Every Sunset Forever (15 page)

Pressing the button on the GPS screen, he used the speaker system to call Whisper.

“Hey sweetheart,” he said when she answered.

“Hey yourself.  What are you up to on this oh-so-secret day?”  She giggled a little, and he could picture her sweet smile and the way her eyes crinkled at the corners.

“Top secret awesome mating things.  I was just calling to check on you and see how your day is going.”

She sighed.  “Good.  We’re looking at speakers for Alyssa’s den.  Did you know that Mason is a total electronics nut?”

“I did.  Are you having a good day, baby?”

“I am, but I miss you.  When do I get to come back to your place and see you all?”

“Our place,” he corrected, and then he said, “and we’ll see you at dinner.”

“That seems like a long time from now.”  She sighed exaggeratedly, and he smiled, told her to have a good day, and said goodbye.

It didn’t escape his notice that she didn’t accept his correction about their apartment belonging to all of them — her included.  He wondered, not for the first time, if she would be truly happy in Dalton and if there was anything he could do to help her.

Back at the apartment, he joined Orion and Crux, who were helping Nyte hang thick strips of fabric from the ceiling to create a den-like effect.  The clan had done the same thing for their own matings, but they were actually in their basement dens, which lent a more realistic feeling to being in a den and away from everything.  They were on the second floor of their apartment in the master bedroom, and they had neighbors on either side of them.  They were hardly tucked away in the basement of their home in the woods, like they should have been.

“What’s with the scowl?” Nyte asked.

Fade picked up a length of fabric and unrolled it, handing it to Dante, who was standing on a ladder to reach the temporary hooks in the ceiling.  “I don’t know.  I know that it doesn’t really matter where we den, but it feels weird to be in the apartment.”

Nyte shrugged.  “Unless you want to wait about six months for a house with a basement to be built, we’re stuck with the apartment.”

As if they’d be able to last that long without making love to Whisper.  The last two nights with their mate had been an exercise in control, as they’d all played with her until she was hoarse and exhausted.  It had been all he could do not to insist they move forward and just mate her then.  But she deserved better.  Not only because she was a hyena and it was their way, but because she was the most important person in the world to them and deserved the best they could give her.

* * * * *

Brin watched from the tinted window of the backseat of their father’s sedan as Dawn walked out of an electronics store.  She was in a group with a male that they had seen at the
gathering
.
 
Two other females were with them, and two other males.

Dawn was lovely.  Long, dark hair and lightly tanned skin, and a pretty smile that he bet would be even better when it was directed at him.  His older brothers, Quill and Ian, sat in the front seat.  Ian made a snarling sound.  “We should just grab her.”

Quill shook his head.  “Dad said not to make a scene.  We don’t want the human cops involved.”

Ian folded his arms angrily.  “Why the hell not?  Those assholes at the
gathering
stole Dawn right out from under our noses.  She’s ours.”

Brin looked at the female that their father said was meant to be their mate.  She was holding hands with one male, laughing at something he said.  She seemed happy.

He opened his mouth to ask his brothers why their dad had been so sure that Dawn was meant to be their mate, but he thought better of it.  When they were at a
gathering
last year, there had been a really pretty blonde hyena who — although not their truemate — was definitely interested in them, but his brothers had taken one look at her and turned their noses up.  Yeah, Dawn was pretty, but he couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong with the whole scenario.  It wasn’t just because their dad was waiting at a hotel room an hour away, wearing a hole in the carpeting with his pacing while they figured out how to get Dawn.

“Whoever these usurpers are, they’ll let their guards down eventually, and then we’ll be able to save her.”

“Usurpers?”  Brin asked Quill.

Quill looked at him in exasperation.  “They’ve taken our mate, Brin.  What else would you call them?”

Brin didn’t feel like arguing with his oldest brother, so he turned away and watched as Dawn was helped up into the back of an SUV, the male following her inside.

Chapter 13

Whisper pushed her plate away and let out a contented sigh.  They’d fixed all her favorite things for their mating-night dinner, including steak and mashed potatoes, steamed green beans, and lemon pie for dessert.

“Can I help with the dishes?” she asked, knowing full well that they weren’t going to let her lift a finger.

“No, baby,” Nyte said.  “It’s time for you to get ready.”

“Wait, there’s something I want to do for you first.”

“Oh?”  Nyte lifted a brow and smiled at her indulgently.

They followed her upstairs to the spare bedroom where she was going to be getting ready for the mating ceremony, but first, she wanted to give them a gift of sorts.  Sitting on a small stool in front of the electronic keyboard they had purchased for her as a surprise, she pressed the power button and placed her fingers on the keys.

“I’m glad that I found three great guys as my mates.  Before I met you, I didn’t think that there was room in my life for love or truemates, but now I can’t imagine being without you.  I don’t have anything to give you, but I wanted to share this song with you.”

Closing her eyes, she settled her nerves and began to play the soft, sweet melody of a song that she’d written several years earlier but had never performed.  She hadn’t understood at the time why she never wanted to play it with the band, but now she knew that she’d been saving it for a special occasion that she hadn’t even known she’d wanted.

