by R. E. Butler
Back in the kitchen, Nyte found Whisper talking to Sydney and Alyssa about the gym. Both females worked at Stone’s Gym with Nyte and his brothers, but in the office. This reminded Nyte that they only had a few days before they needed to get back to work. They were spending twenty-four hours in their makeshift den, and then they’d need a day to recover, and then the real world beckoned.
Whisper settled against him as he enclosed her in his arms and continued to listen as Alyssa and Sydney talked about the gym and the town. Az went out with Mason and Crux to tend to the grill where dinner was cooking, while the others milled around the kitchen and talked. Nyte didn’t care what the conversations around him were. All he cared about was the heaven in his arms. He couldn’t believe how lucky they were to have found her, and how perfect she was for them. She was sweet enough to melt Fade, patient enough to handle Az’s fussiness, and sassy enough to handle Nyte’s bossiness.
He kissed the top of her head and inhaled slowly, savoring the naturally sweet scent of her. She reminded him of vanilla and sugar, sweet and lightly spicy. She rubbed her hands over the top of his as she listened to the females talk, relaxing into him with a barely audible sigh.
When dinner was ready, the baro headed into the dining room. Nyte pulled out Whisper’s chair and pushed her in gently, then took a seat next to her. “Do you guys eat together often?” she asked as Az began to fill her plate and his own with the dishes that were passed.
“Every Sunday,” Alyssa answered. “It’s why we have such a huge dining room table. And soon, we’ll need room for more.” She patted her extended belly for emphasis.
“Have you had a baby shower?” Whisper asked as she picked up her knife and fork and looked down at the food that Az had piled on her plate.
There was a long enough period of silence that even Nyte wondered if something was wrong when Whisper looked at him in confusion.
Alyssa looked like she was fighting not crying, and her clan rallied around her, which seemed to make her struggle more. Pushing them away gently but firmly, she said, “Stop, stop. You’re making me sweaty. I’m fine.”
“You’re not,” Mason snarled softly.
Alyssa smiled at Whisper apologetically as she dabbed at the corner of her eyes. “I don’t have many female friends. My pack turned their backs on me when I left, and my sister lives in Alaska. The people in Dalton are nice, but they don’t really understand us. Not just that we’re weres, but the whole multiple-husband thing. So no, I haven’t had a baby shower. But I have everything I need,” she added quickly.
“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said anything,” Whisper said.
“Don’t apologize,” Dante said tightly. “We should have been paying more attention. It’s hard to let people into our circle of friends, because we value our privacy and the protection of our mates. It’s why baros are usually bigger, so there are more females and children.”
“Our baro is just perfect,” Alyssa said, squeezing Dante’s hand on top of the table.
“Actually, some of our cousins have expressed an interest in joining the baro up here in the spring,” Dante said. He glanced at Nyte, who hadn’t heard the news. He continued, “They just contacted me a few days ago. It’s Jaylon’s clan, Nix’s clan, and Zack’s clan.”
Alyssa’s eyes widened. “I didn’t know you had so many cousins. I thought the Gorge baro was mostly your aunts and uncles.”
“Jaylan’s clan is from Gorge and are our second cousins, while Nix and Zack’s clans live in southern Indiana, and are third cousins to us. But it’s not the time right now to talk about new clans, since we’re supposed to be welcoming our newest member.” Dante lifted his glass, and everyone stopped eating and lifted theirs, toasting Whisper and her joining with the baro.
She touched each of her clan members’ glasses and said in a low voice to Nyte, “I’m only a member half-way.”
“To tomorrow night,” he said, winking at her and touching the rim of his glass to hers once more.
After dinner, the clans lounged in the large family room, which had several couches and an enormous flat screen hanging over the fireplace. While everyone chatted, Nyte began to wonder about Whisper. Az had mentioned more than once that he wondered if she was really happy about living in Dalton or if she was keeping her thoughts to herself. He couldn’t tell, because he didn’t know her well enough yet to know when she was keeping her feelings hidden. He didn’t believe she was lying, but he thought that maybe she’d been thinking about her pack when Alyssa said she hadn’t had a baby shower yet. Whisper had two best friends, but she also had her brothers and dad, plus the pack. They weren’t just taking her away from her parents, they were taking her away from her entire support system and moving her to a place where the only women she could really be friends with were so few in number. Concern settled in his gut. Were they doing the right thing by staying in Dalton? He just didn’t fucking know.
Eventually, Alyssa said she was too tired to keep her eyes open any longer, so everyone said goodnight. Nyte shoved the keys into Az’s hand and climbed into the back seat before he could complain. Whisper giggled as she snuggled into Nyte’s side, and Az grumbled when he started the engine.
“I’ve never had so many hot guys want to be with me before,” she peeked up at him in the darkness of the truck as the vehicle turned out of the driveway and down the long road that would lead them home.
