Mirror Image Seduction (Feline Shifters of Down Under Book 1) (5 page)

The caller ID flashed up “Dead Horse”, and he chuckled. He guessed it wasn’t her housemate or parents. Curiosity got the better of him. He was a cat after all, and he opened the message to see what this
Dead Horse
had to say.

Where r u? U should b home by now. U betta not b with a man. Ur mine.

A primal roar built up inside him, but he tamped it down as his mind spun with possibilities. Did Lacey have a boyfriend? They hadn’t asked her. Although, considering what she’d saved the guy’s name as in her phone book, he doubted they were involved. Maybe he was an ex that wasn’t moving on? A psycho, possessive one by the looks of that message.

His father’s voice filled his mind. “
You’re flogging a dead horse, son.”
They’d been trying to get the old tractor to go, but it had died for good. His dad had been right that it was a waste of Dylan’s time, but he’d enjoyed mucking around with it trying to get it to work.

He jumped in the car and gunned the engine before he raced back to his house. He needed to tell Ryan about this, and if it turned out Lacey had a stalker … well, they had some planning to do.

Chapter Six

Soft, evening light flitted in front of Lacey’s eyes as she began to wake up. She took a deep breath and stretched her achy arms above her head with a happy sigh. Then she frowned.

When did she fall asleep? She couldn’t remember even lying down…

Searching her mind for answers, she noticed how warm and safe she felt. It had been so long since she had felt anything other than gut-wrenching fear and loneliness. Mentally shrugging, she concluded it didn’t matter why. She was going to focus on enjoying the sensation for as long as it lasted instead of analyzing it.

“Hmmm.” She smiled as she hummed a little, relishing her newfound peace until she opened her eyes fully and they focused on a strange fan slowly turning above her. She’d never seen that modern, silver light-fan combo before. Panic froze her lungs for a moment as she turned her head from side to side, the swishing sound of her hair against the coverlet loud in her ears. Where the fuck was she?

She sat up so fast she almost winded herself, her heart pounding like a bass drum as she gripped handfuls of the coverlet to steady herself.

“Lacey, it’s okay. You’re safe.”

She gasped as she spun around to face one of the twins.

“Which one are you?” Her voice sounded shrill as she scrambled off the large bed, her eyes darting around the room and cataloguing more details as she pressed her spine against the cool wall. It was a large bedroom. Some photos and other trinkets lay scattered around on the tops of the furniture. The colors were masculine and the room neat. It had to be his room. Which one was he? She turned her focus back onto the dark haired man who stood way too close to her. He took a step back, holding his hands up to placate her.

“I’m Ryan. Dylan will be back any minute. He just went up to the main house to retrieve your car for you.”

Main house? So where was she now? Lacey took short, quick breaths, swallowing several times to wet her suddenly dry throat. She barely knew these guys. They could have done anything to her while she was asleep.

She glanced down and took note of her clothes. Her jeans were still on, buttoned and undamaged. Her blouse was unruffled, and she seemed to be untouched. She did a quick internal log of her body and found no pain or injury. What had happened? She begged her memory to get with the program and help her out.

“Ah, yes, of course. Sorry, Ryan.”

She had cause to feel alarmed, she knew, but the poor guy looked really hurt that she’d forgotten who he was. She hadn’t felt unsafe once with them, so why was she freaking out now?

Because I have a habit of attracting psychos!

She grimaced at the truth in her thoughts and focused back on the man in front of her. Gorgeous brown eyes, spiky dark hair. Which one had he said he was? Ryan, that was it. Now she’d calmed down, she could see it was him by his cool aura, the slightly rounder face.

He smiled gently, dropping his hands down and letting them fall to his sides.

“It’s okay. Some of the people who have known us since birth still mix Dylan and me up.”

Lacey took a few steps towards a framed photo of the twins, trying to focus on something normal. She smiled at the silly shot of the brothers out camping somewhere, before she moved back toward the bed, concentrating on slowing her breathing so she didn’t pass out again. Which considering her current situation was what had obviously happened, it was really the only logical conclusion.

“Ah, I know it’s you, Ryan. I was just a little freaked out for a bit when I woke.”

She continued pacing, the memory of huge cats coming back to haunt her. Had she dreamt that? She must have as that couldn’t have possibly been real.

