by Becca Van
“We’ll be back as soon as Ward and Serge are done.” Cal stepped closer to the bed and stroked a finger down her cold cheek before turning on his heels and leaving the room before she could tell him not to bother.
“Okay, Pepper, you’ll need to hold still while we take that x-ray.”
She nodded at Ward as he moved to stand behind the screen. Serge finished putting in the photo plates and then moved behind the screen, as well. Pepper didn’t need to be told the drill. She’d been here a time or two.
As the machine whirred, memories flashed across her mind. The last foster home she’d been sent to had been bad. The mother had been an alcoholic, and the father had been high on drugs. They’d had a teenage son, and he’d taken great delight in telling her the only reason she’d was living with them was so his parents could spend the money the government gave them for her care on drugs and alcohol. She’d kept to herself, hiding in her bedroom more often than not, but one afternoon she’d come home from school early. Derrick, the son, had ditched school, and had jumped her from behind and laughed as he’d beaten her up. He was a chip off the old block, like father like son, and had followed in his dad’s abusive footsteps.
Pepper had tried to defend herself as best she could, but Derrick had been at least three inches taller than her five foot five and had a lot of muscles since he’d spent a lot of his free time pumping iron. He’d spewed vitriol at her while he’d punched and kicked her, telling her that she was worthless and was only good for one thing. She’d managed to kick him a few times, but it hadn’t seemed to have any effect. When she’d noticed his pupils were mere pinpoints, she’d realized he was as high as a kite. The last kick she’d given him had done some damage. She’d kicked him hard in the knee. He’d roared with rage, grabbed her by the hair, and lifted her from the floor. She’d scratched at his hands with her nails, but it hadn’t deterred the drugged-out bastard. He’d thrown her across the room and into the coffee table. She’d landed awkwardly with one of her legs bent and twisted beneath her. Her fibula had snapped. She’d screamed in agony. Thankfully, her cries had alerted a neighbor that something was wrong, and the elderly woman had called the police. She’d been carted off to the hospital, and that was the last she’d seen of Derrick and his parents.
“All done.” Ward’s voice pulled her from her introspection.
“So, what’s the verdict, Doc?” Pepper asked, but she already knew the answer. Her ankle wasn’t broken, so it had to be sprained.
“Serge is checking the films out now.”
The closed door burst open, startling her. She glanced at Cal and Fin, who were frowning with what looked like concern.
Why are they worried about me? They don’t even know me.
“Your ankle isn’t broken,” Serge said as he met her gaze. “It’s badly sprained though.”
Pepper nodded, glad that she didn’t have a break and while she was a little annoyed that Cal and Fin were in the room, she was glad that Serge had been talking to her and not the other men. “Are you sure I don’t have a fracture? You and Ward aren’t doctors,” Pepper said.
“No, we’re not doctors.” Serge grinned. “Just EMTs. But we know how to read an x-ray and we know what a fracture looks like.”
“Are there any doctors on the island?” Pepper asked.
Ward shook his head, his lips twitching with humor. “Serge and I are the only medical experts in Savoonga. If you don’t trust us, we could transport you to Gambell to see the doc there.”
Pepper humphed and folded her arms beneath her breasts. She didn’t want to see anyone else. She trusted that the two EMTs knew what they were doing, but sometimes it didn’t hurt to have a second opinion. “You could have waited until we were alone before telling me the diagnosis.”
“What’s going on?” Kat asked as she entered the room.
“These two”—Pepper waved her hand toward Serge and Ward— “told me what was wrong with my ankle”—she pointed toward Cal and Fin—“while those two were in the room.”
“You could have asked them to leave,” Serge scowled at Pepper.
Kat crossed her arms and glared at Ward and Serge. “Really?” she asked with a raised eyebrow.
“Baby—” Serge started, only to be cut off by Kat.
She uncrossed her arms, sauntered over to him and Ward, and began poking Serge in the chest. “Don’t you ‘baby’ me.”
