by Maia Dylan
Hannah frowned. "But they don't?" Bastian heard the question in her tone. He had wondered if Ash had already talked to her, attempting to sway her to his favor, but apparently not.
"No, they don't," Ryker answered. "Years ago, my fathers’ aunt left Blackwater Falls to seek her mates. Or at least that was what Emily's family were led to believe. She had often talked about traveling the country. They discovered, however, that somehow Ash's father, Harford, had forced a mating with her."
Hannah flinched. "Forced?"
Bastian sighed. "Yes, forced. We didn't even know it was possible to force a mating, but apparently with the right spell and coercion techniques, it is. They literally dragged Emily back to town, tied to the back of a horse."
"Oh, my God, that's horrible!" Hannah looked horrified, and Bastian couldn't blame her.
"Harford came strutting forward," Ryker continued the story, his voice tight with anger, "and stood before our dads, proclaiming that he had mated to the Blackwater Falls princess and that gave him and the rest of his pack rights to our lands. The fucker even taunted my parents and told them to scent their sister and see for themselves that the mating bond was in place. As the war was about to break out between the two factions, members of the Shifter Council arrived."
"Who are they?" Hannah asked in a quiet voice.
"They are like our governing body," Bastian said. "They set our laws and pass judgment on those who break them. They will also step in and mediate between factions if there is an issue, which there most certainly was in our case. One of the council elders, a man by the name of John Chubbuck, turned up that day. Harford had called them to witness the mating and make his claim to Blackwater righteous."
"Chubbuck knew Harford for what he was," Ryker continued, "an opportunistic, lying, never worked an honest day in his life, asshole. He came with another man who could help identify black magic."
Hannah gasped. "Black magic? Is there really such a thing? Hell, of course, there is." Bastian grinned as she answered her own query. "There are shifters in the world, so it would make sense that there are witches and warlocks, too. So, Chubbuck brings someone with him who can sense or see magic, and what happens?"
"They discover that the mating bond between Harford and Emily was not a true mating," Bastian said. "Harford had paid a coven to assist him with a spell to force the mating. Then he raped our great-aunt just to get a piece of this town."
"What happened to Emily?" Hannah asked quietly.
Ryker sighed. "She passed into the arms of our ancestors soon after. Some say because of the magic that was used against her, others because she was embarrassed about what happened. Either way, Harford's actions took one of our clan."
"But why?" Hannah asked. "Why cast your soul to damnation by doing something so insidious?"
Bastian could see that his mate was upset, so he walked around the counter and pulled her up into his arms. "Blackwater Falls is built on grounds rich with natural resources." Bastian continued to talk as he carried their mate back to their bedroom. "We had this geologist tell us years ago that the land around our town is worth millions. Harford and his pack want to mine it. We don't."
Hannah sighed and snuggled into his chest. "Good. The thought of tall metal monstrosities scarring the forest, or worse, completely cutting it all down, makes me ill."
"Us too, sweetness," Ryker said from behind them. "We would never do that to our land. It means too damn much to us."
Bastian stepped into their room and put her on her feet at the foot of the bed. "And speaking of meaning too damn much to us, do you remember our conversation in my truck that first day?"
An alluring sweep of color washed over his mate’s beautiful face as she nodded. "I do."
Ryker growled as he stepped up behind her, pressing his lips to the side of her neck. "I love the way those two words sound coming from your lips, sweetness. But before I get too distracted, you wanna fill me in on what this conversation was about?"
Hannah tilted her head to give Ryker better access. "Bastian told me that I was your mate."
Ryker began to tug the tank top she was wearing up and over her head. "That's because you are."
Hannah stepped to the side so she could see them both, and Bastian had to fight not to focus on her breasts. "You both know that I know Ash. He reached out through an online network I am a part of for people who are into muscle cars. He was the one who told me about the garage being sold. Hell, he talked Blackwater Falls up to the point where I up and moved everything I owned across the country to live here. How can you be sure that what his father did to Emily, he hasn't done to me? Or to both of you for that matter?"
