He heard two sets of feet on the stairs, a heavier one that most likely belonged to Jericho and Lachlyn’s lighter, almost non-existent one. Without conscious thought, he found himself drifting down the hallway out of sheer curiosity, well aware that Jericho was most likely one of those sorts of possessive bears who would kill for his mate on principle. Behind him, someone from his family called his name, but he didn’t acknowledge them.
“Oh wow,” the woman’s voice spoke, filled with awe. “Do you smell that?”
The footsteps stopped on the stairs.
“What, Sunshine? All I can smell is your aunt’s roast.”
“No, Jer, it’s something sweet and wild. Yum.”
The footsteps continued, the softer ones faster than the heavier ones and as Alek rounded into the foyer, a woman crashed into him and gasped in alarm.
“Shit!” Alek said in surprise, clutching her out of instinct to keep her from falling. The sweet scent he’d caught in the foyer washed over him again as he stared down into the beautiful face of the woman from upstairs. Big blue eyes. Long auburn hair. Mouth open in surprise.
His mate.
Chapter 6
Jericho took the stairs two at a time when Lachlyn called for him and found her standing in front of the full-length mirror on the closet door with her dress unzipped.
He smiled and she made a face. “Don’t laugh, Jer. I can’t reach the zipper. You wouldn’t want me to be indecent, would you?”
His smile dropped away in a heartbeat. He stepped close to her, easing the troublesome zipper all the way up. The naturally sweet scent of her skin made his whole body harden, joining his poor cock that hadn’t stopped being hard since Lachlyn agreed to be his mate. It had taken a tremendous amount of willpower not to make love to her last night, but it hadn’t felt quite right. He wasn’t certain if it was because her aunt and uncle had the room across the hall, or because he believed she had a second mate, or because of her injuries. Regardless, he’d contented himself with just holding her while they slept.
“No, I wouldn’t want you to be indecent, Sunshine. There are a ton of people down there I don’t know.”
She turned in his arms and rested her palms on his shoulders. “Bears?”
“No, the mountain lions that are friends with Don.”
“Have you ever met a mountain lion?”
“No. You?”
She shook her head and dropped her hands, taking one of his. “Let’s go meet some big cats.”
He snorted. “Not big. Normal. Human-sized really.”
She laughed and gave him a playful slap on the arm. “You’re just exceptionally big so that even if they were big for their kind, they probably look normal in comparison. But they probably wouldn’t like being compared to humans.”
He didn’t particularly care if he offended any of them. He didn’t have plans to see them after tonight.
As they walked down the wooden steps, their footsteps echoing around them, she said, “Oh wow, do you smell that?”
She stopped walking and he did as well. Taking a quick inhale, he shook his head. “What, Sunshine? All I can smell is your aunt’s roast.”
“No, Jer, it’s something sweet and wild. Yum.”
She dropped his hand and rushed down the steps, her hand on the banister as she rounded the corner and then gasped in surprise. He leapt down the stairs, worried she’d hurt herself, and found her in the arms of the male who Don had called Alek.
Alek’s eyes were locked on Lachlyn’s as he held her.
Jericho knew that he should have been pissed at Alek for holding Lachlyn for far longer than was clearly necessary, but he was strangely calm about it. He joined them, putting one hand on Alek’s shoulder, which made Alek’s head snap up. Lachlyn reached up and pressed her hand against Jericho’s, mashing his palm into Alek’s shoulder.
He knew why he wasn’t pissed off. Lachlyn had found her other mate, the third in their tri-mating.
“Are you alright, Sunshine?” he asked, turning his attention from Alek’s face to Lachlyn’s.
Her mouth worked silently for a moment and then her voice squeaked out, “Yes.” Clearing her throat she answered again, “Yes.”
Alek’s face flushed and he looked guilty as hell, but that didn’t make him release his hold on Lachlyn.
“My name is Jericho, and this is Lachlyn.”
