Talia wasn’t even aware of the tears streaming down her face until Ken’s large arms wrapped around her. She tried to jerk away, but his arms were like steel bands that didn’t budge.
“Shh, it’s okay.”
It isn’t okay and it never will be again.
As if reading her thoughts, Ken continued. “It’ll never be okay until you let him go. I didn’t know the man, but I’m pretty sure this isn’t what he wanted for you. If he loved you even half as much as I can see you loved him, then Alexander would have wanted you to move on and be happy.”
Just hearing her mate’s name brought fresh tears to Talia’s eyes. She knew Ken was right. She had told herself the same thing over and over again, but guilt and depression weren’t rational. It was easier saying something, but actually believing and doing was so much harder.
“We have all the time in the world. I’m sorry I rushed you, but seeing you standing there warm and still sleepy, I couldn’t resist.”
Ken’s body heat felt good, and Talia wrapped her arms around Ken’s back and sighed as he slowly swayed them to whatever music he was hearing in his head. His body was relaxed and she could tell that he wasn’t angry or disappointed in her. For the first time, Talia thought about someone other than herself. She didn’t doubt Ryan and Ken were both her mates. It had to be hard for them knowing she was their mate and there was nothing they could do about it, but both men had been nothing but patient with her while she wallowed in self-pity. It was hard for her to be without her mate, but it also had to be hard for them to have their mate right there in front of them and not be able to claim her.
“I’m sorry.” It was the only thing she could say.
Ken’s deep voice rumbled through his chest. “You have nothing to be sorry for.”
Talia pulled back so she could look him in the eyes and Ken loosened his arms. “Yes, I do. I know this is just as hard for you as it is for me and I haven’t taken that into account.”
“We aren’t trying to rush you into anything.”
Talia jumped at Ryan’s voice as he wrapped his arms around her from behind. She hadn’t even heard him come into the room. She turned so she could see the both of them, but she didn’t move away. It felt good to be sandwiched between the two men.
“I know you aren’t rushing me and I appreciate that, but I’ve been so caught up in my grief and self-pity that I haven’t stopped to think about how my denying you guys makes you feel.” Talia held up a hand to stop the protest she could see forming on both of their lips. “It was wrong of me to deny that we’re mates.”
Talia finally pulled away from the guys and began pacing the room. For so long she had been alone with no one to talk to but Tiny, that it was hard to put everything she wanted to say in order. She had so many thoughts and concerns all jumbled up in her head that it was hard to figure out where to start. Ken and Ryan both sat on the edge of the bed and watched her pace. They both seemed to know that she needed time to think and neither rushed her.
Talia’s pacing became frantic before she finally worked up enough nerve to voice her biggest fear. “I’m scared, okay? I already lost one mate and that devastated me.” She pointed down to her body. “It’s been three years since I lost Xander and as you can see, I still haven’t gotten over it. Some days it hurts too much to even breathe, let alone climb out of bed. I don’t think I would survive if I lost someone else, and now fate is mocking me by giving me two more mates. I don’t want to lose you guys, too.”
Ken grabbed Talia’s wrist as she passed by and pulled her down until she settled deep into his lap. “We aren’t going anywhere, mate.”
“Yeah,” Ryan said beside her as he twined his fingers with hers and kissed her hand. “You’re stuck with us until the end of time.”
Talia knew there were no guarantees in life, but she wisely kept that thought to herself. Could she risk falling in love and mating these two men? They were enforcers just like Xander was, and if that job wasn’t dangerous enough, Ryan and Ken had already admitted they had a madman after them with nothing but revenge on his mind. The only reason she was even at the house was because it was too dangerous for Mitch’s pregnant mate to go to the hospital for normal check-ups.
She wanted to tell them to just forget about her, but what came out of her mouth was the complete opposite. “I know I’m a little screwed up right now and I will probably have a lot of setbacks, but if you guys are willing to try, then I am.” Talia knew she would have been stupid to turn down a second chance at happiness just because she was scared.
