Sold To The Alphas: A BBW Paranormal Romance (8 page)

Somehow, a full week crept up on me. Alone in my cabin, shortly after dawn, I stared at a calendar on the side of the fridge in disbelief, realizing I was overdue, but not for my monthly cycle, like I knew Chase and Grayson were hoping I'd be. I was now late on my own timetable to tell them the truth.

CHAPTER FOUR

   The day I realized I'd spent a full week deceiving Chase and Grayson, I didn't leave my cabin. It was raining anyway. Flora came over with Lily that afternoon, asking if I wanted to come over to their cabin to play some board games, but I declined, telling her I just wasn't feeling up to it.

"Just a bit tired, I guess."

Depressed
probably would have been closer to the truth.

Flora studied my face briefly before responding. "Tired, huh? Not by any chance also feeling a little sick to your stomach, are you? Because you honestly look kind of miserable, and I wonder if it's possible that you could already be-"

"No. No, I'm not pregnant. I know that's not it. I think I just have a case of...."

A case of guilty conscience
, I thought.
A case of dread about telling the truth to two men whose bodies I've become addicted to.

"I guess I just have a case of general tiredness. No big deal. Guess I just want to rest up today."

I really just wanted to be alone. Flora had become a very good friend, and I'd begun to feel terrible around her, knowing that I was deceiving her, too. She thought I was a fertile woman like her, and that I'd likely be pregnant soon. She thought I'd be staying in Shadowfen indefinitely, with one of the alphas as my life mate.

I knew that revealing my deception to Chase and Grayson wouldn't just be a disappointment to them, Flora would be disappointed, too. She'd be disappointed to lose a person I knew she hoped and thought would be a long-term friend. I knew she'd probably also feel betrayed as well, as I expected Chase and Grayson to feel, too, of course.

I'd considered telling Flora about my deception and my predicament, but the time had just never felt right. Also, it didn't seem right that I would tell her about my infertility first, before Chase and Grayson.

I figured that at best, they'd allow me to stay in Shadowfen, pawning me off on one of the men who cared more about simply having a mate than having a child. I figured at worst, and probably more likely, Chase and Grayson would return me to Greenleaf, disgusted.

I didn't want to go back to Greenleaf. I didn't want to be pawned off on one of the pack members in Shadowfen, either. I just wanted to continue enjoying nights of endless pleasure with Chase and Grayson, like I'd been doing. I felt like we hadn't even scratched the surface of different pleasures the three of us could enjoy together. We'd been having so much fun with Ticklers that they hadn't even yet introduced me to any of the other little toys they'd brought home from their last trip to Ashcrest.

I knew things couldn't go on the way they'd been forever. And it wasn't lost on me at all that the longer I waited to tell Chase and Grayson the truth, the more angry with me they were likely going to be. The more betrayed they were likely going to feel. I knew they'd probably be upset that I'd wasted their time when they could have been trying to get an
actually
fertile woman pregnant.

After Flora and Lily left, I spent most of the rainy afternoon just pacing around the cabin, thinking, unable to make up my mind and decide on a course of action. On one hand, I felt like I'd taken my lie this far, another few days of enjoying sharing a bed with Chase and Grayson couldn't hurt.

On the other hand, I knew in my gut that another few days with them would just make me that much more addicted to the passion we shared together. It would just make it that much harder for me to finally tell them the truth. And two or three more days would just make them that much angrier and disgusted with me when I finally did tell them my secret.

When fate finally stepped in that evening to help me decide on a course of action, I was relieved and glad. Fate came in the form of a text message from Chase, who, with Grayson, was dealing with some sort of a wolf problem a few miles from Greenleaf. They both periodically sent me text messages, some sexy, some just to say hello. Most of them made me smile, though after scanning the first lines of this new text message from Chase, I knew this one wasn't going to have the same effect. The text read:

Having first moment of peace all day while waiting for enemy wolf pack to approach and just wanted to tell you something. I care about you. And not just in the bedroom, although needless to say, I enjoy our activities in that department tremendously. But I've grown to care about you on a different level. I care if you're happy or sad, and I care that you're content and satisfied in your new life in Shadowfen. And, although I don't want to speak for him, I know Grayson feels the same.

