by R. E. Butler
“My arms are killing me,” she whispered. She held open the flap of their tent and Shy followed Teck inside. “That was really cool, though.”
She looked at the clock and said, “Your mom said it takes two or three hours for you to come out of your shift. Most of the den was going to hunt. Did you want to go with them?”
He and Teck grunted and shook their heads. She laughed.
“Okay, okay,” she said. She sat on the floor in front of them, and Teck moved forward and put his paw gently on her shoulder. She stretched out on the rug, and he and Shy took their time scenting her. Her skin was naturally sweet smelling and so soft. He licked her neck and the bare expanse of belly that was exposed when she lifted her hands over her head. With a giggle, she pushed on his head and said, “That tickles!”
When they’d satisfied their bears’ curiosity with their mate, they settled on either side of her. The time passed quickly as she shared about her life in the Centaur city. Shy wished he could talk to her, but he was glad they had the time to listen. She missed some things about her old life, but she was excited for what their new life together would bring. She drifted off to sleep after a while, curled up against Teck’s side, with one arm curled over Shy’s paw.
His sweetheart was amazing, inside and out, and he couldn’t wait to see what the future held.
* * *
Kaya woke as Teck and Shy were shifting back to their human forms. She watched with fascination as their bodies changed. She touched Teck’s chest as the fur receded, and then she brushed her fingers lightly over the brand.
“It’s healed,” she said.
“The metal that’s used to make the brand is a special alloy that scars permanently, even after we shift. Since we have accelerated healing in our shifted forms, if the brand wasn’t permanent, then all that pain would have been for nothing.”
“I’m glad it’s permanent.”
“When we have kids, we’ll brand their names on our backs,” Shy said. “Our fathers have six brands on their backs.”
“Ouch,” she said with a chuckle. “Will I need to get any brands for our kids? That might change how many I want.”
Teck shook his head. “Only the males. We can have as many as you’d like.”
She tilted her head. “Do you guys want to have a big family?”
“We want whatever you want,” Shy said.
She rolled her eyes. “I’m being serious.”
Teck scooped her up in his arms and stood. He kissed her, and she melted against him, wrapping her arms around his neck. The braids had come loose as he’d shifted, and she sank her fingers into his hair and tugged lightly.
“We want to fill the tent with kids, sweetheart,” Shy said. “How’s that for serious?”
Teck laid her down on the bed and helped her strip. She stretched her arms over her head with a soft purr. “Sounds like we’ll be busy.”
Teck had never made love to a woman like this before, but he knew that Shy and Kaya hadn’t ever been in this situation either. They’d been saving this kind of love, without even knowing when they’d meet. He was glad he’d never been this intimate before, but he was also thankful for some whispered wise council from his Uncle Tavian who shared his mate Shaylee with Lynk. Making sure that Kaya was very turned on and well prepared was the most important thing.
Teck climbed onto the bed next to Kaya and stretched out. He cupped her face and kissed her, delving his tongue into her mouth. She grasped his hair again, her fingers twisting in the thick locks as a soft moan built in her throat. He didn’t have to look to know that Shy was playing with her pussy. The scent of her arousal was growing stronger, and he’d quickly learned the sweet sounds she made when she was turned on.
Trailing his fingers down her throat, he continued to kiss her, cupping one breast and rubbing his thumb over her nipple. He plucked the nipple, rolling and tugging it gently as she writhed next to him, her moans lost against his mouth. Tending to her other breast, he brought that nipple to tight perfection, and then he lifted from her mouth to kiss the peaks. Letting his teeth brush against her buds, he teased them with his tongue as she panted for breath.
She moaned loudly and then arched up under him. Teck released her nipple and laid his palm on her belly, pressing her gently back to the bed.
“Shy’s not done with you yet, lilenta,” he said roughly.
Her nails dug into his arm, and she blinked passion-filled eyes at him. “I need more.”
