Protected by Wolves [Shape-Shifter Clinic 4] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) Read online

  Ellie shrugged, managed not to wince at the stabbing pain her action caused, and walked around to the passenger side. Mike leaned over her, making sure her dress was inside the door then buckling her seat belt.

  On the one hand she wanted to yell that she wasn’t a helpless baby. On the other, it was rather nice to be cared for like this.

  Instead of driving past the mall, Mike pulled inside it, then waited for a strange car to line up beside him. He opened his window and Rowan got out of the other car. “We need to organize dinner tonight and likely breakfast tomorrow. Oh and a bag lunch for Ellie tomorrow as well.”

  “Whose car is that? And I don’t want any food. I never eat when I’m unsettled.”

  “It’s Sam’s car. We swapped vehicles for the weekend. We’re hoping you won’t be unsettled for long. Mike and I plan to help you settle really well tonight.”

  Ellie stared at Rowan and had to force her mouth closed. That sounded as if they planned to share her bed. It had to be her naughty imagination. That couldn’t possibly be what two such totally handsome men meant. Not her, plain, boring Ellie Roth. They could have the most beautiful women anywhere. They couldn’t possibly want her.

  “Now, Ellie what do you want to eat. Anything but pizza,” said Mike.

  “I thought you liked pizza?”

  “I used to until this weekend. What do you want? Chicken? Burgers? Sushi? Thai?”

  Ellie took a deep breath, surprised that she truly didn’t feel ill. Normally her stomach would be upset for days after a meeting with her family, but having seen her father dealt with by the police seemed to have helped her relax. Or likely it was the two men. They were so protective and caring. They made it seem natural, but she really could relax when they were nearby. She could almost imagine the world was a safe place with them nearby.

  She realized both men were looking at her and remembered she was supposed to be choosing food. “Oh, something that tastes good cold. Fruit maybe?”

  “I’ll go get some things. You both wait here,” said Rowan, closing his window and parking in a nearby space.

  Mike smoothly moved into the next empty parking space and said gently, “Do you want to tell me about your family?”

  “You’ve met my father. What more is there to say?”

  “Mother? Siblings? Since fair is fair, I’ll tell you I have two parents and two brothers, who all live in Canada. I found Canada a bit cold so moved back here to Ohio. This is where I grew up. Dad got moved to Canada for work and we all went with him, but one winter there was one winter too many for me. I know some would say it’s not a whole lot warmer here, but it’s just right for me,” said Mike.

  “Are they all wolves?” Ellie asked, interested despite herself.

  “Yup. Whereas I just learned you’re human.”

  “Yes, I’m the family secret, the throwback, the failure, the recessive gene, whatever. Both parents and three older siblings, two brothers and a sister, are all big cats. Then there’s me.”

  “What about your grandmother?”

  “She’s a cat, too, but she’s the only one who accepted me for what I am.”

  “She seems a courageous lady, standing up to your father.”

  Ellie nodded. “I love her. Thank you for saying you’d pay for new glasses for her. She’ll get a lot of fun choosing them.”

  Ellie shot a glance across at Mike. He was watching Rowan coming back toward them a pile of bags in his arms. But he had a smile on his face so she guessed he was listening to her. That was different, too. So often her family hadn’t listened. They’d wanted answers to their own questions but were uninterested in talking about her or telling her what she wanted to know. But perhaps all families were like that.

  She watched as Rowan dumped his shopping on the backseat of the strange car, then they drove back to Garden Acres. Ellie felt the last of the tension leave her body as they entered past the gate house and were inside the community.

  Once she was inside her little apartment she relaxed even further. Maybe she would be able to eat and even to sleep tonight.

  Kitten came across to her and sniffed her arm then jumped off her and walked away. “He doesn’t like the smell of the ointment on me,” she said.

  “As long as it works it’s all good,” said Rowan, piling his parcels on the kitchen counter and unpacking boxes into the refrigerator and freezer.

  “Whatever did you buy?” she asked.

  “Frozen burgers and diet meals, berries, grapes, bananas, apples and oranges, watermelon,” he chanted.

  “What about me?” wailed Mike.

