by Maia Dylan
The three newly bound mates seemed to shudder at the same time. Cassadee made a mental note to ask Faith what that was when she could get her alone.
“As Grey River Alpha, I bear witness to and bless this Binding,” Ty called out as the bindings wrapped around the wrists of the three in the circle began to unwind themselves, slowly slipping away although no one had actually touched them.
Cassadee felt the swirl of power through the clearing, ancient and pure and knew it was the Fates doing their part.
“We take this binding as true and right and we celebrate that the fates have once again helped to make our Pack stronger!” Ty roared into the clearing sparking a huge joyful howling chorus from the entire pack.
The three in the circle embraced and kissed—ahem rather passionately, too, she noticed—and the ceremony was over. It had been the most beautiful thing she had ever witnessed. Within minutes the newly bound mates were engulfed in congratulatory hugs from the entire pack. Cassadee stood back, watching and observing. Then she saw Sam and AJ break free from the group. Their eyes were focused, and every stride spoke of purpose and intent, coming straight for her. She stood taller, her heart beat faster and her breath came quicker. Her anticipation was almost palpable in the air when they came to a halt just in front of her, so close she could feel the heat radiating from their bodies.
“Damn, Cassie, you look fucking fantastic,” Sam whispered, his voice low, his eyes flashing blue, and a huge telltale bulge behind the fly of his jeans.
“So damn beautiful, baby. Sam and I almost broke the circle to get to you when we first saw you, and that smile you gave us? We are so going to collect on that little promise of heaven as soon as we can get you alone,” AJ spoke low, his words making her shiver.
Having never been good with the flirting side of things, she simply smiled the same come-hither-have-I-got-something-for-you smile, which raised a groan from both her men. Cassadee couldn’t wait to see what slice of heaven they would show here once they were alone tonight. She had a feeling it would be life changing and addictive. And she couldn’t fucking wait!
The party was in full swing by the time they made it back to Country Blue. They had stayed behind with Ty and Trent to make sure that everything was left as it should be. When they walked in the door people were eating, drinking and dancing in celebration and Cassadee took a couple of moments to enjoy the fact that she fit here. She was a part of the day, part of the town and definitely part of the celebration.
Sam and AJ went to make sure that everything was running smoothly, and Cassadee walked over to join Faith, her stepmom Judy, a girl called Sophia, and the newly bound mate Lucy. Lucy’s smile lit up the whole room. She was practically glowing!
“Hey, Cassadee! I love that dress on you, and those shoes! Positively drool worthy!” Lucy stepped in for a hug.
“Thanks! I’ve never owned anything so girly before, I’m more a jeans-and-T-shirt-kinda girl, but I gotta admit. I do like feeling sexy and feminine in something like this.” She ran her hands down the front of the dress, enjoying the soft feel of the cotton on her body.
“Well from what I could see when we walked in there were a couple of shifters who definitely appreciated your efforts! AJ and Sam couldn’t take their eyes off you.” Faith grinned as she joined the group, a tray of glasses full of sangria in her hands.
“Brendan told me that they had to stop them from breaking the Binding Circle when they first saw you.” Lucy grabbed a glass and winked in her direction.
Cassadee felt her cheeks turn red. When she had first spotted the dress, she had definitely thought that they would appreciate it. She hoped they appreciated the barely decent scrapes of lace she was wearing underneath just as much!
Soon they were all seated at tables enjoying the afternoon. AJ and Sam had joined her and they were sitting at one of the booths with Ty, Trent and Faith. “Cassie baby,” Sam murmured in her ear.
“Yeah?” She loved feeling his breath against her skin.
“You want to tell me about the cowboy you beat up last night?”
Cassadee turned and looked into his eyes. Humor flashed through them and she grinned. “He thought he had the right to touch me. I showed him that by doing so, the only right he had was to hurt and bleed.” She had expected a laugh or something, not the flash of anger that sparked in both his and AJ’s eyes.
“He fucking touched you?” Sam growled. “Kyle never mentioned anything about him touching you. Where? And who the hell was it?”
