Amanda's Wolves Read online

  In fact, considering the way her body was reacting to these two men, she sincerely hoped she could remain asleep and enjoy the tingling sensation that made her nipples pucker and her legs draw together to pinch off the need growing between them.

  Laurie spoke again, startling Amanda. There had never been another woman in her dreams. “So…Amanda just moved here from Oklahoma. She’s been staying with her sister, my friend Mary.” She was rambling. “Thank goodness she was able to babysit for me and Rebecca tonight. I needed the break.”

  Amanda concentrated on breathing, which seemed to be the case with Logan and Sawyer also. She watched their chests rise and fall. It seemed as though she’d been struck mute and dumb, but then again, so had these two men.

  Had to be a dream…

  Laurie took a deep breath and kept talking, filling the awkward silence. “Logan lives in Cambridge and works with his family at the resort as a ski instructor in the winter and a hiking guide in the summer.” She glanced nervously at Amanda, who caught the gesture out of her peripheral vision. “Sawyer moved here at the same time as you. What a coincidence, huh?” Her voice shook, but she didn’t quite laugh.

  Sure. What a coincidence.

  “He’s a fireman of some sort. Just got a job here with the wildfire team thingy. What do you call it, Sawyer?”

  A few seconds ticked by.

  “Sawyer?” Laurie repeated.

  He licked his full lips and finally responded in a rather robotic voice. “Hotshots.”

  Laurie snapped her fingers in an exaggerated manner. “That’s right. Hotshots. Never heard of them before. Have you, Amanda?” She nudged Amanda with her right arm.

  “Um, no.”

  “Well, they’re some specialized team of firefighters who put out wildfires in the forest and stuff like that. Right, Sawyer?”

  Amanda had the sensation that she and the two men were suddenly toddlers and had only a rudimentary grasp of the English language.

  “Yep. Stuff like that.” Sawyer straightened his spine and sat taller, rubbing his palms on this thighs. He shook his head as if to clear it of a deep fog and finally spoke for himself. “What do you do, Amanda?”

  “Nothing.” She couldn’t imagine ever doing much of anything at all as long as she was this tongue tied. And then a small fragment of sense returned to her brain. “I mean, not yet. I just got my degree in anthropology. I’ve been interviewing a few places since I moved here. I had a promising interview at the junior college. They said they would get back to me soon.”

  “Teaching?” Logan asked. It was the first time she’d heard his voice. Deep. Rich. Exactly as she knew it would be.

  She shook her head. “No. Doing research. They have a grant to study the separation of Native Americans and Caucasians in the area. I don’t get the impression they’ve had any other qualified applicants.”

  Hey, look at that. A solid thought. Expressed verbally with nouns and everything.

  As if forcing herself to break the spell she was under, she jerked her gaze toward the night sky and blinked several times to drag herself out of the trance. Maybe she was hypnotized. This far away from both cities the sky was vibrant with the twinkle of stars.

  Logan spoke again. “Oh. I heard they were going to do that study. Some of the college kids were talking about it at the lodge. Did they warn you how unwelcome you would be?”

  Amanda flinched, her eyes going wide. “At the college? Why would I be unwelcome?”

  “Because people are not generally in favor of the idea of integrating.”

  “Yeah, the woman mentioned that. Geez, how bad can it be? I’ve never heard of such a thing. There must be other reasons for the high drop-out rate among the Native Americans.”

  Logan frowned as though he totally disagreed with her. Weird.

  Sawyer slapped him on the shoulder. “Stop harassing her. She just got here. She doesn’t know how it is.” He turned to face Amanda. “The Native Americans aren’t fond of being forced to play nice. Neither are the whites. It’s been an issue here for a long time. Few people are going to receive this notice well.”

  Amanda shrugged. “Well, I have tough skin. I can handle it.” Plus she refused to believe anyone would harass her for doing a study.

  Logan still stared, his eyes not blinking. She felt like she was falling under some sort of spell.

