Abbey's Protectors [Beckett's Wolf Pack, Triad Mates 4] (Siren Publishing Menage & More) (3 page)

“Haven’t been able to sleep much,” he finally admitted, ignoring his partner as he saw him look at him with concern.

“Having dreams again?” Clay asked him.

Hunter shrugged. “It is what it is,” he mumbled.

Clay nodded. Sometimes the things that they saw while on patrol affected both of them deeply. The accident they had been called to the day before had been especially hard on both of them. The hit-and-run car accident had left a young husband and wife dead. Their two children had been miraculously unhurt, but the sight of the children crying and calling out for their parents had taken its toll on both men. They had cradled the children against their chests, wrapping them in their police jackets to soothe them and keep them warm until the ambulances and Children’s Services had arrived. Turning over those kids had been one of the hardest things they had ever had to do.

“They were cute kids,” Clay spoke up, looking straight ahead.

“Yeah,” Hunter agreed, rubbing at the back of his neck tiredly. “Makes you realize what’s really important in this life.”

Clay smiled slowly. He knew exactly what Hunter meant. “Do you want to go out tonight? Sandy invited us to go with her to have dinner and go to a movie.”

Hunter shook his head immediately. “Not interested.”

“No?”

“No.”

“Okay. Want to tell me why not?”

“Because she’s not our mate.”

Clay’s attention snapped toward his best friend. He took in the way Hunter’s body was filled with tension. He was gripping the steering wheel tightly. Every muscle in his arms bulged as his entire frame vibrated with power.

“Since when has that stopped us from going out and sharing company with a woman before, Hunter?” He watched him warily, waiting for him to finally voice what he was feeling.

“Clay, we’ve been complete shits,” Hunter told him softly.

“We have?”

Hunter nodded. “We’ve lived our adult lives with little regard to women’s feelings.”

“That’s not true, Hunter,” Clay told him with conviction. “We’ve never made any promises or lead any woman on. Every woman we’ve dated knew from the beginning that we were not committing ourselves to them. Every one of them was willing to be with us knowing that there could never be anything more. We’ve always treated our women with respect and caring. We’ve never hurt any of them.”

Hunter was quiet for so long, Clay thought he wasn’t going to continue the conversation. He looked at his triad partner and tried to understand what he was thinking. Hunter was an intimidating bastard. Being six feet four inches tall and built like a linebacker, he was never expected to be anything but powerful and in control, but Clay knew better. There was an innate, gentle side to his friend. He was a deep thinker, and he felt things more than anyone would ever imagine. When he helped people in their line of work, he was gentle and caring. Holding the little girl in his arms yesterday, Clay saw the way Hunter’s heart broke for the child. There was no hiding his nature when it came to kids.

“When we were injured last year, it gave me a lot of time to think about things, Clay,” Hunter told him tiredly. “You were really bad off. The silver bullet that was lodged in the bone of your right shoulder had poisoned you, and Doc was worried you weren’t going to live.”

Clay nodded and growled low in his throat. He remembered how the two of them had been ambushed on a routine traffic stop. Hunter had been shot as well, but the bullet was a through and through. It had made a clean entrance and exit in his right thigh muscle when the gun had discharged again as he tore it from the perpetrator’s hand. It wasn’t until later that they had found out that the man driving the vehicle had been under orders from a rival wolf pack to eliminate both of them.

Pack justice had been swift and thorough. Alpha Jace Beckett had exacted retribution for the attempted murder of his pack members. The challenging pack had been disbanded, and the wolves responsible for the attack were dead. Jace and his beta and triad partner Jackson Scott had been fair with the members of the disbanded pack, offering them the chance to join their pack family. Many of them had taken them up on their offer, expanding Beckett’s pack to a little over one hundred and fifty members and growing. The men counted themselves blessed to be a part of such a welcoming pack with such a fair and strong leader.

“It took us both a long time to heal from our injuries,” Hunter told him. “While we were home recuperating, I thought about what was missing from our lives.”

Clay knew exactly what Hunter was going to say. He had a feeling Hunter was going to admit what he had been holding close to his heart for a very long time.

“I thought about how great it would be to have a woman who cared about us for more than just a night of pleasure,” Hunter told him, his voice firm and in control. There was certainty in his words, and there was no hesitation in his tone. “I don’t want a different woman every time we go out. I want us to have a mate who will love us and share a future with us. I want to spoil our mate rotten. I want to love her and build a life with her.” He turned to Clay and his eyes flashed golden as his wolf fought to surface. “I want a family and a woman who will help us make that family our own.”

Clay smiled slowly, his own eyes changing as his wolf liked the words that his triad partner spoke. He could feel his wolf clawing at his chest, demanding a mating.

“I agree with you, Hunter,” Clay said finally. “I want our mate, too. And I want cubs. There’s just one problem.”

“What?”

“Just because it’s what we want, it doesn’t mean it’s what we’ll get. We’re thirty-seven years old. It hasn’t happened yet. What makes you think it will happen now just because we’re demanding it?”

Hunter grunted his acceptance of Clay’s cautious words, but he had another fact to impart. “You’re right, Clay, but I think we’re going to meet our mate very soon.”

“Why do you think that, buddy?” Clay asked, laughing. “Do you have a direct line to the Fates?”

“No, but they have a direct line to me,” Hunter told him with confidence.

“What do you mean?”

“I had a flash of a vision while I was sitting in the living room last night.”

Clay looked at his partner in astonishment. “You did? What was it?”

“It wasn’t clear but I could make out a woman with long, dark hair and blue eyes.” He turned to face Clay briefly and winked. “She punched me in the arm.”

