Returned to Their Love Read online

  Yes, shifters got illnesses and diseases just like regular humans. Most of the times the illnesses were shortened because of their ability to shift, and sometimes, they just had to run their course. If a shifter was injured badly, they would try to shift, but even then, it wasn’t a guarantee they would come back out of it cured. It would help alleviate a lot of the pain and help heal the body, but sometimes they needed more recuperation time for bones, muscles, and tendons to repair themselves.

  The nurse, Janet Armstrong, had provided Marlowe with a set of scrubs to wear since her clothes had been ruined. Now, she sat in the front seat of the Younger brothers’ pickup, watching the scenery as they drove. She tried to stay scrunched up against the door.

  “Are you hungry, kitten?” Cole inquired from the backseat. “We can pick up something from the deli or grab a pizza.”

  She couldn’t help but roll her eyes. She couldn’t believe they were acting as if nothing had happened in the past and that she was here for a visit. However, it had been a long eventful morning, and she was hungry.

  “I’ll take a roast beef sandwich from Dee-lites, please.” Her voice was small and breathy, and she didn’t know why. It was like her body and senses were being tested being around them again. The way Cole kept saying kitten drove her girly parts crazy. Her nipples would harden, and her cunt became moist and hot. Her womb would quiver as if it knew these two men were supposed to be her mates. Of course they were. She just couldn't get her pussy to cooperate with her brain.

  At one time they had been destined as mates. Marlowe knew that, with what had happened, she was now going to be alone for the rest of her life. If she did meet a man that was worthy of her, she might be able to love him, but she would never mate with him. Cole and Cade Younger were supposed to be her mates, but no longer. Being around them had her body desiring them, but her head and her heart were totally against it. The memory was too strong of that fateful day, and her brain was trying hard to overrule her body.

  Cade pulled up in front of Dee-lites, the deli-bakery combo in Passion. Dee Decker had moved to Passion right before Marlowe had left. She made delicious sandwiches, salads, and soups, and she was a master baker also. She had been a mystery back then. No one really knew why she moved here by herself. Marlowe had to wonder if she had opened herself since then.

  While Cade was inside, Marlowe lowered her head and placed her hand slightly over the side of her face so people wouldn’t recognize her. The mission was to get in and out of town without everyone knowing she was there. She didn’t need idle chitchat.

  She heard Cole draw in a deep breath and then release it slowly. “You know everyone loves you here, right? I don’t know why you’re trying to hide.”

  “I don’t want to talk about it. Especially to you.” She knew she sounded like a bitch, but she didn’t care. At least that was what she told herself.

  Caring was something she couldn’t help doing since she left town. At least once a week, Marlowe was looking online at the small newspaper for Passion to stay digitally connected to the town. She was up to date on the marriages, deaths, and births here and all the news. Grieving and celebrating had been a part of her life away from home, but she had to do it from afar, and one of the reasons was sitting in the backseat.

  Marlowe was keenly aware of him, and so was her body. Desire kept coursing through her body no matter what she kept telling herself. She just had to get through the next day until her car was fixed, and then she could leave. Once she was away from here, away from Cole and Cade, she’d be fine again.

  Once Cade had returned with their lunch, they headed out to the Younger ranch. The ranch had been in the family for nearly sixty years, their grandfather marrying into the Preston family, who had been in Passion for over a century. The ranch provided the meat for the town but also sold elsewhere, providing them a great income.

  Driving onto the ranch brought back so many memories. They came flooding in so quickly that Marlowe had to blink hard to keep her tears from falling. This place had been her second home for so long, the people there providing a love of family and, later, what was supposed to be a relationship love.

  The gravel road was lined with conifer trees, offering a windscreen and beauty to the ranch. An intersection came into view, and Marlowe knew one side went to the main barn and the outer buildings, and the other went to the house. Cade turned toward the house. Marlowe couldn’t keep the gasp of surprise from escaping her lips.

