The Wolf's Mate Book 3: Callie & The Cats

by R. E. Butler

  Their Uncle Grant was a realtor, so he brought the paperwork with them, and Alek handed over the bank draft grudgingly. Everything would be filed once they were gone, but this way Alek could take over the house and they could have the cash.

  “Now, we have a present for you boys.” Their father stood and motioned for them to come out to the garage. In the driveway was a rental trailer.

  He looked at his father as he made a ta-da gesture. “Geez, boys, it’s so you can take the couch.”

  Now that was some good news!

  Alek snorted, “Did you really think I wanted that couch? It smells like sex.”

  Ethan growled low, “Watch it little brother.”

  Alek answered angrily, “Fuck you, Ethan. Fuck both of you. You’re walking away from the pride for a woman you’ve known less than a month.”

  Surprised, Eryx said, “Alek, we love her. She’s our mate.”

  Rolling his eyes, he fished his keys from his jeans pocket. “Yeah, whatever. Later.”

  They all watched him leave, his pickup truck roaring to life and then fading quickly. Their dad sighed, “He’s having a hard time saying goodbye. He just doesn’t understand.”

  “We don’t mean to hurt him, Dad,” Ethan looked out of the garage as if he could still see Alek’s truck, “but he has to believe it’s the right choice for us.”

  “I believe he’s jealous more than anything.” Their dad replied.

  Uncle John said, “We all are.”

  They made plans to have a get together before they left. February fourth couldn’t come fast enough.

  That night, the two of them made a special dinner for her and then proposed. Even though she considered them married by wolf standards, and he loved that, they wanted her to be theirs legally, too.

  Ethan had picked a simple single stone engagement ring, planning to pair it later with a plain band that would match his own. Eryx had taken the route of an entire set, and the engagement ring part of the set was a half carat with smaller stones down each side, and the wedding band part had three third carat diamonds together. He thought it was perfect for them.

  They kissed the happy tears from her cheeks after she said yes to them both and then she asked them to take her to bed to celebrate. And they were more than willing. While he craved that individual attention he’d gotten from her that one night the week before, he also enjoyed watching her with Ethan, and he never would have guessed that would be the case.

  They made a game of seeing how many orgasms she could have before she cried uncle, and they finished with her taking him with her mouth while Ethan slammed into her from behind.

  She collapsed onto his chest with a moan and groan combined, slick with sweat and their combined pleasure, and he drew his arms around her and smoothed her hair from her face. Ethan dropped to the bed next to them and rolled onto his back, coughing and then laughing as he tried to catch his breath.

  “I hear your heart, Eryx.” She whispered.

  “It’s beating just for you, sweetheart.”

  Chapter 18

  **Callie**

  Moving Day. February 4. Tomorrow. Had three weeks really gone by so quickly? As excited as Callie was to be going to their new home and meeting their famous Uncle Rhett and Aunt Lisa, this house had become her home so quickly that she was sad to leave. Even if she did understand the urgency. They couldn’t keep going on red alert like they had been. After the thing with the traps on their property, they hadn’t wanted her outside at all. Granted it was less than a week, but she knew if they’d needed to stay longer, that come the next full moon they’d want to corral her to the backyard alone or, worse, in the house. She couldn’t live like that, and she didn’t want them constantly looking over their shoulder in worry for her.

  Ethan and Eryx had become her mates so fast and their family had become the family she’d missed all those years, and she was going to miss their father and brother and uncles and cousins as desperately as if they were blood relatives. She took solace in knowing they’d see them in a few months for their wedding, which they wanted to plan for sometime in May. Knowing they would come to visit wasn't as comforting as seeing them every day the way that she had since they’d become their official guards. She tried very hard to keep her feelings under wrap. After all, they were moving because of her, because the lion females couldn’t handle losing two of their males, even though they didn’t want them either. It was the oddest contradiction. A lot like the childish I don’t want it, but you can’t have it either sort of thinking.

