Wild Hearts (9 page)

Coal allowed his own body to transform beside Shyla, his spirit leading the way for hers to retake her human form. As the last of their fur retracted and their bones popped and settled back into place, he pulled her into his body and nipped her bottom lip. Her eyelids drew heavily over her clouded eyes, and she sighed against his mouth.

“Wow. So that’s what it feels like to be a wolf. It’s so strange, and yet it felt so natural,” she murmured.

“It’ll become more natural with time. Jacy and I will never allow you to lose your way until you’re comfortable enough to transform on your own.”

She tipped her head and caught his gaze. “Why did you suggest turning into wolves?”

Coal smiled, flicking a rock from beneath his arm.

“Love, you’re in heat, and I want my seed in you.”

Shyla froze. Every muscle pressed against him tensed. She lifted her head off his chest and looked down at him, a mixture of surprise and uncertainty fighting to gain control of her expression.

He shook his head, gracing her mouth with an airy kiss.

“It’s only natural for you to have both our seeds in your womb. After all, sweetheart, we’re both your mates. The three of us. One little happy pack.”

* * * *

Padding through patches of shimmering moonlight brought the hunter out in her.

Laela maneuvered through the forest, each drop of her paws carefully calculated as not to make noise. With the early winter upon Hood River, dead leaves and twigs covering the forest floor proved to be an early giveaway for even an experienced predator.

The cold night breeze shifted directions, and with it came a new scent. She stilled, the thick fur along her spine bristling. Her nostrils flared, inhaling the scent and etching it into her memory. There were two different, yet distinct scents, neither of which was familiar to her. She knew every wolf in the vicinity, and the invasion of these unknowns disturbed her.

Well, she’d have to remind any trespassers just who controlled the packs of Hood River.

Resuming her stalking advance, this time knowing which direction to follow, she slinked around tree trunks and scraggly brush. The scents intensified as she drew closer.

At a small break in the trees, she caught the subtle waver of scenery. Craning her neck around the wide tree that hid her, she pinpointed the source of one scent. A large gray-and-white wolf weaved through the trees, ears pricked skyward. With the breeze carrying her scent away from this invader, he had little clue she watched him only a few yards away.

As the first wolf paused, a second wolf appeared from the dark, shadowed forest a few yards behind his partner. She wanted to snarl at them and warn them away but fought the natural urge to reveal this as her territory. Somehow, though, she knew these two were males and would not run off.

No. They were here for a reason. They were here to protect that damn white.

Instead, she lay in wait until she had the opportunity to attack without having to fend off both massive males at the same time.

At last, the second wolf padded back into the forest. The gray-and-white curled around a tree and retraced his steps, coming closer to her.

He paused, tipping his nose to the sky. Laela crept closer on her belly, her eyes locked on her target.

The wolf’s ears flattened against his head and his lips pulled back.

Laela lunged, tackling the gray-and-white just as he let out a short, threatening yip. She sank her sharp teeth into his throat, ripping through flesh until blood spurt against the roof of her mouth. The male beneath her kicked at her belly, trying desperately to knock her away. He howled and yelped, each movement causing irreversible damage to his throat.

What began as a warning with hopes of discovering who these trespassers were quickly turned into a fatal attack. Laela growled in frustration, exerting more pressure in her bite to finish off this were before his partner returned.

The vicious kicking slowed, as did the wolf’s resistance. Laela tugged one last time, tearing his throat wide open and leaving him to bleed.

The reckoning force of a cargo train barreled into her. She flew through the air and landed hard on her side. Her back smacked into the rugged base of a tree.

There was no time to assess her pain.

She flipped onto her feet and met the second attack with equal strength and intent. The wolf snapped his glistening teeth at her, scraping the side of her snout as they crashed to the ground and rolled. Laela latched her teeth onto his nose. She used the weak attack to climb on top and dig the sharp nails of her back paw into the wolf’s prized package. His pained howl echoed through the night, leaving his neck vulnerable to her attack. She released his nose and mercilessly tore into his throat.

The second wolf ceased to move beneath her as death consumed him. Laela sauntered backward, licking her jowls of blood. She snorted.

