Chapter 17
Chapter
Seventeen
EMMA
The moment we make it into the kitchen, Sebastian launches himself at us.
He wraps me in his arms and kisses me, then pulls Troy in behind him so he’s sandwiched between us.
Troy obliges immediately and squeezes us both close, and Sebastian lets out a happy little whimper, his hard cock poking me in the belly.
I look down, half expecting him to be as naked as Troy, but he put on an apron, probably to avoid hurting his private parts while cooking.
“The food’s getting cold,” Carter growls from behind Troy’s back.
I reluctantly disengage from our group hug and round the two men to find the third glowering at us, his expression stormy.
Carter is the most reserved of the three, the alpha, and it would be easy to think he’s annoyed with us because we’re cuddling instead of eating.
Yet I see the flash of worry in his eyes.
He wants to join us but doesn’t know how.
He’s worried about his pack—I’m a new variable in this complicated equation, and he doesn’t know if everything will turn out fine.
So I step up to him, so close my toes touch his. “Hey. Troy told me a bit about his life. I told him about mine, and we’re both okay.”
He relaxes his shoulders, though he’s still frowning down at me. “That’s progress.”
“It is,” I agree. “I also know about Sebastian—he gave me the short version earlier. What I don’t know is your story, Alpha.”
Carter lets out a low groan and dips his head down in a quick kiss, as if he can’t stop himself. “Fuck, it’s good to hear you call me that.”
I put my hands on his naked chest. “Is it?”
“It tells me you’re accepting your place in our pack.” He draws me closer to him. “That you’re becoming a part of our family.”
His words send happiness through me. “I’d love to be a part of your family.”
It’s what I’ve wanted all this time, a home and a family to call my own. It’s hard to believe that I might finally get my deepest wish, especially with three guys instead of one, but with every kiss, every caress, I find myself trusting them more.
Carter tugs me to the dining table and pulls out a chair—and I think for a moment he’s doing it for me. But he sits on it instead and draws me into his lap as if it’s the most natural thing in the world.
Sebastian brings a big pot of soup to the table and ladles it into four bowls.
“This is a really quick dinner,” he says with an apologetic glance at me.
“And I added some egg noodles because someone ate one of the roasted chickens I wanted to shred in here, so we’re definitely low on protein for this meal. ”
He glares down at Troy, who took the seat opposite Carter and me.
The big guy chuckles and apologizes, then puts his hand under Sebastian’s apron, making him yelp and scurry away with the soup pot, blushing.
I realize why a moment later—while Seb put on an apron to cook, he neglected to put on a pair of underwear.
“Oh my God.” I cover my face with my hands. “You guys are unbelievable. We can’t fuck all the time.”
Carter moves me so I’m sitting on his left thigh and sets my soup bowl in front of me. “Of course we can. It’s Christmas break, and besides, we wouldn’t be doing much else this close to…”
“The full moon,” I say, already knowing the answer. “Yeah, I gathered. Is it like that for you every month? You—what?—just take time off work to spend a couple of days in bed together?”
“Pretty much,” Sebastian says around a mouthful of egg noodles. “It’s no big deal for me and Troy because we write our own hours. Carter works for the Department of Inner Fisheries and Wildlife, though, so he schedules his free days around that.”
I glance up at the werewolf holding me. “Really? You work for the government? How?”
He passes me a slice of bread. “My boss is a grizzly shifter. He knows about me and smooths things over. And I cover his shifts when he goes in a rut every summer.”
Wow. A grizzly shifter? There’s so much to learn about this world.
“And I come from a long line of alphas,” Carter continues.
“My father was the alpha of our pack, and my older sister was expected to take over. Then she met her human wife and decided she didn’t want to do the pack thing after all, so now they live in a van and travel all across the country.
They’re very successful travel vloggers. ”
I stare at him, amazed. “Travel vloggers?”
“Yep.” He nudges me until I start eating, then adds, “I would have been the next in line to lead, but by then, I’d already mated with Sebastian and Troy, and we wanted to do our own thing, so now my younger sister is the alpha, and she’s the best thing that happened to that pack.”
“And you get on well with her? With your parents?” I ask between mouthfuls of the delicious soup. “Where do they live?”
