by Amber Kell
Table of Contents
Legal Page
Title Page
Book Description
Dedication
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
New Excerpt
About the Author
Publisher Page
A Totally Bound Publication
Overcoming His Pride
ISBN # 978-1-78430-069-2
©Copyright Amber Kell 2014
Cover Art by Posh Gosh ©Copyright May 2014
Edited by Stacey Birkel
Totally Bound Publishing
This is a work of fiction. All characters, places and events are from the author’s imagination and should not be confused with fact. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, events or places is purely coincidental.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any material form, whether by printing, photocopying, scanning or otherwise without the written permission of the publisher, Totally Bound Publishing.
Applications should be addressed in the first instance, in writing, to Totally Bound Publishing. Unauthorised or restricted acts in relation to this publication may result in civil proceedings and/or criminal prosecution.
The author and illustrator have asserted their respective rights under the Copyright Designs and Patents Acts 1988 (as amended) to be identified as the author of this book and illustrator of the artwork.
Published in 2014 by Totally Bound Publishing, Newland House, The Point, Weaver Road, Lincoln, LN6 3QN
Warning:
This book contains sexually explicit content which is only suitable for mature readers. This story has a heat rating of Totally Sizzling and a Sexometer of 1.
Supernatural Mates
OVERCOMING HIS PRIDE
Amber Kell
Book eight in the Supernatural Mates series
Andrew never expected love to come to him.
Andrew Everett has had horrible luck in love. His wife left him with a baby then years later his second relationship ended with his girlfriend turning into a psychopath. Imagine his surprise when two wren shifters decide to keep him.
Marlen and Chen have been together for years. Kicked out of their flock because of their love for one another, they’ve drifted from place to place looking for a home. One sight of Andrew and the pair knows who they want to complete their nest. But convincing Andrew of that proves more difficult than anticipated.
When a woman from Andrew’s past comes back, they have to pull together to protect all that Andrew holds dear. Will the three of them be able to find their happy ending, or will Andrew remain unwilling to be their nest mate?
Dedication
To Leona Perry, who helped me find a name for my ménage.
Chapter One
Andrew looked both ways before heading to his car. He let out a relieved sigh. No sign of them. It was barely seven in the morning—maybe they didn’t wake up early. Weren’t birds supposed to, though? Something about getting the worms? Did wren shifters eat actual worms? Would they have worm breath? He shuddered.
Another glance around didn’t reveal any birds hopping out to greet him. One cranky crow swept the sky above him, but as he didn’t know any crow shifters, he ignored the bird. It had probably only come to sit on the phone lines and poop on his car.
For once the wrens weren’t waiting around the corner to pounce. Besides, birds didn’t really pounce—the most they could do was hop and peck, or shift into gorgeous men and try to seduce him. That was their favourite trick.
When he was a few steps from his car, two wrens landed on the roof. The familiar click of their claws against metal had his heart skipping a beat. Huh, they hadn’t lost interest after all. Andrew sighed and tried to hide his smile as relief washed over him. He knew he should step back from the wrens. He’d never acted on his attraction to men before. How these two had broken down his resistance, he didn’t know. Maybe he had a weakness for stunning, sweet men who wanted to take care of him. He’d never been on the receiving end of pampering before. Or perhaps having two sexy stalkers was going to his head…and not the one on his shoulders.
“You can’t sit there. You have to let me go to work.” He tried to use a serious tone, but frankly the birds were adorable.
They responded by puffing up their feathers and chirping at him with a series of scolding noises. He didn’t need to speak bird to know they weren’t happy with him.
“You need to stop coddling me.” Andrew held his hand up to the wrens, showing his small bandage. “See, I’m not bleeding at all. It’s almost completely healed. If I wasn’t heading for the hospital, I would leave it unwrapped.”
He felt foolish showing his minor cut to a pair of tiny feathered creatures, but the sight of his blood had completely freaked out the wren shifters. They had insisted on hovering over him for days until they were certain he wouldn’t bleed to death over a small knife cut. Although he’d refused to let them stay the night, that hadn’t stopped them from making a nest in the tree across from his apartment. They hopped out to check on him whenever he dared step a foot outside.
A barrage of irritated chatter assaulted his ears.
“No! You two don’t get a say.” Ignoring the indignant birds, Andrew Everett opened his car door. A flutter of wings flickering in the corner of his eye assured him they’d flown off. He brutally squashed his stab of disappointment over their departure. Did he expect a pair of twenty-something shifters to hover outside his house forever waiting for his attention? Andrew closed his eyes and rested his forehead against the cool metal of his car for a moment. The saying ‘there’s no fool like an old fool’ whispered through his head like a relationship death knoll.
He didn’t want to lust after the two young men. He’d already done the ‘fated mate with a shifter’ relationship and that hadn’t turned out so well the first time. The only good thing that had come out of his heart-crushing marriage to a lion shifter was his son, James.
“Hey, I thought you were feeling better?”
