Seducing Them 1
Unleashing Seduction
When Jasmine Picton’s car breaks down in the desert, Hunter
Wishram, the middle one of five werewolf shape-shifter brothers,
and his best friend mechanic Damien Hall, have no idea why she’s
there. But they do know they want her to stay—with them,
preferably in handcuffs. Jaz likes what’s she’s seen of the desert,
and of the men.
Jaz is traveling though Nevada looking for unregistered graveyards
for the Cemetery Trust to list. It’s one way to keep her huge dog,
Phideaux, in kibble, and it’s like a never-ending vacation for
herself. Well, mostly it is, anyway. Except when Phideaux has an
encounter with a rattlesnake.
Hunter and Damien take Jaz out to the old Junctionville cemetery.
It’s a chance for them all to spend time together and get to know
each other better. Besides, maybe she can even use it for her job.
Of course, Phideaux comes with them as well.
Genre: BDSM, Contemporary, Ménage a Trois/Quatre,
Paranormal, Vampires/Werewolves
Length: 36,003 words
UNLEASHING SEDUCTION
Seducing Them 1
Cara Adams
MENAGE EVERLASTING
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A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK
IMPRINT: Ménage Everlasting
UNLEASHING SEDUCTION
Copyright © 2014 by Cara Adams
E-book ISBN: 978-1-63258-734-3
First E-book Publication: December 2014
Cover design by Les Byerley
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UNLEASHING SEDUCTION
Seducing Them 1
CARA ADAMS
Copyright © 2014
Chapter One
“Come on, come on, come onnn, you useless bucket of bolts. It
can’t be more than a couple of miles now. You can do it.” Jasmine
Picton thumped the steering wheel encouragingly, trying to will her
crappy, piece-of-shit of a car to keep going.
The car coughed threateningly, then chugged a bit, and kept
moving.
“Good car. You can do it. It’s not far now.”
Her huge dog put his enormous paw on her thigh and barked
helpfully.
“Yeah, right, Phideaux. If this car dies, you’re going to have to
push it to Junctionville. You’re much stronger and heavier than me.”
She flicked a glance at him. His tongue hung out of his mouth,
and he grinned back at her. Obviously he thought she was joking.
Hmm. Superstitiously she crossed her toes. Her feet were bare, so it
was easy to do. She’d turned off the car air-conditioner as soon as
she’d realized it was a hell of a long way to the next gas station in the
hope of using less fuel. So far, so good.
But it was fiendishly hot in the car, even with all the windows
open, so she’d kicked her sandals off so her feet wouldn’t sweat so
much.
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Cara Adams
The car coughed again and slowed. Jaz stared at the fuel gauge
and tapped it, but the little red pointer remained firmly on full. It’d
taken her much too long to work out the gauge was broken and even
longer to figure out that her reckoning of how many miles per gallon
the old gas guzzler would achieve was too optimistic. By then she was
miles from anywhere and just had to hope she could make it to
Junctionville and refuel before the car stopped.
By her estimation it must be close. It’d been fifty miles from the
last sign she’d seen, and that had to be done by now. Or soon. The
speed limit out here in Nowheresville was sixty-five miles per hour,
and she’d been doing that until the car had started acting up. She was
sure she’d passed the sign near enough to an hour ago, so yes. The
town should be just about around the next bend. The good news was
they were going downhill at present. Not much. The land right here
was close to flat, but it was a slight downhill slope, so technically that
would make the gas last a bit longer.
As if to prove her wrong, the car coughed again, slowed even
more, and then the engine died on her. Desperately Jaz stomped on
the accelerator and turned the ignition key, but it just gave her a really
sad sound with so sign of the motor starting.
“Hmm, what do you think, Phideaux? Should I turn the engine off
or leave it on? This’s never happened before. What am I supposed to
do now?”
The big mutt just stared at her.
“Such a helpful reply.” She sighed.
The car was going much slower now, not a lot faster than walking
pace, but it was still rolling on the road, and that sure as hell beat
walking, so she gripped the steering wheel and guided it around the
corner.
The first thing she saw was a gas station, less than half a mile
ahead. The car was still rolling slightly, although hardly moving now.
She leaned forward and bounced in her seat then tapped Phideaux’s
fat ass.
Unleashing Seduction
9
“Lean on the dashboard, buddy. If you don’t want to push this pile
of trash, we could use some momentum here.”
She had to give him a shove, but obediently, he put his two front
paws on the dashboard and pressed his nose against the windshield.
That did help, and the car rolled a little faster, although it was damn
hard to steer now. She wondered if she should have left the car
ignition on “accessories,” but since the engine wasn’t going,
somehow it seemed better to switch the thing off. Couldn’t there be
the danger of fire or something? It was as hot as hell out here in the
boondocks, and she could believe just about anything would catch fire
very easily.
She rocked forward in her seat, trying to keep the car moving, and
Phideaux helpfully pressed his body against the glass. It was enough.
She used all her strength and turned the vehicle into the gas station. It
crawled over the slightest bump in the pavement and stopped. Quickly
she hauled on the parking brake before it could roll backward out onto
the road again. Not that she’d seen a single passing vehicle in the last
half-hour. Still, the way her freaking luck was going at the moment,
the very second she lost control of the car would be when someone
slammed into her, turning it into a genuine bucket of bolts, instead of
just a figurative one.
She opened the car door and reached down into the footwell,
looking for her sandals. She knew the ground out here would be too
hot to stand on in bare feet, and besides, there’d be spiders and
scorpions and ants and god only knew what else to bite her here in the
desert.
Phideaux lurched across her body and jumped down onto the
cracked concrete of the gas station.
“Wait up, buddy. I need to put my shoes on.”
She found one sandal, but the other one had slid underneath the
seat. After she fished it out and slipped it on, she sat up again just in
time to see the huge mutt racing across the desert at full speed.
“Phideaux you idiot, get back here,” she yelled.
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Cara Adams
He didn’t slow down, far less turn to look at her. Jaz snatched her
wallet out of the glove compartment, pushed it into the back pocket of
her cutoffs, and then raced after him. “Stupid mutt. Why couldn’t you
wait a minute?”
* * * *
Hunter was the third of the five Wishram brothers. Werewolves
had a tendency to breed more boys than girls, but his mother had kept
hoping she’d get a girl. After five sons she’d given up and said she’d
wait for a daughter-in-law.
She was still waiting. There weren’t a lot of people out here in the
middle of the desert, and in particular, there weren’t women. In
Hunter’s opinion, women liked cities and air-conditioning and milder
weather. He loved the desert. It was harsh, but it suited him.
He and his brothers managed the gas station at Junctionville. In
fact, the five of them were Junctionville since his parents had retired
to the air-conditioned comfort of the nearest town, over one hundred
miles away. Because the brothers had lived here all their lives, they’d
gradually each made an area of the business their own. His was the
garage. His family advertised Junctionville as the last full-service gas
station in America. Likely that was an exaggeration, but they didn’t
just serve gas and snacks.
He was a qualified mechanic, and he and his best friend, Damien
Hall, were able to repair most vehicles, at least enough for the owner
to drive them on into town. Not that they got a lot of work. There
weren’t that many breakdowns way out here. But they did service all
kinds of machinery for the families living within an hour or so’s drive
of Junctionville. Especially the ones who’d have to travel an extra
hour on from Junctionville into Burton or even farther to Towler.
As well, almost every tourist traveling past stopped here for gas. It
was a hell of a long way between gas stations out here, and most
travelers liked to gas up and get their oil and water checked as well.
Unleashing Seduction
11
Since they mostly also headed into the gas station to pick up water,
sodas, and snacks while they were stopped, it was enough of an
income to make the gas station viable.
His oldest brother, Forest, managed the store with the help of
Nyander Zaffre, who did most of the food preparation while Forest
did the paperwork and store inventory. Hunter’s mom used to make
the sandwiches and snacks. When she and his dad had moved into
town, Nyander had asked for the job. He and Forest were good
friends, so it’d all worked out well. Ny lived in the house with them
as well now, as the commute from Burton, one hundred miles west,
was annoying.
Besides, Hunter liked to eat, and a man who liked to cook was a
perfect match for their family business.
Hunter looked up from the engine he was servicing in the garage
when a woman screamed out something about Fido. There was no car
pulled up at the gas pumps, and he hadn’t heard a vehicle, so how did
a woman get here?
He grabbed a piece of rag to wipe his greasy fingers and walked to
the open door of the garage. A large old car was untidily parked half
in the entry to the gas station, the driver’s door wide open. He turned,
slowly scanning the area in a full three-sixty-degree search until he
saw her running out into the desert after a huge dog.
Damien came and stood beside him, also wiping his fingers.
“Where did she come from?”
Hunter pointed to her car.
“It doesn’t look like an electric car, so why didn’t we hear it?”
Hunter shrugged and turned to go back inside the garage.
Presumably she’d sort out whatever was the problem with her dog and
they’d find out after that. Likely she’d move her car across to the gas
pumps while she was here, although it was strange she hadn’t done
that before letting the dog out of the car.
Just then they heard frenzied barking, and the woman started
screaming again. Hunter whipped around and saw her holding the
12
Cara Adams
dog’s collar, trying to drag him away from something. But the pooch
was enormous, and she was no match for him.
“Rattler!” he said, dropping the rag and starting to run. Damien
was right behind him. “Have you still got a couple of doses of
antivenin in the house?”
“Probably.” He and his brothers were far too smart to get bitten. A
city woman, though, and that gigantic dog, were likely to do
something stupid. Maybe already had done something stupid. “Fuck.”
He ran faster, pounding across the desert toward them and wishing
he’d thought to bring a spade with him to cut the head off the snake.
If it was a snake. But that was the most likely scenario.
As he got closer, he could see the dog was facing off against a
rattler, just as he’d guessed. The snake was standing almost as tall as
the dog, swaying his head trying to mesmerize the mutt. The woman
had her arms around her pet and was clearly trying to drag him away,
but the animal was much bigger than her and had dug his claws into
the rocky desert soil, determined to frighten the snake.
Right now it seemed to Hunter that it was a Mexican standoff and
none of them were going to win.
Sensing Damien beside him he said, “I’ll snatch the woman. You
grab the dog.”
Hunter changed the direction of his approach, curving the line of
his arrival slightly so that if he fell over when he grabbed her she’d
fall backward, away from the snake, not forward or sideways closer to
it. Then he put on a burst of speed and launched himself at her,
wrapping his arms around her slender body and lifting her off the
ground then rolling so he’d land on the hard, rocky soil, not her.
She screeched and kept hold of the dog’s collar, refusing to let go,
but his strength was enough to surprise the mutt into movement.
Damien reached for the dog at the same time as Hunter snatched
the woman, and they all rolled backward away from the rattler in a
tangled mess of limbs and paws.
Unleashing Seduction
13
Out of nowhere, like something from a bad movie, came the
command, “Freeze!”
Ignoring it, the woman tried to push him away from her, but
Hunter had recognized Nyander’s voice and guessed what was about
to happen. He held her tightly against his body, subconsciously aware
of her soft curves and hot skin even as a single shot broke the silence.
He jumped to his feet, leaning over her, keeping his hands on her
arms and said, “Don’t go near the snake. A rattlesnake has a deadly
bite for up to three minutes after it’s dead.”
Paying no attention to his words, she jammed her elbow into his
ribs and yelled, “Phideaux!”
The dog barked reassuringly, and Hunter straightened up properly,
looking all around. As he’d expected, Damien had a firm grip on the
dog, although he was still sprawled on the ground, partially over the
animal. Nyander was standing over the rattlesnake, watching its body
twitch. The head was mostly shot off the body, but it was still wise to
wait a few minutes before touching it.
The woman crouched down next to the dog, holding its head and
looking into its eyes. “Buddy, that was a fucking stupid thing to do.
Don’t ever scare me like that again, okay?”
“What you did was pretty damn stupid as well,” said Nyander.
Keeping one hand on the dog’s collar—as if that’d stop such a
powerful beast—she looked at the three of them.
“Who are you? Where did you all come from?” she asked.
“It’d be kind of cool if you answered that question as well,”
replied Damien.
Yeah, that’s what Hunter thought, too.
* * * *
Damien’s first thought had been, “How come you get the girl, and
I’m stuck with the dog?” but he’d have that out with Hunter later.
Right now he wanted to know where the woman had come from, why
14
Cara Adams
she’d parked her car in the driveway instead of by the store or by the
gas pumps, and what the fuck had possessed her to let the animal out
of the car until she’d attached the leash to its collar. Likely it’d still
get away from her if it wanted to—it probably weighed twice what
she did—but at least she’d have had some hope of controlling the
mutt. And was its name Buddy or Fido? She’d called it both names so
far.
He leaned over and grasped the dog’s collar. The last thing he
wanted to do was to chase it over half of Junctionville again. “Come
on, Buddy, or Fido, or whoever you are. Let’s move this meeting out
of the sun.”
He saw Ny pick up the rattler by the tail and figured they’d be
eating rattler chili for supper but was more interested in hearing the
woman’s story. Since she hadn’t said anything yet, he held out his
right hand to her. “I’m Damien Hall. Pleased to meet you.”
He heard Ny snort and Hunter snigger but waited until she shook
his hand. Hers was hot, sweaty, and dusty, but also small and cute.
Like her.
“Jasmine Picton. I’m usually called Jaz, and my dog is named
Phideaux. Spelled with a P H, and an E A U X. He’d been named
Fido by the shelter, but I wanted him to feel a bit more special than
that without confusing him.”
He couldn’t help grinning at her words, but Hunter was nudging
her back toward the gas station, so he walked along with them,
leaving Ny to bring up the rear with the snake.
“I’m Hunter, and Nyander is the one with the gun. Why didn’t
you pull into the gas station properly?”
“The car’s out of gas. It was rolling down the hill into your store,
but the bump at the entry stopped it.”
“Didn’t you see all the signs back in town that said there was no
gas or water for one hundred miles and to be sure to stock up?”
“Of course I did. I’m not blind. The gas gauge doesn’t work.” She
turned around and faced them with her hands on her hips, the dog
Unleashing Seduction
15
forgotten for the time being. Damien kept a tight grip on the collar in
case the mutt—Phideaux—decided to take off again.
They trekked back to the gas station, and Damien said, “Why
don’t you get the dog’s lead and go into the store out of the heat, and
then Hunter and I’ll push your car over to the pumps and fill it up for
you?”
She dived into the trunk of the car, which had at least two
suitcases in it from what Damien could see, and emerged with the
leash, which she clipped to Phideaux’s collar. “Let’s go get you some
water, buddy. Thank you, Damien and Hunter, for looking after my
car.”
Damien watched her attractive little butt disappear into the store,
and noticed Ny had vanished as well, presumably to skin the snake.
“We forgot to ask for the car keys,” he said.
“No problem. They’re still in the ignition.”
“Likely that’s safe enough since the car doesn’t go right now,” he
said.
“If it really won’t go. Let me try.” Hunter slid into the driver’s
seat and cranked the engine, but nothing happened. He stood up again
and held the steering wheel with one hand while putting his shoulder
to the door pillar to help push. Damien went around to the trunk and
gave the vehicle a good hard shove to get it out of the shallow gutter,
and then it was an easy push over to the pumps.
A 2004 Chevy Malibu had a sixteen-gallon gas tank, from what he
remembered. He leaned against the fender and watched as Hunter put
almost sixteen and a half gallons into the car. “I guess it really was
empty,” he said.
“Reckon so. The question is, will it start now?” Hunter got back
into the driver’s seat and pumped the gas pedal three times. The
engine coughed, choked, and then roared. Damien looked over his
shoulder. “I’m on a bit of an angle here, but it looks like the fuel
gauge is working now. It says full.”
16
Cara Adams
“Yep. I’ll pull it over closer to the store.” Damien waited while
Hunter did that, and then they walked inside into the blessed cool of
the air conditioning. Forest handed them each a mug of ice water.
Damien drank his straight down, and Forest gave him a second one.
Jaz was sitting at a table by the window, the dog at her feet. In front
of her was a frosty-cold bottle of iced tea, half consumed. The dog’s
water dish was almost empty, and the mutt was licking his lips.
“Your car is all gassed up now, and it started just fine,” said
Hunter.
“The gas gauge showed full, so it’s working again, too,” added
Damien.
Jaz shook her head. Some of her short brown curls bounced
jauntily, but the rest of her hair was still stuck to her face and head
with sweat. Still, she was smiling now, and her brown eyes were
bright and happy.
“It says full all the time. That’s how I didn’t realize I should have
filled the gas tank back at the last town I passed through. Usually
when I tap the gauge, it unsticks and moves to the correct place. I’d
tapped it a couple of times, and it didn’t move, but it wasn’t until I
thought about it, after I was a long way out of that last town, that I
worked out it must have broken and I couldn’t be getting such good
mileage per gallon.”
“Are you on deadline? Hunter and I could take a look at it for you.
We’re both mechanics.”
She stared at him. “Mechanics? Way out here? Amazing.”
Damien’s heart beat faster at the friendly smile on her face. Damn
she was cute. Even with sweaty hair and a huge dog at her feet, he
wanted to snatch her out of her chair and kiss her.
“Machinery breaks down anywhere. It’ll take us an hour or so to
pull it out, clean it, and put it back. Are you good to wait?”
“Sure. I’ll eat a snack and then take Phideaux for a walk.”
She must have noticed his frown because she quickly added, “On
the leash.”
Unleashing Seduction
17
He and Hunter headed back out to the garage, but he said, “She’ll
never manage to keep hold of the lead if that pooch decides to run
off.”
“Yeah, I know. Still, maybe he’ll choose to obey her if there isn’t
a rattler nearby.”
It was true they didn’t see all that many snakes so close to the
house and store. The snakes preferred to stay away from the noise and
bustle of people. The rodents and small birds they ate were usually
found away from human habitation, so that’s where the snakes tended
to live as well.
His stated time for the job of an hour would have been accurate
except that, when they pulled the gas gauge apart, they found a
section wasn’t just dirty, but broken.
“Now what do we do?” he asked Hunter. They could slide the gas
gauge back into place still broken and send her on her way to the next
large town, where she could likely get a part inside the hour. Or they
could take several hours and make a part that would work, even
though it would never be approved by the Chevrolet manufacturer.
Still, on a car this old, ten years or so, that wasn’t much of a
consideration.
“The real problem is that if we make a fix likely it’ll be dark by
the time we’re done,” said Hunter.
“There are plenty of spare rooms in the house. Don’t you still
keep a couple made up ready for unexpected guests? Your parents
always did.”
Hunter wiped his hands on a piece of rag. “Yes, the two guest
rooms are always kept ready and waiting. Yuchi makes sure they’re
always fresh and nice. I think Jasmine’s cute. I’d like to get to know
her better.”
Damien’s heart beat faster. He and Hunter had talked about
sharing a woman if they ever found one. The Supreme Alpha of
werewolves for North America had approved werewolves sharing a
woman a year or more ago, so werewolf ménages were possible.
18
Cara Adams
Although Damien wasn’t a wolf, Hunter was, and Damien was happy
enough to share a woman with his good friend. It wasn’t as though
there were many women out here. Homes in the desert were few and
far between, and he hated the city. There were plenty of women in the
city, but he didn’t plan to live there even to find a woman. His home
was here, in the desert.
“I think she’s cute, too, but it isn’t going to be possible to woo her
in a few hours. Besides, she might have a husband or boyfriend she’s
on her way to meet right now, even though she isn’t wearing rings.
She’s certainly going somewhere. I saw two suitcases in the trunk of
her car.”
“She’s here now. In our town. Practically in my house. We should
offer to phone the manufacturer and suggest she wait here for a part.
It’ll take about the same time to get here as to get to town anyway.
And while she’s here, there’s nothing to stop us getting to know her
better. Much, much, much better.”
“Uh-huh. And if she’s in a rush to get somewhere else?”
“We talk her out of it.” Hunter spoke firmly.
Damien grinned. “That sounds good to me.”
Unleashing Seduction
19
Chapter Two
When she was traveling, Jaz usually stopped at a park and threw a
ball to Phideaux to give him the opportunity to run off some energy.
He was a big dog and needed lots of exercise. When they’d lived in
their old home, they’d regularly gone on real runs together, but now
that she was constantly on the move, that was a lot harder to organize
on a regular basis. Besides, here in the desert it was too hot to run.
However, right now his ball was on the backseat of the car
somewhere, and there was no way she was picking up a stick to throw
to him in case it was another snake. So she kept hold of his lead and
they walked decorously out to a pile of rocks maybe a quarter of a
mile into the desert and in clear view of the gas station so she couldn’t
possibly get lost.
She scrambled up to stand on top of the rocky outcrop, Phideaux
beside her, resting against her leg. She petted his head as she looked
all around.
“It’s kind of pretty, I guess, with all the different colors in the dirt
and sand and rock, but it’s very barren. The only trees anywhere near
here are around the store. I guess that means there’s not much water
here for them to grow. Although I’m sure someone told me that even
in the desert there’s always water if you dig down. Maybe it’s too far
down or there’s no one around here to dig.”
Phideaux just stared at her, his tongue hanging out.
Once again she stroked his head and sighed. “I guess we’d better
go back. The car should be ready soon, and we’ll stop at the next
town for the night, even if they don’t have a cemetery.”
