Let the Wild Out (16 page)

“He did not have a choice,” William added. “He had to.”

Rachel stepped away from both of them. She glanced at
Douglas’s cock and frowned.

“
We
had to,” Douglas corrected in irritation. He shot
William a hard look. “It was the only way to get her to agree to help us save
you.”

“It changes nothing,” William said.

She rubbed her arm again. The deep ache would not go away.
It was strange considering she’d just had sex—twice, if she was remembering
correctly. First Douglas fucked her, then she fucked William. And apparently,
they both fucked a fairy whore. Douglas tried to reach for her but she jerked
from him, again glancing at his cock. She imagined she could still see the
fairy’s pleasure moistening it. The thought stung. On one hand it was erotic as
hell, on another it caused a fierce, possessive jealousy to well up inside her.
And William. He was just as bad. She looked down at him on the ground. His cock
had touched the fairy as well.

“We should have claimed her, then Rara wouldn’t have been
able to seduce us,” William said.

“You should have kept your jaws shut, wolf,” Douglas
growled.

William couldn’t meet her gaze. She rubbed her arm again,
and asked, “You did this to me, William?”

“St. Joan drugged me. I did not mean…I did not…” William
looked behind him to where the dead, mountain lion body of St. Joan had fallen.
“I have no excuse for what happened. I would give my life never to have harmed
you. I love you, Rachel. I could never willingly harm you.”

“
We
love you,
Rachel,” Douglas asserted. “We should have married you the second we found
you.”

“You mean the second you found out I was an omni-shifter.”
Rachel wrapped her arms around her naked chest. She became aware of their
surroundings, of her dirty flesh, of the dead cat on the ground. The men were
no better off with their filthy, bloodstained bodies. Before they could
protest, she said, “I don’t feel so well. I haven’t eaten. My arm hurts and my
head is throbbing. Can we just get out of here?”

“Yes,” William said, standing. “Anything you desire.”

“Of course,” Douglas said. “Can you run? Or shall we carry
you?”

As much as the idea of running sounded like a horrible plan,
she didn’t want them touching her until she had time to think clearly. “I can
walk.”

Rachel was sure she’d never been so happy to see a bed in
her life. She fell into it and intended to never move. After the threesome
appeared through the servant’s entrance of William’s home, naked and covered in
forest litter, the entire estate had become abuzz with activity. She felt it
around them, pouring through the walls with gossipy excitement.

Magda had been less than pleased to see them. Her pursed
lips and pruned expression only worsened with each passing second. She’d
quickly ushered them into separate rooms to bathe and change. In fact, before
slamming the door behind Rachel, the woman had ordered her to bathe the wild
off and to not leave the room as food would be brought to her.

Rachel hardly cared. Shower, food, bed, that’s all she
wanted at the moment. The rest of it could wait until later.

William looked at Magda as she stood in the center of his
bedroom. Her hands were placed disapprovingly on her hips. He knew she had been
worried about him, even if she would never show it. The old woman wanted every
detail of his kidnapping, details he refused to give.

“I told you, I was drugged most of the time. It doesn’t
matter now anyway. St. Joan is no longer a threat.” William tossed his towel
aside and opened the wardrobe where he kept his sweatpants. He pulled them on,
not caring that Magda saw him naked. “We are all safely returned. That is all
that matters.”

He didn’t believe his own words. What happened did matter.
Drugged or not, he’d almost killed Rachel. Fear gripped him. He wouldn’t have
been able to live with the guilt, or the loss. The fact only cemented what he
had known since first seeing her—he loved her, he wanted her, and she would be
his chieftess.

“But St. Joan? Did she say who hired her?” Magda insisted.

“Only that it was a woman,” William answered absently, as he
reached for a T-shirt. Instead of grabbing it, he let his hand drop.

“Do you suspect anyone?”

He slowly closed the wardrobe. “Should I?”

“No,” she answered, a little too quickly. He turned to look
at her, studying her emotionless face. “I suppose it could be one of the old
families. Plenty of women wish to be your bride. You have turned down meeting
many of the eligible women from some very powerful families. I warned you that
they might feel slighted.”

“Or perhaps it is someone here at court,” he said. “Someone
close.”

“Who do you think?” Magda pondered. “Ginger? She always
seemed a bit reckless and wild to me.”

“Then why do you continually try to get me to marry her?”
William crossed his arms over his chest. He was tired and not in the mood to
discuss anything. Yet duty forced him to remain on his feet and to listen.

“Her father is influential and wildness can be tamed with
persistence,” Magda said.

“Then why do you oppose to Rachel? You said she was wild.”

“Feral more like it,” Magda mumbled before quickly amending,
“Wildness can be tamed with persistence so long as the proper breeding and
background is there to support it. Rachel is an American. They have a different
kind of wildness to them. She was raised in the woods. If you would have read
my report I gave you when you landed, you would have seen the kind of shifters
she comes from. Elvie Dunne had a reputation for bedding down with several men.
She never mated to one. That is who raised Rachel. It is hard enough sharing a
bride and getting our natural instincts to accept a three-way mate, but there
is always a risk if the bride is promiscuous by nature.”

“Promiscuous? Rachel is not Elvie.” Anger boiled inside him
that Magda would dare to say such a thing.

He thought of the first time he’d met Rachel. Within seconds
she’d been in his arms and on his cock. He pushed the thought aside. It meant
nothing beyond that their desire for each other was natural. Plus, she’d been
so tight on him. He would have known if she’d had sex recently, especially
promiscuous sex with numerous partners, right?

