by R. E. Butler
Dylan sat up and cupped her face. He kissed her hungrily, as if the few moments since he’d come inside her had been too long. “Give me your hand, love.”
She purred, reaching for him. “My pleasure.”
Chase sat up, kissing her nipple and flicking her clit. “It’ll be all of our pleasure.”
“Again. And again,” she whispered against Dylan’s lips. Hunter lifted her over his cock that had hardened as soon as she’d pressed herself against it. As she lowered onto him, Chase kissed her neck and growled, and she felt his fangs press lightly against her.
“Yes, fuck yes,” she moaned as her pussy clutched at Hunter’s cock and her clit throbbed under Chase’s touch.
“Mine,” Chase snarled just moments before he sank his fangs into her neck.
Her cat roared in happiness, and she closed her eyes and reveled in their attentions as next Dylan marked her, and finally Hunter. She’d only ever imagined having one mate. With three of them, she was certain she would melt from the inside out. But what a way to go.
Chapter 7
Chase woke up holding Cris’s hand. She’d fallen asleep splayed over top of Hunter like he was a pillow top mattress, but in the last bit of wakefulness, he remembered her clearly searching for his hand and squeezing it. Sunlight streamed through a gap in the curtain and lit up her back with golden sunlight. Add in the rumpled sheets and three naked guys, and she looked like an angel who had fallen very far from heaven. Which was good for them.
Making love to Cris the night before had been incredible. He’d wondered if he would find it strange to share her with his cousins, but it hadn’t been at all. They’d seemed to instinctively know how to share her without really needing to communicate. He smiled. He’d already thought of Dylan and Hunter as his family, but adding Cris had made things more permanent to him. She was the one they’d been missing. No other woman would have fit in so perfectly except the one woman made for them.
After slipping out of bed, he drew on his jeans and left everyone to sleep so he could rustle up breakfast. The apartment was tiny, just barely big enough for two people. In the small, but well-organized kitchen, he found coffee and filters and got a pot going, and he looked in the fridge for breakfast.
“I was going to cook,” Dylan said, joining him in the kitchen.
He looked over the fridge door. “I know you don’t like cooking when you’re not at work. I don’t mind.”
“Together?” Dylan offered, and Chase nodded.
By the time the eggs, home fries, sausage patties, and toast were done, Hunter and Cris had joined them in the kitchen. Cris was wearing a fluffy robe and Hunter, like Chase and Dylan, had donned only jeans. Hunter sat down in one of the two chairs and pulled her into his lap.
Dylan found an extra chair in the laundry room and brought it to the table, and Chase filled Cris’s plate. She watched him with a bemused smile.
“What?” he asked, deciding to give her three scoops of eggs instead of two.
“You’re just not what I expected.”
Hunter nuzzled under her ear. “What did you expect?”
“The males in my group are the ones who expect to be waited on.”
Dylan reached out and took her hand. “We’re not just trying to impress you. Well, I mean we are,” he said and laughed, “but it’s in our nature to want to take care of you. I guess that’s one way that mountain lions and lions differ.”
She lifted her egg-laden fork to her mouth. After making a pleased humming sound, she said, “You don’t have to impress me, but I really appreciate the effort. It’s been a while since anyone’s cared about me like this.”
Hunter nuzzled her neck. “You have three males now who care about your happiness more than everything else.”
“Just so long as you know that the caring goes both ways. I want you guys to be happy, too.”
“We are,” Chase promised.
As they all turned their attentions back to breakfast, silence settled over them, but it was a comfortable one. He’d eaten thousands of times in his life, sitting at a table with the pride or with his cousins. But no breakfast had ever meant as much to him as this one. Their first one together as a mated group. Their beautiful mate, wearing all of their marks on her lovely neck, and his two cousins, who he trusted with his life. It was perfect.
When the meal was done, Hunter set her on her feet and shooed all three of them into the family room while he did the dishes. Cris settled on the couch, and Chase and Dylan sat on either side of her, both of them reaching for her hands.
