Chapter Fifteen
Avery pressed the shutter down once more, knowing that the shot in the end would be exactly what she wanted. She lowered her arms, her camera in her hands and a sense of peace washing over her for the first time in what felt like weeks.
She was a photojournalist, or at least, that’s who she had been. That’s what she’d made herself so she could do something in a world where she felt helpless and in need of a life where she was something more. Some of the wolves outside the den had cleared her old apartment for her safety, and now she had her camera and everything she needed for work—not that things would ever go back to the way they once were.
She let out a sigh and turned away from the building she’d taken a photo of. She wouldn’t take pictures of her new Packmates unless she had their permission, but there were sites in the den she knew she needed to capture. While many were tense about what was going on around them, there were still key slices of life happening that proved, no matter what, people lived.
And that is what I do, I record that, Avery thought with a sigh. Or rather, it’s what she had done. She glimpsed life at it’s weakest, at it’s fullest, and everything in between and did her best to take a snapshot of what she could, to freeze that point in time so others could know that these few lived.
That they thrived.
Avery looked down at her camera, a frown on her face. She didn’t know what she would do next, how her life would change yet again with each passing breath, but she prayed she could at least keep this.
Because this was something she could do for her new family.
At least, she hoped so.
Avery’s back hit the ground, and she gasped for breath. She rolled over to get back on her feet but she wasn’t quite fast enough. Kameron reached out and gripped her ankle, tugging her back to the ground.
She snarled, her wolf pissed off that she wasn’t getting this, and slammed her hand on the ground twice.
“I yield.”
Kameron let go but held out his hand to help her up. “You’re not as bad as you think you are.”
Avery rubbed her nose with her middle finger at that remark, and Kameron grinned. She was so taken aback by the fact that this man actually smiled, that she almost tripped over her feet. While she knew Brandon, Walker, and Kameron were triplets, they were almost nothing alike. Brandon cut himself off from emotion unless he was with just Avery and Parker, and even that wasn’t that often. Walker seemed the most approachable of the three, but she had a feeling that was just a facade to hide what he was really feeling. Kameron, on the other hand, never hid his emotions. The only problem there was that the emotions he showed were icy-cold and full of rage. She had no idea what had happened to him in the past, but she had a feeling whatever man or woman eventually found a way through that frigid shell to mate with him was going to have a tough road ahead of them.
Of course, it wasn’t like her path was easy. Hell, it had been nothing but bumps, and she knew the time for holding back was coming to a close. Her men were hurting, and her wolf begged her daily for the two of them. She just had to take the leap of faith of a lifetime and pray she wasn’t making a huge mistake. She’d leapt once already for them and hadn’t crashed and burned. Maybe fully creating the bond would finally let her wolf—and world—settle down a fraction.
“You’re lost in your mind again, little girl. That’s going to get you in trouble one of these days.”
She narrowed her eyes at Kameron. “First, I’m a woman. Not a little girl.”
“You’re far younger than I am.”
She rolled her eyes. “Honey, I’m with Brandon, your triplet. You saying things like that just makes it weird. So don’t. And secondly, you don’t know a thing about me, so why don’t you lay off. Oh, and thirdly? My mind gets me in all sorts of trouble but, hell, it’s also what gets me out of it. As you can see, fighting hasn’t really been helping.” She held out her hands and gave him a self-deprecating smile.
Kameron snorted, and Avery took that as a win. “Jesus, between you and Parker, my baby brother has his hands full.”
She flipped him off again. “You’re a triplet. He can’t be your baby brother.”
“I disagree. I’m the eldest triplet, thank you very much.”
Avery laughed, shaking her head. “Okay, I guess that counts. Just a little bit, though.”
“I’m glad I have your approval,” he said dryly. “As for what you said before, you’re right, I don’t know you. I don’t know anything about you except for who your father is.” He held up his hand when she opened her mouth. “If you’d known our father, you would have run away from us if you thought we were anything like him. Hell, the whole generation before us was a group of sadistic assholes that liked torturing people for fun. Sounds like your pops. But, Avery? You’re not him. I get that, but you’re also getting closer and closer to my brother. So, yeah, I’m going to watch out for him by watching you. Call me an asshole all you want, but I’m still going to be an asshole once you see why I’m doing it. I’m always an asshole.”
She blinked at his words. Not just what he’d said, but the amount of them. Kameron wasn’t much for talking, and yet he’d said so much right then.
“Brandon said some things about your father, but not much,” she said finally after a moment. She held up her hands right after she said it. “But when he’s ready, he’ll tell me the rest. I won’t ask that of you.”
Kameron’s eyes flared gold. “Maybe you’ll be good for him yet.”
She flipped him off again before crouching down into position. “Again?”
Kameron nodded. “The humans who are coming at the den are much slower than you, and you’re slower than the rest of us, so that’s saying something.”
“I’d flip you off again but it’s getting tedious,” she said dryly.
“What I’m saying is that you have to listen to your wolf, even though it’s a new thing, and learn to use that newfound speed.”
“But they’re using guns and other weapons. I can’t use my claws in human form.”
