Saving Scarlett

by R. E. Butler

  “Thanks for everything,” Ray said, looking back into the main room where Scarlett stood in Wes’s arms, her eyes closed as she yawned. She hadn’t slept much on the way to King, dozing for a few minutes at a time before waking abruptly. She’d said that her nerves kept her from sleeping, and he hoped now that they were safe, she would be able to sleep well.

  “You’re welcome,” Miles said with a smile. “Get settled and come upstairs when you’re ready and we’ll eat lunch.”

  Miles left them alone, and Ray joined his mate and his brother. Wes said, “I can’t believe how much work they did. It looks great down here, almost like an apartment.”

  “Did they do it for us?” Scarlett asked.

  “No, they didn’t have the time. We only told them yesterday that we were going to find you and bring you here. They might have bought linens and supplies, but they’d clearly already finished the basement and bathroom. When we lived here, the walls weren’t up, the bathroom was only roughed in, and the stove hadn’t ever been used.”

  “We can unpack,” Scarlett said and then yawned.

  Wes swung her up into his arms and carried her to the bed. The queen-size bed was covered with a thick blue blanket. “We’ll unpack, you rest.”

  She stretched her arms over her head with a soft squeak. “We were just in the truck for eleven hours.”

  “You’re tired, sweetheart. We’ll eat and then you can take a nap, okay?”

  “Only if you nap with me.”

  “As if we’d pass up the chance,” Wes said, chuckling.

  Ray opened Scarlett’s suitcase and tugged the top drawer open. He put her clothes inside as Wes unpacked their duffel into the second and third drawers, separating their clothes. After unloading her toiletries in the bathroom, he stowed their bags on a shelf against the far wall that was used for storage and then sat down on the bed.

  She’d been watching them intently, when she wasn’t yawning, and Ray rubbed her calf through her jeans and smiled at her. “Ready to eat?”

  “Definitely.”

  He offered her his hand and helped her to stand. As they walked upstairs, the scent of Max’s bbq shredded chicken filled his nose. A large oval crockpot sat in the center of the kitchen table and when they sat down, Max lifted the glass lid and Ray’s stomach growled.

  Wes filled a bun with shredded chicken for Scarlett, and then scooped potato salad and coleslaw onto the plate before setting it in front of her. Ray filled her glass with lemonade and she raised her brow.

  “What?” he asked, filling his and Wes’s glasses before handing the pitcher to Miles.

  “Nothing. You’re both just really sweet.”

  Wes kissed her cheek. “We’re just taking care of our sweetheart.”

  It was something Ray wanted to do for the rest of their lives.

  Chapter 5

  Saturday morning, Scarlett rolled over and stared at the ceiling. Ray and Wes were on either side of her, breathing deeply in sleep. The basement windows were covered with curtains, but she could see it was still dark outside. Her stomach gurgled and she swallowed, closing her eyes and wondering why she felt sick all of a sudden.

  She wanted to stay tucked between her mates, their arms around her in the quiet solitude of the early morning, but her stomach wasn’t having it. She breathed shallowly through her mouth, but as her stomach rolled again she knew she needed to get to the bathroom or she was going to ruin the idyllic moment by throwing up all over her mates.

  She sat up slowly, thinking she could just slide off the end of the bed without waking either male up, but her stomach heaved and she knew getting to the bathroom fast was her only priority. Climbing over Ray, she heard him grunt as her knee connected with his stomach, but she couldn’t stop to apologize. She darted to the bathroom as soon as her feet hit the carpet, fell to her knees in front of the toilet and threw up.

  A hand rubbed her back as she slumped over the toilet with her head in her hand, her elbow on the seat. “Sweetheart?” Wes asked, his hand making slow circles around her upper back as he pushed the lever to flush the toilet.

  She closed her eyes and inhaled slowly, feeling like the nausea was gone. Wes helped her stand and she brushed her teeth. Ray picked her up gently and carried her to the bed. He’d been standing in the doorway watching her, his face carved in worry. He laid her gently in the center of the bed and sat next to her as Wes disappeared upstairs. Ray brushed his hand across her forehead.

