that if someone was determined enough, they could find where she was. There were so many gadgets and things out in the modern world. Whoever was after her could be tracking her and she would have no idea about it. Fear raced up her spine, and she shivered.
“What are you thinking about, sugar? I can smell your fear. You aren’t scared of us, are you?” Palmer asked.
“No.” She reached up and cupped his face, loving the feel of the slight stubble gracing his jaw under the palm of her hand and fingertips. “There is someone out to frighten me and I don’t know who it is.” Prim went on to explain about Harry and the terror she lived through each night, waiting for the asshole to show up and scare her. She also told them how she had contacted the police and that they had never found anyone outside her house or any evidence to the contrary.
“You won’t ever have to go back there, honey,” Ed said. “You’ve already agreed to live here, but we want you to move in with us. We want to be able to hold you in our arms and know that you’re safe. You are very special to us, Primrose, and we don’t want to be away from you.”
“I have to go back,” she said, but before she could continue on, Palmer snarled at her.
“What the hell do you mean by that?”
She took exception to his tone, so she snapped right back at him. “Don’t you dare take that attitude with me, Palmer! You didn’t even let me finish what I was going to say, so you can get off that high horse right now.”
Palmer sighed and looked like he was consciously trying to relax his tense muscles as he looked at the ceiling, before lowering his head and meeting her gaze again. “I’m sorry for speaking to you that way. We are all feeling very possessive of you right now and it’s going to take us some time to get used to having a mate. We’re so used to giving orders to the Sigmas and some of the other Omegas that I didn’t stop to think about how I was speaking to you before I opened my mouth.”
“Apology accepted,” Prim said, and then smiled. She was a little worried that he and his brothers were going to be ordering her about and questioning everything she did, there for a minute. And although she was going to have to be consciously more open with them and tell them where she was going and what she would be doing so they didn’t worry about her, she wasn’t about to let him or his brothers tell her what to do. Establishing an equality with her mates was essential for this relationship to work. She wasn’t a leader by any stretch of the imagination, but she wasn’t going to be led around, either.
“Continue with what you were going to say, honey,” Ed prodded.
“I need to go back and pack up my stuff and hand the key to my house over to my landlord. I also need to e-mail my resignation to the school principal.”
“We can help you move, baby,” Barrett said. “We can get some of the other Omegas to bring their trucks and we can have all your stuff back here faster than a moving company could.”
“You don’t need to. I can organize…”
“No,” Palmer said in a firm voice. “There is no way in hell we are going to let you go off by yourself when someone has been scaring you. You can yell, scream, and argue all you want, but I’m not budging on this.”
Prim nodded. She hadn’t wanted to put them out, but she felt a hell of a lot safer to know that one or all of them would be with her. “Okay.”
“Thank you, sugar.” Palmer stroked her arm. “I just can’t bear the thought of anything happening to you.”
“When do you want to get your stuff, honey?” Ed asked.
“As soon as possible. There’s no need to delay, really, but I’ll work around you three. I don’t want to take you away from anything you’re supposed to be doing.”
“We’ll check with Luc, Rafe, and Gabe, as well at the other Omegas,” Barrett said. “The faster we get you moved, the better.”
“Thank you,” Prim said. “Thank you for taking time out to help me.”
Ed squeezed her hand. “You don’t need to thank us, honey. You’re our mate, our woman, and we will do everything we can to make sure you’re happy, safe, and protected.”
Tears burned the back of her eyes. Even though she hadn’t known these three men very long, she felt so loved and cherished. It filled her heart with warmth and a confidence she hadn’t known was missing until now. Oh, she’d been comfortable within herself and confident in her career, but she hadn’t ever really felt sexy or desirable. It hadn’t been flattering at all to be hit on by that asshole at work. She’d felt kind of dirty with the way he’d looked at her, but not with Palmer, Ed, and Barrett. They made her feel feminine and sensual, and her heart felt like it was full of love, but she couldn’t understand how that could be after knowing them for such a short time. She couldn’t deny how she felt, though.
