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Chapter 19
Amelia
Sunlight streaming through the gauze curtains woke me. I reached out to my mates only to find myself alone in bed. The red numbers on my alarm clock read just past five o’clock. With the intensity of the light coming in, I assumed that it was P.M.
I flopped onto my back, every muscle in my body sore and my lady bits throbbing in time with my heartbeat. Every ache brought a smile to my face as I remembered exactly what brought it on. The last romp a mere few hours ago. By the time I showered and ate something, they would be healed and ready to go again.
Then reality set in. We couldn’t hide out in my house or in my bed for the rest of our lives. Niko and Miguel showed me the pleasure this mating could and would bring, but what happened when we emerged and faced the pride and the outside world? Would we be accepted or shunned? I had never heard of anyone having two mates. On top of that, could I find a way to fit into every aspect of their lives, even inside the club?
My doubts ate away at my heart as I showered, and by the time I had dressed in my favorite jeans and T-shirt, I had convinced myself that fate had made a mistake. There was no way I was worthy of one, let alone two mates. The last day was amazing, but it was just sex. Mind-blowing and life-altering sex, but that had nothing to do with a mate bond.
Miguel was lounging on my couch when I emerged, but Niko was nowhere to be found.
“Good morning, sunshine,” Miguel greeted me.
“You mean good afternoon,” I grumpily replied back. My mood was diving into darkness faster than a cliff diver into the ocean. I ignored his outstretched hand and made my way into the kitchen. My stomach growled, demanding to be fed.
“Here, let me make you something,” Miguel offered as he snuggled up behind me, wrapping his arms around my stomach.
“Thanks, but I’m good. I can make my own food.” I pulled out of his embrace and moved to the cupboard, making sure I didn’t touch him in the process. I grabbed a large baking potato, rotini pasta, and the new bottle of Italian dressing.
“Really, Amelia, please let me. It would bring me great pleasure to provide a meal for my mate,” Miguel insisted.
I rolled my eyes. “Your ‘mate,’” I air quoted the word, “is perfectly capable of making her own meal.” Irritation pricked my skin having him in my kitchen.
He gently grabbed my elbow before I could turn and took the steak my mouth was watering for out of my refrigerator. “Hey, what’s wrong?” I looked at him and quickly glanced away, unable to handle the hurt I saw in his eyes.
It was better this way. Easier to hurt him now than to let this develop any further and have a worse pain down the road when we all realized I wasn’t what they had wanted nor hoped for in a mate. I didn’t even know if I could get pregnant, let alone birth children. I shook my head at that though unsure where it even came from. Three days in bed with these two men, and I was already thinking of the white picket fence and family scenario.
One more reason I needed to cut ties. I didn’t want to see the disappointment on their faces if and when we found out I couldn’t have children. My tigress whined in my mind. My racing thoughts scared her, and she wanted nothing more than to curl up with her mates and live happily ever after. My human side knew logically that wasn’t what was best for any of us.
“Nothing is wrong. I just don’t need you or anyone to do things for me that I am perfectly capable of doing myself.” The pain my words caused sliced across our mate bond like razor blades, quickly followed by his anger.
“I call bullshit.” Miguel crossed his arms, stretching his T-shirt tighter across his chest and arms as he leaned back against the counter. “Tell me what’s really going on.” I felt him tug on our bond with Niko as he spoke, basically calling him home.
“It’s not bullshit.” I crossed my arms and huffed in return, eyeing the food behind him as my stomach made it perfectly clear I was starving. Miguel turned from me and proceeded to start the meal I was prepping for.
“It is, and you are going to sit on that counter,” he pointed to the counter near him, “and tell me what has so drastically changed in the last few minutes.”
Niko came through the front door as Miguel spoke. He walked in, set two butcher-wrapped packages next to Miguel, gracefully turned, and grabbed my waist, plopping me down on the counter. Rather than walk away, he bracketed me in with his hands on either side of my legs. He leaned in, placing his nose on mine, and said in a low yet commanding tone, “Talk.”
I tried leaning away from him, but I smacked the back of my head against the cupboard behind me in the process. I pushed my arms between us, crossing them and huffing. I knew I was acting like a child, but I couldn’t help it. Neither one of these men was listening to me. “NO!” I replied.
Niko turned his head to Miguel. “What happens when you deny me an explanation?”
Miguel stopped cubing the potato and looked straight at me. “The spanking bench or your lap, whichever is closest.”
Niko turned back to me. “You have two options. One, you can be honest with us, and we sit down to our meal and discuss how to help you get past whatever roadblock you have up here,” he tapped my temple, “Or two, I take you over my lap right there at the kitchen table, and you take ten swats, and then we sit down to eat and discuss what has you pushing us away.”
My eyes widened as I watched his face, his eyes capturing my attention. “You wouldn’t,” I whispered. I knew the answer to that but couldn’t stop the words from falling from my lips. From what I had learned about both my mates and their dynamics, I knew Niko didn’t do idle threats.
“Miguel,” Niko spoke but kept his attention trained on me. His voice had deepened, and I felt the command ripple through our bond.
“Sir never says anything he doesn’t mean. I suggest you start talking unless the punishment is something you crave.”
His slip into submissive didn’t elude me. I caught the change from using Niko’s name to sir. Again, something I learned as we lay and talked between rounds of mind-blowing sex.
“So, what’s your choice?” Niko’s command brought my thoughts back to him.