  Hell, maybe that was how this weird commune worked. They hypnotized women and then kept them. In fact, as absurd as that idea was, Amanda jumped to her feet and took several paces backward, away from the two men staring at her as though they wanted to devour her, and the woman on the swing who looked shocked.

  “You okay, Amanda?” Laurie asked.

  “Yep. Fine. I should go.” She pointed toward her car, but couldn’t find the right neurons to tell her legs to move.

  Logan stood abruptly also. “No.” His word was quick and sharp.

  It startled her.

  “I mean… It’s early. Are you in a hurry?”

  “No.” She wanted to kick herself for uttering that one syllable without thinking. She should have lied and said yes and gotten the hell off this piece of land before she got sucked into the strange vortex that seemed to call to her as though the wind itself was beckoning her to stay. Like forever. “What are you?” she asked without thinking. Suddenly she had no filter.

  Logan looked startled. “You mean who?”

  “Right. Yes. I mean who.”

  Laurie’s soft voice oozed into the night again. “They’re family, Amanda.”

  Family.

  What did she mean by that? Laurie’s family? Amanda’s family?

  She shuddered, even though the night air wasn’t that chilly. Surprising. She glanced down, realizing she’d left her sweater inside where she’d been too warm earlier. She stood there in her white tank top, her nipples puckered to stiff points no one could miss.

  She crossed her arms and swallowed. What could she say to easily get away from this insanity? “I should go. My sister…”

  “I’ll call her.” Laurie jumped up. “I’ll let her know you’ll be here a while longer. If it gets too late, you could stay. I’ll tell her.” She fled the porch and re-entered the house so fast her movements were a blur.

  When the front door shut with a loud slam, Amanda flinched. She needed to gather her wits and find a nice way to get to her car. “Nice to meet you both. Your, um, nieces and nephew were a pleasure to watch.”

  “Amanda…” Sawyer began, his voice trailing off.

  “Yeah. See, I feel a little strange. Maybe I’m coming down with something. I should really get home.”

  “Come here,” Logan said. “Before you fall.”

  Now that he mentioned it, her legs were wobbly, and she stood precariously close to the steps leading to the driveway.

  Sawyer lurched forward and grabbed her biceps before she stumbled and fell.

  “Thanks…” She tipped her head back to meet his gaze. He was so much taller than her own five-feet-four that he hovered over her like a giant.

  His expression was serious, his brow furrowed in concentration, and his lips parted. He inhaled long and slow and deep, and then his shoulders slumped as he moaned around the exhale.

  If she could have broken contact with him, she would have. His fingers seemed to burn where all ten of them wrapped around her biceps.

  He pulled her gently closer and then released her arm with one hand to wrap it around her back and haul her against his chest. At the same time, he buried his face in her hair and breathed in again, as if smelling her.

  It was surreal. It couldn’t be happening. She had the eeriest sense of déjà vu, having experienced a moment identical to this one. Except the last time she’d been asleep in her room in her sister’s apartment.

  Tonight she was seemingly awake.

  Another set of hands landed on her waist from behind, and she realized Logan had approached and circled behind her.

  She swayed backward into him.


  “Come back and sit down, Amanda. Please,” he whispered into her ear. It was so sensual she swore it seemed as though his lips had actually touched her skin.

  In fact, she melted at the feel of his breath wafting across her neck and shoulder. She could so vividly imagine what it would feel like to have his lips on her bare skin as if he’d kissed her a million times. In a way he had, just not when she was awake.

  Sawyer eased back and let the hand holding her bicep trail down to grasp her fingers. He gently tugged her hand until she followed his lead back toward the seats. This time he passed the chairs they’d occupied earlier and guided her farther along the front porch until he came to a set of Adirondack chairs. He sat back in one of them, straddling the seat, and pulled her hand until she sat sideways between his legs.

  Logan pulled the other lounge chair closer and sat on the edge of it, his knees nearly touching hers.

  Amanda tried to figure out what to say next. “Uh…”

  “I know it’s weird. And it’s going to take some explaining, but bear with us.”

  “This is way more than weird. I feel light-headed. Did you drug me or something?” There. That had to be it.

