When Lexi woke the next morning, Greyson and Allen were nowhere to be seen. She rubbed the sleep from her eyes and looked around the room, a little confused about their disappearance but she soon noticed that their luggage was no longer sitting by the door.
"Assholes." She grumbled to herself, "They could have at least let me know they were taking the cases down."
She slid to the edge of the bed and stretched, enjoying the tension and sweet ache in her muscles before sighing to herself and heading to the bathroom to clean up after last night's activities.
She really should have learned by now not to provoke them, but sometimes, she just had an insatiable need to rile them up and savor the consequences.
As the hot water rained down on her Lexi couldn't help but smile, she never would have thought her life would turn out like this. Being happily committed to anyone had never ranked anywhere on her to-do list, let alone mated to two men!
She quirked her brows as she considered her thoughts…and quickly came to the conclusion that having her needs met by two men on a permanent basis probably would have featured into her life plans at some point, after all, why choose when you can have both?
Considering what she knew now, it was even more surprising that her damn uncle hadn't managed to get his hands on her while she was relatively unprotected in the Children's home. Surely a child would have been easier for Eromaug to manage than how she was now?
Lexi suppressed a shudder at the thought. Her father had been right. She was grateful that he had put a stop to whatever it was that Eromaug had planned and even more appreciative that she didn't have any majorly traumatic memories that shadowed her throughout her adolescence.
Now however…was a very different matter.
She was still plagued by dreams, if you could call them that. They were more repressed memories manifesting themselves as nightmares. The lingering touches…the closeness…that look in his eyes as they bonded…her childlike innocence at the time had left her oblivious to the hidden intention behind that look in his eyes, but now, older and much wiser, Lexi knew exactly what he had wanted from her.
Thankfully, both Allen and Greyson were still blissfully unaware of her haunted dreams…her souls were doing a good job of working together to minimize the after effects, sweeping up her emotion and incinerating it before her body could react.
There had been too much happening here for her to wallow in self pity and she had never indulged in that before, and had no intention of starting now.
With a sigh, she reached for the tap and turned the water off, stepping out into the steam wreathed bathroom and toweling herself off as she finished getting ready for the journey home.
Home.
She smiled to herself as her lips curved at the edges. She loved her mothers cottage but there really were far too many unpleasant memories in there now. When she did eventually return to it, she was sure that the atmosphere would be tainted. Perhaps it was best to start anew…
"Thought you might have drowned in there, you were in there so long," A deep voice cut through her thoughts as she stepped out into the bedroom, startling her.
"For fuck sake!" She snapped as she clutched her chest, "Are you trying to give me a heart attack? You're two for two now if we include yesterday's madness." She hissed, narrowing her eyes angrily at Greyson's cocky smirk.
"What can I say? I like getting a reaction out of you." He smirked as his eyes ran over her appreciatively.
"Uh-uh! No!" Lexi admonished pointing her finger at him angrily, "Don't even think about starting anything right now. We're leaving soon and I do not want to spend the journey back being all fucking sticky down there"
Greyson cocked an eyebrow at her in amusement before sighing and rolling his eyes.
"Fine. Spoiling my fun…" He paced over to her, gripping her chin and smirking down at her, "You really are beautiful up close, Lexi." He murmured as he kissed her savagely, the intensity almost taking her breath away and leaving her flustered when he pulled back.
She blinked at him in bemusement before scowling deeply and swatting him on the chest with her hand.
"Don't think you can seduce yourself around me…is this payback for last night?"
Greyson laughed as he caught her hand.
"Something like that. Come on…I want to show you something before we leave."
"What? There's actually something worthwhile to see here?" Lexi asked sarcastically, earning another chuckle from Greyson, "Touche…" he said with a nod of his head, "It's a surprise actually."
"A surprise?" She asked, raising an eyebrow, "Since when have you been big on surprises?"
Greyson held a hand up to his chest and feigned a wounded expression.
"I'm shocked…have I not always surprised you with my…attention?"
"I don't know what's fucking gotten into you but your cockiness is irritating…" Lexi grumbled under her breath as she allowed him to lead her through the halls and out of the packhouse towards the perimeter.
"Greyson... where are you taking me? We have to leave soon."
"I told you it's a surprise. Allen's waiting for us." He said, impatience flashing in his eyes as she pulled back, before disappearing as quickly as it had flashed, "What's wrong? Don't you trust me?" He asked, a little softer.
Lexi sighed.
"It's not that, the car will be here soon and you and Allen already disappeared on me this morning."
"And what exactly do you think we were doing?" Greyson smirked, "We had to leave before you woke in order to set this up."
"Ugh! Fine. But this better not be a romp in the woods…if there's anything that I hate more than being sticky down there..it's having bits of the wild outdoors stuck there too.." She snapped snarkily.
"Does that happen often?" Greyson asked, his eyebrows raised.
"Don't be stupid." Lexi snapped as they continued onwards into the forest that bordered Brad's pack, following a dirt trail that disappeared into the darkness beyond.
As they walked Lexi couldn't shake the feeling of unease that was slowly settling over her. She couldn't put her finger on it, but something didn't seem right. She knew that Allen and Greyson weren't joined at the hip, but they had grown closer since coming here and it seemed a little odd that they hadn't collected her together.
Just as she was about to bring this up to Greyson, the undergrowth seemed to recede slightly and a small clearing opened up, the dappled sunlight filtering through the thick canopy above into the clearing ahead, and there, in the middle of it, stood Allen with a grin on his face.
"You fucking arseholes." Lexi sighed as relief washed over her, "I thought something weird was going on for a minute there."
"Oh?" Allen asked, cocking his head.
"Yeah... I thought maybe my fucked up uncle had put together some sort of ambush." she snorted, as Allen and Greyson laughed along with her.
"We just wanted to give you something. Eleanor helped us get this for you while you were here. After all, marking and mating for life is a big event..and we hadn't done anything to mark the occasion for you."
"Was biting me and scarring me for life not enough?" Lexi shot back.
"No." Greyson said simply as he took the box that Allen offered and opened it, revealing a beautifully designed necklace, with an amber and jet stone encased in swirling gold filigree.
"Oh! Fuck... it's beautiful…" Lexi gasped, momentarily lost for words.
She allowed Greyson to move behind her, sweeping her hair to the side so that he could put the necklace on.
As soon as it was settled, she looked down at it, holding it gently between her fingers and admiring it.
"Thank you, but…you really shouldn't have..." Lexi beamed at them both.
"We had to," Greyson shrugged as he ran his hands over her shoulders and lowered his head, kissing her neck softly, "We didn't really have any other choice."
His hands roamed around to her front, running over her chest and finding the stiff little peaks of her pebbled nipples under the material of her top and pinching them gently, eliciting a sigh from her lips as her head dropped back onto his shoulder.
"Mmm... Greyson... I said not now…"
"Mmm. That's a shame…because I very much want to…" he murmured as he pressed his length against her backside, his erection glaringly obvious.
"That's enough…" A female voice snapped harshly from the shadows as Lexi's head whipped in the direction of the voice, her heart hammering wildly at the intrusion.