Ryan grinned. “All we’re asking for is a chance.” He placed a quick peck on her lips before continuing. “I promise you won’t regret this.”
Talia hoped she wouldn’t either.
Chapter 6
Ken breathed a sigh of relief as he held Talia in his arms. She hadn’t exactly come out and agreed to mate with him and Ryan, but she was willing to give them a chance. That was all he could hope for, but that didn’t mean he was going to rest until she agreed to be theirs. They still needed to tell her about Percival’s connection to her mate’s death, but that could wait. Ken had something more important he needed to do.
“I think it’s time to show you where the safe rooms are.” He didn’t want to scare Talia, but Ken needed her to know where they were for his own piece of mind. The whole time he was out in the woods searching for an intruder, his mind had been on Talia and the fact that they had left her sleeping in the bed. She hadn’t even stirred and if the threat had been real, she wouldn’t have even known she was in danger. Having his focus on her and not his surroundings was a distraction that Ken didn’t need. In his world, one slip was easily a death sentence and he couldn’t do that to Talia.
“From now on,” he started as he sat Talia on her feet and stood, “if the alarm sounds, you’re to stop whatever it is you’re doing and make your way to a safe room.”
Ken led the way out of the room with Talia and Ryan following close behind him. He went down the hall and stopped in front of a door that looked like it belonged in front of a bank vault. “This is the upstairs safe room. It’s probably the easiest one to get to.”
Ryan showed Talia how to open the door and Ken watched as she followed along with wide eyes. He couldn’t help the smile on his face for his mate. He could tell she was scared, but she was paying attention. “Once you get inside, the door locks from the inside and can only be opened by you,” Ken told her. “Everyone in this house knows the secret knock.” Ken demonstrated before continuing. “If you don’t hear that, then assume anyone outside this door is an enemy and keep the door sealed until one of us takes care of the threat.”
“I don’t know whether to be freaked out or impressed. If it wasn’t for the vault door, I would think this was a small studio apartment.”
Ken and Ryan both laughed. “Mitch takes the safety of his mate and cub very seriously. If you had to, the kitchen is stocked with enough food for you to last at least a week if not more,” Ryan explained. “There is another safe room in the basement that’s set up exactly the same.”
Ken didn’t want to overwhelm Talia when she was just starting to open up, but she needed to know what to do to stay safe. He closed the door before leading Talia down the stairs. He pointed out the door that led to the basement. “If you’re down here, then the basement safe room will be the closest. Just open the door and head down the stairs. You can’t miss the safe room door once you’re down there.”
Talia’s stomach chose that moment to growl and Ken watched the blood flood her cheeks as she blushed. Feeding her was something he could handle, so he turned and headed for the kitchen. He knew Ryan would make sure that Talia followed.
“I’m not that hungry,” Talia protested. “I can wait until lunch and eat with everyone else.”
Ken ignored her protest as he went over to the refrigerator while Ryan pulled out a chair at the table for their mate.
Gathering everything he needed to make sandwiches, he ca
rried it over to the table before grabbing some plates and napkins.
“I know what you guys told me about this guy Percival, but what I don’t understand is why he’s still after you. It’s not like he can still continue with his plans.”
Ken was happy that Talia was finally coming out of her shell and taking an interest in something, but he wished she had picked a different subject.
Ryan spoke before he could. “That’s exactly why he’s after us. We ruined his carefully thought-out plans, not once, but twice. We raided all his safe houses. And thanks to his own daughter, all of his rogues are dead.”
“The man has nothing left but revenge,” Ken added on.
Let him come here. I have the need for a little revenge myself.
Ken agreed with his bear. The grizzly wasn’t the only one who wished Percival would show his face. The coward had gone to ground somewhere, but Ken knew he would eventually come out from whatever rock he was hiding under.
