by Mina Carter
Cat blanched, feeling sick. Of all the things a wolf feared, it was that. A feral wolf was a force of nature, concerned only with feeding and, as its favorite prey was humanity, any wolf pack with a feral in its area would move heaven and earth to hunt it down and destroy it.
A body flew through the air in front of them, hitting the tree trunk with a heavy thud, the breath groaning from the unconscious form as it slid down into a crumpled heap.
“Oh, for fuck's sake. Can't you cats do anything?” Ancelin sighed in annoyance and waved his hand at the group fighting in the middle of the clearing. “I have to do bloody everything around here.”
The tsunami of violence resolved itself, Ryder held between two of the were-cats, his head hanging low, and fresh cuts and bruises mottling his skin. Confused, Cat shrieked at him to fight back, but it was as though he was as frozen in place as she was. Paralyzed. Just like she was.
The sickening sound of fists hitting flesh filled the clearing, swiftly followed by the scent of fresh blood on the air. Not just any blood, but blood with the distinctive tangy scent of wolf.
Ryder's blood.
“Please … don't hurt him,” Cat begged, trying to tear her feet from where they were rooted to the ground. Her muscles protested and her bones ached but she ignored the pain to lock eyes with Ancelin. Nothing mattered apart from stopping them from hurting Ryder.
“Please…” she pleaded, desperation threatening to choke her. “I'll do whatever you want, just don't hurt him.”
Ancelin laughed, the rich sound echoing around the wooded clearing, bouncing off the trees and back at them. The forest itself was silent, as though it was watching the little scene unfold.
“You just don't get it sweetheart, do you?” he sneered as he left her frozen in place. “Pretty as you are this isn't about you … oh, I'm sure you're a good fuck and my boy here is going to be heartbroken when I kill you … and rest assured I will kill you,” he added, wagging his finger over his shoulder at her as he circled the beaten wolf.
On his knees, his arms locked out at an uncomfortable angle behind him by his captors, Ryder's head hung low.
“…but you really think anyone cares when one bitch buys the farm? Oh, no. This is about something far more important…” The god rolled his shoulder, all puffed up with his own importance. “This is about me.”
He turned and stopped suddenly as Ryder lifted his head. The big wolf might have been down but he wasn't out, a malevolent hatred burning in his green eyes.
“Too damn right this is about you, dad. And it's gonna be all about you when I get these cats off me and break your fucking neck,” he promised, his voice low but determined. As though it agreed with him, the odd bird-shaped tattoo on his chest pulsed red for a second, then faded to normal. Ancelin's eyes widened as he dropped back a step and considered his son.
Heart in her throat, Caitlin watched the interplay. She had to figure some way out of this. Had to save Ryder, even if it meant dying herself, because she loved him. Somewhere between the fight in the bar and being threatened by a self-proclaimed god, she'd fallen in love so completely her heart ached with it. Ached because it was full, ached because she was about to die and she'd never gotten the chance to tell Jayce she loved him too.
Ancelin stopped, a frown on his handsome face as his vision snapped back to normal. Whatever normal was for a conceited, self-important, minor deity anyway. “Something is wrong. It's like part of you is missing…” he said, his eyes widening, “…where is the rest of your soul?”
“Right behind you sunshine.”
Cat caught her breath. Like an avenging angel Jayce stood at the edge of the clearing, his arms folded over his broad chest. There was no amusement in his eyes, or his expression, as Ancelin did a double take, glancing from one brother to the other.
“Wha … you're … you're—”
*
"The word you're looking for, is 'twins'." Jayce let his gaze flicker from Ancelin to the cat trying to flank him. "Call the cat off or I'll neuter him."
He'd lurked in the shadows before making his presence known, listening to what was going on. Long enough to work it all out.
This was the man who'd killed his mother.
His father.
His eyes connected with Ryder's and the link between them cracked wide open. “God…”.Ryder's voice, not just his feelings, fed directly into Jayce's mind. “Always knew I was special. I'm a god!”
Jayce's mental voice snorted slightly. “You're an idiot. Get over yourself, if anything I got the god bit. You hurt?”
