“You probably heard Mike and me coming up the stairs to the cabin, and yet you couldn’t hide or get away.”
He had a point. “What are your proposing?”
“Mike’s place is a one-bedroom apartment, but one of us will stay with you at night. Don’t worry. We’ll be in our wolf form guarding the door. That way no one can get to you.”
“I love that idea. I would feel a lot better knowing I was safe.” Then images of what she could do to entice them to shift shot through her mind until she remembered her promise to herself. It wouldn’t be fair to be with her mates until this whole Doug thing was settled.
Or would it? Like Mindy suggested, if Cassidy was able to convince them to mate with her, then she’d be useless to Doug. A woman couldn’t be mated twice. At least that was what she'd been taught.
Then her twisted logic sunk in. What a horrible reason to be with someone—except that the more she was around Zach and Mike, the more she wanted them. It was crazy, yes, but it just proved that the three of them were fated for one another.
“Great,” Zach said. “Mike and I cleaned his place the best we could, so it should be good.”
“I can clean, you know.”
“We don’t want you to have to.”
“I appreciate that. I’ll need to buy food, so I guess I’ll need a car.”
“We do have food delivery services, even in Wildwood,” Zach said. “Just call it in and they will drop it off at the door. As for going out, until this whole Doug thing is settled, one of us can pick you up.” He lifted a hand. “The last thing you need is to be run off the road by some Kitchener Clan member. Just ask Tawny. She was almost killed that way.”
“That’s terrible.”
Zach turned to Mike. “I forgot to ask if you have anything edible in your house.”
He held up his middle finger. “I do eat.”
“Michael James Halperin. Watch your manners,” Zach’s mom said.
Cassidy thought it adorable that Mike actually blushed.
“Sorry, Mrs. G. I forgot you were there.”
His mom winked at Cassidy.
Now that Cassidy would be with these men, she wanted to look her best. Too bad makeup hadn’t been an essential item when she'd packed. “Do you think we could stop at a drugstore on the way to Mike’s? I’m going to go out on a limb and say Doug doesn’t know where I am, so a quick stop shouldn’t be too dangerous. How long that will last, I can’t say.”
“Sure.” Zach looked over at his Mom. “Thanks for letting Cassidy stay here.”
“Anytime. Now that Tawny is busy with her men, I miss the girl talk.”
When all of this was over, Cassidy would have to make it a point to stop by more often, in part because Mrs. Granger was a lot like her own mom. When her chin trembled, she had to remind herself why she wasn’t in Thomas Ridge, nor would she be for a while.
“Ready?” Zach asked.
“Yes.”
After Cassidy finished packing the clothes Tawny had given her in her backpack, she went downstairs.
“Bye, Mom,” Zach called out.
His mom rushed out and gave each of them a hug. “Don’t be strangers. Any of you.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Mike said.
It seemed to have turned colder overnight, but Cassidy wouldn’t complain. She was happy she didn’t have to stay in the cabin any longer than she had. Those two weeks had been hard, especially trekking the water from the river to the cabin. The hunting was fun, but it could be cold at times.
Mike held open the door to Zach’s truck. “Ladies first.”