by Diane Leyne
“Why? You’ve been so clever. They didn’t even suspect you.” Ginger desperately tried to control her voice, but she wanted to cry and mourn and hit out at the man, no, the monster in front of her.
“Taken care of another problem. Your wolves would have eventually figured out it was me. And you know what night this is, don’t you?”
“Night?”
“It’s the first night of the full moon. I was running out of time. I knew that they would probably try to force you to Mate with them tonight, so I had to get them out of the way.”
“No, Tim. I would never Mate with them…”
“Don’t lie! I know they have you bewitched, but don’t worry. I’ll save you. My father couldn’t save my mother, but I’ll save you.”
“Your father?”
“He let my mother run off with that dirty wolf. He drove my mother away. And he wouldn’t let her take me. I had to stay behind. I hated him for that.”
“But if you’d gone with her, you might have died in that crash, too!”
“Not likely. I wouldn’t have cut the brake line if I was going with them.”
“You killed your own mother? But you were just a boy when she left!”
“I was fourteen, and she rejected me for that animal. What other options did I have? And she wouldn’t have been hurt if she hadn’t left me. It was meant for him, the dirty animal. Tell me you understand, Ginger. She took away my choice when she chose him over me.”
“You always have a choice!”
Just then, there was a breaking sound, and then the front and kitchen doors burst in simultaneously, and Sully, Nate, and Ben surged in. But Tim was quicker. He grabbed Ginger. She could feel his arm tightening around her as the blade of a knife pressed against her throat.
“Get away, all of you. She’s mine. She’ll always be mine. And if I can’t have her, then none of you will either.”
“It’s over Tim.” Sully’s voice was wary.
“He confessed. He’s the one who burned down Lena’s clinic. And he’s been helping some people back east who were targeting shifters. He showed them how to build bombs!”
“Shut up, shut up!” Tim was screaming now. “You three, back up against the wall and put your guns on the table or I’ll kill her. I will!”
“No, don’t listen to him. Once you have put down your weapons, he’ll kill you and then he’ll kill me, too, because I won’t go with him.”
“You are just brainwashed by your upbringing, baby.” He kissed her cheek, and Ginger had to force herself not to make a sound of disgust. “I’ll fix you. Once you experience what it is like to be with a real man, you’ll never let one of those dirty shifters touch you again. Now guns on the table before I cut her throat! If you cooperate, I won’t hurt you. I’ll simply have you tie each other up, and then I’ll take Ginger and go. I have friends who can help us disappear.”
“He’s crazy. Don’t listen to him. He’ll kill you.”
“She’s probably right. But you three have a choice. You or her. You have three seconds to decide. You can try and jump me, but even with your super-duper wolf reflexes, you can’t get to her in time. This is my hunting knife and it is sharp enough to split a hair.” He drew it slowly under her ear and Ginger could feel a line of fire spring up and droplets of blood running down her neck. “If I can’t have her in life, then no one can.”
Ginger could see the fear and helplessness in the faces of her three wolves and she watched in horror as her men slowly placed their weapons on the ground and backed against the wall.
“Now the plastic flex cuffs. You with the short hair. Place the cuffs around the others’ wrists and do them up nice and tight. I don’t want you attacking me when I turn my back.”
Ben hesitated.
“Do it or I’ll kill her!” He pressed a little harder and the droplet started running faster.
Slowly, Ben fastened the cuffs around Sully’s and then Nate’s wrists. Then, at Tim’s direction, he knelt in front of them and then Ginger did up the cuffs, her fingers stiff with reluctance.
“Please, Tim. Don’t hurt them. I’ll do anything you want. I see now, you are so much more than I ever thought.” She kept it up, crooning softly to him, and slowly he lowered the knife from her neck. “They aren’t a threat to you, not anymore. I’ll–I’ll be your alibi. You couldn’t have done any of the things they claimed because you were with me. We’ll get married and have babies. I always loved you, Tim. My head was just clouded, but I see now that you are far more a man than any of them.
