Acceptable Risk Read online

  Everyone looked at him, and he explained, “I saw Bethany connect with Ranger last night when he went all Dom on her. If the three of them can form a relationship bond, Ranger might be able to sever his ties to Duke as if Duke isn’t welcome in the relationship.”

  Ranger looked at Bethany a few seconds and said, “It’s fast, but I like you and want to get to know you better. The relationship bond says we’re together. A unit. We can include Jonathan physically without including him in the ritual. He’s a cat, and there’s a way to include him, but not easily so it won’t happen tonight. But, we can bind you, me, and Mac into a relationship and Jonathan’s right — I can probably sever the ties Mac and I have to Duke.”

  “Relationship?” Bethany’s voice squeaked as she said the word, and she shook her head. “No. We fucked, that’s it. I don’t do relationships.”

  “Bethany,” Gen said, her voice simultaneously friendly and antagonistic. “We’ve talked about this before. All guys aren’t assholes. Besides, you have the harem you’ve been wanting. Give it a try before you find a reason to push them away. You deserve your own happiness.”

  Bethany shook her head again, and Mac said, “I felt it. Our aura’s just split, didn’t they?”

  “Yeah,” said Duke.

  “Bethany and I are going for a ride,” Gen announced as she stood.

  “Why?” Bethany asked.

  “So we can talk.”

  “Let’s just go upstairs, then. I only have a t-shirt on.”

  “They can hear us talking from anywhere in the house,” Gen reminded her.

  Bethany stood with the blanket, wrapped it around her, and headed towards the door, but Jonathan said, “You’re barefoot, Raggedy. Let me carry you.”

  She didn’t argue, and five minutes later Duke had shown Bethany the hideaway with his extra gun, reminded Gen he expected her to use hers if necessary, and they were on the way.

  “Three things,” Gen said as she pulled out of the driveway, “the first is I could tell how much you liked Mac, and how much you trusted Jonathan and Ranger. Second, you have to tell me about what happened last night.”

  Gen went silent, so Bethany asked, “And the third thing?”

  “If they can’t break the pack bonds they formed, Duke will move away before he risks having to fight his brother. They’re finally back in the same city, and he’s managed to be part of his biological family again in a small way, if not his original pack family. I don’t want to see him lose that, but I also don’t want to have to decide between my career and my husband. If I move out of the country with him I’ll never get set up with the contacts I have here. I’ll have to kiss my job goodbye.” She paused and said, “And you, and my family. I don’t want to have to leave. My life is here, but… Duke’s my life, too. If he leaves, I’ll go with him.”

  Gen turned into an empty restaurant parking lot, put the antique mustang in neutral, and engaged the emergency break. “I would never ask you to do this if I didn’t think you liked them, but I saw how you looked at them. Whatever happened last night was big, and you like them all. You’ve wanted a harem and this is it! Why are you telling them it was just a night of sex?”

  “Because guys are assholes. You think they’re not, but they always turn out to be, once you get to know them.”

  “Duke isn’t. I’m pretty sure Brain isn’t. Frisco, Isaac, and Cam aren’t. I mean, Frisco was, but he seems to have changed for Cassie and Cam. You won’t know if these guys are capable of non-asshole status unless you give them a chance.”

  “And if I get hurt again?”

  “He-who-shall-not-be-named was an asshole of immense proportions, but neither of us were old enough or experienced enough to see it. If we met him now, we’d know it in the first five minutes, don’t you think?”

  Bethany thought back to the first time she met him and the way he’d called her babe. His tone of voice had been the exact opposite of the way Ranger had said it, and while Mac may have used the word ‘my’, it was more about a wish for the future than an expectation it was true merely because he uttered the word.

  “Damn,” Bethany said. “You’re right. I was nineteen to his twenty-four. He played me, and I was too stupid to realize. I’d know in a heartbeat, now.”

  Gen was quiet as Bethany looked out the windshield without focusing on anything. Bethany finally asked, “Do you know what the relationship binding is?”