“It doesn’t matter. I dealt with it.” Cassie patted her mates, attempting to calm them down enough to still the growling.
“She knocked him on his ass! She like reached down for her inner Bruce Lee and went all crouching mountain lion, hidden ninja on his ass.” Faith was happy to add the detail and her version of the karate chop to illustrate what she meant.
Sam and AJ both mumbled about needing to find him and make him bleed out, apparently not at all appeased by the fact that he had left bleeding by her hand. Cassadee shook her head at them, secretly loving the fact that they were so protective, and then turned her attention to the band. Cassadee cringed a little when the singer with the band tried a vocal run that wasn’t quite on pitch.
“He’s not very good, is he?” AJ asked quietly.
“It’s not that he’s no good. It’s that he has no confidence in his voice with that song. If you’re going to try for an intricate vocal run like he was going for then, he needs to commit and feel the music. He was trying to oversing that song, and it just wouldn’t let him,” Cassadee said, and she could hear the passion in her voice. She blushed a little and AJ smiled at her. “I love to sing. You can be anyone and anywhere when you sing.”
“I’d like to say that you sing like an angel,” Sam growled from the other side of her, “but I gotta tell you, the way I feel about you and your voice when you sing is so fucking far from angelic it’s sinful.” He pressed a soft kiss against her shoulder.
“Wait, you sing?” Faith queried from the other side of the booth. “Like sing properly? Not just holds a tune at karaoke, possibly win a round of Sing Star sing, but like sing sing?” Hope gleamed in her eyes.
This wasn’t good. Obviously oblivious to the look on Faith’s face, AJ started talking about when he and Sam had walked in on her at the piano.
“You better believe it, Faith. Her voice is amazing! She has this tone that melts your heart and within the first verse she has you panting!”
Faith turned in Cassadee’s direction and had a very shark-esque smile on her face. “This I have to hear. You’ll sing for us, right?” Faith was already pushing Ty out of her way so should could get out of the booth, probably to drag her ass out her side, kicking and screaming if need be.
“No, Faith, not today. Maybe some other time, when it’s just us and not the whole damn town.” Cassadee tried to scoot down in her seat. Oh God lord! She glared at AJ who gave her a sheepish grin.
“Sorry, baby.” AJ grimaced. “I should have thought that through a little more.”
Cassadee threw him a look that clearly said, “No shit, Sherlock!”
“Come on, Cassadee, you have to! Lucy wanted a special song for Cody and Brendan, and I don’t think this band will do it justice or make it the moment she really wants it to be,” Faith pleaded.
She actually clasped her hands under her chin and actually pleaded. What a bloody drama queen! Sad thing about it was that it was working.
“Think about, Lucy. This was a song she really wanted to have playing for the three of them, dedicated to the two men who saved her from—”
“All right! Jesus, enough with the guilt trip already!” Cassadee laughed as Faith squealed and jumped up and down then ran off no doubt in search of Lucy. “Wait! What song does she want?” Cassadee shouted after her, not knowing if she had been heard. Shaking her head with a bemused smile she followed in Faith’s wake, praying that she knew the song Lucy wanted. Otherwise, this was not going to go well—at all.
Sam watched as their mate walked across the bar toward where Faith was talking excitedly with Lucy. His whole body was tense. Not knowing if his mate actually wanted to be guilt-tripped into performing in front of basically the whole damn town. He knew she would blow everyone away, hell with her voice she could sing “Three Blind Mice” and get a standing ovation.
“I think I just fucked up, bro,” AJ sent down their link.
Sam turned to look at him, but he was looking over at their mate the same that he had been, but the emotion on his face was regret.
“She doesn’t want to do this. If I had just kept my mouth shut she wouldn’t feel like she had to do this.”
“AJ, it’s going to be fine. She is meant to be on that stage and she is meant to sing. She just needs the encouragement and confidence something like this can give her. Besides, if she had kept refusing Faith would have backed off. But Cassie didn’t. That tells me she wants to do this,” Sam sent back.
