Authors: Anya Bast
There were lions and tigers and bears here…
oh, my
.
The whole village was part of the forest itself. Huge trees grew on either side of the pathways and grass and flowers covered the ground. Everywhere the forest could be incorporated into a structure, it had been. Trees and boulders formed wall sections, roofs were covered in vegetation, and fallen logs had been fashioned into benches.
Lycaon village was beautiful and very alien to her, yet she had to admit that the place stirred emotion within her. A wistfulness. As if this was her home and she’d been away for some time. That was ridiculous, considering this was her first visit. It could only be explained by her Lycaon blood. It was a fact she’d been avoiding until now.
She still wasn’t sure she bought it.
She
was part Lyacon? Able to shift into an animal form? If so, she had no idea what that form would be. She had no special draw to an animal. Not to wolves, or tigers, or bears. Giraffes were her favorite animal at the zoo.
Oh, god…and the hippo.
Cutting off that line of thought immediately, she slid from Lucas’s back. He and Torrent shifted to human form. Kaitlyn studiously kept her gaze away from Torrent’s pelvic area and glared at Lucas instead. These men seemed to have absolutely no problem with walking around buck naked and strode into the tavern side by side.
The place was a wreck. Mugs overturned on the floor, pictures displaced from the walls, chairs upside down, pools of what smelled like beer on the floor. The tavern was empty of people, except for a tall, dark-haired man who stood behind the bar and Rafian who was slumped over a chair.
“Lucas, Torrent,” the man behind the bar said with a nod. His voice sounded tight and he looked pretty pissed off. He could barely speak through his tight jaw.
“Adam,” replied Lucas. “You know we’ll pay for the damage.”
Adam nodded. “Just get him home and into bed. He needs to sleep it off.”
She got to Rafian first and put a hand on his shoulder. He raised his head, his gaze finding hers. He looked exhausted and dusky blond stubble covered his face. His eyes were dark and clouded with sorrow. All of sudden, all she wanted in the world was to make whatever pain he was feeling go away.
“Kaitlyn,” he murmured tenderly, reaching for her.
“Come on, wolf boy, time to go home.” She helped him to stand.
“Rafian, I can’t believe you did this
again,
” ground out Lucas.
Saying nothing in his defense, he pushed away Lucas’s help, but kept his arm around Kaitlyn, and made his way to the door.
“Do it again, Rafian, and you’ll be punished,” Torrent growled as they passed.
“Put your pants on,” Rafian growled back. “You’re in the presence of my
mate
.”
Torrent muttered a word in a language she didn’t know and pushed him—hard. Rafian staggered to the side, releasing Kaitlyn. Rafian lunged toward Torrent, but she put herself in his path.
Rafian stopped short. She put a hand on his chest. “No, Rafian. That’s enough for one night of drunken brawling, don’t you think? Let’s get you home.”
“Are you coming with me?”
She looked at Lucas as she spoke. “Yes, I will. I’ll even stay the night.”
Lucas’s jaw locked and his eyes flashed, but he wisely kept his mouth shut.
Giving Lucas a little smile, she turned back to Rafian. “Let’s go, shall we?”
* * * * *
Rafian’s house was of the underground variety, nestled into a large hill covered with blue green moss and tiny yellow flowers. Someone walking past it might miss it completely, so integrated it was with the forest.
After Rafian regained human form, he grabbed his bundle of clothes, which he’d carried in his teeth the whole way, and led her to a door that could barely be glimpsed among the foliage, opened it and led her inside.
It was dark and silent, but after Rafian had pulled his pants back on, he began to switch on lights. With every lamp he illuminated, her surprise grew. This was not the type of place she’d expected tumultuous Rafian to keep.
She’d expected the place to be dark and dank, a messy abode to a man without a woman. The lights mimicked sunlight, however, warm and bright, making up for the lack of windows. And the place, though small, was neat. A little on the sparse side, but cozy. The front door opened into a living room with a fireplace. To the right was a dining area and kitchen. To the left was a darkened hallway.
Rafian seemed to have recovered from his bad temper at the tavern. He looked rumpled and exhausted; he probably hadn’t slept all night. Without a word, he knelt at the hearth and began to make a fire. He looked pretty good there despite his fatigue, barefoot and shirtless, his muscles flexing as he moved.
She walked over, knelt in front of him and stopped his hand from adding more kindling. “Don’t worry about it. Take a shower, get some sleep.”
He replaced the kindling and rocked back on his heels, pushing a hand through his hair. One dusky blond lock fell over his forehead. He wouldn’t look at her. “I lost my mind a little last night.”
“So I gathered.”
Abruptly, he stood and stalked away from her.
She rose. “Lucas told me why you did it.”
He snorted. “He probably told you it’s because you slept with him last night and I couldn’t handle it.”
“Uh, yes. That’s
not
the reason you got your drunk on?”
He turned to face her. “It doesn’t make me happy he got to touch you first, but that’s not why. Actually, I hope he did touch you, and I hope he did better than any man ever has.”