  “Do you think it was something you ate?” His voice was low and soothing.

  “I don’t know. I just woke up feeling sick.”

  Wes came back downstairs after a few minutes with a plate of crackers, then he walked to the mini refrigerator and removed a bottle of water. He joined them on the bed and Ray fixed the pillows so she was propped up. She took a cracker and chewed on it slowly, hoping she wouldn’t get sick again. They watched her silently, smiling reassuringly.

  “I’ve never had anyone watch me get sick before,” she mused.

  Ray grinned. “I’m glad we could be the first.”

  “Oh, sure, it’s a total honor,” she said, chuckling. “I think I feel okay now.” She’d eaten two crackers and sipped the water. Her stomach wasn’t rolling and she didn’t think she’d toss her cookies again anytime soon.

  “Do you think you’re coming down with something?” Wes asked, pressing the back of his hand to her forehead.

  She pulled his wrist down to her mouth and kissed it. “I’m not a shifter, but I don’t get sick.” It was just about the only benefit to being a Breeding Queen.

  Ray frowned as he stood. “I’ll go get breakfast and bring it downstairs. We’ve got a lot to chat about, anyway.”

  She smiled at him as he turned and walked upstairs. She rolled to her side and snuggled into Wes. He hugged her lightly. “You’re not just pretending to feel better, right?”

  “Nope. I feel okay now. Maybe it was stress. Goodness knows I’ve had a few lifetimes’ worth of stress over the last few weeks.”

  He kissed her forehead. “You didn’t sleep well last night?”

  “No, I kept waking up. You guys probably didn’t sleep well either because of me.”

  “Don’t worry about it. I’d sleep on nails to hold you at night.”

  She peeked up at him, finding his expression serious. “Good thing you don’t have to.”

  He smiled and kissed her briefly.

  They lay in silence until Ray came downstairs carrying a tray with three plates and three mugs. He joined them on the bed and they ate french toast casserole and bacon, and they had coffee while she had a cup of hot tea.

  They took turns showering, and when they were all dressed, she and Wes sat on the couch while Ray fed the stove with wood. He straightened as he shut the door and turned to face them.

  “We wanted to talk about mating with you, Scarlett.”

  Her pulse sped up. She’d really thought they would want to make love the night before, but they’d done nothing outside of kissing once they got into bed. She was okay with that, on some levels, because she was exhausted from the long drive even after taking a nap after lunch, but she’d also been disappointed.

  “I’m all ears,” she promised.

  “Mountain lions don’t have any real mating ceremonies. When a trio comes together, they make their own choices on how they proceed. It always involves marking, but the rest is up to the individual group. Our friends, Alek and Jericho, marked Lachlyn with mating bites and then also marked each other’s arms because, at the time, Lachlyn wasn’t able to shift. Ethan, Eryx, and Callie marked each other. James and John got tattoos to match Rue’s brand. Melody marked Tristan and Micah and they marked her. Human marriage follows, not because it’s more important than the mating, but because the guys like their mates to share their last name.”

  “We can make our own ceremony. Whatever you want it to be, we can do it, and when it’s safe and we can go back to Ashland, we’ll get married by human standards,” Wes added
.

  She hummed. “Scarlett Fiero. I like the sound of it.”

  Ray grinned. “We do, too.”

  “Tell us what you’d like to do for the ceremony, and we’ll put it together. We were thinking about Tuesday. That gives us a few days to get things together.”

  She blinked. “You want to wait four days to make love?”

  Wes’s mouth fell open and Ray made a surprised sound.

  Her face heated with a blush and she closed her eyes with a groan. “Forget I said that.”

  Ray joined them on the couch with a lascivious chuckle. “Never. We just meant waiting a few days for the marking ceremony. It’s important to us that you know how special you are. We don’t want to rush things with the only woman we’re going to mark as ours. We can make love whenever you’re ready.”

  She wanted to ask them why they hadn’t done anything last night, but she wasn’t about to say something so embarrassing again.

