Chapter Thirteen
HASHTAG STABBED his finger against the glass. “Hey, we passed Hollingworth Candies.”
“You want us to stop so you can buy your new girlfriend some chocolate-covered cherries?” Crank asked from the front seat, with a grin.
Saul turned right onto W 151st Street. “Too late now. I’m not going back.”
Eve tapped Crank on the shoulder. “And is Saul just your boyfriend?”
Saul chuckled. “She got you there.”
“All right. I apologize. You’re way more than his girlfriend.”
Eve smiled. “Apology accepted.”
“And I was thinking of getting some chocolate chips for Mrs. Landon. You know, the ones she puts in the cookies?” Hashtag retorted. “That’s where she buys them.”
Eve arched her eyebrows. “Okay, I have a couple of questions. Who is Mrs. Landon, and where are we going?”
“To the home of a shifter called Dellan Carson,” Saul told her. “Except it’s more like HQ for the group.”
“The barracks are only about twelve miles from the house,” Hashtag added.
“And is that where I’ll be living? At the barracks?”
Crank snorted. “Seeing as your mate lives at Dellan’s place, I don’t think that would be a likely scenario. One or more of you might have something to say about that.”
“Do you take all your recruits to HQ?”
“Nope.” Saul glanced at her in the rearview mirror. “You’re the exception.”
“Shouldn’t that be exceptional ?” Crank said with a snicker.
“It’s a big house.” Hashtag smiled. “And if you want a room to yourself—at least at first while you come to terms with the situation—that’s fine. You can have my room, and I’ll bunk up with Roadkill.” Not that he wanted her in another room, but these were weird-ass circumstances, and he had to tread lightly.
I don’t want to piss her off. Who in their right mind would piss off a gorilla?
This has to be a dream. Any second now, I’m going to wake up in bed, hearing Horvan, Dellan, and Rael fucking like bunnies above my room.
Except he really didn’t want it to be a dream. He’d watched as the team found their mates. He’d seen how their love reflected in their eyes. He’d never admit it to anyone, but he desperately wanted that for himself. To be loved? Needed? Wanted.
Please let this be real. I think I’d die if it wasn’t.
“Which leads me to another question.” Then Eve returned Hashtag’s smile, and it was as if sunlight filled the SUV. “By the way, you scored major points.”
“I did?”
She nodded. “That bit about giving me my own room. You didn’t assume.”
“Wow. I’m seeing a whole new side to you, Hashtag.” Crank grinned. “I don’t even recognize you.”
Hashtag gave him the finger. He gazed at Eve. “Ask your question.”
“Hashtag… is that really your name?”
Before he could respond, Crank butted in. “No, but that’s what everyone calls him, and maybe he likes it that way. I know if anyone called me by my real name, I’d flatten ’em.” He twisted in his seat to stare at Hashtag. “I don’t think I even know your real name.”
He snorted. “And that’s the way it’ll stay.” He held his hand out to her, and she took it. The light touch connected them, and with it came a sense of calm.
Eve gazed at their joined hands. “This still feels so… fantastic.”
Hashtag said nothing. She’d nailed it.
Saul gave a snort. “Wait until you hear Hashtag’s voice inside your head. First time that happened? It freaked me the fuck out.”
Crank smacked Saul on the arm. “I don’t hear you complaining now when we—”
Saul glared at him. “And you can stop right there.”
Eve gaped at them. “You’re mates? Okay, now the comments make sense. But I don’t understand. You’re human.”
Saul chuckled. “Yeah, welcome to our world. Our mate is a Greenland shark.”
“Can we get back to the voices part?”
“It seems once mates find each other, they can communicate using telepathy.”
Eve stilled. “Seriously?”
Crank peered at Hashtag. “Why don’t you give it a try?” He grinned. “You could tell her what you really think of her and we’d be none the wiser.”
“He doesn’t have to,” Eve retorted.
Hashtag took a deep breath and stepped out of his comfort zone.
And what if I want to?