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Cara Adams
Phideaux barked. He recognized the word cemetery, likely
because they’d been visiting dozens of them over the past few
months. Jaz shrugged her shoulders. She had the world’s craziest job,
and it didn’t pay much more than minimum wage, but they did
reimburse her for her gas, and she got a three hundred dollar bonus
every time she located a cemetery that wasn’t already on the
Cemetery Trust’s records.
The other woman hired at the same time as her spent her days
sitting at a desk trawling through websites and local histories looking
for lost cemeteries. Jaz could have done that as well, but she thought
the ones that were lost would be more likely to be located in small
towns that had barely dipped their toes into the online world. Ghost
towns, tiny towns, towns a long way from anywhere else, where the
people didn’t care about an online presence.
So she’d given notice at her apartment, told Goodwill to collect
her tenth-hand furniture, and packed her dog and her possessions into
her Chevy and set off to visit isolated communities. Her gamble was
paying off, too. When she found a neglected cemetery, she spent a
day or two talking to the local community. Almost invariably
someone would direct her to another small town where there was a
potential cemetery for her list. Since her gas was covered by the
Cemetery Trust, as long as she found two cemeteries a month, she
earned enough to keep Phideaux in kibble as well as feed herself.
Besides, it was a like a never-ending vacation, always moving on
somewhere new, seeing new scenery, meeting new people. She
camped in national parks that permitted dogs, cooked over a campfire,
and swam in lakes and rivers. It was fun. Not exactly a forever way of
life, but as an open-ended paying vacation, it was perfect.
It was still hot, but Jaz knew Phideaux needed the exercise, so
they ran back toward the gas station. She slowed to a walk once they
got close, aware of how sweaty her T-shirt was from the day’s
activities. The first thing she needed to do when she reached a town
was have a shower. Or maybe there was somewhere to camp not far
Unleashing Seduction
21
from here. That would be even better. Camping was cheaper than
staying in town.
She looked into the garage, but, although her car was there, none
of the men were with it. She turned and walked to the store again, but
the man there was one she’d seen before but whose name she didn’t
know.
“Hi, Jaz. I’ll tell Hunter you’re back.”
Instead of sending a text message, as she’d expected, he walked
out the back of the store somewhere, and she could hear him yelling,
“Hunter!”
It was nineteenth century communication, but it still worked.
Hunter and Damien arrived fast.
“Hey, Jaz. The gas gauge on your car is broken.”
“You need to get a replacement.”
“Would you like us to order one in for you?”
“It’ll likely take two or three days to arrive.”
The two men spoke one after the other without waiting for her to
collect her breath. Well fuck. That was an expense she didn’t want or
need. But, on the other hand, she did need a working gas gauge.
Today had shown her that pretty dramatically.”
“Are there any old, neglected cemeteries around here?”
“What?”
“Are you a vampire?” asked Damien.
* * * *
Hunter had prepared several good arguments to convince Jaz to
stay the night with them. He’d checked with his youngest brother,
Yuchi, that the guest room was ready for her, and he and Damien had
both showered and gotten changed. Damien hadn’t had time to go to
his own house, so he was wearing one of Hunter’s T-shirts and a pair
of Hunter’s brother Hawk’s jeans.
22
Cara Adams
He’d thought Jaz might ask the price of the new gauge, and he
was prepared to do the labor for free to keep her here longer. What he
hadn’t expected was for her to ask about a cemetery. A cemetery for
fuck’s sake.
Fortunately she was giggling at Damien’s question.
“Of course not. I’d be fried to a crisp in this sunshine if I was a
vampire.”
Suddenly he realized she might be mourning a departed loved one
and that they weren’t being very sympathetic. Immediately he wiped
the grin off his face and said quietly, “I’m sorry. Has someone you’re
close to passed away recently?”
But she smiled at him. “No, nothing like that. My job is looking
for lost cemeteries.”
“How can a cemetery be lost?” asked Damien.
“Yeah. I’d like to know that, too.”
“I’m employed by the Cemetery Trust to locate cemeteries that
aren’t on their official list. Ones that haven’t updated their records for
years and aren’t in the database. I go around looking in small towns
for cemeteries that haven’t been updated and get them added to the
Cemetery Trust’s paperwork. So, are there any like that nearby?”
Hunter shrugged. He really didn’t have any idea. “The only
cemetery anywhere around here is the Junctionville one. Is that on the
list?”
“I don’t know, but I can check it out. My car is still drivable,
right? As long as I’m careful not to go too far and run out of gas?
How far away is the cemetery?”
“Ten miles maybe? Damien and I can come with you and help
you find it. It’s off the main road.”
“Meanwhile, shall we order in a new gas gauge for you?” asked
Damien.
“I don’t really have a choice, do I? I guess so. How much is it
going to cost me?”
Unleashing Seduction
23
“We’ll give you a discount on the labor. I’ll order it now, and then
I can tell you how much it’ll cost and when it’ll arrive.”
Hunter made the call and heard her asking Damien about whether
or not camping was allowed in their area. He wondered if she usually
camped while looking for cemeteries. What a weird job. He’d never
heard of anything like it before.
“There are guest rooms here in the house for people who are
stranded in Junctionville. You’d be most welcome to stay here,” said
Damien.
Hunter heard Jaz reply in a happy voice and then concentrated on
his call.
Of course the Chevy dealership in town was closed now, but he
knew the owner so was able to order the part anyway. That was the
advantage of living in the desert. Everyone knew everyone else.
Living was communal and cooperative because sooner or later anyone
might need help out here. The desert was a harsh environment and
completely unforgiving. But it was also a place of incredible beauty.
Hunter had never considered living anywhere else.
“That’s all sorted. Let’s go and collect your luggage, and then I’ll
show you to the guest room.”
“Ny’s cooking snake chili for supper. It’s delicious. You’ll love
it.”
Phideaux barked, and they all laughed. Hunter wondered if the
dog sensed a kindred spirit in them because of their werewolf side.
Not only wasn’t he snarling or showing any sign of being unhappy
around them, he seemed to positively accept them. That was good
news as well.
Damien said, “I guess he can have some, too. Does he like chili?”
“Of course. Apart from his dry food, he pretty much eats whatever
I’m eating.”
Hunter and Damien walked over to the garage, and he handed her
back her car keys. He and Damien had closed the windows and locked
the car, although the likelihood of anyone stealing anything out here
24
Cara Adams
was very small. Most people pulled into the gas station instead of
going past, and there was an electronic touch pad beside each gas
pump that rang a bell inside the house. Even if they were all asleep,
the bell would wake him up for sure.
Jaz took a backpack off the backseat, slinging it over her
shoulders and locked the car again. The car was so old she had to
push down a button to lock it.
“Oh yeah. I’m surprised central locking wasn’t mandatory on that
model even in 2004,” said Damien.
“I think this car was the bottom of the range. But it suits me fine
and goes great.”
“Sorry, I wasn’t meaning to be rude about your wheels.”
Hunter patted the fender as they stepped out of the garage. This
time he and Damien pulled down the roller door and locked it. Once
again, likely it was unnecessary and not something they bothered to
do all the time. Hopefully they’d be spending all day tomorrow with
Jasmine, not working, so a closed roller door would let the local
community know that the garage was shut for the day. If anyone
really needed them, they’d stop at the gas station anyway, and Forest
would call them.
Hunter led the way into the house and showed her the guest room
and then pointed to the guest bathroom, which was opposite her
bedroom. Then he waved his arm down the hallway and said, “When
you’re ready, come and join us in the kitchen.”
“Have I got time for a shower?” she asked.
“Sure. Supper will be another half-hour at least. The snake had to
marinate for a while before Nyander could begin cooking it.”
“Thank you. A shower will be great.”
He and Damien left her then and headed to the back of the house.
The house was connected to the store by a fully enclosed short
passageway. It had originally been a sort of conservatory for his
mother’s fruit trees when they were small and needed constant care.
Unleashing Seduction
25
They’d long since matured and been planted out in the garden, but
Yuchi still watered them conscientiously once a week.
Because of the way the house and the store were joined together,
the kitchen was an enormous room looking out over the garden
between the two buildings. The house had a wide stoop running
around two sides of it. That had been where the boys had played when
it rained when they were children, and now it was where they sat and
relaxed, drinking coffee and watching the sun rise or set.
The house faced the desert, so the kitchen and the garden were at
the back of it, but so was the store, the gas station, the garage, and the
road, so the back had become the front, commonly used entry, and the
stoop overlooking the desert was now the back.
It didn’t matter. The scenery remained just as restful whether they
looked out onto the green grass and flowering shrubs and trees of the
garden or the endless horizon of the desert.
He and Damien walked into the kitchen and sat at the long table.
“That chili smells great,” he said to Ny.
* * * *
Damien often ate with the Wishram brothers. All five of them had
black hair and black eyes, and all five of them were werewolf shape-
shifters. Their personalities varied a lot though, and Hunter was not
only the closest in age to him but also the one he felt most
emotionally akin to. Since finding a woman out here in the desert was
difficult, he’d agreed to partner with Hunter and, if they found woman
they both wanted, to mate her under shape-shifter law, where
ménages were legal.
That meant not just finding a woman, which would be a difficult
thing here in Junctionville, but also finding a woman who didn’t mind
shape-shifters.
Well, today their search was looking the most positive it ever had
been. Not only was Jasmine the cutest thing he’d seen in a very long
26
Cara Adams
time, but she also liked big dogs, which gave him a good feeling that
she might also like werewolves.
The rich scent of chili filled the air, and he breathed in deeply.
“Damn that smells good, Ny,” he called out. Ny had his back to the
room as he stirred several big pots on the cooktop, but he still
acknowledged Damien by waving a wooden spoon, never lifting his
gaze from his task.
“You were all really lucky that Ny joined you when your parents
left to live in town,” he said to the crowd of brothers sitting down at
the enormous table. The table was a scarred trestle of solid wood,
damaged over countless years of young boys, and then adolescents,
sitting at it to eat, play board games, do their homework, and
socialize. The kitchen was by far the largest room in the house. The
formal dining room, with its polished teak table seating ten people,
had never been used to Damien’s knowledge, although maybe Forest,
the oldest brother, could correct him about that.
The same was almost true for the formal living room, a stuffy,
too-small space crammed with two sofas, two armchairs, and an old
upright piano. The piano had been used. Every brother had been
obliged to learn to play piano by their mother, who insisted they
needed “some culture.” Hawk, the second brother, liked to play and
still did, entertaining them all sometimes with his ability to play old
holiday songs, classical music, or the latest tunes, depending on his
mood at the time.
The others had all stopped learning as soon as they could wiggle
out of it.
Forest entered the kitchen just then, sitting at the foot of the table.
“I’ve locked the store. If anyone wants me, they’ll ring the bell,” he
said. The touch pads by the gas pumps rang a buzzer in the house,
alerting them of customers, but there was also an old bell with a rope
to ring by the door of the store. It dated back to the days when
Hunter’s parents ran both the gas station and store while rearing their
Unleashing Seduction
27
children and didn’t necessarily stay where they could see customers
arrive.
These days anyone local usually phoned or texted if they wanted
something urgent, but there were still occasional passersby who rang
the bell when they were in a rush for gas or something important.
Yuchi passed piles of plates, glasses, and forks around then
proceeded to add platters of bread, butter, rice, and giant jug of ice
water to the center of the table. A dozen longnecks were next, and
Damien helped ensure there was crockery and cutlery at each place
setting.
He looked up as Jaz appeared in the doorway, Phideaux at her
side. She looked pretty, cool, and fresh in another pair of denim shorts
and a turquoise T-shirt.
“Why don’t you sit here, at the end of the table, and I’ll get
Phideaux some water,” said Hunter, jumping out of his chair.
“Fido?” asked Yuchi.
Damien added to the chorus of those spelling the dog’s name, and
then Jaz said, “It was his name in the shelter. I didn’t want to confuse
him, but I changed the spelling because he’s special to me.”
That was pretty much what she’d said to him and Hunter. Likely
she got tired of having to tell people all the time, but he liked that she
took the trouble to explain. She’d wanted the dog to be different, and
she didn’t just let that slide and allow people to think whatever they
wanted. She explained to everyone that he was special to her.
Phideaux was a damn lucky mutt.
The meal was delicious, and the talk around the table flowed
freely. Damien liked that when he visited with the Wishrams. Each
one was quite different, and arguments could and did break out. But
they all respected each other’s opinions as well. The fights were
always about the topic. Never about the person.
He was also extremely pleased to see how well Jaz fit in with the
group. At one stage Hunter and Hawk were arguing about philosophy
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Cara Adams
and whether or not Rene Descartes was truly the father of modern
philosophy. The large room was abuzz with people’s opinions.
“You’re quiet, Damien. What do you think?” asked Jaz.
“You all lost me when you translated, ‘I think therefore I am’ into
the original Latin. ‘Cogito ergo sum.’ He was French. Why didn’t he
say it in French? Besides, I liked it better when you were talking
about his mathematical and physics discoveries. I understand math
better than I do Latin.”
“He should never have written that book on geometry. I blame
him totally for my low grades,” said Hunter.
“I’d think they were more likely caused because you were always
messing around in class instead of working,” said Forest.
“I remember that. You could never sit still,” added Ny.
“He still can’t,” chorused Yuchi and Stone.
Damien looked at Jaz, who was grinning, her head turning from
side to side as she watched and listened to the conversation flow
across the table. Damien relaxed. His own house was silent, peaceful,
and restful. He tended to sit on his back porch and sip coffee alone,
staring out at the ever-changing colors of the desert. It was heaven.
But being here in among the noise and vigor of a large, opinionated
family was also damn good. And even better was that it didn’t seem
to faze Jaz at all. That was extra good news indeed.
After they ate, Damien and Hunter took Jaz and Phideaux out into
the garden and let the dog run around for ten minutes. He watched to
make sure Phideaux didn’t damage Hunter’s mother’s precious fruit
trees, but the giant mutt was happy chasing a ball that Jaz retrieved
from her bedroom.
“Tomorrow we’ll take you out to the cemetery,” Hunter said when
the dog was lying at Jaz’s feet, tongue lolling out of his mouth.
“Shouldn’t you both be at work?” she asked.
“Your gas gauge won’t arrive until the afternoon of the day after
tomorrow, and the maintenance we’re doing at the moment is on
machinery for a man who won’t need to use it for a couple of months
Unleashing Seduction
29
yet. He likes to get it checked every year and any worn parts repaired
or replaced is all. There’s no rush on it,” said Damien. He was so
looking forward to spending time with her. Maybe holding her hand,
or even kissing her if she let him.
They’d take the old Range Rover because it was more appropriate
for driving across the desert, but an added bonus was that the cab had
three seats in it, so Jaz would be tucked between him and Hunter. He
just hoped Phideaux behaved in the backseat. Still, he was used to
traveling in a car, so likely he’d be fine.
“How far is it? What time do you need us to be ready to leave?”
asked Jaz, her eyes sparkling with happiness.
Damien worked hard to hide his grin. It would never have
occurred to him that taking a woman to a cemetery would make her
happy or that he’d consider it a date. But right now the cemetery trip
was ticking all the boxes.
“We’ll give you a tour of the desert around here as well,” said
Damien, wanting to make the most of the time with Jasmine.
“Is eight too early? The mornings are cooler and much more
pleasant than the afternoons,” said Hunter.
“Eight is fine. Thank you so much for letting me and Phideaux
stay here.”
Hunter opened the door for Jasmine, and Damien followed them
inside, wishing he could follow her all the way to her room and kiss
her good night. Put his hands on her cute little butt and hold her lithe,
soft body against his dick. His dick that had been half hard from the
moment he’d seen her running across the desert screaming at her dog.
“I’d better get going,” he said to Hunter after Jaz’s door closed.
“See you tomorrow.”
“I’ll be here before eight.” Hell, likely he’d be here before seven.
He couldn’t wait for tomorrow.
* * * *
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Cara Adams
The house was very old but sturdy and well maintained. Jaz
guessed, with so many males in the family, likely that was a no-
brainer. There’d always be someone available to fix whatever broke
or to repaint. The room she was staying in was painted in cool pastel
blues with a deeper blue comforter on the bed and a thick blue rug
between the bed and the dresser. Phideaux settled there perfectly
happily, which was good. His own blanket was still in the car, and she
didn’t think it would be fair to ask one of the men to unlock the
garage so she could fetch it. The desert could get cold at night. She
knew that.
Likely it wouldn’t be too cold in the house though. Her sleeping
bag was rated for snow, so even camping out she was never cold at
night. Besides, with Phideaux in the tent with her, all the space was
filled so they kept each other warm.
She settled in the bed, reveling in the deep, soft mattress and
cushy pillow. It was certainly much more luxurious than camping.
But the cruel truth was, with her current job, paying her rent would
likely have been too much for her budget. Phideaux was a big dog and
ate a lot, but she would never part with him. He was excellent
company, her best friend, and he kept her safe while she wandered
through the country looking for cemeteries.
One day she’d have to settle down and try harder to get a real job.
But not yet. And not tomorrow. Tomorrow she was being taken to a
cemetery by two incredible, handsome men. How awesome was that!
She didn’t know any of these people really, yet they’d all been
endlessly helpful and caring. Damien and Hunter had been especially
interested in helping her and she had to admit to herself they were
very good-looking men. Likely some of the sexiest men she’d ever
seen.
She was up, dressed, and had packed her backpack by seven and
walked into the kitchen hoping to be able to make herself some coffee
and toast or a bowl of cereal.
Unleashing Seduction
31
Instead, Ny handed her a plate with a huge pile of crispy strips of
bacon on it, two eggs, and two pieces of toast.
“Wow. Thank you.”
“That bacon is all for you. I’ve got some here for Phideaux, along
with a nice bone for him to chew.”
“Thank you. You’re spoiling us.”
“I’m used to cooking for a crowd.”
With five brothers in the family she guessed that was true. “Do
many people stop at the gas station for a meal?” she asked as she took
her plate over to the table and poured herself some coffee from the pot
already sitting there.
“Everyone always wants coffee. My coffee is much better than
anyone else’s so even people who live around here often drop in for
coffee or buy coffee to go whenever they’re heading into town. A lot
of the locals stop for a snack when they’re traveling past, and anyone
journeying through usually stops as well for gas and a snack. It can
get surprisingly busy.”
Jaz guessed he didn’t mean busy in a city sort of way, but it was
good to know they had ample customers. His food was certainly
worth stopping for. Phideaux had wolfed down his bacon already and
was gnawing his bone. Jaz wasn’t sure she could eat this much food,
but it was so delicious she wasn’t planning to stop munching just yet.
She’d finished the mountain of food and was wondering how to
broach the topic of payment. Their livelihood appeared to be the gas
station and the store. She’d eaten their yummy food, slept in their
house, and didn’t want to take advantage of them. She had a tent she
could have stayed in out in the desert somewhere. But she didn’t want
to seem ungrateful either. They’d all been incredibly welcoming and
accepting of her and to offer to pay seemed rather crass and rude.
Jaz was at a loss as to know how to proceed. Besides, what if they
asked for a sum she couldn’t afford on top of what the new gas gauge
was going to cost her? Damn, she was in a bit of a pickle here. Maybe
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Cara Adams
she should wait until she could bring the topic up more gently while
they were on the way to the cemetery.
She thanked Ny for the meal and then took Phideaux outside for a
run before they left. She threw his ball for him to fetch, careful not to
go too far into the desert. When she saw Damien and Hunter standing
out in front of the gas station, she called Phideaux and walked back to
them.
They really were very handsome. Every time she saw them she
was struck even more about how good-looking they were, yet how
kind and considerate they’d been toward her. One thing she’d learned
as she’d been traveling around for the past four months was that many
people were helpful and nice, but many others were not. Finding an
entire clan of lovely people was utterly amazing. And these ones were
so damn pretty to look at as well it almost took her breath away.
“Do you want to get anything out of your car?” asked Hunter.
She saw the roller door was still down at the garage. “Everything I
need is in my backpack. I’ll just go and get it.”
“We’ll bring the Range Rover out the back of the house for you.
Come out there when you’re done,” said Damien.
“Sure. Thanks.”
She hurried back to the room she’d slept in, checking that it was
neat, and slung her backpack over her shoulder after putting
Phideaux’s ball back in the side pocket. She was already packed and
ready to leave, so it only took her a moment. Finding the right door to
leave by was more difficult. The house rambled in several directions.
Jaz walked down two different hallways, finding an exit door in each.
Both times she looked outside but didn’t see a truck waiting before
going back to the kitchen to ask Ny where she was supposed to go.
He wasn’t there anymore, but there was yet another exit door, and
this time it opened out onto a large patch of gravel with a battered old
white truck sitting there.
Damien jumped down from the cab and said, “There are three
seats up front, but Phideaux will need to sit in the back. Is that okay?”
Unleashing Seduction
33
Jaz looked in the back, but there was plenty of room there, even
for a big dog. The front seats had been pushed well back, and there
wouldn’t be much legroom for an adult, but Phideaux would have his
legs on the seat, so it was all good. “Sure. In you go, buddy.”
The dog jumped in, and she slung her backpack in after him and
then climbed up into the cab.
