by Diane Leyne
And then he was coming, too, as rope after rope shot out of his cock into the condom inside her. But he wasn’t done. He was still hard, so he started moving again, this time the animal inside barely restrained as he pushed her flat but kept on going, reaming her pussy with stroke after punishing stroke. He felt her respond to him, her hips rising to meet his thrusts, and then he was coming again until he thought he’d never finish.
But he did, of course. The condom was so full, he’d had to withdraw with care to make sure it didn’t break. Once that was done, he cuddled up to his Mate and he slept for a time.
He lost track of how many times he’d woken up and taken her again. Sometimes it had been Ben who’d woken up first, but the result had been the same. Regardless of which brother woke up first and claimed their Mate, the other woke up soon after, and they both made love to her or fucked her, depending on the moment, and then they all curled up together and slept some more until the next time.
Chapter Thirteen
The days dragged by with all three men gone. She’d worked extra hours to pass the time until they came back. It was five o’clock on Sunday when she sat back after completing some paperwork she’d been putting off for weeks. She felt good about what she accomplished but now her stomach was rumbling. She was thinking about what to get to eat when she almost jumped out of her skin at the sound of knocking. The office was closed on Sunday except by appointment. What the hell was at the door?
When the front door opened, Ginger felt her heart racing, as she heard someone step into the outer office area where the receptionist sat during working hours. She’d locked the front door. She picked up her purse and dug out her cell phone, cueing up 911, just in case.
“Who’s there?” she called out, wishing she had a better weapon at hand than a cell phone.
“It’s Tim. I saw your car when I was making my rounds.”
She could see him now, walking toward her and she sagged back in her chair.
“Tim, you scared me out of ten years’ growth.”
“Sorry, Ginger. Dang. I didn’t mean to scare you. It’s just that I was making rounds, and I like to keep an eye on the place for Octavia. When I saw your car, I wanted to come in and apologise again and maybe take you out to lunch or something. You know, to make amends.”
“Oh, Tim. Forget it. I have. But maybe I’ll take a rain check on that meal. I’ve already made plans with Lena and Sam.” She felt bad lying to him, but she didn’t want to encourage him. “I appreciate the offer, though, but I have to get back to work. I have a couple more hours to get through before I meet the girls.”
He looked at her with sad eyes and she almost relented, but then she remembered his harsh words about shifters. For a second his eyes narrowed and she thought he was going to go off on dirty wolves or something again, but then it was gone and he smiled sadly at her.
“No problem, Ginger. I understand. But you take care of yourself now, and make sure you get out of here before dark.” He stepped closer, placing a hand on her arm. “It’s not safe out here at night and I’m not talking about the shifters. There have been some, shall we say, incidents. I can’t give you details. That’s classified. But in my job as deputy I hear things, and you’d better be careful hanging around shifters. It’s not safe. There are people out there.”
Ginger gasped. She thought that the pattern of shifter attacks hadn’t been identified by the regular law enforcement since most of them didn’t know about shifters. Maybe Tim or the Sheriff knew something.
“Tim? Is there something I should know? Is there some kind of danger here in Harmony?”
“Look, I have to get back to work, Ginger. Just be careful. And maybe…” he hesitated, and then the words seemed to pour out, “You can’t tell anyone who told you this, but just promise me you won’t go alone to any shifter-owned businesses, not at night.”
“I promise. But Tim?”
She watched as he hurried out the door as if he were being chased. Ginger sat back in her chair. Should she tell Sully and the guys? Tim didn’t have anything concrete, anything they didn’t already know. They were already investigating the Chief and Tim. There would be nothing to be gained by telling them what he said. And maybe, since they weren’t very forthcoming, maybe she could get some inside information from Tim. After all, if he was guilty, he wouldn’t be trying to protect her.
* * * *
But then the following Tuesday, they all showed up at her door. She’d gone back and forth a dozen times about whether she should tell them what Tim had said, but the moment they walked in the door, she felt her heart soar. She hadn’t realized just how much she’d missed them until they were back and she realized that she was whole again and all she wanted was to be with them. Her men. Her wolves. Hers. It was a new feeling for her, but it was so powerful. It was like each time they made love, she felt tied to them a little bit more. She’d thought that whole Mating thing was nonsense, but now she was starting to understand as she found herself laughing with joy when Sully picked her up and carried her into the bedroom, and one by one, they’d all fucked her silly.
Ginger expected the three of them to take her at once, but they never did. One or two in various combinations, but never all three at once.
On the third day back, they’d moved back to the Daniels place. Sully said that it had been security, but Ginger knew that he really had two reasons. First, the place had more room. Her little bungalow was really only suitable for one or two people.
Secondly, it was far enough outside of town that no one just casually dropped by. They’d been interrupted twice while making love with her, and after the second time, Sully had stalked around naked and aroused, packing up all their stuff. Ginger had had to stop him as he started pulling things randomly out of her drawers and throwing them into the suitcase he’d found in her closet.
