by Maia Dylan
Dane moved quickly to the side of the bed. Not the closest edge, but the one that would afford Xanthe the best view. Then he reached out and tugged Hunter over so that he stood before him, facing the bed. Dane placed his hands on Hunter’s hips and kicked his legs apart a little, and then he pressed down on Hunter’s shoulders. Hunter let himself fall forward until he was balanced on his arms, presenting his ass to his mate.
Before this moment, Hunter had worried that being placed into a somewhat submissive position would have been too much for his lion. But going by the purring, and the need that was coming from the animal, he needn’t have worried!
“Damn,” Dane said. “I’ve wanted this for so damn long, I don’t think I’ll last long once I get inside you.” Hunter felt Dane run his hands over the globes of his ass. Hunter heard the click of a lube bottle and when he turned around he had, the pleasure of watching Dane rub a generous amount of the lubricant on his dick. His large, hard, and incredibly beautiful dick.
Moments later, Hunter felt Dane’s fingers gently wiping lube over his back entrance and he shuddered when Dane pushed a finger inside him. Hunter groaned as Dane moved his finger in and out of his ass, and just when he thought he was getting used to the pleasure, Dane drove two fingers into him and tapped his prostate.
“Fuck!” Hunter threw his head back and roared. “Enough! Get the hell inside me and fuck me, Dane!” Hunter felt the blunt head of Dane’s cock being pressed against the tight ring of muscle of his ass. Hunter gritted his teeth on a growl as Dane slowly pushed in.
“Holy Jesus!” Dane growled from behind him, and Hunter felt his fingers clench on his hips. “You are so fucking tight … damn it … I wanna stay inside you for hours, but the way your ass is squeezing me, I definitely won’t fucking last!”
“That’s the good thing about being mates, D,” Hunter said as he pushed back onto his mate until he felt his ass collide with Dane’s hips, reveling in Dane’s moan. “We have the rest of our lives to do this again and again, so move it. Fuck. Me!”
With a growl of his own, Dane began to slam into him. Hunter pushed back against him, loving the feel of his mate losing control. Dane started to add a twist of his hips at the end, unerringly striking Hunter’s prostate with each thrust.
“Oh, my God!” How Hunter heard Xanthe speaking over the sound of his beating heart, and the sound of Dane fucking the hell out him, he would never know. “That is the hottest fucking thing I have ever seen! Oh, my loves, you are so beautiful together. I-I-I’m coming!” Xanthe’s wail of fulfillment filled the room and drove Dane into frenzied thrusts that had Hunter almost falling face first onto the bed, but he held himself still, letting his lover take what he needed from him.
“Argh—God! Hunter!” Dane roared. Hunter closed his eyes to hold his orgasm in check, feeling Dane jerk against him as he came, filling his ass with his hot seed. Hunter waited until Dane collapsed against him and he felt him pull gently out of his ass, making them both groan.
Then he struck.
Spinning around, he grabbed a startled Dane by the waist and turned to throw him on his back on the bed. “You have been my mate, Dane Smith, for nearly fifteen years. But we have never claimed each other. Will you let me claim you now?” Hunter’s hands shook as he gently stroked the side of Dane’s face and he watched as his mate’s face softened and his eyes darkened.
“Only if I can claim you back.” Dane grinned.
“Deal,” Hunter grunted, then knelt up on the bed between Dane’s legs. He winced as he rubbed his dick to spread the pre-cum that was steadily leaking along his entire length. He was so damned turned on and hard it was almost painful.
Grabbing Dane around the thigh’s, Hunter moved closer and pressed his cock to Dane’s ass. He pressed steadily until the muscle gave way and he slid home, making them both moan. Dane arched his back off the bed, and Hunter pulled back, slamming home a second time just to see him do it again.
“Shit! I just came so hard I saw stars, but Christ, the feel of you inside me has me triggered to come again so damn fast!” Dane said, his voice breathless. Beyond words, Hunter growled low as he began to slam in and out of his mate.
Movement from the corner of his eye caught his attention and he turned to see Xanthe, still in her winged chair, her leg still thrown over its arm and her left arm back between her legs. He caught Xanthe’s eye and Hunter moved faster at the glazed look of arousal and pleasure on her face.
