Mated to the Pride: A Military Shifter Reverse Harem Romance

by Jade Alters

  Oh. Not you, again.

  “That’s kind, Stone. Thank you.”

  “Now, doctor’s recommendation,” he said. “You can refuse this one, but… I give a mean back massage. Totally guaranteed to work out stress just as well as it works out knots.”

  I hoped I wasn’t blushing too badly, but I could feel the heat gathering in my cheeks and on the back of my neck. “I mean. That’s…”

  “Up to you,” Stone insisted. “I figure if I can’t talk about whatever-it-is with you, I can at least get you comfortable enough to deal with it yourself.”

  I should decline. I knew that. I was already feeling guilty enough about having had both Preston and Blake’s hands on me, and the prickling feeling of attraction I felt for them was here for Stone too. If he touched me, especially in such a kind and intimate way, I didn’t know how it would escalate. Didn’t know if I could stop myself.

  What I did know was that I wanted it anyway, more than I could bear.

  “I mean. Are you sure…?”

  “Are you kidding?” he said. His face lit up. “Of course. I want to help, and I’m good at it. Look, I’ll get some of this lavender oil on a pillow for you. You just… lie down and get comfortable.”

  If my blush wasn’t fire-red before, it certainly was now. The backs of my ears were burning, but I tried to ignore that too-human mix of excitement and nerves as I laid down on the bed.

  “Prop up on your arms,” Stone suggested, his voice soft and easy. “That’s it.”

  As I got settled, he slipped a pillow underneath my head. Sure enough, the soothing scent of lavender filled me — strong, but not overwhelming. I sighed, sinking back down into the pillow, and closed my eyes. “You’re right. It is nice.”

  “See,” said Stone. “I know some things.”

  “A couple, I guess.”

  I felt the weight of the bed shift as he climbed on. For a brief moment I felt my whole body flush with heat as I imagined him straddling my waist. It thrilled me so much that I was almost disappointed when he did the gentlemanly thing and sat on one side of me instead.

  “Let me know if I go too hard,” he said, voice soft.

  “Psh,” I said, muffled into the pillow. “You couldn’t go hard enough if you tried.”

  I smiled at his laughter. As intensely attractive as Blake and Hale were, it was also nice to spend time in Stone’s friendly, unassuming company. He was just as handsome, but his appeal was markedly different to theirs. It felt less like the exciting mystery of being with a handsome stranger, and more like the firelight familiarity of an old childhood friend who had grown up very right.

  When he actually laid his hands on me, though, there was no ‘too hard’ or ‘too soft’. Even over my pajama cami, every trail of contact felt perfect. Whether it felt wonderful because it was Stone or whether he really was as expert as he claimed, I wasn’t sure. Either way, I never wanted it to stop — not even when I heard myself make a quiet moan I hadn’t intended, feeling a knot of tension dissipate under the warm arch of his palm.

  “You’re welcome,” Stone teased.

  “You are good at this.”

  “Uh-huh. I’m good at a lot of things.”

  “I believe it,” I assured him, eyes squeezing tighter shut as he worked another knot out of me. I never wanted him to pull his hands away. In fact, I wanted them to explore further — wanted them smoothing just as firm and eagerly over every private plane of my body. It was only as I heard him chuckle quietly that I realized my back was arching under his hands.

  “Sorry,” I mumbled, shuffling on the bed. If I could have made myself smaller, I would have, but Stone didn’t seem to mind the blatant body language.

  “I’ll take it as a compliment,” he said. I could still hear the laughter coloring his tone, but not in an unpleasant way. I could imagine the smile playing across his handsome face and spent every inch of energy I had on continuing to lie face-down. On not springing up to touch him back. Unfortunately, it seemed my body told the story anyway; he spoke up again. “You okay? You seem tense all of a sudden.”

  “I’m fine. I swear.”

  Stone hummed, fingertips kneading the small of my back. It was heaven through the fabric. I could only imagine what it would feel like skin-to-skin.

  “Well, I don’t want to make you uncomfortable,” he said. “So if you want me to stop…”

  “You better not.”

