Panthers' Pleasure [Impulse 1] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) (19 page)

“Hey, sleepyhead.”

Chantal swiveled toward the door and saw her two men standing there, both wearing nothing but cut-off shorts and glamorous smiles. She wanted to ask how they knew she was awake but, of course, that would have been a dumb question. They looked so devastating that she wanted to weep with regret. Instead she rubbed the sleep from her eyes and plastered a smile on her face.

“I must have overslept,” she said.

“Well, it is gone noon.” Vilas blew her a kiss. “But that doesn’t mean much round these parts.”

“I haven’t exactly pulled my weight so far, but I’ll get up right away. I’m sure there’s stuff I can do to help.” She managed another brief smile. “I
am
supposed to work here, remember?”

“Stay right where you are,” Rafe ordered.

He ducked back into the sitting room and returned with a laden tray. It was laid up with a crisp white cloth, and a single red rose sat in a bud vase to one side of it. There was coffee, scrambled eggs, smoked salmon, several types of toast, and lots of freshly squeezed juice.

“You spoil me,” she said when Rafe laid the tray over her knee and placed the bud vase by the side of the bed. They sat on either side of her, encouraging her to tuck in.

“We look after our mate, is what we do,” Rafe said, brushing a finger lightly down the curve of her face. “How do you feel today, sweetheart? You seem a little distracted.”

She couldn’t lie, at least not about the way she felt. “I feel wonderful! Stop imagining problems where none exist.”

“That’s a relief. We thought we might have been a bit rough with you.”

“Not at all. Well, only in a good way.”

“We’re feeling pretty good about ourselves, too,” Vilas said, chuckling.

“We’re revitalized already,” Rafe added.

“That’s good. I’m glad I could do that much for you.”

Rafe wrinkled his brow. “Chantal, what’s wrong, babe?”

“Nothing.” She couldn’t look at them. “It’s just an expression.”

Chantal didn’t think she could eat a thing—she was too choked with emotion to get anything past the roadblock in her throat. Somehow she managed to force a few mouthfuls down. They already suspected that something was bothering her and they’d know it for sure if she didn’t eat.

“It’s delicious,” she said, trying to sound enthusiastic.

Vilas rubbed his face against her cheek. “So are you, darlin’.”

“We have to be at the clinic all the afternoon,” Rafe said. “There’s a meeting of the council so we can decide which sick kids to bring here next.”

Chantal widened her eyes. “You have to pick?”

“Yeah, and it ain’t easy,” Vilas said. “We can’t help them all and Mikael doesn’t want to take responsibility for choosing alone, so the council listens to the kids’ histories and collectively votes on which ones they think are the worthiest cases.”

She touched each of their hands. “That must be emotionally draining.”

Rafe sighed. “We get through it by focusing on the positive. Whichever kids we
do
decide to help get another chance at life.”

“Even so, it must be heartbreaking.” It almost made Chantal’s situation seem irrelevant by comparison. At least she still had her health, and no one she’d heard of had ever actually died of a broken heart, even if right now it felt as though she could be the first.

“We’re running late, babe.” Rafe swooped in for a kiss, as did Vilas. “Have a lazy afternoon. Go visit the shops on the other side of the bridge if you like. Get yourself something pretty to wear for us and we’ll see you later.”

They left her in bed, taking her half-eaten breakfast away with them. Chantal held herself together until she heard the outer door close behind them, and then wept like a baby.

“Stop being so feeble,” she told herself when the tears finally dried up. “You’re making a sacrifice to keep the men you love safe. End. Of. Story.”

Chantal took a long shower, forcing her mind to go blank. She wouldn’t put it past the guys to tune in to her, even though they’d promised not to. If they did, they’d figure out what she intended to do, come running back here, and talk her out of leaving. The problem was, they wouldn’t have to try very hard. Subconsciously she was probably looking for excuses not to go, so she absolutely couldn’t afford to weaken.

