Every Sunset Forever (3 page)

Maybe that was what bugged her most about the whole hyena thing.  If by some ridiculous chance she happened to find her mate and he was a hyena, then he was probably part of a hyena group somewhere and would want her to go back with him.  Then she’d lose everything she had here.  She wouldn’t be part of the pack, she’d be a visitor.  No more working at the bar.  No more living with her brothers.  No more Sunday dinners with Mack.

She looked at her left wrist and the tattoo that she had gotten when she turned eighteen.  It matched ones that her brothers had, and was a scrolled letter C surrounded by wolf and hyena paw prints.

Unhappiness settled over her.  She didn’t want to change her life so drastically.  Snorting inwardly, she wondered what the odds were that the first time she met hyenas she would actually happen to find her mate.  Probably slim to impossible.  So she’d go and just hang out with her brothers and Bliss.  Then she could come back after a week and find a wolf to settle down with and start a family.  Mack had been a great dad, and he would be a wonderful grandfather.

Pushing away the nagging worry that nothing about her life was going to be the same once she went to the
gathering
, she went to see what her brothers were up to, plans for her future firmly planted in her mind.

Chapter 2

Nyte Stone rolled his neck with a groan.  The flight from Louisville, Kentucky, to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, should have been short and simple, but the flight coming into Louisville had been delayed and they’d gotten stuck at the airport all night.  It would have been faster to drive.

His brothers Azrael and Fade were standing behind him as they waited in line at the rental car company to pick up their vehicle.  The
gathering
of unmated hyenas was taking place in the mountain town of Grand Hope, Pennsylvania, in the Fresh Water Campgrounds.  They had reserved one of the cabins that were available, and judging from the picture, it was little more than a bedroom and bathroom with a miniscule kitchen.

The woman behind the counter confirmed their reservation and directed them to the SUV line of vehicles.  They chose a dark blue Highlander and climbed inside.  He took the wheel while Azrael programmed the GPS to the address of the main office of the campground and Fade settled into the second row.  He and his brothers formed a clan together.  They lived with two other hyena clans in a
baro
, which was a group of clans that lived together.  Their two sets of cousins made up the other two clans, and both clans were now mated.  Hyenas shared a mate — three males would find one female to share between them.

He wasn’t sure that he believed that they would find their mate here at the
gathering
of single hyenas, but he was keeping an open mind.  His mother was lamenting the fact that both of their cousins’ clans were having babies and he and his brothers were still single.  It wasn’t that he didn’t want to find his mate and start their family, but they just hadn’t found her yet.

The drive from Philly to the campground was going to take two hours.  It had been a long, hellish night.  All he wanted to do was check in at the campground and grab a few hours of sleep.  The activities didn’t start until that night, when there was an informal meet-and-greet for people who got there in time on Sunday night.  The
gathering
didn’t officially start until Monday afternoon and was pretty much just a solid week of hanging out at the campgrounds.  There was fishing, boating, hiking, and plenty of cookouts.  If nothing else, he and his brothers would get in a week of R&R before they headed back to Dalton and their jobs at Stone’s Gym.  Turning his thoughts back to the road, they left the Philly airport behind and headed towards the
gathering
.

* * * * *

Azrael fiddled with the satellite radio and settled on a top-twenty station, keeping it low enough to talk, although neither of his brothers were speaking at the moment.  Nyte was watching the road intently, lost to his own thoughts, and Fade was in the second row, playing a game on his cell.

He was looking forward to the week off work.  He didn’t mind working as a trainer at Stone’s Gym, but his passion was cooking.  He hadn’t gone to college for it, but he had taken culinary courses since high school.  He was what was known in the hyena community as the
caretaker
of his clan.  Nyte was the oldest at twenty-nine and was their clan leader.  Fade was the youngest at twenty-six and was the protector of the clan.  He was a graphic artist who freelanced for a company based out of Tennessee, where they’d grown up.  When they moved to Dalton, Fade redid the logo and marketing materials for the gym.  He worked the second shift at the gym with them, but stayed in his office handling the marketing.  Azrael, like Nyte, was a trainer at the gym and had gotten his certificate, but what Azrael really enjoyed doing was taking care of his family.  Making sure that Fade ate dinner when he was working hard on a project, seeing that Nyte didn’t miss appointments because he was too busy doing other things.  Someday he would be watching over their mate and making sure she was deliriously happy.  And eventually their children as well.