  Now she was scared.

  Logan jerked back a few inches. “No. God no. We would never do something like that.”

  “Then why do I feel like I’ve been lured into a trap?” She crossed her arms again and rubbed the goose bumps popping up on her skin. Every nerve ending in her body was on alert. She could smell Logan’s aftershave, his deodorant, his soap. God, everything about him was intoxicating. And familiar.

  Sawyer leaned forward and set a hand on her lower back. “We would never hurt you.”

  “Okay, then what’s happening to me?” She shivered again, and not because of the night air. It might have been chilly outside, but her body was on fire from the inside, burning with the need to get closer to these two men she’d barely met.

  Where was Laurie? She’d left her with her brother and his friend. The stars of your dreams. Don’t forget that detail.

  “Are you cold?” Logan asked.

  “No.” She shook her head. Maybe her skin was cold to the touch, but inside she was so hot she wanted to take her clothes off.

  “So, here’s the thing—” Sawyer began.

  “You aren’t going to kidnap me or something, are you? Keep me here against my will?”

  Logan chuckled. And then he quickly schooled his face when she glared at him. “Sorry. I’m nervous. And you have a vivid imagination. What makes you say that?”

  “Well, there are so many of you. It’s like a commune. And so many men. Why can’t you each get your own woman? It’s like you’re all sharing or something. And it’s freaking me out. A lot. And you won’t let me leave…and I wouldn’t be able to drive if I did…and I’m so tired…and I dreamed about you…and I can’t think straight…and I’m rambling…” She pressed her temples with both hands and closed her eyes.

  “You dreamed about us?” Sawyer asked.

  She nodded, her face lowered toward her lap. “Crazy. I know.”

  “More than once?” Logan asked.

  “Yeah. Can we not talk about this? It’s weird.” She lifted her gaze.

  Logan wrapped his enormous hands around hers at her temples and tugged them away. He stared into her eyes. “It’s not weird. Not for us, anyway. And we’re going to explain everything until it’s not weird for you either.”

  She didn’t move. How were they going to explain anything? “Why do you all share women?” She needed answers.

  “It’s not on purpose. Trust me. It just happens.”

  She frowned at Logan. “What do you mean? That makes no sense.”

  Sawyer cleared his throat. “We do what Fate chooses for us. It’s unavoidable.”

  “Uh-huh.” She jerked her gaze to Sawyer. “So this is more like a cult, then. Right? Not just a commune, but a religious cult.”

  “What? No. Lord.” Sawyer ran a hand through his hair and jerked his gaze toward Logan. “This is so much harder than I’d anticipated.”

  “Hey, at least she dreamed about us.” Logan’s mouth lifted on one side in an endearing half grin. He looked back at Amanda and continued. “There are a lot of things you need to know about us, but we aren’t a cult, or any religion really, and this is not a commune. The only people who live in this house are Laurie and her two mates, Corbin and Zach.”

  Sawyer continued. “There are several acres of land here that my grandfather left Melinda and Miles. He died before the rest of us met him, but Melinda and Miles divided the land into five sections and gave each of the rest of us a parcel. When all the homes are built, we’ll no longer seem to be on top of each other.”

  “How is that not a commune?” It seemed exactly like a commune to her.

  “It just isn’t. Trust me. And we don’t share. Anything. Especially not women.” He shivered, his hand pressing into her back with more force until she felt the warmth of his fingers through her thin tank top.

  Amanda opened her mouth to protest the obvious, but Logan jumped in and beat her to it. “That didn’t come out quite right. What he means is that we don’t share anyone else’s woman. I know it seems odd to you, and hell, it’s odd to us too for that matter, but for whatever reason only Nature knows, our two families seem to be Fated to merge, and in every instance we have taken a third also.”

  “Two men and one woman,” she deadpanned.

  “Yes.”

  “And I suppose you’re going to tell me that your weird mojo woowoo Fate has miraculously chosen me to be your ‘woman.’” She emphasized that last word with sarcasm. Who referred to their wife as “woman?”

