I Love You Two

  Wolf Harbor

  L.J. Breedlove

  Published by L.J. Breedlove, 2022.

  I Love You, Two

  By L. J. Breedlove

  Published by L. J. Breedlove

  Copyright 2022 L. J. Breedlove

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  License Notes

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please purchase a copy. Thank you for respecting the work this author.

  Disclaimer

  This is a work of fiction. While place descriptions and news events may coincide with the real world, all characters and the plot are fictional.

  Contact Information

  For more information about this author, please visit www.ljbreedlove.com. Email address is lois@ljbreedlove.com.

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  I Love You, Two

  Postscript

  Further Reading: Alpha Female

  Also By L.J. Breedlove

  About the Author

  I Love You, Two

  A short story in the urban fantasy suspense series, Wolf Harbor

  Abby Stafford had been a werewolf for exactly one week. A lot had happened in that week, a thought that sent her into hysterical laughter.

  “Stand still,” Yui Yoshida said with exasperation. “Haven’t you ever had a dress fitting before?”

  “No,” Abby said honestly. “Not since the sixth grade when my mother still sewed some of my clothes for me. And she complained about me not standing still then.”

  That was a long time ago, Abby thought, as she tried to see herself in the three-way mirror.

  “Abby!” Yui scolded. “You can look as soon as I get this one seam to hang correctly.”

  Yui Yoshida was in charge of the medical center at Wolf Harbor Resort. She ran the clinic, the spa, gave amazing massages, and was responsible for all of the gardens that surrounded the resort.

  She was also an 87-year-old shifter who looked 30. Who had never looked older than that, unlike Abby, who ten days ago looked like the 52-year-old professor she was. Yui had taken on the challenge to turn Abby, the dowdy professor, into a warrior queen fit to have dinner with the Alpha of most influential pack on the West Coast, perhaps the world. Making Abby a shifter had been simple in comparison.

  Cinderella’s fairy godmother had it easy, Abby mused. Cinderella was young, fit from manual labor and lean eating. She needed a good scrub, a pretty dress and she was good to go. Any Nordstrom personal shopper could do it in her sleep.

  Turning a middle-aged, overweight, burnt out college professor in a ‘warrior queen’?

  Now that was a challenge. Even for a shifter godmother like Yui Yoshida.

  Abby grinned. Well, she’d seen Yui work her magic once before. She had faith she’d be presentable for tonight’s dinner at Akihiro Tanaka’s penthouse home. In downtown Seattle. She was excited. Just to see the apartment with its amazing views would be wonderful.

  Abby came to Wolf Harbor Resort to be a test subject for a new supplement that would reduce the effects of aging in post-menopausal women, restoring their vitality, making them look more youthful and energetic, and increasing their all-around fitness. As chair of the anthropology department at Seattle University, Abby Stafford was no stranger to grant-funded research. She read the fine print. She was reassured by the research’s affiliation to UW, its request for a physical, a whole host of required signatures. So, she said yes to a summer at the resort — all expenses paid — on Hat Island, a small island at the south end of the San Juans, just off of Everett harbor. In Possession Bay, no less, a name that made her giggle now. Wolf Harbor Resort. Possession Bay. Really.

  And the supplement did what it promised. Abby was slowly becoming 30 again. She’d lost weight, she was healthier, more energetic. She didn’t have gray in her hair anymore, and she could even tolerate that it was returning to the brighter red of her youth. If only it was becoming more manageable! No luck there, unfortunately — although Yui had solutions for that too.

  So what if there was an unmentioned side effect? So what if she now had a wolf, and a tendency to how at the moon? For restored youth? For an expanded life span to 200 or more? What was a little shifting between friends?

  She rolled her eyes. Of course, she had proceeded to do just that: howl at the moon, and then the fool shifters on the island had howled back. Something magical happened, and Hat Island had a pack again — the first time in 80 years. And then? Abby was their Alpha? Who in their right mind puts a recently turned human in charge? She could barely run down the center lawn without stumbling over her feet! Two feet or four.

