Seeing Eye Mate (10 page)

Both men stared at her like she’d grown devil’s horns. As if on cue they focused on her feet. No redness, no bouncing on one foot. They didn’t believe her toe-stubbing story any more than she would.

A look passed between them. One of those, “she’s deranged” looks. See? That’s why she never told anybody. They always ended up seeing her in the same way. A wacko who needed a padded cell. She’d thought Caelan might be different, especially because of what he could do.

The door shook with a pounding from the other side, vibrating the length of her spine.

“Shit!” Tieran jumped forward and threw her arms around Caelan’s waist, vision forgotten. His arm whipped behind his back and when he brought it forward, there was a gun cradled in his palm. How had she not noticed he was carrying a weapon?

“Because you were too enamored to notice, Tulla.”

“Who is it?” Eli’s voice was loud and commanding.

“Pizza.”

Tieran groaned into Caelan’s chest. She’d gotten so distracted by the door mishap, Eli’s mysterious words, the vision, and now to top it all off, she’d forgotten all about their dinner.

“Ooh, good, I’m hungry.” Eli rubbed his hands together and Tieran’s head swam at the abrupt change of his mood.

*

Caelan stared at her mouth with such intensity he was giving her a complex. Tieran licked her lips and found the object of his scrutiny. The spicy tang of tomato sauce bombarded her tongue. She wiped at her mouth with the back of her hand, making sure she got it all.

“So, you do that freaky werewolf thing too?” she asked Eli.

Caelan groaned and dropped his head onto the back of the couch in the living room where they’d gone after devouring the pizzas. She gave him a snide look. He should have known she wouldn’t let this subject go for very long. Caelan took a long drag off the beer Eli had brought in. Thank God the man had stopped at the grocery store for a few of his “essentials” before coming here. There still was no food in her house. Whatever gifts she had, teleporting objects wasn’t one of them. If she wanted to eat tomorrow, it was either go to the store later tonight or go out to eat in the morning.

With a grimace and a shudder, Eli glanced away from the pictures he was studying on the wall. “I prefer to think of us as shape-shifters.”

“That’s what I said.” Caelan sat up and leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees.

“Do you, or do you not, turn into a wolf?” she demanded.

Caelan smiled. The smug bastard.

“Yes.” Eli lowered himself onto the loveseat across from Tieran.

Ugh. That’s the same answer Caelan had given her. “Then you’re a werewolf.”

She watched Caelan mouth the words with her and nearly gave in to the temptation of kicking him in the shin.

“Werewolf has such a negative connotation.” Eli’s voice was whiny and slightly offended.

“Oh, for God’s sake.” Tieran slapped her jeans-clad thighs and stood. She put her hands on her hips and glared at both of them. “I am in a serious déjà vu.”

“What’d I say?” Eli blinked in innocence.

“The same exact thing your brother did. You guys turn into wolves, you’re werewolves. End of discussion. Now tell me what you were talking about at the front door. Something about somebody finding me already?”

Caelan sighed, the sound adding to her irritation for some reason. She wasn’t the one who’d brought it up, they had. The least they could do was fill her in. Especially with Eli’s earlier angry reaction at the door.

“A couple of mates from local packs have…died in recent weeks,” Caelan answered, albeit reluctantly. She couldn’t blame him, not really, especially when she couldn’t bring herself to come right out and say what she’d seen in her vision.

“Died how? Car accidents, disease?”

Eli cleared his throat. “No. They were murdered.”

Tieran sucked in a breath. Knowing now what she did about Caelan’s abilities, she had a very bad feeling that the wolf she’d seen killing that woman wasn’t a wolf at all. Her face blanched.

“By who?” she whispered, unable to conceive either of these two men as a cold-blooded killer. But oh God, the one in her vision had looked so much like Caelan had on her bed. Since Eli was identical to his twin in human form, was he also in wolf form? Did the whole group of them look the same? Her heart thumped wildly with the implication.

