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Chapter Sixteen
Cerine
We managed to retrieve a fair amount of what the guys had left behind at the tent. One of us had remembered to zip it closed, so the snow didn’t filter in…much…and the three feet or so of white Sierra cement we shoveled off it to get in had kept it safe from animals. If they’d even been out in the awful weather.
I hoped nobody was needing me in the pack. Usually I wasn’t kept away by the weather for more than a half a day at a time, but I told myself that as calm as this morning was, if there was any issue, someone would have already come for me. And even in the worst case, a wolf could get to me with word.
Pale blue when we set out, the sky was rimmed with clouds, but while we worked, those clouds were coming closer, lower, and darker with some weird flashes of light that looked a whole lot like out-of-season lightning.
We finally made it home again, weighed down with the shovels and everything that had once, according to Finton, fit neatly in their packs but now seemed to have expanded to be about all three adults could manage to carry. And even though it was hard, we did a lot more laughing than probably made sense. I crawled out of the tent with my arms full of bedding to find the two kissing, and my reaction was anything but what I might have expected. Seeing them holding one another, lips melding and hips grinding together, something that didn’t stop even when they noticed me watching, my heart was full of love, and my nipples were diamond-tipped with arousal.
Finton winked at me.
But now we were back at the house, safe and warm and inside.
“Just put everything in the corner there.” I gestured to an open space opposite the fireplace. “And go through it later.”
Nobody argued, but after we had some cocoa and the cookies I’d made and hidden away as a surprise when I woke up before anyone this morning, they were ready to get to it and spent the rest of the afternoon sorting through what was salvageable and what was not. It had been too cold to take the time to assess outside. And I was very glad we hadn’t because no sooner had we closed the door behind us than the storm closed in again, this time accompanied by lightning and thunder.
The weather was as weird as everything else in my normally ordered life.
The venison I’d thawed out was tender and delicious, the veggies I roasted with it warm and satisfying, or so my guests told me as we sat around the table and enjoyed the food and one another’s company. But all too soon it was time for bed and decisions to make. The snow was lashing against the windows and the wind howling louder than before, rattling the door. The only reason the whole place wasn’t banging was the huge ancient logs that made up my home. On a night like this, I’d have ordinarily slept in the main room closer to the fire, but that wasn’t an option for the three of us.
And as we’d spent our day together, I’d begun to recognize something. The connection between us was smooth and clean, and breaking it would be foolish. I hadn’t been lonely since I dug them out of that snow bank. Healing had many levels, and after a night spent curled together, these two men were well.
The tea and all my skills had helped them a lot, but what had made all the difference was just being together. Nothing my wolf said or they claimed had made such an impression on me as seeing the sparkle in Trace’s eye this morning.
Nothing.
Just as they belonged together, a couple, so did we…a trio. The strongest of shapes or so I’d been told, and one I was ready to join. And even though they’d made it very clear that they wanted this, I had protested so often, I wasn’t sure how to tell them I was ready to accept their mating.
I’d lived with my mother and grandmother, and I’d lived alone. This was going to be so different.
It was a stretch, and I was scared to death, but I was going to take a chance on life.
We all took showers, and then we sat around and talked about everything and nothing, sharing stories of our childhoods and things we liked and didn’t, but eventually it was late enough that I realized they were waiting to see what I would want to do. Really their patience was astounding. We’d slept together last night, but neither had asked me all day if I planned to join them tonight.
Did they even still want me to? I’d been so sure, and they were pretty clear last night, but today they’d been kind and funny and never called me Mate once.
So, in a fit of nerves, I stood from my chair and cleared my throat. They both looked up at me from where they sat on the daybed, Incat between them, as if I was going to make an announcement or a speech or something…which after my actions, they had every reason to wonder about.
“I-I just wanted to say that, well, that I want to…I think we should…” I had nothing. Even though I knew what I wanted to tell them, words failed me.
Silence broken only by the storm outside and the crackle of the fire filled the space between us until Finton stood up and waved to Trace. “Let’s go to bed, Mates.” He took my hand in his and led me toward the bedroom, escorting me as if I’d never been there before, and I let him. Trace brought up the rear of our little parade. They made me feel safe there, between them, as I had when I’d awakened in the small hours of last night.
Then I’d just snuggled between them, with no expectations to do more, but now…now we were poised to mate and we all knew it.
We stopped next to the bed and I froze, the fear of what might happen nearly overwhelming me. Not just the sex, although that in itself would be something I’d never even imagined. Two men…
Why did I never ask Analise what it was like to be with Tadeo and Sawyer? Because she would have told me, or she might have, and then maybe I’d be even more worried. She seemed happy, though, didn’t she?
Very happy.
So I lifted my face to Trace for his kiss and my arms for Finton to help me out of my robe. I wore nothing underneath, making that decision when I got out of the tub almost on a dare to myself.
Trace lifted his lips from mine and looked me up and down. “You’re so beautiful, Mate,” he murmured. “I can’t believe you’re ours.”
“Maybe, you’re both mine,” I replied.
