Pieces of Three Page 5

  “We’re here,” Julian cooed. “Try to sleep.”

  After a few minutes her breathing evened out as she succumbed to her body’s need for rest.

  He wrapped his arm around her and clenched his jaw. Her naked body vibrating against his may be a bit too much. “Julian?”

  Julian grunted his acknowledgement.

  “How are you feeling?” If the heat flowing through him would transfer to Alyssa she would stop her trembling.

  “Like I’m stuck on an island in a storm holding a human and in bed with you.”

  Julian may be optimistic, but he was also literal. “Did you notice anything about Alyssa?”

  “What do you mean?”

  He remained silent. Julian needed time to process.

  Julian turned on his side. “She needs us.”

  Porter continued to wait. Julian always had pets, but he always ended up taking care of them.

  “She’s very beautiful and very small.” The bed shook as Julian moved around and he chuckled. “I wonder if she knows what a Lykan can do?”

  Porter nodded soon Julian would catch on.

  “Maybe we should have found some clothes for her.” His makeshift bedmate moaned, his voice laced with frustration. “Damn it.”

  He may as well let Julian in on his findings. “Did you notice the moon?”

  “What?” Julian cleared his throat. “Well with being shot up with crap, the storm, a naked female shivering on me, and the feeling like I want to explode, I didn’t really have time to look at the sky.”

  “We’re right around day fifteen of the cycle.” Surely he didn’t need to spell it out further.

  The room fell silent while Julian performed the necessary calculations.

  At last he spoke. “Day fifteen by ourselves on an island with a broken ship, no way off for days and one tiny human female?” The last trace of optimism in his tone vanished.

  “Yes.” He shut his eyes but couldn’t turn his body off. It didn’t help that her shaking didn’t let up.

  She turned on her side facing him and pressed her face into his chest. “It’s so cold.”

  He held her tight.

  “Porter, what are we going to do?” Julian wrapped his arms around her waist.

  “Humans get sick too easily.” With no tools at their disposal and his own irritation and arousal growing, he needed an outlet. “You need to watch me, but we need to fix her, heal her and take care of her.”

  He shut his eyes and in a burst of energy, shifted to his wolf form. The bed creaked with the extra weight.

  “Porter.” Julian’s tone let out a warning.

  He took his time inhaling and exhaling, forced his mind to remain with his human side, the part that could reason, the part where he wouldn’t turn the naked female in bed with him over and satiate his own desires. Instead, he licked her wound imparting their special brand of healing properties.

  “You’re going to scare her.”

  His fur encompassed her and she curled up to him, in her uneven sleep she raked her fingers across his pelt but slowly, slowly her shivers subsided.

  “She’s warming up,” Julian whispered.

  He concentrated on her temperature, the way her breath brushed against his fur setting off a cascade of pleasure, how her heartbeat echoed around him.

  “Now how do we get through the next few days?”

  Without speech at his disposal he didn’t answer. They both wanted her and soon they would both need her more than anything. If their own battle didn’t do them in, the female lying between them might do the trick. No, he didn’t have an answer and didn’t want to care.

  Damn those big blue eyes. Damn Julian. Damn him.

  * * * *

  Warm, cozy, safe. As consciousness tried to wake Alyssa she tried to push the nuisance away, wanting to say in the incredible place in her dream where her body was encompassed by nothing but softness and the faint breathing of another. All she wanted was to drift away and remain in her private paradise.

  She hugged her pillow closer, the scent of earth and musk overtaking her and a bit of fur tickled her nose. A chuckle escaped her throat.

  “Alyssa?” A man’s lips grazed her ear and a set of hands grabbed her hips.

  She moaned and willed her body to stay in her dream where a man held her. Maybe he wanted to make love to her, his erection pressed against her back. Her body flooded in preparation. She was ready to lose her virginal status if anyone ever wanted to take it.

  “How are you feeling? Does your head hurt?” the man asked.

