Candy Security

by Lorelei M. Hart

  “Let’s get you more comfortable.” Because that was possible when pushing a human out of you. We tried, though, and he was nestled in pillows as the next wave hit, this time strong enough I sensed the pushing being imminent.

  “It hurts.” he cried out, and his lion mate growled.

  “He needs to not threaten my lion if he wants my help.” I explained calmly to the omega. “My lion isn’t like most omegas. He’ll fight back.” And probably lose, creating an entire new set of problems for all of us.

  “I got him,” my mate promised as he led the man out of the room. Good alpha. Good mate. Mine.

  The next half hour I went from coaching him to breathe to begging him to push harder, and when the head crested, I called to his alpha, who immediately appeared. How hard that must’ve been for him to stay there and not break through the door. It showed his commitment to his mate and the strength of his lion to not be in here and challenging me, the perceived threat. Pregnancy, labor, delivery—it was all weird. It just was.

  But also—totally worth it.

  “One more push, Dad. Just one more.” I held his knees, and push he did. His beautiful baby boy was brought into this world with a scream.

  “You have a boy.” I set him on his chest as my lion called out to me. Something was wrong.

  Out. Babe out. Now. Force. Babe out.

  And then I heard it. A heartbeat that hadn’t been noticeable before. There were two babies, and the second one wasn’t okay.

  “Martin, I’m going to need you to keep pushing.” His body looked wrung out, not ready to begin again, but he needed to.

  I reached for the baby, and he weakly allowed me. Shit, it wasn’t just the baby in danger.

  “What’s going on?” His alpha stood by my side, and I handed him his son.

  “Twins,” his brother answered for me. “Baby isn’t okay. I can feel him. How did I never hear him?”

  I had no answer for that, not did it matter in that moment.

  “I need you to push, Martin.”

  His eyes began to sag.

  “Alpha, force him,” I begged Leo who looked at me like I had three heads. Lions weren’t like wolves. We didn’t do that, and I wasn’t sure we even could. But his mate wasn’t a lion, he was a wolf. “Mate, save him,” I cried out as the bleeding went from normal to alarming.

  He came up beside me and held my hand. Our first touch shouldn’t be like this, yet there it was. “My wolf insists.” He shrugged as he stared at his brother. He didn’t say a word, but not even a human could be in the room and not feel the power he exuded. A scream came from his brother, which oddly was a great sign, it meant his body was trying, and five minutes later I held another baby boy in my arms, his cry not as strong as his brother’s, but his heartbeat steady. The same could not be true for his dad.

  “Shift,” my mate commanded, and his brother did so. “Shift.” He took his skin again, but only for a minute, when his brother commanded him again. This happened three times, both babes now in my arms as Leo waited for his mate to be human and well again. He’d have to wait. Many shifts later, his mate lay on the bed, his strength zapped, but his body far stronger than it had been, and the bleeding completely stopped.

  “You are not just a lost challenge,” the omega said as he opened his arms in silent plea for his babes, whom I immediately settled on his chest.

  “Not so much. But it saved you, so worth it.” He smiled at his brother. “So, what are you going to name my nephews?”

  “I thought there would be one, so I need a second name. But the firstborn, his name is Cameo after my Alpha, capital A.” I didn’t understand the nuances of what happened next, but there was a claw to his shoulder and tears of joy, and I snuck away into the next room, giving the family privacy. I wasn’t selfless enough to leave, though. I had a mate I needed to claim me, and I was staying put until he was ready for me. Goddess knew I was ready for him.

  Chapter Five

  Cameo

  My head swirled with all that had just happened. In the span of an hour, I’d watched my brother and nephew almost slip from this world and somehow created a new pack. Oh, and there was the having my mate standing naked in front of me thing. Safe to say it was going to take a while for my being to catch up with it all.

  My wolf, however, had caught up just fine and was on a mission, a mission that had me saying goodbye to my brother, his babes, and his mate and on a mission to find my own mate—a mission that ended in the living room.