We've both grown to care about you, and I just wanted to let you know that you're not sharing a bed with two men who are only interested in you on a bedroom level. We're now both very, very invested in becoming the one to get you pregnant and become your mate for life, and all I've been able to think about lately is that I hope it's me. Maybe the longest text I've ever sent, but I just wanted you to know all this and seemed easier to say in text. See you later tonight.

I finished the text sniffling. I knew it was over. I knew fate had stepped in to end my charade, my shameful deception. I knew I couldn't continue on deceiving Chase and Grayson one more day. Not now that I knew they'd both developed strong feelings for me, which I'd begun to suspect. And not now that I had strong feelings for both of them, too, as I'd realized while reading Chase's text.

It was over. It was done. I'd had my fun, and now it was time to come clean, come what may. It had been horribly unfair of me to continue my deception for as long as I had. I knew that.

I didn't respond to Chase's text. I got into bed and cried. I clutched part of the blanket that still held traces of his and Grayson's woodsy, masculine scents. I did some thinking, and I decided that no matter what their reactions were to my coming clean, I'd voluntarily go back to Greenleaf.

Even if they allowed me to stay in Shadowfen, mated to one of the pack members, I wouldn't be able to stand it, that I knew for sure. I wouldn't be able to stand having another man touch me when it was really Grayson and Chase that I wanted. I wouldn't be able to stand seeing them in the village, knowing that I could never have them again, knowing that I'd disappointed and betrayed them.

No, I decided. I'd just volunteer to go home. And if Mayor Jackson wouldn't refund the money the alphas had paid for me, I'd find a way to repay them myself. Even if I had to work three jobs for decades to do it. I'd prove that I was sorry and I regretted my actions.

Eventually, when Chase and Grayson still hadn't returned by ten or eleven o' clock that night, I fell asleep without even having had any dinner. After Chase's text and the realizations that had come along with it, what little appetite I'd had simply vaporized.

After sniffling on and off in a fitful, light sleep, I had no idea how long I'd been out when the sound of the front door being opened alerted me that Chase and Grayson were home. Still in a haze of drowsiness, I flew out of bed and met them in the living room.

All I could think about was revealing the truth and telling them how truly sorry I was for my deception. I knew they both deserved better than to go on another minute caring for me deeply when I was nothing but a fraud and a phony. I was also just a tiny bit afraid that if I didn't tell them both right away, I'd lose my nerve. I also kind of feared what would happen if they made me put on a Tickler right away. If they did
that
, I knew all thoughts of confession would soon be driven completely out of my mind.

And so, feeling as if time were very much of the essence, I took one of Chase's hands, then one of Grayson's, not even bothering to turn on the living room lights first. "I have to tell you both something, right away. And I'm sorry, but it can't wait."

Chase squeezed my hand and spoke in a voice that somehow seemed tight with tension. It was a voice that made me certain he was frowning, even though I couldn't clearly see his features in the darkened cabin.

"I'm sorry, Rowan, but whatever you have to tell us is going to have to wait. There's been...there's been an attack in Greenleaf. Several of the wolves we tried to take out this evening managed to slip by us."

I felt as if I'd been punched in the gut. I'd known that the wolf pack that Chase, Grayson, and at least a dozen of their pack members had been tracking that day had been trying to cause trouble in Greenleaf. But we'd never had a direct wolf attack in Greenleaf before, I now knew thanks in large part to Chase and Grayson's protection over the years.

And with that being the case, I supposed it just hadn't occurred to me earlier that day to fear that the attacking wolves might actually slip by this time. It really hadn't occurred to me to be concerned for my friends and Skye.

