Where Wild Things Roam

Charms

Sean    

I yawn, bleary-eyed, and take another sip of coffee.

We’ve got patrols circling outwards from Candlewood proper to our borders, looking for any other signs of the vampire that triggered the ward. The only odd thing we’ve found so far though is one of the local nutjobs, an elderly woman named Kassandra. Jack and I found her a few miles deep in the woods behind the packhouse smudged head to foot with some silty black dust and looking for all intents like she’d been dragged through an ashtray. She was covered in cuts and scrapes from running in the pitch dark through the underbrush, and I’m waiting to hear from the pack hospital that she’s stopped her repetitive babbling and I can come and question her.

Across from me, Ian’s shot and stares blankly at the delicious array of food Townsend and his staff set out. It’s way more than we’d ever eat, but Ian has the patrols checking in regularly and wants them fed and at their best. With her eyes closed, Darby leans against Ian’s shoulder, and the only one who seems remotely alert is Tessa.

I take a strip of crispy bacon from the platter in front of me and smuggle it to Tessa.

 She takes the bacon from me so gently, it doesn’t even break and slinks around the corner out of sight to eat it.

As I take another sip of my coffee, there’s a ruckus from the direction of Jack’s bedroom and a few seconds later, he stumbles into the dining area with just a sheet around his waist and Tessa trotting eagerly behind him.

I cast a hurt gaze at her.

 Tessa reassures me.

Laughing, I snort coffee up my nose and begin coughing.

Grabbing the large platter of the hash browns that Townsend makes every morning for Darby, Jack starts loading a sample of foods from the other platters on top of it.

“Ian!” Darby hisses, elbowing him in the side.

“What’re you doing, Jack?” Ian mumbles, obliging her.

“My mates are hungry. I’m taking them some food.” He looks down at Tessa tagging along beside him as he moves down the table. “Egg?” He shakes his head at her response. “Okay, no. Ham. Gotcha.”

We’re all alert now and not just because Jack is doling out table scraps to Tessa.

“Did you say mates? Plural?”

“Really, Ian? You didn’t come out of the bedroom for sixteen hours when you found Darby. They haven’t even been here that long and I had to leave them to tromp around in the dark for three hours looking for a non-existent vampire and finding nothing but that crazy old Kassandra. All to protect your mate. Besides, you already met them.”

“Those are my hash browns.”

It’s all Darby has to contribute. I can see from the look on Ian’s face he’s going to cave to her. Not that I blame him. I can’t even claim her as my mate and I’d give her anything just for a few minutes to bury my face in her hair.

“Put the food down and bring them out here. Give Townsend the opportunity to cook something special for their arrival and them a decent introduction to your pack.”

“f**k off, Ian. We’re all exhaust—.”

“It’s an order,” Ian replies flatly.

Grumbling, Jack drops the dish with a clatter and huffs back to his bedroom. It takes a few minutes, then with an excited, “Eeeeeeeeeeeeeee!” a pretty petite Asian woman scurries into the dining room, draped in a t-shirt of Jack’s that hangs almost to her knees.

“Hello, again, pretty Brit,” she says, taking the seat next to Darby, hugging her around the shoulders. “I’m so excited to be invited to family breakfast. I remember you.” Her eyes skim from my face to where my body is out of sight under the table and she sits up straighter to see a bit more. “Shame,” she says wistfully, then her brows flick up. “You still look nice in a suit. I’m Lili, by the way.”

Her voice reminds me somewhat of Darby’s. It’s melodic and pleasant. But unlike Darby’s there’s something hypnotizing about it. Like the compulsion behind an alpha command. My senses perk, but aside from being a high-energy human, there’s little else I can glean about Lili.

“Sean.” I extend my hand over the table to her. “Nice to meet you. Sorry your first night here was so eventful.”  

Jack’s other mate follows him into the dining room in a mood similar to his and makes straight for the coffee. This one is also slight but lean in an athletic way and taller than Lili. She fixes two cups, then walks up to stand beside Ian, jerking her head once for him to give up his seat. “The girls are sitting here.”

