“Let’s start at the beginning,” Micah said after getting the tray for her and making her eat. “What’s your name, and how did you end up with them?”
The longer Mai talked, the more enraged Micah felt. Mai Gallatin had only turned twenty-one a couple of months ago. Her parents and two older brothers were killed four years earlier, in a car wreck in Montana that she barely escaped from. Between her medical bills from the wreck, paying bills owed by her parents’ estate, and severe mismanagement of the remaining funds by one of her uncles, who’d been appointed her guardian, she was now broke. She’d decided to leave Montana and try to make a go of it in Connecticut with one of her cousins from her mother’s side, humans who had no knowledge of her shape-shifting abilities.
“It was just my bad luck I met Paul,” she said. “He knew I was a shifter when we met, and I sensed he was one, too. He had money. I was lonely and stupid and gullible and I fell for him hook, line, and sinker. I don’t mean like I thought he was my mate or anything,” she said, sniffling. “But the way my life had gone, I was willing to overlook common sense and the truth. Then my period was late three months ago. I thought we were careful. I thought I was careful.”
She shook her head. “I was scared to tell him at first. Then I couldn’t hide it any longer. I knew he wasn’t my mate, and I didn’t want to marry him. I wasn’t looking for a handout. All I wanted was to see if he wanted to be part of the baby’s life. He demanded I get an abortion. I told him no.”
“How long have you been on the run from him?” Micah asked.
She sniffled. “For a couple of weeks now. He said if I wouldn’t get an abortion, then he’d kill me. That his family didn’t want any ‘mutts’ in their line was how he said it. I couldn’t go back to my cousin’s house because he knew where she lived. So I ran. I had to shift because he kept catching up with me. I thought if I could get to Maine, maybe the wolves there could help me. But he tracked me there, too. I was so, so tired.” She sniffled. “Then I saw Zack and Kael stop for gas, and they had Florida plates on their car. I thought maybe I could get far enough away from Paul he couldn’t find me.”
Jim stroked her arm, but spoke to Micah. “Do you think maybe this is why you and I were brought together in such a whacked-out way?”
Micah nodded. “Yeah, that thought occurred to me, too.” When she looked at them questioningly, he smiled. “Jim and I are straight.”
“But…but you’re mates.”
He laughed. “Yeah, I know. Tell me about it. The Universe works in strange and mysterious ways.”
A fearful look filled her face. “Are you going to make me get an abortion?” she whispered. “Since it’s not your baby?”
Anger filled him. Not at her, at the man who put her in this position from the start. He grabbed her chin and kissed her, tenderly, waiting her out until she finally relaxed in his arms and responded, a soft whimper of need escaping her.
“Does that answer your question?” he finally asked when he ended their kiss. “You are our mate, and no way in hell are you doing that if you don’t want to. If you want the baby, then that baby is our baby. No question. Understand?”
She nodded, then threw her arms around both of them. “I don’t understand why I feel like this.”
Jim chuckled. “Believe me, honey, you shouldn’t question it. Life gets a lot easier when you just go with the flow. We learned that the hard way.”
Mai thought that was very good advice. It was far easier to simply go with the flow and enjoy the feelings of love and safety enveloping her from the men. All her life she’d heard about how you just knew when you met your mate. Now she understood what they’d meant.
Micah stepped out of bed then scooped her up from the bed and carried her into their bathroom. Jim followed, carrying the bath supplies the women had brought for her. A razor and shaving gel, a brush and comb, shampoo and conditioner, body wash, a new toothbrush. Jim quickly stripped. The men gently helped her out of the robe and into the shower.
She stood under the warm water with Jim supporting her from the front. With a tender gentleness she never knew possible, Micah carefully untangled her hair with his hands and the conditioner until he could get the comb through it. Then he shampooed her hair, massaging her scalp and nearly putting her to sleep before he used the conditioner again.
She shaved herself, glad to be rid of leg and armpit hair and able to trim her bush close the way she liked to keep it. She was starting to feel marginally human again.
If they could fall in love with me looking like a mangy monster, they must be in love.
Taking their time, they slowly soaped her entire body, front and back, but avoiding her most intimate areas.
She loved them for it. She wanted a long night’s safe sleep in a comfortable bed before even thinking about that despite her body wanting more from them.
Then the baby kicked for the first time. She gasped, putting both men on high alert.
“Are you okay?” Jim asked. “Did we hurt you?”
She laughed and grabbed their hands, placing them on her belly. After a moment, the baby kicked again. “It’s the first time she kicked. Like she knows we’re safe now.”
“It’s a girl?” Micah asked with a slightly awestruck tone that filled her heart with hopeful joy.
Mai shrugged. “I…I don’t know. I just keep thinking of her as ‘she.’” Now wasn’t the time to mention her dreams.
Micah dropped to his knees in front of her and kissed her belly, wrapping his arms around her and Jim, who stood behind her.
“Ours,” he whispered, his cheek pressed against her flesh. “Both of you are ours.”
Not that Micah didn’t love Jim, because he’d die for his mate. But he wouldn’t deny when he accepted the situation and claimed Jim that part of him mourned the fact they would never have pups of their own. It hadn’t been a huge priority, but he’d always assumed once he found his mate, they would have pups, eventually.
Not biologically possible with a male for a mate.
This whole thing made no sense. Why had the Goddess done things this way? It was unheard of for a wolf to pick a second mate when their first mate was still alive.
And she was a coyote.
He got to his feet and kissed her, tenderly, not wanting to hurt or scare her. She wrapped her arms around him and kissed him back.
She broke their kiss and looked up into his eyes. “Mark me,” she whispered. “Please.”
She didn’t have to ask twice. He turned her to face Jim. She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him. Micah stroked her back, her shoulders, and pressed his body against hers. He’d sort out the mating aspect later. He wasn’t even sure if he should, for fear of hurting the baby. But he would mark his mate.
He ran his lips over her right shoulder, licking her skin and reveling in her sweet taste. When he grazed his teeth across her flesh she shivered and softly moaned.
“Submit, mate,” he softly said.
“You really don’t care that I’m a coyote and not a wolf?” she tentatively asked.
“I don’t give a flying fuck if you’re a naked pink iguana.” He nipped the back of her neck. “Do you submit, mate?”
She rested her head against Jim’s chest, her eyes closed. “Yes,” she whispered. “Please.”
Micah closed his eyes and bit down, hard. He wrapped his arms around her waist as she cried out, but she pressed herself against his body, making it hard for him to control his willful cock. She shivered as he licked at the wound now marking her as theirs, soothing her, wanting her.