Gifted - The 5 Book Paranormal Romance Box Set Read online

  "Speaking of Cameron, here he is. His ears must have been burning. Just one second." He answered the call, listened for just a few seconds, and then simply said okay before hanging up. "Sorry, but I've gotta run. Cameron says a single red-eye got past the northern patrol. They're chasing him south, just like the other one today. Can you finish up with Sunny on your own?"

  I nodded. "Of course. You go ahead and help catch that red-eye. I've got family south in Hastings, and I don't want any Angel wolf getting anywhere near there." Thinking about the ferocious wolf I'd fought earlier that day, I had a sudden thought and gasped. "The three agents! Were they all okay from the car spin-out? Were any of them injured? I guess I passed out before I could even check."

  Rising to his feet and pocketing his phone, Elliot gave me a reassuring little smile. "They were all just fine, though I can't say the same for the car. We set them up with an alternate vehicle to take to the airport in Indianapolis, and they tore off right away. I think they felt like they'd had enough of Haverwood for one day, and rightly so. These wolf-infested forestlands aren't any place for government agents with zero powers to defend themselves."

  Getting to my feet, a breathed a sigh of relief, at the same time marveling that "wolf-infested forestlands" were a place for me. Even though I'd fought off a wolf earlier that day, I was still kind of trying to process the fact that I had supernatural powers and was no longer just a simple data-entry clerk from Hastings, Indiana. It still seemed unreal to me, especially since it had all happened so quickly. I was getting the feeling that I'd very soon settle into my new life, though, and even like it much better than my old one. I was in a position where I could really do some good for my state and my country, and I liked it. I thought that maybe Cynthia was right, that once I found my true purpose, I could actually be some sort of a leader of my fellow Gifteds in Haverwood, Gifteds that I was anxious to meet.

  Elliot soon took off, racing out of the bathroom. However, before he did, he gave Sunny a quick few pets goodbye, telling him to be a good boy, and then he gave me an equally quick arm squeeze and a smile with such genuine-seeming warmth in his eyes that I became almost certain right then and there that there was no possible way he could be working with the Angels. I became just almost certain, though. As much as I felt like I should be more suspicious of Cameron, I found it difficult to be, because even though I was still sort of mad at him for leaving Sunny outside, he struck me as being just as genuine as Elliot seemed to be.

  I knew I needed to spend a lot more time with both men before I'd develop any kind of a true, strong gut feeling. I didn't think that was going to be a problem, however. I'd gathered that the day had been a particularly busy one for the two of them, but I knew they had to spend time at home at some point and the next time they did, I was going to be bold, bolder than I'd ever dreamed of being in my life. I was going to attempt to seduce them both, and get them both into my bed.

  During the trip to Haverwood, I'd had thoughts that I might enjoy the experience of my government-sanctioned "menage-task," but now that I'd met Elliot and Cameron, I was actually pretty sure that I'd love it. Despite tiffing with Cameron about Sunny, I found him incredibly attractive, almost painfully so, and I thought the same about Elliot. In fact, while we'd been bathing Sunny, my attention had wandered several times to his bicep, which had been nearly brushing against mine. That alone had been enough to send electric little shivers racing down my spine. I was beginning to think I was going to be stepping out of my comfort zone while in Haverwood in more ways than one. I'd be stepping out of my comfort zone sexually, that was for sure.

  After drying Sunny, first with a towel and then with a hair dryer set on low, which he loved, I took him outside for bathroom time before bed. The rain had mostly stopped, now just coming down in a very light sprinkle. While Sunny went off and did his business somewhere, I stepped off the back porch and had a look around in the moonlight. Towering trees surrounded the house; from what I could see in the near-dark, most were evergreens.

  The house itself was a low, wide structure, something like a ranch-style home on steroids, or maybe three of them arranged end-to-end. Considering its size, I could definitely see how a couple dozen people had been housed inside it simultaneously at one point. On our way out, I'd done a little walk-through and had discovered seven full master bedrooms, including my own, on one side of the house, and seven on the other side. In the middle was the kitchen and dining area, then, down a short hallway, a spacious living room with several couches and a giant flat-screen TV. Throughout the house, the flooring was hardwood, which I appreciated, thinking that it was possible Sunny might have a few accidents, being so used to doing his business outside, whenever he wanted.

