“With help, you two might not step on your own tails tonight.” Alec looked around. “Joe. Can you take them on? Give them the Laws of Gathering—as well as etiquette for male/female interactions. I doubt they’ll ignore you.”
Joe Thorson, the grizzled owner of the bookstore, stalked out of the crowd. The old, lean cougar was scarred from the tips of his fingers to his face, and Darcy knew no one interested in survival would ignore him.
Eyes narrowed, he scrutinized Fell and Patrin before he turned. “Do you wish me to take on this task, Cosantir?”
Calum inclined his head.
Thorson bowed slightly. “Your will, Cosantir.”
And Darcy knew Thorson had delivered his first lesson—how a shifter should deal with the God-chosen guardian of a territory.
From Fell’s intent expression, he was absorbing the lesson as quickly as he did everything else. Her brothers were brilliant…when they weren’t being over-protective idiots.
Owen and Gawain moved forward.
Fell blocked their way.
Oh, honestly.
Even as Darcy kicked her brother hard enough to make him grunt, Thorson’s hand fell on his shoulder. The old werecat growled, “A female chooses who she wants, cub.”
Darcy realized the Cosantir was still watching.
Patrin cleared his throat. “Sir. We heard how she talks about these two. They saved her life and she’s obviously… Well, she hardly knows them. She’s so young and—”
“Oh, honestly, you dumbasses,” Darcy snapped. “I’m the same age you are, and I do know what I’m doing.”
Fell’s brows drew together. “Don’t want you to get hurt, chwaer.”
“Sweetie, you’re not experienced, and it’s easy to get confused about sex,” Patrin said, shooting a glare at Owen.
She snorted. “Guys, I escaped the prison well over two months ago. I’ve already experienced a full moon Gathering.”
Patrin’s mouth dropped. “You…what?”
“Did I mate with more males than Gawain and Owen?” she asked lightly. “Yes.”
“And it was an honor to be with you on that, your first Gathering Night.” Donal stood nearby and gave her a slight bow.
“It was.” Tynan smiled at her.
She grinned at the two.
“Just so you know, female, there are others who’d be delighted to be with you tonight,” a burly shifter said, stepping forward.
“I, too, would be pleased to fight for your favor.” A bear-sized shifter presented himself. “You have other choices, you know.”
Choices. The masculine scents and sounds from the gathering males swirled around her. As she breathed in, she remembered her first Gathering. All the males had smelled unique and tantalizing, like a banquet of wonder, and she only had to choose which to sample first.
No one smelled interesting tonight.
She shook her head and sniffed again. Even Tynan and Donal weren’t a temptation. Her feet moved her back a pace.
Calum studied her. “Is there a problem, Darcy?”
“I’m just…” She shrugged. “Not really interested in anyone tonight. Can I have some wine instead?” She could buy Owen and Gawain a drink. She frowned and realized Owen no longer stood in front of Patrin. Where did they—
“There is always wine.” A corner of Calum’s mouth lifted, and he glanced behind her. “However, might you find an interest in those two?”
She turned and Gawain and Owen stood behind her. Their scents washed over her…and suddenly she was drowning in need. Her blood scalded her veins, fogged her mind, and her words came without thinking. “I always want them. Every minute of every day. Especially now.”
She flung herself into their arms. “I missed you.”
Side-by-side, they caught her, and she was lifted off her feet and hugged forcefully enough her ribs creaked. Her arms wound around two necks, fiercely gripping their hair.
And she kissed them. Owen, Gawain, Owen, Gawain.
When they let her down, she took Gawain’s face between her hands and pulled him down so she could look in his deep blue eyes. Would he—did he still…?
Her brothers were wrong, and she was right. Her instincts—human and cat—said leap.
“I love you,” she said firmly and kissed him again.
Turning, she reached up to Owen, and he was already bending to her. Hands on his clean-shaven jaw, she looked into his forest-green eyes and saw her answer already there. “I love you, Owen.”
