The Mating Project

by Sam Crescent

  "Really, so you weren't sent to seduce Silas here to sign up to your Mating Project then?" A shadow crossed her expressive features, and Malachi knew he'd scored a home run. Silas tensed next to him, and regret surged through Malachi at the hurt he sensed in his friend.

  "Yes, I was, but I've told him that, and what we have has nothing to do with that. Silas knows that. I don’t give a flying fuck if he signs up or not, I—"

  She flinched when Malachi's wolf took over. He leapt across the room and had her pinned against the counter in record time. One hand pressed around her neck, he held her still, all too aware of her nipples beading into hard nubs against her chest. Her scent intensified, calling him to taste, and he allowed himself one deep inhale against her wildly beating pulse point. A shiver went through her when he couldn’t help but linger, and all the fight left her.

  Just like that he was under her spell, too, and that pissed him the fuck off. He released her, but he didn’t step away, couldn't if his life depended on it. This was why he'd stayed away, and just kept tabs on her from afar. This was also the reason why he hadn't claimed Silas, even though he'd known the human was his mate from the minute he'd scented him five years ago now. It had confused the hell out of him then. He wasn't gay; he knew that. He didn't even consider himself bi, but with Silas that had never mattered, just like it didn't matter one iota what his brain was telling him now. His wolf was in control here, and he wanted this cougar as much if not more so than he'd done ten years ago. The years hadn't lessened the attraction. They had just strengthened it. Standing in this kitchen, with his two mates, all he wanted to do was claim them both and howl his fury at that unjust hand fate had dealt him.

  "I fucking care, princess. Silas is too good to get involved in that shit." He growled the words into her face, but the damn woman didn't even flinch. She simply stared up at him with the feline eyes of her cat and snarled.

  "Don’t you think I fucking know that? I'd never have agreed to come here, if it was for the council. Cole Jackson sent me. He runs a tight ship, and he is aboveboard."

  "He's a fucking original. They all think they can rule the place."

  "Aren't you forgetting something here, mutt boy?" Her smile was unsettling to say the least. "You're an original, too, whether you choose to accept your place at the council or not."

  At her taunting voice Malachi tightened his hold on her neck, until her eyes grew wide and she clawed at his hand.

  "Malachi." Silas's warning relaxed him, and he released his hold on her. Instantly Maria pushed him away and gulped big lungfuls of air into her chest.

  Silas stepped into the breach and pulled her close. He ran a soothing hand over her back and glared at Malachi over her head.

  "Don’t call me that. I've no wish to be anywhere near that fucking council, and besides my place was revoked ten years ago, by your father no less, together with a price on my head. Guess daddy dearest didn't appreciate his little princess coming home smelling of wolf."

  Maria stiffened in Silas's arms.

  "Is that your excuse for not coming after me? What are you? A man or a mouse? I waited for you, goddammit. I cried myself to sleep every fucking night, not knowing if you were dead or alive, feeling like an outcast in my own house, because they all knew what had happened, or they thought they knew. But you didn't even have the guts to claim me then, did you? Oh, the irony of everyone thinking I'd slept with you. Dad couldn’t look at me for weeks, and Mum aged ten years in a day, and what did you do? Ran away like a frightened little puppy instead of fighting. You're a fucking original. You have all that power at your fingertips, and you just slink off into the night, and let everyone believe you're dead. What about your pack? You're their Alpha, yet you left them to flounder. Those women and children you made me promise to protect, they're living in poverty at the fringes of our society, because they have no leader, no one to protect them, because you're too much of a coward to stand up for them."

  She ran out of steam and buried closer into Silas's embrace with a whine of distress that tore at his heart.

  "You've no idea what you're fucking talking about. There's more at stake here than my pack, and not that it’s any of your business, but I do look after them. From afar, where it’s safest for all of them. I'm persona non grata as far as the council is concerned, and until I bring the real person behind all this shit to justice that's not going to fucking change, so don’t lecture me on my responsibilities, princess."

  He would have gone on, all the frustration and hurt spilling out of him in one giant rush, but Silas's frown stopped him. He'd already said far too much.

