Chapter Four
Rowl walked onto the training field, sword and shield in hand, emotions all over the place. It had been days since the incident with Rocco, but he and his wolf hadn’t calmed one bit. Joseph was addressing the warriors in training while Rowl paced. He didn’t understand why the two remaining alphas were still coming. He’d thought that after the Rocco disaster, that would have been the end of this. He’d been wrong.
“Listen up, warriors. Rowl is itching for a good fight,” Joseph warned, getting Rowl’s attention. “The first warrior to take him to the ground will be able to forgo today’s ten-mile run.”
That got the men moving as they circled around Rowl, trying to decide which of them would be the first to try. Rowl could feel his blood pumping through his veins, his senses sharpening as he brought his wolf close to the surface. He sliced his sword through the air, loosening the muscles in his arm, and brought his shield into his body. Rowl needed this. He had to work off his frustrations and fears. It was time to have some fun.
It wasn’t long before the first man stepped forward, sword held high and a grin on his face. Rowl would be wiping that off shortly. He didn’t wait for his attacker to reach him. Instead, he stormed forward and brought his sword down on his opponent’s shield repeatedly until he had the man pinned against the ground.
“Yield,” Rowl demanded.
“Yield,” his opponent responded quickly.
Rowl turned and was attacked by a second warrior. He brought his sword up and blocked the hit, pushing the other man back across the field. Rowl could feel his muscles flexing, and by the time he made it to the eleventh man, he was hitting his stride when he realized he was running out of men to fight. Suddenly, Joseph was standing before him, sword and shield at the ready. Yes!
He smiled at his best friend. They were equally matched when it came to strength and fighting ability. This was going to give him the workout he needed. Both crouched low, circling each other, waiting for the other to attack. Joseph made the first move, bringing his sword crashing down onto Rowl’s shield. He pushed Joseph back and began his own attack. The sound of clashing metal filled the air as Rowl felt the exhilaration consuming his body. They traded blows, both seeming to need to release their pent-up emotions.
It could have been fifteen minutes or three hours, but Rowl knew he was weakening. Joseph didn’t look any better. Their strikes were short and became sloppy; both shields lay in broken bits on the ground around them. But neither would concede defeat. Rowl rushed Joseph and took both of them to the ground, where they lay on their backs, gasping for breath. The other warriors gathered around, cheering and clapping, but all Rowl wanted to do now was find a hot shower.
Joseph began laughing, and Rowl soon joined in. “So, you feel better now?”
Rowl had to admit he did. “Yeah, thanks.”
Joseph and Rowl stood and brushed the dirt off of themselves. Rowl turned to the men and ordered, “Stow your weapons and ready for your run.”
The group dispersed and Joseph turned to him. “Are you really okay?”
Rowl took a deep breath before answering. Was he really fine? “As good as I’m going to get until this is over.”
“Why don’t you head home, have a shower, and relax? I can take care of this.”
Rowl thought about it for a moment. All that was left was the ten-mile run, where the trainees didn’t have to be supervised. “Yeah, I guess that would be best. Thanks.”
Joseph hugged him and patted his back before Rowl walked toward home. He loved Joseph and wondered why they’d never become lovers over the years, but wasn’t brave enough to broach the subject. Sexual orientation among shifters wasn’t a concern. All that mattered was the love. He walked past Karli’s parents’ house, where two warriors stood guard. He felt better knowing her parents couldn’t get to Karli any longer. At least that was one worry taken care of. He waved at the warriors, both trained by him and Joseph, and carried on. By the time he stood on his front porch, he was ready for that shower. His muscles were tightening up.
Rowl stripped naked on his way to the bathroom. He turned on the rainfall shower fixture, waited until it was hot, and stepped in. He groaned deeply as the hot streams of water slid down his body. Rowl picked up the bar of soap and began lathering it against his chest. His mind wandered to his love. He couldn’t wait to share showers with her. He dreamed of running his hands all over her wet body, trailing kisses as he went.
His cock began to harden, and he couldn’t help but reach down and wrap his soapy hand around it. Moaning, he began to pump slowly, visions of Karli filling his mind. Her soft, milky skin under his hands and lips. Her gorgeous red hair flowing around them as their bodies tangled. Another set of hands wrapped around Karli from behind, and Joseph began nibbling on her neck. Imagining the three of them together was all it took for fire to race down his spine and through his balls as he came in streams against the tiled wall.