Chen’s warm breath brushed across Andrew’s ear as he spoke. A large hand slid down Andrew’s back. Was it wrong that he knew who touched him without looking? He’d become too comfortable with the wren shifters. Andrew opened his eyes and turned his head only to find Chen’s face inches away. Chen’s brown eyes were lit with concern.
“I’m fine.” Andrew straightened. “Thanks for checking up on me. I do appreciate your concern, but I’m fine.”
He knew he sounded stiff and formal, but he couldn’t afford to encourage the shifter duo. His horrible romantic track record didn’t just make him gun shy—it had him considering monkhood.
“Babe, you’re still injured.” Marlen turned Andrew to face him with gentle hands as if he were made out of spun sugar and might crumble apart at any moment.
How had he missed them transforming? The two men changed from bird to man and back again with seamless precision. Still, they should’ve made some noise while stretching from a small bird to full-sized human.
It still pained Andrew to watch his son shift. The drugs that he’d created to hold back James’ transformation still caused his son residual problems even though James had scaled back his drug dosage.
Andrew forced his attention to the matter at hand. “First of all, don’t call me babe. Secondly, I’m mostly healed. It was only a little cut.” The injury he’d caused while cooking was mostly gone. Chen and Marlen had reacted as if Andrew had hacked off his hand and could’ve bled to death. His lack of shifter-level healing had unnerved the wrens. He’d tried to avoid them until his wound had all but vanished. They made the pr
ocess difficult by repeatedly showing up on his doorstep and checking on him.
“You were bleeding.”
Andrew almost jumped at Chen’s accusing voice behind him.
“And now I’m not. I promised the hospital I’d come in. They’re short-staffed today. Apparently there’s a flu going around all the human doctors.” The chief physician, Dr Henrickson had called him in. Since Andrew knew the mink shifter didn’t particularly like him, they must be in critical need of doctors. The mink resented Andrew for what he had done to stop James from shifting, even if Andrew had had the best intentions.
Marlen grabbed Andrew’s wrist, pulling his attention back to the wren shifter. He peeled away Andrew’s bandage with his free hand. The frown didn’t leave his face. “It does look better. But you’re human. What if you catch whatever those diseased creatures are spreading around?”
Andrew shook his head at Marlen’s dramatic behaviour. “They had the flu, not the hantavirus. If I catch it, I’ll be sick for a few days then bounce back. It won’t be the first time I’ve caught a cold. It’ll be fine.”
“But humans die of colds.” Tension tightened Marlen’s shoulders. He traced Andrew’s healing scar with his finger, careful not to press too hard. “And your wound is still puffy, it could get infected. You could lose the hand!”
Andrew pulled Marlen into his arms, unable to resist the horror on the wren shifter’s face. “You don’t hang around humans much, do you?”
“No,” Marlen’s voice muffled against Andrew’s shoulder. He clung tight like a child seeking reassurance from the scary world.
“I’m a doctor. I would know if my hand was beginning to get gangrene. It’s healing naturally and is almost all better. You don’t have to worry so much.”
Marlen stepped out of Andrew’s embrace. “If we mated with you, you’d get increased healing.” He looked over Andrew’s shoulder. “Wouldn’t he, Chen?”
“Yep. One more reason bonding with us would be a great idea,” Chen agreed.
“It didn’t work before. James’ mother was a shifter. I didn’t get super healing from being her mate.”
The only thing he’d got was stabbing heartache and a sad lesson in trusting shifters. One he felt doomed to repeat with the gorgeous wren shifters claiming to be his.
“I don’t think she was your true mate,” Marlen said. His smooth brow furrowed. “If she were, she wouldn’t have been able to leave you. You said she just walked away from you and her child. Shifters can’t just abandon their mates. If you were truly bonded, it would’ve hurt her a lot more than it hurt you.”
“Trust me, it hurt quite a bit.” Just the memory of how she’d left him alone with their baby twisted the knife a little deeper into the old wound. A few days after James’ birth, Juliet had smelt their baby son and declared him defective. The next day she’d vanished with no explanation.
Marlen nuzzled Andrew’s neck in an attempt to comfort him.
If Andrew didn’t know for a fact the pair were wrens, he might’ve guessed they were cat shifters from their constant affectionate petting.
“We’re sorry that bitch abandoned you.”
The low, vicious tone was so out of character for the gentle shifter, Andrew almost stepped away in surprise. Chen pressed his hard body against Andrew’s back while Marlen slid across his front and prevented him from moving. The pair had a habit of caging him between them, making him the centre of their wren shifter sandwich. The heat of their naked bodies warmed him from the chill of the cool morning air. Like all shifters, the wrens put out more body heat than the average human.
Andrew bit his lip to hold back a moan. He was too old to be whimpering like a needy puppy at the first friendly touch. Unfortunately his erection hadn’t received the message. Aching for release, he rubbed against Marlen and groaned when he encountered a matching firm shaft.