“We don’t know, my own. We’re pretty sure he’s a shifter like one of us though. No, we’re positive.”

Tieran’s knees buckled and she found herself sitting on the couch. She
had
witnessed the killer. The last time she’d had a vision this momentous had been down in Florida. She could not go through something like that again.

“You won’t have to, Tullabelle. They will understand.”

“That’s what momma said about the police.”

“Oh, honey, Caelan’s not like them.”

“But what if he is? You weren’t there, Gramama. You can’t know how they made me feel.”
She swallowed. Jesus. Somehow, she’d already fallen for Caelan. It would rip her heart to shreds if he rejected her.
“Why is this happening to me?”

“Because you’re his mate, Tulla.”

“You okay, Tieran? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.” Caelan took hold of her hands. She wanted to laugh hysterically. No, she hadn’t seen a ghost, just spoken to one.

The physical connection of his thumbs rubbing her knuckles brought her fully back into reality. She blinked when Eli suddenly spun around, his gaze jerking from one corner of the room to the next. What the heck was he looking for?

“Where the hell did that come from?” Eli demanded.

Caelan snorted and rose to stand next to his brother. “I was beginning to think it was just me.”

“What are you guys talking about?” Totally bewildered by their actions, she switched her gaze back and forth between them for some clue.

“Don’t tell me you didn’t just feel that cold air.” Eli pointed an accusing finger at her.

She sucked in a breath. As if she’d been the one to bring forth whatever delusional wind…

She groaned and turned her face toward the ceiling. Damn the woman for meddling.

“Gramama!”

“What?”
her grandmother answered.

“Don’t pull that innocent crap on me.”

“What the hell is going on, my own?” Caelan took a step forward.

“Why? Why are you talking to them, Gramama?”

Tieran waited for a response.
“Hello? What, now you leave?”

“Tieran,” Caelan growled.

“What?” she snarled. Sighing, she collapsed back into the soft, worn fabric of the sofa she’d spent many a night on as a child. “It’s my gramama.”

“Your grandmother is here?” Eli sat, looking ridiculously large and out of place on the floral print love seat. He also looked thoroughly confused. Caelan stayed standing, his arms across his chest, emphasizing the hard muscles of his pecs.

Oh, don’t do that
. Her mouth watered and her pussy clenched.

How could she possibly want him again?

“No,” she said carefully.

“Then she has a particularly drafty old house? It’s seventy degrees outside, and not the least bit windy.” Eli’s right eyebrow hitched upward. He didn’t believe her.

Damn. She really thought she’d gotten out of having this conversation. Having it with a lover who didn’t seem too upset about the fact she’d wigged out on him earlier was one thing. Talking about it in front of a stranger was another. Didn’t matter that the stranger was identical to the lover.

“Anyone ever tell you you’re stubborn?” Caelan asked.

She bit her lip and waved him off. “All the time.” Nearly every time she mentally communicated to the meddling woman who, right now, seemed to have something up her sleeve.

“Oh fine. I’m a medium. With my gramama anyway, not everybody, and I’m glad because that would be just way too weird. I mean, can you imagine having a bunch of dead people talking to you all the time, asking you for things, telling you what they wanted you to do, who to talk to, explain to their loved ones why they’re gone, all the while hounding you wherever you go because you can’t go anywhere without having a dead person hanging over your shoulder. They know who you are and what you do and it’s…”

“Take a breath,” Caelan shouted. “God damn. Ask one little question.” He sat on the coffee table in front of her and took hold of her hands. “Just tell us about the cold air.”

“Oh, that.”

“Yeah, that.” Eli grabbed his beer off the table and settled back in his seat, flipping his feet up on the coffee table. He appeared ready to stay all night if he had to.

“It’s my gramama’s way of talking to you. You can’t hear her but the air gets cold.” She pulled her hands free and twisted one in the air. “Or sometimes objects do.”

“Explains why the telephone felt like an ice cube,” Caelan prodded.