But now, I wasn't just concerned; I was petrified. My voice came out in a shaky whisper.

"And the attacking wolves...did they...did they hurt anyone?"

Grayson sighed so softly the sound was barely audible, then spoke in a voice almost equally quiet. "I'm so sorry, Rowan. They took Skye. They kidnapped her. But we'll get her back, and very soon. We promise you this."

My knees began buckling and I would have fallen to the floor had Chase and Grayson not caught me immediately. Suddenly, I was shaking, gasping, crying; being picked up in strong arms and carried over to the couch.

I could hardly think; the only clear thought in my mind was that the truth about my fertility deception would have to wait. First, I knew I had to help Chase and Grayson get Skye back. I couldn't distract them in any possible way. I knew Skye's life might depend on it.

CHAPTER FIVE

The moment I saw the wolf, I literally saw red. My heartbeat accelerated so quickly and suddenly that my vision swam for a long, dizzying second, the sun-dappled expanse of forest in front of me becoming clouded with reddish-orange dots. But then, after I'd taken a deep breath, the dots faded, and all I could see was the wolf. Without taking my gaze from him, I stooped and picked up a large, flat rock from the bank of the stream. I was going to kill him.

I hadn't planned on becoming a wolf-killer that day. Normally, I was more than content to let Grayson, Chase, and their pack deal with any and all enemy wolves who approached Shadowfen. But not today. Not when Grayson and Chase were running a patrol with their pack and I had no idea how near or far they were.

Not when Flora and Lily were just a couple hundred feet upstream. Flora, who was so petite and delicately-built, and Lily, who wasn't even four yet. I knew they wouldn't be able to defend themselves.  But I was several inches taller than Flora and at least twenty-five or thirty pounds heavier.

I was a sturdy and strong young woman. I guessed I was at least triple the weight of the wolf. He looked almost downright tiny to me, though I couldn't tell if that was just because he simply
appeared
that way at a distance,  or if he actually was a very small wolf. I also couldn't tell if he simply just appeared tiny to me because the anger rising up inside of me seemed as large as the world.

It didn’t matter. I was going to take him down. I was going to kill him. I was going to rid the world of one of the evil, destructive kind of wolves. One of the evil ones, like the ones who'd abducted my sister a week earlier and still held her captive.

For all I knew, this wolf that I was staring down, across the stream, could have even been one of the wolves from that pack. And the deeper I looked into his glinting eyes, I became nearly sure of it. He stared back at me with what appeared to me to be bloodthirsty menace.

But if it was blood that he wanted, or another captive to drag back to his pack, he was going to be disappointed. I wasn't going to let him take me, Flora, or Lily. I wasn't going to let him touch a hair on our heads.

With my gaze still on the small grayish-tan wolf, I rose to my feet, clutching the large rock. "Come try me, then! Just come
try
to take me on!"

My hands were shaking, though not with fear, but anger. Anger at the wolves for having taken Skye, and anger at the particular wolf across the stream from me. The wolf who surely planned to hurt me, Flora, and Lily, or would try to take me away from Chase and Grayson, the two men I cared about deeply;  at least a thousand times more than I'd ever cared about my ex-boyfriend back in Greenleaf.

I brandished the large, flat rock at the wolf, narrowing my eyes. "Just come try me, then! Because I know attacking women is what gets you sick bastards off!"

With his dark eyes glinting in the bright, late-April sun, the wolf just stared at me, and I wondered if he was contemplating shifting into human form so that he could drag me back to his pack. I didn't care. He could remain in wolf form or shift into whatever form he liked. I was still going to smash the rock over his head. And I knew my makeshift weapon would be effective, no matter what form he was in when he came at me.

But, to my surprise, he actually didn't come at me. After seeming to study me for a long moment, he actually turned tail and began dashing down the stream bank, away from me. Away from the direction of Flora and Lily.