Eve jerked her head in his direction, her eyes wide, and he smiled. You have beautiful eyes. Funnily enough, they reminded him of a photo he’d seen once of a gorilla. Its eyes had captivated him with their intelligence.
Her face lit up. Thank you. And you have beautiful… muscles.
He chuckled. Glad you like ’em.
And I can’t wait to see them in all their glory.
Hashtag’s dick perked up about a nanosecond later, and he groaned internally. Can you not say stuff like that? We’re almost at the house, and I am not gonna walk in there sporting a hard-on.
She laughed, and even inside his head, it was a bright, joyous sound. One of the drawbacks to being male. Suck it up, buttercup.
“I get the feeling we’ve suddenly become surplus to requirements,” Crank remarked with a smirk.
Eve glanced at the passing landscape. “Seems like a great place to live.” Then she grinned. “Wow. Look at that house. It’s more like a mansion. God knows how many bedrooms that place has.”
“Five,” Hashtag told her with a smile. “And eight bathrooms.”
Saul turned left onto the driveway that curved through lush green lawns to the house, the lake visible behind it.
Eve gaped. “ This is HQ?”
Saul chuckled. “Awesome, isn’t it? Crank, Vic, and I share a room, but Dellan is building us a house down by the lake. I think they’re laying the foundations next month.”
So you don’t mind staying here for a while?
Eve chuckled. Gee, I dunno. I mean, I guess I could slum it here for a while.
Thank God. She had a sense of humor.
Saul drove toward the six-car garage and parked in front of one of its white doors. Dellan came out to greet them, blinking when Eve got out of the car. Crank went over to him, and Hashtag would have given anything to overhear that conversation.
He leaned closer to Eve and whispered, “That’s Dellan. Tiger shifter. His mates are Rael, who’s a lion, and Horvan, who’s a bear. Horvan and Saul are our joint team leaders. Me and Horvan, we go way back, along with Crank and Roadkill.”
“I’m guessing you’re the tech guy,” she murmured as they approached Dellan.
“You got that right. Crank can fly anything that’ll stay up in the air, and Roadkill, he’s our driver. They’re good guys in a fight too. They’ve had my back plenty of times.”
Eve turned her head to gaze at him. “They’re your family.”
Hashtag nodded. “And just as precious to me as my own flesh and blood.”
“They’re mates ?” Dellan’s voice rose.
Hashtag laughed. “And here we go again. This is getting to be a regular thing.”
He couldn’t wait to introduce his family to his mate.
Still feels so fucking strange to be saying that.
Eve chuckled. Tell me about it. She frowned. Am I going to hear your thoughts all the time? And vice versa?
Hashtag put his hand at the small of her back. Horvan says there are ways around that. I’ll get him to sit down with us and share.
With each passing minute, he grew more accustomed to the idea that he wasn’t a single guy anymore. What shocked him was how much he liked that realization.
They went inside, and Hashtag took Eve into the kitchen to meet Mrs. Landon, who beamed at her.
I guess it must make a nice change to have another woman under this roof, after dealing with seven or eight guys all the time, depending on who’s around.
Horvan came through the patio doors, wearing nothing but a pair of shorts. “Dellan’s making this up, isn’t he?” Rael was behind him, struggling into a pair of sweats.
Hashtag laughed. “Good news sure travels fast around here. Did we interrupt something?”
“They were playing outside,” Dellan told him with a twinkle in his eye.
Horvan narrowed his gaze. “Bears don’t play. I was getting some exercise.”
Rael snorted. “You were trying to steal my ball, you mean.” He went over to Eve. “You are very welcome here, Eve.” He glanced at the others. “And some of us will have to watch our language from now on. Won’t we, Crank?”
That raised a few chuckles.
“Oh please.” Eve rolled her eyes. “Trust me, I can turn the air blue sometimes too. Don’t treat me like some delicate flower, because I am so not that.”
Hashtag didn’t think he could have found a more perfect mate.
“Where’s Roadkill?” he asked.
“Downstairs in the gym with Brick and Aric.” Rael smirked. “Except I don’t think Aric is working out—he’s having a good time enjoying the view.”
