In any case, the fairy believed me. The tremor that ran through him was very real.
I dropped back again and let the wolves herd him out to the car.
I watched as the three werewolves I had to choose among arranged to eliminate one threat to me. Owen stopped long enough to make sure I was with them. And as we walked out to the car they brought, I began to worry about something entirely different from my recent kidnapping.
It was early morning still, and in the next few hours, I was going to have to choose which of these wolves I would take as a mate.
I had hoped to make my decision after a full night’s sleep.
Instead, I was going to have to make it after the three of them had mounted a rescue to save me. I had no idea how I was going to choose.
I didn’t love any of them—how could I with only a few days’ acquaintance?
But I had seen something of their true natures—the kindness, their loyalty, their willingness to step into danger to protect their alpha.
I could fall in love with any of them, I realized.
I simply hoped I would be able to keep from falling in love with the other two, no matter which one I chose.
“Once we have this prisoner settled,” Owen said, “Dean and Liam and I would like to speak to you alone, if possible.”
We were in the car, on her way back to the apartment building. The wolves were in the back seat, one on either side of the fairy captive, while Owen drove, and I sat in the front passenger seat. I glanced at Owen out of the corner my eye. “I still haven’t made up my mind,” I warned him.
“That’s what we need to talk to you about. We have some additional information that might help.”
“Additional information?”
“He nodded. “Don’t make a decision until we had a chance to talk to you, okay?”
I frowned, but I agreed. I didn’t know how to make the decision, so any help they wanted to give would be more than welcome. Though I feared—and suspected—that they were planning to make a final attempt at convincing me to choose one of them.
I guess hearing from each one of the werewolves why he might be the best choice might help me.
I was afraid that in the end, though, it would only serve to confuse the matter more.
Two days ago, my fear had been that I would meet someone new, someone other than one of these three, and fall in love with him. Now my biggest fear was that I would choose one of these three and fall in love with one or both others, as well.
I didn’t have long to worry, though. The fairies had taken me only a few blocks. Back at my apartment building, we pulled into the garage. Unlike the basement where I’d been kept, our holding room had private access, shielded from prying eyes out on the street.
I followed the wolves inside and watched interestedly as Dean and Liam stopped to shift back into their human forms. I stared, unabashedly admiring their muscular human shapes. Pure lust shot through me at the sight.
The other wolves, some in human form, some in wolf, who had helped free me pulled into the garage in the car they’d used to follow us back. They, too, piled out. “Owen, Alpha,” one of them trotted up to us. “I called ahead, and the on-duty staff here has been outfitting a second room in the basement with iron. We don’t have to use our normal containment room at all if we don’t want to.”
“It does have better soundproofing than any of the other rooms,” Dean said, having pulled on a pair of jeans that left his muscled chest bare.
“We can keep him quiet if we need to,” the pack member assured us. I shuddered a little at the thought of what that might entail.
“Take him in,” I said. But I placed my fingers on Owen’s arm to keep him and Dean from following. “Tell them I said no torture. Nothing like that without my express order.” They frowned, but they nodded.
“We’ll deal with him after the ceremony,” I said.
I didn’t know exactly what I would do, or how we would deal with him, but I did know that I couldn’t stand the thought of torture enacted in my name—not unless I knew we had exhausted all other possibilities first.
“Yes, Alpha,” Owen said, but I could tell he wasn’t thrilled with the idea.
Still, it bought me some time.
And with my choice and then the ceremony looming, that was something I had very little of.
Twelve
“Before the three of you tell me whatever it is you have to say, I have some questions about an alpha and his or her mate.” The four of us were in my apartment alone. They all nodded solemnly, again doing that weird in-sync thing they sometimes had going.
“What does being the alpha’s mate mean? What does he get?” I asked.
They traded smirking glances.
“Besides that,” I said impatiently. “What is it that you get out of it? Other than sex,” I added, forestalling any more significant glances.
“Officially, the pack alpha’s mate is supposed to provide physical, emotional, and all other forms of support to the alpha.” The other two nodded at Owen’s description.
“And what does that mean in practical terms?”
“It means that the alpha’s mate is the first in the line of advisors. The alpha is expected to choose a mate who can act as a sounding board,” Liam said.
“Someone who can offer sound advice,” Owen added.
“And someone who can be sure the alpha understands which issues matter to the pack,” Dean said.
“So, what you’re saying is that the alpha’s mate needs to be able to help the leader with intellectual, emotional, and social issues?”
It sounded more and more like a traditional marriage.
They all nodded. My gaze skipped from one to the next, taking them in. That pretty much encompassed the three of them. Owen would be the best at helping me with intellectual issues. He knew the history, the rules, all the details about running a pack.
Liam was certainly the one who could aid me in social situations. I thought back to how he’d handled Tara in the bar the first night.
And Dean was all emotion. He would help with any emotional decisions I might have to make.
My uncle had put together the perfect comitatus.