  “You’re here,” I blurted out.

  “I’m your mate. Where else would I be, Cameo?” It was the first time my name escaped his lips, and my wolf howled for joy.

  “Thank you for saving them.” Had he not been there, who knew what would’ve happened. His quick thinking had me acting in time. I owed him everything.

  “You did the saving. I just did the explaining.” He shrugged as he bounded off the couch, still naked, and closed the distance between us. “My lion is—he’s pushy…” His words tickled my ear.

  “My wolf is the same. He is demanding I take you—with either teeth or knot, he isn’t picky.” Why be coy with your mate? When Fate sends you the perfect one, treating them as less than that is a slap in Fate’s face.

  “My lion says both.” He nipped my earlobe.

  “Does your room have a shower for two?” I wasn’t that guy, but we had just delivered two babes and saved a hemorrhaging man. Some cleaning would be necessary, even for our animals. The scent of blood had mine still on edge, and that just wouldn’t do for a mating.

  He answered me, by scooping me up and carrying me out the doorway, kicking the door shut behind him, and all but running through the corridors, not even blinking when people bid us good night. Fair to say, Animals was an unusual nightclub and condos or whatever these were.

  I’d always been the strongest. It had been my role in life from birth, and allowing this man, my omega to carrying me like this did things to me—good things. I loved how powerful he was, something I’d never have put on my alpha checklist. High five to fate on that one.

  He walked me into a smaller apartment than the one we just left, not giving the pretense of a tour, and deposited me on the floor of the bathroom as he set the water and stripped me out of my clothing. Steam began to fill the air. “Five minutes to clean and then I am marking you,” he added with a growl.

  It should sound pushy or creepy even, but the forcefulness of his words only had me feeling more needy. “Let me go in first then. If you distract me with that sexy nipple ring, I’ll never get clean.” And I wasn’t even close to lying. I hopped in, his mouth open as if he wanted to say something, but was unsure of just what. I loved that I could do that to him.

  I showered quickly and, when he came in, I went to town, pampering him by washing his hair then his body, paying special attention to specific places and loving the moans my ministrations drew from him.

  “Bed?” I asked as the last of the suds twirled down the drain. I was a shower sex guy as much as the next, but for our first time, I wanted something less cramped, and while his shower was gorgeous with its fancy tilework, it was hardly what anyone would consider roomy.

  “Bed,” he confirmed, and I turned the shower off, toweling him off only halfway before I could no longer wait a second to taste him, taking his lips with mine and exploring every crevice of his mouth as my hands memorized the planes of his shoulder muscles. It was going to be fun discovering every nuance of his body—something that would have to wait. My wolf’s patience was waning, and mine wasn’t far behind.

  “Need,” he whimpered as my mouth left his.

  “I’ve got you, omega.” And I did, too, and always would. He was mine. I scooped him up this time, and kissed him soundly as I walked in the direction of what I assumed would be the bedroom, thanking the stars that I nailed it in one.

  I laid him on the bed and bent to kiss him again, and again, our bare skin still a little damp and
warm from the shower, my cock rock hard with need. “I don’t want to rush things,” I whispered, nibbling his earlobe, “but I can’t wait.” My wolf grumbled, reminding me the omega came first, always. “Or, rather I can.” I stroked and petted him, learning his body, but it was more like re-learning. Was this what it meant to have a mate?

  But his hands were moving too, finding all the places that sent goose bumps over my skin and made my breathing harshen. “Alpha, don’t make me wait.”

  “You don’t have to say that, omega.” But I was already testing his slick, desperate to join our bodies together.

  “No…it’s so good,” he groaned. “Please.” He scooted farther up on the bed and parted his legs, and I needed no further invitation. Poised to breach him, I closed my eyes, every nerve ending focused on the channel I was about to enter. He was not wolf, but he was pack. And my mate. I thrust inside him, his gasp testimony to how tight the fit, but it felt good, no, it felt amazing.

