“Can we get you ladies a drink?” Sean asked.
“Do they sell margaritas?” Meg asked. Her face lit up with joy when Sean and Aiden went to get them.
“Have they told you where you’re going on your honeymoon yet?”
“No, but apparently it’s cold. I was told to pack warm clothes.”
Meg suddenly stopped talking and looked around the dimly lit tavern. She rubbed at her arms and shivered. “Are you cold?” Kaitlyn asked.
Meg shook her head and continued to survey the tavern. “I think I’ll go to the ladies’ room. Keep the drinks cold. I’ll be right back.”
Sean sat down at a table and pulled Kaitlyn onto his lap. “You both seem very happy to see each other,” he said, wrapping his arms around her.
Aiden put the drinks on the table and sat beside Sean, he had a sly smile on his face. “I think you’re going to be seeing a lot of her from now on, ‘Katie.’”
She shot Aiden a glare. “Spill it. What have you learned?”
“I think it best if we let Meg tell you when she’s ready. He handed her the margarita and clinked his beer against the glass. “To us.”
She would drink to that.
* * * *
Caleb entered the tavern and looked around for Kaitlyn. He was going to miss her while she was on her honeymoon. The woman had worked wonders in the sheriff’s office. All the desks were neat and tidy and the filing system was a revelation. She had even begun to help out at his home office. He was going to find it hard to work without her for the next three weeks.
He saw her standing with a small blonde woman in the center of the tavern and looked around for Aiden and Sean. If Kaitlyn was here, then one, or both of them, would not be far away. He envied Sean at finding his mate, he had never seen him happier. Even the addition of a vampire to their mating no longer seemed strange to Caleb.
He saw Sean and Aiden at the bar and turned in their direction when his whole body trembled in shock. He inhaled. A scent like no other spread its tendrils through his brain and shot through every synapse like lightning. It burned through his body. He wondered briefly if he may actually be glowing.
He turned toward the scent to see a small woman with shining blonde hair run to the back of the tavern.
Mine. His cat roared into his mind. It was her. The woman who had been talking to Kaitlyn was his. He adjusted his throbbing cock in his jeans and tried to consider how best to approach her.
The tavern suddenly shook as a roar rang out behind him. He knew that sound. Prescott. Fuck, she was not just his mate. He took a second to survey the tavern and saw only the stunned expressions of shifters. Lucky for him there were no humans here yet, he would’ve hated to have had to kill his own brother.
He swung around just in time to wrap his arms around Prescott’s waist as he attempted to run past him. “Prescott, stop.” He flashed his amber gaze on his brother and let him go. Prescott shook with the effort of trying to refuse his Alpha’s order, but he didn’t move.
“Mine,” Prescott said.
“Jesus, Prescott. What were you going to do, break the bathroom door down?” Lachlan asked. “Who is she, Caleb? I need to know.”
“So, she’s mate to us all?” Caleb shot Prescott a warning look and withdrew the heat from his gaze. “She was talking to Kaitlyn, that’s all I know.”
Prescott and Lachlan ran at preternatural speed to Kaitlyn’s side, scaring her into spilling her drink. It was going to be an interesting wedding tomorrow.
Epilogue
Kaitlyn relaxed back into the soft leather seat of the private jet and sipped her orange juice. She’d wanted champagne, but Aiden had said the plane didn’t stock any. Strange, but she didn’t care. It was her first trip out of the country and she was travelling on a private jet.
“Are you going to tell me where we’re going now?”
“Aiden owns a castle in Scotland and he’s arranged for us to meet his parents there,” Sean said, his eyes sparkling with joy.
“Really?”
“Yes, my love. Really.” Aiden sat in the seat next to her and took the orange juice from her hand. He leaned in and kissed her, she clasped him to her with her hands in his hair. She loved him so much it hurt.
An hour later she was lying between her mates on a huge bed in the jet’s private bedroom. She’d been thoroughly loved by her new husbands. She felt like the luckiest person in the world. “Thank you both for a wonderful wedding.”
“Thank you for marrying us, baby,” Sean said. She kissed his wide, hard chest and traced the words ‘Semper Fi under the tattoo on his bicep. It was hard to not be scared when she imagined Sean fighting in the war. If something had happened to him she never would have found him. God, just how many wars had Aiden been in?
Aiden caressed her forehead and she realized she must have been frowning. “But you didn’t lose us. We all found our way to each other.”
“Like Meg and her mates,” she said. “I wonder how that’s going.”
Sean snorted with laughter. “I wonder if she’s still hiding in a ladies’ room somewhere.”
Kaitlyn didn’t laugh at her best friends anguish, but she agreed she couldn’t hide in a bathroom forever. Meg had refused to talk to the Mabry brothers last night at the tavern, despite their banging on the ladies’ room door for over an hour.
Landon had been the only one she let inside, and he’d refused to allow the men to break his bathroom door down. Something Meg had said to Landon had made him fiercely protective of her.
Meg had then refused to talk about it at all with Kaitlyn, stating firmly that she was there to be Kaitlyn’s bridesmaid and the day was all about Kaitlyn not her. Today had gone by in a blur. Meg had been the best bridesmaid ever and had devoted herself to looking after Kaitlyn, and to avoiding the Alpha and his brothers.
“I didn’t get to talk to her much at the party afterward. I had to dance with so many people.”
Sean growled. “I have all their names memorized and will be delivering the beatings when we get home.”
“To everyone who danced with me?”
“Just to the ones who imagined you naked.” Sean grinned at Aiden.
“No?”
She looked over her shoulder at Aiden and he tapped his temple. “Yes.”
“That’s terrible. I’ll let you beat them only if you tell me the names of all the women who thought the same thing while dancing with you two.”
“There’s only you, Kaitlyn,” Aiden said. “There will only ever be you. You have made me incredibly happy, and my mother even happier.”
“It’s a close run thing,” Sean said. “My mother is beside herself. Apparently she’s already started knitting.”
Kaitlyn leaned up on an elbow to better look at Sean. “What are you talking about? Why is she knitting?”
“Didn’t you notice we only let you drink virgin margaritas at the bar last night?” Aiden asked.
Oh no. Surely not? Aiden nodded at her. “Am I ready for this?” she whispered.
“What would you change if you weren’t, my heart?” Aiden asked.
He was right. She wouldn’t change a thing. She had two mates she adored and adored her right back. She had a whole pride of wonderful shifters who would help to protect her baby. What else did she need?
“Nothing. I wouldn’t change a thing. My life is perfect.”
Aiden smiled and kissed her passionately. He released her lips only for Sean to kiss her with equal passion.
“So you’re both happy?”
They showed her how happy they were the whole way to Scotland. Thoughts of babies, mother-in-laws and Meg were driven completely from her mind.
THE END
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
I live in Australia, in an area surrounded by the bush. I wake early and walk for an hour. It gives me time to think about the characters I am writing about and their interactions. I have on occasion been interrupted in my walks by a kangaroo—sounds like a joke, but they are abunda
nt in the bush around my home.
I have been an avid reader since I was twelve years old. My first series of books were Nancy Drew, and they have left me with an enduring love for mystery and suspense novels. I do love romance, though, so I write what I would love to read, which will always have strong heroes and a happily ever after. What girl doesn't want that? My love of fantasy has let me explore the paranormal genre, and I love the way it lets me escape reality for a little while.
My hope is that people will enjoy reading my books as much as I have enjoyed writing them.
Email me at: [email protected]
For all titles by Ashley Malkin, please visit
www.bookstrand.com/ashley-malkin
Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
A Thousand Years Dead [Pine Falls 1] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) Page 12