The Wolf's Mate Book 3: Callie & The Cats (25 page)

Twirling a lock of her pretty hair, he
thought about getting married. They wanted to marry her in truth,
to give her their last name, but so far, they hadn’t decided which
she should marry on paper and which she should just commit to in
the same ceremony. A multiple marriage wasn’t legal of course, so
only one name would be on the marriage certificate. A part of him
wanted it to be his name, but in all truth, it didn’t really
matter. There was no mistaking that she was theirs, both of theirs,
and every day another facet of her love for them opened, like a
flower blooming.

“You look thoughtful.” Ethan said quietly
from the doorway.

“I was just thinking about getting married
and having cubs.”

“I think about that, too.” He smiled fondly
at Callie and then met his eyes. “Dad’s out in the family room and
wants to chat.”

“I’ll be right out.”

Pulling on a pair of track pants after he
extracted himself from under her embrace, he kissed her forehead
and made sure she was tucked in before shutting the door and
meeting his dad. Seated around the family room was their entire
family minus the cubs who were in school right now. Alek gave him a
wary look, still nursing the shiner and busted lip. He’d apologized
several times for losing control, but a trust had been broken
between them and he mourned the loss of it. Granted, maybe what
bothered Alek wasn’t that he’d been out of control but that he
hadn’t apologized for the actual pounding, and he never would. He’d
totally lost it when he saw that his brother had seen his mate
naked, mistake or not. Alek was lucky that Eryx had heard Callie’s
frightened voice over the roar in his head, otherwise they might be
saying goodbye in a hospital room. He’d had a desire to protect
her, protect what was his, and Alek didn’t understand and probably
wouldn’t ever if he stayed with the pride.

Their dad wanted to talk about the house. He
and Ethan had considered selling it at first, using the money to
fund the reconstruction that would be needed in the apple barn, but
the house had been built by their grandfather and they didn’t want
someone outside of the pride to own it.

The house was worth about $80,000 in this
economy, but none of the pride could afford a second mortgage for
that much, so they’d had Alek get a personal loan for $25,000,
which was as much as he could afford. Although right now he looked
like he wanted to call the whole thing a wash.

Their Uncle Grant was a realtor, so he
brought the paperwork with them, and Alek handed over the bank
draft grudgingly. Everything would be filed once they were gone,
but this way Alek could take over the house and they could have the
cash.

“Now, we have a present for you boys.” Their
father stood and motioned for them to come out to the garage. In
the driveway was a rental trailer.

He looked at his father as he made a ta-da
gesture. “Geez, boys, it’s so you can take the couch.”

Now that was some good news!

Alek snorted, “Did you really think I wanted
that couch? It smells like sex.”

Ethan growled low, “Watch it little
brother.”

Alek answered angrily, “Fuck you, Ethan. Fuck
both of you. You’re walking away from the pride for a woman you’ve
known less than a month.”

Surprised, Eryx said, “Alek, we love her.
She’s our mate.”

Rolling his eyes, he fished his keys from his
jeans pocket. “Yeah, whatever. Later.”

They all watched him leave, his pickup truck
roaring to life and then fading quickly. Their dad sighed, “He’s
having a hard time saying goodbye. He just doesn’t understand.”

“We don’t mean to hurt him, Dad,” Ethan
looked out of the garage as if he could still see Alek’s truck,
“but he has to believe it’s the right choice for us.”

“I believe he’s jealous more than anything.”
Their dad replied.

Uncle John said, “We all are.”

They made plans to have a get together before
they left. February fourth couldn’t come fast enough.

That night, the two of them made a special
dinner for her and then proposed. Even though she considered them
married by wolf standards, and he loved that, they wanted her to be
theirs legally, too.

Ethan had picked a simple single stone
engagement ring, planning to pair it later with a plain band that
would match his own. Eryx had taken the route of an entire set, and
the engagement ring part of the set was a half carat with smaller
stones down each side, and the wedding band part had three third
carat diamonds together. He thought it was perfect for them.