The words seemed very fitting as she opened her eyes and watched her mates as they listened and watched her.  It was a song about love and hope and finding the person that was meant to be yours forever and then never letting go.  It was sweet and heartfelt, and the words had never held more weight than they did at that moment, when she was standing on the edge of falling in love with her mates.

As the last chord faded away, she blinked at the wetness in her eyes and found herself immediately pulled into Az’s arms, with Nyte and Fade surrounding her.

“It was beautiful, sweet love,” Az said thickly. “Just beautiful.”

“How’d we get so lucky to have a gorgeous mate that is also so talented?”  Nyte stroked her cheek with his fingers and smiled.

Fade said nothing, but when she looked at him, the steady gaze that met hers was full of emotion, and she knew that he and his brothers felt strongly about her too.  She reached a hand out to both brothers, and they took her hands as she rested her cheek on Az’s chest and listened to the steady thrum of his heart.

A long moment passed, minutes that felt like hours, and then Az kissed her forehead and whispered, “It’s time to get ready.”

She stepped away from their warm embrace and was surprised when Fade pulled off his shirt and tossed it to the bed.  He looked at his brothers, who nodded at him silently and left the room, closing the door behind them.

She raised a brow as she looked at his well-muscled chest and arms.  He made her mouth water.  “What’s going on?”

“Back in the old days, female hyenas would have a guardian watch over them as they prepared themselves for their mating night.  It was usually a trusted female family member, one who had been through the mating ceremony herself so she could answer questions and give advice.  Our people don’t really do that any longer.  When males find their mates, they often live together for weeks as they prepare for the ceremony, and the females are comfortable with the situation and what will come.  My brothers and I decided that it’s a good tradition.  We didn’t want to bring in the other clan females because we want this to just be about us, so I volunteered to be your guardian as you get ready.”

Fade was the quietest of the three, and she wasn’t sure she’d ever heard him say so much at one time.  Excitement washed through her.

“What should I do, my guardian?”

His eyes darkened, and a low growl rumbled in his chest.  He didn’t move to close the distance between them, so she didn’t either.

“Strip,” he said, the word all but growled at her.

She wasn’t sure that a ‘female family member’ would have ordered her to strip in that way, but she liked Fade taking control of the situation.  Her top came off first, which she tossed to the bed where his shirt waited.  He was wearing nothing but black slacks and black leather gloves, which Az and Nyte were also wearing.  She wondered why they were wearing gloves but didn’t ask because she had a feeling it was something related to their mating ceremony.

Undoing her jeans, she smiled internally as Fade’s jade green eyes dropped to the waistband of her pants and flared with lust.  Wiggling far more than necessary, she lowered her jeans to the floor and stepped out of them.  She almost wished there was music playing so she could really strip for him, but getting herself so wound up was probably not a good idea.  At least not until after the ceremony.

Her bra and panties joined her other clothes, and she stood bare before her mate.  His gaze roamed her body, taking in her curves, as that same growl rumbled in his chest.

He gestured to the bathroom, and she walked ahead of him into the small room.  A shower and tub combo sat against one wall, next to the toilet and the small sink.  On the toilet lid was a pile of black cloth and a block of white and green soap.

Fade moved behind her, barely brushing her body but sending shivers up and down her spine, and turned on the shower, pushing the curtain all the way open.  He tested the water silently, watching her.

“Use the rosemary soap to wash your body and hair.  The scent is part of our ceremony.”

With the bar in hand, she stepped under the spray as he moved away from the shower, and she reached for the curtain to pull it closed.

“Leave it,” he said.

“Water will get everywhere,” she pointed out.

He leaned against the open bathroom door and folded his arms.  “I want to make sure that you don’t go touching that pretty little pussy and making yourself come before we mate.”

She sucked in a breath as she stared at him in surprise.

He smirked.  “You think I can’t smell how turned on you are?  My little sweetheart likes to strip for her mate.”

She swallowed and leaned back until her hair was soaked.  “I think you like watching, too.”

He growled in response, and she smiled.

They said nothing to each other as she lathered the rosemary soap in her hands and washed her hair.  She rinsed her hair and then stepped out from under the spray and faced Fade.  Lathering her hands again, she began to soap up her body, while Fade watched.  She slid her hands around her body, dancing up and down her curves and covering herself with the herbal suds.  Her fingers trembled as she touched her pussy, her eyes never leaving his as she stroked her folds with the lather.

“Baby,” he rasped, his upper body tensing until his muscles strained.

She knew he was warning her to back off from the teasing.  She didn’t want to push him, and although she enjoyed the teasing, she wanted to mate with all of them.

“I’m sorry,” she said and stopped petting her pussy, hurrying to finish.  When she’d rinsed the lather from her body, she turned off the water and squeezed what she could from her hair by twisting it.

Fade opened a large towel and held it out, wrapping the soft warmth around her when she stepped from the tub into it.

“Don’t apologize for being sexy.  Any other night it’s not a problem, but tonight I can’t be selfish.”

