by Maia Dylan
Ariana paled and Casey’s cheeky grin fell. “Ari? What is it? I’m sorry, I didn’t mean anything by that.” Casey leaned over and wrapped her arm around her sister, with concern written all over her face.
“I know Casey, it’s just…complicated.” Ariana sighed and Fiona couldn’t stop the inelegant snort-giggle that shot out of her.
“Complicated? You want to talk complicated to a recent virgin who now finds herself in a relationship and apparently mated to not one, but two insanely hot shifters?” Fiona grinned when the other two women laughed.
“I guess that would definitely be classed as complicated.” Ariana giggled, then sobered quickly. Her eyes dropped to the blade of grass she was currently shredding in her hands. “I just think that there is a lot going on, and Ryan and I think it would be best to wait until all of this is over before we explore any type of potential relationship between the two of us.”
Casey nodded as if that made sense, but then she frowned. “Ariana, is that really what you want?” Fiona watched Casey flinch. “I mean, I know that this is what you think should happen, but what if there was no prophecy? If you had simply come here to visit with me and met Ryan for the first time and he announced to the world in front of his brothers, your family and our close friends that you were his mate, what then?”
Fiona watched as Ariana’s face flooded with such an intense need and hidden joy that she felt the sting of tears at what that might mean. “If that were the case, and it’s silly playing this game, because that is clearly not the case, but if it were? Then yeah, I would be with him right now exploring this connection we have for each other that sometimes seems to eclipse what I should do with what I want to do.”
Eclipse…eclipse!
“Holy shit on a sesame seed bun with special fucking sauce!” Fiona leapt to her feet, screaming at the top of lungs. Then she started shaking her booty around like it was her birthday and she just didn’t care!
“Ummm, Fiona? What part of my incredibly painful admittance inspired a potty-mouthed celebration and a dance routine straight from a Nicki Minaj music video?” Despite her humorous words, Fiona heard Ariana’s pain and felt like shit.
“Oh God, Ariana, I am so dreadfully sorry.” Fiona threw herself into Ariana’s arms and hugged her tight, tears filling her eyes. “I didn’t mean to make light of what you were saying at all! Please forgive me.” She whispered the last three words.
Ariana’s arms shot around her and squeezed her tight. “Of course I do, honey, but you need to spill. What on earth was all that about?”
Fiona sat back and couldn’t help smiling through her tears. “Oh, nothing really. I just worked out what day we need to be at the Pagan Stone to solve my part of the prophecy, that’s all.”
Chapter 8
“Okay, honey, spill,” Cole said as he threw himself down beside her and Travis on the couch. “Now that you’ve called all the Scooby Gang together, what’s up?”
Ariana had called her mom while they were driving back from the lake they were using as a training ground, and asked her to call everyone together, and they had all come. Micah sat in the armchair with Casey in his lap. Maggie and Kingi were sitting on the window seat and Ariana sat in the other armchair, pretending not to notice Ryan leaning against the wall beside her chair.
“I know when we have to be at the Pagan Stone for the next part of the prophecy to be solved.” Everyone in the room sat forward, their attention solely on her. “The last line of my part of the prophecy talks about extinguishing the fire that burns in the East. Whatever it is that is going to happen? Whatever Aeron has planned for this next stage, it will take place during th—”
“Solar Eclipse! That’s what you’re thinking, aren’t you, babe?” Cole interrupted excitedly.
“Why, yes, Cole, I am. And way to steal my thunder,” Fiona grumped and sat back with her arms folded. Cole gave her a quick grin and a wink, and she couldn’t help grinning back.
“That makes sense to a point,” Ariana said as she stood up to start pacing across the room. Over the past few weeks, Fiona had come to discover that Ariana liked to move as she thought and processed information. “But how in the hell do you extinguish the sun?”
“I don’t think we’ll have to extinguish the sun as such. I think it has more to do with what Aeron is going to do during that time.” Fiona sat forward to make her point. “When we were up at the Pagan Stone trying to solve Casey’s portion of the Prophecy, it was the use of her power in that place that triggered the portal, Aeron’s arrival and actions.