He groaned deeply and leaned against the opposite wall, trying to catch his breath. Rowl’s heart was racing and his body shook slightly as he recovered from one of the strongest orgasms he’d had in a long time. There were still tiny stars floating around in his vision as his body relaxed. After a few moments, his legs felt steady again and he finished washing his body.
On his way back to his room, Rowl had an uneasy feeling, like he was being watched. He scanned the room; nothing was out of place and there wasn’t a soul in sight. He couldn’t shake the feeling but continued on to get dressed. He had finished buttoning up his jeans when he heard something smash in the living room.
He ran down the hallway and rounded the corner. He felt the pain ripping through his chest before he heard the shot. He dropped to the ground and pressed his hand to the wound on his chest; it came away covered in blood. Rowl heard the front door close and knew his attacker had left. Funny, he hadn’t scented him in the room.
Rowl was losing strength fast and attempted to shift into his wolf to heal, but nothing happened. He’d already lost too much blood to complete the shift without the help of an alpha or mate, and he didn’t have one of those yet. The front door slammed open, but he was too weak to turn his head to the side and look.
“Oh god, Rowl,” Joseph gasped as his head popped into view. “You’ve got to shift.”
“Too weak, need the alpha to help.”
More people came running in, but he didn’t scent his alpha as one of them. Shit, is this the way I die?
He scented Karli before she came into view. Tears were falling from her eyes as she knelt by his side and took his hand. “Why isn’t he shifting to heal?”
“He’s too weak. We need the alpha for this.”
“He’s gone to deliver Rocco to the king.” Karli cried, “Laura, please try.”
Laura knelt beside Rowl and placed her hand over the hole in his chest, and he felt warmth spreading through him.
“I can’t heal him. It’s too extensive. I can only buy you time. You have to get him to shift,” Laura explained.
Rowl knew he was getting close to the point where nothing would save him, even if he managed to shift. He looked at Karli and Joseph, the two most important people in his world. “I love you guys.”
“No. Don’t give up. You fight,” Karli sobbed as she grabbed Joseph’s other hand so the three were connected. “I love you. We have a fabulous life ahead of us. So you’re not going anywhere.”
“I love you, Rowl, and I’ll be damned if we are going to lose you. Shift,” Joseph ordered in a firm voice.
“Shift,” Karli repeated.
Rowl used every bit of strength he had left as Joseph and Karli kept ordering him to shift. He held their hands tightly and pushed hard, rousing his wolf enough to begin his transformation. The pain was excruciating and his screams slowly turned into howls as his shift finally took over. The last thing he remembered was Karli and Joseph holding him close before everything went dark.
Karli sat wrapped in Joseph’s arms beside the bed, where the large dark wolf lay unmoving. Rowl had been unconscious for nearly twenty-four hours, and the longer it took for him to heal, the higher the likelihood of permanent damage to some part of his body. She looked up at Joseph. His face was stoic with dark circles under his eyes. Neither of them had left Rowl’s side since he had been shot.
“Who would want to shoot Rowl?” Karli must’ve asked and answered the question inside her head four hundred times. “I don’t understand any of this.”
Joseph held her closer and buried his face in her hair before taking a deep breath. “No one that I can think of. Your parents are under guard and the warriors have scoured the pack lands and found no one out of the ordinary. That can only mean whoever did this is able to teleport or is already here and possibly a pack member.”
“Aldric, Ceva, and Lothar should be back from dropping Rocco off at the palace anytime now. Maybe Ceva will be able to help Rowl in some way.” Karli curled closer to Joseph. “I need him to wake up. Now.”
“So do I, love. He’s strong, he’s a fighter, and he’d never leave us,” Joseph assured as his eyes filled with tears.
“He loves us.” Karli took a deep breath. “He’s not going anywhere.”
There was a knock on the front door, and Laura rose to answer it. Karli needed to be closer to Rowl, so she slid off of Joseph’s lap and crawled onto the bed beside her beloved wolf, running her fingers through his thick coat. The bedroom door reopened, revealing the alpha and Ceva, as if talking about them had made them real.