Darby hides her smile behind a hand over her mouth as Ian rises reluctantly, holding the chair for Jack’s second mate.

“Morning. I’m Anna,” she says to the table, handing one cup around Darby to Lili. She points to Ian, then to me. “So you’re Jack’s older brother—Ian. Who are you?”

Unsurprising for anything having to do with Jack, these two are going to be trouble.

“This is Sean, Anna,” Lili supplies. “Are all three of you brothers?”

“No.” Ian replies flatly. “Just Jack and me. My family adopted him when he lost his parents.”

“Are all three of you triumvirs?”

“Yes.” Ian’s tone is the same. “But there’s a hierarchy in wolf packs. I’m alpha. Sean and Jack are Second triumvirs.”

Lili leans forward and she and Anna exchange a look. “Okay, well this isn’t getting anywhere with you three.” She looks to Darby. “What’s your story, angel face? Are you sad not to have these handsome beasts all to yourself anymore?”

Darby’s laughter is a wellspring of joy, filling the room and my insides with it. Though she’s tired, her smile is still blindingly beautiful. “No, actually. Aside from Ian, you’re more than welcome to them. Especially Jack—he’s challenging.”

Anna’s eyes flick up from her coffee to meet Jack’s across the table. “I think we’ve got him handled.”

Beside me, Jack leans forward with a chuckle, the tip of his tongue making a deliberately suggestive trip from one side of this mouth to the other over his top lip.

“Are you a wolf too? Or do wolves only take human mates?”

Darby stumbles over her words, clearly uncomfortable as the object of attention. Which I don’t understand in the least. There’s no way with looks and a body like hers she’s not always the object of attention. Or mine at least. And Ian’s. You’d think she’d be getting used to it by now.

“To the best of my knowledge, weres can chose a mate from any species, but they prefer their destined pairing. It’s a high drive for them. And no, I’m not were.”

“What are you then?”

Darby’s spared answering as Townsend and another of his staff emerge from the kitchen with more hot food. During the several moments of introductions and details about food favorites and allergies, I take advantage of my uninterrupted view of her. It’s a rarity since she’s blatant about hating me and, especially at mealtimes, will get up and leave as soon as I join.

Normally, her hair’s neatly braided, but this morning, it’s still fetchingly bed-tousled and pinned at her nape with a clip that Lili reaches over and removes. It tumbles over her fingers in undulating waves of chestnut sparking with silver and I envy Lili an experience I’ll likely never have.

“Oh, angel face!” Lili’s expression makes me ache. “Slide forward so I can sit behind you. Anna, you have got to touch her hair.”

Beside me, Jack’s slumped forward, elbows on the table, rapt, his mouth curled up in a half grin watching these women together, Darby sitting primly to the front of the chair, and Lili, fine, smooth legs spread open to either side of her. From the other side, Anna is running her fingers through Darby’s hair, tucking it behind her ear and stroking her neck and shoulder with the backs of her fingers.

I have to admit, I’m having a hard time myself. Literally.

 he growls his begrudging admission through the link.

Part of my responsibility since I joined the Candlewood pack was setting up surveillance and intelligence operations, similar to those employed for years in Desert pack, including an information network. Naturally, I’ve already abused the power under the guise of “validation”, by investigating both Jack and Ian’s backgrounds as sources of verifiable data using the system the security teams refer to as Big SIS.

Of these two brothers, Jack is the one who figured no sense being bored while he waited for his mate, and up to now was unrepentantly promiscuous. While I didn’t do it out of boredom, but hopelessness, it doesn’t change the fact that the choice became instantaneously regrettable the minute I set eyes on Darby. I envy my brother, Silas, and like him, Ian, for their fortitude and perseverance, their unpolluted bonds with their mates.

Hearing Ian’s resentful confession makes me feel better about my response to what’s evolving—or devolving—across the table from us. That even someone with his will and restraint finds his self-control tested reassures me that mine isn’t hanging by a thread just because I’m as weak as I have been in the past.

Darby’s insecure with Lili so close, and her self-comforting behaviors—licking and biting her bottom lip, blushing and shying away from incidental touches, clutching at the front of her robe—are unconsciously and highly erotic.