Serge didn’t give Kat a chance to say any more. He scooped the very small Kat up into his arms and slanted his mouth over hers. Pepper felt heat creep up her cheeks as the couple kissed passionately, both of them moaning. Cal cleared his throat, and thankfully Serge broke the kiss before lowering Kat back to her feet.
“Hey, what about me?” Ward asked as he hooked an arm around Kat’s waist, dipping her as he bent over and kissed her hungrily, as well.
“Oh. My. God,” Pepper whispered with shocked puzzlement.
“Kat is married to Ward and Serge,” Cal said as he stepped closer to the bed Pepper was still lying on. “They all love each other very much. Do you have a problem with that?”
Pepper snapped her gaze toward Cal and glared at him. “No, I don’t have a problem with what other people do or who they’re in a relationship with. You’re an asshole.”
“She’s got you pegged,” Fin said with a grin.
Pepper felt at a distinct disadvantage having Cal and Fin looming over her while she was flat on her back. She pushed up to a sitting position and swung her legs over the side of the bed, having to bite her lip to keep herself from crying out in pain when her throbbing ankle protested.
“Stay right where you are, baby,” Cal commanded as he placed a restraining hand on her knee. “We need to know how to take care of you before we go anywhere.”
Pepper glared at Cal, raising a finger before speaking, “Firstly, I’m not nor will ever be your baby. My name is Pepper. Use it.” She held up a second finger. “Secondly, I’ve been taking care of myself for a long time and don’t need you or anyone else telling me what to do.”
“How did you break your leg, Pepper?” Ward asked, breaking the tension between her and Cal.
“I had an…accident when I was in my teens,” she hedged. There was no way in hell she was divulging information about her life.
When Ward frowned, she wondered if he could somehow tell she was lying. She glanced toward Cal and Fin, who both inhaled audibly through their noses. They scowled down at her, and she gasped when their eyes started to glow.
“What the fuck?” Pepper shoved herself back onto the bed and scooted up toward the wall as far from Cal and Fin as she could get.
“Don’t be scared, Pepper,” Kat said in a calm, reassuring tone. “No one here will ever hurt you.”
Pepper swallowed around the fear-induced constriction in her throat. “What are you people?”
“We’re—”
Kat rushed over and touched Cal on the arm, which had Ward and Serge making weird growly, chuffing noises. When Pepper gazed at them, her heart flipped in her chest as she noticed their eyes were also glowing. Kat glared at them with the same ethereal glow to her eyes, and Pepper wondered if she’d hit her head while landing her plane without any landing gear. Maybe she wasn’t conscious at all. Maybe she was lying in a hospital bed somewhere trapped in a coma, and she was hallucinating.
“Let me explain,” Kat said. “Why don’t you all give me and Pepper some time to talk? Send Tammy and Celeste over, too.”
Ward and Serge moved toward Kat, each kissing her lightly on the lips before leaving.
“We don’t—” Fin began, only for Kat to cut him off.
“Do you trust me?”
“You know we do,” Fin replied without any hesitation.
“Then trust me to know what I’m doing.”
Fin glanced at Pepper before spinning on his heels and storming from the room. Cal shifted from foot to foot nervously, drawing her gaze. If she hadn’t seen his domineering arrogance, Pepper would have suspected
by the expression on his face that he was scared. Of what she had no idea, but she was sure she was about to find out.
She was just as certain that she wasn’t going to like any of her answers.
Chapter Four
“Why do all your eyes glow?” Pepper asked as soon as the door closed behind Cal, leaving her and Kat alone in the room.
“Can I wait to explain until my friends get here? I want them to be able to input in case I miss something,” Kat explained.
“Uh, okay. Who are your friends?”
“Celeste Holmes and Tammy Redmond.”
Just as Kat finished answering, the door opened and two beautiful women entered the examination room.
“Hello, you must be Pepper. I’m Celeste, and this is Tammy.” Celeste moved closer and offered her hand in greeting.
“Hi.” Pepper shook her hand and then Tammy’s. “Um, how did you know my name?”
