by Becca Van
She shoved to her feet and walked inside, glad that her mom, Jenny, and her two dads, Royal and Talon, were already at the resort. She didn’t have to pretend she was happy when there was no one else around. With another sad sigh, she began to fix her breakfast.
* * * *
Phelan glanced toward the door when he caught Celeste’s scent drifting toward him on the breeze coming through the open door. Celeste glanced toward him and scowled before changing direction to the opposite side of the room where her mates, Tarik and Hodge, were sanding back the Gyprock. He turned his gaze toward Hopper when he nudged Phelan’s arm.
“Did you see that scowl?”
“It was hard to miss,” Phelan murmured his reply, hoping that none of the other men or Celeste heard him.
Tarik, the alpha of their stealth, or pack, frowned at them before smiling down at his mate. Phelan sighed and turned away when Tarik took Celeste into his arms and started kissing her.
“Do you think Tammy will accept our claim on her?” Hopper asked.
“I fucking hope so,” Phelan snapped. He was finding it harder and harder to keep his anger at bay. Ever since Tammy had been hurt by the rogue wolf shifter stalking Celeste, his emotions had been all over the place. It had only been two weeks since that horrifying incident, but it felt more like two years.
Phelan had never been so scared or angry when he’d seen Tammy’s bruised face. He’d wanted to go after the fucker that had hurt her, but his concern for her had won out over revenge, and Tarik and Hodge had already been after the prick since he’d been carrying Celeste over his shoulder.
His little spitfire of a mate hadn’t fought him or Hopper like she usually did, and that had told him she was hurting more than she was letting on. She hadn’t even protested when Phelan had lifted her into his arms. Although he wouldn’t change what he’d done, touching her had been a big mistake. Ever since that fateful day, he and Hopper had been fighting the mating heat, as well as their inner animals’ ire. His sabear wouldn’t stop pushing at him from the inside, trying to assert its dominance so it could mark and claim its mate, and he knew Hopper suffered just the same. Phelan wanted to do that more than he wanted to take his next breath, but within a couple of hours, Tammy had been avoiding them as if they had the plague.
Phelan had been surprised that the mating heat had taken hold since he and Hopper had touched Tammy platonically before. He mulled over the situation in his mind and the only hypothesis he had been able to come up with was that the lust for his mate had been triggered because she’d gotten hurt. All of his animal and his human protective instincts had been triggered, as well as the desire to claim his woman.
Phelan sighed and ran his fingers through his hair with frustration. He wasn’t sure how much more he could endure before his sabear wrested control from him and did the unthinkable. Like, claim his mate without her permission.
“We have to get her alone,” Hopper said.
Phelan nodded his agreement. “The question is how? She does everything she can to avoid us. How the hell are we supposed to explain why we let her go when she won’t let us within a hundred yards of her?”
Hopper shook his head, turned back to the wall they were sanding, and took his aggression out on the filler. He stopped and met Phelan’s gaze again. “We sneak into the house and kidnap her.”
“We can’t fucking do that, Hopper. Are you fucking crazy? Roy and Talon would sever our heads, and Tarik would just stand back and watch.”
“What would I watch?” Tarik asked.
“Shit!” Phelan glanced over his shoulder to meet Tarik’s gaze.
“What are you two up to?” their alpha asked.
Before Phelan or Hopper could answer, Tarik lifted his nose into the air, his nostrils flaring as he sniffed. “How long have you been in heat?”
“Doesn’t matter,” Hopper muttered.
“Like fuck it doesn’t. If you’re in heat then Tammy probably is, too. Now answer the fucking question.”
“Since that motherfucker hurt Tammy and tried to kidnap Celeste.”
“Are you serious?” Tarik asked incredulously.
“As a heart attack,” Phelan snarled.
“Why aren’t you with my sister?” Tarik asked. “If you’re in pain, she will be, too.”
“We’ve tried,” Hopper growled.
Phelan shook his head. “She doesn’t want anything to do with us.”
“How can you two be so blind?” Tarik crossed his arms over his chest.
