Lacey's Luhpynes [Beyond the Veil 1] (Siren Publishing Ménage and More) (16 page)

“And we will,” Ansell said, looping his arm around her shoulders. “We’ll find him, kick his ass, rearrange his parts and then do the same to Briar’s rapist. It’s been too long since I’ve gotten to beat on someone. It’s way beyond time,” he muttered.

“Exactly,” Lacey agreed. “But I think that honestly one that would benefit the most from it is Briar.” Shrugging, she added, “All that I know is that if something like that happened to me I would want to be right there to peel his face off personally.”

“Yes and we adore how bloodthirsty you are, darling.” He nodded. “I just worry that Briar wouldn’t be able to even get near enough to spit on him. He hurt her bad Lace,” Ansell murmured. “I just wished we could do more, help her through this in some other way.”

“Yeah, sadly I think that you are right. I honestly think that right now the only things that will help her are time and perhaps if she met her mates. I really think that nothing else will suffice for her sadly.”

“I don’t even know if she’d let them close to her,” he commented. Shaking his head, he pulled open the passenger door. “Hop on in and slide over. I’m feeling the need to keep you boxed in and close to us right now.”

“That’s okay because I am feeling the same thing,” she confessed. “So, between the two of you is an amazing place to be.” She felt safe there. She wasn’t going to touch the thoughts she had of Briar and the long road she had before her. It simply wasn’t something she wanted to even think about.

Zhubin got them moving as soon as the door shut. “We’re heading straight home. But we will need to call in and let the Captain know that this asshole tried to blow us up, again. Because the next scene could be one of ours, we step off and someone else goes in and gets hurt.”

“Crap, it’s a lose-lose situation no matter which way we turn, isn’t it?” Lacey asked in frustration. “So what do we do? We have to find him so we need to figure out a way to ensure that this bastard is caught. I still say putting me up as bait would be the best idea.”

“No!” both men said, loudly and there was definitely some growling. All right, a
lot
of growling. “That is a last resort, Lacey, and definitely not until after we’ve fully mated,” Ansell told her. His voice was pretty gruff sounding. “Right now the mere thought of losing you has me nearly coming out of my skin, female. Not good at all.”

“Then we will mate. We will do everything that we can in order to ensure that we are able to find him and then after that we will use me as bait. How does that sound? Somehow and someway we will find out a way to catch this son of a bitch.”

“We don’t much like the idea, period, but at least after the mating.” Ansell heaved a sigh. “We’ll figure it out, Lacey. For now, no more talk about putting a bullseye on your back. It’s hard enough to keep the Luhpyne in line.”

“All right, no more talk of that.” She lay her hand on his and gave it a squeeze, lacing their fingers together as she did so. “Enough talk of all this,” she whispered and took a deep breath. “Let’s get across to the other side of the Veil and then we will go from there, shall we?”

Nodding, he pressed a kiss to her lips before drawing her in closer. His cheek rested on her hair, his heart under her ear. The pace slowed steadily until he let out a breath and seemed to calm right down. His body relaxed and she was pulled into him even more, his free hand sliding over her ribs.

Lacey bit her lower lip and moved in a little closer to Ansell, adjusting her body a bit so that she could feel his touch, so that he could also touch more. “A little higher,” she whispered against his ear with a grin. “And we are going to be doing a lot more than just sitting here, hon.”

“No we’re not,” he said, quietly looking into her eyes. “We can’t do anything until we mate. After that we can do whatever we want, when we want. For now though we need to keep focused on what and where we will all be soon. So behave yourself,” he told her before brushing a kiss to her cheek.

“Damn,” she muttered, but took in a deep breath. “Okay, sorry. We will get through this. We will get on the other side of the Veil, have dinner, go home and talk and figure life out okay? We will do this. Somehow and some way, right?”

“Not until tomorrow,” he told her squeezing her close. “So until then, take a breath and remember we’re fighting our instincts.”

“In other words, don’t run.” Zhubin told her oh so helpfully.

Ansell snorted out a laugh at that. “More or less. We’re going to have a nice lazy evening, all get some rest and then we’ll get dressed and packed up for a couple days behind the Veil. When we return life will be back to our normal level of insanity but we’ll all be able to think clearer. At which point we hunt down that sick, twisted bastard that’s stalking you and gut him.”