“How did you know, Lacey?”

“Huh?” She glanced back at Ryan who was watching her from where he now sat on the edge of the bed. His warm calm aura reached out to her, soothing her frayed nerves. Damn, he really was a gorgeous man.

“How did you know it was me, not Dylan?”

She took a deep breath and let the air out slowly. “You feel different from Dylan, warmer, calmer, softer. Your face is different, too. Rounder, more serious. And the mole … you know.”

She shrugged as she flapped her hands, still feeling a little strange. Her belly was jumping, and her breath kept catching in her throat.

A door slammed, and she jumped on a gasp, her ribs tightening so it made it hard to breathe.

Ryan rose to his feet and made his way to the closed wooden door and opened it slowly.

“Take it easy, Lacey. It’s just Dylan.”

And like Ryan’s words had conjured him, he appeared in the doorway, the harsher face and aura as easy to see now as the mole on the left side of his face.

He turned towards her, his eyes burning with something intense, before he frowned in concern. “You’re awake at last. You feel all right?”

She nodded her head, tears swimming in her eyes at his question. Why did they seem to genuinely care about her? They’d only meet mere hours ago. What sort of trick was this?

She gulped and focused on keeping her voice at a normal pitch when she answered. “Yeah, I’m fine. I was just wondering why on earth I remember seeing cheetahs at your parents’ place. Or did I dream that?”

The twins looked at each other with an intense focus, and Lacey wondered how it would feel to be stared at in such a way. She examined their faces more closely… Were they communicating silently with each other?

“Are you guys doing some special twin mind-meld thing?”

She’d heard stories about twins who could communicate telepathically and feel each other’s extreme emotions.

Dylan turned back to her, and his harsh frown melted into a broad grin and a cheeky glint formed in his eyes. Her traitorous belly turned into a bowl of goo in less than a heartbeat. Dylan was devastatingly handsome man.

“You got it in one, beautiful. Ryan and I can speak into each other’s minds.”

“Okay.” She shrugged and collapsed into a chair by the window, looking out as the last of the sun’s rays sank down over the horizon. It really was beautiful out here on their farm.

“Ah, Lacey?” It was Ryan, she could tell by the tone alone.

“Yes, Ryan?” she said without looking back at them.

There was a heavy silence for a moment. Then she felt his heat as he moved closer to her. His strong fingers under her chin forced her to turn her head to look at them.

“Do you remember us telling you about the cheetahs? About our family?”

Lacey frowned, lifting her face away from his touch as her mind dragging up the memory like it was a dusty old file being pulled out of an archive.

She cocked her head as her mind finally recalled what had happened earlier. A gasp escaped her throat as images flickered through her mind. Everything she’d learned came rushing back to her like a tidal wave, crashing over her and overwhelming her once again.

“Oh. My. Gosh.” She had to get away from here. Lacey pushed herself to her feet, and with her arms wrapped around her waist she began backing towards the door, never taking her eyes off the men in front of her.
The cheetahs, they were men. Men who could turn into wild cats. Their brothers… them … oh shit!

“You. You’re…” She shook her head as she struggled to remember what they’d called themselves.

“Don’t be afraid of us, we’d never hurt you. We’re cheetah shifters, Lacey, and we have a lot to discuss.” Ryan spoke to her with his smooth voice that calmed her in a strange way—and confused the hell out of her. He made her want to stay and talk to them when she knew she should be running for the hills.

“About what?”

Ryan opened his mouth, but nothing came out. Lacey waited and watched as his eyes went wide and then he finally shut his mouth again. She was almost at the door, and the boys were still standing by the window.

Dylan groaned from his place beside Ryan, crossed his arms over his chest and rolled his eyes with exaggerated impatience.

“About the fact that you’re our mate and we need you to stay.”

“Jeeze, Dylan. Just drop it like a bomb why don’t you? I was trying to figure out how to say it in a way that wouldn’t freak her out.”

“Brother, there was no way to do that, and you know it.”

Lacey’s jaw dropped open as she froze in place just by the door. As the twins continued to bicker with each other her brain repeated what Dylan had said and tried to find a way to make it make sense.

“Your … mate?” Like an animal’s mate? And Dylan had said “our” not “my”. They couldn’t possibly be serious!

