Scared of Spiders (5 page)

“
H
ow the hell
did they find her?” ranted Brandon in the passenger seat of Clint’s SUV.

“Did any of the rogues escape yesterday?”

“Did you seriously just ask me that?” Brandon shot him a dirty look.

“I’d say it’s obvious then; we’re being followed.”

“By who, though?” growled Brandon. “And why threaten Josie?”

Clint’s wolf bristled inside his skin. “I don’t know, but they messed with the wrong pack if they think they can threaten our woman.”

“Our woman?” said Brandon sardonically. “I’d say right now we’re lucky she’s even talking to us. She was really pissed this morning.”

“And whose fault was that?” said Clint, glaring at Brandon.

“Hey, I went to check on her. I can’t help wanting her. You, of all people, should know the feeling.”

“Yeah,” admitted Clint begrudgingly. “But now we’ve got to decide. Are we still going pursue her separately, or do we work together and tag-team?”

“I’ve always been a team player,” quipped Brandon. “And, besides, remember the fun we had with that blonde back in college?”

Clint did indeed. He hoped Josie wouldn’t mind a seduction by two men. Then again, how could she resist when he and Brandon showed her how the love of two men would surpass her previous ideas of pleasure? Besides, with the danger she faced, he’d feel better knowing someone with the same emotional investment would also be watching her.

“Fine; that’s settled easily enough, but now, how are we going to (A) get her to agree to it and (B) get her to move out to the ranch where we can keep her safe?”

“You forgot (C),” said Brandon with a twinkle in his eyes. “How do we convince her cat not to shred our manparts when we sleep?”

Clint chuckled. “I guess we’d better invest in some jockstraps because I doubt Josie will go anywhere without her furball.”

“Maybe if I rub catnip all over me, her kitty will like me and get me back in her good graces,” mused Brandon.

“Ha. I’m going with tuna myself.”

They discussed ways of taming Josie’s ferocious cat the rest of the drive, the silly banter not easing the anger still coursing through Clint, an anger that started when she’d called him in tears and probably wouldn’t end until he killed the threat to his future mate.

She must have watched for them from the window, for she flung the door open as soon as they pulled out front with a screech. Her eyes were red, and her cheeks streaked with tears. She held her cat in her arms, which, as if sensing her mistress’s need, only emitted a low growl in their direction.

“Where’s the note?” asked Clint. She pointed behind her, her expression so frail Clint braved the claws of her cat to wrap his arms around her. She shuddered in his embrace, and the cat, with a squawk, struggled loose. Clint watched over her head as Brandon spotted the note on the living room table and snatched it up to read. His beta’s face lost its usual joviality, and his eyes turned flinty.

It must be nasty for Brandon not to joke about it.

Brandon spun an unresisting Josie into his arms, handing Clint the note in the process.

Don’t think your testosterone-laden dogs will stop me when I come for you. Your time is fast approaching, and I will allow nothing to stand in my way. Tell your puppies if they know what’s good for them, they’ll roll over and prepare to greet their new master.

Rage—and icy fear for Josie—coursed through him. Marked or not, Josie was his. The thought of harm coming to her made his wolf howl in his mind and push to come to the surface, eager to hunt down the one who thought to threaten what was theirs. Instead of giving voice to all this, Clint simply said, “You’re moving.”

Josie pushed out of Brandon’s arms and looked between them. “Move? Isn’t that a bit extreme?”

“This note is no joke, Josie. The people in our world don’t play by the rules, you know. They’ve discerned you’re important to us, and they’ll hurt you to get to us,” Clint replied. He didn’t mention that anyone who harmed a single strand of hair on her head would not survive his wrath.

“I’m important?” Her voice, vulnerable along with her bright eyes, made him groan, and he crushed her to him. Actually, she ended up sandwiched as Brandon hugged her from the back.

“Baby, I can’t explain it right now, but trust me when I say Brandon and I would rather die than see one hair on your head harmed.”

“Fine. Let’s say I believe you. Where is it you want me to move and for how long?”