  Strange question for someone who wanted to be with her, but oddly enough her forehead throbbed. She slid her hand up, across more fur to her head, gasping at the pain caused by her own touch and the distinctive flakes from dry blood. Fur? Blood?

  In an instant, her mind jolted fully awake, her muscles seized, and her she opened her eyes into an expanse of brown fur. Living, breathing, brown fur. A wolf! “Help!” Strength found her, she pushed the monster away and turned smack dab into a different expanse, a man’s bare chest. “Oh, God!”

  “It’s okay.” The man took hold of her.

  “There’s a wolf!” She attempted to swat him away, but he kept a firm grasp on her. They needed to run, hide, get away before the wild animal woke and killed them both.

  “Alyssa, it’s me, Julian.” He bent down. “Julian and Porter.”

  Her heart sped, thumps that ran together, and she couldn’t catch her breath as her mind replayed the events of the night before in a flash. The boat, the storm, and the shifters. The incredible shifters. She garnered her courage to look up at his face. They may have only spent a scant few hours together, but she would never forget his face.

  Only in her dreams would a man, or male, like him want her. Even on the off chance he did, they could never even have one night of fun. Still, his eyes seemed to glow, a beautiful shine that she wanted to stare at and explore. She didn’t notice that before.

  “The wolf in your bed would never hurt you. Porter shifted to keep you warm.”

  As if by magic the fur behind her morphed into skin, hands and arms. She bit the inside of her mouth. Wolf or shifter, either one was dangerous, and she was in bed with two. “Porter?”

  “You can look.” Julian nodded. “It’s okay.”

  She inhaled and finally twisted around to find him returned to his human state, and as naked as her and Julian. The three of them were undressed in a tiny bed together. Her stomach bottomed out. What she felt with Julian in what she thought was her dream was in fact reality, and Porter seemed to have the same condition or maybe shifters were naturally in such a state.

  “Just consider me your living blanket.” He raised his eyebrows. “Are you dizzy?”

  She opened her mouth but wasn’t sure how to answer. Dizzy as in her world seemed to be spinning out of control? Then the answer was yes. “What’s going on?”

  “Do you see me clearly?” Porter took her chin in his hand and stared into her eyes.

  As clearly as she saw any amazing male who supposedly turned into an animal to help her. “Am I okay?” Maybe someone else needed to tell her, since she didn’t know.

  “Do you hurt anywhere?” His eyes also seemed to shine.

  She inhaled, blinked and took in the space around her, tried to piece everything together. A slice of sunlight came in through a window. Before they were in the hold where no natural light could reach them. “What’s going on?” The last thing she remembered was hiding down below waiting for them. Somehow they kept their promise and found her.

  “We are in the officers’ quarters.” Julian tapped her.

  She turned to him. “What?”

  “We ran aground on a tiny island. It’s only the three of us.”

  “Where is everyone else?” Her voice came out scratchy, disjointed.

  Julian simply smiled.

  “Porter?” She moved to her back and glanced over at him.

  “The storm was very bad. Lucky for you, yo
u had two superior males looking out for you. We are the only survivors.” He ran his fingers across her forehead. “As soon as we get up I want to find something to put on this. I don’t want any scars. While shifted, I did lick your wound clean. I know humans don’t believe in the medicinal value, but trust me.”

  Two naked shifters, her, one uninhabited island and a storm that left no other survivors. He licked her wound clean? The image overwhelmed her, she wanted to run but sat up instead. Her head whirled and she covered her eyes. “Oh no.”

  “I really want you to rest today. You were knocked around a lot yesterday.” Porter pulled her back down on the bed.

  Her focus darted between them, but their focus was elsewhere. A quick peek revealed she lost the blanket along the way and her breasts were exposed. She gasped and put her arm over her chest. Her cheeks heated.

  “Maybe we all need to rest today.” One side of Julian’s mouth lifted in a smile. “Or not.”

  Without any words or humor, Porter stared down at her, or different parts of her.