Damien scrambled in after her, and Hunter took off across the
desert, not on any road or track that she could see. “We’re going to
show you around the desert a bit on the way to the cemetery. How
much have you seen of this area so far?”
“The day before yesterday I looked all around a town maybe two
hundred fifty miles back. The cemetery there was small but well
looked after, and the priest at the church there didn’t know of any
abandoned cemeteries anywhere nearby. He gave me the name of his
colleague in Burton, and that’s where I was going when the car ran
out of gas.”
“Have you spent much time in the desert on your search for
cemeteries?” asked Damien.
Jaz had to stop and think. “I’ve been doing this gig for over four
months now. I started in Ohio, and I’ve more or less headed west and
just a little south. Even quite densely populated areas might have
abandoned cemeteries in them, but I feel small, out-of-the-way places
are more likely to provide me with success. I need to find two a
month to survive. All that is kind of a long way around for saying I
guess I’ve seen a lot of really pretty scenery, and I truly love the
traveling. But I have to actually find some cemeteries to get paid and
keep Phideaux in kibble and myself in food and stuff.”
Phideaux barked, and Jaz turned to pat his big head. He was
standing right behind her, his breath hot on the back of her neck. She
supposed he was looking out the windshield, watching where they
were going, just as he would be doing if they were in her car.
“How did you choose this job?” asked Hunter.
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Cara Adams
Jaz still couldn’t discern any track they were following, but she
trusted the men to find their way to the cemetery and home again.
However, she was glad they were driving. Likely she would have
gotten lost attempting this herself.
“I didn’t choose it. I worked for an auto parts distributer, and with
the downsizing in the auto industry, they closed. It took a while, but I
found a job as an aide in a middle school. They decided to cut back
the number of hours per week aides worked, and that meant it was
hard to make a living. This job has the advantage of me not needing to
pay rent, and it’s often like a vacation with time out-of-doors to play
with Phideaux while we look around. I decided we both deserved a
vacation, and it’s a lot of fun. But, yeah, I do need to get some results
as well.”
“I don’t understand. Couldn’t you do it just as well sitting at a
desk and doing computer searches?” asked Damien.
“Another woman is trying to work that way. It’s very hard though
because the entire point of the employment is that these are
cemeteries not listed with the Cemetery Trust. Besides, I couldn’t
afford to keep paying for my apartment, and right now, I don’t need
to.”
Hunter stopped the truck, and Jaz realized they were now higher
up with a view out over miles of desert. It wasn’t as though they were
up a mountain. Not even on top of a hill. But they were maybe twenty
feet higher than most of the desert around them. Jaz looked out on the
rolling brown land with touches of green here and there, some low,
scrubby bushes, rocks in red, brown, ocher, orange, and beige, and
every now and then a flash of color.
“Are the yellows there flowers?” she asked.
“That’s right. This is one of the few places you’ll see wildflowers.
The water table isn’t as far below the surface here as it is in a lot of
places.”
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35
Jaz nodded, understanding now why there were a few trees around
as well. Although tree was likely not the correct word. They were
mostly low to the ground and scrubby. Bushes maybe.
* * * *
Hunter was pleased with how the morning was going. Jaz had
been punctual, always an important point for him. He hated waiting
endlessly for anyone who was late. She’d been ready to talk to them
and seemed to genuinely like their land. All of those were massive
points in her favor. He wasn’t sure how they could help her find some
cemeteries, but he hoped like hell the Junctionville one wasn’t on the
Cemetery Trust list.
He took off again, turning slightly north now. At this time of year,
all the desert around here was safe to drive on. The land around
Junctionville was rocky, not sandy. Well, it had some sand as well,
but the rock was quite close to the surface, and there was a shovel and
several desert mats in the bed of the truck if they did get bogged
down. With two of them to dig and push, and Jaz to steer, it’d be no
problem if they hit trouble, but that wasn’t in his plans.
Just like he always carried twenty gallons of water in the truck. He
didn’t expect to need that either, but it was there just in case.
“Hunter, I understand your family has lived in Junctionville for
many years. What about you, Damien?”
“The Halls have been here even longer than the Wishrams. My
father’s father was born here. They talked about moving into town
when I started school, but I was happy catching the bus with Hunter
and his brothers. My parents were sure that Forest would look after
me if I needed help. He always was a bossy little boy.”
“Still is,” grunted Hunter. All five of the Wishram men had
distinct dominating tendencies. There was even a dungeon in the
basement of the family home, although it had seldom been used.
There wasn’t a BDSM club in either of the two closest towns, but
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Cara Adams
every once in a very long while, they’d traveled into Las Vegas where
pretty much everything was available.
He’d managed to learn a lot about BDSM on those few trips.
Information he hoped one day to use with his woman.
He supposed he could be termed a Dom in waiting. He’d had the
lessons and learned the skills, but he’d never had a sub of his own.
The most important thing was to find a woman. After that they could
work on him being a Dom and her being a sub, but also including
Damien. That might take a bit of figuring out to keep everything fair
and equitable. However, step one was to win their woman, and they
were working on that right now.
He drove down out of the higher, rockier land onto the flatter area,
remaining very alert to watch for sand, but the soil remained the
same. He reached the track exactly where he’d expected to, maybe
two miles from the cemetery.
“This was the original Junctionville. This track we’re on now
meets up with one going north-south in a couple of miles. There was a
general store at the crossroads back in the old days. Then, maybe a
hundred years ago, the road went through where our store is now, and
that became the new Junctionville,” he said.
“My grandfather used to call it ‘New Junctionville.’ He never
adjusted to the change,” said Damien.
Hunter grinned. “I remember that.”
“Our house is about halfway between the two, so I used to ride my
bike to the store to catch the school bus until I was old enough to
drive a car.”
Hunter shook his head. “Your momma would have thrown a
conniption if she’d known you didn’t follow the track, though.”
“But you didn’t either,” said Jaz.
“Well, no. No one around here does. It’s much easier just to use a
compass.”
Hunter could see her mouth opening to ask the obvious question.
“GPS doesn’t work in the desert where there aren’t roads.”
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37
“Of course. I should have known that.”
He slowed down and then stopped outside the old store. It had
been derelict even when he was a child, but the dry desert air had
preserved the woodwork quite well, and although ramshackle, it was
still quite recognizable.
After he’d given her a few minutes to stare at it, he drove on to the
cemetery. “If you like, we can walk back and look at it properly later,
but I’d rather leave the car at the cemetery so Phideaux knows where
he’s supposed to be. I don’t plan on chasing him again today.”
After he’d said it, he hoped he didn’t sound harsh. After all, he did
have a shovel in the truck if they needed to kill a rattler. But he hoped
the huge mutt had learned his lesson. He didn’t think Phideaux was
stupid at all.
Instead of looking cross, Jaz just grinned. “Phideaux knows all
about cemeteries. It’s what we’ve been doing for months now. Don’t
you, buddy?”
She turned around to the dog and petted him as Hunter slowed the
truck again and stopped outside the cemetery. It was even more
neglected than he remembered it, but no one lived nearby anymore.
They hadn’t for years. And besides, likely that suited her. The more
neglected it was, the more likely she’d get paid for finding it.
* * * *
Damien slid out of his seat and helped Jaz down. She gripped the
dog’s head and said to him, “Cemetery, buddy. Time to work.”
The dog gave a sharp bark, and she let him go, dragging her
backpack off the backseat and slinging it over her shoulder.
Damien was surprised to see Phideaux walking by her heel like
the most obedient dog in Nevada.
Well. He really does understand.
Damien stayed back and watched Jaz do her job. She pulled a tiny
camera out of the backpack and took a whole passel of pictures of the
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Cara Adams
cemetery from every angle, and then she took close-up pictures of
some of the headstones. Next she took out a notepad and pen and
wrote down some of the names and dates from the headstones. Once
she started writing, Phideaux left her side and began sniffing the grass
and exploring the cemetery himself. Damien glanced at Hunter, who
was leaning against his truck, and Hunter winked.
“I guess we can move now,” Damien said softly, not wanting to
disturb her.
Damien hadn’t been here in quite a few years. It wasn’t a spooky
kind of place at all, just a symbol of a very small community that no
longer existed. Some of the original settlers had kept cattle, but
there’d been so little for them to eat they had to walk a lot to find
enough feed, so they tended to be stringy and didn’t make good,
tender beef.
There were very few cattle around here anymore, and none had
bothered to eat the grasses or small bushes among the cemetery plots.
He read a few headstones himself, recognizing the names of
families still in the area. His own grandfather was buried in town, not
here, though. Damien stopped and began looking more carefully. One
family that had several graves here was a werewolf clan. Damien
spread his legs apart, balanced his weight evenly on his feet, crossed
his arms, and bent his head in thought.
Would that be a way forward for him and Hunter to keep in
contact with Jasmine? By following up werewolf cemeteries? These
days, whether or not a family went to church was a matter of free
choice, even in a small town. But back in the olden days, the social
life of a community tended to be centered around the church. The
priest was the one with the time and facilities to organize social
events. Often, the only meeting place in a tiny town was the church
hall.
But many werewolf packs formed their own community. They
had their own social events as a pack and likely even had their own
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39
community gathering places. So wouldn’t it be logical that they would
have their own cemeteries as well?
Would they want their cemeteries listed by the Cemetery Trust?
Werewolves were better than many people at remembering their
family history, but with so few female wolves being born, many
werewolf clans were now part human. Likely some of them might be
interested in tracing their family history.
Well, it was just a thought. But he’d mention it to Hunter, and
Hunter could speak to the Alpha if he thought it might be something
they could tell Jaz about. It wasn’t Damien’s place to get involved in
werewolf business. Well, not until he and Hunter mated their woman
anyway.
And the more he learned about Jaz, the more he wanted her to be
that woman.
Jaz spent an hour looking around the area carefully and making
notes, and then she sat on one of the unmarked graves, patting the
rough soil gently, and said, “No disrespect intended, but I need to
write my report now. If your descendents want to know about you, I
need to send this location to the Cemetery Trust, okay?”
Jaz seemed to have forgotten that he and Hunter were there with
her. Even Phideaux was entertaining himself, wandering around the
area and chewing the occasional twig or stalk of grass. He was very
well behaved and didn’t leave the immediate area of the cemetery at
all. Clearly he and Jaz had a routine established, and he followed it
obediently.
She wrote some more in her notebook and then seemed to be
tidying up her report. She crossed things out, grumbled, counted
words, and finally pulled out her cell phone and sent a text message
and some photographs. Then she put everything away in the backpack
again, left it on the grave where she’d been sitting, and took out the
ball.
“Phideaux, I’m finished. We can play now.”
The dog ran across to her, tail wagging madly and barking loudly.
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Cara Adams
“He’s been very well behaved. He deserves some fun now,” said
Hunter.
Jaz threw the ball to the dog and then laughed. “And you’ve both
been great, too. Thank you for not interrupting me. This place looks
really good. I sure hope it’s not on the list.”
“When will you find out?” asked Damien.
Jaz took the ball from Phideaux and threw it again. Damien
noticed that she had a good strong throw. The dog had to run to catch
the ball.
“I don’t even know what day it is, and I’ve switched off my cell
phone again. But it’s usually the next business day. Stacey, the
administrator, is in the office every day, and she usually checks it for
me quite quickly because she knows I won’t move on somewhere else
until I hear back from her in case she asks me more questions.”
“You need to stay until tomorrow to get your car fixed, anyway,”
said Hunter.
Damien hoped she could convince her to stick around a lot longer
than that. “Does Stacey often ask you questions?”
“Sometimes the old maps list different place names. You said this
was the original Junctionville and the current Junctionville was
originally known as New Junctionville. But sometimes place names
change totally over time and she can’t pinpoint the location. I say
something like ten miles past somewhere on the road to somewhere
else, and that doesn’t help her at all because the names have
completely changed. But this should be okay. Anyway, I’m here
tomorrow as well if I need to come back. What day is it today
anyway?”
Damien laughed. The gas station was open seven days a week so
days didn’t mean much to them either.
Hunter pulled out his cell phone. “It’s Friday, March tenth. Why
did you turn off your phone after sending the message? Don’t you
need to wait for confirmation it’s been received?”
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41
“Oh, that’s just habit. After months of traveling all the time, I
keep it switched off unless I need it to conserve the battery. Phideaux
and I often camp out, and it might be three or four days before I’m
somewhere I can recharge it.”
Damien nodded. He hadn’t even thought of that. Camping
sounded like a lot of fun, and she’d made her life seem like an endless
vacation, but there was a definite downside as well, like not having
constant access to electricity and a private bathroom. Even to do
laundry she’d need to stay in a campground or a town for a couple of
days.
She really was a glass-half full kind of person, and he liked that.
They played with Phideaux for a while until they were all
exhausted and dropped down on some rocks for a rest.
Hunter went back to the truck and collected a bottle of water. Jaz
took out Phideaux’s water bowl, which Hunter filled, and she pulled a
small plastic cup out of her backpack for herself. He and Hunter drank
straight from the bottle, and he felt a little embarrassed doing so, even
though it was what they always did.
“Okay, Jaz, what would you like to do now?” Hunter asked her.
Damien knew what he’d like to do, and it involved taking off all
their clothes. But he guessed that probably wasn’t what she’d say
unfortunately.
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Chapter Three
Jaz had loved spending time with these men. Tomorrow her car
would be fixed, and she’d be off on her travels again. Tonight at
supper she had to remember to make a concerted effort to ask all the
Wishram men for any information about other old cemeteries. But at
the moment, she hoped this one would be a winner and pay her way
for the next couple of weeks. And now it was time for fun.
Fun. Hell yes she was ready for fun. Just spending time with two
such amazing men was exciting. Yet they were so thoughtful and
patient with her. Most people wouldn’t have been nearly so good
about waiting while she worked at the cemetery. Hell, most wouldn’t
have bothered to show her around the desert either.
Sitting in the truck tucked between two hot, hard bodies had given
her all sorts of naughty thoughts about them both. It’d been way too
long since she’d spent time with such handsome men. Too long?
Make that never before with two men like these ones.
Likely sex was out of the question. Even here in the middle of
nowhere, someone might come past and interrupt them.
Besides, she wasn’t interested in being bitten on the ass by a
scorpion or something similar. But some holding and kissing would
be really nice. They were both such delightfully polite and incredibly
handsome men. She couldn’t let such a wonderful opportunity to get
up close and personal with them go to waste. Well, they might say no,
but if she didn’t ask, she’d never know.
She stepped up closer to them both and said, “I really ought to
thank you both for bringing me here. I think this cemetery has
genuine potential.”
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43
Hunter was staring at her, his black eyes sparkling and his lips
slightly parted. Damn, he looked totally edible. Better than any candy
she’d ever seen. She rested her belly against his, put her arms around
his neck, and pulled his head down and kissed him.
Jaz didn’t want to seem rude or grabby or promiscuous. She was
no kind of sexy beast or nymphomaniac, but a kiss was altogether
something else. She explored his lips, and he let her hold his head
still. He was much bigger and stronger than her and could easily have
stopped her if he’d wanted to. Instead, he rested his hands on her
waist and let her take the lead.
She pressed her lips more firmly to Hunter’s and rubbed her
tongue along the seam of his mouth.
Like a predator, he swooped, sucking her tongue into his mouth
and moving one hand to hold her ass. His cock was a hard line against
her belly, and she rubbed over him. It’d been much too long since
she’d kissed anyone, much less felt such an aroused cock against her
body.
Jaz leaned into the kiss farther, thrusting her tongue back into his
mouth. She let go of his head in favor of gripping his shoulders so she
could concentrate on all the amazing sensations of his kisses. As if
she’d pressed a button switching him into high-speed mode, he
gripped her ass with both hands now and fucked her mouth with his
tongue, driving her need higher and higher. Her panties were damp,
her nipples hard little points, and her breath completely exhausted
when she leaned back from him.
“Wow. Now that’s what I call a kiss,” he said.
Damien tapped her on the shoulder. “You haven’t said thank you
to me yet.”
She turned around, ready to apologize, but he was grinning.
“Maybe I was saving the best until last.”
“Honey, I can make that true for you.” He pulled her against his
body, and once again, she had the pleasure of feeling a long, stiff cock
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Cara Adams
digging into her belly. Hmm. A little lower down would be even
better, but she wasn’t planning to complain.
Damien’s hair and eyes were brown, compared to Hunter’s black,
and Damien was an inch or two taller than Hunter, but apart from that,
there was little difference to choose between them. Both were
muscular, strong, and tanned, and Damien held her just as capably as
Hunter had done. His lips possessed hers equally as thoroughly as
Hunter’s had done.
Damien’s tongue roved through every inch of her mouth, stroking
and gliding over the insides of her cheeks, the roof of her mouth, and
around and behind her teeth until her legs were limp with lust and she
had to hold tight to his shoulders to prevent herself from melting into
a puddle at his feet. A puddle of lust, not from the heat. Likely it was
one hundred degrees out here in the desert, but right now, it was a
whole lot hotter than that in the arms of these men. Five-alarm-fire
hot.
Hunter’s body pressed behind her. “I don’t feel adequately
thanked yet.” His hot breath teased the back of her neck.
“You don’t?” she whispered.
“Nope.”
Big tough hands pushed her T-shirt up and scraped slowly over
her skin. Damien reached for her shirt and pulled it over her head
while Hunter unsnapped her bra and pushed the straps down her arms.
Hunter held her tightly, his fingers massaging her breasts and
tweaking her nipples.
“Oh god, that feels good.”
She leaned back against him, and Damien unzipped her shorts.
Jaz’s eyes slid shut as Hunter sucked her neck while teasing her
breasts, and then Damien’s mouth was on her cunt, his tongue licking
her slit.
“God, yes, please.”
Her shorts and panties had vanished, so she widened her legs, and
Damien’s head was right there, his lips sucking her clit then his
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45
tongue teasing her delicate flesh while his hands held her open for his
attention.
And all the while, Hunter worked his magic on her breasts, his
mouth now on her earlobe, now licking her chin. She turned her head
toward him, and he possessed her lips, his tongue fucking her mouth
in time to Damien’s tongue in her cunt.
Her hips thrust wildly into Damien’s touch, her breasts pushed up
into Hunter’s hands, and her entire body was on fire with the need to
come. Never had she been touched by two men at once, and it was
mind-bogglingly good. Her brain was hardly able to process all the
amazing ways they were arousing her. Too much was happening
simultaneously for her to comprehend it all.
“Would you like to come?” Hunter’s husky voice breathed hot air
into her ear with every syllable he spoke.
“Hell yes.”
“I think we can arrange that.” Damien had lifted his mouth from
her cunt to speak and then replaced it over her clit, sucking hard.
“Oh.” Damn, he did that well.
Hunter put her arm around his waist, moved side on to her, and
sucked her breast into his mouth, scraping his teeth over the nipple as
he pinched the other one with his fingers.
Jaz moaned, her orgasm a very real presence deep inside her belly.
As they sucked, stroked, and petted her skin, Jaz’s nerves were in
overload. So many sexy touches, so much erotic input, so many
hands, mouths, and experiences all happening at once.
The two men must have been communicating with each other
somehow because Hunter bit her nipple at the exact same time as
Damien bit her clit. The level of carnality was overwhelming. Jaz
groaned and climaxed, the orgasm racing through her body, shaking
her to her bones, and leaving her limp and wobbling in the arms of the
men.
Hunter scooped her into his arms and sat her inside the truck. She
hadn’t even noticed one of them opening the cab door, but a soft bark
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Cara Adams
reminded her of Phideaux, and she opened her eyes wide enough to
see him lying down, stretched along the backseat.
“Thanks for thinking of him,” she mumbled.
“Some things we don’t need an audience for,” said Hunter.
She giggled and then looked around. “Where are my clothes?”
“I gave them to Phideaux to mind. I thought it might make him
happier about getting back in the truck,” said Hunter.
Damn, the man was smart. She hadn’t heard a noise from
Phideaux, so clearly Hunter’s plan had worked.
There was just one thing both men had forgotten. Their own
enormous erections.
“But what about both of you? Don’t you need a little help right
now? A little more thank you?” she asked.
“About that…” Damien stopped and stared at her, so she nodded
for him to continue.
“I live all alone, and I have a very big bed. I was hoping you and
Hunter would come home with me tonight. We could spend as long as
we liked saying thank you to each other and give each other a lot
more things to be grateful for as well.”
“Phideaux could come with us. We could put down bedding and
food for him in the laundry,” added Hunter.
Jaz wanted to say yes. In fact she was desperate to say, “Hell,
yes,” but one thing confused her. “Do you both often spend the night
together?”
Damien snorted, and Hunter laughed.
“We’re not gay or bisexual. We both like women,” said Damien.
“But we’d like to share you. Both of us to pleasure you, all night
long,” added Hunter.
How could she say no to an invitation like that? A once-in-a-
lifetime opportunity for a ménage. Fuck yes. “I’d like that, too,
please.”
* * * *
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47
Hunter leaned his hip against the fender of the truck and watched
as Damien walked through the cemetery again and Jaz got dressed.
She was incredibly quick and neat. All she’d been wearing after that
orgasm was her boots and socks, yet she’d wiggled into panties and
shorts, bra and T-shirt in a few seconds.
“Would you like to see around the store now, or shall we drive
some more?” he asked her.