She twisted as much as she could under their holds, her head thrashing on the bed. “Please, Teck.”
He sat up and grabbed the lube. Flipping the lid, he poured some on his fingers and warmed it with his thumb. He put the lube behind him on the bed and turned back to them.
Kaya groaned loudly, twisting her hips to the side and showing Teck her bottom. Shy grasped her thigh and turned his head so that he was still playing with her pussy, but he had given Teck the perfect view of her tightest place. Sliding behind her, Teck pushed one arm under her back and flattened his hand on her chest to hold her close, and then he rubbed his wet fingers in slow circles around her anus. She gasped and pushed back her hips, but he kept his fingers where they were. He pushed the tip of one finger inside, and she moaned, curling her hands around his arm and flexing her hips. He fingered her slowly, pushing more of his finger into her bottom with each pass.
“Fuck,” she whispered hoarsely, “that feels so good.”
When his finger was buried in her ass, he could feel Shy’s fingers in her pussy. He growled in her ear and gently bit the lobe. “Do you like this, lilenta? Do you like our fingers in your body?”
“Yes,” she said, the word punctuated with a moan.
“You want more?”
“All of it. I want everything,” she said.
He kissed her throat, fitting his mouth over one of the mating marks and sucking her flesh into his mouth as he added a second finger. Her ass was so tight, but he worked her slowly, easing into her until she relaxed and began to move with him and Shy. When he added a third finger, she screamed in climax, her body squeezing his fingers as she bucked and writhed in their hold. He scissored his fingers, stretching her while she was lost to the pleasure.
Shy moved up her body, kissing her trembling belly as Teck reached for the lube and coated his cock. He’d never been so hard in his life. Kaya curled her leg around Shy’s hip as they faced each other, spreading her lower body for them both as Shy entered her pussy.
She kissed Shy, and then she reached her hand for Teck, and he moved behind her, grasping the base of his cock and pressing the head to her anus. She tensed, but then she started to moan as Shy slipped his hand between them and began to play with her clit.
Teck pushed into her slowly as Shy pulled out. She felt so good. His bear roared in happiness as he filled her fully, at the same moment that Shy pressed into her pussy. Totally filled by her mates, Kaya inhaled sharply and then dropped her head back to look at Teck. Her eyes were full of love and passion, and he knew that he’d never be the same.
He pulled from her ass slowly, cupping her hip and watching the motion. As he pushed back in, Shy pulled from her pussy, and the two set up a slow rhythm to drive her wild. He wanted to be deep inside her when she came again, and for her to take them with her. He couldn’t think of anything better.
“You’re so tight,” he said, groaning as he pushed into her faster, their bodies moving together as if they’d done it a hundred times before, instead of this most important first time.
“Teck, fuck, Teck,” she said, mewling.
“I’m right here,” he said, his voice a low growl as he fought coming before she did. “Come for us, Kaya. Take us with you.”
He punctuated his words with a fast press of his hips to hers, burying himself in her hard and fast. He growled, and it vibrated in his chest, his bear anxious to complete their mating bond as a true trio, the three of them coming, he and his brother marking her from the inside in the most alpha-male way
they knew how.
She inhaled sharply and cried out, both of their names on her lips as she came. He followed her, filling her with come until he was shaking with the raw pleasure that ran through him.
He held her close, kissing every exposed bit of skin he could. He felt complete in a way he hadn’t expected, as if his whole life he’d been missing not just his truemate, but this new, strong bond between them. She was truly theirs, and they were hers.
Forever.
Easing from her, he went to the washroom and ran a cloth under hot water and brought it to the bed and cleaned her body of the lube. Then he cleaned himself and tossed the rag in a clothes basket by the sink.
Kaya rolled to her back as he joined her and Shy on the bed. She pulled Teck to her, cupping his face and staring at him for a quiet moment. “I love you. I think I’ve loved you for years, but this isn’t dream love, it’s real. So, so real.”
