She tilted her head.
“What?”
“Is it just me…” Rian started.
“Don’t say it,” Moe, Rhys and Aleks said in unison.
“Doesn’t she remind you of Rebecca?” Damian finished Rian’s thought.
Connor, Madison, and the entire Inner Court laughed hysterically. Abby grinned.
“We did live together for four years. Our mannerisms were bound to rub off on one another.” She flexed her hand.
Liam sighed.
“He’ll go directly to the council.”
“I was in fear for my life!” Abby said dramatically. She walked back over to her table and sat down.
“Girl I don’t know you, but I need you in my life, and I don’t say that to females often.” Giddey winked at Abby and sat down next to her at the next closest table.
“Two. There’s two of them.” Aleks had his head in his hands.
“It’s like Abby is the version of Rebecca if Rebecca had been raised a shifter,” Kate said, shaking her head.
Moe reached over and massaged her knuckles.
“That’s the same asshole that has been trying to get Rhys executed too,” Rebecca said impishly. A low growl bubbled up from her stomach.
“I’ll kill him.” She snarled, moving to stand up and head back outside. Moe pulled her back down.
“Whoa there, killer, it’s not as easy as that. We can’t kill him or maim him as long as he hasn’t broken any laws in Arkadia. I’m afraid you got in your one lucky punch,” Madison advised.
“I’d listen to her. She is a genius when it comes to the law.” Giddey nodded, his eyes empathetic.
Abby took a deep breath and crossed her arms over her chest.
“If he comes near my mates or my nephew I’ll rip him apart and let her worry about the law.” Abby wished she had hit him harder.
“Okay, no more contemplating murder in front of me, wait until later when I’m gone,” Madison said, grinning at Abby.
“I have an idea. Giddey, maybe you can help. How good are you at spotting gay men?” Damian asked, a sparkle in his eye.
“If it were an Olympic event I’d have gold cock rings!”
“Okay then. So is he gay?” Damian asked, pointing to Moe. Abby’s mouth twitched at the thoughtful expression on Giddey’s face. He looked her mate up and down, taking in detail. Finally he frowned and shook his head.
“I’m not sure, he’s scrambled my senses. Is he?” Giddey leered at Moe. Abby brought Moe’s hand up and kissed it. Giddey slumped down in his chair.
“Straight.”
Grinning, Rhys picked up Moe’s other hand and kissed it. Giddey perked up.
“Bi. That makes me feel better. Gorgeous men deserve to be with gorgeous men. No offense, ladies.” Giddey shrugged.
“See Rian, Giddey had trouble too, so you can just stop with the ridiculous idea that you’re not gay!”
“Him, not gay?” Giddey started laughing hysterically.
“I know right? I’ve been putting up with his craziness since Moe and Rhys found out they were mates. I think it was when he found out that his favorite porn actor wasn’t really gay, just gay for pay, that sent him over the edge.” Damian lay his head down on the table, exhausted. Bethy rubbed her brother’s back sympathetically. Asling reached up and popped Rian in the back of the head.
“Ow!”
“You’ve been gay since before I was born, Rian Stafford, stop being so melodramatic.” Asling rolled her eyes.
“She reminds me of Cassie, no nonsense.” Abby smiled for a second and then a panic set in.
“Fuck a duck! I forgot to call Cassie and check in!” Abby scrambled for her phone.
“It’s only been a couple hours, you’ll be fine.” Rebecca waved her hand at her friend.
“You don’t understand, I got distracted in Nevada for a bit.” Abby stared at her phone dreading making the phone call she had to make.
“You totally hit Vegas! How long were you there?” Rebecca asked.
“Umm like a week, but I had just finished a really huge project when Cassie called about the Christmas cards. I needed to unwind.” She held out her phone to Rebecca.
“You call her.”
“Fuck. That. Noise.” Rebecca shook her head.
“Becca, language,” Ma called from behind the counter.
“Sorry, Ma.”
Abby took a deep breath and prayed for voice mail.
Cassie answered on the first ring.
“Abby? Abby where in the hell have you been!”