  When all was said and done, his life was in danger for simply being here. There was nothing to stop Maria from running straight to her father and turning him in. Nothing but the connection between them, which even now made his wolf whine. Her cougar's answering purr reassured him a little. Maybe this was for the best. Maybe they could somehow make it work. With her on the inside, so to speak, they might finally be able to track the bastard down. He'd have to leave a trail somewhere. Even as he thought that, his gut clenched as his wolf protested at the mere notion of placing his mate in danger.

  Silas, too, must have come to the same conclusion because he tightened his hold on Maria, and she visibly relaxed.

  Shit, they had that whole mind conversation going on right now. How Malachi knew that, he had no idea. Maybe it was the tilt of Maria's head as she listened to something only she could hear. How was that even possible? Silas was human. Not even a sniff of shifter blood in his ancestry. Lord knows Malachi had looked as a way of explaining this unreasonable attraction he'd felt to the guy. In the end he'd just admitted defeat. The fates were sent to screw him over, and this little spectacle in front of him just served to emphasize that fact. It also meant that red hot poker of jealousy stabbed at his insides, and twisted them into a painful knot of misery.

  When Maria spoke again, her voice sounded small and lost.

  "I'm sorry this is getting us nowhere. As Silas just pointed out to me, you had your reasons." She glanced at Silas. "I've got to go. I dare say you two got some catching up to do, and I'll only be in the way."

  "You'll never be in the way, baby."

  A sad smile lit up her features at Silas's words, and she cupped his face and kissed him. A mere brush of her lips against his, but it made Malachi's wolf want to howl. The tenderness between them was hard to take. He wanted that, dammit. They were his mates, yet he was the outsider here, and he had no fucking clue how to make it right between them all.

  In direct contrast the ice and hurt in her eyes when she looked at him could have frozen the Sahara, and she flinched away from him when he took an involuntary step toward her.

  "Don't you fucking touch me—not now. Whatever your reasons, I'm not ready for that."

  Silas sighed, and Malachi nodded just once, and her tense frame relaxed slightly. She turned to Silas, and he gestured to a pile of clothing Malachi noticed only now. There on the sofa lay a neat stack of clothes that carried Maria's scent. She grabbed them and disappeared into Silas's bedroom.

  A tense silence fell between the two men, and neither one of them moved, until Maria re-appeared. The loose trouser suit she wore was crumpled, yet screamed understated elegance. Even with her hair in a mess and not an ounce of make-up on her face, she was stunningly beautiful, and it hurt to look at her.

  Eyes wide and face flushed she looked like she smelled. Aroused, hurt, confused, and above all scared.

  She glanced at the two of them, grabbed her handbag and then scuttled off as fast as her heels would let her.

  The front door clicked shut behind her retreating back, and Silas swore.

  "You better sort this thing out between you and her, because, fuck it, Malachi. I won't give her up. I can't."

  Malachi nodded and suddenly felt very old.

  "Neither can I, Silas. What the fuck are we going to do?"

  Chapter Ten

  Maria slowed her agitated steps an
d took a deep breath. She was late and Emmi hated her being late, but that surreal conversation with her mates had taken much longer than she'd thought. Add to that morning traffic, and she was now half an hour late for her meeting. She'd also be hopelessly late for work, but that was the least of her worries. Mates.

  That word kept bouncing around her in her brain and had her cat pace underneath her skin. It wasn't that unusual to be mated to two men, not with fertility rates the way they were, but these weren't council chosen. No, she, a pure blood cougar, who'd had the rules drummed into her from birth, was mated to a human and a wolf, or at least she would be soon.

  There was no doubt in her mind that her wolf would come after her this time. Their connection was too strong, too intense to ignore, and even as pissed off as she was at him, parts of her had just melted when she'd been plastered against him in Silas's kitchen.

  Add to that the fact that Silas and Malachi were clearly lovers and her libido had skyrocketed. It had taken all of her willpower to not thrust her fingers into her drenched pussy when she'd watched the two men kiss.