As cheers resounded through the room, they squished her again—and she heard them. Gawain’s smooth voice, “I love you, sweetling. Love you so much.”
And, to her astonishment, Owen’s gravel voice was right there, too. “I love you, Darcy.”
When they finally let her go, she saw that Fell and Patrin were staring.
“Now, brawd, we do it now,” Owen growled.
But he didn’t grab her. She blinked—and looked down to see her two males kneel in front of her.
Owen took her hand. “We love you, Darcy. More than anyone like me could ever say. But I’ll try to tell you how much I love you—through this life, and in all our lives to come.”
Oh, she knew how incoherent he felt, because when she tried to answer, the words stuck in her throat.
Gawain’s clear blue eyes were deeper, wider than the entire sky, filling her universe. “We love you, Darcy. Our lives aren’t complete without you with us. Be our lifemate and share our love and lives from this day on.”
Their voices blurred together, dancing back and forth in a rumbly, growly chorus of wonderment.
“You can fix anything that is broken, including our hearts.”
“We’ll help you leap any obstacle in your path.
“We’ll never boss you around. Much.”
“No nightmare will find you when we’re with you.”
“We’ll love you until the last star falls from the sky.”
“Yes,” she whispered. “Oh, yes.”
As they rose, they gathered her in, claiming her with lips and arms for all the world to see.
“Let’s go home.” Owen took her left hand, Gawain her right.
To one side, Vicki was smiling beside a grinning Jamie. Bonnie had her hands over her huge grin, her eyes filled with happy tears.
Darcy barely had a chance to smile at them before her mates led her out of the building to the sound of such cheering it was surprising the building still stood.
In the light of the rising moon, they’d walked down the hill from the tavern and into their gravel drive. With his arm around Darcy and his heart light enough to slip out of his chest, Gawain turned toward the barn instead of the house.
“Brawd?” Owen frowned.
“We have lifemating bracelets to make. Let’s do it now.”
Owen studied him and grinned. “Aye. I can think of nothing better.”
Their little catling’s eyes lit, and she nodded.
After picking up bracelets from the barn, Gawain led them outside to his ritual area. In the dark night, he could hear the splashing of the stream within the circle of river stones. The moon was full, and the area was awash with power.
Needing to feel her again, Gawain hugged Darcy to him. “I’ve missed you.”
“Me, too.” Like a cat, she rubbed her cheek against his chest, leaving her fragrance behind, marking him with her scent. He breathed her in and handed her to Owen to hold.
Without any hesitation, his brother wrapped his arms around her, pulling her close, and laying his cheek on the top of her head. The bond was there, oh yes, it was.
This was a good lifemating.
Just by being in their lives, she’d changed them for the better, opened them, healed them. And they’d been good for her as well.
He couldn’t help but smile, just looking at her. Her dark eyes were wide, her lips curved. Happiness radiated from her.
Gawain lit the brazier, added incense, and felt the elements merging—earth and water, fire and air.
Holding the bands over the spiraling smoke, he added the fifth—spirit—and opened to the Mother.
This time…
By the Mother’s grace, this time when She touched him in inquiry, the names and images of the potential lifemates included himself. His own elation danced through his heart and to her.
To his surprise, he felt his brother move forward to join him, and instinctively, they pulled Darcy between them so they stood connected, shoulder to shoulder to shoulder. Owen and Darcy’s joy mingled with his own, flowing to the Mother.
He could feel Her delight. And then Her power flowed through him, magicking the lifemating bands, and filling him and his lifemates with her love.
Darcy leaned into him.
Tears were in Owen’s eyes.
Gawain squeezed his brother’s shoulder. “That’s a Mother’s love—and our cubs will have that from their mother.” He handed Owen a lifemating band and watched wonder fill his brother’s eyes for the band still resonated with the Goddess’s gift.
Slowly, Owen’s smile appeared. “Darcy.” His voice was rough. Husky. He took her hand and slid the bracelet onto her left wrist before kissing her. “By the God, I love you so fucking much.”