She dressed in jeans and a sleeveless top and threw the rest of her things into the bag she’d brought with her. It didn’t take long. Then she wondered what sort of note she ought to leave for the guys. What could she possibly say to make them understand? Her gut clenched as she imagined their reaction. How could she let them down lightly?

She was still pondering on a problem that had no right answer to it when her cell phone rang. Probably Jack again. He’d already called three times since she’d been in Impulse but she hadn’t answered him. Nor would she this time. She had absolutely nothing to say to him that he’d want to hear.

She glanced at the display. It wasn’t Jack. She didn’t recognize the number and curiosity made her take the call.

“Chantal?”

Chantal’s heart lurched. She’d know that voice anywhere. “Max, is that you?”

“Yes, I’m in the hospital.”

Hospital? “What? Why? What’s wrong?”

“I…I don’t know. I’ve been here for two weeks. I was found in the street and brought in, apparently. They think I was in an accident, probably hit by a car. My leg’s busted up pretty bad, but that’s not the worst part. I didn’t know my own name, couldn’t remember a damned thing.”

The lions. They’d played with his memory. “But you can now?”

“Yes, all of a sudden I remember everything, right up to two weeks ago. I was off on a job…then nothing until an hour ago.”

Chantal’s mind went into overdrive. Something had clearly gone wrong with the lions’ ability to block his memory. Unless they’d released it to drag her there. But why would they do that? Presumably because they’d heard she was mated to Rafe and Vilas. She had no idea how close the lions were and how easily they could pick up the colony’s pheromones, but she had to assume they’d managed to do so.

“What hospital are you in?”

“Tampa General.” He told her which ward and she scribbled the information down on a scrap of paper. “Where are you, Chantal?”

“I’m close by. Are you fit to leave there? Your leg—”

“Yeah, nothing’s broken. I can walk slowly. I really want to get out of here. I need to figure out what happened to me.”

No you don’t.
“I’ll come and get you, but I can’t get there until after dark.”

“No problem. I can’t go anywhere without you.”

She cut the call then called Directory Assistance for the hospital’s number. She jotted it down on the same piece of paper as Max’s details and called the hospital’s switchboard to ask if Max Lake was a patient there. She wasn’t surprised to learn that he was. This was the trap Rafe had told her to expect. Unfortunately for the lions, she wasn’t going to tell her mates about it and lead them there. Hopefully, though, they would assume that she had, and Rafe and Vilas wouldn’t venture outside of Impulse until it got completely dark. She knew that because they’d told her shifting in built-up areas in daylight was simply too dangerous. The lions would know that and if, somehow, they’d listened to her conversation with Max, they’d believe the bit about her not getting there until sunset.

Forgetting all about leaving any sort of note for the guys, Chantal picked up her bag and made to leave the apartment. At the last moment she turned back and grabbed the single rose from the bedside table, a precious memento of the most wonderful two days of her life. She let herself out of the side door, barely noticing that the outside air didn’t cause her lungs to seize, and got to her car without anyone seeing her. Heavy rain clouds blocked the sun—a perfect foil for her despondent mood. There would be shifters patrolling the bridge, she recalled as she fired up her engine, but the guys had told her to go shopping, so the guards would expect to see her heading that way.

* * * *

“That was a tough decision,” Vilas said, sighing deeply as he and Rafe left the clinic. “It’s such a shame that we can’t help more kids.”

“Yeah, ain’t that the truth.” Rafe rotated his shoulders, threw back his head, and sniffed the air. “We’re gonna have a storm.”

“Looks that way.”

“I hope our mate’s feeling more relaxed than she seemed this morning.”

“And I hope we weren’t too rough with her last night. I’d hate her to regret her decision to mate with us.”

“No, she was adamant that she enjoyed herself.” Rafe scowled. Every time he thought about Chantal his spine prickled with unease. “But something’s got her distracted.”