  How this was all going to work, Lord only knew. She could just see her father's face when she announced that she had a human and wolf mate who were also lovers. Gay shifters were ostracized, even in this day and age, but then again, neither man was gay, were they? Silas was known for his eye for the ladies, and not once had there been any mention of any male contact. Unless he was extremely discreet, then his only sexual contact with a man had to be Malachi.

  It was enough to make her head spin trying to figure it all out. Not that her head was engaged in any of this. No, her cougar was very much in charge here, and that muscle in her chest, that hurt just thinking about not seeing her men again.

  Maria fixed a smile on her face and sauntered into the crowded coffee shop with as much aplomb as she could fake. Emmi looked worried enough as it was, and Maria bit down her guilt at having to involve her at all.

  "Hey, baby mama, what's the long face for?" Maria plonked herself in the chair opposite from Emmi and grinned at her. "Still not had any then, I take it."

  "Maria!" Emmi glanced around the crowded coffee shop, and her cheeks turned crimson. Really, she was far too easy to wind up, but she really did need to get laid. The human was far too tense, and for the umpteenth time Maria wondered what game Cole was playing.

  "Do you have to be so loud?" Emmi glared at her, and Maria giggled. The sound surprised even her. Emmi gave her a curious look and slid a coffee across the table toward her.

  "This is probably stone cold by now. What took you so long? No, let me guess, getting some, were you?"

  Much to Maria's dismay heat crept into her own cheeks. Since when did she blush, for fuck's sake? Talk about wearing your heart on your sleeve for all to see. She couldn't bring herself to look at Emmi, lest she read in her eyes what her heart was telling her, and she slugged the coffee down in one go.

  "Bleugh, lukewarm. Let's get another one."

  "Oh, no," Emmi said. "You're not getting out of this so easily. Spill, Maria, what in hell is going on? You made it sound like some sort of dire emergency on the phone, so I drag myself here on my day off, and then you turn up half an hour late, and looking as though you've been dragged through a hedge backwards." Emmi stopped and gave her the once over. "And you were wearing those clothes yesterday. I knew it, you're seeing someone! Who is he?"

  Emmi crossed her arms and glared at her, and Maria squirmed in her seat. Dammit, for a human the woman was far too perceptive.

  "Them, actually, but you can't tell anyone, promise me, please."

  "Two?" Emmi laughed, and Maria relaxed slightly. There was no censure in that laugh, slightly annoyed though it was. "What is it with your family and threesomes?"

  Good question. However, her situation was miles removed from her brothers’. Anastasia had been welcomed with open arms. Maria wouldn’t be so lucky, she knew that, and she ground her teeth together to stop herself from letting her agitation show.

  "Promise me, Emmi, you mustn't tell a soul. Not Anastasia or my brothers and certainly not Cole. Promise!"

  "Okay, okay, I promise, but why is this such a big deal? It's not as though your brothers could hold it against you. They're sharing Anastasia after all, and I'm sure Cole—"

  "He mustn't know, Emmi, you promised. He'd feel honor bound to tell my mum and dad, and then the proverbial shit would really hit the fan."

  Emmi looked more confused by the minute, and Maria couldn't really blame her. She was itching to confide in her, but she really couldn't.

  "Maria, you're giving me a headache here. Why would Cole feel the need to tell your parents anything? He doesn't know them, and besides, you're a grown woman. Who you choose to fuck is nobody else's business."

  Oh, if only it was that easy. Maria flinched when she realized she was shredding the paper napkin in front of her into smithereens, and she knew her cougar was showing in her eyes when she looked at Emmi.

  "If only it was that simple, Emmi. I'm a pure blood cougar. There are rules. Cole enforces those rules. Trust me, he can't know. No one must know."

  Maria jumped when Emmi grasped her hand and squeezed.

  "Okay, I won't mention a word to him, but I'm utterly confused here. If no one must know then why are you telling me now?"

  "Because I need your help, Emmi. Mum has organized this big shifter get-together to celebrate the safe arrivals of the triplets. Everyone and anyone will be there, and I know she'll have some cougar shifter lined up for me. As far as Mum is concerned my finding a mate is long overdue. I'd hoped Jake and Carter finding their mate and giving her grandbabies would have given me some leeway, but alas it's just made her worse. Even Dad has started to make noises that I should settle down, and he's always been on my side, dammit. Jake and Carter are no help at all, ‘cause they'll only have eyes for Anastasia and the babies, and I need a distraction."