While they waited for Hunter to finish, they told her about their jobs at the bar and about living with the pride. He and his cousins had joined the pride a year earlier, coming with their friends, Ray and Wesley. The boarding house was more than one hundred years old, with plenty of bedrooms and bathrooms for all of them. As the males found mates, they would choose one bedroom to share.
“There are kids in the pride, too, right?” she asked.
“Seven who live in the house, not counting Jilly who is eighteen. She just moved to the boarding house a few months ago. Scarlett, who mated our friends Wesley and Ray, is pregnant, and so is Melody.”
“My pride is…or was, in Lake Lemanar, Kentucky.”
“Were you kicked out of your pride?” Dylan asked.
“No,” she said, shaking her head. “I just haven’t been home in a long while. My dad is haj, which is the king of the pride. It’s the tradition of our people that the fathers choose the mates for their daughters. For the princess, it would most likely be a male from another pride, a way for the haj to make an alliance.”
Hunter walked into the room and sat down on the coffee table. “You’re a princess?”
She grimaced. “Only in the pride. I have never toed the line like my father expected me to. The moment I graduated from high school, I rushed off to college because I knew if I stuck around, my father would push me into a mating.”
“What about your mom?” Hunter asked.
“I love her dearly, but she’s part of the problem. She wants me to come home to the pride and take my rightful place as some prince’s mate, not chosen for love but whatever my father believes is important.”
Chase’s heart ached for her. He lifted her hand to his lips and kissed the top. “I’m sorry.”
Leaning against his shoulder, she said, “Why are you sorry? You guys are the reason that I wanted to make my own choices. If I thought that my dad could pick the right guy for me, I would never have left home.”
He pressed a kiss to the top of her head. “We’re glad you’re here.”
“You’ll be welcomed into our pride, but the truth is that the four of us are a pride on our own,” Hunter said.
She sniffled and said, “You guys are so sweet. You’re going to make me cry.”
They comforted Cris as she struggled with her emotions. He looked at his cousins and saw the same determination in their eyes that he felt course through him. He never wanted her to regret choosing them. If her own family wouldn’t stand by her while she chose them, then they’d do their best to fill in the gaps and be exactly what she needed to be happy.
* * *
Hunter wished that Cris hadn’t suffered in the way she had. On the surface, her life was ideal, but underneath the princess title was the harsh reality that if she’d stayed in the pride, her life wouldn’t have been her own anymore. He couldn’t imagine a father wanting to make that choice for his child. He’d sure as hell not stand in the way of his own children’s happiness.
He rested his elbows on his knees and wrapped his hands around her thighs. She gazed at him with her pretty blue eyes. “Whatever you want to do about your family, we’re by your side. If you want to Skype with them, or just call, if you want us to go there with you and meet them in person – it’s your choice, but we’re with you.”
She said nothing for a long moment, as her hands twined with his cousins’, and she placed her head on Chase’s shoulder. Then she untangled her hand
s from theirs and leaned forward, pressing her lips to Hunter’s as her arms wove around his neck. She slipped to her knees between his spread legs, and he cradled her close, his hands rubbing gently up and down her back as their kiss deepened.
The front door unlocked, and he lifted from her mouth. Dylan and Chase stood swiftly, turning toward the door, protecting Cris. She blinked a few times, and then yawned. “It’s probably Lily.”
“On the off-chance it’s not Lily, let us keep you safe,” Hunter said, drawing her close.
“Okay.” She snuggled against him.
Lily paused after opening the door. “Oh. Hi!”
Dylan and Chase relaxed. Hunter helped Cris to her feet and stood behind her, wrapping his arms around her to keep her close. “Hi yourself,” Cris said.
Chase said, “Thanks for letting us have the apartment, Lily.”
“I’m sorry I gave you the run around yesterday. I was planning to introduce you to Cris last night and make sure she wanted to be with you guys, but then I got stuck with an extra shift.”
