Rescued & Ravished: An Alpha's Conquest (A Paranormal Ménage Romance) (14 page)

The morning was clear and cold, unseasonably so for spring. Chance ignored the weather; he could barely feel it. He was swinging by Jason’s cabin before he began the trek up to the Grounds, the meadow where men of their clan traditionally had their combats.

Jason, Galangal, and Hazel were on the porch. They looked at him like they had been expecting him. Jason spoke first.

“Are you going up to the Grounds?”

Chance frowned. Hudson was important to him, but his blood was on fire with rutting hormones, with the male grizzly’s need for dominance, with his desire for Harper. What else could he say but yes? It was too late to stop this fight.

“Yes, Alpha. I’m going now.” He could hear that his own voice was lower and coarser than usual. Thicker.

“Defeat him!” Galangal said in his stern, wavery voice. “Defeat him, boy. He’s born of stranger stock. We need a native son to lead us.”

Jason went forward to grip the younger man’s shoulders. “It doesn’t matter that Hudson was born far afield. You and I both know that, Chance.” He squeezed hard. “He’s a good man. But it’s you I want to win today, son. You know that, too.”

“I know. I will, Alpha.”

“You’re ready to lead us, Chance. You’ve got the character and the ability to do it. You’re what this clan needs and you’re damn dear to me.” Jason pressed Chance into a brief, sudden hug. “Win, boy! Beat him! Come back down to us with your head held high… and then you can have that girl you want.”

Chance startled. “Girl?”

“I know you too well, Chance. I’m talking about that human girl, the pretty stranger. You want her just as bad as Hudson does, and trust me, boy, he wants her bad.” Jason clapped him on the arm. “So win her from him—and win your rightful rank in this clan. Win everything. And don’t let him kill you!”

Chance clapped Jason’s arm, too. “I’ll do it. I swear.”

“Chance,” Hazel called from Jason’s porch, wrapped in a rust-colored shawl. “Be all bear! Be an animal!”

“She’s right,” Jason said lowly. “Be savage. Don’t try and resist it... be
wild
! Now get out of here. Go face him. Do this.” His eyes goldened. “Lead us!”

Harper sat cross-legged on Hudson’s bed, anxious. Her hands squeezed a fold of quilt worriedly and she was chewing the inside of her mouth. He had left almost as soon as it was light to fight Chance, giving her barely more than a kiss goodbye; she didn’t know what she should expect now. How long would this bear-men showdown take? And why was she so
scared
, for both their sakes?

A knock on the door made her jump.

“Who’s there?” she asked, scrambling to her feet. “I’m… I’m not dressed!”

“That’s alright, honey.” It was a voice she didn’t recognize, a woman’s. “I brought you new clothes. My name is Gorse. I’m Jason’s mate, and I’m here with one of the elders, my mother, Hazel.”

“Oh…
oh
,” Harper stammered, shocked. She’d heard about Jason the Alpha and Hazel the elder, of course. If this was Hazel, then her visit had to be very important. But what could it mean? Nervously, she went to the door and unlatched it, cautiously pulling it open.

There were two women standing there. One was a lovely lady in middle age. Her red hair was long and free down her back, and she carried a woven basket full of what looked like folded clothes. Next to her was the ancient Hazel, leaning heavily on her walking stick.

“Hello, daughter,” Hazel said, gazing at Harper as if she truly were her daughter.

“Hello,” Harper said uncertainly, feeling underdressed in her underwear and one of Hudson’s shirts. The two women came in, Gorse guiding Harper to the table and sitting her down.

“Here, dear,” she said, setting the basket on the tabletop as Hazel sat in the chair right next to Harper’s. “I have some things you can have for wearing. Here, try this one. Let’s see if it fits.”

She held up a homespun dress the color of fallow leaves. It was long, with a button front, an open neckline, and wrist-length, fitted sleeves.

“Come on then, out of that,” Hazel said, pointing to Hudson’s shirt. “Let’s see you in the dress, daughter.”

Seeing no alternative—and, privately, not opposed to trying on a pretty dress—Harper slipped off the oversized shirt. Hazel made an approving sound.

“That’s a beautiful, fertile shape she has,” she said to Gorse. “We should both be thankful. The girl’s hips are as wide as the range!”

Harper flushed. Gorse helped her put on the dress. It fit perfectly.

“I’ve been sewing it,” Gorse said appraisingly, looking at how it hung and tugging at various places. “Mother told me what the sizing should be.”

