Her Keepers (5 page)

Davis cleared his throat, and Duncan swung around with Karen. “Duncan, the sooner we sort out this feud, the sooner you can get back to your mate.”

Duncan kept Karen against his chest, hiding her from the view of naked men and concealing his erection. “I had organized a meeting with the surrounding council packs but they couldn’t keep it together for a couple of hours. You all know our property is neutral ground. I didn’t think I, Brad, or my brothers had to stay and babysit you all twenty-four seven.” Duncan glared at the Blue Blood Pack. Dean was a new Alpha, who had only taken over his father’s leadership a decade ago. He was young and hot-headed. This wasn’t the first dispute that he, Brad, and his brothers had had to intervene in. Garth, the Alpha of the Red Blood Pack, was usually very quiet. In the whole time he and Brad had been Peacekeeping, they’d never had to step in with any of his business. Garth was very powerful. He could buy his way out of a lot of situations, and if that didn’t work, his pack was one of the largest and could be quite intimidating. The Red Blood Pack had done well under Garth’s leadership.

Karen pushed on his chest, and he eased his hold so she could turn in his arms. “What are you all fighting about?” Garth and Dean spoke at once, and Karen shook her head.

Brad whistled. “One at a time. Dean, you go. You have five minutes. Then it’s Garth’s for five.”

Dean’s smug face stepped forward and looked Karen up and down. She stiffened in Duncan’s arms, and straightened her back.

“Our pack borders Garth’s pack. There is an unclaimed city between us. I need the room for my expanding pack, but Garth now wants the land, and some of my wolves who moved there have been attacked by his pack.”

“Why can’t you share it? Why do you have to have only one or the other of your people in this town?”

Duncan liked this idea, but he knew the wolves would never go for it. The wolves were a possessive bunch. They didn’t share.

“That is not our way. We are an animal of territory and possession.” Garth stepped forward, and Duncan didn’t like the look of interest in his face as he studied Karen.

“How much territory do you both have? Is it even? Who is more in need of this land?” Both Alphas replied to Karen’s question, both saying they had the most need for the extra land. Karen turned her head up to him. “I don’t envy you for sorting out this silly feud. If it was up to me, I would confiscate the land and use it as mutual ground. They sound like children arguing, so I’d treat them like children, and take away the toy they are arguing over. What I’d like to know is, where are all the women? Are there any woman shifters?”

Duncan liked Karen’s suggestion. He leaned down and brushed his lips over hers. “Yes, there are women shifters, but the men here aren’t mated. The mated ones are at home with their mates.”

“I like our mate’s suggestion at the moment,” Brad said as he came and stood next to Duncan and Karen.

“What will happen to my people who already live there?” Dean stepped forward, anger pouring off him.

“They can stay until all the council gets together in a week.”

Karen held his arm. “Garth, do any of your people live in this area?”

“No.”

Karen sighed. “It’s easy then, the land should go to Dean. He already has people living there. You don’t have anyone there. I th—”

“I don’t have anyone there because I didn’t need it at the ti—”

“Aha, you’re sounding more like a spoiled child to me. Another kid had that toy, and then you saw it and wanted it.” Karen turned to Dean, and Duncan tried not to laugh as she dismissed Garth. “Dean, why did your people move to the area?”

“Because we were running out of room in the territory I had. They needed a home near the forest. They have moved into a new estate that backs onto bushland. There are jobs there for them, too.”

“If it was up to me, Dean, I’d give you the land.”

Duncan agreed with Karen. He should have listened to this, and he and Brad should have figured this out. Duncan watched as Brad glanced over at Davis, and he nodded.

“I, Brad White, decree the land in dispute is now the Blue Blood Pack’s territory.”

Dean howled in excitement. Duncan was happy that he wouldn’t have to deal with the shifter council. But as everyone was leaving or celebrating, Garth stared daggers at Karen and stormed out of the room, barging into Karen and knocking her back against him. Duncan wrapped his arms around Karen, stabilizing her, and growled at Garth. He debated whether he should go after Garth, but Karen gripped his arm.

“Don’t, I can feel the tension radiating off you. You’re eager to go after him, but leave it. He has just proven what I said about him acting like a child, right?”