  Caught in watching him, she held her breath.

  “You never told me how you were feeling.” He seemed to glare at her and she wanted to know what happened to him to exude such misery.

  If she possessed the confidence she wished for, she would have come up with something catchy, flirty, or seductive. One of the lines other women said to make men want them would roll out of her mouth. Of course she needed to remember she wasn’t that type of girl, nor were either of these males someone she could even be with. She already crossed every line since stealing the antidote, but any physical relations with the Lykans were considered deadly. No human ever survived after being with them.

  “What’s the plan?” She slid one hand down, trying to make sure not to touch anything that didn’t belong to her, and pulled the blanket up. At the moment her plan was finding clothes for all of them. “Don’t you have sick Lykans to attend to?”

  The smile vanished from Julian’s face and Porter’s eyes darkened. The glow disappeared.

  “What do they have?” Along with the frightening stories of the big bad wolves came the even more terrible tales of the diseases they festered.

  Julian lay back on the bed.

  Porter paused and turned away. “It looks like Pyrexosis. We haven’t seen any in my lifetime.”

  She dug her nails into the thin blanket. The disease was a death sentence. Like other diseases in the same class, pyrexosis was transmitted through the exchange of body fluids, bringing nerve damage, extreme fever and weakness. It only affected females, but males were carriers. The simple sweet act of Porter trying to heal her could have already harmed her. She didn’t need to ask twice why neither answered her question back on her island. They would have been immediately killed. She never thought about the repercussions of her actions until after.

  “Why would you come to our island for medicine? We haven’t been in contact with anyone from Lykos since…” She let her voice trail off.

  “Since our Alpha and your Premier’s daughter became mates and your kind decided we were trying to kill your population.” Porter got out of the bed and ran his hand through his hair. “That wasn’t due to pyrexosis.”

  No, the death wasn’t caused by pyrexosis, but there was an outbreak way back then. She remained silent.

  “If you haven’t had a case, you must have a treatment.” He narrowed his eyes.

  Shame on her for studying his form during their conversation, but his backside was perfect muscular, rounded in all the right places. At least she had the decency to turn away before she spied anything else.

  “Do the humans have a treatment?” His question came out more as an accusation.

  She pressed her lips together.

  “Do they?” He tapped his foot.

  She took a breath. “Our treatment was eliminating the source.” The humans and other shifters of the Federation burned the old Lykos island long before she was born. Still no one went there.

  Julian sat up and turned his back to her.

  “Put the dogs out when they get to be a pest.” Porter took a swipe at a dresser and the furniture toppled to one side, the drawers slid out and spilled out some clothes.

  “I never said that.” She toyed with the edge of the blanket.

  The silence that took over the room weighed down on all of them. “What’s the plan?” she asked again, hoping it wasn’t on their list to kill her after they saved her.

  “We need to assess the damage on the ship. It will be a few days before we’re ready to set sail.” Julian stood and opened the door to a small closet. “We need to find all the supplies we can.”

  “Then we can pack up all nice and all and get you back to your island. Maybe if we deliver you safe and sound, you can put in a good word and find something for us with all the advances on your island.” Porter picked up some of the clothing scattered on the floor.

  “I can’t.” She lowered her head.

  “Of course not, why would I expect anything less?” Porter let out a sick, low laugh.

  “Why would you expect anything less from the woman who stole the antidote for the garbage they injected you with?” The mistrust between their species went both ways. She jumped up off the bed. “I can’t go back to my island. I broke just about every law, my dream of being an Ambassador is over, and after being with you and injured, I may or may not be exposed to a deadly disease. I suppose I’m the pirate now.” She grabbed some clothes off the floor and stomped away.

  Chapter Four

  “Since we ended up right on the beach, we can still sleep in the boat for shelter.” Julian collected some more wood and tossed it in what he designated the fire area.

