#12 The Triplets of Emerald Forest

Griffin

“Why can’t the two of you think with your fucking head instead of your dicks!” I shouted at Gabe and Ric from the back of the SUV.

“We were telling those girls to leave us alone when she showed up.” Ric grumbled.

“We shouldn’t have to explain ourselves when it comes to defending our mate’s honor against other males.” Gabe was fuming.

“If what she says was true, which I’m sure it was because she has no reason to lie to us, then we did overreact. She’s a human and doesn’t see the same threats that we do.” I argued with them.

“No, Griff, I won’t give in here. Sometimes she just needs to learn her place.” Gabe snapped.

“I cannot believe that you just said that.” I growled at him.

“Do you have any idea how many mates, how many Alphas, take mistresses? She’s lucky we’ve been so patient with her.” Godric’s eyes were black.

“You’re both assholes.” I said, then refused to speak with them for the rest of the trip home.

When we pulled up in front of the packhouse, the girls were out of the car and through the front door before we could even undo our seatbelts. We followed them upstairs.

“Let’s just go, Annie.” Cam sighed, arguing with his mate in the living room just outside of the elevator.

“No! Harlie needs us.” She argued, turning her glare on us when she saw us exiting the elevator.

“Matti….” It seemed like Ambrose was having the same argument with his mate.

“It’s okay,” Our mate’s voice sang through the room, “Go ahead, guys, I’ll be fine.” She was hugging herself with a sad but very pissed off look on her face.

“Are you sure, Harlie?” Kori asked, hugging her tightly. Nova was standing in front of us with her hands on her hips,

“You three better be good to her. You have a lot of apologizing to do.” Nova said, jabbing her finger in our chests.

Finally, they all left, leaving just the four of us. Harlow glared at us before she turned around and stomped off towards her room.

“Don’t shut us out, Harlow, talk to us, please.” I begged, following after her first.

“I don’t want to talk to any of you right now. I just want some space.” She said, leaning on her door jam.

“You’re being ridiculous.” Gabe huffed.

“I’m sorry my emotions are so ridiculous.” She spat, narrowing her eyes on him.

“Can’t we just talk.” Godric seemed to finally be calming down now, too, and was starting to see reason.

“No.” Harlow said before backing into her room and slamming the door in our faces. I heard the lock slide home.

“Open this door!” Gabe slammed his fist into the door.

“Gabe, knock it off.” I grabbed his arm and yanked him away from the door before he broke it down.

“I’m going to break that damn door down.” He snarled.

“No you are not. You’re going to go for a run and calm down. We’ll address this in the morning before you make it worse.” I gave him one good shove towards the door to our wing.

He stood up tall like he was going to attack me but then Godric planted himself between us.

“He’s right, Gabe. Let’s go.” Ric said,

He grabbed Gabe’s arm and forcibly made him walk towards the stairwell. Once they were gone I let out a sigh of relief and leaned on Harlow’s door,

“They’re gone, angel. I understand that you need some time to yourself so I’ll just be out here looking out for you.” I whispered. I heard something from the other side of the door and I knew that she heard me.

All night and into the next morning, Gabe and Ric didn’t return to our floor and Harlow didn’t leave her room. I knocked on her door at breakfast time but she still refused to come out. I sighed and ordered Waylon up here to stand guard while I went to find my idiot brothers.

“Where is she?” Ric asked in a grumpy voice as he sat at the breakfast table.

“She won’t leave her room.”

“Oh, this is just ridiculous.” Gabe huffed. I sat down at my assigned seat and rolled my eyes at the pair of them.

“Stop calling her ridiculous. It’s not ridiculous. She’s a human woman with human emotions. Your inability to be compassionate of her needs is what’s ridiculous.”

“Is she more pissed at seeing us with the girls or that we attacked that guy?” Ric asked, forcing out the last two words.

“I don’t know. She won’t talk to me. If I had to guess, I’d say it’s a combination of the two.” I said,

“So much for that trip bringing us closer and helping to ease our stress.” Ric sighed.

“You three really fucked things up for all of us.” Cam entered the dining hall with Ambrose, Deale, and Alaska right behind him.

“What?” Gabe snapped.

“All of our mates are pissed at us because of how you three treated the Luna. We’re all in the dog house until you four have made up.” Alaska explained, plopping down on his chair.

“What did the girls say?” I asked, trying to figure out exactly what we needed to apologize for.

