Panther Magic (14 page)

“
I realize in an ideal world we should have waited
until you could give your permission to come with us, but you were out cold,
and we had to leave right away, as per the council’s judgment. Cole said you
had a passport, so we took you with us.” He paused and searched her face before
continuing. “If this isn’t where you want to be, then, of course you are free
to return back to the UK, but…” His voice cracked on the last few words, and
Kate watched in amazement as he blinked away tears.

A quick glance at Zeb showed him
to be also struggling in keeping in his emotions. He clenched and unclenched
his fists, and blinked rapidly, as though he was barely able to keep it
together.

Goodness me, who’d have thought it.
Those two big Alpha men reduced
to tears because they thought she might object to what they had done. Truth was
Kate was doing cartwheels of excitement inside at the thought of seeing Vegas.
It was tempting to string this out a bit, but her submissive side cringed at
doing that to her Sirs, so she smiled instead and shook her head.

“
I can’t think of anywhere else I’d rather be right
now, than here with you, so stop looking so worried, Sirs. I just needed to be
sure that this is really what you wanted.”

Zeb growled low and hard, and
everything inside Kate tightened. That sound was so damn sexy.

“
If we had the time, I’d put you over my knee for
that, girl. Damn it, woman, we love you. Of course we want you here.”

Arran nodded and kissed her, and
Kate sank into his embrace. When he’d kissed her completely senseless it was
Zeb’s turn, and by the time the steward knocked on the door again with a ten
minute warning, Kate was hard pushed to even remember her own name, let alone
any objection she might have had.

“
We’ve been looking for a permanent assistant in our
act for some time, so the job is yours, if you want it, wildcat,” Zeb said.

“
No need to give us an answer now.” Arran’s quick
interference made her smile. “I mean it might not be what you want to do, and
whatever job you choose is fine by us.”

Zeb nodded.

“
We just want you with us and happy.”

Kate grinned at her men, and then
shimmied out of bed with an exaggerated hip swing that made both her panthers
groan.

“
Well, then, I guess we best get dressed to meet
Vegas. And you know. I’ve developed a definite liking for your brand of Panther
Magic. So, I reckon I’ll accept your job off
er
.”

Epilogue

Six months
later

Kate bowed with her hands
buried in her men’s fur, and as one woman and panthers accepted the raucous
applause of their audience.
 
With a
dramatic drumroll, and artificial smoke erupting all around them, Zeb and Arran
disappeared from view, only to reappear on opposite sides of the theater, back
in their human forms. Just like it always did, the audience went wild, as the
men made their way back on stage through the throng of people on their feet,
signing autographs and shaking hands as they went.

After six months of
participating in this circus that was their life on camera as it were, Kate
didn’t have to pretend her big smile anymore. She’d grown to love this show as
much as her men did. There was something humbling about bringing joy to so many
people through their performances. As trite as that would have sounded to her
before she met her men, now it just felt right. Their show had grown massively
in popularity over the last few months, and was now booked out several months
in advance.

Of course that meant they
were never far out of the limelight, and her wedding to Zeb only last month had
made huge headlines. It still amused Kate greatly to think what the great and
adoring public would make of the private blessing that had followed that
official wedding when she had also pledged herself to Arran forever more. Not
that either one of them had needed that public declaration, but Zeb had
insisted on making their union legal.

“Like it or not, we’re in the
public eye, and living largely among humans. A wedding ring on your finger will
show everyone that you’re here to stay, and it gives you legal and financial
protection, should anything ever happen to either one of us. I will not be
persuaded from this,
girl.
”

Kate hadn’t put up much of a fight.
Besides he was right, and it had stemmed the fawning fan-girls slightly, or at
least it had in Zeb’s case. Arran was still mercilessly hounded—tonight being
no exception, as Kate observed.

A woman grasped Arran’s
backside and tried to sneak a kiss, and Kate inwardly rolled her eyes at the
blonde’s clumsy attempt to get his attention. With his inherent politeness,
Arran extricated himself out of her clutches, and Zeb looked up to where Kate
was standing, and grinned. Oh yes, he was no doubt going to make Arran pay for
that.

Just like it always did, that
smile full of sensual promise and wicked intent sent her heart aflutter and
stopped the nasty poker of jealousy from taking hold. There simply was no room
for any of that, not when she felt her men with her at all times. Kate had
accepted the fact that she would never shift herself, but her shifter genes,
hopelessly diluted as they were,
did
give her an edge
over the ordinary mated human. For starters she had been able to keep her
precious secret to herself—able to cloak that part of her from her men—until
she was absolutely sure, and her grin deepened when she imagined her men’s
reactions at her news.

