by Dakota West
“I know he’s your mate, but I don’t know what to think,” Charlie told Daniel. “I really don’t.”
“Kade is like a... gumball,” Daniel said, thinking for a moment. “Hard on the outside, still kind of weird on that first bite, but by the time you really get chewing, he’s all sweet and gooey.”
Charlie blinked at him.
“Was that a weird analogy?” he asked.
Before she could answer — yes, yes it was — Kade was back, a pile of maps under his arm.
He spread one out onto the table, looked at it for a moment, then pointed.
“This is us,” he said, stabbing one finger at the table. “This is Buck’s ranch,” he said, stabbing another finger at the table.
“Is that where they’re keeping Olivia?” Charlie asked.
“You know as much as I do,” Kade said.
Charlie sighed inwardly. This wasn’t the time for Kade to get salty with her.
“You know Buck way better than I do,” she reminded him, trying to do it gently. “Is he going to keep her on his ranch somewhere, or is he the supervillain type? Has he got a lair somewhere else?”
“Buck is anything but a supervillain,” said Daniel. “The man can’t keep his own sons from fighting like cats and dogs.”
Kade snorted. “You mean dogs and dogs,” he said.
“The man has problems besides a feral bear is our point,” Daniel said. “We may as well go to the ranch first. It’s the most likely place.”
“Right,” Kade said. “Okay. We’ll go at night, after dusk, when they’re more likely to be asleep. Tomorrow’s Friday, and they usually get drunk around the bonfire and then head off to bed.”
“Does being drunk make them more or less dangerous?” Charlie asked.
“They’ll be sleepier,” Kade said, totally confident.
Charlie suspected he was wrong. More likely, she thought, it would just make them angrier.
“How many wolves are there?” she asked.
Kade shrugged. “Ten, maybe fifteen?” he said. “Including Buck, who’s the head of that ranch, sort of.”
“The alpha?”
Daniel shook his head. “He’s one of the betas,” he said. “He’s in charge of that pack, but he still answers to the East Cascadia alpha.”
“Wolves are very hierarchical and regimented,” Kade said, making a face. He obviously didn’t approve. “There’s a lot of groupthink and following orders without asking questions.”
For a moment, Charlie wanted to point out that he’d joined the army — the pinnacle of following orders without asking questions — voluntarily, but she didn’t say it out loud. Not the time or the place.
“So, the plan is for us to bust our way in there, you two fight off ten to twenty wolves, and then we tear the place apart looking for Olivia?” she asked.
Kade nodded.
“Sounds about right,” he said. He cracked his knuckles again, this time the ones on his other hand. “Give me a good night’s rest and I can kill any of those dogs who come between me and my sister,” he said.
Daniel also nodded, his jaw tight. “It’ll be a fight, but nothing we’re not up to,” he said.
Charlie looked at the map, thinking.
Their plan was naive at best and straight-up dumb at worst, she thought. Running through the gates of a ranch and just attacking everyone they saw until they found Olivia? It wasn’t going to work, it would probably kill at least a few of the wolves, and it might very well get Kade and Daniel killed.
They admitted themselves that they had no idea how many wolves were on the ranch. For all they knew, given the recent territory disputes, there were fifty wolves there.
Charlie licked her lips and thought fast. They weren’t going to like what she was about to suggest, but it was a much, much better plan that what they’d come up with.
“What if I went in alone?” she asked.
Daniel and Kade just stared at her.
“Fuck no,” Kade said.
“Are you insane?” Daniel asked, his voice rising in volume just a little. “You’ll last five seconds.”
Charlie raised both her hands in a stop talking gesture.
“I’m going in as a trade,” she said.
“We’re not trading you,” Kade said as though it were the final word.
“I’m not your object for trading, first of all,” Charlie snapped. “Just because you could both tear me apart in five seconds doesn’t mean you can toss me around and control where I go and what I do.”
Kade opened his mouth, looking furious.
Then he closed it.
“You go in as a trade, find Olivia, and then we come out and massacre the wolves?” Kade asked. He still sounded angry.
Charlie shook her head again.
“This plan doesn’t involve anyone else dying,” she said.
“So how do you get out?” Daniel asked.
She started picking at her cuticles again. This was the part she wasn’t quite certain about. The part that she wasn’t sure that she wanted to happen, but she didn’t see how else she was supposed to get out of the ranch.
“Remember how I had that pack when they attacked me in the woods?” she asked them.
“You mean when you were going to shoot me?” Kade asked.
Charlie blushed.
“Right,” she said. “It’s got a gun, a couple of syringes of tranquilizer, camping stuff, and an emergency beacon,” she told them.
They looked at her, not totally comprehending it.
“I activate it and the cavalry charges in and saves me,” she said.
“The cavalry in this scenario is the FBI?” Daniel asked.
Charlie nodded.
“And they whisk you back to the east coast?” he asked.
She could feel his eyes boring into her, and she couldn’t bring herself to meet them, her heart twisting in her chest.
“Yeah,” she said.
“No,” said Kade. He stood from the table and walked to the kitchen window, staring out of it at their front yard.
“Kade,” said Daniel.