Leaning down, he nuzzled her neck and breathed in their combined scent, calming his bear. She relaxed into him. “You smell good.” He trailed his hands down her body, forgetting for a moment where they were.

“Mmm, you have to stop. Everyone is looking.”

Duncan looked up from her neck to see Brad staring at Karen with pure raw hunger. His gaze skimmed over everyone else to see they held similar looks.

Davis cleared his throat, but it still sounded gravelly as he muttered, “Duncan, you can’t have her smelling like that in a room of single shifters. It is cruel. I can handle the rest from here. Abraham and Jaylen can help. You and Brad should be with your mate. Raylock and Ashten took off with Jacky already.”

Duncan took a deep breath of Karen’s scent and groaned. She was turned on; he could smell her arousal, and it had his polar bear—and the man—preening that all he had to do was hold his mate and nuzzle her, and she got turned on. Winking at Davis, Duncan grinned at Brad. Davis didn’t have to tell him twice. Duncan picked up Karen and tossed her over his shoulder.

Karen let out a little squeal. “Put me down, Duncan. I can walk.”

He grunted and palmed her ass as it wiggled in the air. Duncan was eager to get her naked again. “This way is quicker.” He picked up his pace to get them to the cabin quicker.

“Brad, tell him to put me down.”

Brad chuckled and Duncan laughed, “Honey, he isn’t going to help you. Brad is following, and we intend to devour you until you can’t move.”

Karen shivered against him. “Oh, wow. You don’t have to do anything, and I’m willing to succumb. I’m in trouble.”

Duncan smiled at his brother.
Yes.
Yes, Karen
was
in trouble, because they weren’t letting her go.

Chapter Four

Oh,
God,
Karen couldn’t believe there was such a thing as too much sex. Over a week of two sex-crazed men bringing her to orgasm after orgasm, and she had to get away for a rest. To recuperate before they found her and touched her. Karen couldn’t fight her body’s reaction to them. She was now officially a nymphomaniac.

Duncan and Brad had left her to do some business at the lodge. She’d convinced them she was going to have a rest. After much convincing, she got rid of both of them, telling them she wouldn’t leave. Karen wasn’t really lying to them. She wasn’t leaving them, she was going for a drive to find civilization, maybe a shopping center or a mall as they called them in America. She’d found her car keys and was currently tip-toeing her way down the pathway to the car, hoping that no creature around saw her and told Duncan and Brad. Karen had no idea if creatures could talk to them, but she wasn’t taking any chances.

Opening the car door, Karen debated for a moment. Should she have found a way to get in contact with Jacky without having the men find out what she was planning? Ah, hell no, she couldn’t risk it. Right now, as she started the car and put it into gear, she was all for the “Save yourself” mentality.

Karen felt her eyes widen as she reversed to get out, and Brad stormed out of the lodge.
Shit!
Even sitting in a moving car, she was terrified, he looked so pissed. Putting the car in drive, she drove down the winding lane out to the highway. She accelerated, glancing behind her to see a massive polar bear chasing her. Karen prayed she could beat the bear and get away. She would worry when she got back about them being angry that she had left without one of them. Maybe the extra exercise from the chase Brad was giving might cool him off, and when she got back he’d be calm. Karen snorted at that thought. She may have been with the men for only a week, but she was starting to get to know them and she knew they’d be furious when she got back. They’d probably even follow her.

To be on the safe side, she didn’t stop, but instead drove to the first big town that had a mall. When she parked and got out, she knew she was grinning like a loon as she walked into the mall.

Karen needed shoe therapy, and she wandered for half an hour before she found a shoe store with boots to die for. Karen had a shoe addiction. She loved shoes, which were the one thing she was willing to spend a fortune on. Drawn to a pair of knee-high leather shoes with an elaborate pattern, Karen went into the store gathering all the shoes she wanted. The saleswoman’s eyes lit up as she saw Karen with her bundle and rushed over to help her. Karen was in heaven.

She had tried on her last pair of shoes and was debating if she could buy all of them or if that would be way too much. The saleswoman had left her to decide, and she was gathering all the shoes when she felt them. She didn’t even need to see them to know Brad and Duncan stood behind her. Groaning because she knew her alone time was over, she decided she was getting them all. It would hurt her credit card, but she deserved all of them for whatever cruel thing fate had decided she’d done to deserve not one, but two men.