Kameron nodded. “That’s why you’re also taking weapons training. We all carry weapons—and not just our claws. We try not to use them because while we’re protecting our den, we can’t kill everyone that threatens us.” He snarled. “Though I’m tempted to take out the lot of them, it would only harm us in the long run. We’re trying to remain citizens and human in the eyes of the law.”
“And killing even in self-defense is a mark against you.” She thought of how Parker had killed the man in the tree but felt no remorse. That soldier—or whoever he’d been—had almost killed Mitchell and Parker. And if he hadn’t been taken out when he was, he could have hurt so many others. The Talons had been forced into fighting with one hand tied behind their backs, and it was no wonder they felt as if they were on the losing end of a war that refused to be out in the open with clear and defined rules.
Kameron’s jaw tightened. “Exactly. Now go!”
After another hour of getting her ass handed to her by Kameron, Avery’s bones ached, and she was pretty sure her muscles would never be the same. Between training during the days and nights with her men, her body hurt. Kameron finally let her go after she’d failed to take out his legs for what felt like the eight-hundredth time. Now, she lay facedown on the couch, her face buried in a throw pillow, willing her body to move so she could get up and get some cake. Not that they had cake in the house since she lived with boys and they didn’t think to have cake for emergencies like this, but maybe there would be something sweet to eat to make her feel better.
If she hadn’t already spent her life running from the evil that was her father and using her lens to capture the war-torn areas of the world, she might have worried at how quickly she’d adjusted to living with a Pack of shifters and sleeping between two of them every night. Yet when she tried to see if she would panic about it, she couldn’t. It just was. There was no use freaking out over the fact that her life had changed so completely when a small part of her had always known she’d become a wolf. She’d go insane if she did. She’d seen it in her visions, after all—even if she didn’t truly understand it until much later. Avery had never been one to dwell on what she didn’t have because she’d never been able to hold onto things for long.
Maybe that’s why she’d been holding back from Parker and Brandon as she had. At that disturbing thought, she rolled over and forced herself to sit up. The men would be coming home soon, and she needed to get her head on straight. For one, she kept calling Brandon’s place home, and she liked the fact that she did. She knew that no matter what happened next, she wanted to stay here with Brandon and Parker. They were hers. Yes, it scared her in some ways, but in others, she honestly couldn’t wait for them to be whole without this looming decision over their heads.
Two very sexy male scents hit her senses right before the front door opened. That was one thing she found super weird about this whole new wolf thing. She could hear and scent people before they came into her view, and that was saying something considering she could see better, as well. It would all be overwhelming if Brandon and Parker weren’t teaching her how to control that aspect of her new life. Her two men were truly running themselves ragged trying to help her, as they tried to stay healthy, save the Pack, and go about their normal duties, as well.
Brandon’s face broke out into a smile as soon as he saw her, the tired lines on his face smoothing out. Parker smiled, as well, though he couldn’t hide the dark circles under his eyes at all.
They were dying because of forces out of their control, and she’d been forced to hold back from mating with them not only because of insecurities but also the fact that it could hurt her.
She’d gladly take the pain if she could wipe away theirs.
And it was time to do something about that.
“We ran into Kameron on our way back,” Parker said as he took a seat on the end of the couch. He lifted her feet into his lap and began rubbing. She’d have been embarrassed by the moan coming out of her mouth if she hadn’t moaned like crazy already for them before. Often.
“He said you’re doing better,” Brandon added. He sat behind her and began rubbing her shoulders.
Avery closed her eyes and let her men take care of her, their hands strong and a little rough—just the way she liked it. She’d either come or fall asleep if they kept touching her, and honestly, that sounded like the best night ever. But first, she wanted to tell them exactly why she was the way she was…and maybe take the next step that they’d all been avoiding for her safety. Too much change and too much power in so little time could kill her—at least that’s what they’d worried about.
It was time for Avery to take care of her men.
“My visions weren’t always so frequent,” she began. Both men froze for a bare instant before going back to rubbing her feet and back. “When I was a child, I didn’t even realize they were visions. I just thought they were weird dreams. I didn’t realize they sometimes came true until I was older.” She let out a breath, remembering the time she’d seen her teacher have a heart attack on the playground the day before it had happened.
“I cried on my mom’s lap when I told her about my teacher,” she continued. “She held me and comforted me before telling me to never tell anyone but her what I’d seen.” Parker reached forward and cupped her cheek, rubbing away her tears. Brandon pressed a soft kiss to the back of her neck, and she felt like she had the strength to continue. “I didn’t know she’d meant my father when she said that.”
Her voice broke, and both men held her. She straightened between them, needing to get the rest out. “My mother saw the future, too. She’d kept it hidden from my father because she knew he wouldn’t have understood. I don’t know why she married him, nor do I know why they stayed together. But that’s…that’s not what I want to get into right now.”
She paused a moment to collect her thoughts.
