A/N: It's only been a couple of hours since I posted chapter twenty-two so please make sure you've read it before you read this one!

Chapter Twenty-Three

Samantha snatched up the telephone before it had time to finish it’s first ring, “Have you found him?”

“Not him but his rental car, or at least the town the rental car is near.” Steve replied.

“Near?” Samantha questioned. “It’s not actually in the town?”

“No. Samantha, it doesn’t look good,” Steve paused. “The rental is up in the mountains and with all the snow they’ve had there’s no way he could have made it across.”

Her heart froze in her chest. Breathing became difficult. Her husband could be lost in the mountains…. Surely he’d freeze to death way up there in the February cold.

“Steve, I have to go to him….”

“I know. I’m going to take you and Kyle to Crittenden. We’ll be catching a plane in about five hours so get packed because I’m coming to pick you up. We’ll just pick Kyle up from school. Once we get off the plane it’ll be another few hours of driving before we get to the town. With any luck he’ll be there…”

Samantha said goodbye and hung up the phone. She felt as if she were on autopilot as she packed a few things for herself and for Kyle. How was she supposed to tell her eight year old son that his father could very likely be dead?

Swallowing hard, Samantha stepped out of her house with her heavy suitcase and locked the door behind her. She sat down upon the stoop to wait for Steve to pull in and a tear slipped down her cheek.

She was not going to tell him any such thing until she knew for sure. No boy so young should be forced to lose his father and if Jason was indeed dead then Samantha would hunt Joseph down herself, and if Joseph had died with his brother then Samantha would find Abbey and get her revenge.

All of this was Abbey’s fault. If the woman had dealt with her husband herself then Samantha’s would not be missing--or worse.

***

The three travelers arrived in Crittenden at nearly eleven that night and the town was dead quiet. Steve took them to the only hotel the town possessed and they got adjoining rooms on the third floor from the rather sleepy attendant who clearly wasn’t used to having folks show up at eleven at night on a Monday.

“The mountain is a good three hour drive away from here through some pretty rough country, Samantha. I know you want to get started right away but I think it would be best to wait until morning.” Steve informed her.

“My husband could be laying out there freezing to death!” Samantha hissed quietly, careful not to wake up Kyle who was sound asleep on the bed, his red hair contrasting sharply with the stark white pillowcases.

“I know you’re worried, Samantha, and I don’t mean to sound negative but if he’s been up in that car all this time then he’s not suffering any more.”

Samantha sobbed and Steve pulled her close, “I’m sorry, Samantha,” he whispered against her red hair. “I don’t want you to get your hopes up about what we’ll find here. You know, Jason. If he were able to then he would have contacted you by now. He loves you and that boy.”

“I know…” Samantha croaked against Steve’s strong chest. She let him hold her tighter, remembering just how well Steve knew how to love her body. The two of them had been having an on and off again affair for many years now and that was one reason Samantha had known she could turn to the man for help.

“I want to help you, Samantha…” Steve whispered as he pulled away and looked down into her eyes. Steve was much older than her but at fifty he was still an impressive man with broad shoulders, toned muscles and caring gray eyes. The lines around his eyes and mouth when he smiled and the light dusting of gray in his dark hair only added to his handsomeness.

“I need you, Steve. I need you so badly.” Samantha pressed herself against him and felt his cock stir in his pants. “Help me to stop thinking. I don’t want to think.”

Steven scooped her up into his arms and carried her through the door to the next room. The darkness enveloped them but it didn’t matter. Samantha knew Steve’s body just as well as she knew her husband’s.

He kissed her tenderly as he undressed her and Samantha moaned against the pillows when he rolled her onto her stomach and entered her from behind, sliding his thick arousal deep into her body.

This was what she needed. She needed to forget. Forget that Jason had ruined their lives by caring more about his brother than his family. Forget that Jason, her high school sweetheart and the father of her child, was more than likely dead because of his brother. Forget about the fact that tomorrow she was probably going to be identifying her husband’s dead body and consoling their grieving son.

Tonight, right now, there was only pleasure, only release, only a wonderful, orgasm-inducing distraction.

***

“Abbey, I can’t decide if you’re a curse or a blessing,” Marcus growled as he slid inside of her and Abbey felt her nails dig into his back.