Those were the thoughts that made him glad that they were going to the
gathering
.  Yes, he thought it was unlikely that they would happen to meet their mate there, but it wasn’t unheard of.  He knew that whether they found her here or somewhere else, they
would
find her eventually.

He and his brothers had grown up in Gorge, Tennessee, in their parents’
baro
.  Dante and his brothers had left the clan several years earlier to move to Kentucky and open the gym.  They mated a she-wolf named Alyssa who was expecting their first child, and came back to Gorge to visit.  Azrael and his brothers had thought it was a good idea to come to Kentucky and join their
baro,
as did their cousin Orion’s clan.  Orion’s clan had recently mated with a she-wolf named Sydney who was also pregnant.

Dante and his clan owned a one-hundred acre parcel of land in Dalton and built a home on it.  When the two clans joined the
baro,
they were told they could build a home wherever they wished on the territory.  Orion and his clan had built a house near enough to Dante’s to walk, but far enough away so both clans had privacy.  Azrael and his brothers hadn’t built a home yet, and they’d been with them for over six months.  Az didn’t know why they hadn’t.  They’d walked the entire one-hundred acres more than once, scouting for a location, but they hadn’t decided to build one yet.  They were living in a three-bedroom apartment in Dalton.

“Why haven’t we built a house yet?” he asked.

Nyte made a noise of surprise, like he hadn’t expected to be asked that question.  “I don’t know.”  After a long moment, Nyte sighed and said, “It just hasn’t felt right, I guess.  You guys never pushed to build a permanent place, and I didn’t either.  So now, if we do happen to find our mate here at the
gathering
, then we’ll be bringing her back to a rental.”

The way that Nyte spoke about the apartment and potentially bringing their mate home left a bad taste in Azrael’s mouth.  He hadn’t really thought that they would find their mate, so it hadn’t mattered if they had a permanent home.  But now, traveling to the
gathering
with the potential to find a mate looming on the horizon, he wondered if there was something more to their reluctance to make a home.

Maybe they were waiting for their woman, so she could be part of the process.  Or maybe they had gotten complacent and lazy.  Whatever the case, they were going to a place where they might very possibly find their mate.  And if they did, then they were all going to wish that they had built a home.

* * * * *

Fade got out of the SUV, stretched, and then took in their surroundings.  The cabin they had been assigned was number seven out of thirty.  The other cabins were scattered haphazardly throughout the campgrounds, interspersed with open areas for RVs and tents with electric and water hookups.  They’d passed a lot of males unloading vehicles in front of cabins, but he’d yet to see a single female.  When they’d picked up their cabin key and gotten the map and schedule, the male at the campground office told them that there had been females checking in, so that was good news.

He snagged his suitcase from the back and walked up the wooden steps to the front porch and through the door that Nyte had unlocked and left open.  As they’d expected, the cabin was one room with a king size bed in the corner, a small couch against the far wall, and a kitchenette.  Azrael opened the two doors and found a small bathroom and a closet.

The long dresser was the only other furniture besides a kitchen table with four chairs, and he put his suitcase down and opened the drawers, finding them empty and smelling heavily of lavender thanks to some lace bags filled with dried flowers and tied with ribbons.  He shut the drawers, deciding to live out of his suitcase for a week rather than take the chance of his clothes smelling flowery.

Nyte and Azrael were looking at the bed, and Azrael said, “We should find out if they have any cots we can borrow so we can all have a separate place to sleep.”

Nyte said, “When we have a mate we’ll all be sleeping in the same bed anyway.  I don’t mind sharing for the week.”

Fade smiled at his oldest brother.  It had been his idea to leave their home
baro
in Tennessee and move to Kentucky.  Both of their cousins’ clans had found mates to share.  Fade and his brothers had been joking about their mother’s desire to become a grandma, but she wasn’t the only one who wanted her sons to find their mate.  Fade had never had strong feelings for any female before, but he wanted to have what his cousins had with their mates.  He wanted to love a woman so much that he would be willing to die to see her safe.

Both of his cousins had run into trouble keeping their mates safe.  Alyssa had been literally caught in the crossfire when an enemy had wanted to keep his violent history a secret.  Sydney’s abusive ex-mate had come for her and nearly succeeded.  Of course, he would rather that his future mate had a sweet life and wasn’t in danger in any form, but if she was, he knew that he’d keep her safe.

Nyte ran a hand through his dark hair and looked at the schedule.  “There’s a meet-and-greet at seven tonight, and then tomorrow there’s a brunch at eleven which kicks off everything.”