“But every time we’ve been up there since, no matter what we did or whose powers we tried in that place, nothing happened. I believe it’s because it was not the right time. When the eclipse takes place, and we are all at the Pagan Stone again, then whatever he is going to throw at us will come during those moments of total eclipse.”
Fiona knew she was right. She had come to Freedom Springs just under five months ago and since she had found out about the prophecy, she had thought about it a lot. I mean with the fate of the entire world resting on her shoulders it warranted more than just a moment’s thought and consideration, right?
And in all that time she had never felt even close to being on the right track to solving it, until she connected the solar eclipse to the prophecy, and once she had done that, she knew she was on the right path.
“Okay,” Travis said from beside her. “So in three days, we head to the Pagan Stone and battle for the fate of the world. Should be a blast.”
Fiona rolled her eyes at him as his brothers all threatened bodily harm, and Ariana and Casey both booed. Travis grinned and Fiona couldn’t help but grin back at him. It felt good to laugh and to be a part of something big. Not just the whole saving-the-earth-from-Aeron thing, which, to be fair, was pretty fucking huge, but something big like…family. For the first time in her life, Fiona felt like she belonged.
She sat back and watched as all four Winters brothers began to talk smack and hurl brotherly abuse at each other. She looked over at the two women who had become like sisters to her and saw that they were laughing at something their mom had said about boys being boys, and Fiona felt all the cracks within her heart finally fully heal. It didn’t matter anymore that her family had abandoned her. No, that wasn’t true, it did matter, but it no longer defined who she was as a person.
She was Fiona Aideen, Fire Elemental and chosen by the goddess Olwen as a warrior against chaos and carnage, and she was the fated mate to two alpha wolf shifters. That made her pretty damn special as far as she was concerned, and in three days, she would once again face Aeron and do whatever she had to, to ensure success. She had no real choice in the matter and no control of the outcome, and that scared the shit out of her.
Fiona felt her heart start to beat a little faster when she started to think about not being in control, and she had to take a couple of deep breaths to calm herself down. Her mates must have sensed her inner turmoil, because they turned as one with concerned looks.
“Fiona, baby? What’s wrong?” Cole asked as he picked her hand up from her lap and rubbed his thumb over the back of it.
“Is there more to this than you’re telling us?” Travis slipped his hand over her knee, connecting all three of them together with her in the middle. Just as it should be.
“No, there’s nothing else.” Fiona smiled, but knew it was a little forced.
“Right!” Maggie suddenly leapt up from the window seat dragging Kingi with her. “Let’s give these three some privacy.” There was a flurry of activity as the rest of them filed out of the room, but not before both Ariana and Casey sent her encouraging looks.
“Talk to us, baby. What’s going on inside the beautiful head of yours?” Cole said as he turned to face her better.
“All of this prophecy stuff and everything that is going to happen up at that Pagan Stone in three days’ time is out of my control. I don’t have a choice about being involved.” Feeling a little claustrophobic, Fiona pushed up from the c
ouch and started to pace the room a little. “I can’t walk away. If I did, then Aeron would win and the world would be changed and probably lost forever.”
“Is that what you want, Fi?” Travis asked quietly. “To walk away?”
“No!” Fiona denied quickly and stopped pacing. “Not at all! I know what it is like to be abandoned, and I will not do that to Casey and Ariana. Not to mention that the water element, whoever she is, is out there making her way here, I have no doubt, so I will not leave her, either. Also, I would rather cut off a limb than abandon the two of you.” Fiona’s heart stuttered as both of her wolves’ eyes darkened with emotion, and when it looked like Travis was about to say something, she kept going. “No, I don’t want to walk away, but I do need to feel like I am in control of something. Does that make sense?”
“Yeah, sweetheart, it does,” Cole sent her a sweet smile and Fiona smiled back, somehow knowing that to them, it did make sense and they understood.