His hand, as if it had a will of its own, cupped Marlen’s face. A sigh escaped him, long and heartfelt. “What are you two doing to me? I used to be very independent. I even raised a kid on my own. You know—James, the guy about your age.” He couldn’t resist the jab. The age difference bothered him—he didn’t even try to deny it. Andrew might be old-fashioned, but he wanted any partner of his, male or female, to have been born at least in the same decade as him.
How could he date men close to his son’s age? Mid-life crisis didn’t even excuse it…more like a mid-life catastrophe.
Marlen smirked. “Nice try, but we won’t let a little thing like an age difference affect our mating.” He stroked Andrew’s hair, a gentle caress that blazed a line of fierce desire straight to Andrew’s cock. “We worry about you.”
“You two don’t need to fuss. I’m fine.” He’d hate to see how they’d react if he had a real injury. The wrens were affectionate and playful, but not necessarily good in a crisis, at least not one where he might be injured.
The wren shifters continued to pet and muss his hair. He tolerated it for a few minutes. If he leaned into their touches, he’d deny it later. Andrew hadn’t experienced a lot of casual affection in his life. His last girlfriend had turned out to be a psychopath and his wife had abandoned him. Maybe given his track record with women, he should pay more attention to men. At least he knew these two men wanted him without an ulterior motive. Andrew had nothing else to offer them.
The magnetism between him and the wrens scrambled his senses. He gripped Marlen’s hips tight to prevent the shifter from scooting any closer. The wrens hated distance between them, but having them this near—this intimate—destroyed Andrew’s resolve. Surrounding him, naked, they were a feast for the eyes and a comfort to his battered soul. He never had to worry if the wren shifters desired him. As often as they ran around naked, their attraction to him was more than obvious.
“You’re our mate,” Chen insisted for the hundredth time.
He slid his hands up and down Andrew’s arms, his touch maddening. The need Chen’s confident touch created, settled in Andrew’s balls. He had to get out of there before he lost control and gave in to the wrens’ sweet demands. He lost all his resolve when they double-teamed him.
Sneaky bastards.
Andrew tried not to glance too low while they spoke. The shifters still hadn’t put on any clothing. His resolve to resist them was fading faster than morning mist. He stepped away from the wrens, sliding out from the small pocket of space they’d left between them. Taking a deep breath, he tried to refocus his thoughts on what they were saying instead of their lack of clothes. “How does that work anyway?”
“How does what work?” Chen asked.
“The mating thing.” Andrew blushed but continued. “How do you know who your mate is? I thought you two were mates. Don’t shifters only have one mate?”
They always talked about Andrew being their mate, but he never saw one wren shifter without the other. Surely they were bonded. He refused to come between them no matter how much they appeared to like the idea.
Chen shrugged. “Wrens are different. We’re polygamous.”
Andrew glanced from one shifter to the other. Marlen nodded his agreement.
“So do you have any more mates out there somewhere?” Andrew couldn’t identify the odd feeling going through him. It almost felt like jealousy, but that couldn’t be right. He shouldn’t care if the bird shifters had twenty mates. He had no claims on them. He ignored the evil whisper in the back of his mind telling him they were his for the taking.
“No, you are it for us,” Chen insisted.
Marlen stepped forward and rubbed Andrew’s chest. His hand burned right through Andrew’s thin shirt as if he were touching bare skin. Andrew shivered at the contact. Chen slid closer. The shifter’s warm lips against Andrew’s skin shattered his response. Arguments formed and melted beneath their touch as if they could prevent him from turning them down with mere force of will.
Again, he stood between them as if that were his spot in the universe. Andrew relaxed against Chen, unable to resist any longer
. He inhaled deeply. The combined scent of the pair washed through him, a soothing tide of comfort. Tension in his muscles unravelled like unfurling twine. How could two young men twist him in knots and leave him wanting more?
They wrapped tighter around him, their bare flesh bumping against his clothing. A brief image of all three of them tangled together in a heap of legs, hands and hard cocks flitted through his head. He tried to empty his mind of that delicious daydream, but the hot males surrounding him didn’t help his focus.
The bird shifters were always rubbing or caressing Andrew. Damned if he knew why he let them. He hated to admit he enjoyed the unbridled affection the pair lavished on him. Every day he struggled harder to not fall under their spell. His reasons were solid, but he still had to continually remind himself why they weren’t the right partners for him.
“There are only three for our nest,” Chen stated in a firm tone. “There will be no others.”
“How do you know?” Curiosity not malice had him asking the question, despite the scowls he received for his doubt.
Marlen tilted Andrew’s chin, forcing Andrew to face him. “We know you’re the only one for us because when you’re near, we feel complete. If there were more people for our family, we would know.”
Family.
The word reverberated in his head and caused an ache in his chest. Besides his son, Andrew had no family, and James was starting a life of his own with his big bear shifter. His grown son had little need for the father who had screwed up his life, even if James did show amazing tolerance for Andrew’s presence around town.
James was a good man. Andrew figured he must’ve been born with that bit of compassion buried in his soul because his parents weren’t model citizens. His mother had abandoned him and Andrew’s insistence on protecting James from himself had almost killed him.