Hunter slammed back into Dane, making them both grunt, and he turned his gaze back to his lover beneath him. “Stroke yourself, Dane. Come with me when I fill your ass.” The muscles in Dane’s jaw tightened as he gritted his teeth and Hunter knew he was close. Hunter watched as Dane’s hand began to slide from root to tip of his dick, using a hard grip, but one he knew Dane found the most arousing.
“I claim you, Dane Smith,” Hunter said as he felt the telltale tingling at the base of his spine that signaled the crest of his orgasm was almost upon him. “I claim you as my mate.”
As Hunter gave in to the orgasm that slammed into him, he shot forward and bit into the fleshy part of Dane’s neck, placing his claim and his mark on his man. The flavor that was uniquely Dane exploded on his tongue and he growled at the taste of it and the feel of the bond between them started to strengthen. He heard Dane shout out before a white-hot pain came from the side of his neck where Dane’s teeth pierced the skin.
Hunter felt his body release as he came again. Bucking uncontrollably into Dane, he tore his mouth from Dane’s neck, making sure to swipe his tongue across the wound to seal it. Then Hunter threw his head back and roared his pleasure to the room.
* * * *
Xanthe snuggled between her two men and struggled to take the grin off her face. Tonight had been absolutely everything she had hoped for, ever since she had known she would be the Fated mate of a shifter triad. Her mates had claimed her as theirs, and then claimed the hell out of each other. She shivered at the memory of the moment the two men who had claimed her body, heart, and soul came together and claimed each other.
Xanthe had been so damn turned on watching then she lost track of the number of times she had bought herself to orgasm in that period of time.
“You can’t know how damn hot that was.” Xanthe jolted a little at the sound of Hunter talking inside her head. “Watching you with your hand between your legs, and that beautiful tattoo of yours almost moving along your beautiful skin, had me going crazy.”
“Yeah, I kinda got that, too,” Dane chipped in, and Xanthe could sense the smile in his tone. “It was me you were reaming at the time, and I gotta tell you, Xanthe, baby, as soon as Hunter caught sight of the little performance you were giving, he lost control. It was fucking fantastic.”
Xanthe smiled in the dark, and took a deep breath. “Yeah, it was, hotter than I could have ever imagined. Watching the two of you take each other? Damn. I propose we make it a regular thing. Xanthe’s Voyeur Tuesdays!”
All three of them chuckled in the darkness, and Xanthe’s heart filled with joy. This was everything she had always wanted in her relationships with her mates. Laughter and joy. But being able to hear them in her mind had her thinking about her lost abilities and what that meant. As her smile slowly faded and the sadness filled her, she shut herself off from her mates.
Within seconds the bedside lamp was switched on, and both men had turned to look at her with concern.
“Baby, what’s wrong?” Dane asked as he placed a hand on her cheek and Xanthe did what most women did who were feeling sad and someone asks them what’s wrong: She promptly burst into tears.
“Shit!” Hunter’s voice had a distinct edge of fear to it that had Xanthe laugh-sobbing, and she placed her hands over her face. Damn it. She hated crying. She was not a pretty crier. There were women in this world that looked gorgeous and pretty when they were crying. Xanthe was not one of them. Everything swelled and went blotchy. Then there was the very sexy and charming snorting that would follow.
Dane and
Hunter were both murmuring words of comfort, one saying “Shush, it’s okay,” the other saying, “You just go ahead and cry it out,” and Xanthe found it hysterical. No—no, wait. She actually was hysterical. Laughing, crying, sobbing, and snorting all at the same time. Yep, that was the very definition of hysterical, right? No doubt the picture of beauty.
“That’s it,” Hunter growled as he suddenly launched himself up to a sitting position, pulled her up in a show of strength that had her yelping, and settled her on his lap. “No more, Xanthe. No more tears, because my lion wants to rip the intestines out of someone for making you cry. I am not sure who that is, but if it was me or Dane, that might be a problem. Also, you are the most beautiful woman in the world, happy or crying, so stop putting yourself down or I’m gonna spank you.”
Xanthe’s shock stopped her hysteria in its tracks.
“You’d spank me for crying?” she asked in a high-pitched raspy I’ve-just-finished-a-crying-jag voice.
