by Becca Van
When she caught movement from her periphery to her left and right, she shifted her gaze without moving her head. She didn’t want to tip off the fucker holding the knife to her throat, nor the men following behind them.
She rolled her lips together to hold in her gasp when she realized that Ward, Serge, Phelan, Hopper, Talon, and Royal were skirting around the bunch of goons. Although her anger remained, the fear warring with that emotion waned. The cavalry had arrived, and if she didn’t miss her guess, her mates were here somewhere, too.
A man stepped into the entrance to the hangar and held his hands up to show that he was unarmed, or at least not holding a gun. “That’s far enough.”
Hazel Eyes stopped, his arm moved from around her throat, and then his big beefy hand was gripping her neck.
“I want those drugs.”
“You can have them as soon as you let the woman go.”
“Not happening. I’m not fucking stupid. As soon as I release her, you’ll shoot.”
“That’s the only way this is going down.”
“You can’t win,” Hazel Eyes shouted. “I have ten men behind me, and another ten are ready to start shooting up this town. Do you want to have the blood of innocents on your hands?”
The agent wearing the DEA jacket shook his head. “We need to compromise.”
“I’m not trusting a fucking cop.”
“If you want the contraband, you’re going to have to. I’m sure your boss won’t be pleased if you return empty-handed. That’s if you get out of this alive.”
Pepper wanted to tell the agent to shut the hell up. Was he trying to goad the bastard holding a knife to her throat to kill her? But then an epiphany struck. She could only see a few agents hiding in the shadows in the hangar with their guns trained on the men standing on either side behind her and Hazel Eyes. She’d seen the stealth members creeping around and knew that they were going to come up behind them. Since the soldiers weren’t in view and she could only smell the men she could see, she guessed they were tracking the assholes getting ready to shoot at the local’s houses. The agent wasn’t as stupid as she first thought. He was trying to distract the fuckers.
“Chertov ublyudok.”
Pepper didn’t need to be a genius to know that Hazel Eyes was cursing.
“Together.”
“Together what?” the agent asked.
“We will meet in the middle. You will bring me the drugs, and we will exchange at the same time.”
The agent sighed and shook his head. “That won’t work. There are twenty bags. I can’t carry them all at once.”
“Get your men to help.”
“Nope.”
Pepper heard the whisper of a sound behind her but didn’t so much as twitch. The guys had to be creeping up on the idiots behind her, but she couldn’t work out how that was going to work. They were too few in number. She had her answer moments later.
Everything seemed to happen at once.
The scene ran in front of her eyes in fast forward and slow motion at the same time. The guy who was holding her neck jerked seconds before a gunshot echoed in the air.
Pandemonium reigned.
Multiple shots were fired and two snarling roars rang through the night as the guy holding her stumbled forward. Pepper ended up flat on her belly in the snow with Hazel Eyes on top of her. He was breathing heavily and groaning with pain, and just as she shoved up to her hands and knees, taking him with her, the knife was back at her throat. She felt the blade slicing into her neck and at first there was no pain.
Then everything seemed to slow as she fell face first into the snow. Again.
The gunfire, as well as the snarls and growls, grew distant, and for the first time since she’d mated with Cal and Fin, she was cold. Cold to the bone.
She shivered uncontrollably and so hard her teeth were chattering, and she felt as if her whole body was convulsing. Noises faded until all she could hear was a slight hissing.
Her eyelids were so heavy she couldn’t keep them open, and she let them close. It got harder and harder to draw air into her lungs, and in that moment, she knew she was dying.
Tears of regret welled and trickled over her skin. She had so many regrets.
Pepper regretted taking action into her own hands.
She didn’t regret that she had tried to save her mates, her friends, and the people of Savoonga, but she regretted the loss of years of happiness with Cal and Fin. She regretted that she’d never get to feel a baby kicking in her womb, childbirth, or the joy of holding her baby in her arms.