“So I want to take control of something. I need to be the one to make this decision now, and to not have it taken from me by the prophecy, or time or anything else.” Fiona looked between her two mates. “I need you both to know that I love you. Completely, unconditionally and forever. I am yours now and ever more, and I would love nothing more than to have you both claim me and make me yours forever. Now.”
Silence, for about five brief seconds, which felt like five minutes in her current state, then they were both leaping to their feet and coming to her. Travis got there first and swept her up against his chest, his lips slamming into hers, his tongue thrusting between her lips and taking her mouth in a hot-as-hell open-mouth kiss. Then he was pulling back, leaving both of them breathing hard.
“I love you, too. Jesus, Fiona, you are everything to me. I am already yours, heart and soul, but to be able to claim you? Put my mark on you for the world to see? Sweetheart, that destroys me.” He lowered her gently to the floor and turned her around.
Cole stepped in, grasped her face in his hands and held her still, his beautiful grey eyes looking right into her soul. “I’m yours, Fi. From the moment we met.” The he kissed her, too, not as hard as Travis, but just as all-consuming. He kept his eyes open and Fiona found herself drowning in his gaze as he devoured her mouth. He sipped a few more sweet kisses from her lips before he, too, pulled back.
She had a brief moment to get her equilibrium back and then she was being ushered through the kitchen, with hurried good-byes to the amused group of people sitting around the kitchen table, out to Cole’s truck parked in the driveway. Within moments, she was seated between them in the front seat of the truck and they were heading out to their place more than just a couple of miles over the speed limit.
Fiona couldn’t keep the goofy smile off her face as they drove. She was in love with them and they were in love with her. They were going to claim her before the day was out and she would forever bear their marks with pride and love, knowing that she had a home and a place where she belonged for life. And wasn’t that just the damnedest thing!
* * * *
Cole carried Fiona across the threshold of their house and then into their bedroom, the symbolism not at all lost on him as he did so. They were going to claim their mate that night, and they sure as hell were going to convince her to marry the two of them. And yes, to be fair, he wasn’t sure that was either possible or legal, but there had to be a way, and when the desire was as high as his and Travis’s, then there would damn well be a way.
He placed her gently on her feet at the end of the bed, and without uttering a word, he and Travis began to slowly strip their mate, each of them touching, stroking or kissing strips of bare, delectable flesh as they uncovered it, until she stood before them completely naked, the flush of desire sweeping across the soft skin of her chest and neck.
“My god, Fiona,” Cole whispered as he reached out to stroke the back of his hand across her chest and down to her breast, gently tugging her nipple, making her groan. “You are so damn beautiful it makes my heart ache to look at you.”
“It also makes me harder than fucking granite to see you standing there looking all naked and delicious and the smell of your body readying itself for us.” Travis closed his eyes briefly and smiled. “Just about brings me to my knees.”
Fiona tilted her head and smiled at them in the way women do when they know they are desirable. “I’m glad and all that you like me naked, but I think the two of you are way overdressed for the occasion.” Fiona stepped backward until her knees hit the bed and then sat down and started pushing back onto the bed. When she reached the middle, she gave them the hottest damn grin they had ever seen, then spread her legs wide.
At the sight of her glistening, wet pussy, already swollen with desire, Cole felt his mouth dry up and his tongue stick to the roof of his mouth. “Uhn” was the sound that came from Travis, which told Cole that he had the same damn thing had happened to him.
“I think it’s about time you two stripped off those damn clothes and come join me on the this big ol’ bed, huh?” And if her words were not enough of an incentive, Fiona swept her left hand down over her body and reached between her legs. She moaned and started to pleasure herself gently, and Cole moaned at the sight.
“How in the hell did we get so damn lucky, Cole?” Travis asked in an awed-filled voice, and Cole shook his head. He had no idea. Sharing a quick glance with this brother, they quickly stripped off and leapt to join their mate on the bed, one on either side.
“I think we can take care of you from here, my love.” Travis said as he gently removed her hand from her own pussy, and Cole grinned when she shot him a frustrated look. Their mate must have been closer to coming than he thought.
