It Takes Two to Heal [The Wolfen 2] (Siren Publishing Menage Everlasting) Read online

  The Wolfen 2

  It Takes Two to Heal

  Jeanie’s attraction to both Dax and Erik is exhilarating but puzzling. Do they hold the key to her recovery from her past?

  Leading a life on the dark side of the law has colored the way Jeanie sees herself. Now, with a new chance at life, can she build a new future with Dax and Erik?

  Both men know that Jeanie is their mate and the only woman for them. They can forgive her past but can they help her heal what she’d been forced to do so that she will accept them as her future?

  The two men will do anything it takes to get her to move on with a new life with them. They make it their goal to court her like the woman she is and fight the mating call in order to give her time. Unfortunately, time isn’t on their side.

  Genre: Contemporary, Ménage a Trois/Quatre, Paranormal, Shape-shifter, Vampires/Werewolves

  Length: 35,359 words

  IT TAKES TWO TO HEAL

  The Wolfen 2

  Marla Monroe

  

  Siren Publishing, Inc.

  www.SirenPublishing.com

  A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK

  IT TAKES TWO TO HEAL

  Copyright © 2017 by Marla Monroe

  ISBN: 978-1-64010-695-6

  First Publication: October 2017

  Cover design by Harris Channing

  All art and logo copyright © 2017 by Siren Publishing, Inc.

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without express written permission.

  All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.

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  PUBLISHER

  Siren Publishing, Inc.

  www.SirenPublishing.com

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Marla Monroe has been writing professionally for over thirteen years. Her first book with Siren was published in January of 2011, and she now has over 75 books available with them. She loves to write and spends every spare minute either at the keyboard or reading. She writes everything from sizzling-hot cowboys, emotionally charged BDSM, and dangerously addictive shifters, to science fiction ménages with the occasional badass biker thrown in for good measure.

  Marla lives in the southern US and works full-time at a busy hospital. When not writing, she loves to travel, spend time with her feline muses, and read. Although she misses her cross-stitch and putting together puzzles, she is much happier writing fantasy worlds where she can make everyone’s dreams come true. She’s always eager to try something new and thoroughly enjoys the research she does for her books. She loves to hear from readers about what they are looking for in their reading adventures.

  You can reach Marla at [email protected], or

  Visit her website at www.marlamonroe.com

  Her blog: www.themarlamonroe.blogspot.com

  Twitter: @MarlaMonroe1

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  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  About the Author

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Landmarks

  Cover

  IT TAKES TWO TO HEAL

  The Wolfen 2

  MARLA MONROE

  Copyright © 2017

  Chapter One

  “A bar? Really?” Jeanie couldn’t believe it. They weren’t being forced into bedding men anymore. They were going to have a real, respectable job.

  “A bar. I’m keeping the name Creature Comforts because it still fits,” Kay told the women gathered in the club’s front room. “It’ll take some hard work to get it set up, but my ma—um, my husbands are having some of their employees do the hard part and the carpentry for us.”

  “And we don’t have to do anything except wait tables and tend bar?” Andrea asked.

  “That’s basically it. I’m toying with the idea of some type of entertainment, like maybe bring in a band on weekends and maybe some dance contests or an electronic bull. All of that’s still up in the air though. First, we have to get the building ready,” Kay said.

  Jeanie’s heart nearly raced out of her chest at the thought of a real job and maybe one day finding someone who wouldn’t look down on her for her previous profession. Maybe…she needed to get rid of the nightmares first.

  I’m not crazy. I know what I saw, and Kay says that just because it seems impossible doesn’t mean it is. Hell. I’m going from being a whore to a barmaid. That’s progress, and I never would have thought it would be possible a month ago.

  She tried to block what were horrible nightmares from her mind as she listened to Kay talk about liquor licenses and bartending. She’d done some bartending during the year she’d been able to spend at college before her mom got sick. Maybe Kay would let her do that. It would be nice not to have men pawing at her while she waited tables.

  Jeanie hadn’t wanted to be a prostitute, as none of the others had either. They’d all been forced into it by the owner of the brothel. He’d threatened to kill her mother and sister after hurting them. She’d done what she’d had to do to keep her family safe. If he’d threatened her alone, she’d have stood up to him, but he’d used her mom’s illness and her sister’s innocence to bend her to his will.

  “I’ve done some bartending at college,” she said. “I’ll go ahead and brush up on my drinks.”

