by Maia Dylan
Within moments, Chris was poised at her back entrance and Angel was pushing back against him. “Wait, love, let me do the work,” Chris whispered reverently as he started to press within her. Remembering what they had told her the last time Noah had taken her ass, she pushed out against him and felt him slide in a few inches in a single small thrust. “Fuck! Oh, Angel-mine, that’s it, take me, take all of me!” And then Chris was exactly where she wanted him, balls-deep within her. They held still for a moment for her to get used to the feeling and then they began to move.
The room was filled with their whispers or love and groans of pleasure, and the scent of their lovemaking was heady and thick within the room. Their rhythm that started off in sync and slow and steady became stilted and jerky and she could feel them both swelling with her.
Angel mewled as she felt her orgasm build to an almost frightening level within her. She wanted to tell them how it felt to be loved so thoroughly. She wanted to scream to the heavens that she loved them with all her heart and would belong to them forever. But at some point during this reaffirmation of their love and the hottest damn sex of her life, she had apparently lost the ability to form coherent sentences and all that came out were gasping, sobbing sounds of pleasure.
“Fuck, Angel, I want you to come now, honey, I fucking need you to come now, because I am about to lose my mind. Fucking come!” Noah roared from beneath her and slammed into her with a tight revolution of his hips, which pressed him against her clit, and that was it. She threw her head back and screamed as first Noah and then Chris roared their pleasure into the room to join her scream then struck.
As soon as their teeth cut through the soft skin of her neck, Angel groaned again at the flash of pain that hit first, then radiated pleasure out and straight down her body to her clit, making her come again. She sobbed her pleasure into Noah’s shoulder, and she felt Chris’s head drop to lie between her shoulder blades.
When Angel managed to open her eyes again, it was quite obvious that a decent amount of time had passed. She was snuggled tight between her mates and they were both stroking a hand over her. She lay on Noah’s chest and he gently stroked his hand up and down the arm that lay over his waist. Chris was spooned up behind her, and he ran his hand up and down her side.
All three of them were content just to lie there with each other not doing anything else. A baby murmur came over the baby monitor from where it sat on the bedside table and all three froze, listening. When no further sound came from the bear-shaped monitor they relaxed again.
“You know,” Chris spoke quietly from behind her, his voice sounding a little rougher than usual. She guessed with all the yelling she had just done her voice would be, too. “As hard as it is to admit this, I’m not sure I would have heard Mateo crying, you know, during the business end of all that.”
Angel giggled, and Noah groaned.
“What?” Chris defended, but Angel could hear a slight confused tone in his voice.
“The business end? Jesus, Chris, and I thought I had issues with using pretty words and shit,” Noah grumbled and shook his head.
“It’s okay, Chris honey,” Angel said and she smiled to herself to hear the rasp in her own voice. She snuggled further into the mattress, loving that almost every inch of her touched the skin of one of her mates. “I understand what you mean. When the three of us are together it’s hard not to lose yourself in the moment.”
“I lose myself every time I look at you. Hell, I almost fall to my knees with the looks you give me sometimes. You are perfect, Angel-mine. Perfect for me, perfect for Noah, and just damn well perfect in every way,” Chris murmured then pressed his lips to her shoulder.
“That she is, brother,” Noah muttered as he rolled to face her. “That she most definitely is.” Then he leaned in and claimed her mouth. Angel sighed at the feeling of his tongue licking into her mouth. She felt Chris slide a hand down her side and gently lift her leg up to lay it over Noah’s hip.
She pulled her head back from Noah’s with a gasp when she felt the blunt head of Chris’s dick pressing against her pussy. Chris gently pushed his hips forward, sliding into her inch by hot hard inch.
“You fucking feel perfect, too.” Chris groaned as he started to move within her. Noah palmed her right breast, and then pulled the turgid tip into his mouth. Having both Chris and Noah loving on her at the same time had her crying out in pleasure. Before she lost herself to the maelstrom of bliss they were building within her, Angel realized that the word perfect summed up her new life…well, perfectly.