  “We get the burgers.”

  “Oh, that’s all right then.

  Ellie laughed. These men made her happy.

  Rowan stood up straight and closed the refrigerator door. “First we eat, then we take you to bed,” he told her.

  What? As in sex? Oh wow!

  * * * *

  Mike encouraged Ellie to lie on the couch, bringing her cushions to place under her shoulder and handing her the remote control for the television. She didn’t switch it on though. She lay there and watched the two of them getting a meal ready.

  Mike really liked the idea of taking her to bed. He’d been wondering how Rowan would organize it. He wanted Ellie so much, but he knew Rowan wanted her just as much, and being a Dom, Rowan would never give up. So it made excellent sense for the two of them to share her.

  There were far more male wolves than female. Rowan’s sister usually had half a dozen men vying for her attention. Some wolves were looking for a human partner, and that was logical but only as long as the shape-shifters could remain hidden from the general community. The more intermarriages that took place, the more the risk that werewolf haters would become active, making a free and normal life more difficult. It was much better for the shape-shifter community to remain semihidden, where most ordinary people were totally unaware of it and thought any references to shape-shifters were just fantasies.

  The other obvious option to deal with the lack of females was for two men to share a woman as Oscar Thorne and Danny Davies at the shape-shifter clinic had done, sharing Ambrielle Watson. Mike had suspected for days now that was Rowan’s plan, and he was fully on board with the idea. It made the best sense. That way both of them would get what they wanted.

  He just hoped Rowan had a plan on how to get Ellie into bed. He had no idea how to do it, short of picking her up and carrying her there. Mike was pretty sure she wanted them, but she was a very difficult woman to understand, so private and silent, her face mostly hidden, her eyes looking down instead of at his face where he could read her thoughts.

  “Do you still want fruit, Ellie, or would you eat a burger with Mike and me?” asked Rowan.

  Mike looked at her trying to gauge how she was feeling. Her skin was always a bit pale, but her cheeks had color in them and against the pure white of the sundress her skin also had a little color in it. Not tanned by any means, but a hint of golden brown to her flesh. She needed to get out of her jeans and shirts more often and into clothing like this. She looked damn good in a dress, and he planned to encourage her to wear one more often.

  “I don’t feel ill right now, but it’d be much safer for me to just have a banana, thank you.”

  “Just a banana? How about some grapes and blueberries as well?”

  Mike watched as Ellie smiled. Her gray eyes sparkled behind her glasses, her mouth tilted upward, and the worry lines in her forehead smoothed out. Damn she was lovely when she smiled. Well, she was lovely all the time, but when she smiled it was like someone had punched him in the chest. She was so beautiful she took his breath away.

  “Okay, I’ll have six grapes and six blueberries.”

  Rowan bent over the containers and began counting out the fruit. Mike watched Ellie’s face and saw the twinkling gleam in her eyes. She was teasing them! That’s a first! She’s smiled before but never been relaxed enough to play with us.

  Looking straight at Ellie, he said, “Pus
h her boundaries, Rowan. Give her ten and see if she’ll eat them.”

  Ellie gurgled a laugh and Mike joined her. Rowan looked up and placed his hands on his hips. “I should spank you both for torturing me, but I’m too pleased to see Ellie laughing and happy again.”

  Rowan brought over a bowl of fruit for Ellie, then waited for the microwave oven to beep saying the burgers were ready.

  Mike pushed Ellie’s dress up high on her thigh and laid a line of blueberries and grapes, alternating them up her leg, over her kneecap and to her thigh.

  He wanted so much to pull the dress off her completely and lay the fruit on her naked belly and breasts, but didn’t want to upset her, so decided this was an acceptable compromise. Mike waited until Rowan joined them. He was aching to touch Ellie’s skin, to lick her and suck on her soft curves, but he and Rowan worked as a team, and Rowan was the Dom here, so if there was to be sex he needed to make sure he wasn’t spoiling a plan of Rowan’s.

  Rowan nodded at him, so Mike kneeled beside Ellie, picked up a blueberry off her leg in his teeth, and tilted his head offering it to her.