“How is he?” Aldric walked into the room as Joseph stood to greet them.
“He was shot in the chest. Doc said it missed his heart but did a lot of damage. He’s been unconscious for almost a whole day,” Joseph explained.
Ceva and Aldric rounded the bed to get a better look at Rowl. Ceva placed her hand over the wound and began chanting. Moments later, she pulled her hand away and the wound was healed.
“I’ve been told the two of you were able to force him to shift,” Ceva stated.
“Yeah,” Karli answered.
Ceva looked unsure before stating, “The two of you shouldn’t have been able to do that.”
“Well, I’m glad we managed it somehow,” Karli muttered as she sat up on the bed, leaving one of her hands buried in Rowl’s fur and the other taking hold of Joseph’s hand.
“So am I. But the fact remains that only an alpha or a mate can force the shift. So either Joseph is an alpha, or the three of your wolves have already accepted each other as mates, which changes a few things.” Ceva tilted her head to the side. “Ya know, I think it’s both.”
“Both?” Joseph looked at her as if she were lying.
“If you were given your own pack, no matter how small, your alpha tattoos would rise and so would your powers. You are a true triad—alpha, beta, and omega,” Ceva explained.
“Does that mean I can stop being courted by other alphas and mate the men I’ve loved all along?” Karli dared to believe, while afraid she was asking for too much.
“Yes, in essence, but he would have to be given a territory,” Aldric explained.
“Let’s not worry about that right now. We need to concentrate on Rowl and his recovery.” Karli’s head was spinning as she released Joseph’s hand and curled around Rowl.
“We also need to find out who’s responsible for this. I will have my revenge,” Joseph growled. “As head of this family, it is my right.”
“And you will have it,” Alpha Aldric swore.
“I want to fry whoever it is from the inside out,” Karli inserted. She usually wasn’t a violent person, but this time, she’d make an exception.
Everyone around her continued to talk, but she ignored them and concentrated on Rowl. His chest rose and fell with every breath, and she placed her hand there to further reassure herself. She loved her men and couldn’t imagine a life without both of them in it. She was done trying to keep a promise to make her parents happy. They’d never be happy. Now with the possibility of Joseph and Rowl receiving their own territory, no one could try to split them again.
The longer she laid there, the heavier her eyelids became, until she gave up the fight and fell asleep, her face buried in Rowl’s thick, dark fur.
A warm, calloused hand gently stroked her cheek, waking her instantly. She opened her eyes and found herself looking into Rowl’s deep, warm gaze. She couldn’t help her tears.
“Come here, love,” Rowl rasped as he opened his arms wide, and Karli was quick to fill them.
Joseph’s arms wrapped around her from behind and she felt complete, sandwiched between her mates. These were her chosen mates and enough was enough. Then it hit her; she didn’t sense Laura’s presence in the room. To confirm her suspicions, she popped her head up and looked around, not sensing Laura anywhere in their home.
“Where’s our chaperone?”
“Gone back to the pack house with the alpha. It’s just us now,” Joseph explained with pride. “There will be no more courting alphas. We can be a family. Rowl and I have sworn to Alpha Aldric that we would not complete our mating with you until the king has a chance to get here and perform our bonding ceremony. Neither of us can bite you until then.”
“You mean this mess is over? We can finally become mates?”
“Yes, love,” Rowl answered softly. He may be awake, but his body was still recovering. Karli immediately felt guilty for thinking of anything other than Rowl’s condition. “How can I be so selfish? I should be thinking only of your wellbeing.”
He cupped her face in his large hands and said, “I can’t think of anything that will help my recovery more than knowing we will soon be mated. The two of you are my family.”
Karli turned to Joseph. “Have you told him what Ceva said about you being an alpha?” An alpha’s abilities came to the surface during high-stress situations, and Rowl’s near-death experience certainly qualified. Some alphas were never discovered. They were as rare as an omega, but unlike the omega, they weren’t born with a jewel to identify them. An alpha only received his alpha markings when he took possession of his territory.
“Yeah, I have,” Joseph answered. “And Rowl’s going to be my beta.”
“And I’m so proud of him,” Rowl said as he placed his hand on Joseph’s shoulder. Something passed between the two, but Karli was unsure what it was, yet she knew what she hoped.