“What?” Phelan frowned.
“She does want you, but she’s hurting.”
“Who hurt her?” Hopper shouted.
“You and Phelan hurt her.”
“What? We’d never do anything to harm a hair on her head.”
Tarik shook his head. “You know damn well what I’m talking about. Now go and fix it.”
“She won’t sit still and listen to us,” Phelan explained. “We’ve tried approaching her every day over the last week and a half, but she just runs and hides.”
Tarik nodded. “Look around you. What do you see?”
“Is that a rhetorical question?” Hopper frowned.
“Who’s here?”
“Nearly everyone,” Phelan answered. He glanced toward Celeste as she came up to Tarik’s side.
“A better question is, who’s not here?” Celeste asked.
A light bulb flickered to life in Phelan’s head. The only people who weren’t helping with the new resort was Calloway, who was probably manning the air traffic control tower, and Finbar, who was doing maintenance or checking over the plane that was scheduled for take-off. And Tamara.
“Let’s go,” Phelan said as he shoved the sandpaper at Tarik.
“You’re going to need to get down on your knees and grovel,” Celeste’s angry tone had Phelan stopping in his tracks.
He turned his gaze toward her. “I’ll do anything to have Tammy in my arms.”
“Do you love her?” Celeste asked as she walked closer to him and Hopper.
“Yes,” Phelan and Hopper answered simultaneously.
“She thinks you don’t want her and don’t like her. Her self-confidence has taken a beating. Tammy thinks she isn’t good enough.”
“Not good enough?” Hopper asked in a strangled voice.
“What?” Phelan roared and quickly lowered his voice, ignoring the looks of curiosity from the contractors. “Why—”
Celeste interrupted Phelan. “I’m not going to break my friend’s confidences more than I already have. Suffice it to say, I want to see her happy. She hides it well, and though she laughs and smiles, it’s all forced. She’s sad because you two morons have your heads shoved so far up your asses, you can’t see the light of day, let alone what’s right in front of your face.” She paused to take a deep breath. “I’ll be watching. If you hurt her any more than you have, I’ll rip your fucking balls off and shove them down your throats.”
“Fair enough,” Hopper replied.
“If we hurt her, I’ll rip my own fucking balls off,” Phelan said before turning toward the door.
Hopper came up next to Phelan as they strode toward Tammy’s and her parents’ house.
Phelan hoped that she would stay and let them explain why he and Hopper had let her go off to college instead of protesting and claiming her, but the chances of that were slim. Every time they got near her, she took off and hid in her room. If they were lucky they’d catch her unaware. If they could block all avenues of escape, their mate wouldn’t have any choice but to listen while he and Hopper talked.
He just hoped his beast didn’t decide it was time to take matters into its own hands.
Chapter Two
Tammy heard the quiet snick of the front door opening and closing, but she was so wrapped up in her own pity party, she didn’t even bother lifting her head. She’d eaten a light breakfast, downed a mug of coffee, and was currently resting her head on her folded up arms on the table. She wasn’t in the mood for c
onversation and didn’t want to piss anyone off by snapping at them, so she kept her eyes closed and hoped they went away soon.
The second she took a deep breath in through her nose, she knew who’d entered her home, and was currently in the kitchen. Her first instinct was to shove away from the table and bolt to her bedroom and lock herself in, but then Phelan and Hopper would know for sure she’d been purposely avoiding them. Although, they had probably already worked that out for themselves. Even her parents had tried talking to her about her reluctant mates, but each time they’d broached the subject, Tammy had just held up her hand and shaken her head. Thankfully, her mom and the dads had backed off.
She heard chairs scrape on either side of her but kept her head down on her arms on the table. Tears stung her eyes but she ruthlessly pushed them away. There was no way in hell she was going let these two men know how much they’d hurt her.
When she felt a hand on her back she bolted upright as if she’d been struck by lightning. This time she didn’t ignore her instinct. She shoved up from her seat, quickly crossing the tiles until she was in the kitchen part of the room, leaving them sitting at the table with the counter as a buffer between her and them.