“My name —” he said and winced as his voice cracked. He cleared his throat and continued, “Alek.”
It was as if he suddenly realized he was still holding Lachlyn, because he cursed softly and slipped his arms away from her, once she was standing straight. “Sorry.” He all but growled the word, and Jericho was fairly certain he wasn’t really sorry at all.
Alek turned and took a step away, and Lachlyn’s panicked face made Jericho reach out and stop him. “Wait, Alek. We should talk.”
“I didn’t mean anything by it,” he said as he looked over his shoulder. His face was calm, but his hands were curled into fists at his side.
Lachlyn’s voice was gentle. “Please, Alek? I want to talk with you.”
A man who resembled an older version of Alek came into the hallway. “Is everything alright, Son?”
“Yeah, Dad. I’ll be out in a minute.”
His father raised a brow, but said nothing, leaving them alone in the hallway.
Alek turned slowly, his eyes darting between Lachlyn and Jericho. He straightened, squaring his shoulders and said with a clear voice, “I meant no harm to your mate, Jericho. If you’d like me to leave the house, I will.”
Jericho admired a male with principles.
Lachlyn gasped in dismay. “You’d really walk away from me?”
Alek’s firm resolve seemed to falter in the face of her words, and his voice was less steady. “I don’t want to, but I will.”
She reached her hand out and took Alek’s and then linked her other hand with Jericho’s. “Please don’t, Alek.”
Alek swallowed hard enough that the sound was audible, and Jericho said, “Let’s go talk in the sitting room.”
Jericho led the way, and Lachlyn kept her hands in both of theirs, keeping Alek tethered to them until they were in the small sitting room Gwen used to entertain den guests.
Lachlyn released their hands and moved to Jericho, going up on her tiptoes, wrapping her arms around his neck and pulling him down for a kiss. The short kiss ended and she stared into his eyes, her blue ones full of hope and happiness. He kissed the tip of her nose. “Go kiss your other mate, Sunshine. I’m not going anywhere.”
And he really wasn’t. Alek looked like a deer in headlights as Lachlyn released her hold on Jericho and moved towards him. To try to ease some of the tension, Jericho sat down on a loveseat that had embroidered cushions and smelled like roses. Lachlyn approached Alek with grim determination on her face, and Jericho knew that no matter what else happened tonight, their family was now complete.
Chapter 7
A hundred questions raced through her mind as she closed the distance to Alek. Should she tell him flat-out that he was her mate? Should she give him a history lesson about tri-matings?
When she reached him and the sweet scent of his skin hit her, her knees wobbled and she did the only thing that she could really be certain was the right thing in this moment. She kissed him.
He was taller than her by about six inches. Just tall enough that she could kiss him without having to really reach up like she did with Jericho. Which wasn’t the only difference. Where Jericho kissed her with assurance born of many, many kisses in their past, Alek’s kiss was tentative and very soft, as if he were afraid she might break from the pressure.
Pulling her lips away a fraction, she spoke against his mouth. “Tell me you know you’re mine, too, Alek.”
His voice was throaty and deep. “Yes, Lachlyn, yes.”
Their mouths met again, and his kiss was a little more assured, as if he was bolstered by her question. When he opened his mouth to her questing ton
gue, her whole body jolted with awareness. Alek’s arms slowly moved from just holding her to actually embracing her, pulling her close to his chest and angling his head to deepen the kiss.
Footsteps sounded down the hall and Alek pulled away, his eyes dazed and a sweet, lopsided smile on his face.
“Alek?” a young man called.
“We’ll be right out, Henry.” His head snapped to the side.
“Okay,” Henry answered, his footsteps receding quickly.
Letting out a slow breath, Alek turned his attention back to her and brushed his thumb across her lower lip. “Something’s happened between us.” He glanced at Jericho and then back to her. “Between all of us.”