  She cherished the last three weeks of them together. And her cravings for them increased every day, until she hadn’t really felt like wearing clothes at all because she seemed to always be taking them off. She’d never felt so wanton and needy in her life, and she couldn’t explain it other than thinking it had something to do with finding her mates. She recalled Jason and Cadence when they were first mated, that they seemed locked in the house for weeks. She kept thinking she could call Cades and tell her what was going on but she just wasn’t ready yet. Cades would be about six weeks along now, and Callie wondered if she would ever see the baby.

  Her reverie stopped abruptly when her cell rang. She didn’t recognize the number, but recognized the area code as one from near Allen. She answered and the woman on the other end said, “Calliope Hunter?”

  “Yes. Who is this?”

  “This is Amanda from Dr. Peterson’s office. I’m calling to see why you missed your last two appointments for your birth control shot.”

  Her mind fizzled. “Um, well, I moved away from Kentucky. But I also have like two more weeks before I need another shot. I’m not due until the middle of February.” Wait, that didn’t sound quite right.

  “No, Calliope, you were due on December 17. You had an appointment that you missed, and we sent a reschedule card and you missed that one. Have you gotten the shot at another doctor’s office now that you’ve moved?”

  Her heart stopped. And then her brain crackled. “I, no, that’s not right.”

  “Well, it is according to our records. Have you had unprotected sex since the 17th of December?”

  Hell yes. “Yeah.”

  “Well, your shot is over six weeks past due. Have you had a period since then?”

  Had she? No. No! “Um, no.” Shit!

  “Not even any bleeding at all?”

  “No. I don’t think so.”

  “Well, now, it can take a while for your body to come back online after the shot wears off. But six weeks is a pretty long time. You need to take a pregnancy test, Calliope. And even if it shows negative, you should go see an OB just to be safe.”

  She managed to say thank you as she hung up, cursing herself for being so foolish to not even think about protection. Why hadn’t she gone to the appointment in the first place? Oh, right. All that shit with the pack and Cadence. And then she’d packed up so fast. If they sent a reminder card in the mail, it was sitting at the damn post office in Allen.

  What was she going to do if she was actually pregnant? She’d wanted to have a long time to explore their life together before they thought about kids. What if they weren’t ready?

  And then clarity washed through her. The first time they’d made love, when she’d been so needy and, oh! That was heat. She was actually in heat because she’d been off birth control. And then when she’d felt odd about shifting on the full moon, that was her body beginning to prepare her for not shifting. Growing up in the pack, she’d seen when females stopped shifting and everyone always knew right away that it meant they were pregnant. They could shift for the first month or two and then their body refused to let them and the beast quieted naturally for the length of the pregnancy and usually for several months afterwards while the body healed and the infant needed its mother.

  In something of a daze, she walked out in the kitchen and found Eryx wrapping a coffee mug in packing paper.

  “Hey sweet. Whoa!” He put the mug down and rushed to her side. “You look gree
n, are you okay?”

  She smiled up at him and touched his cheek. “Where’s Ethan?”

  “He went to get lunch.”

  “I think I’m pregnant.” So, she’d decided to just blurt it out? Lovely.

  His whole body went very still and she would have had a complete meltdown except then he shouted for joy and picked her up and swung her around. “Are you serious, love? Really?”

  Laughing, she let him devour her in a kiss. “Pretty sure. I need a pregnancy test.” She told him about the call from the doctor’s office and her own suspicions.

  He pulled his cell from his pocket and he sounded so very happy that it melted all the tension she’d felt just minutes earlier. It wasn’t hard to miss Ethan’s crow of delight across the phone when Eryx told him the news. As he hung up, he swung her up into his arms and carried her to the couch. “He’ll bring one home; he was already on his way back. Are you happy, sweetheart?”

  “I feel kind of stupid.”

  “What for? Don’t you want to have a child with us?”

  Stopping the hurt before it got a chance to bloom on his face, she tugged his ear, “Of course I do, Eryx, I just, maybe I’d like to not be an unwed mother, or maybe it would be nice if we had a real house or, hell, if we weren’t leaving your family behind because of me.”