  “Not a clue.”

  “You should take me back, then, so I can ask my guys.”

  Before they got out of the car, Bethany put her and on Gen’s and said, “It’s kind of freaky. I mean, fucking werewolves? But knowing you’ve already dealt with it, knowing you and Duke have my back…” She shook her head.

  “Someone I trusted helped me when I found out, hopefully Duke and I can do that for you. I know there are good and bad ones, but because of the leadership here, most of the shapeshifters in Chattanooga are good, and if they work for Aaron Drake, it’s another sign they’re the good guys.”

  * * * *

  The men were sitting around the den with no one talking when the women returned.

  Bethany took a few fast steps towards Ranger, and he stood and pulled her into his embrace as her arms went over his shoulders and she hugged him tight.

  She whispered, “I think we need a group hug,” and her other guys were there as she said the final word. Mac stepped beside Ranger and pulled one of her arms to his shoulder, so she was hugging them both, and Jonathan stepped behind her, put his hands around her torso, and kissed the side of her neck from behind.

  “Tell me what this relationship binding thing means.”

  “It’s another blood thing,” Ranger told her. “It’ll metaphysically bind the three of us. We’ll know if any of us cheats, or even seriously considers cheating. Admiring someone of the opposite sex isn’t supposed to trigger it, but thinking of doing something sexual with them, will. It’ll make us feel closer when we kiss, fuck, make-out, play around, whatever.” Ranger kissed her forehead and added, “We can include Jonathan in the wording of the ritual, so it won’t trigger as cheating when you’re with him.”

  “And if I want to break up with ya’ll three weeks from now?”

  “If you’re intending to break up with us in three weeks, it won’t take. You have to go into it with the intention of this being your last relationship, or it won’t work. If you want to break up with us in the future, there’s a way to break the binding, but you can’t go into it with the idea you’ll just break up with us later if it doesn’t work. You have to mean it.”

  “What’s the vow?”

  Ranger looked to Duke. “We’re going to move this to the bedroom. I don’t mind you hearing us, but don’t want you watching. When we’re finished, I’ll come down and try to break the ties with you.”

  Chapter Eight

  Everyone was naked again, the two wolves and Bethany sitting in a triangle on the bed, knees touching.

  Another needle, blood from her right toe this time, but only three drops — one in the center of Mac’s chest, Ranger’s chest, and hers. Each of the men pricked their own finger and also dabbed blood on all three chests, forming three identical triangles.

  Ranger had them reach their right hands in and hold the right wrist of the person to their left. They then put their left hands in, and held the left wrist of the person to their right.

  “This is important,” Ranger told them, “our knees are touching right knee to left, and vice versa, while our hands are touching right to right, and left to left. We’re all both holding onto and being held, with both hands. It’s a small circle, but it’s still a circle, and we’re all touching one another in multiple ways.”

  Jonathan sat behind Bethany, wrapped his arms around her torso, and Ranger said, “Jonathan is connected to us, but only through Bethany. He doesn’t want to be included in the blood bond, but is willing to say the oath with us while connected to our little fiery vixen.”

  They knew this, h
ad agreed to it before drawing blood, and Bethany wondered if it was necessary for him to say it as part of the ritual.

  “Give me a second to get the energy flow started,” said Ranger. “Let it happen, and don’t freak. I’m in charge and I’ll keep it from going bad. Think of last night, your favorite part, and keep it in mind. Watch me, and I’ll nod when it’s time to say the vow.”

  Bethany thought back to riding Mac’s cock while Jonathan was in her backside and Ranger was off to the side watching every move, and telling her he couldn’t wait to be in her ass.

  She thought she felt something, like a buzzing sensation coursing through her hands, wrists, and knees, and slowly making its way through the rest of her body. It wasn’t like it’d been downstairs earlier, though, and it was possible she was imagining it.

  When Ranger nodded, all four intoned, “We are three plus one. We are strong. We are a unit, and no one shall intrude without the entirety knowing.”