“I’d like to see the store. It’s not dangerous, is it? I don’t want
Phideaux to get hurt.”
“Will he stay with you?” asked Hunter, worried about the giant
dog potentially smashing down a wall in search of a rodent or snake.
“He’ll be good, won’t you, buddy?”
The dog barked, and Jaz tapped her knee. Phideaux jumped out of
the truck and stood at her side, just as placidly as he’d done when
they’d first arrived here. Which was completely different from his
behavior the day he’d chased the snake and almost gotten himself
bitten.
“Is it just snakes he doesn’t like? It’s possible he might smell
some around here.”
They walked down the track back toward the old store. Hunter
watched her lithe legs move so smoothly and neat little butt wiggle as
she walked.
“No, it was all a misunderstanding. Usually after we’ve been
driving for a while we get out and Phideaux and I play until he’s
burned off some excess energy. He was expecting that and didn’t
realize this time was a bit different because I didn’t have my shoes on.
I’d turned off the air-conditioning to try to help conserve my gas, and
then I’d had to kick off my sandals because my feet were too sweaty
and were sliding around inside them, and it wasn’t safe to drive like
that. By the time I got my shoes on, he’d gone.”
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Cara Adams
It all sounded weird to Hunter, but he was confident she was
telling the truth. The dog certainly seemed to be very well trained
over all.
They walked all around the old building, he and Damien pointing
out the ancient water tank where horses and cattle had been able to
drink, a lean-to where animals had sheltered in the rare, inclement
weather, and the old store itself. It was basically just one big room,
with the owner’s tiny home behind it.
“A bedroom, a kitchen, and an outdoor bathroom. True pioneering
style,” said Jaz.
“Almost all their time would have been spent in the store. That’s
where people would meet and talk,” said Hunter.
“You can still see where there used to be a long, shaded verandah
where people would sit and eat or drink or just rest before heading
home again,” added Damien.
“I suppose it was the social center for the people hereabouts,” said
Jaz.
“Yes, but there were never all that many people. The land won’t
support them. There isn’t the water, for a start. People did manage to
run a few cattle, there are still some wild bighorn sheep around, and
desert critters are good eating if you’re hungry,” he said.
“Some of the plants are edible. Cactus, for a start, and some of the
shrubs have berries. Likely a few families had their own small
gardens like Mrs. Wishram did, too,” added Damien.
“I can see the attraction. The air is very clean, the sunshine is
amazing, and the ability to look to the horizon must have been a real
delight for people who’d been crammed into tiny apartment blocks in
the cities,” said Jaz.
Hunter wondered if that was her. If she was willing to do this job,
likely her previous jobs hadn’t made her rich. He’d loved growing up
out here, but because they were a family of werewolves, being here
had freed them from a lot of the complications city living would have
imposed on them. Here, no one would notice a wolf running across
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49
the desert at night. Even if someone happened to be driving past and
did see them, they’d just assume it was a coyote, a bobcat, or possibly
a mountain lion.
When he was sure she’d finished looking at the store, they walked
back to the truck. He drove toward Damien’s house by a different
route, letting Damien point out some interesting rock formations and a
small oasis of stunted trees where water wasn’t far from the surface.
He approached Damien’s home from the back, pulling the truck
into the barn, which was empty since Damien’s truck was still at the
store.
Damien caught his eye and climbed out of the vehicle, saying to
Jaz, “Let me show you why my family settled here.”
“Apart from the fact it’s halfway between the old and new
Junctionville? Oh, wait, that won’t work because your ancestors were
here before the road was built.”
“Yes.” Hunter didn’t elaborate. This was the Hall family’s find
and Damien’s story to tell.
They walked out past the barn, farther into the desert and up a
slope. What appeared to be just a large pile of rocks was revealed as a
circle of rocks hiding a basin in the center and, in that basin, was
water. Hunter had loved coming here as a boy. He and Damien, and
sometimes Hawk or Stone as well, had splashed around the shallow
water, skipping rocks across the top, floating boats made of sticks and
leaves, and eating picnic lunches sitting on the edge with their legs
and feet in the water.
Damien’s parents never let them stay out here once the light began
to fade though because sometimes animals came to drink the water,
and there were still coyotes, bobcats, and mountain lions in the desert.
Not that he believed those animals would come so close to where
people lived even if they were thirsty.
“Water! How amazing,” said Jaz.
Phideaux gave a sharp bark and jumped into the small pool,
standing knee-deep in the water and drinking a few mouthfuls. Then
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Cara Adams
he rolled in it, wetting his fur thoroughly. Hunter was sure the dog
was smiling. Likely his fur was making him hotter than they were,
and he and Damien were used to the heat.
Jaz laughed at him and then asked, “Is it okay for him to play in
it? Should I make him get out?”
“No, he’s fine. He’s enjoying himself. Other animals come here to
drink as well, although mostly they’re a lot smaller than Phideaux.”
“What sort of animals? I haven’t seen anything except for that
snake and a few birds, although you did tell me there are some sheep
and cattle here.”
“Squirrels, foxes, rats, hawks, eagles, vultures, although not all at
once of course. Not even all in the same week. The animals have their
own favorite places to drink and rest, and this isn’t one of them
because they tend to stay away from people. But the water is the
reason my ancestors settled here originally.”
“For the water?” asked Jaz.
“Not exactly,” said Hunter, wondering if she would work out the
real reason.
“Oh, I see. You’ve got a rainwater tank for the house.”
Hunter smiled at her. “You’re thinking like a city person. The
average rainfall here is about seven inches a year. Up north you can
get that much in a day.”
‘You’re right. It’s more like forty inches a year in Ohio. Let me
think. Oh, I see. For the animals. The animals will come to drink, and
that means you can catch them and will never starve.”
Damien clapped, and Phideaux, surprised by the noise, jumped
out of the water and shook himself, spraying droplets all over them
all. It was still hot so Hunter didn’t mind. But he was more than ready
to move this party along. They needed to eat yet, before they could go
to bed.
Damien was evidently thinking the same sorts of things as him.
“Let’s go to the house now. I’ll show you around while Hunter
fires up the grill to cook us our supper.”
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He and Damien bumped fists and headed back down the slope to
the house.
* * * *
It wasn’t until Damien unlocked the door and ushered Jaz inside
that he wondered what she’d think of his home. Surprise guests were
rare out here. Although his home was on a track between
Junctionville and Burton, to the west, and Towler, about two hundred
fifty miles south, locals mainly drove the most direct route across the
desert, ignoring tracks, and visitors stayed on the main road.
Very rarely someone would arrive unexpectedly. It’d only
happened a handful of times in his lifetime. He even locked the house
these days while he was at the gas station all day, whereas in his
childhood his parents had never locked the door. They’d always
assumed if someone was visiting they ought to be able to rest inside
until the host arrived home.
Damien tried to look at his home through a stranger’s eyes, but he
couldn’t. He supposed he ought to have swept the floor, but there
wasn’t much dust around. He liked to have all the windows open in
the evenings to cool the place down, and that meant some dust got in
as well, but there’d been no dust storms lately, so it wasn’t too bad.
He took a package of hot dogs out of the freezer and handed them
to Hunter and then remembered he was feeding a huge dog as well
and got out a second package. Hunter had opened the pantry and
grabbed a few onions and a sharp knife. He went off to ready the grill
and Damien left him to do it, knowing he was familiar with the
kitchen and would find whatever he needed.
“Come with me,” he said to Jaz.
Phideaux looked at him and whined.
“He wants to stay with Hunter. He knows there’s going to be
food,” said Jaz, grinning at him.
Damien shrugged. It was her dog so her decision.
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“Okay, buddy, you can stay with Hunter.”
The dog barked and trotted out onto the stoop after Hunter.
“The house is very old. My grandfather was born here, right in
this house.”
He saw a questioning look on her face and smiled.
“Are your parents in town now like Hunter’s folks?”
“Yes and no. Hunter’s family is at Burton, only one hundred miles
away. Mine moved to Towler, which is a little bigger, but it’s a lot
farther south. They considered moving when I started school, and
again when I went to high school, but each time they decided to stay.
A few years ago they’d had enough and handed the management of
the house and land over to me.”
“The management of the land? What does that involve?”
“There are some soaks we need to keep clean so animals can drink
there.”
“A soak?”
“That’s where water rises up naturally through the soil. If too
many animals go there to drink, the edges get smashed, the water
becomes full of soil and rock, and all the animals suffer. But these
days, with four-wheel drive vehicles, it’s not a big deal to check on
them. I also check for any badly injured animals to euthanize them so
they don’t die of thirst. Things like that.”
Damien didn’t say that, in his grandfather’s time, often injured
animals became the family’s meal and it was important to get to them
before the vultures did. He had a job and could provide for himself,
whereas his grandparents had only had the land, plus the vegetables
they grew and a few animals they raised.
His house had the kitchen and bathroom at the back because it
dated from the days when water had to be fetched from a well. Now
the water was pumped up from the well and into the house instead of
collected in buckets. He walked Jaz though the house and then back
out to the stoop at the rear where Hunter was cooking the hot dogs,
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53
closely watched by Phideaux. Already they smelled mouthwateringly
good.
He left her there and went inside collecting plates and cups and
put a selection of salad ingredients and a half a dozen longnecks onto
a tray, which he took outside again.
“Do you need some help?” asked Jaz.
“If you make the salad, I’ll get water for Phideaux and a few more
things,” Damien said.
Damien really enjoyed the next hour as they talked and watched
the sun begin to go down. Mindful of his parents’ endless warnings,
and the fact that wild animals would smell the cooked meat, he
encouraged everyone to be inside with the grill cleaned and put away
before it was completely dark.
Now was the time he’d been waiting for all day. Time to go to
bed. Talking to Jaz and just being with her and Hunter had been good,
but his dick longed for more. Touching her had made him harder than
a rock and desperate to take their relationship to the next step. But his
brain knew that if a ménage between them was to be successful they’d
need to know a lot more about Jaz than just what made her come on
their fingers. Time spent talking was very important to actually build
their relationship, but that didn’t stop him desperately wanting more
now.
He glanced over to Hunter, who nodded.
“Are you ready to come to be with us now?” Hunter asked.
“Yes. Where do you want me to put Phideaux?”
“I’ve made a bed for him in the laundry, and there’s water in a
bowl for him as well.” He picked up a leftover hot dog and handed it
to Jaz. “This way.”
* * * *
Jasmine had truly enjoyed the day with these two men. She was
surprised that they’d agreed to take a day off work to show her around
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their part of the desert, and she’d loved seeing the land through their
eyes, instead of just through the windshield of her car. She’d known
all along the colors of the sand and rocks were worth taking a second
look at, and she’d been thrilled that the cemetery was a strong
possibility for her work. All in all, it’d been a wonderful day. She was
hoping the night would be even more wonderful.
It was hard to get her brain around the idea of being with two
men. It’d been a while since she’d had a serious boyfriend.
Continually chasing jobs had cut her leisure time to zero even before
she’d left her apartment and gone traveling. But two men was just—
wow!
Phideaux was perfectly happy with his hot dog, a bowl of water,
and a blanket. He’d enjoyed the day out in the desert as much as she
had, although she was glad they hadn’t met up with any more snakes.
Damien had disappeared for ten minutes earlier, and when she
walked into the main bedroom, she could see why. The bed had been
made with fresh sheets, the linen smelling of lavender. The curtains
were closed, and a small table lamp provided the only light in here,
which gave the room a more intimate atmosphere.
Jaz guessed that this had been his parents’ room, or maybe even
his grandparents’ room, and that Damien hadn’t ever moved from his
own room. That gave her a warm feeling that he’d gone to all this
trouble for her. For them. That made the evening even more special in
her mind.
She walked over to a chair in the corner of the bedroom and
undressed, dropping her clothes onto the chair and leaving her boots
under it.
Damien pulled some condoms out of his pocket, and she
wondered if he’d gotten them from his room. Clearly they hadn’t been
in this one. Then the two men bracketed her as they’d done in the
cemetery. It was such a carnal experience to be pressed between two
hard male bodies. Two big, strong, muscular men, much taller than
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55
her, making her feel small and helpless, yet wanted and protected at
the same time.
Hunter kissed her and asked, “Are you ready? We both want to
fuck you. You’re a very desirable woman, Jasmine.”
“I’m ready and willing. You’re both the sexiest hunks I’ve seen in
a very long time.”
“But of course. The desert breeds tough men. You have to be
tough out here to survive. But we can be tender as well,” said
Damien.
The two men bracketed her with their bodies, petting and stroking
her skin, teasing her gently with big rough hands. Jaz closed her eyes
and reveled in the warmth of the men and their erotic touch. She
found herself stroking their skin in reply, learning the dips and
hollows of their muscular shoulders and backs.
Hunter swung her up in his arms and laid her on the bed. He sat
by her head, and Damien crawled between her legs. He rolled a
condom on what looked to be a very large cock indeed, and Jaz
smiled. Oh hell yes she wanted this, wanted them. They’d already
given her a nice orgasm, but one from fucking would be even better.
Damien stretched out over her body and kissed her, licking the
seam of her lips, teasing her around her mouth, and then sucking on
her tongue.
Jaz smiled and accepted him before tasting him. In response, he
sat up and lifted her hips, pressing his cock at her entry. She gripped
his shoulders as he pushed his way inside her.
“Damn, you’re tight. Incredibly tight and hot,” he said.
“Let me distract her for you while you get inside,” said Hunter,
turning her chin to him. Hunter held his cock at her mouth, and she
licked over the head. He was very aroused as well, and she tasted his
own essence on him, a slightly salty, slightly almond-like flavor, quite
delicious.
As she sucked his cockhead into her mouth, Damien thrust deep
and hard inside her, filling her to the brim, stretching her wide, and
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Cara Adams
making her very aware of exactly how long it’d been since she’d had
a man. Damien felt as good as Hunter tasted. This was going to be her
lucky night indeed.
Jaz sucked on Hunter’s cock, taking him deeper into her mouth,
holding his erection at the root with one hand and near the head with
the other to lick and suck him properly. It was quite schizophrenic to
have one cock fucking her cunt and another cock in her mouth, but
Jaz decided it could get very addictive very fast.
She rolled Hunter’s balls as she licked up and down his cock
while she concentrated on what Damien was doing. He gripped her
hips, tilting them upward, which helped him go deeper inside her.
Already he was very deep and stroking across the magic place inside
her that felt oh-so-very-good indeed.
She looked at Damien’s face. His brown eyes were heavy lidded
with lust, and his mouth curved up at the corners in pleasure. She was
pretty sure she was smiling around Hunter’s cock as well. She was
certainly enjoying herself greatly.
“I want to go deeper,” grunted Damien, lifting her hips even
higher, dropping her back onto her head and shoulders.
“Let me help,” said Hunter, moving his scrumptious cock away
from her lips and putting his hands under her back, lifting her breasts
up to his mouth.
Jaz held tight to one of Damien’s arms and one of Hunter’s as her
ass rose higher in the air and Damien slid a fraction of an inch deeper
inside her. She was full already, but that tiny extra bit felt amazing, so
she gripped hold of both men and let Damien fuck her how he wanted
to. He was doing it so damn well she didn’t plan ever to stop him.
Hunter sucked her breast into his mouth, scraping his teeth over
her nipple and then pressing it to the roof of his mouth. That felt
mighty fine as well. She tried to push her breast deeper into his
mouth, and he pinched the other nipple with his fingers.
“Like that, do you?” he asked.
“Hell yes. Pinch it again.”
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57
“Do you like some pain with your pleasure?”
“A little bit, yes.”
He pinched her nipple again, and her cunt creamed even more
than it already was from Damien’s fiendishly accurate fucking. He
seemed to hit her G-spot on every second or third stroke, and her
orgasm was already building in her belly. He was fucking her so
damn well she didn’t want it ever to end. Unfortunately, she wasn’t
going to be able to hold on forever when these two men already had
her nerves stretched to the breaking point with passion and need.
Only her head and neck were still resting on the bed now. Damien
was almost kneeling as he thrust hard and fast inside her cunt, driving
deep and slamming into her with full force that rocked the bed as it
rocked her world.
Hunter’s arm was under her shoulders, partly supporting her,
partly directing her breasts into his mouth as he kissed, licked, and
sucked his way from one breast to the other, nibbling on her soft flesh
and biting at her nipples.
Jaz was so close to coming now she closed her eyes and focused
on the intense sensations. This was the best sex of her life. Damien
really knew how to pleasure a woman. His cock was huge and filled
her completely, but he was also driving it in perfectly, sending her
senses into overload. Hunter was adding a little roughness to their
play, and that was going to be just enough to thrust her into pleasure.
“Come now, Jaz. Right now,” ordered Hunter. Her eyes flicked
open in surprise as Damien slammed his cock against her cervix,
driving a lancing shard of pleasure-pain through her body and
throwing her off the cliff into release. “Oh god, yes.”
Then Hunter bit her nipple, propelling a second jolt of pain after
the first, and Jaz had to push her hand into her mouth to stop herself
shrieking her joy to the world and likely upsetting Phideaux.
Her body shook as she came over and over, her orgasm a rolling
earthquake that showed no signs of stopping even though she could
feel the heat inside her that told her Damien had come as well.
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While she was still quivering and shaking, Damien pulled out of
her, and the men moved around on the bed. Jaz didn’t have enough
strength left to open her eyes. But then she was flipped onto her belly,
and a cock was pushing hard at her cunt, forcing its way past her
swollen, sensitive flesh and into her still rippling body.
Of course, Hunter hasn’t orgasmed yet.
“You like a little pain, Jaz. How about I spank your ass?”
Without waiting for her to reply, Hunter landed a hard smack on
her butt, pushing her deeper into the bedding. With his cock filling
her cunt, the heat on her ass was good.
“Mmm,” she murmured, still unable to open her eyes or pay
attention to the men.
Hunter obviously took that as assent because he began spanking
her firmly with his big, rough hand until both her ass cheeks were red
hot and her upper thighs burned.
Then he pushed his hands under her body and stroked her clit.
That felt so good she lifted her ass up again to give him more room to
tease her.
“Are you ready to fuck again, now?” he asked.
“Hell yes. I’m hotter than fire.”
“That’s good to know. I believe you like having your nipples
pinched. Let me do that for you,” said Damien.
First he cupped her breasts and massaged them, but then he began
tugging on her nipples and teasing them more roughly.
Jaz sighed and relaxed, unable to move. Her ass burned with heat,
and Hunter jackhammered into her cunt so fast and hard she knew he
was more than ready to come. She’d just had a huge orgasm, but that
didn’t make any difference. Her body was primed and ready for
another one.
Just as Damien had done, Hunter filled her completely. He was
more assertive than Damien, but just as good, and the way he kept
stroking her clit was sending her body into her second orgasm faster
than she could ever have believed. Jaz rested on her knees and
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59
forearms now, her face still buried in the pillow as she relished the
cock in her cunt, the heat on her ass, and the hands on her clit and her
breasts. Every sensitive area of her body could feel the men’s
attentions, and she was filled with lust and the urgency to come again.
Hunter was slamming into her now, their bodies slapping together
with every stroke, and his sweat coated her thighs.
“Are you ready to come again?” he asked, his breath hot as he
blew into her ear.
Jaz shivered with lust. “Yes.”
“Come then,” he ordered in the same dominant voice as the first
time.
He dug his fingernail into her clit, and Jaz buried her face in the
pillow as a scream roared up though her body. Several hard slaps on
her ass hastened the orgasm, and it broke over her once again.
Damien dragged her chin around to face him and kissed her, tongue
fucking her, stroking her hair and her face as he kissed her endlessly
until they both ran out of breath.
* * * *
When he was sure Jasmine was asleep, Hunter tapped Damien on
the arm and slid out of bed. They both dragged on jeans and boots and
then let Phideaux out into the yard and stood on the stoop to talk
quietly.
“She’s ours, Damien. Ours. She responded perfectly to
everything, and I know she’ll accept BDSM as well. Maybe not
immediately, but if we introduce it gradually, she will. She liked
being spanked. I want us to mate her and keep her.”
“I agree with everything you say, but how do you plan to do that?
For a start, don’t you need your Alpha’s permission? And how the
fuck are we supposed to tell her you’re a wolf?”
“We could live off the land if we had to. One bighorn sheep
would feed us for a month or more. But we don’t have to. The gas
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station isn’t a huge income, but it’s enough. With solar electricity,
well water, and because we own the land, our expenses aren’t
anything like those for people living in a city. I do need to talk to my
Alpha, though, and I plan to e-mail him tonight.”
Hunter grinned at Damien in the dim light coming from the
kitchen.
“I had an idea about helping her to stay with us,” said Damien.
“Uh-huh? What?” Hunter could use all the help Damien was
offering.
“When you talk to your Alpha, could you ask him about werewolf
burial grounds? I noticed that quite a few of the graves there today
were for a werewolf family. It made me think that maybe the
Cemetery Trust might not have a link into the werewolf community,
and if Jaz could get various packs to send her the data about their old
cemeteries, she could do that sitting nice and safely in our bed.
Sometimes she might need to go visit, but mostly, maybe she could
stay at home and telecommute.”
Hunter fist-bumped Damien. “I like the way you think. You’d
better go check on Jaz, and I’ll e-mail my Alpha. Come on, Phideaux.
