CHAPTER ELEVEN
Soren sprawled gracelessly over his bed, staring up at the ceiling as his breathing slowed. Ever since Nina had started to show some signs of coming around to the fact of him and Aedan being were-lions, they had re-initiated the strategy of winning her over completely by means of keeping her fed, keeping her wine glass full, and making sure that Nina had as much pleasure as her body could stand. She was with Aedan now; the other man had collected her from his arms only moments before, intent on carrying her into the kitchen for a meal.
Technically, it was Monday; the time period specified in their contract had ended. But as they had sat around the table the night before, Soren had made it clear to Nina that it was in her best interests to remain at the house until the situation with the Pride was settled. His motivations were twofold; Soren did have a legitimate fear that one of the members of his Pride, acting under orders from his rival, would attack Nina—if they had caught her scent and realized what it represented, and if they could find her quickly. He also wanted to give her more time to consider the proposal he and Aedan had made. There was no mistaking the feeling that he had—that he was sure Aedan shared; whether or not Nina had accepted it, she had to be their mate. The scent of her, especially mingled with the scent-marks from Aedan and himself, was impossible for him to give up. He wouldn’t go so far as to actively hold her hostage or force her to accept being the shared mate of two were-lions, but almost anything up to that was almost acceptable in his mind.
Soren tilted his head back against the pillows, closing his eyes. In spite of the fact that for most of the past twenty-four hours, either he or Aedan had been with Nina, touching her, teasing her, bringing her to one orgasm after another or just giving her increasingly potent affection, he could still feel a low thrumming of desire along his bones, the itch to find where she was and snatch her up, carry her to bed once more. But he needed some time to himself to consider the problems he was facing.
In a few short days, he would be facing a challenge from Alex. Walking around his yard in the early morning hours while Nina slept, Soren had caught scent of one of the junior members of his Pride; Elise, one of those he had seen ranged with the renegades who supported Alex, had apparently come through—doubtless scouting, sniffing the terrain, trying to discover what the Alpha was up to. It was unusual for Soren to be incommunicado for a full weekend—and if he hadn’t had Nina’s persuasion to manage, he probably would have confronted the members of his Pride who were against him now the day before. As it was, he had started damage control; he had sent out text messages to the members of his Pride who he was fairly confident were still on his side, informing them of Anna’s murder, and of the strong possibility that he would have a mate to present to them, for both himself and Aedan.
The responses had been cautious; Soren’s mind pictured wary lions slinking through high grass, scenting the air to see if there was a weakness in their leader’s pheromones. An inter-Pride war was something everyone wanted to avoid, and blood ties were so complexly interwoven in his Pride that Soren didn’t doubt that every one of his supporters had a family member—even a close one—in the opposing camp. By pointing to Anna’s murder, informing them of the brazen nature of it, he was making a statement; not only was he going to face Alex’s challenge, but there would be justice for those involved. Though they might support Soren simply because he was the Alpha of the Pride, they were worried as to what punishments he might see fit to hand out.
And well they should be, Soren thought bitterly. There were some of the people on Alex’s side who would be driven out of the Pride entirely—men and women both. They would have to wander until they found another Pride to accept them; some of them were single males, which would put them in the quandary that Aedan had dealt with for so long. The single females, and the mated pairs, wouldn’t have as difficult a time, but they would know that Soren was on good terms with most of the Prides in the country—they would have to tread carefully. It would not be a comfortable existence for them. Others, on the periphery of the mutiny, would merely be barred from several future hunts, forced to stay behind while their friends and family indulged in their animal natures on the carefully set-aside and maintained preserve.
