by Dia Cole
“I’m yours,” he whispered. His eyes shone with emotion as our mating bond fused back into place. The invisible threads binding us together pulsed stronger than ever. “I love you, my little wolf.” The intensity of his devotion jolted me.
“You weren’t ever going to leave me, were you?”
He shook his head. “How could I live without my chosen?”
“Argh!” I punched his shoulder. “You’re a real pain in the ass sometimes, you know that?”
“But you love me anyway, right?” He pulled me forward so he could wrap his arms around my waist.
I leaned over, hugging him. “I do. God help me, I do.” I closed my eyes savoring the emotional closeness we once again shared.
After a moment, he pulled away and nudged my knees apart. Then he kissed the inside of my thigh. “So did I get the job?” The heat sparking in his eyes made me breathless.
“Yes.” I slung one leg over his shoulder. “When can you start, Nathan James?”
His reply was muffled, but based on the toe-curling orgasm he gave me, I was pretty sure it was, “Immediately.”
Later. Much later, after we’d loved so hard and long that the water ran cold, and we’d collapsed on the floor of the shower, there was a knock at the door.
“We’re all waiting. How much longer are you going to be?” Gabriel shouted.
“As long as we want, Enforcer,” Nathan shouted back.
“They’re all waiting for us?” I mentally sought my mates. Instead of finding them calm and content, they seemed on edge. “Something is going on in there.”
When Nathan didn’t move, I nipped his shoulder.
“Mmm. That’s what I’m talking about.” He gave me a slumberous look and shifted his hips.
The brush of his swelling cock against my core made me moan. How can I possibly want sex again?
He palmed my breast and laved my nipple with his tongue. “Want to go for round seven?”
As tempting as that was, amazing smells were wafting in from the other room. “I’ll have to take a rain check. I’m starving and the guys want to talk to me.” About what I didn’t have a clue. None of them were responding to my telepathic questions, but at least I’d determined they were excited more than worried.
With a grumble, Nathan stood, turned off the water, and helped me to my feet. Then he made a big show of finding the softest towel and drying me off.
Gabriel knocked again. “If you don’t get out here soon, Liam’s fucking head will explode.”
“We can’t have that.” I wrapped the towel around me and stepped into the bedroom. The space had been transformed.
The king bed was pushed toward the window making way for a long oak table filled with turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, fragrant rolls, and even a green bean casserole. There was enough food to feed an army, or at least me and all my mates.
Mason, freshly showered and wearing his signature polo shirt and khaki pants, pulled out one of the wooden chairs set around the table. “I thought you might be hungry.”
My stomach rumbled in appreciation of the divine smelling food. “It all looks incredible. How did you have time to cook up a feast?”
Mason flashed me one of his gorgeous smiles. “I can’t take all the credit. Agnes had already prepared most of this. However, I did add the casserole, and cranberries.” He pointed down at the dishes.
“Aww. Thank you, hon.” I took a step toward him when I noticed Liam and Ty positioning a glittering pine tree in the corner of the room.
Both males had showered and dressed too. Ty wore a black long sleeve shirt and pants, while Liam wore a flannel and jeans. As they jostled the tree, snow fell from the lower boughs, along with a string of pearls.
Ty bend down, picked up the pearls, and hung them next to an emerald bracelet.
I let out a gasp when I realized precious gems of every color and size imaginable covered the tree. Mesmerized, I walked over and touched a sapphire and ruby necklace that had to weigh more than my arm.
“Wow.” Talk about trimming the tree.
“Do you like it?” Liam asked, pinning a dazzling yellow diamond brooch to a branch. “I yanked the tree out of the front yard.”
Likely with his bare hands. I eyed his Hulk-like muscles appreciatively. “The tree is gorgeous. Where did you get all the bling?”
“Tasha was an avid collector of jewels,” Gabriel called out. He crouched down by the fireplace, wearing only a pair of tight jeans. “It’s not as if she’ll need them anymore.” He threw another log into the crackling fire.
