Alpha's Rescue (Shifter Ops 5)

I sit on the couch and watch the activity until Canyon invites me to join them. He puts my plate at one end of the plank, and replaces my fallen fork with a new one as smoothly as a waiter at a restaurant. The cabin feels much smaller with three new guys in it, even if the guys are gangly teens moving in a synchronized breakfast dance. But judging by the amount of pancakes they cram into their mouths, they’ll be filling out with muscle soon.

“So, Lana,” Canyon, the flirty, shirtless triplet, scoots his stump closer to me. “How do you know Teddy?”

I give him a gentle smile, trying to give off mom or older sister vibes, so this young man doesn’t think I’m flirting. “We just met. I was hiking, and I fell and hit my head, and he rescued me.”

“She spent the night here.” Teddy leans over me to put a fresh stack of pancakes on my plate.

“And now, he says I’m his prisoner.” I poke his side as he passes. He tweaks my braid, then straightens and shoots a stern look at his flirtatious brother.

Canyon clears his throat. “So you just met yesterday?”

I shrug. “I figured no one named Teddy can be a serial killer.”

Bern raises his head. “What about Ted Bundy?”

I flounder for a second before amending, “No one named Teddy, who also has a bedroom decorated with cute bears, is a serial killer.”

The triplets nod as if this is logical. Teddy rolls his eyes. “Eat,” he orders me.

“Yes sir,” I snark back.

Canyon turns to his fellow triplets. “So the bagpipe band is out. New plan. We join the Army.”

Teddy slams the oven shut. “Absolutely not.”

“You joined the Army when you were our age,” Canyon points out.

I perk up at this. I could scarf facts about Teddy like sand dollar pancakes. “How old are you guys?”

“Eighteen,” Hutch says proudly.

Yikes. They seem so young. I turn to Teddy. “You joined the Army when you were eighteen?”

“Yeah. I was a kid. It broke Ma's heart.”

I swallow, remembering Darius and Teddy’s fight. “You broke Ma’s heart.” Teddy accused Darius, who retorted, “You broke it first.”

“Ma wanted me to go to college, but it didn’t work out.”

“Teddy was in the special forces,” Canyon tells me. “Hutch thinks we can get recruited by his commander. Beat all Teddy’s records.”

Teddy slams a serving plate stacked with bacon down in the center of the table and points a finger at each of the Terrible Threes. “No Army.”

“But the signing bonus–”

“No. We’ll find another way.”

I must look puzzled because Canyon leans close. “We need money.”

“Money?” I perk up. “I love money. I can help. I run my own company.”

“Wait,” Hutch snaps his fingers. “I know you. You're Lana. You're famous.”

Teddy’s brows snap together. “What?”

“What?” the other two of the Terrible Threes echo.

“I've seen you on Insta. You model for GoddessWear.”

“Yeah,” I say. “In the beginning, I couldn’t afford models, so I did it myself. I still do the occasional promotion.”

“Wait, you own that company?” Hutch asks.

I shrug. “I do. I started it instead of going to college. I used to sew all my own outfits in high school.”

“Cute clothes for curvy girls,” Hutch repeats my company’s tagline, and I beam.

“That's right! This is from my new hiking line.” I rise and point my toe to show off my lightweight pants.

“Very nice.” Hutch scoots his stump to look closer. “Great stitching. Is it cut on a bias?”

“Why, yes! Do you sew?”

“Ma made us learn,” Bern, the goth teen, says through a curtain of his hair. “Hutch is the best at it.”

Hutch points to Teddy’s bedroom. “I made those curtains.”

“OMG!” I squeal. “I love those curtains. I’m thinking of doing something with cute little bears for my winter line.”

“OMG!” echoes Hutch with similar enthusiasm.

“There are bears everywhere here,” I say. “I’ve already seen three. It’s been amazing.”

“Yeah, we’ve got lots of bears.” Hutch laughs nervously.

“Do you see them too? One of them came right into the cabin and opened the fridge.”

“Um, no, that’s never happened to me.” His gaze darts around like crazy. The other two triplets stare at their plates.

“I’m thinking of doing a photoshoot here. Get some sexy mountain men to model for us. Who knows, maybe we’ll get a shot or two of the bears!”

A frozen silence sweeps the room. Hutch’s Adam’s apple bobs up and down. “I’m not sure that’s a good idea…”

“Why not?”

Teddy pushes away from the table. “Lana, you’ll have to excuse us. I need to talk to my brothers. Outside.”

Teddy

I stalk to the edge of the meadow, towards the treeline separating my cabin from the beehives, with my brothers pinging me with questions.

“What’s going on?” Hutch asks.

“Are you and Lana dating? And is she serious about the photoshoot?” Canyon flexes his skinny torso. “I could model.”

“Does she know about us?” This, quietly, from Bern.