“And she is also not a lady. This is our chance to put an
English rose on the shifter throne, a Cononious bride. Rachel is Duncanis. We
need a Cononious bride, William. Why not choose Lisbetha? She is willing. She
is pretty. She is meek. Her shift is rare. And she is one of us in all things,
by birthright, by clan, by ancestry.”

“And she does nothing to my blood,” William growled. “She
would be a pretty ornament I would quickly grow tired of looking at.”
 

“What does a chief’s marriage have to do with boiling blood?
You have a duty to your people, a duty beyond petty sex. If you must know the
truth of it, if you grow weary of Lisbetha, then you can take a lover. Chiefs
have done it in the past. Great lengths must be taken to keep the affairs quiet
for the sake of peace, but it has been done. There are protocols in place. I
had hoped it would not be necessary to have this conversation with you so soon,
but there it is.”

Her words did little to comfort him. The idea of a loveless
life tore at his soul. Well, loveless wasn’t exactly true. He would have the
love of his people, and his love for them. Would that be enough?

“We have decided, Magda. We want Rachel.” William had never
been so sure of anything in his life. “Perhaps the American blood will do the
old clans some good and bring the American shifters back to us.”

Her face tightened in shock. She gave a small shake of her
head, as if the gesture could take back the certainty of his words. Finally,
she managed, “You have had a long ordeal. I will leave you to rest and we will
discuss this at a later time. Nothing has to be announced tonight. Now that you
are back I will reschedule the ball. Lisbetha has been a great help in the
planning.” She gave a small nod. “My chief.”

As Magda left the room, William moved to sit on the edge of
his bed. His bare feet dug into the thick carpet and he curled his toes against
it. Perhaps sleep was the best thing for him at the moment.

 
“She did not speak
the entire way home,” William said, his voice weary.

“I know, I was there,” Douglas answered. He’d come to
William’s room after his shower just as Magda was leaving it. William wore a
pair of sweatpants and Douglas a pair of pajama pants. It was rare they allowed
themselves to sit so comfortably attired in the presence of another person,
aside from the nakedness caused by shifting. However, this situation was
anything but comfortable.

Douglas couldn’t help the anger he felt towards William. The
man had almost killed Rachel in the attack. Irrational as it was, he kept
thinking that the man should have been stronger, should have found a way to
stop St. Joan, to fight the drugs she’d given him and the very nature of the
wolf inside him. Had he been in the same position, Douglas was not so sure
events would have happened differently, though. It didn’t stop his anger, much
of which was born out of the fear of losing Rachel.

“I told Magda that we intend to marry Rachel. I assume that
is still your wish?” William rubbed his tired eyes.

“Of course it is my wish. Had we claimed her as ours
immediately, then we would not have been in a position for Rara to do what she
did.” Douglas pulled in a hard breath and held it. His hands worked in
agitation as he paced the room.

“Do you think she will forgive us for it? There is no hiding
it from her.” William rolled his neck back and forth, staring at the ceiling.

“I will explain it to her. I will simply tell her the way of
things. If we did not get Rara to agree to help us by using her pheromones,
Rachel wouldn’t have responded to our touch and she would have died. We did it
to save her. It is the truth. Rachel is a smart woman. She will listen to
reason.”

William raised a doubtful brow but did not protest the plan.

“It is decided then? We make her our bride as soon as
etiquette allows.” Douglas’s words were more of a decree than a question.

William nodded in agreement. “The ball is being re-planned
as we speak. I see no reason it cannot be done then.”

“Agreed.” Douglas nodded and moved quickly from the room. He
strode purposefully down the hall, stopping to look at Rachel’s door. He wanted
to go in, wanted to touch her, to be with her tonight.

“You should let her rest,” William said from down the hall.
“We agreed.”

Douglas nodded and stormed away from the Cononious chief.
“Just don’t forget that it is my turn to be with her.”

“Did you honestly just say you two had sex with another
woman for me?” Rachel glared at the two men standing in front of her in her
guest bedroom. Like all the other rooms in the manor, it was decadent and
perfect, like some twelve-star hotel only royalty and celebrities could get
into. Douglas had looked so earnest as he tried to explain it, and William
would not meet her eyes. In fact, William had little to say beyond observing
that she looked rested. “In what universe is that even a viable defense?” She
dropped her voice in a poor imitation of a male speaker, “I slept with that
woman for you, baby.”

William and Douglas shared a look.

“Omigod, you’re right,” she said. “I have no room to speak.
I sleep with both of you and you don’t complain about it.”

“We did not say anything,” William said. She ignored him.
She’d seen the knowing look they had given each other.

“I’m acting like some kind of shrewish girlfriend. Of course
this is an open relationship.” She hated the words but knew they were the
logical, adult, reasonable thing to say.

Damn reasonable adult logic anyway!

“This is not an open relationship,” Douglas stated firmly.
He lifted a finger towards her to punctuate his point. He wore a white dress
shirt and black slacks. His black leather belt sported a bright silver buckle
that automatically drew the eyes down to his waist. She didn’t need the
reminder of how potent a lover he was. That fact was never far from her mind.
His dark hair framed his even darker eyes.

William was a contrast next to him, blond-haired and
blue-eyed. His dark blue shirt brought out his eyes in such a way as to make
them mesmerizing all on their own. His gray slacks hugged his hips and ass,
only to loosen around his legs. Her eyes went back up, trying to catch his.
Those eyes made her tremble all the way to her toes. A woman could easily melt
in his gaze.

Individually, these men were powerful and desirable in their
own right. Together, they were a potent force. How could any woman resist them?