“I’m a bear, Alek, and so is Jericho,” she said as she looked over at Jericho who looked at peace for the first time in a long time. “Jericho and I have known each other since we were kids, but we never really got together until now. He told me he thought it was because we were destined to be in a tri-mating. I wasn’t sure I believed him until I met you, Alek. You’re my mate, the same way that Jericho is. Both of you for me, and me for both of you.”
“We obviously have a lot to talk about, but if we don’t head out to dinner, we’re going to keep getting interrupted.” Alek pointed out.
Jericho stood and joined them. “We do have a lot to talk about. But I believe we’ve got the rest of our lives, yes?”
She grinned up at him. He wasn’t trying to be romantic, but it sure was romantic.
“Absolutely,” she said and Alek nodded, still looking flushed from their kiss. She could relate. Her bear was doing cartwheels in her head for having found her second mate. Jericho was right. She had needed a second mate to make their mating complete. Everything felt right now. Not just her and Jericho. Not just her and Alek. But the three of them together. She was sure it wouldn’t be easy, but nothing worthwhile ever was.
She held both their hands and they walked down the hall, through the kitchen, and into the large dining room. Her uncle sat at the head of the long, intricately carved table, with Sarah on one side, and Gwen on the other, and the rest of the table was filled with people she didn’t know. Three chairs were empty, one between two males and two next to Gwen. For a moment, no one said anything. They simply stared at the trio in silence for what felt like an eternity but was most likely less than a minute.
A male sitting next to the two empty seats stood and stepped around his seat. Holding out his hand, he said, “I’m Alek’s father, James Fallon.”
Jericho introduced himself and her and shook his hand. Then James walked around the table and took the single empty seat, leaving three empty seats together. Alek smiled at her, and they took their seats, her sitting between her mates.
Uncle Don said grace, his voice booming, and then he asked everyone to go around the table and introduce themselves. All the mountain lions introduced themselves in relation to Alek — his uncles and aunt, his brothers and their mate, his cousins, and his father — and then the bears introduced themselves. Food began to be passed around, and the first thing she noticed was that the mated males filled up their female’s and children’s plates and then their own. One of his twin brothers put some of everything on their mate Callie’s plate while the other twin took care of the three young children.
Alek started to fill up her plate, and she felt herself fall in love with him a little bit right then. Jericho had always taken good care of her, because he was a generous and loving male, but Alek put food on her plate as though it was just in his nature to take care of her, to put her needs ahead of his own.
The rich smell of her aunt’s pot roast drove away any thoughts other than eating, and after kissing Alek’s cheek in thanks, she dove in. Conversation around the table was light, and she felt as though the three of them were in their own world as they traded questions back and forth to learn more about each other. She discovered that Alek was a police officer and had grown up in Pennsylvania before he and his pride moved to Ashland, which was south of Bracks.
“Why did you move to Ashland?” she asked, taking a big bite of roast and mashed potatoes.
Alek froze and he lifted his head, looking across the table at his father. When he looked at her, his eyes were troubled. “It’s a long story. I’ll tell you later, okay?”
She nodded and smiled reassuringly, and he switched the topic by asking Jericho what he did for a living.
She raised her brow and looked at Jericho, who looked as much like a deer in headlights as Alek had. After a short pause, Jericho repeated Alek’s statement word for word, and Lachlyn covered her laugh unsuccessfully with a cough. The rest of the meal passed quickly as dinner led to dessert and coffee. As Alek topped her apple pie with ice cream and caramel sauce, he asked with a low voice, “Where are you guys staying?”
Jericho leaned in slightly, and Lachlyn put her hands on both of their shoulders. Her situation was too complicated to discuss over coffee. Until Alek had asked the question, though, she hadn’t considered what might happen at the end of the evening.
“We’re staying here with my aunt and uncle because of a bad situation with our former den. We drove up here in the RV parked out front,” she said.
His eyes narrowed. “Are you in danger?”
Jericho shook his head. “Not at the moment, but this is one of those things that we need to discuss when we have privacy.”