Clint didn’t say forever, even as he thought it. “We’ll move you out to the ranch until we’ve taken care of the danger to you. I’ve got plenty of spare rooms.”
And a really large bed.
“I can also get a couple of the pack to patrol the grounds and prevent any unwelcome visitors.”

“What about my place and Snickers?”

Clint looked at her blankly for a second until he realized she meant the cat and not the chocolate bar. “We’ll bring your cat, of course, and if you don’t mind, I’d like to station a pair of my guys here to keep an eye out.”

She bit her lower lip, and her glance bounced between him and Brandon. Finally, with a sigh, she nodded her head. “Fine. I’ll come. Just give me a few minutes to pack a bag. I’ll also need to grab the cat carrier from my storage unit in the basement.”

She left them to go to her bedroom, and Brandon turned to Clint, his eyes furious. “What the fuck is going on? First, this asshole sends some rogues at us, and then he threatens Josie. I want to find this son of a bitch and take him apart.”

Clint smiled, but his eyes remained flinty. “Oh, we’ll find him and make him regret even thinking of harming our little mouse. But on a bright note, we’ll have Josie with us at the ranch, where she belongs.”

Brandon grinned. “Are we flipping to see who gets to sleep with her first, under the guise of guarding of course?”

“My house, my turn first.”

Brandon would have retorted, but Josie was back lugging a knapsack. Clint raised an eyebrow in surprise.
She’s certainly not like other women and their stacks of luggage.
Not that she’d need many clothes if he had his way. He’d prefer she get naked and stayed that way.

Wrangling the cat into the cage proved interesting, and Josie had several scratches before Clint bent down and let out a menacing growl. The cat took one look at him and, with a disdainful sniff, turned to march into the cage.

Damned felines.
Another problem solved, the trio made its way to Clint’s SUV, where he gnashed his teeth as he realized that, by driving, he’d placed Josie in the back seat with Brandon.

Josie, as if realizing this, finagled it so that Brandon sat in front on the passenger side while she rode in the row behind with her cat.

Clint smirked at Brandon, who scowled. Despite the fact that they’d agreed to share her, it didn’t mean healthy competition wasn’t alive and flourishing.

Halfway across town, Clint heard the question he’d dreaded.

“Why are we going this way? I thought you said I was on your way to work.”

A deep laugh emerged from Brandon. “You are on the way if we take a scenic twenty-minute detour.”

“I wouldn’t talk, seeing as how you also had to detour,” said Clint with a scowl.

Josie giggled. “You guys are too much. Are you always this competitive?”

“Yes.”

“No.”

Josie let out peals of laughter, some of it, Clint suspected, pent-up hysteria from her now-dissipated fear.

“So, where do you live?” she finally asked.

“You’ll see,” replied Clint enigmatically. He wanted to see her reaction firsthand when she saw his place.

Only once they’d left the trappings of the city behind did he turn onto a gravel road, the long drive winding through dense trees until it emerged in a bright clearing where the ranch sat.

She gasped. “Oh, Clint, it’s gorgeous.”

Clint’s chest puffed up with pride. “It’s been in the family for several generations, but my dad wasn’t into updating much. So, when I inherited, I gave it a major overhaul.”

“Is all this land yours, too?” she asked, her nose pressed to the window as she peered at the lush greenery that surrounded the ranch house, from cleared lawns to a vast garden bordered by dense brush and trees.

“Yup. Over thirty-five acres.” Clint pulled up in front of the house, and Brandon bounded out of the SUV and opened the door for Josie to step out. Lucky him, he was stuck carrying the cat carrier with the very pissed-off feline. But it wasn’t all bad. He got to admire the view of Josie’s ass as she walked up the steps and entered his home.
Our home now, baby.

J
osie peeked around with interest
. The house from outside appeared like an
L
-shaped bungalow. Inside, it was huge and open. To the right of the vestibule was a massive living room with a floor-to-ceiling stone fireplace. There had to be a half-dozen couches scattered around, along with an equal number of chairs. The floors made of wide-planked wood gleamed, their lacquered surface covered here and there with bright, rag-woven rugs. Her inspection temporarily halted at the sound of Snickers’ meow of unhappiness.