  “There was a fire two years ago. We lost half the house, and since it was so old, we needed to think about the structural damage. Rebuilding was the best thing to do, so we built the new house bigger for the future families that live here,” Cade explained as he pulled up in front of the dark blue Victorian house with white trim.

  “What do you mean future families?” She hadn’t missed that sentence. This house had been in family, passed down from generation to generation, and now he acted like they wouldn’t be living there very much longer.

  Cole cleared his throat from the backseat. “We may be making some changes in the future. There’s nothing to keep us here anymore, and Mom can’t handle the ranch herself, so we’re thinking about selling.”

  Marlowe didn’t understand why they wouldn’t be staying around when their life was here. What was going on? Why would they think that?

  As she thought about what was said, she didn’t realize that the two men had exited the truck. They were both at her door, Cole holding it open with his hand out to help her down. Cade was carrying the bag of food.

  Her hand was engulfed in Cole’s, and he refused to release it. The threesome made their way up to the front door. The front door opened quickly, and Marlowe’s substitute mother stepped through, a smile on her face. Coraline looked frail and half the woman she used to be. Tears sprang to Marlowe’s eyes, and this time, she couldn’t stop them.

  Coraline’s beautiful blond hair was now patchy and dull, her body thin. Her skin was taut and sallow, and her face tired looking. However, she still seemed happy to see Marlowe as she opened her arms wide and gathered Marlowe into them, her tears flowing freely.

  Chapter Three

  The sandwich Marlowe was chewing tasted like sawdust as Coraline explained her plight. “The doctors say they got all the cancer, but I still have an uphill battle from here. I have reconstructive surgery scheduled for next week, and I need to get my body back into shape. The chemo and radiation kicked my ass.”

  She avoided the twins’ faces as she looked at Coraline. “I wish I had known,” Marlowe said softly.

  “Would you have come back?” Cade asked rather harshly. “Would it have made a difference?”

  “Cade!” chastised Coraline. An awkward pause abounded for a few moments before Coraline said, “Don’t you two think it’s time to tend to your chores?”

  Marlowe heard the two men mumble a quick, “Yes, ma’am,” before they stood and took their plates to the sink. She had to keep from giggling.

  They were sitting in a small nook off the kitchen, part of what looked like an octagon from the outside. Four windows faced wide open land with a herd of horses standing close to the fence line. Marlowe was falling in love with the view all over again but knew this would be the last time she saw it.

  “We’ll be back in a few hours, baby girl,” Cade said as he came back to the table and laid a quick kiss on Marlowe’s head. Cole copied the action before both men left the room.

  To say she wasn’t touched would be a lie. It would be too easy to fall for their charms, but Marlowe had to remember what they had done. However, right now, she was here for Coraline.

  Coraline moved seats until she was sitting next to Marlowe, who laid down her sandwich and pushed her plate aside. She turned until she was looking at the woman who had been there for her through thick and thin. She had been there when Marlowe needed tampons when she first got her period. She was the one to hold Marlowe when her mother disappeared and let her cry endlessly.

  “I’m sor
ry you’ve had to go through all this.” Marlowe didn’t know what else to say. She wanted to be there for Coraline, but she didn’t know what she could do for her.

  “Baby, I wish you had been here also. My heart broke when you left town, and then when the boys said you didn’t explain why, I thought I had failed you.” Coraline covered Marlowe’s hand with hers. “The night before I had been so excited when they told me they were going to ask you to be their mate. You would finally be officially my daughter. Then, the next day, they said you weren’t home. We thought your father had been mean to you like usual, but he said you packed up and left. Where did you go? What happened?” the woman practically wailed.

  The lump in Marlowe’s throat was so big she thought she was going to choke. She knew that she would hurt Coraline when she left but not this much. Her heart ached at the trial Coraline had been through, and even before that, Coraline had mourned for Marlowe. No one should go through such despair.

