Authors: R. E. Butler
Her life was her own, finally.
Even though she knew the
spariso
was binding and she and Dom would be safe here, she still planned to leave. James and John were too good to be saddled with her for the rest of their lives. She’d leave at the earliest possible opportunity. Shushing her cat, she let herself go into their hold and let out all the pent up emotions she’d held in for so many years.
It felt good to cry and lean on them, when she’d spent so long being the strong one. It was a luxury she was only going to enjoy this once, no matter how her heart longed to let down the walls she’d built around herself to keep anyone from getting close.
After Rue finished crying, John and James held her a little while longer in comfortable silence. John was amazed at how right she felt in his arms and how enjoyable it had been to sleep next to her. She sighed and leaned away from them, wiping under her eyes with her fingertips and brushing away the lingering tears.
“I feel like saying thank you isn’t strong enough for how I feel about what you both did for me. You don’t know me, but you stood with me and were willing to be hurt on my behalf. I don’t understand it, but I’m thankful for it. Thankful for both of you.”
James said, “We’re your mates, Rue. I know we haven’t done things properly – we haven’t asked you to be ours, we haven’t even gone out on a date – but that doesn’t change the core of what we are together. John and I are yours and you are ours. You don’t need to thank us for protecting you, because that’s what mates do.”
John watched Rue’s reaction to James’ speech. John felt each word as strongly as James clearly did, but Rue had almost no response to what he’d said. Her eyes had narrowed slightly, but that was the only reaction that John had seen. She didn’t look quite as wary as she had before they’d eaten, but she didn’t seem to be entirely relaxed either. There was an artificial stillness to her body, as if she were trying to make herself appear to be relaxed when she wasn’t.
“Let’s go see your son,” John said. He stood and offered her his hand, which she accepted after a long moment.
He didn’t let go of her hand as he led her out of the bedroom and down the hall. James walked on her other side, holding her hand. James told her about the pride members who lived in the boarding house with them. “The kids are on the second floor, except for Henry who lives on the third floor. The single males all live on the third floor, along with some of the mating trios.”
“Dag told us that matings with multiple partners, like Wyked and Fate with my daughter, Jilly, are not usual. It seems that mountain lions almost always have two males for one female.”
“I don’t remember any multiple matings from before I was banished, but I suppose when it comes to supernatural creatures, there isn’t really anything that’s ‘normal.’”
They walked down the stairs to the first floor and turned toward the kitchen. Aaron, Grant, and Sam stood at the island, talking quietly.
Sam stepped forward quickly and hugged Rue. “I’m so glad you’re okay, Rue.”
Rue dropped James’ and John’s hands quickly and hugged Sam, a look of surprise on Rue’s face. “Thank you.” Her eyes flicked to Aaron and Grant. “Thank you for standing with your brothers on my behalf.”
Aaron said, “You’re our brothers’ mate, and that means you’re family. One thing you’ll figure out really quickly with our pride is that once a mate is claimed, she becomes part of the pride in a heartbeat.”
“I’m not claimed,” Rue said.
Sam’s brow arched. “You have marks on your neck.”
Rue’s hand covered one of the marks and she blushed. “Oh, right.”
James growled softly, and John frowned. She couldn’t have forgotten about them marking her neck. It hadn’t been a traditional marking – they hadn’t been making love and marked her in the throes of passion – but that didn’t make the marks any less binding in John’s mind. She was their mate. Period.
Aaron’s brows raised but he said nothing, reaching to Sam and tugging her back. “I need to get to the station, love.”
While Aaron and Sam seemed to forget that there were other people in the room as they began their goodbye kiss, John tugged Rue’s hand and led her out of the kitchen and into the large family room. The flat screen TV that hung over the fireplace was turned off for a change, and all three couches were full of kids.
On one of the couches, a large white panther was stretched out, and Henry sat next to him, his head resting on his hand and his eyes closed in sleep. Aaron’s and Grant’s kids played quietly on iPads.