Carter grins down at me, no doubt amused by my rapid-fire questions.
“In Washington, and yes, we see each other a couple of times a year. Trish and her wife usually visit us in the summer—and they always travel south during the winter. You’ll get to meet them once they make their way back north.
” He squeezes me and presses a kiss to my temple. “They’ll love you. I know it.”
I bask in the glow of his attention. It seems like I might get more than just three mates—the guys have families, and if I stay with them, those wolves will become my in-laws.
The thought is scary—meeting one’s future mother-in-law is hectic enough, but these ladies are all wolf shifters, and I’ll have to meet three of them—but also exciting, because I’ve never had so many people in my life.
“I was thinking… We could watch some Netflix,” Sebastian says, though his face suggests he finds the option about as appealing as a root canal. “If you don’t want to have sex tonight.”
I put down my spoon, plopping it in the soup. “I do want to. But this really isn’t how relationships usually go. I’m just saying I might need a bit of time to, ah, acclimate to the whole situation.”
“Of course,” Carter murmurs, his voice perfectly calm. “We don’t have to do more than we did today. If you’re too tired, you only have to tell us.”
His words sound so reasonable, but he slowly slides his hand to my belly, then slips it under my too-big t-shirt.
At the first contact of his warm palm against my skin, I draw in a sharp inhale, my body waking up.
Apparently, all it takes is a bowl of soup and some cuddling, and my body is ready to go again.
“This is unnatural,” I murmur as he slips his hand up to cup my breast. “How can I be this horny after all the sex we’ve had?”
Carter pinches my nipple lightly, coaxing a moan from me. Then he removes his hand, keeping it flat against my belly in a possessive gesture. I squirm in his lap, turned on now but with no relief in sight.
“You’re human, so we’re not exactly sure how this will affect you,” Sebastian says, “but I think it’s the mating bond’s fault. You might be going into a heat.”
“A heat.” I scoop up more soup, my hand trembling a little. “Do you think that could…influence my fertility?”
All movement at the table stops. I look up to find Sebastian and Troy staring at me, and Carter freezes with his spoon suspended in mid-air. His nostrils flare, and then he visibly forces himself to relax, bringing the food to his lips.
“I know we talked about this,” I say softly, glancing from him to the others.
“And you know my opinion on it,” Troy growls. “I will respect your decision, but given the chance, I’d do everything in my power to get you pregnant, Emma. It would be the best possible outcome for me.”
Sebastian is nodding enthusiastically. “Yep, yep, all of that. Um.” He reaches under the table and squirms on the chair. “Fuck, it’s uncomfortable to sit at the table with a hard-on.”
“Gods, will you two pump the brakes? She hasn’t given us an answer yet,” Carter snaps.
His expression turns serious. “Does that change your decision, sweetheart? Your pill might not work if your hormones override it, and we sure as hell don’t have enough condoms in the house for all of us to last the whole full moon. ”
“Condoms are tricky during a heat,” Sebastian adds. “We might be too out of it to remember, sorry. It’s not a chance I’d take if you’re totally against the possibility of kids.”
“I’m not,” I blurt out. My cheeks are flaming hot, my heart pumping fast. “I want kids. Lots of them. But I thought it was too soon.”
Carter nuzzles his cheek against my temple. “It might be. But we’re in this for life, Emma. And whatever you decide, we’re here for you.”
Troy leans in, his expression sly. “And besides, even if you get pregnant now, we’ll have nine months to get to know each other before the baby arrives.”
I stare at him, wondering how to explain to this big werewolf that this isn’t how things are supposed to go. I’m the product of a relationship between two people who didn’t know each other at all, so I really should know better.
But the insistent feeling of safety tells me this is different. They’re different. I glance from Troy to Sebastian. Neither of them would ever leave me if they found out I was pregnant. They want this—they want me.
“Okay,” I say. “I-I agree. We don’t know if this heat will affect me like that, but I’m not afraid of…the consequences.”
Sebastian snorts. “That’s a romantic way of putting it.”
“I’m not afraid of getting knocked up by my three new boyfriends,” I correct myself. “Is that better?”
“Much.” Carter kisses the side of my neck, his arm tightening around me. “Now eat your dinner, Emma. You’ll need all the strength you can get.”