The tussle had gotten physical and had ended with her on her stomach over the end of the bed getting spanked by one irritated wolf. Ginger protested and struggled and protested some more, but Sully held her firm, one hand on her waist and the other coming down hard on her bare ass.
Ginger had been outraged and angry and fighting him until suddenly she wasn’t and she realized she wasn’t trying to pull away from the big hand that was coming down hard on her ass. She was trying to push into it, the spreading heat on her ass seemingly linking to her clit, which was now throbbing with need as she realized that she was now begging.
“More, Sully. I need more.”
“And who put you in charge, Ginger. You’ll take what we give you, understand.”
“Please!”
But Sully had just laughed and reached between her legs to scoop out a sample of her honey. It was then that she realized that it was running down her legs.
He held his fingers up to her mouth and she licked them, tasting herself for the first time.
Then he scooped up more honey, licking his own fingers, before she found herself being pulled from Sully’s lap to Nate’s.
And Nate didn’t hesitate. He started spanking her hard until she was bucking against his hand with the need to come. She tried to reach down and stimulate her own clit, which both he and Sully had been neglecting, but it was Ben who stopped her, pulling her out of Nate’s lap and pushing her to the ground so that she was on her knees. He pushed her head down to a waiting pillow and pulled her ass high as he spread her knees side.
By now, her ass was on fire and so was her clit. She desperately needed to come, but first she had to wait for Ben to have his turn spanking her, but then, finally, he was inside her, riding her hard, one hand snaking around between her legs from the front and in no time, her climax was thundering through her, inflamed by the friction against her poor abused ass.
She was so turned on and wrung out from the force of her orgasm that she didn’t think she could come again, but when Nate took his turn, mounting her from behind, she found her arousal came back like a freight train and she was quickly bucking underneath him as the
y both came screaming, but she was quickly silenced by Sully’s mouth. It was unbearably hot to have him ravishing her mouth even as Nate was fucking her from behind, but then he moved and Sully rolled her onto her back, pounding into her, each stroke of his cock pushing her across the carpet, her sore ass feeling the friction and without warning, she came screaming again.
* * * *
She’d had no idea just how sexy a spanking could be. It had hurt and she’d yelled her head off, but her honey was running down her thighs by the time he was done, and then he was inside her while is brothers watched, waiting for their turn.
She was turned on by the fact that they were turned on watching her come, but she didn’t realize that the spanking had turned them on, too, until she felt first Nate and then Ben spanking her ass before fucking her from behind.
Things had been great, but on the fourth day, they were gone again, tracking down a lead. She asked them about the case, but they rarely discussed anything with her. She used the web to find out what she could about various crimes, trying to figure out which had caught their interest. The mainstream media had no idea the cases were connected, and she got nowhere.
She persevered. When they were gone, she moved back to her bungalow but kept a bag packed for their return. She went to work. She had lunch or dinner with her girlfriends. And she even had a coffee one morning with Tim. She’d felt guilty for blowing him off with an excuse when he had checked on her that Sunday she was working all alone. She knew he meant well and she felt bad. He had been avoiding her, so when they ran into each other one morning at Penelope’s, she joined him for a cup of coffee. She’d been careful to make sure that he understood that they could never be more than friends, and he had seemed to accept it and understand that they would never be a couple again. He didn’t have many friends in town, and he was so sweet that she hated saying no when he asked her to lunch, but she didn’t want to give him false hope.
She ran into him a couple of times at Penelope’s and they chatted, and she watched him carefully, but he never crossed the line, and never seemed to be bothered when she disappeared for a few days whenever the Anderson brothers reappeared in town. And he stopped asking her out.
The third time they returned, Ginger put her foot down. She wanted to know just what was going on. She looked at their tired faces and almost relented, but then she remembered that the case involved her friends and she stood firm.
Finally, Sully sighed and told her what they had, which was nothing.
“We’re still sure he is operating out of the northwest, but we’re no longer sure he’s in Harmony. He might be from Harmony or just passed through or maybe the whole Harmony connection was just a red herring. I just don’t know anymore.”
“So what do you do now?”
“We’re pretty much out of ideas. All we can think of is to look for where he’s holed up. He has to have a hidey-hole somewhere that he’s using to store his toys. The scent of the explosives he used is pretty distinctive. I haven’t smelled it anywhere in town. We’ve been up and down all the streets three times. The place isn’t all that big.
“And we’ve tried to check into folks’ travel habits, but there are just too many people to do that with. If could lessen the suspect pool, maybe.”
“What about Chief Ramsay and his team? Surely they could help.”
“No-go, Ginger. Not until we know for sure that they are all in the clear. As long as even one suspect remains, we can’t bring them in to look or risk the suspect finding out.”
“So what next?”
“We widen our search area. Hutch’s guy has come up with a list of fifty properties remote enough to be a potential place to store the accelerant, in a hundred mile radius of Harmony. We’re just going to have to visit these places one by one.”
“That could take days. Weeks.”
“We’re out of ideas.”
“Where did Hutch get this list from? Maybe I can help. I know this area pretty well. I can go over the list and maybe help you narrow it down?
“Not a chance. No crime fighting for you!”
