Authors: R. E. Butler
“I don’t know, exactly. She looked guilty. Whether it was guilt over what we’d done or guilt over something else, I can’t say, but I had the distinct impression that she wasn’t happy.”
He and James sat in the family room in silence for a little while before they joined the kids in the kitchen. Dom was fitting right in with them all, and it felt to John as if Dom had been part of the family all along. Rue watched the kids as they ate at the long kitchen table. The fake smile was back, but her eyes were a mixture of wariness and sadness.
John just didn’t know how the hell to fix that.
* * * * *
Callie Fallon watched her twin husbands as they readied their three kids to go to Rhett’s house to play for the afternoon while she and the other females in the pride spent time with Rue.
“Come on, Ev,” Eryx complained, “we need to get going to Uncle Rhett’s.”
Evan made a snarling sound, baring his teeth as if he already had fangs. “No shoes, Daddy.”
Eryx growled. “You have to wear shoes.”
Callie smiled. Evan looked at her over Eryx’s head and made a pleading sound. The little pup had a seriously adorable face and made her heart melt all the time. Eryx’s head darted up and he said, “Oh no, you’re not going to sucker your mom into letting you walk around barefoot, young man. Callie, ignore him.”
“Never,” she said with a laugh.
Ethan, who was having no trouble getting both Elliott’s and Cameron’s shoes on, stood as the boys hopped down from their chairs and stomped around in their shoes.
“Come on, Evan,” Elliott urged.
“Yeah, Evan,” Cameron echoed.
Evan folded his arms over his chest with a grunt and glared at Eryx as he slipped on the shoes and stretched the Velcro over the top. Ethan joined her, wrapping his arms around her as he kissed her cheek. His breath skirted over her skin, and she closed her eyes with a hum. “You should call the pride and tell them you’re too busy to have company today,” he whispered into her ear, tugging the lobe between his teeth and making her shiver.
“Unfair dude,” Eryx grumbled. “Leave me with the kids while you entertain our wife.”
“That’s what you get for having a kid who’s just like you,” Ethan teased.
Eryx straightened and smiled. “Handsome?”
“Stubborn.”
Eryx snorted. “Stop feeling her up and help me walk the kids over. I’m not chasing Evan all over the corn fields again.”
Callie giggled when Ethan kissed her neck with a soft purr and pushed away from her. “Fine, fine.”
Ethan swooped in and grabbed Evan, tossing him over his shoulder as he giggled. Callie blew kisses to her sons as her husbands took them out the door.
Lisa smiled broadly. “They’re so adorable. I love them.”
“They love you, too,” she promised.
“Let me keep them tonight? You three look like you could use some time alone.”
Callie almost shouted for her husbands to come back so Lisa could take the kids
right now
, but she bit her tongue. “That would be amazing, thank you.” She had the perfect idea. A night for the three of them capped off with the news of her pregnancy. She’d been waiting for the perfect opportunity to tell them. She couldn’t just blurt it out over breakfast. Ethan and Eryx loved to celebrate baby news in a very special way involving lots of nakedness and screams of pleasure. Even though their bedroom was soundproofed, they almost never went a night without some kind of interruption from the kids.
She and Lisa set up for their lunch. Instead of using the kitchen table, they decided to use the couch and coffee table, bringing a few extra chairs over to make it a more intimate and casual setting. By the time Lisa had made a batch of her famous raspberry lemonade and Callie put the finishing touches on a pasta salad made with cherry tomatoes from her own little garden, the front door opened and Jilly, Sam, and Melody led in a woman with long, white hair and a nervous look in her eyes.
Ethan and Eryx had told Callie about her situation, and Callie had felt so bad for her. She couldn’t imagine what Rue had gone through as a young woman, worried for her and her son’s safety. She really did have the look of a woman who was not planning to stick around. The only thing Callie could hope for was that after spending time with the females in the pride, Rue would see there was safety within the pride and give her relationship with James and John a chance.
“It’s nice to finally meet you,” Callie said brightly, giving Rue a light hug. “I’m Callie, James’ daughter-in-law and John’s niece-in-law. My husbands are Ethan and Eryx.”
Rue said, “I met your husbands the night my son was almost killed. You’re very lucky to have such protective, strong males by your side.”
“I am. They take after their dad.”