Time to come inside.”
The dog ran across the yard and followed them into the house.
Damien took him back into the laundry while Hunter went into the
unused third bedroom to borrow Damien’s desktop computer. It was
old and slow, but it was adequate for sending and receiving e-mails.
He opened a Word document and sat and thought for a long time
before deciding to tell his Alpha the entire story of how they’d met
Jaz and why he wanted to mate her. It took him half an hour to write it
all down. It worried Hunter not telling Jaz he was a wolf before biting
her, but he and Damien would give her all the time she needed to
adjust. Once she was theirs, belonging to them, living with them, they
could love and protect her and make her the focus of their lives until
she relaxed and accepted his shape-shifter status. He would never hurt
her and would make sure she understood that.
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61
He returned to bed but found it very hard to sleep. For a start, his
dick refused to lie down. It wanted to be back inside Jaz so much, and
it remained half hard for hours. Even after he napped he was edgy,
wondering if his Alpha had answered him yet. Finally, just as dawn
was beginning to lighten the sky, he slipped out of bed again and
walked naked into the spare room and checked his e-mails.
Congratulations on finding your woman. You and Damien have
my permission to mate Jasmine as long as she freely agrees to be
bitten by both of you and that she agrees to let you both bathe her
with your sperm. You must be prepared to accept any consequences of
your actions.
Regarding the other matter, I will speak to the Supreme Alpha
today.
Wolfric
Hunter stared at the screen. He was certain Jaz would agree to
being bitten. She’d loved the rough sex. Going bareback was
something else again. He’d forgotten about that. He knew neither he
nor Damien had any diseases, but it was a hell of step asking Jaz to
believe that of men she’d only met a few days before. Also, while he
certainly wasn’t looking to become a father any time soon, he’d never
reject his kid. His mother had wanted a daughter and brought up five
sons with love and care. He could do no less.
But the Alpha had said, “bathe her with your sperm,” not “fuck
her bareback.” For wolves, their essence was a just a symbol of
claiming the woman, like the bite. The bite healed up and left no scar.
If they sprayed their semen on her skin, surely that would fulfill their
instructions. It was just as much a symbolic statement as not using a
condom. Maybe even more so because they could rub it into her flesh
and let it scent her as they relaxed afterward.
That would have to do as their plan. There would be no
commitment ceremony until Jaz knew all the facts and agreed
wholeheartedly anyway. They could fuck again bareback on their
wedding night, whenever that might be. For now, pearl necklaces
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were the way to go, unless she agreed to bareback sex and providing
she said yes to double penetration. They hadn’t even discussed that
yet.
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Chapter Four
Jaz gradually became aware of fingers in her cunt, twirling all
around and teasing her just where they felt the best. Her eyes snapped
wide open as another finger broached her ass, massaging the tight
muscle rim and slipping inside. Her cunt was dripping with cream,
and the hand on her ass was doubly enticing.
“Oh, god,” she moaned, suddenly remembering where she was
and exactly what she’d done last night. She was pretty sure she was
about to do it again, and she wanted to. Fuck yes, she wanted to, right
now.
“Do you like being fucked in the ass?” Hunter asked her.
“I don’t know, but I think I’m about to find out,” she said and then
giggled.
“In that case I can tell you right now that you’re going to love it.
You’re going to love us. Both of us, inside you together.”
All the breath left Jaz’s body. She’d be lying if she said she’d
never thought about double penetration, but she’d never delved into
the logistics, and she’d more or less decided yesterday she’d suck one
while the other one fucked her. She hadn’t really concentrated on the
idea of what was clearly going to happen soon. Two cocks inside her
body at once. Hunter had two fingers deep in her ass now, and
Damien had three in her cunt. She didn’t need a college degree to
know that those fingers would be cocks very soon.
“Can we go bareback inside you, please, Jaz? The sex is so much
better when we’re naked. You’ll get the full benefit of it that way,
too,” said Damien.
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Jaz tried to think. She’d had the anti-pregnancy implant in her arm
a few years ago, and even though that relationship had broken up very
quickly, she’d never bothered to get it removed. It was supposed to
work for three years, and it must have been about three years ago
when it happened, but she couldn’t remember what month. Was she
inside the time limit or out of it?
Hunter must have thought she was hesitating about agreeing,
rather than trying to calculate dates, because he said, “We could pull
out before we come. That would lessen the likelihood of there being
any aftereffects.”
Ah fuck it. I can always get the morning after pill if I need it. “No,
it’s okay. I can’t think now to calculate dates. I want you both inside
me. I want to experience my first double penetration sex fully. I
agree.”
“Thank you, honey.” Damien kissed her lips and then her breasts
before pulling his fingers out of her cunt and sucking them right in
front of her gaze.
“God, that’s hot,” she whispered.
“Can we bite you when we come? That’s hot, too,” said Hunter.
“Yes.” Her body was on fire with lust. Their words and actions
were driving her crazy with need.
“Fuck me. Fuck me now. I can’t wait another moment.”
She rolled onto her back and watched as Hunter slathered lube
over his cock, and then Damien pulled her over his body.
“Ride me, cowgirl.”
She held his cock at her cunt and then pushed down on him,
driving him deep and hard inside her, loving the burn and stretch as
he filled her. They’d both fucked her only hours before, yet her cunt
was as tight as ever, and she was so desperate for their touch it was as
if they hadn’t given her two orgasms the night before, and one in the
daytime as well. Fuck. She’d had more orgasms in the last twenty-
four hours than in the previous twenty-four days, and all she could
think of was them fucking her again, now. At once.
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She lay down flat on Damien’s rock-hard chest, gripped his ears
with her hands, and held him still as she kissed his eyebrows, his
nose, his ears, and finally his lips. The moment their lips met, he
thrust his tongue inside her mouth and fucked her frantically, pushing
his hands between their bodies and pinching her nipples as he did.
Meanwhile, behind her, Hunter was pushing his cock into her ass.
There was a slight burn and a lot of stretching, and then he was inside,
filling her unbelievably full, stretching her body to accommodate hm.
She gasped at the strange feeling of having two cocks inside her.
Her ass was a little sore, but it was a good kind of burn, rather like the
heat had been on her butt the previous night when she’d been
spanked. It’d hurt, but it had lit a fire all the way to her cunt. Having a
cock in her ass had exactly the same effect. It made her hotter and
hornier than ever. She needed to be fucked right now.
The men wiggled around a little first, pulling out and getting
settled, but soon they began an intensely carnal movement of
withdrawing from her, waiting a heartbeat, and then pushing back in.
She gripped Damien’s shoulders hard and thrust back onto Hunter’s
cock in her ass, but that meant she wasn’t as connected to Damien,
which wasn’t right.
Damien lowered his hands to her hips, holding her still, and the
men began fucking her a little faster, keeping in the same beat,
making the tension in her body crank up higher and higher as she
anticipated every inch they moved. Finally she could do nothing but
rest her head on Damien’s chest as they pounded in and out of her,
filling and emptying her body, stretching her unbearably wide, and
then leaving her dramatically empty.
It was, in truth, the most passionate, intense experience of her life.
I will remember this forever. No sex could ever be this good. I’m
going to miss Damien and Hunter every night for the rest of my life,
but at least I’ll have these few days of amazing memories.
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Before she was fully prepared for it, the climax slammed up
through her body, rolling through her cunt and shaking her to her
bones.
“Bite me, Jaz, go on bite me,” said Damien.
She gripped his shoulder with her teeth and held a mouthful of his
flesh as she shook in release. Then she did the same to Hunter.
Hunter’s teeth came down on her neck, and she felt the sharp cut of
his teeth and then blood on her neck. As it happened, and while
Damien was biting her, a second orgasm slammed into her, shaking
her even more, and her cunt and ass filled with the men’s seed.
They’re right. It feels much better than a condom.
That was her last thought as she shook with the most extreme
climax she’d ever experienced, her mind graying out with pleasure as
her body was held tightly between two wonderful men who she was
going to miss like hell when she left.
Maybe I can stay tonight as well and not leave until tomorrow
morning.
While she was in the shower, Damien went out to the truck and
bought in her backpack, so she was able to dress in clean clothes. She
only took a quick shower, reminding herself that this was the desert
and water was a finite resource. Then, while each man took his turn in
the shower, she took Phideaux outside, and they explored a little bit
around the area, always keeping the house within eyesight though.
* * * *
Damien fried them all eggs and bacon for breakfast and then
enjoyed the picture the three of them made, sitting around the table
and talking and eating together. He and Hunter were now technically
mated to Jaz, but it couldn’t take effect until she knew everything
about them. That was the next step, finding ways to spend time with
her so they could explain about Hunter’s family.
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“Do you think you could live in the desert, Jaz?” he asked, hoping
that wasn’t too intrusive a question.
“I like the desert. It’s incredibly beautiful, but I don’t know how
I’d support myself and Phideaux. You have a house and a job. I don’t
have anything like that.”
“Would you like to stay with us a little bit longer? Some of the
other families who live out in the desert might be able to tell you
about other cemeteries or private graveyards. Damien had an idea
yesterday about that, and we could ask around for you,” said Hunter.
Damien was pleased that Hunter had credited the idea to him. It
was his idea, but only Hunter could put it into practice. He wasn’t a
werewolf, and the Alpha had no reason to speak to him.
Jaz’s face came alive in a big vivacious grin. “I wouldn’t mind
staying for a few more days. Likely I won’t hear back from Stacey
until later today or even tomorrow anyway.”
“Great. That’s wonderful that you’ll stay.” Damien heaved a sigh
of relief he tried to hide. It was clear she wanted to be with them as
much as they wanted to be with her. He and Hunter would have to
work today, but they could still spend time talking to her and just
hanging out with her as well.
Damien drove this morning, and he began by showing her the
compass. Using his fingers in the air, he showed her the positions of
Towler, his home, Junctionville, and Burton. “The idea is to just head
in the correct direction. Now from here to the store, Hunter and I’ve
been driving it forever so we know exactly how to get there, but for
you, the best system is to stick rigidly to the compass and, if you
come across sandy soil or a patch of scrub or a pile of rocks, to
deviate around them then get back on your compass heading.”
“Why wouldn’t I just follow your tire tracks? I can see them
easily here.” She pointed to what were indeed his tracks.
“Because as soon as we get to rock they’ll disappear and you
won’t know whether you’re too far north or too far south of the line
you need to take.”
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“Oh.”
“So tell Damien where he should be heading now,” ordered
Hunter.
Damien hid a grin. Hunter was using his Dom voice. He’d used it
a couple of times last night as well. Damien predicted it wouldn’t be
long before they were all playing a scene in the dungeon underneath
the Wishram house. Maybe even tonight. His cock stretched and filled
at the delightful thought of Jaz naked and chained up in the basement
as he sucked her breasts and cunt while Hunter whipped her sexy-as-
hell little ass.
Oh yes, her ass. It was his turn to fuck that ass, and he couldn’t
wait.
Unfortunately he had to wait. They received the new gas gauge
and fitted it into Jaz’s car, and before it arrived, they’d tested some
more of Old Man Morgan’s machinery. He liked it maintained every
year, which they were happy to do. It was an easy job, and they were
able to do it between other work that came in.
They saw Jaz and Phideaux wandering around the desert, although
never going very far, and she sat with them while they ate lunch.
She must have helped Ny with the cooking because later she came
across to tell them supper would be ready in twenty minutes, which
just gave him and Hunter time to lock the garage and wash up.
He saw Hunter speaking quietly to Forest and wondered if he was
asking about the dungeon, but apparently not because Hunter
disappeared into Forest’s office. Oh yes. He’ll want to see if their
Alpha has answered his question about the cemeteries.
His second guess was right because when Hunter came back he
was smiling.
“Jaz, a friend has suggested another cemetery in the desert. Like
the old Junctionville one, it’s a place where no one lives anymore.
Would you like to come there with us? It’ll take about half a day to
drive each way, so we’ll need to camp overnight.”
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“That’s fine. I’ve got my tent, and I’m carrying water and a few
other things. I’m really excited we found one so soon.”
“I’m glad, too. It’ll be a mini-vacation for Hunter and me. I think
we ought to take Hunter’s truck though. Maybe we could pack what
you and Phideaux need into it tonight though, so we can have an early
start tomorrow.”
He had a moment’s thought about bobcats, coyotes, and mountain
lions but shrugged. Clearly if there was a cemetery there it was an
area where people had lived at some stage, so likely not the kind of
place those wild animals frequented. They liked to stay away from
humans and would have developed different territories years ago.
* * * *
Hunter was quite hopeful after hearing back from his Alpha. He
lived on the outskirts of Towler, within the town limits but still
surrounded by desert. Originally the pack had ranged over almost an
eighth of Nevada, but although the desert hadn’t moved, modern
technology had made living elsewhere much more practicable, and
most people preferred the easier life in a town or city. Plus there just
weren’t all that many jobs in the desert. Damien himself was damn
lucky he was able to work with Hunter instead of in Las Vegas or
Reno.
Wolfric told Hunter that the Supreme Alpha of North America
had a team of people involved in a family genealogical project trying
to learn whether or not werewolves had always birthed more males
than females. The team was visiting all the packs, talking with the
senior members to gather their memories of whether or not there’d
been interspecies marriages or ménage marriages over the years.
Since wolves mating with humans brought the birth ratio back to half
boys and half girls, that was their only solution for survival at present.
As part of that, the Supreme Alpha had been happy to share
information about previously unlisted werewolf graveyards in return
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for photographs or other data about the people buried there. It seemed
that Jasmine’s project might tie in with the Supreme Alpha’s.
Also, if the local werewolves sent the pictures and data to Jaz,
then she could forward the information to the Cemetery Trust without
leaving home a lot of the time. Sometimes no one would live
anywhere near the old graveyards and someone would have to go visit
them. However, mostly the local werewolf clans would be able to
visit, take pictures of whatever Jaz needed to know, and whatever the
Supreme Alpha wanted to know, and send them both the details.
As far as Hunter could see, it might be problem solved. Jaz would
keep her job and stay with them a lot of the time, and occasionally he
and Damien would travel with her to wherever she needed to go. But
only if Jaz was willing to stay with them and if she was happy about
werewolves. So it was all coming together amazingly well, but it
wasn’t by any means a done deal yet. He still had to tell her he was a
wolf and that she’d be working with, and surrounded by, shape-
shifters.
He wasn’t sure how to do that. Maybe tomorrow as they camped
out he could get talking and find out more about her feelings on the
matter and work out how to open the conversation.
Anyway, they’d be together again. That was the most important
thing.
Tonight they’d have to stay in their own rooms in the family
home, but after that, they’d have two full days and a night together to
talk and learn and visit and fuck. Hell yes. And fuck.
* * * *
They’d packed the truck the night before with their clothing and
food and extra fuel and water, as well as the camping equipment. Jaz
and Phideaux were ready to go by seven, but Ny insisted they all eat a
hearty breakfast first.
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Jaz didn’t mind. Ny sure knew how to cook, and what’s more, he
seemed to enjoy cooking. She knew a lot of professional chefs were
men, but Ny was the first man she’d met personally who actually
cooked because he enjoyed it, not just because he was hungry. She
had to admit mostly she only cooked because she was hungry herself.
But she was pleased to have spent time with him.
“If this cemetery turns out to be suitable, along with the other one,
I’ll make a profit this month. That’s really exciting, and it’s thanks to
both of you,” she told Damien and Hunter as they drove down the
highway.
“The desert is a community. It stretches over a lot of miles, but
many families have lived here for generations, and people know each
other. Everyone always helps other people because no one ever knows
when they might need some help themselves,” said Damien.
“That’s logical. But I expect people also help just because they
like to help as well. Helping because you might need help one day is
okay, but it’s a bit selfish. I think a lot of people like to pay it
forward.”
“Yes, that’s quite likely. You know all about our families, but
what about yours?” asked Damien.
Hunter was once again driving, and she was sitting in the middle,
with Phideaux stretched out along most of the backseat.
“My parents divorced when I was twelve. It was reasonably
amicable, I suppose. I mean they yelled at each other a lot, but there
was no violence or one of them smashing things or stealing things or
anything like that. I stayed with my mom for a while then with my
dad, and then at eighteen, I moved into an apartment with a passel of
other girls. I tried community college but didn’t really like it, so I got
a job. The rest you know.”
“You never thought of going back to college again later and
retraining?” asked Hunter.
She snorted. “Well, when you’ve never trained for anything you
can’t really retrain, but no. I didn’t dislike school, but I didn’t have a
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dream of getting a degree or anything either. I’m not really the kind of
person who likes to sit in an office from nine to five Monday to
Friday. I like being outdoors and moving around, doing different
things. Besides, Phideaux would be lonely in an apartment by himself
all day.”
Now it was Damien who snorted. “Phideaux would be lonely.
Right.”
The dog barked to let them know he knew that they were talking
about him.
She turned around and rubbed his head. “It’s okay, buddy. I’m
here to look after you.”
“If we can find some more cemeteries in this general area, would
you be prepared to stay here with us for a while? A few months, say?”
asked Hunter.
She longed to yell, “yes, yes, yes,” but she couldn’t impose on
them. It was like the very first night she’d stayed in the house when
she’d been afraid it was rude to offer payment, but she didn’t want to
seem just a greedy parasite. “I would like that, but are you sure Ny
wouldn’t get tired of cooking for me, and you wouldn’t get sick of me
staying in your house and using all your things?”
“Hell no. We’d like you to stay, and for more than just a few
nights. That big old house needs more people living in it,” said
Damien.
“Nothing is certain yet, but some people I’m in touch with might
be able to point us in the direction of some other old graveyards. The
desert is a place where people used to live and no longer do. Life in
towns is much simpler and easier with air-conditioning, running
water, and more jobs. I’m hopeful my friends can help us find enough
abandoned cemeteries to keep you busy for a while,” said Hunter.
“If you’re sure I won’t be a burden, I’d love to stay with you for a
month or two.”
Jaz sat back in her seat amazed. These two men were the most
incredible, most wonderful people she’d ever known. They were
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stunning to look at, better eye candy than most of the celebrities she
saw on television. Yet they were here, with her, and they wanted her
to stay with them a little longer. Fuck yes, she wanted that. And more
sex with them as well. She’d had the best sex of her life with two men
who totally knew how to pleasure her to explosion and beyond.
But even better than that, more important than eye candy and
mind-blowing sex, was that she liked them as people. They were
friendly and helpful, funny and sincere, entertaining and serious, and
right now, she’d rather be sitting with them than anywhere else in the
world.
So, yes, even if this next cemetery wasn’t abandoned and didn’t
earn her any money, she’d stay with them for a while. Until they got
tired of her, which likely wouldn’t be all that long. She was very
ordinary and quite boring really. Also she didn’t know any really sexy
tricks, but maybe she could learn some. Maybe she could practice a
little on them. That could be fun.
* * * *
The first two hours, they drove straight down the highway. Well,
highway was likely not an accurate term, but it was a two-lane asphalt
road, so what passed for a highway out here.
Damien loved having his body pressed against Jaz’s delightful
curves. She wasn’t all that big, but her breasts were perfect for his
mouth to suck, and her hips were soft, not just harsh bones digging
into his skin. Even though her arms and legs had clearly visible
musculature, again they weren’t rock-hard like a man’s, but soft with
an underlying firmness, and he really liked that. As far as he could
tell, she was perfect in every way. Her mind was bright, and she faced
the world with confidence, accepting what it gave her but turning the
negatives into positives. Her ability to do that made her special in his
eyes.
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He was just beginning to think they ought to be leaving the
highway soon when Hunter slowed down a little. About a mile later,
he turned off, following a track into the desert. Gravel had been laid
on the track, not recently, but there was still enough to mean they
didn’t need to slow down much yet. Once they started driving over
the desert, especially here where neither he nor Hunter were familiar
with the tracks, they’d have to travel much more slowly to watch out
for potholes, half-buried rocks, and sand.
He flicked a glance at Jaz, but she was perfectly relaxed in her
seat between him and Hunter. He was glad she wasn’t a nervous type
of person. He would hate being stuck in a truck for two days with
someone worried by every bump and rock.
“Phideaux’s a good traveler,” said Hunter.
Hell yes. He hadn’t even thought about how much he’d hate
having a dog whining in his ear all day long. Or about how the dog
had adjusted to being surrounded by werewolves. It was damn lucky
Phideaux had accepted them all so readily. He was certain Jaz
wouldn’t have been happy staying with them if Phideaux was
unsettled.
“We’ve been doing this for months now. He’s used to traveling,
aren’t you, buddy?”
“That’s right. You said four months now, didn’t you?” he asked.
“We left just before Thanksgiving, and we’ve wandered around
the back roads and in and out of small towns, which is why it’s taken
me four months to travel two thousand miles.”
“But that means you journeyed right through winter. How did you
manage that?” asked Damien.
“I’ve discovered that most small towns are a hell of a lot faster to
plow their roads than the neighborhood where I used to live. It wasn’t
often when we were stuck and had to wait very long before we could
move on.”
“I can’t imagine camping in the snow. I’m desert born and bred
and prefer the heat,” said Hunter, shaking his head.
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“We did sleep in the car a few times, and once the people at the
campground let us stay in a cabin because the lady was worried that
the snow might last a few days. Which it did. But mostly we were
fine.”