“
You took two of my men. I’ve taken two of yours. You want to play this game, we’ll play until the death. Let this be a lesson, Coal. Jacy. You will not take over my land. Your white will die just as her mother and aunts did.

“I will bring blood back to the full moon, and you will suffer each scream she makes while I do so.”

Leaving the threat to linger over the dead wolves, she turned and made her way into the forest. Catching the delicious scent of a deer and her adrenaline still running on high, she smiled inwardly.

Tonight brought the beginning of bloodshed.

Chapter Eight

Heat surrounded her, entwined with the soothing scents of woods, spice, and flesh. Shyla moaned as a tingling sensation pooled between her legs. Still foggy with sleep, it took a moment to realize the tingling grew with the gentle, rhythmic strokes of fingers.

Pressure mounted, and one of those teasing fingers slid inside her. She tipped her hips into the hand, reveling in the way her body responded, extra sensitive and tender. Every nerve splayed out, accepting the slightest touch with overexcited receptiveness.

She lifted her leg and curled it around the lean hips in front of her. Another set of fingers slid along her rear and turned down to her sex. These fingers didn’t try to invade her vagina. Instead, they pulled back into her rear and teased her nether opening.

Her body blazed with erotic desire. A hand slinked around her front and began teasing the nipple of her right breast until it pearled. She pressed her head back until it hit an unyielding barrier. Liquid lava touched the hollow of her neck and drew a slow, tantalizing path along her throat that ended at her chin. The probing finger in her sex glided in and out, building a mountainous peak within her. The finger teasing her rear opening slid along her wet pussy, tracing around the invasion until they came together over her clit.

She shuddered. Sensations overwhelmed her, tingling, itching, and coiling. Pleasure swirled in her body and mind, waiting, waiting. Climax lapped around her spirit, drinking from the stimulation and growing with each swallow. Fingers and tongues teased her, two solid bodies holding her in a delightful prison as they did what they would.

She was their playground, and she didn’t mind at all.

Fingers retraced their trek around the probing appendage and returned to her rear. Using the natural moisture of her arousal, one finger slowly forced its way into that forbidden section. She gasped, the stretching of her skin sparking an unusual pain as pleasure assaulted her a mere inch away. The dueling sensations left her in a state of mindlessness.

She peeled back her eyelids and met the blacker than black eyes of Coal, whose head was propped up on his hand. She pressed her rear into the gentle finger, trying to accept one probe while holding on to the other.

“Good morning, love,” Coal said, his voice thick and rich, pouring over her like warm, sticky caramel.

Feverish breath tickled her ear. She looked back and met Jacy’s piercing green gaze.

“How’re you feeling?” he asked.

Shyla bit down on her bottom lip as the pleasure-pain coils snapped, releasing her into the embracing arms of climax. She sat her hips down, forcing both fingers deeper into her body as the shuddering intensity of release blinded her.

Somewhere in the distant realm of her comprehending mind, she heard Jacy chuckle. “Must be good.”

“Sweetheart,” Coal rasped. Shyla whimpered as his mouth closed over hers and his tongue swept over hers. She dug her hand into his hair, pulling him closer until their kiss turned into a fierce dance of tongues, teeth scraping against teeth. Jacy’s mouth singed a possessive path along her neck, shoulder, and down her back. Coal’s finger pulled out of her core, and the thick head of his shaft replaced it. Jacy’s fingers splayed over her rear, kneading the fleshy mounds. His teeth nipped one cheek, then the other. He grabbed her, lifted her hips as Coal shifted beneath her, and settled her weeping sheath around his cock.

Coal growled, thrusting his hips upward. Shyla’s elbows buckled, and she fell over his chest. His hands whipped up, pinning her to him as Jacy guided her hips to stroke his cock.

“Sugar,” Jacy purred.

Shyla bucked the instant she felt a painful pressure trying to pierce her rear.

“Christ, woman. Relax. I’ve lubed to make it easier.”

“Relax, love. Let him inside you.”