Owen looked up when they walked into the room and whispered, “We’re watching over them so they can sleep.”
It never ceased to amaze John how caring mountain lions were. It wasn’t a learned behavior; it was just their way. At least for the males, anyway. The females were an entirely different story; one that he and James needed to apprise Rue of at some point.
Rue sank down to her knees in front of Dom and gently placed her hands on his fur. John was pleased to see that most of his wounds had healed without leaving scars. There were some marks that remained even after the shifting. He wasn’t sure if Dom could continue to shift and heal, or if he was going to be stuck with scars. The important thing wasn’t the scars that would be left behind, but that Dom had survived.
John brushed his fingers through Henry’s hair and his eyes popped open. “Oh, hey,” Henry said, stretching and yawning.
“How are you doing?” John asked.
“Okay.” He glanced at Dom. “He’s okay now.”
As if Dom knew he was being talked about, the big cat rolled onto his back with a purr and kicked his feet against Henry’s shoulder. Henry laughed and shoved back. “Stop putting your paws on me, man.”
Dom snorted, his whiskers twitching under blue eyes that sparkled with mischief. He rolled to his feet and slipped down to the floor, stretching first and shaking himself out, before butting his head against Rue’s shoulder.
“Hey, baby,” she said, her voice thick with emotion.
Dom yowled and rubbed against her shoulder once more before he padded away behind one of the couches. There were some pained grunts and a few soft curses, and then a young male with short, white hair stood up behind the couch. A scar ran diagonally down his chest, stopping at his navel, and another scar seemed to wrap around his waist to his back, but otherwise, he seemed healthy.
Henry stood and grabbed a pile of clothes from the coffee table and tossed them to Dom. Dom dressed and Henry said, “Micah brought clothes for Dom earlier.”
“That was nice of him,” John said.
“He was naked,” Ben said, shaking his head. “Mom said that was not okay.”
Rue looked up at John from where she still knelt on the floor. “Mom?”
“Sam is their mom,” James answered, “Technically step-mom, but we don’t split hairs here.”
She stood and turned to watch Dom tug a shirt over his head before she passed between the couches to stand in front of her son. There was only a brief moment of silence before they hugged, and Rue began to whisper
I’m sorry
over and over. John wanted to go hold her tightly and promise that nothing like that would ever happen again, but he didn’t want to intrude on their time.
John turned toward the younger kids and shooed them out of the room to give Rue and Dom privacy. Not that he and James had any intention of going anywhere, and neither, apparently, did Henry.
When their hug ended, Rue brushed tears from her cheeks and sniffled with a smile up at her son. “How do you feel?”
“Like I went ten rounds with a whip,” he said wryly.
Henry snorted from where he sat on the couch. Dom looked at him and said, “Thank you, brother.”
For a heartbeat, Rue frowned so fiercely at her son that John would have winced to have that look directed at himself. Why didn’t she like Dom and Henry calling each other brother? Rue smiled sweetly at Henry, but the smile didn’t quite reach her eyes. “Thank you.”
Henry frowned, but didn’t say anything.
Tense silence followed for a long moment and then Dom said, “Mom, aren’t you going to introduce me?”
She blushed and cleared her throat. “Sure. Domino, this is James and John Fallon. I think you know John’s son, Henry.”
Dom strode over to them and extended his hand. James shook it first and then John did. Dom tilted his head and smiled lopsidedly, and then he grabbed John in a hug. “Doesn’t feel right shaking hands. Henry told me that you guys were going to take the whipping meant for my mom. Thank you.”
John hugged him back and then released him, watching him hug James. “It would have been our honor to stand in both of your places.”
Dom looked between James and John and then said, “Because we’re family.”
Before John could agree with him, Rue hissed, “Dom!”
Dom looked both confused and guilty as he turned to face his mom. “What?”
“We need to talk, honey.”
James growled and John echoed the sound. What was she planning to talk to her son about?