Ty held up a popcorn garland. “Should we add this? Mira and the human children made it.”
Touched, I smiled. “Then definitely add it. Are they joining us?”
Ty shook his head. “They all went to bed an hour ago. Mira wanted to sleep down in the game room with Isaac and Lily.” He looked over at Nathan who stood in the bathroom doorway. “I didn’t think you’d mind.”
Nathan shrugged. “Today Mira saved us all. She can sleep where she damn well pleases.”
“She wanted us to use this as the tree topper,” Mason said, pulling the butterfly hairpin out of his pocket and handing it to Liam.
Liam secured the diamond hairpin to the top branch and then put his arm around me. “I wanted to give you a better Christmas than the one you had this morning.”
I threw my arms around him. “Thank you. It’s perfect.”
“Not quite,” Nathan said, holding his towel in place as he got down on one knee.
All my mates followed suit and within a heartbeat five gorgeous kneeling males surrounded me. My breathing hitched. “What’s going on?”
“Will you marry me?” Nathan held out the gorgeous engagement ring I’d thought I’d lost at the pool.
“Will you marry me?” Mason said, opening a blue velvet box revealing a dazzling wedding band made up of seven round diamonds.
Liam plucked a breathtaking oval-shaped emerald solitaire ring from the tree and offered it to me. “Will you marry me?”
Gabriel reached into his jean pocket and pulled out a stunning marquise diamond ring. “Will you marry me?”
Ty pulled the gold hoop earring out of his ear and held it out. “Will you marry me?”
Overcome with emotion, I could only spin around looking from one gorgeous male to the next. My eyes watered and I held a hand over my mouth to keep from blubbering.
Liam looked down at his ring and then at me. “These are just placeholders. We wanted you to pick out your rings.”
I wanted to tell him how I loved their rings, but I didn’t trust myself to speak.
Gabriel shifted to his other knee. “Well? Don’t leave us hanging, Princess.”
Happiness filled my chest so full, I felt as if I would burst. “Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. To all of you!”
My mates rose in unison and took turns kissing me and giving me their engagement rings. Giggling, I inserted Ty’s earring into my earlobe and admired my dazzling hand. How I wished I could show my bling to my best friend. Sudden worry for Syd gripped me.
“None of that,” Mason chided, always in tune with my feelings. “Tonight is for celebrating.”
“Yes. We have so much to celebrate.” I rubbed my abdomen.
“And we have so much food to eat,” Liam called out, rubbing his own stomach. The big guy tried to sit at the head of the table, but Mason shooed him away.
“Love, come sit here,” the doctor said, holding the chair out for me.
As I sat down between Ty and Mason I noticed Gabriel and Nathan still standing.
The two males were exchanging conspiratory looks.
That doesn’t bode well. “What’s up guys?”
Gabriel grinned. “We were noticing the shackles on the headboard of the bed.”
“We think you need to put them on after dinner,” Nathan added.
The images that he and Gabriel sent me had me fanning myself. “Wow. When I asked you guys to team up. I didn’t quite mean that.”
/> The wicked grins they gave me could’ve started the bed on fire.
Mason shook his head. “Please postpone your plans to seduce our fiancé until after dinner. I want to make a toast.” He held up a bottle of champagne.
Gabriel, Liam, and Nathan quickly sat down.
I peered at the bottle. “Is that Mira’s juice?”
“It is,” Mason said with a gorgeous smile that heated my blood. “And as your doctor, I give you the okay to have a few sips.” He popped open the bottle of champagne and filled each of our glasses. Then he tapped his fork against his glass and stood.
The other males quieted and turned their attention to Mason.
Mason cleared his throat. “I’ve spent the better part of my life searching for my family. My search brought me across an ocean to a land I’d never heard of and a species I didn’t know existed. My search brought me pain—” his expression shadowed for a moment “—and it brought me the most courageous and caring female I’ve ever met.” He reached over and squeezed my hand. “Additionally, it brought me you all, who I proudly call my brothers.” He lifted his glass. “To finding our family.”