Az, also choosing to live out of his suitcase, flopped down on the bed and yawned.  “I hope the guy at the front desk wasn’t lying when he said there were females here.”

Fade agreed.  They’d been to gatherings before only to be in campgrounds surrounded by other males with no females in sight.

“I’m exhausted after sleeping in the airport,” Nyte kicked off his shoes and settled onto one side of the big bed.  “Someone set an alarm so we don’t oversleep.”

Fade was not surprised that Az jerked upright and set the alarm on his phone.  Their middle brother was all about taking care of everyone.  Even when they were kids, he was more of a mother to them at times than a brother.  It was the way of clans to have three males with separate roles of leader, caretaker, and protector, and Fade was glad that he and his brothers had fallen so easily into their roles.  He wouldn’t want to handle all the decision-making that Nyte did or make sure everyone was happy the way that Az did.  He was very happy, however, to make sure that his brothers were safe.

He snagged a pillow and stretched out in the center of the bed between his brothers.  Az snickered and said, “We haven’t been in the same bed since we were kids.”

Nyte threw his pillow at Az after he continued to laugh, making the bed shake.  Az grabbed the pillow and tucked it under his head.  “Thanks, man. I needed an extra pillow.”

Fade rolled his eyes at his brothers as Nyte demanded his pillow back and Az played dumb.  After some mild threats, Az gave Nyte back his pillow, and they all settled in for a nap.  He was sure they made a strange picture, three grown men sharing a bed with no woman in sight, but in Fade’s mind it was a testament to their commitment as a clan.  Someday their woman would be in bed with them, and there wouldn’t be anything strange about the scenario at all.  Fade was hopeful that the missing part of their clan would show up soon.  He couldn’t wait to meet her.

Chapter 3

Kross smacked Bliss’s hand as she reached forward from the back seat, attempting to change the satellite station.

“Ouch, Kross,” she groused, rubbing at the top of her hand.

Whisper chuckled.  “I said you weren’t allowed to change the station, B.  Why do you insist on trying to torture my brothers?”

“It’s fun,” Bliss said with a grin.

Kayne looked over his shoulder at them and rolled his eyes.  “No it’s not, Bliss.  Keep your country-loving paws off the radio.”

“You’d like it if you listened to it,” she argued.

“Would not,” both males said emphatically.

Whisper wiggled her iPhone at Bliss.  “Here, use the satellite radio app and headphones and listen to your country-loving heart’s content.”

“I hope when I find a mate that he loves country as much as I do,” Bliss said, popping the earbuds into her ears.

“I hope he loves death metal,” Kross said under his breath.

Bliss reached up and smacked his shoulder.  “I heard that.”

Whisper shook her head at her friend and brothers and turned her attention back to the passenger window, watching as the scenery flew by.  With each mile they drew closer to the campground, her stomach tightened more, and her palms sweated.  By the time they pulled into the lane that led to the campground, she’d been making such tight fists with her hands that her knuckles were stark white and her fingernails had left deep imprints in her palms.

Kross stopped the SUV in front of a small log cabin, which had a sign hanging from the porch that read ‘Gathering Registration.’  He met her eyes and frowned.  “Mouse, you okay?”

She didn’t want her brothers to worry.  Wasn’t she being silly, anyway?  What were the odds that anything in her life was changing this week other than taking a vacation in the mountains?  She willed herself to relax, if only so that her brothers didn’t worry about her.

“I’ll go check in and find out where our cabin is,” Whisper said with a smile.  Kross raised a brow but said nothing.  Her legs ached from the long ride, and she took a moment to stretch after she shut the car door.

A group of four people her father’s age — three men and one woman — looked at her in surprise as she stood in the open doorway.  “Welcome!”  The woman said in a hearty tone, crossing the wood floor and hugging her.  She was too surprised to hug the woman back, but she didn’t seem to notice.

“I’m Ally and these are my husbands, Richard, Troy, and Blake.  What’s your name, hon?”

“Whisper Callahan,” she managed to say, her mind reeling with the news the woman had so casually shared that she had three husbands.

“She looks as white as a sheet, Ally-baby,” the tallest of the three men said with a gentle tone, and another of the men grabbed a straight-backed chair and set it down in front of the long table in the center of the room.

“Here, hon,” Ally said.  “Have a seat.  Are you ill?  Car rides make me nauseous as all get out.”