He liked that she thought they were hot. He stroked his thumb along her jaw, settling his fingertips along her throat and feeling her pulse jump. He hadn’t really given his feelings for her much thought since they’d been so preoccupied with her reuniting with her birth family, but here in the darkness of the truck, he could feel his heart swell. He’d known he would care about his mate when he found her, but he didn’t know how deep and true the feelings would grow. Or how quickly. He wasn’t completely in love with her yet, but he knew it wouldn’t be long before he’d be head over heels. Already she had him and his brothers wrapped around her finger without trying. There wasn’t anything on earth Nyte wouldn’t do to see her safe and happy. He’d never really understood the nuances of mating before, hadn’t known how males could get so wrapped up in their mates the way that they did. But he was completely wrapped up in Whisper, and he was content.
“Baby,” he said softly, rubbing his thumb back and forth over her jaw.
“Yeah?”
“I’m crazy about you.”
“I’m crazy about you, too.”
Lowering his lips to hers, he lost himself in the sweet taste of his mate and the heady knowledge that the following night, she’d belong to them forever.
* * * * *
Fade flexed his hands and looked at the tattoos that now adorned each ring finger. The left one was for Whisper…the clan’s promise to love and cherish her forever. The right one was for his clan…their promise to support and protect their mate, their cubs, and each other.
Barker, the tattoo artist, snapped off his gloves and tossed them in a trash bin. “They good?”
“Yeah, thank you.”
He grunted in reply and stood, stretching and walking over to the cash register. Fade stood and pulled his wallet from his back pocket and joined Barker, handing him cash.
“Good luck with your girl,” Barker said as he closed the register with a thud.
Fade nodded and said goodbye, leaving the small shop and walking to his truck. Once inside, he slipped on a pair of black leather gloves to hide the intricate tattoos. Even though Whisper had been dropped off for breakfast at Alyssa’s house and was spending the day with her and Sydney, it was customary for the males to keep the gloves on until they revealed the tattoos in the den. Barker had opened early that morning so that Az could get his done before he took Whisper to breakfast, since he was spending the day with her.
A little flare of jealousy rose up inside him, but he quashed it as he turned on the engine and pulled out of the parking lot. Whisper belonged to all of them, and they belonged to h
er. He wasn’t really sure if he was jealous of Az’s time with her, or if he was jealous that he wasn’t the one watching over her. Not that he didn’t trust Az to keep her safe, but ever since she’d mentioned thinking she’d seen the same car more than once, it had put his beast on edge.
Pressing the button on the GPS screen, he used the speaker system to call Whisper.
“Hey sweetheart,” he said when she answered.
“Hey yourself. What are you up to on this oh-so-secret day?” She giggled a little, and he could picture her sweet smile and the way her eyes crinkled at the corners.
“Top secret awesome mating things. I was just calling to check on you and see how your day is going.”
She sighed. “Good. We’re looking at speakers for Alyssa’s den. Did you know that Mason is a total electronics nut?”
“I did. Are you having a good day, baby?”
“I am, but I miss you. When do I get to come back to your place and see you all?”
“Our place,” he corrected, and then he said, “and we’ll see you at dinner.”
“That seems like a long time from now.” She sighed exaggeratedly, and he smiled, told her to have a good day, and said goodbye.
It didn’t escape his notice that she didn’t accept his correction about their apartment belonging to all of them — her included. He wondered, not for the first time, if she would be truly happy in Dalton and if there was anything he could do to help her.
Back at the apartment, he joined Orion and Crux, who were helping Nyte hang thick strips of fabric from the ceiling to create a den-like effect. The clan had done the same thing for their own matings, but they were actually in their basement dens, which lent a more realistic feeling to being in a den and away from everything. They were on the second floor of their apartment in the master bedroom, and they had neighbors on either side of them. They were hardly tucked away in the basement of their home in the woods, like they should have been.
“What’s with the scowl?” Nyte asked.
Fade picked up a length of fabric and unrolled it, handing it to Dante, who was standing on a ladder to reach the temporary hooks in the ceiling. “I don’t know. I know that it doesn’t really matter where we den, but it feels weird to be in the apartment.”
Nyte shrugged. “Unless you want to wait about six months for a house with a basement to be built, we’re stuck with the apartment.”
As if they’d be able to last that long without making love to Whisper. The last two nights with their mate had been an exercise in control, as they’d all played with her until she was hoarse and exhausted. It had been all he could do not to insist they move forward and just mate her then. But she deserved better. Not only because she was a hyena and it was their way, but because she was the most important person in the world to them and deserved the best they could give her.
* * * * *
Brin watched from the tinted window of the backseat of their father’s sedan as Dawn walked out of an electronics store. She was in a group with a male that they had seen at the gathering. Two other females were with them, and two other males.
Dawn was lovely. Long, dark hair and lightly tanned skin, and a pretty smile that he bet would be even better when it was directed at him. His older brothers, Quill and Ian, sat in the front seat. Ian made a snarling sound. “We should just grab her.”
Quill shook his head. “Dad said not to make a scene. We don’t want the human cops involved.”
Ian folded his arms angrily. “Why the hell not? Those assholes at the gathering stole Dawn right out from under our noses. She’s ours.”
Brin looked at the female that their father said was meant to be their mate. She was holding hands with one male, laughing at something he said. She seemed happy.