  “Whatever, shelter, let’s fix the rattletrap and get out of here.” Porter pulled at his shirt then the cuff of his pants and continued mashing something green up in a little bowl he must have found on the ship. “Humans are short and scrawny.”

  “Well they may be short.” Julian tilted his head in the direction where Alyssa walked toward them carrying some sticks and leaves. “But not too scrawny.” In a small bit of luck, the extra clothing she packed for the trip was destroyed, or he destroyed it. With only male clothing at her disposal, she took to tying the shirt below her breasts and rolling up the cuffs on the pants. At least the outfit revealed some skin.

  Porter turned and grunted. “If we didn’t have her we wouldn’t have to be decent and wear clothes.”

  When they woke up in bed it took every bit of his strength not to take her. If Porter hadn’t been there, he swore he could have gotten her to give in, he sensed her arousal when she looked at them. In his favor, he was noticeably nicer and more charming and he also had the long hair females adored. Yes, the lunar shift was upon them. The simple act of glancing in her direction set his body off, the way her unconfined breasts threatened to spill out of her shirt made his already tight pants positively uncomfortable. If it were anyone else and Porter would disappear, he would have had his way with her multiple times already or indulged with multiple females. Back on Lykos, the mating cycle brought out a bit of the carnal side in everyone, and those unattached made sure all their needs were met.

  But this was Alyssa, a human, something he wanted since he realized humans existed. Not only a human, but one who seemed enthralled with him, had intelligence and he wanted to learn more about her, not just any human. After their argument on the ship, he and Porter found clothes and let Alyssa get cleaned up and changed. He left them on the ship to check out the island one more time. After shifting he took his opportunity to run free. They were indeed alone on the island. The only inhabitants were a few birds that must have used the spot as a resting place before flying on to more exciting lands.

  While the exterior rim was trimmed with a beach, the interior was densely covered in trees and vines, and luck on their side a rather nice pool of fresh water and even a waterfall. One could call it a piece of paradise or a purgatory.

  When he returned,
he found Alyssa and Porter in the same positions he left them, at either ends of the ship gathering up what they could for supplies and not speaking. He took it upon himself to give them some tasks to get them away from each other.

  She approached the pile and bent over to put her items down. Her backside toward him, she was in the perfect position for some mating.

  Porter wiped his brow, his complexion paled and he shook his head.

  Julian didn’t know if he wanted to crack up or put his arm around him and tell him he understood. They both knew how bad their situation would become. If they didn’t receive any relief by tomorrow night they would have to either lock her or themselves away to stay off her.

  “What are you doing?” Porter crossed his arms.

  “Gathering kindling like Julian told me to.” She didn’t bother turning in his direction.

  “Are we all listening to Julian now?” He tapped his foot and stared at her backside, his mouth practically watering.

  Julian forced his mouth closed wanting to find out their human’s answer. No matter how nasty Porter treated her, or how frightened she became, she didn’t back down.

  At last she straightened up and turned to Porter, glaring at him. “You said yourself Julian knows more about the sea than you. He’s not trying to play doctor.”

  “I’m not a doctor.” Porter corrected.

  “Actually, I wanted to look at your wound.” Julian decided to put some of his own kindling on the fire.

  “I will tend to her cut.” Porter stomped over.

  She put her hand over her head. “I thought you said you weren’t a doctor.”

  “Well not by your overeducated and overmedicated human standpoint.” He took her wrist and swiped her hand away.

  “It’s fine.” Though she spoke the words, she didn’t move.

  “I’ll be the judge of that.” He grabbed her chin and moved down, his face coming less than an inch from hers. “I made you a poultice.”

  Julian leaned back on his heels.

  “What’s a poultice?” Her voice lowered and lost some of its edge.

  “It’s a mixture of herbs and other medicinal ingredients that are used to draw out infection or ease pain. I suppose it’s better than the poison I tried to infuse you with.” He tilted her head back and lifted his bowl, taking care to put his mixture on her wound. “Don’t move.”