Suzanne's Sexy Shifters [Shy River Pack 2] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) (6 page)

Gideon laughed, pulled her into his embrace, and pressed his lips over hers. She fought him with everything she had in her. How dare he try to kiss her when she was desperately trying to avoid kissing him herself? He let her go, seeming surprised by her reaction. Fabulous. Dumb-ass alpha males came in a werewolf version, too. Fucking brilliant.

“Suzanne,” Brigden said, sounding very concerned now, “neither of us has ever done this before, so we’re not entirely certain what to expect.” He sounded tired, concerned, and perhaps a little overwrought himself. “I know we’re not explaining it very well, but please just try to understand that we did what we thought was best at the time.”

“You thought it was best to make me a werewolf?” she asked just a little more calmly.

“Yes, Suzanne, we did,” Brigden said as she turned around to face him. “You were badly injured. With human medical intervention you probably would have survived, but it would have been a long, painful road to recovery.”

“We also couldn’t risk you telling anyone about a child that could turn into a bear cub,” Gideon added. He seemed distant now. His hands by his side. His voice carefully neutral.

“I doubt anyone would have believed me,” she said, frowning at the strange sensation of being both attracted to and annoyed by Gideon at the same time. He took another step back, almost as if he could feel her confusion and wanted nothing to do with it. “Okay, well, um, thank you for healing me, but I really should get back to base. My boss sounded pretty annoyed.”

Brigden glanced worriedly at Gideon and Suzanne got the distinct impression that she already knew what they were about to say.

“Suzanne, you can’t go home, not now, not ever.”

“Why not?” she asked, striving to stay rational. “You already said werewolves are nothing like in the movies. I’m not likely to go munching on the villagers.” Even as she said the words out loud she somehow knew they were true. “And I promise not to mention anything about the child. What did you call him? A bear-shifter? The woman who reported seeing him was obviously doing drugs. She’s not even sure she saw what she thought she saw. It’ll be okay. I won’t reveal your secrets. I promise.”

It all seemed very reasonable in her head, so when Gideon rolled his eyes in dismissal, her anger flared once more. But before she could start using some of the more colorful language she’d learned from having three older brothers, Brigden stepped in between them, gave her his shirt and helped her pull it on, and then threaded his fingers through hers.

“I need to show you something,” he said as he led her out of the enclosed space they’d been in. It opened into an even smaller cave that looked a lot like a wolves’ den and then into the bright sunlight of midday. She shielded her eyes, surprised by the strength of the sun. “Look at me, sweetheart.” Brigden’s tone was surprisingly affectionate.

“See anything that might make you and Brig stand out from the crowd?” Gideon asked in an impatient tone of voice.

Stung a little by his sarcasm, Suzanne concentrated her attention on Brigden. The purple hue of his skin had her blinking more than once. She’d ignored it inside the cave, but out here in the open she couldn’t put it down to a strange source of light.

“Oh, that would make it a little hard to hide.” She was halfway through babbling a few more platitudes when she finally glanced at her own skin. She, too, had the strange purple hue. “I take it that’s a side effect of making me a werewolf.” Did she really just say that word out loud? Werewolf? She wanted to write it off as imaginary bullshit but the evidence was starting to stack up.

She took a deep breath, pinched the bridge of her nose and tried to think rationally.

“Why aren’t you purple, too?” she asked Gideon, trying to make sense of too many things at once.

“Just genetics,” he said with a shrug. “Unfortunately, a made wolf will always have the same purple-toned skin as the rest of our pack.”

“It’ll be okay,” Brigden said, lifting her hand back into his own. It was maybe a little silly, but it felt nice to have someone to hold on to. Weirdly, she also wanted Gideon to hold her hand. Considering how annoying the man was being at the moment, she wasn’t quite sure where the thought was coming from.

The fact that Gideon chose that moment to lean over, grab her hand, and press a kiss to her palm just rattled her even more.

“You need more rest,” he said, holding her hand against his warm chest. “Please just stay here with Brigden while I go sort a few things out.”

“A few things…like what?”

Gideon breathed out heavily, gave her an exasperated look, and turned to Brigden for assistance. “The sooner I contact our alpha, the better it will be for all of us.”

“Use the video chat on the laptop,” Brigden said very seriously. “It’ll be easier to gauge the alpha’s reaction if you can see his face.”

Gideon nodded, pressed a kiss to Suzanne’s forehead, and then sort of melted into a wolf and loped away on four paws. For the second time in five minutes Suzanne stood watching him with her mouth open.

“Come on,” Brigden said, gently tugging her hand and moving back toward the cave they’d just exited. “It could take a while. He’ll need to report to the alpha of the Dry Creek pack as well.”

“What’s a Dry Creek pack?” she asked, again before she could really think the question through. A group of wolves was called a pack. It was most likely a group of werewolves would call themselves the same thing.

Was the whole, out-of-character blurting of poorly thought-out questions a side effect of the change as well? She was usually very rational. The person she was at the moment seemed both familiar and new and strangely, rather appealing. She’d been a timid mouse for too long. Maybe it was time she said what was on her mind. But Brigden seemed so sweet. She couldn’t sass him the way she’d been doing with Gideon.

“The Dry Creek pack is the pack Gideon and I are visiting at the moment. We’re here to help them set up electronic surveillance so that when something like this happens they’ll be able to quickly pinpoint anyone—human or shifter—in an area they shouldn’t be.”

“Oh,” she said as she let Brigden lead her back into the strange little room at the back of what seemed to be a large wolves’ den. Her thoughts swirled as she tried to imagine how everything that had happened so far was going to affect her career. It was probably really stupid considering how disillusioned she’d felt these past few months, but it seemed like something she should consider. “So your pack is elsewhere?”

