Dual Embrace: 3 (Shadowpeak Wolves) (14 page)

“I-I don’t know.” He ran his hand through his hair, looking ruffled for the first time since she’d met him. “I really don’t. It— It was like some sort of spell. All of a sudden I cared about nothing else but fucking you, about watching him fuck you, touching the two of you.”

She was almost too scared to look over her shoulder at Cain—certain she’d see condemnation in his eyes. Cain moved up beside her and, reaching down, helped her stand. She grabbed his t-shirt, putting it on.

“Well, whatever it was, it seems we all felt it,” Cain said.

“You too?” she asked.

“Yeah, me too. I never thought I would allow another to touch you, let alone be aroused by it, but I was.” He looked at Brynn. “So what the hell would make me want to share my mate? To still want to, although it’s not as bad now that we’re not touching.”

“Look.” Brynn held out his hands. “I don’t know. I’ll admit, I came here because I wanted to fuck Dusty. But I had no interest in a ménage, and I certainly didn’t intend to lose my mind the way I did. I need to go. I need to find out why this happened, and with two mortals.”

“What do you mean?” Dusty asked, feeling irritated. The heat, the need was muted but not gone. “What do you mean mortals? What are you?” she half yelled. Cain clasped his hand around her arm and she calmed a little, pulling on his control.

“I did not mean for this to happen. Well, not like this, anyway. I need to go, to find out what happened here.”

“No. Explain this now,” Cain insisted. “What caused us to lose our minds and nearly fuck?”

“My power,” Brynn replied. “It backfired. It shouldn’t have consumed us all that way.”

“What power?” Dusty asked in confusion. “What are you?”

“I’m a demon.”

Dusty let out a bark of laughter. “A demon? Riigghhtt, and my grandmother’s a fairy and my father was the Easter Bunny. Come on, tell us the truth. Demons aren’t real.”

“That’s what many said about werewolves.”

She sobered. “Demons are real?”

“Yes, hellcat.”

She gaped at him, lost for words.

“But aren’t demons, like, ahh, evil?” This was insane.

“There are degrees of evil, like with anything. I haven’t killed anyone in more than a hundred years, but I am not a decent guy. I’m manipulative, I love trouble, chaos. I am not a team player.”

A demon? Well, hell.

“Now you understand why I have to leave. I’m a monster.”

“So are we,” Cain replied.

Brynn shook his head. “No. You don’t understand. I really am a monster. I don’t have a core of good. I manipulate and scheme to get my way. After I met Dusty in the bar, I even planted a suggestion in her mind that she shouldn’t tell anyone about me.”

Her jaw dropped. “You bastard!”

“See, now that’s the reaction I was expecting. I could play your precious pack like puppets. I could make friends turn on friends. I could create so much turmoil and trouble and none of you would know what was going on. Now do you understand what sort of monster I am?”

“She told me about you,” Cain said.

Brynn frowned. “Yes, her feelings for you were obviously strong enough to break the suggestion.”

“I, ahh, I need some space. I’m— I’m going to Laney’s.” She limped toward the bedroom.

“Dusty,” Cain called out.

“Just leave me alone for a bit.”

Brynn looked over at Cain, still in shock. He’d come here deliberately to seduce Dusty. And yet the night had taken a weird twist. He’d been caught in his own power— Suddenly he’d had to have her without thought of anything or anyone else. And him. He’d been attracted to Cain too. Still was.

“Damn you, explain what happened,” Cain demanded.

“I can’t.”

“Can’t or won’t?” Cain asked intuitively. “Because I’ll tell you what I feel. I feel strangely connected to you, like we’re joined somehow. Our scents have merged. I have this need to touch you.”

The back door slammed. A truck started up. Dusty had left. Immediately he felt a wrenching in his gut. He had an urge to go to her, to keep her with them. Where she belonged.

This was crazy, ridiculous.

Damn. He had to leave. Now.

