by Sarah Marsh
****
“Are you sure this was what you wanted to do?” Julie asked her for the hundredth time as they finally exited the airport in Chapple, “We could call them on the boat if you wanted to…”
“Julie, no,” Heidi cut her off. “I just want to go home and pretend like this never happened.”
Of course, there would be no denying to her heart that she’d met Mason and Wade, but the humiliation was setting in, and if she contacted them only to have that bitch Serena’s words confirmed—well, then Heidi was afraid she’d never be able to keep up the pretense that she would recover from this. Her family could never know that she’d tried and failed so miserably—it would only justify their coddling of her.
The two-hour drive back home passed in silence, but Heidi could see Julie out of the corner of her eye look over every now and then. She just stared out the window, trying to get her emotions under control enough so that she could put on a fake smile for her dad. Inside, though, her lioness was snarling at her to turn around and hunt down the two males that she still insisted were hers and hers alone.
Figures. I get the only broken inner cat there is—so broken she doesn’t even know how to identify her real mates. Her instincts used to be the one thing she could trust above all others, now what was she supposed to do? Even after the way things had gone down, she still longed for their touch.
“You want me to come in and hang out for awhile?” Julie asked as she parked the car in front of Heidi’s house. “We could eat popcorn and watch movies for a couple of days?”
“Thanks, but I think I just need a hot bath and my own bed tonight.” She smiled as best she could. “I’ll text you tomorrow and we’ll do something?”
“Okay…” Julie seemed hesitant, but then got out to help get the luggage out of her car. But before she drove off, she laid on the horn.
“Good Goddess, Julie, I was hoping to avoid them and sneak in for a bit.” Heidi hissed out as the front door came slamming open and two men ran down the steps.
“This way you don’t have to haul in all those bags,” Julie just winked and drove off with a wave. “Tomorrow, coffee!”
Heidi took a deep breath and placed a sweet smile on her face, thanking the Goddess that only Carson and Derek were home and now frowning at her.
“Why are you home early?” Carson grabbed her up in a hug. “I thought you were supposed to be gone all week?”
“Well, turns out Julie gets seasick and truth be told, you really can spend too much time getting facials and mud baths,” she teased, and was happy when she saw a smug smile come over Derek’s face.
“See? I told ya.” Derek hugged her tight before picking up the rest of the bags that Carson couldn’t hold. “Besides, the house is too quiet when you’re gone. Glad you’re home, Sprout.”
Was she glad to be home? Well, if you had to be anywhere while trying to stop the gaping hole where your heart had once been from sucking the life out of you—then she supposed home was as good a place as any.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Wade hadn’t been quite prepared for how small a town Blue Valley really was when the helicopter they’d commissioned to take them from the airport in Chapple landed behind the high school in the middle of the football field.
“We’re looking for a lioness named Heidi Jennings,” he asked the pilot as he shut off the engines, “do you know where we can find her?”
It was almost dusk now, and he really didn’t want to waste another second before they could get to their mate and straighten this entire mess out.
“The lion Alpha’s girl?” The other man looked wary … and then suspicious, “Sure, everyone in Blue Valley knows where Alpha Jennings lives—but them lions is awfully protective of that little gal. Why do you want to know?”
Goddess save them from hillbilly shifters.
“She is our mate, and we’ve come to claim her.” Mason stated before extending a handful of hundred dollar bills, enough to make the other male’s eyes go wide. “Now, the address please?”
The guy took the cash and gave up the address, but the way he muttered something about ‘city cats’ under his breath as they walked away made Wade think that there was no way their arrival would be unannounced. He also wondered why she didn’t mention that her father was the lion Alpha here when she spoke about where she was from.
The Alpha’s house wasn’t much of a walk from the high school, and they cautiously approached as the sun finally set. It was very quiet on the street—too quiet. The driveway wasn’t lit, and for some reason the porch light was out, making him wonder if there was even anyone home … or if that bastard pilot had taken their money and given them the wrong address.
Then suddenly, the hair on the back of his neck stood up and his tiger went on alert—they’d walked right into a trap. Before he could even get a warning out to Mason, the bushes behind them rang out with the rumbles of disgruntled large cats and then he was tackled to the ground.
“Did you think you big city cats can just come here into our town and buy your way to my sister?” The lion with a huge head of long blonde hair grappled with him, trying to get the upper hand.
Ahhh, so these were Heidi’s brothers then? Well, that explained the hostility. That little fucker at the school had indeed ratted them out.
Wade glanced over at Mason, who was currently punching one big blonde male, while the other hung on his back like a tick. Finally, he was able to kick the huge lion off and got back to his feet, but this male must be an alpha himself, as he was strong as hell. The punch square to his face almost leveled him once again. Wade was trying to hold his claws back, as he didn’t particularly want to maim his mate's brothers—but they didn’t seem to be having the same crisis of conscience.
****
The roars and loud yowls from the front yard pulled Heidi out of a restless sleep. She’d just drifted off on the couch in front of the TV, and was damned pissed that her ridiculous brothers had awoken her by making some kind of spectacle in the yard.