That opened up another issue in Soren’s mind. He would have to present Nina to the Pride on the eve of the hunt, before Alex formally issued his challenge. Somehow, he and Aedan would have to contrive to get her to the preserve, to present her to the rest of the lions, and extricate her before the hunt itself started. There was time enough for her to witness the brutality of lion hunts once she had become more accustomed. He didn’t doubt for a moment that exposing her to the reality of how they behaved in that form, amongst themselves, hunting prey, would quickly change her mind about accepting himself and Aedan as mates. He wouldn’t blame her; the part of him that remained human, buried deep in the animal consciousness of his lion form, occasionally felt revolted at the expediency of hunting. But he could no more fail to indulge that need than he could cease to eat when he was hungry, or drink when he was thirsty.
Soren stretched, twisting and turning his body against the sheets in a limber sprawl before he sat up. Whatever was currently happening between Aedan and Nina—whatever they were doing at the moment—was of secondary importance to the issues at hand. He plucked his phone from the bedside table and checked his text messages; there was one from Jonathan, one of the members of the Pride from his father’s time as Alpha, who had accepted Soren’s leadership readily. If Alex has murdered a member of the Pride, he does not deserve the title of Alpha. You have my support. It was one of the most straightforward declarations that Soren had yet received, and for a moment he smiled. Jonathan couldn’t fight the battle for him, but if it became an all-out war of factions, he could at least count on the older lion to back him against the mutineers.
It may come to that, Soren thought; particularly if he could not bring Nina to the hunt as his and Aedan’s mate. The challenge from Alex was no longer the sole issue. Even if he put Alex down, even if he not only defeated the rebel but killed him outright—something that Soren did not want to do, but which may be necessary, particularly with the death of Anna at the other lion’s hands—one of the cadre that he had managed to get on his side might rise up against Soren next. And he would be forced to kill amongst his own people until they either admitted defeat or he was killed.
He slipped on a pair of loose, comfortable pajama pants before leaving his bedroom. Soren followed the scent of his shared mate and the man he was sharing her with through the hall from Aedan’s room, past the living room, and into the kitchen. He smirked to himself at the sight of them; Aedan had, once again, talked Nina out of her clothes. She straddled his lap, arms wrapped around his shoulders, head buried against his neck. The scent of their lovemaking filled the air, leaving no doubt at all that Aedan had just gotten her off again, that she was in that hazy afterglow of pleasure that came from multiple orgasms in a short span of time. Perfect, he thought, no longer even envying the other man his ability to please the woman he loved. She’ll be in exactly the right state of mind to listen without arguing.
“If you don’t drink some Gatorade or something, you’ll both start getting cramps,” Soren said, moving to the fridge. Aedan opened his eyes, glancing at Soren with a little grin.
“Be a chum and bring it here then,” Aedan said. “I don’t think Nina’s legs will carry her that far, and I dare not disturb her.” Nina’s head lifted and she looked up, her dark eyes hazy with lingering desire—a look that made Soren want to take her all over again. She smiled dreamily, bringing up one hand to sweep her disheveled hair away from her face.
“If you two don’t stop fucking me constantly, we’re all going to have chafing issues,” she said airily, shifting on Aedan’s lap. Aedan let out a low growl, closing his eyes for a moment and Soren knew the other man was still buried deep inside of Nina’s body, that the movement had reawakened the arousal that was always simmering in any Alpha
lion’s veins.
Soren reached into the fridge and retrieved three bottles of Gatorade: lemon-lime, cool blue, and riptide rush. He sauntered towards the table, showing the other two the options before them, and allowed them the first pick; as he expected, Aedan murmured for Nina to take the one she wanted first. “If you can let her up,” Soren said, smiling to himself as Nina grabbed for the riptide rush, cracking the seal and taking a long drink, “we can have a chat about the state of current affairs. I wouldn’t bother you but I think Nina would rather have her brain in regular functioning order while she’s trying to make decisions.”
Aedan chuckled, reaching out and taking the lemon-lime Gatorade.
Unsteadily, Nina lifted herself off of Aedan’s lap, turning her head and finding one of the empty chairs. She walked with legs that Soren was sure felt like jelly underneath her, sinking down into her seat with a satisfied sigh. Soren cracked the cap on the cool blue flavored Gatorade and took a long sip, glancing from his mate to the man he shared her with.