“She can’t just leave!” he said, his hands gripping the countertop so tightly that Charlie thought it might crack.
“It’s a free country,” Daniel said. “She’s not our prisoner.”
“She’s not supposed to leave,” Kade said.
Charlie gritted her teeth, grabbed a hold of the table, and pushed herself to standing, ignoring the screaming in her back as her wounds moved under the bandages.
“Is that why you’ve been guarding me while I sleep?” she demanded. She was tired, and she felt a little lightheaded. “To make sure I don’t sneak out into the forest in the middle of the night? Do you really think I’m that dumb?”
Kade’s mouth fell open, and he stared at her.
“You think I was keeping you prisoner?” he asked.
Kade marched to the front door and flung it open.
“Go!” he shouted. “You want to go so badly, just leave!”
“Fine!” Charlie shouted.
She got one step toward the door before Daniel’s hand was on her arm and he stood, looking down at her.
“He doesn’t mean it,” he said. “He wasn’t keeping you prisoner, he was guarding you.”
“I don’t see the fucking difference,” Charlie snapped. She tried to pull her arm from Daniel’s grasp, but he was too strong, and it hurt to move her arm, anyway.
“I tried to get him to sleep in the bedroom, but he was convinced that you were going to stop breathing, or that the wolves were going to come back for you in the middle of the night,” Daniel said.
Charlie looked at Kade. He was still standing by the front door, glowering, his arms folded over his chest. The afternoon light slanted in, making his chest and arm muscles stand out, since he still wasn’t wearing a shirt.
“If you want to go, you can go,” Daniel said, more than a hint of sadness in his voice. “But I don’t think it’s a very good idea.�
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“Is that true?” Charlie asked Kade.
He turned his head and looked outside for a split second, clearly working through something. Charlie had the feeling that he wasn’t the most expressive guy, or the best at talking through his feelings.
“I didn’t want to lose you,” he finally muttered. “I couldn’t sleep if I wasn’t sure you were safe.”
Charlie’s heart turned over in her chest, and suddenly, she was totally unsure that what she’d thought of Kade was right.
What a typical guy, she thought.
Charlie hobbled over to him, keeping herself perfectly upright. When she stood a foot from him, she had to crane her neck up, and she could feel the heat coming off of him in waves as he stood in front of the door, arms still crossed.
“Why’d you save me from the wolves?” she asked, softly.
Kade shrugged.
“I want an answer.”
Finally, Kade looked down at her, his eyes filled with a combination of terror and longing.
“I don’t know,” he said. “I had a split second to decide, but when I saw you, all alone and still pointing a gun at a grizzly, I just... did it,” he said. “Something snapped. I had to keep you safe.”
“Even though I was about to shoot you?”
The side of his mouth twitched into a slow smile.
“I kind of liked that about you,” he admitted. “Not a lot of human women will head into the forest and take down a shifted grizzly on their own.”
“You weren’t afraid?”
Kade just shrugged. “I’ve been through worse,” he said.
Charlie had no idea what to think. A tiny part of her just wanted to leave, still — even though Kade had just admitted that he liked her, hadn’t she left these sorts of mind games with boys behind fifteen years ago, along with middle school?
Give him a chance, she thought.
“Do you want me to stay?” she asked.
Kade started to shrug, and then he looked at her face. He stopped with his shoulders in the air, then uncrossed his arms and put his hands in his pockets.
“Yes,” he said at last.
“Me too,” said Daniel, and Charlie jumped. She hadn’t realized that he was right behind her.
He put his hands gently on her shoulders, and Charlie felt herself lean into them.
“Okay,” she said. “Close the door.”
This time, Kade allowed himself a full smile, then swung the door shut again.
“Just for now,” she said.
Kade looked at her again, his face unreadable.
“If the FBI’s going to rescue me, they’re going to take me back east,” she said. She looked down at her hands, and suddenly, felt tears welling behind her eyes. “But I can come back once I get Olivia out.”
“How long?” Kade asked.
Charlie shook her head.
“I don’t know,” she said. “My back’s got to heal, but I can come visit in a month, maybe? Six weeks? It’ll depend on when I can take some vacation, and how much the flights are...”
She let her voice trail off.
The thought of her apartment in DC was completely unappealing. Even though these guys didn’t have internet, a TV, or even a microwave, for some reason, she felt at home in their little cabin.
Charlie swallowed.
Take it slow, she reminded herself. Don’t just leap without looking. That never works out.
“I promise I’ll come back sometime,” she said.
Kade reached his hand out and touched her cheek, moving a strand of hair away from her face. Charlie knew that, for days, she’d only had quick sponge baths, and her hair was a greasy mess.
“Can I at least have a good bye kiss?” Kade asked. He either didn’t notice or didn’t care that her hair was disgusting.
We’re not going until tomorrow, Charlie thought, but she didn’t say it out loud.
Instead, she nodded, and her heart hammered inside her chest.
This is probably stupid, she thought. Didn’t you decide to only date men who acted like adults?
Then Kade bent down and kissed her, his hand moving to grip the side of her face gently, and Charlie stopped worrying about what she’d decided in the past.