How was I ever supposed to choose just one of them as a mate?
The three of them did that thing where they stared at each other. Then they turned their gazes toward me. “What is it? What’s up?” I asked.
Liam took a half step forward, opened his mouth, and then shook his head as if at a loss. As usual, it was Owen, ever the diplomat, who came up with the right words. “We have come up with a plan that we like—but we’re not sure how you’re going to feel about it.”
“A plan for what?”
This time it was Dean who spoke. “You’re having some trouble choosing among us, right?”
I shrugged. “It’s a bizarre situation all the way around. On a personal level, I mean. Under normal circumstances, I would never be making a decision like this at all—much less based on three days and one date each. I know that I have to, but yeah, it’s a problem. You all have your strengths and any one of you would make a perfectly good advisor if we were talking in terms of politics—though each of you would be better for certain issues.” They were all nodding as I listed the reasons I was having difficulty choosing just one of them. “But I’m not merely choosing a pack advisor.”
Finally, Liam spoke up. “Then why choose?”
I blinked at him. “Because I’m required to have some kind of fight to the death if I don’t?”
“No. I mean, why choose just one of us? Why not choose all of us?”
An image flashed through my mind of the three of them kissing me all over, all at once. I shivered as a spear of hot desire flashed completely through me, finally centering itself right in the pit of my stomach.
Something clearly gave away my response, as all my potential mates’ eyes darkened. I could practically taste the lust swirling through the room.
I was pretty sure m
y mouth had been hanging open for several long seconds before I realized it. “But … is that allowed?”
“There are stories,” Owen said. “It’s not common by any means, but we are not human. There’s no reason we have to abide by human morality.”
“What would that mean for us?” I stammered. “I mean, I thought whoever gave me the bite was my mate in this circumstance.”
“We would all give you the bite.” Dean grinned at me and waggled his eyebrows, surprising a burst of laughter out of me.
“In the ceremony tomorrow,” Owen said, shaking his head at Dean’s salacious expression, “instead of one of us standing with you as you take the vow, we would all be there. And at the end of it, we would all three bite you.”
“I thought the bite that turned me created some sort of bond?”
They all laughed. “That’s kind of the werewolf’s version of a fairy tale,” Liam said gently. “It’s sweet and pretty, but it doesn’t really correspond to the truth.”
“You would all be my mates?” I studied them each in turn as they nodded. I wasn’t entirely certain how I felt about the idea in terms of being married to three men. I mean, what if they all got some kind of virus at the same time? They might all try to die of a man-cold.
I had to admit, as my sense of my duties as pack alpha grew, the idea of having all three of them to support me and guide me made me feel a lot more comfortable than the idea of choosing just one.
And the thought of having the three of them in my bed, whether all at once or one at a time, made my toes curl.
Not that I was certain they would ever agree to all coming to my bed at the same time. They might be a little too alpha male—if not pack alpha—for anything like that.
I wouldn’t have to choose. I could have more passion in my life, more intellectual stimulation, more love and kindness than I had ever imagined possible.
Yes. That voice inside me that had been guiding me ever since I started whispered fiercely. Yes, I want them all.
“Yes,” I said—and a little of that ferocity came through in my tone as all three of my werewolves stepped in close, each of them planting a kiss on me—Owen on the back of my hand, Liam on my cheek, and Dean on my neck.
My life was about to turn so damn hot.
Thirteen
Later that morning, Liam’s sister Tara helped me dress for the ceremony. We were cutting it close—it should have been the day before, but the fairies’ plot had wrecked that. We would still have to deal with them, but not until after the full moon.
I was about to put on the simple sundress I had chosen to wear for the ceremony when someone knocked on the door.
Tara opened it, and I heard murmuring. I sighed as I stared at myself in the bathroom mirror. Butterflies danced in my stomach. This was not at all how I had imagined my wedding day would be. Beginning with three grooms and ending with three bloody bites. And, if what Owen had told me was true, a miserable night locked in a cage while I waited for my first transformation.
Some wedding night this will be.
Tara appeared in the bathroom doorway. “I think you need to come see this.”
I followed her into the bedroom, where a box sat on the bed. I picked up the note on top of it.
I know it’s last minute. I’m sorry it took so long, but I had to have some alterations made.
~Mom
I pulled the dress out, immediately recognizing the satin, chiffon, and lace from my mother’s wedding dress—but this had been altered into something that was entirely me. A beautiful, flowing wedding dress. In fact, it looked almost exactly the like the sundress I had chosen to wear, only in white satin and chiffon instead of cotton.
“But I can’t wear this,” I said. “The bites will ruin it…”
Tara pulled a wrap out of the bottom of the box—made of heavy satin, it was a burgundy so dark it was almost black. It reminded me of the color of blood.
“I think this will keep that from being a problem,” Tara said.
