Their Unexpected Mate [Paranormal Protection Unit] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) (6 page)

“Hey, sugah,” Trey said as he stopped them before his bike. “What’s goin’ on in that beautiful head of yours?” He reached up and touched one of her curls that had come loose. The wild mass of corkscrew curls seemed to have its own mind, and right now the one wrapped lovingly around his finger. She watched in fascination as he stroked his thumb over the silky tress and couldn’t help but wonder what it would feel like to have him stroking her body like that. A low growl emitted from his throat. He could smell her desire, practically tasting it on the air, and his wolf wanted a taste, now.

“And there is another one,” he murmured before he leaned in and brushed his nose to hers. “You should know, darlin’,” he purred against her lips, just barely touching lips to lips, “that I’m going to kiss you right now. I’m going to kiss you in the theater. I’m going to kiss you every single chance I get.” It was the one and only warning she would get before his mouth closed over hers. He took in her gasp of surprise with eager willingness and drank up the pure innocence that all but poured off her as he kissed her.

When he pulled back, Trey didn’t look down at her immediately, the scratchy burning of his eyes telling him without looking that they had gone wolf. Instead he buried his face in the crook of her neck and inhaled the sweet scent that was all woman, all his woman. “I have a lot to explain to you, baby,” he whispered. “But I’m going to ask you to trust me, sugah. Please, darlin’, whatever happens, always know that you can trust me no matter what.”

She had just been kissed as if there wasn’t another being in the world and now he was talking about trust? She only nodded dumbly because there wasn’t anything else that her barely functioning brain would do at the moment. Right now it was too focused on simply keeping her heart beating and lungs breathing after that kiss.

“Good.” He took the victory, even if it was one he won by default. “Now then, climb up here, baby,” he said and quickly swung onto the bike so that he could offer her a hand. “We are only going two blocks. I would leave the bike here but I have a feeling you need to ride instead of walk, darlin’.” From the woozy way she was moving he simply grinned like a fool. Yep, it was good feeling like he was the king of the wolves and having his mate react as she was.
Damn good.
After she was behind him, he put his large hand over hers that were locked before him and gave a squeeze.
Soon.
Soon he would tell her everything. He and her other two mates.

* * * *

Katherine had been in a complete and total daze. From the second that Trey kissed her she swore her mind turned to jelly, and she was only moving now because he was the puppet master and pulling her strings to bring her along for the ride. She felt glorious. That kiss had been something that every woman on the face of the planet dreamed of. It had been something that had shifted everything inside of her and made her new again. The kiss seemed to be just a beginning though, a whisper of a promise, and that was a part of why she was practically walking on air.

When they arrived at the theater, Kat slid off the bike with his help and smiled up at him. They moved along toward the theater front when two men, two huge and holy-crap-beautiful men, walked up to her and Trey.

“Trey, buddy!” the one man said. He was massive, six foot eleven at least, with shoulders that looked like he could bench a Mack truck and an air about him that all but screamed military bearing.

“Mac, hey, guy.” Trey called back to him and gave him a knuckle bump. Looking to the man to the side of Mac, he said, “Hey, Sully, new jacket?” His eyes danced in laughter as he spoke.

Sully growled and then laughed. “Yeah, I saw a homeless guy without one and figured that he needed the jacket I was wearing then. I just got this one from the leather shop around the corner. You going to introduce us?” he asked, his gaze never leaving Katherine.

Kat felt the oddest thing. She wasn’t afraid. She should have been because these men were all massive. Instead she felt safe. Instead she felt…right. A dimple appeared on her cheek as she smiled at the second man, Sully. Reaching out her hand, she grinned. “I’m Katherine. And you are?”

Sully took her hand and pulled her close. Leaning over her knuckle, he brushed a kiss there, the bear in him taking a moment to inhale the scent that was all woman, the scent that no perfumed lotions could hide. “Sullivan MacAllister, and the idiot beside me catching flies with his mouth open is my twin, Quinlan MacAllister. Everyone calls me Sully and him Mac, so you can do just that as well.” He leaned in closer and whispered, “Unless you would like to call me something else?” The scent of her was driving his bear wild. The beast was struggling against the tight confines of his control, but Sully wouldn’t let him out to play. Not yet.