“But… but we’ve never met,” Harper said, confounded. How could the fit be perfect if she’d never been face-to-face with either woman? “Did Ivy tell you what I—”

“No, daughter, nothing like that,” Hazel said, gazing at Harper from out of half-clouded, knowing eyes. “Ivy told me nothing. I knew your shape before you ever came here. I had Gorse sewing these dresses long before she even knew who they’d go to! Lord knows we have no girls here with your figure!”

“What?” Harper’s brow furrowed. “How did—”

“My mother is a seer,” Gorse said, patting Harper’s shoulder. “Sit down, honey. I’ll make us some tea and some lunch.”

“Lunch?” Harper asked, confused by everything that was happening. Where had these women come from? Why were they coming to her now? And what was happening with Chance and Hudson?

“Beer braised chicken and onions,” Gorse said, patting her shoulder again and slowly pushing her into the chair. “Just sit a spell and talk with my mother.” With that, she hustled to the woodstove.

“Daughter,” Hazel said, reaching out for Harper’s hand with her dry, knotted fingers. Harper let her hand be taken. “Listen to me now.”

“I’m listening,” Harper said, meaning it.

“Good. Now, child, tell me true: do you dream?”

“Dream? I dream all the time.”

“Psh! I don’t mean normal dreams, girl. I mean dreams about the future.” Her eyes narrowed, and her thorny fingers tightened on Harper’s. “Did you dream about us, before you came here?”

Harper flushed. What should she say?

“I… I don’t. Maybe.”

“What did you dream?”

The smell of melting butter filled the cabin as Gorse prepared the pan. Harper bit her lip, wondering how much to say, and how much she was even sure of.

“I dreamed… I dreamed about… about bears. I don’t know. Maybe I didn’t. Or maybe it was just. Even if I did, it was just a coincidence. I don’t think I—”

“There’s no coincidence in this, girl. You dreamed of us, as I knew you would.” She stroked Harper’s thumb. “You’re meant to be one of us.”

“What does that mean?” Harper’s brow knit. “What do you people want with me?”

“
Us
people, is it? Listen to me, child, these are your people too. Sometimes, when the bloodlines run thin, when the clan grows small, then the spirits send us a fresh man or woman to join us. You are that woman. You were meant to come here, and choose from our men, and live with us.”

“No, I wasn’t! I have a life. I have a really good job. I have—”

“—no family,” Hazel said, seeing right through her. “No lover. No home.”

“I don’t belong here.”

“You do. Don’t think you can hide your true heart from me, child. I can see that you want to stay, even if you won’t admit it to yourself. You already gave yourself to Hudson.”

There was a pause over where Gorse was working at browning the chicken thighs; Harper could feel the woman’s surprise. She flushed.

“I didn’t.”

“You did, and it was everything you wanted. And you like our other favorite son, too, don’t you, girl? I know. I know everything. I dreamed it!”

“I’m
not
—”

“Shh, sweet girl. Don’t be ashamed. Don’t be angry.” Hazel raised her spotted fingers to Harper’s face. “Look into my eyes, child. Let me unlock your dreams for you. You already know the truth.”

The Grounds were further up the slopes, in the subalpine zone. Here the trees were nothing but conifers: Englemann spruce, lodgepole pine, Rocky Mountain fir. Chance could smell almost nothing but their needles. The sky overhead was a hot, saturated blue, and the uneven peaks of the mountains shot straight up above him, closer than ever.

Pushing through the thick, brushy forest, he finally reached the glade they called the Grounds. Ragwort and valerian bloomed among the wild grasses in its clearing.

He could barely think through the red haze of testosterone. The entire way up the mountain, he had felt fiercer and wilder and hotter-blooded than ever. All he knew now was that he had to fight, he had to win. And, once he won, he had to mate.
With Harper. If she’ll have me.

A human whistle interrupted his thick, hungry thoughts.

“Over here, brother!”

Hudson had come uphill on the opposite trail. He was just across the Grounds, breaking through the treeline.

“You came,” Chance managed to say. Human language seemed a struggle.

“’Course I came.” Hudson was almost like a stranger. He was darker, fiercer, and colder than Chance had ever seen him. “This had to happen. It was a long time comin’.”

“Sure was.” Chance could feel the animal inside of him struggling to get out. His teeth sharpened in his mouth. “Enough talk, friend. Let’s see who the true Alpha of this clan is!”

