by R. E. Butler
Jilly’s Wyked Fate
Ashland Pride Seven
By R. E. Butler
Copyright RE Butler 2018
Jilly’s Wyked Fate (Ashland Pride Seven)
By R. E. Butler
This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of the author.
Cover by Valerie Tibbs
This ebook is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination and not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locations is coincidental.
Disclaimer: The material in this book is for mature audiences only and contains graphic sexual content and is intended for those older than the age of 18 only.
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Editing by Jennifer Moorman
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Thanks to Joyce & Shelley for beta reading.
With special thanks to Iliana for her eagle-eye & kind words.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Coming Next from RE Butler
Contact the Author
More Works from RE Butler
Coming Next in the Ashland Pride Series
Jilly’s Wyked Fate (Ashland Pride Seven)
By R. E. Butler
Mountain lion shifter, Jilly Fallon, has been waiting for nearly three years to turn twenty-one, so she can finally – finally! – officially mate Wyked and Fate Myers, the twin brothers who have stolen her heart. While studying alongside the panther clan’s healer, Hanai, he introduces Jilly to a fae who can teach her more advanced skills. But because of the fae’s secrets, Jilly and her mates find themselves protecting a young girl with pink and blue wings from dangerous enemies. What will become of the orphaned, young girl?
Wyked and Fate Myers feel like the last three years have taken an eternity. Now that Jilly is finally theirs, they’re ready to start a family with their beloved mountain lion. During the last full moon before their clan begins to travel, an old enemy resurfaces, intent on making Jilly suffer for betraying her kind. When Wyked and Fate are gravely injured, will Jilly lose them both?
Contains M/F/M interaction and a happily ever after worth waiting for.
Chapter 1
A male grunted. Jilly Fallon lifted her gaze from the notebook and saw one of her twin mates, Wyked, take a blow to the shoulder from a wooden sword wielded by Dane, one of the panther shifter clan warriors. She’d thought it would be a good idea to sit in the backyard of her mountain lion pride’s home and study her notes on healing plants, but her sexy mate distracted her.
His shirt was off, and his tanned skin glistened with sweat. Her name was tattooed across his shoulders in black letters, and she loved to see Jillian Ava in the bold font as he moved around the yard, attempting to strike Dane and leave a mark on his skin the way the warrior male had left one on his.
Wyked and his twin, Fate, were Jilly’s mates. They’d been together for three years, but they weren’t officially mated. Her family considered them engaged, since the males had asked her to be theirs, but according to panther tradition, mates couldn’t be together physically until the whole mated party was twenty-one. Jilly had just turned eighteen when they met, and the twins were both nineteen, so they’d spent the last three years in a holding pattern.
Jilly lived in the boarding house with her immediate family – her father, John, and her brother, Henry – as well as John’s brother, James, and their shared mate, Rue and her son, Domino, and also a whole lot of other family and friends, all making up the mountain lion pride. Jilly and Melody were the only two female mountain lions in the pride. An ancient curse on their people rendered female mountain lion shifters cold and unfeeling toward their own males.
The females had poisoned Jilly as a child with venom in their claws, and she’d slowly morphed into an uncaring female, not even recognizing her own father and brother. Then one fateful day, she’d been in the woods in Pennsylvania and stumbled into Wyked and Fate’s paths. They’d shared blood with her, which had released her from the curse and gave her back her memories and her emotions.
A shadow passed over her, and she blinked up at Wyked. He looked concerned. “Are you okay, kitten?”
She put down her notebook and pen and stood, running her thumb just under a red mark on his shoulder. “I’m not the one who took a hunk of wood to the arm.”
He scoffed. “It’s nothing. You looked sad, and I was worried. Is something wrong?”
She stared up at her sexy mate for a long moment. He had the prettiest dark green eyes. “I didn’t mean to interrupt your training. I was just thinking about you two finding me in the woods and how far we’ve come.”
His eyes flashed to the gold of his panther. “We found you because we’re truemates, kitten. It’s been a long road to get to here, but Fate and I know you’re worth the wait.”
Three years had both dragged by insanely slow and sped past. At times, she couldn’t believe she was almost twenty-one and about to be married and mated on her birthday. And at other times, she felt like the day would never arrive. She wanted to be with Wyked and Fate physically. To do more than kiss and light petting. To know what they sounded like when they fell apart and to know how they would feel inside her.
He growled softly and cupped her face. “Your birthday is in two weeks. Fourteen short days. Then we’ll be able to be together like we all want.”
She squinted at him. “Are you so sure I was thinking sexy thoughts?”
“Whenever you think about our mating day, your scent changes. It becomes super sweet with your arousal.”
Her cheeks heated, and she darted a look to Dane, who sat under a tree and drank water from a gallon jug. If he heard their conversation, he didn’t let on.
