Chapter 7
Briar
Waking in the morning to Maverick, still in his fur and held securely in Leo’s embrace, was the best feeling in the world.
I was mated.
Well, not in the fully formal sense of the word, since neither Leo nor Maverick wore my claiming bite yet, but I was confident that would come once we had the chance to get over all the shocks we’d been hit with yesterday.
That Mav had panicked so badly he hadn’t wanted to shift back out of his fur still concerned the hell out of me.
Of the two of us, he’d always been the more traditional, at least when it came to the formal rules and customs of our snow leopard culture.
I got what had freaked him out, but I don’t know how well I’d have handled things if our mate marks had tied us to different people.
There was no way I’d have just been able to quit wanting him, and there was no way Mav would have allowed me to touch him after that. I think it would have broken something in me if the fates had been so unkind to us. I’d forever be grateful that didn’t turn out to be the case.
Seeing the way Leo had taken the whole shifter and mate thing in stride was still a bit mind-blowing.
I was afraid he’d wake and freak the fuck out when he realized that none of the events of the day before had been a dream, so I carefully slipped from the bed in search of a bit of caffeine-infused brain juice to wake me up in the hopes that I’d be on top of my game if that happened.
If I could persuade him not to flee the cabin for parts unknown, we had a true chance to make things work.
Short of telling us he’d been raised by his dads and what he did for a living, he’d shared very little about himself, despite peppering us with questions.
Shambling out to the kitchen in thick fuzzy socks, I snagged an energy drink and cracked it open on my way out the back door to stand on the porch and see what the weather had in store for us today.
No fresh powder. Damn. With the way the skies had darkened yesterday, I was certain we’d be hit with a deluge of fat, fluffy flakes for Mav and me to roll around in.
While there was still plenty of pristine snow left unspoiled by our romp yesterday, it was at least several days old, with that hard crust on the top that wasn’t as much fun as fresh powder.
Ah well, it wouldn’t stop us from rolling around in it, as long as we weren’t chasing our mate down if he decided to take off on us.
I didn’t think he would, though. I truly didn’t.
While we’d all been mentally worn out by the time we’d crawled into bed with Maverick’s furry butt in between us and me curled up behind him with my hand on his side, Leo and I had chatted for awhile, though the conversation had mostly consisted of me reassuring Leo that he was, indeed, curled up in bed with a snow leopard, who positively had no issues with Leo cuddling him in the middle of the night and would not eat his face if he tried.
If he’d been conscious for Mav’s meltdown when he’d thought we would have to eat the carcass to get rid of the human we’d accidentally frightened to death, he’d have known without a shadow of a doubt that man flesh was definitely not on the menu, unless we were talking about a bit of licking and a nibble or two.
Should have grabbed a second energy drink.
The first was half-drained, and my brain was still a bit foggy around the edges and hella muddled.
With how low the sun was on the horizon, casting a slight bleed through the tree trunks, it was literally the ass-crack of dawn, which was never good for figuring out much of anything, unless it was what time to reset the alarm for.
Yet I’d known I wouldn’t fall back to sleep if I’d remained in bed, and eventually, my restless thoughts would have induced squirms and wiggles, which would have inevitably woken one, if not both, of my mates.
I didn’t even have a bed big enough for mates back home.
Just a double that barely allowed for two bodies to tumble around on it when Mav slept over, and the queen-sized bed at Mav’s wasn’t much better.
We had so much we needed to work out and so many things we still needed to explain to Leo, and here I was, unable to even work out a proper starting point.
It was definitely phone-a-friend time, or in this case, phone a parental unit who would hopefully have some pearls of wisdom to impart upon me.
It was a good thing my father was always up early, making his daily pilgrimage to the marketplace for fresh fruit, produce, and the seafood that made up the bulk of the menu at the diner he ran three blocks over from the cookie shop.