“I had another vision one afternoon when my mom was at the grocery store. My father was actually home instead of on base dealing with his job. He was usually there instead of home, which I never put too much thought into. I thought all fathers slept over at the base most nights. I thought all fathers cared about their men more than their family. But I was so scared about the vision I’d had of blood on my mother’s face that I went straight to him.” She let out a shaky breath. “I told him what I had seen, and he asked all these probing questions that I was too young to understand. Too young to know I needed to lie. So in the end, I told him I could see the future, and so could my mother.”
“Oh, baby,” Parker whispered. He ran his hand up her leg and leaned closer. Brandon stayed silent but his touches never stopped. They both knew what kind of monster her father had been, so what she said next wasn’t as shocking as it probably should have been.
“I never saw my mom again. The morning she left with a kiss on my temple, and a grocery list in her hand, was the last time I saw her alive. Dad had her taken to one of his labs.” She spat out the words. “I only know what he did to her because he told me later. Showed me the photos when I wouldn’t obey him or tell him what he needed to know about his enemies. My visions never came on command, and they never will, but he didn’t understand that. He tortured his wife, my mother, to see how she worked. And when her body couldn’t take it anymore, he killed her.”
Both men held her as she cried, her body shaking.
“When he told me the truth of it, that she hadn’t been hit by a car on her way home from the grocery store like he’d first told me, I ran.” She pressed her lips together. “I ran as far as I could and lived on the street until I found a nice family who helped me grow up enough to live on my own. I didn’t live under the name Montag and changed my name constantly, but eventually, Dad quit looking for me. And when I started to make a name for myself in photojournalism, he still didn’t come after me. I don’t know why, maybe because he had his sights set on the wolves and not whatever he thought I was, but I stayed away from him, too. I stayed away from anything having to do with him until I saw what he’d done, watched it happen on-screen.” She wiped away her tears, leaning on her men. “And that’s why I came here, why I am here. I ran for so long. I don’t want to run anymore.”
She shifted so she sat on the edge of the couch and was able to turn and face each of them when needed. Only Brandon’s arm on her back and Parker’s on her leg kept her from falling off the couch. And yet, she trusted them to never let her fall, never let go.
And that’s why she was going to give in…finally.
“I don’t want to wait anymore,” she whispered. “I’m falling for both of you, and I want to take the next step. I don’t want to go into the next weeks not having both of you connected to me on a fundamental level. I know you’re worried about how a new bond will affect my wolf, but we’ve waited long enough.” She raised her chin, her heart in her throat. “My wolf is strong—stronger than she was when we first found out that we might be mates. I know we’re mates…we just need to let ourselves fall.”
Brandon cupped her face. “I don’t want you to mate with us because you feel like you need to save us.”
Anger rushed into her. “So what if I want to save you? So the fuck what? I want you in my life, Brandon. I want Parker in my life. And that’s not going to happen if you fade away because you need a mating bond and don’t have one. I’m right here. I don’t want to mate with you to save you, I want to mate with you because I’m falling in love with you. And if saving your life is a byproduct of that, then, damn it, I need the bond.”
Parker wrapped his hand around her hair and tugged her face to his. He didn’t kiss her, instead he looked right into her eyes. “I won’t ask if you’re sure because I don’t want to tell you what to think, but Avery? I’m not falling in love with you.” A shocking pain sliced through her. “I’m already in love with you. Both of you.”
She punched him in the chest. “That was a horrible way to say that.”
Parker winced, rubbing his chest. “I’m not the eloquent one in this relationship.”
They both looked to Brandon, who raised a brow. “And you think I’m the eloquent one?” He shook his head. “I’d already fallen for the idea of both of you before I even met you, yet the real thing? The real thing is so much more intense than I ever thought possible. I want that future together, whatever it may hold in the coming days. You’re each a rock that holds me in place, that keeps me from faltering. Of course, I love you both.”
Tears in her eyes, she met Parker’s gaze. “And he says he’s not the eloquent one.”
Parker laughed softly before leaning forward. “Mine.”
Then he kissed her, almost sending Avery over the edge from a bare meeting of lips alone.
They’d all been together so many times before that she knew this time wouldn’t be slow. No, they needed each other, needed this bond now. Later, they would go back and hold each other, kiss and lick every inch of each other, but for now, they just needed to be inside one another.
When they were all naked and Brandon entered her, she arched into him, her wolf ready for what came next. She met her mate’s eyes, knowing that this was a moment that would be seared into her memory for all eternity. Her fangs elongated at the same time as his, and she instinctively knew where to bite, where to mark. She bit into his shoulder, marking him as hers. And just like that, the mating bond snapped into place. She threw her head back and screamed, her body shaking as she came, Brandon’s emotions and feelings slamming into her all at once, as if she were living one moment amongst many, their lives forever entangled.
There wasn’t enough time to fully process what had happened before Parker was over her, making sweet love to her as Brandon filled Parker from behind. They marked each other, as well, her wolf howling at the unseen moon as the three of them found their bonds.
Three wolves. Three people. One mating.
They were hers.
Her men.
Her future.
Her mates.
And nothing had ever felt like this…and she knew, nothing ever would. This hadn’t been too soon, hadn’t been a mistake. This had been her destiny. She’d only had to find it.