It was just a good thing their apartment was in an old factory. The floors were reinforced and the building mostly empty, since the clan had purchased it for men like themselves to stay here and search for mates.
Once they found out a couple of human women were capable of becoming mates to their kind, the clan spread out. A few members of the clan went to various countries in search of the men or women who could make them whole. Tabitha Kingsley was just that, to them.
Roddy took the tray along with a few other breakable objects and left the room. “I’ll be right back.”
“Aye. You’ll need tae hurry. I think she’s almost done and you’ll need tae barricade the door so she cannae run.”
That was always a risk. She was human. She had lived her entire life ignorant of the existence of shape shifters, because that was the way they wanted it—the way they needed it for their kind to survive.
Now, they needed to show her that they hadn’t taken advantage of her last night—at least, not the way she thought they had.
Ewan heard her turn off the water and smiled at her soft curse at a missing piece of clothing. He smiled and patted his back pocket where he’d stuffed her underwear when he left the room to make their breakfast earlier.
Steam billowed from the room when she opened the door. She stalked out wearing nothing but one of their large bath towels. The water glistened on her creamy skin, just the way he’d imagined, and he fought the urge to yank her into his arms and lick it off. One drop in particular held him spellbound as it traveled over her collarbone and down between her full breasts.
Biting back a groan, he saw her lips move and heard her say something, but didn’t quite catch what she said, so mesmerized was he with that droplet of water and her lush breasts barely covered with the towel that slipped precariously down as she searched for her under things.
“Have you seen my panties?” She glanced up at him, frowned, and rested her hands on her hips. “Okay, where is my underwear?” She held out one hand as though he would admit to having the scrap of lace he intended to keep from her for the rest of their lives. As far as he and Roddy were concerned, they were a souvenir of their first night with their mate. He was never giving them up.
“Not since earlier this morning.” He pointed to where they had lain on the floor. “They were right over there.”
He congratulated himself on telling the truth, though it wasn’t the whole truth. He had seen them and they had been there earlier in the morning and no, he hadn’t seen them since then because he’d picked them up and stuffed them in his back pocket. Everything he’d said had been the truth.
“Well, they aren’t there, now.” She sighed and made to turn back toward the bathroom. “I guess I’ll just have to get dressed without them.”
“Why dinnae ye wait until Roddy gets back and ask him if he’s seen them?” He fidgeted a bit, growing nervous. This was a time that things could get dangerous. If he frightened her and she took on the scent of prey, he would need to keep a tight rein on his bear. Mate or not, prey was prey to the feral side of him. He was still himself while in his bear form, but some instincts were difficult to suppress. Hunting prey was the one that had proven the hardest to control.
“While we’re waiting, I’d like for ye tae see something.”
“What?” she asked, immediately wary.
“This.” Closing his eyes, he said a small prayer and reached for his other half. His magic changed him quickly. A flash of bright blue-white light shone through his closed eyes as he shifted into his bear.
“Eep!”
Ewan opened his eyes and stared at Tabitha who did nothing but stand, staring at him. Her mouth was open, her hands at her sides and the towel she held around her forgotten and sliding toward the floor as it lost its battle with gravity.
She backed slowly toward the bathroom door, her hands out. “Nice bear. Pretty bear. Just don’t eat me.”
Why not, lass? As I recall, you were delicious.
“Ewan! Is that really you in there?”
Did ye not see me change right before your eyes? He wanted to laugh, but knew this wasn’t a laughing matter. At the worst, she would be indifferent. At best, she would get angry and find something to throw at him. He would prefer the angry, but was too much of a coward to put it to the test.
“Of course I saw you change. I just didn’t believe I just saw you change. It’s impossible!”
Obviously not, lass, or I wouldnae be here like this, he replied dryly. Moving closer to her, he rested on his belly. Do ye believe us, now, lass? I’ll stay in this form as long as I can tae convince ye, but unfortunately, that won’t be a long time in this warmth. I’ll overheat quickly inside. It could make me ill.