“Are you going to turn or do you want us to come over to you and make a scene?” Duncan’s growling voice had her sighing and turning to face them. Duncan was the one who did things first, and asked questions later. Brad was the thinker, the planner. Brad stood narrow-eyed, clenching his fists, and it looked like fumes of anger radiated off him as he stared at her. Well, the workout he got chasing after her car mustn’t have cooled him down as much as she’d hoped.

Wow, Brad looked hot, his green eyes flaring to bear and back. Her body instantly responded to their closeness, and the looks in their eyes had her quaking. Not in fear like she probably should have, but another type. Taking a deep, calming breath, she smiled at them. “Hi, guys. I see you found me. Thanks for giving me time to myself so I could shop. I was having withdrawals of civilization.”

Keeping the boxes of shoes, she walked by them without touching them, and went to the counter. “I’ll take all of these.”

The sale woman smiled and nodded, then her eyes snapped up just behind Karen’s shoulder and widened before a sexy little grin came over her face. “May I help you, sirs?”

Karen shook her head. She bet this happened a lot whenever her men went out.
Whoa, her men.
When had that happened?
She turned and looked at her men. Brad and Duncan were gorgeous, GQ-model hot. She wondered if she could handle the attention they would bring when and if they let her out. Getting out her wallet, she handed over her credit card, only for Brad to wrap his hands around hers and hand his card to the woman.

“We are all right. We came to get our mate.”

“That’s nice that you’re paying for your friend’s shoes.”

Karen narrowed her eyes on the woman, and for a second debated if she shouldn’t get the shoes.
How could the girl not get what they were to her? You didn’t spend a fortune on someone if you weren’t banging their brains out.
But what could Karen say? They weren’t friends, they were her…well…lovers? That didn’t sound right to say. They were her…boyfriends? They were her men? Wow, Karen realized she sounded greedy. She didn’t have one boyfriend, she had two yummy, hot, hunky men. She felt a grin spread on her face as she realized what she had.

Brad kissed her and nuzzled her neck, hugging her to him. “She is a lot more than just a friend.”

The woman put Brad’s card through then it dawned on her what Brad had said. Her eyes widened, and she gaped at Karen, then at Brad and Duncan. Her mouth opened and closed several times. Then she studied Karen like she was trying to figure out what Karen had that she didn’t. Pure envy took over her face.

Brad signed the slip and the woman didn’t even look as she okayed it. Karen was starting to get annoyed. Was this the response she would always get? If so, it would get tiresome and frustrating. The woman bagged the shoe boxes, her eyes barely leaving Brad and Duncan.

As she handed the bags over, the woman whispered, “You’re a lucky woman. I hate you right now. You’re living the dream. If you ever need a break, I’ll gladly fill in.” She sighed as she looked at Duncan and Brad, who chuckled. Karen snatched the bags and stormed out of the store.

The nerve of that woman!
Brad and Duncan were hers, and she wasn’t going to share them, like, ever. Holy hell, how on earth had they made her see them as hers? Well, she guessed she knew how—they had turned her into a sex maniac who craved their touch. She paused in her steps and glared at the grinning blond men, staring down at her with smug faces. “Stop that. You don’t get to be happy that I am possessive of you two. I barely know you.” She glared at both of them. “All you want to do is have sex. I never get to talk or spend time with you doing other stuff.”

Brad raised one eyebrow. “Like what else? Hiking, walking the forest?”

“God, no. I only agreed to go to your lodge and do the tour thingie Jacky had booked, because she promised I could fake being sick and stay in a warm cabin and read while she went out in the cold. No, I’m more the shopping, movies, and going out to dinner kind of girl. I mean no offense when I say this, but if I didn’t get away today I would have gone insane and probably killed one of you.”

“We can do those things with you. All you had to do was ask,” Brad said.

Karen rolled her eyes. Of course, all she should have done was ask. She noticed Duncan didn’t look so sure though. “Are you both sure?”

“Brad can go shopping with you. I like the movies as long as it not a girlie one. Restaurants are good as long if they do steak rare. I’m happy for you to lay on me and read. I like any part of you touching me.” Karen moved all her bags to one hand and reached for Duncan’s hand. Duncan was growing on her with his gruff ways.