Fox, Morgan - Craving Silence [Cowboys and Werewolves] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) (9 page)

No.

“Look, I appreciate that you’re trying to find humor in my situation, but I’m actually pretty serious about understanding what’s truly going on here. Something’s not right, and judging from your uniform, you’re law enforcement, so I could really use your help.”

She nodded. “As I’ve told you already, my name is Sheriff Silence Foster. You met my twin sister earlier, Dr. Shadow Foster. We are both werewolves. I’ve lived in Silent Falls my entire life. I was named after this town, and I protect the human population from anything that goes bump in the night. That’s why we brought you here to this clinic rather than having you shipped off to the main hospital thirty miles north of here.” She held up her hand as he began to interject, but he thought better of it. Her look was so cold and threatening. The heat of passion no longer filled her blue eyes. “I know this all sounds insane to someone on the outside, but what I’ve told you is true.”

He leaned against the table to his side, his fingers squeezing around the metal. He didn’t want to believe her. He’d prefer that he’d inhaled some chemical warfare shit that gave him wicked inhibitions, but were only temporary. What she was telling him seemed not only surreal and impossible, but permanent.

“Silence, what you’re saying is a bit difficult to comprehend.”

She nodded stiffly. “I realize that, but if you haven’t noticed, while we were in here fucking like animals, the world around us is falling apart. Those lycans that attacked you, for whatever reason, want you back. I won’t let that happen.”

He glanced at her from over his shoulder, his stomach knotting and twisting at the reasons she would try to keep him safe. She didn’t know him, didn’t owe him anything. “Why not just give me to them? Why keep me hidden and protected away?”

“We protect our own, Lance, and whether you like it or not, you are one of us now.”

“You mean a werewolf or ‘lycan’ as you called those trying to get to me.”

“Yes.”

Guilt rocked his gut as he stared at her, flashes of the moments he’d possessed her body so vivid in his mind it was like he was taking her all over again. “Not that I really want to believe any of this, but I have to know one thing. Why was I so compelled to be with you? Why couldn’t I resist the urge to have you? Why did you let me?”

She sucked in a deep breath and blew it out slowly. “I’ve heard of things like this happening to others in my pack, but never has anything like that happened to me.” She swallowed and took a step closer to him. “The wolf is what happened to us, Lance. We’re connected on a primal level, and no other will ever be able to do to me what you just did. I couldn’t have denied you even if I had another choice. I wanted you as much as you wanted me. All I wanted was for you to possess me, claim me. The instinct to be submissive was too much to ignore.”

He cupped her face in his hands. “Is Walker your lover?”

“Yes,” she whispered.

“Even with him standing beside you, you wanted me?”

She nodded.

“The wolf instinct is that powerful?”

“Yes,” she whispered again. “I’m afraid that if the need ever rose again where our wolves desired each other, no matter the circumstance, I’d never be able to resist. You now own a part of me that no other can.”

“Does that mean you own a part of me now?”

She nodded. “Yes, Lance. We will forever be connected.”

He kissed her softly, and as he slowly pulled away, he caressed her bottom lip with his thumb. Even though the heat of the wolf was not fueling him, commanding him, there was still a part of him that was jealous in his need to have her. “Good. I scored big finding you. You’re hot,” he teased her, and she smiled. Holding her gaze, he cringed as a sharp pain stung his heart. “I’m sorry if I hurt you.”

She glanced down for a moment, her hands pressed flat against his chest. “You didn’t. That’s the one nice thing about being a wolf. We like the rough stuff.”

He brushed his fingers over the soft skin of her cheek and whispered, “That might be a good thing.”

She arched a brow. “Why do you say that?”

“Because we’re about to walk out of this room with everyone on the other side of that door knowing we just had sex.” He paused. His hands cradled the back of her skull, fingers weaving through her silky hair. “Especially Walker.”

Chapter
Seven

“Are you out of your mind?”
Shadow’s telepathic link to Silence was exceptionally strong and sounded as if she was using a bullhorn to communicate her thoughts. Damn the strength of their psychic bond. The intense invasion into her mind had her automatically raising the shields she’d learned to build over the years to block her thoughts. Telepathy was powerful among lycans and especially so between twins. Shields didn’t always work.

Sharing a psychic link with her sister had come about much earlier than it did for most lycans. For them, the connection began even before birth—a supernatural connection that only twins possessed. Even though Shadow was questioning her about her actions, Silence knew that her sister already understood better than anyone else what had just happened to her.

Her gut churned, and Silence was unwilling to speak on the topic of her and Lance. At the reminder of the man that had ruled over her wolf in a heated instant, she immediately looked around to see who was present in the room. Her eyes settled on the surrounding faces.

Still wearing his deputy’s uniform, Gavin’s familiar brown eyes softened as he glanced down, and his broad shoulders slumped forward when he turned away. He was the closest thing to a brother she’d had, and he was clearly displeased with what had just occurred, but judging was not something he ever did—at least not with her.

Seeing his posture shift and his inability to look her in the eye told her all she needed to know. He was disappointed. However, as a lycan, he understood the unrelenting power a wolf possessed over its mate. She knew that, but it didn’t strike the guilt she felt over her present situation.