Their combined scents warned
her of their approach, and in seconds she was in their arms, and the curtain
fell for the last time.

“Finally, as much as I love
our fans, some of them are just too hands on.” Arran’s growl in her ear sent
delicious shivers down her spine, and she giggled when Zeb made a big show of
rolling his eyes, and then taking her out of Arran’s arms.

“Hey, it’s my turn to carry
her offstage.” Arran’s voice held a decided sulk, and Zeb’s deep laugh rumbled
through her and settled straight in her clit. Her attraction to her men had not
dimmed one little bit. If anything the bond between them had grown stronger,
and Kate closed her eyes and let their combined love wash over her

“You know you lose that right
to carry her when you let one of the women grab your ass like that.”

Arran’s panther growled low
in his throat, and Kate burst out laughing at the exasperated way he ran a hand
through his hair.

“Like I
could avoid her.
It’s all right for you. You’re officially off the market. I shouldn’t have
agreed so readily that it’s you who married our girl.”

Zeb shrugged his big
shoulders, and Kate’s amusement increased tenfold, when she felt the mental
finger in the air that Zeb threw at Arran. Naturally, Arran responded in kind,
and Kate shook her head in mock despair.

“Stop it, you two. It’s
enough to give a woman a headache, and besides, I reckon before too long it
will need
both of you to carry me as I’ll be no doubt as big
as a house.”

Their bickering in her head
stopped instantly, and Zeb’s forward movement ground to an abrupt halt, as he
stared down at her.
 
Shock and pride
chased each other across his harsh features, and Arran grasped her chin to make
her look at him, as he inhaled sharply.

Kate opened herself fully to
her mates, and she knew the instant they heard the faint but rapid heartbeats
she had been shielding from them for the last few days, ever since she had
first heard them.

“Well fuck me.”
 
Arran’s whisper joined Zeb’s much more
forceful response.

“Hot fucking damn, we’re
going to be fathers?”

Kate nodded and, putting her
arms round each one of her men’s shoulders, had never felt happier. Their
obvious joy at the news made her fall in love with them a little bit more. They
hadn’t planned on having babies yet, but it seemed Mother Nature had had other
ideas. Not entirely surprising, considering their more than active sex lives.

“So it would seem. I wanted
to make sure everything was all right with them, before I told you and—”

The rest of her
well-rehearsed little speech was lost, as first Zeb and then Arran claimed her
mouth in a kiss so all-consuming that Kate could only hold on for dear
life.
 
Sandwiched between her men,
cocooned by their combined heat, she allowed herself to not think and just
feel.
 
By the time they finally let her
come up for air all three of them were breathing heavily and grinning like
fools.

Arran was the first to
recover, and with a mischievous twinkle in his eyes, he glanced at Zeb.

“Guess we’ll be introducing
cubs to our act before too long, eh, bro?”

“Saves us having to go look
for them,
that’s
for sure.”

For once Kate couldn’t read
them at all, and she looked between her men, fully aware that her mouth had
fallen open.

“Cubs?”
She finally managed to
squeak her question. “But I thought they were born babies, no?” Her men’s
smiles did nothing to reassure her.

“Yep, cubs,
my sweet.
But don’t worry. I’m told they don’t bite too much, when they’re nursing,” Zeb
said.

Kate made a strangled sound
in the back of her throat, and after what seemed like a lifetime, Arran burst
into laughter, closely followed by Zeb.

Kate crossed her arms over
her chest, and tried her best to glare at the two of them, but failed
miserably. Their laughter was just too infectious, and her lips, too, quirked
in merriment.

“You Sirs,” she said, once
they finally stopped laughing at her, “are impossible.
 
I actually believed you there for a minute.
That’s not fair.”

Zeb’s amusement dissipated,
and Kate squirmed inside when he grasped her chin and pinned her in place with
the intensity of his gaze.

“Neither is keeping this from
us, wildcat. I should put you over my knee and spank your ass for that alone.”

A moan of pure need escaped
Kate at those words, and heat flared in his eyes.

“Sounds an
excellent plan to me.”
Arran lifted her hair off her neck and murmured the words into her ear. His hot
breath ghosted across her skin and left tingles of awareness in its place.
 
“While we can still use
spanking as a punishment, anyway.
 
We’ll have to think of something else once our girl gets big enough to
need both of us to carry her.”

The solid evidence of his
erection dug into her side, and Kate groaned when he tugged her head back by
her hair and studied her.

“What does our naughty subbie
have to say about that?” he asked, and Kate smiled.

“I say, yes, please, Sirs.”

The End

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