  Once again she gave a soft laugh and took it between her fingers. She popped it in her mouth and bit into it, letting him glimpse her white teeth crunch down on the berry. But then she ignored the other fruit on her leg and picked up the banana, unpeeling it and taking a bite of it.

  Then she did the most erotic thing Mike had ever seen. She held the banana in her fist and licked up the side of it, before sucking the top of it into her mouth. Slowly she lifted her lips off the banana just lightly scraping her front teeth over the yellow fruit.

  Mike’s cock was straining to get out of his jeans, his heart was pounding, and he wasn’t hungry for a burger any more. All he wanted was Ellie.

  His gaze was glued to her as she flicked her eyes over to Rowan, then closed her teeth on the top of the banana and bit it.

  Mike’s mouth filled with saliva, and his cock pressed against his zipper. All the blood in his body had headed south, and he couldn’t get his brain to form a coherent sentence, far less move his hand to offer her a grape or blueberry.

  Rowan dumped his own meal on the floor, swept Ellie into his arms, scattering fruit in all directions, then crossed the room to Ellie’s bed.

  Mike’s cock was yelling, “Yes, yes, yes!” but his brain was wondering how the hell three of them would fit on the bed. Ellie was a tiny little thing, but he just knew his own feet would dangle off the end of the bed. Assuming his body fit on it with Rowan as well as Ellie there.

  Nonetheless he followed them across the room, kicking his shoes off as he went, his hands busy unbuckling his belt.

  Rowan laid Ellie in the center of the bed, then gestured for Mike to stand beside him. Mike hurried the last few steps, as his belt finally came undone.

  “Ellie, do you understand we both want you?” asked Rowan.

  “Very much,” added Mike, surprised how thick with lust his voice sounded.

  “I want you both, too.” Ellie’s voice was the merest thread of sound, so faint he wondered if he was imagining her reply.

  Rowan glanced across at Mike and nodded. Mike’s fingers fumbled as he tugged the rest of his clothes off his body, then pulled a couple of condoms from his wallet. The condoms were a standing joke between him and Rowan. On TV detective shows they were used to prevent leaving fingerprints on doorknobs, and a dozen other uses, even as the holder for a pile of coins to use as a cosh. Yet he and Rowan had never used them for anything other than the manufacturer’s stated purpose. And he hadn’t even had sex for months. In fact, he hoped to hell they hadn’t passed their “best before” date.

  Rowan stroked a finger across Ellie’s jawline. She turned her head into his touch, exposing her slender, pale neck which was usually hidden by her hair. “You should wear your hair like that more often,” he said.

  She gazed at him for a long moment, then nodded. “Perhaps.”

  He guessed she used her hair as a disguise, just as she dressed in boring clothes to hide her beauty, but now he and Rowan were around to protect her, it was time for her to reveal her body to them at least, if not to the world.

  Rowan untied the bow at the back of her neck, which held up the halter top of her sundress, and peeled the white fabric down off her breasts.

  Just as Mike’d guessed, they were fuller than one might expect from her thin frame. Not voluptuous, but enough to fill his hungry mouth. Her nipples were dark pink, the color visible through the tiny scrap of white lace which was her bra.

  “Your turn now,” said Rowan, stepping to the side.

  Mike moved closer and gripped the skirt of her sundress, tugging gently. She wiggled her hips, lifting her butt off the bed, and the dress slid down her legs so he could lift it off her feet. He held it to his nose, drawing in a big breath, and there was just the faintest scent of herbs under the more potent smell of the ointment that had been massaged into her wrist and shoulder. He blinked his eyes and shook his head. “What happened to your bandages?”

  “I took them off when you were both organizing the food. I don’t need them.”

  Mike gently traced the skin of her shoulder. There didn’t seem to be any marks there apart from the faint color of the ointment. Then he looked at her wrist. That was another story. He realized she’d had it half hidden under her clothes, but now he could see a huge red-and-black bruise stretching right around her wrist from where her father had grabbed and held her.

  “That looks nasty,” said Rowan, picking her hand up and turning it this way and that to expose the bruising.

  “It’s fine now. Tomorrow likely it’ll be a bit stiff but a couple Tylenol will fix that,” she said.

