by R. E. Butler
Callie put her head in her hands, “She’s going to kill me.” He and Ethan both bristled and growled.
Eryx laid his palm on the table and leaned over her, tipping her face up until she was forced to look into his eyes. “She will not get close enough to you to hurt you again, baby, we swear.”
Their dad patted her hand. “Honey, she had to be disciplined and it was the only thing I could really do. She assaulted you. She’s bound by a code of ethics at the department and being that she was arrested I had no choice in the matter. And even if I had a choice, I would have done it anyway. She’s practically ruined the doc’s reputation. Already he’s had patients cancel on him. He’ll probably have to leave town and start somewhere fresh. But more than that is that she used the equivalent of a drug to try to hurt you in a public place and completely freaked out the humans.”
Eryx couldn’t care less about the doc’s problems or the humans’ worries. He didn’t understand this whole mating heat scent thing, but the doc tried to take their wife from them and rape her. If Ethan hadn’t stayed with Callie, there’s no telling the damage he could have done to her before someone helped her.
“She’ll be released Monday evening. With this statement, we’ll get a restraining order against her, and that’s something at least.”
He snorted inwardly. It wasn’t anything to a willful female like her, but it didn’t matter. He and Ethan had already agreed to spend the next few weeks under self-imposed house arrest with their kitten, and the only thing they were planning to do was to go out separately in the next few days and buy rings for her. They wanted no doubt in anyone’s mind that she belonged to them. Because she did.
The tension in the kitchen rose by slow degrees and he could feel that she was dancing on the edge of breaking down again, and he hated that he’d been unable to keep last night from happening.
The front door opened and she jumped up from the chair. “Brian!” She laughed and met their cousin halfway between the front door and kitchen in a big hug. She spun him in a circle and kissed his tawny head. Putting him down, she knelt in front of him and pushed his shirt sleeve up and inspected his arm where he’d been injured. “How’s my sweet patient?”
Brian beamed and showed the gaping hole in his mouth where two teeth had recently fallen out. “I’m all healed.”
“Your teeth!” She held his little face in her hands and his insides went mushy at the sight. She was such a wonderful woman. “How much money did the tooth fairy bring you?”
“You mean the lion fairy?” He quirked his head at her and she laughed, and it was the laugh he loved most. All the tension from giving her statement seemed to slide off her shoulders and he was thrilled they’d not canceled their plans for tonight.
“You’re right; I mean the tooth-lion-fairy.”
“Two dollars. One for each toof.” They all laughed at his lisp and he talked animatedly to her about losing his teeth when the rest of their family came in, and while she greeted their uncles warmly, she was most interested in the kids and called them each by name and hugged and kissed them. Even Henry, as old as he was, reveled in her affection and being lumped in with the attention for cubs half his age.
While she sat on the floor in the family room and talked to the cubs, their uncles joined them in the kitchen.
“When’s your move date?”
“February 4.” He answered, dragging his gaze from her. It was mesmerizing to watch her interact with the cubs. He doubted that even human mothers compared to the affection she was showing those cubs, and they drank it up like water to their parched hearts. A pang of sadness slid through him. They were taking her from the cubs. Even though it was necessary, the cubs would be devastated. To have a taste of a mother’s love and have it pulled away abruptly would hurt them all. And she was sensitive enough herself that she’d certainly feel bad for leaving. He sighed. No matter what they did, she suffered some. All he could hope for was that they could be enough for her in their new home. That she’d not regret anything they’d done to protect and love her.
They talked about moving and packing, the drive to their uncle’s farm, and what to do about the house. Their family wanted to help them pack and also provide extra eyes during the day. No one believed that Melania or any of the other females would stand down.
“Will she need to shift on the full moon and hunt or anything?” Grant interrupted his dark thoughts.
He and Ethan looked at each other and then he said, “I’m not sure she can help herself.”
Ethan said, “We’ll just go with her. I’d like to see her shift, anyway.”
The full moon was Friday and he was suddenly very excited to see what the process of shifting from her beautiful human self to her lovely wolf self would look like. She was a gorgeous wolf. Gray, tan and snow white and her eyes were so enchanting. And he’d loved hunting with her on Saturday, even though he’d been completely freaked out that she’d gone out alone. Graceful, she was a true predator and he’d never thought that blood was all that erotic, but seeing her muzzle colored red from the elk, he’d changed his mind quickly.
As the fight started, he couldn’t curb his jealousy flaring as she spent nearly the entire time with the cubs. While she talked to all of them, she sat with the cubs on the floor and ate, sharing quiet, private jokes and showering them with affection and they devoured it. The pangs of longing for his own childhood, not to mention that she was his mate and not sitting with him, ate at him while he sat in stony silence and tried to watch the UFC fight they’d paid fifty bucks on pay-per-view for. Normally, he’d be rooting for one of his favorites, they’d be betting on who’d win and arguing about the fighters and moves they used.
Pretty quickly he realized he wasn’t the only one that was paying close attention to Callie and the cubs; every man there was watching her with a mixture of emotions. Longing, hope, happiness, and jealousy.