  “Tell me if I hurt you, omega,” I growled as I retreated and drove in again. Then again and again, with not a word of complaint from him, only mewls and cries and panting, but maybe that was me. At least some of it was.

  Then, as I reached the peak, I grasped his cock and squeezed, rubbed, tugged and took him over with me, his cum spurting over my belly while mine filled him inside. A fleeting thought of the babes born tonight was followed by the thought twins ran in his family…. Then my knot swelled and stole thoughts and I bent and pierced the tender spot where his neck met his shoulder, marking him as my mate for everyone to see. I drew back then lapped the spot, sealing it. We clung to one another as normal breathing returned then must have dozed because the next thing I knew the sounds of people outside the door awoke us along with the scent of breakfast cooking.

  I lay next to my mate, tracing the mating mark with one fingertip in wonder. Only a few days ago, my life had been so different. Now I’d started my own pack with my mate and my brother and his babes, his mate, too, if he chose. I didn’t know where I’d live or really what I’d do but it didn’t matter. I’d find work and together we’d make a home. Lee had a job, and if he loved it, we’d make sure that didn’t change. Arizona sounded good to me. As long as my mate was at my side.

  “Alpha?” Lee’s sleepy voice cut into my thoughts.

  “Yes, omega?”

  “Do you think we made a baby last night?”

  I smiled down at his half-lidded eyes. “I don’t know, but let’s try again to be sure.”

  An Excerpt from Papa Bear for Darius

  Prologue

  Darius

  “It’s going to be a night to remember, that’s for sure.” Cal, an alpha lion shifter if my nose was accurate, which it tended to be, had officially taken over the chemistry study group I had decided to test the waters by joining. Not that I needed such a group to help me pass the class. I could easily teach the course, but it was lonely wearing my shoes, and I wanted to create a place I could shine and possibly finally meet some friends.

  I’d misunderstood what a study group was. So far, they had discussed three “hawt” professors, who, to be fair, were nice looking, and two upcoming frat parties. Just when I thought we’d moved on to a topic I could contribute to in a less than awkward manner, they started on about Animals, a shifter nightclub out in the desert a fair drive from campus, but a drive they all swore was worth it. The last part caught my attention if for no other reason than the guy I had dreams about getting naked with had been talking about it earlier when I wasn’t eavesdropping…much.

  “I’m hitting it up. Halloween parties are my jam.” A female alpha punched the arm of the guy to the left of her. I couldn’t figure out what exactly she was trying to accomplish with that move, possibly some kind of mating ritual, but all it got her was a growl—and not the sexy kind I had read about in books. It still cafuddled me how I could already have multiple college degrees and still not be able to understand the people around me, the ones who were finally just about peer level—at least age wise.

  When I entered college at fifteen, I thought I would take on the world. I didn’t have the clan hierarchy holding me back as I had at home. I thought my fellow students would be mostly humans, and easier to deal with because they didn’t have hierarchies. I’d been so incredibly naive. True, there were more humans than shifters, by a significant percentage, and, no, there weren’t clan dynamics. Where I’d completely gotten it wrong was in my assumption I could somehow navigate this world and fit in. Even at eighteen, I’d not yet found my niche.

  I would though. It was just going to take time. As my late mama used to say when I was growing up, the rest of the world just needed to catch up to me. She had referred to the other pups, but I held on to her promise like a lifeline.

  “I can snag a van.” A third person, one everyone had ignored the entire night even when he tried to interject his opinions on the subject at hand, finally gained the floor. “I mean, my dad lets me take it sometimes. I just need to have it back at the store when they open in the morning, and we can all chip in to fill the tank before we return it.”

  “And you, Joshua, are my favorite person.” The alpha leaned back, a victorious grin across his face.