For all that the wolves tended to congregate at The Moon Moon, my three grooms had arranged for us to use the convocation grounds—apparently owned jointly by all the wolves in the San Francisco area. It had a beautiful view of the water, and the pack had arranged to set it up as if for an actual wedding. Any humans walking by wouldn’t have been surprised to see the set-up.
But there wouldn’t be any humans because this was private pack land.
I drew a shaky breath as I stepped up to the end of the makeshift aisle created by the folding chairs. Everything had been decorated in red and white roses. I glanced at the end of the aisle where all three of my grooms stood. The flowers would be Owen’s touch, traditionalist that he was, but I would bet anything that the idea to have a traditional human-style wedding was Liam’s. He was the one who was thoughtful that way. And Dean? He was probably responsible for the bar and dance floor under the tent I spied not far away.
When I reached the end of the aisle, the three of them moved to stand in a circle around me—one on each side, and one behind. They’d decided on that placement to provide a visual of their support for me as pack leader.
In front of us stood the pack historian, James, the equivalent of a judge, Owen had assured me. As I repeated the words after him, something in my chest tightened at the solemnity of the occasion—the entire ceremony was more moving than I anticipated.
“I do solemnly swear, from this moment forward, to consider all my actions in light of the pack’s needs, and to act, in word and deed, for the good of the pack. I will always do whatsoever is necessary to strengthen, support, and aid in the survival of the pack. With these men, my mates, I will work to obtain the highest good of the entire pack. This I swear in the name of all that I hold dear and holy.”
Then, one at a time, each mate stepped forward and repeated the vows, adding in a line swearing to support me as pack leader.
At the end of this public part of the ceremony, the four of us stood in a receiving line in the front of the audience as each pack member came by and briefly murmured words of support.
The formal fealty swearing would take place at the Winter Convocation. For now, though, these less-formal affirmations of my role as pack leader would be considered almost as binding.
“You made a bold choice,” the pack historian murmured to me as the last of the pack finished offering congratulations. “Smart, too. Taking all three as your mates will forestall any number of possible coups that anyone might have planned. Among the three of them, they have more ties to this pack than you could ever hope to develop on your own.”
I glanced across to the tent where we had music playing, at the three grooms standing in a semicircle chatting with other pack members. They were almost unbearably handsome, and my pulse leaped at the thought that all three of them were mine—and I was theirs.
James glanced at me out of the corner of his eye. “Ah. I see your decision wasn’t all political, either. I’m glad they were willing to go along with it.”
“It was their idea.”
He blinked at me. “Interesting. I would not have expected three wolves so close to being alphas themselves to come to an agreement like that.” Humor underlined his comment, but I could tell he was serious, too.
I shrugged. “I just hope it never causes problems.”
“So do we all, my Alpha. So do we all.”
He moved off then, and I joined the rest of the pack to eat and dance.
Fourteen
As the night wore on, though, I found myself growing more and more anxious about the final part of the ceremony. By pack law, taking the bite to become official pack leader required witnesses. And yet all three of my wolves had talked about it as if it were the most intimate thing they had ever contemplated.
I wasn’t entirely certain what to expect—but in any case, I was as nervous as… I snickered to myself… as a virgin on her wedding night. We’d elected Tara and James as our witnesses and had decided the day before where each of my
wolves would bite. The bites needed to be in places where I could show them easily to any pack member who asked, but where they were hidden should any humans talk to me during the time between the bites and my first shift.
We moved to a smaller, more private tent, the four of us and our witnesses meeting there about two hours into the party. I took a seat on the chair in the middle of the enclosed space, trembling with something between fear and anticipation. Carefully I pulled my dress hem up over my knees, pulled off my white sandals, and placed my feet on the tiny footstool in front of me.
I found myself gripping the armrests of the wooden chair. Tara very carefully tucked the dark burgundy wrap around me. Then, on top of that, she spread a lightweight sheet over most of my body. “Just in case the wrap doesn’t catch everything,” she explained.
My three grooms—mates, I guessed I should call them now—gathered around me. Owen stood at my left shoulder, Dean at my right, and Liam knelt in front of me. The plan was for the three of them to shift enough for their fangs to descend. Then each would place his mouth in position and bite down when James told them to. Theoretically, that would keep us from ever knowing who bit first, whose bite carried the lycanthropy that would activate my latent werewolf genes—or infect me, depending on which version of the werewolf genesis story you believed.
Their choices in bite locations reflected who they were, too. Owen, the traditionalist, had chosen to bite my shoulder, just below my neck. Dean, the sensualist, placed his mouth against the crook of my elbow, his breath tickling the sensitive skin there. I hope the bites wouldn’t hurt as much as I suspected that they would. And Liam, my romantic, had chosen my calf. I hadn’t understood why until I saw him kneeling before me like Cinderella’s prince, my foot resting in his hands.
One by one, each werewolf dropped a light kiss on the skin he planned to pierce. I shivered at the touch of their hot lips against me.
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