Bastian reached out a hand to cup her cheek, marveling at just how damn soft her skin was. "Baby, Emily never had any emotional connection to Harford. The connection was forced, and she knew it. A true mating comes with a wave of emotion that is so damn big, it's all consuming. That is what I was trying to tell you that day. Ryker and I have feelings for you that go beyond anything we could have ever imagined having with our mate. There is no way in hell that this is faked or not a true mating."
"No way in hell," Ryker repeated, “unless you can stand here, surrounded as you are by my brother and me, and tell us that you feel nothing for us. If you can do that, sweetness, then perhaps there is black magic at work here after all.”
Chapter Eleven
Hannah’s gaze flicked between Ryker and Bastian. Ryker had just basically called her out. He was asking for an admission of emotion, and that was something that would have ordinarily had her running scared. But not now. Not when she knew how they saw her and knew what a mate meant to them.
“Oh, there is feeling, Ryker,” Hannah said in that voice that didn’t sound like hers but was one she seemed to adopt more frequently lately. “I have felt a connection to you both from that very first day. I won’t lie to you and say that it didn’t scare the shit out of me because it did. I am not a woman who gives of herself that easily. The only person I ever really connected to on any level was my dad. When I lost him, I retreated into myself, and I never thought I would find another connection that meant so much to me. But I have.”
Both her men’s expressions seemed to soften, and the looks they gave her, with love shimmering in their eyes, gave her the strength to continue. “I am already more than a little ways down the road of falling in love with you both. You call me your mate, that I am the one woman destined for you? Well, I have to tell you, that I think you might be destined for me, too.”
“Too fucking right, we are,” Ryker said with a grin, right before he reached out, lifting her from the floor and throwing her down on the bed. She landed with a squealing laugh, and even before she’d finished bouncing, both men had joined her on the bed.
Ryker stalked closer to her, crawling up the bed to lie at her side, his face close to hers. “There’s only really one thing that I wanted to address in what you just said to us, sweetness.”
Hannah gasped as Bastian lifted her hips and plucked her boy shorts and underwear from her body. “What’s that?”
Ryker leaned down and licked into her mouth in a sexy as all hell, open-mouthed kiss before pulling back to stare at her. “You said that you were on your way to falling in love with us. Bastian and I fell so damn hard it left our heads spinning. Shift gears a little faster, sweetness. Fall. We'll catch you. We want you to love us, as much as we are in love with you.”
Hannah’s heart swelled within her, and she almost felt like it threatened to explode. “You’re in love with me?”
“We both are, baby,” Bastian said from where he was settling between her legs. “And by the time we let you up from this bed, you’ll know that for sure, in every—” Hannah gasped when he leaned in and flicked his tongue against her clit. “—part of your—” This time she cried out when he sucked her clit into his mouth, before pulling back. “—body.”
With that promise hanging in the air, Bastian leaned down to put his mouth on her and began to drive her crazy.
She cried out but then was unable to do anything other than lie there and take it when Ryker took her mouth. His kiss was dominant and strong, just like the man himself. She wanted to relax into the kiss and be an active participant, but Bastian chose that moment to start using his fingers along with his tongue to drive her to the abyss of pleasure that stretched out before her.
Hannah lost herself in a sensual maelstrom as Bastian expertly played her body, biting, licking, and sucking her into a frenzy that had her desperately trying to impale herself on the fingers he used to stroke deep within her. Ryker kept her mind in a constant state of disorientation with his powerful kisses and the strong way he plucked her nipples, in complete unison, it seemed, with Bastian’s movements. It was too much. She found herself flying toward completion with a speed that left her breathless, and then without warning, she flew off the edge of that abyss, falling headfirst into her orgasm. It was so powerful, her body shuddered and jerked between her two men, and she screamed into Ryker’s mouth as it rolled over her.