His heart clenched. “I love you, too, Kaya.”
They kissed, and then she turned to his brother and told him the same thing. Teck didn’t feel any jealousy toward his brother. He was content that they were well matched with their mate, and whatever came in their lives, he knew that the three of them could handle anything together.
That was how it was supposed to be. Twin bears for one very special female.
Shy laughed and Kaya grinned.
“What’s so funny?” Teck asked, sliding his palm across her thigh.
“Our sweetheart’s ready to go again,” Shy said. “If we are.”
“Always ready,” Teck promised. “Anytime and anyplace.”
“Right here and right now is good for starters,” she said as she pushed Teck to his back and straddled him. “We haven’t chased the moon from the sky yet.”
Shy rose behind her, cupping her bottom with a wicked smile. “I think we came pretty close.”
Chapter 11
Kaya squinted at the sunshine as they exited their vehicle and shielded her eyes. Ahead of them was a huge sprawling building called a mall, which her mates assured her had everything she could possibly want inside.
Shaylee stood next to her. “Pretty amazing, yeah? The first time my mates brought me here I never wanted to leave. There was just too much to see.”
Shaylee had been born in the Fae Realm.
“Your old home is very different from this realm?” Kaya asked.
Shaylee nodded. “We didn’t have much in the way of technology at all. I lived alone for several months and learned by exploring, but the mall is an entirely different experience than going to a grocery store.”
Shy slipped his fingers into Kaya’s. “Ready?”
Teck shut the door of their vehicle and joined them, taking her other hand. She looked at her mates and said, “I think so. It’s so big, though.”
Teck smiled gently at her. “It’s just a lot of stores in one place. Nothing to worry about.”
She wrinkled her nose. “I’m not worried.”
“Oh?” he asked with a teasing tone.
“I’ve got my mates with me. I can handle anything.”
Shy chuckled. “Our fearless sweetheart.”
They walked toward the huge building. Teck and Shy had wanted to bring her to the mall to shop for clothing and something special that they wouldn’t tell her about. Shaylee had offered to come with her husbands, and Kaya was glad to have some company. The other mates in the den had come from the Mortal Realm, except for Kaya and Shaylee. Of all her new family members, Shaylee understood what Kaya was going through as she learned about technology and about living underground with the bears.
Kaya had been in her new home for a week. In the span of that time, she’d learned so much about her new world, but she still felt a little overwhelmed. The Centaurs lived simply off the land. She did know about technology, but watching someone talk on a cell phone was not the same as actually being able to use one herself. Not to mention texting, with all those little pictures that meant something someone was too lazy to type.
Her mates had bought her a phone and her little sisters-in-law had given her a sparkly pink case to keep it safe. She wasn’t sure she thought it was super useful now, since she had only to stick her head out of the tent to speak to someone in her family or den. If her Centaur family had cell phones, though, she would find them very helpful for keeping in touch. Since they didn’t, she’d kind of foregone texting and phone calls for playing games with the device.
She inhaled as they walked into the mall, sorting through the myriad of smells that filled the air. She could pick out roasting meat and melted sugar, and other scents she wasn’t familiar with. Her stomach rumbled, and Teck said, “We’ll eat after we shop, if you don’t mind waiting a little bit.”
“What are we shopping for again? You were kind of vague.”
He winked. “I thought you liked surprises.”
“Naked ones.”
“Oh,” he said with a laugh. “Well, we’re not getting naked, but I promise you’ll like it.”
They walked past storefronts for sports equipment, eye glasses, and candles. They turned right at the end of the hall, and she saw that they were on the first floor of a two-story building. Above them, people milled about, and a quiet hum of conversation filled the air. They stopped in front of a jewelry store.
“We’ll leave you guys to it,” Lynk said. “Shaylee wants a coffee, so we’ll be sitting over there when you’re done.”
“See you,” Shy said.