“What the hell are those idiots up to now?” she grumbled as she met her dad in the hallway in front of the door, getting ready to give them a piece of her mind.
“We just had some big city tigers come into town, poking their noses where they shouldn’t, is all.” Her dad tried to shoo her back to the couch. “Go on back to the living room, kitten. I’ll take care of it.”
Big city tigers? Tigers—oh, my Goddess! Was that Mason and Wade he was talking about? And what the hell were her brothers doing to them to make all that noise?
She darted past her dad and slammed open the front door, flicking the lights on at the same time, only to see the two men who had broken her heart in a full-on cat fight with her brothers. Not to mention the fact that Julie’s car had just pulled up into the driveway, and she was standing there gaping at the scene as well.
“Daddy! Make them stop, I know those tigers!”
Her dad’s face scrunched up in suspicion, “How do you know those tigers? Bob flew them in here and he said that they were spouting crazy claims about you being their mate—is that true, kitten?”
“Yes—no … well, I thought they were,” she stammered out, and the sound of clothing ripping meant they were only seconds away from having five very large, very angry predators fighting on the lawn. “Daddy, can you please just tell them to stop and I can explain after!”
He looked back at her for a moment and then conceded. “Let them be,” he said, just loudly enough that her brothers got distracted, but still didn’t let up on Mason and Wade.
“He said stop this right now!” she yelled out, her lioness adding an uncharacteristic roar to the end. She would have slapped her hand over her mouth in shock if she hadn’t been so mad. Heidi had never roared at her brothers before.
Instantly, all five of the fighting males stopped, their eyes going wide and staring at her. It would have been comical if she wasn’t so furious that her own brothers would attack her mates—or the males she h
ad thought were her mates. Whatever. Her lioness was pissed, and that’s all she knew.
“Holy balls! This is one helluva cat fight,” Julie’s voice broke the silence. “Lions and tigers and—oh, wait … the bears are on their way—I just called the cops. Oh, my.”
“Dammit, Julie,” Hector sent her a disapproving look. “Get in the house. We have this handled. You didn’t need to call those damned bears.”
“Heidi, we need to—” Mason tried to speak, but her father abruptly cut him off without even looking at the other man.
“Stop. Julie, get in the house. You boys, take those tigers and settle them in the den while I talk to your sister.”
She looked up at Wade and Mason’s faces as they walked past her, following her father's instructions, even they knew the tone of an Alpha when he’d had enough. Everything in her still wanted to go to them and never look back. Was she still so pathetic?
“Kitten, look at me,” her father’s voice cut through her inner turmoil and she looked up to see a gentle look on his face. “What’s going on?”
She bit her lower lip and tried to stop the tears from welling in her eyes, but when her dad pulled her into the warmth of his broad chest, she couldn’t hold them in any longer. She cried and he held her, not saying a word, until, finally, she was ready to tell him.
“I met them on the cruise the first day, and everything was just so overwhelming and wonderful daddy, I thought that they were my mates,” it all came gushing out of her, “and they said that they were … but then there was this awful woman who told me that she had been with them and that it was all just a lie. That they were just playing with me—it just hurt too bad … so I left.”
“And did you see them with this woman?” he asked gently, but she could see the rage in his eyes, no doubt thinking about the men who had hurt his only daughter.
“Well, no…”
“Did you confront them about her accusations?”
“No…” Heidi’s nose scrunched up as she looked at her father and saw that the previously angry look on his face was now one of resigned patience.
“Kitten, I don’t know these tigers—and yes, my first instinct is to rip them limb from limb because they hurt you,” he sighed, “but the fact that they showed up here, risking their lives to come and see you, makes me think that they are, in fact, serious about you. You owe it to yourself to at least hear them out and listen to their explanation for what happened. If you still want them gone after that? Then your brothers and I will gladly get rid of them—permanently. But, baby, what if they really are your mates? Trust me when I tell you—if they are, they’d move heaven and earth to be with you, and they are the only true happiness you will ever find. Even if I only had a short fifteen years with your momma before she passed, I wouldn’t trade a second of them.”
“But … what if it hurts?” she whispered, knowing it was childish, but no pain had ever come close to what it’d felt like to leave them behind the first time.
“It’s worth the risk, kitten.” He hugged her once again. “And we’ll always be here to catch you.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Mason paced back and forth in the den waiting for their mate to come. He wanted to punch this big-headed lion right out of his way and go to her—the smug look on that lion’s face was grating at his tiger.
“So?” Julie’s patience must have broken because she strode across the room and planted herself in front of him—which to both of their surprise had Heidi’s eldest brother Hector roaring out to intercept her, and her responding by slapping his big hands away. “Goddess, you big oaf, what is your problem?”
“Stay away from them, Julie. I don’t trust them!”
“You aren’t the boss of me—pussy—you’ve made that perfectly clear the last few years.”
Mason’s eyes went wide as she poked Hector in the chest, taunting him to do only Goddess knows what. Then surprisingly, he folded at her challenge and roared out, “Fine!” then stormed away muttering about stubborn, impossible females.