They kissed the happy tears from her cheeks
after she said yes to them both and then she asked them to take her
to bed to celebrate. And they were more than willing. While he
craved that individual attention he’d gotten from her that one
night the week before, he also enjoyed watching her with Ethan, and
he never would have guessed that would be the case.

They made a game of seeing how many orgasms
she could have before she cried uncle, and they finished with her
taking him with her mouth while Ethan slammed into her from
behind.

She collapsed onto his chest with a moan and
groan combined, slick with sweat and their combined pleasure, and
he drew his arms around her and smoothed her hair from her face.
Ethan dropped to the bed next to them and rolled onto his back,
coughing and then laughing as he tried to catch his breath.

“I hear your heart, Eryx.” She whispered.

“It’s beating just for you, sweetheart.”

Chapter
18

**Callie**

Moving Day. February 4. Tomorrow. Had three
weeks really gone by so quickly? As excited as Callie was to be
going to their new home and meeting their famous Uncle Rhett and
Aunt Lisa, this house had become her home so quickly that she was
sad to leave. Even if she did understand the urgency. They couldn’t
keep going on red alert like they had been. After the thing with
the traps on their property, they hadn’t wanted her outside at all.
Granted it was less than a week, but she knew if they’d needed to
stay longer, that come the next full moon they’d want to corral her
to the backyard alone or, worse, in the house. She couldn’t live
like that, and she didn’t want them constantly looking over their
shoulder in worry for her.

Ethan and Eryx had become her mates so fast
and their family had become the family she’d missed all those
years, and she was going to miss their father and brother and
uncles and cousins as desperately as if they were blood relatives.
She took solace in knowing they’d see them in a few months for
their wedding, which they wanted to plan for sometime in May.
Knowing they would come to visit wasn't as comforting as seeing
them every day the way that she had since they’d become their
official guards. She tried very hard to keep her feelings under
wrap. After all, they were moving because of her, because the lion
females couldn’t handle losing two of their males, even though they
didn’t want them either. It was the oddest contradiction. A lot
like the childish
I don’t want it, but you can’t have it
either
sort of thinking.

She cherished the last three weeks of them
together. And her cravings for them increased every day, until she
hadn’t really felt like wearing clothes at all because she seemed
to always be taking them off. She’d never felt so wanton and needy
in her life, and she couldn’t explain it other than thinking it had
something to do with finding her mates. She recalled Jason and
Cadence when they were first mated, that they seemed locked in the
house for weeks. She kept thinking she could call Cades and tell
her what was going on but she just wasn’t ready yet. Cades would be
about six weeks along now, and Callie wondered if she would ever
see the baby.

Her reverie stopped abruptly when her cell
rang. She didn’t recognize the number, but recognized the area code
as one from near Allen. She answered and the woman on the other end
said, “Calliope Hunter?”

“Yes. Who is this?”

“This is Amanda from Dr. Peterson’s office.
I’m calling to see why you missed your last two appointments for
your birth control shot.”

Her mind fizzled. “Um, well, I moved away
from Kentucky. But I also have like two more weeks before I need
another shot. I’m not due until the middle of February.”
Wait,
that didn’t sound quite right.

“No, Calliope, you were due on December 17.
You had an appointment that you missed, and we sent a reschedule
card and you missed that one. Have you gotten the shot at another
doctor’s office now that you’ve moved?”

Her heart stopped. And then her brain
crackled. “I, no, that’s not right.”

“Well, it is according to our records. Have
you had unprotected sex since the 17th of December?”

Hell yes.
“Yeah.”

“Well, your shot is over six weeks past due.
Have you had a period since then?”

Had she? No. No! “Um, no.” Shit!

“Not even any bleeding at all?”

“No. I don’t think so.”

“Well, now, it can take a while for your body
to come back online after the shot wears off. But six weeks is a
pretty long time. You need to take a pregnancy test, Calliope. And
even if it shows negative, you should go see an OB just to be
safe.”

She managed to say thank you as she hung up,
cursing herself for being so foolish to not even think about
protection. Why hadn’t she gone to the appointment in the first
place? Oh, right. All that shit with the pack and Cadence. And then
she’d packed up so fast. If they sent a reminder card in the mail,
it was sitting at the damn post office in Allen.