She was blinking back tears now.
Gawain bent and kissed her and added his bracelet next to his brother’s. “I love you, Darcy.”
After a minute of looking at the bracelets on her pretty wrist, she took the heftier male bands. One went on Owen’s left wrist with a kiss and the second on Gawain’s with another kiss. “I love you two, enough for this lifetime and many, many more.”
As the full moon’s power started to make itself felt, the scents of arousal filled the air.
She was with her males. Lifemated. Together. Finally. Darcy couldn’t stop smiling. Her feet seemed to be inches above the ground as Gawain and Owen led her into their house, up the stairs, and down a hallway.
Owen’s arm was behind her back.
Gawain was holding her hand, pulling her forward. “Darcy.” He sounded…worried. “Owen has the left room, I have the right one, and if you like it…want it…this is your room.”
She almost laughed. “If you’re here, that’s all I need.”
Owen squeezed her waist. “We left it mostly unfurnished so you could decide how you want it to look.”
The room was even bigger than Vicki’s. Carvings of flowering vines circled the doors and windows. The balcony faced the east, and the first glow of the Mother’s moonrise lit the glass door.
The only furniture was a bed standing between two windows.
She touched Owen’s beautiful carvings on the headboard in wonder. Three cougars snoozed on a rock under a crescent moon.
The footboard showed a female cougar leaping into a tree with her mates watching. She could almost see the laughter on Owen’s whiskered face and the approval on Gawain’s.
Her eyes widened at the size of the bed.
Looking at it, she understood her males’ hopes and dreams. They hadn’t given her a small bed to sleep in alone, but a giant one big enough for a towering cahir, a huge blademage, and one small mate.
They knew her so well. Given her choice, she’d never sleep alone again.
She took a breath as urgency filled her blood.
“What? We can change something, anything.” Gawain squeezed her shoulders.
A line furrowed Owen’s brow. “We’ll burn the place down if you want. The only nonnegotiable point is that we stay together.”
“Burn it down?” She realized she’d been so lost in her dreaming she’d missed seeing their worry. “I love it,” she said firmly. “But…”
Owen growled. “Speak clearly, little female. What’s wrong?”
Ah, her grumpy cat had returned.
And the rough, dark sound of his voice made her insides quiver. “I was just thinking we’re overdressed—and it’s the full moon—and we need to try out that bed.”
With a shout of laughter, Gawain leaned forward and whisked her top right off.
Owen had already knelt to strip off her jeans.
A second later, she landed on the bed—bare-ass naked.
As they joined her, she wrapped her arms around them and breathed in their masculine scents. Her happiness filled her heart, the room, the universe. “I love you…my mates.”
Their first mating was fast and furious.
The second slower.
Now Owen lifted his head so he could watch the candlelight flicker over Darcy’s face, so he could see the way she looked when he ran his tongue over her clit, the way her lips parted as she pulled in a breath. How her back arched up when Gawain sucked on her nipples.
She had the heart-stopping beauty of a crystal-clear snowy morning in the mountains.
“You are so fucking beautiful,” he murmured.
She blinked, obviously trying to remember if they’d been talking. He loved how she gave herself to making love—how she gave of herself, because she trusted them. And loved them.
By the God, she loved them. Would he ever stop feeling this sense of elation?
He licked over her again and felt her hips trying to squirm. She was slick and fragrant with her arousal. Using his thumbs to open her more, he flicked his tongue over her clit.
Over the past weeks, he’d learned what she liked. And Darcy, who gave back as generously as she received, had figured out the same about them. Every time was better.
He wanted to take the next step. During their shared showers, he’d worked on stretching her, preparing her to take them both at once. The way her excitement increased with his fingers in her back hole, she’d enjoy a cock even more.
And if she didn’t, he wouldn’t mind. She was far more important than some variation in the mating act.
He rose up to kiss her before returning to her pussy, scratching her inner thighs with the faint stubble on his chin. He grinned when he saw her toes curl.