“Ward and Serge told us before we came in,” Tammy answered, but broke eye contact and glanced toward the left.
Pepper knew immediately that she was lying. “Look, you can all cut the bullshit. There’s something really wrong with you people. I think it would be best if I just left.”
“And how are you going to do that?” Celeste asked. “From what I’ve heard, you crash-landed your plane since your landing gear wasn’t working.”
“Take a deep breath, hold it, and let it out slowly,” Tammy said as she sat on the edge of the bed.
Pepper hadn’t even noticed she was practically hyperventilating until Tammy made her aware of it. She did as Tammy suggested and sighed as her breathing and heart rate slowed.
“Firstly, none of the men in the town of Savoonga would ever hurt you. They abhor violence against women and children or anyone weaker than they are,” Celeste explained. “In fact, they are very protective of the weaker sex.”
Pepper watched as Celeste rubbed her very pregnant belly. The other two women smiled at her and placed their hands on their own stomachs. Tammy looked to be about halfway through gestation, and from the small bump in Kat’s stomach, she was only a few months or so along.
Envy surged through her veins and centered in Pepper’s chest, but she pushed those feelings aside. She only once thought about meeting the man of her dreams and settling down to raise a family, but living with Derrick, his alcoholic mother, and druggie of a dad had quashed any thoughts of happily ever after. As far as Pepper was concerned, there was no such thing as love and happiness.
“The men in our family are shape-shifters,” Tammy said.
Pepper stared at her for a second or two, letting the words she’d just spoken set in. She blinked a few times and then burst out laughing. She laughed so hard tears ran down her face. When she finally had control of her humor, she gazed at all three women and saw that none of them were smiling. They looked deadly serious. She decided to play along. “Uh-huh. What type of shifters are they?”
“They’re a mix of the extinct saber-toothed tiger and a polar bear,” Kat answered.
“They have enhanced senses, phenomenal strength, and speed,” Celeste explained. “I’m mated to the alpha, or leader, of the pack, or stealth as they call it. Tarik Parks is Tammy’s brother and the alpha. His best friend, Hodge Holmes, is second-in-command and also my mate and husband.”
“Hopper Sawyer and Phelan Redmond are my mates,” Tammy said. “I’m legally married to Phelan.”
“Ward Vaughan and Serge Moss are my mates. I’m legally married to Serge,” Kat said.
“And as you’ve no doubt seen, we’re all expecting,” Celeste stated.
Pepper shook her head. Her mind was spinning in circles, and though there had been sincere conviction in the women’s voices, what they’d said was impossible to fathom. “Are you all on drugs?”
Celeste chuckled and then grimaced as she rubbed her belly.
“Here, sit down,” Kat said as she snagged a chair and set it down next to the bed.
“Thanks.” Celeste sighed as she sat and met Tammy’s gaze. “You tell her the story.”
Tammy cleared her throat before beginning. “The legends say that there was a large colony of polar bears living here as well as the native people, and while the women worked, they sang to the bears so they wouldn’t upset the Bear Mother spirit—a spirit from the indigenous people’s cultural beliefs. Every single woman, young and old, sang, but there was one exception. She was more interested in chatting about her own concerns. The bears thought the woman disrespectful, and as the women began heading back to their village, the selfish woman’s basket tipped, spilling all the berries.
“Two men dressed in white bearskin robes offered to help her if she agreed to go with them. She agreed. The chief of the bearskin people took her as wife, and she bore him twin sons who were half human, half bear. One day her brothers came looking for her, and they murdered her husband. However, the father had taught his sons all the bear songs, and after their mother died, the brothers broke all connections with humanity and embraced their animal side, once more living with the bear people in their animal forms.”
“And the saber-tooth?” Pepper asked, wincing when her voice came out high-pitched.
“It’s said that when they and the polar bears roamed the earth, a tiger came upon a bear in heat and the rest is history. The bear people’s chief was a mix of those two animals and human. His sons were the same.” Celeste shrugged.
“And you actually believe what you’ve just said?”
“We do,” Kat replied. “Watch my eyes, Pepper.”