  In the distance, I could see a few dark shapes that I assumed were other houses, and it didn't surprise me that they were dark, considering that it was now almost two in the morning. I was beginning to feel it, too, despite my all-day nap. Using my powers really seemed to have taken it out of me.

  After a minute or so, which I spent just enjoying the quiet of the rural area, I called for Sunny, wondering if he'd recognize his new name so soon. However, to my surprise, he came out of some bushes and bounded over to me right away, tail wagging. Smiling, I knelt and gave him some petting and cuddles, thrilled that he seemed to already know that he now had a home and a human.

  The two of us fell asleep in my bed a short while later, even though it wasn't exactly the most comfortable arrangement in the world. Sunny seemed to be the kind of sleeper who enjoyed sprawling out and taking up as much space as possible, with both his bony hind legs draped over mine. As much as I liked having him close, I figured I'd probably buy him a comfy dog bed next time I visited Hastings, which I planned to do soon, so I could take him to the vet. He also needed his nails clipped, I discovered, as they poked me a few different times during the night.

  The next morning, I made and ate breakfast in the kitchen with Sunny, discovering Cameron's stash of dog food for him under the kitchen sink. However, Sunny was a little more interested in my scrambled eggs, a good portion of which I ended up feeding him off my hand. I couldn't be sure if Cameron and Elliot were still sleeping, or if they'd already left for the day, or if they'd even come home at all; but at any rate, eager to explore the village, I wasn't going to wait around for them to show.

  So, after getting dressed, I stepped out the front door with Sunny, discovering that a paved driveway connected with a wide dirt lane lined with evergreens, spruces, and sycamores. Thinking that maybe this was the main road that led through the village, I set out down it, heading left for no particular reason, with Sunny happily hopping along by my side.

  After a couple hundred feet, we came upon a thick copse of trees half-hiding another ranch-style house, with one almost identical across the lane. A couple hundred feet after that, a two-story cabin came into view, with a lovely, sprawling white colonial opposite it, which struck me as kind of a funny style of house to see situated within such dense forestland. Nonetheless, it sort of worked. It at least looked beautiful against a backdrop of towering pines still gleaming from the torrential downpour the night before.

  A few more houses of varying sizes and styles later, I came upon my first sign of human life when a pony-tailed young woman in running shorts and a t-shirt appeared jogging over the crest of a gentle hill.

  Immediately spotting me and Sunny, she waved and then slowed to a stop in front of us, smiling. "Hi. You must be the new Gifted."

  Smiling in return, I extended a hand. "I am. Jayme Adler."

  She took my hand and shook it, still smiling. "Nice to meet you, Jayme. I'm Dana Maloney."

  "Nice to meet you, Dana."

  Sitting at my feet, Sunny suddenly did a short, loud bark, as if he was impatient to be introduced as well.

  Laughing, Dana knelt and began petting him, making him wag his tail furiously.

  "We've had a few Gifteds bring their pets with them to the village, but I've never seen one as sweet a
s this guy. What's his name?"

  I told her, then went on to explain that he was my brand-new pet, only adopted the night before. "I actually need to take him into Hastings sometime soon, so he can see the vet."

  Dana said that she was planning to head into Hastings after her run to do some shopping. "Why don't the two of you join me, and we can do all our errands together?"

  I said that sounded great.

  "Great. First, though, has anyone given you a tour of the village yet? Our 'downtown' is back up the lane if you want to check it out. I'll jog beside you and Sunny if you want. A slow jog is kind of my max-out speed anyway."

  I said I'd love a tour, and back up the lane we went, long-legged Dana slowly jogging, shorter-legged me speed-walking, and three-legged Sunny happily speed-hopping, veering away from the group every so often to chase butterflies in the tall grass on the side of the road.

