by Anya Nowlan
Rio pulled her into a kiss as soon as she pulled back a little from the hug, a demanding but quick exchange, before it was broken by Ryker doing just the same to Kayla. She felt like… she felt like bliss. Like everything that Rio had gone through over those last few years had been for this moment and this moment alone and from here on out, everything would be right.
It felt like all the fights he had fought and all the misery he had felt had been worth it. And that he had been given a second chance at life, something he had never expected nor thought that he wanted. Everything felt like it was exactly how it was supposed to be.
The triad that neither he nor Ryker had really expected to complete was forming before his very eyes, and the family that he had secretly dreamed of, but not allowed himself to hope for was already his.
He was the luckiest damn lion alive, save for maybe his brother.
Spirits above, she tastes so damn sweet, he thought, smiling blissfully while his whole body seemed to shiver and shake.
The pattering of feet came from somewhere further in the house and Ryker had to let go of Kayla when two scruffy looking mops of blond hair poked out of the door. Kayla’s arms went around the boys reflexively and Rio gaped in awe. It looked like both Rylen and Rhamos had grown at least an inch while they’d been away.
“Boys, say hello to your fathers,” Kayla said, her voice quaking a little.
It was the first time he’d really seen Rylen. He’d looked at the boy more than enough, lying prone on a bed or floating in liquid, with tubes coming out of him in every which way, but now he could really see Rylen for all that he was. The boy was the spitting image of his brother, though skinnier, and his eyes had this slightly dreamy look to them, compared to Rhamos’ distinct alertness. Rylen smiled nervously and Rio felt himself matching the grin.
“Hi,” Rylen said, his voice soft.
“Hey!” Rhamos said with a wide grin.
“Hello,” Rio and Ryker countered almost at the same time, chuckling a little at their timing.
The air was tense with slight awkwardness but all of it seemed to dissipate when Kayla reached forward, taking the hands of Rio and Ryker, and pulling them into the house with the boys following in tow.
“Come in,” she said. “We have a lot of catching up to do.”
Twenty-Seven
Kayla
Kayla was starting to get used to her heart beating out of her chest whenever the Tyren twins were near her. It was sort of nice to know that just the presence of the men she loved could make her body totally flip out, in a way.
Her throat was dry as she waved goodbye to Dice and Meredith as they drove off in Dice’s big truck, Rylen and Rhamos basically bouncing up and down on the back seat. They were going to go out on a playground and then to dinner and ice cream to give her, Rio and Ryker some privacy.
Why are you so nervous? You’ve been alone with them a million times.
The twins had shown up on the porch the day before, both looking a tiny bit worse for wear but still by far the most handsome men she’d ever seen. The same confusion and uncertainty she’d felt in her echoed back from their gazes and the conversation had been strangled, mostly revolving around Rylen’s health. It had been a bit better in the evening when Dice and Meredith had returned and they’d all had a cookout in the backyard, with the guys playing some football – gently – with her sons.
“So here we are,” Ryker said as the car pulled out of the driveway.
“Seems so,” Kayla said a bit blankly, turning around to face Ryker and Rio.
They were standing a few feet behind her and the distance felt too great and too small at the same time. What was she supposed to say? How does one mend broken bridges of that caliber with two men she should have never, ever left?
“I’m sor-“
“Don’t say it,” Rio said, holding up his hand and crossing the distance between them quickly, pulling her into his arms. “There will be no apologizing anymore.”
“If we start, we’ll never shut up,” Ryker added, stepping close and putting his arm around her shoulder so she was completely cocooned between them.
It felt so nice. All of last night she’d maybe slept half an hour, restlessly tossing and turning, thinking about Rio and Ryker and about how she’d want to spend every waking moment in their arms if she could. But they’d slept in different rooms and the lingering awkwardness had made all three of them behave more like teenagers than grownups past the first kiss.
This felt a lot more natural, though, and Kayla could feel herself relaxing under their touch.
“That’s true,” she said with a slight nod. “I just… I just want us to have a shot, you know? There’s a lot wrong in our pasts and I don’t think any of us are proud of how things have gone down but I feel like we’ve been given a new chance at this. At us. And I’d like to give it a try.”
The words were a bit shaky and she knew she could have been a lot more eloquent, but it was hard making pretty sentences when she felt like her entire being wanted to crawl out of her skin and scream how much she loved those two men before her.
Ryker was the first to respond, chuckling softly as he leaned in and pecked her on the forehead.
“I love you too.”
Her mouth fell open a little as he said that. Her blue eyes froze on Ryker, before moving to Rio, who grinned just the same and nodded.
“And I love you as well.”
She’d felt it for years, that they must have loved her, but Kayla was damn sure she’d never heard them really say it, or said it back to them. Suddenly, the weight of the world seemed to be lifted from her shoulders and she beamed a brilliant smile.
“I love you! Both of you! With all the insanity and the unexplainable missions and the craziness combined. I love you!”
Tears stung her eyes but she didn’t have a self-conscious bone left in her body at that point. She wrapped her arms around their waists and climbed up on her tiptoes, kissing Ryker long and hard, before pulling herself away from him almost painfully to kiss Rio, who tasted just as damn good and who was just as hard to leave, too.
