Fated Shifter Mates

by Jade Alters

  I took one last deep breath to steady myself, and slipped on my dark satin robe from the back of the bathroom door. Hair still damp, I made my way through my room and the corridor to the comfort of the communal space.

  There, before a softly-crackling fire, the North men — my pride — had built a soft-sheeted paradise of pillows and blankets. With the couches pushed slightly aside, the space was enough to fit all of us comfortably. They stood as I approached, half-dressed and hardening just at the sight of me. I swallowed, tongue darting out to wet my lips.

  “This is perfect, what you’ve done,” I said. “It’s so beautiful.”

  And it was. It felt like an altar to true romance, without the rose petals and the lacy underwear that Hollywood always sold us. There was only the soft cotton of the sheets that would lie beneath us — the smoothness of our skin, and the heat from our bodies intermingling with the fire. If there was a more appealing sight, I’d never seen it.

  Preston was closest to me, and held out a hand for me to take. As I took it, stepping into the security and energy of this private space, I felt Blake close in behind me, his lips pressing down softly against the back of my neck — Stone smoothing my hair away with a soft touch, and Hale’s fingertips skimming the simple tie of my robe.

  “Can I…?”

  “Yes.” I tipped my head back into Blake’s kiss and let Hale do what he wanted — to unpick the knot and let the satin of my robe fall apart. I heard him inhale at the sight of my bare skin beneath, and shuddered as he drew a line from my stomach to the tip of my chin. Stone was less restrained; his arm snaked around my waist, dipping underneath the robe to touch me directly.

  My heart was fluttering already. My toes curled in the soft fabric of the blanket beneath us.

  I felt like a goddess, brought back to my power by their hands.

  Preston’s hands traced a figure of eight over the inside of my leg. I sighed, parting my legs by bare instinct, and my lip trembled as I felt him climb to his knees. His hot breath fluttered against my thigh, painfully close to my sex; I spared a hand to tangle in his hair, eyes squeezed tight shut and managing to stay upright only by the grace of Blake’s presence behind me — and the pressure of his hard cock.

  He and Hale worked together to slip the robe down away from my body. It pooled at my feet, no longer required in the glowing heat of the room. I felt more naked than I’d ever been, but at the same time completely invulnerable. There was no safer or better place for me to be in the world. No eyes I wanted on me more than the North pride.

  Preston pressed a chaste kiss to the front of my sex as he moved his attention to my other leg, drawing a moan from somewhere deep within me. Stone’s hand massaged at my hip, almost kneading the pleasure out of me with his gentle but well-aimed touch. My eyes fluttered closed again, and it was now that I began to lose track of whose hands were which — of anything tethering me to the solid and serious world outside.

  There was a hand between my legs, from behind — a gentle, stroking motion that explored how wet I already was, and set the fire in my stomach that Preston’s quick kiss had promised. Before long those lips were back on my front, this time pointed and purposeful. Preston’s tongue — at least, I assumed it was Preston — rubbed soft and careful life into my sex, flicking slowly over my clit. In time, I felt those fingers press inside me, beginning to explore the tight warmth of my body just as Blake began to rub his cock against the curve of my ass.

  I may never know what exactly drew me here to live and work with these men, or why it had to be now. All I did know was that things were exactly as they were supposed to be.

  I gave a choked cry as that mouth pressed closer to suck at my clit, back arching and leaning back into Blake’s waiting arms behind me as I submitted to the wave of fast-mounting pleasure. I wasn’t sure when I moved, but when I opened my eyes it seemed I had been carefully carried down to the floor — that my legs were now wrapped over Preston’s shoulders as he continued to worship my pussy, and Blake’s cock against the small of my back.

  When I looked to the side, I found Stone’s hard cock waiting for me. I looked up to meet his eyes as I took him into my mouth, relishing in the groan it teased out of him. Hale’s tongue traced a circle around my nipple, spreading the shuddering pleasure I felt to entirely new parts of my body — and just as intense. It wasn’t long before I came for them for the first time, toes tensing and clenching over Preston’s shoulders and still rubbing eagerly at Stone with a spare hand.