“I umm.”
“Do you have any idea how worried Meg and I have been?”
“I…”
“I swear, first Rebecca then you. Did you fall into a vortex where you forgot how to use your fucking phone?”
“No, I went to Vegas.”
Wrong answer.
“I’m sorry, I thought I heard you say you went to Vegas when I specifically asked you to find Rebecca and make sure she was okay. Your phone must be malfunctioning.” Cassie’s sarcasm dripped through the phone.
“I won like two hundred dollars and I got you a shot glass. There’s a naked guy on it and when there’s liquor in it you can totally see his…”
The sound of something being repeatedly hit against a hard surface echoed through the diner from her phone.
“I found Rebecca. She was in Arkadia. She’s mated and has the cutest little kiddo and is perfectly fine,” Abby said, quickly trying to avoid a full Cassie explosion.
“Thank god she’s okay.”
Abby nodded, relieved that Cassie sounded like she was calming down.
“Wait a minute, how is she in Arkadia? It’s a shifter-only town. The only bears there are the Arkadions. Please tell me she didn’t mate one of the Arkadion brothers.” Cassie’s voice carried and the Arkadion boys sat up straighter in their chairs, glaring at the phone. Abby smiled nervously.
“Umm she’s mated to Aleksander Arkadion.” Abby waited. Rebecca just sat there grinning like an idiot. She never seemed to get on Cassie’s bad side. The silence was starting to freak her out.
“And umm, I found my mates too. Moe Jones and Rhys, he’s a vampire. So I’ll be moving out here too.” Abby waited. She couldn’t even hear Cassie breathing. Had she killed her best friend?
“Let me get this straight.” Abby winced.
“You and Rebecca will be living in close proximity to each other and she is mated to the Arkadion, making her the single most powerful female in the paranormal world as Alpha Mother?” Cassie asked, her voice quiet and dangerous.
“Umm yup.”
“Why me! Why gods in heaven me!” Abby pulled the phone away from her ear.
“For four years I watched over the two of you. Abby, you are like this natural disaster, it’s never your fault, but that doesn’t change the fact that cities are leveled in your wake. Rebecca is twisted enough to do that shit on purpose just to watch people squirm! Four fucking years! Do you know that after I joined Sentinel my assignments were like a vacation compared to watching over the two of you? Bombs in Iraq? No problem. Serial killer in Brazil? No worries. My Commander was convinced that I was a heartless bitch, because nothing disturbed me as much as listening to the two of you hatch schemes. Nothing panicked me more than keeping the two of you alive. Fuck Almighty! You and Rebecca are like a horrible Syfy Saturday movie gone wrong, like a tornado on a collision course with a nuclear power plant about to explode. I can’t do this. I cannot do this!”
“Now, Cassie, remember your breathing.”
“Fuck my breathing!”
“Rebecca built a bomb when she was eight. Do you remember what she told us? She had just finished reading Lord of the Rings and was afraid the Uruk-hai were coming for her family. Did she hide under the covers? Did she ask her dad to check under her bed? No, that crazy midget built a fucking bomb and that’s not even the one that got her banned from laboratories from the US government, that was her science fair project when she was twe
lve!”
“Hey, we’re older now. We’re both mated. We’re all kinds of mellow yellow, aren’t we Rebecca?” Abby held the phone out to Rebecca and made a face at her.
“Yup! I haven’t killed anyone yet, well except for the hyena that kidnapped me, and he totally deserved it. Though that may change if Salsiby goes near my son again, but I have a formula that I’m working on that should take care of his ass…” Abby brought the phone back to her ear.
“See, she hasn’t killed anyone lately.”
“Ulcers. You two give me fucking ulcers! Do you know how hard it is for shifters to get one ulcer, much less two? Do you!”
“Umm… we love you?” Abby said, unsure of what else to do.
A huge sigh and thump was heard.
“I know. I love you two walking disasters too. I’m assigning Sentinels to Arkadia. Try not to blow up the most important paranormal city since the dawn of time before they get there.”
“Go home and drink some of that white wine you like so much. I got this,” Abby said.