One of the men chuckled, coming to stand by Ally and pulling her into a protective embrace.  “Which we didn’t know until our honeymoon.  Halfway into our drive to the Poconos, she threw up all over everything.”

The third laughed.  “And everyone.”

Ally blushed scarlet and smacked at the arm of the man holding her tightly against him.  “That was years ago!  Stop teasing me.”

The man nuzzled the side of her face and nipped at her ear.  “Never.”

One of the men handed Whisper a cold bottle of water.  She said, “I’m, uh, I’m not from around here.”

The man behind the table flipped a stack of papers around and said, “New Jersey.  Nice!  We took a second honeymoon in Ocean City.  Now, are you sure you’re okay?  We can show you where your cabin is and do the registration later.”

She cracked the lid open and took a long drink, trying not to stare at the small group.  Ally was now standing behind the table with all three men, and they were all touching her in some way as if they couldn’t stand to be apart from her for a second.  She swallowed and felt like there was a fist in her throat.  She’d had all the love a daughter could ask from her father, a sister could ask from her brothers, and a friend could ask of her besties.  But she’d never really seen a relationship up close like this.  Mack hadn’t dated much over the years.  As alpha, he could have his pick of any female he wanted, and there were unmated females that he spent time with, but he had loved his first wife so much, he once told Whisper that he never planned to take another mate to replace her because she was irreplaceable.

“I didn’t know,” Whisper said the words before she realized she’d spoken them out loud and then wished immediately that she could take them back.

“Didn’t know what?” one of the men asked.

She looked at the four people and saw curiosity and concern.  Deciding she might not have another chance like this, she said what was on her mind.  “I didn’t know that it was legal to have so many husbands.”

Ally laughed loudly in surprise and then quickly frowned, her laughter dying as fast as it had started.  “Aren’t your parents in a multiple mating?”

Whisper grimaced.  “I was abandoned as a child and raised in a wolf pack.  I haven’t ever met any hyenas before.”

“What?” Ally asked in surprise.  “That’s impossible.  No
baro
would ever abandon a child.”

Before she could speak further, the one who had his arms wrapped around her gave her a gentle shake, and she stopped talking.  “You don’t know the details of her situation, sweet mate.  It’s not important how she came here, only that she’s here now.  She looks healthy and happy.”

“
Baro
?” Whisper asked.

One of the males nodded.  “A clan is a group of four hyenas, three males and their shared mate.  Clans gather together in one area and call themselves a
baro
.  It’s like a wolf pack but on a small scale — usually only a handful of clans and their children.  Our
baro
is here in the mountains.  We run the gathering every year.”

Another of the males said, “Let’s get you registered so you can get to your cabin.  If you have questions, you can come and talk to us anytime.  Our home is down the path behind this cabin.”

She took the clipboard with trembling fingers, her mind swimming with information.  The form on the top had been partially filled out with her name and address, and she supplied the rest of the details, trying not to let her trembling hand make her handwriting any sloppier than usual.

One of the males gave Whisper an itinerary folder and a key.  On top of the folder was a map with her cabin circled with red pen.  “Can we drive you to your cabin?”  The male asked.  “It would be no trouble.”

“No, thanks.  I’m here with my brothers and best friend, and they’re waiting for me out in the SUV.”

They nodded and smiled, and Ally walked Whisper to the door.  She said, “My cell number is written on the inside of the folder.  I want you to call me anytime to chat about anything.  Your situation is unique, so feel free to ask questions about whatever, okay?”

“Thanks, Ally,” Whisper replied, returning the woman’s affectionate hug.

“You’re welcome, hon.”

Whisper walked to the SUV and climbed into the back seat.  Kross reached back and took the folder from her hands and read the map.  

Kayne said, “What’s the matter, Mouse?  You look like you saw a ghost.”

She looked up at him in the rearview mirror.  “Hyenas multiple mate.”

Kross turned around and gave her a suspicious look.  “Like multiple wives?”

Shaking her head, she said, “No, three guys for one girl.  It’s their ‘normal’.”

“Holy crap that’s a lot of orgasms,” Bliss said.

“Bliss!” Kross admonished.

“What?  It’s true, right?  I mean, you figure one per guy and there’s three of them, so yeah, I’d say that’s a lot of pleasure.  Where do I sign up?”

Whisper’s face heated as Bliss continued counting out the number of climaxes per sex session a trio of husbands would get her.  And then she squeaked, “Oops, there’s three so that means one dick per hole.  Ouch.”