  Preston looked up at me once I’d bleated out my pleasure, eyes intense with desire.

  “Jess, please…”

  “God, yes.”

  I knew what he wanted, and I needed it too. I shifted forward, feeling my weight supported by Blake and Hale beside me, and let Preston guide his way inside me. Slick-wet from his kisses and my pleasure, there wasn’t the faintest discomfort as I took every inch of him, sinking down into the fireball heat of his lap.

  “Fuck, Preston.”

  I felt the others close in around us, the heat of their bodies overwhelming in an entirely pleasurable way. Blake kneaded at the small of my back, and I could feel his cock bumping up against the backs of my legs. At either side of me I had Stone and Hale, impressively hard in my hands, and soon Stone leaned in to capture my lips in a rough, eager kiss.

  It wasn’t just that I couldn’t tell where my body ended and Preston’s began. I couldn’t delineate between any of the five of us. It was as though we formed one amorous creature, damp with sweat and desperate for more, more, more. As Stone pulled away from our kiss, I buried my face into his hair — breathed in the woody musk of his scent, still flooded with the taste of his kisses.

  “Jessica.” Only Blake was still solemn enough to use my full name, even as lust tinged it with urgency — made it sound like a litany more than a name. “Would it be too much, if…?”

  “No,” I moaned into the side of Stone’s head, following the pattern of Hale’s kisses over my shoulder and my neck. “Not too much. Please.”

  He didn’t need to finish the sentence for me to know what he wanted. Sure enough, Preston slowed his thrusts to give Blake a chance to press up even closer behind me, guiding himself into place. When he finally pushed inside me, I felt the searing bliss of both of their widths together, melting back against Blake’s chest and losing myself in Stone and Hale’s devouring kisses.

  I felt that I’d been made for this. Made to carry their child — made to curl and stretch to the shape of them, heart pounding to the rhythm of all four lovers at once.

  Was it too soon to call it love? I didn’t think so. Every trailing touch of Stone’s fingertips felt like fire; every circle Hale’s tongue traced over me made me feel a little more alive than the second before. When my pleasure mounted to another powerful orgasm, my eager cries and tight clenching brought Preston to his peak inside me. In the moment, I couldn’t be sure whether it was him or Blake. Only when he withdrew, leaning forward to offer a line of kisses down my body, could I draw my own conclusions. It wasn’t long before Hale moved in to take his place, Preston cupping my chin to draw our lips together. The intersection of those feelings — the desperate, wild pleasure of Blake and Hale thrusting inside me together, and the sweet satisfaction of Preston’s romantic kiss — was surreal and powerful.

  A hand snaked down to draw tight circles around my clit, so good and unexpected that my back arched hard again. I opened my eyes to see that it was Stone’s hand, fast and focused; with Preston still kissing at my neck, I reached down for Stone’s cock to devote all my attention to him, carried away on a raft of bliss.

  Before long, Hale was following Preston over the edge — withdrawing from me to finish neatly on my stomach. As he made to move away, my hand closed around his wrist.

  “Is there lube?”

  “Uh-huh. Are you uncomfortable?”

  “No,” I answered. As Blake hit deep inside me, I arched back against him again, punctuating my point; still, Hale returne
d with lubricant. I still couldn’t speak from the pleasure, but he took initiative, squeezing a little into his palms to massage over my thighs.

  Only when I’d gathered my breath could I speak up, lifting my head to meet Stone’s eyes. “I want both.”

  “Like before?”

  His brow furrowed, unsure — but Blake understood. He reached around me to slick up his fingers with lube, then slipped back down again to a tighter, more intimate hole.

  “Like this,” he murmured, his voice a gratifying hum. My head tipped back onto his shoulder as I moaned out my pleasure, feeling the exquisite stretch of his first finger inside me. Stone seemed to understand then, moving between my legs to guide me down onto his waiting cock. I still had Preston and Hale on either side of me, smoothing lube-slick hands over every free part of my body. It felt like an all-over massage, and even more so once Blake added a second finger. The white-hot intensity of feeling them fill both parts of me at once had my heart hammering and my skin tingling all over. Last night’s danger had vanished from my memory, along with any thought of uncertainty or shyness or discomfort.