“It worked out perfectly anyway,” Cris said.
Hunter kissed her ear. “Definitely.”
“Can I talk to my bestie for a minute in private?” Lily asked.
“Sure,” Hunter said. He kissed Cris on the cheek and stepped into the bedroom with Chase and Dylan.
“You know that they’ll still be able to hear everything you say, right? Shifters have great hearing,” Cris said to Lily.
Dylan grinned from where he leaned against the bedroom wall. “She’s amazing.”
“And all ours,” Chase said.
“Damn it, I forgot you guys hear better than I do. Well, anyway, I just wanted to make sure you were okay. Are you…dating all of them?”
“Shifters don’t date. Well, not really anyway. We’re mated,” Cris answered.
“So you bit them and they bit you? Ouch!” Lily exclaimed.
“Well, no. I mean, yes, they bit me, but I didn’t bite them,” Cris said.
Hunter went still, wondering if she were going to elaborate.
“Should we be listening?” Dylan asked.
“Cris said we would be able to hear. Besides, I want to know what her mating traditions are like,” Chase said.
“Me too,” Hunter said.
There was a long pause out in the family room, and then Cris said, “It’s complicated and involves some things I don’t think you want to know about me and my mates.”
“Oh, sounds kinky. Does it involve whipped cream and…I don’t know what lions like. Raw steak?”
“Aw, geez. You’re a nut,” Cris said, laughing.
“You’re happy? That’s all I care about,” Lily said.
“Deliriously.”
Hunter grinned, and his lion pranced around in his mind like a peacock.
“What about your parents?”
“I don’t know. I need to tell them so they understand I won’t be back again.”
“You won’t ever go home? That’s depressing.”
“It is what it is. My dad would never accept mountain lions into the pride.”
“They’re still lions,” Lily pointed out.
Hunter left the bedroom and joined them, putting his arm around Cris and drawing her into his side. “With shifters, sometimes the species is more important than the type. We’re cats, but we’re not African lions. It would matter to her pride.”
“But not to your pride. You guys are all-inclusive,” Lily said.
Chase and Dylan joined them. Dylan grabbed their coats and said, “It’s different for us. Each shifter group has their own rules. Sometimes they’re inclusive, but sometimes they’re exclusive.”
“Sounds complicated,” Lily said, her brow arching.
Cris shrugged. “You just need to know that I’m staying in Ashland.”
“Here?”
“Um, hell no. No, offense, but your place is too small for three big guys, and I’m not interested in spending my nights away from them.” Cris looked up at Hunter. “Is that okay? I just invited myself to live with you.”
“As if we’d let you go,” he said, kissing her briefly. “Go pack a bag, sweetheart.”
She gave him a wink, grabbed Lily’s arm, and hurried back to the bedroom.
“She saved us the trouble of asking her to move in with us,” Chase said.
“Yeah. I’m going to step out and call James and let him know we’ll be bringing Cris home with us. You know he’ll want to get the whole pride together to meet her.”
Hunter stepped out of the apartment after donning his jacket. He opened his truck and turned on the engine so the heat would warm the cab. He scrolled through his contact list and found James’s number. James Fallon was the unofficial leader of the pride. When his twin sons, Ethan and Eryx, had opted to leave King with their mate, Callie, James had been the one to suggest that the whole Fallon family follow suit. When they settled in the boarding house, they’d extended an invitation to any King pride males who wanted to join them, and Hunter and his cousins had thought it was a great time to start over. King was a nice town, and his dad and uncles were still there, but it had a lot of bad memories for him, between the uncaring females and the males’ struggles to raise their children and keep the peace.
“Hi, Hunter,” James said when he answered.
“Hey. I’ve got some good news. Dylan, Chase, and I have found our mate.”
“That’s wonderful! Where did you meet her, and when can you bring her to the boarding house?”
“We met her last night at Kickers. She’s friends with Lily St. James and is staying with her.”