* * * *
“Well, don’t you look like the cat that caught the canary? Or should I say the devil that caught the Angel?” Chris turned to look at Faith and grinned to see her in her nurse’s uniform. She’d had to take a few refresher courses to get up to speed with some new techniques that had been introduced, but once that was complete she was back doing what she had always wanted to do.
“Damn right I caught an Angel, and Noah and I are never letting her go!” Chris laughed at the goofy, sappy face Faith made. His alpha’s mate was a sucker for romance and matings. It seemed to him and probably every unmated male wolf in Grey River that she was singlehandedly trying to unite every wolf and their mate as soon as humanly possible!
“Oh, it’s so lovely to see my family all getting married off.” Faith’s face dropped quickly into a frown and she planted her hands on her hips. “Now, I assume that there will be wedding bells coming in the near future for the three of you? After all, it has been weeks since we’ve been to a binding ceremony.”
“Faith, have you been told that before you mated the alphas it was rare to see a binding ceremony every three years let alone every three months? The way we’re going we’ll all be married off in a matter of years!”
“I did know that, and I think it’s bullshit. Did you know that there are one hundred and twelve million people in this country alone that are unmarried? As I am now an old married woman, I can tell you that being loved and mated to Grey River shifters is the best damn thing in the world so why shouldn’t I help some of those one hundred and twelve million people in this country that I love and adore above all others connect with the best men on the face of this earth!” Faith raised her chin and grinned at him as he stood there and gaped at her.
“Jesus Christ, Faith, you should run for office! How in the hell do Ty and Trent ever win a damn argument with you?” Chris shook his head thinking that Angel would be formidable if she ever learnt to argue like Faith.
“They don’t.” Faith sniffed as she crossed her arms across her chest, looking defiant. “Well, at least they don’t until they resort to more, er, physical methods of distraction which I have long since argued is actually cheating.”
“Yeah, but, baby,” Trent’s amused voice came from the corridor behind her and the look of pure joy on Faith’s face could have lit up the darkest room. “If you didn’t enjoy it so much you’d argue a lot harder.”
“True,” Faith said as she melted into her mate’s side as he wrapped an arm around her shoulder then she leaned up and kissed him soundly. “You’re early. My lunch isn’t for another five minutes.”
“I know, but I couldn’t wait,” Trent said as he rubbed his cheek against the top of her head. Chris grinned as his alpha almost purred like a kitten. Trent’s eyes narrowed at him and Chris could sense his alpha dominance thicken the air around them. “Kitten? The hell you didn’t just compare my manly sigh of appreciation for my mate to that of a purring kitten?”
“Nope, not I! It must have been some other dumbass wolf on the common link who made that comparison. Wouldn’t be me.” Chris aimed for his most innocent brown-eyed puppy dog look, and fooled no one based on the smirks on both Trent’s and Faith’s faces.
“But, as a chief physician here at the Grey River hospital, I am giving you permission to leave early for lunch. For no particular reason, and definitely not as an apology to avoid a beatdown I know could be coming from a completely inapprop
riate thought.” Chris smiled at the two as bright and wide as he could.
“You have always been a bloody greaser,” Trent said dryly as he shook his head at him, but Chris could see the humor flashing in his eyes. It wasn’t like Trent hadn’t benefited from his ability to apologize and talk his way out of sticky situations in their childhood. “Ty’s calling a meeting tonight at the Country Blue. He wants to update us on what’s happening with the council and any ramifications that might come due to killing Williams.”
“What ramifications?” Faith asked as she pulled out of Trent’s arms and turned to look directly at him. “Williams was a full roast chicken dinner crazy with a side of roast crazy all covered in crazy sauce with a huge serving of crazy a la mode for dessert. The bastard needed to die and as far as I am concerned my Ty simply did the world a favor killing that loony.