  At last, Blake withdrew his hand and pressed his cock inside me instead. I gasped, legs tightening around Stone’s body as I felt inch by tantalizing inch of Blake sink slowly deeper. He was careful and gentle — and Stone had slowed too, giving me a chance to assimilate to the new two-pronged rhythm of our love.

  “God, yes.”

  I accepted eager kisses from Preston and Hale as we rode out this final stretch together, groaning against their lips and feeling more undone by the second. I could feel myself mounting to one last peak, with Stone’s thrusts growing ever more urgent, and his thumb still strumming a delicious rhythm over me. Soon, I felt Blake begin to tense too; knowing that both of them were ready to come for me, hard and eager, drove me over the precipice, and I came one last time with a desperate cry.

  As Stone and Blake finished, staggered one after the other, my body remained tense between them. I felt a last lick of lust as I felt Blake’s mouth on my neck — a hard, satisfying bite that tugged me back under a wave of pleasure all over again.

  We lay in a floppy, fulfilled pile, limbs intertwined around one another. I felt the body heat of all four lovers pressured up close against me, desperate for as much of my skin as they could contact. They covered me with such efficacy that I barely felt naked, sighing with the weight of my pleasure underneath the cozy last traces of our sex.

  “That was incredible.”

  I smiled at their hums of assent, and as I felt Blake’s hands wind into my hair, coaxing out the tangles.

  “You’re perfect,” he said, keeping his voice soft and low. “Exactly what we needed, even before we knew it. Before we could have hoped.”

  I glowed in his praise, nestling closer to the sound of his voice. The rest of the Norths moved with me, keeping me close and protected in the center of their love-pile. “You’re all perfect too,” I told them, and meant it. I’d never had a partner that felt so right or natural — never felt so loved or desired. The knowledge that a life of ours was growing inside me only sharpened my happiness. “I… really can’t believe how lucky I am.”

  I felt several hands come to rest gently over my stomach, and knew they were thinking of the same bundle of joy.

  How had I ever imagined this would be a bad thing?

  “We’re the lucky ones,” said Hale, drumming his fingertips lightly over my skin. “Trust me. We really are.”

  “All five of us will be,” said Stone. “When the little one comes.”

  “I’ve been thinking about names,” I admitted. “Just a little.” Seeing their ears perk up, I smiled and continued. “Is it too cliché to call them Leo, or Leona?”

  Preston grinned. “Not for me.”

  “Will they actually be a shifter?” I asked, sitting up a little. I propped myself up against Blake’s lap, wriggling back closer as his arms wrapped around me. “I still have so much to learn.”

  “More than likely, yes,” Blake answered, lips resting on my shoulder where he’d bitten down. It felt a little sore now, but in a good way — a physical remnant of all their love. “Don’t worry, though. You’ve got plenty of time to learn.”

  “All the time in the world,” Hale confirmed.

  As we lay there, drifting off in a happy pile by the glow of the fire, that was the thought I fixated on. For most of my life, I’d been wondering exactly where I’d end up, and with who — daydreaming about whether I was working the right job, or keeping the right company, or dating the right men. Now, seeing this path laid out before me, I felt a surreal calm and happiness settle over me like a blanket.

  I wouldn’t have to struggle or wonder any more.

  Stone

  Our commanding officers didn’t need to know the minute detail — didn’t need to hear that we’d all risked our lives, and the integrity of the mission, to rescue Jessica. As natural as it was, and as much as we’d all stand behind the choice, it went directly against protocol, and none of us much enjoyed the idea of never being allowed to work as a unit again.

  Instead, we just made out that we’d stumbled across their base camp early. That we’d seized an opportunity once we had adequate intel and knew exactly what we were walking into.