He had to figure out what the hell had happened. There was only one explanation he could think of. But it couldn’t be that. It was impossible.

“I have got to go. It’s for the best.”

“Run away then,” Cain said. “But you’ll be back.”

Brynn didn’t look at Cain as he disappeared. But the werewolf’s words continued to run through his mind.

What a mess.

* * * * *

Dusty mixed warm milk into the melted chocolate then poured it into a large cup. She carried the cup over to Laney who was lying on the couch. The other woman looked pale and drawn.

“Still feeling sick?” Dusty asked, handing her the sickly concoction. Dusty had helped herself to a beer.

“Yep,” Laney said shortly, taking a cautious sip. She sighed, relaxing a little. “Morning sickness be damned, this baby seems to have his mornings and nights confused.”

“He?”

Laney smiled. “I think so. Cooper’s convinced it’s a girl. We have a bet going.” Laney shifted, sitting up more. “So what’s wrong?”

“What do you mean?” Dusty caged.

“Dusty, you’re wound up tighter than a jack-in-the-box. Spill.”

Dusty sat back in the armchair and stared up at the ceiling. “You know I’m sleeping with Cain.”

If Samantha knew then it was guaranteed everyone did. That bitch was the pack’s biggest gossip.

“Yep. About time too. You’ve been hot for him for ages. And Lord, the way he looks at you,” Laney fanned herself, “nearly made me self-combust. Cain is so dark and intense. I bet when he makes loves to you, you feel like you’re the only woman in the world, like nothing and no one else matters.”

Dusty gaped at Laney, shocked. “Thought about this, huh?”

Laney winked.

Dusty didn’t know whether to laugh or growl. Finally she shook her head and groaned. “Does Cooper know you have these thoughts?”

Laney laughed. “Cooper is the one who makes me feel that way. You know, when I first met Cain he scared the shit out of me, but he always made me feel safe. He’d make a good mate. He’d never fail you or go against his promises.”

Dusty raised her eyebrows. “He hire you to do his PR?”

Laney shook her head. “I just think he’s a great guy, and you deserve to be happy, Dusty. I hope you’re going to give him a chance.”

Dusty rubbed her temples. “Before this happened,” she tapped her leg, “I’d have said no way, but since the accident I’ve had time to look at myself. I’m lonely. I used to bury myself in my work, tell myself I was happy. But I wasn’t. When I look back now, my reasons for denying my feelings for him seem less…”

“Important?”

“Yeah.”

“Good.”

“Only problem is, I’ve ruined everything.”

Laney frowned. “What do you mean?”

“Brynn came back tonight.”

Laney’s jaw dropped. “Shit. We have to tell Cooper.”

“Not yet. Just listen. I— Ahh, I— We, he…” she stumbled over her words.

“What?” Laney frowned in obvious confusion. “Who? Spit it out.”

“Me and Brynn—”

“What?” Laney squealed.

“And Cain,” she finished.

“Holy shit,” Laney breathed.

Dusty took a big sip of her drink.

“Yeah,” she replied. “I don’t know what happened. One minute Cain was trying to kill Brynn then Brynn took my hand and Cain grabbed both of us and then it was on. It was like I couldn’t help myself, I couldn’t resist. Hell, I didn’t want to. I wanted them both so much and nothing else mattered. I only managed to find my senses when Brynn moved away. But it was more than just sexual, you know?”

“What? A true mate link? But Brynn’s not a wolf. Although now that you say it there is something different about your scent. Damn, pregnancy has messed with my senses, I can’t quite tell what it is that’s different.”

Dusty shook her head. “Not a true mate link, not quite. It was like we were under some sort of spell. And it affected all three of us. Tying us together.”

Laney frowned. “Did he touch you against your will?” she asked fiercely, her small hands clasping into fists.

“No. And the crazy thing is that I still want him. It’s so weird. Yet it felt so right. Oh I don’t know. I’m scared how this will affect me and Cain. We were just getting things together and now this happens.”