She nodded. “Yep.” Pacing to the window gave her something to do, so she peeled back the curtains and peered out toward the street. Two dogs were sitting in the darkness, lit by the glow of the street lamp, tails wagging, tongues hanging out. One cocked his head and she got the strangest feeling he was studying her.

“Get away from the window, my mate.”

“You know, we really need to talk about that,” she muttered, ignoring his softly issued command. “This is the weirdest thing. There are these two dogs—”

Her feet flew out from under her, making her tummy flip as she went down beneath Caelan’s crushing weight. Thank God he had the sense to wrap his arms around her, protecting her from what would have been a rough landing. She fought to catch her breath through her squished lungs.

“They’re just dogs, Cael, it’s fine,” Eli announced.

She’d already told him they were dogs, she thought crazily. Tieran blinked slowly, trying to refocus on her upside-down world. Eli was staring out the window. Caelan’s chest vibrated along her arm with his fierce growling. He nuzzled her throat to a more open position and his sharp teeth rasped her neck.

She jerked her head away, suddenly very aware of her surroundings. Who wouldn’t be when their lover was planting more than a love bite at a very vulnerable spot?

“Ouch, get off me.” She squirmed and tried to dislodge him, but instead the action caused him to bite down harder. When she stilled, his jaws loosened. Her pulse beat a wild tattoo just below where his tongue lapped at her neck.

“Caelan!” When Tieran wiggled again, he bit her again. Any harder and he’d puncture her jugular. She submitted, giving him what he obviously wanted.

Submission? Bullshit. She’d turn into the tooth fairy before she submitted to him.

“Yet there you are, lying so still beneath your wolf-man, Tulla.”

Ah hell. Her gramama was right.

Her lungs deflated on a huge sigh. Above them, Eli chuckled. Finally the razor-sharp teeth were removed from her skin.

“The next time I tell you to fucking do something, by God, you better do it.” Caelan’s growl was laced with deadly menace, but she detected something else too. Nervousness? Anxiousness?

His tongue flicked out, lapping at the wound he’d inflicted, making her forget everything. He smelled so good. Like sweat and man and sex from their earlier romp. She looped an ankle around his calf and pulled his leg between hers, fitting his thigh snugly against her pussy. Finally! Maybe she could relieve some of the tension throbbing at her clit.

“Mmm.” She wrapped her free hand in the soft locks of his hair and angled her head to give him better access. Not that he needed it. He was doing just fine on his own.

His mouth moved to her earlobe and sucked it. She imagined it was her nipple he had embedded in that wet heat. She wanted his hands on her. Wanted to feel him tugging and pinching the sensitive beads. She lifted her hips and rubbed herself on his thigh. It wasn’t enough! There were too many clothes in the way. She needed his fingers, his tongue, or better yet his cock, inside her, filling her. Not where it was, poking into her side.

“Man, you guys are hot.”

“Oh shit.” Tieran yanked herself free from Caelan and raised up on her elbows, her chest heaving with each breath. What in the hell was happening to her? She’d certainly liked having sex before, but until now, having it wasn’t a requirement. Not a need that festered like an infected wound. She’d never craved it like she did with Caelan. And she’d never lost control in a way that everything around her disappeared.

Her cheeks flamed. Eli stood above them, watching as she and his brother went at it on her living-room floor like two randy teenagers.

Caelan couldn’t resist smiling as he rolled more firmly on his side and propped his head on his hand. He palmed the small, cotton-covered breast furthest away from him, flicking at the nipple. If Eli hadn’t interrupted—for Tieran’s sake, ‘cause it damn well wasn’t for his—Caelan would have fucked her right here on the hardwood floor.

“Stop it.” Tieran slapped at his hand. “Your brother is watching.”

He shrugged. “So?”

Her eyes widened, her face drained of color and she gulped. “Please don’t tell me you guys do that…that…sharing stuff,” she hissed.