Cooking was in my blood, passed down not just from my old man, who was passionate about crafting fresh seafood creations and the most scrumptious, melt-in-your-mouth, tender, flaky-crusted pies I’ve ever tasted, but also from my grandmother, who used to pull the high stool up to the counter while she cooked, so I had a first-class view of her lovingly putting meals together.
The kitchen was the center of her home, just as it was the center of the home I’d grown up in.
Goddess and my mates willing, it would be the center of our cubs' home someday.
Relief flooded me when my father answered on the fourth ring, bustling noises and a few faint voices in the background clueing me in to the fact that he wasn’t in the thick of things. I just hoped that meant he was finished with his shopping, rather than at the start of it.
“Hey, didn’t expect to hear from you already. Is everything okay?” My father asked in lieu of a proper hello.
“Yeah, I, umm, do you have time to talk?”
“I can make time. I haven’t even made it to the icehouse yet to fill the wagon. What’s going on?”
“Oh, shit, I don't want to keep you from getting your ingredients.”
“Ingredients can wait; now spill it. I know that tone; something’s weighing heavily on your mind. The sooner you tell me, the sooner we can work out ways to fix it.”
It was exactly what I’d needed him to say. Leaning against the railing, I kicked back the last of my energy drink before unburdening myself.
“So, uh, it turns out all the cabins up here were accidentally double booked,” I explained, deciding to start at the beginning rather than burying the lead and launching into the story in the middle without letting him know exactly how we’d come to meet Leo in the first place.
“Does that mean you guys don’t have a place to stay?” he asked.
“No, we have the cabin, and it’s pretty damned amazing too—rustic, cozy, just like on the website,” I explained.
“It also came complete with a human roommate named Leo—how ironic is that?—who showed up not long after us. He, uh, he’s our mate.
As in mine and Maverick’s, we got our bond marks last night. ”
I could still hear the faint rustling of others moving around in the background while someone called out fresh clams, while another announced, “We’ve got lobsters—lobsters over here!
” But absolutely nothing from my dad, who’d fallen silent.
I hoped that just meant that he was taking a moment to process what I said.
“How did your human take it?” he finally asked.
“Well, when he came in, he found Mav and I curled up asleep in the middle of the bed, in our fur, and kind of fainted when we shifted, but after he came to and we had the chance to talk, he chose to stay and share the cabin with us. We had a good night too—food, movies, and lounging around the living room with the fireplace going. Good vibes. Completely chill. He was drawing, Mav was working on a new recipe, and the energy was completely relaxed and easy. Then last night, when he came out of the shower, he was a bit freaked because there was a tattoo where a tattoo wasn’t supposed to be.
By then, Mav had already spotted my bondmark, and I’d seen his, and when we asked Leo if it matched the mystery tattoo, he confirmed it did, and yeah, we all wound up falling asleep in the bed together, with Mav and I shifted into our fur, but I’m kinda worried that he’s going to wake up this morning and have second thoughts about sticking around and getting to know us. ”
More silence. Dad did silence like no other. They were long pauses, without a huff or a grumble, which meant I never knew exactly how he was taking the conversation, or in this case, the major bombshell I’d just dropped on him.
“I don’t know what to say, son, other than I’m sorry that I pushed so hard for you to create distance in the personal side of your relationship with Maverick.
You always swore that he was meant to be your mate.
I should have trusted in your instincts and in your belief that you were meant for one another.
With how rare trios are, I never gave it any consideration.
As much as it’s galled me over the years that you refused to listen, I’m proud of you for standing strong and sticking to your guns.
I couldn’t be happier for you knowing that your dream has finally come true. ”
Relief poured through me just hearing his apology and knowing I had him on my side.
“I get it, Dad, and it’s all good. I know you were just worried about me rejecting my mate when they came along because of my feelings for Maverick.
I never considered that we’d find a mate to share either.
Mav panicked when he saw my bond mark, because we’d just been, well, fooling around against the bedroom door while waiting for Leo to finish his shower. ”
“Is he okay now?”