“And not wolf—or were? That’s what you called them, right? Then what are you?” Lili prompts again, twirling the delicate strands of hair just below Darby’s ear around one finger.

“She’s the faery,” Jack supplies, too enthusiastically.

Lili wraps her arms around Darby from behind, pulling her close and looking in her face. The way she does it, with one arm across her shoulders and the other at her midriff, highlights Darby’s narrow waist and generous endowments.

“Oh my God. I can totally see that. Like with wings and everything?”

“Yes.”

Both Anna and Lili are tugging at the collar of Darby’s robe. “Can we see them? Please?”

“I—I—I suppose.”

With help, Darby slips her arms out of the sleeves one at a time, careful to keep her robe up over her breasts, even as Anna and Lili expose her back well below her shoulder blades. She shivers and it’s all I can do not to groan aloud when Anna runs the backs of her fingers down Darby’s spine.

“Your skin is so perfect. It’s like a baby,” Anna says appreciatively.

Brushing Darby’s hair over one shoulder, Lili’s lips slide from Darby’s nape to the junction of her shoulderblade daringly. “Like whipped cream.” She touches the point of her tongue to Darby’s skin.

The response is instantaneous and undeniable. All three of us on the opposite side of the table flinch like we’ve been struck. I cover my eyes with a hand, but the image is burned on my retinas and my skin flames. I peek between my fingers.

“I bet you’d just melt under my tongue.”

 Jack drawls through the link. 

Anna’s fingertips caress across Darby’s velvety collarbones—left, to right, to left—hypnotically. Beneath her, Darby is suddenly perfectly still. “You know what? We need some girl time. Just us.”

Darby’s tip-tilted eyes flick from Ian’s face, to mine to Jack’s and back again and I don’t bother concealing the raw lust looking at her with these other two women triggers in me.

“Oooh, yeah. Give us some time to connect,” Lili agrees.

Fuck! I shove my chair backwards roughly, struggling to make my suitcoat cover the aching bulge in my slacks. The packhouse is only a few miles from the office building I share with Ian and I usually walk. I’m hoping it’s enough time to get rid of the embarrassing proof of how shallow I am. “Ladies, I’m sorry. I’m expected at the office soon. Have a good time together today.”

**

Darby    

I’ve a new appreciation for the subtle machinations of women. It was only after Lili licked my shoulder that I realized what they were doing—declaring, loud and clear, which side of the table’s now in charge.

Once Sean excuses himself, Anna dismisses Ian with a casual, “Do you work too? Or alpha’s don’t have to do that?” leaving only a leering Jack.

“Lover, do you suppose you could warm up the shower for us? Be sure to wait, okay?”

And just like that, we’re alone.

“God! I thought they’d never get out of here.” Lili slides out from behind me and starts filling two plates to heaping from the myriad dishes and platters nearby, setting one before Anna, then taking her seat beside me. “Are they always like that?”

I laugh. “I assume by “that” you mean horribly, inappropriately aroused at mealtime. And no. Usually the group of us isn’t even in here at the same time. They were all dragging this morning.”

“Yeah, we got that.” Anna sips her coffee with a sigh of enjoyment, but only toys with the food on her plate. “So threesomes are a thing with weres?”

“Oh, no. Most weres are too possessive, especially over their predestined mate. Threesomes are a Jack thing.”

“Umm.” Lili swallows her bite. Unlike Anna, she’s wolfing down food in a way that belies her petite frame and figure. “Predestined mate. What’s that?”

I struggle to explain the concept. “Well, weres are sensitive to the moon. She’s their deity. They believe she chooses a perfect mate for them and with that person, they have the most powerful bond.”

“How do they know their perfect mate from every other random?”

“Scent. Their sense of smell is very acute. If I understand Ian correctly, the scent of a mate is unique, stronger and more irresistible than any other.”

“Why did you and Jack get two then?”

“I don’t understand. Only Jack has two mates—you both. My mate is Ian.”

“No. You are Ian’s mate.” Anna gives me a wicked little laugh. “Are you telling me you haven’t noticed Sean has the hots for you too?”