Josie dropped to her knees and sweet-talked Snickers as she unlatched the cage. “Now you be a good girl. No clawing anything, and that means the werewolves too, not just the furniture.” Snickers, of course, didn’t reply and bolted as soon as the door opened on the cage. Josie hoped she didn’t get into too much trouble.

Standing back up, she caught Clint’s grin. However, it was Brandon who spoke. “Promise me you’ll never baby-talk me when I’m a wolf. I’d never live down the ridicule.”

Josie smirked. “Oh, but weren’t you the pretty blond wolf? Don’t worry. I won’t just baby-talk you. I’ll probably scratch you behind the ears, too.”

Clint roared with laughter at Brandon’s face until Josie added, “You, too, big guy.”

Josie left them both staring at each other. The rich sound of masculine chuckles—which had her shivering in naughty places—accompanied her as she walked farther into the house. She traversed the long length of the living room to encounter the world’s biggest freaking kitchen.

“Good grief. This place is big enough to feed an army,” she exclaimed.

“Or a pack of hungry wolves,” said Clint with a wolfish grin as he walked by her to open the fridge. “Speaking of which, I could use some dinner. How about you, baby?”

“I’d love to see you cook.” Josie blushed at her words, hearing the double meaning, which Clint also caught. Instead of replying, he just winked at her. Josie couldn’t help the heat that pooled between her thighs.
The man is just too darned good-looking for his own good.

Josie seated herself at a stool that bordered the massive granite-topped island, and Brandon perched himself beside her.

As Clint proved he did know his way around a kitchen and the massive stove with eight burners, she started assuaging her curiosity. “So, I take it you’re boss of the werewolves. How many are in your pack?” Her usual timidity had evaporated around Clint and Brandon. It was hard to be scared of two guys who kissed her as if she was the only girl in the world and dropped everything to protect her.

“My proper title is alpha, and Brandon here is my beta. We’ve got a moderate-sized group, compared to others, at thirty-seven. Of course, there’s about a dozen of the pack out right now on transport runs. You’ve actually met almost all of them at this point, seeing as how they pretty much all work for the company.”

“Wait, back up a second. Did I understand you correctly? You mean there’s other werewolf packs out there, too?”

“There are hundreds of packs. Each major territory has at least one. They’re not all wolves, though. Shifters run a gamut of animals like bears, big cats, reptiles, and more. And that’s just the most prolific groups. Some species don’t have enough numbers to form packs, like the dragons.”

Josie’s eyes grew wider. “You’re screwing with me, aren’t you? I mean, dragons. Seriously?”

“Hell yeah, dragons,” Brandon said, jumping in with a grin. “Actually, you’ll probably end up meeting one soon, as Draco is due for a visit in the next month or so. And if you think that’s messed-up, there are also dolphin packs, and I’ve even heard of a spider shifter running around.”

Josie shuddered. “A man-sized spider? That is so gross.”
And like my nightmare.

Clint frowned at Brandon. “Don’t worry. The rules all of our kind abide by state that all shifters must present themselves to the alpha if they intend to spend any time in a controlled territory.”

“So, you knew those wolves that attacked you?”

Clint shook his head. “Those were rogues. In other words, shifters who weren’t obeying pack laws and thus were subject to justice.”

“That’s nuts, though. What did they expect to accomplish?”

Clint shrugged and kept silent. He finished flipping the thick ham steaks and threw them on some plates, along with a salad and some pan-fried rice.

Josie dug in, hungrier than she expected, but she still had questions. “Do you have female werewolves, too?”

“Yes, but they are much rarer. The shifter gene transfers better in males, which is why many of our females have more than one mate.” However, while it was quite common for female shifters to take on multiple mates, it was a lot rarer for a human to attract the attention of more than one male. Clint assumed it had to do with the fragile nature of most humans.

“Two?”

Brandon chuckled. “Or more. Don’t tell me you’ve never fantasized about it?”