She regretted sentencing Cal and Fin to a slow horrible death. She raged at the fates for giving her so much and then snatching it all away in the blink of an eye.
So many fucking regrets.
Her heart rate was sluggish, and her chest hurt whenever she tried to pull a small amount of air into her lungs.
Warm hands turned her over to her back, and she forced her lids up to see her mates’ handsome faces one last time. Cal and Fin were hovering over her, their lips moving, but she couldn’t hear what they were saying.
I love you, she mouthed as her half-mast lids closed again just before the cold darkness sucked her down.
* * * *
As soon as the first shot was fired, Cal and Fin were on the move. Their sabears ran faster than they’d ever run before, yet they weren’t fast enough.
All around them bullets whizzed past and through the air, but Cal didn’t care. A bullet would sting for a while, but they wouldn’t be able to penetrate their animals’ thick fur and the layer of fat that kept them warm.
He and Fin roared when Pepper fell to the ground with their target on top of her. Cal’s beast went crazy. His claws ripped and dug into flesh as he pulled the bastard off his mate. He clawed and gouged, his razor-sharp talons shredding flesh like a heated knife through butter. Blood sprayed, gore flew, but his sabear didn’t stop. The screams of agony were music to his ears, and in one final act of fury, his animal’s mouth opened on the assailant’s throat, crunching through skin, tissue, cartilage, and bone before he shook his head back and forth in a rabid frenzy.
It wasn’t until Fin shoved into his shoulder that Cal’s human side began to return. He spat the blood and gore from his mouth and turned toward his mate, uncaring of the blood dripping from his white fur.
Agony pierced his heart when he saw the slash across her throat and the blood pouring from the wound. He pushed his animal back, uncaring that the humans would see him changing and finding out about their kind. All that mattered was Pepper.
He crawled the yards separating them and pressed his hand hard against the side of her throat, trying to staunch the flow of blood, but it didn’t stop. Tears welled and rolled down his face. Fin was on their mate’s other side holding her hand, his face tortured with grief as he wept.
A warm hand settled on his naked shoulder, and he glanced up into Wakanda’s brown-eyed gaze. She shoved clothes at him and Fin. “Put them on quickly. The humans have not noticed.”
Cal shook his head. Nothing was making any sense any more. Why did he care if the lawmen saw him kneeling naked in the snow? “Now!” Wakanda ordered in a hard voice, and power rushed over him.
He found himself obeying and even found the energy to glance over to see Fin was also pulling on jeans and a shirt.
Wakanda knelt down at Pepper’s head, placed her hand over the knife wound and the other on her forehead, and began to chant. Once Cal was covered, he kneeled and grasped his mate’s cold slack hand.
The elderly Native American woman turned toward Fin. “Hold her.”
Fin threaded his fingers with Pepper’s and bent his head.
Wakanda continued to chant in her native language, and although Cal was thankful for her prayers for his mate, he just wished she would leave them alone with Pepper so they could grieve. His throat was constricted with emotional agony, and his heart felt as if it were being ripped out of his chest.
Pepper was barely breathing, and her hea
rt rate was so sluggish he was sure it would stop at any moment. The snow under her was stained with the bright red of her blood.
He lifted his gaze toward Wakanda, about to demand that she leave them in peace, but Cal knew that he would never feel peace ever again.
He gasped when he saw a golden glow and lowered his gaze from the woman’s face. His mouth gaped open when he saw that her hands were glowing on Pepper’s skin. Wakanda’s eyes were open, but she wasn’t seeing anything. Her eyes were tilted toward the heavens, and instead of the normal brown irises, her eyes were covered in an opaque white color. And then as he watched, the white turned to an eerie black.
Wakanda jerked, but she never once removed her hands from his mate. The glow around her hands grew brighter and brighter, and the black over her eyes changed to an opaque white again. And then she shuddered.
Pepper convulsed and twitched, and then the most wonderful sound he ever heard drifted to his ears. Pepper drew in a deep breath.