Once again Damien was impressed by this woman. Instead of
complaining about how difficult it must have been to stay warm and
dry through winter, she remembered the people who’d helped her.
Although he supposed with Phideaux’s body heat as well as hers, the
inside of her car would have stayed relatively warm. Well, warm
enough so they wouldn’t get frostbite anyway.
For the next two hours they talked a while and then rode in
companionable silence. From time to time he pointed out features of
the desert for Jaz to recognize, and Hunter asked her to check the
compass to ensure they were heading in the correct direction. They’d
left the track long before, although they should cross another track
soon. The one that had led to the abandoned township.
Just then Jaz pointed. “Look up there. There’s a track, and it’s
going our way.”
“Great. Another ten or fifteen minutes and we’ll be there,” said
Hunter.
Damien stretched. He’d be ready to get out of the truck, and he
was sure the dog would be, too. As long as there were no snakes
around here. Although Phideaux likely would do as Jaz told him.
Well, hopefully.
Damien was surprised that there were no buildings here at all, not
even tumbled-down ones. If they hadn’t been driving really slowly,
they’d have gone right past the cemetery, thinking they hadn’t
reached the correct place yet.
“Over there. I see gravestones,” said Jaz, pointing.
“There are a few bricks just here. That might possibly have been
the chimney of a house.” But Damien was doubtful. What had
happened to the rest of it?
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Hunter slowed to a crawl and drove over the rutted track to the
edges of what was likely the cemetery.
Damien stared out the window, which he’d rolled down. There
was some straggly grass and a few tussocks of weeds, which indicated
that no sheep had wandered this way in quite a while. It was a very
small cemetery, if it truly was a burial ground. There were maybe half
a dozen headstones lying flat on the dirt and none upright, and that
was all.
Damien had a horrible feeling that this was not going to earn any
money for Jaz. Oh, well. It was a nice little mini-vacation for them
anyway. He’d enjoyed simply being with her, although it would have
been better if it was suitable as well.
Hunter stopped the truck, and Damien opened his door, climbing
out. He reached in to help Jaz, but she was already wiggling across
the seats and jumping down. Phideaux was on his feet, ready and
waiting to get out, but she gripped his head and said, “Cemetery,
Phideaux.”
He whined with disappointment but obediently stood at her side.
He looked so downcast Damien wanted to ask, “Can’t he play first?”
but he was Jasmine’s pet, and this was her workplace. Damn. He’d
never have expected the huge mutt to get under his skin so much he
wanted to play with him instead of focusing on work first.
* * * *
Hunter stayed back, leaning against the truck watching as Jasmine
did almost exactly what she’d done at the Junctionville cemetery. She
took a lot of pictures of the cemetery and its surroundings then close-
ups of the graves and the headstones, and finally she got out her
notebook and copied down the information on the clearest of the
headstones.
“What is this place called?” she asked him and Damien, turning to
look at them.
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Damien shrugged, and Hunter said, “This road is the old Towler-
Wetherby Track, but I don’t know a place name for here. Maybe just
say it’s about sixty miles from Wetherby.”
“Maybe the headstones say,” said Damien, waking into the
cemetery.
He stood beside Damien and read the few carved stones, but it
was just the usual thing, dates of birth and death, wife of and mother
of—nothing about the place where they were.
After a little while, Jaz put her things in her backpack and said,
“Okay, Phideaux.”
The dog, which had been sniffing around one of the more distant
graves, raced across to her, barking, and she threw the ball to him.
Soon all four of them were chasing the ball, throwing and catching it,
but Hunter had to admit the dog was faster than the rest of them.
He wandered back to the truck and got out some water for them
all and then unpacked a rug to sit on and the cooler of food. They
cleansed their hands with hand sanitizer, not wanting to waste their
water on the first day, and then ate. Hunter grinned as he unpacked
the bone Ny had sent for Phideaux. The mutt was fast becoming the
spoiled pet of all of them.
“Do you think this cemetery will be one the Cemetery Trust will
want?” asked Damien.
“I don’t know. There aren’t very many graves, and most of them
aren’t even named. But the ones in that far corner look much newer,
so maybe they already know about it. I mean those ones look really
new, like the cemetery is still in use.”
“But no one lives anywhere near here,” said Hunter. He jumped
up and walked over to where she indicted. Phideaux barked and
followed him across.
Hunter stared at four graves. They had tiny wooden crosses
planted in the earth at the head of each grave. “Andy, Aiden, Amanda,
Amy.”
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“Do you think they are four people from the one family? Maybe
they died in a car accident or something,” said Jaz from behind him.
He shook his head. “We’d have heard if there were any road
accidents anywhere around here. Or any other loss of life. Everyone
in the desert would know if four people died like that.”
Jaz crouched down by one of the crosses. “It looks like it was
written with a Sharpie, and they hadn’t been invented when everyone
else here died. Any why are there no last names? Surnames are really
important on graves. They’re all quite common names, although it’s
weird they all start with A. Their parents must have wanted their kids
always to be at the front of the line at kindergarten.”
Hunter grinned. “That’s no joke. With a last name like Wishram,
it was always a worry that whatever the teacher was handing out
would be all used up before they got to me. And they started using
surnames for grade order even in elementary school at Burton.”
“Maybe that’s the reason. Maybe their last name started with a Z,
and the parents were overreacting,” said Damien.
They all laughed. Phideaux was sniffing around a grave again, and
Hunter realized it was where he’d been quite a lot of the time.
Evidently some rodents or maybe snakes had a nest there. It was one
of these newer graves, so perhaps a small creature had made use of
the more recently turned soil to build itself a home.
“Come on, Damien. We’d better go pitch the tent and set up our
home for the night.”
“Okay. But after that, let’s walk up that hill. It’s maybe three
miles. It’ll be a nice walk after sitting all day in the truck.”
“Is that too far for you, Jaz?” asked Hunter.
“No. It’s fine, but I’d like to look around here a bit more to make
sure I’ve got everything I need.”
“Sure.” He walked back to the truck, and he and Damien took out
the tent and began setting it up. It wasn’t new, but it did have a built-
in floor and extra weather protection. Nights could get cold in the
desert, even though the days were hot. And the floor was essential
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protection against bugs. The tent fabric was treated with a tropical-
strength insect repellant layer, which meant they didn’t need to worry
about a visit from a scorpion in the night.
They’d almost finished getting everything ready when the dog
yelped loudly and then whined. Hunter turned around to see him
standing on three legs and holding up a front paw.
“Oh, fuck. I hope he hasn’t been bitten by something.”
“I’ll get the first aid box,” said Damien, racing back to the truck.
Hunter ran across to Jaz, who was on her knees looking at
Phideaux’s paw. There was some blood she was trying to brush away
with her fingers, so he pulled off his T-shirt and said, “Use this.”
As soon as she wiped the blood away, he could see a long and
nasty splinter in the dog’s foot. “Sorry, boy, but a splinter is better
than a sting from a scorpion,” he said.
“I wish I had tweezers though. It’s not going to be easy to grab
with my fingers.”
“There’ll be tweezers in the first aid box. Damien’s getting it.”
She raised huge, worried brown eyes to look at him. “You have a
first aid box? Wonderful.”
He wanted to say of course they wouldn’t travel across the desert
without bandages and disinfectant, but he didn’t want to worry her
anymore than she was. She hadn’t meant to imply he wasn’t going to
look after her properly.
“Here we are.” Damien dropped to his knees beside them and
opened the container.
Jaz wiped the wound again very gently with his T-shirt and picked
up the tweezers. She rubbed Phideaux’s muzzle with the back of her
hand and said, “This is going to hurt, buddy. You need to be brave,
okay?”
The dog whined but stayed perfectly still, and Hunter saw the trust
the woman and the dog shared. He wanted them to trust him like that,
too, to be filled with the knowledge that he would always be there to
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look after her and the mutt as well, instead of being surprised and
pleased when he produced what she needed.
“Would you like me to hold him still for you?” he asked.
“You’ll stay still, won’t you, boy? I need to grip the splinter
properly to pull it out.”
Once again Phideaux whined, but he didn’t move.
Hunter watched her grab the end of the splinter and tug it firmly,
but smoothly, out of the wounded paw. Damien had the little bottle of
disinfectant in his hand, so Hunter took the splinter and tweezers from
her, and she poured the liquid over the cut and then wrapped a
bandage around the dog’s foot.
“That’s not going to protect it for two minutes,” she said, looking
in the box for something tougher to use.
“You can rip up my T-shirt.” He liked that shirt, but she was right.
The bandage would be filthy in no time at all.
“Actually a sock would be stronger. Can one of you please bring
my backpack over here and I’ll get a clean sock to tie on his foot.”
Damien jumped up and got it, and in the end, she used both her
clean socks, tied onto Phideaux’s leg with a length of twine.
Phideaux limped across to the tent, went inside, and lay down. Jaz
followed him, sitting beside him and rubbing his head. “Poor buddy. I
know it hurts right now, but it’ll soon heal over.”
Damien put some water in Phideaux’s bowl and poured a cup for
each of them as well, and then he tipped some more water into a
smaller container for them to take on their walk.
Hunter was worried. Phideaux couldn’t come with them. His paw
was still much too tender. “Will he be all right here alone while we go
hiking?”
Jaz shook her head. “I can’t leave him now. I don’t want him to
feel like he ought to follow us.”
Now he felt even worse. He knew Damien had been looking
forward to the walk, and he had as well, but he couldn’t leave Jaz here
alone.
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“Okay, we won’t go hiking.”
“Why not? You and Damien can go. I’ll be fine here. I’m used to
it being just me and Phideaux. Besides, we haven’t seen a person or a
car since we left the highway. If you tell me what to prepare, I’ll have
supper ready for you when you get back.”
“Are you sure?” asked Damien.
“Of course. I told you, Phideaux and I have been traveling for
months now, and we’re used to camping out like this.”
“We didn’t bring anything that requires cooking because fuel is
hard to find and the smell of meat might bring predators. But there’s
plenty of food in the cooler. Ny made sure of that. Are you really
going to be okay here for a couple of hours?”
“Nothing’s going to happen. Since you don’t need me to cook,
likely I’ll be curled up and sound asleep by the time you get back.”
* * * *
Jaz sat in the doorway of the tent and watched the men gradually
disappear up a slope and over the top. She wondered how accurate
their estimate of three miles was. They’d lived here all their lives, she
knew that, but she also thought distances out here were very
deceptive. That hill they’d just climbed didn’t seem very far at all,
maybe half a mile, yet the amount of time it’d taken two fit men to
walk there told her it had to be closer to two miles.
The higher hill they were heading toward was as far away again.
Jaz rather thought they’d be going on an eight-mile walk rather than
three miles. Or maybe they’d meant three miles each way, but she still
thought that was an underestimate. They waved as they disappeared
from her view, and she turned to face Phideaux. The poor dog was
still feeling a bit miserable. That splinter had been quite deep, and
pouring disinfectant into the wound, although very necessary, would
have stung like hell.
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“You’ve been a very good boy. I hope Ny packed you something
nice for supper to be your reward,” she said, stroking his soft head
and petting his ears the way he liked. She sat with him for a long time,
kneading and soothing him until he went to sleep. That was the best
thing for him. Likely by the time he woke up, the men would be
almost back and it’d be time to eat. And then to go to bed. Jaz giggled
softly. Hell yes. She was looking forward to the going-to-bed part of
the program.
Jaz thought she heard the sound of tires on dirt and sat up
straighter, frowning. She listened intently and couldn’t hear anything
more so she wondered if it had just been a stray breeze. Contrary to
what some people might think, even out in the middle of the desert,
alone with nature, the world wasn’t silent. There were insects and
birds moving, the breeze blowing, and the scraping of dirt against
rocks.
She tilted her head and then wiggled forward to the doorway of
the tent. This time she thought she heard a faint sound of boots on
dirt. Maybe she had heard tires before. But whoever it was must have
seen the tent. It was bright blue in a beige-brown-ocher desert. Why
hadn’t they called out or honked their car horn?
Jaz crawled out of the tent and stood up. Over to the side of the
cemetery was a dirty white minivan. Why hadn’t she heard the
engine? And where were the people?
Huge hands grabbed her from behind, and a third hand pressed her
neck. “Sorry, sugar. Time for you to take a nap.”
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Chapter Five
Jaz woke up to find her hands handcuffed behind her back and her
ankles tied together. She was in the back of the minivan and
surrounded by wooden crates. What the fuck was she doing here and
why the crates of equipment? Why hadn’t the men just left her in her
tent? If she was tied up she’d have no idea where they’d gone or
which way to follow them.
She stared at the wooden crates. Wooden crates. The splinter in
Phideaux’s paw. Likely those new graves had held these crates. But
why four graves? Why not just one? And why go to the trouble of
naming them all?
Unless one lot of people hid the crates and the next lot retrieved
them? But that sort of story belonged in the Prohibition era. Not these
days. The most likely item to be smuggled was drugs, and it made no
sense whatsoever to leave them somewhere. Why not just deliver
them to where they were going? And that would be a major
population center, not tiny desert towns. Besides, no one heading to
Las Vegas from South America would come past here.
It didn’t make any sense whatsoever.
Jaz tired to wiggle her shoulders to relax her tense muscles
without alerting the men to the fact that she was awake. If they
thought she was still unconscious likely they’d talk and tell her what
was happening. At least, that’s what always happened in the movies.
But the men didn’t speak much, and the only thing Jaz knew was
that they were still in the desert on a track or off-road because they
were traveling not very fast over rough ground. Once they reached the
highway, they’d go a lot faster and could be heading anywhere. Even
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more importantly, once they reached the highway, Hunter and
Damien would have no hope at all of finding her. Not that anyone had
seen the minivan approach the cemetery anyway.
Why did they abduct me? There has to be a reason. It would have
been ten times simpler to just leave me in the tent. Why?
Why the transfer of goods at the cemetery, and why had they
taken her? They were the key questions. If she could answer them,
she’d know what this was all about. Maybe the crates would tell her
something.
Jaz twisted herself up into a sitting position and then used her
heels and her butt to inch across the floor until she was beside the
crates. There were eight of them, which meant there’d been two in
each fake grave. There was quite a lot of sandy grit on the floor of the
van, which seemed to prove they had been dug up, so her guessing
was doing okay so far.
It took her quite a while to wiggle past all the crates, but their only
markings were a series of letters and numbers, which likely meant
something to the owners of the shipping company but didn’t help her
at all.
Now what? Preventing the bad guys from reaching the highway
seemed to be the most important thing. How was she to do that?
Jaz leaned back against the crates and thought.
* * * *
Damien really enjoyed the hike with Hunter. It’d been way too
long since he’d taken a day off to go hiking. The weather this time of
year was absolutely perfect. Hot, but not too hot, and with a slight
breeze to temper the sunshine. He stretched his legs out and walked
using his entire body. It was a great feeling. At the top of the first hill,
he and Hunter waved to Jaz, who appeared as a tiny dot in the
opening of the tent. Then they turned and kept going. It took longer
than he’d expected to reach the second, higher hill, but there was still
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more than enough time to get back to the tent before dusk, and
downhill would be faster anyway.
He and Hunter walked along the ridge, admiring the amazing
view. “Fuck, the desert is so beautiful. I could never live anywhere
else.”
“Me either. City people think it’s empty, but there’s so much life
hiding inside it, and the view is ever-changing.”
He walked to the end of the ridge and turned slowly to look at
every one of the three-sixty degrees laid out before him. Tucked
between two ripples in the countryside was a tiny white box. “What
do you think that is, Hunter?”
“Huh? Where?”
Damien pointed. It wasn’t moving. At first he’d wondered if it
was a minivan or truck, but why would it be parked there? It didn’t
seem big enough to be a house, and why would a house be painted
white all the way out here?
“It looks like a truck or a minivan. Maybe it’s an RV and someone
is camping there.”
“Oh, all right. An RV makes sense.” Damien turned and fist-
bumped Hunter. Ever since they’d been boys it had been their
standard method of signaling success, congratulations, or simply
agreement to each other.
They each drank some water, looked around a little more, and
then, conscious of Jaz and Phideaux alone, and of dusk only a few
hours away, started to head back. They didn’t talk much, but they
didn’t need to. Sometimes they followed each other, and other times
they walked side by side or even a few yards apart as each chose a
different route down the hill and across the desert.
At the top of the hill closer to their camp, Damien rubbed his
sweaty face with his shirt, conscious that Hunter couldn’t do that
since he’d given up his T-shirt to care for the dog’s paw and was still
bare-chested. Fortunately they both had olive skin that was unlikely to
sunburn this early in the season.
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“You can wipe your face on the back of my shirt if you want to,”
he said.
Hunter laughed and shook his head. “It’s okay. I’m good.”
They shared the last of the water, and then Hunter tucked the
empty bottle in the back pocket of his jeans. Damien walked to the
edge of the hill and stood facing toward the campsite. “I wonder if
Jaz— What the fucking hell?”
The white minivan they’d seen before had pulled up beside the
cemetery, and two people were carrying a coffin across to the van. He
gasped. “Grave robbers.”
Hunter grabbed his arm. “That box is too square. A casket is long
and narrow.”
“Well, what the fuck is going on?”
“I don’t know. But I aim to find out.”
Damien assumed he meant they were about to hurry back as fast
as they could, but instead, Hunter stripped off his boots and shoes,
pulled down his jeans, and changed into his wolf. Then he was gone,
loping across the desert faster than they could have run in human
form. Also, as a wolf, he’d have a lot more stamina than they did right
now.
Damien was torn. He wanted to stay and watch so he knew what
was happening, which might be something perfectly innocent. But on
the other hand, he wanted to be there beside Jaz to protect her in case
it wasn’t something innocent. He shoved Hunter’s socks and briefs
inside his boots, tied the laces to one of his belt loops, put the empty
water bottle, Hunter’s wallet, keys, and cell phone in his own pockets
and then knotted the legs of Hunter’s jeans around his waist. Then he
began a brisk, army-style forced march down the side of the hill.
The military was supposed to walk a mile in eight minutes when
they were in a hurry. He was carrying very little so planned to be all
the way back in ten minutes.
Fuck ten minutes. I can go faster than that. Damien began to jog.
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His leg muscles were aching, but he refused to slow down. He’d
seen the white minivan heading south, but not very fast, and Hunter
must have seen it as well because the wolf had changed the angle of
his run and cut south. He had less distance to run now and would
catch up to the vehicle more quickly, except that once it began to
move faster, it’d leave him behind.
Damien continued running back to camp. He had to find Jaz.
He was panting now, sweat pouring down his body and Hunter’s
damn boots bashing into his thighs on every step, but he could hear
Phideaux barking, and it wasn’t a happy bark. Damien was terrified
Jaz had been hurt. Despite his aching muscles, he pushed himself
harder, racing the last few hundred yards across the desert and into
camp. He skidded to a stop in front of the tent, and it was obvious Jaz
wasn’t there.
“Jasmine!” he screamed.
But of course she’d have answered Phideaux’s bark if she could
have.
“Where is she, boy? Is she hurt?” he asked.
Phideaux started to limp down the track, the way the white
minivan had gone.
“In the van? Did they take her with him?”
Phideaux barked again, and it sounded a hell of a lot like a yes to
him.
He pulled Hunter’s keys out of his pants and headed for their
truck.
“Get in the truck and guide me, Phideaux,” he said, opening the
door. The dog jumped straight up onto the seat and then whined and
whimpered.
Dammit, he’d forgotten the animal was injured. “Sorry, buddy.”
He raced around to the driver’s door, climbed in, and started the
engine and then remembered Jasmine’s backpack. Likely it was full
of things she’d need.
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He jumped out again, raced to the tent, snatched it and Phideaux’s
water bowl up, threw them in the passenger side footwell of the truck,
and hit the accelerator before he’d even shut the door. He was driving
much too fast on the track, but he couldn’t slow down. Not with
Jasmine stolen from him and Hunter hell only knew where.
* * * *
Hunter saw the minivan begin to move and ignored it at first. His
whole being was centered on getting to Jasmine. His woman. His
mate. But then logic permeated his brain. The tent was bright blue and
only a couple of dozen feet from where the men had parked their
minivan. If Jasmine had been capable of it, she’d have been standing
there talking to the men, watching them, likely even helping them or
maybe offering them some water.
Even if she’d been asleep when they arrived, Phideaux would
have heard the van’s engine and woken her up. Therefore, she wasn’t
okay at all. He couldn’t convince himself that she’d have just
wandered off with the other people without sending him and Damien
a text message at the very least. Therefore, something was wrong. His
woman, his mate, was in danger or in trouble or both.
Hunter changed direction, heading straight for the minivan now,
and increasing his speed to a flat run. He wouldn’t be able to maintain
such speed for very long, but he needed to get closer to the van so he
knew where they were going.
He stretched his entire body out, lengthening his stride, calling on
all his muscles and sinews to revert to his primeval wolf and run
faster, run harder, to find his mate.
The minivan turned south, and he was able to cut the corner again,
heading across the desert and closing the distance between them, but
already he was tiring. Wolves weren’t meant to run at top speed for so
long. They could go as fast as thirty-five miles an hour, but only in
short bursts, and his short burst was almost used up.