What was she going to do if she was actually
pregnant? She’d wanted to have a long time to explore their life
together before they thought about kids. What if they weren’t
ready?

And then clarity washed through her. The
first time they’d made love, when she’d been so needy and, oh! That
was heat. She was actually in heat because she’d been off birth
control. And then when she’d felt odd about shifting on the full
moon, that was her body beginning to prepare her for not shifting.
Growing up in the pack, she’d seen when females stopped shifting
and everyone always knew right away that it meant they were
pregnant. They could shift for the first month or two and then
their body refused to let them and the beast quieted naturally for
the length of the pregnancy and usually for several months
afterwards while the body healed and the infant needed its
mother.

In something of a daze, she walked out in the
kitchen and found Eryx wrapping a coffee mug in packing paper.

“Hey sweet. Whoa!” He put the mug down and
rushed to her side. “You look green, are you okay?”

She smiled up at him and touched his cheek.
“Where’s Ethan?”

“He went to get lunch.”

“I think I’m pregnant.” So, she’d decided to
just blurt it out? Lovely.

His whole body went very still and she would
have had a complete meltdown except then he shouted for joy and
picked her up and swung her around. “Are you serious, love?
Really?”

Laughing, she let him devour her in a kiss.
“Pretty sure. I need a pregnancy test.” She told him about the call
from the doctor’s office and her own suspicions.

He pulled his cell from his pocket and he
sounded so very happy that it melted all the tension she’d felt
just minutes earlier. It wasn’t hard to miss Ethan’s crow of
delight across the phone when Eryx told him the news. As he hung
up, he swung her up into his arms and carried her to the couch.
“He’ll bring one home; he was already on his way back. Are you
happy, sweetheart?”

“I feel kind of stupid.”

“What for? Don’t you want to have a child
with us?”

Stopping the hurt before it got a chance to
bloom on his face, she tugged his ear, “Of course I do, Eryx, I
just, maybe I’d like to not be an unwed mother, or maybe it would
be nice if we had a real house or, hell, if we weren’t leaving your
family behind because of me.”

Grasping her chin in his fingers he said,
“First of all, you’re not an unwed mother. Not technically. And
we’re already planning to get married in the spring so you won’t
even be showing at that point, as if it matters. And secondly, we
have a home waiting for us and while we’re leaving our family here,
we’re also joining family there. Haven’t you liked talking to
Lisa?”

She smiled. “Yeah, she’s sweet.”

“Well, she’s thrilled as hell to get to know
you in person and so is Rhett. And I’ll tell you a secret, okay,
love? I don’t think that our father will stay here with us gone.
Especially with you pregnant, I know he’ll want to join us. He and
Rhett were closest of all the brothers, and it killed him when he
moved away.”

“Why did he move, anyway?”

“Because he wanted to take one of the females
for a mate and she hated the idea so much she attacked him. He
couldn’t handle the rejection so he pulled up roots and went to a
place where there were no lions. And then he and Lisa fell in love,
so he always said that the best thing that ever happened to him was
leaving. And it’s the best thing for us, too.”

Sad. But with a happy ending. She settled
against his neck, drawing in the spicy, male scent of him. “Will
you wonder if the child is yours?”

“I don’t think there’s any way to tell,
sweetheart. We are identical twins after all. Although you don’t
seem to have trouble telling us apart.”

“No, you look different to me. You smell
slightly different, too.”

“Any cubs we have will be ours. Both of
ours.”

Something clicked for her and she started.
“If it’s a girl, will she hate me?” Tears sprang to her eyes
unbidden at the reminder of the cold glassy stare of the
females.

He hugged her tightly, “Never sweet. There’s
no way that a child of yours would ever hate you, female or male.
And who knows whether they’ll even be able to shift at all or they
may be one or the other. And at any rate, we’ve always believed
that the reason the females are so cold is because it’s a cycle
that hasn’t been broken yet. You would be the first lion mother
that would hold all her children close to her, male and female. And
her husbands.” His smile was infectious and she let the thoughts
slide away from her, even as she was going to hope for all
boys.