Kianna and Her Three Alpha Wolves [Featherstone Pack] (Siren Publishing Ménage and More) (7 page)

“Exactly, but after, you all knew and never bothered to include me in your little secret,” she said in a quiet, hurt voice.

Alex was the first to speak.

“Kianna, you have to understand how important it is to keep our secret. If the world knew about us, we would be hunted and then dissected to see if our genes could be duplicated. As we told you, there is so much we need to tell you, but not all at once. First, we will have the claiming ceremony, and then we will sit down and tell you everything.”

Kianna was stunned by the arrogance of the three men. Slowly getting up off of Duncan’s lap, she stood and walked across the room, making sure to put some distance between them before she said anything. She also wanted to try and get her anger under control. One of the things she was most proud of was her ability to calm herself quickly. Jeff and Sammy had always taught her that anger blurred your mind. It didn’t allow your thoughts the space they needed to make rational decisions.

Taking a deep breath, she turned and faced the men.

“First off, there isn’t going to be any claiming until I’m damn good and ready for it. Second, if you think you’re all going to just come back into my life and start ordering me around then you can think again. Just because you tell me I’m you mate doesn’t mean I have to accept it. Yes, I am attracted to all of you, but maybe that’s all there is to it, just sexual attraction.” Kianna knew she was lying through her teeth, but she wasn’t going to let them know that. If she didn’t set some sort of boundary now then, they would just walk all over her.

“I’m going to go back to my ranch today and finish up wiping the memory of Bubba Deacon from that house. Then I’m going to talk to each one of the ranch hands and try to figure out, if I keep them, just how much trouble they’re going to cause. I also have to put an ad in the local paper for a new foreman and go over the books. Until I’ve done that, I don’t want to see any of you…” Before she could continue, Teaghen spoke up.

“You’re kidding, right?” he asked. “That could take weeks, even months, baby. We’ve waited so long for you to come home to us, and now you want us to not see you for months? That just isn’t going to happen.” Teaghen stood but didn’t move closer to her. “How about if, while you’re doing all this, you let us court you? We can take you to dinner, go on picnics. I bet you haven’t been riding in a while, have you?” Slowly, as he talked to her, he moved closer until he was standing right in front of her. His arms gently pulled her to him, and he kissed the top of her head.

Whispering in her ear but knowing his brother could hear him, he said, “Please don’t shut us out, sweetheart. Let us show you how much you mean to us. We’ll try not to push you too hard.” Stepping back, Teaghen looked at her and smiled.

“It will be really hard not to kiss you and hold you and make love to you, but until you give us the okay, we’ll try to keep our wolves in check, saying that, however, you have to promise us a couple of things.”

“What promises do I have to make?” Kianna could feel her face heating from his intense stare.

Kianna had wanted nothing more since she was a girl than to be in the position she was in today. The three Featherstone brothers wanted to claim her as their mate and make love to her. Why was she not jumping at the chance? Hadn’t she come home to stake her claim on them? What the hell was wrong with her?

“I can almost see the wheels in your head working overtime, sweetheart.” Teaghen laughed.

“I don’t know what’s wrong with me, Teaghen. Since I was a little girl, the three of you have always been my knights. When things were bad, I ran to you. When things were good, I ran to you. I always shared everything with the three of you, and then you were taken from me, almost overnight. And for the next fifteen years, my whole purpose became to grow strong enough to return home to you all. Now that I’m here, I still want to be with you, but I also don’t want to lose myself in the process, and building the ranch back up gives me purpose.” She looked back and forth between them, hoping they understood what she was trying to say.

Both Alex and Duncan smiled and came to stand beside her, each taking a hand and kissing it.

“We do understand, baby girl,” Duncan said. “And there is absolutely nothing wrong with you.” He laughed and kissed her cheek. “Your instinct was to always come home to us. Even though you are not a shifter, you knew your mates even at a young age. From my understanding, that is completely normal in the human mate of a shifter. So there is absolutely nothing wrong with you. But we have been parted for many years, and you have grown into an independent woman. Our human side appreciates this, but our wolf side wants to claim you and make you submit to us. It is our nature.”

Alex cupped the side of her face and turned her toward him. “Your submission to us is only as your mates, the alphas of the pack. We would never want you to give up your independence, sugar. Just as we will bow down to you as you take your place beside us. The only promises we want from you is that you will allow us to court you and that if you have any trouble with Ray or anyone else you’ll let us know so that we can protect you. Our wolves need to be able to protect you, baby.”

Kianna smiled at all three of the men. How could she not bow to their wishes when they asked so sweetly?

“Yes, you can court me” She giggled. It sounded so old fashioned, yet with these three, it somehow suited them.

“And the protection?” Duncan asked. “Will you let us know if you have any problems with Ray?”

“I will let you know, although you know that I don’t need your protection. I am perfectly capable of taking care of myself,” she said.

“Yes, my sweet, but we have skills you do not.” Alex smiled, showing his wolf teeth.

“Oh, well, I guess you do have a few skills I don’t,” she said. “Now put the teeth away. “

“Oh, all right, for you I’ll do anything,” Alex leaned in and nuzzled her neck, gently nibbling along the way.