Hannah had no idea how long it lasted, but Ryker and Bastian stayed with her for the entire time, easing her through and then down from her release, until she could breathe again without screaming. When they edged off her, she looked between both men, and the last piece of her heart, the small sliver that she was holding back in fear of being irreparably hurt, became theirs at the look in their eyes.
“I do,” Hannah whispered breathlessly, desperately trying to still her pounding heart. “I do love you. Both of you. As much as you love me. I do.” She watched as their expressions filled with wonder and then bloomed with joy.
Ryker leaned down to press his forehead to hers as Bastian moved up the bed to lay beside her. “You know, sweetness, I really do love hearing you say those two words. Not as much as I adored hearing you tell us that you love us. But ‘I do’ sounds fantastic on your lips.”
Ryker pressed a sweet kiss to her mouth before pulling back, and Bastian took his place, pressing a kiss of his own to her lips. “You should get used to saying that,” Bastian said with a grin. “You’ll be saying it in front of a preacher someday soon.”
Hannah filled with joy even as she arched a brow at her mate. “Is that right? Well, that all depends on how nicely you ask me, now doesn’t it?”
Bastian swept her hair from her face, and Hannah sighed. Marriage was a big step, but she had a feeling when the time came, and the question was indeed asked, she would say yes. It might seem quick to others, but for her, that connection was formed when they first met and was somehow forged into steel through that short amount of time. She had the feeling that if there were such a thing as reincarnation, then she and her mates would have been mated in the lifetimes that had been, and all those left to come.
She frowned when that brought a question to mind. “Marriage is a human thing, right?”
“Yeah, but shifters get married, too, baby,” Bastian said as he began to nibble on her neck, and Ryker swept his hand down over the soft swell of her body.
“So, what’s the shifter equivalent?”
Ryker sighed as he leaned in and pressed a kiss to the other side of the neck. “A claiming bite seals the mating bond between us, sweetness. Bastian and I would take you together, one of us in your ass, the other in that sweet pussy of yours. Right in the moment you surrender to us, and come hard, we would deliver the claiming bite. I would bite you right here.”
Hannah shivered at the light kiss he pressed again to the sensitive skin at the side of her neck.
“And I would bite you right here,” Bastian murmured against the other side, and Hannah shivered again.
Hannah nibbled on her bottom lip. “Do we have to wait until we are married for that to happen?”
Both men froze for a moment, and the room filled with twin deep chuffing noises that she knew were her bears communicating their thoughts on that question. When both men pulled back once more to look down at her, she was almost left breathless at the raw need in their eyes.
“I’m going to take that look, and the happy chuffs from my bears, as an indication that neither of you is opposed to not waiting,” she said smugly as she snuggled between them.
“Your bears, huh?” Bastian teased, then simply stared at her as if she had hung the moon and the stars. It was most definitely a heady feeling. “No, baby, we don't have to wait for that part. Some might think it is too soon, but for us, it can't come soon enough. The claiming bite would tell everyone that you belong to us, as we belong to you.”
Hannah took a deep breath. “I like the sound of that.”
Ryker reached out to place his hand against her cheek. “I am a dominant Alpha bear shifter, sweetness, and there is not much in this world that I fear. But in this case, I am scared shitless that I might be misreading your mild curiosity for positive intent. You are going to have to spell it out for us, Hannah, because I refuse to rush you or to take something that is not freely given.”
Any doubt she might have had would have evaporated at that, but she had none. “I want that. I want to know what it is like to have you both at the same time. I want the claiming bite that will proclaim to the world that I am yours and you are mine. And I want the right to bite you both back, soon, so that every other woman in the world, shifter and non-shifter alike, know that you are mine and I do not share.”
For a brief moment, there was no movement. Then in unison, both men moved. Ryker slid from the bed, and Hannah lost track of his movements when Bastian pulled her up and over him. Once she was draped over him, he twisted so that his legs were over the side of the bed, and she was held tight against his chest.