“Bliss, fucking shut it!” Kross growled.  Whisper started laughing at Kross’s angry expression as he pulled out of the parking lot and followed the map that Kayne held.

Bliss joined in the laughter, and before long, Whisper felt the tension leave and her spirits lift.  Hugging one arm around her best friend, Whisper said, “I love you, B.  Thanks for being here for me.”

“You’re always there for me.  Like when we were little and you shared your green crayon with me when mine broke, even though it was your favorite color.”

“And you always shared your Barbies when Kross and Kayne would take the heads off mine and hide them.”

Kayne glanced over his shoulder with a grin.  “You were lots of fun to torment.  Still are, Mouse.”

She settled back in her seat, watching the thick woods pass by as they followed the winding road.  Kross parked in front of the small cabin, one of the few two-bedroom ones.  As they carried their things inside, she wondered about the hyenas that were at the
gathering
.  If hyenas mated in groups of four, then the cabins and RVs that they had passed on the way to their own cabin must have clans in them.  Bliss had been teasing her about having three husbands, and although she’d feigned disgust, she was a little turned on by the notion.  Three sets of hands.  Three cocks.  And then she remembered that she lived with two males who left beard trimmings on the bathroom counter, the toilet seat lid up, and dirty dishes everywhere but in the sink.  Well, that image she could do without.  She’d rather go back to imagining what it would be like to have three male bodies to explore.

“What are you thinking about?” Bliss asked, snapping Whisper from her dirty thoughts.

Blushing, she said, “Nothing.”

“Liar.”  Bliss rolled her eyes.

Kross and Kayne were in the SUV getting the rest of their things, and she lowered her voice.  “I’m a little curious about the three mates thing, I guess.”

“Couldn’t you flip?  I mean, unless they were all total slobs, it would be awesome.”

“You were thinking of how gross my bathroom is when Kross and Kayne are done?”  She laughed.

“Oh yeah.  I feel sorry for whoever they mate with.”

“They’ll be damn lucky, we’re studs,” Kross said, dropping his suitcase and flexing.

“What if you meet a lady hyena who wants to share you both and toss in another male for good measure?” Bliss asked playfully.

“I’d share a woman with Kayne, but I wouldn’t add another male into the mix,” Kross replied.

“I…don’t know what to say to that,” Whisper said, shocked.

“There’s nothing to say, Mouse.  We’ve shared females before.  Whether we find our own mates or share one is just the way our lives go.  But we don’t want to hear about you and three guys and any holes being filled, just FYI,” Kayne said, making a face.

Bliss giggled.  “Holes.”

Kayne took a menacing step towards her, and she shrieked, ducking behind Whisper.  “Oh, thanks a lot,” Whisper groused.

“He won’t hurt you, but he might toss me out.  I torture him with country music, and I may or may not have hacked his Facebook account a few times and posted photoshopped pictures of him and country music stars.”

“I knew that was you!”  Kayne lunged towards them, and Bliss squealed and raced out of the cabin with Kayne hot on her heels.

“You aren’t worried he’s going to kill her?”  Kross raised a brow.

“Nah.  If he does, he has to hide the body.”

Kross hummed in his throat and looked into the two small bedrooms.  One had a king bed, and one had a full sized bed; there was a couch in the small open area.

“You and Bliss take the king, Kayne and I will flip for the bed, loser takes the couch.  My only request is that if you do find your mates, you consummate your relationship in their cabin.  There are a lot of things I wouldn’t mind seeing on this vacation, but you and three guys ain’t one of them.”

She rolled her suitcase into the room with the king bed, and Kross carried Bliss’s suitcase and put it on a small dresser.  “You and Kayne have really shared?”

He leaned against the open door and folded his arms.  “A few times.  We never touch each other — I mean, we’re brothers, and that would be sick.  Male wolves tend to fight over females if there’s a shared interest, but he and I never wanted to let a woman come between us, unless it was a mutual thing.  So I’m surprised to hear that there’s a shifter group where multiple matings are normal, but it’s not as big a deal as you’re making it out to be.  Wouldn’t you like knowing that three males loved you more than anything?”

She smiled at her big brother.  “Yeah.  Whoever you end up mated to is going to be really lucky, whether it’s you alone or you and Kayne.  Except for the way you leave the bathroom.”

He rolled his eyes with a laugh and then sobered.  “You’re worried you’re going to lose everything if you find your mate?”

The statement made her eyes sting with tears.  “Yeah.”  She found herself twisting a shirt in her hands and forced herself to put it down.