“Welcome to King, Scarlett,” his dad said. “Come in out of the cold.”
Ray pushed the seat forward and grabbed their duffels while Wes gathered Scarlett’s bags. Then they led Scarlett into their childhood home. Ray set the duffel on top of the washing machine, hugged his dad and then pulled Scarlett into the kitchen where he hugged his uncle.
“Dad, Uncle Miles, this is our mate, Scarlett. Sweetheart, this is our dad, Max, and our Uncle Miles.”
He could tell his dad and uncle were surprised when Scarlett hugged them and thanked them for their help.
Max, cheeks pink with blush, said, “You’re their mate and that makes you part of our family, and I’d do anything for my family.”
Uncle Miles said, “Why don’t you kids get settled and freshen up and we’ll make lunch. Unless you stopped somewhere?”
Ray shook his head. “We only stopped for snacks. I wanted to get here as soon as possible.”
“Okay. Grab your things and follow me to the basement.”
“Basement?” Wes asked.
“We want you to have privacy,” Max said.
Scarlett blushed brightly and Ray grinned. “Thanks, Dad.”
When they had their bags in hand, they followed Miles through the family room to an open door that led down to the basement. “We’ve made a lot of changes since you guys lived here,” Miles said as he walked out into the main room.
Ray whistled in surprise as he put his duffel down on top of a dresser. The large, open space had been divided up into bedroom and living areas. A large bed sat in one corner on top of a square of dark carpeting, along with a tall dresser and a nightstand. Long curtains had been hung from the ceiling, mimicking a wall and giving them the illusion of a separate room. On another square of carpeting sat a couch and coffee table, with a flat-screen television hanging from the wall. Under the TV was a mini fridge. In the corner by the couch was a small wood-burning stove. The small black stove was sitting on top of a decorative brick platform, with the stovepipe curving into the wall. Wood was burning inside, filling the room with heat and the rich scent of a wood fire. When he and Wes had lived at home, the basement hadn’t been finished; it had been more a forgotten level of the house where the Christmas decorations were kept than a place to put up family members when they visited.
Miles opened a door near the bedroom area. “The bathroom is small, but it’ll keep you from having to traipse upstairs every time you want to take a shower.”
Ray looked into the room and whistled in appreciation. The small room contained a stall shower, toilet, and a sink on top of a small cabinet. Three towels and three washcloths hung from a rack on the wall, and on the narrow counter were three toothbrushes, toothpaste, and a hairbrush.
“If you need any supplies, just put them on the grocery list on the fridge upstairs. The mini fridge is stocked with snacks and drinks, and there are napkins and cups in the basket under the sink here.”
“Thanks for everything,” Ray said, looking back into the main room where Scarlett stood in Wes’s arms, her eyes closed as she yawned. She hadn’t slept much on the way to King, dozing for a few minutes at a time before waking abruptly. She’d said that her nerves kept her from sleeping, and he hoped now that they were safe, she would be able to sleep well.
“You’re welcome,” Miles said with a smile. “Get settled and come upstairs when you’re ready and we’ll eat lunch.”
Miles left them alone, and Ray joined his mate and his brother. Wes said, “I can’t believe how much work they did. It looks great down here, almost like an apartment.”
“Did they do it for us?” Scarlett asked.
“No, they didn’t have the time. We only told them yesterday that we were going to find you and bring you here. They might have bought linens and supplies, but they’d clearly already finished the basement and bathroom. When we lived here, the walls weren’t up, the bathroom was only roughed in, and the stove hadn’t ever been used.”
“We can unpack,” Scarlett said and then yawned.
Wes swung her up into his arms and carried her to the bed. The queen-size bed was covered with a thick blue blanket. “We’ll unpack, you rest.”
She stretched her arms over her head with a soft squeak. “We were just in the truck for eleven hours.”
“You’re tired, sweetheart. We’ll eat and then you can take a nap, okay?”
“Only if you nap with me.”
“As if we’d pass up the chance,” Wes said, chuckling.
Ray opened Scarlett’s suitcase and tugged the top drawer open. He put her clothes inside as Wes unpacked their duffel into the second and third drawers, separating their clothes. After unloading her toiletries in the bathroom, he stowed their bags on a shelf against the far wall that was used for storage and then sat down on the bed.
She’d been watching them intently, when she wasn’t yawning, and Ray rubbed her calf through her jeans and smiled at her. “Ready to eat?”
“Definitely.”