  Grasping her chin in his fingers he said, “First of all, you’re not an unwed mother. Not technically. And we’re already planning to get married in the spring so you won’t even be showing at that point, as if it matters. And secondly, we have a home waiting for us and while we’re leaving our family here, we’re also joining family there. Haven’t you liked talking to Lisa?”

  She smiled. “Yeah, she’s sweet.”

  “Well, she’s thrilled as hell to get to know you in person and so is Rhett. And I’ll tell you a secret, okay, love? I don’t think that our father will stay here with us gone. Especially with you pregnant, I know he’ll want to join us. He and Rhett were closest of all the brothers, and it killed him when he moved away.”

  “Why did he move, anyway?”

  “Because he wanted to take one of the females for a mate and she hated the idea so much she attacked him. He couldn’t handle the rejection so he pulled up roots and went to a place where there were no lions. And then he and Lisa fell in love, so he always said that the best thing that ever happened to him was leaving. And it’s the best thing for us, too.”

  Sad. But with a happy ending. She settled against his neck, drawing in the spicy, male scent of him. “Will you wonder if the child is yours?”

  “I don’t think there’s any way to tell, sweetheart. We are identical twins after all. Although you don’t seem to have trouble telling us apart.”

  “No, you look different to me. You smell slightly different, too.”

  “Any cubs we have will be ours. Both of ours.”

  Something clicked for her and she started. “If it’s a girl, will she hate me?” Tears sprang to her eyes unbidden at the reminder of the cold glassy stare of the females.

  He hugged her tightly, “Never sweet. There’s no way that a child of yours would ever hate you, female or male. And who knows whether they’ll even be able to shift at all or they may be one or the other. And at any rate, we’ve always believed that the reason the females are so cold is because it’s a cycle that hasn’t been broken yet. You would be the first lion mother that would hold all her children close to her, male and female. And her husbands.” His smile was infectious and she let the thoughts slide away from her, even as she was going to hope for all boys.

  The door to the garage slammed against the wall and Eryx stood her up and stepped aside so that Ethan could grab her, which he did. His eyes were dancing with happiness, and he kissed her hard and hugged her tight. Dropping his hand to her belly he sounded in complete awe, “This baby is going to be so loved!”

  They wanted her to take a test right away, even though it wasn’t morning, and Ethan pointed out he’d gotten her two, just in case.

  She had to shove them out of the bathroom. There were just some things she wouldn't do in front of them, and peeing was near the top of the list.

  She looked at the test in her hand and said loudly, “I can still hear you outside the door!”

  “Callie,” Ethan protested, “we’ve had our hands and mouths on every inch of your body. Why are you so freaked out about peeing in front of us?”

  That actually made her feel worse. “I don’t know.” She groused. “But I am. Leave me be for a minute or I’m going to make you wait until tomorrow morning!”

  She heard their matching sighs and smiled. Then they walked away. Just to be safe, she turned on the faucet, which helped anyway with her nerves.

  It must have been a man that invented pregnancy tests where a woman has to aim at a tiny stick between her legs while sitting down. Sheesh. She finished up, popped the cap on the test, and opened the door.

  They hadn’t gone far and were both sitting on the edge of the bed. Eryx clicked the stopwatch on his watch and opened his arms for her. She curled into his lap and grabbed for Ethan’s hand and closed her eyes. Five minutes takes either a very long time when you’re waiting or a very short time when you’re doing something you love. Like climaxing.

  When the timer beeped, she suggested they all go look together, and as they walked the short distance to the bathroom, she could feel their anticipation and joy as if it were her own. The two blue lines were bright and clear: she was definitely pregnant.

  She turned to face them and had to laugh at their expressions. They were like kids at Christmas, full of giddy bliss. “Now, you’re sure you’re not just being all excited for my benefit?”

  They snorted simultaneously. Ethan chided her, “We couldn’t be happier. How do you feel?”

