I grabbed her hand and covered it with the other one. “Posy, you are our mate. We don’t want to live without you, but we will respect your decision. We can choose you all day but you have to choose us as well.”
She stared at the fire so long, I lost a bit of hope. All three of us head over heels in love with this woman, but that meant nothing if she didn’t feel the same.
“I always loved the idea of fated mates,” she said to the fire. “Meeting that one person, or people, who would make me a priority and love me no matter what. I thought Fate reserved those gifts for shifters only, but you three have proven me wrong.”
Hope throbbed in my chest again.
“I’m yours if you want me. I’m stubborn sometimes and determined and can be over-focused. And I isolate when I’m upset, but I do love the three of you. I want nothing more than to go wherever you go. Adventuring and living to the fullest.”
“We absolutely want you, Posy. All of us,” I said. We took turns hugging her and whispering to her.
Posy stood and ducked inside the tent.
“Where are you going?” Judah asked.
She kicked her shoes off and gripped the hem of her shirt. “What? You said I was your mate. But I don’t feel very mated or marked. I think we should do something about that, don’t you?” The tee hit the floor. “Well?”
Judah jumped up and almost sprinted to the tent. “Fuck, yes!”
Chapter Twenty-One
Posy
I had to be living in a dream. During our two days of hiking and camping out on the mountain, we talked about everything in life up to now. First-date stuff, other humans might call it, but to me, it was everything. No detail too small, no story too long. By the time we returned to camp and they moved me out of that silly trailer and into their tent, I was ready to sign on for the long term, and they’d made it clear they were too.
For all the years my parents wanted me to meet my fated. I prayed they were right but believed it couldn’t happen for a human. Fate smiled on shifters, gifting them with mates. Humans were lucky to find a spouse who didn’t end up divorcing them in the first five years of marriage.
My hopes for a lifetime of love had been low.
The Mail-Order Matings app had been a Hail Mary play, one I never expected to succeed. But as I left a trail of clothing on my way to lie on the sleeping bags they’d used to create our nest for our first night together where nobody was a bear, I had to admit, it worked pretty well.
Still, a flicker of nerves arrived as I awaited them. I’d never even made love with one person, much less three. And so big. Did their imposing height mean their male parts would also be larger than normal?
The wide doorway had plenty of room for one person or even two average people to enter at the same time, but three broad-shouldered bear shifters overfilled it, leaving me giggling again at their antics.
They had the ability to take the most serious situations and turn them into something lively and fun. Would they be intimidatingly large?
Quite possibly. And I’d heard the first time could be painful. But as I watched them finally achieve their goal of getting inside, I also knew that they would be kind and tender and never hurt me. Not any more than could be helped, at least.
Having grown up in a wolf pack, nudity wasn’t shocking to me. I’d seen the guys shift to their bears, so their impressive muscles and long, straight limbs weren’t a surprise. But that had been for the purpose of shifting which, in their world, was not sexual.
The stripping off of their clothes now?
A whole other sleuth. Once they finished, once they were nude, they would not be taking their fur and curling around me in innocent affection. They would be mating and marking me. I searched my mind for a doubt, for a reason not to go through with it.
Nothing. Not one negative in being their mate. Holding out my arms, I reached for them, positive I was the luckiest person in the world.
They lay down as well, their great size making me feel small and delicate. Judah kissed me first, cupping my chin, lifting my face toward his. Warm hands stroked down my side, and I knew it was Saber without anyone needing to tell me. Aldrin caressed me from the other side, and I heated from the inside out. As much as their bears had warmed me from the outside. Their two natures had never been clearer to me, nor what it would mean to be their mate. More than lack of doubt, the love that had been growing since I first spoke with them spilled from my eyes in the form of tears.
“Mate?” Judah lifted his lips from mine and studied my face. “Why are you crying?”
“I’m so happy,” I told him, caressing his cheek. “I guess it’s just pouring out. Make love to me, Judah.”
He was large, and when he knelt between my legs, he positioned himself with great care. “I’ll try not to hurt you.”
“I don’t mind.”
He penetrated me slowly, stretching me while the others continued to touch me, palming my breasts, nibbling my throat and earlobes… “You’ve got this, Posy,” he murmured. “Relax a little more. That’s it.” He drove forward and it hurt. It hurt so badly but only for a moment before all of their touching and his filling me came together to change the pain to pleasure.