Rue’s eyes narrowed ever so slightly and she smiled, but not in a genuine, happy way. Silence hung in the air for a long moment, and then Melody said, “I’m starving. Please tell me you have some of your awesome pasta salad.”
Talk of food quickly filled in the conversational gap, and Callie decided that James and John definitely had their work cut out for them. Rue seemed willing to talk about anything superficial, but anytime that the conversation turned to James and John or to the pride, she closed off again. If Callie didn’t know better, she’d think that Rue was planning to leave. Soon.
Several hours later, Callie waved goodbye to the pride members who were taking Rue back to the boarding house. Lisa was in the kitchen finishing up the dishes and Callie joined her, drying the dishes in the drainer.
“You need a dishwasher, hon.”
“That’s not your job?” Callie asked with a laugh.
Lisa flicked suds at her. “I have enough to do on my own, thanks.”
“I’ll ask them for one for my birthday.”
“That’s romantic,” Lisa said as she rolled her eyes.
“It can be. Fewer dishes mean more free time.” Callie wiggled her brows.
“Well, when you put it that way,” Lisa said, chuckling. “Go pack a bag for your babies, so I can keep them up all night and fill them up with sugar before I bring them back tomorrow.”
“Oh, thanks.”
Lisa’s laughter followed Callie up the stairs as she went to pack an overnight bag for her children. Excitement tightened her stomach when she thought about sharing her news with Ethan and Eryx and having the night to themselves to get lost in each other.
Lisa took the packed bag, gave Callie a quick hug, and promised to keep the kids until after breakfast. Callie knew that Ethan and Eryx would race home as soon as Lisa told them that she was keeping the kids for the night, and she wanted to be ready.
As she headed upstairs once more, she thought she should contact James and John and let them know that Rue looked like a trapped rabbit waiting for the cage door to be opened, but each step up took her farther away from her phone, and she decided to call them in the morning. It couldn’t hurt to wait a night to share her thoughts with them, and the other females would surely talk to James and John anyway.
The sight of their big bed always made her heart pound, and she strode through the bedroom door and kicked off her shoes. She climbed onto the bed and anxiously waited for her mates; all other thoughts besides the news she would share with them were forgotten.
As James followed Rue upstairs that evening, he wondered what was going on in her head. She’d returned from Callie’s house in good spirits, but there was something overly eager about her behavior, as if she was trying to behave a certain way because she thought it was expected of her. He wanted to ask her about it, but he was afraid to upset her, and he wasn’t entirely sure that he wasn’t just looking for problems because he was afraid she was going to bolt.
When she returned from Callie’s, she had helped make dinner. John was working until nine at the station, and Rue had insisted on leaving a plate for him in the microwave so he didn’t have to scrounge for food when he got home. Dom had picked an empty bedroom on the third floor to use, and after dinner, Rue had helped James and the boys make the bed. The room was across from Henry’s, and the two were already talking about painting the room and making a workshop for Dom to create his carvings. James had never seen anyone as talented as Dom. He’d borrowed a pocketknife and went out into the woods, coming back a few minutes later with a thick tree branch. An hour later, he’d carved a miniature mountain lion from a section of the branch that was so detailed it looked real.
Rue had remained quiet as they’d listened to the boys plan how to decorate the room for Dom, which had made James even more suspicious. As he followed Rue to the second floor, he cursed inwardly. He hated feeling suspicious of his mate. He hated that he felt like he needed to watch her every move because she still looked like she wanted to flee.
She stopped in front of John’s bedroom door and said, “Where are we sleeping tonight?”
“My room,” he answered, “unless you want us to set you up with a room of your own.”
Her brows rose in surprise. “What?”
“You haven’t exactly accepted that John and I are your mates, Rue. I don’t know what’s going through your head.”
“What about what we did earlier today?” She leaned against the wall next to the door.
“What about it?” he answered, irritably.
A look of hurt passed through her eyes so fast that James almost missed it. Almost. He groaned in frustration and gripped her elbow, pulling her down to his room. He pushed the door open and pulled her through, slamming it shut. He pressed her against the door, caging her in with his hands flat on the hard wood on either side of her head.
“You frustrate the hell out of me, Rue. One minute you’re a goddess on your knees, the next you’re aloof as fuck. I don’t know what to say or do. You won’t agree that you’re our mate, but you let us mark you.”
She made a face. “You didn’t exactly ask me.”
“You could have pushed us away or said no. We’re not ogres.”