  So yes, she felt a bit like Cinderella.

  “Now look,” Yui said, sitting back on her haunches.

  Abby turned to look at herself in the mirror. The dress was cinnamon, and it clung a bit in spots. It came to her knees, and swished when she moved. It had a deep scoop neck, and Abby eyed it suspiciously. “Are you sure I won’t fall out of it if I have to bend over to pick something up?”

  “Don’t do it,” said Mei Tanaka, a 24-year-old member of the Tanaka pack who had appointed herself as Abby’s personal shopper. “That’s what you have Jake along for. Let him pick it up for you.”

  Jake Lewis. She smiled, thinking of him. He was her Second, the man who stood at her back. And her lover. Her eyes closed a bit as she thought of their lovemaking.

  “And whatever you’re thinking about right now?” Mei said, laughing. “Stop it. You don’t have anything underneath that dress, and everything, I mean everything shows.”

  Abby glanced at herself in the mirror, and her eyes widened. “Noted,” she said. “No thinking about sexy things.”

  Yui laughed. “I would just be careful about who is looking when you think about ‘sexy things,’” she teased.

  One of the benefits of her new life as a shifter. She’d been wearing a C cup bra since she was 14. And someone was actually sending her out in public without any bra at all? She grinned.

  “Now sit down, and let me fix your hair and your makeup,” Yui ordered.

  Abby sat obediently. The two women had decided that the Alpha of Hat Island needed help if she was going to represent them. Since Abby was happy to wear black yoga pants and gray men’s cotton Ts 24/7, she thought they were probably right. She was tall, 5-foot-10, and broad-shouldered. Although she was rapidly losing excess pounds and replacing it with lean muscle, she was never going to be model thin. And had no desire to be that either.

  So Yui, a small Japanese-American woman, decided the right image was of a Viking warrior queen — by way of Ireland, Abby interjected — and that if her red hair wasn’t going to behave, then she’d make it deliberately wild. And instead of the bare brush of pink lipstick Abby used when she was teaching, Yui’s makeup for Abby was much more elaborate. Well she could hardly do less, Abby acknowledged.

  And heels. Abby rarely wore them. Her dean and university president were both short men, who resented it if she towered over them. There were times when it paid to intimidate them, and she did so, barely hiding her amusement. But generally? The university was full of short men with thin-skinned egos.

  “You’re sure, Alpha Tanaka won’t be put off if I’m taller than he is in these shoes?” she asked anxiously. Akihiro Tanaka was probably her height. As a Japanese American man who had been an adult during WWII, he by all rights should be short. But shifters were bigger as humans, just as they were bigger than wolves in their wolf form. Still, she’d wear flats happily if it would make him happier.

  Mei frowned. She was Akihiro’s niece — probably great, great, maybe even a third great, niece. “Why would you say such a thing?” she demanded. “Alpha Tanaka isn’t intimidated by anyone, most certainly not by a woman who has dressed to please him!”

  Abby laughed, delighted at the different take. “Men at the university would be,” she said. The shoes Mei had chosen were cinnamon sandals and not all that high.

  Mei snorted. Which apparently was all that needed to be said about that.

  When she was ready, there was a knock on the door, and Jake came in. He was truly the most gorgeous man she’d ever seen. He didn’t need to worry about her heels, she thought with satisfaction. He was taller than she was no matter what she wore. And he had broad shoulders, well-muscled abs. Actually 40 years in the Marines had given him muscles everywhere. He was 60, looked 28, and had for 30 years. She shook her head.

  But it was his coloring that fascinated her. A member of the Lewis Pack in White Swan, his father was Yakama-Filipino and his mother was a Black woman, one of the Craven wolves from Roslyn. The combination gave him warm brown skin and silky black hair that curled around his ears now that he had stopped keeping it military short.

