CRUZ

I slip inside the house. Gianna was passed out when I left her an hour ago, but my errand didn’t take long. I’m still not entirely ready to look behind me, to look at whom I’ve brought with me. When I toe off my boots just inside the door, the contrast between my boots and her shoes makes me smile. My steel toes are big and banged up plenty. They look out of place next to the pair of pink Crocs. And the running shoes with the pink laces. A pair of casual flats. The wedge heels she tormented me with the day she arrived. Damn. The woman has an overabundance of girly shoes.

I inhale, letting my wolf breathe in the scents of home. My den and my heart. My woman. Somehow, I’ll figure out how to make this crazy relationship work and I’ll convince her to stay with me. Tucking my chilled hands beneath my arms, I head for the bedroom. I have fifteen steps to warm my fingers up some before I start touching her. Freezing her awake won’t be romantic.

Gianna’s in bed, warm and sleeping. She’s yanked the covers over her head, just the tip of her head poking out from all the white and down. I want to mess her up and make her come apart. Give her sweet and kinky. I take off my clothes, fold them up, and set them on the dresser. Then slip into bed and pull her sleep-warmed body against mine. Oui. This is home all right.

“Cruz?” The blankets muffle her sleepy voice. She sounds pretty certain though, and that has to count for something. I’ll be happy for her to greet me like that for the next thirty, forty years.

“That’s me,” I say gruffly, sliding onto the bed beside her.

Yours. I spoon her, my heart beating out that one-word, too-right response to her simple question.

“I’m not alone,” I warn her. I mean that in all sorts of ways. With Gianna, I’m not alone. We’re a family, we’re something special. And as much as she’s mine, I’m also hers. “I love you.”

“I love you.” She sighs, her head popping out above the covers.

She stills.

Oui. She’s spotted our company. Luc leans against the wall, arms folded over his chest. He’s wearing a pair of blue jeans, the worn denim hanging low on his hips. He’s barefoot, shirtless—but it’s the naked look in his eyes that I recognize. He didn’t argue when I asked him to come back with me, just fell in beside me. No questions asked. Maybe he’s been doing some thinking of his own. He nods to me now, then pushes off the wall and pads toward us. The bed dips as he lies down on the other side of Gianna.

It would be so much easier if we could just stay like this. The bedroom part isn’t actually so difficult to work out. But since, eventually, we have to get up, have to go about our regular lives and lead our packs—and kick ass in the courtroom, in Gianna’s case—we’re gonna have to spell out some things here. We’ve been dancing around each other ever since our night in the bayou, life, the packs, and our emotions all tangled up together.

“Should I be concerned?” She asks the question lightly, but her brow puckers up as she looks between the two of us. True, it didn’t go so well the last time Luc and I shared air space. Or the time before that either.

“We’re goin’ to make this work,” Luc rasps, and it’s my turn to nod.

Gianna looks unconvinced. “Your track record sucks—and I can’t be a timeshare.”

True enough. “You’re gonna have to trust us to work this out, boo.”

She makes a face, and I don’t have to ask to know what she’s thinking. She doesn’t do trust. She’s a strictly-the-facts kind of gal, and that’s why the law works so well for her.

“Honey, you don’ put two Alphas in the same room or the same parish,” I tell her. “Not without expectin’ some fireworks. But we’re all done explodin’ now.”

GIANNA

I want Cruz and Luc by my side. I can’t see Luc’s face, but Cruz looks at me, and there’s that damn honesty in his eyes again. He swore once he’d never lie to me, and at the time, I thought his promise was romantic. I loved his bluntness, his unrelenting truth-telling. Now I realize it sucks. I want him to promise me that everything is going to work out, that there isn’t some kind of werewolf war brewing in the bayou, and that the three of us can absolutely work out our differences.

I definitely want him to lie to me about that.

“So we’re together,” I say, because they need to say it too, give me the words out loud.

“Oui,” Luc mutters, his big hand stroking over my shoulder, finding his ring on its chain and tugging lightly. “The three of us.”