“She’s both,” Julian replied, his tongue tracing designs on her swollen nipples.

“She’s a goddamn temptress. A little minx,” Marcus ground out as he thrust himself in and out of her so roughly that the bed shook.

Abbey had never once thought of herself as a temptress or a minx before Marcus and Julian but each time Marcus called her either it made her feel as if maybe she was. Though just now she could do nothing but lay there and writhe, moan, beg for more, beg for mercy and whimper with the onslaught of their loving.

Fire, hot and smoldering burned inside of her and Abbey felt the flames building higher, growing into an inferno that she could no longer stand.

She cried out Marcus’s name as the flames flared and her release wracked her body. Rising from the mattress, Abbey buried her head in Marcus’s neck as she trembled. Abbey had no control of her own body, it was as if those flames had taken over her completely and Marcus roared with the strength and ferocity of his own release when Abbey’s teeth sunk into his shoulder and she felt his blood, his power, the heat of his passion flow into her mouth and down her throat.

“What are you doing?” Julian demanded and Abbey whirled on him as well. She grabbed his neck, pulled him close despite his protests and his protests quickly died when her teeth sunk deep into his shoulder and he came instantly, her name sounding much like a plea for mercy as it left his lips.

As the three bodies fell back against the mattress, the flaming inferno began to subside and Abbey could see through the hazy smoke. It was then, as she licked at the blood coating her lip and glanced at the bloody, healing wounds on Marcus and Julian’s shoulders, that she realized what she had done.

“Oops…” she gasped.

A disorienting fog washed over her and it became hard to focus on anything at all. She could hear Marcus and Julian arguing. Julian was angry at Marcus and Marcus was trying hard to defend himself.

Their voices sounded far away and she couldn’t even understand their raised and angry words. She shook her head attempting to clear her thoughts but it was no use. Her eyes closed and it was as if they were glued shut because she could not open them, no matter how hard she struggled.

“Marcus…..” she gasped, praying that she wasn’t dying. It felt as if she were floating away and losing herself completely. “Julian…..”

***

“Marcus! What have you done?!” Julian demanded as they stood over the bed and looked down at Abbey’s unconscious form in the bed. Julian could still feel the pleasure from the bite coursing through his veins.

His wolf was pleased that the mating bond was finally complete. Abbey was their mate, their wolf mate, just as destiny had designed. But this was all wrong. Tonight they had to shift. It was going to cause Abbey pain and she would be lucky if she could control her wolf…. Her wolf could very well cause her to harm someone completely innocent if she got too lost in the bloodlust that some first time shifters felt.

“I didn’t do a damn thing!” Marcus exclaimed, holding up his hands. He pointed an accusing finger at Abbey, “It was her!”

Julian pinched his nose with his fingers, “You never should have let her bite you, Marcus.”

“Don’t be telling me what I should and shouldn’t fuckin’ do, Julian. She bit me before I knew what she was going to do and I couldn’t very well stop her then.”

“Well you should have,” Julian insisted.

Marcus growled and jerked his pants onto his legs, “You didn’t stop her,” he said, tilting his head toward the pale scar that now married Julian’s right shoulder. It matched the scar that was on Marcus’s left shoulder perfectly.

“It was too late by then, she’d already bit you,” Julian reminded him.

“Excuses are like assholes, big brother.”

“Yeah, you’d know all about assholes with excuses wouldn’t you?”

“Shut the fuck up, Julian.”

“What are we going to do tonight?” Julian questioned.

“I don’t know. You seem to think you’re the smart one out of the two of us so why don’t you figure it out?”

Julian wanted to punch his brother right in the jaw, which was something he hadn’t been tempted to do in quite a while, “She’ll probably be out for a couple of hours. Don’t leave her. You better be right here when she wakes up.” Marcus made a big show of saluting him. “I can hear the pups waking up so I’ll get Audrey to school and take care of them…. This is really a mess, Marcus. We’re going to have to find someone to watch the pups tonight.”

“I know,” Marcus sighed. “She can’t be around them the first time she shifts.”

Julian swallowed hard. Abbey was an amazing mother who had gone through hell and back to try to protect her kids but when she shifted there was a chance that her wolf would take over completely and, if that happened, there were no guarantees that Abbey wouldn’t hurt, or possibly even kill, those pups.