As he and Gawain continued, she gave a delightful moan. Under his hands, her hips wiggled. “More, please, Owen, please.” She gripped Gawain’s long hair, pulling him down to her breasts.
With a rumbling chuckle, Gawain licked one breast, turning his head to check if Owen wanted to order something. He didn’t mind taking direction—actually enjoyed it.
Even better, the bossy little cat didn’t want to be in control, not when mating.
Owen considered. In their earliest adventures, he and Gawain had worked out a silent routine. Did his littermate remember?
Balanced on an elbow, Owen closed his fingers around his brother’s ankle and squeezed once.
Gawain’s head came up. He frowned, lowered a hand out of Darcy’s field of vision, and held up one finger. He remembered.
Grinning, Owen nodded. Raised fingers or squeezes indicated the method of choice. Taps would coordinate their efforts. One finger, one nudge, or one squeeze meant: lick until further direction. He saw Gawain’s tongue run in a circle around Darcy’s nipple. Owen lowered his head and ran his own circle around a pink clit that was growing more and more swollen.
Darcy’s tiny purr stuttered with excitement.
Deciding to move them on, he gave Gawain’s ankle two squeezes—for sucking.
As Gawain sucked once on a nipple, Owen sucked on Darcy’s clit. Her gasp was most satisfying.
Time to coordinate. Tap. Tap. Tap. Pause. Suck-suck-suck-pause. Not being female, he had to wonder what it felt like to have a nipple and clit rhythmically sucked on at the same time.
He squeezed once, and they played with licking for a minute.
Two squeezes. Tap tap tap, pause. Tap, tap, tap, pause.
Between his lips, her nerve-ridden nub poked out from under the hood, swollen to hardness. Her hips pressed up for more. Her purr alternated with moans.
Time to end this before she got too frustrated. He squeezed Gawain’s ankle three times and caught his littermate’s grin. Bring down the prey with whatever it takes.
Gawain bent to her breasts, using his hands,
his mouth, his tongue—even his teeth.
Her back arched.
Owen bent to his own trail, penetrating her with a finger as he licked a circle around the swollen nub. Thrusting slowly, he savored the satin heat around his fingers. His cock was rock-hard.
He added another finger, pumping faster as he laved and sucked.
Her core tightened around his fingers, and her breathing changed to long pauses between gasps.
Setting his tongue at the top of her clit below the hood, he rubbed…hard.
Her spine arched upward, her thighs closed on his shoulders as if to hold him in place, and he could feel her center contracting in spasms around his fingers. “Ooooooh, oh, oh, oh.”
Laughing, he sucked again—and set off her wail again.
This—this made him feel like the luckiest male in the territory.
As her muscles went limp with occasional quivers, he licked his fingers and nodded to Gawain. “Let’s try it the way we talked about.”
“Aye.” Eyes lit with heat, Gawain helped Owen reposition her on her knees and elbows in the center of the bed.
Owen ran his hands over her shoulders and back, enjoying the way her waist widened into a beautifully round ass. Her skin was silky smooth except for the tiny ridges of scars. But the humans who’d hurt her were dead. It was time to celebrate life. He leaned forward and kissed her shoulder.
As he straightened, she grinned over her shoulder at him. “Doggy style? Are kitty shifters allowed to do this?”
“I believe the original term was the panther pose,” Gawain said in a pompous voice. He handed Owen a condom, glove, and lube packet.
“What’s that?” Darcy almost toppled over trying to see.
“Extras. Humans can be canny, at times.” After condoming up, Owen squeezed lube on his gloved fingers, spread more on her puckered anus, and slowly inserted one finger.
“Oh. Oh.” The surprise of his finger pressing through the narrow rim and up inside her anus sent a shudder through her. Her nerves in her pussy and clit were extremely sensitized now, yet he’d bypassed them, going straight for her back hole.
Her nipples puckered into a throbbing ache.
Leap of the Lion Page 37