Kat knew she should be offended. She knew that Trey should be offended, but if anything, all three were watching her for signs of how she would take the blatant flirtation from this man. Confusion gripped her and she shook her head. She was wildly attracted to Trey, had a feeling of belonging when she was with him, and she couldn’t understand why she was having that same feeling with these two men as well. She was instantly attracted to them, wanted to reach out and touch them, stroke them, and that made no sense at all to her. “How about I call you Sully as well?” she shot off instead and slipped her hand back into Trey’s.

“We were about to see a movie. Do you want to join us?” she heard herself asking. Why was she asking this question? Why was it that she wanted to be surrounded by these men, wanted to be in the dark with them and dream of all of them? She was going nuts. Maybe she should call the white-jacket men for herself rather than another because she was feeling, good gravy, she was feeling as if she belonged with all three men, and that simply made no sense at all to her, at all.

“We would love that, little Kat,” Mac whispered, moving so that he was at her other side. He smiled when she closed her eyes and leaned into his touch when he put his hand to her cheek. Their accepting little mate wanted them, wanted all three of them, but she couldn’t understand what was happening yet. Soon they would explain it to her. Tonight, tonight they would all return home with her and ensure she knew just how much she was loved, how needed she was, and how protected and cared for she would be.
Soon.
That was all that kept his bear leashed, the fact that man and animal both knew that soon she would belong to them.

Trey, Mac, and Sully all shared a look. They were animals and each one of them could smell the need on their little mate, each of them knew just how they affected her, and each one of them knew that they wouldn’t end up watching the whole movie, at all.

Katherine let the men pick the movie, not really seeing anything she was just absolutely dying to watch, and then accepted the popcorn that a very solicitous Mac handed her. Grinning, she picked up a conversation with him, finding him just as easy to talk to as Trey was. She didn’t even realize they were walking away from Trey and Sully, who had just received a phone call that seemed to piss him off, until they were in the theater and seated. “Oh, you’re good,” she said with a grin, one of appreciation of the cleverness of the man beside her.

“Oh, sugar, you have no idea just how good I am,” Mac said with a grin. Leaning over, he whispered in her ear, “Relax, babe, not one of the three of us would ever hurt you.” They would kill or die to protect her though, and that was a clear fact.

His promised words sent a shiver of desire running through her. “Good lord,” she whispered and fanned her face, unable to keep from doing so. “All three of you individually are incredible, but together.” She whimpered, literally. “Together the three of you are, Jiminy Christmas, the three of you together make me want to melt.”

A grin curved his too-perfect lips, wolfish when he said, “Good. Want you to melt for us, baby.”

Any other woman would gladly trade their souls for the looks that these men gave her, but Kat was lucky enough to have them all to herself, at least for now. She had seen the looks of appreciation from the women that were on the sidewalk as well, and that was amazing.

Smiling, she shook herself out of the daze that she was in, thanks to these men. After the movie was over, she moved away from Mac and to Trey’s side. Slipping her arm around his, she gave him a squeeze and looked up at him. “All right, I’m riding with you.” Simply because he had brought her out and she wasn’t about to leave him, no matter that these men seemed to have plans for her.

“You betcha, sugah.” Moving to wrap his arm around her waist, Trey pulled her close, his hand straying to her hip and over her ass before giving her a squeeze. “Come on, baby. Don’t worry, we will talk later. Everything will be told to you and no one will hurt you, I swear.”

How he saw her worry she didn’t know, but she was worried. She was inviting three massive, attractive, and sensual men to her home…three men she had only just met. “I trust you,” she whispered and knew oddly enough that she truly did. She seemingly believed in all three of them fully, completely, and with all she was.