  “That’s great. The good thing is all we’re going to serve is beer, whiskey, tequila, and gin. We’re not going to do any specialty drinks except on special occasions when we’ll create one or two for holidays or something,” Kay told her. “Keeps things simple and easier to handle.”

  Jeanie smiled. That would be great. Women tended to order all sorts of things that they’d heard or read about somewhere. Keeping up with the “in” drink of the month would have been a nightmare.

  “So, who would like to work on setting all of this up and then working at the bar once it opens?” Kay asked.

  Everyone in the room raised their hand. Hell, Jeanie raised both of hers. If they had enough spots open her, kid sister might be able to get a job there as well. She was twenty-one, so she would be old enough to be legal. Looking around, she realized that of the eleven women who’d worked there while it had been a brothel, only nine had shown up for the meeting. That d
idn’t mean that the other two weren’t interested, though. She’d just have to wait and see who was left when they got finished with getting the place ready for business.

  As Kay talked with some of the other women, she walked over to the plans of what they wanted to do to the place. As she studied them, a shadow fell over the papers. Jeanie looked up to find Dax, the head security guy who Kay had hired just before everything changed. One day Kay had come in and announced she was married to not one but two wealthy men, and the next thing she knew, Kay was closing the place down and promising to set something else up so everyone would still have a job. They were all given a very generous severance pay that would take care of her bills for at least the next four months. When she’d gone to pay extra on the hospital and pharmacy bills for her mom’s cancer treatments, most of them had been paid off.

  I still need to talk to Kay about that. I won’t accept charity from anyone, not even her—especially her. She’s already done more for me then she could afford to when she was trapped like the rest of us.

  Jeanie was ashamed of what she’d been forced to do, but one thing her mom had taught her after their dad died was that survival was for the strong who weren’t afraid to do whatever it took. That’s what she’d done, and Jeanie wasn’t about to apologize to anyone over it.

  “What do you think?” Dax asked her.

  His dark brown hair was pulled back today like it had always been when she’d seen him before. She loved how his hazel eyes contrasted with the hint of Native American that leaked through now and again. It was the straight nose and long face paired with his smooth tan skin that told her he had some of their blood in him.

  “It looks like it’s going to be a lot of work to get it ready by July. That’s right at three months away.” She watched the way he smiled as if he knew a secret. Maybe he did.

  “It will get done. Are you planning to stick around and help?” he asked, stepping closer to her.

  “Um, yeah. I want a job as a bartender. I’m hoping Kay will let me do that,” she admitted.

  “I’m sure she will if that’s what you would like to do. Have you asked her yet?” Dax walked over to the table where the plans lay spread out across the smooth surface.

  It put him much closer to her. One thing she’d started worrying about was when she met a man and he showed an interest in her was how she would know if he was interested in her as a woman to date or only screwing with her to get a free roll in the sack because of her past. Something about this man said he’d let her know right up front how he felt about her.

  “Are you relieved to have something else to do to make a living?” Dax asked her, cocking his head.

  Jeanie just stared at him. Was he for real? No one wanted to be a whore in a whorehouse. Why was he asking her all these questions, and what did it matter to him how she felt about her previous vocation?

  “What do you think, that I loved having strange men touching me and using me because they were too lazy or ugly to find their own woman? Do you believe that someone like me liked being pinched and shoved and treated like nothing more than a piece of meat? I hated what I did, but it put food on the table for my family and paid enough to keep the creditors off our backs so my mom could get the medical help she needed. I’d never have chosen that way of life if I hadn’t been forced into it,” she fumed, whispering in a furious tirade of words.

  “I didn’t mean to upset you. I was just wondering how you felt about it was all. I know that one of the ladies thinks Kay is going to start everything up all over again with a different spin on it. She thinks Kay will have you on your backs again between serving drinks. What do you think?” Dax asked her.

  “I know exactly who it was that said that, too. She’s a bitch and is never happy, no matter what anyone tries to do for her. Kay won’t do that to us. She’s a good woman. What are you doing here anyway? You were security when this place was a whorehouse. It’s not anymore,” she said, glaring up at him.

  “Bars need security, too. Besides, I’m very good with my hands. Erik and I are going to help with the renovations,” he told her with a smile.

  She felt that smile all the way to her already wet pussy. She’d had that problem around both him and Erik since they’d started at the club. She didn’t even know them, yet something set her off every time they were within her sight.

  Okay, every time I think about them.

  Jeanie narrowed her eyes. “Do you know her husbands?”

  “Yeah. As a matter of fact, we do. We work for them,” Dax said.

  “How can you work for him and Kay? Isn’t that a conflict of interest or something?”