  Wes leaned over and kissed her cheek. His lips lingered as he twined his fingers with hers. “We were all stressed out and tired last night, sweetheart. You have to know that we always want you.”

  She turned and met his lips with her own. She’d spent the better portion of her life knowing that whoever her father had chosen for her to mate would only want her because of what she was. Ray and Wes wanted her because she was theirs. It really didn’t matter to them what her biological destiny was, they just wanted her. For the last few weeks she’d been missing them, locking the memory of her night with them away in the corner of her mind. Now she had them, and she wanted to never let them go.

  Pulling away from Wes’s drugging kiss, she turned to Ray and he slipped his arms around her and pulled her close as their lips met and their tongues slid against each other in a dance that made her toes curl and her brain fizzle out.

  Wes’s hands caressed her shoulders and all thoughts of a discussion went out of her mind until Ray ended the kiss and smiled at her. “Tell us what you want, love.”

  “You, damn it, I just want you both.”

  He grinned sinfully. “I meant for the ceremony. I’m very happy to hear you want us, though. We want you, too.”

  She closed her eyes with a groan. “I can’t stop saying embarrassing things today.”

  Wes laughed. “You should always say what you feel, Scarlett. Honesty’s important to us.”

  “Well, I feel like we went to bed last night without getting reacquainted, and now I don’t want to do anything other than go back to bed with you both. How’s that for honest?”

  “Perfect. But first let’s talk about our mating ceremony, and then we’ll see where the day takes us. We’ve missed out on eight weeks with you. We have a lot of catching up to do,” Ray said.

  “Okay, okay.” She leaned back against the couch and looked up at the ceiling. Each male held one of her hands and she could hear the faint sound of their occasional purring, which made her smile. “I read about a ceremony where instead of having it at night, they did it at dawn. Wolves do everything at night and I thought it was cool. The families got together and had a big dinner and stayed up partying all night. When the sun rose, the couple said vows to each other. I’m not sure I could actually stay up all night, but it would be really cool to have a sunrise ceremony.”

  “I think that sounds amazing,” Wes said.

  Ray nodded. “We could do it Tuesday morning. It’s too cold to be outside, but the front room has a big picture window that faces east and we could have it in front of the window.”

  “I love that,” she said.

  “Then we could have breakfast with Dad and Uncle Miles, and then we could come down here and officially mate you. How does that sound?”

  “You mean bite me? Both of you?”

  They nodded.

  “It sounds kind of painful, but I want that. I want to wear your marks so everyone knows I belong to you.”

  Ray’s eyes softened and he cupped her face. “We belong to you, too.”

  “I wanted you to be mine. I wish I hadn’t ever left your bed,” she confessed.

  “We’re here now. That’s all that really matters,” Wes said.

  They talked for a while longer about the ceremony and their mating day. They were forging new ground in many ways. In all the Breeding Queen history, she’d never heard of one walking away from her duty. She wondered if her mother or any of the other Queens had actually had mates but no one had taken the time to let them find out for themselves. Lifetimes had been ruined because of fathers and their quest to have the best of everything.

  Chapter 6

  Ray could hardly concentrate through dinner. He and Wes had spent almost the entire day talking with Scarlett. She was remarkably candid. Eventually the conversation had turned to her family, and her worry that no matter what they did, her father wouldn’t accept what they were planning. She was afraid they would have to hide out forever, or that somehow he’d find them. Ray didn’t like her being afraid, but he hoped that after their mating ceremony, she would feel more at ease.

  It wasn’t those thoughts that his mind kept drifting to, though. He couldn’t stop thinking about the kisses they’d shared, and her frank – if not a little embarrassed – desire to make love to them again. He hadn’t wanted anyone else since the day he’d met Scarlett, and he knew that Wes felt the same. He’d envied the other mountain lions who had found their mates, but now he and Wes could count themselves among those few.

  He listened to Scarlett as she talked about going to college to study art and how much she loved painting. Ray and Wes hadn’t gone to college. There wasn’t a whole lot of industry in King; their dad and uncle worked at the tire factory just outside of town, and he and Wes had worked there part-time during high school. Ray really loved working on the farm for Rhett and Lisa, and he knew that Wes loved it, too. At the factory, they’d been cogs in the wheel, but at the farm, they were treasured employees, more family than workers.