“So tell us about current affairs,” Aedan said, sitting back. Soren watched as the other man brought his arousal under control by force of will, shifting his chair so that his erection was not quite so visible. Nina’s eyes were regaining the lucid, slightly tense quality he associated with her attentiveness—she was coming out of the afterglow, but Soren thought there was probably enough pleasure zinging through her body that she couldn’t fully shake it even if she wanted to.
“It’s Monday,” Soren started. He glanced at Nina. “Did you have work today? And did you remember to call in if you did?” He realized he had only the slightest knowledge of her life outside of their situation.
Nina laughed.
“I sent an email by phone sometime in the morning when it was still dark, saying I’d spent the night in the bathroom and would be far too exhausted to be of any use at work today,” she said. Her dark eyes glinted with mischief. “Part of it was true.”
Aedan snorted and Soren felt himself grinning.
“So your life hasn’t totally fallen to shambles; good.” Soren took a deep breath and another sip of his drink, hesitating at the enormity of the question before them. “I suppose you know what time it is, then.”
“Well, when you say it like that,” Aedan said, rolling his eyes. “It’s not like she can leave now anyhow, is it?”
“Well, no, now that you mention it, she wouldn’t be able to leave until after the hunt at the very least.” Soren glanced at Aedan, thinking of the truth of the matter; whether or not she chose to be their mate, to be shared by them, the fact that she knew about their true nature meant that they couldn’t let her leave at all. The risk was too high. Although who would she really go to with the story? It’s not like anyone would believe her. One person claiming that there are people who transform into lions is going to be thrown into the loony bin. But the rules were the rules; any human who knew about were-people had to either be eliminated or taken into the group—whether it was a group of were-bears, or a pack, or a Pride. Soren couldn’t stand the idea of Nina being eliminated—and he doubted that Aedan could either.
He looked at Nina. She was deliberating carefully, not looking at either man, her attention visibly riveted on the label of her drink. Soren watched her swallow and instinctively sniffed at the air; there was anxiety in her pheromones, but not the kind of deep fear he would associate with her deciding that she wanted to leave them. There is hope then, he thought.
“I think,” Nina said slowly, worrying at her bottom lip with her teeth, “that I am… mostly okay with being shared.” She looked up from her bottle, stealing furtive glances—prey glances—at Aedan and Soren. “And I think I’ve mostly come to consider the whole… were-lion… thing as real. And not—you know—something out of a bizarre horror flick.”
Aedan chuckled.
“So then you’ll agree to be our mate?”
Nina chewed on her bottom lip for a moment longer and Soren smelled the intensification of her anxiety pheromones. She was worried; and well she should be, he thought.
“You’ll let me work or not work, as I like?” she asked, glancing from Soren to Aedan.
Soren nodded.
“Absolutely,” he said.
“And you’re not going to, like… try and make me some kind of sex slave.” It wasn’t quite a question.
Aedan laughed.
“Love, it would be hard for us to get it up if your pheromones were full of revulsion. We’re tuned into you now; if you’re not into it, we’ll know, and that’s just not hot for either of us.”
Nina smiled slightly. Soren watched her take a deep breath.
“But you will expect me to have children; that’s not negotiable.”
Soren shook his head.
“If you don’t want to raise them, we can work something out, but you definitely have to bear us each at least one child.”
Nina looked down at her hands once more. She was clearly weighing the benefits and the costs of what she was about to decide on; her lips pressed together, her brow furrowed. She finally looked up from her drink and took a large gulp of the beverage, setting it down once more.
“Then yes, I’ll be your mate. For both of you.” She frowned sharply. “You know, the English language really needs a way to indicate ‘your’ in the plural.”
Soren laughed out loud, shaking his head.