The urgency grew as a tidal wave, her body thrumming with need as she tugged on Rio’s shirt while Ryker hastily undid the belt on her jeans. They turned into a flurry of hands and fabric as clothes were torn off of one another, the twins both in wifebeaters and sweatpants – which were far too sexy on them – and Kayla in simple jeans and a tee. All of their clothes ended up in haphazard piles all over the living room as they moved from the window toward the couch, Kayla being practically carried over there.
She whimpered as Rio’s tongue snaked into her mouth, tasting so damn good as his rough, coarse hands glided down her curvy body. Ryker kissed the back of her neck, pushing aside her raven hair as he made a trail down to the nape of her neck and then laid kisses on her shoulder blades. His hands snuck down between her legs and she opened up to him immediately, moaning loudly into Rio’s mouth as Ryker’s thumb circled her clit.
She was already completely wet, soaked for them and more than ready. Her eyes hazed over, desire and years of frustration bubbling together in the pit of her stomach and rushing her on to demand more, harder, faster.
God, I’ve missed them, she thought, kissing Rio again hard, shoving her tongue into his mouth and sucking on his when he pushed back.
Ryker sat down on the couch and she was pulled on his lap, his giant erection hard between her asscheeks as she straddled his thighs. His legs were so thick that her legs were spread wide and Ryker could finger her as much as he wanted while Rio violated her mouth with his, kneading her breasts and pinching her nipples every now and then. It made her twitch and whine against the touch, grinding her ass harder in Ryker’s lap while trying to press herself against Rio’s touch.
Like a cat in heat, she wanted more of them all the time. She could feel her juices coating Ryker’s fingers and she let out this tiny little whimper as he pushed two digits into her tight slit while her hands ran down Rio’s chiseled abs and t
hen pumped his cock. She could wrap both her hands around his rigid cock and her thumbs flicked over the delicate head every now and then, each motion making him gasp and shudder in the most delicious way.
She loved teasing them. Their sex had always been a little bit wild, familiar, uninhibited. Half of the fun was in the fact that she knew they wouldn’t judge her for anything that she did and she extended them the same courtesy and affection. Everything they did together was right, one way or another, and none of them were afraid to talk about what they wanted or didn’t want.
“I missed you so bad,” Ryker growled, his cock throbbing at that.
“I missed you both,” Kayla purred, lifting herself up a little and making Ryker pull his fingers out of her before she pressed against the head of his cock.
She centered herself for a moment, a strong shudder running down her spine at the realization that she was going to fuck the two men who meant the most in her life and this time there was no immediate danger or risk of having to leave them hanging over her head. The feeling was orgasmic.
When she allowed herself to sink down on Ryker, slowly taking in his big cock with his hands on her hips, Kayla whimpered happily, throwing her head back. Her hands worked Rio faster and she could see a thick glob of precum form on the slit, making her lean forward and lick it up with a quick flick of her tongue.
“Shit,” Rio hissed, his body tensing. “That’s unfair!”
“What is?” she asked, batting her lashes innocently as she slicked her tongue over his head again and then sucked the whole head into her mouth, moaning loudly as Ryker stretched her pussy at the same time.
She was happily a slave to this emotion, to this complete fullness and oneness that she felt. This was the beginning of everything that was going to go right in her life, Kayla had decided.
Sure, Rio and Ryker worked in a profession that was the most damnably dangerous one she could imagine, but she had complete faith in them coming back to her every time. It was simply how life would have to be – it couldn’t throw that much hardship at three people only to leave them without a reward.
From now on, she was going to live life to the fullest every day and not second-guess what she needed or what she desired. Right now, she wanted her men, her mates, to fuck her and she wanted to taste their cum and give them the kind of release she knew they were minutes from giving her. And that was exactly what she was going to get.
When she had finally taken Ryker to the base, she started grinding up and down on him, making him let her take control. At the same time, she was sucking off Rio, looking up at him with those big blue eyes of hers, knowing how damn hard it was for both of these men to give up control for once.
But they would let her take it. They trusted her enough to allow her that pleasure and she loved them for trusting her enough to do it. Her body convulsed with the first rivulets of an orgasm as Ryker started rubbing her clit faster, thrusting into her ever so slightly as she bounced up and down on him. Her pussy contracted and her body tensed up, muscles becoming steel as her release wanted to take her.
With a gasp, she sucked Rio in all the way, opening her throat to him and burying his cock in her mouth and throat, her hands clutching his rock-hard glutes. She whimpered a cry as her body was rocked by an orgasm so intense that it could only be rivaled by the one she had had the very first time she slept with the Tyren twins, when they had shown her what true pleasure could really feel like.
This time, she knew it would be the first time of the rest of her life of spending time, giving and receiving pleasure with the men who loved her as much as she loved them. There were plenty of hardships to conquer and complicated family dynamics to work out but she had all the faith in the world that everything would work out.
If it didn’t, then they’d just make things work out, like they always had!
