Morgan (6 page)

Cameron knew Ben was skating close to the edge of a lie. They couldn’t lie to their mate, but they also couldn’t tell her everything right now. There were too many humans in the hospital, and she was also vulnerable to further attack by the men who had already tried once to take her.

“How do you know I’m in danger? The police haven’t even questioned me yet.”

“Morgan, I need to ask you what you were doing in the cyber café today,”
Cameron said.
“Two men were murdered in the attempt to kidnap you.”

Morgan’s already pale skin lost all color completely.

“Killed? I didn’t know,” Morgan said softly, her eyes growing moist. “I just looked up and the place was empty. Then a big guy came toward me and another blocked the door. He grabbed me as I tried to get past him. That’s all I know. Honestly.”

“We believe you,” Ben said. “There was a witness to the murders. You’re not a suspect. But we need to know what you were doing there. We think it may have some bearing on why those men wanted to take you.”

Morgan shook her head again. “It can’t be. It must be a mistake. I was just searching for my sister. I was adopted as a baby, you see, and I’d recently started looking for my birth mother. I came here, to Lansing, looking for information on my parents. I found out early this morning that I had a sister I’d never even known about.” She closed her eyes and a stray tear ran down her cheek.

“I have discovered that my mother is dead. She died a few days after … after giving me up. I then spent most of the day looking for information on my sister.”

Cameron reached for his phone. The truth of what Morgan had just said was undeniable. Not just because her eyes were now a bright shining lavender color, exactly like her sister’s, but because she would be incapable of lying to her mates. Also, they would have easily scented a lie from her, had she even attempted it.

Evan answered the call on the first ring. “Morgan was looking for her sister in the cyber café today. Hang on,” Cameron said. He directed the next question at Morgan. “What was your sister’s name, Morgan?”

“I was told by … I was told her name was Bethany.” Morgan swallowed and looked down at her fingers. Ben gently took the wriggling digits in his hands.

“It’s okay, Morgan. You can tell us the rest later, when you trust us,” Ben said. He turned and looked at Cameron.

“Did Jason hear that?” Cameron asked his brother.

“They all did. Bethany would like to speak to Morgan, but Jason has arranged for transport to the airfield for you and the pilot who flew you down there will arrive shortly. Morgan just has to sign the release papers and you can leave.”

“
Thanks, Evan. We
’ll see you in a couple of hours,”
Cameron said. Evan didn
’t immediately hang up and Cameron could hear him breathing. “What is it, Evan?”

“Her voice,” Evan said with a small groan. “She’s mine, Cameron. Thinking of her being hurt and so far away from me is torture.”

“I’ll send you a picture. She’s banged up, but she’s going to be fine.” Cameron smiled. Evan was going to be a good mate to Morgan.

He disconnected the call and took a picture of a confused Morgan. He’d just sent off the picture when the nurse came in with the release papers for her to sign. It was difficult with her arms being bandaged, but she scrawled enough of a signature to satisfy the nurse.

His phone vibrated with an incoming message. Evan had sent a text saying the pilot was waiting for them in the emergency bay and to hurry the fuck up. He also said that their mate looked even more beautiful than she sounded.

As the nurse exited the cubicle, Detective Wilkins entered to take Morgan’s statement. Cameron knew it wouldn’t take long. She hadn’t seen very much and the real reason behind her attack was not yet known to her. As soon as she’d finished, Ben gave the detective his contact number and Cameron wrapped a blanket around Morgan’s shoulders.

“Let’s get this dog-and-pony show on the road.”

Cameron got some stares as he carried his mate through the emergency department instead of using a wheelchair, but he didn’t care. Holding Morgan was a pleasure unlike anything he’d ever experienced before. He could hold her every day for the next couple of hundred years and still not get enough of her. She was his.

Evan paced as he waited at the airstrip with Samson and Wes. He’d arrived there in his truck before Cameron and Ben had even taken off from Lansing, but this was his mate. He was waiting to meet his mate. After years of death and blood he’d been convinced that such a thing as this would be denied him. It seemed fate had other ideas, and he couldn’t be happier.