“All right. I hope that I can do this without attacking you boys,” she said with the shake of her head. “I mean it. I’ve kept my hands to myself for far too long and now I am finding it very hard to keep from grabbing one or both of you and loving on you. I mean really hard. I’ve resisted for so long and now I’m finding it very hard to dig back into that resistance again.”

“Well, resist until tomorrow after dinner,” Zhubin told her. “But I should warn you, it will be a bitch of a meal to get through. The parents will show you the true meaning of an interrogation. They know how to phrase things in a way that you’ll answer before your brain fully clicks in.”

“Oh goodie.” Not! She had never had to be subjected to “the parents” before and she wasn’t so sure that she would survive this. “I have no idea what to expect from parents, they are not something that I have ever had. Will you pull me out if I start saying things that will get me shot?” Lacey allowed herself to voice her fears only to these two men.

“Just be yourself, Lacey,” Ansell said with a smile down at her. “But yes, if you look like you’re starting to flounder we’ll rescue you. We’ll be right next to you the entire time as well. Except when his mother hauls you off for the girls’ chat.”

“Perfect. Thank you for that. What?” Her voice broke and crackled a little when she screeched that one word. “A girls’ chat? Huh? What? You…oh boy. I’m so going to have a heart attack from the things your momma says to me, aren’t I?”

“Holy hell,” Zhubin bitched out loud. “Dammit woman, would you not scream in the confines of the truck!”

“He’s right.” Ansell wiggled a finger in his ear. “We’re Luhpyne, that kind of screaming can deafen us. It’s not that bad,” he said softly. “She’ll just talk to you about what to expect from the mating and answer your questions.”

God, she hoped the woman could assure her that it was going to be okay to have Zhubin as her prime mate and Ansell her beta. She felt like her heart hurt from cutting him out of ever being a biological father. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to deafen you.” She grinned and added, “Well mostly, that is.”

“I’m sure,” he said with a snort. “Don’t look so worried, Lacey.” He stared at her, like he was reading her mind. “It will all work out the way it’s meant to and should. She’ll tell you the same thing, darling.”

“I hope that you are right,” she said with a smile. “Because I certainly plan on having a very, very long life with you boys. I have spent far too much time away from you boys, depriving all three of us so yep, I want a shot at forever or at least as long as we can get.”

Kissing her, he let his grip around her loosen as they pulled up in front of the house. Ansell slid out and turned to help her down. All three walked into the house and were soon under attack by the wolves, who wanted some attention and clearly were not prepared to take no for an answer no matter what the two large Luhpynes said to them.

Lacey laughed as Demon and Devil slid to a halt, right in front of her. Laughing, she gave the animals some love and scratched them behind their ears as they demanded. Looking up, she was giggling, “Save me from the big wolfies,” she teased.

“Yeah, you gave them the loving before, it’s all on you, darling,” Zhubin commented. Shaking his head, he shrugged out of his jacket and hung it up. “I’m making a snack. Wash your hands before you come to the table, Lacey. Those two are droolers when they get overly excited.”

Ansell hung up his jacket and hunkered down next to her. “He’s right about that last part, they do get sloppy when they are excited.” He rubbed Demon’s belly for a moment before rubbing his ears slowly. “You ready for tomorrow?”

Lacey looked up at Ansell and nodded, “I’m as ready as I am going to get. I want this,” she assured him and reached up to touch his cheek, cupping his jaw lightly. “You two make me happy. I hate that I’ve run from you both for so long. I shouldn’t have. I really shouldn’t. I’m complete with the two of you and I realize and see that now.”

He captured her hand, turned his head and pressed a kiss to her palm. “Never apologize for looking out for yourself, Lacey. We’d expect nothing less of our mate. Even when she is foolish enough to run from two such handsome studs as Zhubin and I are. Really, how could you run from the finest examples of Luhpyne manliness there are?”

“I know.” She sighed and then snickered at his comment. “You boys really and truly are all that is studly and sexy. You are both far too hot for my own peace of mind. I have a feeling that after we mate we will find as many reasons to be behind closed doors, in closets, wherever as much as possible. Naked.”

