Our bodies glided and rocked, met and retreated, moving together in a pattern that became a dance of pleasure. The pace quickened gradually, hearts racing, breath coming faster. Soft sounds, hoarse moans.
More. Yes.
They took me and I gave myself to them, each stroke claiming me until there was nothing more. There was tender possession and rough lust and heat that built to an inevitable peak. We spent ourselves, and when release came it came with unexpected force.
I collapsed on Zach, feeling David’s body sheltering my back while both of them remained locked inside me. “Zach,” I whispered his name, kissed his chest. “Thank you.”
His hand found my hair, caressed. “For what?”
“For giving me this.” I stroked his shoulder, the only part of him I could reach without moving. “For seeing what I couldn’t. For sending David to me, because you knew I needed him, too.”
“You cried for him like your heart was broken,” Zach said, his voice low and rough. “I knew you were mine. I could have kept you to myself. But if it was in my power to take away your pain, how could I do anything else? I’m your mate.”
I blinked away moisture. “I don’t deserve you.”
“Yes, you do.” He stroked my hair, cupped my head against his chest. I listened to the steady rhythm of his heart.
David kissed my shoulder, then carefully withdrew. Zach lifted me off of him and onto the mattress. I sank into it with a soft sound of pleasure. They settled me between the protective shelter of their bodies, both of them holding me close. I clung to them as I slid into sleep, not wanting to let go ever again.
“ALMOST PARTY TIME.” ZACH’S VOICE BROKE INTO THE DREAMY HAZE I was drifting in, dozing but not really awake or asleep.
“Mmm.” I stroked his arm and snuggled closer. “Time to get up?”
“Yes.”
Damn. But then, the sooner we settled all of our problems, the sooner we could all go back to bed. I reached for David and frowned when I found the space on my other side empty.
“Where’d he go?” I asked, blinking sleepy eyes at Zach. The sight of him temporarily made me forget everything else. His eyes glowed golden and his face showed the excitement of the hunt. A predator ready to pounce.
“To get ready for our guest.” Zach flashed a wicked grin at me. “She’s on her way. We want to welcome her properly.”
I laughed. “You’re evil.”
“You thought of it.”
“Yeah.” I bumped my body into his. “I’m highly motivated to resolve the cat problem. It’s interfering with my sex life.”
“Is that a complaint? Because the way you came screaming the last time, there, I didn’t think your sex life was suffering.”
“My sex life is fantastic.” I smiled wide, glowing with remembered satisfaction. “Which is why I resent all these damn interruptions. Just once, I want to dance outside or run in the woods with you and David and not have some belligerent panther crashing our party.”
“You sound a little belligerent yourself.” Zach tweaked my nipple, teasing and playful.
“It’s my territory they’re invading and my sex life they’re screwing with.”
“Well, let’s go screw with them.”
“Call me payback,” I said to Zach, jumping out of bed.
He got the joke and laughed, then laughed harder when he saw my consternation at finding no clothes.
“Why don’t I have anything to wear?” I asked him. “I live here now. I should have clothes. That’s another thing all these crises are keeping me from taking care of. I don’t have time to run back to my apartment and pack.”
“You have clothes for today.” Zach padded naked and barefoot into the sitting room and came back with a shopping bag. “Here.”
“My hero.” I kissed him, and it wasn’t good enough so I did it again. Then I took the bag and drew back from the lure of his mouth before I got carried away.
“Am I?”
The serious note in his voice made my head snap up. “What? Yes.” I dropped the bag and wrapped my arms around his waist, leaning in close to press my body against his. His arms came around me to hold me there.
“You helped me when the transition was burning my body up and I had no idea what was happening to me. You helped me understand a world I didn’t know existed. You brought another man into our relationship because you saw that I’d bonded to you both, that I needed him, too.”
His arms tightened around me. “Chandra. I’m a selfish bastard who dragged you into the middle of a shape-shifter war.”
“The panthers and rogue wolves are not your fault,” I pointed out. “You didn’t cause the problem, but we’re going to solve it. And what would have happened to me if you hadn’t had the pack watching me? David wouldn’t have been there to bring me to you when I collapsed. If I’d gone through heat and my first change alone, would I have even lived through it?”
I pulled back to look into his eyes. “Zach, you saved me. You and David both.”
“I wanted you for the pack at first,” he said, his face tight. “Because you belonged with us, and we needed you. Then I got close to you at the mall, and I just wanted you. I wanted you for myself. I wanted you so much I may have influenced your choice when you should have been David’s alone.”
I felt my jaw drop. “Zach, is that really what you think? You think I don’t know my own mind, my own heart? You think I couldn’t tell the difference between compulsion and willing submission?” I shook my head in amazement. “I surrendered to you. I acknowledged you. I gave myself to you. That was my choice.”
He bent his head to brush his lips over mine. “My mate.”
The way he said the words warmed me. “You bet.” I rubbed my nose against his. “This is a macho thing, isn’t it? You think you’re not doing a good enough job protecting the little woman from the dangerous world.”
“I’m not.” The stark declaration boggled me.
“Zach, I killed a man this morning.” Saying it made me cold inside all over again. “The world is dangerous, but so are we. And we have something that makes braving the danger worthwhile.”
We held each other for a long moment. It was hard to let go to dress, but we could both feel the clock ticking. We needed to announce our unconventional status to the pack, get their backing, and deal with an angry cat queen in hopes of gaining an end to the territorial fighting.
The shopping bag held jeans and a soft red sweater that I had to stop and pet because it was cashmere. Socks, underwear, and bra were also in the bag. Whoever had been sent shopping had been thorough. I took everything into the bathroom.
When I came out clean and dressed, I found Zach dressed and looking mouthwatering in the sitting room. He held his hand out to mine and crooked a smile at me. “Ready?”