“I know you’re worth the wait. It’s just been a long time.”
He kissed her, brushing his lips over hers, his fingers flexing on her skin. He growled again, the sound rumbling up his throat. She smiled and rested her hands on his waist, her thumbs rubbing his smooth skin. If she had her way, Wyked would be naked and so would she, mating traditions be damned.
Wyked leaned back and gave her an amused smile. “You know I find you tempting, right?”
“Of course.”
“I just don’t want you to think that I’m not entirely tortured by the wait. In two weeks, we’ll get to really be together and officially start our lives together as a mated trio.”
She smiled. “I know you are. I dream about us being together.”
“Me too.”
“Wyked, you ready to get back to work?” Dane asked.
“Sure thing,” he said, not taking his eyes off her. “Let’s go out tonight. Dinner and a movie?”
“I’d love to.”
He kissed her again, not letting the kiss get too deep, and then he winked at her. He scooped his wooden training sword off the ground and jabbed it in Dane’s dir
ection. “You won’t get me this time.”
“We’ll see,” Dane said.
Jilly sat and picked up her journal, tuning out the sounds of Wyked and Dane fighting. She had work to do, and it involved her finding her place in the clan. Hanai, Wyked and Fate’s uncle, was the clan healer. He’d offered to teach her about healing so that she could become a healer for the clan, too. After she’d returned to the pride three years ago, she had started off in community college studying nursing, and then she’d watched Hanai deliver a clan baby. She’d been fascinated by holistic healing and by the way that Hanai used herbs, minerals, and other natural remedies to heal clan members. She’d spent many hours talking to him and looking through the volumes of healing guides he kept in his trailer. Becoming his apprentice had made perfect sense. He was a great teacher, and she’d learned so much.
She felt Fate before she saw him walk out of the woods and into the backyard. He wore a white T-shirt that was tight enough to showcase his muscular chest and arms, and his jeans looked like they’d been painted on. His long legs ate up the distance to her, and he placed his hand at the back of her neck and smiled down at her.
“Sweetheart, Hanai is looking for you.”
“I was studying, I promise.”
He snorted. “Studying Wyked?”
She tapped the journal. “Not just him.”
Wyked yelled, “We’re going to dinner and a movie tonight.” Then he ducked as Dane’s sword nearly connected with his head. “Damn it! I was talking to my mate.”
“You’re too easily distracted,” Dane said, dancing out of the way of Wyked’s sword as he slashed the air trying to hit him.
“I’m going to check in with Hanai,” Jilly said. “See you after practice.”
“I’ll hit Dane twice for saying I was distracted,” Wyked said.
Fate chuckled as he took her hand. They walked through the woods to the land that the panther clan was renting from a farmer. Because the clan was nomadic, they lived in RVs, and traveled around the country in them. In the summer, they stayed in the northern states, and in the winter, they headed south for warmer weather. But since Wyked and Fate had found Jilly, the clan had settled in Ashland, where they rented the farmland, turning what had once been cornfields into an RV park.
“How’s studying going?” Fate asked.
“Good,” she said, glancing down at the leather-bound journal they’d given her when she started training with Hanai. “I shouldn’t have been outside with Wyked. He’s too distracting.”
Fate chuckled. “I’m sure he felt the same way.”
“How’s your morning been?”
He hummed. “Really great. We’re nearly done with the patio, and tomorrow we’ll be working on the low wall that surrounds it.” They were currently working on an outdoor patio remodel for the Ashland mayor’s home. The previous year, the pride had hired them to do a similar project, but it had included a firepit and an outdoor kitchen complete with wood-burning oven and gas grill.
Hanai was sitting outside of his RV next to an empty chair. “I hope you weren’t busy. I wanted to go over the plants we’re going to be searching for when we go out tonight.”
After sunset, she, Hanai, Wyked, and Fate would be going into the woods to look for night-blooming jasmine. It could be picked at any time, but for use in healing, it was best if the plant was harvested at night when the blossoms were in full bloom. She could already imagine the sweet smell of the jasmine mixing with the heat of the August night.
“We’re going on a date tonight,” Fate said. “Dinner and a movie.”
Hanai nodded. “We’ll go out when you’re back. Anytime between midnight and three a.m. is good for picking. Any later and their blooms will start to close for morning.”
Fate kissed her cheek. “It’s going to be a late night. You can stay here if you’d like.”
Wyked and Fate had bought an RV for Jilly when she’d decided that she wanted to be with the clan and become nomadic. At his offer, she tried not to blush, but she couldn’t help it. This was what they referred to as a sleepover of the “innocent variety,” where they kept on their clothes, but they slept in the same bed.
“I’ll let Dad know,” she said.
