Scarlet Disaster by Colette Rhodes

Chapter 20

I skulked around the edge of the cabin like a pervert, thankful that what I’m sure was the best sex of Brooks’ life was now over. God, the noises Lou made when she came… they weren’t particularly loud, but they were filled with so much unadulterated lust that I knew those sounds would live in my brain for the rest of my life.

I wished she’d made those noises for me, but she hadn’t, and I had to accept that it might never happen.

No, it would never happen. No caveats.

As much as I wanted to spend this last afternoon with her, Brooks had been struggling with Lou’s decision to leave, and he was so out of touch with his emotions that he probably didn’t even realize he was struggling. He needed this alone time with her, though I doubted it was going to give him any closure. Lou had gotten under our skin in the short time we’d known her, and I was getting the feeling that even if we’d spent the entire winter together like I’d initially suggested, it wouldn’t have been enough.

Perhaps Lou was smart to call it quits. If the secrets were bothering her now, they’d only get worse and harder to hide as our animals grew attached. It was the reason I was hovering out here in my fur like a creep. Nate’s warning about losing control had stuck with me, so I’d stayed close in case Brooks needed to be calmed down.

It would have been helpful if Nate had been more specific about how Lou tested his control, but he didn’t do anything for no reason. I hadn’t heard anything coming from the bedroom that made me worry for Lou’s safety.

I’d heard a lot of things that made me want to throw the door open and join them.

I hid as best I could in the trees, looking ridiculous with my black fur against the white ground, not even the coverage of leaves to hide me. Shifting during the day wasn’t a risk I liked to take—black jaguars weren’t exactly native to Alaska. Even Nate had to be careful about where he shifted, because a cougar here would absolutely attract attention. He hadn’t been careful though. His desperation to be everywhere at once, to protect Lou from a threat she didn’t understand had made him reckless.

Nate was going to be a fucking liability when he found out Lou was leaving. We’d just have to convince him that we could stick close to Lou without getting in her face. If nothing else, we still hadn’t fixed her busted porch. That was a reason to spend a few hours with her. Maybe a couple of days if we could drag it out.

In the distance, I heard the distinctive rumble of Nate’s truck approaching the property, and with rising dread I shifted back and ran across the yard naked, hoping Lou wasn’t looking out the window.

I could hear both her and Brooks’ even breathing from the end bedroom—Nate’s bedroom, theoretically—and it seemed like they’d worn each other out. I am not jealous, I told myself as I dressed as quickly as possible in my room before returning to the living room to intercept Nate.

I was jealous. Not because I didn’t want Lou to be intimate with my packmates if she wanted them. I just wanted her to be with me as well, and so far I was lagging behind. And unless we found a way to open up to Lou in a way that kept her safe, I would always be lagging behind, because she was sick of being kept in the dark.

I busied myself with lighting the fire, both for something to do and because I was worried Lou was cold. Perhaps I should have opened all the windows to air out the place, but the scent of what the two of them had been doing saturated the place. It would probably take days to dissipate, which was not a comforting thought considering Lou was leaving.

The front door opened with a bang that reverberated through the entire house, and I winced as I straightened, turning to face my enraged friend. His eyes were wild, glowing intermittently as his muscles rippled, his shift imminent.

“Brooks,” Nate growled as he stormed into the center of the living room, his voice too low for Lou’s ears though his dramatic entrance had undoubtedly tipped her off.

“It was enthusiastically consensual,” I assured him pointlessly as I moved towards him with my hands up, blocking his way before he did something ridiculous. “You said it was okay.”

Reluctantly, but he did agree.

“He shouldn’t have let it get this far,” Nate snapped.

“Why not, irmão?” I asked exasperatedly. “You say she tests your control, but don’t elaborate. You and her keep sniping at each other, but neither of you will say why. Neither Brooks nor I have made any secret about being attracted to Lou. This shouldn’t come as a surprise to you.”

If he’d spent more time with us over the past couple of days, he’d know things between Brooks and Lou weren’t a brand new development, but he’d been avoiding her.

Nate growled, the alarming scream-type sound that his cougar made which would definitely terrify Lou, and I placed my hands on his chest, holding him in place before he could go and rip Brooks out of the bed. Nate winced at the contact and I eased back a bit, knowing he was struggling to heal his wounds without proper rest.

“Calm, Nate,” I urged. “Think. Concentrate on your emotions. This isn’t just anyone, it’s Brooks.”

It’s pack, and he could be open minded about this if he chose to be, but his mind seemed pretty damn closed at the moment.

“He could have—” Nate snapped his mouth shut, but I’d caught a glimpse of the emotion he hadn’t wanted me to see. Shame.

“He could have what?” I asked softly.

“It doesn’t matter,” Nate muttered, some of the fight going out of his body.

“Except it clearly does. Talk to me,” I pressed.

But before he could open up, Brooks emerged, leaning against the archway between the living room and kitchen in a pair of low slung sweatpants, proudly wearing sex hair and the sweet scent of Lou’s arousal like he had a fucking death wish.

One step forward, three miles back.

Ah well, it had been fun while it lasted. I’d miss our little not-a-pack pack when Nate attempted to murder Brooks in human form, and Brooks immediately shifted because his wolf was a defensive beast. I wondered idly if Nate would shift too. Wolf versus man, Nate was a goner. He was too gentle in his human form, and Brooks fought dirty. If it came down to wolf versus mountain lion, Nate had the advantage.

I didn’t like my chances of Lou wanting to stay with me after they turned into animals and mauled each other to death in front of her, either way.

“What’s up?” Brooks asked casually, crossing his arms over his bare chest.

