by Fel Fern
“Says the man who wanted to break his mate bonds,” Eli sneered.
Nix paused from his task, resting his chin on Jen’s shoulder to address their insecure leopard.
“Give me some credit. I ain’t perfect and I admit I was scared shitless of the consequences of my actions, but I’m not now.” Nix’s voice gained confidence. “You can’t lose what you never had, Eli. I’m willing to take a leap of faith with you two. Jen just told me without words, she’s willing, too. Can you do the same?”
Eli let out a shaky breath, and finally said, “You two are nuts, you know that, right?”
“We may all be on sinking ship, but at least we’re anchoring each other down,” Jen said, feeling Nix place a kiss on her cheek.
Business first, before pleasure. Jen heartily approved. “Right then, what next?”
“Diego’s involvement makes things complicated but also simple. Lars needs to know one of the ex-members of the pard is involved, and if word gets out, the local werewolf alpha, Rafael, won’t be happy either,” Eli said.
Nix frowned. “I don’t think dragging more people into this mess is going to help us.”
Jen caught on Eli’s plan. “Not a lot of people, just a select few. Enough to tie this mess up.”
“Lex said the local wolf pack wants the Bastards gone, so they might agree to a temporary working alliance?” Nix asked, looking thoughtful.
Eli snorted. “Oh yeah. The resident wolf pack is a bunch of noble drug-dealing shifters, but it wouldn’t hurt to try.”
“I’ll call Lex, get her to set up a meeting with Lars and Rafael,” Eli decided.
After plans and calls were made, the three of them settled in Eli’s bedroom, with Jen nestled between the two men. Graham didn’t fuss or cry much that night, sleeping soundly and dreaming good dreams.
Despite the trials they had to face ahead, Jen felt oddly calm and at peace. The warm bodies of the two men, the tentative but clearly possessive way they carefully touched her, made her wonder just what the hell took her so long to realize she’d been wrong all this time.
Did she still love Diego? Lingering feelings maybe, but she was certain love was no longer on the table and it hadn’t been there for the longest time. Months of waiting, of blaming and repeatedly questioning herself withered anything she once had for Diego.
Just looking at Graham’s face told her that. Never mind abandoning her, how could Diego turn his back on their son, his own flesh and blood? Just what had been so important that he could easily toss them aside?
“Stop thinking too much, sweetheart,” Nix murmured to her right. Pressed against her back, he tightened his hands around her waist, kissing the nape of her neck.
“I’m that transparent, huh?” Jen teased back, feeling a second pair of lips on the curve of her collarbone. Eli.
“Don’t we know it,” Eli muttered, eyes moving down to the curve of her breast.
They’re always so careful with me, respecting my decisions and the lines I couldn’t cross, despite the fact I’m constantly testing their limits.
God, these two men weren’t just gentlemen. They were saints.
Enough waiting, her leopardess chided her. She’d been fooling herself for so long, thinking perhaps if she waited long enough, Diego would come back to her. Jen would’ve gone along with it, too, never knowing any better, but living with her two men and seeing how they’d formed a bond with Graham changed her mind.
Eventful mornings, delightful afternoons, and quiet evenings with Nix, Eli, and Graham—without realizing it, they’d already found what they’d been searching for all their lives.
Jen reached below, fingers curling over Eli’s cock. He gasped, eyes questioning. Behind her, Nix let out a sigh, as if saying “finally,” his erection grinding against her back.
Eli finally found his voice, his eyes a mixture of uncertainty and hope. “Jen, what are you doing?”
“Wrong question,” Nix said. “The right question is, are you sure?”
“Very sure,” Jen answered, beginning to move her fingers up and down Eli’s shaft, feeling it thicken and pulse in her hand.
Nix kissed the nape of her neck. His hands, no longer restricted but now free to roam, greedily explored every inch of her. His tethered need and desire, finally unleashed.
“Let’s get to a more comfortable position,” Nix suggested kissing her shoulder blade.