Josie blushed and dropped her head. She tried changing the subject. “I guess you and Brandon haven’t found your mates yet?”

“Oh, we have,” said Clint huskily.

Irrational jealousy made her meet his eyes. “And she’s okay with you kissing other women and bringing them into your home?” Josie couldn’t believe she blurted that out loud.

“You tell me,” he retorted.

What? Josie looked at him blankly, not understanding, but when the lightbulb went off—oh my god, I think he’s talking about me—she ducked her head again. She kept quiet after that, finishing her meal as she mulled over what she’d learned, even more confused than before.
If I didn’t know better, I’d think he implied I am his mate. But that’s impossible because I’m not a werewolf.

She helped Clint stack the dishes in the washer while Brandon started a fire in the hearth. There was one couch facing the dancing flames, and when Clint and Brandon took a seat at either end, she debated sitting in the middle, but her nervousness returned, and she, instead, knelt on the rug with her back to them.

Their synchronized chuckle sent shivers down her spine, and moisture formed in her cleft. Even though she’d found herself alone with them since their departure of her place, she now noticed just how alone they were.
Me, my absent cat, and two big, bad wolves.
It was a recipe for pleasure, if she could find the courage to take what they offered.

“Baby,” whispered Clint’s voice right beside her ear. She jumped, for she hadn’t heard him move. “Why are you fighting it? We can smell your desire.”

Josie wrinkled her nose as she blushed. “That’s kind of gross.”

Brandon’s soft laughter fluttered her hair around her other ear.
Someone should put bells on them so I can hear them coming.

“Little mouse, the things we want to do with you are far from gross, but they might be sticky, hot, and, I promise you, pleasurable.”

“I don’t understand what you want from me,” she blurted out, unable to look them in the face and even more unable to stop the heat from spreading throughout her body.

“We want you,” answered Clint.

“By
we
, I assume you want to share me? Swap me back and forth like some trading card?”

“Well, we could take turns, I guess,” said Brandon, nuzzling her lobe. “But wouldn’t it be more fun if we both took care of you at once?”

Unbidden, an image of both men, touching her, pleasing her at the same time, arose in her mind. Her breath caught, and she could not stop the blush that burned her skin nor the moisture that slicked her cleft.

Clint trailed kisses along her jaw. “Haven’t you figured it out yet? Human or not, you’re our mate, and we want you.”

“What does that mean?” she asked, her voice high-pitched as she fought the pleasurable sensations.

“We want to mark you, claim you as ours.”

“You mean bite?” she squeaked.

“Just a little nibble. We’d be in human form,” Clint said to reassure her. “There’d be no danger to your humanity.”

“But won’t it hurt?” Josie couldn’t believe they were even having the conversation.
Welcome to the twilight zone, where hunky men are werewolves who want to bite you and claim you as mate.

Brandon purred in her ear. “By the time we bite you, you’ll be riding our cocks, caught in the throes of the most intense orgasm you’ve ever experienced.”

Josie’s breath caught in her throat as he vocalized her fantasy of a moment ago.
Did he read my mind?
“But . . .” The protest in her mouth died. Actually, it was captured by Clint’s mouth. While he caressed her parted lips, Brandon stroked the sensitive flesh behind her ear with his tongue. As sensual assaults went, she surrendered with their first attack.

She didn’t protest when they laid her down on the carpet. On either side, their male bodies pressed against her, the hardness of their desire poking into her sides. Josie kept her hands to herself, overwhelmed and unsure what she should do.

Her body knew what it wanted, though, and it arched of its own volition. A pair of hands, each large but different in texture, found their way up her shirt and squeezed her breasts. Josie gasped as they popped her globes free from her restricting bra and stroked callused thumbs over the tips, which burgeoned into erect points.

A thick thigh inserted itself between her legs, and she wantonly rubbed her covered sex against it, the friction of the cloth separating still serving to heighten her arousal. The fabric of her shirt was pushed up, and a hot mouth latched onto her nipple. The sucking sensation, intense and jolting her aching cleft, made her cry out.

