“So I found out.”
“Call me with any questions.”
And with that, she was gone.
Elain put her phone on the bedside table and closed her eyes. She did need a nap. Between the pregnancy and all the recent excitement, not to mention the late-night diapers and feedings with Connor, the needle on her energy tank hovered close to E.
She was too tired to even give any thought to why Brighton seemed to be acting even goofier than normal today.
Chapter Twenty-Five
The next morning, Elain was sitting on the front porch with her coffee and staring out at the pastures when she spotted a car heading up their driveway.
Unfortunately, as the car drew closer, she realized she recognized it and the driver.
The urge to flee inside and let Ain handle the situation overwhelmed her, which was why she knew she couldn’t do that.
Also, it would take her too damn long to try to stand, given her baby belly.
She watched as the visitor parked in their increasingly crowded front yard.
He got out of his car and walked over.
“Hey, Bill. What are you doing out here? Excuse me if I don’t get up.” She gave him a quick hug when he leaned in for one. His nervous tension filled her at the contact, fading when he stepped back.
This can’t be good.
The last time she’d seen him was at her wedding. She’d invited many of her former coworkers to the shindig, which was another reason why they’d had to be careful and only marry her off to Ain in front of the gathered crowd.
And one of the very valid reasons why she’d agreed to quitting her job after she mated with the wolves. Being an on-air reporter didn’t exactly fit with their lifestyle.
Her friend and former cameraman cocked his head at her. “I wanted to talk with you.”
She tried to lighten the tone with a smile. “This sounds serious. You could have called.”
“Yeah, I could have.” He rubbed the back of his neck with his hand. “But I thought it’d be better said in person.”
She crossed her arms in front of her. “Then why don’t you just go ahead and say it?”
“I was covering a story in Arcadia yesterday. Robbery. Spent some time at the sheriff’s office talking with an officer by the name of Captain Jeurgins. You know him, right?”
Her blood ran cold. “Not sure. Name sounds vaguely familiar.”
She hoped Bill couldn’t sense her lying.
“I remembered seeing him at your wedding.” He let out a laugh. “And, here’s the funny thing.” He propped one foot on the steps and leaned over, his arms resting on his thigh. “I was trolling through some old logs of 911 calls and following up on some things.”
She stared up at him. “And?”
“There was a reported kidnapping of someone by the name of Carla Taylor, right after your wedding. And I started thinking to myself, that’s odd. That’s Laney’s mom’s name.”
“Elain,” she corrected. She’d only tolerated it in college and when she was off-air, but it wasn’t a nickname she enjoyed.
He smiled, but it held no humor. He lowered his voice. “When I went back and asked Jeurgins about it, he said the case had been resolved. Cited privacy issues. When I asked to look at the reports and case files, I was told I couldn’t. When I threatened to file a FOIA request with the department, I was told there were no case files. That all that remained was a summary sheet marking the case as resolved and closed.”
She shrugged. “So?”
“So.” He stared down at her for a minute. “Anything you want to tell me?”
“Sounds like there’s no story. Would you like to talk to my mom? She’s in the kitchen, cooking breakfast. She’s fine, no kidnapping. It’s just a coincidence on the names.” Immediately following the events they had carefully practiced a story everyone could stick to, that there had been no kidnapping. If anyone pressed, they would claim it’d been a really bad prank poorly thought out and executed by good friends of theirs.
“Now, see, that’s really odd,” he said. “Because when I went to go talk to the convenience store owner, he’d made copies of the surveillance video from that day and put them aside, just in case they were ever needed. And it sure looked like your mom on the video.”
Crap. She’d thought they’d obtained and destroyed all the video evidence. “Nope.” She hoped she didn’t have to stand, because her legs trembled so badly at that point she was afraid she’d fall flat on her face. Adrenaline coursed through her, her inner Alpha struggling to rip into him, this possible threat to her family.
This man she’d once considered a friend, and now knew she had to view as an adversary.
Worse, she knew he was only doing his job.
“Why does a woman whose goal in life had been to become an on-air talent for one of the major networks suddenly drop out of her career altogether when she gets married, and then goes and gets pregnant? Answer me that, huh?”
She forced a smile. “Love makes people do the strangest things. What can I say? I’m happy and really swamped with stuff to do.” She shrugged as she rubbed her belly. “Life is crazy.”
“Yeah, crazy.” He stared at her for another moment before straightening. “You know what’s crazier?”
“What’s that?”
“Someone I thought would never lie to me is feeding me bullshit. Someone I thought was a great journalist is hiding something.”
Her Alpha coiled, wanting to take out this threat. Elain clamped down on it with all her will. “Bill, there’s no story here. My mom is fine.”
“I’m sure if I talk to her she’ll tell me the same thing.”
“Of course, because it’s the truth.” She heard the front door open behind her. Ain stepped out, dressed in jeans and a work shirt.
Relief momentarily flowed through her before she realized this might just make the situation worse.
She remained seated. “Ain, I don’t know if you remember Bill. I used to work with him.”
“Sure,” Ain said, his own Prime Alpha tone rumbling just below the surface, clearly audible to Elain’s senses. He extended his hand. “How are you?”