“No, baby,” Dane said as he gently as he tugged her legs into his lap so he could get closer. “Hunter, wouldn’t spank you for crying. He’d kill or maim the person responsible, but would never spank you for hurting. This spanking would be because you’re putting yourself down. Neither of us likes that.” Dane reached out to softly wipe the tears from her face.
“Oh.” Xanthe sniffed and took a shaky deep breath. “That’s okay, then. I thought I was going to have to break out my karate move to teach you a lesson, Hunter.”
“And so you should have, my love.” Hunter pressed a kiss to her temple and she could feel the smile on his lips.
“Don’t laugh. I only have the one karate move, but it’s a good one. It’ll leave you breathless.” Xanthe snuggled against his chest with a sigh.
“I look forward to seeing it one day.” Dane leaned in so he too could press a kiss to her head. “No doubt it will be on Hunter because he’s so damn bossy and annoying, he’ll piss you off. A lot.”
“Hey!” Hunter protested over Xanthe’s giggles. “You can be pretty fucking annoying too, you know, Dane Smith. It just might be that our Xanthe illustrates her mad karate skills on your ass.”
All three of them laughed and Xanthe had never felt safer or more loved than she did in that moment. Sure, when either or both her men were buried deep within her, loving her like only they could, she felt pretty damn well loved. But in this moment, when she was swamped with sadness and crying, they gave her exactly what she needed. They gave her tender understanding, wrapped their arms around her, and time to gather her thoughts.
“It was the telepathy that the mating bond gives us.” Xanthe’s voice was pained.
“Baby, if it bothers you, we won’t talk that way.” Dane’s concerned face moved closer to hers, and she was shaking her head even before he got all the words out.
“No. No, honey, it’s not that. It’s losing my abilities and the single connection I had to communicate with Melaina.” Xanthe moved back a little so she could see the handsome faces of both her men. “If I were still able to see, then she could tell me what she needs to tell me without putting herself in danger by coming here.”
“We can understand that, sweetheart,” Hunter said as he gently rubbed his hand up and down her back in soothing moves. “Xanthe, you deserve to have everything you want and need in this life, and Dane and I are going to do damn well everything within our power to make sure you get it. That includes having your sister safe and with you.”
“She’s coming for you,” Dane said with certainty. “She is out in the open and coming here to either protect you or draw out the threat to you. This is exactly what Hunter or I would have done in her position. You need to trust in the fact that we are going to bring her home. To you.”
“Thank you,” Xanthe said with a smile, despite the shimmer of tears she felt in her eyes. For the first time in her life, Xanthe felt like things might actually go her way. Her men were going to help keep Melaina safe, and if the Chemist came anywhere near Grey River or her and her sister? Then her mates would make him bleed and bleed hard. Hell, she didn’t have to be able to read minds to know that.
Chapter 12
Dane couldn’t remember a time when he felt more content. He had been claimed by the woman and man of his dreams. Damn, there was just no way to explain the euphoria. He tapped his hands on the steering wheel to the beat of the song that came over the radio in his truck. Xanthe had woken that morning with a hankering for pancakes and what his mate wanted, she got.
Dane knew that while he was making a run to the store, Hunter was making a meal out of Xanthe and that just made his heart—
BANG.
“Shit!” Dane yelled as the truck swerved violently to the left. Dane swore under his breath as he tried to wrestle the truck under control. It took a few moments, but he managed to pull the truck over to the side of the road, coming to stop with a jolt. “Christ, what in the hell?”
Dane jumped out of the driver’s side of the truck and walked around the front of his truck to look at the front right tire. He was certain he had felt the damn thing blow as he drove. As he was about to lean down to check, a soft pfft sound came to him on the wind a split second before a sharp pain hit him in the back of his shoulder.
He’d been shot.
He dropped to the ground and rolled under his truck, not stopping until he hit the roadside on the far side of the truck. Damn, he was thankful he’d brought a truck that sat high on the road.
If he had been shot in the back of his shoulder, then the shooter had been behind him. Some fucking asshole with a death wish the size of the fucking state of Texas had just fucking shot him. Dane growled as he felt his lion lurch to the surface. Determined to find the bastard, Dane embraced the white-hot pain the change brought with it and shifted.