The first shift was always unpredictable. Some people handled it fine as if they’d been shifting for years and others….. Well there was a good reason why humans had been so afraid of werewolves for such a long time.

Without another word, Julian slid into clean clothes and left the room. He went straight to the pups bedroom and found them giggling under the covers as Audrey read a story.

Julian took a deep breath. It was time to act as if all was well with the world and there was nothing at all to be worried about. “What are you doing under there?” he asked with a smile.

“Papa!” Audrey exclaimed, tossing the cover aside and leaping into his arms. Julian’s heart melted and most of his worries did vanish then, at least temporarily. How could a person worry about things that hadn’t come to pass when they had a little angel in their arms who called them papa.

Julian had been touched beyond words when Tanner had come in the day before and asked to call him Papa. It had been through a clogged throat that Julian had okayed the request and hugged the boy so long and tight he’d squirmed and begged to be let down.

“Gotta get you ready for school, Audrey,” Julian told the girl, “And Tanner can come to town with us.”

“You’re gonna take me?” Audrey asked as she opened her dresser and began pulling out clothes.

“Yep. So get ready and I’ll fix you a bowl of cereal for breakfast.”

Julian managed to get Audrey to school and the girl was more or less presentable, though the lopsided pig tails he’d attempted in her hair left something to be desired. Julian and Tanner’s next stop was the diner and honestly it would have been better if Marcus were the one to do this seeing as how Marcy was so fond of him.

“Julian!” Marcy exclaimed when he walked into the crowded diner. All the older folks in town drank coffee for hours here every morning and most folks stopped here for breakfast before work or errands. Marcy was a good cook. “And little Tanner! How are you both?”

“We’re doing good, Marcy. I’m going to get Tanner here some breakfast.”

“Let me guess,” Marcy tapped her chin with her pen as she looked inquisitively down at the boy, “Pancakes?”

“Yes!” Tanner cried excitedly.

“Coming right up them. Can I get you anything, Julian?”

“No, I’m not hungry,” he replied honestly. He was too worried to even think about food just now.

Tanner colored a picture on the children’s menu while Julian stared out the window and wondered how he’d go about asking Marcy for this favor. The woman brought out Tanner’s pancakes and Julian motioned for her to sit beside him.

“I’m always eager to sit beside a good looking man,” she said as she squeezed into the booth beside Julian. “What’s the matter?” she added, noticing the drawn expression on his face.

Tanner seemed oblivious as he ate and colored away.

“I need a favor,” Julian replied. “And I hate to ask but I trust you with the pups…”

“Pups?” Marcy asked with amusement.

“The kids,” Julian amended. “I trust you with the kids.”

“Well I’m flattered, Julian, but why do you need help with the kids?”

“Their mother is our mate, Marcy.”

“I know that,” Marcy waved her hand, “That’s old news in this town.”

Of course it was. The benefit, or curse, of living in such a small place. “Look, we had some….issues this morning and well Abbey is going to shift for the first time tonight and we need someone to keep the pups.”

Marcy looked hard at Julian for a moment and then her eyes widened and she began to fan herself with her notepad, “Mercy me! That is one lucky woman to have both you DeLuca boys! And to have you so consumed with passion that you lose control of yourselves and turn her….”

“Shhhh!” Julian looked around and noticed more than a few eyes on their table. “Could you try to be a little more discreet?”

“Sorry,” Marcy flushed red but she looked far from sorry as she smiled. “I would be happy to keep the pups with me tonight. We can have a sleepover.”

Julian smiled his thanks. His tapped Tanner on the head and the boy smiled broadly as he looked up from his picture, “You wanna spend the night with Marcy tonight?” he offered.

“Without you, daddy or mommy?” Tanner asked with trepidation.

“It’ll be fun, Tanner!” Marcy assured him. “We’ll stop by the library on the way to my house and you can pick out a few books, we’ll rent movies and even pick up some pizza for dinner.”

“Pizza?” Tanner seemed tempted.

Marcy winked, “Yes, and ice cream for dessert.”

Tanner seemed to think a moment and then he nodded as he went back to his coloring, “Well okay then.”