He opened his mouth to ask his brothers why their dad had been so sure that Dawn was meant to be their mate, but he thought better of it. When they were at a gathering last year, there had been a really pretty blonde hyena who — although not their truemate — was definitely interested in them, but his brothers had taken one look at her and turned their noses up. Yeah, Dawn was pretty, but he couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong with the whole scenario. It wasn’t just because their dad was waiting at a hotel room an hour away, wearing a hole in the carpeting with his pacing while they figured out how to get Dawn.
“Whoever these usurpers are, they’ll let their guards down eventually, and then we’ll be able to save her.”
“Usurpers?” Brin asked Quill.
Quill looked at him in exasperation. “They’ve taken our mate, Brin. What else would you call them?”
Brin didn’t feel like arguing with his oldest brother, so he turned away and watched as Dawn was helped up into the back of an SUV, the male following her inside.
Chapter 13
Whisper pushed her plate away and let out a contented sigh. They’d fixed all her favorite things for their mating-night dinner, including steak and mashed potatoes, steamed green beans, and lemon pie for dessert.
“Can I help with the dishes?” she asked, knowing full well that they weren’t going to let her lift a finger.
“No, baby,” Nyte said. “It’s time for you to get ready.”
“Wait, there’s something I want to do for you first.”
“Oh?” Nyte lifted a brow and smiled at her indulgently.
They followed her upstairs to the spare bedroom where she was going to be getting ready for the mating ceremony, but first, she wanted to give them a gift of sorts. Sitting on a small stool in front of the electronic keyboard they had purchased for her as a surprise, she pressed the power button and placed her fingers on the keys.
“I’m glad that I found three great guys as my mates. Before I met you, I didn’t think that there was room in my life for love or truemates, but now I can’t imagine being without you. I don’t have anything to give you, but I wanted to share this song with you.”
Closing her eyes, she settled her nerves and began to play the soft, sweet melody of a song that she’d written several years earlier but had never performed. She hadn’t understood at the time why she never wanted to play it with the band, but now she knew that she’d been saving it for a special occasion that she hadn’t even known she’d wanted.
The words seemed very fitting as she opened her eyes and watched her mates as they listened and watched her. It was a song about love and hope and finding the person that was meant to be yours forever and then never letting go. It was sweet and heartfelt, and the words had never held more weight than they did at that moment, when she was standing on the edge of falling in love with her mates.
As the last chord faded away, she blinked at the wetness in her eyes and found herself immediately pulled into Az’s arms, with Nyte and Fade surrounding her.
“It was beautiful, sweet love,” Az said thickly. “Just beautiful.”
“How’d we get so lucky to have a gorgeous mate that is also so talented?” Nyte stroked her cheek with his fingers and smiled.
Fade said nothing, but when she looked at him, the steady gaze that met hers was full of emotion, and she knew that he and his brothers felt strongly about her too. She reached a hand out to both brothers, and they took her hands as she rested her cheek on Az’s chest and listened to the steady thrum of his heart.
A long moment passed, minutes that felt like hours, and then Az kissed her forehead and whispered, “It’s time to get ready.”
She stepped away from their warm embrace and was surprised when Fade pulled off his shirt and tossed it to the bed. He looked at his brothers, who nodded at him silently and left the room, closing the door behind them.
She raised a brow as she looked at his well-muscled chest and arms. He made her mouth water. “What’s going on?”
“Back in the old days, female hyenas would have a guardian watch over them as they prepared themselves for their mating night. It was usually a trusted female family member, one who had been through the mating ceremony herself so
she could answer questions and give advice. Our people don’t really do that any longer. When males find their mates, they often live together for weeks as they prepare for the ceremony, and the females are comfortable with the situation and what will come. My brothers and I decided that it’s a good tradition. We didn’t want to bring in the other clan females because we want this to just be about us, so I volunteered to be your guardian as you get ready.”
Fade was the quietest of the three, and she wasn’t sure she’d ever heard him say so much at one time. Excitement washed through her.
“What should I do, my guardian?”
His eyes darkened, and a low growl rumbled in his chest. He didn’t move to close the distance between them, so she didn’t either.
“Strip,” he said, the word all but growled at her.
She wasn’t sure that a ‘female family member’ would have ordered her to strip in that way, but she liked Fade taking control of the situation. Her top came off first, which she tossed to the bed where his shirt waited. He was wearing nothing but black slacks and black leather gloves, which Az and Nyte were also wearing. She wondered why they were wearing gloves but didn’t ask because she had a feeling it was something related to their mating ceremony.
Undoing her jeans, she smiled internally as Fade’s jade green eyes dropped to the waistband of her pants and flared with lust. Wiggling far more than necessary, she lowered her jeans to the floor and stepped out of them. She almost wished there was music playing so she could really strip for him, but getting herself so wound up was probably not a good idea. At least not until after the ceremony.
Her bra and panties joined her other clothes, and she stood bare before her mate. His gaze roamed her body, taking in her curves, as that same growl rumbled in his chest.
