Chasing Cristabel (Ashland Pride Six) (20 page)

Gustav cleared his throat. “I see the value
of changing traditions with the times. My daughter, once destined
to be in an arranged mating, now stands before us with three
mountain lions seeking to lay claim to her body, her heart, and her
soul. These males are the mates of her heart, and as such, hold an
honored place for her family and pride.”

Gustav’s gaze settled on each of them, and
then he said, “Cristabel, sweet daughter of mine, do you accept
these three males as your mates? Do you vow to honor and love them
for all of your days?”

Cris’s eyes glistened with tears. “I accept
my mates, and I vow myself to them forever.”

Gustav nodded in approval. “Hunter, do you
accept Cristabel as your one true mate? Will you honor, love, and
protect her and your cubs for as long as you live?”

“I accept her and vow myself to her forever,”
Hunter said, his voice deep with emotion.

“Give your female your wrist,” Gustav
said.

Hunter held out his left wrist to Cris, and
she opened her mouth, her fangs glinting in the firelight. She
didn’t say anything; she simply sank her fangs into his wrist, and
if Dylan hadn’t been watching Hunter’s face, he wouldn’t have seen
his eye tick. As much as they were going to be hurting Cris when
she wasn’t entranced with bliss from multiple climaxes, she was
also going to be using her fangs on them, too.

She lifted from Hunter’s wrist with a soft
purr, licking her lips. Hunter gave her a lopsided grin as he
pressed his wrist to his heart and left it there as a symbol of
their heart-chosen mating.

Her dad asked Chase the same question, and
then Dylan. When it was his turn, Dylan watched Cris as the tears
slipped over her cheeks. He didn’t like her crying, but he knew
they were happy tears.

“I accept her and vow myself to her forever,”
he answered, offering Cris his left wrist. Her eyes were glowing
the sandy color of her cat, and her fangs seemed to throb in her
mouth. She looked at him, smiling, and held his gaze as she placed
the tips of her fangs against his wrist. Although it hurt, there
was a sweetness behind the action that made it not matter how much
it stung. His mate was marking him so that anyone who saw the bite
would know that he belonged to her. She purred as she swallowed his
blood and then slowly extracted her fangs.

“Cristabel’s marking is complete,” Gustav
said. “Claim your female.”

They’d all agreed beforehand to do their best
to mark her swiftly and together so the pain wouldn’t be prolonged.
It would be a careful dance to ensure that they each marked her
cleanly near their original marks so they didn’t mar her lovely
skin any more than they had to.

Cris sank to her knees and they followed
suit, each moving into his place. Dylan cupped her face and kissed
her lips gently, just once. He held her head still as Chase and
Hunter moved behind her, each taking one side. Dylan had originally
marked her on the left side, just under Hunter’s mark.

Cris trembled, and the scent of her fear
spiked for only a moment before she purred and gazed into Dylan’s
eyes. “Love you,” he mouthed to her.

“Love you, too,” she mouthed back.

Hunter and Chase struck swiftly, and she let
out a whimpering cry as tears pooled in her eyes and spilled over
her cheeks. She gripped Dylan’s wrists hard as Hunter and Chase
held their fangs in her neck only as long as it took for them to
swallow her blood. Hunter extracted his fangs first, and Dylan
moved in quickly, positioning his fangs over his other marks and
biting her.

She tasted even better than he remembered,
her blood cresting his tongue and filling him with the knowledge
that she was truly, permanently theirs, and no laws or traditions
or interfering shifters would ever change that.

Pulling from her flesh, he pressed his
still-bleeding wrist to his mark to help mingle their blood,
cementing them as a mated group forever. As Chase and Hunter held
their bleeding wrists to her wounds, Dylan brushed the tears from
her cheek with his thumb and marveled at how right things felt in
that moment. Cristabel was his mate, the one female on the planet
who was right for him, made for him, and everything he’d ever
wanted and more.

“Mine,” he whispered.

* * *

Hunter felt something warm caress him,
stroking him from root to tip. The room was dark, and a quick
glance at the clock on the nightstand showed he’d only been asleep
an hour. After the pride had a dinner celebration for their mating,
and they’d shared the amazing-looking lioness cake, her parents and
their pride members had headed back to Kentucky, and he and his
cousins had taken their sweetheart to bed.