Coal’s soothing voice inside her mind made her rear muscles loosen. Slowly, inch by incredible inch, her body stretched and formed around Jacy’s invasion. His thickness made her wince until she felt his hips against hers. He stayed pressed inside her back hole, allowing her time to adjust to him. His hands coursed around her waist, the tip of his finger reaching her clit. She moaned into Coal’s mouth, rocking her hips into his.

Both men filled her at the same time. Coal nipped her bottom lip before invading her mouth with searing kisses. She whimpered with each slight movement, the fiery itch in her lower gut being strummed from both men’s subtle motions. The rough pad of Jacy’s finger teased her pulsing clit as he drew out of her, pulling her farther down Coal’s dick. As he pressed back inside her, the pain subsided, and a new pleasure filled its spot.

Each tantalizingly slow pull and push of Jacy’s dick in her ass was met by the sumptuous tension created with Coal’s dick in her pussy. Her entire lower region was under the assault of constant stimulation, turning her to putty melting between two incredible lovers.

Jacy wrapped an arm around her shoulder, tearing her away from the delicious heat of Coal’s intense kiss and filling her mouth with his tongue. He growled against her as she sat back on his cock.

“Fuck, woman,” he breathed.

Shyla tore away from his kiss the instant Coal’s dick left her aching sheath. He shifted to his knees, grabbed her chin in a gentle grip, and crushed his mouth to hers.

“My mouth.”
Coal’s claim reverberated through her mind. Jacy lifted her rear off his lap, off his cock, while Coal fed her his lust-laced toxin through his kiss. She could drink from him for years and never tire of the expert ways his tongue traced and teased her mouth.

She had little time to react before she felt both men’s dicks drive deep inside her body. She catapulted straight into euphoria, screaming out in delight. Two sets of hands guided her trembling body, wave after wave of blinding pleasure searing her mind to anything but the sensations of bliss and fullness. The synchronized thrusts held her suspended in stimulation overload.

Her hair was tugged, pulling her head back with little effort. Jacy conquered her mouth, grunting with each calculated thrust into her rear, filling her until her mounted pleasure seeped over the crest of sexual bliss. Coal’s mouth took to her exposed neck, laving and kissing straight up to her chin, reclaiming her from Jacy as the friction created from the thrusting of his cock exploded behind the wall of pleasure.

Lava-hot liquid filled her. Jacy howled with his spurt of climax in her rear channel. Coal groaned into her mouth as his seed filled her womb. Her men supported her between their solid bodies as she rode each overwhelming wave of ecstasy until, at last, she somehow managed to grasp the frayed ends of her being.

Coal leaned back, his arms wrapping around her and pulling her down with him. Jacy followed behind her, still lodged deep inside her nether hole. She twisted enough to look back at him, trying her damnedest to focus her quaking vision. A thin sheen of sweat covered them all, intensifying the arousing aroma of sexual musk.

She allowed two men to fuck her simultaneously, and she enjoyed it like nothing else in the world. Had it been any two other than Coal and Jacy, she knew she would’ve felt dirty and used.

Lying here, between these two men, couldn’t be any more
right
.

“Am I hurting you?” Jacy asked.

Shyla managed a shaky smile at the thick tone of his voice. Coal’s knuckle caressed her cheek, drawing her attention away from Jacy.

“No. You’re not hurting me anymore,” she murmured. “That was amazing.”

“
You
were amazing,” Coal corrected, tracing her bottom lip with his pointer finger. She nipped him, earning her a smoldering grin.

“
We
were amazing,” she said.

“Every day for the rest of our lives can be amazing,” Jacy whispered against her ear.

Shyla closed her eyes, absorbing the warmth of his breath and the feel of both men’s bodies. Fatigue crept up from the depths of her spirit. She wanted to sleep, curled between her wolves. She wanted never to leave, but reality had a way of ruining even the greatest of moments.

She had to get Gramps’s things in order and return to her life in New York, leaving these men behind.

Hell, she’d enjoy each minute being with them in the meantime.

* * * *

“I’ll make some coffee,” Coal said, receiving a tiresome sigh along the telepathic link he kept open to Shyla. He allowed Jacy to take her in his arms and curl her against him as he climbed out of the bed and into his jeans.

He needed to distance himself from the single most disturbing thought that had ever hit him.

She would leave. Despite their mating, she intended to leave.