“I wouldn’t want that.” She licked her lips, her gaze darting toward the door. No doubt she was eyeing it as an escape route.
Dinnae think tae run, little one. At least not while I’m in this form. My instincts will take over and I’ll chase ye. You’ll be little better than prey. I dinnae want tae frighten or harm ye. There it was, out in the open. At least she knew he didn’t want to harm her. He only hoped she believed him.
Chapter Nine
Tabitha inched her way toward the door. She had to get out of here. This was crazy. She was crazy. She needed to get the hell out of here and have herself committed—as soon as possible.
Dinnae run, little one. My bear will hunt ye down if ye do.
She ignored the crazy voice in her head and turned to the door. Just when she gathered enough courage to bolt for it, another, huge polar bear blocked the doorway and it was all she could do to keep herself from screaming.
Were ye planning tae run out of here naked, then? Roddy asked as she stared at the new bear. If ye were, it’s probably a good thing ye cannae get past me. You’ll catch your death out there in the cold. He made a noise that sounded somewhere between a cough, a grunt and a growl. Get back into the bed and listen tae us and if ye still want tae leave when we’re done, we’ll let ye go. He paused at her expression. Ye can trust us, Tabitha. If ye still want tae leave when we’re done telling ye what ye are tae us, we’ll let ye go with no arguments.
Tabitha shifted her gaze between them. What choice did she really have? She couldn’t leave with Roddy blocking the way and she wasn’t about to crawl over him. He was a huge, fricking polar bear, for crying out loud.
She moved slowly to the bed, crawled up onto the mattress and covered up with the blankets and comforter. Shivering, from the cold, because it couldn’t have been fear or they would have thought of her as prey, according to Ewan’s logic, she sat and waited for their explanation.
In two flashes of amazing blue-white light, the two bears changed back into Roddy and Ewan. “How do you do that?” That was her main question. Her next would be something along the lines of did they plan to bite her and make her one of them.
Any other questions she might have had were lost when she looked at the two men standing before her, stark naked.
Roddy was perfect with his blond good looks, his smooth hairless chest that tapered down to a flat stomach, and powerful thighs.
Ewan was perfection itself, with his hair as dark as night, a dusting of hair over his chest that tapered down to a vee that made a trail straight to his groin. Both of them sported massive erections that, had she seen the night before, they never would have touched her. She would have been terrified.
Maybe the saying shouldn’t be hung like a bull, but hung like a bear, instead. She stifled a giggle.
The two men grinned at her, no doubt reading her mind again.
Sobering, she stared at them. “So what now? You can’t just let me go now that I know about your kind, can you?”
Her stomach twisted for a moment, but she wasn’t sure it was from fear. Was it hope, maybe, or anticipation, perhaps? Tabitha found, as she stared at the two men, that she didn’t want to leave. She wanted to stay here with them. Even though she didn’t kno
w them, she wanted them more than anything and it didn’t matter to them that she was at least ten years older. It didn’t matter that she was a size eighteen and she wasn’t perfect.
Standing, she picked up the towel, wrapped it around her, and moved to look out the window at nothing.
“But ye are perfect, lass. You’re perfect tae us,” Ewan said earnestly. “We love the way ye look, the way ye move and smell. We love the way ye feel in our arms, how ye make little noises when we kiss ye and make love tae ye.”
“Ewan’s right, love,” Roddy added. “We dinnae want some tiny human woman we’ll break the first time we lose control. We want a strong, bonnie lass like ye tae come home tae, tae carry our bairns.”
“I’m too old to have children.” Tears slid down her cheeks. Tabitha knew that all too well. She was in her forties and, while women had babies at that age these days, she didn’t think she was up for it.
“Dinnae say that, lass. Ye have many years tae have bairns.” Ewan reached up and cupped her chin. “That’s one of the wonderful things about our kind. We mate for life and we live long, long lives.”