“Maybe we’ll invent it,” he said, relieved that she had come to the right decision, on more than one level; there would be no need to push her, the support around Alex would evaporate, and he would have the woman he had already decided was his. “We’ll need it, I think,” he added, raising his bottle to the other two in salutation.
*
Aedan pushed down his feelings of apprehension as the car approached Nina’s apartment. She had agreed to stay with them; that fact made it impossible for them to deny her the freedom to gather her things—at least those things she particularly wanted—from her place. He could understand her desire to want her own clothes, even if he and Soren had privately decided between themselves that they would encourage her to be naked as often as humanly possible. When she had proposed the trip, suggesting that she could go by herself, Soren had given Aedan a look; he had scented Elise’s pheromones at the perimeter of the yard, around the house. It was reasonable to assume that the Pride members who had risen against Soren were watching them. If they let Nina leave alone, she might be attacked. The last thing Alex would want would be for Soren and Aedan to both have a mate—if they could get rid of Nina or hold her hostage, they would.
And so he and Soren had agreed to let her go and gather her things; but only if they accompanied her. It had only taken a small amount of persuasion to get Nina to understand that it was safest. “And besides, we can haul more of your stuff out between the three of us than you’d manage alone,” Aedan had pointed out.
Now that she had decided to stay with them—of her own accord, though Aedan thought with a slightly guilty pang that he and Soren had been working to their utmost to persuade her, not exactly using the most straightforward means—Aedan thought that the sooner she was moved in, settled with them formally, the better. Soren had explained that he would buy out her apartment lease, and once the worst of the drama in the Pride had settled down, Nina could—within reason—explain her situation to any friends or family she wished to tell about it.
“That… I probably won’t actually tell anyone any specifics any time soon,” she said, smiling wryly.
Aedan could well imagine the complicated nature of such a disclosure; while she couldn’t tell anyone he and Soren were lions, just the fact that she was being shared by two men would raise eyebrows. Maybe we work out a system where one of us is the “official” partner for friends and family, Aedan thought as Nina pulled into her parking spot. Though if it came down to it, that would be likely to do little more than create tension where—thus far—there was none. It would have to be the same man amongst everyone Nina knew; and who
ever wasn’t chosen would resent being parted from her for dates or evenings with the parents.
Nina pulled into her parking spot and Aedan looked around. He couldn’t see any obvious signs that they had been followed, or that any of the Pride had, using Nina’s scent, tracked back to her apartment. That didn’t mean that they hadn’t—or that they wouldn’t. The more of Nina’s stuff that they could get out, at least of things she really wanted, the better it would be.
Aedan had thought that he would be prepared for the fact that her space would smell like her; intellectually he had known it, reminded himself of it at every point along the road between Soren’s house and the patch of land that held the tiny, one-bedroom space. But the impact of walking through the door and breathing in the rich, warm, spicy scent of her everywhere—on the couch, radiating from a desk chair, trailed along the carpet—was something else. There was nothing of his and Soren’s scent here; it was purely Nina, and Aedan closed his eyes, breathing slowly, sampling it as if he could taste it, as if it were visible in the air around him.
Opening his eyes once more, Aedan glanced at the Alpha. Soren was obviously as bowled over as he was, visibly almost-trembling to restrain the instinct to rub himself against every corner, every surface in the place, to mark it. Nina had stopped short, turning to look at them both. “Okay, right now you look like feral cats,” she said, her voice half-joking and half-worried. Aedan shook the animal instinct out of his mind, suppressing it, pushing down the shifting tumble and morass of thoughts until he had full control of himself once more.
“Sorry, love,” he said, giving her a smile. “Scent is a big thing for us, you know.” He saw Soren give himself a shake as well, and the other man exhaled sharply.
“We’re not going to start humping the furniture, don’t worry. We’re civilized.”
Nina’s worried glance became sardonic and she laughed.
The Lion's Shared Bride Page 10