“Let’s get out of here.”
For a moment she thought it was going to work. He started to lower the gun and turn toward the front door. Then he smiled and pointed the gun toward Ben who was nearest to him.
“I just have to take care off one thing, or rather three things.”
“No, Tim.” She grabbed his arm, and he shook her off, throwing her against the wall when she wouldn’t let go, dropping his knife in the process. Ginger’s surge of hope was short lived as she felt the sharp pain where her head where it made contact with a picture frame. She could feel more blood dripping down, this time from the sharp edge of the frame. Her head throbbed, and she struggled to clear it as the rage and fear swept through her. She saw Tim reach down and draw his service weapon and point it at the brothers while he addressed Ginger.
“I’d rather slit all your throats and watch you bleed to death, but this is just more efficient. Now you just wait there, Ginger, and I’ll get to you. I just have to put down these animals, and then I’m all yours, baby, all yours.” He took his eyes off her and raised the gun, turning to point it at her helpless wolves, and Ginger felt something ripple through her and suddenly she wasn’t just Ginger anymore. She was Ginger, but more. Launching herself at Tim’s gun hand, she realized she was wolf. She grabbed his gun hand and bit down until he let go, howling in pain and fear as he fell to his knees.
Scared of what she did, she let go of his hand and backed away.
“Get her away from me, get her away from me, get her away from me!” He collapsed against the wall, sliding down as he grasped the hand she’d bitten.
And then she realized she wasn’t the only wolf there. The three brothers had shifted, allowing them to easily shed the flex cuffs. Together, the four of them formed a semicircle around Tim, who was now crying as he held his bleeding hand.
The door opened suddenly. Ginger hadn’t even heard the car approach, but now Chief Ramsay stood in the doorway, gun drawn. The four wolves turned toward him, growling, but he wasn’t looking at them.
“I thought I was too late. Oh, Tim. Thank goodness you didn’t hurt anyone else.” The chief holstered his weapon and went to kneel beside his son on the floor.
Ginger watched the proceedings, stunned. Sully, back in human form, walked carefully up to Tim and removed the gun. He started to back away when the chief stopped him. He took off his gun belt and handed it to Sully. “Don’t want to take any chances,” he muttered before turning to the rest of them.
Ginger realized that she was human again and naked, when the chief quickly averted his eyes from her. She found herself blushing as Nate came up to her and wrapped what was left of his shirt around her.
Looking at the ground, he added, “I am so sorry. I honestly didn’t know it was Tim, not until recently. I tried to stop him. I never wanted anyone hurt. And I never hated shifters, but I knew that Tim had a problem with them ever since his mother left us.”
“But we dated. And I’m of shifter blood. He wanted to marry me.”
“But you didn’t actually shift. At least we never knew you could shift.”
“Me neither.”
“Tim got it into his head that you rejected your heritage because you only dated humans. He thought he could help save you, even if he couldn’t save his mother from what he called their contamination. Hell, I should have done something sooner. Instead I guess I enabled him. I even made sure to only hire humans so he wouldn’t feel threatened.
He always blamed shifters for his inability to make a success of his life. And when he came back here after the army didn’t work out, well…” The chief’s voice trailed off. “No matter what he’s done, and I know he’s done some terrible things, he’s my son. You four, you get out of here. I’ll call the county cops and turn him in. He’ll pay for what he did, and maybe he can get help. And we won’t mention shifters. Or at least I won’t. If he does, I’ll explain how his delusion drove him to extremes.”
“Chief, are you sure?”
“Yes. Go.” The chief picked up his phone and placed a call. They could hear him talking to the authorities.
Ginger wanted to go to him, but Nate wrapped an arm around her and led her out.
“Best to leave him to it. And besides, we have something pretty important to talk about. You shifted!” declared Ben.