“You were sure she was yours just from hearing her voice?” Wes asked. Evan turned and regarded the young genius. He was only a dozen years younger than Evan, but his life had been vastly different and it showed on his face. In his eyes. Even on his soul.

“Hearing her voice sent shivers through my whole body,” Evan said. He closed his eyes and savored the memory of that feeling. “It was like my soul reached out and recognized its other half. It was unmistakable.”

Evan opened his eyes and regarded the men standing with him. He expected mocking smiles to be on their faces. It would have been on his face not four hours ago. Wes, however, looked to be in awe and Samson was smiling wistfully. Evan raised an eyebrow in question at Samson’s expression.

“I remember when Bethany finally regained consciousness and spoke for the first time. You explained the feeling well,” Samson said. He slapped Evan on the back and inclined his head to the south. “Here they come.”

As soon as the plane stopped moving Evan was standing by the door. When the steps lowered he raced into the plane to find his breath ceasing in his lungs. He reached out and held onto a bulkhead as he stumbled. The sweet rich scent of his mate filled the entire cabin. It snaked through his body, sparking pleasure on each nerve ending it travelled past. His big frame vibrated with need. The need to touch her, to hold her in his arms and never let her go.

“Who’s this?” said the voice of his angel.

He opened his eyes, not sure when they’d closed, and saw Ben standing in front of him with Morgan in his arms. She was even more lovely than the photo had indicated. He growled as his gaze assessed her injuries with the speed of both his shifter genetics and his soldiers training.

She had a blood-soaked bandage taped to her temple with black bruises marring the perfect, white, skin of her face and neck. A blanket was over her legs and her arms were both encased in thick bandages.

“This is Evan,” Ben said, a smile quirking up his lip. “He doesn’t say much, just growls a lot.” Evan consciously stopped his growl, unaware when it, too, had started. He was losing it.

“He is obviously your brother then. You both growl as well. Was your father a bear or something?”

Morgan gave him a small smile as she shrank back into Ben’s arms. He didn’t want his mate to ever be afraid of him. He smiled widely, aware that the scar that ran from his temple to his jaw on the left side of his face made his smile lopsided.
She is going to be looking at it for the next couple of centuries. No point in hiding it.

“You’re close, love. But no, he is not a bear,” Evan said. He held out his arms and hoped that Ben didn’t notice they were trembling. He needed to hold Morgan or he’d go insane with the desperation coursing through him from his cat. “We’ll tell him you said that, though. He’ll bust a gut laughing.”

Ben nodded his head once and gently passed Morgan to him. “God,” he said with a gasp. “You’re a tiny little thing.”

He hoped he’d covered his reaction and not frightened her further. His cat threatened to explode out of him. He snarled silently at his beast and brought it back under his tight control. But what he really wanted was to shift and rub his scent all over this woman, claim her with his scent until the time came to claim her with his mark and his cock.

She turned and rubbed her cheek on his chest, then blushed and lowered her head in an attempt to cover up her actions. He could smell the mating musk oozing from his pores, smell the musk his brothers had been releasing, and he could smell his mate’s arousal.

It obviously embarrassed her, but it made him and his cat very happy. Samson had explained about Bethany being a latent shifter and he’d been prepared to treat Morgan as human if necessary. Her obvious confusion at her body’s instinctual reaction to its mates told him that it was, unfortunately, going to be necessary.

“How tall are you, Morgan?” Evan said, as he shakily started walking from the plane. “You look to be a foot shorter than me.”

“I’m five foot one and a half,” she said, her voice louder than before. “I’m not that short. You’re all just tall. Oh my God.”

Evan chuckled as he stepped from the plane and followed her gaze to Samson. He was bigger than Evan and all muscle. “He won’t hurt you. In fact, you’re very special to that man and his brothers.”

“Incredible,” Samson said. He stepped forward and held out his hand. “
Hello, Morgan. I
’m Samson and this is Wes.”

“
Hello,
” Morgan said softly. She looked down at her hands and winced as she shrugged. “I’m sorry I can’t shake your hand right now. Are you going to tell me why I’m here and what the hell everyone is talking about? Those two refused to tell me anything. They said to wait until we got here. Well, I’m here, so tell me.”

