“Fuck, Ali,” Holt murmured. “I’m so sorry you had to go through that. We never should have let you go back to the ranch. We should’ve gotten the search warrant and taken care of Hollaroy first.”
“Did you get him?” I asked. “God, please say you arrested that slimy bastard. Did agents go to his house, too?”
“Yes,” Theo said. “Agents took him first. He’d already been arrested when we got to your place. Did he hurt you?”
His gaze raked over me.
I shook my head.
“He won’t threaten you again,” he vowed.
“If he comes near you, he’s a dead man,” Holt growled. I knew he wasn’t talking about from a bullet.
“Wh-what about my dad?” I wondered.
Theo hesitated. “I don’t know, sweetheart. We need to figure out his involvement and how much of it was coerced. If he testifies against Hollaroy, a plea bargain will probably be cut.”
I let out a shuddering breath. “I can’t believe you thought I would actually try to kill you.”
“You’re a pretty convincing actress,” Theo said, adjusting his hat, but he looked chagrined.
“Damn good shot, too,” Holt added with a grin.
I reached out to touch his chest. In the place where he should have a giant hole, there wasn’t one. Through the shirt, I only felt a ridged outline of what felt like an old scar. “I’m sorry,” I whispered.
“Don’t be sorry,” Holt said. “Just say that you’re ours.”
“Of course, I’m yours,” I breathed.
Twenty-four hours ago, it might have seemed too fast or too soon, but after all we’d been through, nothing could make me more sure. I loved these two men. I would kill for them—I kind of already had. I would protect them the same way they wanted to protect me.
So no, I wasn’t going to play hard to get. That wasn’t my style anyway. I was a straight-forward, straight-shooting, Wyoming rancher. And I wanted these two wolves by my side for the rest of my life.
Theo picked me up in a honeymoon carry. “Do you know what that means, Ali?” His eyes glowed silver in the morning light.
I laughed. “That you’re going to bite me?”
“Damn straight. We’re going to fuck you long and hard until you’re good and sorry for shooting us, and then we’re both going to leave our marks on you so no other wolf ever comes near you.”
“Sounds enticing,” I purred, so happy, I couldn’t help but smile.
“Sounds damn necessary,” Holt said. “Get her in the SUV before I claim her right here by the side of the road.”
Theo chuckled as he put me back in the back seat. He climbed in beside me.
“Don’t forget the handcuffs!” I sang out sweetly.
Holt laughed. “Oh, I’ve got your cuffs, sweetheart. We intend to keep you under house arrest for the rest of the week after the heartbreak you caused us.”
He climbed behind the wheel and drove in the direction of his place instead of the sheriff’s station. Theo put his arm around me, and I nestled into him.
“I do have horses to feed,” I said, thinking about the delicious but impractical sound of house arrest.
“We might give you time off for good behavior,” Theo rumbled, his hand sliding up the inside of my leg.
“Oh, but I don’t intend to be good.” I smirked, meeting Holt’s heated gaze in the rearview mirror.
The SUV filled with the rumble of two men’s growls. A sound I was going to crave for the rest of our lives.
17
HOLT
I barely drove the speed limit to get our mate back to my house. Our house. I had no idea what was going to happen with the ranch when Ali’s father went to jail. He was going to prison, that was for fucking sure. No charges would be brought against our mate. We’d never called in the attempted murder, and we could vouch for her full cooperation in apprehending the other two.
The land would belong to Ali’s dad, or whoever was on the fucking deed, incarceration or not. Still, the ranch needed to be worked. Animals tended. It was Ali’s dream to run her family’s land, and I wouldn’t deny her.
Neither would Theo.
Maybe we’d ultimately move to the ranch. It was something to decide later, along with so many other things.
For now, we would make her ours. Claim her with our cocks and bite. Assure our wolves that she belonged to us. Permanently.
Theo tugged her into the house as I followed. Her laughter made me smile. My wolf was soothed. Slightly.
The need to claim was so strong, it drove my every thought.
My dick pulsed behind the zipper of my jeans. My balls ached to be emptied deep inside Ali’s pussy. Marking her.
I kicked the door shut behind me, then stripped as I made my way to the bedroom. By the time I stood before the bed where Theo was kissing and ridding our mate of her clothing, I was bare.
Ali broke the kiss and looked to me. Her cheeks were flushed, her eyes alight with happiness and eagerness. Desire. Love?
Fuck, she was beautiful. All creamy skin, lush curves, toned muscles. Her breasts were high and round, with dusky rose tips. She wasn’t small or dainty. She could handle us and our wolves. How we’d take her roughly, with intent and full of passion. The way her nipples hardened as I watched, and the scent of her arousal drifting to me were signs she was right there with us.
A perfect match, fated or not.
Then her gaze dipped to what I was holding up. Handcuffs. The one thing I hadn’t left in the other room.
My wolf practically howled at the way her pupils dilated with the implications of what we were going to do with them.
Theo stepped back, giving me room.
“Wh-what are you going to do with those?” she asked, licking her lips.
I groaned at the sight of her pink tongue flicking out, imagining it licking the pre-cum from the weeping slit of my dick.
“Keep you from getting you away. To get you to feel how desperate and frantic we were.”
I crawled up the bed and said to Theo, without glancing away from our mate’s dark eyes, “Get me a tie from the top drawer.” Then, to Ali, I said, “Give me your wrists, sweetheart.”
She knelt before me and held out her hands, palms up. My gaze met hers, silently seeking her consent. I’d fuck her any way that made her happy and pleasured. If it wasn’t in my cuffs, I had plenty of other fantasies to fulfill.
She nodded, and I clicked the cool metal around first one wrist, then the other.
Theo handed me the tie, one of the few I had which I pulled out for weddings, which was exceptionally rare since they were human events.
“Lie back, sweetheart,” I murmured, and waited as she settled herself in the center of the bed. “Arms over your head.”
She shifted down, her breasts swaying.
“Good girl.”
I wrapped the tie around a slat of my headboard, then slipped it around the cuffs, then knotted it so she wasn’t able to go far, but we could still maneuver her as we needed.
“Not too tight?” I asked, my finger ringing her wrist where the sharp bite of the cuffs could leave a mark.
“No. I… I like to feel it.”
“Pain?” I asked, arching a brow. I was looming over her and could carefully study her for deceit. It took a certain kind of person to crave pain. A spanking was one thing, but pushing it beyond that was a kink I didn’t think she had. Not that I thought she was lying, but I wanted to make sure she wasn’t giving us what we wanted at a cost to herself.