“Are you saying you’ll make me like you?”
“We dinnae know if you’ll become like us or not. Only two humans have ever mated our kind,” Roddy said. “What we do know, is that something about the mating ties us together. If what we suspect is true, the mating will extend your life the way it does for our kind. It might even make you seem younger than you are.”
“And if it doesn’t, if I can’t have your children?”
“Then we’ll love ye just as ye are, little one. Dinnae ye know that love isn’t something ye choose? It’s something that sneaks up on ye and happens when ye least expect it. Ye can’t choose who ye love, ye can only grab onto them and hold tight.”
“That’s the truth.” She knew that all too well. She’d fallen for these two strange Scots in the span of only a few hours. She certainly hadn’t expected it. If she had, she would have stayed on her barstool instead of trying to go to the bathroom to regroup only to have her boss try to force himself on her.
She tried not to think about how she must have looked, half-clothed and half-crazy with fear while she leaned against the cold tile wall of a public toilet when they found her.
“Ye looked beautiful, lass.” Ewan said as he leaned down and took her lips with a gentle kiss. “Ye were a vision of beauty with your golden hair tumbling about your shoulders and your eyes the green of new highland grass looking up at us as though we were your heroes.”
“You were my heroes.” She smiled up at them both in turn. “What happens if I say yes?”
“Yes?”
She turned to face them. “What if I agree to be with you? What happens then?” Tabitha didn’t believe she was asking that question. She barely knew these men, and now she was contemplating agreeing to be with them always.
Closing her eyes, she took a deep breath. “I have to tell you, the only reason I’m even entertaining the idea is because you aren’t human and you’ve proven that to me. I’m hoping that because of that, you have a different set of values and because you haven’t lied to me when we all know that you could have.” She shook her head with a chuckle. “Because, let’s face it, being shape shifters is off the scale as far as secrets go.”
“Aye. It is,” Roddy agreed. He gave her a hopeful look, as did Ewan. “Are ye saying that you’ll be our mate?”
Closing her eyes, Tabitha took a deep breath and nodded. “Yes. I suppose I am.” She opened her eyes and reached up to rest her palms against their cheeks. “I only hope I won’t regret it.”
Chapter Ten
Roddy moved around behind their mate. He stared down at her bonnie golden hair and reached around to cup her full breasts while Ewan kissed her. Bending his knees, he thrust his cock against her, wedging its length between her buttocks with a groan.
He wanted this woman again—always. He didn’t see a time in his life when he wouldn’t want to pull her to him, thrust his cock deep inside her and fuck her until she screamed his name.
He closed his eyes and groaned when she leaned into him. Her head fell against his shoulder as Ewan suckled her breast. Roddy skimmed his hands down her sides and over her smooth flesh. His hands caressed her stomach, the curve of her hip before he reached down, sliding his fingers through the slick flesh of her sex and circled her clit.
Tabitha bucked against him, her ass bumping against the ridge of his cock. He bit back another groan as the cleft of her ass slid against him, making him want her more than he ever thought possible.
Wrapping his left arm around her waist, he held her up with his considerable strength. All bears were strong. Her slight weight was nothing as he held her in place while her legs gave out beneath her.
Slowly, his fingers circled her clit, moving it around and around as her head thrashed against his shoulder. Her body tightened, rocked as he continued to massage that little bundle of nerves. The little noises she made had him smiling with triumph as they continued to work her body into a mass of want and need.
“Please,” she whimpered against his neck.
Her lips moved below his ear, her warm breath stirring his hair, heating his blood, ratcheting his lust higher and higher.
Ewan met his gaze. “It’s your turn tae taste our mate.”
Bending, Roddy swung their mate up in his arms and carried her to the bed. Finally, he would get to taste the sweet cream weeping from her channel. It seemed like ages since they’d met, since he first scented her arousal. It seemed as though a lifetime passed him by as he waited to taste her.