“As will we, little mate, but we have to get through tomorrow, dinner, and then we can figure out if we’re really ready to move forward. Whatever you do, if you have any questions, ask Zhubin’s mother. She’ll literally answer anything.”

“That sounds good.” She hesitated but asked, “If Zhubin’s mother has more than one mate, why does she only live with the one? If there was love to start, why are they not still with her?” She would be broken, completely and fully, if Ansell left her even if she still had Zhubin. She would feel incomplete without him as well and they hadn’t even joined yet.

“They do live with them, just not all the time. Martynn is a scientist and is working on figuring out what the hell happened to the Veil. Shan works in the capital, he’s a mediator between the Regents and the rest of the locals. They’ll both be there for dinner on Saturday so you’ll meet them all.”

“I look forward to it then.” She sighed and nodded. “I was worried that maybe when a woman mated with more than one man that somehow the love went away.” She had been worried that she would lose Ansell with Zhubin as her Prime Mate, or whatever it was called.

“Not at all.” He sat down and pulled her into his lap. The wolves pressed in closer as soon as they had settled. “Thorin is always at the house except when business pulls him away. Because he can communicate through the system it’s pretty rare that he actually has to leave. But the others both have positions that pull them away often. They are always back on the weekends and they take two weeks every quarter to just be at the house with his mother. They all care for one another greatly and she loves them all. Thorin is her first mate though, that’s why I refer to him as his father.”

“Ah, that makes sense. Is that what Zhubin will be? My first mate, and you my second? I’m a little lost so I really and truly need to be sure that I don’t mess up when I talk about you boys,” she said with a grin.

“Some call it Alpha and Beta, Prime and Secondary, First and Second, doesn’t really matter,” he told her honestly. “All that really matters is that we will all be together, as a unit. Yes, Zhubin will be the father of your children but that’s really the only difference between us. We are your mates and you are ours, forever.”

That had Lacey smiling and she nodded, “That is what I needed to hear. I needed to know that you will always be there at my side and will not be unhappy with me choosing Zhubin as the father for our children. I just never want to do anything that would drive you away.”

Ansell stared at her for a long moment before his lips started to curl slightly. “Just never ask me to change a poopy diaper,” he said. He grinned at her look and shrugged, “You wanted to know,” he teased tickling her sides.

Lacey laughed at that and shook her head. “No promises, mister.” She teased right back again and pulled back to look up at him. “But children are a very, very long way away honey. I want a life with you boys first. A long life. Later, much later, when I’m more ready, we can have kids.”

“Then we should likely start taking the leaves again. Luhpynes tend to be rather potent little breeders for the first month. After that it tends to tone down and we’ll only have to worry about when you happen to go into heat.”

Well that was something new! “Oh.” Her mouth was having a hard time working. “Uhm.” She frowned and asked outright. “What would you like? What do you think Zhubin wants? I don’t want to give up and give in on what he might want and or need in life, ever. Do you think that he wants children soon? Is that why you stopped with the leaves?” The leaves? What in the hell were those?

“No, we stopped with the leaves because we didn’t need them while not having sexual relations,” he told her with a shrug. “The leaves are an herb from our realm that, like your world’s contraceptives, work much the same way. But they seem to work best for our physiology. Unlike your contraceptives it’s a completely foolproof guarantee you won’t become pregnant. When you’re ready we stop ingesting them and wait through a full moon. Or rather, Zhubin will stop taking them. There’s no need for me to take them after the mating.”

“I think that this is something we should discuss as a family because I sure as hell am not going to wait another month to be with you, to be claimed by you. I’ve waited too damn long as it is and I won’t wait another day. I want you. I need you. If that means that I chance pregnancy then so be it, but I’m damn well tired of waiting.”

“The effects take a month to wear off, but the benefits of the leaves work in hours. We will get some for Zhubin when we are beyond the Veil and he’ll take it before the meal. By the time the meal and your chat with his mother are complete, the effects will be in full motion. Then we can mate safely without any worry of getting you pregnant before you’re ready.”