Instantly they stopped talking and faced her. In unison, they nodded their heads like they were two mechanical dolls. Lacey glared at them, while her hands clenched into fists at her sides.

“You cannot be fucking serious. First you tell me that you’re some sort of freakish cat people and now that I’m your mate, like your soul mate? What the hell does that even mean?”

Dylan stared back, his chocolate eyes a perfect complement to his dark hair.

“That means that you’re meant for us, that you will complete our family. We’re meant to love you, look after you, make sure you have everything you need to be happy for the rest of our lives.”

Lacey laughed, and the uncontrolled sound was harsh and loud in the quiet room. When her ears rang from the noise, she put a hand over her mouth to muffle it, but she couldn’t seem to stop. Had she lost her mind? Gone mad and was now imagining things? Two tears slipped down her cheeks at the ridiculousness of her evening.

“Just great. And I suppose all those ‘ours’, ‘we’ and ‘us’ you keep saying, is you telling me we’re destined to have some freaky ménage a trois for the rest of our lives? Oh yeah, because that’s totally normal and makes perfect fucking sense.” She continued to laugh, her sides aching and her throat burning. As if she could be a mate to anyone, let alone two gorgeous men. Fear tickled up her spine as she realized she may well have truly lost her mind. That or these men were playing one hell of a nasty trick on her.

****

“Ry, what’s wrong with her? Why’s she laughing like a maniac?”

Ryan frowned as he watched Lacey. Her face had paled as she’d continued to laugh in a slightly hysterical manner.

“I don’t think she believes us.”

“She must feel the connection between us. Maybe we should kiss her?”

Ryan frowned as he considered his twin’s suggestion. Why not? It couldn’t do any harm, and her meltdown was breaking his heart. Ryan never wanted to see his mate like this ever again.

“Okay, c’mon then. I hate seeing her this upset.”

“Only a woman would manage to laugh and cry at the same time...”

Ignoring Dylan’s last remark, Ryan moved to approach her from the right, while Dylan moved in from the left. As gently as he could, Ryan cupped her face in his palms. She made an adorable squeaking sound in surprise as her eyes flew open. They were a little unfocused, and her breathing was heavy as she finally stopped laughing. Using his thumbs, he wiped the tears from her cheeks.

“We’re speaking the truth, Lacey. Please believe us.”

He tilted her head up to him as he lowered his lips toward hers. Relief washed through him when she didn’t pull from his grip as he got close enough to see the flecks of green in her hazel irises. His gaze roamed over her face, taking in her high cheekbones and perfectly sculpted eyebrows. She had a light layer of makeup on her skin, and when he was this close he could see a few freckles beneath it. He heard the hitch in her breath over the sound of his blood pounding in his ears a moment before his mouth finally connected with hers.

Ryan groaned as sparks of awareness tingled across every inch of his flesh. If there had been any doubt she was his, it just evaporated. His cheetah wanted to purr in delight. Lacey opened her mouth beneath his on a moan, and he took the invitation and danced his tongue with hers.

He actually did purr when he felt her hands smooth up the front of his shirt until she wound her arms around his neck. When her fingers dove into his hair, Ryan got serious and tilted his head to deepen the kiss. He could do this forever. He’d never get enough of Lacey’s sweet taste.

Ryan felt Dylan move up against Lacey’s back and unfortunately wasn’t surprised when she tensed as her large, soft breasts pressed into him by his twin’s weight. On a shocked gasp she tore free from his mouth and moved her hands back to his chest where she shoved him. Hard.

“What the hell are you two doing to me? I can’t … I can’t do this.”

An ache started in Ryan’s chest, and with a grimace he stepped away from his mate, her flushed red face making him feel like a bastard.

“I was trying to help you. We don’t like seeing you upset, beautiful.”

“What? So you thought you could kiss it better? Like I’m a five year old with a skinned knee?”

Ryan winced at her rather apt description, but before he could speak, Dylan jumped in.

“Hell yeah, we thought we’d kiss it better. It’s got nothing to do with how old you are, and I didn’t get my turn. Ryan, we need to remember she needs a kiss from both of us in the future, or it doesn’t work right. She’s still upset.”

With a sigh, Ryan watched Lacey narrow her eyes at his twin. Dylan’s humor took some getting used to, and clearly, now was not the time to start getting Lacey accustomed to it.