They ended up with Eli lying against the pillows, with Jen kneeling between his legs while Nix positioned himself behind her.
“This all still feels like a dream,” Eli muttered, staring down at her, his leopard mewling contently against Jen’s own cat.
Jen secured her hand over his base, while she flicked her tongue across his tip, swiping the pre-cum gathered there and spreading it across his length. Eli groaned, his eyes growing dark with need, fingers fisting deliciously into her hair.
Behind her, Jen felt Nix’s large hand between her legs. His wolf happily nestled between their two cats. A perfect fit.
“So wet for me already, sweetheart?” Nix asked, tracing her swollen and soaked pussy lips while he kept one thumb over her clit, creating lazy circles, driving her mad with lust.
Then he slid two fingers inside her. Jen answered him with a moan, distracted momentarily from her task. Eli reached out for one of her tits with his free hand, tweaking until it became a hardened pebble.
“That’s right, baby. This is all for you. We’re going to make you feel so good,” Nix crooned.
“We’re never letting you go,” Eli added, panting when Jen took him between her lips.
She wondered if Eli knew just how much his words meant to her. Diego had made promises he couldn’t keep, and in return, that made Jen doubt herself and made it difficult for her to trust anyone again. She knew though, instinctively and irrevocably, that Eli and Nix meant their words.
They weren’t like Diego, far from it. Hadn’t they proven what kind of men they were, time and time again? During nights when Graham couldn’t stop crying, or when Jen needed something from the grocer’s and one of them would automatically rush out, no questions asked.
Nix firmly gripped her hips, steady and firm, and nudged his cock head into her slit. The fire Jen tried so hard to rein in finally broke free of its restraints, and she welcomed the heat, even wanted to bask herself in it.
Why had she fought against this so hard, because she’d been terrified of breaking her vows and morals?
No, Jen realized. Another future, a wonderful future, had been dangled right in front of her eyes and she’d been terrified of reaching out for it.
No more. The time for second-guessing is past. Enough waiting. Enough doubts.
A bolt of pleasure went right into her core and pussy when Nix slid all the way in until he was balls deep. Eli’s tip hit the back of her throat. Jen slowly eased her way out, not breaking eye contact from him even as she dove back in.
How many times had seen him harbor that intense look of longing, when he thought she wasn’t looking? How many times had she wished she could ease his suffering, not knowing how to cross the line that kept them at opposite ends?
Nix’s arrival had been a welcome blessing. Nix hadn’t been an excuse, the means to an end. They needed him as much as he needed them. Three lost and wandering souls nudged finally by fate, into the right direction.
The firestorm inside Jen grew, gathering speed and momentum with each of Nix’s thrusts. With each entry, Jen felt his hunger, his palpable need, his intense yearning. A longing as intense as Eli’s, but it wasn’t just blind lust the three of them sated. Purpose drove them, and the need to complete, to make each other whole again.
A new awareness blossomed inside Jen. Everything leaped back at her with vivid clarity. Her sweat-soaked body colliding with Nix’s as he began breaching not just her body’s secret and most intimate places, but also her heart.
No. That wasn’t true. Perhaps he’d done that long ago, when he sauntered into the garage the first
time she met him—a stranger hell-bent on a mission who dropped everything important to him so he could bring her to the hospital.
Jen also became aware of Eli, his steel-hard cock in her warm mouth. Steady, solid, and strong, Eli didn’t know how much he gave away when he handled Graham tenderly in his arms or when he held her during her bad days—days she knew she couldn’t have endured without him.
The three of them together didn’t just feel good. It felt right. Her world stopped spinning the day Diego left her and Graham, but with Nix and Eli, reality righted itself back on its axis.
“Are you close, sweetheart?” Nix asked, panting, his hand finding her clit again, rubbing at her.
Jen moaned around Eli’s lips. Eli let out a grunt, telling her he was close. He drew out of her mouth quickly, but Jen closed her lips around his shaft, accepting the salty taste of his cum.