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Hunter refused to slow much. He attached his gaze to the back of
the van, almost willing it to stop, to wait for him. The vehicle wasn’t
listening. This track had some gravel on it, and the minivan actually
sped up, whereas he had to slow down. Well, he could run at five
miles an hour for a hell of a long time. Hopefully that would be good
enough. He wished he had his cell phone. If he could have called his
Alpha, maybe Wolfric could get some people up ahead of the van to
be watching for it.
He wondered if Damien would think of that when he returned to
the campsite. But likely Damien would be busy packing up the tent
and all their possessions before trying to follow him. Or maybe he
would even wait there for him to return to the campsite. Fuck! It was
up to him. Hunter ignored his aching muscles and sped up again. The
minivan had disappeared over the horizon, but it had never veered off
the track, so he had to pin his hopes on it continuing to stay on the
track instead of going across the desert as he would have done.
Evening was growing closer, and he’d slowed to a walk when he
heard his truck tooting him. It was still a good half-mile away, but
he’d know his truck anywhere. It seemed that Damien had come after
them, so that was good. The first thing he’d do was call his Alpha and
hope the people who’d stolen Jasmine hadn’t completely disappeared
onto a highway.
Nevertheless he continued to plod along the track, nose down. He
smelled the faint aftertaste of the gas from the minivan. These tracks
were used so infrequently it was as good as a neon sign that he was
still heading in the correct direction.
At first he’d almost panicked that the minivan would leave the
track, but now he was convinced that these people were not
neighbors, and possibly not even desert dwellers at all. That suited
him fine. It’d make them much easier to locate.
Phideaux was barking madly, so Hunter stopped walking and
changed back into human form. Likely the mutt would attack him if
he tried to get in the truck as a wolf. But the dog kept up his noise. As
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soon as Damien stopped the truck beside him, Hunter opened the door
and climbed in, only to have his face licked all over by the dog.
Hunter had to laugh. He pushed the huge mutt onto the middle
seat and shut the door. At once Damien sped up, going much faster
than the other vehicle had been traveling.
“I assume you’re sure we’re still heading in the right direction?
Phideaux seems to think so,” said Damien.
“Yes. I could smell the gas from the minivan. Where’s my cell
phone? I need to call my Alpha.”
“In my pocket. You might want to get dressed again as well.”
“Good point.”
If it came to a fight, he didn’t want to be naked at the time. He
picked up Phideaux and moved him onto the seat by the window so he
could get his cell phone and then noticed his boots and jeans still tied
around Damien’s waist. Apparently Damien had jumped straight in
the truck to follow them. Hunter had to kneel up on the seat to
disentangle everything from Damien’s body and pulled his briefs on
then his jeans, wiggling his butt up and down until Phideaux whined
and pushed him back.
“Sorry, buddy. I know your paw hurts, but trust me, I need to get
dressed.”
He stuck his feet up on the dashboard to lace his boots, and then
he dug his hands into Damien’s pockets and reclaimed his
possessions, tossing the empty water bottle into the backseat.
“Hell. Have we still got water with us, or is everything back at the
cemetery?” he asked.
“We’ve got water. The big container is in the back.”
“Good.”
Then at last he called Wolfric, swiping the speaker on so Damien
could hear the conversation.
“Sir, some people have captured Jasmine.”
“Where are you, and where did this happen?”
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He looked at the compass and gave an exact a description as he
could of their location. “We were at the abandoned cemetery you told
me about on the old Towler-Wetherby Track, about sixty miles from
Wetherby. The minivan headed toward Wetherby then turned east,
and we’re moving steadily east now.”
“I’ll get some people to bracket your location. Call me back if the
minivan goes off-road or anything changes.”
“Yes, sir. Thank you, sir.”
Damien was driving far too fast for the conditions. Phideaux was
trying to balance on the seat, but it evidently hurt him still to put
weight on his paw. At least the sock was still tied on, protecting the
wound from getting dirt in it.
“Hey, Phideaux, why don’t you climb over into the backseat
where you can lie down?”
The dog turned and looked at him as if he was crazy and then
stared steadfastly out the windshield. “Okay, cancel that idea.”
Hunter understood that the dog loved their woman as much as
they did. All three of them ached to know what was happening to her
and to have her back safe in their arms again.
* * * *
“I need to pee. You have to stop the minivan and let me pee. I
need to go really bad right now,” Jaz called out to the two men in the
front of the truck.
“Too bad. We aren’t stopping until we arrive.”
“You have to stop. I need to go right now.”
“I don’t have to do anything. We aren’t stopping. I don’t care if
you pee your pants.”
“You will care though. It’ll stink, and you’ll be stuck here with
the smell the same as I am.”
“Shut up or I’ll knock you unconscious.”
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“That will have the same effect. As soon as I’m unconscious, my
bladder will let go. It’d much easier just to stop the van and let me get
out and pee in peace.”
“Fucking hell. You’re a pain in the butt, woman.”
“No, I’m not. I just want to pee. Now.”
The minivan slowed and stopped. Jaz heaved a huge sigh of relief.
Asking for bathroom privileges had been the only idea that had come
to her to slow them down, so her men could catch up to them. She’d
become increasingly worried that they’d reach the highway and then
Hunter and Damien would never find her.
One of the men came around and opened the door then helped her
to climb out. She turned her back to him and said, “You’ll have to
take off the two sets of handcuffs so I can go potty.”
“No, I don’t. I’ll pull your pants down for you.”
Jaz hated the thought of this man touching her, but really they’d
both been quite polite. Not violent at all. They’d made her
unconscious by using a pressure point, not by hitting her over the
head or anything too bad, and even now, they were helping her with
exasperation in their voices, not trying to make her frightened. Not
that she was all that happy about being here. But they sure as hell
could have been much worse. However, she didn’t give up that easily.
“Women squat down to pee. If I can’t have my legs far enough apart,
the urine will get all over my clothing, and it’ll still stink up your
minivan.”
“Oh. All right. But I’m not taking the bracelets off your wrists.”
Damn. But it’d been worth trying.
He uncuffed her ankles and stood in front of her, so she turned her
back to him and struggled to pull her shorts down. It was hard with
her hands behind her back, but she wanted to take as long as possible
anyway to give Hunter and Damien more time to find her. Fortunately
she really did need to go, although she could easily have waited
longer. She shook her body and then slowly hauled her shorts back up
again.
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He lifted her up into the minivan, sitting her on the floor, and bent
to put the handcuffs around her ankles again.
“I’m really sorry about this,” she said softly.
“What?”
He looked up, and she kicked him in the chest as hard as she could
with both feet. He fell over backward as she scrambled back into the
van, crawled behind the nearest crate, and pushed it with her ass
toward the wide-open sliding door. The crate was heavy, but she used
her thigh muscles and her butt, pushing harder, and the box gained
momentum and toppled out the door.
It fell with a crash onto the ground and must have hit the man
who’d been so nice to her because he screamed. Jaz ducked down
behind a second crate and began pushing it toward the open door as
the other man jumped out of the minivan and raced around to help his
friend.
Jaz left the crate and scrambled over the seat into the front, half
standing, half sitting on the seat, took the parking brake off with one
hand, and then stomped on the accelerator.
It was far harder to steer with her hands behind her back than
she’d ever imagined, and turning around to go back the way they’d
come was pretty much impossible. The driver’s door was still ajar,
flapping open and closed with her attempts at steering. The engine
was revving madly as she strained to keep a foot on the accelerator.
Both men were yelling at her and each other, and the second crate slid
out the door with a loud crash before she finally got the truck back on
the track.
The driver had one foot inside the van now and pushed wildly at
her. She lost her grip and fell headfirst into the passenger seat
footwell.
“Are you batshit-crazy, woman?” he said, stopping the minivan.
He ran around to the passenger side of the vehicle and hauled her
out of the van, pressing his thumb on her neck again. But this time she
knew what he planned to do, and she slammed her knee up toward his
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groin. She missed the crown jewels but surprised him so much he let
go of her.
“Get in and let’s go,” yelled the man who’d been the passenger.
“We’ve lost a couple of crates. We need to get them.”
“Fuck the crates. Just drive.”
The second man brushed past her and scrambled into the
passenger seat while the first man raced around and climbed in on his
side. The truck spun around back onto the track and roared away. Jaz
was left staring after it, her hands still cuffed behind her back and two
crates of contraband scattered over the desert around her.
“Well, at least now I’ll find out what this stuff is.”
The first crate she’d pushed out the door had knocked into the
man from the passenger seat and was only a little splintered and
mostly intact. The second one, however, had fallen out the door as she
was trying to drive the minivan and had smashed wide open.
Jaz stared down at a pile of guns that had fallen out of the crate.
Guns? Guns made no sense at all. She’d been sure it would have to be
drugs. Nevada was an open carry state and a “shall issue” state for
concealed carry. Why bring in guns? Whatever was going on here?
Jaz looked all around her, but even the dust from the minivan had
dissipated. It looked as though she might be waiting for a long time.
Her arms, dragged and cuffed behind her body, were a real nuisance.
If they had been cuffed in front, she’d be able to use them, at least a
bit.
“It’s supposed to be possible to get them around to the front, and
it’s not like I have anything else to do except try to work out why
there were crates of guns in a grave.” Jaz pushed her arms down her
body, curving her back and sticking her ass out. She wiggled and
pushed and got her ass between her hands but was stuck in a squatting
position.
“Damn. This is harder than it looks. Where’s the YouTube video
showing me how to do it in five easy steps when I need it?”
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Jaz let herself drop down into the dirt, hoping there were no fire
ants or scorpions just here and wiggled and struggled her arms down
her legs. Then she rolled onto her back with her knees against her
chest until she could finally pull her feet through her arms.
“Ha! Victory! I did it!”
Even so, it wasn’t easy to stand up, and her shoulders were aching
now, but with her hands in front of her, she could hold the edge of the
crate and push the guns around with her foot, trying to see if there was
anything else in there as well.
She squatted down again, peering into the crate, but it was just
guns. A lot of guns. Was that the answer? There’d been four graves,
and she’d counted eight crates in the minivan, which had just about
filled it. So two in each grave. Even this one crate must have had a
couple of hundred guns in it. Multiply that by eight crates at say
twenty dollars a gun— Jaz did some quick math in her head. Thirty-
two thousand dollars. That was a lot of money, but not really an
enormous amount. Unless they did it regularly. If they brought in that
many guns three or four times a year, well, yes, that would be a very
nice income for a small gang.
But that still didn’t explain why the guns were in the graves. That
made no sense either.
Jaz became aware of a familiar sound. Way in the distance, she
could hear Phideaux. She stood up straight and scanned the track back
the way she’d come and saw a cloud of dust still at least a mile away.
Her dog had a mighty loud bark, and it was getting louder all the time.
She raised both arms above her head to wave and acknowledge him.
And then, coming from the other direction, racing across the
desert toward her, she saw a second cloud of dust.
Oh fuck! What now?
She squatted down and grabbed one of the bigger guns, balancing
it between her hands. She was certain it wouldn’t be loaded, but
maybe just holding it would keep the people in the other vehicle away
from her until Damien and Hunter arrived. Maybe.
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Chapter Six
Damien had never driven this fast in the desert before. Right now
he was on a rough track, but still, it wasn’t at all safe or sane
behavior. But he had no time to act safe or sane with Jaz still in
danger. His body was stiff and sore, his thigh was bruised from where
Hunter’s boots had kept bashing into his leg as he’d run back to camp,
and his head ached with the beginnings of dehydration. But no way in
hell was he stopping for a drink right now. Not when his heart ached
for his woman far worse than his body craved water.
“Dust cloud,” he said tersely to Hunter as Phideaux started to
bark.
“Shut up, buddy. I’ve already got a headache,” he added to the
dog.
Phideaux ignored him, pressed his nose to the windshield, and
barked louder. Hunter wound down the window and went to stick his
head out, but the dog moved faster, scrambling over the man, hanging
out the open window and barking furiously.
They crested a rise, and the wheels lost their grip on the sandy,
uneven surface. Hastily Damien lifted his foot off the gas and steered
into the skid, taking the truck off-road for a short distance until he
could safely steer them back onto the track.
Sweat poured down his back, soaking a T-shirt that had already
been soaked in sweat twice today and that likely would be good for
nothing but to use as a rag in the garage after this drive.
“They must have dumped her. She’s on the track waving, and the
vehicle is a lot farther away,” said Hunter.
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Damien rubbed his forehead with his hand and squinted his eyes.
He could see her now, signaling to them. She was still the best part of
a mile away, but he knew it was her. Even if he hadn’t been sure,
Phideaux had his entire upper body out of the truck now, and his
barking was ear-splittingly loud.
“Fuck! That dust cloud is getting closer,” said Hunter, pulling out
his cell phone.
“I hope it’s your friends then, not the bad guys coming for us.”
“Hell, me, too.”
Damien concentrated on driving. One skid was quite enough for
his rapidly beating heart right now.
“Sir, there’s a vehicle approaching us, and we can see Jaz on the
road.”
“That’s Chloe and Gideon Jenner. She can see you and Jasmine as
well. I have another team tracking the minivan. They’re reasonably
certain they know where it’s heading.”
“Thank you, sir.”
“Did you get all that?” Hunter asked Damien.
He nodded and then wished he hadn’t as his head pounded harder.
“Yep. The dust cloud is the good guys. The bad guys have
disappeared for now.”
“More or less. Phideaux, would you please shut the fuck up?”
Phideaux whined, but he ceased barking, which was a relief to
Damien’s headache. Likely the dog thought he’d finally made the
humans aware of what he already knew. Damien wondered if Hunter
had worked out where Jasmine was faster than him because of being
part werewolf. Then he shrugged. It didn’t matter. They were all on
the same team anyway.
The black SUV reached Jaz before him, and a man and a woman
jumped out of it. Damien was stunned to see Jaz holding an automatic
weapon pointed at them. Where did she get that? From the bad guys?
He braked to a stop, and before the truck was completely
stationary, Phideaux had forced his big butt out of the window and
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raced across to Jaz, putting himself in front of the other people and
growling loudly.
Jaz bent down, dropped the weapon, and held the dog, only to be
knocked to the ground as he licked her face and then straddled her
body, still growling.
Damien clambered out of the truck and followed Hunter across to
the other two people.
“It’s okay. The Alpha sent us to help,” called the man.
“Yeah, we know.” Damien rubbed his head. Shit, he felt awful.
The woman rushed back to the SUV and returned with an armful
of bottles of water. She handed two to Jaz and then gave him and
Hunter one each. Damien twisted the cap off and poured the
wonderful, cool liquid down his throat, gulping hard. “Thanks. I
really needed that.”
“I’ve got a couple more if you want another,” she said.
“It’s okay. We’ve got some water in the back of the truck, but I
couldn’t stop driving to get it.”
That reminded him about the dog. He went back to the truck and
rummaged around in the backseat for Phideaux’s water bowl before
he remembered he’d thrown it in the footwell. He pulled out the large
water container, which was still half full, and the bowl and then
poured some water for the dog before drinking some himself, straight
from the container. It wasn’t cool, like the bottle the woman had
given them, but it was wet and refreshing, so he didn’t care.
He longed to hold Jasmine in his arms but wasn’t brave enough to
do it in front of these strangers, especially since the dog insisted on
guarding her. The man had returned to the SUV as well and came
back with a pair of bolt cutters. He cut the handcuffs off Jaz’s wrists,
handcuffs Damien hadn’t even noticed she was wearing until now.
“It’s a shame to ruin such a nice pair of cuffs, but without the key,
I don’t have a choice,” said the man.
Damien grinned. Another werewolf, another Dom. The two things
did seem to frequently go together. He stood and feasted his gaze on
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Jaz. She looked fine. Sweaty, dirty, and her hair all messed up, but as
beautiful as ever. Finally he couldn’t resist. He stepped closer and
hugged her. “I’m so glad you’re not hurt. I mean, you aren’t hurt are
you?”
“Hell no, I’m fine. A little stiff in my muscles, but mostly that was
from getting the handcuffs from behind me to in front of me and
pushing these crates out of the minivan. Can someone please tell me
what the fuck is going on?”
“Yeah. I’d like to know that, too.”
The man held out his hand. “Gideon Jenner and my sister, Chloe.
What say we load these weapons into the trucks and go home and talk
in the air-conditioning? Likely you could all use a shower and some
food as well.”
Damien sighed. “All our stuff is back at the cemetery. There
wasn’t time to pack up. I had to follow Jaz right away.”
He grabbed the water and took another long drink, refilled
Phideaux’s bowl, and handed the container to Hunter.
Chloe pulled out a cell phone and typed a message. Almost
immediately it beeped. “Reuben and Tekoa have finished packing up
your tent. Where do you want them to take it? The easiest solution
would be for them to bring it to our place and you could all stay the
night there, but it’s up to you.”
Damien had no idea who Reuben and Tekoa were, likely other
wolves belonging to the pack he supposed. But he wasn’t really
feeling like the very long drive back home in the dark across
unknown desert. Following Chloe to their base seemed best. He
turned to look at Hunter. Hunter was the wolf. It was really his
decision. But Hunter was watching Jaz.
“What do you want to do, Jaz?”
“If it’s not too much trouble to have so many of us, I’d like to go
to Chloe’s home. I really, really need a shower.”
“Besides, then we can have some girl time. My mom managed to
do slightly better than Mrs. Wishram, but the wolf gene overruled as
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usual. I have three brothers. Come on, Jaz, you and the dog—Fido did
you say his name was?—can travel with me.”
Damien’s head was still pounding but he noticed the surprised
look Jaz gave Chloe. It took him a moment to connect the dots and
then he realized Chloe had mentioned wolves. Fuck!
Gideon just stared at his sister and shook his head. “Right then.
Looks like the three of us get to load these crates into your truck. At
least, without the mutt, there’ll be room for me in the cab.”
Damien laughed. He longed to hold Jaz tight and know she was
safe and well, but it seemed she was already organizing their lives.
Although maybe they’d better hurry up their plans to tell her about
Hunter. If it wasn’t too late already.
* * * *
After they’d loaded the crates of guns into the back of the truck,
Damien climbed into the driver seat, and Hunter slid into the middle
seat, leaving the window for Gideon.
“I’m sure we’ve met before, but I don’t recall you from school.
We went to Burton High School. I guess you attended Towler,” said
Hunter.
“That’s right. We don’t leave the desert very often, though. We
had to drive an hour across the desert to where the school bus stopped
for us, and then it was almost another hour on the bus into town. It’s
not surprising none of us graduated high school. The traveling was
just too much of a time drag.”
Hunter grunted. At least the school bus stopped right outside their
store. “What do you do now?” he asked.
“We run a cactus farm. It’s doing okay, actually.”
“Oh, yes. I’ve heard about it. That was a damn smart idea,” added
Damien.
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Hunter hoped that was enough general polite chitchat. “What I
really want to know is what’s going on at the cemetery and what the
fuck are those guns for?”
“The Alpha seems to understand. He said he had it all under
control, and he’s got people following the minivan that took your
woman as well.”
Hunter just grunted. That wasn’t much of a help to him. How
were they to know someone else wouldn’t come along and try to take
Jaz again? And why did they go off and leave her after they’d stolen
her in the first place? The more he thought about it, the more
unanswerable questions there were, and all he really wanted to do was
lock her in his dungeon, chain her up, and never let her out again.
Gideon guided them across the desert to another track and then to
a one-lane sealed road, which led to the cactus farm.
“Pull around back and leave the truck by the barn while I call the
Alpha and ask him what he wants us to do with these damn guns,”
said Gideon.
They did that, and Hunter collected Jaz’s backpack, which was in
the truck, and their empty water container to refill for the journey
back home tomorrow.
“He wants them stored securely, so we’ll lock them in the store
room in the barn.”
The three of them wrestled the almost full crate into the storeroom
first and then the broken crate. Gideon fetched a wheelbarrow so they
could load up all the loose weapons and tip them back into the broken
crate, which was much faster than out in the desert, where they’d had
to pick up each gun separately and then check thoroughly that they
hadn’t missed any.
Hunter looked at the weapons carefully. “I don’t understand what
the deal is. There’s nothing special about these weapons. They’re all
regular brands and nothing illegal.”
“Yeah, I don’t get it either,” said Damien.
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“We’ll just have to wait until the Alpha tells us, I guess. Come
inside and get cleaned up,” said Gideon.
“There’s not much sense in showering until our change of
clothing arrives.” Hunter hoped that didn’t sound like a complaint. He
was as ready for a shower as he’d ever been. He was used to going
around shirtless, but he wasn’t usually out in the sun all day shirtless.
He didn’t think he’d sunburned, but likely wearing a shirt for the next
day or so would be smart.
Gideon pointed to the two black SUVs parked side by side inside
the barn. “Tekoa and Reuben are already here. Let’s get your things.”
He popped the trunk of one car, and all Hunter could see was the
neatly folded tent. Then Gideon opened the door to the backseat and
there was Hunter’s duffel and Damien’s gym bag.
“Thanks.”
The shower was in a separate room by itself, and he motioned
Damien to go first. His friend still looked tired, and he guessed he’d
overexerted himself getting back to the campsite to chase after Jaz.
