by R. E. Butler
“Well, they’re definitely Fallon men.” Ethan declared with a laugh at the way they latched right onto her breasts.
By the time the babies were fed, Callie had fallen asleep despite her attempts to stay awake and involved in the first precious minutes of their children’s lives. While Ethan went to get their family, Eryx unlatched the babies from her breasts, placed them in the bassinets at the foot of the bed, and covered her up with a blanket. She looked like a real angel, with a small smile on her lush mouth even in sleep.
Ethan scooped Evan up from his bassinet and their father, Alek, and their uncles and Lisa cooed quietly over the newest additions to the family.
Their father held Elliott and said, “Ah, they look just like the two of you did. It’s wonderful, boys. I’m so proud of you.”
Alek hugged him and Ethan, saying he was glad that he’d come and was happy for them. He was an uncle for the first time and it was clear on his face that although he thought their wife was a fluke and that lions weren’t meant to have real mates, that he was thrilled to have nephews to fawn over.
“She’s the difference.” Uncle John said. “When Beth had Jilly, she didn’t even call me when she went into labor, she just showed up at the house one afternoon and told me that my child was at the hospital waiting to be picked up. But you got to be there, and hold her hand and support her, and you’re a real family now. What we’ve all always longed for. I’m so happy for the three of you.”
“The five of us.” Ethan said, coming to stand next to Eryx.
Five’s a very good number.
Chapter 25
**Callie**
Some Time Later...
She tried to roll over when she heard first one sharp cry followed quickly by a second one, but her large belly got in the way. “Elliott always riles up Evan,” she groused, rolling to her back and rubbing at her sleep deprived eyes.
“It’s true. The oldest is always causing the youngest problems.” Ethan leaned over and kissed her forehead, taking a carefully worded jab at Eryx. “I’ll see what they want.”
Eryx slid his hand across her five month baby belly. Thankfully, just a single this time, but an unexpected single at that. The twins were only 18 months old. She thought she had been too tired to remember her birth control.
“If this baby isn’t the last one for a while, I’m going to make you guys start wearing condoms.” She threatened. Eryx’s hand dipped down the bump of her belly and teased her thighs.
“I don’t know, angel, you said you love to feel us come deep inside you. Condoms will stop that.”
Ethan walked back into the bedroom after finding Evan’s favorite stuffed wolf and Elliott’s blanket, “Ugh, who said condom?”
“Your wife. She doesn’t want another cub for a while.”
Ethan spied Eryx’s hands moving under the sheet and he smiled as he slid into bed next to her. “It’s not our fault you are so irresistible.”
She supposed not. But only for them. She closed her eyes and told them she was tired, but they could hear that she was teasing and they took their time bringing her around to their way of thinking. Which was, of course, that there was no such thing as being too tired for sex.
In the last 19 months of her life, so much had changed. Not even two years ago, she walked away from the only home she’d ever known and made plans to “go human”. She didn't even recognize the girl from Allen, and that was a good thing. She and Cades had reconciled after the birth of Cades' daughter Lyric. They sent occasional emails and had the cursory birthday phone call, but the friendship was strained that one night at the rehearsal dinner, and there were some things that just couldn't be forgotten or taken back. James, who stepped easily into place as her surrogate father, told her that friendships were meant to evolve and that sometimes evolution meant it disappeared. Cades didn’t fit into her life anymore and distance didn’t always make the heart grow fonder. Sometimes it made things …distant. She would always be a wolf, and the Allen pack was family for her when she had none, and Cades was like a sister. But nothing ever really stayed the same, and although she did miss her terribly at times, she wouldn’t trade her life with Ethan and Eryx for anything in the world.
They ate dinner at the Pope’s one Sunday night a month, and the rest of the Sundays they ate at the boarding house. John and Alek were getting ready to come to Ashland. Henry was ecstatic, but John was devastated at the loss of his only daughter. Callie wished that she could fix what was broken inside Jilly, but mountain lion females were not meant to be mates, they were meant to continue the were-species and obliterate any threats to their pure lines. Except for that last attempt by Melania to derail their marriage, they hadn’t heard from them. The lionesses lost a handful of their most eligible and gracious males because of Callie, but they were happy together and safe and that was enough for her. For all of them.
Someone asked her once if the boys ever fought over her and they were surprised when she said no. She was sure that in a human ménage, jealousies and pettiness could ruin things, but between Ethan and Eryx, there was just love. It was a symptom of their mountain lion natures that they cared as much about each other’s happiness as they did hers. And they loved each other enough to share her and they loved her even more than that. And now their children were growing up in a world where mountain lions had a mother that would love them with every fiber of her being, and that was the start of a good evolution.
Several months after their third child, Cameron Alek was born, James showed up at their home with startling news. Melania and Farrah had been killed by the girlfriend of one of Ethan and Eryx’s high school friends and fellow pride-mates, Paul. Paul had taken to heart that he could leave the pride with his human girlfriend and follow in their footsteps. The females had revolted against that notion, going full force at the poor woman and threatening her. One night, they broke into her house and tried to kill her, and she just happened to be a gun-toting federal marshal and shot them both dead. The females in the pride scattered and that left the males on their own, a new dawn for their kind, as it were, in the wake of those deaths.
Not too long after it happened, a group of male lions called to ask if they could come to Ashland to live. She knew even before the subject was discussed at dinner that the men would welcome them with open arms and help them in any way. Two of the males were James’ age, but the rest were all in their twenties and eager to start fresh in a new town but still have the pride as back up. She could understand that feeling, the need for a safety net of family even as you spread your wings. She could easily spread her wings now because her feet were firmly rooted with her family.