  He laughed again, soft and sweet. I couldn’t help but smile into my folded arms, as enchanted by his warm company as I was by his magic hands. As his thumbs worked a particularly potent bit of pressure into the small of my back, I couldn’t wait any longer. In fact, I was barely conscious of making a choice as I rolled onto my back and sat up, fixing his eyes with mine.

  Stone didn’t speak. I could feel the rise and fall of my chest, and saw his rising and falling in unison. He seemed to be leaning closer, and I felt my shoulders moving towards him too — closing the gap between us in inching movements until my jaw was cradled in his hand, and his nose pressed up against mine.

  “You sure about this?” he murmured. “I care about you, Jess. I don’t want to rush you. Don’t want to mess with your head.”

  I closed my eyes, tipping my chin towards his for a soft, deliberate kiss. “I’m sure.”

  He exhaled, lips hovering close to mine. His thumb brushed over the line of my jaw, careful and eager. “Because I want to, but if you don’t-”

  I reached into his lap, smoothing my hand over the front of his sweatpants. Beneath the fabric, I felt the hardening swell of his cock — and moments later, the forceful rush of his kisses. Apparently, there was no more uncertainty left.

  He wrapped his arms around my waist as I climbed into the exquisite heat of his lap, rolling my body down against his cock. Here it was happening all over again — this powerful, cosmic force that made me forget any complaints I might have had, and made me desperate for his embrace. As he peppered kisses over my collarbone, fingertips dipping under the thin strap of my cami, I only had the capacity to breathe.

  “I wanted you all this time,” he admitted, lips close enough to tickle the skin of my neck as he spread his affection across my body. “Always hoped you’d want me too.” His thumb flicked over the sensitive peak of my nipple, and he kissed up the gasp it drew from my lips. Heat pooled there beneath his touch, and further down between my legs.

  “I did want you,” I told him, albeit delayed; I felt the shape of his smile form against my skin, and soon his mouth lifted to mine again for another full, fond kiss. “I do want you.”

  “Lucky us.”

  He wrapped his arms around my waist, holding me close as I absorbed the flush and fire of his kisses. With Stone, this sexual magnetism didn’t feel quite so wild or frantic; it was a different kind of passion, slower but just as white-hot. Though I wanted every inch of him, and couldn’t help but ride the shape of him in his lap, I didn’t mind that he held me up with kisses for such a long stretch of time. Didn’t mind that it took him what felt like hours to tip me back against the pillows of my bed, and begin to crawl down my body.

  He helped me shift off my pants, and took my white cotton panties down with them. When he leaned back down, eyes fixed on my sex like I was some kind of extraordinary work of art, I realized I was holding my breath.

  “Thought about this a lot,” he admitted, voice low and husky enough that I believed him. This was the realization of weeks of frustrated dreams for both of us — and now, writhing as I parted my legs a little wider, I gave a shuddering gasp as I felt him press those first few gentle kisses to my stomach — then lower, and less gentle.

  He hummed his appreciation, his lips and tongue too occupied with the divine pressure and play on my body. Only after warming me up like this for a long time did he introduce his fingers to my slick entrance, teasing a series of escalating groans from me.

  I took tight hold of his spare hand, enjoying the gentle tangle of our fingers as much as the much more
intimate strokes of his tongue. “God, Stone…”

  “It’s good?” he said, the closeness of his breath had its own incredible sensation — just not quite intense enough. My toes curled, desperate for more.

  “It’s incredible. You’re incredible. But aren’t you…?”

  “I want to let you come like this first,” he said as though it were a confession, looking up at me under an almost bashful wave of blond hair. My heart skipped a beat. “Then I’ll fill you up. If… that’s what you want.”

  He had the luxury of sweet language; I did not. “God, yes. Fuck me.”

  Stone grinned, and I felt the spine-melting trace of his tongue over those sensitive nerve endings once again. His movements were quicker now, and more insistent; I felt the regularity of his rhythm begin to lift me up, heart pounding like an animal on the hunt and somehow more and more desperate the more imminent my orgasm seemed. I needed it now, and now, and now — impatient right up until the moment my toes tensed and my legs tangled around him, crying out and arching up in bliss into the sweet pleasure of his mouth.

