by R. E. Butler
Tucking her things back into the small case, she left it on the counter and opened the door, stepping out.
Fade was pacing near the bathroom door, his face losing some of its tension when their eyes met. Nyte was on his cell near the front door, and Azrael was turning down the bed. Nyte spoke softly and then turned off the phone, placing it on the coffee table.
Azrael patted the mattress. “You can have the bed, Whisper.”
She glanced around the small room. There were four of them, one giant bed, and the couch. “And you guys are sleeping where?”
Nyte smiled slightly. “Don’t worry about us.”
She tilted her head and regarded him. They probably thought they were being noble or gentlemanly by offering her the only bed. “Did you sleep in the same bed last night?”
Azrael straightened from where he had been smoothing the blanket on the bed. “We did. At home we have our own bedrooms, but we knew that when we found our mate we’d be sleeping in the same bed.”
“Home in Kentucky?” she asked.
Nyte nodded.
They’d told her some of their history, about moving to Kentucky to join up with their cousins’ baro, and their jobs at the gym.
She walked over to the bed and stood next to Azrael. They all had green eyes, but they were different shades. Nyte’s were dark like emeralds, Fade’s pale like jade, and Azrael’s bright like spring grass and flecked with gold.
“Why are there three males to one female?”
“Hmm?” Azrael asked as his brothers came closer, stalking towards her slowly as if she were a deer and might bolt.
“Other weres don’t multiple mate, but hyenas always do. Why?”
There was silence for a moment, and then Nyte said, “I suppose it comes from a time when our people were in danger and safety-in-numbers was the norm. A male of worth wouldn’t want to leave his mate alone while he hunted. Having multiple mates means that the family is always protected by at least one male at all times. Three males that serve different functions — leader, caretaker, protector — come together to protect their mate and cubs.”
Fade’s voice was low when he spoke. “Are you afraid of us?”
“No, of course not. I was just curious.”
“We can talk more in the morning,” Azrael said, lifting the blankets and pulling them back. She climbed onto the firm mattress and turned around on her knees.
“Will you stay with me? Here, on the bed?” she asked, praying they wouldn’t turn her down. She wasn’t sure why, but sleeping in the same room with them and not actually in the same bed seemed downright wrong.
“Just for sleeping,” Nyte said as his brothers stripped from their shirts and kicked off their shoes.
“Just for sleeping,” she promised, smiling.
Nyte walked across the room to the front door, and she heard the lock click as he slid the deadbolt into place. He flipped off the light, and it took a moment for her eyes to adjust to the muted moonlight through the windows. The bed tilted slightly as all three men climbed onto it.
“How do we choose who sleeps where?” she asked as they moved closer to her.
“Whatever order you want,” Fade said in a tone that told her he was smiling.
“First you need to kiss me goodnight, and then you guys can, I don’t know, flip a coin?”
Azrael snorted and said something to Nyte that he laughed at, but she didn’t hear what it was because Fade pulled her close, with his arm around her back. Her blood roared in her ears as his mouth descended on hers with the gentlest of kisses. She melted against him like butter on a hot skillet. He groaned when their lips parted and their tongues touched for the softest of strokes before he made a soft, purring sound and lifted from her lips.
“You’re poison, sweetness,” he growled, stroking his thumb across her lower lip. “The very best kind.”
She smiled at him and squeezed his hand before turning to face Nyte. “Goodnight, Whisper,” Nyte said, folding her into his embrace and pressing his lips to hers. She wasn’t sure it was possible, but she felt like she could come from their kisses alone, her body strung tightly as he stroked his tongue against hers and then let her go into Azrael’s arms.
He kissed her eagerly but sweetly, his fingers finding the space between her shirt and shorts and rubbing against her skin. She shivered as she kissed him, wrapping her arms around his neck and pulling him close. His skin was warm, and he smelled amazing, all warm and sweet and…male.
The kiss ended and she saw stars, her stomach flipping pleasantly as tingles raced up and down her spine.
Looking down, she saw that they had arranged themselves on the bed, leaving a space for her between Nyte and Fade. Az smiled at her as he settled on Fade’s other side and said, “I kissed you longer. I bet I get to hold you tomorrow, though.”
She didn’t want to think about how tough it would be to juggle three mates, but for now, as she slipped under the covers, she didn’t really care. As if they had been doing it for years, she rolled towards Fade and settled her head on his chest. Nyte scooted closer until she felt him against her back, cocooning her between the two. Reaching over Fade’s broad chest, she felt Azrael twine his fingers with hers, and all was right in her world.
Whatever the dawn would bring, tonight she was with her mates, and it was the sweetest feeling in the world.
Chapter 8
Nyte didn’t want to get up, but his stomach wouldn’t stop growling, and he was afraid his mate might mistake it for an angry predator.
He inhaled slowly, and his mate’s sweet scent filled his nose.
