STORY EXCERPT

Elain felt a thousand times better when she awoke early that afternoon. She was curled against Ain, who still slept soundly next to her. She guessed Brodey and Cail, along with her dad, must have headed out to the barns at some point. She knew Blackie and Callie had gotten up earlier to leave to make their flight back to Maine. No doubt Mai, Micah, and Jim were also still asleep.

The house sounded oddly silent.

A feeling of disquiet swirled in her gut. She got up, used the bathroom, and pulled on a robe. She found the kitchen deserted except for a note on the counter from her mom.

Going for groceries. Be back soon.

She called her mom’s cell phone, a little disturbed when she didn’t answer.

Elain glanced at the clock and found it was after one. Knowing she was worrying for nothing, she still called Cail on his cell.

“Morning, gorgeous,” he greeted her.

“Hey, what time did you guys get up?”

“Um, about nine thirty. Why?”

“Is my dad with you?”

“Yeah.”

“Had Mom left for the store by then?”

“We never saw her. Saw her note on the counter. Why?”

She stared at the note. “I don’t know. Just nerves, I guess. She didn’t answer her phone when I called. She’s not back yet.”

“Maybe she’s got her hands full or she’s driving. You know she won’t answer her phone if she’s driving.”

“True. Thanks.”

“Hey, that’s all you wanted?” She caught the feigned disappointment in his tone, making her laugh.

“Sorry. I did want to call my brown-eyed love puppy to say good morning.”

“That’s better, babe.”

She smiled as she hung up, then sent her mom a text. Just making sure you’re all right.

An hour later, with no reply to two more texts, and no answer to her phone calls, Elain allowed her worry to bubble to the surface.

Ain had spent the time after getting up on the phone in Cail’s office, doing Clan business. Elain caught him between calls. “I’m really worried about Mom. It’s not like her not to respond to texts or calls.”

He leaned back in his chair. “Maybe she’s getting her hair done or something.”

She shook her head. “No, this just doesn’t feel right.”

He cocked his head. “Seer feeling or just gut instinct feeling?”

“Does it really matter?”

He nodded. “Go wake up Micah and take him with you. I’ve got four more calls to make.” He stared at a yellow legal pad full of notes. “I’m beginning to think Blackie is even more of a sadist than I first thought by asking me and Mark to be on the Clan Council.”

“What?”

He laughed. “Misery loves company.”

She went down to the bedroom Micah, Jim, and Mai now resided in and knocked. “Micah? I need to talk to you.”

“Just a minute,” he sleepily replied.

When he answered the door, his hair mussed up and wearing nothing but a pair of shorts, she felt badly about pulling him from sleep. “What’s up?” he asked.

“Mom’s sort of MIA, and—”

He seemed immediately awake. “She’s what?”

“She left a note she was going to the store, but that was a few hours ago, and she’s not responding to texts or calls. I want to go look for her. Ain told me to ask you to go with me. Please?”

He nodded. “I’ll be ready in three minutes. We’ll take my truck.”

It was more like less than two minutes later, he hurried into the living room, still zipping up his jeans and his sneakers untied. Then they were on the road and heading toward Arcadia.

“Where does she shop?”

“She always goes to Publix.”

“We’ll go straight there first.”

They were less than a mile from the turnoff to the store when they spotted a commotion at a gas station across the road. Several deputies, as well as Arcadia PD, were parked around a vehicle at the gas pumps.

She grabbed his arm. “Micah! That’s Mom’s car!”

He made a bouncy illegal U-turn across a grassy median, making another car honk as it swerved to miss him. Elain was out of the truck and running toward the car before he even had it shifted into park.

The area had been cordoned off with yellow crime scene tape. When she tried to duck under it, a deputy grabbed her by the arm.

“Ma’am, you can’t go in there.”

She turned the full force of her Alpha on him, making him let her go and step back as she snarled. “That’s my mother’s car!”

Micah caught up with her and grabbed her arm. “Whoa, calm down,” he muttered. “Don’t go all rabid wolf on the po-po. They tend to not like that.”

A detective walked over. “Ma’am, did you say this is your mother’s car?”

“Yes. Carla Taylor. What happened?”

“How did you find out about this?”

“About what? She left a note she was going grocery shopping, and when she didn’t come back or answer her phone, we came looking for her. Where is she? Is she okay?”

He didn’t answer her questions. He focused on Micah. “And you are?”

“Her cousin.”

“I need to get some information from—”

“Fuck that noise! Where’s Mom?”

Another deputy walked over. He looked vaguely familiar, but she couldn’t place him. His name tag read Cpt. Jeurgins. “Elain Lyall?” His intense amber eyes seemed to study her.