“What’s up?”Nate growled, glaring at Brooks like it was the most offensive question in the world. “Didn’t you listen to anything I said? What are you doing with Lou?”

“You know exactly what they were doing,” I muttered. I was positive Nate could figure it out without Brooks breaking it down in explicit detail.

Brooks grinned slowly, and I could see the wheels turning in his head as he attempted to come up with the most aggravating response in the fewest amount of words. He was a goddamn expert at pushing every single one of Nate’s buttons, and he always resorted to being an asshole when he was feeling defensive.

“They had sex,” I answered for him. “Loudly. Enthusiastically. Loudly. Did I mention loudly?”

Brooks grinned at me as Lou emerged behind him, tugging an oversized jumper further down her bare thighs, hair delightfully rumpled. She looked gorgeous, if not a little annoyed.

“Sorry. I’m a screamer,” she said drily, which wasn’t even true, but the three of us had sensitive hearing so everything was loud to us. Lou gave Nate a hard look, but there was plenty of hurt there too. “So, what are we talking about?”

“What do you think we’re talking about?” Nate snapped. Shit, he really had a knack for saying the exact worst possible thing when it came to Lou. It was impressive and kind of unsettling, because Nate was usually the most diplomatic of the three of us, but she seemed to completely unravel him. I took a step back as Lou stormed into the room, past both Brooks and I, and walked directly into Nate’s personal space without an ounce of hesitation.

She wouldn’t have done that if she knew what he actually was, and that thought was a little depressing. Would she be afraid of us if she knew? Why wouldn’t she be?

“You were the one who left that night. You’re the one with the problem here,” she snarled, glaring up at him. “Come on, Nate. Get it all off your chest.”

Brooks and I exchanged a look—me warning him to shut up, him looking confused—before we returned our attention to the unlikely standoff happening in the living room. All five feet of Lou currently held the advantage.

Nate’s jaw ticked as he looked everywhere except at Lou’s face.

“Come on,” she pushed. “Share with the class why you fucked me and disappeared while your cum was still running down my thighs.”

“The fuck,” I growled, forcing myself to remain in control of my beast. Why would he treat her that way? Why would he treat anyone that way?

Brooks appeared at my back, a firm hand on my shoulder keeping me calm rather than the other way around. Apparently, he was handling this better than I was. Or perhaps he understood, because he’d been intimate with her and I hadn’t.

“You were losing control,” Brooks muttered, sounding like he’d had a revelation. Lou turned to give him a confused look, some of her anger receding at the sound of his voice.

“Let me guess,” she said drily, the disappointment in her tone clear. “More secrets you have to keep for my protection.”

Nate’s gaze dropped to the floor, his shoulders hunched as the fight went out of him. Oh my god, he’d tried to mate mark her. He hadn’t tried to hurt her, he’d tried to claim her.

“Sorry, Red,” Brooks replied with a wince. Had he tried to mark her as well?

Lou turned to look at me, a sad smile on her face. “I don’t think this ‘one last good day’ idea is going to work out.”

I nodded, unable to argue with that. We certainly couldn’t pretend that everything was okay now.

“What are you talking about?” Nate asked hoarsely.

“Lou would like to go home today,” Brooks said firmly, in a tone that warned Nate not to argue. “And as she is not a prisoner in our home, obviously we are fine with that.”

The ‘but what about Frank?!’ was written all over Nate’s face, but for once, he wisely decided to keep his mouth shut. He’d been busting his ass to keep Frank away from Lou already, and now he’d continue to do so with more active help from us.

“I’m going to go pack my things,” Lou said quietly, slipping through the three of us like a ghost, none of us objecting as she disappeared into the bedroom. We were silent until the door shut with a click, each of us absorbed in our own thoughts, lacking the easy camaraderie that usually made it so easy to share our minds with each other.

“Did you feel it too?” Nate asked flatly. “The urge to mark her?”

I glanced at Brooks who nodded glumly. “I pushed it down, but the urge was definitely there.”

Nate shifted uncomfortably. “I almost didn’t… she was asking me to bite her, my teeth were pressing against her throat…”

“And you stopped,” I told him firmly. As angry as I was at the way he’d made Lou feel, I wasn’t sure that I’d have had the presence of mind to pull back when I was that close to the edge. “It shouldn’t have gone that far, but you did stop.”

Nate looked broken, and however I felt about his actions, he was my packmate and my brother in every way that mattered. I couldn’t watch him suffer.

I stepped into his space, pressing my forehead against his and gripping the back of his neck. It spoke to how ashamed his cougar was feeling that he’d even allow such a dominant hold.

“I could have ruined her life,” he murmured.

“But you didn’t,” I insisted. “And while you could have handled everything about it better, you’ve kept her safe ever since. You’re suffering carrying this weight alone, irmão. Share it with us.”

We’re your pack.

Nate nodded, reciprocating the grip on the back of my neck before we broke apart as the bedroom door opened. The sound of her floral suitcase rolling down the hallway sounded ominously final.

“Ready,” Lou announced, fully dressed.

“I’m going to get dressed and follow behind you, just to make sure you get back safe, okay?” Brooks asked, giving her a tender look. I hated that they’d just shared something so intimate and then it had all gone so terribly wrong. Especially after the way things had ended with Nate.

“That’s really not necessary—” Lou objected.

“I’m going to do it anyway,” Brooks replied, attempting to paste on his usually easy grin.

“Let me carry your things to the car,” I offered, grabbing her things while she moved past to put her boots on.

I was definitely going with Brooks to make sure she got back safely and her territory was secure. Nate would pretend to stay here, then follow in his fur, I was confident of that.

We couldn’t keep Lou a prisoner, but we could keep her safe.