The day before, he hadn’t expected to find a mate, let alone one as beautiful as Whisper, but here she was, soft and warm in his arms, tucked safely against him. As his stomach prepared to remind him again that he was hungry, he took another deep breath of Whisper’s scent and slipped away from her. He could spend all day in bed with her. It would probably be the best day of his life. But they couldn’t do much more than kiss at the moment, or the temptation to really mate her would be too great. It would be easy to get caught up in hormones and happy-to-be-mated feelings and rush forward into the physical side of things. But aside from needing to mate her properly through ceremony, they were relative strangers, and it was important to him that she understood she was more than a mate to them. More than a body to slake needs and bear young. She was now the center of their world. The most cherished member of their family for the rest of their lives.
It was just hard to articulate that sort of thing without it sounding like a line. The best course of action in regards to their new mate was to get to know her, give her time to get to know them, and then, when she was ready…move forward with their mating.
His cock sprang to life at the thought of her sweet curves under his hands.
Not the fucking time.
He glanced at the bed and saw Whisper still cuddled up against Fade, her fingers linked with Az’s. Fade’s jade green eyes met his, and Nyte knew that he’d been up for a while. The protector in him wouldn’t have let him sleep too soundly, now that their mate was here.
He checked the clock and found that they were going to miss breakfast if they didn’t get a move on, but they could always go out to get something in the nearby town if they did. It was more important for their mate to catch up on her sleep.
He couldn’t imagine how much her world had been turned upside down last night. Not only finding her mates, which would be world-altering on its own, but finding her biological family as well. Her story broke his heart. If what the males said was true and she had been kidnapped, then it was good fortune that she had been adopted by a male such as her alpha wolf father. He couldn’t imagine the grief that her biological parents dealt with on a daily basis, wondering what happened to her, what they could have done differently to prevent her kidnapping.
He turned as the bed creaked. Whisper and Fade were speaking in hushed tones so the words didn’t carry. But she giggled softly, and Nyte didn’t mis
s the shit-eating grin that lit Fade’s face as he went up on one elbow and looked down at her. Az sat up and yawned, cracking his neck.
“I think I dreamed about bacon. I’m starving,” he said.
Nyte chuckled. Whisper rolled to her back and covered her mouth as she yawned. “You can go back to sleep, sweetness,” Nyte said. “We don’t have to make it to breakfast.”
She sat up and said, “No, I want to. Plus,” she looked back at Fade and Azrael, who were giving her heated looks, “it’s too tempting to stay in bed.”
He wished he’d stayed in bed. She was definitely tempting.
They sent her to use the shower first since the hot water wouldn’t last through more than two showers. Once the water turned on, he sat down on the edge of the bed and looked at his brothers. Azrael said in a low voice, “What did Mom say last night?”
Nyte had called their parents to tell them about Whisper while she had cleaned up the night before. He was not the least bit surprised by how excited their parents were, especially their mom who ‘just wanted her sons to be happy.’ But he suspected she wanted some grandbabies to fawn over.
“We’ll settle things here with her biological family and figure out where to go next. I’ll call Dante and let him know we’ll be bringing our mate home eventually.”
“Do you think they’ll want her to visit now?” Fade asked with a scowl. “We’re newly mated; there are things to be done.”
Nyte shook his head and looked at the closed bathroom door, hearing the shower turn off. “The most important person in the world to us might just be reunited with her real family. If she wants to go see them before we go to Dalton, then we’ll go without quarrel.”
Fade made a face, his scowl deepening, but said nothing. The door opened, and Whisper stepped out, her hair pulled back in a neat braid, wearing jeans and a pink flannel shirt. “I tried to be quick; I know the hot water doesn’t last long.”
“It wouldn’t matter,” Nyte said, walking to her and kissing her on the cheek. “Your comfort is worth a cold shower.”
Ignoring Az and Fade’s snorts of derision, Nyte grabbed his bag and carried it into the small bathroom, shutting the door. The bathroom smelled like soap and Whisper’s naturally sweet scent, and his body responded by turning to granite. His beast snarled angrily, and although he didn’t actually speak, Nyte knew that the hyena part of him wanted to take Whisper to bed and not leave for twenty-four hours, to accomplish the mating here instead of waiting to do it at home.
He’d smelled Whisper’s arousal when they kissed her last night. If they’d pushed her, she probably would have done more than kiss. It was heady to find a mate, and along with that went sexual desires that were hard to ignore. But he knew they were making the right decision by not pushing things physically.
Their sweetheart deserved to be treated like a queen, and he was damn well going to make sure that happened.
* * * * *
After they were all showered and dressed, Whisper’s adopted brothers met them at the cabin, and they walked to where breakfast was being served. They were late getting there, but there was still plenty of food left and many clans of hyenas milling around. Whisper stood between him and Fade and looked over the dishes available, chewing on her bottom lip and tapping the edge of the plate with her fingernail.
Choosing scrambled eggs and a bagel, she smiled at Azrael as he took her plate and carried it for her to the table where her brothers were sitting.
Kayne raised a brow when Az set the plate down and then returned to the line to get his own food. When he returned and his brothers joined them, Whisper said, “I don’t see Bliss or the other guys.”
Nyte said, “They’re mates.”
She leaned over to look past Azrael to where Nyte sat next to him. “You said there were rituals and stuff before stuff happened.”