I gasped, shocked, and though I couldn't quite articulate the feeling at the time, more than a bit disappointed. "Coward!"

I began dashing down my side of the stream, twigs snapping under my feet. I was fast, but the wolf was faster, and I soon lost sight of him. Hands still trembling with anger, I knew I had to act if I was going to catch him, which I fully intended to do.

I wasn't about to let him get away. Not when I knew that if captured, he might reveal information about Skye. Especially if questioned by Chase and Grayson after they'd roughed him up a bit. I now decided that I'd let the wolf live, but only for this purpose.

Tennis shoes squishing in the sparkling, briskly-flowing water, I cut across the stream,  hearing Flora calling my name from a great distance away. Just a few minutes earlier, I'd left her and Lily to walk a bit upstream when Lily had wanted some large, flat rocks to color on with her new wax crayons from Ashcrest.

I'd known a spot where there were some perfect coloring rocks, so I'd told her and Flora I'd be right back. Now I was going to be back dragging an unconscious wolf behind me. Either that, or I wasn't going to come back at all. Which I knew was a possibility.

I wasn't in denial about how strong shifter wolves were, even smaller ones like the one I was chasing. But my anger was making me feel pretty strong, too, and at least making an effort to capture the wolf
wasn't
a possibility.

The fact that shifter wolves were strong wasn't the only thing I was
not
in denial about. I also knew full well that the wolf I was chasing could be leading me into some sort of a trap. He could be leading me to a part of the forest where his shifter wolf buddies were waiting, either in human form or wolf form.

But I didn't care. I was too angry to care. I was beginning to feel as if I could take on ten wolves at once, which I knew damn well was an insane thought, but I didn't care about that, either. My anger at the wolves was making me wild, reckless. My desire for information about Skye was making me feel half-crazed.

After crossing the stream and scrambling up the opposite bank, I began sprinting, once again catching sight of the wolf. "You can't run from me, you coward!"

For a while, it seemed he definitely could. He zipped under fallen logs and beneath dense, brambly thickets, while I had to leap over everything, expending much more effort. But, at last, the wolf came to a bramble patch so thick he couldn't easily just dash under it.

To his right was the sparkling stream. Behind him and to his left was the thick, thorny bramble patch, too tall for even him to leap over. In front of him was me. Me and my large, flat rock that I was going to use to bash him over the head with.

Lifting it, I took a few slow steps forward, breathing heavily, my gaze locked on the wolf. "Thought you might kidnap me and take me back to your pack, just like your pack did with my sister, didn't you? Thought you'd take yet another woman against her will, right? But then you saw me and my rock. You saw that I wasn't about to let myself be taken so easily. So, you thought you'd make a run for it. Just like a coward."

The wolf couldn't possibly have looked any more like a coward right then. If he had friends anywhere nearby, they weren't
that
close, because he didn't make even the faintest attempt at a howl, as if he knew there was no one within helping distance to hear him.

With his small feet padding over clusters of tiny yellow wildflowers sprouting from the forest floor, he backed up into the brambles, looking at me with his dark eyes almost comically wide. Now that I was standing less than ten feet away from him, I could see just how small he was. He was no bigger than a medium-sized dog. And even that was perhaps a stretch.

I actually bit back a laugh. "Your pack certainly didn't send their biggest or strongest, did they?"

Taking a big step forward, I raised the heavy rock, preparing to rush the small wolf and be done with my task. Considering his diminutive size, it wouldn't take me long. It also wouldn't take me long to drag him back to Shadowfen once he was unconscious.

But just then, before I could cross the distance between the wolf and me, howling shattered the near-silence of the forest. It wasn't the small wolf in front of me who'd howled. He still had his mouth closed, and he was cowering back into the bramble hedge, his dark eyes becoming even wider.

I snorted. "Friends coming to save you? They're in for a surprise. I'll knock them out, too."