  “The party starts at seven. Who’s in?” Matt, the fox who had originally announced the study group, asked. He was also the only one besides me who showed any inclination of wanting to actually break open some notes or a book. But with the party, a theme night at that, less of a hypothetical and more of a reality, he was all in on the not studying plan.

  And that was when I made the decision that ultimately changed my life. “I have a gas card.” Awkward as fuck, but given Joshua’s currency had been the van, gas money seemed a logical offering. “So we all have more money for the club.”

  And I was going to Animals for the first time. I was under no delusion the group had accepted me or I’d run into my crush and we’d live happily ever after. I’d kind of figured out over my time at the university that I might never fit in, not really. Heck, if you can’t fit in with your own pack, that was pretty much an indication of how your life away would go as well. I just wished I’d learned the lesson years earlier. It would’ve made me happier. Not that I fully learned it, as obvious by the attendance at the study group.

  ***

  “The line is long today.” Cal acted as if he was a regular. Given he hadn’t known where to park, I fought to not roll my eyes.

  Shifters. So many shifters. Not what struck me as odd. It was Animals, after all. What struck me as peculiar was how many humans were interspersed among them and how they appeared to know the score—that the majority of people milling around with them could take their fur at any second.

  I was awed. And as we slowly inched forward, I found myself listening to those around us, ignoring the small group I’d come with. They only let me come because of my stupid gas card, the one I’d picked up on my way back to my crappy apartment. It had gotten me here now, and, as I listened to the bears and lions and wolves and even a koala, somehow, I just knew this was where I was meant to be.

  The bouncer at the door disagreed. Told me to come back when I was legal. And as was the way of true friends, the group I came with cracked up as they walked in, leaving me stranded. I couldn’t be mad. My not even thinking about the fact bars require you to be legal only showed me face on how desperate I’d been.

  Worst part was, I probably would do it again. My brain had a way of forgetting the important things when it came to social situations, and I found myself messing up—a lot. Like the time I thought I could pledge to a frat house at sixteen, or the time I asked my former professor to dinner, not realizing she thought I was asking her on a date and not trying to make a friend. I assured her I wasn’t looking for a female, falling back into shifter speak. I still couldn’t look her in the eye two years later.

  Social and I were not on the best of terms.

  “You.” A woman’s voice startled me. She was clo
se, close enough I should have heard her coming—and I would have had I not been so into my head. Which wasn’t the safest way to be as I leaned against Joshua’s father’s van, waiting for who knew how long for them to get done with their fun.

  “Me?”

  “You are the one who came with those selfish pups?” Her hands were her hips, and I couldn’t tell if it was because she was posturing or because she was showing off her themed outfit, complete with glitter…so much glitter.

  “Probably,” I conceded.

  “You don’t belong here yet.” Her turn of phrase felt so purposeful.

  “Yet?” I blurted before I could think better of it.

  “Yes. Your invitation will come.” She waved, and a headlight shone in my direction. “Now, off with you.” The headlight turned out to be on a little beater of a car with a rideshare logo in the window. “He will take you home. No, not home, but back to your place. You’ll know when it’s time to come back.” She tapped her lip, nodded at the hired car, and turned on her toe, walking away and into the arms of a man I hadn’t noticed there. So weird.

  Not being able to think of anything else to do, I climbed into the car and calculated my funds in my head. If the driver could get me to the edge of town, I could catch a bus. Buying the gas card had not been my best idea. Or maybe it was. I still couldn’t decipher the conversation with the weird woman.

  “Can you just drop me off at the first bus stop?” I took out my wallet and counted my cash. Not much. Not much at all.

  “You’re not going to the east side?” He turned around. The guy had to be close to my age, and his scent was familiar…but not.

  “You take a class in Science Building 3, ending at 2:50 on Mondays and Wednesdays.” I finally placed his scent from when I walked into my three o’clock class, and blurted the information out before considering how creepy I sounded. “I’m not a stalker.”