Her heart rate increased until it was beating at a normal rhythm, and when Wakanda blinked and removed her hands, the glow was gone and her eyes were back to their normal brown.
“Your mate will live. She will sleep long and deep.”
Wakanda rose to her feet without any trouble, nodded her head, and started to walk away.
“Thank you doesn’t seem adequate enough, but thank you.” Cal bowed his head with reverence and gratitude to the woman.
Fin swallowed audibly. “You have given us the greatest gift a person could ever have. Thank you, Wakanda.” He bowed his head, too.
Wakanda smiled, nodded, and walked away.
Cal glanced about at the all the carnage. The snow was painted red with blood, and bodies were strewn everywhere, but his heart was light with love and joy.
His mate was alive. He and Fin wouldn’t turn into the aggressive ravaging beasts they feared.
“Let’s get our mate home.”
“Yeah.” Cal lifted Pepper into his arms and started walking.
Even though she was unconscious, Cal, Fin, and Pepper were walking toward the rest of the lives.
He couldn’t wait for his mate to wake up so he could gaze into her gorgeous brown eyes and tell her how much he loved her again.
Epilogue
Pepper couldn’t believe she’d been asleep for a week.
As soon as she’d opened her eyes a couple of hours ago, she’d gasped with fear. The last thing she remembered was having her throat cut with a knife and bleeding out into the cold snow.
Fin and Cal, who’d been sleeping beside her, had immediately wrapped her up in their arms and their love soothing away her fear.
They hadn’t let her out of their sight since, and she couldn’t blame them. She didn’t want them moving from her side either.
“What happened to all the bad guys?” Pepper asked after taking a sip of coffee.
“They’re all dead bar two,” Cal replied. “The DEA agent interrogated those two assholes until they broke. He was able to pass the name of the cartel leader over to the Russian authorities. They raided his house and found a meth lab set up in a big shed out the back of his property. Everything was seized—money, drugs, lab equipment as well as a couple of computers. The Russian law found a connection with China and passed that on to the Chinese authorities. As far as I know, everyone involved has been incarcerated.”
Pepper sighed with relief. She hadn’t almost died in vain.
Cal and Fin were sitting on the sofa, and although her ass was in Cal’s lap, her legs were draped over Fin’s thighs.
“Did anyone get hurt?”
“Only you, mate,” Fin answered in a growly voice.
“I’m sorry. I don’t know what possessed me to do something so stupid.”
Fin took the mug from her hand and placed it on the coffee table.
Cal palmed her face and turned her gaze to his. “We know exactly why you did what you did. Your heart is so big and full of love you were trying to protect everyone in this town.” Cal pressed his forehead against hers. “Please promise me, us, that you’ll never, ever do anything like that again?”
“I promise,” Pepper answered sincerely. “Have either of you seen Wakanda?”
Fin shook his head. “No, sweetness, we were busy watching over you. Why?”
“I need to thank her for saving my life.”
Cal gasped with shock.
“How do you know she saved your life, Pepper?” Fin asked.
“I saw her. I was floating above my body. Her hands were glowing, and she was chanting in what sounded like her native language. Just as the dark coldness was pulling at me and my soul floated up, the warmth of her spirit seemed to permeate my body and I began to heal.” Pepper tried to quell the tears that welled, but she was so grateful for a second chance with her mates she couldn’t contain them.
She turned her face into Cal’s chest and cried. Neither of her mates tried to stop her or said anything to placate her. They just held her as she bawled her eyes out. Finally, the tears slowed, and after hiccupping a few times, she sucked in a deep, ragged breath and melted against Cal.
The next second, she bolted upright. “Celeste! Is she all right? Did she have her baby? What did she have? Is the baby okay?”
Fin lifted her hand to his mouth, kissed the back of it, and smiled. “Finish your coffee, sweetness. As soon as you’re done, we’ll go to Jenny’s. She’s having another of her famous ‘breakfasts.’”
“Great.” She bounced in her seat. She couldn’t wait to see Celeste’s, Tarik’s, and Hodge’s baby. “Did they have a boy or a girl?”
