“Another step and I’ll crush her,” he slurred, obviously weakened. But he was close enough to do just that.
Gray shocked her by stepping away from Watts. Blood poured down his face from a gash in his brow. Bas looked little better beside him.
“Come on, Colonel,” Gray sneered. “Your pathetic attempt to be like me failed.
Again
.
When are you going to learn you’re just a loser? A human wishing he was so much more.
Too slow and too weak.
You resort to fighting women? Please.”
Bas took a subtle step toward her while Watts concentrated on Gray’s insults. She didn’t understand why they’d cater to Watts at all. With him nearly dead and threatening to kill her, they’d kill two birds with one stone. Let Watts kill her, then kill him.
“Hold on,” Bas mouthed at her, worry clear on his face.
Were they seriously asking her to believe they cared? She coughed and choked, having
a hard
time breathing. Blood covered her lips, the coppery taste bitter.
“Fuck this,” Bas muttered and leaped between her and danger at the same time Gray threw himself at Watts.
She didn’t see what happened. Bas held himself protectively over her. Then darkness took over.
* * * *
“Dammit. Don’t die. Not now. Come on, Ali. Wake up, baby.”
The voice wouldn’t stop.
Constantly badgering her to wake up, when she just wanted to sleep.
“Please. I miss you. I’m sorry. I love you. I swear. So does junior. Bas, I mean.”
She knew that voice.
“Gray?”
“I wasn’t lying. Yeah, we were sent to kill you. Al Ross, a supposed mutant who was killing humans,”
he said in a rush. She swore she felt fingers over her hair.
Familiar scents around her.
A soothing voice, calming, entering and passing through her.
“When we met you, we knew.
Bas and I.
We love you. Weird as it sounds. I wasn’t lying about being mated. You’re mine—ours—baby. Wake up.”
She didn’t understand, but her beast prodded her to move. Lying so still was a bad thing. She needed to see Gray. If anything, she needed to make him pay for his lies.
And what about Bas?
Her beast pushed her to anger.
Love and hate, same but different. Not right if they aren’t punished
, her beast snarled, stirring her enough to rouse herself.
“Oh, thank God.” Bas’s face came into view as she slowly blinked, trying to process her position in contrast to everything else.
The scent of home penetrated. That and Gray and Bas, so near, together. Her beast purred loudly, and Bas’s smile warmed. His eyes looked wet, as if he’d been crying. Stunned, she could only watch as he wiped his cheek and hurriedly dried his eyes.
“I can’t believe you put me through all that.”
She opened her mouth to answer and coughed.
“Hold on.” Bas left her side and returned with a glass of water.
“Some quick answers.
Trenton is dead. Watts is dead. We took care of the lab. It’s totally gone now. You’re here, recovering in your cabin with me and Gray.” A look passed over his face she didn’t understand. “We thought you’d be more comfortable here. And no, we didn’t tell anyone where your cabin is located, though one of our contact psychics has an idea about the whereabouts of the place. Guy sees the past, so he saw your great-grandfather build the cabin. Nothing I can do about that.”
“Bas?”
She sounded weak. She didn’t like that.
“What?”
“What aren’t you saying?”
He fell silent.
Now that she took a good look at him, he looked leaner, haggard.
Worried.
“You look like shit.”
He laughed, and his joy made her feel better. “Thanks. First real laugh I’ve had in days.”
She tried to sit up and felt a jolt of pain.
“No, no. Lie still. You’re still recovering from a massive injury.”
“How long was I out? What happened?” Where was Gray? If he loved her so much, where the hell was he?
The big liar.
“It’s been a week, and it’s been touch-and-go.” Bas stroked her cheek, his blue eyes impossibly bright. “Ali, I thought you were going to die. I love you. I didn’t say it before because I thought it might freak you out.”
“And you might have to kill me.” She felt better with each breath she took. Hearing the big lug say he loved her didn’t hurt either. But that didn’t mean she trusted him.
“Okay. I know Gray told you the truth. We thought Al Ross was a guy, a mutant or rogue trying to kill, or start an army. When I saw you, I knew I could never harm you. Even before you took horrible, sexual advantage of me, I was in lust and in love.”
“Shut up.” She didn’t want to smile but couldn’t help herself.
“Seriously.
My beast knew you right away. You make me feel the way Gray does. Yeah, it’s gonna take time for you to trust us. And that’s okay. But we’re not going anywhere. Not without you.”
Her head started to spin. Bas seemed like he meant what he said. She remembered him putting himself between her and Watts.
His worry, his kindness.
“All this
we
talk. So where the heck is Gray?”
Bas frowned.
“Bas, where is he?”
“He’s downstairs in your room under the cabin. He’s been out of it since he used himself to heal you.” He paused. “Without him, you would have died.”
She didn’t understand. “He can heal?”
“No. But it’s different with you and me. Gray’s family comes from a long line of shape-shifters and shamans, apparently. He connected with both of us, and that mental and physical connection allows him to plug in to us, so to speak. He can share his energy to keep us alive, because without us, Gray hurts.” Bas smiled, but she could read his anxiety. “He’s fully healed from the wounds Watts inflicted. Bastard was on death’s door and still nearly tore Gray’s heart out.”
“Oh my God.
I need to see him.”
Bas nodded.
“Slowly.”
He helped her sit up.
She hissed at the pain as he helped her to her feet, his arm around her.
“I know you’re still pissed that we lied. But we didn’t lie about loving you. Gray nearly died to heal you. And he’s not out of the woods yet. After you lost consciousness and he healed you, he’s been asleep. I can hear him sometimes, but he’s growing weaker. Maybe you can talk to him.”