  Bethany kept the memory of last night foremost in her head, and within seconds she felt as if it was happening again. Ranger let the memory go a few moments before gradually transitioning them back to the present, this time.

  No one needed to ask if it worked, but Bethany said, “I felt Jonathan in it, too. Did ya’ll?”

  “He was in it, but I didn’t feel him,” Ranger told her.

  “I only felt Bethany,” Jonathan said as he let go of her and stretched out on the bed behind them, “but I was only open to feeling her.”

  “I’m going down to see what I can do with Duke,” Ranger said as he stood. He looked at Mac and Jonathan. “Why don’t the two of you pull the top mattress from all three beds and put them on the floor of one of the guest rooms?” He looked at Jonathan. “If we put mine and yours together, we can sleep with our vixen without smooshing her. Mac can sleep on the other side of the room — close enough to be with us, but not enough to be a danger to Bethany if he shifts in his sleep.”

  The men moved the mattresses as if they didn’t weigh anything. Bethany helped get the sheets and blankets back on them, and curled up with Jonathan on the two they’d pushed together in the back of the room. Mac was closest to the door, so he could leave if he needed time and space to get control.

  Bethany was asleep before Ranger came to bed, and she didn’t know anything until her cellphone woke them all at ten the next morning.

  The men awoke alert and ready, but Bethany wasn’t able to put a coherent sentence together yet, and only glared at them when they dared speak to her.

  “Coffee?” Ranger finally asked, and when she nodded, he turned and went downstairs without another word.

  She put her underwear in her purse, her bra back on, and then donned her skirt and blouse. It took a few minutes to find her socks and boots, and she finally dug a hairband out of her purse and finger-combed her hair into a ponytail.

  The men were all standing around the kitchen when she went down. Ranger was watching the coffeepot, Jonathan was looking in the fridge, and Mac was eating a fist-sized hunk of cheese.

  “If I can get coffee in something with a lid, can one of you drive me home now? I’d rather shower at my house, with my stuff.”

  “We were thinking I’d take you home,” Ranger said, “and the other two could pick up breakfast and bring it to your house. We can all eat together once you’re out of the shower.”

  Bethany shook her head. “I have a lot to process from last night. I’d really rather take a shower and get ready alone. I have four appointments today and they all need my undivided attention. I need some time to think about everything so I can give it to them.”

  “We’d rather you process it out loud, with our help, over breakfast,” Jonathan told her.

  “Do ya’ll not work on the weekend?”

  “Sometimes,” said Ranger, “but not today.”

  She rolled her eyes. “How about a compromise? One of you this morning, and I don’t really care who. You can drop me off, go get food, and be back with it when I finish my shower. Or, if one of you can cook, my fridge is stocked and you can impress me with your culinary skills.”

  “I’m waiting for the rest of the compromise,” Mac said.

  “I’ll bring steaks home for ya’ll to cook on my grill, and I’ll fix the veggies and salads. You’re all welcome to spend the night. I have a king sized bed, and an airbed so Mac can sleep in the room with us. I also have furniture in every room of my house, and a kitchen table.”

  Ranger and Jonathan looked at each other a few seconds, and Jonathan said, “I’ll take Mac to the range, work on getting him certified so he’ll be able to carry for Drake once we get his paperwork handled. You go with Raggedy.”

  Chapter Nine

  “How long did it take you, before you could be around people?” Bethany asked Ranger on the way down the mountain.

  “I was a few months shy of thirteen when I was turned. I wasn’t allowed around humans for over a year. I saw my parents from a distance after a few weeks, and could be in the same room with them at around six months. I talked to them on the phone from the very beginning, but…”

  “Twelve? A twelve year old can’t give consent!”

  “My best friend’s parents pulled him out of school in the seventh grade and homeschooled him. I was allowed to go to their house, but he couldn’t come to mine, and they stopped allowing overnight visits. Towards the end of the year they started not allowing me to come over at all for a few weeks at a time. I now know they were expecting his first change, and making sure it didn’t happen around humans.”

