Chasing Cristabel (Ashland Pride Six) (21 page)

Dylan chuckled. “You have a couple more years
to go before you have to make the decision, right? I’m sure that by
the time you’re ready to be mated, you’ll know the answer.”

She arched a brow. “How can you be sure?”

He shrugged. “Destiny’s a funny thing. If
we’d never left King, we wouldn’t have been part of this pride,
working at Kickers the night that Cris walked into the bar.
Similarly, if Lily’s brother hadn’t needed to sell his place, then
Cris wouldn’t have had a reason to come to Ashland and wouldn’t
have met us. Destiny led us here so we could be in the right place
at the right time to meet our mate. It’s the same for the three of
you. The clan is nomadic and led you to be in the woods when Jilly
was having a crisis of conscious. Whatever you choose to do with
your future, it will be the right thing for you all, I’m
certain.”

“Thanks, Dylan,” Jilly said. “Cris is lucky
to have you and your cousins as her mates.”

“We’re the lucky ones,” Dylan promised. As
the trio turned their attention back to their ice cream, Dylan
loaded the sandwiches into a small cooler with ice packs and set it
on the tray, along with cups, a bag of cheddar and sour cream
potato chips, and a plastic box of chocolate chip pecan cookies.
Tucking the two liter under his arm, he said good night to Jilly
and her mates and headed back upstairs.

He wasn’t surprised to see that he’d lost his
place at Cris’s side with Hunter and Chase sandwiching her, both
fast asleep. It didn’t bother him, though, as he closed and locked
the door. He set the tray and soda on the dresser. He’d been doing
something to take care of all of them, and that filled him with
pride. It also gave him an idea about what to do in the future.

Dropping his jeans, he climbed onto the bed
and settled on a pillow, drawing a fleece blanket up from the floor
where it had been pushed off the bed at some point during their
marathon lovemaking. With a yawn that made his whole body shudder,
he closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep, his last thoughts full
of the realization that he’d finally figured out his place in their
family.

Chapter 16

Cris’s eyes felt like they weighed a thousand
pounds as she forced them open. Her first thought was that she’d
been asleep for a really long time, but as she lifted her head, she
could see the faint glow of daylight through the thick curtains. On
either side of her, her mates were breathing deeply in sleep, and
she stayed as still as possible, letting them have their rest.
She’d put them through the wringer when her heat struck. They’d
already made love after their mating ceremony and fallen asleep in
one another’s arms. And then she’d woken up feeling as if her body
was on fire from the inside out. She could think of nothing except
having sex with her mates.

Which on a normal day wasn’t anything new.
She loved her guys and loved taking them to bed. But what had been
different was the empty feeling she’d had deep in the center of her
being. Her cat craved the sex between them and had been clawing at
her to keep going. She’d finally gone contentedly silent and the
heat, which had been a writhing, twisting need, had evaporated. Her
mates had seemed to sense she was done, and although she’d been too
exhausted to say or do anything, she was aware that Hunter had
lifted her from the bed while Dylan and Chase laid down extra soft
blankets to cushion her over-sensitive skin, and then they’d curled
around her, and she’d been aware of nothing else until now.

Hunter’s large hand pressed lightly into her
lower abdomen, and she turned her head to look at him. “Morning,
gorgeous. How do you feel?”

“Like I made love to my mates all night long.
It is Monday morning, right?”

Chase snorted, and she turned her head to
look at him. His brown eyes danced with amusement. “It’s Tuesday
morning. We made love all Monday. You don’t remember?”

She hummed. “I know what we did, but I wasn’t
aware of the time. Did we…make love for a whole day?”

“Just about,” Hunter said, covering his mouth
as he yawned.

Dylan sat up and smiled at her. “Are you
hungry?”

Her stomach took that moment to growl and she
blushed. “Definitely. But I want to use the bathroom first and
maybe take a shower?”

Hunter slipped from the bed and lifted her
up, cradling her close with a kiss to her forehead, before carrying
her into the bathroom and then shutting the door so she was alone.
She flipped on the light and groaned at the intensity. And then she
really groaned when she got a good look at herself in the mirror.
Her eyes were ringed with dark circles, and she had light
fingertip-shaped bruises on her arms and hips. She didn’t mind
those bruises, though, because they reminded her just how well her
mates had loved her. If she’d had any doubts whether they could
share her, they were entirely gone now.