“Are you bringing her home to the boarding house or is she going to live with Lily?”
His cat balked at even the idea of leaving Cris at the apartment. “We want to bring her home. She’s packing up right now. I just wanted to let you know before we showed up with her.”
“That’s really great news! I’ll let the pride know, and we’ll have a welcome dinner tonight. Aaron, Alek, and Ethan have to work, but I think everyone else will be home, so we’ll have most of the pride there. Congratulations, Hunter. That’s the best news I’ve heard in a while!”
“Thanks, James. We’ll see you in a few.”
Hunter pressed the button to end the call, feeling a weight lift from him. It wasn’t that he expected James to balk at the idea of Cris moving in, but his immediate acceptance made it so much easier.
He glanced at the apartment and saw the door open and his cousins and Cris walk out. He put the truck into gear and pulled up in front of the sidewalk and parked. He got out and opened the passenger door and said, “Let Dylan drive your car, sweetheart.”
She smiled broadly and gave her keys to Dylan, who gave Hunter a disgruntled look. Dylan shouldered her bags, and Hunter gave her his hand to help her into the truck. She sat in the center of the bench seat. Chase climbed in next to her, and Hunter shut the door, moving swiftly to the other side and climbing behind the wheel.
“Poor Dylan has to ride alone,” Cris said.
“He’ll live,” Hunter said. He wiggled his brows at his mate and said, “Are you ready to go to your new home, sweetheart?”
“You bet.”
* * *
Dylan was slightly annoyed at having to drive Cris’s car home by himself, but he couldn’t fault his cousins for wanting to be with her. They’d need to find a bigger vehicle that they could all fit in comfortably. He made a mental note to talk to them about it.
He loved Ashland. He sometimes missed King because his dad and uncles still lived there, but Ashland had been a new start for them without the threat of the females hanging over them as it had for generations. Not that the females hadn’t tried to horn in on the males’ happiness a few times since the small group had split from King.
A few of the females had tried to abduct the kids from the boarding house and nearly killed Sam, Aaron and Grant’s mate. The females had also sicced a bunch of crazy bears on Alec’s shared m
ate, Lachlyn. The previous summer, Micah and Tristan had found their shared mate, Melody, a female mountain lion who had been raised away from the pride and never poisoned the way other females had been. When the females discovered Melody, they’d kidnapped and tried to kill her.
Dylan realized it had been a while since they’d heard from the females. He hoped to hell that it remained that way forever. Although the pride didn’t know for sure where the females were, it was believed that most of them lived in Canada.
He parked at the side of the boarding house and removed Cris’s bags from the backseat. He joined them as they walked up the steps onto the front porch. “Are you ready for the grand tour?” Chase asked.
“Are you sure they don’t mind me just moving in here?” Cris asked, chewing on her bottom lip.
Hunter shook his head as he took one of the bags from Dylan. “I promise they’ll be thrilled.”
Chase opened the door for them and Hunter led the way. They hung up their coats on the massive row of coat hooks along the wall and then left her bags at the bottom of the stairs.
Dylan grabbed her hand and tugged her close. “Welcome home, love.”
Her smile was so sweet it made him feel warm from the inside out. She rose on her toes to kiss him. “I’m so glad to be here with you guys.”
The foursome walked into the kitchen. A small crowd had gathered, just a sampling of what the dinner that evening would bring. “Everyone, this is our mate, Cristabel Hardison. Cris, this is part of the pride.”
James, John, and Rue introduced themselves first, followed by their kids, Henry and Domino, then Grant and Sam and their five kids, and finally Micah and Melody.
“We’ll be eating dinner at seven,” Rue said, tucking a lock of white-blonde hair behind her ear. “I hope you like pot roast. It’s kind of the pride specialty.”
“I love it,” Cris said.
“Let’s go show you our rooms so you can pick where we stay,” Hunter said, turning her out of the kitchen and toward the stairs.
“Why would I pick a room?” she asked.