  “Mmm,” he hummed, slowing his licks and kisses and diverting to less sensitive areas as I slid down from the precipice. “Exactly. Just like that.”

  “Stone, fuck.”

  “Wow. Impatient,” he teased, deliberately misinterpreting.

  I grinned, tugging his hand to summon him closer, and grateful when he understood. I didn’t want to have to expend any more breath on telling him where I wanted him — not when I could be kissing him instead, falling deep into the texture of his affection.

  “That was good, huh?”

  “Amazing,” I mumbled, winding my hands into his hair. My grip felt weak, and I realized I’d been crumpling the sheets beneath us into balls of fabric in my hands. It was enough just to wrap my arms around his shoulders, feeling a new wonderful pressure as he lay on top of me. “God, god. Yes.”

  “Already?”

  “Please.”

  If he had been expecting me to recover before I had him, then he didn’t know how good he was — hadn’t even guessed it from the way my leg hooked around his, and how I tried to press my hips up into him. He was so hard now that there was no mistaking the shape of him in his sweatpants. When he sat up, I could see the full and clear outline of him straining through the fabric, even before he tugged them down and treated me to the sight of his thick, perfect cock.

  “Mmm,” I hummed, words failing me in the moment. He gave himself a few strokes, maybe showing off a little — but with a flushed grin on his face that only made me want him more. “God, please. I want you so bad.”

  Stone didn’t make me wait much longer. After a few eager kisses on my neck, he leaned back to guide himself inside me, so thick and tight and good that my toes curled around his heel, heat flickering and spreading up through me from the base of my spine.

  I melted into the pleasure, moaning into his shoulder. His skin was already damp with heat, and I buried myself in him just for the scent. I wasn’t really sure how pheromones worked, or hormones, or whatever the hell they were — but whatever hold his biology had over me, it was a potent force.

  “God, you’re beautiful,” he murmured, turning his head to press a long, lingering kiss on my temple. “I can’t believe how lucky I am.”

  “How lucky you are? Ahh, Stone—”

  I arched hard as his cock moved deep inside me, shuddering around the spark of the sensation, and muffled my cries against his shoulder. All this waiting and dreaming and desperation, and it had finally come to this moment, more blissful than I’d hoped. I felt his heart beating in time with mine, hard and rapid inside his chest.

  Before long, I felt his thrusts get a little more frantic — felt the desperation as he tipped his head back to find my lips and kiss me again through his shuddering, heavy orgasm. Soft and sweet no longer. Hand slipping down between us to rub at my clitoris with careful consistency, he made sure I followed not long after, kissing my sharp-edged cries of pleasure into muffled ones.

  He couldn’t stay all night. In fact, he didn’t dare to stay for more than an hour; he didn’t want to alarm Blake in case the alpha awoke to find Stone missing from his bed.

  “He’s pretty serious about stuff,” he said, flashing me a lopsided grin of apology. “I’m sure you’ve noticed.”

  There was a flirtatious flicker in his eyes that pulled a tight knot in my stomach, making me wonder whether he already knew about my similarly wonderful trysts with Preston and Blake. If it was, he didn’t say so, and kissed me a moment longer before crawling off the bed.

  My heart was still pounding minutes after he’d left, long after it had slowed from the flurry of my orgasm. Living here felt like losing my mind one man at a time — and now that I’d slept with Stone too, that only left Hale lagging behind.

  As I closed my eyes, feeling a wave of inexhaustible lust wash through me, I had already made up my mind.

  I’d come this far. I wanted all four of them. If he’d have me, I needed to be with Hale too.

  Hale

  Having sensed Stone’s animal glow as he came back from duty, I figured it must have happened for him. He finally had his moment with Jess. Wanting her like I did, I couldn’t even bring myself to tease him about it. Instead, I just shot him a grin and patted his shoulder as I passed by. Saying something wasn’t in my best interest, anyway. I knew I’d have the same light in my eyes the second I was lucky enough to take my turn, and then he’d be firing the same barbs right back at me.

  If she really was the One Mate, of course.