Amusement filled Jayce's mind coming down the link with his brother. “Hurt? You think I’d let this lot damage me? Purrlease, you wound me.”
“You’re not stuck like Cat?”
“Fuck no, just waiting for you to stop posing so we can finish this. This guy—”
“—killed mom. Yeah, I got that bit. Let's do it.”
The exchange was over in a second and both brothers fixed their attention on Ancelin. The god looked nervous, his dark eyes shooting from Ryder to Jayce.
"Twin wolves … not possible. It's that bitch Nix … she put you up to this," he mumbled, taking a step backwards. This time though it was Ancelin being stalked as Jayce backed him up across the clearing.
The tabby were-cat trying to sneak up on the left side snarled and launched himself at Jayce. The wolf moved like lightning, as graceful and elegant as a dancer. Jayce’s extended arm caught the were-cat in the throat, a spin bringing his opponent into his arms, hard hands locked on either side of his head. Jayce twisted his shoulders—a quick, savage movement that ended in the crunching of broken bone. Dropping the body at his feet, he carried on.
Out of the corner of his eye Jayce watched as Ryder dealt with his own guards, dragging the men hanging on to his arms upright and slamming them together like an over-enthusiastic toddler with new toys. They dropped like stones to lie groaning at his feet. Ryder stepped over them, his eyes fixed on Ancelin.
The god continued to back up, looking from Ryder back to Jayce with fear in his eyes. He stumbled into Cat, still held fast by the enchantment he'd put on her. She growled and shoved him back towards his sons.
He yelped in surprise as he landed in between Ryder and Jayce. Ryder’s merciless face mirrored how Jayce felt as both took an arm.
“Hello father—”
“You can't do this! I'm a god do you hear me? A god. Do you know what that means?”
Jayce grabbed Ancelin by the front of his shirt and yanked him closer, glaring down into his face as he dangled. He smiled as he realized he and Ryder were both just a hair taller than Ancelin.
“What? The shit we're about to beat out of you will be rainbow-colored?” Jayce snarled, “Because god or no fucking god, father or no father, we are going to kill you.”
Ancelin paled. Then, without warning, he blinked out of existence. Jayce looked at his empty hands in surprise.
“Bastard! Where'd he go?” Ryder’s voice echoed Jayce’s surprise.
“He's trans-located…” Jayce spun on a heel, looking for the place Ancelin would reappear. Because he would. He had to. “Fuck it. I hate dealing with deities. He can't have gone far.”
Ryder stood still, closing his eyes for a moment and going motionless. Without asking, Jayce knew what he was doing. Searching out their errant father on the astral plane. Something neither of them had ever been able to do before. That wasn't the only thing either, deep within himself Jayce felt different. As though meeting their father for the first time had awoken something inside him.
“No, he's gone. Can't get a trace on him at all.” Ryder shook his head and reached for the phone in his pocket. Flipping it open he looked at the display, “Crap, no signal…”
Jayce grinned. “Hey, we're part-god remember?”
“Good point…” Ryder glared at the phone for a minute, then he grunted and dialed. “Yeah, Sal? This is Ry Vanir … listen, do a search for me on a deity called Ancelin, would ya? If t
here's a bounty on him, we want it. Yeah, cheers doll. We'll be done soon. We have something to clear up first…”
* * * *
Cat felt like the outsider looking in as the twins turned towards her. Around them the were-cats lay moaning on the ground, no longer a threat. Having both sets of green eyes on her was unsettling. Just the same as she remembered but so, so different. There was a buzz in the air around them. The same buzz she'd felt when Ancelin had touched her except this time her skin wasn't trying to crawl off her bones to get away.
Suddenly she understood what made them different. The whole part-shift deal, the danger that clung to them, the reason the seers in the pack didn't like them, the reason they made alphas nervous.
Because they were alpha wolves and they weren't. In fact they weren't werewolves at all, they were just playing wolf and always had been.
She took a wary step forwards, awe filling her. Awe because they were beautiful, stood there like … well, like gods, and wariness because of the look on Jayce's face. Hostility and pain radiated from him in waves.
