Ash pulled back and Sam smiled up at her, her white, toothy grin on full display. “I know, but how could I resist your demand of us single girls coming down for a party?”
Ash grinned and laughed as Sam wiggled her large hips from side to side. She was by far the shortest and plumpest of them all, but for these men, that meant nothing, she was happy to say.
“Yeah, thanks for an amazing night.” The women around her gave her kisses and congratulations, dancing and singing to the music.
Ash joined in the fun, but her gaze kept swinging back to Sam. There was something about her that Ash had never fully appreciated before. A glow, a vibrancy.
Someone moved up behind her, and Ash twisted in time to feel Jack’s arms come around her and his hands move down to the curve of her hip and ass.
“Hello, husband.” She beamed at him and slid her arms up around his thick neck and strong shoulders. She couldn’t believe she was officially mated to not only two men, but two mountain lion shifters. Would wonders never cease?
“Hello, beautiful.” He swooped down and kissed her, pulling her even closer against his solidness.
Ash let him seduce her body as her heart sang. His lips were soft and persistent, his hands caring and protective. She was so lucky.
Eventually he pulled away. “Can you come with me for a minute?”
Ash nodded and let herself be pulled away to the place where Scott stood with two rather somber looking gentlemen in full black attire.
“Ash, these are our cousins from up north, Kane and Reid. This is our wife and mate, Ashleigh.”
Both men nodded and gave her grimaces of smiles.
“It’s lovely to meet you both.”
“Hi.”
“Yes, you too.”
Ash stepped a little closer to Jack, and Scott moved to her other side, kissing her bare shoulder in a soothing gesture. There was something slightly unsettling about this pair of brothers, and she wasn’t sure what it was.
“Sweetheart, can you tell us about the little brunette you were talking to?”
Ash stared at Scott as he asked her the question, then looked at the men across from her. They were another perfect pair. They looked very similar to her husbands. One light, one dark. One was shorter and thinner, the other one taller and built like a tree trunk.
“You mean Samantha?” Ash turned her head and watched her cousin shimmy away on the dance floor.
“Yeah, the shorter, curvy one.” Jack smiled at her, his gaze alight as he gave her bum a squeeze through her dress.
Ash bumped him with her hip and grinned back.
“Sam is great. She’s twenty-eight or nine, a schoolteacher. Single, fun, opinionated, and has the biggest heart in the world. Why?”
She looked at the men facing her, their faces pale and generally unhealthy looking.
“Kane and Reid feel a connection to her, and we were wondering about her, that’s all.”
One of the men stepped back, color finally rising in his cheeks.
“This is ridiculous. Our mate died, Scott!”
Oh no! She didn’t! How could fate be so cruel?
Scott stepped toward his cousin, reaching out for the distressed man.
“But you shouldn’t still be alive, Kane. It doesn’t make sense. Perhaps you were…mistaken.”
Reid stepped back too and pulled his brother away from Scott. “Impossible! Kellie was perfect for us.”
The tension was making Jack growl, and Ash watched as Scott tried to placate his family.
“I’m not saying she wasn’t. Maybe fate designed you two mates, knowing you’d lose Kellie early? I don’t know, but if you are still alive and feeling the connection again, why wouldn’t you chase it? Jack and I did, and it was the best decision of our lives.”
Ash smiled and let the love flow between their connection, warming her and acknowledging the rightness of everything in her life.
“I hope you never know how this feels, Scott. It’s…” Kane’s voice broke and Ash’s heart ached as the two men turned, stumbling away with gentle growls emanating from their broken hearts.
“Those poor men. What happened to them? They look like a perfect pair. Their mate died?”
Jack wrapped his big arms around her. “Yes, sweetheart, she did.”
Ash gripped Jack tight and reached out for Scott. She couldn’t think of anything worse.
“I don’t think I’d survive without you two now. You’re my whole world.”
Her men pressed close, their lips in her hair, their hands and arms protecting her and the unborn child that her mates still didn’t know about.
She smiled secretly at the knowledge.
“We’ll never leave you, sweetheart, and if you left us, we’d soon join you.”
“Pardon me?” That better not be some sort of promise to die without her. “You better not mean that, Jack.”
She pulled back so they stepped away and gave her some much needed air.
Scott cupped her jaw and smiled sweetly.
“It’s not something we can control, gorgeous. When a mate dies, the perfect pair usually dies of natural causes within twelve months, which is why I don’t believe Kane and Reid lost their true mate. They wouldn’t be here if she was.”
Ashleigh’s head was spinning with too much new information.
“Are you telling me that if I die, I’ll kill you guys too? No! No, that can’t be! Please, you can’t do that!”
Hot, salty tears began streaming down her face, and Jack swung her up in his arms, walking inside with her and only stopping when he found a quiet room and a soft bed to sit on. Scott was right behind him.
“What’s wrong, Ash? Please don’t cry.”
She couldn’t help it, the pain in her chest was almost crushing her. She couldn’t breathe.
“That’s horrible! I can’t handle that…we can’t…what about the baby? How would they survive without us? How?”
She could feel how unreasonable she was becoming as the hiccuping and tears overtook her ability to talk.
The men chuckled and cuddled her on the bed, their noises soothing and lovely for her.
“Honey, firstly, we don’t expect you to die until we are all old and grey, and secondly…did you just say ‘baby’?” Scott’s voice rose in pitch as his clever brain picked up all the necessary information she’d given him.
Ash grabbed at the tissues Jack handed her and blotted at her face that she was sure no longer resembled a woman who’d spent two hours having wedding makeup applied.
“Yes, I did! I found out last week and wanted to surprise you! But now you’ve got me all freaked out about dying!”
Her men laughed and jumped on her, rolling her around in the beautiful big bed that was meant for their wedding night.
Finally they stopped kissing her, and Scott cupped her face, love for her shining through his beautiful green eyes.
“So we really are going to have the family we always dreamed of.”
Ash nodded, gripping Jack’s hand in one of hers and feeling Scott’s fingers spreading over the flesh of her belly.
“Yes, we are.”
They’d had a family picnic the week before and she’d had lunch with all five future stepchildren. They’d all spoken to her throughout the afternoon. Even Meaghan had managed to smile a few times, and Ash had managed to stay upright from the glares she copped from both ex-wives. It wasn’t going to be an easy road, but they were on the way.
She sighed and focused on the three of them. Her men weren’t the only ones whose dreams were about to come true. She had men who loved her, and now she’d have a baby that they could all adore.
No fantasy she’d ever created could hold a candle to the reality which was now her life.
The End
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Other Books by Tamsin Baker:
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Evernight Publishing
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Stalking the Pharmacist Page 14