  Did Marlowe tell the woman the truth? She had expected an addition to the family. Could she take the truth on what her sons had done?

  “The morning after we…um…well…” God, this was going to be so hard.

  “Take your time, baby. You don’t have to go into all the sordid details, but just let me know what happened.”

  Finding a spot on the tablecloth to fixate on so she didn’t look directly at Coraline, Marlowe began.

  “You know I loved Cade and Cole with all my heart back then. I knew eventually we would be mated, and that would have made me the happiest woman in the world. We made love the night before out in the forest after a run. It was heaven, but something deep inside told me not to let them mate me yet. I know it hurt them that I put them off, especially without an explanation, but it was on me.”

  “Baby, you have to follow your heart and your head. But sometimes, one can be wrong.” Coraline patted Marlowe’s hand. “I know you are my boys’ mate, so they must have done something to make you think that.”

  Marlowe shook her head. “No. I just somehow knew I needed to wait.” Taking a deep breath and then releasing it slowly, she tried hard to keep her emotions in check. “I was at Landley’s Hardware Store the morning after graduation. I needed to get some fuses since my father kept blowing them and refused to upgrade to a breaker box. Standing in the aisle, I heard voices in the next one, and it took me a moment to realize it was Cade and Cole, along with Jacob Sanders and Charlie Branson. C-Cole said I-I…”

  Jumping up from the table, Marlowe moved to the closest window and stood, her tears streaming down her cheeks. She heard the scraping of the chair on the hardwood floor, and soon Coraline was standing behind her, one hand on Marlowe’s shoulder.

  “Shh, sweetheart.” Coraline spoke softly and soothingly.

  The kindness the woman showed was too much for Marlowe, and she wailed, “He said I was such a cold frigid lay that he never wanted to be around me again!”

  Coraline gasped in disbelief. “No! They love you, baby. He never would have said that about you. You must have misunderstood him.”

  “I heard him, and all the others laughed along with him. After dropping the fuses, I ran from the store, went home, and packed. My father got mad at me because I didn’t get the stuff, and he struck me a few times and left. I knew he kept money under a loose floorboard, and I grabbed it and a few pictures of my mom and then left.”

  “Oh, sweetheart, I know you misunderstood. And then to have your father abuse you, you must have been so lost. I wish you had come here.” Of course, Coraline would want to play mother to Marlowe in a crisis, but she would have just taken Cade’s side.

  “I couldn’t. I wasn’t going to stay around where I would be a constant reminder of disappointment to Cole and Cade. The humiliation of meeting Charlie and Jacob in town constantly would have torn me up. Then, add my father on top of all that, my life would have been a disaster. It was better that I left.” Marlowe shrugged. “Besides, I put myself through school and got a job in San Francisco. If I had stayed here, I wouldn’t have been able to travel and see a lot the world. I’ve been happy.”

  She knew she didn’t sound convincing. She had seen a lot of places, but she knew she substituted love with the joy of travel. The pain dwindled some over time, but she knew deep inside it would never be replaced. Cole and Cade were her soulmates, and she was never going to know the joy of being married, mated, and having children, for she would never have another relationship as long as she lived.

  Both of Coraline’s hands were on Marlowe’s shoulders now, and despite the frailty Marlowe had seen in them earlier, they were still strong. The woman turned Marlowe around until they were facing each other.

  “You are going to sit down and listen to me, and I mean really listen to me.” Coraline took Marlowe’s hands in hers and led her back to the round table that sat four people.

  Mindlessly, Marlowe let Coraline sit her down, and then she watched Coraline walk over to the stove. She reached for the cabinet above the appliance and pulled down a bottle of whiskey. She grabbed two glasses and returned to Marlowe’s side. Once Coraline was seated, she poured the brown liquor into the glasses and then pushed one over to Marlowe.