  His father had banished him at age 13. Abby couldn’t get over that. But Jake was dominant, dominant enough to one day challenge his father, if he had a mind to. Jake said he couldn’t think of anything he wanted less than to be responsible for a pack in the foothills outside White Swan. But his father, like most pack Alphas, couldn’t tolerate the idea of a potential challenger in his household.

  A banished Shifter Prince, she thought with a smile. Lewis Pack’s loss. Her gain.

  Jake was wearing a black suit over a black silk turtleneck, and she wanted to haul him upstairs to bed and take it off of him — a message he picked up from their link as Alpha and Second.

  “Back at you,” he murmured in her ear as he stood behind her in the three-way mirror. She smiled at him.

  “Go,” Yui ordered. “You don’t want to be late.”

  Mei gave her a black lace shawl to wear. “You do us proud,” she said, seriously.

  Abby hugged them both. “Thank you,” she said sincerely.

  And then they were off. Pete Craven, another of the Roslyn wolves — well formerly a Roslyn wolf, he was hers now — was piloting for them. She had to sit down in the cabin of the Resort’s cruiser, or her hair would be truly wild by the time they got there. Pete let them out at the dock in Everett, and Jake brought around the Resort’s SUV for the drive into downtown Seattle.

  “You look beautiful, Alpha,” he said, smiling at her as he drove.

  “Jake?” Abby said timidly. “Are you sure about all of this?”

  “Pack Alphas are polyamory, Abby,” Jake said. “I love you. I will always love you. But there is room in your heart for two — or more — and Akihiro Tanaka would offer you a lot as a mentor, and a friend. But also as a lover. If he appeals to you, and I can tell that he does, there is no reason he shouldn’t be a friend and lover.”

  Abby frowned. She wasn’t sure she bought that. She’d always been monogamous. Well, mostly she’d been celibate, she acknowledged. And Jake was right, turning shifter had accelerated her sex drive! She had gone for days, maybe even months without thinking about sex. And now?

  Jake grinned at her. He picked up a lot of her thoughts through their bonds as Alpha and Second. Second and mate, her wolf said smugly. And yes, perhaps someday, her mate — yet another bond. Right now, Abby was struggling to juggle the pack bonds of a couple hundred shifters. It gave her headaches. And that worried Jake. We have time for a mate bond, he had assured her. You need to let the other bonds settle. And you need to think about whether I’m the person you want for a mate. Second and lover might suit you better.

  She wasn’t sure she liked him being quite that pragmatic about it.

  “Abby,” Jake began, and she knew he had picked up on something. But they were at Tanaka Tower, and he signaled his turn into the parking structure. “Later,” he said, as he came around to help her out of the car. Truly a Jeep wasn’t the best car for a woman in a short skirt, she thought disgruntled.

  “I beg to differ,” he murmured as she flashed a lot of leg. She laughed, her good nature restored.

  The guards at the elevator checked their guest list, and nodded to the elevator. It began moving smoothly upward as soon as the doors closed. Controlled by the guards, she thought. She knew Tanaka’s security was tight. And his Second was a scary man named Haru Ito, usually described as a stone-cold killer. He’d been Tanaka’s Second for 80 years.

  She still got whiplash at the lifespans of the shifters, and what that meant to their understanding of history. When the older wolves sighed for the good old days, they weren’t talking about the 1950s — they meant the 1850s, and some of them might go back farther. She paused to think of that. Sometime when things weren’t so hectic she’d like to interview them — to hear history first-hand.

  The elevator let them out at the penthouse. It was a magnificent apartment. Windows gave views on three sides, overlooking Seattle to the south and north, and of the bay and the Olympic peninsula to the west. Akihiro greeted her, taking her hands, and she shivered a bit with desire at his touch. She saw the amusement in his eyes, but she was too pleased to be here to resent it or be embarrassed.