Bill reluctantly shook with him. “Like I told Elain, I’m following up on something for a story I’m working on.”
Elain jumped in. “Get this, haha, he thinks Mom got kidnapped.” She hoped her laugh sounded legitimate.
She gave Ain credit for quick thinking. He snorted, his thumbs casually hooked in the front belt loops of his jeans as he leaned against one of the porch uprights along the railing. “Really? She was fine thirty seconds ago when I saw her in the kitchen. Would you like me to call her out here to talk to you?”
Bill stared from him to Elain and back again. “I don’t know what’s going on,” he finally said, “but don’t insult my intelligence.”
He spun on his heel and returned to his car. Elain didn’t dare try to stand until he was already back down the driveway. Then Ain extended a hand to her.
“You all right, babe?” he asked.
She stood and let him pull her into his arms. “Yeah,” she softly said, the adrenaline crash hitting her. “I don’t think he’s going to give up, though.”
The front door opened again. “Is it clear?” Brodey asked, Cail hovering right behind him.
“Yeah,” Ain said.
The other two Lyalls stepped out onto the porch. “What happened?” Cail asked. “We all felt it. What’d he say?”
Elain gave them a recap of Bill finding the security video footage of Carla’s abduction by Rodolfo’s goons. Ain frowned, Brodey looked enraged, and Cail looked thoughtful.
The other two brothers turned to Cail.
He eventually shook his head. “You know as well as I do there’s only so much we can do to reduce our exposure when shit happens. I’m sure Jeurgins couldn’t risk completely scrubbing the 911 logs. He probably doesn’t have access to them. He told me a couple of months ago they haven’t had to hire anyone in th
at department for a while, but when they open a position, he’ll see if he can find one of our kind to apply for the job.”
“There’s not a lot we can do unless or until he pursues it,” Ain said. He returned his attention to Elain. “Please try to relax, sweetheart. This might not go anywhere. He might decide there is no story and let it drop.”
“I wish I was as sure of that as you are,” she muttered.
Chapter Twenty-Six
That night, Elain and her men turned in for the night at a decent hour. She didn’t want to think about Bill’s visit, or anything else.
All she wanted to do was turn her brain off.
Ironically, sex seemed to be the only thing that could completely distract her from how pregnant she was, along with everything else in her life. Admittedly, a vigorous, Alpha-wrestling romp wasn’t in the cards at this point, but she loved lying nestled in her men’s arms in their bed, while one of them knelt between her legs. Tonight, Cail was the one who got there first.
Elain closed her eyes and let out a sigh as his tongue flicked at her clit while Ain and Brodey lay beside her on the bed and took turns kissing her.
They didn’t press her for gymnastic-quality sex. They didn’t gleefully keep her coming and coming until the top of her head blew off. They’d carefully tuned in to her mood and thoughts, giving her the relief she craved and not pushing her past that point.
Just when she didn’t think it’d be possible to love them more if she tried, they kept setting the bar higher and higher.
Warm, tender love flowed over her from all three of them, mixing and merging and mentally cocooning her in a secure web of their emotions.
This was the best of times, the good times.
The times she knew she’d reflect on in the future when she needed to conjure good in her life.
It was times like this that fed and nourished her soul, even if they weren’t having sex, just the unadulterated love from them.
Yes, she understood. She now got why she was part of the Triad. Her magick stemmed as much from the love she had from these men as it did from anything within her. With their hearts buttressing her, she knew she could do anything she needed to do.
Cail brought her closer, ever closer, her body tensing in that delicious way.
Ain palmed her cheek, nuzzling his nose against hers. “Come for us, baby. Let’s hear you.”
With Brodey nibbling on the side of her neck, just behind her earlobe, she stared into Ain’s eyes, lost forever in the love of her men.
When the dam broke, sweet, gentle waves of pleasure centered at her clit swept through her. Ain closed his lips onto hers, kissing her, his hard cock rubbing against her thigh as her passion served to feed his. On her other side, Brodey’s cock also pressed against her hip.
When Cail was sure she’d finished, he smoothly climbed on top of her, easily slipping his cock inside her and gently thrusting, careful to keep his weight off her.
She broke the kiss with Ain to stare up into his sweet brown eyes, answering his sexy smile with one of her own. Reaching up, she caressed his cheek, the raspy stubble there.
“You gonna give me one, baby?” she asked him.
“Oh, you better believe…it.” His eyes fell closed, back arching as his climax emptied his sac into her cunt.
She didn’t pull her hand away, waiting until he finally opened his eyes and looked down at her again, his sexy smile now looking sated, content. He turned his face to kiss her palm. “You cheated,” he teased.
She grinned. “Only a little.” Since that night in Bolivia, she’d discovered a funny little ability, to coax them into coming faster just by thinking it.
Magick? Maybe.
She’d wait until after the baby was born and her body healed to test the reverse of that theory, that she might be able to coax them into holding out as long as she wanted them to.
Moving carefully, Cail switched positions with Brodey, who basically duplicated his brother’s efforts. After kissing Cail, she reached up to Brodey, meeting his playful green gaze.