Our mating bonds thrummed with joy and love as we raised our glasses. “To finding our family,” we all said in unison.
“I don’t know if I ever want this night to end,” I said, my eyes brimming with happy tears.
Ty leaned over and kissed my cheek. “Every end is a new beginning, Starfire.”
“To new beginnings,” the others chanted, raising their glasses again.
Smiling, I dropped my hand to my stomach and whispered, “And happy endings.”
Epilogue
Tyberius
The tortured cries of my beloved gutted me. I pressed my hands against the outside of the glass shower door willing the fates to transfer Havana’s suffering to me.
The recessed lights over the shower were dimmed, but I had no trouble making out Havana writhing on the ceramic tile floor inside. Her dark wet hair was plastered to her back as she let out another pain-filled cry.
Beside me, Gabriel shifted from one foot to the other. “She should be in the infirmary. It’d be safer to deliver there.”
“The children were making too much noise downstairs, remember?” Mira, Lily, Isaac, and the Ackerman children seemed even more excited than we were that Havana had gone into labor. “Besides, Havana wanted to deliver in the shower,” I reminded him. And when we tried to talk her out of it, she threatened never to mate with us again.
Our Alpha had been making a lot of threats the past few hours, but I couldn’t fault her for it considering the agony she was in.
Gabriel paced to the bathroom counter and back. “This has gone on too long. Something’s wrong.”
Liam shoved the dark-haired male. “Stop your doom and gloom, brother. Mason said everything is proceeding perfectly.”
Gabriel threw his hands up. “How is this perfect? She’s been in there for hours.”
Havana’s long anguished moan had the three of us turning back to the scene inside the shower.
Nathan sat on the bench behind Havana, bracing her upper body between his legs. “My little wolf, you’re doing so well.”
“It hurts,” Havana cried. “Mason, I changed my mind. I want the pain meds!”
“Sorry, love. You’re already dilated to a ten.” Seeming not to mind the hot water spraying him in the face, Mason knelt between her legs.
We were beyond fortunate that he’d been here when Havana went into labor. Since generating a human cure for the Z-virus using the blood of the Ackerman children, Mason spent much of his time helping administer the vaccine to as many survivors as he could.
Mason squeezed Havana’s knee. “It’s time to push, love.”
“No!” Havana shook her head from side to side. “Oh, God. It hurts so bad. Why didn’t anyone tell me this would hurt so bad?”
“You have to be strong,” Nathan crooned into her ear.
“I’d like to see you do this.” Havana smacked his face.
I winced in sympathy and rubbed my own black eye. We’d all been taking turns being Havana’s support partner, AKA her punching bag. Thank the fates that Nathan, and not I, had ended up with the worst of it.
“Nathan, hold her knees back.”
“Ahh!” Havana shrieked.
“That’s it. Bear down, love. Just like that. I see the head.”
Gabriel, Liam, and I went motionless, our faces pressed against the glass.
Havana screamed loud and long once more.
A moment later the joyous sound of a babe rang out.
“It’s a boy!” Nathan announced while Mason snipped the cord. “He’s huge!”
“I’d wager close to ten pounds,” Mason added.
“He’s perfect.” Havana let out a half sob, half laugh and took the tiny infant in her arms. “Look at all that red hair, Liam!”
“I see him,” the giant said in an awestruck voice. Tears rolled down his face. “I have a son.”
“We have a son,” Gabriel said, elbowing him in the arm. “He’s an Alpha. Did you see those yellow eyes?”
Liam nodded and dabbed his eyes with the hand towel he’d been strangling. “I’ll teach him to carve and to hunt. He’ll never fear me or hide from me or—”
“Stop blubbering, the babe will love you,” Gabriel said, slapping Liam on the back.
“I’d like to name him Gavin after my godson,” Havana panted.