“Yes I did.” There was awe and something else in her tone that worried Sully.
“You frickin’ shifted!” Nate couldn’t keep the shock and glee out of his voice as he hugged her tight to his side.
“Yes I did.”
“Oh my god, I can hardly take it in. Our Mate’s the rarest of the rare in our society, a female shifter!”
“But how is that possible?”
“Your Mates were in danger, mortal danger. Maybe that called to something within you to release your inner wolf. You have the blood.” Sully was his usual practical Alpha self as he tugged on his pants while his brothers did the same.
“Yes I do but…”
“But first we have to deal with one of the biggest challenges posed by shifting.”
“What’s that?”
“It’s hard on the wardrobe.”
Chapter Sixteen
Sully looked back at the broken man, kneeling on the floor with his son, and was satisfied by what he saw in his eyes. With his wolf hearing, he was able to tell that Roger had really called the authorities and that they were coming. He nodded. He was satisfied. They had to move quickly.
Ben hurried to get their SUV, which was parked just out of sight behind a stand of trees. Nate kept an eye on the chief, and Sully swept Ginger into his arms after checking her over quickly. She had a smudge of blood on her temple where she’d hurt it on the picture frame, but it looked worse than it was. Head wounds always bled a lot.
He was more worried about her mental state. She had stopped talking and was shaking now like she was suffering from hypothermia. When Ben pulled up the SUV, Nate had grabbed a blanket out of the back and handed it to Sully, who wrapped her in it before sliding in the back with Ginger cradled in his arms.
Sully was more than a little worried. She seemed to be going into shock. He held her closer. He could feel her trembling in his arms. He pulled her closer and stroked her back, trying to soothe her.
Tonight they’d planned on a Lusting bite. They’d have preferred to Mate, but they’d been out of town so often. Hell, they hadn’t all even made love together yet. And now with her state of mind, he didn’t even think she’d be ready for a Lusting.
He met Ben’s eyes in the rearview mirror and nodded. That was one of the nice things about being triplets. Sometimes they didn’t have to talk. He looked up at Nate, who was riding shotgun. Nate was looking back at Ginger and then he raised his eyes. He was worried too.
Sully sighed and held her tighter. At least she hadn’t been hurt badly and shifting had healed even that, but they needed to get her home. Within minutes, as they headed back toward Harmony, he could hear the sound of sirens.
Suddenly, he felt Ginger move. She started struggling, thrashing in his arms, and yelling. “I can’t breathe! I can’t breathe!”
“Pull over!” Sully commanded.
* * * *
Ben had to fight his instinct just to stop the SUV, but the authorities were coming and he would rather not have to explain why they had a panicked naked woman in their vehicle. Luckily he spied a dirt road and turned down it. It was clearly not well used, and they bumped over what was barely recognizable as a path, not stopping until they were out of sight of the main road. Then they all piled out, Sully continuing to hold Ginger tightly. They could all hear the sirens clearly as several vehicles roared by. Sully continued to try to soothe Ginger and he was starting to panic, but he realized that as the siren sound faded, so did her panic.
Finally, it was quiet, the only sound the sounds of night in the woods. It was dark, so dark, but the sky was full of stars. Even a human without the enhanced wolf eyesight would have been able to see clearly.
He watched as Ginger pulled out of Sully’s arms. He could tell his brother wanted to reach out to her, touch her and reassure her, but she turned her back and walked a few feet away from them. He started toward her.
“Ginger?”
“Just give me a few minutes, guys. I have a lot to process. You might as well get comfortable.”
Ben watched as she walked a few more feet, and he realized only when she sat down that she’d been headed toward a fallen log.
He looked at his brothers. They shrugged, and then the three of them sat down on a log closer to their SUV and waited.
When she did, she was calmer, the shaking gone. He watched Ginger and waited some more. He could see her hand move against her neck, and it took him a while to realize that she was touching the spot where Tim had cut her. It should be almost healed now. It had been a flesh wound, and shifting would accelerate the healing process.