Ryan helped him put together the sandwiches as they talked and Ken had to clench his jaw as he watched Talia use the knife he had cut the tomatoes with to slice her sandwich in half. She pushed one half to the side before picking the other up only to take the smallest bite he had ever seen, and Ken had to resist the urge to drag her onto his lap and force-feed her. Based on the expression on Ryan’s face, Ken had a feeling he was fighting the same urge. He had to keep telling himself that change wasn’t going to happen overnight.
“I’ve been so caught up in myself, that I haven’t even asked you what kind of shifters you are.”
Thankful for Talia’s subject change, Ken grinned. “I’m a bear.” He was a rare grizzly and damn proud of that fact.
“You should be. There is no shifter fiercer and stronger than me.”
“I think we’ve been hanging around Mitch too long,” Ken teased his bear. “Pretty soon you’ll be worried about whether or not your fur could use a good conditioning.”
The bear snorted and Ken laughed out loud. He was teasing the bear, but what he said was true. In the shifter world, there was no animal more dangerous than the grizzly, which was why they were so rare. His kind had slowly been exterminated because of fear until there were only a handful of them left. Because they were normally solitary, picking them off one by one had been all too easy.
“I’m a lion,” Ryan said, interrupting his thoughts.
Talia nodded. “Xander was a wolf. I thought he was kidding when he told me shifters were real. He showed me his wolf when I asked him to prove it.”
The sadness in Talia’s voice when she mention her dead mate’s name was almost too much for Ken to handle. Irrational jealousy at her mentioning another man warred with sympathy for her loss. Not able to stand not touching her any longer, Ken easily lifted Talia and placed her on his lap.
Talia sighed and laid her head on Ken’s chest when he circled his arms around her and hugged her tight. “I’m sorry, big guy.”
She absentmindedly stroked his arm with her fingertips, and had Ken been a cat, he would have been purring. As it was, he could feel his hair standing on end as his bear moved closer to the surface. He wasn’t the only one gravitating toward Talia either. Ryan abandoned his seat and came around the table and knelt against his leg.
Having both of his mates touching him was a serious threat to his self-control, and Ken had to swallow a few times to clear the lump out of his throat before he could speak. “You have nothing to be sorry for, mate.”
“Yes, I do. I know it’s hard for you to hear me talk about another man, but I can’t help it. I don’t want to feel this way. I hate being depressed so much, but it’s something I can’t control. Just when I think I have a handle on it, something is always there to remind me of Xander and then the pain of losing him slams into me all over again.”
“He was your mate. You’re allowed to talk about him.” Ryan rubbed Talia’s leg, trying to soothe her. “We aren’t going to get mad at you for something like that.”
Talia used her free hand to caress Ryan’s jaw and something inside Ken snapped into place. With all three of them touching, he realized the empty place inside his heart that he and Ryan had talked about for all those years was no longer there. He felt whole. The bond between them wouldn’t be complete until he and Ryan both claimed Talia, but he could feel it growing in strength with each passing moment.
“I’m trying, I really am,” Talia whispered right before she leaned over and kissed Ryan.
Her move was completely unexpected, but having her on his lap while she was kissing Ryan was a sight that immediately turned Ken on. He didn’t even try to shift Talia away when his cock began to harden beneath her. He wanted her to feel what she was doing to him. Ryan’s familiar groan sent sparks shooting down his spine straight to his cock and Ken was tempted to slide his hand between him and Talia to grip himself. He held still, though, not wanting to break the spell they were in.
When Ryan tilted Talia’s head to the side to deepen the kiss, Ken could no longer sit back and watch. He leaned over and pulled both his mates toward him. They hadn’t even separated, which was fine with him because he only had intentions of joining. Ken ran his tongue along the side of Ryan’s neck, feeling his pulse rapidly beating just beneath the skin. Ryan tilted his head to give Ken room and he took advantage of the room to place kisses on the underside of the man’s chin before slightly nipping the delicate skin there.
Not wanting Talia to be left out, Ken gave her the exact same treatment until she was whimpering. He had a feeling she wasn’t even aware of the way her body was shifting, but his cock certainly was. With each shift of her hips, she rubbed against him, and his cock threatened to explode right there in his pants, not that he was complaining.