“Move tae her head. I want tae see her full lips wrapped around your cock.” Nothing could have pleased him more than to see their mate giving Ewan pleasure while he ate at her delicious cunt.
“I love how wet you are, the way your sex weeps for us,” he said as he moved between her legs. Grasping her ankles, he gently pulled her legs apart. Starting at her feet, he kissed her ankles, her calves, behind her knees. Slowly, he worked his way up her legs while Ewan alternately suckled her breasts.
Her breath erratic, Tabitha reached out and took Ewan’s cock in her hand. “I—I want to touch you.”
“And ye will, lass. This time is for ye. Dinnae think too hard on what I’m doing. I want ye tae relax, tae feel,” Ewan said before he took her mouth in a passionate kiss.
Grasping her knees, Roddy gently moved them apart and wedged his shoulders between his mate’s spread thighs. He took a deep breath and groaned. “Ye were right, Ewan. She does smell just like fresh summer honey.” Reaching out, he circled the bud of her clit with his fingers. “I cannae wait tae taste ye, love.” He snaked his tongue out, swiping the length of her moist cleft. “I cannae wait tae sink my cock into your tight channel.” He covered the lower half of her rounded belly with the palm of his hand. “Most of all, I cannae wait tae see ye grow round with a babe. Either Ewan’s or mine. It doesn’t matter which.”
Ewan moved up toward her head, his cock in his hand. “Will ye suck it for me?” Roddy loved the eager expression on Tabitha’s face as she leaned up to lick the head of Ewan’s cock.
Satisfied that things were as they should be, Roddy leaned down and swiped the length of her cunt with his tongue and Tabitha groaned again. Cream gushed from her channel, coating his fingers and tongue.
“Ye taste like sweet cream and honey. Just the way Ewan said ye would.” He buried his tongue deep in her channel with a groan. If he died that very minute, he would have died a happy man with his face buried deep between his mate’s legs while she whimpered with pleasure, her lips wrapped around Ewan’s cock, her hand working his sac as Ewan eased his way in and out of her mouth.
Leaning forward, Roddy grasped her hips and sucked her clit into his mouth. He lapped at her body’s cream, his tongue delving over her sensitive flesh. Once he returned to her clit, his tongue caressing, his teeth gently grazing before he thrust his tongue deep inside he
r channel.
Twice, he returned, the rough pad of his tongue stroking over the tiny nub before moving on to lick and suckle her nether lips. She arched her back, her body bowing with need.
The third time he returned to her clit, he sucked the sensitive nub into his mouth, thrust his fingers into her tight channel, and pressed up against her stomach. Tabitha screamed around Ewan’s thrusting cock and Roddy smiled.
Chapter Eleven
Tabitha lay on the bed, her body spent when Ewan pulled from her mouth. He was still hard. Nothing she did made him lose control as he clenched his jaw tight.
“It has nothing tae do with how good ye are, love.” He gently brushed the hair from her face. “It has everything tae do with the mating. We need tae take ye together. We cannae do that if ye wear me out before hand.”
She supposed that was true. She only wished that she had the talent to get him to lose control, the way they did to her.
“With us, it’s two against one, lass. Dinnae fash yourself.”
She also wished they would stop reading her mind, damn it!
They both chuckled, but neither commented again. Roddy moved to lie on his back while Ewan moved behind her, a small bottle of oil in his hand.
So this was it. The mating. They would both take her at the same time. Tabitha bit her lip as she alternately eyed both of them.
“Good grief! The two of you together will split me in two.”
“Dinnae think that, love.” Ewan pulled her to him for an explosive kiss that had cream gushing from her channel. “In a bit, you’ll not want tae remember what it was like tae only have one of us at a time.”
She hoped what he said was true, but she just couldn’t get past the size of their erections. One was awesome. Two looked scary as hell.
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