“I love you, too, baby,” Bastian whispered and pressed a soft kiss to her lips that told her volumes. “That day you came into our lives was the day I started living. Nothing before that day means anything. Thank you for trusting us with your heart. I promise you we will keep it safe.”
Hannah’s heart melted at his words, and she pushed up to kneel over him, reaching down to grip his hard cock in her hand. “I know you will, honey.”
When she had Bastian exactly where she wanted him, she took him into her, reveling in the way he gripped her hips, his fingers clenching as she slid down until she had every inch of him.
“F-fuck,” he growled, arching up off the mattress. “You are so fucking hot, so tight, so damn perfect.”
Hannah didn’t know about that, but this moment certainly felt perfect. Taking a deep breath to calm her thundering heart, she began to move, lifting up, then rotating her hips on the way down, driving them both crazy with her movements.
Ryker pressed in against her, and Hannah moaned at the added sensation. “Don’t forget about me, sweetness.”
“Never,” Hannah gasped and dropped forward onto her arms at his urging. She shivered when he ran his hands down her back, and over her ass, pausing with a hand on each cheek.
“Goddamn, that is a beautiful sight,” Ryker whispered. “Your body stretched around Bastian’s cock is heady stuff. I need in, Hannah. I am so fucking hard. But I need to make sure you’re ready to take me.” Hannah heard the click of a plastic tube being opened. “Just a little cold.” Something wet slid against her back entrance, adding another sensation to her already overloaded system. Just when she would have complained at the strange sensation, Ryker added his fingers into the mix.
“That’s it, sweetness,” Ryker said a little breathlessly. “Let me in. When I push against you, I want you to push back. That will help.” Hannah concentrated on Ryker’s words, willing her body to relax and follow his instructions. “Good girl, I’m adding another couple of fingers, I want to make sure when I finally get inside this ass, I’m not going to hurt you, and you’re not going to want me to stop.”
Hannah felt herself being stretched wider as Ryker worked her ass, scissoring his fingers inside her. “It burns.”
Ryker froze. “Too much?”
Hannah shook her head, rocking back to take more of his fingers. “Not enough.”
Ryker laughed, and Hannah heard the relief in his tone. “Thank Christ for that.” After a few more moments of Ryker driving her crazy, he pulled his fingers out, and she whimpered at the loss.
“Shh, sweetness, I’m not going anywhere,” Ryker soothed her as she felt the heat of his body against her when he moved closer. “A fucking nuclear blast couldn’t get me to leave you right now. Here we go, sweetness, press out. That’s it.” Hannah took deep breaths as he pressed into her, his hips moving in strong thrusts until she had all of him and his hips were tucked in against her ass. “Hot. Tight. Heaven.”
Ryker’s voice was strained, and Hannah could appreciate that. Everything within her seemed to be tightening. “Please, please, both of you, please move!”
“Thank God!” Bastian cried out, and then he began to move, lifting his hips so that he thrust into her in the same rhythm as his brother. Hannah lost herself to the sensation of having both her men at the same time. Arousal slammed through her, and she raced to the pinnacle of her release so fast it left her breathless. She was aware of both men’s movements suddenly losing their synchronicity until they were simply pounding into her.
Hannah gasped as her orgasm was suddenly there, just hovering beyond her reach. Bastian growled low, then lifted up, hard, against her, hitting her clit with just the right amount of force to throw her over the edge of the abyss and into her release. She screamed as her body convulsed between her men. Over and over she shuddered, the force of her orgasm like nothing she had felt before. Then, both men struck, biting deep into the fleshy part of her shoulder. The white-hot pain that came with it was shocking for a second, before it was eclipsed by yet another release. This one was larger than the first, making her scream again, her body convulsing for a second time until it all became too much. A darkness slid over her, and she gave herself over to the warmth of its embrace as she heard her mates roar their own releases to the room.
Chapter Twelve