Chapter 6
Maverick
Groaning, I opened my eyes to the feel of being shaken and spotted Briar grinning down at me. Shit. I’d fallen asleep during the last Alice in Wonderland movie. The chair, the ambiance, and the company had just been so damned cozy that I’d curled up beneath the blanket and completely zonked out.
“Welcome back to wonderland,” Briar murmured, carding a finger through my hair. “Leo headed into the bathroom to shower and get ready for bed, so it might be a good time for us to strip down and shift so we can work out how to arrange ourselves.”
“Mmm okay,” I muttered, yawning as I sat up, stretched, and cracked my neck in the process. “Chair was comfy though.”
“And you can rediscover the comforts of it tomorrow when we’re having our Pirates of the Caribbean marathon complete with stuffed shrimp and she-crab soup.
I couldn’t help it; I purred as he helped me up out of the chair and slid an arm around me to guide me to the bedroom. What could I say? I was a cat. The thought of seafood of any kind was like being flooded with endorphins, and I melted against him.
“Yeah, my pretty kitty liked that, didn’t you?” He cooed in my ear. “We’ll stuff that tummy full of crab and shrimp later, then sneak off for a quick run in our fur so I can stuff you full of something else.”
Oh, hell yeah!
The deep, rough, rolling growl of his voice coupled with the warmth of his breath against my neck and the way he lightly scraped his teeth against my skin before nipping drew a groan from me as I shivered and turned in his arms so I could kiss him.
I ended up with my back pressed against the bedroom door with my arms stretched over my head and pinned to the wood, his iron grip holding me in place as he slid his thigh between us so I could grind on it.
It was deliciously wicked to think that Leo could emerge from the ensuite at any moment to catch us going at it, but I absolutely didn’t give a damn.
I wanted to feel Briar filling me, my body clearly onboard with that plan, because I could feel myself grow slick.
Need coursed through me, the level of it ramping up with each lick, nip, caress, and prick of the claws he’d let out the moment he slid them beneath my t-shirt.
Pinpricks of pleasure with a hint of pain, capable of shredding or delivering the most delicious sensations, the way he was going right now.
He rutted against my hip as I rode his thigh, my moans devoured by his kisses as we rushed to frantically get off while we could still hear the water running in the shower.
When my orgasm hit, I was grateful for the door behind me because even my inner cat yawled as the world shattered.
Briar’s body slumped against mine was the only thing holding me in place, or maybe it was the door doing all the work at this point because neither of us seemed capable of movement.
We needed our clothes off before we could shift, and right now, I doubted either of us could manage to remove a sock, let alone the sleep pants and t-shirts we had on.
At least the water was still going.
And then it turned off.
Shit.
Fuck.
Briar’s fingers scrabbled for the collar of my t-shirt, catching a few strands of hair as he yanked it off over my head.
“Shit, sorry,” he whispered when I hissed and reached to rub the spot, only to have him kiss the sting away.
“It’s okay, we gotta hurry.”
“I feel like we’re back in high school again, trying not to get caught making out beneath the stairwell,” he muttered as he pulled his shirt off while I started shoving at my sleep pants, which were technically a pair of his, so once they were over my hips, they just fell to the floor to pool around my ankles.
We nearly cracked our heads together straightening back up. In that moment, my eyes landed on the woven band of interlocking lines and whirls running around his upper thigh, and my heart shattered.
“Bri,” I stammered, tears stinging my eyes as I reached out to touch it, hesitant, because that mark meant I no longer had the right to touch him and everything we’d just done…
Nausea hit then, and I slapped a hand over my mouth to keep from puking all over him.
“Mav, what is it? What’s wrong?”
I couldn’t say, so I used my free hand to point at his thigh, only to realize that there was a horrified look on his face as he stepped back from me, something he’d never done before.
“Mav,” he said, voice hitching like he was on the verge of tears. “You’ve got a bond mark.”
Huh?