“Alex,” Kianna breathed out heavily. “You need to stop doing that.” She stepped back from him and was glad that he didn’t follow. She wasn’t sure whether she could tell him to stop again. They all made her body come alive, and if she was going to get anything done at the ranch, she would need to keep her wits about her.

“Time for me to head back to my ranch, boys.” Kianna laughed and grabbed Duncan and Alex by the shirts, kissing them each on the lips, and then headed for the front door with Teaghen right behind her.

“Hey, where’s my kiss, baby?” he whined like a little puppy as he pinched her behind before opening the truck door and depositing her inside.

“You get to drive me home, Teaghen, so stop whining.” Kianna laughed and closed the door.

Teaghen smiled at his brothers as he walked around the front of the truck and got in the driver’s side. He knew they weren’t upset with him for taking Kianna home alone. They would each get time with her and as lead alpha it was his right to be the first.

* * * *

“You okay, Kia? Why don’t you slide over here and give me a snuggle?” Teaghen smiled, wiggling his eyebrows at her.

Unhooking her seat belt, she slid across the bench seat so that she was close beside him and was in the process of buckling herself in again when Teaghen suddenly placed his arm across in front of her chest and swerved quickly to the right. Another truck had pulled out of nowhere, and they’d almost rammed into it. Quickly, she finished putting the seat belt on and turned to see who it was.

“What the hell was that asshole doing, Teag? He wasn’t even looking.” Teaghen noticed that the truck was now speeding up from behind to catch them.

“I want you to hold on, baby. I think that whoever is driving that truck doesn’t want to play nice.” Teaghen looked in his side mirror and watched the black truck quickly gain on them. The tinted windows prevented him from seeing who was driving, but if he had to guess, it was someone connected to Ray.

Teaghen sped up, but he knew they were coming to a pretty sharp curve, and he didn’t want to take the chance of not making the turn, especially with Kianna in the vehicle with him.

“He’s gonna try and ram us as we take the curve, so I want you to grab onto the bar above you and hold on, okay?” He just hoped he’d be able to control his truck once whoever it was made their move. Teaghen could smell the fear coming off of his mate. Once he got them safe, he and his brothers were going hunting. No one fucked with their mate.

“What the fuck is going on, Teaghen? Alex and I can feel your anxiety from here,”
Duncan spoke to him through their link.

“Some asshole is trying to run us off the road on the curve at Piers Point.
I need you to shift and come help me because if I don’t make the corner and Kianna is harmed in any way, the person in the truck is going to wish they had never been born.”

“We’re on our way. Try to make the curve, and we should be there in five minutes.”

“Uh, yeah, Alex, that’s the plan. I really like my truck and don’t want to have to buy a new one.”

“You’re talking to Alex and Duncan, aren’t you?” Kianna asked.

“Why would you say that, baby?” He was curious as to how she figured it out and wanted to keep her mind on anything other than the truck behind them.

“You get this far away look in your eyes, and it gets very quiet. Are they on their way?”

“Yeah, now hold on tight, he’s gonna try to take us out on this corner. If we crash, I want you to stay in the truck. Do you understand?” He didn’t want her to see him rip this fucker’s throat out.

* * * *

“But, Teaghen, I can help.” Kianna knew that no matter how well she could take care of herself, if one of the men was around, they would always want to be her protector. As they had told her before, it was in their nature to protect their mate.

“Please, baby…I don’t want to have to worry about you. If they get past me then you protect yourself any way you can, and then head into town and call your dads.” Kianna nodded her head in agreement.

As they started into the turn, just as Teaghen had predicted, the black truck made its move, trying to ram the back and send them into the ditch. Thank God that he’d been prepared and was able to counteract the move, and as they completed the turn, she looked back and watched as the vehicle that had been following them flipped and ended up against a tree in the ditch.

She also watched as a number of large wolves surrounded the vehicle and waited to see if anyone would exit the truck. Teaghen stopped their truck not far from where the truck lay in the ditch and opened the door, removed his shirt and, within moments, a huge black wolf stood in his stead. Looking back into his truck before he left, it almost looked as if he smiled at her.

* * * *

“Can you see who it is, Alex?”
Teaghen asked through the link.

“Yeah, it’s one of the hands from Kianna’s ranch.
He’s been seen spending a lot of free time with Ray and his cronies over the last couple of months,
so this is definitely Ray’s handiwork.”
Duncan sent back
. “He’s still alive, but he’s out cold.”

“I hear sirens headed this way. We better head out before they get here. It would look really strange to outsiders to pull up on an accident that was surrounded by wolves. It’s probably only the Lightfoots, but we can’t take any chances, and you need to get some clothes on before they get here, Teaghen. We won’t be far.”
Duncan slowly backed away from the truck, and with a gesture of his head, all the wolves followed in behind him, disappearing into the surrounding forest.

Shifting back to human form, Teaghen walked back to his truck and opened the door.

“Reach under the front seat, baby, and hand me the bag that’s there. It’s got an extra change of clothes in it.” Kianna quickly found the bag and handed it to Teaghen.

“Who is it?” she asked. “Is he dead?”