  While we went along, Dana asked me the basics about myself and I asked her the same, learning that we were the exact same age, almost to the day, and also learning that she'd been a preschool teacher before her Gifted power had become manifest.

  "I wasn't a very good preschool teacher, though. I loved the kids, but I found I just didn't have the patience level required to deal with twenty of them at once for hours at a time. I also tended to get frazzled and overwhelmed very easily. So, when I became a Gifted, I was kind of thrilled about the career change. I was posted in Minnesota and had a great couple of years...but then I got zapped by an Angel about two dozen times in one fight, and my own zapping powers were never the same. I became kind of a useless Gifted, only able to zap with about a quarter of my former strength.

  "At the same time, my boyfriend and I were breaking up, so I asked for a reassignment, and I came here, to join a bunch of other 'Gifted rejects,' as many of us affectionately call ourselves." Still slowly jogging beside me, Dana glanced over at me with a smile. "I don't know how much the government agents told you about us here, but we're kind of a ragtag bunch of Gifteds. Some have suffered permanent reduction of our powers through injury, like me; some just never settled into their role as Gifteds and some of us have full powers but just completely lack confidence, to a literally crippling degree.

  "There are a few others with even more specific problems, like one Gifted who was zapped in a battle in Kentucky, and ever since just simply refuses to fight. So, not to put any pressure on you, but rumor has it that you're a double Gifted, and an incredibly talented one with no baggage, possibly making you the leader we all need. I've tried to step up to the plate a few times myself, but as a permanently injured, 'disabled' Gifted, it's just really been a struggle for me. I just don't feel like I have any authority, I guess."

  It seemed more and more that Cynthia was right, that me becoming leader of the Haverwood Gifteds almost seemed like my destiny. I just hoped I was up to the task, being that the reason I had no Gifted "baggage" was that I was still a brand-new Gifted and completely inexperienced. Or at least near-completely inexperienced. I supposed I'd earned at least one stripe of some sort fighting the Angel wolf the day before. All I could tell Dana was that I'd try my best to be some sort of a leader, and she said that was good enough.

  Soon we reached the "downtown" of the village, which consisted of a teeny-tiny grocery store, a small fitness center, a small bar, and a small coffee shop, all run by Gifteds, and all in the same aluminum-sided, subdivided building. Dana explained that with a total village population of about two hundred and fifty people, it wasn't really necessary to have large-sized, full scale businesses in the village.

  "Most of us have been going into Hastings to do our errands, but it is nice that we have a few entrepreneurs here, so that we don't have to make a twenty-something mile drive just to get a gallon of milk or use some exercise equipment."

  After she'd given me a walk-through of the four different businesses, we said hello to three other Gifteds sitting at one of just four circular tables in the brightly-lit coffee shop. One of them, a petite brunette named Maggie, greeted me enthusiastically, but the two others barely looked up at me and said hello so quietly I could barely hear them. It was obvious that they were both painfully shy, and I thought it possible that they were two of the Gifteds lacking confidence to a "crippling degree," as Dana had said.

  After grabbing cappuccinos to go, Dana and I, along with Sunny, I headed to Dana's medium-sized, sand-colored bungalow, where Sunny and I lounged around and watched some TV while Dana took a quick shower. Once she'd finished dressing, we made a stop back at "my" house, my temporary house anyway, so that I could grab my purse and wallet. Then, the three of us hopped in Dana's shiny white SUV and began heading down the dirt lane, which would eventually connect with the back country road that lead to the highway, and Hastings. We hadn't even made it down the lane yet when Dana said something so startling that I began choking on a sip of cappuccino.

  CHAPTER SIX

  Once my little choking fit had subsided, I glanced at Dana. "Sorry, what?"

  I really wasn't sure if I'd heard her correctly.

  She just laughed. "Oh, I think you heard me. And what's your answer? Did you make it through your first night in Haverwood without finding yourself in a menage a trois situation, or did you not?"