The muscles in Declan’s jaw ticked as he held her stare before casting his aqua-blue gaze in another direction. His soot-covered, white T-shirt clung to his defined chest and looked as though at any moment the muscles of his body might burst through the seams.

Declan wasn’t the tallest of the men around her, but at six foot two, he wasn’t short either. He did, however, have more sinew and an attitude that demanded the respect he believed he deserved. Over the years as a warrior for their kind, Declan rightly earned their regard.

Like always, Marcus stood beside Gaius. Both their bodies swelled with the strength of their wolves, looking as though the spirit of the wolf was somehow a phantasm surrounding their mountainous frames that only other lycans could sense. Always on alert, both Marcus and Gaius wore black military fatigues that matched their shoulder-length, black hair. Marcus’s deep ocean-blue eyes were unique and different and seemed to penetrate deep into her soul, scrutinizing and searching for what her mind and expression wouldn’t reveal. He had the remarkable ability to read people better than anyone she’d ever known. Gaius, on the other hand, had softer eyes—hazel with a speck of amber, and less intense—but he still possessed the same ability. They were as close to brothers as anyone could get.

The only person missing was Walker.

She glanced over at her sister.
“As a doctor, lycan, and my twin, you of all people know exactly what happened between me and Lance, so there is no need to discuss it.”

Shadow forced her hands to her hips, looking as furious as their mother used to when they’d been a little too mischievous.
The penetrative stare had her remembering a time when one of them had broken a treasured lamp, but neither sister was willing to elicit blame.

“Mating instinct or not, I can’t believe you just left Walker out here to listen to you having sex with another man. A man, I might add, you just met.”
Shadow moved closer and growled through clenched teeth.
“Walker went crazy. Gavin, Declan, Marcus, and Gaius all had to try and subdue him.”
Shadow shoved her in the arm, catching her off guard and knocking her back a step.
“I had to give him a sedative, for crying out loud. He was acting like a wolf whose mate was being savagely raped before his very eyes, defenseless to protect her.”
Shadow’s gaze became an intense wall of emotion. Her eyes were focused and flickered with a trace of silver—the mark of her wolf.
“Why would he act like that, Silence?”

She didn’t want to be the one to share Walker’s secret, but at the same time he was the one who’d revealed to others more about himself than she could explain with lies and some off the fly cover-up story.

“Where is he now?” Silence asked.

“He’s in my office.”

Silence nodded and glanced past her sister and into the main lobby where Gavin now stood with his back to them.
“What’s going on outside? Are we still under attack?”

Shadow sighed, and Silence didn’t have to be empathic to know that her sister was annoyed. Shadow hated when Silence managed to seamlessly change the subject, but there was no sense in arguing any further about what had transpired between Lance and her. Shadow knew that.

“No. It seems when you disappeared with Lance, they stopped their assault on the clinic.”

Even though that little fact should have pleased her, it didn’t. For whatever reason, her stomach suddenly swirled with nervousness and a powerful energy she hadn’t felt since her father’s passing. The sensation moved over her like a whispering wind.

Keeping her emotions concealed, Silence said, “Good. Have the men keep their eyes open. The sun should be coming up soon, and I bet our unwelcome guest may have called it a night. We should be able to assess any damage and then make arrangements with the council on what preparations need to be done for tonight.”

Without another word spoken, Silence turned and moved into Shadow’s office. Closing the door behind her, she pressed her back against the door. Walker sat at the desk with his head resting on his folded arms.

Her voice trembled with apprehension as she called out, “Walker?”

She knew he couldn’t understand what had happened.
Shit
, neither did she for that matter. Nothing like this had ever happened to anyone she’d ever known. Mating, yes, but never in her life had she ever heard of a situation where two wolves could claim the same mate. The two men seemed to be the opposite halves of each other. Walker was the heart, the love she’d always desired, while Lance appeared to be the animalistic side—the primal beast that awakened her wolf. The situation she found herself in was enough to drive the sanest person crazy.

Twisted and confused, she chewed the inside of her mouth, her hands sweating as she searched for the right words to say. “Walker, please talk to me.”

“Go away, Silence,” he practically snarled. His voice had altered into a feral beast without the physical attributes. “I’ve got nothing to say.” She expected to see the wolf lash out at her, but because of the magical spell his grandmother had cast over him, that wasn’t possible.

She dug her nails into the palm of her hands. The stinging pain that throbbed up her arms helped to keep her grounded. “Walker, I need to explain.”

“Yes,” he hissed. “You do, but right now I’m so damn loopy from whatever messed-up drug your sister injected me with that I can’t even hold my head up. So please. Just. Go. Away.”

A wave of anger launched out of her as she roared, “No.” Her wolf had momentarily surfaced—an instinctive need to protect herself from harm, and in this case it was emotional distress. She was struggling with what she’d done, but more so, she was having difficulty looking at the man she’d clearly hurt.

Walker rolled his head to the side, gazing up at her with glassy eyes. She put her hands palm side up to show she didn’t want to fight and rounded the desk to kneel beside him. Of its own accord, her hand reached out to touch his face, but she hesitated the second a bristly rumble moved from low in his throat. Dropping her hand to her bent knee, she closed her eyes for an instant and sighed.