Rowl leaned down and kissed Karli passionately before saying, “We will be a family soon.”
He raised his head and looked at Joseph with the same passion. Joseph leaned forward and took Rowl’s mouth in a deep kiss. Excitement raced through Karli’s body. They were so beautiful together. When they broke apart, Rowl looked unsure but Joseph looked confident. It wasn’t unusual in the shifter world that the three of them share the same love for each other. Sex was never an issue.
Joseph reached over and cupped both Rowl’s and her cheeks. “I love both of you and want to share my life with the two of you. We’ll figure this out together.”
Both men looked down at her. She could see the unasked question in their eyes. She would never let them agonize over how she felt. “I love the two of you, and the fact that the three of us are going to share that love emotionally and physically makes me even happier. Have you two ever kissed before?”
“No, I was always afraid if I told Joseph how I felt I’d ruin our friendship if he didn’t feel the same way. But after being shot, I knew I had to come clean about how I feel.”
“I’m glad you did,” Joseph confessed. “I’ve always felt the same way.”
“We are a true triad. Three mates—alpha, beta, and omega.” Karli pulled her mates closer. “I love you two so much. We are truly blessed.” Even though they’d been put through hell the last couple days, Karli believed they were fortunate in a way few mates ever experienced.
Karli noticed Rowl grimace in pain and immediately released him. “Where are you hurting?”
“My leg,” Rowl replied as he reached down to rub his right leg. “It’s been progressively getting more painful since I regained consciousness.”
“I’ll go and get Doc.” Joseph jumped out of their new extra-wide bed and ran out the door.
Karli sat up, knelt beside Rowl’s right leg, and began to gently rub his calf. “Does this help, sweetheart?”
“Yes, it feels wonderful. My muscles are all seized up,” Rowl groaned as he pushed his fingers into his thigh. Even though shifters could heal most wounds, if the damage had been serious enough, there might be lasting effects. She heard the front door open, and a few moments later, Doc and Joseph came walking into their bedroom.
“Is it any better?” Joseph asked as he walked to the head of the bed. Karli crawled back up the mattress to take position on Rowl’s other side as the doctor began examining his leg.
“No.” Rowl lay back against the headboard and reached for both hers and Joseph’s hands. Doc pulled a syringe and bottle from his bag, and Rowl squeezed tighter on their hands.
“What is that?” Joseph asked.
“It’s a muscle relaxer. It will help reduce the pain.”
“Can’t we call Laura or Helena to help heal him?” Karli asked.
“An omega’s ability will be of no use. This is damage caused from such a severe injury and the length of time it took for him to shift,” Doc answered as he motioned for Rowl to turn over and then stuck the syringe in his butt cheek. Rowl flinched, and Joseph growled at the doctor.
“But why his leg? He was shot in the chest,” Karli prompted.
“Extensive blood loss could affect any part of his body.”
“Is it treatable?” Rowl asked. “I haven’t tried to walk yet. What if I can’t?
“Yes, with physical therapy, it can be treated. I don’t want you to try to walk for a few days. You need more time to recover.”
“We’ll take care of him,” Karli was quick to say. “Show us what to do.”
Rowl pulled her closer and tucked her into the side of his body. She couldn’t help but shake slightly at the thought of her mate in pain and suffering. She would do anything to take that away from him, and she would do whatever it took to support Rowl through this. He tightened his hold and buried his face into her hair. Joseph stood guard over them both, watching everything the doctor did.
Her happiness over Rowl regaining consciousness and her men expressing their love for each other had now been dampened by fear for Rowl’s complete recovery. What if his leg got worse and he lost the use of other parts of his body? Nothing could ever change her love for him, but she worried how Rowl would take it.
The doctor gave Rowl another shot, and Joseph was talking to him, but all she could concentrate on was the man in her arms. Rowl still had his face in her hair, and after a few minutes, she felt his body relax until his breathing evened out. Karli looked up at Joseph, needing his reassurance, and he didn’t disappoint.
He knelt down beside the bed and ran his fingers through both hers and Rowl’s hair. “Rowl will recover, Karli. We’ll make sure he does. Whatever it takes.”
“Yes, whatever it takes,” she swore before wrapping Rowl in her protective embrace.
Everything would work out.
It had to.