Sugar Creek 2(31)

Melissa pushed to her feet and began to pace. “I wasn’t really scared of you. I didn’t know it was you that was stalking me. You could have been real wolves for all I knew and there were three of you.” She took a calming breath when she realized her voice was escalating in pitch.

“You damn well were scared of us,” Damian snarled. “You even passed out, for fuck’s sake.”

“Damian, back off,” Luke snapped.

Melissa turned to face them and hoped she didn’t look as sheepish as she felt. “I was holding my breath and forgot.”

“What?” Damian frowned.

“Put yourself in my shoes for a minute. There I was in amongst the trees and see three huge wolves stalking me. Of course I was afraid, until you changed back into your human forms. But I didn’t realize I was holding my breath until I was falling to the ground.”

The concerned expressions left their faces and even though she was a little embarrassed, she was glad to be able to relieve their concern.

Damian rose from the sofa and walked toward her. He took one of her hands in his and led her back to the couch. “Melissa, please talk to us, baby. Tell us what is worrying you.”

Melissa bit her lip in indecision. They had spent their time caring for her and loving her, hopefully they wouldn’t get upset her when she told them why she was hesitating about making a decision to move in with them.

Damian gently pulled her into his side when he sat down next to her. He encircled her shoulders with his arm, pulling her into the shelter of his big, warm, muscular body, and stroked her hair in a soothing manner, crooning to her until she relaxed against him as the tension inside receded.

Damian pulled back from Melissa slightly and ran his hands down her arms until he grasped her hands. Luke scooted across the sofa until his body was also touching hers.

“I’m worried what my sister will think,” Melissa blurted out.

“Tell us why,” Luke said.

Melissa told them her concerns and felt the rest of the tension she didn’t know she was holding onto dissipate. Now that she’d told them the truth, she felt like a weight had been lifted from her shoulders.

“If you want more time here with us first before you move, then that’s what you’ll have.” Luke kissed her temple.

“We want to make you happy, baby.” Damian squeezed her hand. “We’d give you the moon and the stars if we could.”

“Speaking of the moon…Since it’s not a full moon, I presume you can change whenever you like. Is that right?” Melissa asked.

“You are very perceptive, baby. We can make the change whenever we like. We don’t have to change when it’s a full moon. However, we do feel the pull of the moon when it’s at its zenith,” Damian explained.

Melissa was glad that her mates could control when and where they wanted to change. She’d seen a couple of horror movies as a young teenager which had werewolves in them and those wolves had killed when the pull of the moon couldn’t be ignored anymore, and the men had changed into gruesome versions of half man, half wolf. But her men were nothing like that when they shifted forms. Thank God.

Damian squeezed her hand to get her attention and she hoped she didn’t look too stupid as she thought back, but he wasn’t looking at her with concern so she figured she hadn’t.

“Please don’t try and run from us again, baby. We want you to talk to us, hash out any concerns you have,” Damian said.

“As long as that goes both ways,” Melissa said. “I don’t know any of the rules around here and I would hate to offend anyone by fucking up and getting you into trouble, let alone myself.”

“We’ll try, honey,” Luke said. “But you have to remember we are used to taking care of and protecting others. We have to make decisions on the spur of the moment sometimes and don’t have time to talk things through.”

“Okay, I think I can deal with that, as long as neither of you want to take over my life.”

“That’s the last thing we want, baby. I thought we already explained that to you?” Damian asked.

Melissa shrugged. She didn’t care if she was repeating herself. She wasn’t going to have her men making decisions for her. She was a grown woman and could decide what she wanted for herself. From what she’d learned of them so far, she knew they wouldn’t have any qualms about taking over and running her life, but by laying all their cards on the table first up, if the shit hit the fan and she gave them what-for for making unnecessary decisions for her, there couldn’t be any recourse for her or surprises. Hopefully, in theory, anyway.