“I mean, what is the council going to do? Insist that he be punished for doing a public service for them and shifters everywhere? Well, be it on their heads if they try to do something to my Ty and think that I’m not going to get involved and extract the kind of vengeance made famous by that woman Lorena Bobbitt! I will turn each of them into eunuchs and make them all eat whatever shriveled up ball sack I remove without the benefit of cooking it first! Who in the hell—mmph!”
Faith’s tirade was effectively ended when Trent pulled her into his arms and kissed the hell out of her. Chris stood there for a moment, feeling decidedly nauseous after hearing the detailed plans Faith was developing for castrating the council. Hell, his own balls ached in sympathy at the very thought. He purposefully looked anywhere but at the two who seemed to be hell-bent on devouring each other and who had apparently forgotten he was standing there.
Just as he was about to simply moonwalk his way backward down the corridor to escape, Trent pulled back and let his mate take a full breath. Faith’s eyes were glassy and she melted back into her mate. Trent turned to look at Chris with a very satisfied grin.
“As I was saying, Ty is calling a meeting at Country Blue for tonight, and he wants as many of the pack who can make it. There is a cause for celebration!” Chris was about to try and ply more information from Trent, when he heard his name being called excitedly from a room at the end of the hall. Xanthe’s room to be exact.
Chris spun around and sprinted down the corridor, Trent and Faith on his heels. The excited voice belonged to Hunter and as Chris entered the room he saw Dane standing on the other side of Xanthe, clasping her hand in his. What hit Chris first was the hope and joy that shone in Dane’s eyes and a quick glance at Hunter showed the same two emotions warring for supremacy in his eyes as well. But it was the fact that the woman currently lying prone on the bed had turned her head to look at them when they walked in that had him grinning.
“Well, look who’s decided to come on back to us?” Chris stepped forward, already removing the stethoscope from around his neck. “Faith, I’m going to need to run full vitals and another ECG, so can you please get me the equipment for all of that?”
He purposefully kept his voice quiet and light, not wanting to scare Xanthe, who just lay on the bed and had yet to utter a word. Her gaze had locked to him when he entered the room and she hadn’t even blinked. Chris began to fear that perhaps she had sustained irreversible brain damage during her attack.
With eyes wet with tears, Faith smiled at Xanthe saying, “So good to have you back with us, Xanthe.” Then she turned to go and get the equipment Chris had asked for and Trent trailed out after her.
Smiling, Chris used the controls to raise the head of her bed and gently took her wrist in his hand to take her heart rate. It was normal, and her breathing was steady and unhurried.
“You are in the Grey River hospital, Xanthe, and you’ve been here for quite a while. What was the last thing you remember?” Chris gestured with his torch to show he was about to look into her eyes, but stopped when she suddenly spoke.
“Baxter.” Her voice was rough and raspy from disuse and Chris gestured toward the water cup on the bedside table. Hunter leapt forward to grab it and handed it him. Chris gently lifted the straw to Xanthe’s lips.
“Just a few sips, Xanthe.” He nodded when she let the straw go and sat back with a sigh.
“I remember, Baxter.” Xanthe’s eyes widened. “Oh my God! Rowena!”
“She’s fine, Xanthe. Rowena is safe and sound and with her mates.” Dane comforted and patted the back of her hand, which he still held clasped in his.
Xanthe frowned as she turned to him and Chris watched her eyes narrow as she stared at him, tilting her head as if trying to solve a puzzle.
“We’ve never actually met, have we?” Dane grimaced slightly at her question and shot a glance to Hunter, who stepped forward to stand behind him.
“His name’s Dane Smith, and I am Hunter Reed.” Hunter smiled warmly. “We were there the night you were injured, but you were unconscious so probably don’t remember that at all.”
Xanthe nodded even though the confusion didn’t leave her face. Chris could understand that this could be a little overwhelming, not to mention the fact that despite the two of them being with Xanthe every day since she had been here, she didn’t know them and had in fact never met them.
“Dane, Hunter,” Chris began and could tell by the way they tensed that they knew what he was going to say. “I think it would be best if you two both left and—”
“No!” Xanthe’s cry came unexpectedly and sat up as if she were going to attempt to leave with them if Chris forced the issue. “Don’t leave, please! Don’t leave me alone.” Xanthe’s voice dropped to a whisper filled with fear and anxiety.