  “Naw. We work where they tell us to. If it’s for someone else, then we work for them,” he said with a grin.

  “Jeanie? Can you come here a minute? I wanted to ask you something,” Kay called out from across the room.

  “Excuse me. I better go see what she wants.” Jeanie couldn’t help but smile at the man before turning and nearly jogging across the room toward Kay. Running away from the focus of her present troubles wasn’t the answer, but until she had a better one, Erik and Dax were off limits.

  * * * *

  “What are we going to do, Dax?” Erik asked as he joined his bondmate at the truck.

  “Watch after her for now. We can’t wait forever, but we have to be able to control the jealousy, or all we’ll do is hurt her and get ourselves eliminated for a murder spree,” Dax said.

  “You know, I honestly don’t think less of her or even resent what she did. We haven’t exactly been saints, but facing someone who’s been with her and gloats about it might tip me over the edge,” Erik admitted.

  He hated admitting it, but Dax was his bondmate and was in the same situation, so he would understand. Erik didn’t want Jeanie to ever feel as if they thought less of her for what she’d had to do to take care of her family. That was what family did. They sacrificed for each other. If anything, he was proud of her for her determination and love. She would be an excellent mate.

  “We’re going to have to figure out a way to resist that urge, because it’s going to happen.” Dax opened the driver’s side door. “We need to talk to our Betas about this. It has the potential to affect the entire pack.”

  “I agree. After we do, we need to rotate watching out for her. When she’s with Kay and the others working on the bar, it will be easy since one or both of us will be there anyway,” he said. “It’s when she goes home that we’ll have to figure out how to be there.”

  “The Betas will be able to offer some advice toward that. We need to keep this from our Alpha Queen as well. She watches over those ladies as if they were her own children,” Dax reminded him.

  “I know. The Alphas have the perfect queen. She is fierce when it’s someone she cares about.”

  Erik couldn’t wait for her to get pregnant. It would be the beginning of the Taum Sauk Pack returning to an active family again. He couldn’t even imagine cubs running around. It had been more years than he could remember since a cub had been born among them. With a new queen, the fertility of the pack would return. Her first cubs would be the beginning for all mated Wolfen.

  “Don’t get excited yet, Erik. I can see it written all over your face. They’re going to go slow so that Kay can become familiar with our way of life before they think about having cubs.” Dax managed a partial smile, but Erik knew his friend was as anxious as he was to see the queen round with new pups.

  He and Dax desperately wanted cubs of their own, but first they had to claim their mate and that meant controlling their naturally feral behavior when it came to her. She would have nothing to do with them if they couldn’t control their jealous nature. He and his bondmate had a lot to do before they could approach her. Even though her scent was driving them insane with need, they had to resist it and work on their control first. Jeanie’s happiness and safety were their first priority. Continuing now without knowing for sure that they could resist the need to kill anyone who tried to make
an issue out of her past would threaten the pack and put their mate in danger.

  I’ll protect her with my life, even if it means we can never fully claim her.

  Chapter Two

  “Easy, Jeanie.” Erik grabbed the end of the huge mirror from her hands and helped the other two women move it to the top of the bar. Once the new mirror was safe on the bar with no chance to drop and shatter, Erik returned his attention to her.

  The big man with his light green eyes was intimidating, but strangely enough, she wasn’t afraid of him. She didn’t get the feeling he would hurt her, but something about the way he and Dax stared at her as if she were the only thing in the world that mattered made her edgy when they were near.

  “I could have done that. You didn’t have to take it away from me,” she fussed.

  “I know, but there’s no reason for you to have to do it when I’m around. Dax and I are here to help with the heavy work so you ladies don’t have to. Leave it for the rest of us, sweet thing,” Erik said with a wink. “We like to show off our muscles and look manly in front of you beautiful ladies.”

  Jeanie wasn’t sure what to make of that. All the men working on the bar had been nothing but polite and friendly with them. Even the few who’d actually been guests at the club when it had been a brothel for all of those years. So far, none of them had said a word in reference to that horrible time in their lives. She, for one, was eternally grateful. More than likely, Kay, along with her husbands, had put the fear of their wrath into them if they did say something inappropriate.

  Jeanie left the mirror on the bar and returned to the kitchen area to help with unpacking the boxes of supplies that had come in. They weren’t going to cook elaborate meals there, but they were going to serve things like fries, wings, hamburgers, and such. Typical bar food to satisfy a hungry man after work or sustain one who lived alone and wasn’t much of a cook.