  He glanced at her, back to the road. “Werewolves can be born, and when they are, they change after they hit puberty. The children are taught to control their temper from an early age, along with breathing techniques to cope with pain, and a lot of other tricks to help them learn control later, when their wolf kicks in.”

  Bethany waited for him to get through some traffic congestion and asked, “I take it they didn’t plan well?”

  “It isn’t their fault. He was feeling itchy one night and snuck out. We lived maybe a half mile apart, and he walked to my house and threw pebbles at my window. He already had extra strength and stamina, knew he had to keep it hidden, but they’d been waiting for him to change so long, he didn’t realize he was itchy because it was so close. It’d started becoming one of those things always on the horizon.”

  “So, you went out with him, he changed, and bit you?”

  “In a nutshell, yeah. The family had to explain it to my parents, and they blood bound them, so they couldn’t tell. My friend’s dad was a doctor and he falsified records so the school thought I had mono. There were only a few weeks left, so I finished the year with excused absences. I went to live with my friend, and we both learned to control our wolves together. He learned way faster than me, because he’d been prepped for it his whole life.”

  “I saw Mac’s hand, when they cut his fingers off. Some looked as if they’d been cut off a few days before. How does he have them, now?”

  “If I’m injured, as long as I can shift into my wolf, I’ll heal. When I come back as human, the wound or injury is gone. Even a gunshot wound, the bullet is usually pushed out during the change. When we rescued Mac he’d lost a number of fingers, toes, a hand, and most of one ear, as they’d been slicing pieces of it off at a time.”

  Bethany put her hands over her face, horrified, and Ranger touched her leg. “He’s fine now, Bethany. He was in a dangerous job and he knew the risks. He’d been trained for it, and he never gave up the information they wanted. He’s a hero and no one can ever know. I’m only telling you because it’s part of the secrets you got in the binding, and you won’t be able to tell anyone else. It’s classified, government stuff. Not just supernatural.”

  Bethany nodded and he continued. “The oldest amputation was four days old, but most of it had been done within the previous three days, which is usually the cut-off for how long you have to be turned and have the pieces grow back. It’s about your i
mage of yourself as well as your DNA, and most people who’ve lost a body part in the past three days will grow it back if they’re turned. I gave him the option of remaining human and staying as is, or my turning him into a werewolf and possibly getting them back. No guarantees, but it was a good possibility. I explained the pros and cons, and was very clear about how long it would take him to gain control so he could go out in public again. I hadn’t counted on the control he’d learned through the agency — the control that let him keep secrets even when people were slowly cutting him to pieces, so he’s well ahead of schedule. Still, we have to be careful.”

  She pointed him to turn left into her neighborhood and said, “Shouldn’t there be, like, PTSD, or something?”

  “Yeah, there should, but he apparently has exceptional coping skills. He’s been seeing a supernatural friendly therapist who’s used to dealing with battlefield trauma, and while she hasn’t released him, she says he has a healthy handle on his psyche.”

  “You haven’t told me what happened with Duke last night.”

  “It worked, but we figure it probably also broke the binding he did on you. We’re going to leave it alone, for now. Mine to you is still strong, and that’s enough.”

  Bethany pointed him into her driveway, and she put the coffee thermos in the cup holder so Ranger could take it back. She’d finished it a while back, but had needed to hold onto something.

  She got out of the car, walked up her porch steps, and sighed as Ranger followed her in the front door. “You know we’ve broken all the one-night stand rules, right?”

  Ranger closed and locked the door behind them, looked at her a few seconds, caressed her cheek, and pulled her into his embrace. “Our binding wouldn’t have worked if you hadn’t meant it, but I’m sensing cold feet, now. What’s up?”

  “I don’t do relationships. I sometimes fuck guys for a few weeks, maybe even two or three months, but I don’t…” She pulled out of his arms and headed towards her bedroom. “Life’s simpler when I just depend on myself.”