“Unmistakable,” Samson said as he gazed at Morgan’s glowing lavender eyes. “I can see why you were so certain, Cam. Even her scent is similar. All cat.”

Evan laughed as Morgan closed her eyes and began to count. “Does that trick even work?” he asked. “I never bother. If I get mad I just hit someone.”

Dusty blue eyes stared up at him. “That might work for you. I’d end up with a broken hand.” Her mouth dropped open as she realized what she’d just said. She looked down at her bandaged arms and started to laugh. “I swear I didn’t hit anyone,” she said between laughs.

Evan stood still and stared at the woman in his arms. Her complexion had turned a creamy color when she laughed and her smile lit up her blue eyes. “You are, without a doubt, the most beautiful women I’ve ever seen.”

He walked to his truck and slid into the back seat, arranging Morgan on his lap so that she was comfortable for the fifteen-minute drive to Samson’s home. Morgan just stared up at him, her laughter gone, her scent now a mix of confusion and happiness.

His mate was happy. She was in his arms and he’d made her happy. Evan’s heart swelled and some of the darkness the war had etched on his soul faded away. His mate was happy in his arms.

* * * *

Morgan sat on Evan’s lap and observed the three silent men in the truck with her. Ben drove, and his gaze flicked often to the side and rearview mirrors. Cameron looked alternately ahead and out the rear of the truck. Evan looked only at her. It was unnerving and made her feel uncomfortable. It made her feel aroused as well. Morgan wasn’t a hermit—she had friends and had attended classes in college—but almost all of her socializing had been done over the Internet.

She’d never even met a man as ruggedly handsome as Evan before. His short dark hair framed a square face and offset his electric-green eyes. He was probably twenty-eight or thirty years old, and was obviously a military man. If the fatigues and T-shirt with the Navy SEALs emblem hadn’t given him away, his eyes would have.

He had the cold, haunted look of a man who’d seen too much death, but who also wouldn’t hesitate to kill again if called to. She could now see why Ben and Cameron had brought her here for her protection. Evan and Samson alone would make the evil giants who’d tried to kidnap her think twice before attempting it again. Then there was Ben and Cameron.

They were not as tall or as terrifying as Evan and Samson, but they were both easily over six feet tall and hugely muscled. They each moved with the predatory grace that came from combat training. They were coiled springs and wouldn’t hesitate to attack anyone who threatened them—or her, in this case.

She sighed and relaxed a little into Evan’s hard chest, despite the events of this afternoon, she felt safe. As she breathed deeply, she was swamped with the musky, male scent of the man holding her on his lap.

The brothers all smelled amazing. She knew it wasn’t cologne. She would have been sneezing madly had that been it. She was allergic to any and all perfumes. They made her nasal passages burn and her eyes stream with tears. No, it was just them. Their natural scents were woodsy and pleasant. She squeezed her thighs together as her pussy tingled.
Pleasant, my ass. They smell so good I want to roll around on their hard bodies and I want to do it naked. And I don’t care that there are three of them. They all make me horny.

Evan
’s chest vibrated as he growled softly. She glanced up at him briefly and his heated gaze gave her the unnerving feeling that he’d just heard her thoughts. She was thankful he couldn’t. The rumbling in his chest was making her nipples go hard and begin to ache.
And
seeing as this is my fantasy, I’d like all of them naked as well
. She was so glad they couldn’t read her mind.
Sitting forward as the truck slowed, she winced at the pain in her arms. It was dark outside now, but still quite warm.

“Careful, Morgan,” Evan said. “I’ll help you. This is Samson’s house. His brother Jason is the town doctor and he has a clinic here at the ranch. We’re going to get your arms X-rayed and set if necessary.”

“
So we
’re here to see the doctor?” Morgan said. She felt less confused now. She’d imagined that they were taking her to a country jail, and that she’d be held in a cell with Evan and his brothers standing guard outside. “Are you taking me to jail after that?”

Ben swiftly exited the truck and opened the back door next to her. He reached in and took her from Evan’s lap. She nearly laughed when both of them took a deep breath in at the same time.