“So, what happened with that ship-trash, Serena?” Her gaze was now firmly back on him and Wade, eyes narrowed in accusation. “Was she telling the truth?”
“Whatever that crazy female told you was a lie,” Mason tried to explain, “we only ever met her for one drink so we could find out who was stealing from my cruise line. We didn’t even finish our drinks.”
“Your cruise line?” Heidi’s small voice came from behind them.
They turned to see her beautiful face, creased in confusion.
“You said you were on a vacation—was everything really a lie, then?” She looked so hurt, it was breaking his heart to see her in such pain.
“No, baby,” Wade tried to go to her, but her raised hand halted him, “we were there to look for a thief, but the second we laid eyes on you, we knew you were our mate.”
“We didn’t touch that awful woman, I swear to you, love.” Mason prayed she could see the sincerity in his eyes, and if that wasn’t enough, then the blood and bruises her brothers had given them just for showing up to see her. “Please, Heidi, we love you. You are our mate. You belong with us.”
“You weren’t with her in the club while we were out shopping?” she asked, biting her delicious little lip with indecision.
“No, baby,” Wade answered, “we were speaking with the police and our lawyers that morning, arranging for her and her accomplice to be arrested. Please believe us, Heidi. I wish you had come and asked us—it kills me to think what you must have felt when she told you those things.”
The seconds felt like hours to Mason as he watched her face, and finally, she let out a deep breath, and the quiet words that left her lips were the most amazing he’d ever heard.
“I do,” she whispered, “I do believe you.”
“You do?” Mason was stunned, but he needed to make sure before he touched her because once he had his hands on her, he didn’t plan on ever letting go, for the rest of their lives.
“I do.” Her laughter was a little sniffly, and his tiger was still furious that they’d made her cry, but when she launched herself into their arms, all that anger quickly melted away.
****
Heidi just stood there, content to be in their arms. She felt like such a fool for believing some random woman and not giving these two the benefit of the doubt long enough for them to explain before leaving … but love really did make fools of us all, didn’t it? The important thing now was that they were here, and as she raised her head and they each kissed her, she felt that bond between them and knew to trust it.
A throat clearing somewhere in the room interrupted her kiss with Mason, and she remembered they were standing in a room with everyone else staring at them. So she grabbed her men’s hands and began to pull them towards the staircase.
“Come on, we need some privacy.”
“What?” she heard Hector screech out from behind them. “Dad, you can’t seriously be letting her take them upstairs!”
“Hector, leave your sister and her mates alone.” Her father sighed loudly.
“But, Dad! They’re going to have sex—in your house! With my sister!”
Julie chimed in with encouragement, and that was just enough to start up an argument between her and Heidi’s eldest brother, giving them the perfect opportunity to slip away to her bedroom. When she finally led them inside and closed the door, Mason and Wade were on her in seconds, kissing and touching her everywhere their hands could reach. She was breathless and wet almost instantly, as if her body had known they wouldn’t leave her wanting.
Mason’s eager lips claimed hers, and his hands came up to rest on each side of her face before he pulled away just enough to look into her eyes, his golden gaze so serious.
“We’re going to claim you, love,” he whispered, rubbing his thumbs gently along her cheeks, “right here, right now.”
“Forever?” She smiled at him, and then Wade.
“Baby, we’re going to have you
so wrapped up in stripes that you’ll never get free of us.” Wade leaned in to place a soft kiss on her lips as well as if to seal that agreement.
Heidi knew right then that her lioness’ heart was already so wrapped up in these two tigers, that she would never let them go again, no matter what.
Epilogue
“Just what exactly is your issue, Mufasa?” Julie snapped at Hector as soon as Heidi disappeared up the stairs with her mates. “Or is this just another little ‘control issue’ rearing its ugly head?”
Okay, Julie could fully admit that it wasn’t the brightest idea taunting the lion male by waving her pinkie finger when she said the word little—but dammit, this man always seemed to bring out the sauciest version of herself.
“We’re not doing this now,” was his haughty answer, and for once it finally snapped her control.
“We’ve been not, not doing this for way too many years already, you self-righteous prick,” Even though she fought to keep her tone strong, her heart still threatened to shatter underneath it all, “But I think I’m finally done.”
They just stood there for a moment, staring at each other. She searched for some hint of emotion in his eyes, but as ever, Hector never gave anything away.
“What in the hell is going on here?” Heidi’s other brother Derek yelled as he threw his hands up in the air. “What are you two talking about? Why don’t I know about anything that’s going on here?”
Normally, Julie would have giggled at Derek’s confused outburst—she usually found his charmingly oblivious self adorable, but in this instance, she didn’t want to spend another second around any Jennings male.
“Don’t worry, Derek.” Julie looked straight back at Hector with all the disappointment she’d been holding in her heart since she was sixteen years old. “Whatever we were talking about is long over, there’s nothing left to do but move on now.”
“Like hell, this is over.” Hector took a step closer, and for a millisecond she actually thought he might kiss her, but then that superior look that she hated so very much settled on his face. “We’re going outside to finish this discussion in privacy, Julie.”