He offered her his hand and helped her to stand. As they walked upstairs, the scent of Max’s bbq shredded chicken filled his nose. A large oval crockpot sat in the center of the kitchen table and when they sat down, Max lifted the glass lid and Ray’s stomach growled.
Wes filled a bun with shredded chicken for Scarlett, and then scooped potato salad and coleslaw onto the plate before setting it in front of her. Ray filled her glass with lemonade and she raised her brow.
“What?” he asked, filling his and Wes’s glasses before handing the pitcher to Miles.
“Nothing. You’re both just really sweet.”
Wes kissed her cheek. “We’re just taking care of our sweetheart.”
It was something Ray wanted to do for the rest of their lives.
Saturday morning, Scarlett rolled over and stared at the ceiling. Ray and Wes were on either side of her, breathing deeply in sleep. The basement windows were covered with curtains, but she could see it was still dark outside. Her stomach gurgled and she swallowed, closing her eyes and wondering why she felt sick all of a sudden.
She wanted to stay tucked between her mates, their arms around her in the quiet solitude of the early morning, but her stomach wasn’t having it. She breathed shallowly through her mouth, but as her stomach rolled again she knew she needed to get to the bathroom or she was going to ruin the idyllic moment by throwing up all over her mates.
She sat up slowly, thinking she could just slide off the end of the bed without waking either male up, but her stomach heaved and she knew getting to the bathroom fast was her only priority. Climbing over Ray, she heard him grunt as her knee connected with his stomach, but she couldn’t stop to apologize. She darted to the bathroom as soon as her feet hit the carpet, fell to her knees in front of the toilet and threw up.
A hand rubbed her back as she slumped over the toilet with her head in her hand, her elbow on the seat. “Sweetheart?” Wes asked, his hand making slow circles around her upper back as he pushed the lever to flush the toilet.
She closed her eyes and inhaled slowly, feeling like the nausea was gone. Wes helped her stand and she brushed her teeth. Ray picked her up gently and carried her to the bed. He’d been standing in the doorway watching her, his face carved in worry. He laid her gently in the center of the bed and sat next to her as Wes disappeared upstairs. Ray brushed his hand across her forehead.
“Do you think it was something you ate?” His voice was low and soothing.
“I don’t know. I just woke up feeling sick.”
Wes came back downstairs after a few minutes with a plate of crackers, then he walked to the mini refrigerator and removed a bottle of water. He joined them on the bed and Ray fixed the pillows so she was propped up. She took a cracker and chewed on it slowly, hoping she wouldn’t get sick again. They watched her silently, smiling reassuringly.
“I’ve never had anyone watch me get sick before,” she mused.
Ray grinned. “I’m glad we could be the first.”
“Oh, sure, it’s a total honor,” she said, chuckling. “I think I feel okay now.” She’d eaten two crackers and sipped the water. Her stomach wasn’t rolling and she didn’t think she’d toss her cookies again anytime soon.
“Do you think you’re coming down with something?” Wes asked, pressing the back of his hand to her forehead.
She pulled his wrist down to her mouth and kissed it. “I’m not a shifter, but I don’t get sick.” It was just about the only benefit to being a Breeding Queen.
Ray frowned as he stood. “I’ll go get breakfast and bring it downstairs. We’ve got a lot to chat about, anyway.”
She smiled at him as he turned and walked upstairs. She rolled to her side and snuggled into Wes. He hugged her lightly. “You’re not just pretending to feel better, right?”
“Nope. I feel okay now. Maybe it was stress. Goodness knows I’ve had a few lifetimes’ worth of stress over the last few weeks.”
He kissed her forehead. “You didn’t sleep well last night?”
“No, I kept waking up. You guys probably didn’t sleep well either because of me.”
“Don’t worry about it. I’d sleep on nails to hold you at night.”
She peeked up at him, finding his expression serious. “Good thing you don’t have to.”
He smiled and kissed her briefly.
They lay in silence until Ray came downstairs carrying a tray with three plates and three mugs. He joined them on the bed and they ate french toast casserole and bacon, and they had coffee while she had a cup of hot tea.
They took turns showering, and when they were all dressed, she and Wes sat on the couch while Ray fed the stove with wood. He straightened as he shut the door and turned to face them.
“We wanted to talk about mating with you, Scarlett.”
Her pulse sped up. She’d really thought they would want to make love the night before, but they’d done nothing outside of kissing once they got into bed. She was okay with that, on some levels, because she was exhausted from the long drive even after taking a nap after lunch, but she’d also been disappointed.
“I’m all ears,” she promised.