“I missed her like hell this afternoon,” Vilas admitted. “I was tempted to tune into her thoughts, just because it would have made me feel closer to her. Then I remembered that we’d promised to give her some privacy.”

“She needs time to get used to the changes in her life without us messing with her head.” Rafe shrugged. “She’s had a lot to take in.”

“True.” Vilas grinned. “Don’t know about you, buddy, but I feel stronger already.”

“Hmm, my power’s increased as well. No question.”

“Even so, I guess we ought to fuck her every day, just to make sure.”

“I’m with you there.” Rafe slapped Vilas’s shoulder. “It wouldn’t do to take chances.”

Laughing, they bounded up the stairs to the apartment.

“We’re back, babe.”

“She’s not here,” Vilas said, peering out of the window to the parking lot below. “Her car’s gone. She must have taken to the shops, like we suggested.”

Rafe’s uneasiness grew. He went into the bedroom where she kept her stuff, his danger antennae on high alert. Every instinct in his body rattled a warning, and it was all he could do to cross the threshold of the room. When he forced himself to do so, the air left his lungs in an extravagant whoosh and it felt as though his heart hit the floor.

The closet doors hung open. The clothes rail was empty.

“She’s gone,” he said bleakly.

“Don’t be stupid,” Vilas said, striding through the door. “She’ll be back. She…oh shit!”

Rafe shook his head. “Why? Why would she take off like this? I thought she really cared for us.”

“Me, too.”

Vilas threw back his head and howled. Rafe felt his pain all the way to his souls—both of them. He and Vilas dropped to the side of the bed, holding their heads in their hands. The physical ache that Rafe felt was beyond excruciating. He
knew
she was the one for them, knew it with a certainty that didn’t leave an inch of room for doubt. She knew it, too. He was sure of that. So why?

“She’s blocking us,” Rafe said, slapping his thigh when he was unable to tune into her mind. “So I guess that tells us all we need to know. She’s decided that she made a mistake.”

“Can’t take living with shifters, you mean?” Rafe nodded. “We should have waited longer. Given her more time to get used to us and the way things are here.”

“She was the one that wanted to rush into it,” Rafe reminded Vilas. “We tried to make sure she meant it.”

“Perhaps we were thinking with brains situated south of our heads,” Vilas suggested.

“I just wish I knew what—” Rafe’s gaze fell on a piece of paper sitting on the bedside table. The moment he picked it up, alarm bells rang. There was a phone number on it, which he called and then hung up.

“Shit, come on!”

“What is it?” Vilas asked.

“A phone number that turns out to be Tampa General.” Rafe’s thought process went into overdrive. “I’m betting that’s where her brother is. He must have called her and she’s gone running straight to him.”

“Straight into a trap, more like.”

“You know how she is about Max. She probably thinks the risk’s worth it, if she’s thinking at all, that is.”

“So she didn’t leave us then,” Vilas said.

“She didn’t need to take all her clothes to go get her brother,” Rafe said grimly. “Besides, if she didn’t want to keep us out of this then she wouldn’t be blocking us.”

Vilas’s moment of optimism faded. “That’s it then.”

“We’ll go after her, but we’ll have to call the council together and get this place covered first.”

“You think the lions will be lurking around here or the hospital?”

“Both, but the majority of them will be here, hoping we’ll go off after our mate without securing our territory first. It’s the land they want, after all.”

Rafe sent out a code-one pheromone and the council members materialized at the apartment within minutes. Rafe outlined the situation, neglecting to mention that Chantal had actually walked out on them. Even if he told them, he knew the rest of the colony would still go after her if he asked them to. But he wasn’t ready to proclaim their failure with Chantal quite yet.

Vadim, the jaguar in charge of Impulse’s security, suggested a deployment of men to protect their patch, leaving Rafe, Vilas, and four others to go after Chantal.

“I’ll come with you,” Mikael said, “just in case I’m required in my professional capacity.”