  If anybody at the Pentagon suspected that we’d made some early moves, they didn’t say so. They just seemed grateful that the problem was handled sooner than expected, and without any casualties to the unit — or media attention. We were ghosts, slipping in and out of the area without causing any mayhem. It was exactly the reason they recruited us as a unit in the first place.

  Now, of course, we could start heading home.

  Still, it felt a little bittersweet to be leaving. This cabin was so much more than a workplace now. It was the place where we’d found Jess — or at least where we found our feelings for her. I knew she was special from the first moment we met and interviewed her, but learning over the course of these months exactly how special she was? That was a gift I’d never forget. As I walked through the communal areas of the cabin, checking for any possessions we’d left behind, I almost wished we could hold onto the place. Make it our own, for getaways.

  But hey. If we had to leave it behind forever, so be it. Home is where the heart is, and we’d soon be making memories with Jess there too.

  Speaking of Jess? I had an intervention to run.

  “You know I’m not going to let you do that, right?”

  She looked up at me from the kitchen, hand poised over the sink ready to dampen down a cloth. Her smile was playful and sheepish, as though she’d almost been expecting to get caught.

  “I’m not that pregnant yet.”

  “Step away from the cleaning products, Dorsey.” I closed in on her, tugging the cloth out of her hands and pressing a kiss onto her blushing cheek. “Don’t make me tell Blake. He will make you sit out in the sun with a glass of ice water and a plate of strawberries.”

  “I’m considering it anyway,” said Blake, stepping in from outside and brushing off his hands. “Has she been working again?” He and Hale had been loading things into the truck for a while now, and the sun had left a sheen of sweat across his forehead. I saw Jess’ eyes lingering on his vein-roped forearms, and grinned.

  “She’s been trying,” I told him. “Apparently she’s ‘not that pregnant’.”

  “I’m not!” she insisted. “I’m not even showing. You’re all way too sweet to me.”

  “No such thing,” called Preston, clambering up through the basement floor with the last of our supplies. “And they’re right. You’re not lifting a finger.”

  “Are you going to let me unpack when we get home?”

  “Nope,” I said, cheerfully wiping down the kitchen surfaces she’d been intending to clean. “Absolutely not. We’ll take care of all of that for you. And before you ask — nope, we’re not going to let you pack up your old apartment either.”

  “If you’re not careful, I’ll get used
to it,” she warned. “Then I’ll be the laziest mommy this little cub could ever have.”

  “I think growing an entire person is work enough,” said Blake, smoothing Jess’ hair behind her ears. “Anyway. Truck’s loaded up. Hale’s doing one last sweet of the cabin. After that, I think we’re good to go.”

  I tossed the rag into the sink, with the countertops now clean enough to catch the sun. “Want me to call the commander?”

  “Yes,” said Blake. “You do that.”

  “I’ll even let you hit dial,” I teased Jess, sliding into the seat beside her on the couch. “Since you’re so keen to do some work.”

  “Oh, screw you,” she said, curling up against me. “Stop being good to me. I hate it.”

  I kissed the side of her head, enjoying her teasing, and dialed the number on our sat phone. It didn’t take more than a couple of rings for the commander to answer.

  “Unit A7.”

  “Yes, sir. Just wanted to update you on our position. Leaving in T-minus 15, approximately. No gear left behind.”

  “Inclusive of data?”

  “Correct, sir.”

  “Good. Glad you boys are heading home. You’ve done good work for us out there.”

  “Thank you, sir.” My arm tightened around Jess, squeezing her shoulder. “And our support personnel too. Couldn’t have done it without her.”

  “Of course,” he said. His tone suggested he hadn’t thought of her, and still didn’t really make much of her contribution — but whether the commander believed Jess was indispensable or not was kind of immaterial to the truth. However, this task had turned out, it certainly wouldn’t have been as easy or as enjoyable without Jess here with us. It wouldn’t have been over as quickly, either. Even now, the thought of her captured made me flutter with anger — but it also reminded me that she hadn’t given them a word of information, not even when her life was in danger.

  She was something special. Our commander’s nonchalance was irritating, but I didn’t need his confirmation to know that. I hoped she didn’t either.