“That’s what I’m afraid of. Bye, Abby, give my love to Rebecca. I’ll be visiting soon to see my nephew.” Then the line went dead.
“That went well.” Abby looked up. Aleks, Gabriel, Moe and Rhys looked ill.
“So when do we go ghost hunting?” Rebecca asked, completely oblivious to her mate’s growing panic for his future.
“Tomorrow at eleven?” Abby suggested.
“Works for me.”
“Can I come too?” Giddey asked, looking intrigued.
“You bet.” Abby took another bite of her sandwich.
“Aren’t you afraid, Giddey?” Ashby asked, still looking worried.
“This chick singlehandedly got hot sentinels to be assigned to Arkadia, I’m sticking to her like glue.”
“Watch and learn young grasshopper, watch and learn.” Abby winked at him.
Aleks, Moe and Rhys groaned behind them.
Chapter 8
Operation Claim Her Vampire was underway. Abby was convinced that Rhys just needed to taste their blood to see that it wasn’t like a drug, then they could mate with each other. She had watched him carefully at the diner. He had this unconscious habit of rubbing his arms when he was feeling anxious. He sat closer to Moe and didn’t say much. She observed him with the patience that she normally reserved for the small mammals she studied out in the field.
Every time his anxiety levels would rise he would reach over and touch Moe. Abby realized that Rhys didn’t even know he was doing it. He was handling his addiction better than he probably even knew.
Abby continued to watch her mates until Moe stood.
“Time to get the bar ready to open.” He stretched and Abby had a moment to truly appreciate how beautiful he was. He was tall but not bulky. His frame was simply huge, but the muscles wrapped around his body were toned and defined. He radiated peace and gentleness despite his grizzled appearance. His shaved head and five o’clock shadow would normally be a turn off for her, too rough. But on Moe it was just right. His tribal band tattoos around his arms only emphasized how built he was. He was the exact opposite to Rhys in every way.
Rhys stood and smiled up at Moe. His soft blond and white curls fell just past his ears. He was handsome without looking pretty. He personified wholesomeness. When he smiled it seemed like that was the most natural look for his face. He was also tall, but still inches shorter than their other mate. Where Moe had soft gray eyes, Rhys’s green eyes were brilliant and seemed to glow with an inner light. Rhys’s body was leaner but also sported a defined eight pack that left her sighing.
“Lucky bitch,” Giddey said happily.
“You’re not the first to say that.”
“You were looking at them like you were sizing up your next meal.”
“Maybe I was.” Abby winked at Giddey.
Moe and Rhys grinned at each other.
“Come on, AbbyGirl.” Moe held out his hand to her.
“Coming.” She walked over and put her hand in his. His huge, warm hand engulfed hers, but the size difference only reinforced how safe she felt around him. He leaned down and whispered.
“Not yet, but you will.” It took a second to understand his double entendre. Practically skipping behind them, she heard Giddey muttering under his breath about how damn lucky she was. She had to agree.
* * * *
The change to Rhys was immediate. The second he stepped behind the bar, his entire body practically slumped forward in relief. When he stood, he stood straighter than she had seen him yet. He was smiling and laughing with Peyton and some of the early birds. Here was a man that had lived through countless centuries. His confidence was intoxicating.
“You see it don’t you?” Moe asked as he walked up behind her and pulled her into his arms. She nodded and leaned back, resting her head against his chest.
“Does he realize it?”
“Not yet. He doesn’t have any symptoms when he’s behind the bar and in his element.”
“Which points to the fact that the addiction may be more mental than physical?”
“I’m afraid so.” Moe pulled her backward and they walked into the large walk-in freezer. He shut the door and turned to her his eyes sad.
“I don’t gossip, and I normally wouldn’t betray Rhys, but you’re his mate too, and I feel like you have a right to know.” He took a deep breath.
“I caught him cutting the other night. He says it helps with the addiction, like he’s letting out all of the blood he was forced to ingest.” Moe’s hands clenched at his sides. Abby was in front of him in seconds. She wrapped her arms around his waist and rubbed her face on his chest.