I can’t hold her gaze.

“Ohhhh.” Lili’s head tips back in comprehension. “What’s holding you back, angel face? That big black wolf of yours too possessive?”

“Even if he weren’t, Sean isn’t—,” I debate using the word trustworthy, then opt against it—there’s no benefit to prejudicing Anna and Lili’s potential relationships with him, and really, he’s not entirely to blame for what’s happened between he, Ian and I, “—my type. I prefer men more forthcoming.”

“I have a feeling both of them are hiding from you, angel face.” Lili rises, getting herself a fresh cup of coffee. “So where can we do some shopping around here?”

“Suzanne’s. When you’re ready, I’ll take you to her boutique.”

**

Sean    

I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t still thinking about breakfast this morning by the time I reached the office. I was. Darby with her sleep-tousled hair. The way it tumbled over her shoulders like a rumpled curtain of silk, dark over the creamy velvet of her skin. Her purely sensual comforting gestures. The superbloom scent rising from her.

I’m still thinking about it a bit before lunchtime when I retrieve some paperwork from the file cabinet in the corner of my office by the window and see her emerge from the high-end women’s boutique on the plaza—Suzanne’s Boudoir, I think—with Anna and Lili.

There’s more to them. I can feel it. I just can’t put my finger on it right now.

There’s a quick knock on my door, then it opens and Jack’s standing there, so I’m not going to get the chance now either. “Jack. What’s up?”

“Anything new about last night?”

“No. Dr. Myers thinks the old woman might need a caregiver. Someone to keep an eye on her when her dementia makes her forget.” I take a seat at my desk, offering Jack a chair across from me. “Kassandra doesn’t know how she got outside. Or why she was running around in the forest in the middle of the night. Has no idea why she was covered in soot. She doesn’t remember anything.”

Jack sighs, puffing his cheeks. “Kooky old bat. Diviners are useless.”

“She’s elderly—it happens. Dr. Myers is reaching out to her emergency contact, a daughter. Apparently, she’s kind of a loner-drifter type like her mom—moves around a lot—so we’re trying to track her down. While we wait to hear back, I’ll check in on her—keep an eye on her.”

Jack’s staring at me as if I’ve grown two heads. “Taking this whole security thing kinda seriously, aren’t you? It’s one kooky old lady. Hire someone to look after her. Ian sets aside a fund for those kinds of cases.”

“It’s not that. I guess I feel orphaned here too without a mate or a family to care for.” Which sounds strange as hell even to my own ears. I can’t figure out why I’m drawn to the odd old woman, but my gut says I need to follow it. To change the subject, I ask, “That isn’t what brought you here though, is it?”

“No. Lili did.”

“How so?”

“When we were in bed—.”

“Naaaahhh.” I raise my hand and shake my head. “Much as I like a good threesome, I don’t want to know, Jack. You keep it between you and your mates.”

Jack’s face splits in a grin. “You?”

I shrug, smirking. “Silas is the Ian in my family.”

“Ugh. Sticks in the mud,” Jack spits the words as though he’s just eaten something distasteful. “I didn’t see that coming though. So why’s there not a single rumor of the new triumvir working his way through the available females here in Candlewood? There’s some pretty good tail to be had here.” He whips his phone out of his pocket, holding it up. “You need digits?”

“Don’t be a pig, Jack, and no,” I chuckle. “New pack. New leaf.”

Jack’s face wrinkles up like he’s changing a particularly smelly diaper. “Borrrring.” He tucks the phone away. “Anyway, Lili. Last night she said she thought she’d met a vampire. She recognized him by the smell. She called it graveyard rot.”

“Well, they are rank smelling.”

Jack slouches toward me, elbows resting on his knees. “I know. A little later, she mentioned that she wished she hadn’t brought it up because it was like she could smell him again. And then the ward went off.”

“Wait…what?”

“Yeah. The ward went off. Have you ever heard of a human picking up vamps that way?”

“No. I don’t think I’ve ever heard of a human detecting them by smell.” I rise, scanning the plaza from my window and spot the three women at one of the patio tables at Darla and Joe’s. “I’ll do some research.”