“Why did you mark me?” She tilted her face up until she was staring into his eyes.
“Because you’re mine,” he answered simply. “Because I wanted to go to your clan and show them physical proof that we were going to stand with you. They couldn’t deny that we were your mates if they saw our marks on your neck. I don’t know about panthers, but for mountain lions the marks are as good as marriage.”
His hands flexed and the wood bit into his fingers. Part of him wanted to punch his fist through the door in frustration and part of him wanted to fall to his knees and beg her to be his. He did nothing, though, but stare down at her.
Silence stretched between them for long enough that James found himself holding his breath, worried that he would say or do something foolish and ruin the moment. She moved so slowly at first, that he wasn’t sure he was imagining it. Her hands grasped his hips, her fingertips digging into his flesh. She tugged and he let her pull him close, bending his arms until they were mere inches apart. As if she’d been holding back her feelings but decided to let go, the air was suddenly saturated with the scent of her arousal, and every muscle in his body snapped tight with anticipation.
“Rue,” he said her name hoarsely.
She arched her back and rubbed the front of her body against his; the rough touch of denim against denim made his cock ache.
“I’m right here,” she said huskily. She grasped his shirt with both hands and tugged it from his jeans, pushing it up as she leaned forward and kissed the center of his chest.
He gripped the back of his shirt and tugged it off. “You are, aren’t you? Here with me?”
She peeked up at him from the corner of her eye. “I’m here.”
He reached for her shirt and she pressed against his hands. “No.”
He froze, his fingers hanging in midair between them. “What?”
Her eyes widened, and she looked impossibly small and frail. “I don’t want you to see the brand.”
“I already saw it.”
“That was different.”
“Why, because you thought you were going to be sacrificing yourself for your son?”
Her nostrils flared and the sweet scent of her arousal began to fade. Suddenly, getting her naked wasn’t as important as helping her come to terms with her past. Taking her hand, he tugged her toward the bed. She stumbled at first, her feet trying to gain purchase on the soft carpet, but he was insistent and she didn’t really try to stop moving.
He pointed to the bed. Everyone said he was a control freak. He was beginning to believe that a little about himself, too. “Take off the shirt and lay down.”
“James.” She said his name, half in protest, half in a husky tone that belied her arousal.
“I’m going to look at your brand, touch it, trace it with my fingers. You’re going to let me.”
“Why?” Her eyes went wide again, and her mouth parted as she began to pant for breath.
“Because you’re mine. You’re bothered by the brand, but I’ll show you that it’s meaningless. It has
no
power over you, except the power that you give it.”
She stared at him, her fingers twisting in her shirt. Then she ripped the shirt over her head and reached behind to unhook her bra. Tossing it to the floor, she flopped down on the bed on her stomach, with her white hair spilling over her back, and her entire body tensed as if she was waiting for someone to strike her.
He climbed onto the bed and straddled her thighs. With slow, gentle movements, he gathered her silky hair and moved it off her back to expose the brand that had made her an outcast. When he’d first looked at it, he’d thought it was ugly, made of sharp edges and thick swirls. There were no words written into the brand, no warnings about what it meant. To an outsider, it simply looked like a pattern, two separate, identical brands that had been pressed into her back by her parents. They almost looked like wings.
The two brands together spanned her upper back, from shoulder to shoulder, thickest toward her shoulder and thinnest over her spine, where the two brands met, halfway down her back. The pain must have been excruciating.
She trembled and he glanced at her face, noticing that her eyes were squeezed shut and her hands were closed into tight fists.
He placed his hands onto her waist and squeezed gently. Sliding his hands up her sides, he let his thumbs brush the very edges of her brand. She shivered and made a soft sound, but didn’t tell him to stop. He ran his hands up and down her sides a few times, calming her under his firm touch, until he felt her relax. He swept his fingers over the edges of the brand, feeling the texture of the raised marks that was oddly smooth, even though they looked rough.
With as much care as he could muster, he traced the swirls of the design, following the swoops and curves, the sharp points and curls. His fingers were numb from the motions, but he didn’t care. Every time he traced the brands, he felt her relax further and settle deeper into the mattress. Her hands unclenched; her eyes weren’t squeezed shut like a child waiting for a vaccination.
He leaned forward and kissed the center of her back, where the two brands met. She gasped. He let his tongue trace the bottom of the brand, and a shiver wracked her body, and the scent of her arousal spiked in the air again.