“Brick is a polar bear,” Hashtag told Eve. “And his mate Aric is a kitty. Their other mate, Seth, is a tiger, but… he isn’t here.”
“He’s being held in a camp,” Horvan stated. “But that’s why I asked you to get back here. He’s been in touch. We’re to expect a visitor sometime this weekend. He didn’t know when, exactly, only that he is definitely coming.”
“A Geran, you said?” Hashtag frowned. “What else do we know about this visitor?”
“Oh, not a lot,” Horvan said lightly. “Except that he’s the captain of the guard at the camp where they’re holding Seth, Jake, and Jamie.”
Hashtag stared at him. “You have got to be fucking kidding . And he’s coming here ? Why, for fuck’s sake? How does he even know about us?”
“Seth told Aric that we need to listen to this guy. He said it would be to our advantage. So we’ll hear him out, okay?” Dellan swallowed. “Besides, he might have news about my dad.”
His dad?
Hashtag squeezed Eve’s hand. Long story. I’ll tell you later .
Voices grew louder, and Brick, Roadkill, and Aric walked into the kitchen. Roadkill grinned when he saw Hashtag.
“About time you got here. There are a couple of beers in the fridge with your name on them.” He blinked when he saw Eve. “Hell- o . And who are you?”
“Meet Eve Duncan, our latest recruit, but more importantly, Hashtag’s mate,” Crank announced with glee. “And yeah, you heard that right.”
Hashtag wanted to laugh at Roadkill’s stunned expression. “Believe me, I was as shocked as you. But it’s true.”
“And he’d better stay on her good side, because she’s a gorilla,” Crank added. “So I guess we all know who’ll be wearing the pants in their relationship.” He cackled.
Roadkill dropped his towel over the back of a chair and strolled over to her, his hand outstretched. “Then I’m delighted to meet you.”
Eve took his hand—
And gasped.
“What’s wrong?” Hashtag noted her pallor, the way she trembled. “Eve?”
She sniffed. Sniffed again. Then she moved in closer until her body was almost touching Roadkill’s.
“Eve? What’s going on?”
She turned her head toward Hashtag, her eyes wide, her lips parted, and whispered one word.
“Mate.”
Roadkill let out a strangled noise and took a step backward. “What the fuck?”
“Holy cow.” Crank’s eyes bulged. “Does everyone around here have a fucking mate?”
Hashtag’s brain could not compute. Because if Roadkill was Eve’s mate, that meant….
He shook his head slowly. “No. No. Uh-uh.” He stared at Eve. “You’ve got it wrong. He’s one of my squad mates.”
She nodded, regaining a little of her usual color. “And now he’s another type of mate.”
Horvan cleared his throat. “Everyone out of here. I don’t care where you go—give them some space.” Then he turned and walked out the door, the others following.
Hashtag had never witnessed a room empty so goddamn fast.
He sank into a chair. “This is not happening.”
Eve frowned. “I know it’s a shock, but…. Didn’t you tell me he’s like family to you?”
“Yeah, I did, didn’t I?”
“Then is it too much of a stretch to accept he’s more than that?”
Roadkill’s gaze went from Eve to Hashtag and back to Eve. “You’re serious.”
“There’s one way to prove it,” Hashtag announced. “Tell me what she smells like.”
“What she…. Are you fucking nuts?”
“You heard right.” Hashtag breathed deeply. “So take a good sniff, and if she doesn’t smell like sugar and spice and all things nice, then maybe she’s wrong. But I’m starting to doubt it.”
Eve took a step toward him and offered him her neck.
Roadkill was like a statue. “This is fucking crazy.”
“Just do it, all right?”
He leaned closer and gave a cautious sniff. His nostrils flared, and his face flushed. He took another sniff, only this time he brushed his lips against the golden skin under her earlobe, and fuck if that wasn’t the hottest fucking thing ever .
Eve shivered. “My mate.”
Roadkill straightened. “Oh my God.” His gaze met Hashtag’s.
There was only one more piece of proof needed.
