by R. E. Butler
At one time, the pack had consumed her every thought. Since she left and met the boys, it was as if that time was buried far back in her memories. And in all truthfulness, she had actually not given the pack a second thought when she was making her plans and now six of them wanted to join them. And for the rehearsal dinner no less!
She fudged the details slightly, “We’re going to mail out invitations this week. I’ll send four of them, one to Peter and Tina even though they won’t come. We’re having our dinner that Friday, and of course you’re welcome. I’ll make sure there’s something in the invitation about the rehearsal dinner so you can let me know for sure one way or the other.”
Lisa took that moment to say, “Are these shoes too high to stand in all day?”
“Who is that?” Cadence said defensively.
“Lisa, my,” shit! “matron of honor. I just picked out my dress and she’s trying on shoes.”
There again was the deafening silence. “I thought I would be that for you. You were my maid of honor.”
“I’d like you to be a bridesmaid, Cades, if you’re interested. It’s just a small wedding, and Lisa and Rhett have been so good to us. Besides, I wasn’t sure that Jason would want you to walk down the aisle with their brother Alek who is their best man.”
She sounded stiff and unhappy. “What are your colors?”
“Dark green and black. You don’t have to do this, I’ll understand.”
“No, it’s fine. I wanted to let you borrow my mother’s bracelet for your “borrowed” thing, like I wore in my wedding. I want to be there for you, Callie. I want you to have your family with you.”
Her frown felt like it took over her whole face, but before she could tell her that she already had her family – she was surrounded by them – Cades said, “I have to go. I’ll keep an eye out for the invitation. Love you!”
Callie stared at the phone. Lisa sat down next to her, “I can step down, you can let your friend be your matron.”
“No, Lisa, no. I asked you because you’re important to me and there’s no one else I’d rather have with me than you. To be honest, I completely blanked on the pack. I think the babies are making me a little nuts and forgetful.”
Lisa smiled gently and dropped the subject for which Callie was grateful. They headed to the mall and got her wedding lingerie, which included white satin panties, a garter belt and white stockings. While they were there, she got a cute black baby doll to wear to bed that night, but only Eryx got to see it. Right after they sat down to dinner, Ethan got a call from their father that he’d like some help at the boarding house, so he left the two of them alone for the first time in several weeks.
Eryx ran his hands along her back, over the satin of the babydoll, after they made love and he cuddled her into his chest.
She was already sleepy; it had been a long day. And the times when one of them could get her alone, it seemed like they were more patient to bring her pleasure so that by the time they came, she was wrung out and hung up to dry. Not that she’d complain. She could remember her times as a teenager, having sex and not really enjoying herself, wondering what all the fuss was about. Maybe it was Ethan and Eryx's age and being more experienced. Maybe it was because they were lions and they truly cared about her pleasure. Or maybe she knew her own body well enough to help them bring her to pleasure. Not that they needed directions anymore. They could both send her spiraling into pleasure with a few well placed touches, and it seemed like the further along she got, the more sensitive her skin became. And they’d definitely noticed.
She was nearly asleep when Ethan climbed into bed. He made an annoyed sort of sound and she felt his fingers graze the baby doll. “Damn, what did I miss?”
“Take the morning off. She bought it for both of us anyway,” Eryx yawned. He shifted her off his chest so she was cuddled between them and she wriggled and woke up enough to yawn and grab for Ethan’s arm, which he gave willingly and cuddled behind her.
She woke up slowly with feather light touches on the inside of her thigh. She recognized the mouth right away, but even if she hadn’t, Ethan kept his hair slightly longer than Eryx’s so that it tickled when he leaned over her. She yawned and stretched, shifting under him. One of her legs was across his waist and the other tucked behind him, and he was kissing softly across her belly and running the tips of his fingers on her legs.
“Morning, beautiful.” He smiled, “I’m sorry I missed you last night.”
“You can stay home today?”
He hummed in his throat, “Yes, I am all yours today. In fact, Lisa has gone running errands with the kids so we have the house to ourselves and we can be as noisy as we like.”
“Do you like it when I’m noisy?” She ran her fingers through the soft dark hair at the side of his head.
“I love it when you can’t stop your reactions to me, because you're feeling so much.”
He gave her a long look with his dark grey eyes and she felt her heart swell at the love she saw in the depths. They made love and took their time, reveling in the emptiness of the bed and the quiet of the house. Afterwards, they showered and dressed and went for a walk around the farm. It was simple and sweet, and they held hands as they walked in the still chilly March air.
She confessed her worries at having the pack at the rehearsal dinner and the wedding, and how she’d felt about Cadence's insistence that the pack was still her family. After a few quiet minutes passed, Ethan stopped walking along the tree line and pulled her into his arms.
“You’re our family, Callie, and we’re yours. You left the pack for a reason and Cadence has forgotten what that was. If you want them to be there, then we’ll make room for them. The winery can just move us into the larger private room. But if you don’t, then don’t feel guilty. You can close that chapter of your life to start this new one with us. But it’s your decision. Whatever you want, Eryx and I will both support you. You have to know that.”