“Ready.” I squared my shoulders, placed my hand in his, and we went down together to face the pack. David joined us in the hall.
“Everybody’s in the library,” he said.
“Is our guest here yet?” Zach asked him.
“Here and secure.”
“How do we do this?” I asked them both.
“We stand with you, and you declare your choice.”
I took a deep breath. “Then what?”
“Then they either stand with us or they stand against us,” Zach stated in an even tone.
Crap.
My stomach knotted. “Does anybody already know besides Jack?”
David shook his head. “We’ve been upstairs, but it’s understandable that I’d stay close to you during a crisis. The general assumption we all made last night was that you’d made your choice and it was only a matter of formality to acknowledge Zach.”
“Zach plus one,” I said brightly, trying to stay positive. “Almost what they’re expecting.”
We filed into the library, David first, maybe to make sure it was safe for us to follow, then me, then Zach.
It looked different from the militant atmosphere of this morning in some subtle way. Maybe because the readied weapons were now being kept out of sight.
The pack waited in various positions around the room with serious faces. I tried to get a feel for the mood of the moment. Not the carnal atmosphere of yesterday, when they’d all welcomed me as potential mates in openly sexual competition, and more sober than the celebratory tone at dinner before we’d all changed together and gone out to sing to the moon.
That party had gotten crashed in a big way, and I felt a twinge of regret for that. My first full moon with the pack, and we hadn’t spent it running and hunting together. We’d spent it defending our turf.
I took my position by the fireplace, and Zach and David moved to stand a little behind me to my left and right.
I looked around for Jack and indicated with a hand gesture that I wanted him to come forward. He did, and I took his arm. Partly I wanted the support, but partly I wanted a visual statement of unity.
“Hi,” I said to the assembled wolves. “Before I announce my choice, I’d like to announce something else. Last night, the lord of the forest gave me some interesting news. You already know from this morning that a child was conceived in this room yesterday.”
I paused and waited a minute before I continued, “Jack is not my mate, but he’s my co-parent and we plan to share the happiness and the responsibility this new life brings to the pack. Our baby is loved and wanted by us, and we hope another red wolf will be welcomed by all of you.”
There was an uproar of congratulations as they all came to hug me, pat my tummy, shake Jack’s hand or punch him in the shoulder. Relief rushed through me. So far, so good. And having them on my side in one thing made it more likely they’d at least give my unconventional choice a receptive hearing.
When the room quieted down, I kissed Jack on the cheek and let him go. “Thank you. I hope you’ll be equally pleased that I’m formally recognizing Zach as our alpha and king.”
A general cheer sounded, but when they started to come to stand with us, I held up my hand. “I have one other thing to say. Zach is my mate, but he recognized the truth before I did. It’s unprecedented and we’ve spent the day trying to come to terms with it before we asked you to do the same.”
Deep breath. Deep breath.
“I bonded with two mates. If you accept us, Zach will remain alpha and leader and David will remain second in command, but all three of us are mated.”
Dead silence. Jack came to stand with us again. I stepped back to take my two mates by their hands. And the room fell away. I had time to recognize what was happening and think,
Ah, shit, not now,
and then I was in the woods with the rogue werewolves.
“I say we hit them now,” one was saying. “Don’t wait for the panthers to arrive. Let them be the second wave.”
“Ray’s dead,” another stated. “They know what we’re planning.”
I scanned the scene, trying to find some clue to the time of day. Was this now, an hour from now, near evening? It wasn’t dark, but I couldn’t gauge the position of the sun from inside the thick forest.
“Do you want to run with them?”
The voice to my side startled me. I turned to the Leshii and blinked. His skin glowed like white marble and his eyes shone with green fire. I wondered if I was seeing his true form. “What do you mean?”
“It’s not a rhetorical question.” He nodded to the renegades who’d left our pack years before. “Do you feel an urge to run with them?”
“No.” I bared my teeth. “I don’t feel pack. I see invaders.”
“It’s your pack now. Defend it.”
Then he disappeared and so did everything else. I blinked back to awareness in the library and found myself supported between both of my mates.
“I’m back,” I said, struggling to stand on my own. “Crap, that’s annoying. Is that going to just happen all the time without warning? I’ll never be able to get behind the wheel of a car again.”
Then I blinked again and saw that we were surrounded by worried faces, all the wolves pressing close.
“Sorry.” I waved an apologetic hand. “Just a little visit to the future. We’re about to be attacked by the rogue wolves. They don’t want to wait for the panthers. They’ll hit us as the first wave and the cats will come second, unless we can stop them by making a truce with Rhonda.”
I dropped that bombshell on top of my last and waited to see what they’d do. Then I saw they were doing it already. Standing with us, united.
They each dropped to one knee, fisted hand over heart, the way they’d first greeted me. “Our queen.”
I felt my eyes sting at the sight and blinked furiously. They were mine, and I was theirs. Pack. They weren’t strangers to me now, not one of them. We’d eaten together, danced together, shared the sexual intensity of estrus where we’d all given and taken pleasure. We’d changed forms together, sung to the moon together, and fought for what was ours.
Defend,
the Leshii had said. Do the right thing. He’d given me a clue to my awakening abilities. In order to do the right thing, I needed to know what that was. Now I had a new window on the world to help me see what was right.
The pack was my family and my home, and the rightness of that resonated through my soul.
There would be more cause for celebration in the future. We needed life, growth, hope. We needed an end to the territorial struggle.
The pack rose to their feet again and I felt the power of our unity. I’d joked about mystical bonds with Zach and David earlier, but I felt it here and it was real. All of us were linked, and together we were strong.
Time to have a chat with a cat. I took a deep breath. “Okay, guys. Let’s do some diplomacy.”