Hashtag stood and crossed the floor to them. “I’m only guessing about this, but maybe now the three of us know who we are to each other, that’s triggered something. So why don’t we find out?”
“What are you talking about?” Roadkill demanded.
Hashtag placed his hand on Roadkill’s arm. “Don’t move, okay? Just let me….” He leaned in, buried his face in Roadkill’s neck, and breathed him in.
Mary fucking Mother of God.
“Oh fuck,” Roadkill whispered.
Eve cupped Roadkill’s face with one hand, and Hashtag’s with the other. Hashtag watched as she claimed Roadkill’s lips with a fierce kiss, and the soft moan that escaped his buddy went straight to Hashtag’s cock. Then it was his turn as Eve kissed him, and even though it was a fleeting, chaste connection, he felt it all the way down to his toes.
“Now kiss each other,” Eve instructed.
Hashtag jerked his head around so fast, he was sure he’d gotten whiplash. “What? No way.”
She narrowed her gaze. “Did I ask for your opinion? Kiss him.”
The strength of her voice, combined with the order, made his knees weak.
Okay, so he loved being dominated, but it wasn’t something he ever talked about. To anyone.
Eve already had a handle on him, and it was both disconcerting and heady as fuck.
“Let’s get this over with.”
The whining catch in his voice surprised the hell out of him.
Roadkill leaned in, moving slowly. So, so slowly.
Fucking tease.
Then their lips brushed, and every single synapse in Hashtag’s brain was suddenly alive. He was on fire, imagining himself sandwiched between Eve and Roadkill. Some inner voice screamed that was a really bad idea, but was drowned out by another that told him in no uncertain terms to keep doing what he was doing, but without clothing.
Hashtag knew which one he wanted to listen to.
Okay, this got interesting. Eve grinned. Never had a threesome before.
Hashtag registered the shock that reverberated through Roadkill. Holy fuck. I can hear you.
He chuckled. “Yeah, it’s surprising how fast you get used to that part.” Eve’s words sank in, and he realized she was right. It wasn’t too big a stretch after all. And give him his due, Roadkill was awfully easy on the eye in a hot Asian, midthirties, fit but not overly muscled kinda way.
What was endearing as fuck? The brief encounter had steamed up Roadkill’s glasses.
Not as steamy as it’s gonna get when all three of us are naked.
Then he remembered that where his mates were concerned, there was no longer such a thing as a private thought.
Roadkill smirked. “I always loved seeing your ass in the shower. Can’t wait to be inside of it.” Soft lips ghosted Hashtag’s neck before he let out a throaty chuckle. “Bet you’re tight as hell.”
Hell no.
Hashtag stepped back. “No. Absolutely not. I am not letting you fuck me.”
Roadkill laid a warm hand on his shoulder. “You make it sound as though you have a choice.”
“And you did say it would take a real man to make you submit,” Eve added.
He glared at her. “Not helping,” he ground out.
Roadkill’s eyes gleamed. “Oh, he said that, did he?” His raw chuckle made Hashtag’s cock stiffen. “Trust me when I say you’ll be on your knees for me quite often.”
Warmth flooded him, and his mouth suffered from an excess of saliva. The hairs rose on his arms and nape, and his breathing quickened. A pleasurable shiver rolled through him, and his fingers tingled with the need to touch Roadkill.
All it had taken were a few words from Roadkill to make Hashtag want to drop down in front of his friend.
His mate.
Another shiver trickled through him. “Yes, sir,” he murmured.
Roadkill’s hand was gentle on Hashtag’s cheek. “Good boy.”
Eve laughed. “Oh, I can see the three of us having so much fun together.”
And now she said that? Hashtag could see it too.
“And I can see we have a lot to talk about,” he said at last.
Saul had nailed it. Hashtag’s life was about to get really interesting.
HASHTAG SAT on one of the patio chairs that surrounded the fire pit, a bottle of beer in his hand. Eve was in the kitchen with Dellan and Mrs. Landon, and by the sound of their laughter, everyone was getting along like a house on fire.