“A sweet, tiny little girl.”
Pepper picked up her mug of coffee and gulped it down. “I’m ready.” She scrambled from Cal’s lap and raced toward the door.
“Stop, sweetness,” Fin commanded with a chuckle.
“What? I want to see Celeste and the baby.” Pepper backed toward the door and grasped the handle.
Cal stalked toward her, wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her against his big, hard body. “You might want to put some shoes on first, baby.”
She glanced down at her bare feet, snickered, and then ran toward the bedroom. She didn’t bother with socks and shoved her feet into the thick wooly boots before rushing back to her mates.
Fin laughed outright. His head was thrown back, and there was so much joy in that sound. Pepper wanted to hear both of her mates laugh each and every day for the rest of their lives.
Fin threaded his fingers with hers and tugged the door open. He guided her outside, and after Cal closed the door behind them, he rushed to her side and laced his fingers with hers. Her heart swelled with love and joy. She was right where she was meant to be. Home with the men she loved more than her own life.
* * * *
“I’ve never seen such a beautiful, adorable little girl.” Pepper couldn’t take her eyes off the baby girl in her arms. She was so small and gorgeous. She had her mom’s blond hair and her fathers’ hazel eyes. Harmony Jade Parks Holmes was the most precious thing she’d ever seen.
“She has her daddies wrapped around her little fingers.”
“Of course she does.” Tarik smiled.
“She’s her daddies’ little princess,” Hodge stated.
“I can’t wait to have my baby,” Tammy said as she rubbed her belly.
“Me either,” Kat piped up.
“Come and get it, kids. ‘Breakfast’ is ready,” Jenny called from the kitchen doorway.
Pepper smiled at Jenny’s insistence on calling any meal they shared breakfast. Not that she cared one way or the other. She loved spending time with her new family and was just glad that she was alive to enjoy being surrounded by so many loving people.
She never wanted to go back to being the lonely work-driven woman because she’d been missing out on the most important aspect of life.
The meal was over way too soon, and after helping clean up, Cal and Fin began to guide her toward the door. It took
another half an hour for them to make their escape. Everyone wanted to give her hugs and tell her how glad they were that she was okay. Pepper thanked them and hugged them back.
Life was wonderful, and she wouldn’t change anything for all the money in the world.
* * * *
“Are you tired, baby?” Cal asked as soon as he closed the front door.
“No. I’m so full of energy I feel as if I could fly.”
“We can help you expend some of that excess energy, sweetness.” Fin wrapped his arms around her from behind and nuzzled her neck.
Pepper’s arousal shot through the roof when he started nipping and licking at that sweet spot near her ear. She tilted her head to give him better access and asked, “What did you have in mind?”
Cal came to stand in front of her and met her gaze with his. His blue eyes were glowing and so full of hunger her knees buckled. If Fin hadn’t been holding onto her, she would have melted to the floor.
Cal kissed her lovingly on the lips and met Fin’s gaze. Fin slowly drew his arms away from her after making sure she was steady on her feet, and then he moved to stand next to Cal, both of them facing her. They each held one of her hands in theirs and then went down on one knee.
“I love you, Pepper Silverton. You’re every breath I take. You’ve filled my heart with so much love and joy, and I didn’t even know it was empty.”
“I love you, too, Cal.”
“You are the light in my life, sweetness. Saying the words, I love you, just doesn’t seem to be enough. Those three little words can’t convey how happy you’ve made me, mate.”
“I love you, Fin. So much.”
Cal nodded to Fin, and then they both spoke at the same time. “Would you do us the honor of being our wife?”
Pepper didn’t need to stop and think about her answer. There was no need for hesitation whatsoever. These two men were her heart and soul. “Yes. Yes. Yes!”
Cal and Fin yelled with joy as they stood and wrapped her up in their arms and their love.
“Thank you, baby. We are going to spend the rest of our lives making sure you’re happy.”