“Sully! Don’t treat me like a child!”
“Then don’t act like one. This isn’t a game. Whoever this is has killed at least one person that we know of. They are dangerous. I don’t want you within a hundred miles of them!”
“I’m already within a hundred miles of them based on your search zone!” she countered. “What can it hurt to look at a list of properties?”
“I said no, and that’s final.”
Sully stomped out of the room, and Ginger watched his departing back with anger and frustration.
Fine. If he wouldn’t let her help and share the list, she’d develop her own list and it would be a hell of a lot shorter than fifty properties. She knew who owned what, what condition the properties were in, and who had a grudge against wolves. She could create her list using the computer in the home office they’d fixed up for her. Unfortunately, while it was nice, because it was not a trusted location she couldn’t access all the programs or databases she needed, so she’d have to pop into the office, but it shouldn’t take long. Then she’d show them.
Two hours later, she had a dozen likely candidates and just needed to get into the office to shorten it further. She opened the door to the office. She was surprised that they had left her alone so long, but she’d made it clear that when the door was closed, she was working and they weren’t to disturb her unless there was a fire or a meal ready.
When she walked downstairs, she realized why they’d kept away. They were huddled around the phone. It seemed that he may have struck again, this time near Portland. Hutch’s team was closest and they were on their way. But Sully and his brothers were dying to get in on the action.
They looked up as she approached, their faces shining with excitement. She watched as they did their traditional rock, paper, scissors to decide who went. Bastards didn’t trust her not to follow them, so one was being left behind to babysit her. She watched Sully’s face fall as he realized that he’d lost and would be stuck with her at home.
She’d thought of telling him what she’d found, but he stomped around like a bear with a sore paw after he watched his brothers drive off, so she kept it to herself. She simply went to get her car keys saying she had to go to the office, but he stopped her.
“Stay home and keep me company, baby.”
“I won’t be long.”
She saw that he was suspicious, so she backed off and headed back inside.
“Can I get you something to eat?” she called over her shoulder even as she was thinking furiously. She threw together a quick salad and soup and brought it into Sully on a tray. He was back in their command center, glued to the monitor, and barely glanced at her.
Maybe she could slip out before he noticed? She put on her jacket and pocketed her car keys and was just going to grab her file when he came back out.
“Going somewhere?”
“Just for a walk. I feel restless.”
She watched as he ran a hand over his bearded chin. “Yeah, me, too. Maybe I’ll come with you. Let me grab my jacket.”
Ginger walked out onto the porch to wait. Damn. And then her eyes lit on the object on the corner. It was the collar and chain that Lena had used to keep Otis from running away when he first came to live with her. She walked over to it. Otis was on the small side. And then she spotted the other collar, abandoned under the rocking chair. If she buckled the two small collars together…
Ginger made sure she was standing by the steps when Sully came out.
“I was thinking…maybe you’d feel better with a run. You know, burn off some excess energy while you wait.”
He seemed to consider her words.
“Maybe. But what about you?”
“I’ll bring a ball. We can play some fetch.” She held up the ball in her left hand.
She didn’t relax until Sully threw his head back and laughed. “Okay.” He shed his clothes, and then he was wolf
, all fur-covered power and grace. She hoped he’d forgive her, but he brought this on himself. Now if only her plan worked.
Casually, she dropped the ball and watched as it rolled toward the house. Wolf-Sully trotted over to retrieve it. As he put his head down, Ginger pounced. She had the collar around his neck and the chain attached before he knew what was happening.
“Sorry, Sully. I need a little time to myself at the office. I’ll be back in an hour, two tops, to let you go and hopefully with something that will help you catch this guy.”
And then she hurried down that steps as Sully howled and pulled on the chain, but she knew that he was trapped in wolf form until he figured out how to get the collar off. Hopefully that wouldn’t happen until she was long gone.
* * * *
Sully watched her go, standing there helpless. Then he tugged and twisted and howled with frustration as he tried to get free. Obviously Ginger had been talking to his sister. He looked at the chain. It was metal, of course, so he couldn’t bite through it. The collar itself was leather, but he couldn’t reach it.
Damn. His brothers weren’t expected back for hours. Sully studied the railing. It was wood. He got to work.
Chapter Fourteen
Ginger left the offices of Griffin Realty by the back door. It was late and hers was the only car left in the lot and the sun would go down in an hour, so she had plenty of time to check out the leads she’d discovered. She knew that her wolves would be angry. Hell, angry was probably an understatement. But she couldn’t make them listen to her. They were the investigators. She was just a real estate agent and should stick to selling things or however Sully had worded it.
How dare he? Is that what they wanted in a Mate, someone who’d have no opinions of their own, someone who’d just obey their every command? Because if that was what they wanted, then they had the wrong woman. Ginger understood that Mating would make her a slave to their sexual desires but only because her sexual appetite, especially on the nights of the full moon, would grow to match theirs, and nothing would satisfy her except for her Mates. But they had to understand that was the only way she would ever be submissive to them. She had a mind as well as a body, and they would have to learn to respect that before she could even begin to consider Mating.