“You’d better!” she grumped, then groaned when Travis sucked her juices from her fingers. “Boy, that’s really hot.” Her voice was all breathy now. Yep, definitely close to coming.
Cole shuffled down the bed and lay down with his shoulders between her legs, his mouth inches from heaven. “Fuck, you smell so amazing, Fi,” he murmured as he reached out to swipe his tongue through her pussy, gathering as much of her cream as he could. He reveled in her groaning his name and couldn’t help returning the sound when her flavor burst in his mouth.
“Damn, your taste is intoxicating.” His breathing was coming faster and he knew he would need to get inside her soon, but wanted to make sure she was ready for them both before he took her, because the way he was feeling, he knew he wouldn’t be able to last long!
He dove in with the intent to drive her crazy as quickly as possible, using every move he knew she loved, and repeated the ones she found the most arousing. In a short amount of time, he had her writhing and sobbing with pleasure. Feeling the walls of her pussy flutter around his tongue, he sucked her clit into his mouth and flicked his tongue against it.
“Oh fuuck! Cole!” The sound of his mate screaming his name as she tumbled into her orgasm had him frantically devouring her pussy like a mad man, the taste of her driving him crazed to the point he had to physically stop his wolf from taking over. Jesus, what this woman did to his control should be illegal.
After a few moments, he had calmed enough to start crawling up her body, stopping to press kisses every now and again, worshiping her body for the goddess she was. Travis held her head gently in his lap and Cole could see the wild need flashing in his eyes. The time had come for them to claim their mate.
He knelt up and lifted their mate into his arms, loving the sated pleasure on her face as she smiled at him. “Hey,” she said, and her voice was raspy.
“Hey back, beautiful.” Cole moved so that he could sit on the end of the bed, with her in his lap. “We’re going to claim you now, mate. I am going to slide inside your beautiful pussy, and Travis is going to take your ass. When you come and drag us with you into oblivion, we will bite you, claiming you as ours forever and for everyone to see.”
Fiona writhed a little in his lap, and he knew she wanted it as much as they did becaus
e her eyes darkened, her breathing rate sped up and the smell of her arousal perfumed the air around them, making his head spin. “Then put your money where your mouth is, my loves, and claim me.”
Fiona pushed up onto her knees and reached down to grip his cock with her hand, stroking it strongly and drawing a groan from deep within him at the feel, then she was positioning him at her entrance. She leaned in to suck on his bottom lip as she slid slowly down over him, impaling herself on his dick. They both sighed in pleasure when she had taken all he had to give and she was nestled in his lap.
“God, baby, you fill me so damn good,” Fiona murmured as she started a slow and steady slide. When she was up on her knees for the third time, she froze. By the way her eyes dilated and her heart began to pound, Cole knew Travis was readying her to take him. She sighed and dropped her head back, and Cole felt her pussy flutter in pleasure against him.
“Okay, lovely, just a little cold,” Travis murmured and Cole heard the telltale snick of the lube bottle opening. Fiona rolled her hips on him and smiled.
“That is cold, but for some reason it feels real good,” she said as she dropped her head onto Cole’s shoulder and he stroked her back, loving the feel of her bare skin against his hands.
“Here we go, my love.” Travis spoke and his voice was thick with need. Cole felt her tense a little in his arms, so he reached down to gently rub his index finger against the swollen bud of her clit.
“Oh!” Fiona gasped as she sat upright, and Cole saw her eyes widen with wonder.
“That’s it, lovely, push out against me…Yeah, Fi, damn baby, you look so hot taking my cock in your ass.” Travis groaned and Cole could feel her tightening around him as his brother gently pushed into their mate’s ass. “That’s it, my love, you’ve got all of me, lovely. Fuck, you feel so dam hot and tight around me. I’m not going to last long.”
“Oh, shit, Travis, Cole,” Fiona whimpered. “I never knew it would feel like this. Move, please move. I have to feel you moving within me. Please!”