Clay’s bark of laughter burst from him. “Way to go, Mate!”

“Yeah, I liked that she didn’t take any crap from me,” Hunter admitted. “It was a good vision.”

“Hunter, I wasn’t going to say anything, but I think I saw our mate last night, too,” Clay admitted quietly.

“Why weren’t you going to say anything?”

“Well, I wasn’t really sure, but there was a woman who was standing between us and she was upset.”

“Why was she upset?”

“I don’t know. She said she didn’t want to leave us.”

“She was leaving us?” Hunter asked, nearly panicked. “By the Fates, we’ve just found her, and she’s going to leave us?”

“Hunter, we haven’t found her yet,” Clay reminded him gently. “There’s more.”

“What?” He looked at Clay and saw the smile that was growing on his face.

“She kissed both of us, told us how much she loved us, and thanked us.”

“For what?”

“For the baby she was carrying.”

Very quietly, Abbey pulled off one of her thermal gloves, rolled off the soft bag she had been sitting on, and reached along the ground against the cave wall. Her hand felt along the seam of the bag to find the zipper, grabbing hold of the zipper pull and slowly opening it, very aware of the sound it made in the complete silence of the cave. With precision and efficiency, she reached inside the bag and pulled out two thermal blankets, quietly unfolding them. She set them on the ground before her. Climbing between the layers, she pulled three blankets over her and settled down to finally get some sleep, pulling back on the glove that she had removed in order to be sure to keep her hands warm.

The cave was very cold, but she was soon warm enough to sleep peacefully. Her careful planning was paying off. When she awoke, she would eat and get herself ready for her journey. Then, in the darkness of the night, she would make her way out of her hiding place, carefully scale her way down the side of the ravine, and head downstream to complete her escape to freedom. She was thankful she had hiked the area from the time she had been a child and knew it well. It may not have been her original plan, but she was going to go with it. She knew she could follow the stream that ran along the back of her property until it brought her to the forest of trees that bordered the main highway. From there, it would be an easy hike to the next town. She would take some time to regroup, maybe stay in a motel for a day to rest then figure out a good mode of transportation to take her to the town she had planned would be her haven of safety.

For the first time in months, she fell asleep without worrying that he would touch her as she slept. She was finally free of him. Never again would she allow another man to violate her and use her. She would never be fooled by the good looks and smooth talk of another man. She had learned her lesson the hard way to recognize a player, and she was better for it.

Abbey closed her eyes and snuggled deeper under the covers. Although her head knew she was safe, her heart wouldn’t let her totally relax. She turned over in her sleep, her face tormented with pain and memories. Her night was an odd mixture of relief and anguish.

“Daddy, please help me,” she whispered in her sleep, unaware of her soft plea.

“I’m here, honey,” a man’s voice answered her gently.

She turned in her dream and saw her father standing before her in a beautiful garden. He was young and healthy, like when he had been in his early thirties. His hair was black and curly, and his face was young and happy. His big brown eyes shown with love as he looked at her.

There was a beautiful woman standing next to him. She was dressed in a white, diaphanous gown that fell elegantly to the ground and covered the colorful flowers of the garden. She had long hair that was an amazing silver color that sparkled and fell to her waist, blowing away from her face from a gentle breeze that surrounded her. When the woman’s gaze settled lovingly on Abbey, the warmth in her golden eyes sent such a sense of peace through Abbey she felt her heart swelling with happiness at being in her presence.

“Daddy, I’ve missed you,” Abbey told him quietly, walking toward him and settling into his open arms, smiling against his shoulder as she felt his strong arms close tightly around her.

He held her warmly within his embrace. She could feel him chuckling as he held her. When she looked up at him he was smiling down at her.

“I’ve missed you, too, honey,” he told her. “Don’t worry. Everything will be all right. You’ve done the right thing. Things will be better now.”

“He used me, Daddy,” she told him, her blue eyes wide with pain.

“I know, baby,” he whispered, brushing her hair back from her face. “He won’t hurt you anymore. Stay strong. I’ll be with you. Always.” He kissed her forehead then leaned away from her and smiled softly down at her. “I need you to listen to me, honey.”

Abbey smiled up at him, feeling the warmth and love that came from him. He wrapped his arms around her and hugged her tightly.

“I’m listening, Daddy.”

“Good girl,” he whispered, kissing her forehead one more time. “I have someone here with me that I want you to open your heart to. She’s someone very special, and you need to give her your complete trust.”

Abbey looked at the beautiful woman who stood so serenely beside her father. She could feel the goodness in the woman. She made her feel safe and happy.

“Okay, Daddy,” Abbey agreed, knowing her father would never ask her to give her trust to someone unless he knew she would be safe.

“Abbey, you will soon meet two men who are meant to be yours,” the beautiful woman standing beside her father spoke to her softly.

The gentle woman’s voice was soothing and sent waves of warmth and love through her. She didn’t question the feelings. She was too happy to be in the arms of her father and feeling his love to worry about anything right then.

“These men will protect you and love you. Do
not
be afraid of them. They are meant to form a triad of love with you. You will have a wonderful life with them. They will love you and the children you will have with them with all that they are.”

“We’ll have children?” Abbey asked, her voice soft at the very thought of sharing her life with a man who truly wanted the same things that she did without thought to her status in the business world, her company, or her money. “Wait. You said two men?”

“Yes, Abbey,” the ethereal woman told her, smiling. “These men will share a beautiful life with you. You will have children that the three of you will create together. These children will belong to all of you. There will be no jealousy and no worry. The triad that you will form will be a natural extension of your love for each other. Both men will be your babies’ fathers.”

“How is that possible?”