She’d fallen asleep hours later, skin flushed
from pleasure and a purr in her throat. He hadn’t expected her to
wake up again for…well, a long while. Not that he cared because
anytime she wanted to touch him, he was happy to oblige.

Cris snuggled against his side and kissed his
chest as her hand made pleasurable patterns on his erection, her
fingertips grazing his balls with each pass. He wrapped an arm
around her shoulder and pulled her up his body. Her head tilted
back, and he pressed his lips to hers, sliding his hand down her
back to the swell of her ass. Giving one cheek a squeeze, he bit
back a groan when her hand squeezed slightly on his dick.

She rolled to her back, tugging on his
shoulders. He followed her, pushing her knees wide to bare her
pussy for him. Slipping into the cradle of her hips, he paused as
the head of his dick touched her pussy. She was scorching hot.

He pressed his palm to her forehead. It was
wet with sweat and hot to the touch. “Sweetheart, are you feeling
okay?”

Her head thrashed and she whimpered. “It’s
the heat.”

“So soon?”

She gasped, her hips tilting as she let out a
soft cry.

“What’s happening?” Dylan asked, sitting up
abruptly in bed.

“She’s in heat,” Hunter said.

Chase rushed from the bed and hit the wall
light switch, causing the ceiling fan to creak to life and move the
air around in the room. He pushed open the windows and spread the
curtains wide to let in the cool night air. Hunter’s skin chilled,
but he didn’t care as long as Cris was okay.

“Do you want some water? Do you need to take
a cool bath?” Dylan asked.

“No, damn it, just fuck me,” she growled.

For a heartbeat, none of them said anything,
and then Hunter laughed. “Right. You’re not sick. You’re turned on.
How about we fix that, sweetheart?”

Her lips parted, and she groaned, pressing
her head back into the pillow and digging her nails into his
shoulder. “Please.”

Chase climbed onto the bed on her other side
and gripped her knee, pulling it up and spreading her legs farther.
“No begging necessary, love.”

She had told them that she’d go into heat
after they mated her properly, but he hadn’t expected it to happen
so soon. Maybe because there were three of them. He wanted to tell
her how happy he was that she would be carrying one of their cubs,
but he couldn’t form any words as she tilted her hips and rubbed
her hot pussy against his dick. If he could have formed a coherent
sentence, he might have shouted for joy, but all he could do was
sink into her.

Their bodies touched and he almost lost it.
She felt so damn good. He gazed down at her, their eyes locked,
bodies touching chest to hips, and thanked his fucking lucky
stars.

He angled his hips, sliding out of her
entirely before plunging in. She moaned, and as she blinked
heavy-lidded eyes at him, he could see her irises flashing to the
sandy color of her cat. She let go of his shoulders, reaching under
his arms to plant her hands on his back, urging him into her. She
hooked her ankles together under his ass, her whole body moving to
meet his strokes.

He reached up and grabbed the headboard for
leverage and slid his other hand underneath her, raising her lower
body off the bed as he plunged deeper. The headboard knocked
against the wall, a fast staccato sound that he was pretty sure
would wake the entire house.

“Ah, fuck,” she groaned as he angled her hips
higher, his body rubbing against her clit. Her pussy gripped him
like a fist, and he gritted his teeth against the sweet sensations
that threatened to pull him under. He wanted her to come first, to
feel that rush of heat as she exploded around him.

Lowering his mouth to his mating mark on the
side of her neck, he licked the slightly raised bumps where his
fangs had pierced her flesh. She gasped and shuddered, and he
purred, wondering if he’d found a new hot spot for her. Licking the
spots again, and getting the same reaction from her, he sucked the
scarred flesh into his mouth and pounded into her pussy, holding
her body tight to his as she screamed in pleasure. He followed her,
coming hard with a roar as her arms and legs locked around him,
holding him just as hard as he held her. Releasing her neck, he
slowly licked the mark, and she gasped, writhing as her pussy
fluttered around his dick.

“I think she likes having her marks licked,”
Chase said with amusement.

“Isn’t that interesting?” Dylan drawled.

