That was our concern as well.
“Any suggestions?” I asked.
Gibson shook his head. “You need to lock her in. Shift her allegiance from the Jenkins family to the one you’ll make together.”
Neither Holt nor I said anything because that was our plan. We’d stayed up half the night hashing through the situation, and came up with the only answer—to pour everything we had into pleasuring our mate. Saturating her with love. Cherishing her. Proving we would take care of her, that she could trust us.
But asking her to give up her allegiance to her own family? That might be too much.
We didn’t even have our foot in the door with her yet. We’d stated our intentions the night before at the bar, but she’d turned us down. Walked away. I wasn’t going to toss her over my shoulder and kidnap her, no matter how much my wolf liked the concept. She had to consent to be with us. Want us. She might be our mate, but I wouldn’t take her any other way.
I knew Holt agreed.
“Why the hell can’t my pack members find perfectly good shifter mates?” Gibson asked. “If Ali was a she-wolf, you’d have her in your bed and your marks on her neck by now. Everything would be simple and easy.”
My inner wolf growled in frustration thinking about getting Ali between us and seeing our marks on her tanned skin. She was a spirited one, and I imagined she’d be equally so in bed. She’d quickly learn who was in charge in our triad, and it wasn’t her. “No kidding. Fate is fucking fickle.”
“What’s your plan?” he wondered. “I assume you have one.” I was thankful he wasn’t telling us what to do, which was probably why he was a good alpha. He didn’t waste time on micromanaging.
I looked to Holt. Met his gaze.
“Regardless of me quitting the DEA, I have to find the source of the meth. Especially if it’s coming from West Springs.”
“Agreed,” Holt replied. “During the day, we work. At night, we work on Ali.”
Gibson pushed to his feet, and slapped a hand on the top of his desk. “Keep me updated. And for fuck’s sake, get your marks on her. We need her loyalties with the pack before you go arresting her dad.”
ALI
I clicked my tongue to urge my speckled mare, Daisy, forward. It felt great to be back riding the family land again. Being away and working on other ranches only sweetened my homecoming. I relished the views, the waving grass, the familiar mountain peaks that were in my blood. That I’d woken up to every morning of my childhood. Some day, all of this would be mine to run. This was the land where I would raise a family. I imagined a whole bunch of boys running wild out here. A husband, too, I guessed.
Of course, that thought brought the throbbing back between my legs.
I dreamed all night about being in bed with two men. Not just any two, but Theo and Holt, the lawmen from the bar.
Had they actually offered me a threesome? Suggested they’d share me?
Daisy whinnied, and I leaned forward to pat her neck.
I’d been so stunned by it all, by them, I hadn’t been able to tell Melissa or Trina what they had proposed.
Who knew I was into something so kinky? I hadn’t once considered the possibility. Sure, I’d read about it in romance books that helped pass the freezing winters, but in reality? Me? In a threesome? All I knew was I’d woken up today horny and frustrated, and sorry I’d walked away from what might have been a once in a lifetime experience.
Especially because I’d had in my head my every angry word my dad had shouted at me after they’d come to the door. He’d acted like a dick, and I’d funneled that anger toward the men. My dad was back at the house on the La-Z-Boy chair, nursing his third beer and bellowing about wolf-lovers when I headed for the stable after lunch, still pissed and stewing on it over twenty-four hours later.
Whatever. I’d much rather work alone. I was trying very hard to hold onto that feeling of being my own woman. The one I’d developed while I’d been away at college and abroad.
While my dad and I would be working the family land together, this whole new arrangement would go better if we weren’t living under the same roof. I’d been on my own since I was eighteen, and yet my bedroom here still had pink walls. I was too old for a twin mattress!
It certainly wouldn’t fit two hot men. Gah! I wanted them. Wanted something risky and wild and sexy and fun and… maybe even something my dad would hate.
Daisy whinnied again, breaking me from my thoughts. My goal this afternoon was to ride out and check the old cabins and bunkhouses on the property to pick one to move into. I needed my own space or I’d end up walking away from this ranch and my inheritance like my brother had.