When Katherine gave them her trust, it was like music to Trey’s ears, to hear the words from her lips that she had utter confidence in him. It was like music not only to his ears, but his inner wolf was beyond thrilled and wanted to howl in response to those words. All three animals seemed to purr for this gentle woman, and the three of them would make damn sure that the asshole who was stalking her didn’t get close, now that they knew of the issue.

The call from Skittles had given them information that they were very unhappy with, information that they would need to talk to her about. At another time they would discuss with her about this guy that they found outside of the spa, but that was for much later. For now they just wanted time with her.

Climbing onto their bikes, the trio of men and one small woman ripped out of the parking lot and toward the restaurant where Sully had made reservations, a place where they would be able to simply relax and enjoy some time alone. With their personal comms the three men spoke without Kat any wiser. “
From what Skittles found the guy is evidently Kat’s half brother. Evidently mister douchebag thinks that because daddy dearest left his fortune to Kat that his role in life is now to make sure that the board that oversees her fortune knows of every dime that she spends.”

“He’s older, I assume?” Mac asked as he shifted through the gears, driving along with him.

“Yes. Evidently he’s pissy because the mother married money after she got away from an abusive son of a bitch, the bastard’s father,” Sully told the other two.

“So in other words his dick is in a twist because she got the cash and he didn’t.”

“Pretty much,” Sully told the two. “For some reason he thought that he should get all the cash, even though he and her father hated each other with a passion.”

“And so now he’s trying to get the cash from the people who are overseeing the fund. Is he dense or what?” Scythe grumbled even as he reached back and squeezed Kat’s leg lovingly and smiled when his little kitten squeezed him back.

“Pretty much.” Sully repeated his earlier statement. “Which means that we need to ensure that pretty boy understands that he needs to back the hell off.” Bears were pretty even tempered, easygoing, and loving, playful almost, but when you messed with a bear’s mate, not even Hell could hide you.

“Right now we need to watch and protect. We need to close ranks around Katherine so that she knows she’s safe. We need to ease her into the truth of who we are and what we are to her,” Mac said, and the words killed him even more when he added, “I don’t think that our little Kat is ready to play with two bears and a territorial wolf just yet. We all want her. She feels the attraction to us, too, but I think if we try to rush it, we will just be damning ourselves.”

That had Sully cussing a blue streak. He didn’t want to sit off on the fucking sidelines. This was his mate, their mate. How the fuck could his brother even suggest such a thing?

“You think it’s not fucking killing me?” Mac asked with a growl. “It is. I just know that we need to let her become accustomed to us before we take her to bed and make her fully ours. We will be close, we will steal kisses, but bedding her right now is out of the question.”

Scythe wisely kept his trap shut. They might not be able to do all they wanted to with her, but he sure as shit was going to see just how far his little firebrand would let him go. “I know one thing for sure. When it comes that time and we have all bonded to her we cannot, and I fucking mean this, we cannot ever argue around her about whose turn it is or about her affection. I have a feeling that would be a death knell to this relationship. Something tells me our little Kat is one of those old-fashioned one-man-for-one-woman kind of women and we will need to slowly break her into what we want, what we need with her.” At the shared
fuck
s from the other two men he sighed. “Exactly. The one and only bonus I see so far is that she recognizes us, soul deep,” he murmured as his hand stroked Katherine’s knee at a light. “Her soul recognizes us and the animal in us. She feels the attraction and pull to each one of us, and I could tell when she was with Sully earlier that she’s confused. We need to give her all that we are. Slowly.” He added the last for the brothers’ benefits. “I for one do not want to lose her. She’s too precious, not just because she’s our mate but because she is who she is. She’s a wonderful being, truly giving and loving, and someone that I for one want and need to protect and keep safe, always.” At the shared grunts of acknowledgment from the brothers Scythe nodded and made the turn with them to the restaurant they were taking their Katherine to.

Scythe felt Katherine hugging him tighter, her legs and arms both squeezing him as she leaned in closer, and lay a hand over hers for a moment in utter and complete bliss.

“Sure as fucking shit wish that was me that she was wrapped around, you lucky son of a bitch.” Sullivan grumbled to Scythe. “I need to sit by her at dinner at least.”