A few moments and some bone-cracking fun later, and he stood as his lion.
“Dane! What the hell is going on?” Hunter yelled down their link and he could feel not only Hunter’s anger and concern, but Xanthe’s fear. He swamped their link with warmth and reassurance even as he moved to the front of the truck and swept his gaze over the tree line where the shot had come from.
“Nothing I can’t handle, Hunter. It’s just someone who wants to pull this lion’s tail,” Dane sent back. Deciding the risk was worth it, he leapt from behind the truck and with all his preternatural speed he left the road and charged into the trees, his lion roaring his displeasure and promise of retribution as they went.
“Dane, baby, I can feel that you’re hurt.” Xanthe’s voice came, filled with fear. “Where are you? We’ll come to you.”
“I’m fine, love. The shift will take care of the wound.” Dane moved slightly into the forest, following the road, and smelled the air. He followed the acrid smell of the gunpowder that had come with firing the gun until he found two spent shells on the forest floor. He caught the scent of the person who had been there and charged off to follow it.
There was no way he was letting that prick get away.
“D, I don’t want to take Xanthe from the house.” Dane could feel the frustration from Xanthe at Hunter’s words. “I’ve contacted Ty and he is sending a deputy out your way. He should be there within minutes.”
“Copy that, keep her home. This is no place for her.” Dane concentrated on following the scent and gave over to his lion, letting him do what lions did best: track their prey. When he reached a forest trail a few minutes later and he could smell petrol and see fresh tracks, he cursed. “Shit! The chicken shit prick with the rifle that shot me got the fuck away on an ATV.”
“You were shot?” Dane winced at Xanthe’s high-pitched shout.
“Baby, I’m fine. Honest, The bastard is long gone. I can’t even hear the damn vehicle he took. There is no one in this part of the forest but me, now.” Dane said and winced as he turned to trot back to where the shooter had started. He spent the time on the journey back calming his mate, and trying to get her to believe that he was fine.
When he reached the site of the shooting, he found a man dressed in a deputy’s uniform looking at the ground and collecting the spent rifle rounds. Sniffing the air, he caught the fact that the man was a wolf shifter and that the scent was familiar to him. This must be Grant Snow, the man he encountered all those months ago in the forest out behind Xanthe’s store. He had been injured by Baxter the night his Xanthe had been injured.
“Hey, kitty!” The man formerly known as Grant Snow but from this moment on would be known as dinner, turned to him with a grin. Dane roared at the man and stalked closer, somewhat mollified when the man’s eyes widened and filled with apprehension. “Okay! Okay, I got it. I promise to never call you kitty again, and you won’t maul or kill me. Deal?”
Dane curled his lip and let one of his five-inch fangs show, then snorted in the wolf’s direction. Thinking it would be easier to have a conversation with the man if he were human again, he stepped back, embraced the change again, and shifted back into his human form. The shift, although always painful, was made more so this time due to the fact that his shoulder had to heal. Groaning, the shift completed and he stood tall on his two feet.
“Nice to meet you, Dane Smith.” The dark-haired man stepped forward with his hand held out and Dane looked at it a moment before gripping it.
“You too, dinner,” Dane growled.
“Hey, wait a minute now.” Grant stepped back with both hands held high. “I thought we came to an agreement. No more Mr. Smartarse from me and you don’t go all chompy growly on the poor defenseless deputy, who was sent here to help you.”
Dane snorted. Grant Snow was about as defenseless as a viper set to strike. “Awww, I didn’t realize you were so sensitive! Let me know when you are able to emotionally process me calling you on your bullshit, and I’ll come right over.”
Grant laughed and mimed tipping his hat.
“Fair enough, dude. I’m taking it, from the complete lack of blood and piercing screams of imminent death, that you didn’t find the prick. There’s nothing left here of his scent, which is unusual as I’d expect to have picked up something.” Grant moved over to the tree where the spent rounds had been found beside. “This is where he anchored to the tree to steady his aim.” Grant pointed to a fresh groove mark in the tree. “He would have stood with his feet braced wide and from here. His vantage point gave him perfect line of sight to your truck. He blew out your tire and then took another shot.