STORY EXCERPT

Ari was woken by the sounds of a fight in the corridor. He recognised by now the sounds of fists hitting flesh with too much ease. Whoever was under attack sounded like he was giving back as good as he was getting. Ari turned a little and leaned up on his right elbow. He could hear more than a couple of people were involved in the scuffle, and grunts from several as they fought. Scents began to filter through the cracks around the door to him.

Mate! No, that’s not possible. Keiron is my mate and that isn’t him. The scent of whoever was out in the corridor was making his cat growl and lash its tail inside him, urging him to go to them, to bite, to claim, and to defend. Someone was thrown against the door of his room and Ari jerked upright, ignoring the pains in his shoulder and the rest of his body. Then the fight stopped. Or at least whoever it was stopped fighting back, suddenly passive. A few more dull thuds and grunts sounded, and then a key slid into the door lock and turned. The three bolts were shot back and the door flung open. A man stumbled through, helped on his way by a hefty shove from one of the men now crowding into the doorway.

“Hey look, Ari, you have company!” They all laughed uproariously.

What’s funny about that? Ari thought, staring at the blond man who had fallen in a heap on the floor, trying not to look too interested in case they decided to put them in separate rooms. He couldn’t hold back a growl when Aaron swung his foot back and booted the man in the ribs. He silenced himself quickly and kept his gaze away from Aaron so the beta would not see the rage simmering there.

The blond on the floor stiffened and his head snapped up toward Ari, eyes wide and nostrils dilated. Ari felt a moment of panic that the guy would give something away to Aaron or one of the others. He realised this must have been the way Keiron felt all those months ago when he had laid eyes on Ari from his vantage point atop the building, a burning desire to go to him, but fear and worry about the consequences. The man lowered his head again and Ari breathed out slowly.

Aaron and his cronies left, closing the door and locking it behind them. The blond opened his mouth to speak, but Ari quickly held up a hand to keep him quiet for a few more moments. As soon as he could no longer hear footsteps moving away, he relaxed.

“Are you hurt badly?” he asked.

“Only my pride,” the man replied, with a rather pained grin. He winced, holding an arm to his ribs as he clambered to his feet. “I’m Isaac. You’re Ari?” At Ari’s nod, Isaac gave a dark laugh. “Of course you are. Well, I was supposed to be here to rescue you.” Isaac had an accent.

“Huh? How did you even know I was here? Are you English?”

“Yes, I am. It was Keiron. He got a message out to a member of my pack.” Ari had no idea how Keiron had managed that, but he hoped his mate was safe and hadn’t gotten caught doing something stupid. Isaac was sniffing the air with a frown.

“Um, don’t take this the wrong way, but…are you my mate? Keiron said you were his mate in his message, but the way you smell… God, my lion is going nuts.”

“My panther, too. Keiron is my mate. I… He must be our mate. I can’t see fate making him and I mates, and you and I mates, without all three of us being mated to each other.” Ari felt weird discussing it like this. It all felt so clinical and rational.

“No wonder my lion has been so restless. He must have been picking up something from you both since I got here. I caught your scent properly when they had me outside in the corridor, stopped fighting back because I wanted in here where they were trying to put me.”

“And now we’re both screwed.” Ari gave him a wry grin. “You might as well come sit down.” He sat up properly and moved over making it obvious he wanted Isaac on the bed with him, not on the one across the room.

“Oh, don’t worry. As long as they don’t do us in in the next few days, my pack’ll come looking. Rescuing people is kind of what they do. I was an idiot to come on my own.” Isaac limped over and lowered himself gingerly to the bed. He sat close, and Ari could feel the warmth his body gave off. He could feel his blood heading toward his groin. Hmmm… maybe getting him to sit next to me was a bad idea. I mean, God knows he smells amazing, but we can’t do anything. Not without Keiron knowing. That would feel like betraying him. But, hell! I don’t know if I can stop myself from touching this guy.

“So why did you?” Focus. Must focus on the conversation.

Isaac shifted, next to him, then again. Ari looked down at where their arms were barely touching, his own brown skin against the pale, creaminess of Isaac’s. Looks good. Smells good. I’m so fucked. Then Isaac rose to his feet again and moved away from the bed. He hobbled over to the other cot and sat back down, looking at Ari dryly. “Sorry, no way I can concentrate if I sit next to you. All I want to do is push you back, rip your clothes off, and lick you from one end to the other.”

ADULT EXCERPT

Ari had abandoned Keiron’s shoulders and reached a hand past him for Isaac. Keiron let his head fall onto the pillow and got an up close view of his two mates kissing. Tongues glided and licked, mouths sliding wetly, as they devoured each other.