  A menage a trois was definitely on my mind, but to have someone speak about the subject so openly and bluntly was kind of shocking, to say the least.

  Glancing over at me and surely seeing my shock written all over my face, Dana laughed again. "Oh, come on. If one of the agents didn't hint anything to you, surely you had to have guessed that menage a trois relationships are pretty common in Haverwood, just because of how many shifters there are and how few women there are. It actually goes on a lot. And I mean...a lot. One man, one woman couples are actually in the minority."

  Regaining my composure a bit, I took a sip of cappuccino.

  "Well, one of the agents did kind of give me a heads up...but, no...nothing too crazy happened last night. I can't deny that I'm attracted to both Elliot and Cameron, but really all we did was have dinner and give Sunny a bath...and we didn't even do those things as a threesome. It was dinner with Cameron, and dog-bathing with Elliot. The three of us were honestly only in the house all together for about a minute."

  "Well, maybe that was good, to kind of give you time to ease into things a bit...because as pretty as you are, I bet they're just as attracted to you as you are to the two of them, and I know for a fact that the two of them haven't dated anyone since Haverwood was established a few months ago, because they've been so busy...so, they're probably both hoping for a little romance now that you're in the house."

  I was really hoping so, both on a selfish level, for my own personal sexual desires, but also on a serving-my-country level, so that I could get a little closer to them both, earn their trust, and hopefully determine which of them was working with the Angels.

  Trying to act nonchalant, I just shrugged in response to what Dana had said. "Well...I guess we'll just see what happens. It is good to know that if something does happen between the three of us, at least I won't be the only woman in the village with a 'special' kind of relationship."

  Accelerating up the back country road, she made a noise between a chuckle and a sigh. "No, not even close. In fact, when I first got to Haverwood, I soon found myself in a physical relationship with not two, but three men. And after having my heart broken back in Minnesota, I discovered that having the attention of three handsome wolf shifters, all in bed with me at the same time, was just what I needed. However...after a few weeks of pretty intense physical experiences, things started to intensify on a love level, but with my falling in love with only two of my boyfriends. So, to make a long story short, the four of us soon became just three, and that's where I am today, with my boyfriends Jason and Brent. I love them both, and they both love me, and the three of us are pretty happy together, all in the same house. And I don't know if the three of us will make it as a trio forever, but...who knows. I'm just enjo
ying it all for right now, I guess. So, anyway, all of this is to say that if you do find yourself in a situation similar to mine, and if you have any questions or anything...don't be bashful. I'm all ears, and I definitely have the experience to give good advice."

  I thanked her, and then said that I did have one question right then. "I guess I'm just curious...when it was you and three boyfriends...well, how did you all fit in one bed? How, exactly, do four people make that work? How big was your bed?"

  Dana burst into laughter, and I joined her, totally getting how funny my questions had probably sounded, even though at the same time, I thought they were pretty valid questions. In my experience, sometimes a bed could get a little crowded with just two people taking part in "activities," let alone four.

  Once her laughter had subsided, Dana glanced over at me with her pale blue eyes twinkling. "My bed is a California king, but despite that large size, it did often get a little crowded with four people in it. I guess we just made it work...and there were also chairs involved sometimes, or one of my boyfriends would be at the foot of the bed, either just visually enjoying everything that was going on, or taking part in some way from that position. That's pretty much what goes on with three bedmates, too...you just kind of make things work somehow...and that can even be part of the thrill. It's just kind of exciting to be the female in such an arrangement, and have all the focus on you, and have several gorgeous, well-built men figuring out how to best position themselves to please you."

  I could imagine. I was getting a little thrill just from imagining a few different scenarios with Cameron and Elliot. Before soon changing the subject so as to not let my mind wander too far away, I decided that I was going to try to get Cameron and Elliot into my bed that evening. I wasn't even necessarily focused on my government-assigned information-gathering task; I was just becoming very eager to experience what Dana had, and still was. Being that it had been a year since Dave and I had broken up, it had been far too long since I'd enjoyed any real physical pleasure, and I was determined that that was going to change very soon.