He felt Ethan look at him, and he turned his gaze away from the television that he’d been forcing himself to watch in the first place. “Someday that will be our cubs she’s being so affectionate with.”
He half-smiled at the notion, an image of her in his mind, belly stretched with his cub. It curbed the jealousy for him in some ways. He’d never figured he would be jealous of his own cousins over the casual attention of his mate, but it was so foreign to him that he was having a hard time stopping his base reactions. He knew they were no threat to them, but he wanted her with him. Wedged between him and his brother, her laughter in his ears, her eyes dancing at him.
She looked up suddenly and searched him with her pretty eyes and then she stood fluidly and came to the couch to sit between them. They both relaxed at the contact as she wriggled herself between them until she was captured in the space they’d left for her with every inch of her sides pressed to them. With a contented sigh, she hooked her arms around both of theirs and rested her head on his shoulder.
Now he could relax. She’d sensed their unease, or felt something of their emotions, and she’d come to comfort them. He kissed the top of her head, inhaling the sweet vanilla scent from her shower earlier and said quietly, “I love you, angel.”
She tipped her head up to look at him and after a quiet moment said, “I love you, too.”
Chapter 16
**Callie**
The looming full moon was screwing with her libido something fierce. Not that it was hard to get worked up with the boys. Just looking at them made her get all hot and melty, and since she’d declared that they weren’t wearing underwear in the house anymore, well, that just meant that anytime they’d had a mind to touch each other, there was one less thing to get around.
Since her initial shaving, they’d requested she keep it up and she liked it. The sensation of being shaved and the things they did to her made everything seem more intense. On Monday night, she’d asked for them to give her one night each alone with them, so they could get to know each other individually as well as when they were together as a group.
>
They’d asked her to choose for the first night, and she picked Ethan, for the sole reason that she could see he needed it more. He was definitely the more tenderhearted of the two of them, more emotional, but that didn’t mean that Eryx was any less loving. She and Ethan went to bed after dinner and didn’t come out until lunch, and it was a wonderful night. They played with each other leisurely, touching and tasting and exploring, and she found out he was good for four times before he cried uncle at being unable to come another time, but that didn’t stop him from giving her a final orgasm as the sun crept over the horizon and then he cuddled her against him and they both drifted off to sleep.
Eryx was cool that afternoon, trying to hide his jealousy with the blank face and neutral voice she’d already come to know intimately. Ethan fixed lunch for them and then left to run errands. There was a suspicious look exchanged between them but she didn’t bust their balls over it. They’d spent 26 years sharing private looks and jokes as twins, she couldn’t expect them to change that overnight, and she didn't want them to.
She found the whole thing with the cubs on Sunday night odd. She’d been sitting with the kids and talking, enjoying their company in the short time they had to get to know each other before they left. And then she’d gotten a strange feeling and looked up to see that both Ethan and Eryx weren’t happy. They wore identical frowns, their brows furrowed and arms crossed over their chests. She couldn’t believe they were jealous of the cubs. They were just children, after all. And it had occurred to her very quickly that it wasn’t necessarily her affection at the moment that bothered them, but a combination of the lack of their own mother’s affection when they were cubs, and their feelings about her. Since they were new to a relationship, new to the feelings that grew with each day, they didn’t entirely know what to do with themselves. She could see the possessive jealousy that streaked their faces, the longing for her to shower them with affection, and their desire not to share her with anyone outside of their new family. They wanted her to love them and their future children. Period.
And he was jealous now, even though he tried to hide it. She stood up from the kitchen table and reached around Eryx to turn off the water at the sink as he filled it to wash the dishes. Taking his hand, she drew him to the couch and pointed to it. He sat dutifully, a little sullenly even, and she said, “Lie down.”
“Why?”
“This is the portion of our program where you stay quiet, my love.” She chided him, folding her arms.
He smirked but laid back on the couch, stretching out but remaining tense. She dropped to her knees and leaned over, brushing her lips across his. He reached for her but she pushed his arms away. “I’m a little sore. If we do anything right now, then I’m going to be really sore and I’d rather spend the night making love to you than have a quickie right now. Let me love you, Eryx. Just you.”
He shook his head, “I don’t want to take pleasure without you.”
“But this does give me pleasure,” She promised, pulling his shirt up from the confines of his jeans. “You have such an incredible body and you’re mine. Please.”
She bit her lower lip just for his benefit and he growled low in his throat and then groaned and gave up. “Are you still abiding by my no underwear rule, Eryx?” She questioned as she shoved his shirt up slowly to reveal the stomach and chest that made her brain stall out.
“What happens if I’m not?” Funny, hadn’t she just said that on Saturday?
“Twenty lashes.” She darted her tongue across one ridge of his stomach, flicking the inside of his belly button.
“Ah, sweet, your tongue is a deadly weapon.”
She explored his chest with her fingers and tongue from her perch on the floor, digging her teeth into his nipples until he hissed at the sensations and then kissing away the slight pain that she’d left behind.