Cris panted for breath, her lips parted and
her fangs gleaming. “It feels like the mark is connected to my
clit.” Her voice was rough, and he loved knowing that he’d done
that to her. Made her so crazy she screamed herself hoarse.

As he looked down at her and their gazes
locked, he knew as he watched the lovely blue of her natural eye
color swirl with pale gold that she wasn’t done with her heat, and
they were in for one hell of an amazing mating night.

Pressing his lips to hers, he whispered, “I
fucking love you so much.”

Her arms and legs went slack, falling to the
bed as she grinned. “I love you, too.”

* * *

Dylan yawned so hard his jaw cracked, but he
didn’t care how exhausted he was because their mate was finally
asleep. He pressed the back of his hand to her forehead and smiled,
knowing that the heat was over. Beyond the open windows, the sun
was setting. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d stayed up for
twenty-four hours, and he’d never,
ever
spent all that time
making love to a woman.

Chase trudged across the room and closed the
windows, pulling the curtains even though darkness was descending.
Dylan was pretty sure they’d sleep all night and into the next
day.

Hunter stepped from the bathroom with his
cell. “Perry said no problem and he’ll see us tomorrow night.”

It had occurred to Hunter at some point after
the sun rose that day that there was no way they’d be able to go to
work that night. They were lucky that they had an understanding
boss. Dylan couldn’t think about doing anything except being with
Cris right then. He felt closer to her now, and he knew that part
of it was because of the ceremony. It had been enough for him to
mark her neck, the way that mountain lions did with their mates,
but this was a different, deeper kind of marking. They’d shared
blood, together, and her mark on his wrist meant more to him than
he thought possible.

Slipping from the bed where Cris lay, he
grabbed his jeans and whispered, “I’m going to get some food for
us.”

“I’m too tired to eat,” Chase whispered.

“I am, too, but I meant for later when we
wake up.”

“Good thinking,” Hunter said.

Dylan silently left the room and headed to
the kitchen, where he found Jilly and her two mates, Wyked and
Fate, talking quietly over an enormous ice cream sundae.

“Hey, Dylan,” Jilly said.

“Just getting something for later,” he
said.

Wyked leaned over and whispered something in
Jilly’s ear, and she giggled and slapped his shoulder. Fate rolled
his eyes as Wyked said, “That’s why we’ll have a mini fridge in our
bedroom after we mate, little kitten.”

Dylan laughed. “That would be a great
idea.”

“I guess since you’re not staying in the
boarding house, though, it doesn’t really matter. You’ll have your
own place,” Jilly said.

“We’ll have our own place, too,” Wyked said,
“if we plan to join the clan. If we stay here with your pride, then
no we wouldn’t.”

Dylan opened the fridge and looked for Cris’s
favorite foods. He wasn’t sure what she’d be in the mood to eat
when she woke up, so he grabbed a bag of red grapes, a two liter of
ginger ale, and large packages of deli sliced chicken and sharp
cheddar. Setting the items on the island, he grabbed a serving tray
from one of the cabinets and a pack of pita bread.

“Do you think you might want to stay here, or
you aren’t sure yet?” Dylan asked as he sliced pitas in half and
filled them with chicken and cheddar.

Jilly put her spoon in the sundae. “I’m not
sure. I think we would be happy here in the boarding house, but I
like the idea of traveling, too. I guess I just don’t know which
family I’d be happy to be away from, because that’s what it boils
down to for me. Either we only see Wyked and Fate’s parents and
clan once a year, or I only see my dad, family, and pride once a
year.”

“The clan won’t stay after you guys are mated
officially?” Dylan asked. He dug through the fridge and found the
dill pickle slices, which he stuffed into Hunter’s sandwich, then
he spread Cris’s with mayo and spicy mustard, Chase’s with yellow
mustard, and his own with pickles and mayo. Hunter liked his
sandwiches condiment-free.

“It’s in our nature to be nomadic,” Wyked
said, digging his spoon into a large mound of marshmallow-topped
chocolate ice cream.

“But you would stay for me,” Jilly pointed
out.

“We’d do anything for you,” Fate said.

She shook her head with a sigh. “It’s not
helpful when you’re so easy going.”

“Really? I thought you
loved
that
about us,” Wyked said, wiggling his brow.