AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I’m starving. Is the kitchen still open?” Rafe asked.
“Absolutely,” Connie said.
“Then a burger and double fries,” he said. “And apple pie with ice cream for after.”
“Make that two,” Rhaider said, “but I’ll take a piece of that chocolate pie I saw in the case when we walked by.”
“Perfect. I’ll be right back.”
“You sure you don’t want to eat more than a piece of pie?” Rafe asked.
“I’m sure,” Demi said. “I might steal some fries though.”
“Steal away,” Rafe said. “Everything we have is yours.”
“Not that we have much at the moment,” Rhaider said. “We’re basically homeless until we get a permanent gig and get settled. Hopefully you don’t think less of us for that.”
“Hell no,” Demi said. “You’re so brave! I don’t think I could ever just pick up and travel the country, even with Hemi and some friends.”
“It was self-preservation more than bravery,” Rafe said. “We didn’t want to be split up by a match-maker.”
“It’s not normal for lions to share a mate. Is it for bears?” she asked.
Rafe shook his head. “As far as we know, it’s not happened in our clan’s history. When we realized we wanted to share a mate, it was a surprise, but it feels very right to us. Our bears are in sync in our feelings.”
“Honestly,” Rhaider said, “we’ve known there was a possibility that when we did find our mate, she might not want to share herself with two males. We were hopeful, but it’s been at the back of our minds that we might have to deal with a female who wouldn’t be shared.”
She let that roll around in her head. “What would you have done?”
Rafe shrugged. “We talked about it, but we didn’t know. If you only wanted one of us, I’m not sure how we would handle it. We both feel connected to you as a heart-match. If you didn’t feel the same way, then we’d have to have a serious talk about what to do.”
“Did you think it would happen? That you’d find a female to share?”
“We hoped so,” Rhaider said. “It’s a surprise to us that we found you, though. It was our dream to find our heart-match and that she’d be willing to be shared by us. We had no idea if that was a possibility. We thought we might be bachelors forever.”
“Prides are pretty traditional,” she said. “I suspect that clans are too?”
“Yep,” Rafe said. “Our alpha only allows bears to be part of the clan, so even if he agreed with us sharing a mate, you wouldn’t be allowed to be part of the clan simply because you’re a lion.”
“It was like that with the pride before our current alpha, Duke, took over. He changed the laws so lions can mate whoever they want and still remain in the pride.”
“That’s pretty progressive,” Rhaider said.
“While that’s true, I think us being a mated trio might raise some eyebrows. I have no idea how my parents are going to react, or the rest of the pride. It matters but it also doesn’t matter. I want you guys to be accepted but a lack of acceptance by my family or the pride wouldn’t make me change my mind about you.”
Rafe put his hand on hers and gave it a squeeze. “We feel the same way.”
“We’re really glad we came to Kedrick, Demi. You were worth the wait.”
She grinned, her lioness letting out a low, happy purr.
The food arrived and Demi thanked Connie for the extra-large slice of three-berry pie and the generous scoop of vanilla bean ice cream.
“That looks great,” Rhaider said.
“So does yours,” she said. “Randy makes great burgers.”
“Want a bite?” he asked.