“Wow. So two men? Sharing you? Good Lord, woman, you have all the luck.”

“What? You mean you think that’s—”

“Hot. I feel flushed just imagining it. Two men to pleasure you, touch you, kiss you, hmm…”

“Two men equals twice the trouble.” Dusty couldn’t believe she was even talking about this. As though she were actually considering it.

“And twice the fun, Dusty, my friend.”

“Laney, perspective. I just let someone touch me when I’m already in a relationship.”

“Cain was there. You weren’t cheating, Dusty,” Laney said, correctly reading her thoughts. “Cain could have stopped it at any time. Stop beating yourself up. You need to go back and talk to both of them. Give Cain a chance to have his say. Honey, you can’t hide here forever.”

Dusty saluted her with her raised middle finger.

“So where’s Cooper?” she asked, wanting to change the subject.

Laney sighed. “At a council meeting.”

Dusty felt like sighing as well. “He’s still having trouble convincing them that they need to start assimilating with humans?”

Cooper was trying to push the Alphas of the Western States Council to encourage their packs to move into the human world, to interact more with humans, to build relationships. He was worried humans would fear what they didn’t know and how dangerous that could be for all werewolves. So far, he wasn’t having much luck.

“Leonard’s still blocking him?”

Leonard Paterson was one of the oldest Alphas on the Council. And he was stuck firmly in the old ways.

“Yep. Everything Cooper tries to implement, Leonard argues against. It’s splitting the council in two, with a few Alphas who could go either way.”

“What the hell is Leonard’s problem?”

Laney frowned. “I don’t know. But I can’t help but wonder if it’s personal.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, he was really good friends with Zachary.” Laney swallowed and Dusty moved to sit on the floor beside her, placing her hand over the other woman’s. Zachary had been their Alpha before Cooper killed him and took over the pack. He’d also been Laney’s father, who had tortured and abused her growing up.

“What if it’s a form of revenge for Cooper killing Zachary?”

Dusty frowned. “I wouldn’t put it past him. But it’s a rather passive revenge. I imagined Leonard would go for the jugular.” She didn’t know him well, but there was something about him that made her feel ill.

“What’s Cooper going to do?”

Laney rubbed her forehead. “I don’t know. Neither does he.”

Dusty looked at her friend with worry. She was pale and tense. This really wasn’t good for her or the baby.

“I’m surprised he left you alone when you were feeling ill.”

It wasn’t like the overprotective Alpha at all.

“I was fine earlier on,” Laney admitted. “It wasn’t until I arrived at Samantha’s for a social committee meeting that I started to feel really ill.”

Dusty snorted and rose to sit on a chair. “Samantha’s meetings are enough to make anyone ill.”

Laney grinned. “She is rather a bulldog about them, isn’t she?”

“Yep, she’s a real bitch. Do you know what she said to me the other day?” She related her encounter with Samantha.

“Damn, and you let her live?” Laney asked.

“Yeah, more fool me.”

“She’s jealous, you know,” Laney said as they heard a vehicle pull up.

“What? Of me? Why?”

“Because you have Cain.”

“She’s mated to Jesse.” Dusty didn’t quite know what her friend saw in his mate, but it was his choice.

“Yeah, but Cain is hot and powerful and we both know Samantha’s always wanted power. That’s why she leads so many committees. She always sucked up to Zachary when we were younger. If she hadn’t been with Jesse, she’d probably have made a play for Cooper.”

“I think I hear my name.” Cooper walked in and dropped a kiss on Laney’s forehead.

“How’d the meeting go?” Dusty quickly asked.

Cooper sighed, looking tired. “Same as usual. Anything I say, Leonard takes the opposite view. Stupid idiot actually wants us to build up armies to defend ourselves against humans. He doesn’t seem to realize how outnumbered we are. And unfortunately, he’s not alone in his thoughts. I see Cain’s truck outside. He’s here?”

Drat. Caught.

“Ahh, I drove it.”