“So how does it work?” My brain has already skipped ahead to the logistics. Which house? And when?

“I can’ stay here, shug. Not yet.” Luc doesn’t even have the grace to look apologetic. “Cruz, he’s the Alpha of his pack. Me, I’m the Alpha of mine. But we’ll figure the logistics out.”

I look up at Cruz. He’s so close, his legs brushing mine. And yet… part of him’s not quite here. He’s watching Luc and me. He does that lots, and I wonder what, exactly, it is that he sees. I wouldn’t want to go up against him in a courtroom, that’s for sure. Not only does he see too much, but he knows how to fit the pieces together. The way the corners of his mouth tighten as he stares first at Luc and then at me tells me he understands exactly what Luc is saying. That there’s no way, no how two Alphas live together side by side, let alone share the same woman. That the three of us can make all the promises we want, but other people will want to unmake them for us.

“This can work,” I argue, because I’ve made a career out of arguing and doing it well.

Luc calls to me, to a mean, feral, primal side I thought I’d buried in the trailer park. The part that lives no matter what the cost. It’s also the part that runs and fights and feels. But the sex with him actually scares me sometimes—I’m out of control in his arms, feeling too much. He’s wild and he makes me want to be the same, but it’s not as if I can just disappear into the Louisiana bayou with him and spend the next fifty years making love. His brothers don’t much like me either, although Cruz’s family has its issues too. I’m virtually powerless in their world, and it’s stupid not to admit that truth.

“She don’ understand,” Cruz says roughly, but he’s looking at Luc and not at me, which is irritating as hell.

“She’s not a wolf,” Luc agrees.

“She’s right here.” I’m not the little woman and we’re discussing our future. There has to be a loophole. A way to change things. I’ve spent a lifetime arguing the impossible, so I’m not about to quit now.

“Your dad’s not dead,” I point out. “You said that the packs are all about dominance, the younger wolves challenging the older ones until there’s a fight between the Alpha and the strongest challenger. The winner gets to lead. So how come you didn’t kill your dad when you took over here, Cruz?”

He shakes his head. “We’re blood too. We chose to do things differently.”

“So you can choose us.” I don’t want to let go of this.

“I already have.” He brushes his thumb over my mouth. “You just don’ believe me. Not yet.”

He looks over at Luc and mutters something. And then he sits up, leaning over me and cupping the other wolf’s face in his big, rough hands. Luc stiffens, but doesn’t move. Not even when Cruz kisses the hell out of him.

CRUZ

Luc freezes when I kiss him. I don’t blame him. We’ve never discussed this, never suggested that there could be attraction or touching or anything other than Gianna between us. And honestly, I’m not sure what I want when it comes to Luc, but I’m willing to ask the questions and look for the answers. I’m willing to try.

Together.

So I brush my mouth over his, trying this thing out. He doesn’t feel wrong. He just feels like… Luc. His lips are rough and hard, but he exhales harshly and then he opens up a fraction of an inch.

I must make some kind of noise, or he does. It’s enough to be a maybe even if it’s not a yes. I kiss him deeper, eyes open, watching his face. His mouth softens and he lets me in. It’s his choice. He could keep me out, could shove me away or get off this bed. But we’ve got Gianna between us, in more ways than one, and this is one way forward.

Luc’s hand comes up and covers mine, his fingers braceleting my wrist. And then he kisses me back, fiercely, deeply. His tongue tangles with mine, and we’re both breathing harder when we tear our mouths apart. There’s nothing gentle about our kiss, and I’ve got no idea if it’s a fucking first or last kiss, but I know one thing.

Our kiss is a start.

“I can have feelings for both of you,” I say roughly to Luc and Gianna. “You don’ have to choose between us, sweetheart.” That’s my bottom line right there. “I love you. Luc here, he loves you.”

The werewolf Alpha makes a rough noise, dips his head, and presses his mouth against Gianna’s ear. His gaze never leaves mine, but there’s something there. Something… warmer. Better. He looks good when he’s been kissed.

“We’re gonna love you,” I promise her. “Luc and I, we’ve got you.”