They made their way downstairs, and with each step, Ali willed
herself
to recover. She still couldn’t absorb the fact Gray had nearly died for her.
First killing Watts, then healing her with his psychic crap.
“He really means it,” she whispered.
“Yeah.
He does. He’s conceited, bossy, and he’s a know-it-all. But when he commits, it’s all the way.”
They stopped in the room at the foot of the bed. On it, Gray lay still. A blanket was tucked around his waist, but his torso remained bare. No new scar marred his chest that she could see, but his breathing was too slow. His eyes didn’t flicker under his lids. She could barely detect the rise and fall of his chest.
“Okay, you.
Wake up.”
Nothing.
She moved closer with Bas’s
help
and stroked his chest. “All healed up, aren’t you? Don’t think taking on Watts for me relieves you of that problem you have about telling the truth.” She felt tears well, the past connecting with the present. And her sudden future unfolded before her. “You say you love me? Well, prove it. Because if you don’t wake up, that’s just another lie, isn’t it? Wanting a future with me, but
you’re
too much a coward to face me.”
A stirring in her mind alerted her to Gray’s presence.
“I’m resting, dammit. Would you two ease up on the maudlin tears and let a guy recuperate? How the hell will I fuck you both senseless if I’m still in recovery?”
His chest filled and released, and his mouth parted.
Bas hugged her tight. “I knew you’d badger him to wake up. Figures hero won’t answer when I call him.”
“Easy, junior.
Soon as I’m up and running, we’re claiming our woman. Don’t think you aren’t going to answer to us for all your shit either. Boy, you need discipline.”
She and Bas looked from Gray to each other. Then she smiled wide, more than excited to do any number of the things Gray suddenly poured into her mind.
“Oh hell.”
Bas groaned, but the sparkle in his eyes told her he looked forward to the same thing.
Lying on his back, Gray took a deep breath and eased her down over him. He’d been hard and waiting for too long. First his imposed coma had slowed progress. And then his interfering grandmother had shown up on Ali’s door to say
I told you so
and welcome the poor woman to the family.
It was now a full week since he’d heard Ali’s beautiful voice badgering him to heal. He’d thought he might die from his permanent erection. But they finally had the cabin to themselves again.
And now he and Bas would claim her for their own.
She’d wanted to remain in her woman’s form for the joining. He understood. Driven by her beast and her mutant blood for so long, Ali now reveled in feeling human.
“You feel so fucking good,” he whispered as he filled her with his cock. He had to work to remain still, because the urge to thrust up and come hard consumed him. Instead, he filled his hands with her breasts and played with her nipples. Her sultry scent flooded the small space underground, the only bed large enough to fit him, her, and Bas.
“Oh that is a pretty picture.” Bas grinned at him over her shoulder. “Her ass is perfection.”
“So fuck it already,” she snarled. Then she winked down at Gray.
Love seemed to fill the entire room. Gray couldn’t help but fall more into love with her every day.
Her and Bas.
“Bossy mate.
Both of you.”
Bas grunted as he leaned over her. “Don’t worry, honey. I’m nice and wet for you. Sorry, but I’m bigger than Gray. So this may sting. But I have a feeling your beast will help us.”
“Come on, Chatty Cathy. Do it already.” Gray fought not to come, and the sexy Circ smiling down at him knew it.
“Witch.”
She leaned down to kiss him and blew his mind. “Don’t lose it now, hotshot.” Her smile faded and her lips parted as Bas penetrated her ass.
“Oh fuck. She’s tight.
So fucking tight.”
Bas moaned as he moved, and he shared with them every delectable thought about how wonderful she felt as he thrust. “There we go.
All the way in to my balls.
So good.”
Gray felt him through the thin membrane inside her. The sensation was incredible.
“I’m so full.
Stuffed with both of you.”
Affection and lust permeated Ali’s being. She had yet to say the
L
word, but Gray knew it would come in time. They’d spent the week talking, relaxing,
getting
to know one another. And that downtime made this mating all the more powerful, because they all sensed what they hadn’t necessarily said. They loved one another. But more, they’d grown to trust each other.
“Move, Bas.” Gray felt his partner shift, and then he moved. They found a slow, steady rhythm that drove Ali crazy. She tensed between them, wanting more. Gray wondered if she knew what a treasure she was. How lucky he and Bas were to have her to themselves.
“I do. I do know,” she whispered as they fucked.
Bas groaned behind her. “I need to come. I can’t last. Oh shit.
Now.
Need to come
now
.”
Gray wanted to be mean, but he also wanted Bas to know pleasure. His mates’ enjoyment came before his own.
Always, if he had anything to say about it.
“Come, Bas.
Right in that hot ass.”
“Fill me up,” Ali
murmured,
her voice thick and sexy.
Bas shuddered behind her, his bliss impossible to ignore. Then Ali ground harder against Gray’s pelvis, pushed there by Bas. “Oh yes. I’m coming,” she keened and scratched his shoulders when her claws popped out.
Her loss of control pushed Gray past his. He climaxed and continued to come, unloading all the lust, seed, and love he had inside him. The thrill of finally sealing the three of them together was his undoing, and his vision blurred.
“I knew you’d punk out,” Bas teased, watching him over Ali’s shoulder.
Ali lay sandwiched between them, sexy, unbreakable.
Theirs.
Gray felt her energy snap into place with his and Bas’s. Love and contentment settled over the three of them like a warm blanket.
So soft and right.
He couldn’t believe he’d been so against taking a mate. Now he had two.
“And we’re not going anywhere without each other,” Bas reinforced, his low voice
thready
. “Admiral London agreed we need some time off.”
“And I want to meet other Circs. Your sister seems nice. She says you’re the best uncle.”