She closed her eyes as he slid his lips over her skin, his mouth working her shoulders, her breasts, her neck. She couldn’t help but remember the last time they’d been alone like this. She’d been so happy, so…in love with the man in her arms, and too afraid to do anything about it once the worst happened. She’d wanted him to move on to find his own fate, and had hurt them both in the process.
She’d been wrong before, and she was damned if she’d do it again.
“Ouch!” she called out and opened her eyes. Bram glared at her, and she rubbed her nipple where he’d bitten down none too gently. “What was that for?”
“I’m doing some of my best work here, and you’re frowning. What’s going on in that head of yours?”
She shook her head. “I was just thinking about how we almost lost this.” She cupped his face. “I’m not going to lose you again.”
He turned his head to kiss her palm. “Damn straight.” And when he kissed her, she lost all thoughts of what they’d been through before and only focused on what they had right then. He worked her until she was right at the edge and then slid into her. They panted as one, their bodies moving in unison as they made love. It was hard and yet soft at the same time, fast, and yet never-ending.
And when they came, they threw their heads back and howled, their mating bond once again flaring, cementing them as part of their third. Deep along the bond, she felt Shane’s adoration of Bram and Charlotte together, and she couldn’t wait to see him again. She’d only known him a short while, but somehow, he’d become a deeper part of her life, an integral one she knew she couldn’t live without.
She had two mates, two paths wrapped into one, and a future she could taste on her tongue. Perhaps fate hadn’t betrayed her when she’d been a child and then again when she’d been wrong about Bram. And now that she thought she could live with that, she could breathe again.
She had her best friend, her lover, her mate in her arms—along with Shane waiting close by—and for now, and perhaps for eternity, that would be enough.
“Do you see that?” Charlotte asked Chloe as they patrolled the Redwood and Talon border. There was a clearing of neutral ground that each Pack guarded as one. It had once been part of the Central Pack territory, she knew, and she tried not to think too hard about that.
Chloe, a Talon member who was right out of juvenile status, frowned. “It looks like a fallen log, but not really.”
On alert, Charlotte texted the coordinates to the Redwood Enforcer as Chloe did the same to the Talon’s.
“Something is off about this,” she whispered. “I’d wait to see what it is, but it’s near the human path that hikers take daily now. If they get too close, and it’s not just a log…”
“Let’s check it out,” Chloe put in when Charlotte trailed off. “We can’t just leave it there.”
Charlotte nodded and moved forward. She took four steps and her wolf howled, warning her of what was to come.
The log that wasn’t a log exploded, sending thousands of pieces of shrapnel toward them. She held back a scream as wood and metal pierced her body, cutting her deeply in places. She reached out for Chloe, but knew it was too late. The other woman turned as she fell to the ground, her eyes wide, her neck cut from side to side from a large piece of metal.
Charlotte hit the ground moments after the fallen woman, trying to get her bearings. She growled, her wolf ready to fight, but something smashed her on the back of the head. She only had a moment to wonder what it was, what had come from the wrong direction to hit her, before everything went black.
And she was gone.
****
Bram almost fell to his knees as the shock rocked along the bond. Bile filled his throat, and a metallic taste coated his tongue. His ears rang, and his wolf howled, scraping along his skin, begging to be let out. The wolf needed blood, needed flesh beneath its claws.
It needed revenge for whatever the hell had made the bond twist and bend the way it had just then. It hadn’t broken, no, but it had been damn close to doing so.
Shane, not yet at full strength, sagged against him. He lifted his mate up slightly, and the other man shook him off, standing straight once again.
“What the hell was that?” Shane asked, his eyes wide.
“Charlotte,” Bram bit out, his breath ragged. “Something happened to Charlotte.”
His phone buzzed then, and he pulled it out, his hands shaking like crazy. He usually had way more control than this, but he could barely breathe when it came to Charlotte.
He read the screen and cursed. “It’s Kade. I need to go to the neutral territory. Apparently, Charlotte sent out coordinates of something suspicious right before we felt that pain along the bond.”
“I’m going with you.” Shane was almost fully healed from the shift, but he didn’t have a lot of training at being wolf.
It didn’t matter, though. Not when their mate was in danger.
“Let’s go.”