  “Will you be upset if he has to stay in jail?” asked Mike.

  On the one hand, having the man in jail would serve him right. Mike was still horrified he’d hit his own elderly mother in the face. But on the other hand, he didn’t want to grieve Ellie. Perhaps her father would be cowed into good behavior with strong words from the judge without needing to be sent to jail as well.

  Ellie sighed. “He’s escaped the consequences of his own actions again and again. Maybe this time he’ll learn to act responsibly, but I don’t know. What I do know is that my mother and siblings will be hounding Grandma and me to withdraw the charges. Grandma has told the management at Serenity Village no one but me is permitted to visit her, but they’re sneaky and sooner or later one of them is bound to get in and start nagging her.”

  A fierce urge to protect her roared through Mike. “Does she need a private security guard? We can arrange that.”

  “I don’t know. I was thinking about one of those alarm buttons to wear around her neck so she could call for help if someone went into her room.”

  “We’ll arrange that tomorrow. The nurses will be watching her tonight, because I already asked them to make sure she wasn’t in pain,” said Rowan.

  Mike nodded. He hadn’t even thought of that. It was obvious why Rowan was the Dom here, not him.

  “Now getting back to us,” said Rowan softly, and instantly Mike’s dick was hard again, and he gazed down at Ellie’s body. So far he’d only really looked at her breasts, mostly hidden inside the bra, and her wrist. Now he switched his inspection to her flat stomach, her belly button, and her tiny white lace panties. Dragging his gaze lower, he traced her thin legs down to her narrow ankles and dainty feet. He wasn’t a foot man, but her feet were so pretty he was willing to rethink that and become one.

  “Ellie, do you understand we both want you?” asked Rowan.

  Ellie nodded. “I’m friends with Ambrielle, remember. I haven’t ever…two men…” She blushed, her chest rose and fell fast a couple of times, then she said, “But I’m willing to learn.”

  “When I said I wanted to spank you and Mike I wasn’t joking,” added Rowan.

  This time Ellie blushed but she answered strongly, “Friends with Ambrielle, remember?”

  Thank God for Ambrielle!


  “This first time will be just for you. We’re going to arouse you and see how many times we can make you come,” said Rowan.

  This time Ellie blushed even more brightly though Mike wasn’t sure why. He just wanted Rowan to tell him to touch her somewhere, or kiss her, or anything really.

  Rowan moved around to Ellie’s left side and gestured Mike to her right. “Half each?”

  “Perfect.”

  Mike helped Rowan remove her bra and panties, then he bent his head to press light kisses along her rib cage and her breast. Since she was so slender there wasn’t room for both men to have their heads over her body at once, so Mike moved lower down and played with her belly button. It was as dainty as the rest of her, and he licked all around it before plunging his tongue inside it and giving one tiny nip to the rim.

  Next he moved lower, licking, sucking, and kissing his way across her lower abdomen to her mound. She was so lovely, her pale skin glowing from his touches, her hips wiggling a little as if to guide him to the place where she wanted his mouth. The place his mouth wanted to be, too.

  Mike was determined to do his share of the seducing, to ensure she came higher and harder than she ever had before, hopefully all over his mouth and then his cock.

  Gently he licked a line down the center of her flat belly and into the light-brown curls covering her mound. His tongue found her clit, and he prodded the tiny button, teasing it, wanting it to stand up for him.

  He almost burst with pride when her clit responded, peeking out of its hood. Now he sucked the little button into his mouth, pulling on it, demanding it swell and heighten Ellie’s excitement.

  Damn, she’s responsive! Her clit was already warm and engorged. As was his cock, which was demanding some action. Firmly he told his cock to wait while he concentrated on Ellie.

  Mike looked up into Ellie’s face. He had to stand up straight to see her over Rowan’s body. Rowan was sucking one breast and stroking her side at the same time. Mike felt a burst of appreciation for the Dom who was sticking to his own half of Ellie’s body, not touching her other breast even though Mike was concentrating on her pussy. And he couldn’t really only suck half her pussy, although perhaps he’d only lick one set of labia. That would be fair.