They’d seemed to instinctively work well
together, giving her everything she needed to combat the heat
without complaint. She’d been pretty blinded to everything going on
around her because the cat was so vocal in her mind, but she’d
known how easily they shared her, as if it was just part of their
nature, all of them working together to satisfy her need. And she’d
needed a
lot
.

She turned on the shower to let the water
heat up and then used the toilet. When the water was almost too
hot, she stepped under the spray and grabbed the soap off the
corner shelf. Wetting her washcloth, she lathered it and began to
wash herself, yawning several times in the process. She could
probably go back to sleep, but she actually didn’t want to. She
wanted to talk to her mates; she needed to. Mountain lion females
didn’t go through a heat, so she wasn’t sure that they truly
understood what the heat had meant when it started, and what it
meant when it was over. Excitement washed over her as she thought
about sharing the news with them.

She turned off the water and wrung out her
hair before grabbing a towel from the rack and wrapping it around
her head. With a second towel in hand, she dried off her skin,
noticing that many of the bruises had faded away entirely. She was
very thankful for her fast healing.

Unwrapping her hair, she removed a claw clip
from one of the drawers, twisted her hair, and secured it in place
at the back of her head. Wrapping a towel around her body, she
opened the bathroom door and hurried across the hall to the
bedroom. Her mates had stripped the bed and were attempting to get
the fitted sheet to stay put. Hunter glanced at her and purred.
“Hey, baby, wanna mess the bed up again?”

She laughed. “Why don’t you actually make it
first?”

“Aw, spoilsport,” he said with a wink.

While they wrestled the too-tight fitted
sheet onto the mattress, she dressed in a pair of wiener
dog-patterned lounge pants and a long sleeved tee. Black and white
fuzzy socks completed her comfy outfit. When the bed was made,
Dylan patted the comforter, and she sat down with Chase while
Hunter went to take a shower. Dylan set a tray on the bed and
opened a cooler, extracting pita sandwiches sealed in plastic
wrap.

“Oh, yum,” she said, taking the one he handed
to her. “When did you make these?”

“Before I went to bed. I knew you’d be hungry
when you woke, and I didn’t want to have to leave to go make
something for you.”

“You’re so thoughtful,” she said as she
unwrapped the sandwich, which was exactly her favorite kind –
chicken, cheddar cheese, mayo, and spicy mustard.

“It’s my pleasure,” he promised.

Chase opened the bag of her favorite kind of
chips, and Dylan set grapes on the tray after pouring cups of
ginger ale. The spread included all of her favorite foods,
including chocolate chip pecan cookies for dessert.

“My mom hates soda, but she loves ginger ale.
It was the only kind of carbonated drink I was ever allowed to
have,” she said.

“Humans use it when they’re sick,” Chase
said. “We had a friend in grade school whose mom always had it on
hand in case someone in the family got ill. I never had it until
you came along, though.”

“Do you like it?” she asked.

“It’s not bad, and I like it better knowing
it’s something nice from your childhood.”

By the time Hunter was done with his shower
and Chase had taken his place, she’d eaten her sandwich, half of
Dylan’s, and three-fourths of the bag of chips.

“Do you want my sandwich?” Hunter
offered.

She finished chewing a mouthful of chips and
took a long drink of ginger ale. “You’re sweet, but no thank you.
I’m ready for cookies.”

Her mates held up their hands as Dylan pushed
the package in her direction as if she were a pacing lion and they
were helpless zookeepers.

“I do know how to share,” she said with a
smirk, opening the package and pulling out two cookies.

Dylan leaned over and kissed her cheek before
getting to his feet. “They’re all yours, sweetheart.”

She cupped his face before he could stand and
kissed him. “Thank you for taking such good care of me.”

“It was a joint effort,” he said.

When he disappeared into the bathroom, she
took a bite of a cookie while Hunter stretched out at her feet and
rubbed her ankle. “Do you want to go out? We could see a movie or
go for a drive.”

“Could we go for a walk?”

His brows rose. “It’s cold out.”