When her hand worked inside his jeans, she found him not only rock hard, but also without underwear and as she pulled his jeans down his hips and his cock slid into view, she murmured, “Um, good boy. Still, just for good measure, I’m going to punish you anyway.”
His voice was raw when he groaned, “Punish?”
She flipped her hair to the side so he could watch her and she kissed the hot head of his cock, “Punish with pleasure.”
Eryx had two buttons when it came to oral sex that made him come in a heartbeat. One was a hard twist to a nipple and the other, she’d discovered accidentally over the weekend, was a firm hand on his balls. She decided to do both to see what happened this time. She toyed with him first, licking and nibbling his thick length and watching him close his eyes in ecstasy. Then she cupped and squeezed his balls with one hand and twisted his nipple with the fingers of her other hand while sucking him hard. He roared and arched off the couch, coming nearly instantly, his come shooting straight down her throat and nearly blowing the back of her head off with the force of it.
She swallowed every last drop, let him slide out of her mouth slowly, and kissed the velvet soft top of him. She leaned over the couch and braced herself on either side of him. His eyes opened, glazed over and out of focus, and she grinned. “I love you, my big sweet cat. I love giving you pleasure, and I will love the hell out of you returning the favor tonight when it’s just us.”
“If I can recover by then.” He chuckled roughly.
“I have plenty of confidence in your ability to recover quickly, Eryx. I think I heard Ethan come in, so you might want to cover up your, you know.” She clicked her tongue at him, kissed him once and straightened. Again she had that feeling of being a little extra horny, but she was also sore. She didn’t think there was a thing as too much sex, but she did think there was a thing as too much friction, and four times with Ethan plus how much he loved to go down on her meant she was not ready for play herself. It had been a sweet gift to do that for Eryx and ease some of his unhappiness. It was important, in her mind at any rate, that they be able to be together at times, separately, not only simply as a threesome. Although she found it completely erotic to be with both of them, it had been wonderful to be with Ethan alone and she knew it would be the same with Eryx.
That night, she asked Eryx about his fantasies, and he said he’d always wanted to watch himself. However he wasn’t about to use a camera to record anything so intimate. She had a better idea and one that wouldn’t be kept on record, and they made love in the bathroom, her leaning over the counter in front of the large mirror, and him behind her. They locked eyes the first stroke inside her, and it was one of the most intense experiences she’d ever had. Watching his muscles bunch and contract as he worked in and out of her, and the way her body moved in response to his assault was just about the most erotic thing she’d ever seen.
After lunch on Wednesday, a sleep deprived Eryx left to run errands, and when he asked if she wanted anything while he was out, she said she was hungry for steak, and he promised to pick up some for dinner.
She and Ethan began to pack, and when Eryx returned several hours later, he joined in, and the next few days were spent packing and enjoying each other’s company. Their family came over at various times during the day to help them pack.
On Thursday, she was thrilled to hear from her insurance company that they were sending her a check for the replacement value of the car, which although only $2,500, was a nice addition to her savings. It wasn’t the first time she was aware that the boys weren’t allowing her to pay for anything, and although they didn’t want her to buy a car right now, at least she had the finances to do it. And once they were settled in their new home, she could find a job.
She spoke to her future Aunt Lisa nearly every day that week, discussing the town and their farm and home. At 35, she was 9 years younger than Rhett and they’d been married for five years. She was a school teacher before she married him, and she quit to help him with the farm. Along with livestock, they also had cornfields and plenty of land. She seemed eager to meet her; Callie thought she was lonely.
As
her first full moon as a rogue drew close, she felt a pang of missing her pack, but although she had walked away from the only home she’d ever known, she was getting so much more in return. More love and acceptance than she could have ever hoped for. She had a gift in the form of two very affectionate mountain lions, and she couldn’t have been happier in her wildest dreams.
Chapter 17
**Ethan**
Stretching the kink in his back, Ethan straightened and dropped the roll of packing tape on the box that marked the last of the basement things they were taking with them. They had his truck and Eryx’s mustang, and although Callie only had two suitcases and a box of things, they were being careful with what they took.
Their family would ship things as they needed, and they planned to come visit of course, but they had spent a good bit of time deciding what to take and what to leave behind. He knew that Eryx really wanted to take that damn couch with him. And Callie knew it, too. When he went to run errands on Tuesday morning, he came into the house and found she had him stretched out on it while she went down on him. While he appreciated the attention she’d given him alone on Monday night, Tuesday night when she was with Eryx was just about the hardest night he’d ever gone through. It was bad enough that he couldn’t fall asleep without her in his arms, but to hear her cries of pleasure and the creaking of the bed and know it wasn’t from him had been a torture all its own.
He heard a noise at the bottom of the stairs and turned with a small growl of happiness. Callie was wearing his robe and nothing else. It hung off her shoulders, gathered at the elbows, and splayed wide open like a cloak behind her.
She smelled incredible. Then again, she always smelled good, but when she was turned on, it was the most intense fragrance and it called to them both like a beacon.