After a while, she lay down on her log and gazed up at the night sky. It took a while for Ben to realize that she was watching the moon rise. He wasn’t sure how he’d forgotten that tonight was the first night of the full moon.
They’d had such plans. They were going to be together for the first time, the four of them, and Sully was going to give her a Lusting bite so she could see what it was like to be theirs.
Now they’d be lucky if she would talk to them again. They’d disregarded her hunch. They’d refused to listen to her, brushed her aside like a bunch of Alpha jerks trying to keep the little woman safe. But it was the little woman who’d tracked down Tim’s bomb-building lair. And it was the little woman who’d been stabbed by a madman while they’d watched ineffectually as she saved their lives.
And she could shift.
Damn. He’d known, hell, they’d all known from the moment they’d met that there was something special about her. Wolves recognized their Mates quickly, but realization had been in record time, even for their kind.
And maybe now they knew why. Ginger wasn’t just of shifter blood. She was a true shifter. He looked at her in awe and fear. What if she didn’t want them anymore? Hell, after word got out that she could shift, male shifters from across the continent and probably other continents would be lining up to be her Mate. And she’d probably be able to find someone less bossy than the three Anderson brothers.
But no one would love her more. If only she would give them a chance.
He looked to the left and right. Nate and Sully, the two best brothers a wolf could have. They were normally strong, fearless, and protective, and right now they looked as scared as Ben felt.
Time passed. He watched the rise and fall of Ginger’s chest as she gazed at the night sky, waiting for something. He waited, too. They all waited.
Finally, Ginger sat up. Then she stood up.
“Follow me.”
And then she was wolf and they were wolf and they were all running through the forest. Ben didn’t know where they were going, but where she led, he would follow, and they would follow.
Maybe five minutes later, Ginger slowed down. They were in a glade by a waterfall, and it was spectacular in the moonlight.
Moonlight!
Ben looked around. He’d heard about the glade and that it was often used by Harmony shifters as a Mating place. He looked at Ginger, magnificent in her wolf form, and waited again.
* * * *
Nate watched his Mate come to a stop in the glade under the light of the full moon and felt a surge
of lust and something more shoot through him. She was his Mate, but she was something more. He could feel the power radiating from her. He wanted to bow down before her. He wanted to ravish her until she couldn’t stand, and then he wanted to ravish her again.
He wanted make pups with her and raise them and for the four of them to grow old together.
But mostly, now, he wanted, he needed to worship her.
Stepping forward, still in his wolf form, Nate howled and then bowed down, resting his head on the ground as he offered himself to her in a pose of supplication. Ben followed suit, and the two of them waited.
He was worried about Sully, although he would never have admitted it. Sully was their Alpha. He had always been their Alpha, but Ginger was now an Alpha, too. He could feel it, feel her power.
But would Sully be able to accept a Mate of such power? Ben didn’t know how this worked. Who would be top dog, so to speak? Would they share the role? Could they?
He watched Sully walk forward until his snout was almost touching Ginger’s. He met her eyes, and then he lowered his body to the ground, rolling onto his back and offering her his throat.
Nate felt the tears well up. This was the ultimate gesture of submission. In this position, Sully was defenseless. It wasn’t that he expected Ginger to kill him, but he was showing his trust and vulnerability.
But would Ginger accept it?
She barked once, twice. And then she growled. Nate felt his body tense. She wasn’t accepting Sully’s submission, and she sure as hell wasn’t offering him hers. In fact, she looked like she was ready to attack.
Chapter Seventeen
Ben watched in trepidation as his brother and the woman he loved stared each other down. In their wolf forms, they circled each other, growling softly, their hackles raised. This wasn’t good. They looked like they were here to fight, not Mate. He looked over at Nate for reassurance as they both shifted back to their human forms. Nate looked just as confused and concerned.