We all nodded. It was a fitting tribute for the human boy who’d perished before his time.
“We need to get Gavin’s twin out,” Mason said, peering between her legs.
The tension in the room ratcheted back up. Thanks to Mason’s close monitoring of her pregnancy, we all knew Havana was having twins. However, we hadn’t known which of us fathered them.
“Give me one of those deep pushes, love.”
Havana let out a low moan and lifted Gavin up to her Head Mate. “Hold him for me.”
Nathan took Gavin in his arms and carried him to the shower door.
When I held it open so he could step out, Nathan said, “Tag, you’re it.”
Fuck!
Liam and Gabriel immediately surrounded Nathan and little Gavin.
Liam sucked in a breath. “He looks just like me!”
“Bring him closer to the vanity light so we can see him better,” Gabriel demanded.
I wanted to get a better look too, but Havana shouted, “Where’s my support partner?”
Steeling my spine, I stepped into the shower. The hot water blasted my face and clothes as I positioned myself behind her. “I’m here, Starfire.”
“Grab her legs,” Mason instructed.
As I pulled her knees back, Havana shrieked and panted. “Distract me with some pretty words, Sugar Bear.”
Thinking quickly, I recited lines from Havana’s favorite poem. “She walks in beauty, like the night of cloudless climes and starry skies—”
Havana let out an ear-splitting cry.
A dark-skinned babe slipped from her body into Mason’s steady hands.
Oxygen stalled in my lungs when Mason held him up so we could see his tiny body and thatch of midnight hair. He’s mine!
Unlike his redheaded twin, this babe quietly regarded us with bright golden eyes.
“He’s gorgeous!” cried Havana, bringing him to her chest. “Look at your son, Ty.”
Awestruck, I looked down at the tiny male. There were no poems or words to describe the overwhelming love that rushed through me.
“And I know just what we should name him,” Havana said with a weary smile.
“What?” Mason and I asked at the same time.
“Byron.”
Laugher rumbled from deep in my chest. Perfect. Just like he was. I rested my hand on my son’s tiny back. “Welcome to the world, Byron James.”
“Let us see him,” shouted his other fathers.
Havana, busy delivering the afterbirth, handed him to me.
; Gently, ever so gently, I cradled my son into my arms. Then I carried him out into the light where the rest of his family waited to meet him and surround him with their love.
DID YOU ENJOY CLAIMING HER MATES: BOOK THREE?
I’d be so appreciative if you left a review on Amazon or any other reader site or blog you frequent.
For an exclusive super sexy bonus scene from my Claiming Her Mates series click here. WARNING: IT’S SCORCHING HOT!!!
The adventure continues with Sydney’s story. Pre-order Claiming the Witch today!
CLAIMING THE WITCH
A witch… A warlock… And three smoking hot shifters…
It sucks being a low-level weather witch in a family renown for its power. But I’ve been making the best of my assignment as a Temple Guardian in this podunk town. That is, until I’m hired to strip at a bachelor party and discover the groom is the gorgeous warlock I’ve been arranged to marry since childhood. Even worse, the freaking apocalypse hits a minute later.
Now he and I have to fight our way out of the city together. As the only Guardians left in the territory, it’s up to us to save our coven. Without sex to fuel my magic, I’m weakening by the minute. But I’ll be damned if I’ll stoop to seducing that hateful warlock. Good thing my best friend, Havana, sent a couple shifters to rescue us.
Once I drain those sexy beasts, I might have enough power to save my coven and the whole damn world...
About the Author
Dia wanted to be a writer from the time she could hold a pencil. A lover of paranormal romance, reverse harem, science fiction, urban fantasy, and horror, she writes action-packed stories featuring kick-butt heroines and the alpha male heroes who fall for them.
You can find her books on amazon.
If you want to be notified when the next book in the series releases please sign up for my newsletter.
You can follow Dia on:
diacolewrites
https://diacole.com/