“What do you want?” Tammy gnawed on her lip because she hadn’t meant to ask that, her intentions had been to tell them to piss off.
“We want to talk to you,” Phelan said in a modulated voice as if he was talking about the damn weather. She met his blue-eyed gaze briefly and sucked in a breath when she saw that his sabear was close to the surface. His blue eyes were backlit with that ethereal glow. She glanced toward Hopper and noted his animal was also in the forefront. Her body turned traitorous, her muscles softening as her nipples hardened and her pussy began to throb and moisten. Tammy hoped that there was enough distance between them so that the scent of her arousal wasn’t obvious, but when she saw Hopper’s eyes glaze over with heat, she knew they could smell her desire.
“I don’t want to talk to you.”
Phelan rose, his chair scraping over the tile as he nudged it back with his foot, and when he took a step in her direction, she took a step back. He hesitated for a moment, but then took another step, then another. She matched him step for step until her back bumped into the fridge behind her. Her breathing escalated and her body began to throb with hunger until she felt as if her insides were on fire. Nonetheless, she tried to push her desire to the back of her mind. She wasn’t going to let pheromones rule her brain.
Phelan stopped a couple of feet away and locked gazes with her. When his nostrils flared and he groaned as he closed his eyes, her legs began to tremble. She had to lock her knees so she wouldn’t fall to his feet in a heap.
“Why are you scared of us?” Phelan asked.
Tammy saw red. She wasn’t scared of anybody. Never had been and never would be. She took a step closer toward him and poked him hard in the chest. “You have an oversized ego if you think I’m scared of you. I don’t like you and I don’t want to be around you. Fuck off!”
Phelan grasped her wrist in his large hand and it took all her self-control to stop herself from leaping into his arms. She glanced to the side when she caught movement from her periphery and swallowed a groan of need as she eyed Hopper’s sexy body over.
She’d known that Hopper and Phelan were her mates for a long time. She’d followed them around as much as she could, but they’d never even acknowledged her. They’d let her go off to college on her own without argument, and though she’d been devastated, she used their rejection and put all her anger and disappointment into her studies. She’d never once gone out on a date. Not because she didn’t want to, but because other guys had left her cold. Tammy sometimes wished she’d ignored her body’s responses and just taken the plunge and slept with someone, but the thought of anyone but Hopper or Phelan touching her had made her feel ill.
It was a hell of a situation. She was damned either way. They didn’t want her and she didn’t want anyone else. She was going to end up a lonely old maid if she survived the mating heat. However, the biggest question rolling around in her mind was, what would happen to them if they didn’t want her as a mate? Would their beasts take over, obliterating any sign of the man? Would they become the vicious animal and end up hurting others? Would they hibernate for months on end and eventually starve to death?
Just thinking about them dying ripped her heart in two and had the breath backing up in her lungs. Her heart hurt as it flipped and then thumped frantically inside of her chest.
Tammy had no idea what to do or what to say. As far as she was concerned, everything they hadn’t said over the years was answer enough. They didn’t want her.
Phelan released her wrist and Tammy sighed with relief, but her relief was short lived. She must have blinked or something because the next thing she knew she was in his arms, one arm behind her back and the other under the crook of her knees. She wriggled and struggled but Phelan just tightened his hold around her.
“Let me go, you asshole.”
“No.” Phelan walked out of the kitchen, through the living room, and down the hall toward her bedroom. Hopper was right behind him.
Tammy began to struggle in earnest. Scared that if they got her into her room, they would end up claiming her. However, it wasn’t because she was scared they’d force or coerce her into making love with them. It was herself she didn’t trust.
“Settle down, Tammy.”
“Put me down,” Tammy yelled and blinked rapidly as tears burned her eyes again. She twisted and turned trying to get loose, but he was much bigger and stronger than she’d ever be. He and the other men in Savoonga had the inner strength of a polar bear and the extinct saber-toothed tiger. She was stronger than the average human man, yes, but she was no match for Phelan.