She wrinkled her brow at him. She would have thought he’d be feeling competitive with Lucas. “Why?”
“Because you are ours, Kaitlyn, heart, body and soul. Just as we are yours. You don’t understand that yet, you don’t feel it.” He paused. “But I do. So does Lucas.”
She studied him for a moment, trying to understand him, trying to piece what she knew about him into shapes that made sense. “Tell me about the woman who didn’t stay, Rafian.”
Emotions passed through his eyes like clouds on a stormy day. Ah. So her hunch had been right. He’d spent the previous night in a bottle because he didn’t want to lose her…like he’d lost this woman. “Her name was Miranda.” His voice came out hoarse.
“Why did she leave?”
One side of his mouth hitched up in a grin, but it didn’t reach his eyes. “She was full blooded Lycaon, matched to us by the village elders as a second best to you when you didn’t pass through the veil the first time. We tried to make it work, but—” He bit off the end of the sentence with a snap of his jaw. “She wasn’t you.”
“But…you hadn’t even met me.”
He pushed his hand through his hair again. “Didn’t matter. We were linked to you through the veil, even if you didn’t know we were. We knew it and that was enough. Miranda loved us and we tried to love her back, but she wasn’t you.”
“What happened to her?”
“She killed herself.”
Oh.
She looked for words and found none that suited. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s not your fault. It’s my fault. I’m the one who pushed her away.”
“I’m sure it wasn’t completely
you
. There were three of you in the relationship.”
He turned and headed for the darkened hallway. “No. It was my fault.” And he was gone.
“Okay, then,” she murmured to herself, raising her eyebrows.
It was hard to comprehend that while she’d been married to Doug, ignorant of this world, that Rafian and Lucas had been here, yearning for her. The thought that any man would
yearn
for her was strange, especially not men like
these
men.
Of course, once Doug had loved her. She’d been his sun, moon and stars. Maybe a little like Rafian with Miranda, she’d pushed Doug away little by little over time. She’d never loved Doug the way he’d loved her. In the end she’d hurt him…then he’d tried to hurt her.
Maybe Rafian and Lucas
had
partially been the cause of that. Perhaps in some cosmic link that defied the laws of reality, she’d been able to feel her two men through the veil on a subconscious level. Maybe Doug had never even had a chance. If all that was true, she could comprehend some of the guilt that Rafian carried.
She was fairly certain Rafian had gone to take a shower, so she contented herself with exploring his place. The couches and chairs in the living room were arranged to best take advantage of the fireplace. Covered with soft throws and bunches of pillows, it was clear that Rafian enjoyed his comfort.
When Rafian emerged from the hallway with only a towel around his waist, she nearly dropped the small clay wolf she’d picked up from a table to examine. His hair was slicked back, throwing the bones of his face into sharp relief. He’d shaved off the stubble and his skin was still damp. In short, he looked damn good.
“My mother made that.”
She blinked, trying to pull her mind out of the gutter and follow the logic of his comment. Glancing down at the clay wolf, she lifted it. “This? It’s nice.”
He shrugged. “It’s her hobby.”
“Does she have two mates too?”
He nodded, walking toward her. “Yes. Adrian and Max.”
“Do you know which one is your biological father?”
“Not for sure. I have a suspicion, but it doesn’t matter. They’re both my dads.”
He took the wolf from her fingers, set it aside, then cupped her jaw in his hands and kissed her slowly, his lips running back and forth over hers before he slipped his tongue into her mouth and stroked up against her tongue. When he’d made her bones to turn to butter with his kiss, he murmured against her lips, “Let’s start the day from this moment and forget the rest ever happened.”
She took a shuddering breath. One kiss and her body had filled with need. “Whatever you want.”
Of course, no matter how much she wanted him, she couldn’t forget what had happened and what he’d said. Impossibly, Rafian loved her. Even though they’d only just met, she was somewhere inside his bones and he didn’t want to lose her.
Yet, lose her, he would. She was balancing her sisters and the only world she’d ever known against Rafian and Lucas. They had to know the odds weren’t in their favor, no matter how gorgeous they were, or how good in bed, or how much they struck an emotional chord deep within her.
She didn’t want to hurt him. Either of them. But she couldn’t let her sisters wonder forever what had happened to her.
“Rafian—” she started, but he kissed her again, cutting off her sentence.
Rubbing a thumb over her chin, he murmured, “I need you, Kaitlyn.” Then he took her by the hand, led her down the hallway and into his bedroom.
The room was lit only by a small lamp by his bed, leaving most of the room in shadow. She could make out various pieces of furniture around the room, but the big bed was what she focused on.
He pulled her down on it, the thick, soft mattress cradling their bodies, then tugged her against his chest and wrapped his arms around her. The beat of his heart thudded strong and steady beneath her ear and the warmth of his body radiated through her skin and into her bones. She let out a long, shuddering breath of contentment and closed her eyes.
Being cradled in Rafian’s arms felt right, felt like home. She was so warm and comfortable; she didn’t want to move even though being this close to Rafian, in a bed, was highly distracting.