“Henry, why don’t you take Dom into the kitchen and let him raid the fridge?” James suggested.
Dom’s face lit up at the prospect of food, and he and Henry walked out together. As he watched the two males walk away, John was surprised at how quickly the two had taken to each other. They really did seem like brothers, even though they didn’t physically look like each other. When the mountain lion males had started pairing up to share a mate, John had wondered what would happen to Henry, because he was the odd one out of the kids. Aaron and Grant had five kids between them, and even though they were still fairly young, they had seemed to take to pairing up lately, as if they were already choosing the male they would share a mate with. James’ son, Alek, had wondered who he would share a mate with, or if being alone meant that he would never have a mate to share, but he’d found his mate in were-bear Lachlyn and Lachlyn’s were-bear lover, Jericho. Jericho and Alek acted like brothers now, sharing Lachlyn and taking care of her.
Some lions didn’t share, though. He supposed that sharing a mate wasn’t a rule necessarily so much as a choice or a feeling that it was right to share. He hadn’t really given much thought to sharing a mate until James mentioned it after his disastrous date. Now, though, he couldn’t imagine being with Rue without James sharing in their lives together. Of course they had to convince her to stay with them. Judging by her reaction to Dom’s declaration that they were now
family
, John imagined that might be a more difficult task than he’d originally believed.
“I should go take care of Dom,” Rue said, stiffly. She attempted to walk by them, but James snagged her arm and pulled her between them.
“He’s fine. We need to talk,” James said sternly.
Her whole body went rigid, and she narrowed her eyes at the two of them. “Let me go. I want to take care of my son.”
James shook his head. “Do you really think he’s not safe here? What is it going to take for you to realize that you’re safe and free?”
She smiled, but not in a friendly way. “How about you let me go? Then I’ll feel
free
.”
John decided to try to be a little less hard-edged than James. James had a tendency to act like a bulldozer sometimes, when he was trying to do what he thought was best for the people he cared about. “Rue, your former clan is gone. No one in this house, or anywhere else, cares that you have white hair or that your cat is albino. You are absolutely free to do whatever you’d like with your life.”
“I know that,” she said irritably, tugging on her arm but finding James’ hold unrelenting.
“What do you want?” John asked.
“I want to feel safe and I don’t.”
“How can we help with that?”
“You can’t. It’s my brain that’s not registering the truth of the situation. I know what Race said, and I understand what he’s done to give me back my life and mine and Dom’s future, but I’ve been on the run for a long time. I’m not just going to do a one-eighty and be all sunshine and roses.”
James snorted. “We don’t want you to be fake for our benefit, but we don’t want you rushing off trying to protect yourself and Dom. The threat is gone, but even if it wasn’t, we aren’t going to let anything hurt you or your son. I know that us asking for your trust, when you don’t know us very well is difficult, but we’re asking you to trust your cat. She knows that we are your mates and that we will keep you safe. Let down your defenses and relax.”
She opened her mouth and then closed it, sighing loudly. “Give me time. I can’t flip a switch and suddenly be different.”
John took a step closer to her, and the sweet natural scent of her skin made his cat purr. He brushed his fingers down her arm and captured her hand, twining their fingers together. He lifted her hand to his lips and kissed the top, keeping his eyes fixed on hers. “We’ve got the rest of our lives, Rue, so there’s no rush for anything. What’s happening between us can go at your pace. Just don’t shut us out.”
She smiled wanly. “You’re dangerous, John Fallon.”
* * * * *
If Rue was going to find a way to get her and Dom on the road back to Michigan so they could move to Canada, she was going to have her work cut out for her. The two males seemed intent on staying very close to her.
As they seemed to be engaging in some kind of stare-down, she considered her options. The odds of them just relaxing their guard and letting her skip out of the house with Dom in tow seemed slim to none, at least for the moment. She’d have to wait until they were asleep and sneak out that way.
“Where is my rental car?”