The screech that ran through my head was like nails on a chalkboard as every thought came to an abrupt halt.
I had a bond mark? He was the one with the…
My thoughts tripped over themselves, memories of the day flashing on repeat.
We’d met Leo, we’d met the medics, and he’d gone in to get the key to the cabin while I’d waited in the car.
Did we have the same mate? Two different ones?
My heartrate kept ramping up with each new question that spiraled through my head.
For a moment, I was afraid I was going to faint and hit the floor.
I wondered if the same medics were on call.
What were the proper protocols for asking someone if they’d suddenly had a bondmark appear on their upper thigh?
I heard the sound of the doorknob. The slight scrape and squeal of hinges as Leo opened the bathroom door.
Instinct kicked in, and I shifted, dropping to the floor with a thud at Briar’s feet, while he reached down and yanked his sleep pants back up, covering his nakedness and the bondmark we’d both longed to see appear on our skin.
I couldn’t even look at Leo. It didn’t matter if he was Briar’s mate or mine; what had just taken place between us was a violation of what those marks were supposed to be.
“Sorry I took so long in there,” Leo said, his voice sounding a bit off to my ears, or maybe it was just the pounding of my heart and rapidly rising panic that made his words sound so pained and confused.
“I, um, sort of had a bit of a meltdown when I discovered a tattoo wrapped around my thigh that I don’t remember getting.
I thought it was from a Sharpie at first and figured a couple friends had played a prank on me the other night when I passed out at a Christmas party, though I don’t remember it being there the morning after or last night when I took a shower before bed, but there was a lot of tequila involved, so the details of the night are hazy, though I’d think I’d remember getting a tat all the way around my thigh.
That would hurt, right? Even with the tequila? ”
His words spilled out in a rambling tirade tinged with confusion, not that I could blame him. I was just glad I was already on the floor because I was completely overwhelmed.
Briar scrubbed a hand over his face, rubbed the back of his neck, and paced a little, his shadow passing back and forth over me while I stared up at him, waiting for him to confirm what my broken heart already knew.
Leo was his mate. Which must mean mine was one of the EMTs.
I knew the fates sometimes gave two mates instead of one, and for snow leopards, our marks only came in once all mates had been discovered, but I was scared to hope for that, and way too scared to get excited and bound across the room to pounce Leo and thank him for giving Briar and I the bondmark’s we’d always dreamed of.
“Okay, so um, does it happen to look like this?” Briar asked as he eased his sleep pants down enough to show the bondmark I’d pointed out to him.
Three shambling steps brought Leo close enough to get a clear look at the mark on Briar’s leg, while the bug-eyed look on his face after he’d studied it gave a clear answer.
“You might want to sit down,” Briar suggested with a seriousness in his tone that I knew far too well.
I half expected him to take Leo by the arm and escort him to the bed to make sure he got there safely; instead, he knelt beside me, stroked a hand over my fur, kissed me on the top of my furry head, and then rubbed our noses together.
“Yours is in the same place, Mav,” he murmured, his voice a bit choked as his tears began dampening my fur. “The exact same place. We’re mates, Mav, just the way we always wanted. Our wish came true. We’re gonna be okay. Better than okay. Now let’s go reassure our human.”
I felt the knot in my belly start to loosen as he stroked my fur and spoke gently to me before he lifted me and carried me over to the bed where Leo was seated, studying us with a guarded look on his face.
The moment Briar lay me on the bed beside him, his hand shot out, hovering for just a moment before settling on my back to play with my fur.
“It’s not a tattoo,” Briar explained as he sat on the other side of me and started petting me too. “It’s called a bondmark; it, um, happens when snow leopards discover their mates. It, umm, means that you’re meant to belong to us.”
“Us?” Leo muttered. “Does, umm, does that mean the two of you are a couple?”
“More like friends with benefits,” Briar explained, while I narrowed my eyes up at him, having always hated that term, despite understanding the reason for it. “Until now.”