Jilly’s dad was old-fashioned, and he wanted her to stay in the boarding house until her mating day, but she was an adult now, and he respected her choices when it came to her mates. He also wasn’t happy she was leaving Ashland, since they’d only been reunited for the last few years, but she had to go where her heart was, and that was with the clan.
Dag and his mate, Dionne, who were the leaders of the panther clan, had promised that they would return to Ashland every summer and stay for three months. This arrangement would allow Jilly time to visit with her family and pride. The rest of the time, though, she and her mates would be traveling and living in the RV.
Turning her attention to Hanai, she opened her journal and showed him what she’d been studying when she wasn’t ogling Wyked. In a few hours, she and her mates would go out on a date. Afterward they would hunt for flowers in the dark. And then, later, she’d be snuggled up between her mates, the two sexiest males she’d ever laid eyes on. Not only did they love her, but they’d saved her from the female mountain lions who’d kidnapped her three years ago when she’d escaped and found her mates. She owed everything to Wyked and Fate, the only males who had ever held her heart.
Chapter 2
Wyked rolled the sleeves of his button-down shirt up to his elbows and checked out his reflection in the mirror. Jilly was at the boarding house getting ready for their date, and he and Fate were in their RV. He wished she was there with them, giving him sweet smiles that drove his cat crazy. And her scent! When she was thinking naughty things, she smelled so sweet that he wanted to eat her up.
Not that he could. At least not for another two weeks.
Since they’d met, they’d been as careful as possible not to make things too difficult for the three of them. Getting her naked, as much as he wanted to, was something that they’d never done. He was sure if he saw her nude, he’d want to fuck her long and hard, claim her like he’d been dreaming about since the day he shared blood with her in the mountains of Pennsylvania. They’d touched each other a little, but the more they did, the more they wanted to do, and it had been a group decision to simply ease off on the petting instead of making themselves extra-strength horny.
“I made reservations at Sabrina’s,” Fate said as he walked into the bathroom and grabbed his toothbrush. “We need to get on the way or we’ll be late.”
“Did you order the tickets?” Wyked asked.
“Yep. Nine o’clock show of the new animated movie she wanted to see.”
He blew out a breath. “At least she didn’t pick a romance.”
Fate snorted in agreement.
Wyked walked out of the bathroom and into the bedroom, grabbing his loafers from the closet. He was dressed casually in jeans and a button-down, and Fate was dressed similarly. He didn’t know what Jilly would be wearing, but he was sure she’d look spectacular because she always did. With her sunlight-kissed long, blonde hair and her bright blue eyes, she had curves that made his hands itch to touch her.
“Are we sure about the sleepover?” Fate asked when he walked out of the bathroom.
“Why wouldn’t we? She sleeps over once a week.” Wyked stood and ran a hand through his hair before grabbing his wallet and cell from the dresser.
“I know, but it’s just getting harder.”
“Tell me about it,” Wyked said. “She smelled so good today, I wanted to carry her off into the woods.”
“We’ve come this far. I just don’t want to blow things now when we’re close to the end. She’s frustrated, too. You can see it in her eyes when we’re together.”
Frustrated? Hell. There wasn’t enough cold water in the state of Indiana to cool him down. His kitten was frustrated, too, and he liked that she wanted them, but he hated that she was suffering.
; “We made a pact when we pledged ourselves to Jilly, that we wouldn’t push the physical stuff. Unless you’re positive you can’t handle being with her, I’m not willing to give up having her in my arms.”
“I can handle it. I just worry about adding to the stress she’s already under. I don’t want her to be miserable,” Fate said.
Wyked mused on that for a moment. “We can ask if she’d rather skip it. But between you and me, I hope she doesn’t. I love waking up with her.”
Fate nodded with a grin. “Me too.”
They left the RV and got into Wyked’s truck. It took only a few minutes to exit the farm and drive around to the boarding house. The hundred-year-old house had three floors and a lot of bedrooms. Most of the mountain lion pride lived there, except Cristabel’s family, Callie’s family, and Lisa and Rhett, Jilly’s aunt and uncle.
Lisa and Callie were planning the events for their big day, which would start out with a birthday party for Jilly in the morning, followed by an afternoon mating and marriage ceremony combination. The reception would follow with all the events happening at the boarding house in the spacious backyard. And then…they’d get to take Jilly home and finally, fucking finally, mate in truth.
He parked in front of the boarding house and turned off the engine. Then he and Fate climbed the steps to the front porch. Fate knocked and Wyked blew out a breath, thinking that they probably didn’t need to knock on the front door, except it seemed like the right thing to do for a date. After they were mated and married, then they wouldn’t have to knock anymore.
The front door swung open, and John, Jilly’s father, smiled at them. “Hey, guys. Come on in. Jilly’s upstairs getting ready.”
John was an Ashland police officer. It didn’t surprise Wyked that Jilly’s brother, Henry had gone into the police academy right out of high school.