STORY EXCERPT

She whined two more times, when she spotted the large figure hobbling toward her. She wailed in distress and lifted her head to look at the person coming to her rescue.

It was a woman, and she was injured herself. Maisie would have felt bad if she wasn’t in such a panic. The woman struggled with her crutches in the deep snow, almost having to leap up to make her way forward.

 She plowed ahead through the snow, and Maisie hoped she made it to her without incident. It was taking forever, and Maisie decided she needed to muster the strength to help her. Maisie whined and struggled to its feet when she drew closer.

The woman squealed when her crutch got stuck on something in the snow, and she fell forward and face-planted onto the ground. Maisie yowled and struggled forward. Rising to her knee, her cast leg propped out at an angle, the woman picked up her crutches and struggled to her feet. They were a few feet apart, and Maisie stared at the woman who had come to her rescue.

The woman looked to be in her twenties and had long wavy brunette hair. Her voluptuous body was mostly hidden under thick clothes, and she peered back at Maisie with large emerald-green eyes.

“It’s okay,” she said. “I’m going to help. Please don’t scratch or bite me.”

Maisie yowled in reply, and the woman scooped her up into her arms. The woman turned and made her way back toward the building struggling with her crutches and Maisie’s weight. She dropped one of the crutches onto the ground and tucked Maisie under her arm, balancing her on her hip.

She hobbled toward the door as the storm crashed around them and the temperature plummeted. Maisie preyed that the woman was a nice one and she hadn’t just walked out of the frying pan and into the fire.

Her blood seeped into the woman’s clothes, and her nose felt like it was about to frost off. She was in a world of hurt and sagged into the woman’s hold. They had almost made it to the door and safety, and Maisie whined again trying to communicate something, anything to her rescuer.

“Oh, thank God,” the woman said, and Maisie lifted her head to look at the open door to the building. Two large men stood in the doorway and looked out into the storm. The woman stopped and lifted her free hand and waved. The men rushed into the storm, and Maisie sighed in relief.

Just as the men were about to reach them, the woman’s leg gave out, and they crashed into the snow. The men looked down at Maisie and the woman, and she blinked up at them.

“What the hell were you thinking?” one man yelled over the violent wind.

He reached down and plucked Maisie from the woman’s arms before the other man helped her to her feet. The man then scooped the woman into his arms, and they hurriedly made their way inside.

They all rushed through the door, and it slammed shut behind them. Maisie raised her head and sniffed. Something in the room smelled incredible, and she wanted to know what it was. It was the sweetest smell and made her insides tingle despite being cold and injured.

“Give her to me,” a man demanded.

Maisie hadn’t even realized he was there. She had been too busy focusing on the sweet smell.

“She is injured,” the man holding her told him. “She appears to have lost a lot of blood.”

“I’ll take care of her,” he replied. “You just take care of your mate. She needs you.”

She was passed into the other man’s arms, and the smell grew stronger. He was the cause of the most delicious smell she had ever encountered. The reason hit her with the force of a freight train and left her reeling. This man was her mate. Her rightful mate. The one person in the entire world destined to be hers.

She couldn’t believe she had found him. The chances of finding your rightful mate were rare, and with the small population of Scottish wildcat shifters, her people didn’t even bother to look. They mated for bloodlines, not fate.

Maisie gave a small meow good-bye to her rescuer as she was carried from the room by her mate. She let her head drop and sighed in relief. She was exhausted and miserable. She would let her mate take care of her. She would be fine now, she had to be. Surely fate wouldn’t bring her and her rightful mate together, just to kill her off.

She wondered what his name was and what he did for a living. What kind of shifter was he? He had to be an honorable man. Surely fate wouldn’t have paired her with anything less.

“It’s okay, little one,” he said. “I’ve got you.”

ADULT EXCERPT

Maisie tilted her head to give him better access and moaned low in her throat. Blair was done trying to find reasons to stay away from his mate.

“I need you to understand something first,” he told her.

Maisie opened her eyes and looked at him, but he wasn’t sure how much attention she was actually giving him. Her gaze was passion-filled as she reached behind her to grab on to Lachlan’s head and draw him closer.

“Ah-ha,” she replied.

“If we do this,” he said, “there will be no going back. We will be mated for life.”

“I know,” she told him.

“Do you?” he asked. “It means forever.”

That brought Maisie’s head up and a frown onto her face. He knew that it was just a heat of the moment thing, and she wasn’t ready to commit. If Lachlan and Blair made love to her, then they would be mated. His panther would demand it, and so would the man. He was already way too emotionally involved to ever give her up. Mating with her would be the thing that tipped him over the edge.

“Don’t you want to mate with me?” she asked, confusing him.

“Yes,” he replied, “of course I do. But mating is forever, and I won’t be able to let you walk away.”

“Neither will I,” Lachlan added. “You have to want to be with us.”

Maisie rolled her brown eyes at them and huffed.

“I do want to be with you,” she said. “We aren’t just mates, we are rightful mates. Fated to be together. Forever and ever. I wasn’t taking this lightly, and I don’t know why you would think that I would. I’m asking you to mate with me and share your life with me. I had no intention of bailing later.”

Blair watched as Maisie rose to her knees on the bed. She whipped his borrowed shirt over her head and sat back on her heals. It left her naked and exposed to their hungry gaze, and Blair felt his cock spring back to life, as his hands itched to touch her.

His gaze went between her spread thighs to her delicate pink folds. She was wet with arousal, and it didn’t take long for her musky scent to hit his nose. Blair groaned and dragged his eyes up her body to her perky breasts. Her nipples were hard and erect and mouth wateringly delicious.

“Now,” she said, “No more talking. Make me yours, both of you.”

“It would be our honor,” Lachlan replied. All Blair could do was dumbly nod. Maisie reached over and grabbed his boxers, slowly dragging them down his legs. She giggled as she threw them over her head and turned to Lachlan and repeated the process.

“Wow,” she said. “My mates have exceptional bodies.”

Blair lay back and let her look her fill. He wanted her to be comfortable with his body. He was a big man and so was Lachlan, and no, he wasn’t just talking about the cock department. They both towered over Maisie when standing and were filled with muscles from working such a physical job.

She was a tiny thing and he didn’t want her to be intimidated. He put his arms behind his head while his brother lay on his side with his head in his palm. They were hers for the taking, all she had to do was reach out and take what she wanted.

“You can touch us,” he said. “Don’t be shy.”

“I’m not,” she replied, rolling her eyes. It was a habit that Blair was noticing she did a lot. She was right, she wasn’t shy. She had just pulled their boxers off after all. “I just don’t know where to start.”

Blair lay back and waited. His cock was throbbing, and his panther paced with the need to feel his mate’s hands on his body. He didn’t move though. He didn’t want to rush this. Blair and Lachlan had waited a long time for their rightful mate to come along, and he wanted it to be special. Magical even, not just for himself and Lachlan, but for her as well.

This was the start to a new chapter in their lives. The first mating act would cement their relationship and was more than just sex. Blair knew he was putting a lot of pressure on himself in that moment, but he couldn’t help it. He wasn’t the go-with-the-flow type of guy.

Blair was a planner and liked to brood over a situation until the answer presented itself. Now he was taking the biggest step in his life, and he had to make it perfect.

He held his breath as Maisie reached out her small hand and ran it down his torso and straight to his cock. She gently grasped it in her hand and stroked his flesh back and forth. His breath left his body in a whoosh, and he started purring.

“I like that noise,” she said. “Let me see what other noises I can get you to make.”

Yep, definitely not shy, he thought.