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“Hey, little miss. I’ve missed you so.” I went straight for Kymber’s hellion on four paws. Marisol had come into this world screaming, and her energy hadn’t stopped yet. She shifted years before anyone expected her to. She kept us all on our toes, and now with her brother and Kat’s little one only a year older shifting as well, it looked like the next generation was going to keep us hopping for years.
She held her chubby little arms out to me, and I grabbed her, swinging her in the air before snuggling her close. I could feel my womb clench, weeping at its emptiness as she babbled nonsense while she played and pulled on my hair. A deep-seated need to have my own cubs shocked me. My fear spiked at possibly not being able to, and tears formed again. I wondered if I would ever go another day without crying over one thing or another.
“Boys, your mate is in dire need of girl time. Don’t you have something you could go do for a couple hours?” Kat began herding them toward the door. “Aren’t there moving boxes calling your names?”
I laughed at the expressions on their faces. I could tell Niko wanted to tell her no, while Miguel hung his head, trying to hide his own laugh. You didn’t tell the Alpha’s mate no when she gave you a veiled order.
“We’ll be back in two hours.” Niko straightened his shoulders and looked down at Kat. He turned his eyes to me. “If you need us, we are a simple word away.”
Instead of turning to go out the door, they both stepped around Kat and approached me. Niko cupped my cheek, ignoring Marisol’s slobbery fingers as she grabbed his wrist. He leaned down and gave me a kiss that had my toes curling. Miguel stepped forward as Niko slowly retreated to kiss me goodbye as well. His kiss was full of love and promise and warmed my nerve endings from the inside out.
“Remember, we love you, always and forever,” Miguel whispered, touching his forehead to mine before turning and walking out the door with Niko.
Kat shut the door behind them and faced me. “Now, tell me what the hell has you so stirred up. I have felt you more strongly over the last four days than I ever have. Leo has had to block all three of you, but what I felt today concerned me, so I decided to come see for myself.” She took Marisol from my arms as another knock sounded on the door. She opened it to a waiting Kymber and DJ. “Perfect timing.” She handed Marisol to DJ. “Give us two hours.” She pulled Kymber inside and shut the door on a shocked DJ before he could reply.
Kymber burst into giggles. “Five bucks says he heads up to your house to get Leo to help with the kids.”
“Probably, I don’t often give orders, but this warranted the Alpha’s mate to decree how things are going to go.”
I giggled, too. “You should have seen the expressions on Niko’s and Miguel’s faces when she gave them the ‘suggestion’ to go move things.” I air quoted. “They both know her suggestions are simply a veiled order from the Alpha’s mate.”
Yet another knock sounded at the door. I raised a brow at Kat, wondering who else she invited to this party.
“Don’t worry, it will be the last interruption.” She answered the door, whispered a thanks, and spun around with two large take-out bags in her hands.
“Where the hell did you get take-out?” I recognized the label as the one from my favorite little café in town, which was a good hour’s drive from the compound.
“I called in a favor and pulled a couple strings.” She beamed.
My stomach roared as the aroma of Enzo’s wrapped around us. Enzo’s was this little family-owned Italian restaurant in Paratay that I had been introduced to on a rare girls’ outing this past year. I loved their pasta, and the tiramisu was to die for.
“I’ll clear the coffee table.” Kymber offered as Kat followed with the bags. Like a love-sick puppy, I followed the bags of food, my mouth watering as I remembered how each dish tasted.
Plates, silverware, and napkins came out first, followed by four large aluminum pans. A variety of their best dishes. Steaks medium rare with loaded baked potatoes and piles of steamed vegetables. Spaghetti with meatballs the size of a fist, followed by chicken Alfredo. I dished a heaping pile on my plate and rudely started shoveling food into my mouth. Kymber poured us glasses of wine and cleared away the lids and bags, giving us more room for yet more food.
“Desserts,” she announced. “One container for each of us with slices of all their most famous, including an oversized tiramisu for you and New York cheesecake for Kat.” She placed the still covered containers in front of us, our names written on them.
“Thank you,” I mumbled between bites.
“No thanks needed.” Kat cut her steak into bites like a normal person. “I remember those first few days. Actually, it was weeks for me.” She smiled. “Food was the furthest thing from our minds.”
“Yeah, it took all my willpower to let Diego get up to make us food occasionally.” A slight blush crept up Kymber’s neck.
“It’s nothing to be ashamed of. It’s part of the mate bond. Once it’s solidified, the need to couple and procreate is beyond control.” Kat took another delicate bite as the forkful of pasta paused on its journey to my mouth.
“Oh, no, she didn’t mean what you think,” Kymber quickly added. “It’s the natural pull that keeps us wrapped up in each other. It doesn’t mean that bonded couples or throuples....is that even a word?” A chuckle escaped her between bites. “It is now,” she declared. “Stop their lives and start churning out cubs. We are just trying to explain why our bodies and our animals drive us to have so much sex to the point we forget our bodies need nourishment.”
I nodded, having learned that at a young age when mates were vaguely explained. My mother had built up my hopes before shattering them when she said that bonded mates were something of the past. That what she had told me was just a fairy tale, and reality was nothing like it. She believed that fate had given up on our species and had left us to dwindle away into nothingness.
I shook off the melancholy threatening to drown me and focused on my two best friends. I finished my plate of food and pulled my dessert container in front of me. Now that my belly was happily filled, I wanted to take my time enjoying the delicacies that waited beneath the cover. I sipped the wine Kymber had poured, enjoying the sweet tang of it and the slight carbonation. Moscato, my favorite.
“Now that you are happily fed…” Kat leaned back against the couch. “Tell us what has you so twisted up inside that you are lighting up your pack bond like a neon sign.”
“What? It wasn’t intentional.” Embarrassment flowed through me. “I’ve just been having a lot of doubts running through my head. Niko and Miguel actually helped me work through some earlier. They aren’t gone, but I feel better having shared with them. Maybe now that they know, I won’t jump off the cliff back into the single life like I wanted to.”
Kymber gasped at my declaration, but Kat only nodded. “I wondered if that would be an issue. You have been given a wonderful gift with not one but two mates. I think fate knew that it would take more than one strong male to be your equal. I also think she knew that Niko and Miguel would each give you the balance you have craved for so long. Accepting you for you no matter what. You still have a long road ahead of you, but with them by your side, I don’t believe anything is beyond your reach.”
“She said it better than I ever could.” Kymber smiled. “But I agree with her, and if it helps, so do Leo and Diego. Mack and Casey were over the moon when they found out, and you all have an open invitation to visit any time you want.”