The band on the stage took a break and conversations filled the bar and restaurant area. He saw their mate nod and accept a hug from an ecstatic Lucy and then be led to the stage by Faith. Faith grabbed the mic from the lead singer’s stand and stepped to the front of the stage.
“Hi, everybody! We have a very special treat for you tonight in celebration of Lucy, Brendan, and Cody’s Binding Ceremony. Can I have the happy trio to the front please?”
There was wolf whistling and jostling as they pushed to the front of the dance floor and everyone else vacated it and sat at their tables. Sam and AJ stood from their booth and edged closer to the stage, wanting to offer as much support to their mate as they could.
“Okay, so, Brendan and Cody, Lucy wanted a very special song for you today, one that has held a place in her heart for a long time, a place that has now been filled by you both.”
“We are extremely lucky that one of our closest friends is extremely talented or so I hear and she is going to perform the song for you. So, here is ‘Make You Feel My Love’ performed for you by our very own Cassadee Shaw, for Brendan and Cody.”
There followed huge applause and whistles as Faith excited the stage and walked across to stand in front of her mates. Then the room filled with silence as Cassadee strode across the stage, no sign of nerves or fear, just a cool classy confidence that had his dick standing to attention and she hadn’t sung a note. She sat at the piano, adjusted the mic, and then shuffled on her seat a little getting comfortable. She placed her hands on the keys, took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and began to play. The opening chords of the song rang out through the bar. Sam knew the melody, hell he had loved the song since Garth Brookes sang it back in the late 1980s, but he had never before heard it played with a bluesy tone to it.
Then she started to sing. Sam closed his eyes and let her voice wash over him. Her voice wrapped itself around his heart and squeezed. There were no other sounds in the restaurant or bar. No one spoke a word. Just his mate singing with an emotion that made him ache. Opening his eyes, he inhaled sharply to see her looking directly at him and AJ. Oh fuck. She was singing to them, and he heard every single word as if she whispered it against his skin.
She had the sweetest small smile on her face that made him want to nibble on her lips. Her eyes never wavered from the two of them, or theirs from hers. The dwindling light of the day shone through the floor to ceiling window behind her and cast her in soft amber light that had her glowing. Or maybe she was just glowing in his eyes.
He had known he would fall for her from the moment he had met her. Over the past ten days, taking their time to get to know her he realized that she was beautiful on the outside, but beyond compare on the inside. Hearing her sing this song, a song that wasn’t even for him or his brother, he had no doubt in his mind that the words were for them alone.
As the song neared its end her voice belted out a note and vocal run that had him mouthing the words damn, baby to himself. Then the last note from the piano and her voice rang, clear then slowly ebbed into silence. For a moment, as she took her hands off the piano there was still no sound in the room. For a brief second he saw uncertainty flash across her face, and then the roof was lifted off the Country Blue.
The applause was raucous, and the whistles of appreciation piercing. Sam looked around at his pack and saw the awe and amazement on all their faces. They showed their appreciation country style by stamping their boots as well as clapping and whistling, no one louder than he and AJ. When he looked back at the stage, their mate stood in front of the piano, mouthing the words thank you, and acknowledging the crowd.
Lucy, Brendan, and Cody walked up onto the stage, and she was engulfed in an embrace that took her off her feet. Sam tensed a little at seeing their mate in the arms of two other men, mated cousins be damned. When he looked at AJ he saw by his narrowed gaze that he felt the same way. They nodded at each other and quickly made their way up onto the stage.
As soon as she was released, they pulled her into their arms and began to shuffle her off the stage. Ignoring the calls of “encore,” they had her off the stage and into the staff quarters in less than a minute. As soon as they were away from curious eyes, Sam spun her into his arms and kissed her.
Although technically this wasn’t their first kiss, this was the first time he let his passion take over. He tilted her head for the perfect angle then ran his tongue across the seam of her lips. When she moaned her pleasure he thrust his tongue into her mouth to tangle with hers. It was a hard powerful release of pressure, before he pulled back, pleased to see her eyes had glazed over, and her lips were slightly swollen.