Before the males showed up, she asked the boys if they wanted to go back to King to live now that it was free of females, but they both said no. Ashland had become their home and now, with Alek, John and Henry with them, along with the new males, and the pall of the females in the pride gone, they were finally free.
She’ll never know why the lion females were made the way they were, to have no interest in the softer things in life, or why the males were so tenderhearted and caring. It was like most things in life…just the way that it was. She never wanted for an extra set of hands to help with the kids or a babysitter in the form of an uncle if she needed a nap or they needed a night out. And even Alek, who hadn’t come to understand what love really was all about yet and was angry to be cast aside by the brothers he loved so much, had started to come around. And it might just have had something to do with Sarah the were-bear midwife and her sweet smile and kind heart.
Every night, Callie rocked her baby boy to sleep and kissed the soft, dark heads of her twin sons before getting ready for bed. Some nights, when Ethan was working the ambulance and it was just her and Eryx, they would make love for hours in the quiet stillness of the house, thankful for their fleeting time alone together and the circumstances that caused their lives to intersect. When Ethan could stay in bed with her in the mornings before their children woke and Eryx was alr
eady at the station, it was a special sort of quiet and love that settled over the house when it was just two of them spending time in a different way than they usually did. Most nights, the three of them were tangled up under the blankets, reveling in their love. Shifting on the full moons, she played chase with her sons. They didn’t know yet whether they would be wolves or lions, or possibly even neither, but it didn’t matter. They were hers.
Her life was set in stone for her some time ago, and she took a hammer and smashed it, defying her family’s line of wolves and walking away from the only life she’d ever known. In return for that courage, she was rewarded with the most loving family that was ever created, and she thanked her lucky stars every night that she was so perfectly blessed.
The End
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From The Author: I hope you enjoyed book 3 in my Wolf’s Mate series. Stop by my blog at http://www.rebutler.wordpress.com to find out the latest news and musings, or drop me a line at [email protected]. I’d love to hear from you!
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Also available from R.E. Butler:
The Wolf’s Mate Series:
The Wolf’s Mate Book 1: Jason & Cadence
The Wolf’s Mate Book 2: Linus & The Angel
The Wolf’s Mate Book 3: Callie & The Cats
Novellas:
A Curve of Claw
A Flash of Fang
A Price for a Princess
A Bond of Brothers (Coming Soon!)
Coming Soon:
The Wolf’s Mate Book 4: Michael & Shyne
Enjoy an excerpt from The Wolf’s Mate Book 4: Michael & Shyne:
And then he saw her.
Heaven in a short skirt.
Near the tent covered arena where the boxing matches were going to take place in a couple hours, the sweet heavenly beauty was chatting up a few men, laughing and casually touching their arms. His beast sat up and whined. Immediately, everything in his body went on alert.
Without even realizing that his feet were moving, he was suddenly next to her as the other men left with brochures in their hands and smiles on their faces. He looked down into her face as she looked up into his.
“Hey sweetie. Like to work out?” She smiled sweetly, a lush movement that made him picture that mouth on his cock.
He looked up at the booth. It read “Stone’s Gym”.
He remembered to answer her. “Sure.”
“I’m Shyne. I teach group fitness at the gym, but it’s a lot more than just me bouncing around in tight shorts.”
Now that he’d like to see.
“I’m Michael.” He felt like a total idiot. Like he’d never spoken to a woman before. Come on man, get it together!
She handed him a brochure, and their fingers touched for a moment and she straightened slightly and blinked at him. Beautiful dark brown eyes flecked with gold looked up at him. Their fingers stayed like that for long enough that he was sure of three things. One: she was gorgeous. Two: she was not a wolf but human. Three: she was his mate.
She pulled her fingers away and blushed. Her skin was a lovely shade of coffee with cream, darkly tanned enough to speak to a parent that wasn’t white. Her jet black hair was long and tied back into a high ponytail. The white golf shirt she wore highlighted the lovely shade of her skin and showed off her fit physique. Short, about five and a half feet of gorgeous, she had curves everywhere and great legs that peeked out from under the black skirt.
He looked at the brochure. The gym was in Dalton. That was only about a half hour north of Allen. He could totally swing going there and working out. A rumbling growl suddenly alerted him to the three hulking men behind the counter of the booth. Glancing at them, he felt his wolf’s hackles rise and he scented the indiscreetly. Hyenas. All three of them.
Shyne said, “These are the owners, Dante, Cairo and Mason. Cairo’s boxing in the match tonight. Are you going?”
“Yeah.”
“Great, I’ll see you there, then.” She gave him another smile and it was more genuine than the first one. Suddenly, the man she’d called Dante was at her side with his arm on her shoulder. He whispered something to her and she nodded and then seemed to try to extract herself from under his hand. Michael wanted to break his hand off for touching her.
Dante was taller than Michael by several inches. And wider. He gave Michael a hard look as Shyne turned away from them and went back into the booth and rummaged through a box.
Michael gave the stare back as good as it was given to him. He didn’t budge a muscle until the hyena turned with a snort of derision and went back into the booth. Michael turned and walked away to find his family and friends and read over the brochure. He figured a good way to get to know Shyne was to spend time at the gym. The hyenas seemed possessive of her, but he knew a little something about their kind and they obviously hadn’t claimed her yet. There was no way that a hyena clan would let their bride touch other men so casually like that. And more than that, she didn’t seem to want to be touched the way that Dante had crowded her which told Michael that she wasn’t in a relationship of any sort with them. That was a very good thing.
....Coming Fall 2012!