“I’m not sure I understand what you’re getting at.” Leo stammered. “How does learning that I’m your mate turn into an us situation, and where am I supposed to fit in all of this?”
“Maverick shares the same bond mark with us,” Briar explained.
“They weren’t there this morning; they only happened after we met you.
As snow leopards, we only get our bond marks after we’ve met all our mates.
We’ve always dreamed of being mated to one another, but when we came of age, and no marks appeared, we resigned ourselves to the fact that despite the strength of our connection, we weren’t destined to be mates.
We were wrong. Trios are rare among our people, but not unheard of.
That’s what we are now. A trio. Well, as long as you don’t intend to reject us. ”
“Wait, are you saying being able to change forms is contagious and that just by hanging out with you guys today you’ve changed me?” Leo asked.
The energy rolling off him smelled of both curiosity and excitement. That was so much better than him reacting to us with fear and disgust.
“That, um, isn’t exactly what I’m saying,” Briar replied, though he’d barely finished getting the words out before Leo launched right into another babbling stream of chatter.
“Am I going to shift into a snow leopard now?” He asked, eyes going wide. “Holy shit, that’s fuckin’ badass right there! Bring on the claws.”
Briar chuckled, then broke into relieved laughter.
The best part of it all was that neither had taken their hands off me.
Hearing him sound so eager and hopeful, I hated that Briar was going to have to disappoint him regarding shifting, but I was beyond thrilled that he hadn’t run screaming from the room.
“Sorry to burst your bubble, like, I’m seriously sad to have to tell you that it doesn’t work that way ‘cause the look on your face just took a load of worry off my mind,” Briar explained.
“But I need you to set aside everything Hollywood and romance novels have told you about shifters, because our kind is born, not made. We don’t have in-between forms either, though there have been times when I’ve wished for one. ”
The light in his eyes dimmed as his lips rapidly turned from grinning to frowning as he studied us.
“Then how can I be your mate if I’m just a human?” he asked.
“Your genetics might be human, but that doesn’t mean the fates didn’t create you just for us,” Briar explained as I stretched my paws out, not wanting Leo to be sad when this day was so unbelievably special to us.
As soon as our eyes met, I scooted the rest of the way forward until my upper half was draped across his lap. Purring, I rubbed the top of my head beneath his chin, eager to get some of my scent on him to start the bonding process.
“Does that mean I can plant a kiss on the top of his fuzzy head?” Leo asked.
“It sure does,” Briar replied as I purred louder.
“It also means that you are the only one allowed to kiss us or touch us in an intimate manner from this point forward. Once a snow leopard is mated, that’s it for us; there can be no others, and someone trying would make us physically ill, not to mention violent and desperate to get as far away from them as possible. ”
No other words were needed. Leo hugged me and kissed the top of my head, then lifted my face and rubbed noses with me the way Briar had earlier, drawing a louder purr from me.
“Why was he curled up against the door when I came out of the bathroom?” Leo asked. “He seemed upset and even a little scared, or am I reading too much into what I saw?”
“No, you are spot on,” Briar assured him.
“He spotted my bondmark but not his own when we were undressing to get ready for bed. He started to panic, because we’d just been making out and frotting against the door, and he was scared that he’d done something wrong by touching me when I was no longer his.
I didn’t see my bondmark until he pointed it out to me, but I saw his and tried to draw his attention to it, only we heard the door to the bathroom opening, and he got scared and shifted instead. ”
Leo gasped, then hugged me so tight I let out a little murph as he squeezed the air out of me.
“I don’t know how the hell I’m going to explain this to my dads, but going away on holiday and winding up with two snarky, fuzzy, adorable snow leopard mates officially makes this the best vacation ever.
I am going to be seriously pissed if I wake up in the morning and find out I really slipped on the ice, knocked myself out, and dreamed all of this. ”
“Not a dream,” Briar declared, wrapping us in a hug and holding us close. “Not even fuckin’ close.”