Pepper gazed into Kat’s hazel eyes, and as she watched, the brown faded, leaving only green, and then the green seemed to light up from behind until there was an otherworldly glow to them.
Pepper shook her head. “I can’t…I’m not sure…I don’t…”
“She needs to see.” Tammy stood and hurried to the door opening it and poking her head around the corner. “Cal, Fin, one of you is going to have to show her.”
“Show me what?” Pepper asked as Tammy came back into the room.
“That we’re not bullshitting you.” Tammy grinned and winked.
Pepper sucked in a breath of awe and desire when Cal and Fin entered behind Tammy. No matter how many times she looked upon their handsome faces and sexy bodies, her girly parts seemed to sit up and take notice. She wished she would hurry up and get used to seeing them because she didn’t want to react the way she was.
“We’re going to need more room,” Fin said as he gazed about.
“Let’s all go to our house,” Cal said.
“Celeste, how many times have Hodge and I told you to tell us where you are?” A man roared just before entering the room.
Pepper couldn’t believe how huge the man was. He had to be well over six foot five, probably close to seven foot. He was handsome in that rugged masculine way, but she wasn’t attracted to him. Moments later, more men began to file into the room. She gulped as she gazed at them all. They were all huge, buff, and handsome, but the only men her gaze kept wandering back to were Cal and Fin.
“I left a message with your mom,” Celeste said as she took the man’s hand.
“You can’t be traipsing off without one of us with you, baby. You’d be hurt if you slipped and fell.”
“I was fine, big guy.” Celeste patted his arm.
“Tarik’s right, honey.” Another man took Celeste’s other hand in his, raised it to his mouth, and kissed the back of it. “You’re only weeks away from giving birth. We worry about you.”
“I was fine.” Celeste sighed. “I had Tammy with me.”
“Speaking of which…”
“Tammy, why the fuck did you leave the studio without letting me or Hopper walk you over to the clinic?”
“Duh, Celeste was with me.”
“This has to stop.”
Pepper tuned out the arguing couples—or should that be trios?—and wondered if she’d landed on another planet when she’d crashed her plane. Everyone here was compl
etely off their rockers.
A piercing whistle rent the air, and all the people bickering back and forth went silent.
Kat smiled. “Now that I have everyone’s attention, let me introduce you all to Pepper.”
“This is Tarik, the alpha of our stealth, and his best friend, Hodge. They’re both mated to Celeste.” She waved her hand toward Tammy who was now standing against the wall on the opposite side of the room with two huge men towering over and scowling down at her. “That’s Hopper and Phelan, Tammy’s mates.”
Kat walked toward the door where Ward and Serge were leaning nonchalantly against the door jamb. “You’ve probably already met my mates, but this is Ward and Serge. And standing on either side of you are Cal and Fin. Your mates.”
“Wait! What? Oh hell, no!” Pepper scooted off the side of the bed, anger helping her to ignore the incessant throbbing pain in her swollen bruised ankle. She gripped the side of the bed when she placed too much weight on her injured left foot and then shoved upright. Using the tips of her toes on her left foot and her good right foot, she limped backward until she bumped into the wall behind her.
“We’re not lying, Pepper,” Kat said as she took a step toward her.
Pepper held up her hand to stop her, but Kat ignored her stop signal and kept right on coming. When Kat took hold of her hand, she looked down to see her own hand was trembling and hoped that was the only outward sign of her roiling emotions.
“Do any of us look or sound as if we lied to you?” Kat asked in a calm, even tone.
Pepper shook her head and licked her dry lips, trying to push the agony piercing her ankle to the back of her mind. “No, but that doesn’t mean you all aren’t spinning me a tale. Just because you all believe what you’ve said is true doesn’t mean it is.”
The urge to glance beyond Kat when she heard rustling was strong, but she kept her gaze locked with the petite woman’s.
“I know this is hard to take in, to believe. I understand totally because I was in your shoes not so long ago. Everything we’ve told you is the truth. How else would you explain the glowing eyes?”