“Beautiful,” Eli whispered, closing his eyes.
The quiet way he said that single word and Nix’s fingers pinching her clit, caused the pressure inside her to spill over. Jen’s entire body shuddered and trembled. She cried out when Nix slammed into her one last time before exploding inside her.
Jen rested her head against Eli’s thigh, panting, enjoying the sensation of his hands stroking her hair while Nix cleaned them up. Another weight settled on the bed, Nix’s hard and heated skin sliding against hers.
“Ours,” Nix growled, tracing a possessive hand down the length of her spine. Jen managed a happy mewl.
“Ours,” Eli agreed, eyes on her.
He reached out for her hand, lifted it and kissed each of her fingers, the gesture impossibly tender. Jen’s cheeks turned pink, but she didn’t pull away in embarrassment. She stretched out contently and enjoyed the affections of her two men freely offered.
Chapter Eight
“You boys better take care,” Jen warned that morning, watching her two men get ready for the day.
She couldn’t help but worry for them. As if sensing her apprehension, Eli squeezed a shoulder, kissed her on the cheek and did the same to Graham. “Don’t worry so much. We’ll be alright.”
“Just make sure you’ll come back safe,” Jen said.
In her arms, Graham gurgled happily, squealing with delight when Nix messed his hair. Graham reached out with one chubby fist for Nix’s fingers, surprising the hell out of the biker. The unguarded expression of tender delight on Nix’s face warmed Jen immensely.
Her heart went out to him. She couldn’t exactly comprehend what kind of hell Nix went through, but he’d traveled a long and hard road. Jen just hoped Eli and her were enough to ground him.
“You chubby little cheater. Why you like Nix more than me, I will never know,” Eli grumbled.
“Maybe he senses I’m warm and fluffy,” Nix said grinning, turning to Jen. “We’ll see you later, sweetheart.”
Jen nodded. After the men left, she went about doing her chores. She sat Graham on his high chair and took out a pen and paper to plan her grocery list for tonight’s dinner. Usually, Eli and Nix made it a point to accompany her shop for groceries, but she wanted to make them something special.
Hearing the front door opening, she called out, “You boys forgot something?”
Graham suddenly burst out into tears. Frowning, Jen abandoned her list to pick him.
“Nix, Eli?”
When her leopardess growled inside her in warning, she pressed Graham tightly against her chest, taking an uncertain step back when two large men entered her kitchen. Her throat felt tight and her stomach knotted, seeing the inked muscles hiding under leathers, ink and piercing. On their battered jackets was a blue patch in the shape of horned devil.
The men edged closer and her heart thumped wildly against her chest when a familiar voice accompanied by a familiar face came into the light.
“Hello, Jen. It’s been a while.”
Her throat felt constricted. Against her chest, Graham wouldn’t stop crying. Jen forced herself to speak.
“Diego.”
She hardly recognized him in the leathers and new ink. He’d bulked up considerably, too, although he wasn’t as large as Nix. He was a stranger. The way he leered at her, the aggressive line of his body angled at her, telling her the promise of violence wasn’t an idle threat.
“I disappear for a little while and suddenly I hear my bitch’s whoring around, sleeping with my own fucking little brother and a bastard werewolf biker.”
Jen’s back hit the fridge. Her eyes darted for any escape routes, despairing when she found none. The silent sneer Diego’s companion gave her didn’t help her curb her growing fear either.
A little while? That what he think? How the hell did she ever believe she’d been in love with this man once?
Anger. Anger was good, she realized, and she could use every bit of courage she could come up with this time round.
“A little while?” she repeated, voice gaining a hard edge. “You left me, left Graham without a word, except for a single letter out of nowhere. What do you expect me to think, to do?”
He frowned, not expecting her defiance, certainly didn’t look like he liked her this way either, but Jen no longer cared what he liked. “Certainly not fucking the first cock you see.”
Jen glared back, undeterred when he approached her.