Teck turned and Kaya met his gaze. “Do you remember when we talked about being married by human standards so that you would share mine and Shy’s last name?”
“Sure.”
“When we asked you to marry us on the night of our joining,” Shy said, “we weren’t really prepared to propose properly.”
Her brow rose. “What’s the proper way?”
“With a ring,” Shy said. “It’s traditional for males to give their female an engagement ring when she accepts their proposal. When they marry, the males add another ring to the engagement ring, a wedding band.”
She flicked her gaze to the interior of the store. “So we’re here because?”
“We want you to pick out whatever ring you like,” Teck said.
“I would like whatever you picked out for me,” she pointed out.
“It’s nice to be able to pick it out yourself,” Shy said. “You can decide if you’d like a ring from both of us, or just one.”
“Oh.” She looked down at her ring fingers at the bands they’d given her before their joining ceremony. “But I have rings from you already.”
“Those are different. Come on, sweetheart,” Shy said. “Let’s go look at the rings, and then you can decide. If you’re content with our rings, that’s fine, but we’d like to get you something that’s new, a gift from both of us, because you’re the best gift we’ve ever been given.”
She grinned. “You’re so sweet.”
Teck and Shy flanked her as they walked into the store, with Shy directing their steps toward a long glass case at the back of the store. The case was full of diamond rings, from the simplest, single stone ring to rings that had so many diamonds on them that she didn’t think she could possibly count them all.
“Can I help you?” a man said, coming to stand behind the counter. “My name is Jeffrey.”
“Our…fiancée is picking out her engagement ring,” Shy said.
“Well, congratulations,” Jeffrey said. “What do you like?”
Kaya stared through the glass at all the sparkling brilliance. “I don’t know.”
“Then let’s take a look at a little bit of everything and go from there,” Jeffrey said as he placed a black velvet folder on top of the glass. He used an odd-shaped key to unlock the case and began to remove rings and arranged them on the folder.
“I can bore you with details like color quality and karats, but I find that if a woman isn’t sure what she likes, that she doesn’t really care about that and is just looking for so
mething that speaks to her.”
Teck rested his hand on Kaya’s shoulder, and she looked up at him. Her sexy mate smiled in encouragement. “What’s speaking to you, lilenta?”
She first moved the ring off her left ring finger and stacked it with the ring on her opposite hand, and then she picked up a ring covered with tiny diamonds. She slid it on her finger and looked at it, moving it back and forth to watch the overhead lights reflect on the surface. Setting the ring on the folder, she tried on a few others, not seeing anything that felt like her. Until she saw a gold ring with three diamonds on the top. The moment she slipped it on her finger, she knew it was the right one for her.
“It’s us,” she said. “One stone for each.”
Shy kissed her cheek. “It’s lovely, sweetheart.”
“You like it?” she asked him.
“Of course. But I would love whatever you love.”
“It’s perfect,” Teck said. “If you want it, it’s yours.”
“I do.” She took off all three rings, and then stacked the diamond in between the other two rings and grinned. “Now that’s perfect.”
Jeffrey offered to clean the two rings while he got the paperwork together for the engagement ring. She turned to face her mates. “When will we get married?”
“We’ll go to the courthouse and get married with a Justice of the Peace whenever you’re ready. Our family will come with us,” Shy said. “We don’t have to rush. You’re already ours, and we’re already yours.”
“It would be nice to have your last name, though.”
“Then the sooner the better,” Teck said.
Shy paid for the ring with a credit card while she put her three rings on. The two rings her mates had given her bracketed the new diamond ring perfectly, as if they’d all been made to go together.
They left the jewelry shop and met Lynk, Tavian, and Shaylee. Shaylee took her into a lingerie store while their mates waited outside, and she picked out several bra and panty sets and a pretty lace nightie to surprise Teck and Shy with. When they were seated in the food court, and Kaya had a plate of something called sweet and sour chicken in front of her, Teck’s phone buzzed, and he excused himself.