  Emmi put her hand up in a seeming effort to slow Maria down. Sure enough the words had tumbled out so fast that Maria was out of breath, and she flinched at her thought processes. At least she thought her dad was still on her side. He loved her, she knew that, and he was doing what he thought best.

  "Whoa, slow down there. Why tell me all this? Surely you don't want me to be the distraction? Is a human pregnant with a shifter such a novelty?"

  Emmi looked doubtful, and Maria shook her head and sighed.

  "No, not you, but Cole Jackson will be. He's like shifter royalty, Emmi, and if you were to bring him, no one would care about lil’ old me. Please, Emmi, he'll come if you ask him."

  Emmi shook her head and massaged her temples, as though she was getting a headache. Maria knew just how she felt. Her own head was thumping, and she had a whole day of work to get through yet.

  "Okay, back up here, Maria. Cole is what? And do I have to remind you we're not actually together?"

  "Oh, bullshit," Maria screeched, causing the elderly couple at the next table to look across at them with a disapproving frown, and Emmi offered them a smile in apology.

  "Keep your voice down, Maria."

  "Well, it is. You're mated, whether you accept that or not, Emmi, and you're carrying his baby. His ownership is stamped all over you, for fuck's sake. There is no way in hell he'd let you attend a party full of shifters without him, so all you have to say, is that you've been invited by me, and he'll come with you. It's easy, please, Emmi, and you'd really help a girl out."

  Maria willed Emmi to see her point of view, and when the other woman gave a reluctant nod she could have kissed her in relief.

  "Excellent, babe, and look at it this way. You'll get an education in the process. These shifter gatherings can get interesting, and it might just force Cole to tell you the truth about him."

  Emmi paled, and Maria could have kicked herself for her runaway mouth.

  "What do you mean, the truth? Maria, what the fuck? Is he lying to me?"

  Maria smiled and patted her hand in an effort to reassure her friend.r />
  "No, Cole Jackson wouldn't lie, especially not to you, but it's clear from your reactions that he hasn't told you who he really is. It's not for me to tell you. Ask him, and for goodness’ sakes, make sure he comes to the party. Now, I don't know about you, but I need another coffee and one of those pastries. You stay right there, sweets, it's my treat. I'll get this round."

  She didn't wait for Emmi's reply, just jumped up and joined the queue for the counter. Hopefully this crazy plan would buy her some time until the three of them could figure out this strange mating they found themselves in.

  ****

  Time had run out a mere three days later it seemed. Maria had been dismayed to find Anton de Souza very much in residence at the family only meal she'd been roped into. Having to make polite conversation to a man that made her skin crawl was getting harder by the minute. She already had to endure raised eyebrows at the amount of body spray and perfume she had doused herself in. It was overkill for sure, but Maria hadn't wanted to take any chances on either Silas's or Malachi's scent remaining on her skin.

  As a result she smelled like a walking perfume factory, and even ever supportive Anastasia had held a handkerchief to her nose and coughed when Maria had come too close. Still, it served its purpose in so far that De Souza had kept a polite distance, even if his silver grey eyes were constantly undressing her.

  As a result Maria had lost her appetite and had drunk far too much. She even picked at the strawberry gateau, which was her favorite, and jumped when her mobile rang again.

  Dammit, she'd turned that to silent, hadn't she? Sure enough a quick glance down showed the caller to be Silas again. Maria had lost count how many messages he'd left her. The last one had been made by Malachi, using Silas's phone.

  You can run, but you can’t hide, princess. Don’t make me come and chase you. You're making Silas miserable, and we need to sort this. One way or the other.

  Malachi was right of course, and she hated the thought of being the cause of trouble between the men, but, dammit, they couldn’t just expect her to roll over and let them have their way with her, even if her cat panted her agreement with this plan. Too much was at stake here, and the female part of her was downright pissed that neither man had actually sought her out.