  “You’ve always been a brave girl, Marlowe. I watched you grow up, surviving the abuse of your father.” Coraline took a sip of whiskey before continuing. “Your mother loved you so much that we were all shocked that she left the way she did. We tried to protect you from Danny, but he kept his alcoholism under the radar so the sheriff couldn’t do anything about it then. He kept his abuse just this side of being able to prove it, as he didn’t leave too many bruises on you or your mother. You always denied it even though we knew what was happening.

  “When you began to mature, I began to see the interest the boys had in you, and you in them. I knew you all were destined to be mates. I knew you knew it, but of course, the boys being boys, they denied it until the middle of their senior year. They came to me one night and asked me how they were to go about romancing you when you only saw them as friends. I told them they had to be honest with their intentions and not play around. From what I saw, that’s what they did.”

  Coraline nodded toward the glass in front of Marlowe and then took a sip from her own. Marlowe took a long draw of the whiskey and felt it burn all the way down her throat. She needed the courage that the liquor offered.

  “After Jim died, I was worried I wouldn’t be able to raise the boys well, especially on a ranch. As they got older, I was afraid I hadn’t explained mating to them properly. I was so thankful when they began to pursue you as a female and not as just one of their friends or one of the boys. You were so beautiful on prom night, and if I was honest with you, I expected you all to mate that night.” Coraline looked wistfully out the window briefly before looking back at Marlowe.

  Marlowe was taken back by the love she saw in the woman’s eyes. “I knew when the boys came home late on grad night. I thought they would bring you back here to live, to become one of us, but I respected all of you. The next morning, the boys asked me to meet them in town to help pick out an engagement ring for they wanted to treat you like a girlfriend first without immediately just mating you. So, you see, they loved you then, and I can guarantee Cade wasn’t talking about you. You need to ask them, sweetheart. I believe you have punished them, and yourself, for something you jumped to conclusions about.”

  Marlowe wanted to believe Coraline. There was no reason the motherly figure would need to lie to her. The love she had for Cade and Cole had been tucked away in the back of Marlowe’s heart, for she would always love them. She couldn’t trust them after the hurt they created. Even after twelve years, the hurt had a bigger part of her heart and her brain than the love. Also, she was certain the two men had moved on by now, so there was no reason to fancy a thought of staying around.

  “I don’t know if I can believe them, Coraline. I know what I heard.”

  “Is that all you heard?” Coraline asked cautiously. “Did you hear him sa
y your name? Did you wait around to hear more? Why didn’t you confront them?”

  “I was embarrassed. They were standing there talking about me, telling Jacob and Charlie how bad I was at sex. How was I supposed to interrupt them and ask why he was saying that?” Marlowe knew what Coraline was trying to get at, but how would she have reacted if she had heard Jim telling his friends the same thing about her?

  “Let me ask you something personal, Marlowe. Did you have an orgasm that night?”

  Many times! Shyly, Marlowe nodded.

  “Did they?”

  Oh. My. God! She couldn’t believe she asked that of her own sons. “Of course.”

  “If you were frigid, you wouldn’t have, and neither would they. All I’m saying is that if they were unhappy with you that night, they wouldn’t have been able to perform. Think about that.” Coraline stood and picked up her glass of whiskey. “I need to go back to my place and rest. I’ll see you after while.”

  “Your place?” inquired Marlowe, confusion in her voice.

  “The boys had a cottage built for me when I told them I wanted them to have the house for their future family. I wanted them to have their privacy.” Coraline’s voice was sad as she spoke. “I had imagined it filled with grandchildren by now.”

  Sadness filled Marlowe again from the older woman’s comment. Staring out the window, Marlowe had to wonder if Coraline could be right about what she had heard and believed all this time.

  * * * *

  “What do you think Mom’s saying about us?” Cole asked as he picked up a bale of hay off the back of the pickup and lifted it over the edge into the hay feeder. Even though they had ranch hands, they still did the hard work alongside them. Today, with everything that had happened with Marlowe, they were late with their own chores.