“Mountain lions don’t have any real mating ceremonies. When a trio comes together, they make their own choices on how they proceed. It always involves marking, but the rest is up to the individual group. Our friends, Alek and Jericho, marked Lachlyn with mating bites and then also marked each other’s arms because, at the time, Lachlyn wasn’t able to shift. Ethan, Eryx, and Callie marked each other. James and John got tattoos to match Rue’s brand. Melody marked Tristan and Micah and they marked her. Human marriage follows, not because it’s more important than the mating, but because the guys like their mates to share their last name.”
“We can make our own ceremony. Whatever you want it to be, we can do it, and when it’s safe and we can go back to Ashland, we’ll get married by human standards,” Wes added.
She hummed. “Scarlett Fiero. I like the sound of it.”
Ray grinned. “We do, too.”
“Tell us what you’d like to do for the ceremony, and we’ll put it together. We were thinking about Tuesday. That gives us a few days to get things together.”
She blinked. “You want to wait four days to make love?”
Wes’s mouth fell open and Ray made a surprised sound.
Her face heated with a blush and she closed her eyes with a groan. “Forget I said that.”
Ray joined them on the couch with a lascivious chuckle. “Never. We just meant waiting a few days for the marking ceremony. It’s important to us that you know how special you are. We don’t want to rush things with the only woman we’re going to mark as ours. We can make love whenever you’re ready.”
She wanted to ask them why they hadn’t done anything last night, but she wasn’t about to say something so embarrassing again.
Wes leaned over and kissed her cheek. His lips lingered as he twined his fingers with hers. “We were all stressed out and tired last night, sweetheart. You have to know that we
always
want you.”
She turned and met his lips with her own. She’d spent the better portion of her life knowing that whoever her father had chosen for her to mate would only want her because of what she was. Ray and Wes wanted her because she was theirs. It really didn’t matter to them what her biological destiny was, they just wanted
her
. For the last few weeks she’d been missing them, locking the memory of her night with them away in the corner of her mind. Now she had them, and she wanted to never let them go.
Pulling away from Wes’s drugging kiss, she turned to Ray and he slipped his arms around her and pulled her close as their lips met and their tongues slid against each other in a dance that made her toes curl and her brain fizzle out.
Wes’s hands caressed her shoulders and all thoughts of a discussion went out of her mind until Ray ended the kiss and smiled at her. “Tell us what you want, love.”
“You, damn it, I just want you both.”
He grinned sinfully. “I meant for the ceremony. I’m very happy to hear you want us, though. We want you, too.”
She closed her eyes with a groan. “I can’t stop saying embarrassing things today.”
Wes laughed. “You should always say what you feel, Scarlett. Honesty’s important to us.”
“Well, I feel like we went to bed last night without getting reacquainted, and now I don’t want to do anything other than go back to bed with you both. How’s that for honest?”
“Perfect. But first let’s talk about our mating ceremony, and then we’ll see where the day takes us. We’ve missed out on eight weeks with you. We have a lot of catching up to do,” Ray said.
“Okay, okay.” She leaned back against the couch and looked up at the ceiling. Each male held one of her hands and she could hear the faint sound of their occasional purring, which made her smile. “I read about a ceremony where instead of having it at night, they did it at dawn. Wolves do everything at night and I thought it was cool. The families got together and had a big dinner and stayed up partying all night. When the sun rose, the couple said vows to each other. I’m not sure I could actually stay up
all
night, but it would be really cool to have a sunrise ceremony.”
“I think that sounds amazing,” Wes said.
Ray nodded. “We could do it Tuesday morning. It’s too cold to be outside, but the front room has a big picture window that faces east and we could have it in front of the window.”
“I love that,” she said.
“Then we could have breakfast with Dad and Uncle Miles, and then we could come down here and officially mate you. How does that sound?”
“You mean bite me? Both of you?”
They nodded.
“It sounds kind of painful, but I want that. I want to wear your marks so everyone knows I belong to you.”
Ray’s eyes softened and he cupped her face. “We belong to you, too.”
“I wanted you to be mine. I wish I hadn’t ever left your bed,” she confessed.
“We’re here now. That’s all that really matters,” Wes said.
They talked for a while longer about the ceremony and their mating day. They were forging new ground in many ways. In all the Breeding Queen history, she’d never heard of one walking away from her duty. She wondered if her mother or any of the other Queens had actually had mates but no one had taken the time to let them find out for themselves. Lifetimes had been ruined because of fathers and their quest to have the best of everything.