He arched an eyebrow at her as he slowly started thrusting. “Give me a minute, babe, please. I want to enjoy it.”
Ooh, busted. Maybe Brodey, the most instinctive of the three, had figured it out?
When his mouth quirked in a smile, she realized he had.
His gaze intensified, burning into hers as he slowly thrust, building his release, taking his time and savoring it. When he nuzzled her hand, she knew he was ready.
She stroked the pad of her thumb across his lips. “Give it to me, sweetie,” she whispered.
His eyes fell closed, a low grunt of satisfaction rolling from him as he, too, climaxed inside her, his cock throbbing and swelling and adding more cum to her pussy.
The tip of his tongue flicked against her thumb before he cracked his eyelids open. His sexy smile filled her soul.
“Thank you,” he silently said to her.
She pursed her lips in a kiss to him, making him laugh as he leaned in and kissed her in reply.
Brodey and Ain switched places. Her sweet Prime. How she understood him so much better now, would not begrudge him—mostly—the times he stepped in and took over when he thought he needed to.
She got it. She was his all, his everything. And now their children, too. Every equation in his mind always factored in her and them when he considered any decision.
He took a moment to glide his cock up and down her clit a couple of times before easily sliding home. When she reached up to palm his cheek, she realized this time he was the one in control.
As he slowly thrust, his hips at a slightly different angle than his brothers had used, he was perfectly bumping her clit with every stroke.
From the playful way the outside corners of his eyes crinkled, she knew she’d be along for the ride. Literally.
“Our beautiful mate,” he whispered as he carefully thrust. “Our delicious, magick mate.”
Inside, she felt the tingle start, quickly growing.
Next to her, Brodey and Cail closed their mouths around her sensitive nipples, lightly sucking and stoking her desire.
Ain arched an eyebrow at her. “You feel it, don’t you,” he whispered. “You want to come for us, don’t you?”
She nodded, shallowly panting as her pleasure grew and swelled.
“That’s it, baby,” he whispered. “We belong to you. Now you show us who you belong to.”
And like that, it popped. The muscles of her cunt clamped down on his cock as her climax hit, intensifying the feeling when he started thrusting just hard enough to add to the pleasure. Ain grinned. A low, rolling howl escaped him, and then he, too, was adding his load to her pussy.
He fell still, leaning in to kiss her, nibbling on her lower lip. He switched to a Scottish brogue. “I love ye, lass. Deep and hard and true.”
A plaintive whine escaped her. “If you’d done that while fucking me, my head would have been exploding a few minutes ago.”
It was her Achilles’ heel, their Scottish brogues.
Brodey chuckled as he kissed her, adding to her torment. “Well then,” he said in his brogue, “perhaps we should just amuse ye with our tongues in a different way.”
She whined.
Cail turned her head to face him. He wore an evilly playful grin. “Aye, lass,” he whispered. “Yer wish is our command, after all.”
Fuuuuuck me…
It didn’t matter how powerful she grew. They would always be able to take her right out at the kneecaps with that accent.
They knew it.
She knew it.
“All right,” Ain said, back to his normal voice. “We don’t want to wind her up again. She needs her sleep.”
They all got settled in, Elain snuggled between Brodey and Cail, because it was their turn. As one by one they quickly fell asleep, leaving her awake, she rested a hand on her stomach.
Their daughter.
Their genes, their blood, with a continuous soul that would go on
in future lives as well, Goddess willing.
She still hadn’t tried to figure out who she was, or her guys. She didn’t want to know yet.
Didn’t need to know.
The baby shifted, a foot or arm bumping against where Elain had her hand resting.
Of course. As soon as she quit moving, the baby woke up.
She’s already a contrarian.
Elain closed her eyes and wished for sleep. She still didn’t know what to name her baby. She’d tossed around a number of options, from honoring Maureen and Ellie, to picking something totally different, to letting her men choose, and back again.
I suppose it doesn’t matter right this minute. Her due date was still over two weeks away. At her visit yesterday, Dr. Alberto said she wasn’t even close to being dilated, and that everything looked good.
Healthy.
Normal.
Well, as normal as things got in their life, Elain supposed. She felt at peace, knowing even though only Ain had been the one to see her secrets, that she instinctively knew they would all still love her, the way she loved them.
That peace was something she treasured, something she knew would always comfort her.
Snuggling tightly amongst her men, their scents still lingering in the air, filled with them in body and in heart and soul, Elain drifted to sleep pondering the thoughts of new beginnings for all of them.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Ryan was reading the newspaper that evening in his Atlanta condo when he heard the call.
Figures. First moment to myself all blasted day.
Setting the paper aside, he stood and walked over to where he kept his sword stashed in the corner. Holding it at the ready in one hand, he gripped the dark red garnet amulet around his neck with the other and muttered the words to open the portal between Earth and one of the off-Earth realms.
Baba Yaga walked through. In her matron form, she wore dark purple robes that swirled around her with a self-contained breeze.
He lowered the sword and closed the portal behind her. “I wasn’t expecting you back so soon.”