Forbidden Hunger by R.L. Kenderson

Seventeen

Raven satagainst the headboard in her room, feeling no better than she had when she came in there. The house was beginning to smell more like food than hormones and sex, which meant she needed to leave the room soon to go eat.

Neither Ranulf nor Chase had come looking for her, and while she had wanted to be alone, it seemed she also wanted their attention.

She rolled her eyes at herself. She was unpleasable.

Not true. She simply wanted something she couldn’t have, and she needed to manage her expectations.

She could do that. And she should start by telling the guys to leave. She wasn’t pregnant so far. She couldn’t be one hundred percent positive, but all signs pointed to no. And if she told them to leave before her heat ended, she would stay that way.

Suddenly, she was very depressed, but she knew it was only momentary. Everyone got the blues sometimes, and her hormones were a mess. She would snap out of it once her heat was over.

She was prepared to give Chase and Ranulf a speech, but what she wasn’t prepared for was for the doorbell to ring.

“Shit,” she said to the empty room. There were two naked men in her living room.

Hastily, she pulled on a shirt and shorts from her bag, grabbed the two pairs of pants that were on her floor, and ran out of her bedroom.

Ranulf and Chase were both standing in the kitchen doorway with scowls on their faces when she chucked their clothes at them.

“Get dressed,” she hissed on her way to the front door. “And let me handle this.”

Stopping short at the mirror on the left, she quickly finger-combed her hair. She had on clean clothes, and there was food cooking. Hopefully, that would cover the scent of sex that clung to her body.

Before she opened the door, she peeked out of the small window next to it.

“Who’s there?” Ranulf asked.

“The neighbor from up the street.”

He was only a little older and single. He’d always been nice to her, but she really didn’t want to talk to him. Today was not the day. She already had enough men to deal with.

Forcing a smile on her face, she opened the door just enough for her head to show.

“Oh, hi, Raven,” Brady said, surprised. “Is your dad here?”

“No. He went out of town with my mom.”

“Oh.” His smile fell.

She didn’t know him very well, but her parents liked him, and he appeared genuinely disappointed. He seemed like a decent guy, and she felt bad because she was the reason her dad wasn’t home.

“Is there something I can help you with?”

“No.” He smiled politely. “It’s okay. I’ll find him when he gets back.”

Brady shuffled backward, so she opened the door all the way to see him better since he’d moved out of her view.

“Are you sure?”

“Well, if it’s not too much trouble…”

She chuckled. “Ask me, and I’ll let you know.”

He smiled again. “Well, I was going to ask if I could borrow your dad’s hedge trimmer.” He took a couple steps forward, a look of hope on his face. “I ran into him the other day…” Brady trailed off, and his nostrils flared as he smelled her desire. His gaze traveled down to her breasts, which were only covered by a shirt—she hadn’t had time to grab a bra—and to where her nipples were poking through.

The door flew out of her hand and hit the wall as two male wolf-shifters flanked her.

Brady’s eyes flew up to Chase and Ranulf.

“Where’s the hedge trimmer, Raven?” Chase asked.

“In the garage, I would assume.”

Chase smiled, but it didn’t reach his eyes. “I’ll meet you in there.”

Brady visibly swallowed and nodded. “Okay.” He almost tripped over his own feet to get off the front step.

“Stay here,” Ranulf said to Raven as he followed Brady outside.

A second later, the sound of the garage door reached her ears, and she shut the front door.

The timer went off in the kitchen, so she went to grab the potpie out of the oven while the guys dealt with Brady.

She hoped they were gentle with him. It wasn’t his fault he’d gotten turned on. It was her mating heat hormones that had affected him. And then his desire had had an effect on hers. It was a vicious cycle. But really, it wasn’t like she was in a relationship with either Ranulf or Chase. They’d been having fun, but they never talked about relationships. For all she knew, the two men were still sleeping with other women.

That thought made her ill. She didn’t want to picture them with anyone else. She looked down at the potpie she was cutting into pieces. She no longer had an appetite.

* * *

Ranulf waved good-bye to Raven’s parents’ neighbor as Chase leaned close to him.

“Should we kill him?”

Ranulf snorted a laugh. “Tempting, but no. It’s not really his fault.”

“Yeah, wrong day, wrong time, wrong female.”

“Agreed. It’s a good thing he knows how to keep his hands to himself.”

In fact, once they had gotten him away from Raven, he’d almost seemed perplexed by his reaction to her. And Ranulf and Chase had pretended like nothing had happened. The guy probably wouldn’t have believed it if they’d told him anyway.

Once the neighbor was out of sight, they shut the garage door and headed back inside.

Raven had her back to them but didn’t turn around or say anything when they entered. It looked like she was dishing up their food, but it still seemed odd.

“Your dad’s neighbor took the hedge trimmer. I told him he could use it for a few days,” Ranulf informed her.

“Thank you,” she said, keeping her back to them.

When she did turn around, she had a completely fake smile on her face as she slid the food across to both of them.

It gave Ranulf weird Stepford Wife vibes.

She sat down with them and picked at her food, which was also odd. It had been some time since she’d last eaten, and they’d had a lot of sex.

Maybe she was worried.

“We didn’t hurt him, Raven,” Ranulf offered.

“We didn’t even warn him away from you,” Chase said.

This only made her seem more upset.

“No one is going to suspect anything,” Ranulf said. “You don’t have to worry that your parents will be found out.”

She glanced up at him but didn’t meet his eyes. “That’s good.” She turned back to her food and basically stuffed it all in her mouth.

“Wow. Slow down,” Chase said, reaching out his hand to her. “It’s okay. Everything is good.”

Raven jumped up from her seat before he could, and Chase gave Ranulf a what the hell is going on look.

“What’s wrong?” Ranulf asked.

Raven didn’t answer. She went to the sink, rinsed her plate off, and stuck it in the dishwasher. But once she closed the lid, he noticed her brace her shoulders. Whatever she was about to say, it wasn’t going to be good.

She slowly pivoted on her heel. “I think…” She closed her eyes momentarily. “I think that you guys need to—”

She didn’t get to finish because she fell forward onto the counter and cried out in pain. Her scent exploded all over the room.

The next wave of her heat was here.

Ranulf and Chase scrambled off their stools, both of them kicking off their pants as fast as they could.

Ranulf reached her first and pulled her shorts down to her knees.

“Ready?” he asked.

She didn’t respond at first, but as another contraction hit her, she nodded, and Ranulf pushed himself inside her sweet, silky heat.