Hell, he’d overexerted himself, too, and likely he’d ache in every
muscle by tomorrow morning. But it didn’t matter because Jaz was
back with them safe and sound. Although not knowing what was
going on was driving him mad. Despite not having had a lot of
practice at being a Dom, his nature was that of the Dom, and he
needed to be in control of his life and circumstances and of everything
relating to those he loved. Which meant Jaz.
By the time they were both showered and changed, Mrs. Jenner
was ready to call them all in to supper. Chloe and Jaz were already
seated at the table, empty glasses in front of them and Phideaux at
Jaz’s feet, chewing a rawhide toy.
Without even thinking about it, he went and stood on one side of
Jaz, and Damien lined up on the other. Chloe looked up at both of
them, giggled, and then moved down one seat, making a space for
him between her and Jaz.
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“Oh, you wolves. So possessive of your mates. Next you’ll be
asking Dad to use the dungeon tonight as well.”
“Chloe. Come here and help me,” called Mrs. Jenner.
The smile didn’t leave the blonde’s face at all as she bounced out
of her chair to obey her mother.
Hunter looked at Jaz, wondering what she’d made of the
conversation, but Jaz didn’t appear worried. She winked at him
naughtily, though, which made him reflect on what she and Chloe
might have been talking about. She was a smart woman. It was
unlikely that she hadn’t noticed Chloe’s words both now and back in
the desert. Neither he nor Damien had mentioned wolves or BDSM to
her, but it was starting to look as though they needed to do that, and
soon. Maybe tomorrow. Tonight all he wanted to do was fuck her and
then hold her in his arms.
The meal was delicious, and the conversation around it lively.
Hunter was used to fun mealtimes in his own family, but he enjoyed
being with these people even more because he got to watch the
dynamics between the parents, the three brothers, Chloe, and the two
farm workers who shared the meal as well.
Hunter guessed that everyone was a wolf except for Jasmine and
Damien. He wondered if the Jenners thought Damien was a wolf or
simply that since he worked with a wolf family he knew all about
them. Certainly it hadn’t seemed to occur to Chloe that Jaz wouldn’t
know. He supposed that was the downside to living so secluded. Out
in the world, werewolves and shape-shifters weren’t always
welcomed and accepted, so his family never mentioned their status
when there was any chance of them being overheard. Yet this family
talked quite confidently about wolf business. He wondered if Jaz had
asked Chloe any questions, or if she’d ask them as they journeyed
back to Junctionville tomorrow.
At least it meant they were likely to be given a room and a bed to
share, unlike in his house where they still each used a separate room.
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That was another thing they needed to do, discuss moving into
Damien’s house.
Not to mention the fact that they’d gone to that cemetery today,
what seemed like a million years ago now, for Jaz’s job. She still had
to send off all the information to the Cemetery Trust. Damn he was
tired. It was just all too complicated. The only thing he wanted to do
was go to bed with his woman.
There was a moment of silence, and Phideaux snored. Hunter
grinned, and Jaz and Chloe giggled.
“The dog is correct. It’s been a long day for you people. I’ve made
up the bed in the dungeon for you. I thought you might all need to
work off some tensions before you slept,” said Mrs. Jenner.
Hunter was certain his mouth dropped open, but he managed to
say, “thank you,” and stand up.
He and Damien followed Jaz and Mrs. Jenner down the stairs into
the basement. She opened the door for them and then kissed Jaz’s
cheek. “If you need anything, little one, just tell me. I’ll look after
Phideaux tonight.”
Jaz turned and hugged her. “Thank you, Mrs. Jenner.”
Jaz led the way into the room and turned, surveying it slowly.
Hunter waved Damien ahead of him and then locked the door behind
them. Jaz was standing in the middle of the room, her arms crossed
and a frown on her face.
“I believe there’s something you two men need to tell me.”
Oh shit!
* * * *
It seemed to Jaz that this day had been going on for a week
already. There’d been the morning drive to the cemetery, the
excitement of wondering if it would be suitable, the worry over the
splinter in Phideaux’s paw, being made unconscious and kidnapped,
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escaping, and then Chloe thinking she knew all these people were
werewolves.
Fucking werewolves. No wonder they lived out in the middle of
the desert with no one else for miles around. And the amazing thing
was she couldn’t even hate them for lying to her. She liked them too
much already as people. Chloe was going to be a marvelous friend.
Jaz already knew that for however long or short a time she stayed here
in the desert that she and Chloe would be best friends.
Her energy should be spent hating Hunter and Damien for not
telling her they were wolves. That everyone in Hunter’s family was a
fucking wolf for God’s sake. Instead, her mind kept drifting to
whether or not they’d fuck her or maybe strap her into that spanking
bench and spank her again. She’d been stunned at how sexy it was
when Hunter had spanked her. Her ass had been hotter than fire, and
her libido had been off the charts.
“Not me. I don’t have any secrets from you, honey,” said Damien,
taking a step backward, leaving Hunter alone in front of her.
Hunter turned and flashed him a glance. “Wimp.”
Damien held his hands out, but Hunter turned back and faced her.
“Um. Yes. Ah…”
“You’re both fucking lucky that paranormal entities don’t bother
me. After all, I work in cemeteries, so clearly ghosts and spooky
stories don’t frighten me. Not to mention the very first thing Damien
asked me, was if I was a vampire. Now what were you going to say,
Hunter?”
“I was going to tell you, but I just needed a little time to—”
“Four hours with the three of us alone in the truck wasn’t enough
time? That story won’t work, Hunter. Try again.”
Behind Hunter, she could see Damien’s lips twitching, but she
wasn’t going to let him off so lightly. Hunter might be the bossy one
here, the Dom, but Damien could still have told her he was a wolf.
She’d get to him in a minute.
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She tapped her sandal on the tile floor. Hunter stared down at her
foot and then straightened up.
“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you I’m a werewolf and that you found out
from Chloe. I just want to explain that I’ll never hurt you. Shape-
shifters aren’t bad people. They’re just the same as everyone else,
except they carry the shape-shifting gene. I love you, Jasmine.
Damien and I both love you, and we want you to stay with us forever.
Ménage matings are legal under shape-shifter law. In time, when
you’re ready, we’d like to have a formal commitment ceremony. The
equivalent of getting married.”
“Marriage?” She sure as hell hadn’t expected that.
Damien came forward and knelt in front of her, taking her hand in
his. “Yes, marriage. I want to marry you more than anything else in
the world. Hunter and I agreed to share a woman a long time ago, and
you’re the only woman who we’ve ever wanted. You’re very special
to us, Jaz. I love your strength and humor and the way you fill our
world with love and complete us. Without you, we’re nothing. But
with you in our lives, we’re a family.”
“We haven’t even known each other for a week yet. It’s too
sudden,” she objected.
“You don’t need to agree to anything permanent yet. We can work
on that. Just promise you’ll stay and let us make love to you. We’ll
sort out whatever this shitfest is, and then we can be together,” said
Hunter.
“Your Alpha. That’s like your supervisor, your CEO, right?”
Hunter nodded.
“Yes, well, he seems to have a handle on what’s going on. Not
that he’s told Chloe yet, but she trusts him, so I guess he’ll get it
sorted.”
“I want you and Hunter to live in my house. That way we truly
will be a family. Hunter and I have a few ideas about the cemetery gig
if you want to keep doing that, or you can do whatever you want.
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Maybe cultivate a garden or rear some animals or paint or anything.”
Damien threw his arms out and then held her hand again.
Something was confusing her. “Are you saying you aren’t a wolf,
Damien? Hunter and his family are, and Chloe and her family are, but
you aren’t?”
“That’s right.
“Yet your ancestors lived here in the desert, too.”
“Yes. Wolves and humans have lived peacefully side by side
forever.”
“Okay. You’re forgiven for the moment. Can we get on with the
fucking?”
Suddenly Jaz couldn’t wait. From time to time, likely the whole
wolf thing would throw her off kilter, but basically she had that
sorted. She could forget they were different from her genetically and
just accept them as the people they truly were. Now they were all in a
dungeon together, and there were other things she needed to
experience. Like that spanking bench for example.
In a nanosecond, the men bracketed her body, Damien pressing
his cock into her belly and Hunter rubbing his erection across her ass.
“You liked being spanked, didn’t you?” Hunter breathed into her
ear.
“Yes.” She could barely whisper because lust was racing through
her body so fast and hard.
“Damien, why don’t you undress her and buckle her to the
spanking bench while I look and see what toys the Jenners have
here?”
She slid her feet out of her sandals and let Damien pull her T-shirt
over her head and drop it on the floor. He unsnapped her bra and bent
his mouth to her breasts, sucking first one and then the other.
Wanting more, she gripped his shoulders, pushing her breasts into
his mouth, urging him to tease and bite them.
“Not too much just yet, honey. We don’t want to spoil your
appetite for the main event.”
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“Fuck the main event. I want you both now.”
“No can do. The sub has to do what the Dom wants her to do, and
that means I undress you and buckle you into the spanking bench, and
that’s all for now.”
Jaz slid her hands down his chest and lifted up his shirt, but
instead of just petting his chest, she pushed her hands down inside his
jeans and boxers and gripped his cock.
“Well now, I think someone here would like to come out and
play,” she whispered. She squeezed his erection with one hand while
dragging his zipper down with the other. Then his cock was free, and
she stroked up and down the shaft.
But she’d forgotten there were two men here, and Hunter moved
silently behind her and tugged her shorts down. In no time at all, his
finger was inside her cunt, twisting and teasing and making her body
hotter than fire.
She gasped and shuddered, but the two men picked her up and
carried her to the spanking bench, buckling her hands and feet into the
straps.
“Bad subs need to be punished,” said Hunter sternly.
“I can live with that.”
The flogger landed on her ass hard. It had a lot of different strands
and hit her skin in several places at once. At first it didn’t hurt as
much as his hand had done when he’d spanked her, but after a while,
she realized it was very deceptive due to the number of fronds. Lines
of fire slithered over her thighs, her ass, and even between her legs,
and soon her body was hot and begging for release.
Hunter flogged her harder now, the strands landing mostly on her
fiery-hot ass, although sometimes one or two touched her side and
even the edge of her breasts. She was certain he did that deliberately
to arouse her even more.
“Are you going to be an obedient sub now?” he asked her.
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She giggled. “Well, I did tell you how my hands had been
handcuffed behind my back and I managed to move them to in front
of me. I think it might be more fun to be bad sometimes.”
Damien snorted and tried to cover it with a cough.
Hunter said, “Maybe we should pay more attention to your front,
then. Come on, Damien. Let’s turn her over.”
Jaz gasped. She wasn’t sure about being spanked or flogged on
her breasts. Her thighs would be okay and maybe her belly. As for the
rest, she’d just have to wait and see.
But instead of spanking her, Hunter trailed the strands of the
flogger over her skin, sometimes flicking them a little more harshly
but mostly arousing her until she was about to scream with need.
“I want to come now,” she said.
“Just because those men in the minivan fell for your cajolery
doesn’t mean I will,” said Hunter.
“They were wolves, like you,” she said, only realizing it was true
as she spoke the words. Some of the things they’d said to each other
hadn’t really registered in her mind, but now that she knew about
werewolf shape-shifters, she was sure she was right.
“Does the Alpha know?” asked Damien.
Jaz closed her eyes to concentrate on her thoughts. Chloe had
assumed they were, but then Chloe had assumed she, Jaz, knew about
wolves as well. But then the Alpha had another team of people
pursuing the minivan and seemed quite relaxed about where they
were heading.
“I don’t know, but I think maybe he’s guessed or even knows who
they are. I wasn’t really awake at the time, but they said something
about things not going to plan, or… No, wait…that it was a lot harder
to set up than they’d expected and that they would need to get the
Alpha’s approval and assistance after all. That’s it. That’s what they
said. They were really perfectly polite to me. I mean, they made me
unconscious and handcuffed me but they didn’t hurt me. I was the one
who kicked them and pushed the crate out of the van to hit that man.”
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“I don’t think anyone would hold that against you. You were the
one who’d been captured,” said Damien.
“It is time to teach our sub about behaving like a sub,” said
Hunter.
Jaz blinked. She was shackled to a spanking bench. It wasn’t as
though she could disobey them right now.
But the men unfastened her, and Hunter stood in the middle of the
dungeon.
It was really just a basement, she supposed, but it had been set up
like a rather adult bedroom. As well as the spanking bench, there were
two ropes hanging from a ceiling beam and several different whips,
canes, floggers, and paddles in a rack on the wall.
“Come, kneel at our feet, sub.”
Jaz did as she was told. She was pretty sure she was supposed to
look at the floor, but he hadn’t told her to, so she kept her gaze on
Hunter and Damien.
“I am your Dom, and Damien is my assistant. In the dungeon you
must do whatever I tell you to do.”
She continued to look at him. The answer to that was a maybe.
“When you’re told to do something you must answer, ‘Yes, Sir.’”
“But you haven’t told me to do anything yet.”
“Undress Damien and suck his dick. Make it nice and wet and
ready to pound into your cunt.”
Now that she could agree with. “Yes, Sir.”
She stood up and unzipped Damien’s jeans again, freeing his cock
and stroking it from root to tip, firmly, loving the way it stretched and
grew in her hands.
“Why did you do your jeans up again? That was just a waste of
time,” she said, pushing them off his hips and letting them fall to the
floor.
She sucked his cock into her mouth, scraping her teeth lightly
over the cockhead and loving the way he shivered under her touch.
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She sucked him deeper, licking the side of his shaft and rolling his
balls in one hand as she did so.
“Now suck my dick, sub,” ordered Hunter.
Instead of kneeling at his feet, she stood behind him, wrapping her
arms around his hips and unzipping his jeans from that position. She
smoothed the fabric over his hips and then gently lifted his cock out
of his boxers and stroked and tugged on it.
“You’re a very disobedient sub. I told you to suck that cock. Stand
before me and grasp your ankles with your hands,” Hunter ordered.
Jaz had hoped to be punished, but she was still a little surprised at
being told to bend over. All the better for him to spank her, she
supposed.
Hunter took the paddle off the wall and thwacked it against her
ass. It was a dull, heavy stroke, hard enough to light a fire on her butt.
Her flesh was still warm from the flogging, and now it was burning
like hell. But that heat lit a pathway straight to her clit, and she was
instantly aroused higher than before.
The second time he told her to suck him she did so. Her ass was
quite hot enough for now, and anyway, she was ready to move to the
bed. It looked like a big, solid bed, and she wanted to be possessed by
both men again.
Gently she ran her tongue around the ridge where Hunter’s shaft
and cockhead joined. Unlike Damien, he didn’t shiver, but she felt his
muscles tense and knew he was just as aroused as Damien had been.
“Lean both hands against the wall and spread your legs,” ordered
Hunter.
Jaz looked up at him and batted her eyelashes. “But, officer, what
have I done wrong? I thought I’d been good. I could be very, very
good, if you wanted me to be.” She rubbed her hands over his chest,
tugging his T-shirt off his body and then smoothing her hands down
to his cock again. She licked a line down his sternum and to his cock
then flicked her tongue over the head. Already there was a tiny pearl
of pre-cum in the eye.
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He pinched her nipples, making her gasp as a shard of desire shot
through her body. “Obey me, sub.”
She walked very slowly to the wall, looking back over her
shoulder at Hunter and then at Damien. She ran her tongue over her
lips, hoping it looked as sexy to him as it did to her on the movies.
Only then did she rest her hands on the wall as she’d been told and
spread her legs wide apart. But she thrust her ass out as well, wiggling
it at them both.
This BDSM scene was arousing her higher than she’d ever
expected. She liked it when Hunter used his Dom voice with her. Not
that she’d always obey him. She was certain disobedient subs would
have a lot more fun than very obedient ones. But it was absolutely the
best ever foreplay to sex. She really did like being punished.
* * * *
Damien’s cock was so hard he could scarcely walk, but he longed
to touch Jaz again. Damn, she was amazing. Her brown eyes sparkled
with naughtiness as she deliberately teased them with every inch of
her delightful body, even when she was obeying Hunter’s orders. The
first thing he and Hunter would do would be to turn one of the unused
bedrooms in his house into a purpose-built dungeon. One designed to
pleasure Jaz until her orgasms rang out over the desert air every night
for the rest of their lives.
But right now, his task was to open her ass for his cock. Likely
he’d explode the moment he touched her, just like a teenage boy, but
he couldn’t help it. He longed to pleasure her, and to do that, he
needed his hands on her hot little ass. It was a saucy pink right now,
and he knew the heat of it was making her hotter. Hopefully his
fingers would raise the heat inside her body even higher.
He bent to his jeans, pulling out the small tube of lube that had
been in his luggage and slathering it over two fingers. Then, as slowly
as he could, he petted her skin with his other hand, stroking and
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teasing her, rubbing the back of his hand over her nipples and licking
a finger to paint a wet line over her hip.
Finally he couldn’t wait any longer and rubbed the lubed fingers
over her tight rosette, concentrating on massaging the cream into the
muscle ring. When he could concentrate properly, he tweaked her
nipple with his other hand and then pressed his lips to her shoulder.
Anything to distract her from his fingers gradually working their way
into her fiendishly hot back door.
Before long she was pushing back onto his fingers, clearly
demanding more. His poor, tortured dick bounced with every
movement he made, waving like a flagpole and trying desperately to
get inside her ass, so very close to it.
Meanwhile Hunter had pulled down the bedding, preparing the
freshly made bed for them.
“She’s ready,” he said hoarsely.
“Ready, hell. If I was a steak on the grill, I’d be past well done
and on the way to charcoal by now,” Jaz replied.
Damien laughed. He couldn’t help himself. She was irrepressible,
their amazing woman, and he loved every inch of her from her curly
head, past her sassy mouth and feisty heart, all the way down to her
long, slender feet.
He picked her up in his arms, holding her tightly, and kissed her
lips and then held her over Hunter. Hunter gripped her arms and then
kissed her as well.
Damien climbed in the bed beside them.
“Marry us, Jasmine. I love you so much I couldn’t bear it if you
left us.”
Hunter placed her hand between both of his. “I love you, too. Shit,
when you were abducted today, my entire world collapsed. Mate us
properly, Jaz. Say you’ll be ours now and forever.”
“Stay and live here in the desert with you?”
“Yes.” He and Hunter spoke together, but Damien was terribly
afraid she was going to say no.
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“I can buy a couple more solar panels, air-condition the entire
house,” he said.
“There’s already air-conditioning in the kitchen and living area.
That’s plenty. I don’t need city luxuries. All I just need you. I love
you both, too.”
Her words awoke a feverish lust in him. He held his cock at her
back door and pushed his way in a little, hoping he wasn’t hurting her,
but he simply couldn’t wait another second. She slammed her entire
body back on his dick, driving him all the way in until his balls were
pressed tight to her soft flesh.
Hunter must have been just as desperate to fuck because he
gripped her hips and pushed into her cunt the moment she was still.
This time he knew to wait for Hunter’s signal, and they pulled out
together and powered back in together, pumping inside their amazing
woman with a fast, frantic pace that was indicative of their intense
need.
Jaz wiggled and rocked between them, trying to grasp his dick
with her internal muscles, petting and stroking his legs with her feet
and his sides with her hands. She wasn’t still for as much as a second,
and every move she made increased the tension in his cock until he
had to hold his breath, or he truly might have disgraced himself by
coming before her.
He placed his palms flat on the mattress for more leverage, and
together he and Hunter jackhammered fast and hard in and out of her.
All the while she made happy little noises and cute little wiggles until
his orgasm was tingling at the base of his spine and his balls were
drawn up hard and tight against his skin. And then she went rigid for a
heartbeat before shaking like a bush in a storm.
Damien had been hanging on to his control by the slimmest of
margins. Watching her explode around him was too much for him,
and his cum spurted into her ass, over and over again. He pressed his
lips to her shoulders, licking her salty skin and sucking it into his
mouth then kissing her neck. Hunter was kissing her mouth, his body
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still, so Damien knew some of the heat he could feel inside her was
from his friend’s orgasm as well. That was good. When they all came
together like that, it proved they really were a united family.
Hunter nodded at him, and they rolled the three of them onto their
sides. Damien relaxed, but he couldn’t stop touching her. She was
beautiful and precious and theirs. He would never let her go.
Hunter spoke in his Dom voice. “You will mate us under shape-
shifter law.”
Damien stared at Jaz, but she was smiling. “Yes, Sir.”
“Good. And you won’t go to any more cemeteries until we know
what the fuck is happening about those wolves and the guns.”
“Well, I don’t know. Maybe I can help your Alpha by visiting
some more cemeteries, looking to see if there are new graves,
watching out for—”
“No!” Hunter sat up and stared at her, a horrified look on his face.
But Damien was watching her as well and saw the mischief hiding in
the sparkle of her eyes and the tilt of her lips.
“I think someone wants her ass spanked again,” he said.
“Oh, well, that’s all right then.” Hunter lay down again, and they
both held Jaz tightly. Their woman now and forever.
THE END
WWW.CARAADAMSROMANCE.BLOGSPOT.COM
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Cara Adams adores erotic romance, especially ménage, BDSM,
and shape-shifters. One day, someone said to her, “Why don’t you put
them all in one book?” So she did.
For all titles by Cara Adams, please visit
www.bookstrand.com/cara-adams
Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com