“I know,” She sighed into his chest and drank in the scent of him. She felt selfish for wanting to walk away from that part of her life when it seemed like Cades was nearly desperate to see her. Maybe this could be closure for her like Ethan thought.
Even though it went against her better judgment, she had Ethan change the reservation to include six wolves at the table for their rehearsal dinner at Caske Winery and she mailed off invitations to the people she’d grown up with. She crossed her fingers that it wouldn’t come to bite her in the ass, even as she was fairly sure it would.
Chapter 21
**Ethan**
It was moving day. Again. Finally. Fucking. Finally. He was looking forward to laying Callie down on their bed in their new home and making her scream all night. He was pretty sure she hadn’t forgotten how to be noisy those few times that Uncle Rhett’s house was empty, and more than once in the last couple of weeks, she’d appeared out on the farm in the afternoon wearing a skirt with nothing underneath and wanted a quickie. Food aversions aside, they were all enjoying her increased sexual appetite thanks to the pregnancy.
It was a week until the wedding, and they were just waiting for Eryx to get off work so they could carry their kitten across the threshold together. She was bursting at the seams to get into the house to see everything. They’d managed to keep her out the last two weeks while they moved furniture in from another storage barn on the farm. Besides the hooker-red couch and the king mattress from his room, coupled with a four poster bed that they purchased just for her, they hadn’t needed to buy anything else except an extra large kitchen table and chairs.
When Eryx finally pulled up in front of the house, they walked back together with Callie between them and then he swung her up in his arms and Eryx angled his arms under her as well and she groaned, “You guys make me feel like a whale!”
Eryx shushed her with a grin, “It’s important, love.”
She smirked and made the motion to zip her lips and they carried her across the threshold of the home that was several months i
n the making. They put her down gently and she kissed them both and then with a happy sound and a clapping of her hands, she moved around the downstairs and looked excitedly at everything. She loved the kitchen and he couldn’t wait to cook for her.
Pausing at the bottom of the stairs that led up to the second floor, she pulled her sweater over her head and hung it on the banister and said, “We have to christen every room in the house. Let’s start with the bedroom.”
They raced to her and followed her up the stairs and carried her again over the threshold of the most important room in the house. And then they made love all night. First, in the master, and then the master bath, and then she cajoled them downstairs to the kitchen to eat a late dinner which they promptly worked off, spreading her on the new kitchen table like a buffet and taking her as hard as she demanded.
He and Eryx both called in sick the next day, and they finished christening the downstairs, and then the stairs themselves, and then they spent the rest of the day pampering their kitten and talking together. It was one of the best days they’d had in the many, many great days since Callie had come crashing into their lives.
On Wednesday, when Eryx headed off to work, Ethan cuddled for a while with his sweetheart and then got up and made her breakfast and brought it up to her in bed. She picked at the food and settled back under the covers.
“Sweetheart, can I make you something else?” He smoothed the hair back from her face.
“I’m just sleepy, Ethan.”
“Everything will be fine this weekend, Callie.”
She gave him a steady look and then closed her eyes in a final sort of way and he took the cue to just leave her to her thoughts. If he’d learned anything about her over the last few months it was that if she wasn’t ready to talk about something, she wouldn’t. “I’m going to clean up downstairs. I’ll save this plate for you, for later.”
He kissed her temple and left her in the bedroom, shutting the door and heading downstairs. He cleaned the kitchen, wrapped up her plate, and then got dinner prepared. He knew from what he’d heard learned from the humans that they’d befriended over the years, that for most marriages, the men worked outside the house and the women handled the meals and the cleaning and the laundry, even if they also worked. He didn’t really understand that. He got great joy out of taking care of their family. Even though Callie did her fair share, or rather as much as he and Eryx would allow, he preferred to take care of her because he loved doing it.
He got beeped for the ambulance and answered the call, which he hoped would be a quick one. He changed into his uniform and left a note on the pillow for his sweetheart for when she woke up. He hated leaving when she was asleep, but he was on call today and although there wasn’t much that happened in this little town, he was kept busy. Several hours later, he stopped in the station to turn in the beeper. He only had one more shift and then he was off until after their honeymoon.
“You talked to Callie lately?” Eryx looked up from his desk.
Ethan leaned in the doorway. “Not since I left this morning. She was asleep so I left a note. Why?”
“I called a while back to see if she wanted to get lunch with me, but she didn’t answer. I’ve been trying every 15 minutes.”
His heart rate spiked. “Did you try Lisa?”
Eryx gave him a hot glare. “No, I’m an idiot. Of course I did. She’s out running errands and Rhett’s out of cell range on the farm.”
“I’m heading home now; I’ll give you a call. I’m sure she's just sleeping.”
Eryx glanced at the clock hanging on the wood paneled wall, “All day?”
He swallowed and said, “I’ll call you,” and tried not to run out the door. Speeding home, he couldn’t stop himself from thinking the worst had happened, because he’d seen the worst working in the police department and for the King EMT squad. He jumped out of the truck as soon as he parked in front of the house and jerked the front door open.