“That you two should have pushed away those girls sooner and that it was hypocritical of you to attack the two men who touched her while you allowed those girls to dance with you.” Deale replied.

“Hypocritical?” Gabe growled.

“Don’t maul the messenger?” Deale raised his hands in surrender.

“She’s right.” I said, earning a glare from both my brothers.

“Right? It’s our job to protect her against all other males.” Ric looked at me with a furious expression.

“But it’s okay for you two to touch other females?” I cocked a judgemental eyebrow. Ric frowned and didn’t reply.

“She should trust us enough to know that we weren’t making any moves, we were just trying to get away.” Gabe argued.

“And we shouldn’t trust her to handle the guys? To push them away? To call for us if she actually needs help? I mean, she did handle that first guy just fine.” I challenged them. Now it was Gabe’s turn to shut up.

“Now that is some class A mate thinking right there.” Ambrose said, winking at me. I rolled my eyes at him but I was mildly grateful to have him on my side.

“Okay, maybe you have some points.” Ric finally conceded. I hid my grin behind the coffee cup I was drinking from.

Gabe grumbled incoherently but I definitely caught the words fine and maybe you’re right.

“Now, let’s just hope that she’ll open the door for us.” I said, shoving back my chair and motioning for them to follow.

“What? Now?” Gabe asked with wide eyes.

“Do you really want our mate to sit and brew any longer? It’s already been an entire night.” I reminded them. Ric and Gabe exchanged a worried look before they nodded and hurried after me.

Once again, I was standing in front of my mate’s door knocking softly.

“Harlow, it’s all of us and we want to talk to you. We want to apologize.” I said,

“We know that we acted unfairly and impulsively, Harlow.” Ric leaned forward and spoke to the door. I elbow Gabe who sighed and stepped forward,

“We were wrong.” He said those three magical words and then the door clicked open.

She leaned against the door frame again, her arms crossed over her chest. She was wearing an adorable set of matching cotton pajamas with short shorts and a tank top. It made this conversation that much more difficult.

“Tell me more.” She sighed and I smirked at her.

“May we come in?” I asked and she hook her head, remaining firmly planted in the doorway,

“No.”

“Okay, that’s fine, we can apologize from right here.” I said, looking sideways at my brothers.

“We shouldn’t have put ourselves in that compromising position with your friends. We could have removed ourselves quicker from the situation. It wasn’t fair nor respectful towards you and for that we’re truly sorry.” Godric began,

“And, I understand how it seemed hypocritical of us to be around those women but then attack you for being near the guys. We should have trusted you enough to take care of yourself and call for us if you needed help.” Gabe went on.

“We love you very much, Harlow, and we’d never intentionally do anything to hurt you. Our instinct, as we’ve said before, is to protect you and we all acted on that instinct when we saw those guys touching you. We need to learn to control that impulse but it has nothing to do with not trusting you or thinking that you would not honor us.” I assured her.

“And we promise, we truly don’t see anyone else but you. I don’t know about Gabe, but I personally wasn’t even affected by the girl and I was mostly just trying to find you. I was trying to get her away without forcibly shoving her and hurting her, but I was also distracted from that because I was looking for you.” Godric continued.

“Me too.” Gabe added with a nod.

Harlow stared at us for a minute before smiling widely.

“Apologies accepted. You three really know how to apologize.” She smirked, “But if you ever allow a girl to touch you like that again I’ll rip your hands off.” She warned us with a stern expression.

“Deal, angel.” I leaned forward slowly and, when she didn’t back off, I planted a kiss on her cheek.

“There really is no one as beautiful, sexy, or amazing as you.” Ric continued laying it on thick as he kissed her forehead.

“I do have one condition,” And Gabe, as usual, ruins the moment,

“I want you to understand that we will never hesitate to protect you. We overreacted in the club, we should have waited to see how you handled things and if those men were really a threat to you. But, if we do see a man, or a woman, or anyone acting as a threat towards you we will take them out without a second thought and without asking for permission first.” Gabe warned her with a serious expression.

Okay, this one time, I agreed with him.

Harlow bit her lip and nodded slowly. Gabe took one step forward and had her pinned up against the door jam, his hand cupping her face.

“I will die to protect you, little mate, so don’t think for one second that I won’t face your anger to keep you safe. Understand?”

“Y…yes.” She stammered. He grinned and leaned forward to place a butterfly kiss on her nose.

“Good, now that that’s settled, can we go eat breakfast?” He grinned, pulling back. She relaxed, the delicious blush dissolving from her face as she nodded.