I fully intended to try; however, my anger had suddenly begun to ebb. My hands were still trembling, though now because of just a touch of fear. Just a little touch that rippled through my body, seeming to drain me of strength, the moment I'd heard the wolf howl.

Taking my gaze from the small wolf and looking all around the sunlit forest, I tightened my grip on the heavy rock. "Bring it on. I'm not scared of you wolves."

My words did little to bolster my courage, and just then, another howl sounded, joined by another. There were two wolves. At least. And they were close.

I glanced at the small wolf near me, who was standing stock-still, his wide-eyed gaze locked on me and my rock. "So, you did lead me into a trap. Doesn't even matter. I'm still going to knock all of you unconscious and drag you all back to Shadowfen to get information about my sister."

I was sure going to try. But at the moment, I needed to try to slow my rapid breathing, because I was beginning to get a bit dizzy. The howling was drawing nearer, and within seconds, I heard the sound of large bodies crashing through the forest nearby. I continued to hold my large rock aloft, though my shoulder was aching. My voice came out in a shaky whisper.

"Bring it on. Bring it on, you bastards."

Realizing that Chase, Grayson, and the rest of the men on patrol might be somewhere nearby, and deciding that attempting to call for backup wouldn't be a terrible move on my part,  I'd just opened my mouth to yell when two massive, snarling gray wolves bounded over the thorny hedge and landed between the smaller wolf and me. I saw instantly that there was no need for me to yell any more. The massive gray wolves were Chase and Grayson.

Weak with relief, I dropped my heavy rock, lifting my other hand to point behind them. "Right there. He's right there. I think he could be one of the pack that has Skye."

Chase and Grayson had already turned to the small wolf, snarling, even before I'd finished speaking. Almost immediately, they stopped snarling and exchanged glances, right before shifting into human form in the blink of an eye. They then stood between the small wolf and me, fully dressed. They were both kind of frowning and sighing for some inexplicable reason.

With his gaze on the small wolf, Chase pointed in the direction of the stream, stomping his foot. "Go on, now. Go!"

Not needing any further invitation, the small wolf dashed around a low bramble-patch, flew by Chase and Grayson, and leaped from the bank into the stream.

I gasped, hands flying to my face. "What are you doing? He might be from the pack that has Skye!"

While the small wolf sprinted across the stream to the opposite bank, Chase turned to face me, large hands on his slim hips. "That wasn't one of the wolves from the pack that has Skye."

"Well, how do you know for sure?"

Chase snorted. "Well, because that was a coyote."

I stood speechless, realizing that the animal I'd cornered
had
ears pointier than the average wolf's. And of course, he'd been smaller. I recalled that he hadn't held his tail up like a wolf when running. His fur had been maybe more tan than gray, too, I supposed.

My face flamed, and I couldn't think of what to say.

Chase, however, wasn't experiencing the same speechlessness. "That was a coyote, Rowan. By the looks of him, I'd say a coyote not much older than a pup. Maybe forty pounds, soaking wet. Not a shifter; there aren't any coyote shifters. He was just a regular not-quite-grown coyote. Bet you scared the holy hell out of him, cornering him like that. Probably turned him off humans for life."

I huffed, trying to muster some shred of dignity, despite my profound embarrassment. "Well, he
looked
like a wolf. He looked like a wolf when I noticed him staring at me from across the stream. I thought he might be from the pack that has Skye, sent to kidnap the other sister, too. Sent to kidnap
me
. I couldn't let that happen, could I? I had to try to defend myself, didn't I?"

Grayson frowned at me, his eyes seeming to become an even darker, stormier shade of gray than usual. "Please tell me what part of 'defending yourself' includes going on the offensive, chasing a coyote down a stream with a rock. We heard your shouts, you know. From what it sounded like, it seemed as if you were the chaser in this situation. And just seeing the terrified posture of the coyote pup just now, I'm sure of it. If anyone was 'defending' themselves, or had a need to, it was him."