Phelan dropped her onto her bed and she immediately scrambled away from him until her back was resting against the headboard. She brought her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them. She glanced over to Hopper when he locked her door and leaned back against it with his arms crossed over his chest.
Tammy couldn’t seem to help the way her eyes wandered over his big, sexy body. She unconsciously licked her lips as she perused his muscular frame. His hair was blonde and sat a little longer than collar length. Her fingers twitched as she tried to imagine what it would feel like against her skin. Would it be soft and cool, or silky and warm? His jaw strong and rugged, his nose a little too long, but that didn’t detract his masculinity in the least. His upper lip was thin but perfectly bowed over his full lower lip. His shoulders were so wide they almost touched the door frame each time he entered a room, and his chest was brawny with sculpted pecs. His torso thinned down to narrow hips. His strong, denim encased thighs were thick and his legs long. Her gaze wandered back up his body and caught on the prominent bulge at his crotch. She quickly looked away, turning her gaze toward the window and her only avenue of escape.
She stopped breathing when her gaze landed on Phelan. She hadn’t heard him move while she’d been ogling Hopper and cursed her inattention. There was no way out, no reprieve until they got what they wanted. She was going to have to keep her wits about her and her desire in check, which was way harder than she’d ever imagined. The mating heat had kicked in and with each day that passed, the symptoms got worse and worse.
Tammy had forced herself to eat a little breakfast this morning, because she hadn’t been able to remember the last time she had eaten. When she’d dressed, she’d been surprised to find that she’d lost weight. She’d had to put a belt on to keep her jeans up around her hips. If she hadn’t, they would have fallen to her knees. Luckily, she liked to be comfortable and always chose tops a size bigger than she needed so she could put other things beneath them when it was too cold not to layer up.
She’d seen the worried frowns her mom had given her that morning, but was glad she hadn’t said anything in front of her dads. If they noticed she’d lost weight and the dark marks beneath her eyes as a result
of lack of sleep, they would have read her to the riot act. Not to mention what they’d do to Phelan and Hopper.
Royal and Talon had been the alphas of the stealth, and although they’d handed the reins over to Tarik, neither of her dads would back away from a problem. Especially if it was in regards to her. Thankfully, she’d smudged some concealer over the dark marks and she’s used a touch of blusher on her cheeks to add some color. There was nothing she could do about the way her cheeks had hollowed out, though. She just hoped that the men around Savoonga weren’t as observant as her mom or Celeste. Even Celeste had started harping at her to eat more. Tammy had agreed to placate her best friend, but the fire raging through her blood wasn’t conducive to stimulating her appetite. At least not the one that made her crave food.
Phelan was about an inch taller than Hopper’s six foot three, and he was just as big as his friend in the muscle department, if not a little bigger. His eyes were shade lighter blue than Hopper’s but his hair was so black it gleamed with blue highlights under the sun. Both men took her breath away with their rugged, masculine handsomeness, but she’d never let on to them how much she wanted them.
“You have no right to be in here,” Tammy said. “You need to leave.”
“We aren’t going anywhere, half-pint,” Hopper said.
“Don’t fucking call me that. I’m not ten years old anymore.”
“Oh, believe me, we are well and truly aware of your age, baby,” Phelan murmured.
The deep timbre of his voice sent shivers racing up and down her spine and goose bumps formed over her skin.
“This is my room,” Tammy said angrily. “The only sanctuary I have from all of you overblown, testosterone-laden males. You aren’t supposed to be in here. I don’t want you in here.”
“That’s just too damn bad, baby.” Phelan shoved off the window frame and took a step toward the bed. Tammy rolled and crawled away from him, but gasped when he wrapped a big, warm hand around her ankle and tugged her back toward him. She turned onto her back and kicked out with her free leg, causing him to grunt when she kicked him in the chest. She felt a little guilty over that, but knew she hadn’t really hurt him. He might end up with a bruise but she doubted it. Sabears were a hardy lot and healed much faster than the average person. If the wound was serious all they had to do was change into their animal form, and voila, the injury would be nearly non-existent.