  “Exactly.” Logan looked proud, as though she’d completely caught on to the game and everything was now resolved.

  Amanda squirmed, unable to break free of the grasp Logan had on her hands.

  He scooted his butt closer and straddled her legs with his. “You were being sarcastic,” he breathed out.

  “You think?” She stiffened and tugged on her hands again. No matter what she did, she was falling further and further under the spell of these men. Their scent surrounded her and lured her into a web she was afraid she wouldn’t be able to escape. Or even want to.

  What she wanted to do was lean forward and inhale Logan more completely.

  What she wanted to do was let her lips land on his and feel their softness.

  What she wanted to do was have Sawyer wrap himself around her from behind and nibble a path up her neck until he tickled her earlobe with his mouth.

  She yanked hard on her hands finally and freed them.

  “Sorry,” Logan said, glancing down. “Guess I had a grip on you. You’re so potent. It’s difficult to sit next to you and keep calm.”

  “Well, scoot back. You’re crowding me.”

  A smile spread across his face, lighting it up. “No way.”

  “Get used to being crowded, Amanda.” Sawyer leaned closer and inhaled her hair the same way Logan had. Like they were dogs.

  “Listen, I’ll admit, this is hot. I’ve never been so turned on—”

  “That’s a relief,” Sawyer interjected.

  She twisted and shoved at his shoulders to get him to back off.

  He gave her another inch. He was like a rock. No way could she move him. In fact, he was so firm she began to doubt he was even human.

  “I’m gonna cut to the chase here and get the worst part out of the way.” Logan scooted his seat back and stood. He glanced at Sawyer. “Yeah?”

  “Is there any other way?”

  “Not that I’m aware of.”

  “Hello? What the hell are you talking about?”

  Logan whipped his tight black T-shirt over his head and dropped it to the floor. “This isn’t a commune, and we aren’t in a cult. What we are is shifters.”

  Amanda was busy letting her gaze roam over the planes of Logan’s chest. His perfectly formed chest that made her salivate and matched perfectly w
ith what she’d dreamed. His words sunk in slowly. Finally, she lifted her gaze to find him smirking at having caught her ogling. Fine. Whatever. At least she wasn’t the one professing to be a…what? Shifter? “What’s a shifter? Like a drifter? You move around a lot?”

  Logan chuckled. “No. We change forms. We’re wolves.”

  “Wolves,” she repeated. She licked her lips and scooted forward.

  Sawyer inched closer and wrapped his back arm all the way around her waist. His front hand landed on her lap, grabbing both her hands in his one large one. “Just watch. It’s easier that way.”

  She stared at Logan some more, shocked into forgetting what they were trying to tell her while he unbuttoned his worn jeans and lowered the zipper. She caught a glimpse of dark hair before he bent and pulled off his boots.

  “What are you…?” She stopped the sentence midway when he righted himself and shrugged his jeans over his hips and down his thighs. He didn’t have on underwear. And heaven on Earth…

  He stepped out of his jeans and stood before her completely naked. His length bobbed fully erect in front of her.

  Her mouth was dry, and she couldn’t breathe. Except for pictures, she’d never seen a man naked like this. Her limited sexual experience had always occurred in the dark in a bed. No man had stripped naked and given her a full frontal before. “You… Uh…” She pointed. Pointed.

  “Sorry. Those are my favorite jeans. Don’t want to rip them.”

  Right. That made so much sense.

  “He’s gonna shift, Amanda. Just watch. Then you’ll understand.” Sawyer held her side tight against his chest. He brushed her hair over her shoulder and leaned his face close to hers.

  Logan dropped onto all fours on the ground.

  She flinched. Startled. But not half as startled as she was when he popped his body in every direction as if he were a contortionist. And not one millionth as startled as she was when in less than half a minute he grew hair, changed shape, and transformed into…a wolf. Just like he’d said.

  “Amanda. Hon. It’s okay.” Sawyer’s words filtered into her as though she were under water.

  It was so far from okay. She would have jumped out of her skin or at least run off the porch if Sawyer hadn’t been holding her. “What the…”