She wanted to open her eyes to watch, but the decadence of having two men pleasuring her kept them closed. A hand slid down to the front of her slacks, the material stretching just enough to accommodate the exploring hand. The brush of fingers across the damp material of her panties made her shudder.

“Oh, please,” she breathed, the begging words rising unbidden. They answered her wanton cry. Her damp, cotton panties were pushed aside to allow access to a finger. Slowly, the callused tip rubbed over her sensitized clit, drawing mewling cries from her.

The mouth devouring her breast kept up its sensual work, flicking and nipping at her engorged bud in time to the hand down her pants that stroked her wet folds. When the damp digits pushed into her, she let out a moan as her pelvic muscles clenched tight, her orgasm just a thrust or two away.

A clearing throat with a muttered, “sorry to bother,” found her abruptly hand- and mouth-free. Josie opened her bleary, passion-glazed eyes to see both Clint and Brandon kneeling on one side of her, hiding her partially nude body from view.

Caught in a compromising situation, with not one but two men, Josie scrambled, mortified, to a seated position and righted her clothes. She didn’t pay attention to the low-timbered conversation until the end when she heard the words, “We’ll have to get a cleaner in to clean up the blood and fix the window at her place.”

Are they talking about my apartment?
“What happened?” she interjected.

Brandon didn’t answer her question as he turned to give her a hand to help her stand.

“Take care of Josie while I go check this out,” ordered Clint. His bright eyes gazed on her with longing, and he turned to walk away, only to whirl right back. He grabbed Josie around the waist and gave her a hard kiss. “Don’t worry, baby. You’re safe here.”

With those words, he did leave with Ralph, whom she recognized from work. Brandon slid an arm around her waist and guided her out of the living room—and away from her embarrassment.
What was I thinking? Making love to two men at once and out in the open. Oh my God, I can just imagine the rumors and snickers I’ll have to endure at work.

Once again, Brandon read her thoughts. “It’s not a big deal.”

“Says you,” she muttered darkly. “It’s different for men.”

“It’s different in packs,” he corrected. “Like we said before, it’s not uncommon for one woman to attract the attention of two or more men.”

“I’m human, remember? It seems strange to me.”

“Well, you’d better get used to the idea because, my dear little mouse, you will be mated to Clint and me.”

“What if I don’t want to?” She acted contrary, even as her body—and heart—screamed
yes
.

Brandon halted their progress up the hall and pinned her to the wall. “Don’t challenge me to prove you wrong,” he said, his mouth hovering close to hers.

“Everything’s happening so fast. I mean first I find out you’re werewolves. Then someone threatens me. And now you expect me to just swallow the fact that you and Clint intend to bite me and…and be intimate with me at the same time.” She couldn’t say it without blushing.

“You can’t tell me you don’t feel the same pull, the need to touch us, skin to skin.”

“Great, I’m a magnet for werewolves,” she grumbled.

“Only two,” he replied.

“And here I thought you liked me for me.”

His brown eyes gazed down at her, and he smiled gently. “What’s the difference? Some men are attracted by looks, others intelligence, and then there’s the ones who see a woman and instantly feel a connection. Does the root cause matter?”

Does it?
“If it weren’t for this pull, you would never have looked at me twice.”

“Don’t be so sure,” he murmured, dipping his head down. “There are many things about you that I enjoy, Josie.”

His lips skimmed hers, reigniting the fire that, while banked at the interruption, still simmered beneath the surface.

Brandon broke the kiss before it went too far. “I’m needed outside. Stay inside where it’s safe.”

“When will you be back?”

“Soon. Why, did you want me to join you in bed later?”

A part of Josie—the wanton side—screamed ‘Yes!’, but her meek side couldn’t bring itself to voice it aloud. That and she needed to think more on what they wanted from her and decide if she could handle it emotionally
because physically my body is all for it. It’s my heart I’m worried about.

Her answer must have shown in her face, for humor lit his eyes, and he brushed his knuckles across her cheek. “When you’re ready, we’ll be here for you. Dream of us.”