He massaged her sides with his hands and kissed and licked his way around the brands that covered her upper back, willing her to let go of the old pain and fears that kept her so tightly from them.
He kissed a sharp point, thinking it reminded him of a claw and leaned forward over her. Kissing her cheek, he nuzzled her hair and inhaled her sweet scent. He slid one hand underneath her body and cupped her pussy through her jeans. Her hips flexed, and she ground herself against his hand with a soft purr.
“I love that sound, baby,” he said and pressed harder, grinding his heel against the top of her pussy.
She purred again, lifting her hips and pressing herself to him. If she kept rubbing against him, he was going to come in his pants like a teenager, and he didn’t want that.
“I want to taste you, Rue,” he whispered, his mouth watering at the thought of stroking her pussy with his tongue.
She eased onto her back, her hands settling on his arms. “I want that, too.”
He leaned forward and pressed his lips to hers, and she opened her mouth immediately, teasing his tongue with her own. Her hands moved up his arms, across his shoulders, and linked behind his neck. Their tongues touched and teased, and her groans of pleasure from something so simple as kissing made him want to howl in pride.
He left her mouth and kissed down her neck, licking the mark that he’d made. He followed her collarbone to the hollow of her throat and kissed down the center of her chest. He plumped her breasts with his hands, lifting up enough to kiss the tight nipples and caress them with his tongue. Her hands speared into his hair, and she groaned loudly, writhing under him as he sucked one of the hard buds into his mouth.
She fisted his hair tighter and groaned, but the sound wasn’t as happy as he thought it would be, and he released her nipple and gazed up to find her looking torn and unhappy.
“What’s wrong? Am I moving too fast?”
“No, it’s just that I don’t feel right.”
“How so?”
“I want…” she whispered, and he blew a stream of cold air over her wet nipple and she moaned softly.
“What do you want? It’s yours, whatever it is.”
“I want John, too. I want both of you.” Her head thrashed back and forth. “I don’t know why, but I want him here with us.”
“Because he’s your mate, too,” James answered.
“I should be happy with just you,” she said, stroking her fingers through his hair. “You’re amazing. I can’t explain it, but the way you touched my brand made it feel different, like it doesn’t hold the same meaning as it did before. I want to make love to you, James, but I also want John with us. Are you angry?” She bit her lip.
“Of course not. He’s your mate, too.”
“It’s a good thing I’m here, then,” John said as the door shut quietly and the lock clicked.
Rue gasped and looked at John. James eased to Rue’s side, stretching out next to her so John could see her.
Rue didn’t say anything, she simply held out one hand to John and silently asked him to join them. James kissed her cheek and then lowered his mouth to her breast, capturing the nipple between his lips.
He was aware on some level when John and Rue touched, as if a connection had finally snapped together between the three of them. This was how it was supposed to be, James decided, as he licked and sucked her nipple. Two males caring for one female in every way she wanted and needed. James might like to take control of situations, but John’s softer side would temper that, and together they’d be perfect for Rue.
* * * * *
John hadn’t expected to come home from his shift and find his brother on the bed with a half-naked Rue. At first, he’d been jealous, thinking that James had taken advantage of John’s absence to connect with Rue, but then he’d heard the conversation between them and knew that James wasn’t trying to rush her. Knowing that Rue also wanted John to touch her, not just James, made him so happy he couldn’t stop from purring enthusiastically as he walked to the bed and took her offered hand.
He almost climbed onto the bed, but realized he was still wearing his uniform. She watched him take off his shirt, hanging it over a chair in the corner. He hooked his belt over the arm of the chair and paused with his fingers on the fastener of his pants. James and Rue both still wore pants.
“Come here, John,” she said, her voice husky with arousal, her fingers crooking and beckoning him.
He strode to her, trying to calm his wild pulse. She reached out, letting go of her hold on James’ hair and opening the button of John’s pants before lowering the zipper. The air froze in John’s lungs as she tugged the pants down his hips. His cock throbbed against the thin fabric of his boxer briefs. His pants slipped to the floor and pooled at his feet.
James went to his knees, as he and John reached for her jeans, undoing them and tugging them and her panties down her legs. James tossed the jeans behind him and slipped from the bed. As James stripped completely, John stepped from his pants, shoving his shorts off with hands that were suddenly trembling. He couldn’t remember how long it had been since he’d had sex, but he’d never made love.