  Scarlett stood and said, “I’ll help with the dishes.”

  “You’ll do no such thing,” Max said with a gentle smile. “Miles and I have a deal that one of us cooks and the other does the dishes. If you clear the table, then what will Miles do for the rest of the evening?”

  She sat down again, smiling. “Well, I wouldn’t want to interfere with the status quo.”

  “How about the three of us cook dinner tomorrow and take care of the dishes, too?” Wes offered.

  “Sounds great,” Max said, stacking plates.

  Scarlett smiled at Ray and it made his cat purr. He kept his voice low as he brushed a lock of hair off her shoulder. “What do you want to do now, sweetheart?”

  “Go downstairs,” she said softly, her cheeks pinking in blush.

  “That sounds like a great idea to me,” he said, standing and holding his hand out to her. She slipped her trembling hand into his and stood, and after saying goodnight to Max and Miles, they headed into the basement. He wanted the night to be special for her, because it was sure as hell special for him and Wes. After eight long weeks of missing her, they finally had her back in their arms. He damn sure wasn’t going to let her go anytime soon.

  Wes gathered the candles they’d found on the storage shelf, set them on the nightstand, and lit them. Ray left Scarlett sitting on the bed and went to stoke the fire, to make sure it lasted all night. After he added wood to the stove and shut the door, he walked to the stairs and turned off the light. Wes was sitting next to Scarlett and they were kissing. Even from a distance, Ray could hear her soft moan of pleasure and his cat growled in happiness.

  Striding quickly to them, he dropped to his knees in front of her and pushed her legs apart gently. Her hand landed on his shoulder and she pulled from her kiss with Wes and turned passion-glazed eyes to him. She leaned down and he cupped her face, pulling her close. Their lips met and everything inside him sparked to life. His fingers slipped through her hair and he tipped her head, angling her mouth as she scooted closer. He could feel the heat of her b
ody, and the sweet scent of her arousal spiked in the air.

  She lifted from his mouth with a soft moan. Wes tugged her shirt over her head, and Ray’s gaze latched onto her breasts, the ripe mounds held captive by pink lace. He trailed his fingertips over the tops of her breasts and she shivered. He hooked his finger in the center of the bra and gave a slight tug. She bit her bottom lip as the bra loosened suddenly and Wes grinned at him. He tugged on the center of the bra again and it slipped free of her breasts. In a second it was flying away from them, but the soft thud of it hitting the floor was lost to him as he stared at her hard nipples and the way her chest heaved as she panted for breath. He and Wes quickly stripped her of the remainder of her clothes.

  They both reached for her at the same time, and Ray cupped one breast while Wes cupped the other. Ray kissed her nipple, plumping her breast with one hand while the other covered her thigh and squeezed. She wiggled against him, her knees tightening around his waist as he sat between them, licking and sucking her firm bud to tight perfection.

  Their first night together had been a blur of passion and need, and he hadn’t taken his time with her, but he wouldn’t make that mistake tonight. They had all the time in the world, and by the time he and his brother were finished with her tonight, she’d know how much she meant to them.

  She ran her fingers through his hair and fisted the strands, pulling him closer to her. He swirled his tongue around her nipple and sucked gently. Lifting from the tempting bud, he rubbed his thumb around it, the color a dark pink against her lightly tanned flesh, and looked up at her.

  She watched him with hooded eyes, her lips swollen from their kisses. “Lay back, sweetheart,” he said roughly.

  “I don’t want to be the only one naked,” she whispered.

  He grinned. Standing slowly, he stripped in front of her. He’d never thought the removal of his own clothes was sexy, but judging from the way she tracked his every move and kept biting her lower lip, he knew she thought it was.

  Ray was aware of Wes nearby, but he was riveted by the way Scarlett was looking at him. Her gaze bounced from him to Wes, and when he’d shucked the last of his clothes, she gasped her approval.