  There was a chamber quartet playing from the living room. About 30 people circulated. Some humans, she realized, and she was a bit surprised. She hadn’t thought Akihiro associated much with humans. The men outnumbered the women, and then she realized she was the only shifter woman in the room. Well, that explained the humans, she thought. She wondered if the women knew the men were shifters?

  No, Jake said through their bond. They don’t. It’s a death sentence to reveal shifters to humans. Abby nodded at him, that she’d gotten his information. She had known that too, she just forgot. It was one of very few rules that governed all shifters.

  It must be hard, she thought, to love a human woman and then lose her. To old age, or to end it because you were staying young and she wasn’t. Really hard.

  Akihiro introduced her to several people, some of whom had heard of her work as a scholar writing about isolated communities and their transition to a modern world. Several names she recognized. Big names in the high-tech world.

  She relaxed as she made small talk. This wasn’t her favorite thing, but she’d gotten adept at the meet and greet required of a university administrator, even a low-level one like department chair. Alumni, donors, trustees. They all seem to require a certain amount of this kind of attention. Apparently shifter society was no different.

  They were seated for dinner, and Abby was at Akihiro Tanaka’s left, something that was noted, and she heard people murmur. She swallowed nervously, then straightened her posture, and said something polite to Akihiro. He responded, and then she said something to the man on her left.

  “How do you know Mr. Tanaka?” the man asked, a shifter.

  She smiled. “He is interested in my work as an anthropologist,” she replied. “And you?”

  I’ll bet that’s what he’s interested in. She picked up the thought even though that wasn’t normal for shifters. Wasn’t usually possible for her, unless they were pack. She was particularly sensitive tonight, if she was picking up the thoughts of strangers. She forced a smile. And turned back to Akihiro, to talk with him about the chamber quartet who had been playing earlier.

  “Come,” Akihiro said softly in her ear after dessert, and music had resumed. “Let me show you the roof-top terrace.”

  She smiled at him, found her shawl, and they went back to the elevator, and up one level. She hesitated. Jake had drilled it into her head that she didn’t go anywhere without him. But Akihiro was without his Second as well, and she didn’t think he posed a threat.

  At least not a threat to her life, she thought whimsically. Maybe to her heart.

  It was a clear night, and they were high enough above the city lights, to see the stars.

  “It’s beautiful,” she said, looking around. Truly every direction was gorgeous. She could even make out the outline of Mount Rainier to the southeast. She turned to look at Akihiro, who was leaning against a wet bar watching her.

  “Your enjoyment of life is appealing, Dr. Stafford,” he said.

  She shook her head. “Abby, please,” she said.

  He nodded, and he just watched her. She could hear the music from the floor below, and she smiled. “Will you dance with me?”

  He held out his hand, and pulled her close to him, and they drifted slowly to the music. She enjoyed the feel and warmth of his body, the firm grasp of his hand on hers, the other at her waist. She shivered with pleasure. She saw his eyes lower, and felt his pleasure at her obvious response to his touch.

  Oops. Well, Yui said just be careful who sees you, she thought ruefully.

  “Will you allow me to court you, Abby?” he asked softly. “Or are we to be friends only?”

  She smiled at him, this man who was as much the Shifter King as any in the world. A progressive man, a leader in his field, and Alpha to the largest pack in the world. “Friends, and maybe more,” she agreed.

  There was a sudden tug on her bond with Jake, and she looked at Akihiro with alarm. He was frowning. Apparently, he’d gotten something from his Second too. “What?” she demanded.

  He shook his head.

  Jake? She asked.

  Sorry to interrupt, Alpha, he replied through the bond. But a small bomb went off in the parking garage. Second Ito is investigating it. But perhaps you should return to the penthouse?

  She relayed the information to Akihiro Tanaka, and he was already moving her toward the elevator. “It would be nice to be able to share words through the bonds,” he said speculatively.

  “You don’t?”

  He shook his head. “I have never heard it was possible,” he admitted.

 

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