“Is it true? He really is a god?” she asked, reaching them.
“Was. His days are numbered,” Jayce said shortly, turning away from her and talking to his brother instead. “I'll take whatever Sal's got lined up for us. Call me when you're done here and you're ready to work again.”
The atmosphere went from bad to shitty in a heartbeat. “Com'on bro, no need to be like that—” Ryder tried but Cat cut him off.
Caitlin was a calm woman, most of the time. At the moment though she was riding the razor edge of sexual need, fear and fury. The first she'd been dealing with since she’d realized she was going into heat … the second, since the cats had attacked them yesterday, but the third was all new and all directed at Jayce.
“You know what? Screw you.” She hated the wavering edge of tears in her voice. “I didn't have to run my paws off to tell you guys about your mom. I didn't have to walk out on my pack because I thought you'd want to know and I don't have to put up with this shit. You got a problem with me Jayce, then let's have it out here and now.”
“I don't have a problem with you, Cat. Enjoy your life.”
Jayce turned away without looking at her, his voice defeated. For some reason that made Cat all the angrier and she did something she'd never dreamt of doing in her lifetime.
She shoved him. Hard.
“Look at me Jayce, and tell me what the fucking problem is or do I have to bloody beat it out of you?” She placed her hands on her hips as Jayce stumbled in surprise. He righted himself quickly and turned to look at her. Ryder stepped back, his upraised hand hiding his smile.
“Playing dangerous games babe, you sure you want to go there?” His blond eyebrow arched up towards his shaved hairline. The sentence rolled off his tongue in the smooth-as-silk voice that was Jayce at his most charming, or his most lethal.
Determined not to let him distract her, she ignored it and glared at him. “Totally sure. You obviously have some maggot in your head and I want to know what your problem is.”
“You want to know what my problem is?”
“Yeah, what am I? Speaking freaking Martian here? Let me put this in terms even your simplistic male brain can comprehend. What. Is. Your. Deal?”
Cat folded her arms, her weight on one leg as she waited for him to answer. To one side she could see Ryder's shoulders shaking in amusement. She shot him a look, one that said “I'll deal with you later”. It only made his broad shoulders shake all the more.
“My problem?” Jayce's voice was quiet but wound so tight if he'd been a spring, he'd have broken under the pressure. “The woman I love chose my God-damn brother before I could get a fucking shot at her. So, yeah, I got a problem. Happy now?”
Cat's heart melted at the misery she could hear under all the anger in his voice and she stepped forwards to grab Jayce’s forearm. Jayce tried to shake her off but she held on like glue.
“No, I’m not happy.”
He laughed, the sound bitter, and started to remove her hand finger by finger from his solidly muscled arm. “Sorry doll, but from where I’m standing that’s kinda hard to believe.”
“I didn't choose Ryder.”
A dismissive shrug. “You chose him or he chose you, amounts to the same thing—”
“I'm choosing you both so will you just shut up and kiss me?” Cat ordered and reached up on her tiptoes to kiss him, hoping desperately he didn’t push her away.
Chapter Seven
Hours later Jayce was still reeling in shock as the two men waited for Cat to emerge from the hotel bathroom.
“Christ, how long does it take for a woman to get ready?” He groused from his position lounging against the headboard of the bed. They'd gotten a few weird looks when they'd asked at reception for the wedding suite … for three. A hard look from Jayce had forestalled any questions and a key had been handed over in short order.
“I think we've had this conver … ver … oh my God.” Ryder's voice trailed off as the door to the bathroom opened and Cat stepped out.
Jayce stopped breathing.
Cat's hair was still wet from the shower and she had a simple towel wrapped around her, but she was the most seductive thing he'd ever seen. Without thinking, he was on his feet, so close to her he could feel the heat of her skin beating against his. She was running a fever, quite normal for a female fully in heat.
Heat. Just the thought of it poured lava through his veins. His cock went hard in an instant. Every male wolf fantasized about his mate in heat and Jayce was no exception, even if he hadn’t already had years of longing backing this up.
