Page 21 of Her Wolves

He put up his hands.“Well, don’t you?”

Leaning back and sighing—and recalling yesterday afternoon, last night, and this morning—I admitted, “It does take a great deal of my own energy to keep up with them.”I refrained from pointing out, but they like to be on top, which is how I most like them, so they’re doing most of the work.Some things are too intimate for a girl to share with her father.“But I promise you, they respect me.They know I’m human.If I asked them to…,” now I seemed to be hitting a barrier with my own words.Carefully, delicately, I went on, “If I told them I needed some time or space to myself, they wouldn’t press me about it.They’re wolves, but they know what it is to be a gentleman.”

Folding his hands on the desk, my father asked, “They may know how to be gentlemen, but inside, sweetheart, they are wolves.And wolves are territorial animals.What if one of them decided he wanted more of your time and attentionthan the other two?Have you thought about what would happen then?”

In all honesty I had not considered that possibility.I didn’t see any possessiveness from any of them.I only saw Nick pulling rank and Kris falling into line beside the other two, in spite of the special bond that I’d formed with Kris.Everyone in our little quartet seemed to know their place.“I don’t think it would, Daddy,” I answered.“I think it all revolves around their respect for me.No, I think if one of them got too possessive when it’s the four of us, they’d know it would upset me.Kris and Lon and Nick would never do anything to upset me.”

Frowning skeptically, Daddy shook a finger at me and asked, “Honey, are you really, really sure of that?”

I gripped the arms of my chair and insisted, “Daddy, I actually do have some kind of judgement!I know how it looks from the outside, the naive little Princess thinking she can handle three suitors and they’ll all behave themselves, but I actually think I know what I’m doing!”

“The only reason I bring it up, Tara,” said my father, raising a hand and showing his palm in a soothing gesture, “is simply the fact that there is one of you and three of them, and in a relationship that complicated it’s much more risky than when it’s only two.”

“Not when all of us know what we expect,” I said.“No one thinks they own me.And all I want from them is just to protect me like they were brought on to do, and let me enjoy knowing and trusting them.”

Leaning back in his own seat, my father said, “All right, Tara.If that’s the way you say it is, I trust your judgement.You’re inside the situation; I’m looking in from outside.I’m only saying the way it looks to me, and the way it may look to others, even if they’re not judging.When I ran for Prime Regent, I knew that if I won this office and brought you to live in this house,there would be the temptation of the Guards, which no Regency son or daughter has ever been able to resist.One thing about the Canis Guards is that humans cannot resist them.Truth to tell, and please never repeat this, now and then a Guard female has turned my own head a bit.So I knew there would be a situation like this.”He steepled his fingers and sighed.“What I assumed is that there would be only one.Or one at a time.I never foresaw anything like three.”

“They’re good to me, Daddy,” I promised him, mentally adding, A little on the exhausting side, but a girl should only be tired the way they’re tiring me.

*****

In the corridors of the mansion, after my father and I finished our little meeting, my threesome walked with me back to the entrance hall, and I told them what Daddy and I had talked about.Nick, walking closest to me, had a few words about the subject.

“You’ve got to understand his feelings about this,” Nick said.“The Prime Regent, when all’s said and done, is a father and you, Princess, are his daughter.And I don’t care what anyone says, man or wolf man, a father has instincts around his daughter.Males say they want sons.Then they have a daughter and they end up wrapped around the little girl’s paws.Am I right, men?”

Lon, walking nearest Nick, said, “Definitely.”

I looked over to Kris, off to one side and a little behind, and he just nodded, agreeing with the other two.I took this not just as the other two agreeing with their leader, but as the three of them agreeing about what amounted to a fact of nature.I was impressed with their respect for my father, and it was clear to me that as long as the present situation existed and perhaps longer, Daddy’s concern for my having not one but three lycanthrope suitors would be a fact of our lives.

“So, boys,” I wondered, changing the subject, “any ideas how we’re going to spend the rest of our morning?”

As if I had to ask.Nick looked over at me as if he were already stripping my clothes off, and I saw similar gazes on the other two.I entertained the thought of consulting the Regency physicians at some time about energy supplements.They would probably be able to guess why I needed them.

We were almost at the top of the great staircase heading down into the entrance hall when we halted at a loud, clattering sound that ripped through all of us.People passing by at the far end of the corridor, and behind us where we’d come from Daddy’s office, stopped and looked around, shocked and frightened.

“Planetary Security alarm!” Nick cried.

Onto the mansion’s internal PA system came a familiar voice.“Attention!Attention!This is Alpha Commander Brunson.Orbital security telescopes are tracking alien craft matching hostile configurations rapidly entering the system.Aerial and space forces are being mobilized.Ground forces, Condition Red!Repeat, Condition Red!Emergency and battle protocols!Repeat, emergency and battle protocols!Form at highest alert!”

I looked at the snarling expressions and the darkness around the eyes of all three of my Guards.A cold fright gripped me inside.

“The Soorns,” I said, hardly audible over the alarm.

From elsewhere in the mansion came the sounds of raised voices.I saw the other people in the corridor break into running in different directions.Gazing back behind me, I said in a voice that only I could hear in my head, “Daddy…”

Opposite us there was a big window that looked out on the grass and trees where my threesome and I had been riding.It showed a swath of sky on a day that had turnedovercast after our beautiful dawn.Somewhere beyond the clouds there was a pulsing flash of light.

CHAPTER 12

Nick

The alarm rang until it cut off and red running lights lit up along the upper corners of the walls, giving off a throbbing glow.I took Tara by the hand, and Lon and Kris went with us to the big window opposite where we were standing, with the view of where we took out the melobeasts.The sky overhead blossomed with lights.As soon as one burst of light contracted and faded, another one burst through the clouds.

“First,” I said to the two in my command, “we secure the Princess.”

At the sound of her name being called—“Tara!”—we turned and saw the Prime Regent coming quickly down the hall with Alpha Commander Brunson and two other Guards.I knew they had gotten into the Prime Regent’s office through

a special corridor and entrance reserved for the Alpha Commander and selected Guards for emergencies.This counted as an emergency.

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