  It wasn’t that I doubted it, per se. I knew how I felt when she blushed and looked away, too shy to hold my gaze; I knew the feeling of deep satisfaction that settled all over me whenever I helped her out in some small way. All the signs were strong — and maybe that was why I didn’t dare to be sure. The idea that we’d found a One Mate at all was dizzying. For it to be Jess, and for it to feel like this?

  Shit. I’d be crazy to let myself hope for it. If it didn’t pan out, the disappointment would crush me.

  Of course, I could try and think logically about all I wanted. Actually, resisting those feelings would be a different battle entirely. The second I stepped into the kitchen, hearing the door close on Blake and Stone behind me, I was caught up in the hourglass shape of her as she watched them walk away, and the unsteady rhythm her fingers drummed out on the counter-top.

  I tapped her shoulder, stepping quickly to the other side before she could catch me there. Her smile was flustered, but sincere. She blushed right across the bridge of her nose, and tucked imaginary out-of-place hairs behind her ears.

  “You’re a born nuisance,” she said, without any force or irritation whatsoever. Far from it. The quirk in the corner of her lips was full of warmth and light — despite the shyness. “Good morning, Hale.”

  “Morning, Jess. You sleep well?”

  She turned her body away from the window now, leaning back against the kitchen counter. I was well-practiced at ignoring the swells of lust I felt around her now but seeing her hips arch forward a little against the surface drove me wild. I forced myself not to look directly, instead focusing on setting the coffee brewing.

  “I did,” she said. “For some reason I was extra-comfy last night. Like I was exactly where the universe wanted me to be right then. Is that weird?”

  I swallowed. Lucky I was good at holding my composure. “Maybe?” I said, trying to sound casual. “But if it is, it’s a good weird.”

  “I guess so.”

  Even now, she struggled to meet my eyes. I could see the blush had spread all the way down to her collarbone, and couldn’t help but grin at her. “Aw, man. I still scare you after all this time?”

  Jess tutted. “You don’t scare me. I’m just… distracted, I guess. I have a lot to do today.”

  “Oh, right. Yeah.” I smirked. As the coffee started brewing, I stepped back from the counter to give her a full look. No matter what she said, I could see tha
t pretty glow of embarrassment on her. I figured I ought to take pity. “Well, don’t let me keep you. I’m gonna head into the shower.”

  “Oh. Okay.” I didn’t know why this should be a surprise to her in the morning, but it sounded that way. Jess gave me a faint smile, shrugging her shoulders and turning back to the sink. “Well, you enjoy. I’ll be right here.”

  I bit back a flirtatious invitation. She’d come to me on her own time, or not at all. Being playful and a little intimidating was one thing, but I absolutely did not want to risk making her feel pressured or uncomfortable. Whether she was our One Mate or not, I’d never treat her that way.

  In my bathroom, I set the shower running. Preston was already awake and out training in the fresh air, so I didn’t have to worry about being too loud; I could turn my speaker on and play the kind of high-energy music I needed to wake up properly. As the mirror began to steam up, I dropped my clothes in an unceremonious pile and stepped with an audible sigh into the water. With the combination of the intense pressure and heat of the shower and the background buzz of my music, I felt like I was coming back to life — and I hadn’t even been too worn out to begin with.

  For a military man, I had always been a little too prone to losing myself in showers. In ordinary service, I’d never get away with it. Here, in our little special ops cabin with our two shifts, it didn’t matter so much that I closed my eyes and forgot how long I’d been under the spray. It didn’t matter that I forgot about almost everything except Jess’ warm smile and the curve of her ass until I heard a knock at the bathroom door.

  “Yeah, come in,” I called. I assumed it was Preston, needing something from the bathroom — but when the door opened it was Jess that appeared there, forcing herself to hold my gaze with a shy, brave smile.

  “Hey.”

  “Well, hi.” I couldn’t contain my surprise, but I certainly wasn’t embarrassed. She couldn’t see anything immediately private thanks to the frosted glass at waist-height, and I sure didn’t have a figure to be ashamed of. She seemed to like what she saw — but that didn’t answer any of my questions. “You okay? You need something?”