“Don’t pretend to be a saint, Diego. Did you think I didn’t know about the women you’ve screwed around with when you think I’m not looking? Besides, don’t you think you’re the one who owes me an explanation?”
His fist blurred, flew, slamming into the fridge an inch away from Jen’s face. Jen schooled herself not to flinch. Graham made louder noises now, squealing and sobbing. Diego froze, angry expression moving from her to their son.
“If you’re thinking of taking him away from me, then think again,” Jen said in a low voice, her cat snarling inside her, snapping at Diego’s leopard when he tried to approach.
“Don’t worry, Jen. I don’t just intend to take back my son, I’m dragging you with me, too, even if I have to break you to do it.” Diego sneered, shoving her violently against the fridge. “You’re mine. You belong to me, and even if I have to cover you in black and blue to remind you of that fact, I’ll do it.”
Jen protectively curled her arms over Graham even as his fist smacked her jaw. Her head reeled at the third blow that split her lip, but she held on to her son. She had a feeling he didn’t care if he had to drag her by the hair, if it weren’t for Graham. He settled for less physical means, drawing out a gun from the inside of his jacket.
“Walk, bitch.”
Jen walked, trying to keep her spine straight. She couldn’t let Diego see how truly terrified she was. Not for her own life, but for Graham. Outside the building, a black unmarked van waited along with two bikers. Jen shuddered. She felt the gazes on the men on her, but thankfully, Diego sat her up front with him.
“I didn’t want our reunion to start out this way, you know,” Diego said conversationally. “But you have to understand, I have a reputation to uphold. How the hell can I lead, when I can’t even get a handle on my bitch and my pup?”
Graham finally quieted down against her chest, but his small eyes remained alert and fearful. She whispered soothing words to him, stroking his back. Her face hurt a little and she had a feeling it was going to swell later on, but bruises were nothing to what she suspected lay in store for her.
Fighting and kicking was no way to go, it was a cowardly tactic maybe, but if it could protect Graham then she’d resort to any desperate measure.
“I need to know why,” Jen said quietly, not looking at Diego. She made herself look vulnerable and fragile. “What was so important that you had to leave us? I nearly thought of committing suicide, did you know that? Before my belly swelled and I remembered it wasn’t just my life I was about to take, but also the life my unborn son.”
A stricken look crossed Diego’s face. Keeping one hand on the wheel, he used the other to touch her arm. She told herself not
to draw away or push him away. Jen needed him to believe she was weak. Cowed and frightened of him.
“I get it must’ve been rough for you, but we all need to make sacrifices,” Diego said. “Especially when there’s something bigger at play, Jen. Something bigger than all of us.”
Jen’s stomach churned at those words. Lars always reminded the pard to always keep their guard up, but most of the werecats were careful all the same. They knew they had an unknown and faceless enemy out there. The same enemy responsible for the death of their old and the string of events that followed, but each time the pard had come out stronger.
Had Diego always been part of that nameless group, quietly working against the pard? It suddenly made sense why Diego found it convenient to disappear when Lars took over.
“Diego, what have you done?” Jen whispered.
She realized she didn’t know the first thing about the stranger with the dead eyes that answered her, the man who used to be her mate. Diego’s eyes glittered with hints of insanity.
“What I needed to for a better future, not just for Graham and you, but for all leopard shifters in the city.”
Chapter Nine
“Fucking hell, I knew we shouldn’t have left her alone,” Nix seethed, bringing down the chair over the kitchen counter. Hearing the wood splinter helped quiet the shrieking rage tearing at his insides, that and Eli’s hand rubbing against his back.
“Calm down, Nix,” Eli said. “We’ll get Graham and her back.”
“Get away from me. You won’t like it when I’m pissed,” Nix snarled, but his mate didn’t back off like most people did.
Lex and her two mates politely stayed away, giving him space. Lars, too, kept his cool, ordering the three large enforcers with him to continue checking the apartment. Eli though, stood his ground, hand firm on his broad back, jaw tight with determination.