Keiron’s balls tingled and he had to worm a hand down between him and Isaac’s bodies to grab them and ease them away from his body. The pressure on his cock and the sight of his mates kissing had nearly been enough to make him come. He licked across Ari’s jaw, tongue rasping on stubble, before biting it gently. Then he turned his attentions to Isaac’s neck.

“Lube!”

Keiron was too far gone to know who asked for the lube, but it was a damn good idea.

A drawer was pulled out and something rattled but he was too busy sucking up a mark on Isaac’s creamy skin to look. His panther wanted to rub all over both men and drench them in his scent, but it purred in contentment at the purplish mark. Mine! His beast knew the time to claim and be claimed had come and didn’t want to wait any longer. He couldn’t blame it. Some people said their shifter halves felt like them just more in touch with their instincts. Keiron had always felt differently. His beast felt like a separate entity, one he was closely bonded with, sure, but definitely separate. Right now, his beast couldn’t fucking wait and Keiron wasn’t moving fast enough.

With no conscious direction from him, Keiron’s teeth lengthened into his panther’s fangs as he sucked up another mark on Isaac’s neck. One fang broke the skin. Keiron pulled back the moment he tasted blood and eyed the welling drop of blood. Isaac didn’t appear to have noticed, apart from a jerk of his hips. Laving the skin, Keiron licked up the red drop and sent a tendril of energy into the tiny wound. He felt the healing take place as the skin smoothed and joined together under his tongue.

“How d’you wanna do this?” Ari asked.

Good point. How were they going to do it? There were three of them. Keiron didn’t know about the other two but he hadn’t had an awful lot of experience, though he did have some, but a threesome hadn’t ever even been on his radar.

“Uh, Isaac?” Keiron looked at the man, whose pale skin seemed to have paled further. The acrid flash of fear in the air had caught his attention.

“I d-don’t think I can…not yet.”

He didn’t have to spell it out. After what had happened to him, neither Ari nor Keiron would push him into bottoming. They would wait as long as it took and neither would mind if Isaac never bottomed for them. They got to be with him and that was all that mattered. So that left him and Ari. Keiron really didn’t care where he came in the daisy chain as long as he came at some point and could claim or be claimed by both men.

With a quick kiss to Isaac’s shoulder, Keiron wiggled from his position between them and climbed over to the other side of Ari.

“You okay with Isaac taking you while you take me, big guy?”

“Oh yeah.” Ari’s eyes gleamed.

Keiron grinned at his mate’s quick response.

“Okay with you, Isaac?”

“More than okay. I wanna be with you, though, too.”

“We’ll get our turn, don’t worry about that.”

“And I can’t wait to see it.” Ari smirked at the pair of them.

Keiron could feel Ari’s genuine desire to see he and Isaac go at it, but he could also sense, though the peculiar link he had created when he had bitten his mate to heal him, that Ari was also attempting to distract Isaac from the thoughts of being taken himself, which had thrown him off a few moments ago.

Isaac’s mouth relaxed into a proper smile and his eyes hooded with desire. “Can’t wait to be inside you.” He bent his head and nibbled at Ari’s shoulder.

“Get me ready while I do Keiron?” Ari suggested.

The lube was cold and felt odd at first, but Ari’s fingers playing around the super sensitive skin of his hole pushed him quickly past the feeling. Every additional finger pinched, but he quickly got used to them and begged for more. Keiron burned for his mates, needing to bond with them properly and desperately wanting one of them inside him.

“You ready for me, baby? ‘Cause, fuck, I need inside you so bad. Need you too, ‘Saac.”

“Uh huh,” Keiron moaned against Ari’s shoulder. His lips were currently wrapped around the flesh, biting and sucking on the gorgeous skin.

Ari turned his head to Isaac for a kiss. It was hot as hell watching his mates’ lips and tongues dance and slide across each other like that up close.

Then Ari was over him, pushing Keiron’s legs back and positioning himself at Keiron’s entrance.

“Hngggyeessss…” Keiron’s mouth fell open as Ari edged inside him for the first time. He didn’t want slow, or time to adjust. He wanted it hard and fast and now! But Isaac was climbing behind Ari, yet to join them.

Holding himself motionless after the single, slow, forward pump of his hips, Ari’s every emotion rippled across his face as Isaac pushed into him making it seem to Keiron as though he could feel Isaac’s cock as well. Ari panted and his cock pulsed inside Keiron, too close to the edge for a moment to even move. He screwed his eyes tightly closed and his hands gripped the back of Keiron’s thighs tightly enough to bruise.

“Oh, fuck,” Isaac gasped. “Please tell me I can move.”