She understood.  Going up on her toes, she brushed her lips against his.  He began to pat her skin dry, and he looked up at her as he knelt before her, the towel bunched around his hand and pressed against her mound.  He said, “Sometime I want to watch you make yourself come.”

Her heart kicked up a notch, and she nodded.  She’d like that, too.

When her body was dry, she rubbed at her hair with the towel until it was damp, and ran a brush through it.  Fade said to not bother drying it completely, so she didn’t.  He helped her dress in a short, stretchy black skirt and a black bustier that laced up the front.  He affixed a cape around her neck that reached the floor and put one on himself.

Silently, he offered her his arm, and she accepted it.  He led her out of the bedroom and downstairs.  The family room was lit with electric candles on the floor that made a path to the sliding back door.  Fade turned her to face him and pulled the hood up, settling it on her head and bringing the cape around her shoulders.

“Nyte will call for you to join us.”

Before she could reply, he pushed open the back door and walked out onto the deck.  She faced the open door and saw that tiki torches were lit around the deck, and her three mates stood in matching cloaks around a small stand where a flame flickered on the surface of what appeared to be a brick.

“Whisper Callahan, join us,” Nyte called to her.  She stepped through the door and out onto the deck.  Her mates stood at the edge of the deck in a semi-circle.  Their hoods were up, but she could tell who was who.  Nyte stood facing her, Fade and Azrael on either side.

“Do you come today to join with your hyena mates of your own free will, Whisper?  Answer carefully, knowing that this bond between us can never be broken,” Nyte spoke solemnly.

“I do,” she said as she joined them at the small stand, which was waist-high and appeared to be made of iron.  They slid their hoods off, and she followed their lead, dropping hers to her back.

Nyte held a small bowl and gave it to Fade, who held it just over the flames.  From inside the cloak, Nyte pulled out a sprig and held it next to the flame as his eyes met hers.

“Rosemary is sacred to our people, Whisper.  The legends say that rosemary has been used in mating ceremonies since the first hyena clan mated their bride, as a sign of the strength of their love.”

Azrael lifted a pocketknife from inside his cloak and reached up, cutting off a lock of his hair.  He gave it to Nyte, who wrapped the strands around the sprig of rosemary, and then handed her the knife, handle first.  Reaching up to her damp hair, she cut off a small lock and gave the hair to Nyte and the knife back to Az.

Nyte wrapped her hair around the sprig and passed it through the flames.  It sparked and crackled immediately, and he dropped it into the bowl as all three of them began to chant words in a language she didn’t recognize.

Her mates moved around the stand and stood before her.  Az undid the cloak and tossed it to the deck, and then Nyte undid the lacing of the bustier which he tossed aside also.  The cool air hit her skin, and she shivered as goosebumps prickled her skin.

Nyte took off his right glove and dipped his fingers into the bowl that Fade held.  He brushed his ash-covered fingers across her chest just over her heart and said, “I, Nyte Stone, hereby vow myself to you, Whisper, for the remainder of my days on Earth and for the remainder of time in the afterlife.  I vow to cherish, honor, and protect you for all eternity.”

He stepped back and pulled his glove back on, taking the bowl from Fade.  Fade and Az both took turns marking her with ash and vowing themselves to love her forever.  When the vows were completed, she watched as Nyte dumped the contents of the bowl over the flaming brick and then placed a domed lid over it.

The tiki torches around the deck were put out by Fade and Az, and then all three joined her, laying their hands on her.  With a voice of pure steel, Nyte said, “What we’ve vowed today, no creature can undo.  You are ours forever, Whisper,
mas karda enai liro
. 
Our heart is complete
.”

They lifted their heads to the sky and howled, and a shiver wiggled down her spine at the sound.  It was both joyful and a warning to others that she was theirs.

In the silence that reigned when they finished howling, she heard nothing but the sound of her heart beating and the howling of her beast, who wanted to join with her mates as soon as possible.

Nyte picked her up in his arms and placed a possessive kiss on her mouth.  “Mine,” he snarled.  Looping her arms around his neck, she snuggled into his warmth. 

“Yours.”

* * * * *

Nyte carried Whisper through the family room to the stairs, his brothers close behind.  The mating ceremony had hit him hard.  He hadn’t realized how possessive he would feel of their mate now that they were official.  At least in word.  The need to join her to them physically and mark her skin consumed him.  He wanted her to be his in every possible way so that she would be theirs forever.

Stopping in front of the master bedroom door, he waited for Fade to open the door and carried her inside.  Her audible gasp of surprise made him smile.  His brothers shut the door and closed out the outside world.  The bedroom had been transformed into a den.  Dark fabric hung from the ceiling, giving the room a cave-like appearance.  Behind the fabric, soft lights glowed, so the room was bathed in subtle light.  In the center of the room was a mattress covered with a black sheet.  Pillows and blankets edged the mattress.  He knew that somewhere behind the fabric walls, a large cooler held drinks and snacks, and a plastic case held condoms, lubricant, and other supplies.

He carried her to the center of the mattress and put her on her feet.  “This is our den, Whisper.  For the next twenty-four hours, we’ll stay here and join as often as you want.”