Kade’s kiss was much, much gentler than Charlie had imagined, almost as if he was afraid of breaking her. At first, their lips barely touched, until Charlie rose up on her tiptoes, wrapped her hand around his head — her back protesting — and pulled him firmly toward herself.
Right away, Kade’s lips parted and his tongue darted through, entering Charlie’s mouth, and she met it with her own, sparring as the sudden heat in her body traveled from her navel downward.
She’d thought that Kade didn’t like her, true, but she’d thought that he was super-hot all along.
Finally, her libido thought.
As soon as Kade came up for air, Daniel was still right behind her, his face nuzzling hers, and he bent over her shoulder and she turned her head, kissing him a little awkwardly.
I wish I could move my back, she thought, but every time she tried, it screamed in protest.
As if he understood, Daniel’s lips moved away from Charlie’s to a spot just under her ear that made a shudder run down her spine. She turned her head toward Kade again, seeking him out, making a little gasp of pleasure as Daniel’s mouth moved down her neck, slow and tantalizing.
Kade chuckled before covering her mouth with his own, kissing her harder this time, his need becoming apparent. Without touching her bandaged back, he took her by the hips and held himself against her, just hard enough for Charlie to feel the clear outline of his erection through the jeans he was wearing.
He’d also never put a shirt back on after his altercation with Buck.
Charlie didn’t mind.
In for a penny, in for a pound, she thought, and she put her own hands tentatively on the sides of Kade’s torso. His muscles rippled under his skin, and Charlie could feel the pure strength in them, just waiting.
She bit Kade’s bottom lip, and he grunted and pulled back as she felt the soft flesh between her teeth.
He grinned.
“You play dirty,” he said. His chest heaved, and Charlie couldn’t help but watch the light play off the muscles on it.
Charlie just shrugged, though she couldn’t help but let a smile surface on her face.
“You’re the one who parades around naked half the time,” she said.
“I’ve been wearing clothes,” he said, looking down at himself. “Mostly.”
“You’re not even the feral one,” Daniel said from behind her. “No excuse, really.”
Now his lips were on her shoulder, slowly pushing aside the open neck of the bathrobe she still wore. His fingers slipped underneath, whispering along her skin.
“Are you saying you mind?” Kade asked. He still had that grin on his face, and it could have been annoying, but Charlie was too hot and bothered to find it anything but charming and infectious.
She let her eyes really drink Kade’s body in. He obviously didn’t care that she wasn’t model-skinny, that her hair was dirty, or that her back was torn up and she’d been wearing the same bathrobe since she woke up days ago.
“No,” she said at last, making eye contact. “I guess not.”
“Good,” he said.
Then Daniel pulled the neck of her bathrobe down, letting it fall open just enough to expose her left breast, her pink, pebbled nipple quickly hardening.
His hand followed it, his fingers slowly looped around the nipple, caressing her and finally brushing his hand, the palm flat, over it as she shuddered and leaned her shoulders back against him.
Charlie reached her right hand back and looped it over Daniel’s hard, muscled shoulder, trying to bring him closer to her. She could tell that he had a massive erection, too, and she ached to feel his body against hers, for him to press himself against her.
“Careful,” he murmured, his lips somewhere over her right ear. “Don’t wa
nt to rip your stitches out.”
Kade’s hand found the other side of her bathrobe and pushed it aside, revealing her other breast, and this time Charlie made a small, soft moan, letting her eyes slide closed.
When she opened them again, Kade’s fingers were caressing her nipple, and he was kissing Daniel ferociously, both of their mouths open, his other hand around the back of Daniel’s neck.
It was the single hottest thing that Charlie had ever seen. Her hands wandered down to the hard lump in Kade’s pants, and at the same time she arched her back, feeling Daniel’s erection behind her.
Kade’s hand tightened in Daniel’s hair, and the two men parted for a moment, resting their foreheads against each other, breathing hard.
Charlie just watched, enraptured, as their lips met again, Daniel growling.
Before she knew it, the tie of the bathrobe had come undone and blue flannel puddled on the ground at her feet.
Kade growled, looking her body over appreciatively from head to toe
The two men broke apart and Daniel looked down at her, his dark eyes filled with lust, and he started to bend down, an arm around her shoulders.
Then he stopped, a look of consternation on his face.
“What?” asked Charlie, slightly annoyed.
Daniel stood up straight, looking perplexed.
“Well, I was going to be gallant and carry you into the bedroom, but I don’t want to hurt your back,” he said. His brow furrowed slightly.
Then he turned around and bent down.
“It’s not sexy,” he said. “But I’ll give you a piggyback ride, how’s that?”
Charlie couldn’t help but laugh.
“Put your arms over your head and stand up,” she said.
Daniel followed orders, and Charlie grabbed the bottom of his shirt and pulled it over his head.
He stood there, shirtless, his back muscles rippling in the light.
“There, now it’s sexy,” she said.
Kade smacked her lightly — very lightly — on the ass, and Charlie giggled.
“Get up there,” he said, pretending to sound gruff.
Then Daniel bent down, and very carefully, Kade helped her onto his back.
It wasn’t the least sexy thing she’d done, that was for sure.
