Who’s going to love us? She’d have plenty of time to think about that later, when she was safely in Florida. She still wasn’t sure how she’d broach the subject of her true identity, but she suspected it would be Lina she came out to first.
Lina offered to take Mai out for her walk while the men got their shower. After Mai finished and Lina had picked up after her, Lina looked at her. “I promise, whatever it is, we’ll help. I mean it. Okay? And we can help you.”
Mai swallowed hard, but nodded. I don’t know if anyone can help me, lady, but you might regret making that promise. I won’t hold you to it.
Back in the room, the men were getting out of the shower. Neither acted bashful around Lina, and she was apparently used to seeing them in the buff, because she didn’t react. Lina dished her out a can of food and freshened her water. After eating, Mai curled up on the bed and waited for further orders.
The others were going to breakfast before checking out and would come back for her.
Before leaving the room, Lina turned on the TV.
“Why are you doing that?” Zack asked.
“So she doesn’t get bored. Duh.” Lina turned and winked at her.
Mai winked back and wagged her tail.
Late that night, they crossed the state line from Georgia into Florida north of Jacksonville. They took I-10 west to I-75 and continued south. Just before dawn, they pulled off the interstate and Mai realized they were “home.” Or what would temporarily be her home.
They let her out of the car without the leash, and she pulled up short in shock. The house was huge and from the looks of it most likely built within the past couple of years. She had a bathroom break before being welcomed inside by her new friends.
She couldn’t help but let her tail wag. The place looked wonderful. Homey, not ritzy, yet well furnished.
Lina showed their three human guests to their rooms. She’d discovered from listening that Carla and Liam were Elain’s parents, but they weren’t married. And Elain was a good friend of theirs.
Zack put Mai’s food and water dishes on the floor in the kitchen, poured her out some dry dog food, and headed to another part of the house with Kael.
Lina let her two men go upstairs ahead of her. She waited until she was alone in the kitchen with Mai to open the fridge, pull out some lunch meat, cheese, and bread, and make an impromptu sandwich, which she placed in Mai’s food bowl.
“You’ve got to be sick of that other stuff. I’ll sneak you what I can when I can so I don’t blow your cover. Okay?”
Mai wanted to cry. She whined in gratitude and licked Lina’s hand. Lina gave her a friendly smile and patted her on the head. “If you need to go outside, come upstairs and bark at my door to wake me up.” Then she headed upstairs.
Mai considered shifting back to eat, then decided against it. She didn’t want to take the risk. She grabbed the sandwich from her bowl and devoured it in a few bites. Then she headed over to the couch where she curled up and went to sleep.
Mai discovered later that day, once everyone had slept and arose to have dinner, that this wasn’t their last stop in their journey, even though it was home to most of them. They’d be on the road again, this time to Arcadia, where Elain lived with her mates.
Lucky woman.
With sneakily whispered asides from Lina, Mai was now up to speed on who Carla and Liam were as well. Ironic that she was in a very similar situation as Elain, only she damn well knew how much danger she was in.
Asshole. Why had she ever trusted Paul in the first place? Oh yeah, because he was handsome, rich, and said he loved her.
Barely twenty-one, my family’s dead, and now I have an asshole wolf on my tail. Literally.
This was not how she’d planned to spend her life.
After dinner, just before sunset, they all loaded up again and headed south. She sat up and watched the unfamiliar landscape pass by outside the car. They were now heading to Elain’s home, in Arcadia, where more wolves awaited their return.
For the first time since her ordeal started a few weeks earlier, she truly felt safe. Like maybe she could figure a way out of this damn mess.
When they turned off the highway and down a long driveway, Mai took a sniff of the air. Cattle.
They pulled into the yard surrounding a large, one-story ranch-style house. Three men, who appeared identical, stepped out onto the front porch at their arrival.
Elain jumped out of the car she was in and ran into their welcoming arms.
Mai watched, her heart aching. She wanted that, someone to love her.
Kael opened the back door of the car and coaxed her out. She jumped out, sniffing around, and running over to the fence line to do her business out of the way. Then, sticking close to Lina’s side, she headed inside with the others.
Micah dozed in bed with Jim curled in his arms. They’d had the house mostly to themselves for the day and had taken full advantage of it to wear each other out. Elain and the others would return soon.
He wasn’t sure at first what awoke him. His eyes snapped open, ears and mind on full alert.
Something’s wrong.
He sat up. Jim barely stirred as he swung out of bed. That’s when he heard everyone coming inside and he knew what had set his senses off.
A shifted coyote.
With a growl starting deep in his throat, he threw the bedroom door open and ran out into the living room.
Mai sat and stared at Elain’s three hunks.
Lucky, lucky woman. Then she heard a door open somewhere down the hall. She barely had time to register the sound of a wolf’s dangerous growl when the naked man appeared in the doorway and glared at her.
When he spotted her, she didn’t even think before turning and bolting with a terrified squeal toward the first open door she saw. Unfortunately, with everyone now shouting and the naked man on her heels, Mai realized she’d put herself into a dead end, running through a huge bedroom and into a bathroom. She spotted a window, but with a terrified yelp she went sprawling across the tile as the man tackled her.
He wrapped his fingers tightly around her throat. A horrific snarl rumbled through him as he screamed, “Who are you?”
Micah spotted the shifted coyote immediately. She spotted him, too, and took off running toward the master bedroom. She couldn’t escape him. Before she could jump for the window, he threw himself at her, tackling her and grabbing her by the throat. “Who are you?”
With speed that shocked him, he was suddenly holding a naked young woman by the throat. She clawed at his fingers. “Please don’t hurt me!” she gasped.
Ain, Brodey, and Cail caught up with them first, with the dragon men on their heels. Micah resisted their attempts to pull him off of her.
That’s when she stopped fighting him and protectively curled her hands around her obviously swollen belly. “Please, don’t hurt me,” she begged again, tears streaking her cheeks.
It felt like a shock wave slammed into him as an all too familiar sensation took control of his mind. He didn’t have time to process what it meant, only that instinctively, a switch had been flipped and one word pounded through his soul.
Mate.
He shook the Lyall brothers off as he grabbed the woman and pulled her protectively into his arms. Jim, apparently awoken by the ruckus, appeared in the doorway behind all the others.
“What the hell is going on?” he asked, pushing his way through the other men to get to Micah’s side.