The moment they had claimed her, she’d felt connected to them as she never felt connected to another person before, not even her best friend, Melissa. She could feel them in her heart and soul, and knew she had done the right thing when she accepted to mate with them and be theirs. Primrose felt fulfilled in ways she had never felt before. She was so full of emotions, she felt like she could cry at the drop of a hat because she was so overwhelmed with what she was feeling.
Palmer’s hoarse voice drew her from her introspection and he stroked a finger down her cheek. “I can feel you, sugar.” He placed his hand on his chest right over his heart. “Right here.”
Prim drew in a deep breath and tried to swallow around the lump of emotion constricting her throat. “I can feel you, too.” She turned to meet Ed and Barrett’s gazes, too, and mimicked Palmer’s action by placing her hand over her heart. “Here.”
Barrett leaned over and kissed her on the forehead. “You mean everything to me, baby, and as much as I would like nothing more than to take you back to bed and show you, I’d better go and see our Alpha and Betas. I’ll be back soon.”
“Do you want to take anything with you when we drive back to your place?” Ed asked.
“I think I should take my car, and of course I’ll need my purse.”
“Why do you want to take your car, sugar?” Palmer asked. “We can all fit into one of our trucks.”
“I can load some stuff into my car, too. Not that I have much, but the more vehicles we have, the better. Right?”
Palmer nodded albeit reluctantly. “Okay, but one of us will go with you in your car.”
“All right,” she agreed.
Barrett came back, and then they were all heading out. Barrett and Ed walked over to their truck and she and Palmer stopped at her car. “Do you want to drive, sugar, or do you want me to?”
“I will.” Prim got into the driver’s seat and Palmer got into the passenger side. “You can drive on the way back.”
“Sure. The others are already at the entrance to pack land waiting for us. Let’s hit the road, sugar.”
Prim took the lead and started driving slowly along the gravel tracks before glancing over at Palmer. “How do you know they’re waiting?”
Palmer tapped his head. “Remember we told you we could talk to each other in our minds?”
“Yes.”
“Well, we can talk to the whole pack that way. Sinclair just let us know through the common pack link that he
and his brother, Michael, are ready to help out. Barrett must have asked them when he went up to the main house to see Lucien, Rafe, and Gabe.”
“Will I be able to do that, too?”
“Eventually, you might be able to.”
Prim glanced at the truck sitting off the side of the driveway and saw two large men staring at her as she stopped the car at the driveway entrance. Both men smiled and waved and she nodded before turning to see Palmer wave at them. She put her indicator on and then checked both sides of the road before turning and picking up speed. When she glanced in the rearview mirror it was to see Barrett and Edison behind her, and the other truck was following them.
“Are your parents still alive?” she asked.
“No.” Palmer sighed. “Our mom and dads were caught by hunters while they were out on a run about ten years ago.”
Prim reached over and placed her hand on his thigh when she felt sadness radiating off of him in waves. Her breath hitched and tears burned her eyes. It was really hard feeling Palmer’s emotions now that they were connected, but she envisaged warmth and loving emotions toward him, trying to ease his pain. He covered her hand with his and then laced their fingers together.
“I’m sorry.”
“They were good parents. It doesn’t seem to matter how long they’ve been gone, I still miss them a lot.”
Prim nodded. “Yeah, I know. My mom was killed when she was walking past a store on her way home from work. The store was being held up and she copped a stray bullet. She died instantly.”
“Ah, I’m sorry, too, sugar.”
She felt the grief in her heart being pushed out when he sent what felt like love through their link and the hollow filled with warmth. But when she concentrated on the emotions being pushed her way, she realized that Palmer wasn’t the only one sending her comfort. Ed and Barrett were, too.
“How do you do that?”
“Do what, sugar?”
“All three of you just sent me love through our mate link. How did Barrett and Ed know what we were talking about?”
“I told them.” Palmer tapped his head. “Plus, they can feel when you’re sad, like you did me. We don’t want you to feel sad. As your mates, it’s our job to make sure that you feel loved and happy.”