He turned her to AJ who pounced, taking her mouth as fast and hard as he had. After a moment he pulled back to, and all three of them were breathing hard.
“I think it’s time to move this relationship into a higher gear, don’t you, Cassie?” His voice was little more than a growl and when her eyes flashed amber signaling her cat was close, nodded and bit her lip, his cock pressed hard against the zipper of his jeans.
He swept her into his arms and practically sprinted up the stairs, AJ just ahead of him opening, then closing and locking their front door. Sam didn’t think he could last until they got to the bedroom so he headed for the living room. After all with its huge soft couches, oversized ottoman, and a multitude of other surfaces they could lay her on or over, it was perfect for what he had in mind.
Chapter 6
Sam lowered Cassadee to stand on her feet in front of the couch. He lifted trembling hands to her jaw to hold her face in his hands to stare into her eyes. My God she was beautiful. “Is this what you want, baby? You wanted slow—” He stopped and grinned as her eyes narrowed and she gave a little growl.
“Yeah, well I was obviously channeling stupid at the time. I don’t need or want slow anymore”—her eyes darkened and she gave a positively wicked grin—“Unless it’s a slow, hard fuck. Then I am all about the slow, and the hard, and then the fast.”
Sam growled a laugh and took her mouth in a hard fast kiss, the sound of AJ sliding the zipper down at the back of her dress loud in the quiet room. He pulled his mouth from hers and waited as AJ slipped his hands beneath the straps and slid the dress from her body. It dropped without a sound to the floor.
He was damn sure that the dress must have passed his damn tongue on the way down because he was bloody sure it had hit the ground as well. Damn this woman had him panting! He had never seen a more exciting, pleasing and fuck-me sexy sight than his mate in lingerie and heels. Her bra was strapless and made of blue silk that matched her sundress perfectly. The cups did wonderful things for her breasts as the tops plumped over the lace beautifully.
“Damn, Cassie,” he groaned as he ran the backs of his fingers over the soft upper swell of her breasts. His eyes dropped, and he groaned again and felt a drop of liquid escape his cock. She was wearing a thong in the same blue lace. He quickly reached for the zipper of his jeans to release the pressure on his dick. He had never been one to wear underwear so
his cock dropped out the zipper and Cassadee licked her lips as she watched.
Cursing, he yanked of his boots, jeans, and shirt, then dropped to his knees naked in front of her. She needed to be worshipped as the goddess that she was. He ran his hands down the scars across her abdomen and sides, heart aching as he hands fluttered as if about to push him away.
“Sweetheart, you are fucking perfection to us. These scars do nothing to detract from the fact that you are the most beautiful woman we have ever laid eyes on.” He pressed kisses against each and every scar, running his tongue over the puckered skin that had fallen victim to flame, loving the sound of her moan and the feel of her shivering in his arms. He pressed kisses against the knife wound on her abdomen and sent a silent thank-you to God that she survived each and every one of these wounds.
He slid his fingers into the sides of her panties and slowly pulled them down her long shapely legs. He heard rustling coming from the direction of his brother, no doubt him shedding his clothes. By the time he was helping her to step out of her panties, AJ had returned, supporting her at her back, lavishing each and every raised scar with the attention of his mouth and tongue. Sam grinned as their mate squirmed and her breathing became choppy.
Her pussy was the most beautiful damn thing he had ever seen. It was completely bare, and her swollen lips glistened with cream. He buried his nose in her pussy and inhaled. Her scent swirled through his senses, and he felt like he was going to shoot fast, so he reached down and tugged on his balls hard to stave it off.
“Baby, your pussy is just dripping with cream, and from the delicious smell of it, I can’t waste another fucking drop.” He growled he was so desperate for a taste. AJ pulled her back against him, keeping her hips pressed forward toward Sam. In this position, AJ could see and play with her beautiful breasts as well as turn her head toward him and feast on her lips, which he did with a hunger that Sam felt mirrored in his own body.