Before he could even undress, he was changing. And before he knew it, he was charging, ready to wrestle for the crown—and for the woman.

“Think deep, girl. Go deep.”

Hazel’s voice was guiding her right into the center of her own mind. And, as it did, she remembered things. Dreams she’d had. Not just recently, but for months. Dreams about the wilderness, about Banff. Dreams about cabins. Dreams about bears.

And dreams about men. Her men.

It all came back to her in a watercolor rush.
The clan—the range—the coupling—the Season—everything.

Abruptly, she stood up, breaking free of Hazel’s hands. She was trembling.

Gorse, suddenly at her shoulder, was pushing her back down. “Calm down, honey. Just calm—”

“You’re right!
You’re
right
! I did dream all those things. I dreamed them, I dreamed all of them. There were, there were grizzlies and… and Chance and… and Hudson and… and all of you, and the mountains, the wildflowers, springtime—” Her words were coming at lightspeed. “I
did
dream all those things! I’ve dreamed them for months. What’s happening? Why? Is this real?”

“Yes, my love,” Hazel said, reaching up for Harper’s arm and tugging her down. “It’s real. Sit, child. Sit and understand.”

Slowly, with the reassurance and pressure of the two older women, Harper sank back into her chair. “It
is
real, isn’t it? I remember…”

She remembered dreams she’d had in March, in February, dreams she’d had
last year
, starting in the autumn. Dreams about men who could change into animals, about women who could change into animals, too, women she now recognized. “Ivy was there—I mean, I dreamed about her, too, once—I saw her in the woods, picking something… flowers. How is this
possible
?”

“You were meant to come to us,” Hazel said simply, clasping Harper’s hot hand. “Calm down, precious daughter. You were chosen. You saw us in your dreams, and you knew to come, and you came.”

“Mama, she’s nervous as a hen on a hot rock,” murmured Gorse, sympathetically. “Poor girl. I don’t think they hold with seers back where she comes from.”

“Well, she’d best learn to hold with them now, since she is one,” said Hazel frankly. “And you are, girl. You saw us before you came, and now you’ve journeyed to us found us just as you dreamed us. Don’t you think that’s seeing?”

“Yes,” Harper agreed, dazed. She’d seen all kinds of things. She’d seen spring in the mountains, just as it was now. She’d seen the cottages. She’d seen the people. She’d seen
herself
with the people—and herself with the men. A lot of her dreams had been of her coupling with one of the two men, either Hudson or Chance, with raw abandon. But in a few of them, she’d been coupling with both of them. Simultaneously.

“I, um,” she stammered. “Some of these dreams, they don’t… make sense. Even now, I don’t understand.”

“Which are they?” Hazel’s pale eyes narrowed. “Is it you with both of your men at once?”

Harper colored up. “How can you know these things?”

“I know what you’ve seen because I’m a seer myself, child. You’ll be my apprentice, here—the heir to my powers and my place in the clan.” She squeezed Harper’s hand. “It’s not a common power, daughter. You’re special. And you’ll do a lot of good for these people. They depend on us. I’ve told the elders who you
really
are, and that you belong to us. You’re not Huntress, love. I know that.”

“I… I’ve got a life.”

“Is that the life you truly want? Or do you want to be here? Think on it hard.”

“I don’t even understand what it would mean to have a life here.”

“But you want it, don’t you, child?”

She did. Deep down inside her, she did. She’d always loved the wilderness, and she’d always wanted a place to belong. She’d also always wanted a family, and she felt—instinctively, profoundly—that these people could really, truly be that for her, that they would love her. But she was scared.

“I don’t know…”

“There’s nothing to be feared of, girl. We’re good people, if different from what you’ve known. What’s to be scared of? I’ll train you. Your men’ll love you. Ivy and Yarrow are near your age and they’ll be like your sisters, Dove too. You’ve got the whole range to run and thousands of dreams to dream, dreams about the future.”

“ ‘Both’ of my men?”

“When we’re in lean times, baby-wise, clan-size-wise, our women sometimes bond and mate with two men, or our men with two women. A triad, we call it. Naturallest thing in the world, and looks like you’re at the center of one.” Her expression turned slightly shrewd. “I don’t think you’re as troubled by it as you believe you are, girl. I think it feels right to you.”

Harper squirmed. “So a triad’s just for… what… efficient reproduction?”