Alek nodded and then he suddenly looked shy, averting his eyes and toying with the fork on his dessert plate. “Do you want to come home with me? I live in a big boarding house with the pride and have a suite to myself.”
She didn’t need to look at Jericho to know that he would approve of whatever she wanted. The two of them hadn’t made love the night before, and she wasn’t entirely sure what the reason was, but now that she’d found Alek, the thought of spending even one night without him, as well as Jericho, was like a dart in her chest.
“We’d love to come home with you, Alek.” She squeezed his shoulder, and he stared at her with big blue eyes. Her bear rumbled in approval.
She hadn’t really thought of any place as home since she’d had to move away to go to college and to keep her non-shifting secret from getting out. But Alek made her feel at home already, and she couldn’t wait to get to know him better. In every way.
Chapter 8
After packing a bag for herself and Jericho with borrowed clothes, she kissed her aunt and uncle goodbye and left with Alek and Jericho in the camper. She sat at the kitchen table while Alek and Jericho sat in the front and talked about Ashland. It sounded like any other small town she’d ever been in, with a few businesses, a school, and a small police force. The drive didn’t take long, and when the camper turned into a hidden driveway, she leaned forward and watched out the windshield as a huge house came into view.
“How long have you and your family lived here?” she asked as Jericho parked off to the side so he didn’t block anyone’s vehicles.
Alek unbuckled his seatbelt and moved to open the side door so she could get out. She took his hand and stepped down onto the gravel driveway. Jericho came out last, holding their bags.
“About two years,” Alek said, and then explained that along with his family, who had rooms on the second floor, seven other mountain lions had joined them and had bedrooms on the third floor.
“This house originally belonged to a family that was hit by the Depression. The husband went east to look for work, and the wife opened the house up to renters and slowly remodeled it to add more bathrooms and split up larger rooms into multiple smaller ones.”
His family had beaten them home and was already inside. She’d been totally smitten with his adorable young cousins. Only one woman lived in the house now, Samantha, who was mated to Alek’s uncles, Grant and Aaron. His brothers and their mate lived in a converted apple barn on a farm in town that belonged to his Uncle Rhett and his mate, Lisa. Rhett and Lisa hadn’t come to the dinner, but he promised to take her to meet them soon.
As
they entered the grand foyer of the house, she could hear the chatter from deeper within the house and assumed it came from the kitchen. Alek paused after he shut the door and said, “How about we save introductions for tomorrow? If we go in the kitchen now, it will be after midnight before we get a chance to talk privately.”
She and Jericho agreed, and they followed Alek up the wooden stairs. Her heart was pounding by the time they reached the second floor and stopped in front of the second door on the left. Nerves made her tremble as excitement coursed through her while her bear pranced around in her mind, truly happy for having found both mates.
The large bedroom had a king-size oak sleigh bed, with matching dresser, nightstands, and an armoire that was open to reveal a flat screen television. The floor was carpeted with thick, midnight blue plush. When Alek flipped the light switch, a ceiling fan began to turn lazily, and the light fixture illuminated the room. The door locked behind them, and he walked to the closet, pushing one of the sliding doors open.
“Tomorrow I’ll clear out drawers for you both in the dresser and make room in the closet.” He toed off his shoes and pushed them inside the closet, and she and Jericho followed suit. Jericho put their bag on the dresser and pulled out the small bag of toiletries, taking it into the bathroom.
When Jericho returned, Alek said, “Do you want me to go first?”
She glanced at Jericho, who gave a slight shrug, and she walked over to Alek and put her hands on the sides of his face. She drew him down to her mouth and kissed him, smiling when he sighed and wrapped his arms around her waist. “Go ahead, Alek, and then Jericho and I will tell you about us.”
Jericho joined them as they sat on the bed. Alek began talking about their lives in King, Pennsylvania, where their pride had contained more than one hundred adult males, females, and children.
Loving Lachlyn (Ashland Pride Two) Page 5
