Tempted (Two Marks 1)

A growl rumbled in my chest as I thought of my mother. Caitlyn looked up at me, and I took a deep breath to relax. She hadn’t pulled the trigger.

But would keeping her here and helping her do her job lead to other wolves dying?

Caitlyn frowned and stopped again. “Killed how?”

“Shot,” I offered bluntly. “Likely by ranchers. They are notorious for wanting to thin the packs while saying they were doing it to save their livestock.”

She gave me a wide-eyed stare, then her gaze narrowed. “You can’t think there’s any relationship between the trackers and ranchers shooting the wolves. No one has access to my tracking data but my research team.” She sounded insulted.

I glanced at Landry. I wanted to believe her. She was our mate, after all, which made my inner wolf snarl. But we had to protect our pack, and all the wolves. I knew the consequences of not doing so all too painfully.

Which was why we needed to stick to Caitlyn like glue.

6

CAITLYN

Wade’s cabin was the kind of ‘little cabin in the woods’ that made me sigh dreamily.

Although it wasn’t all that little.

We’d walked there to get his truck, but he invited me in to get a drink before we headed out to hunt wolves.

“My grandfathers built this cabin for their mate—I mean, wife—back in the 1950’s,” Wade explained.

“Grandfathers? As in plural?” I asked.

The men glanced at each other.

“Yep. There’s a history of sharing women up here in West Springs, dating back to the first settlers.” Landry flashed me a bad-boy grin and adjusted his hat like he was proud of this heritage. “Probably had something to do with women being outnumbered by men, ten to one. As a result, threesomes became oddly normalized here. Wade had two grandfathers and one grandmother.”

“Just two parents, though.” Wade winked at me.

“That is crazy.” I remembered how they’d taken me over that boulder. I wasn’t opposed to the concept. I definitely hadn’t considered it before now, but I didn’t see anything wrong with it. “I’m not naive enough to think there aren’t such things as ménage, but it’s always in the context of sex. Only sex.”

Landry shook his head. “Sex, yes, but these are solid relationships, spending a lifetime together. Raising a family. It somehow works.” He shrugged. “Are your parents in Granger?”

“No, they live in Connecticut.”

“You are far from home,” Wade added.

“My parents have plans for me that don’t include wolves. They think I’m wasting my time, and have made it very well known.”

Maybe it was the shift in my voice, but they caught on to my bitterness.

I sighed and tried to make them understand. “They love me, but they want what they think is best for me. I don’t think they are intentionally mean, but they hurt my feelings by not valuing my dreams.”

“They are disrespectful.”

I shrugged at Landry’s observation.

“I like your concept. Close family ties, a common good to protect your land and community.”

“When we said we wanted you between us, we meant it,” Wade said.

I believed him. I wondered why it didn’t bother me, their alternate lifestyle. Oh yeah, because I’d been between them and it had been amazing. And the idea of forever with these two wasn’t as scary as it perhaps should be.

Forever? Now I was the one who was crazy. Right? Were they looking for something long term, or was this a keep the scientist satisfied while she’s here scenario? They’d done a good job of doing that so far. Knowing their beliefs in being with a woman, it felt… better. I didn’t question as much.

I blinked and steered my mind away from the outdoor sexy times. Made of rough-hewn logs, the place wasn’t a mansion, but it was large for one man. A pellet stove sat in one corner of the large living room, and the huge picture windows looked out over the pine trees and a well-established vegetable garden.

To complete the idyllic scene, a babbling brook ran along one side, with the sweetest little footbridge spanning it.

I stood at the window, imagining what it would be like to have this as my view every day. To live surrounded by nature. No other people. No traffic or street noise. Nothing but the wind through the trees. “Are those raspberry bushes?” I asked, pointing to a row of prickly plants at the edge of the clearing.

“Yep. And blackberry. Those were my grandmother’s. She baked the best pies,” Wade said.

I turned, leaned against the sink. “This is an incredible property. But I’m totally confused about why your grandfathers would build a house on property that didn’t belong to him? I mean… them. The Wests own this land, right?”

Wade flicked a glance at Landry, and scrubbed a hand across his face. “Well, back then, it was a tiny mountain town where everyone was related in one way or another,” he said. “Property was pretty much considered communal. It may say on paper that Gibson West owns all of this, but there is no scenario where he’d ever try to take possession of someone else’s house.”