“I know, but we’ve been cooped up in the room
since Sunday night, and it would be nice to get some fresh
air.”

“This is why we need our own place,” Chase
said.

“But first, we need to talk.”

Hunter and Chase went very still and stared
at her as if something terrible were happening. She laughed and
shook her head, “It’s nothing bad. When Dylan’s done, we’ll talk,
okay?”

They both nodded, and she changed the
conversation to their jobs. She’d asked Dr. Radcliff for two days
off last week, because she’d had an idea that she’d be tired after
their mating ceremony. She was thankful she’d had the foresight to
do that beforehand otherwise they’d have been too locked up in her
heat to even be aware of the need to call out of work.

Dylan walked out of the bathroom, his skin
flush from the hot shower and with a smile on his face. She patted
the comforter for him, the way he had done for her. His smile
slipped as concern took over.

“Everything okay?”

“Of course. Even though I told you about the
heat, we never really talked about exactly what it meant. It wasn’t
just that I was overwhelmingly turned on; it was that my cat, and
my body, were ready to be impregnated.” She wrinkled her nose at
the clinical sound of her words. Shaking her head, she said, “That
sounds weird. What I mean is that part of what the mating ceremony
does is not only bond the mates together through blood and marking,
but it also prepares the female to go into heat. A pregnancy early
in a mating is considered good luck. I have to guess that because
there are three of you for me that it sent my cat into some kind of
rapid heat. Usually it takes a little while for the heat to come,
maybe a week or longer. The thing I didn’t really explain is what
it means when the heat is over.”

She looked at them, and her heart swelled at
the love she saw in their gazes. Although each one was different in
his own way, they all cherished her. She could think of nothing
sweeter than what she was about to say.

“I’m pregnant.”

Hunter’s brows rose so high that they almost
disappeared into his hairline. “I’m…you’re…really?”

“Are you sure?” Chase asked.

“How can you tell?” Dylan asked.

Chuckling at their overlapping questions, she
said, “I’m sure that I’m pregnant because the heat is over. That’s
how it happens. The heat is when the body prepares to be
impregnated. When the heat is over, it’s because there’s no need
for it any longer…because there’s a baby on the way. Plus, that was
really intense. Can you imagine if it kept going for a while?” She
fanned herself thinking about how hot things had been between them.
Three sets of hands on her, bringing her body to plateaus of
pleasure she hadn’t known existed.

With three happy shouts, her mates hugged
her, passing her from one to the other as they kissed her, cheered
for their good fortune, and made her feel very loved. Dylan pressed
his hand gently to her stomach as he gazed at her. “Cris, this is
the most amazing thing ever.”

“Isn’t it?” she asked, happy tears pricking
her eyes. Chase’s and Hunter’s hands joined Dylan’s and she topped
them with her own. “Whoever the biological father is, this cub will
belong to all of us.”

“This is the best news I’ve had since you
walked into the bar and agreed to be ours,” Hunter said, his hazel
eyes shining brightly.

She kissed each of her mates, and even though
they’d agreed to take a walk in the woods with her, they first
decided that the best way to celebrate their wonderful news was to
make love.

Twice.

Chapter 17

Chase stood in Rhett’s family room, rubbing
his hands together and wishing he’d thought to bring gloves. It had
snowed again overnight, which was nothing new in Ashland in the
winter. Then again, he hadn’t planned to be walking around
outside.

“We’ll take the four-wheelers back to the
property,” Rhett Fallon, the oldest of the Fallon males, brother to
James, John, Aaron, and Grant, and mated to a lovely human named
Lisa, said as he walked into the family room. “Here’s a pair of
gloves. It’s cold as hell out there.”

“Hell’s not cold,” Lisa called from the
kitchen.

“Yes, dear,” Rhett said as he tugged a bright
orange stocking cap onto his head. “Ready?”

“Yep,” Chase said, zipping up his parka and
pulling on the gloves. He left the warmth of their home and walked
with Rhett to a large barn, where four ATVs sat under tarps
alongside other farm equipment. Rhett had moved to Ashland many
years before the pride had split from King and joined him. He was
the first among them to have enough of the females’ behavior and
decide to start over on his own. He was also the only pride male
who didn’t share a mate.