“Pardie-Lyall, yes.”

He glanced at Micah, then back to her. “Let’s keep the barking to a minimum, ma’am,” he said. “Detective Juarez and all of us are doing our best.”

It slammed into her then why she knew him. He’d been at the wedding.

He was a wolf shifter. She’d been too upset to practice the techniques Cail had worked with her on recognizing a shifter.

She took a deep breath and nodded. Micah slipped his arm around her shoulders and gently squeezed.

ADULT EXCERPT

Elain couldn’t process her emotions. The Alpha inside her, only temporarily sated by the run, still angrily paced. Wanting justice.

Wanting vengeance.

Wanting to maim and kill.

She knew she needed something to take her mind off wanting to commit mayhem.

No better way I know. She grabbed Brodey and kissed him, hard and deep. At first taken by surprise, he barely missed a beat as he rolled her onto her back and pinned her to the grass.

Cail grabbed her hands and held them over her head. “Submit,” he growled.

This was what she wanted. A struggle she knew she wouldn’t win, but that would help release some of the pent-up rage inside her in a healthy way.

She tried to throw Brodey off, knowing she couldn’t and hoping her horny bonehead would immediately take the hint.

Thrashing against him, she did manage to get a leg loose and kick him in the chest, sending him flying. It was enough she could twist free of Cail’s grip and try to scramble away from him across the grass.

“So that’s the way you want to play it,” Brodey said as he got to his feet.

Cail bolted after her, dropping her a few feet away with a flying tackle that sent them both sprawling across the ground. Brodey, now fully into the action, got a fistful of her hair and pulled as he threw his body on top of hers.

“Submit, mate!” he bellowed.

But it wasn’t an edict.

She continued struggling, fighting, until Brodey handed her hair off to Cail and flipped her onto her stomach. He got a knee wedged between her thighs without getting himself kicked in the balls and hooked an arm around her waist. Cail managed to grab one of her wrists and twist her arm up and behind her, limiting her ability to fight.

When Cail’s stiff cock smacked her in the cheek, she knew he was fully into the battle to dominate her.

Which was exactly where she wanted both men. She’d already felt Brodey’s eager cock jabbing against her butt as she squirmed and struggled.

Brodey managed to get another knee between her legs and shoved his cock deep into her pussy. Then he fell on top of her and sank his teeth into her shoulder.

“Yes!” she screamed.

Cail wrenched her head back. “Submit!”

“Yes, yes, yes!” and still she fought, struggled, feeling like the energy inside her would rip her apart from the inside out if she didn’t rid herself of it somehow.

Brodey growled against her back, his teeth still buried in her flesh. “Fight all you want,” he said through their mate bond, “I’ll only fuck you longer and harder.”

“Yes!”

Cail handed off her wrist to Brodey. Then he shoved a thumb into her mouth. When she started sucking it, he yanked it out and fed his cock between her lips. With both hands clamped around her head, he started roughly fucking her mouth.

This!

Cail leaned over as Brodey pulled her to her knees and started fucking her. Somehow, Cail managed to sink his teeth into her side.

The orgasm that ripped through her made her feel like the top of her head would explode.

And still, they kept fucking her, Brodey shoving her deep onto Cail’s cock with each stroke as Cail kept his fingers clamped around her head and digging into her scalp.

Yet she still fought. She fought them as another orgasm shredded her control and she growled as best she could around Cail’s cock in her mouth.

“That’s it, mate,” Cail growled back through their mate bond even as he kept his teeth clamped into her skin. “You take every inch of our cocks and you just keep fighting. We’ll fuck the fight out of you if it takes us the rest of the night.”

She came again, the Alpha in her nowhere close to being under control, yet feeling her body finally respond to her mates’ demands. She arched her back, giving Brodey even better access.

An image flashed through her mind, of her and her men shifted and fucking her brains out, their wolf cocks knotting and tying her to them…

The force of the next orgasm tore a low, rolling, guttural howl out of her…

And then she was back in her wolf form before she even realized what she’d done.

Brodey must have sensed her shift because he shifted with her. Cail swore as he fell back and yanked his cock to safety. But then he shifted, too, and with amusement in his eyes, he clamped his teeth around the scruff of her neck and pinned her down to the ground.

“You’re in trouble now, babe,” Brodey told her. “Oh, I’ve been dying to tie with you. You want wolf fucking? Then you’d better hold on.” Then she felt it, the bulge at the base of his cock, bumping against her pussy as he worked it deeper until it was completely buried inside her.