Ken took advantage of the fact that both his mates had to pull apart when they desperately needed air and turned Ryan’s mouth to his. He ran his tongue across his swollen bottom lip, savoring the taste of not only Ryan, but Talia there as well, before sealing his lips over Ryan’s. The man easily opened and Ken used his tongue to gently caress the roof of Ryan’s mouth. He knew that move was one of his mate’s favorites and he wasn’t disappointed when he felt Ryan grip his hair right before he pulled Ken closer and deepened the kiss.
Ken could feel Talia’s breath on his cheek as she panted. Not wanting to leave her out, he gripped the back of her neck and pulled her toward them. He tilted his head to the side to give her room and when her lips met his and Ryan’s, Ken almost came right there on the spot. He opened to her at the same time Ryan did, and their kiss turned into something he never imagined. The three-way kiss was a sloppy mess of teeth and tongues, but it was the sexiest thing Ken had ever done in his life. To be kissing both his mates at the same time was a dream come true and something he planned on doing as often as he could for the rest of his long life.
“Innocent child in the room!”
Tessa’s shout was like a bucket of ice water being dumped over his head and Ken reluctantly pulled away from his mates. From the way Tessa had shouted, he knew it hadn’t been the first time she had tried to get their attention. He looked over to see her shielding Nico’s eyes, but knew she wasn’t upset about what they were doing by the smirk she had on her face. When Talia jumped up from his lap and returned to her seat, Ken grimaced from the loss of contact. He had to scoot his chair forward to hide the erection tenting his pants under the table. From the way Ryan walked stiff-legged back to his chair and did the same, Ken knew he was suffering from the same problem.
“I see you guys have already started lunch. Mind if we join you?”
“Not at all.”
Ken could see the red in Talia’s cheeks as she blushed. She wouldn’t look at either one of them as she absentmindedly tore her sandwich into small bits, but he didn’t care. She had kissed the both of them and he knew her dead mate hadn’t crossed her mind once while they were doing it. Ken knew they were going to have to take things one day at a time, but if touching and kissing her took her mind off t
hings, he had no problem with that. He and Ryan were the perfect men for the job.
Pretty soon, the kitchen became crowded as everyone else joined them for lunch. Ken was thankful for the small talk that finally allowed his cock to go down, but he missed having Talia in his arms. When Tiny sauntered into the kitchen like he owned the place and Talia placed her plate with the torn up sandwich on the floor for him, Ken thought he was going to crack a tooth as he ground his jaw together. He was tempted to fix another sandwich for her and feed it to her himself, but Ken resisted. In his opinion, they had already won one battle that day by getting Talia to admit she was connected to them but scared. There was no need to have a setback because he went caveman on her. Ken knew he had to pick and choose his battles with his mate, but getting her to eat more was one battle that he planned on winning. He just had to figure out how.
* * * *
“Do you think we could try that ultrasound again?”
Talia smiled at Tessa and nodded. “We can do it after lunch.” She was still embarrassed by her freak-out earlier, but she wasn’t going to let that stop her. Talia had come here to do a job and she planned on doing it. From the excitement shining on Tessa’s face, Talia knew she couldn’t let the woman down again.
A giggle had her looking down to see Nico had somehow crawled under the table and was now beside her on his knees. He was holding a whole sandwich out while Tiny took large bites of it like he was scared the boy was going to take it away at any moment. Talia shook her head at the cat as she looked up to see Tessa smiling. The woman didn’t seem too upset about her son feeding his lunch to the cat so she kept quiet.
For the first time in a long time, Talia found herself smiling and laughing at the rowdy bunch as they laughed and joked. She listened as the men told stories of the crazy missions they had gone on. They kept the conversation light and she didn’t know if it was for her sake or Nico’s but she was grateful either way. When lunch wound down, Talia was almost reluctant to leave, but the excitement in Tessa’s eyes at the chance to see her baby for the first time had her standing with everyone else.
Until the End of Time [Council Enforcers 3] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) Page 6