Dane glared at Chris then smiled supportively at Xanthe as Hunter moved forward to lay a hand on her leg. She relaxed visibly at having them both touching her. Okay, if they calmed her and she needed them there, then Chris could work with that.
“It’s okay, Xanthe.” Chris smiled gently at her. “If you want them here, then they won’t leave. How are you feeling? You obviously remember the night of your attack, but is there anything else that you remember or that feels different?”
Xanthe lost what little color she had and Chris saw her knuckles on the hand held by Dane whiten as she tightened her grip on him. “Everyone’s quiet.” Chris leant in to hear her properly, she whispered so quietly.
“What do you mean, Xanthe, can you not hear me talking to you?” Chris’s mind began to process all that he knew about psychological and neurological injuries that might have a direct or indirect effect on the aural nerves or potentially the eardrums themselves.
“No, no, Doctor, I can hear you perfectly.” Xanthe looked up at him as a lone tear slid down her face. “But I can’t see what you’re thinking. And if I can’t see what you’re thinking then I can’t talk to her.”
Chris frowned at her words. He had heard about Xanthe’s seemingly unerring ability to read a person’s mind, and even though Xanthe had been in town for less than a year, Chris had witnessed it for himself on a few occasions. Xanthe began to cry silently and her face filled with such pain and loss that Chris felt his heart begin to ache. Hunter moved quickly around to Chris’s side of her bed, and Chris stepped out of his way.
The two lion shifters closed in around her, and she reached a hand out to Hunter so that she gripped a hand of each of them then she opened the floodgates and began to sob in earnest. Chris stepped back then decided to wait out in the corridor until Xanthe had calmed down a little, leaving the three of them alone.
Whatever Xanthe had lost, and Chris didn’t think this was about any sixth sense of extraordinary ability she had before the attack, the loss seemed almost unbearable for her. Chris reasoned that if she were suddenly unable to read a person as well as she had been then that would be a blessing in disguise more than anything else, right? Some people’s thoughts would not be something Chris would ever want to hear.
But from Xanthe’s words, it wasn’t the ability itself she mourned, but whoever the woman was that sh
e was able to connect to using it.
Chapter 11
“Alright, you lot!” Ty yelled as he stood on the Country Blue stage, addressing what appeared to be most of the population of Grey River. “Shut the hell up and listen! Now!” Angel grinned at the impatience in his tone, gently patting Mateo’s back as he slumbered in his sling secured around her shoulder. Noah had insisted they bring his little ear mufflers for the night and they were working a treat!
“I called this meeting slash party slash celebration for a few reasons. The first is to wish Xanthe White, who most of you know as the owner of Lotions and Potions, a speedy recovery. Chris advised us this afternoon that she has regained consciousness and I know we all hope to see her back serving behind her counter soon.”
There were cheers and murmurs of support from the crowd. Angel had been so relieved to hear that Xanthe had finally regained consciousness, but Chris told her that afternoon that Xanthe still had a ways to go before she would be back to normal.
“I also want to officially welcome the newest member of our pack, mated and claimed by bite to two of our own, Angel Navarez, who also comes with their son, Mateo.” Angel gasped at the shock of the announcement then felt her face turn red as the room broke out into a chorus of welcomes and wolf whistles—heh, literally—from some of the men in the room that had her mates glaring at the room in general.
“Angel, I wanted to say on behalf of the pack that we are all very glad that that crazy bastard Bear didn’t hurt you, and to also congratulate our pack mate Noah for basically ripping the crazy fuck’s head from his neck.”
Over the cheering and roaring of what seemed to be abject approval from the crowd, Angel laughed when she heard Faith say “Oh, for Christ’s sake, Ty! Tact! Just a little damn tact, is that too much to ask!” Ty placed his hand over the mic and turned to his mate. Angel looked up at Noah and caught him smiling and looking very damn pleased with himself.