Didn’t see this coming. Then he smiled to himself. Neither did Roadkill.
Wow. I can still hear you when you’re out there. This is wild!
Yeah, the sooner he talked with Horvan about that mental lockbox thingy, the better. It was getting very noisy inside his head.
“Okay if I join you?”
He jumped at the sound of Horvan’s deep, quiet voice. “Sure.” He indicated the nearest empty chair. “Funny. I was just thinking about you.”
Horvan sat, nursing his own beer bottle. “So… you and Roadkill. Mates.”
“Yeah. Who would’ve thunk it?”
And it still feels so fucking surreal.
Horvan leaned forward, elbows balanced on his knees, the bottle swinging between them. “And you never felt any kind of pull toward him?”
Hashtag wasn’t sure he knew how to answer that.
Both Roadkill and Eve shared that same intoxicating scent, but it was more than that. He’d always admired Roadkill’s body, slighter than his own bulk. The musky odor that clung to him after they finished a hard workout. The way he smiled.
Was that attraction? Did he have the hots for Roadkill even before he knew what it meant? Now that he was aware what they were to each other, he could think of a thousand different things he’d noticed about Roadkill that he never bothered to catalog about any of the others. The timbre of his voice had vibrated all the way to Hashtag’s core on more than one occasion.
Then he recalled his pangs of jealousy whenever he’d seen Roadkill go off with a woman. Hashtag had always believed it had been because he’d felt the woman should’ve wanted him .
And now, with the benefit of hindsight?
Maybe he’d been jealous of her .
He took a swig from his bottle. “Not only is this all new, it’s opened up a whole different dynamic.”
“What do you mean?”
“I don’t know how things work with you three—and I don’t wanna know, okay? It’s none of my fucking business. But… I’m happy giving and receiving, if you get my drift.”
“Between us? You just described Dellan, whereas Rael? Total bottom.”
“And you’re a total top, right?”
Horvan chuckled. “Got it in one.” He cocked his head. “Do I take it Roadkill is also a top?” Hashtag nodded, and Horvan smiled. “Then everything works out perfectly for the three of you, doesn’t it?”
Hashtag took a long drink from his bottle before speaking. “Honestly? I’m not sure. From everything Eve says—and she hasn’t said all that much—it sounds like she’s a total top too. And it should upset me, but… I dunno. It doesn’t. I feel as though I’ve finally found what I’ve been searching for my whole life.”
Horvan arched his eyebrows. “So if you never get to top again?”
He shrugged. “I want to say I’d be upset, but I can’t. I understand I don’t know fully what it means, but they’re my mates, and I want to give them the world.” He thought back to that conversation, and heat flushed through him.
“What’s on your mind?”
Hashtag coughed. “That dynamic I was talking about? There’s something about Roadkill that makes me want to—”
Horvan’s eyes gleamed. “Submit? It’s something I’m used to. When the three of us shift, there’s a distinct pecking order. Dellan submits to me, Rael submits to both of us, and yeah, that gets carried over into our sex life. But it’s okay to submit.” He smiled. “Roadkill and Eve are two lucky people. They get you for a mate.” The smile morphed into a grin. “They also get something else that makes me jealous.”
He frowned. “What?”
Horvan chuckled. “They get to be on the receiving end of that talented tongue of yours.”
Hashtag scowled. “Can we forget about that part? I mean, that was a lifetime ago.”
“When you were young, single, and horny as fuck.” Horvan’s eyes grew warm. “And now you have two people in there who would crawl through fire for you. As you would for them.”
Hashtag’s breathing hitched. “I would.”
Horvan stood. “Of course, it does make your job a lot more awkward.”
“What do you mean?”
“I’m lucky. When I go on a mission, my mates are safely out of harm’s way, waiting for me to come back to them.” He frowned. “Well, except for that one time when they ignored my instructions. But your mates aren’t civilians—they’re fighters. And we’re about to go into battle.” He looked Hashtag in the eye. “You need to ask yourself if you can focus when you’re in the thick of it, knowing they’re in the thick of it too.”
Shit .