“Callie?” He called out, trying to calm his racing pulse and the thudding heartbeat that was too loud for his ears. He didn’t hear her response. He walked towards the stairs, worried something had happened and she’d not been able to reach the phone. She was still so very early pregnant, and a lot could happen in the first trimester. He’d never forgive himself for leaving her alone when he’d known something was bothering her this morning. What if what he took as nerves was her hiding that she didn’t feel well?
“Callie?” He called louder as he rounded the top of the stairs. His hand turned the closed bedroom door and as it swung open, he heard it: she was crying in the bathroom. He smiled and let his pulse slow on its own. Her food aversions were really driving her insane. One day she’d love something like ham sandwiches and the next day they’d turn her green.
He opened the bathroom door, but something was different about this scenario. She was leaning heavily against the toilet, but she wasn’t crying because she was throwing up, she was just weeping with her head in her hands, and a small piece of paper was crushed in one fist. “Sweetheart, what’s the matter?” He stepped towards her and the moment she looked at him he knew that something was horribly, terribly wrong.
He knelt next to her and she actually flinched away from him. Where he knelt, a manila envelope was turned over and he picked it up. It was addressed to her and postmarked from King. Something about the handwriting looked familiar and when he reached into the envelope, Callie stopped his hand, “Don’t, Ethan.” Her voice was a bare whisper, like she’d been crying for a long time. Her pretty face was red and blotchy, and her hair was drenched with sweat. She’d been worked up for a while.
“Callie, please. Tell me what’s wrong.”
She handed him what turned out to be a crumpled picture and said, “Why didn’t you ever tell me, Ethan?”
He was going to say, ‘tell you what?’ but the moment he stretched the photograph open his heart dropped out of his chest and hit the floor. It was him and another man, naked, kissing. And then it clicked. The handwriting on the envelope was Melania’s; he recognized it from seeing it at the station.
“Callie, I,” he stuttered. All this time, he and Eryx had only talked once about telling Callie about their past with the female lions. He’d known at the time that eventually it would come out and haunt them if they didn’t share their secrets with her first, but they’d dropped it. He’d been glad for the reprieve because they both wanted her to love them so much that she wouldn’t walk away from them because of the things they’d done, and allowed to be done to them, at the females’ demands.
She looked at him plaintively, broken and sad, from where she was huddled on the cold tile. “This is from before you came into our lives, sweetheart. You have to know that.”
“I’m not an idiot.” She snarled suddenly and shoved herself up from the floor. He was taken back by her abrupt change in demeanor. “Tell me. Tell me everything fucking right now Ethan. We’re not supposed to have secrets.” She flicked the photograph in his hand, “This is a huge fucking secret!”
“I, I, we need to wait for Eryx.”
She narrowed her eyes at him. He stared into her eyes, hoping to see a glimmer of love in the depths, but all he saw was hazel and amber swirling together in anger. She was livid. When she spoke, however, her voice was suddenly devoid of emotion. “Fine. Get out until he gets home, and take those fucking things with you.” She kicked at the envelope on the floor and stalked past him and back into the bedroom.
His hands were trembling when he gathered the envelope from the floor and pushed the photo back inside. He felt sick enough to vomit. She was turned away from him on the bed, arms folded angrily and her whole posture said to stay away. His heart sank. Eryx was going to be devastated by her reaction, at least as much as he was at this moment.
In the kitchen, he called Eryx. “We have a problem. How soon can you get home?”
“I can cut out in about 20, unless you need me home right now. Is she okay?” He heard the worry in his
voice.
“Yes and no. She’s fine physically, but, just come home, Eryx.”
“Will do.”
He didn’t have the courage to look into the envelope. At least not alone. He was freaking out in every sense of the word, and the one thing that would help him, the one person that could comfort him better than any other person on earth was furious with him.
Eryx was home in half an hour and sat down at the table after taking off his jacket. He explained, “This was delivered to Callie today. It’s Melania’s handwriting, Eryx.”
Eryx went pale. “What’s inside?”
“I think you and I both know what’s inside.”
“Please tell me that Callie didn’t open it.” Eryx’s voice was a bare plea.
He shook his head. “She’s so pissed Eryx. I think she feels like we lied to her.” He told him how he’d found her in the bathroom, and then how she had kicked him out. It would figure that the picture she had in her hands was something that would devastate her and change how she looked at him. If she’d looked through everything, he knew exactly what she’d see and his heart was cracking fast at the thought of losing his most precious mate.
“Well… let’s see what she saw.” Eryx said finally.
Ethan dumped the contents out and it was even worse than he thought. Not only were there photos of them kissing other male lions like the photo she had in her hand, but there were also pictures of them having sex with different females in their age group, and several of their orgies. Neither he nor Eryx were gay or even bi-sexual, but several times the females bullied them into kissing and touching other males, their friends, before they would agree to sleep with one of them. When they were younger men, even more desperate for affection, they hadn’t known any better. If the pictures weren’t bad enough, there were two DVDs, titled ‘Ethan’s Greatest Hits’ and ‘Eryx’s Greatest Hits’.