Kross said, “I don’t like how you said stuff. Can we skip whatever uncomfortable things you’re talking about and deal with the matter at hand?”
Whisper stuck her tongue out at her brother, and he retaliated by flicking a grape at her. Az thought that despite not being genetically related, they acted like a real family. He’d never known a hyena who hadn’t been raised within a baro, or, at the very least a clan. It was one more reason why Nyte was right in putting the kibosh on physical things. She knew almost nothing about her own people.
“I took the cooking class yesterday,” she said, looking up at him.
“Yeah?” Az wanted to kick himself. They’d done the hiking thing because he was certain his brothers wouldn’t want to spend a couple hours learning how to make dinner. If they’d gone into the cooking class, they would have met her earlier and been able to help her through her meeting the males that said they were her real brothers.
She chewed on a piece of bagel and swallowed. “Ally and one of her mates led the class, and I sat with their sons. She and I talked for a while about hyena matings.”
Az hadn’t met the owners’ sons and had only met the owners when his clan had checked in. The only thing he knew about the owners was that their baro owned the property where the gathering was held, and that there were seven clans in the baro.
“Yeah? She and her mates seemed nice. This is our first time at this gathering; we normally go to one in Tennessee near where we grew up,” Az said.
Whisper smiled and said, “I’d never even heard of gatherings until my dad said I had to come here. He thought I should explore my roots before I settled down.”
Fade looked at her. “You weren’t involved with someone you intended to put down roots with, were you?” Although his brother appeared calm, Az could tell he was suddenly walking a fine line, just this side of being furious.
“No,” Whisper said before taking a few bites of egg and then pushing the rest around on her plate with her fork. “It’s not that I was involved with someone or anything like that, just that my dad wanted me to find out about my people so I could know more about the hyena part of myself. This is going to sound weird, but until I met you guys, I always felt like I was just a differently shaped wolf, because wolves are all I’ve ever known. But being around you makes me feel like I was missing out on…I don’t know what, but something.”
She looked up at Az suddenly, and her eyes were glossy with unshed tears. He put his arms around her and pulled her close. “Oh, sweetheart,” he murmured against her hair, “we’re here for you.”
His brothers moved to surround her. She shuddered as if she were choking back tears and then seemed to relax by slow degrees. Nyte said in a low voice, “We’ve got you, Whisper, whatever comes.”
It took a few minutes of silence, but eventually Whisper hugged Az and then pushed away from him, brushing stray tears from her cheeks and turning her attention back to her food. Kayne looked at Az and nodded with a half-smile, and Az felt like they accepted what had just happened between them all. According to what she’d told them the night before, Whisper had always turned to her brothers and dad for emotional support. That she turned to her new mates so readily now spoke volumes to all of them.
After everyone was finished eating, Az cleared the dishes and rejoined his clan, with Whisper as the new center of their universe. Fade had pulled her onto his lap when Az left the table, and she settled easily against him. When Az rejoined the table, Nyte said, “Whisper is ready to meet the males who said they’re her biological brothers. You’ll join us?”
Kayne and Kross both nodded, and Kayne said, “I’ll make the arrangements. How about in an hour at your cabin?”
“Sounds good. Let’s get our sweetheart back to our temporary home,” Fade said as he put Whisper on her feet and the three of them joined her. Leaving her brothers, they walked slowly back to the cabin. She was quiet, and none of them pushed her to speak. She would talk when she was ready, and they would be there for her. Period.
* * * * *
Whisper was nervous. Fade didn’t like that. His beast was prowling under his skin, baring fangs repeatedl
y, and worrying that the males were going to try to take their mate away. She wasn’t marked yet, and even though she had accepted that they were mates, the new males might try to cause trouble.
She paced in the center of the cabin, chewing her thumbnail, the soft footfalls of her boots the only sound. Fade and his brothers were standing with Kross and Kayne, all of them watching her pace.
Kayne turned to them and said in a low tone, “I’ve always wondered why no one ever found Whisper. Mack never hid her, so if what Memphis and his clan are saying is true about her being kidnapped, why didn’t they ever find her?”
Nyte shook his head. “I got an email from one of our dads this morning. He looked up the child services information in New Jersey going back to the time she was found, and although there was information about a young girl with brown hair and eyes, she was listed as a wolf shifter, and whoever put in the age made her younger than she actually was.”
Kross shook his head. “I don’t get that. Dad called every year, asking if they’d made any progress finding her family.”
Azrael asked, “Didn’t he want to keep her?”
Kayne nodded. “Of course. She’s like his born daughter. He lost his mate before she came into his life, though, and he understands what it’s like to lose someone that you love. He never wanted her real family to go through that, no matter how much he cared about her himself. Mine and Kross’s families are gone, so there’s no one for us except Mack and Whisper. But Mack was always certain that someone was missing her, he just didn’t know who.”
“Did he know she was a hyena?” Fade asked, keeping his eyes on his pacing mate.
“No,” Kross said. “He knew she wasn’t a wolf, but he didn’t know what she was until she shifted at sixteen. By then, she didn’t want to get in touch with anyone who might know about her family. She said she was a wolf no matter what she shifted into.”