“You look beautiful,” he murmured, sincerity coloring his voice. She looked up at him, a light flush riding her cheeks. The mixture of awareness and innocence in her eyes pierced him to the core.
“Yeah? You're just saying that.” Cat bit her lower lip as she reached out to touch him. Her small hands spread over his chest in exploration. Jayce shuddered and closed his eyes. The next instant he gathered her in his arms and dropped her giggling on the bed.
“Just saying that huh?” He eased down beside her, the bed dipping on the other side as Ryder slid in behind her. “What say we show you how beautiful you are?”
*
His first kiss stole Cat's breath, his second her ability to think and his third took her soul. Cat whimpered in the back of her throat and arched against him as Ryder unwrapped the towel from her body with gentle hands.
Pleasure coursed through her as their hands smoothed across her skin. Being with Ryder earlier had been wonderful, amazing, but having both twins here now was the fulfillment of every fantasy she'd ever had. She'd given her heart to these two men, to both of them, and although this wasn't a traditional “pairing” Cat knew deep down she'd been born for them.
“Oh God … more, please…”
Jayce's mouth blazed a trail down her body to latch onto her nipple, his hands stroking and offering the plumpness of her breast to his lips like a succulent treat. Behind her Ryder nuzzled her neck as his fingers moved down to slide around her waist and lower.
“More we can do.” Gently Jayce pushed her onto her back and parted her legs to trail his fingertips up the sensitive skin along her inner thighs. Cat's body tightened in anticipation as he drew circles upwards towards her sex. Jayce flicked his tongue over her nipple, sucking it into the warm cavern of his mouth. Cat groaned, shivering under his touch.
“We're both going to take you, you know?” Ryder murmured by her ear, keeping up a running commentary of the things he and Jayce had ever wanted to do to and with her, the erotic details sending her arousal spiking higher.
Jayce trailed kisses across her toned stomach. She sucked a shuddering breath in as he kissed her belly, the blade of her hip and in the crease between her leg and her groin. Cat's pussy clenched hard, her clit aching.
“Stop teasing me and get on with it!”
She arched her back as Ryder cupped her breasts and
rolled her nipples between his fingers. Then Jayce's warm breath blew over her folds and she tensed, all her attention focused on the man settling between her legs. He pushed her thighs further apart and stopped. A groan of appreciation rumbled in the back of his throat.
She stiffened as he probed her folds with his tongue, parting them to seek out the treasures within. He licked along her in one slow sweep from her slit to her clit. Her body melted as he nibbled, alternating soft licks with pulling the sensitive nub of flesh into his mouth and suckling until she was nearly out of her mind. Her hands coiled in the sheets, clutching at them as Jayce drove her arousal higher.
Her hips shifted as she got closer to the edge, driven there by the relentless urging of Jayce's clever lips and tongue against her. Liquid heat flooded her channel and he moaned. His tongue drove into her, seeking the source of the heat and setting fireworks off behind Cat's eyelids.
She arched her back more, the restless feeling getting worse, until she couldn't keep still. “Jayce, please… I need you. I need to feel you inside me.”
Jayce moved over her, bracing himself on his arms as his brother pulled back a little. Cat looked at Ryder in concern. He smiled, his green eyes filled with love and desire. “Don't worry sweetheart, I’m right here.”
Cat started to nod but Jayce's hard knee spread her thighs further apart and her attention was hijacked by the feel of his muscular body against hers. She glanced up, caught his eye and was blown away by the intense look in his eyes.
“I've wanted to do this for years,” he admitted. He dipped his hips and ran the head of his cock against her. It slid over the heated flesh of her sex, seeking and finding the slick entrance to her pussy. Cat caught her breath as he pushed into her. He was just as big as Ryder, stretching as his hips drove forwards.
A sound nearer to a purr than a growl rumbled in the back of her throat as her body clenched in need around his cock, welcoming him as she wrapped her arms around his neck. Her fingers stroked the shaved hair at his nape. It was like rich velvet, a sensual delight she reveled in.