“You’re not alone in this anymore, Moe. We’ll help him overcome this. You no longer have to shoulder this burden by yourself,” she whispered.
“I love Rhys, Abby, and I know that, given time, I will fall completely in love with you too. You’re the light that we were missing in our lives. But I have been watching over Rhys for a month now. He doesn’t know it, but I would shift and sit in the tree outside his window some nights. I’m a spider monkey when I shift.” He looked down bashfully.
“There’s nothing wrong with that.” She kissed his chest and he continued.
“He always seemed calmer when I was there. At first I was simply excited to have met my mate. When I heard how he was almost executed on Christmas Eve, I was overwhelmed with gratitude that Fate would give me such a miracle. But it has been hard. Every cell in my body wants to claim him.” Moe sagged against her, resting his chin on the top of her head.
“He was supposed to be executed?”
“He was forced to drink shifter blood. It made him feral and an addict. The shifter council gave Gabriel thirty days to see if he could rehabilitate him. Christmas Eve, his eyes were still red and he was still crazed, so they sent a Sentinel to execute him. From what I heard, Fate acted through Rebecca and her Inner Court. Rhys’s eyes turned from red to green and he was spared.”
“I have seen some amazing things in my travels. I have seen Fate step in and change lives before, it’s why I am not fighting this mating one bit. It’s why I am not holding back and giving myself to you and Rhys one hundred percent. Mating isn’t about insta-love or insta-trust, that has to be earned over time, and you and Rhys have that. Eventually the three of us will get there. But for now I feel like I have to tell you that you may be handling his addiction wrong.” She felt him tense up. She quickly tried to explain what she meant.
“At first what you did was exactly what he needed. You didn’t rush him and watched over him right? But after a while I think you ignored what Fate had intended for you to do, which enabled Rhys to exacerbate the issue. If you had pressed your claim, he would have seen for himself that your blood would not affect him. Now it’s built up in his mind that he’ll hurt you, us. Like a virgin, the longer you wait to do the deed, the scarier it will seem.”
“What can we do now?”
“Seduce him and I
hate to say it, we need him to drink from us. We need to create an environment where he feels like he has a safety net. I think I am your safety net. Fate gave you what you needed for this mating to work.”
“What do you get? You’re not just the fix to my relationship with Rhys.” Moe pulled back and ran his hand along her cheek. She flushed, embarrassed.
“The two of you are perfect for me. You and Rhys don’t look at my body and see something to fix or weight to lose. I’ve only recently come to terms with how I look and started loving myself. You accept me as I am. You have no idea how much that means. You are the rock I need. Cassie is right, I can sometimes create a bit of a mess. You are so calm, it’s like you’re this unmoveable mountain in a sea of chaos, uh me being the chaos. I need you to keep me from flying apart. Rhys when he is more himself feeds into my fun loving side. I can see that Rhys and I will be the ones playing jokes and pulling you in every direction. You will protect my heart, he will feed my mind, but both of you together will be my soul.”
Moe’s eyes had a fine sheen to them. Unable to say anything, he pulled her into his arms and nearly crushed her in his embrace. She smiled against the hard muscles of his body.
“And it’s my ultimate fantasy to be taken by two men. So being in a ménage really is perfect for me.” Abby bit at the spot over his chest where she had claimed him playfully. Against her stomach she felt him begin to grow hard.
This time when he pulled back his gray eyes weren’t soft, they had darkened to an unreadable black.
“AbbyGirl, you will be the death of me.”
“Only little ones.” She grinned up at him impishly. He shook his head and stepped back. He adjusted his cock in his jeans, wincing.
“Grab a case of beer. The quicker we start the evening the quicker we can end it, then maybe you will get your fantasy.” With a gleam in his eye, his hand moved quicker than she could follow and he grabbed the crotch of her jeans roughly. He gave a quick squeeze, purposefully dragging his finger from the back of her jeans to her front hitting every one of her sensitive spots. He removed his hand and headed out the door, whistling. He turned just his head and grinned at her.