“Gideon and I were both born into the Shy River pack. As long as we can keep the surveillance project on schedule we should be able to introduce you to our alpha in the next few weeks.”

“Your alpha?” she asked, feeling confused even more now than when Gideon was here. Somehow things had been much easier to understand with the big man right beside her.

“Your alpha now, too.”

“My what?”

“Sorry, sweetheart,” Brigden said as he indicated for her to lie down on the pile of blankets she’d woken up on not long ago. “When Gideon changed you into a werewolf, you automatically became part of the Shy River pack. Ordinarily we would have sought permission first, but under the circumstances there wasn’t really any time.”

She got the impression that not getting permission was going to be a sore point with the alpha.

“So he’s like the boss of the pack? The CEO?”

“Something like that,” Brigden said quietly. He lifted her two-way radio and handed it to her. “You need to tell your old boss something to stop them from coming to look for you.”

She took the walkie-talkie and wondered what the hell to say.

* * * *

Gideon hurried. He didn’t want to leave either of his mates alone for too long, but it was necessary to inform their alpha as quickly as possible. He had in his head what he wanted to say. Now he just had to hope he got a chance to say it. At least being this far away from Suzanne meant he could think clearly and no longer hear her thoughts.

It had been an unexpected side effect of turning her into a wolf. He wasn’t even sure if it went both ways, but it had made Suzanne’s annoyance even harder to understand. He’d very clearly heard her wish to kiss him, but when he’d given her what she wanted, she’d fought her way out of his embrace.

Very confusing.

He loped back into the main area of the pack headquarters and turned back into his humanoid shape. He was a little disconcerted to realize some of the searchers weren’t back yet. Hopefully he and Brigden would be able to help this pack move into the twenty-first century with human technology. They may want to stay isolated, but that was no excuse for ignorance.

Fortunately the alpha was one of the people crowded around a picnic-style outdoor table, enjoying a cold beer.

“Gideon,” he said with a wide smile. “Thanks for your help today.”

“Anytime, sir,” he said, trying to convey his respect for the leader of this pack.

“What happened with the human woman who was injured?”

“I bit her,” he said, hoping like hell the alpha wouldn’t react badly. Technically, Gideon only needed to answer to his own alpha on this subject, but since he’d been on Dry Creek pack lands at the time, he probably should have asked this alpha’s permission as well.

“I’m assuming you had a good reason,” the alpha said in a statement that sounded more like a warning.

“Yes, sir. She’s my mate.”

“Well then,” the alpha said with a relieved-sounding exhale and a big smile, “congratulations are in order. True-mates are a rare find. I know you’ll be happy together.”

Gideon nodded automatically, but wasn’t so sure. The woman was perplexing, and being able to hear her thoughts was just making things more confusing.

“Thank you, sir. I was just on my way to speak to my alpha.”

“Of course,” the Dry Creek alpha said with a relaxed smile before turning back to the lively conversation at the table.

Several minutes later, Gideon sat staring at the computer screen, hoping like hell that the annoyance on his own alpha’s face would fade quickly. Apparently biting one’s injured mate still required getting formal permission from his alpha first. Thankfully, from the man’s next words, Gideon suspected that the permission would have been forthcoming.

“I’m glad you found your mate, Gideon. You’ve been alone for far too long.” The alpha glanced over his shoulder at someone who’d just entered the room. He nodded, a clear indication that the conversation was over. “Bring her home to meet the pack as soon as you can.” He leaned forward to turn off their connection. “I’m just glad I no longer have to worry about you.”

“Yes, sir,” Gideon said, hating the man more now than ever before. It seemed pretty clear that the alpha had worried about Gideon’s sexuality when he’d failed to settle down with one of the eligible females in their pack. He’d managed to tolerate and mostly overlook the alpha wolf’s prejudices in an attempt to keep Brigden safe, but the man’s obvious preference of a human woman over any sort of homosexual mating with a packmate was almost more than Gideon could take.

Suddenly the idea of spending the next six months growing his relationship with both Brigden and Suzanne here at the Dry Creek pack seemed far preferable to exposing them both to the scrutiny of a bigoted leader caught deeply in the past.

Brigden was grateful that Suzanne was staying calm. He knew enough about humans to know that it wasn’t always the case. Some of the things he’d seen and read on the Internet were truly disturbing.

She’d given her boss a plausible reason for not returning to base until much later and had thankfully bought them some time to deal with a few things.

“How old are you?” Brigden asked, suddenly remembering the age difference between humans and werewolves.

Suzanne laughed softly and got more comfortable on the pile of blankets. For a moment, he wasn’t sure she was going to answer.

“Twenty-six. You?”

“About the same,” he said, wondering how much information he should bombard the poor woman with. Her life had changed irrevocably while she’d been unconscious. Did she really need to know everything all at once?

“How old is that exactly?” she asked suspiciously. This time he was the one to laugh softly.

“In equivalent human terms, I’m about twenty-five.” She raised her eyebrow and waited. “In actual years I’m sixty-two.”

“So you’re saying what? Your life expectancy is longer than that of a human?”

He nodded, watching her closely, and was relieved to realize she wasn’t freaking out just yet. “The average werewolf has a life expectancy of about three hundred years.”

“Does the change affect how I age?”

“Yes. There is a wolf in our pack who was changed from a human about ten years before I was born. He doesn’t seem to have aged a day since then.”

“Well that’s something I suppose,” she said with a crooked half smile. “Although considering how boring my life has been up until now, extending it by a couple hundred years or more seems kind of silly.”

“You don’t like your job?” he asked, completely forgetting that she would never be able to return to her job again.

“I might like it more if I was doing what I actually imagined doing. Checking the roads are passable day after day is not my idea of fun.”