  “Okay, I guess. Surprised.” She shrugged. “Hungry?” They laughed and hugged her happily again before heading into the kitchen to eat the lunch that Ethan had brought home for them from a small deli next to the gas station.

  After they ate, they made love together, and then they left her alone in the room so she could call Cadence.

  “Pregnant?” Cades shrieked happily. Had it truly been nearly three weeks since Callie had heard her voice? Seemed like an eternity longer than that.

  “Yeah. I let the shot lapse in all the pack drama in December and I went through my heat this month.”

  “That’s something else, eh?” She laughed. That was an understatement. “So, did you find a wolf or will it be human?”

  “Ah, I’m actually mated now, Cades, to twin mountain lions.”

  The silence was deafening. She thought she’d hung up, it went on so long. “Really?” She said finally.

  “Yeah. They, well, it’s a long story. But suffice it to say that we’re actually moving to Indiana tomorrow to live with their uncle and his wife, and she’s human and really sweet, and this will be the fresh start I wanted.”

  “With cats.” She sounded unhappy suddenly.

  “Yes. What’s wrong with them being cats?”

  “Because it’s not natural! Cats and dogs? Shit, Callie, that’s like, I don’t know, too weird.”

  She rolled her eyes which Cadence completely missed since she was on the phone and not in person. “I’m really sorry I couldn’t find a wolf to mark me when I was a kid and then torment me for 14 years.” Callie snorted.

  Cades sniffed and then chuckled. “Yeah, I guess you’re right about that. I have no room to talk. So when will you come home? We’re only going to be like a month apart!”

  “Cades, I am home. My home is with Ethan and Eryx, and I told you we’re moving to Indiana. I couldn’t go back to Allen. It wouldn’t be fair to them and I’d be an outcast anyway.”

  She shifted gears. “Twins, really? So you do the whole three-way dealy?” It was as if she hadn’t heard Callie say twin mountain lions the first time.

  “I’m not going to discuss my sex life.” She felt defensive suddenly and hated that feel
ing. There was nothing wrong with their relationship. Period.

  Cadence sounded sad. “We used to talk about everything.”

  “Yeah,” She sighed as she looked out the bedroom window. “There’s a lot that’s not the same anymore. But I don’t regret anything that brought me to them. I’m happy, finally, and we’ll get married in the spring and then I’ll be popping out a half mountain lion, half wolf kid in September.”

  “Maybe we can come to the wedding? You should have someone stand up for you, from your old home.”

  “I’ll think about it.” She saw something moving out in the woods, a flash of blonde hair, and the hair on the back of her neck rose. “I’ll call you in a few weeks, Cades. Tell Herr Jason I said hi, and Michael and Linus, too, okay? I’ve gotta go.”

  “Is something wrong? You sound upset suddenly. I didn’t mean to make you think I wouldn’t like your men, it’s just I didn’t expect you to wind up in a three way marriage with cats. I know I’ll like them when I meet them.”

  “No, it’s not that. Just something out in the yard. I’ll call you when we’re settled, Cades. Love you, bye!” She hung up before hearing her reply and dashed out to the family room.

  “I think Melania’s out in the woods!”

  Chapter 19

  **Ethan**

  At Callie’s alarming words, he left her with Eryx and ran out the back door. He scanned the woods and saw no sign of movement, but the females were fast runners even in their human forms so that meant nothing. If Callie saw her, then she had been there. The question was, why?

  A half second before the scent hit his nose, he heard Eryx and Callie yell for him from the garage. The vehicles were on fire!

  Callie stood outside the garage, shivering without a coat while Eryx battled the fire inside the mustang with the kitchen fire extinguisher. Ethan grabbed the extinguisher from the tool cabinet in the garage and opened the back gate of the jeep, burning his hand in the process. Fortunately the window was slightly rolled down so the extra oxygen didn’t cause the fire to flare, and as he poured the foam into the interior of his truck, he vaguely heard the fire sirens, just slightly louder than the sobs of his wife.