The thought of Shyla not filling his arms while she haunted his mind left a bitter pulse in his heart. Didn’t she say she loved him? How could she leave if she did? How could she leave two men who loved her when she herself loved them in return?

Coal shuffled through the cabinets in the kitchen until he came across the coffee filters Jacob Smith kept stocked. In life, the man had been an avid coffee consumer, so Coal had no difficulty locating an airtight container filled with coffee grinds. Preparing a pot to brew, he heard the distant crunching of tires over the gravel driveway.

“It’s Len
.
”

Coal lifted his gaze to the window as his friend’s voice touched his mind. At least the man had enough common sense to warn him of his approach during these tenuous times.

“Jacy, Len’s coming up the drive. Might wanna get some clothes on,” Coal warned.

“Tell the man to come back in an hour or so,” Jacy called from the bedroom.

Coal snorted as he started the pot of coffee and returned to the bedroom. He leaned against the doorframe, his gaze fixed on the beautiful, sex-sated woman lying on her belly, head propped up on fists. She cast him a timid smile, her cheeks turning a light pink. He found a grin easy to muster even as his mind tortured him with images of her gone.

“Hell no. She’s not leaving. No fucking way
.
”

Jacy folded his hands beneath his head and looked up at him with glowing green eyes. “Why’s he coming here? I told him yesterday we’d be in touch.”

Coal shrugged a shoulder. “We’ll find out when he gets to the door.” He nodded to Shyla. “Please, love. Put some clothes on. You’re way too tempting naked.”

“I’ll put some clothes on after I take a shower. How’s that?” she purred, the blush on her cheeks deepening. Her stormy gray eyes darkened and trained on him as she slid off the bed. Coal’s body ignited with lustful fire, singeing his veins and shocking his heart into overdrive. She stepped up to him, lifted on her toes, and graced his craving mouth with a soft, gentle kiss. He brushed his fingers over her cheek and into her hair, forcing himself to tamp down the rolling desires she brought to life in him.

Coal tugged her lower lip before leaning back. Just beyond the porch, he heard the tires of Len’s car come to a stop. The engine shut off, tinks echoing in the air.

“Get in the shower. Len’s here, and I’m not about to let him see you like this,” Coal said in a quiet rumble. Shyla smiled, her lids hooding her eyes as she stepped around him, her arm dragging across his belly as she headed toward the bathroom. He turned his attention to his raring-to-go friend.

“That woman kisses you like you’re chocolate and sin. She indulges, and you indulge right back,” Jacy said. He chuckled, bending a knee to the ceiling.

Coal folded his arms over his chest and rested a shoulder against the doorframe. The door to the bathroom clicked shut behind him.

“She thinks she’s leaving us when she’s done here,” Coal said. The raw frustration that etched his voice surprised him and earned him a rightful—and rather annoying—arched brow from Jacy. “Little does she know she’s not.”

“That’s ridiculous. She won’t leave, especially after last night,” Jacy assured with a white-toothed smile. He pushed himself upright and scooted off the bed, stretching his arms over his head. “Damn, Coal. In all the years I’ve known you, the last thing I ever expected to see in you was uncertainty. Hey, if you just saw the way she kissed you, you’d agree there’s no way she’s leaving. She’s completely enamored by us.”

“Keep telling yourself that.” The car door outside slammed shut, and footsteps crunched over the drive.

Jacy clapped his healed shoulder and nodded toward the bathroom.

“You keep yourself company. I’m gonna check on Shyla and see if she needs any help.”

Footsteps climbed the stairs to the porch as Jacy followed Shyla’s path to the bathroom. Coal gathered his composure, shoving the disturbing thoughts from Shyla into the dark corner of his mind.

He’d worry about that when the time came. Right now, there were more dire things at hand.

Finding Laela and Rian were two of them.

Coal opened the front door before Len knocked, inviting the man inside just as Jacy closed the bathroom door behind him. The vague smell of steam and soap escaped in those few moments, teasing his nostrils and his cock. He forced himself to face Len. The disgruntled air that followed his old friend quickly dissolved his desires and stoked his wolf until the predator in him paced with unease.