Her orgasm made her blind and deaf to the world, flashes of color blinking before her eyes and her own heartbeat sounding like waves in her ears. She sucked Rio’s cock, lavishing in the taste of him, and when he shuddered, she knew he was close too.
“Holy hell, Kayla,” he murmured as she ran her tongue up the length of his shaft.
One stroke into her mouth later, he cummed, filling her mouth with his hot, sticky seed. She swallowed it up with a grin, her body still shuddering from the aftermath of her release. Kayla clambered off of Ryker’s lap immediately and knelt down before him, looking up at him for a moment before taking his cock in her mouth as well. She was going to taste both of her men that night and she wanted him now.
Cupping his balls, Kayla felt his fingers twist in her dark hair as she sucked on him and it was just a few moments before the other lion shifter couldn’t take her talented approach either, cumming in her mouth. After swallowing, she sat back on her heels, Rio collapsing on the couch next to Ryker.
They were both looking at her like she was some sort of a vision, come to completely change their existence. In a way, Kayla knew they weren’t wrong. They’d told her of the hurt they’d felt in their lives and it had done a lot to make her understand why they were the kind of men that they were, but she was completely happy to be given a chance to help mend some of those wounds.
The scars would always be there, but together, they could help patch one another up bit by bit.
“What is it?” she asked with a grin, cocking a brow at the lions.
Ryker glanced at Rio and then shrugged, chuckling. “I’m just wondering how this could get any better.”
“I’m sure I can think of a few ways,” Rio said with a wild grin, before pouncing Kayla and pulling her up to sit on their laps.
She giggled, resting her head on Ryker’s shoulder as Rio ran his palms up and down her long legs.
“This is only the beginning,” she said with a wistful sigh. “And this time, we’ll get things right.”
It was a promise as much as it was anything else. A promise all three of them were going to keep.
Epilogue
Kayla
“Boys, no running in the house!” Kayla yelled as two golden-brown blurs flew past her, almost knocking her over as she was taking an apple pie out of the oven. “And no lion form!” she screeched, realizing that the brush of softness against her legs had been because both of her sons had decided to shift and run in the house.
All the response she got was the sound of the ruckus moving slowly further from the house until she couldn’t hear the trampling of soft lion cub paws anymore. Kayla sighed with a grin, shaking her head as she set the pie on a cooling rack and closed the oven.
She peeked out of the window, checking to see if she could see Rylen and Rhamos or maybe the telltale signs of a car trundling closer to the house. The home they’d chosen with Rio and Ryker was not far from Dice and Meredith, though still secluded enough to allow plenty of space for her twin boys to run around. Lion cubs at that age needed a lot of space and the further most of civilization was while they went through the loud and sometimes painful process of growing into true lions and men, the better.
“What’s keeping them so long?” Kayla said to herself, pursing her lips slightly.
Her hair was up in a high bun, something she’d never used to wear before, and she was dressed in a simple yellow summer dress that showed off her legs and her lavish curves, just like she knew Rio and Ryker preferred it. They were due to return from another mission that day and Kayla knew Meredith had to be nervously checking her own driveway just as she was.
I wish this whole waiting thing could be done without the constant worrying, she thought, walking out to the back porch.
Her house was modest, but cozy. The Tyren twins had actually been surprisingly good about saving money, with Rio being the one who’d stockpiled most of his earnings, and they could buy it outright. Since Ryker and Rio were both good with their hands, they kept fixing it up whenever they were home from missions. Kayla helped where she could and she’d taken it upon herself to do a lot of the interior work on her off-time
from working as a consultant for The Firm.
It wasn’t the most glamorous job and she didn’t particularly love The Firm, but they were good about letting her work from home so she could raise her sons and they respected the rather obscure information she had gathered over the years of trying to track down her kids. In the process, she’d become very good at identifying groups and people who could be targeting shifter kids and she’d worked up quite a bit of knowledge about them.
Now she got to use all of those painful memories and skills she’d acquired to help other parents find their kids, which was so incredibly rewarding that she could even tolerate working with The Firm for it.
She leaned on the doorframe, watching Rhamos and Rylen playwrestle in the grass. They were growing up so fast. Both of them were already showing the slight darkening of the coat around their necks which would one day turn into massive manes just like their fathers’. Kayla grinned to herself, reveling in the mental image of her boys becoming big and strong as their dads, when Rylen suddenly bounced off of Rhamos and stood perfectly still, perking his ears.
Kayla frowned and Rhamos jumped up as well. The twin boys looked at one another and then took off like bullets from a gun, running so fast that they almost fell all over one another trying to get around the house.
“What is it?” she called after them, stepping out into the yard. “Where are you going?”
But her question was answered by the low roar of the big truck Ryker and Rio drove. Kayla broke into a run as well, following the same path as her sons did. When she reached the front of the house, she could see Rio and Ryker hugging the boys, who had shifted into their human forms – something that they were getting much better at doing since their fathers had given them a quick ‘masterclass’ and made them promise to practice while they were gone.
“Baby!” Rio called, grinning as he stood up, with Rhamos in his arms.